Welcome to the Planner Pals Podcast, a podcast hosted by two
true Planner pals. My name is Mark or Mark your
pages. And I am Jess or Jessie Curran.
And today we are talking about Go wild.
Oh my gosh. At the time of recording this,
it's only like 2 weeks away, which still is blowing my mind.
When this comes out, it's only a week away, which means I'm still
probably not ready for it. What about you Mark?
Are you excited? I'm in the same exact mode.
I it still isn't real to me just yet.
And I'm hosting the crop this year and doing a workshop
introducing people. And I'm just like, yeah, you
know, I'll get on a plane and go and I'm like, I need to be a
little bit more prepared for this than I think that I am
right now. But before we get into that big,
exciting conversation, a huge thank you to everybody who left
to comment on last Time's podcast.
It was great to hear about your experiences with fountain pens,
and Mark has pretty much 98% of the way convinced me, like, have
I got a fountain pen? Not quite, but I am very much
considering it. Well, I'm excited for us to talk
a lot more about what you're considering.
Just on the side, I actually, I'm going to spoil it today, but
I actually want to send you a fountain pen because I feel
like, well, two things. First, we have to celebrate that
the YouTube channel has become monetized.
And for two people who are on YouTube, that's a really amazing
thing because I think it took me almost like two years on my own
channel and this one only four episodes.
So as a congratulations to us, I'm going to send you one.
I'm going to pick it, though you don't get to pick it, I get to
pick it for you. And it's going to be one of
these pens though. We actually had a number of
people who answered our question from last episode, which is what
pen would you recommend? And I was so happy to hear that
the pens that I picked for the most part were very much on
point was the pilot Kukuno, which has the cute little faces
on it. That was one that was really out
there. Twisby's.
Like I said, everyone loves a Twisby.
A number of people who are like Mark, you called them little
snacks, and you're so incredibly right.
Like, they're so easy to have. The Lemmy Safari is one that a
lot of people said in the Quakos too.
Even though like personally, and people might not like me for
this, but I'm not a super fan of the Quakos.
Just like little pocket pens and there's other ones out there
that we could use. But so yeah, I'm going to pick
you out a special one and send it your way and I'll be excited
to hear about your experience with that.
So I can't wait. Now I feel like I need to get
you a gift, too. It's like when you show up and
somebody got you a gift and you didn't, or vice versa.
Like when you show up and you got somebody a gift and they got
you one that's just like, distinctly better, You're like,
cool, cool, I'll go get you another gift.
Someone else actually mentioned, like, you have to get just inks.
I think the inks would get her more in the fountain pens than
the pen itself. I don't, We'll have to figure
that when you get to pick yourself because I feel like
inks are like a very special thing, you know, that you get to
kind of do the other thing that we had a number of people
comment on, which I'm glad that they did.
So in last episode I talked about a number of people over
the years, especially as I've gotten in fountain pens that
say, like, oh, I wrote with those as kids.
And I was like, Jess, did you? Because you live on the other
side of the world from me. Like, distinctly.
Not pencil first. Like training wheels.
All right. Not going to go and smear ankle
over the page. I don't think my grade school
teachers would have appreciated that.
No, but grade school teachers in France, in Italy, UK,
Switzerland, Germany, a lot of people from Germany said they
made us right with really crappy fountain fans.
And also, Croatia is another one that we saw too.
So just wanted to shout out everyone who had to do that as a
kid. A number of people were like, Oh
my gosh, you triggered something in me that I forgot that I
hated. But now I kind of want to try
fountain pens again. So very successful episode
altogether. Yeah.
And it was just really cool to hear about like where
everybody's based as well, because, you know, I find that a
lot of both of our audiences are typically based in the US.
So hearing that we have people from all over the world is also
a very exciting thing. It's super exciting.
So again, thank you everyone who left comments who answered the
questions on the Q&A on the podcast itself often reach out
to his toe. Today is going to be different.
You know one thing that I saw a few comments on, they were like
loving the podcast, but are you only going to talk about bullet
journaling? And I was like, no, no, no, my
friends, we've got more to talk about.
And today's episode is perfect for all the planners out there
because we're talking about Go Wild Now.
I was telling Jess right before we hit record on this that I
don't have a lot to, like, really contribute here other
than my fear and anxiety around what this is because I only
party crashed one Go Wild when it was here in DC.
So you have all the experience, such as I'm going to let you go
ahead and take this ship and start to cast it off to talk
about Go Wild because I honestly don't really have any idea what
I'm getting myself into in just a handful of weeks.
It's almost like the blind leading the blind because I've
only been to 1 go wild. I've been wanting to go for like
many moons before that, but because I do live at the ass end
of the world and it was always during like you know, term one
in the middle of teaching, it was never really a possibility.
But since having left teaching and then having the Go Wild
conference at a time that I could make it, then I got to go
along, which is very exciting. So if you haven't heard about Go
Wild or if now you're just hearing about Go Wild, it is a
planning conference. It's annual.
So they host one every year. You know, World events
permitting. This one's hosted by Wild for
Planners each year. So it's just really about
planner enthusiasts getting together, having a whole heap of
fun. Do you have any immediate
questions about Go Wild before I get into a whole spiel, Mark?
Not just yet. I do want to share a really
weird story about a dream that I had a number of years ago and I
feel like go wild, this year is going to be that dream for me.
So a number of years ago I had a dream that I met all of our,
like, Instagram planner friends at a conference.
And I was like, that is weird to have a dream about going to a
conference. And this is before I knew about
any of these Planner conferences.
I never knew they existed and that it was just so weird.
Like even when I party crashed the DC-1, it was so cool meeting
so many of the people that like, I've known over the years and
that's those are people that I've talked with.
There's a number of people that I engage with on Instagram or
YouTube or that we chat with or are in, you know, the different
communities and things like that, that you get to meet too.
So as of right now, I just AM, I'm here to soak up what to
expect and we'll talk in a little bit about like how we're
planning for Go Wild. So my planning probably looks a
little bit different than yours, but I'll have a lot more to
contribute there. But I'll ask questions along the
way because I really, honestly, like I said, I don't know what
I'm getting myself into other than like what I've seen online.
And it looks wild. And that's really corny to say,
but it looks like a wild time in the very best way.
No, And exactly what you said. Like, it's really about getting
to meet up with other people who are enthusiastic about the same
stuff that you were enthusiastic theastic about.
Because I know that a lot of our planner powers out there maybe
don't have, like in real life, planner pals.
They don't necessarily have people who really get them and
their enthusiasm for stationary and planning supplies and just
like getting organized and stuff in general.
So really it's an opportunity to meet up with people who just get
it and you know, meeting online friends as well.
Like you said, that one was a huge highlight for me last year.
We'll talk more about last year later.
But in terms of the general kind of sequence of events for Go
Wild, so Go Wild really starts on the Wednesday with what's
called Shop Summit. So this one isn't actually part
of the like kind of Go Wild conference.
I suppose it is a separate ticketed thing and it's
primarily for people who are shop owners.
That's the name. So anybody who's got like a, you
know, slightly larger business, small business, thinking about
getting into business, I assume it is related to planning,
stationery, that type thing. Haven't gone myself, but that
one is really good for networking and getting to have
motivational, inspirational speakers and kind of get you
hyped for whatever it is you're trying to build, especially
like, you know, doing these things online.
If you're doing an online business of any kind, it can
feel very isolating, like you don't necessarily have like
colleagues or peers who are really working alongside you and
working on the same kind of stuff.
So having an opportunity to meet with those types of people in
person and make those connections should be really
valuable. So is this just for shop owners
or is it also like content creators as well?
Or is it probably shop owners that also make content?
Is it just kind of very much sharing experiences and I'm, I'm
guessing like resources and things like that?
Yeah, this is going to be again blind leading the blind.
I haven't gone myself, but I do expect that there is no kind of
restriction on who can buy a ticket.
Like if you want to buy a ticket, then you can go along
just to Snoop it out if you want to.
You're like Mark. I just put these bullets.
From what I read online, I've never been to this thing.
Give me a break. Yeah, I'm.
Just like why you got to out me like this?
I'm not. I'm not the expert guys, not the
expert. If you do want like you know,
more insider expert information then the best place to go would
be the Wild for Planners website.
We do have it LinkedIn, the description slash show notes.
But in terms of our next day of the conference where like you
know, the regular Go Wild ticket is actually applicable, the
first thing we have on the Thursday is what's called the
plan affair. And this is effectively like a
registration point. So you come in, you sign in to
say like, yes, hello, I showed up.
And then they also have little stalls and little photo
opportunities and meet and greets and stuff like that for
people in the planning space. So last year we had people like
Erin, Condren, Zebra, we had Kelly, Danielle, I believe a
whole bunch of little bits and pieces.
You can walk around, get little bits of swag and stuff and just
have a good time. That one goes for the majority
of the day. It is very casual, very kind of
walk in, walk out type deal. You're talking about the swag
and stuff like that. That is one thing I've
definitely heard a lot of, where people are telling me to
literally bring an extra suitcase or a bag for that.
So all of the swag and all the goodies and all the
collectibles, that's starting day one.
Like you register and then people are just throwing stuff
at you. I mean, technically speaking, it
starts even before that. If you're based in the US, you
get a welcome box sent to you. If you're international like me,
you have to wait until you arrive because international
shipping is expensive, so they don't necessarily want to send
those out, which is fair. It's all good.
So that's something I have to look forward to when I actually
arrive. But yeah, the swag is a big part
of it. I know that there are people out
there who say like, Oh yeah, you need to bring an extra suitcase,
you're gonna have to mail at home, all of that type thing.
I was not so keen on doing that, especially with international
travel and multiple flights. I'm like, yeah, I don't really
want to have to pay for an additional suitcase, so I ended
up giving most of mine away. What kind of stuff do were you
getting like I guess on that first day like you said, or even
like that welcome box? I don't.
I just got an e-mail today that said like my badge is on the
way, but I don't know that I've seen anything for a box.
But I'm also in a very different situation because I'm like a
guest, so I don't know if they treat it differently, but like
what kind of stuff is in the box and what am I missing out on?
Yeah. So last year in the box we had
our welcome badge. So it's the one on a lanyard
that you kind of wear to say like yes, I am supposed to be
here. That one has like you know,
whatever name or details you put down when you signed up, so you
can have like your social media handle on there and whatever
else. We also got some stationary
items. So I believe we had like some
Mildliner kind of thing, zebra pins, like the Sarasa clip pin.
We also had a postcard that was themed around where we were.
So Washington DC, it's kind of like little goodies stack bit
type things and then when you get to plan a fair then there's
like other little bits and pieces that you can collect
really depends on who's giving out what.
So Zebra, for instance had a box of assorted different Zebra
pens, kind of like is like like a taster kit, do not eat the
pens, but like a taster kit of like different brand and pens
and stuff from Zebra, which was cool.
What should I really be looking forward to at Go Wild, other
than the crop, which I'm very excited about and honestly the
only thing I really know anything about at this point
from what people have told me? I think that the welcome party
is always a great time. That's when we have karaoke as
well, so make sure that you sign up for your karaoke side.
I will sit in the back. Are there drinks?
Because I'll I'll sit and drink and watch, but I'm not getting
up there. There is a bar.
You can buy yourself a bevy. So all good.
Last year, I think. What Elijah, somebody I met at
the conference, they were like, oh, who knows?
Defying gravity. And I was like, oh, yeah, I know
defying gravity. I didn't realize that I knew the
Glee version, not the actual version.
The Glee versions are always better.
I know, right. So we got up there and they're
like, oh, yeah, excellent. You can, you can sing the.
I don't even know her name, the good witch one.
And I was like, yeah, sure. I didn't even know that there
were parts to this. And then the words come up on
screen and everybody's, like, going along with it because they
all obviously know it. And I'm like, maybe she's right.
I don't know any of the words like, oh, dear.
So that was good. But then Erica put herself down
for I just can't wait to be king.
And she's like, will you be my Zazu?
Like, OK, this one I've got. I can do Zazu.
Yeah, that one's easy. I'm always here to help lead in
Sidekick when you need me to. Exactly.
If you want to pick a Disney song, I'm all about it,
obviously. Unless it's going to be a Glee
cast version of Defying Gravity, maybe leave me out.
But Welcome Party is great time this year.
It is sponsored by Archer and Olive, so that's kind of
exciting. In terms of like sponsorship,
I'm pretty sure it's just like we pay the bill type of a deal,
but it's so cool to have their name on something so I'm excited
for it. Do the welcome parties do like
giveaways and stuff like that or is it really like you said, like
we're sponsoring this but like Go Wild is really running this
and what you kind of expect from that?
I think last year we had themed cookies kind of a thing from
whoever was sponsoring it, I cannot remember.
I think it was Christian Designs.
I'm sure somebody will yell at me about that because it's maybe
wrong, but outside of just the fact that we're all kind of like
hanging together, really kind of kicking off the event with a
word, it's like pretty much just that.
But it is a very good time. So that's one of the things that
I'm probably the most excited for, you know, it's the really
kind of big shebang kick off. Then also the wild crop, like we
said, it's going to be highlight and it's all your fault, but I'm
very excited about it. This year is going to be really
cool since I'm working along with them.
I have all kinds of insider information, some that I can't
share, that will actually be announcing at the crop, which
I'm very excited about with that.
But just hearing. And again, I was there last year
when I just kind of crashed for a little bit and I got to meet a
lot of them because I was already doing some social media
work with them and just starting really.
So I was like, well, they're right here, let me go meet them.
And they've been so cool. And even this year it's been
really neat. And yeah, I'm really excited for
this stuff that's going to happen at the crop because it's
like, here's new stuff that you know, hasn't been seen before or
you know that's going to be available.
I don't want to say too much. I'll be giving stuff away, but
like you want to go to the crop. Not just because I'm a part of
that, but if you like stationery, you'll want to go to
the crop. I mean, the wild crop is
probably the thing that I'm most excited about.
Am I incredibly biased? Yes.
But that, like, when your name was announced, I was like, I'm
literally going to die. Oh my God, I am so excited.
It's something that I'm not really even sure what to expect
from it, because they said like this year is going to even be
different from last year and kind of how they approached it.
So from what I understood from last year, everything seemed
like it was kind of themed around like the postcards and
stuff like that, right? They had these different
creators do that. And this year they're like, what
do you want to do? And I was like, well, I don't
know. What do you want me to do?
Like, you get the pick. You know, we're going to have
you do this. And then as it, you know, got
bigger and bigger, it was like, and you're also hosting.
And here's what we did last year.
And here, you know, I was like, oh, my gosh, this is so much
more than what I'm used to, which is just a lot of like
online workshops that we've done, you know, and for
different people in the past. I'm like, that's what I in my
brain when I was expecting when I was creating my workshop.
And then I just had a call with them last week where we were
kind of going over things. I'm like, no, this is a lot
bigger than just a workshop on like going through what I'm
doing, like this is the huge. So I'm, I'm really excited for
it. And I'm also just really excited
to, like I said, to see like what Zebra's doing because they
said they're doing a lot of new stuff this year that they hadn't
before. Yeah, like I said, the Wild crop
is probably the part that I'm like the most excited about.
Again biased. But that one is when the kind of
no real go wild conference really kicks off on the Friday.
So on Friday we have our, you know, doors open at like 8:30 or
something like that. Speakers start around or
something in general. Way too early for me, but it's
fine, I will cope. I would say how long does it
take you to get like your brain and your body synchronized to
being 15 hours back in time? It didn't actually feel so bad
last time. Like last time.
My OK, there was a whole kerfuffle with flights, but
that's another thing. So I was supposed to get in at
11. I did not.
I got in at 2:00 AM and then I slept till like 11:00 AM the
next day. Thankfully I'd organize late
check out because otherwise there would have been somebody
on my door like ma'am, ma'am, please leave.
But thankfully I I managed to sleep a lot on my kind of
flights over and stuff so by the time that I got in it felt like
the right time to be going to bed.
So it wasn't too bad. I'm hoping for something similar
this time because yeah, getting over jet lag when you're
arriving the effectively the night before registration starts
and opens. Not so fun.
I was going to say it's like a whole other thing, do a Taylor
Swift city. And she said, like, jet lag is a
state of mind. Just don't be jet lagged.
Can't you just do that? This feels like the advice
people give. Like what?
You're You're depressed, Why don't you be happy?
Like, thanks Taylor. Great advice.
It's nice that you have a private jet that you can sleep
on without crying babies. Must be wonderful, yeah.
Oh, you're like wedged in between two people.
Like, hi, can you be my my bedding pills?
Yeah, don't want that. Not not good.
But yeah, hopefully this time around I will have a similar
experience with not having a lot of jet lag.
I I found more so that the conference itself was just very
like, I'm going to say energy draining, but not in a bad way.
Like you're around a lot of people.
I very much feel for people who are a bit more introverted than
I am and having that many people around that buzz of energy and
just like, you know, experiencing all this newness,
especially for me, who's like not from the US.
So that was kind of a big thing last year, but it did take a lot
out of you. You go to bed very much ready
for bed. Yeah, I was going to say, I can
only think about this, the amount of energy that we have in
this community already about the things that we love and then to
be surrounded by people that have the same if not more energy
about some of these things. I can only imagine the like
electricity that you feel in there.
I think that's why, like all the videos that I see about go wild,
just people are just, I can't say I don't need a different
word than wild, right? But like it's it makes so much
sense. It just it just seems like just
a wild time. People are just yelling and
dancing and screaming and like all this stuff all the time.
I I need a better word for it. But honestly, it just, it looks
so much fun. And I'm so excited to like
really be in it this time around.
Because I definitely had FOMO when everybody else was like
coming in from workshops with like all of their stuff.
And they were talking about all the different talks that were
going on in people. And I was like, this is cool.
Like, I get to meet all these people I haven't met before, but
I'm missing out on this whole part of this conversation that
I've no idea what what was even happening.
I would love to hear about some of your experiences with like,
meeting people, because that for me was one of the big things.
It's honestly the only reason that I went and I don't mean any
shades, was to go wild people. Because I'll be honest, like I
said, I didn't really even know that thing existed.
Then when I knew that you were going to be there and the crew
from Archer and Olive and a number of people from online
that they were like, you're here and I was like, I've literally
just stopping it for a little bit.
I don't want to like I felt weird being there because I
didn't have a paid ticket. So I was really just like here
to see my zebra crew and here to see my Archer and olive crew and
some of my other friends. Did you have any kind of
highlights other than myself personally?
And obviously that you were excited to meet, but anybody
else that you got to meet while you were here to go wild, that
you were like this was very cool.
Yeah, I guess what? So when I organized my trip
because I saw that Erica was going from craft and I did, and
I was like, oh gosh, I've always wanted to go to go wild.
Like, can I swing it? Can I convince Vogel?
Didn't take a lot of effort, but that's fine.
So I ended up staying with her and her mum in a double room.
So it's like 2 double beds. So the four of us stayed in
there. So that was really cool to get
to, you know, hang out with her more than just like passing
moments at the conference. Then of course, meeting the
Archer and Olive crew. Very exciting.
Getting to meet you. Very exciting.
Like I literally remember filming a little piece for my
vlog being like, Oh my God, Mark From then, Men who Bullet is
coming and it's going to be the highlight of my weekend.
I got to meet him in person and I remember when like I was.
Messaging you or something when you were there trying to find
you and like ran past and then one person turns around and goes
oh that's like Mark from my menu.
Bullet and Jessie. Karen I'm like yes I was but I'm
busy right now love and appreciate but I was just like
Mark is here so that was very exciting then Also getting to
meet people who are like in my general community as well was
really cool. Like for instance Carolyn who is
one of my like long term patrons which is really cool.
Got to meet her and she bought me Coke 0 because she knows that
I'm like literally a fiend like first thing in the morning.
Hello it is I. But it was really cool to get to
meet her in person and very much appreciated her bringing me
beverages. And then after the conference I
also got to organize a Jashi Curran kind of meet up for the
general community who are in the region as well, who like weren't
necessarily going to go wild. So we got to meet up at the
library and just hang out for like 3 or so hours and talk
planners and whatever else. And it's just so cool to like,
meet people and just be like, this is kind of weird at the
same time to do that. Like America was the same way
last year too, and her mom was there, right?
And so it's like you, you just meet like these like little
groups of families. So I'm.
I'm really excited for that as a whole as well.
So I can't, I can't wait. And the talks all seem pretty
fun, too. Again, I'm really going into
them blindly. But I do have to ask you
something because this is something that I know people
mentioned as being like a big deal is this table situation
because I know that brands sponsor the tables.
And let me ask you this because I need to prepare myself.
Do you like pre register for a table or do you just they open
the doors and you run and you knock people over to get to a
table that you want? I think in previous years there
were some instances of running and knocking over.
When I went, they weren't doing that, which I'm very grateful
for. What we do is we line up outside
the door. I know that they have an
official kind of start time when the line starts.
Some people choose to go a little bit earlier regardless.
They do say like no official line will be acknowledged before
this time. But I'm like if the lines
already started where the door is like you're gonna
acknowledge. What are you gonna do?
Yeah, it's there. You can't move me.
They just, they just move like the the barricade like over a
meter and then everybody just steps.
Like, OK, now it's official. You're like, cool.
I'm gonna get out of my sleeping bag next to this trash can to
get that table with the good sticker.
Well, yeah, no, I I know in previous years they had people
who were camping out there from like 4:00 AM or something.
I'm like, oh, girl, no, I guess it's her sleep.
It's a note from me. When you love stationery, you're
ride or die. You can't.
I you can't like it a little bit.
Like you're either camping out for the right table or you know
you're sleeping in because you're not worried about it.
I feel like the excitement of the conference, though not that
I'm waking up at 4:00 for a table like.
I also have no problem with buying something from a small
business that may be a sponsored or a big business that's
sponsored a table. But I understand the excitement
around like sitting down on the table and like getting this
stuff and like very much being around like that theme.
And do the brands do anything more than sponsor the table?
Like, are they coming around at all during the conference or
they do anything with their tables beyond just like have a
seat, get some cool stuff. Now I'm not too sure about the
smaller business owners because I feel like smaller business
owners who sponsor a table, they probably do go and like, you
know, I'm going to say check up on their table.
It's not quite what I mean, but check in and say like like, hey,
thanks for sitting here, hope you like the stuff, that kind of
a thing. So that probably happens for
larger businesses, I'm not too sure.
Maybe they have a representative, I didn't have
that last year. But you also find that for
larger businesses, they also tend to sponsor more than one
table as well. So they'll be like, you know,
several that are sponsored by Altenau, several that are
sponsored by Zebra, that kind of thing.
So I don't think they're necessarily like Bunny hopping
around trying to like, you know, get all of the tables and all of
that kind of stuff. But there is a lot of, I'm going
to say, like friendly competition.
It's not necessary. Literally, a competition was
like you lined up you first in your first serve.
It's how it works to get certain tables.
I know that Zebra usually gets a lot of Hive because they do tend
to give out a decent chunk of stuff on their tables.
I know that, Erin Condren is another one that people seem to
get pretty excited about. I find that a lot of the brands
that sponsor the tables aren't necessarily the brands that I
always use. But last year and this year, I
believe Archer and Olive are sponsoring some tables.
So that's exciting. Do I need more Archer and Olive
stuff? No, but.
No, after this last sub box too, I was just like I have and it's
so weird for me to say this. I have enough notebooks.
What? No sacrilege?
No. No, this is taking me a long
time to get here chess. I have enough notebooks like
forever. Forever.
I think I only have enough for
the next 20 years, so we'll see what happens.
No, you're probably right, actually.
There's always gonna be one or two that I'm gonna need more of.
So like we said, Friday is really the official kind of kick
off of the conference. So that's really where we get
our speakers and all of those kind of sessions.
That one goes up until about 2:00 PM and then we get the
afternoon off to kind of just explore whichever city we've
been placed in. Which for me, last year being in
DC was very exciting because Vogel was off gallivanting
seeing all the things and I'm like I've seen the inside of
this hotel, so it was nice to have a dedicated time and then
in the evening of that Friday that is when we have wild crop
so excited. I know I'm going to keep saying
that throughout this entire episode, but like, it's true,
so. I'm excited too.
I get to be on a big ass stage and talk in front of a bunch of
other planner enthusiasts. It's going to be so much fun.
I know, right? I'm so excited for you and I'm
so excited for us getting to see you be excited.
It's just going to be great. Well, have they released all the
people that are going to be at the crop?
I don't know if they have. I've known about it, But have
they released that publicly on like all the people that will be
there? I don't want to, like, ruin a
surprise if somebody didn't announce it.
Let me just check my planner because of course I have a go
wall platter. So according to mine
calculations and by that I mean the print off that I printed
off. So there's you love that.
We have Bess Whiteman from Lights Planner Action.
So she was a speaker last year, but she was doing like a speaker
segment on the second day rather than the wild crop.
And then we have Amanda Rach Lee.
So I'm not sure if there are others outside of that.
The Amanda Rach Lee one was the thing that I would didn't want
to like, get out there in case that was a big surprise for
anyone, because that's really cool to me.
I know that. Amanda Rach Lee, some people
love her, Some maybe not as much.
Some are diehards, you know, But for me as a person who's been on
YouTube and kind of just been a part of the community, I mean
she's been a part of the community for such a long time,
she's I think probably one of the biggest Youtubers in the
planner community, at least from followership and like things
like that. So for me, I'm excited about
that. I'm not sure what she's doing as
a part of hers. I'm assuming it's something that
has to do with like her shop and doodling.
I mean, just being Amanda Rach Lee and how you know, you
probably people go to see certain things, so they're
expecting certain things, I feel like and she knows that.
But I don't know if I get to introduce her.
But I still feel like that it's going to be cool for me to be
able to just get to meet her. You know, as someone that I've
watched for a number of years and very much a part of the
community along with never met her, never talked to her other
than like maybe a message on like Instagram or something, you
know, just random. So looking forward to that and
just being a part of that too. I think it's pretty neat.
Yeah, you guys are going to be on the same stage as each other.
Like, that's a big deal because like you said, she is probably
the biggest one in our community as well.
I think, like for bullet journaling in particular,
because I don't really have a lot of experience outside of
bullet journaling specifically when it comes to like planners,
social media. Like, I'm not sure who the big
names really are in like the Erin Condren space or the Happy
Planner space or anything like that.
But in bullet journaling, yeah, she's up there and you guys need
to be on the same stage. It's.
Going to be pretty cool and maybe you don't know who the
celebrities are because you are officially now one.
I don't know if we want to announce this or not, but Jess
officially is on celebrity birthdays, right?
Like this is a big moment for you in this space.
Oh my God, it's so cringe. It's like YouTube star.
I'm like calm down like there's nothing * about.
It but you are, Jess. You are.
That's, it's something that I think over time as you're
growing, I don't know if you're the same way or not because I
still very much feel like imposter syndrome.
And I think this just happens to a lot of people.
But just a number of people. Like when the other week I had
gone into your Discord and I just popped into a thing and
everyone was like, Mark is here. And I was like, oh, I'm just
listening to the content. And I almost felt like I almost
stole a little bit of the light. I was like, no, no, I'm
literally just here to listen and like participate and just
the people who are like messy, like, I can't wait to meet you
and all these things, like, that's just so it's awesome.
I don't say, like, that's weird to me, but it is weird for me as
an individual because when you've been creating content,
you do this. You do feel like a speck of dust
amongst, you know, a million other specks of dust that are
out there doing things. Unless for whatever reason,
you're the, you know, Amanda Rachel Lee or there's a handful
of others I can think of that are a part of this community
that you're like, oh, damn, like, OK, you're one of those
big names that are out there. But honestly, just you are right
up there. Honestly, with the amount of
stuff you put out your communities and things like
that, like you, you deserve your birthday and all of the wrong
information they put you on celebrity birthdays.
I know, right, 'cause, like, I got this e-mail saying, like,
oh, we've we've set you up a profile because people were
searching for your birthday. I'm like, yeah, right, OK, sure.
People were searching for my birthday.
I also love that it just came out as like, Oh yeah, we set you
up a profile. Like, no question as to whether
you want one or anything. They're just like, we need a
picture for it. I'm like, fine, Here is my
stock, standard social media image that you could have stolen
off any one of my social media platforms.
But OK, And then reading through it, it's like born New Zealand.
No, Like, absolutely not. It's like, one of her.
What describers described her as a wizard?
I'm like, no, she is a self-proclaimed wizard, like
nobody else is calling me a wizard.
I only call myself that some people just follow along.
That's just how. Yeah, that's right.
Some people compare it back to me.
Always appreciate it. We can be Wizards together.
But it was kind of like a fun, I don't know have I made it
highlight? But also like, have I made it
tongue in cheek, like being very silly about it.
It's having anything like this happened especially for me in
this one. Just my experience so far with
first getting the e-mail that says, Mark, we would like you to
host the crop from Zebra. I was sitting at lunch with my
family. You know, we're like, at the end
of the meal, I'm just checking my phone and I just saw the
e-mail and I was like, I I kept rereading it.
I was like, oh, they want me to like do something small, you
know, that's cool. Like, I was there last year.
This is me. And then it was like, you know,
we would like to sponsor you and we would like to have you host
the crop and do this workshop. And I was like, turned up my
wife. And I was like, Oh my gosh,
this, this is huge. And this feels very weird for me
because I don't feel like I'm at a status to host a thing or
would even people know who I am at this thing?
Because it is for all planners. Like you mentioned before.
Like, we've been a part of the bullet journal space for a
really long time. And I know a number of other
people. And actually that's what I want
to follow up and ask you about this from your experience last
year before we get into like how we've been planning for this
year. But it just seems so weird
because you're going to go to a spot where thousands, right.
There's like thousands of people who are there that don't
necessarily bullet journal. And then you're going to ask me
to host a thing where I'm going to do a workshop.
And I'll talk about this in a little bit in my preparation
part. But this because mine involves
putting together essentially a workshop for this, but thinking
about, you know, what am I going to experience there in my field
of planning. So as a bullet journalers, you
know, you're going to a planner conference where it's not a
bullet journaling conference, It's just a general planner
conference with a short number of people who know about bullet
journaling, but not maybe necessarily about you
individually other than like the people that are part of your
community. But that is something I'm
interested in looking to do is having those conversations with
other people that I don't feel like we get to have as much,
which we've kind of talked about on this podcast is, you know,
the different types of planning. Like what do you get out of it?
Why did you start planning? I feel like those are probably
normal conversations and like Ice Breakers that probably
happened. Like how did you get into
planning? What system are you using?
What's your favorite pen? Yeah, So what system are you
using is like the like, you know, pinnacle of icebreaker
questions when it comes to a planner conference like this
because like you said, it's not necessarily themed around one
style of planning. It's not like a happy planner
convention or you know, a bullet journaling convention.
It's all planner enthusiasts from all planner walks of life.
So getting to make connections with people who otherwise you
probably wouldn't because like you said, we are very much in
the bullet journaling space. Like, I want to make connections
with happy planners. I want to make connections with
people who are using like the Passion Planner or whatever
else. I think that one of the big
things last year was actually learning about all these
different types of planners that I didn't really know about as
well, which was kind of cool when it comes to the sessions
that are led by, you know, the speakers and whatever.
And a lot of them do represent planner brands.
So we had like Moxie Life, Passion Planner, I'm pretty sure
we have Erin Condren notably. Well, this year we're going to
have Amanda Rachel Lee. So you know, she's full of
journaling but also has her own line of planners.
Question mark. Yes.
Well she has, yes.
She has the blank notebook, she has a pre filled notebook and
then she also released a digital planner.
I think that is kind of AI. Don't think it's a companion
too, but maybe probably a digital version of the paper
version I think. Plus, they'd like accessories
and stuff that she has too. So she's, you know, I think it
started just as notebooks, but she's definitely been expanding,
which is pretty cool. Yeah, because we also had a
digital planner speech talk segment last year as well.
So it's good to see that it is being catered towards a bunch of
different planner styles. We didn't necessarily have one
that was like actually no, that's a lie.
We did have a section last year that was kind of bullet
journaling related in that when they had AI think it was the
Founders panel which Bonnie was on.
And we also had Linda Tong who does like kind of pre printed
Bullet Journals as well. So that was kind of where we
really saw the bullet journaling aspect I suppose in the lineup.
But this year Bonnie has been, I don't know, promoted is the
right word. I don't think it's like
necessarily like that, but she is like a stand alone speaker
for this one, which is exciting. So it'll be nice to hear more of
what she has to say. But you know her brand Archer
and Olive are kind of in the bullet journaling space because
they're the kind of notebooks that you can use for bullet
journaling. We also then have Amanda Rach
Lee, who is a big representation in the Bullet journal space as
well. Who else do we have?
I feel like there was another one.
Crickets. I don't think cricket's going to
be there. This isn't about.
Making yourself, why not? They totally gave away a cutting
machine last year. I don't know which one it was,
but that was part of Wild Crop. So in Wild Crop they had like
some little giveaways and stuff that were going on, which was
quite exciting. That one I think was like a like
a quiz type thing and people had to like raise their hand and
stuff like that. But one of the best giveaways I
did though was Zebra. And I will applaud Zebra round
of applause on how they handled this.
So when we came back after a break, everybody got like a
raffle ticket and they did it as a raffle.
And I just, I loved that. It was fair.
Everybody got a ticket. It wasn't about putting your
hand up and screaming the loudest and all of that kind of
thing. So shout out to Zebra.
Excellent work on that one. We've been talking a lot about
doing stuff like that as a part of this because again, in my
mind the the crop and and doing my workshop part of this, I
really just thought it was going to be me just doing what I we've
been planning on doing. They were like, so we're going
to you know pull people. We wanted to giveaways and all
this. I was like oh, and I literally
crossed out like a bunch of extra stuff that I had as a part
of my workshop because I was like, OK, this isn't just just
like, no you don't understand this.
This is just this is go wild. So it's a lot of energy and
we're giving stuff away and you're doing your thing and
people are participating. And I was like, this is just so
different than anything that I've done before.
I have the energy for it. I know that I can do it because
I've definitely done it before. I do it every single day, every
single video, which is my personality.
But it is just very cool to think about just the excitement
about it and what's going to be happening and all the stuff that
can possibly happen. I know, right?
I'm so excited for you and I'm so excited for us getting to see
you be excited. It's just going to be great.
So conference day one on the Friday, we have our sponsored
tables on that day with you know all of the goodies and bits that
they're providing for us, which is always a very good part.
But then on day 2, this is where we don't have sponsor tables but
we do have the opportunity for table make gifts.
This is a completely optional part though.
You do not have to provide table make gifts, but it's always
really exciting. I'm like sitting over here like,
Oh my gosh, I have to bring. I have to do other things now.
I don't even know what I'm doing each day.
Now I have to think think about table mates.
You don't have to. You don't have to.
It is completely optional. It is just a bit of fun.
Oftentimes people will bring maybe like a sweet treat or
something from wherever they're usually based.
So, anyone who's from Canadia? Canadia.
Wow. I apologize, Canada, That was
rude. I call a Canadian too sometimes
that I they're my next door neighbors.
I am so sorry to the entire of Canada.
Please do not come for me, but yes, People from Canada, they
typically bring this like crunchy treat thing that people
like really into. I don't know what it is.
I've just heard no, no, no. It's like a individually
wrapped. I'm just gonna call it Canadian
crunch because I don't know what it is, a coffee crunch.
Has it got coffee in it? I don't know.
The only thing I know about Canada is like Canadian bacon.
Like, that's the only thing that would come to mind.
And that would feel weird to be like here's an individual
wrapped Canadian bacon. That would be so great.
You just flop out a piece of meat.
Like here you go table mates, this is for you.
But last year I got a mini waffle iron, like a little
electric one. I know it was crazy and I was
like very excited about it, except for the fact that it was
American and you guys have different plugs to us.
So it's not like I could actually use it at home.
So I had to give my mini iron away.
This is fine. Wait.
Couldn't you have gotten like the six prong converter to,
like, make your mini waffle iron work, set your house on fire?
It literally would have though, because the voltage or wattage
or whatever we have here is a lot higher than the US one.
So it'll be like your waffles going to cook really fast and
then your house is going to cook really fast.
So like, let's not test the fates.
Oh my gosh. Speaking of that stuff real
quick, one of the things that I know that people talked about is
like, I won't call them player cards, but they like hand stuff
out to people and like, collect them.
Is that something I also need to be prepared for?
Yeah. So contact cards is what they
call them. But these are usually done as
like little sticker cards. They can't just be like, they're
effectively like business cards. You don't have to make them into
stickers. And last year I was like, oh,
you know, getting these my sent to New Zealand or whatever, or
having to make them myself, like feel like a bit of a kerfuffle.
I'll just do a little QR code on my phone.
So on my kind of lock screen and my phone, I had a little QR code
that people could scan. It took them to my link tree and
I got the I got the biggest FOMO like so badly.
I was like, Oh my gosh, I got like super cute contact cards.
I ended up making a little contact card shrine in my
journal for all of the contact cards that I collected from
people because I just loved it so much.
That's what I heard from a lot of people.
Look at that. Yeah.
Oh my God. Right.
You're here on YouTube. You get to see it, but it's
effectively just all of the little stickers that people gave
me. Can you just screenshot that to
me so I can like get an idea so I can probably.
I feel like I have to do something right?
Like I have to do something. I would recommend it.
I mean, it's just a really nice way to give somebody kind of
like effectively like a keepsake for your interaction with them.
The best contact cards, though, I personal opinion on the ones
that have a picture of the person on it.
Because you meet so many people through this thing that actually
putting like names and faces together became very tricky.
So anybody who gave me a contact card with a picture of them,
that one was like, oh thank you, light in the dark.
I remember who you are now. Not to say our interaction
wasn't important, I just forgot. I know what you mean.
You're meeting hundreds of people or thousands of people
that you're seeing him by bypassing.
Like, I feel like it's impossible to, like, remember
anyone's name. I can't do that with people I
work with every day. Yeah, exactly.
I think the number of times that I've accidentally called my
brother my partner's name is becoming a problem, but
hopefully that won't happen. I hopefully I'll get everybody's
name right this time around. But contact cards with faces on
them always a winner in my book. So those ones get handed out
kind of just throughout the conference.
There isn't like a set specific time but I do plan for my table
make gifts this time around to include one of those with my
table make gifts. I was like, hey this is your
present from Jess. Here's her face so you can
remember who she is. Can I, like, give like, extra
pens that I haven't used before? I don't.
Yeah. I mean for sure, like we have,
even if you don't want to do that as part of the table, make
gifts, they do usually have something called AD stash table,
which you can probably tell from the name what that one's about.
I picked up a very cute little, I don't know, patch or something
last time I was there. It's a little shark that says,
like, there's a shark behind you, 100% behind you.
And it's the cutest thing. So I put that on my wall because
I was like, oh, I don't really have any clothes that I want to
sew this to, but it can be like a little like plaque.
But they do have the desash table, which you can't bring,
like surplus supplies that maybe you're not going to use but
somebody else could use. So I really should go through my
washi tape and make sure that I've picked out some pieces for
that. Because, you know, I don't want
to take too much because of international travel and all,
but it is nice to be able to give that to people who you know
are going to use it. Because these are your people.
These are your planner enthusiasts.
That's actually a good idea. I can destash all of my washi
tape as my table partner to things would be like, I'm
gifting you washy. And really it's just the washy
I'll never ever use. No.
That's fine. I mean, like, again, it's going
to go to somebody who's going to be more inclined to use it than
you, and that's a good thing. I know people make like little
washy samples and stuff as part of their table make if
sometimes. So if you wanted to go to the
effort of wrapping it around a card, like you could but you
could just give away full roles as well, that's totally fine.
People are very appreciative and like we said, it is completely
optional. So like anything, is is always
gonna be like an exciting moment, I suppose.
How many people should I plan for for something like that?
Good question. So typically there are 10 people
per table, but one of those people is you.
So, OK, nine people. Oh, I can totally do that then.
OK, I know exactly what I'm gonna do now.
So perfect. This was this is fantastic.
Last year for Table Mates, I It's one of those things you
don't want to show up empty handed and I want to feel like
I'm, you know, meeting a certain level of my own personal
expectations. So do not take this as an
expectation for literally anybody else.
But I hit up the Black Friday sale at Archer and Olive because
they had some crazy good deals before I went to go wild last
year. So I got all of my table mates A
blackout notebook, like an A5 blackout notebook, and a set of
the primary acrylic graphs because they were so, so
decently discounted. I had a voucher.
I'm like, heck, why not? So everybody got like, I don't.
I'm not doing the math. They got a decent present from
me. That's really.
I mean, that's actually a good idea too.
All right, well, I have all the ideas I need now, now that I
know exactly what we're getting into here.
Excellent. So that's on day two.
We don't have sponsor tables. You don't have to sit at the
same table. You can sit effectively wherever
you want. But table mate swaps happened
that day in particular, we let the first day be like the time
for the sponsor table to shine. We do.
Our table will make gifts on the second day.
So on day two we have more of that kind of just general
conference speakers, that kind of thing, up until about 2:00 PM
ish. We then have the afternoon off
again and then on Saturday night, that is when we have
planned jammer. So much fun, so exciting, open
by food provided, which I didn't know last time.
So we went out for dinner and then we got there and the food
looked amazing, but we'd already eaten.
So we're like, wow, no, not this time.
I'm going to go with an empty stomach.
And then the last day is really just pack up and ship out.
And that's kind of like organize any little meet ups and whatever
else you want to do yourself. But there's nothing like
formally organized for the conference.
So you've shared your planner, so you have a dedicated Go Wild
planner. So I'm curious what you've been
doing also on top of this to prepare for this year because I
feel like your planning is a little bit different, a lot of
it different than me because I'm really just hopping on a plane
and flying for five hours and landing, you know, versus you
who is literally flying. How long is that flight, by the
way? One of them is like a 17 hour
flight, I feel because there's like there's an hour to Auckland
and then a wait and then there's like 17 hours to Houston or
whatever and then a wait and then the flight from Houston to
Dallas, Fort Worth, which is not 17 hours, like distinctly not.
No, that's the shortest of your of your rides that day.
Which makes total sense on why you're saying like, I'm not
bringing a lot of extra stuff with me, because that's a lot of
opportunity for stuff to get lost, I feel like.
Yeah, last year when we went Vogel suitcase, like the the
wheel got snapped off of it. Mine got fully bashed in at the
corner, but he's literally lost a wheel.
So, you know, don't really want to test the fates too much.
But I am flying a different airline now because that one
cannot be trusted anymore. That's fine, I know.
Is Vogel coming with you again this year?
No, not this time. He don't get angry Texas, he
said. He didn't have a lot of interest
in going to Texas. And I'm like, well, if I don't
have to pay for another flight ticket and accommodate you and
find things for you to do, then that is fine.
So it's awesome he's going to stay here.
So this is very much a jest trip.
Yeah, very much that. Which is nice because, you know,
I get to like have my own little kind of getaway moment and I
don't have to make sure that he's like, entertained.
Not that he can't entertain himself.
It's just I felt kind of guilt. Like every morning I'd be like,
OK, bye, You're still in bed. I'm going to go like have fun
with my friends and you can go to the zoo or whatever.
He had a good time. He did, but like, it was, it was
kind of strange, like effectively going on holiday
with him but like without him. So this time I don't have to
worry about that. I felt comfortable enough this
year to actually book my own flights though, which was like
kind of like an adult moment for me.
Like I would, I would like a badge for that please.
Because last year we went through a travel agent because I
could just not get the flights to line up in a way that wasn't
like, yeah, you've got a 30 minute layover when you need to
be there like 2 hours beforehand.
I'm like, OK, that'll workout, thanks.
So this year I managed to book my own flights though, so that's
excellent. Means I save myself a little bit
of money and I get to have the airlines that I prefer.
So that's a win. And then also organizing the JCC
meet up, so Jashi curing community, which of course
anybody in the Dallas Fort Worth whatnot area or if you're
further away and you just want to travel, that's cool too.
Like you're more than welcome to come along.
That one is going to be on the Thursday afternoon from like
2:00 PM. I've started planning it.
We're almost there. I feel like I should be more
prepared at this stage, but it'll happen.
And then that last part would probably just be like making
sure that all of my work stuff is going to come out without me.
So like getting all of my videos ready for release and scheduled
to come out without me having to press any buttons, doing this
stuff for Instagram. So that's going to come out
without me. Anything like that which I am
not behind on yet, but I could very easily become behind on if
I don't make it a priority. You're so much of a professional
because I'll be honest with you, I've not even thought that far
in advance. Like the other day we were
talking about, you know, commitments and things that
we're doing. I'm like, I'm just committing to
putting down the next three videos that I want to record.
And you're already like, I'm going to plan stuff that I don't
have to press. I was like, I'm just probably
going to take a break from like videos and stuff.
I I probably will be on Instagram a lot just because I
feel like that is like prime time, just to share that
experience and people that were meeting and anything else like
that. But I don't even know.
I've even thought about the other stuff.
But again, you're a true professional.
You do this for a living. I'm literally just like whatever
I feel like posting today. Well, last year I was very much
into this kind of like, I don't know, I'm going to call it a
little hustle. It was a little hustle moment
about like, I really need to be better on Instagram.
We're just going to put aside the fact that you don't need to
do anything, but it's fine. So I really wanted to get better
on Instagram, actually be more consistent with it.
So I like, you know, took photos, trim them down, put the
watermarks on, whatever, 3 pictures a day for my entire
stay in the States. So that was like 2 weeks worth
of three photos a day. That was an effort.
But then the photo making itself is something that I can kind of,
you know, batch all the photo taking, batch all the photo
trimming, that kind of thing. When it comes to the caption
writing, I hate writing captions so much.
They're so boring and I feel like, OK, I want to provide
value here. How many words do I need to
provide value? How much do I actually need to
explain this picture? Will people get it?
Probably not. And then do I have to respond to
comments? I say have to respond to
comments. It's not have to.
I enjoy getting comments. I enjoy interacting with people,
but it felt like a lot of a burden.
I'm going to schedule them. I can tweak them when I'm
actually there in terms of the captions.
So half of them just had a caption that there was X, like
little kiss X. And then I just forgot that I
was supposed to edit them. So all of these pictures came
out with X. It's just like nobody called me
up on it. Like it didn't really matter
that much. But I was like, Oh my gosh, how
unprofessional. Why did you let this happen?
Kind of a thing. I was going to say I know
exactly how you feel with a lot of the captions.
I feel like after you do things for so long too.
It's probably like a lot of the celebrities don't usually go
into like a lot of detail. When you're posting things like
that is just at certain points, you don't really have to.
You made a comment last episode that really rang true with me is
this idea that our community has kind of grown, they've matured
over time. A lot of people have been bullet
journaling for a while that they kind of get it.
And I was along the same lines thinking about this recently
because I'm the same way you are.
I want to provide as much value as I can for people so that they
don't have to do extra work. It's the UX are in me and you as
well, right? Like you just want to create a
good experience for the person going through that.
But so many people usually will know what's going on.
It probably very much depends on what you're posting.
But it's like, what notebook are you doing?
What's the main idea? If you're asking a question but
not going into such detail where it's like a super long lengthy
post, like you said, what's the most valuable piece you're kind
of doing there that might just be.
That's kind of where my brain is going to be if like all my
content will just be while I'm there because I'm a very much
time and place type of Instagrammer.
So anything I'm doing is usually like literally taking my
picture. Right now I'm posting it versus
oh, I took that picture 3 weeks ago because I will take that
picture 3 weeks ago with total intention to do that.
Same things with the hundreds of screenshots that I have as well.
I think it's an ADHD thing. Never remember that even existed
once. It goes past like the first
three columns of whatever is in my photo real.
So I think that you could probably get away with a lot
less especially during that time too.
I can only imagine just you know the flight and landing and
getting to where you need to go and planning all of the stuff.
I think we will, We can forgive you, Jess, during that period of
time for less than you know what you usually put into your
comments. I appreciate that.
But on your note of like, having that many pictures and stuff
that you just never go back to, there are so many folders on my
computer that are just called to sort for photos, like, and
they're in a bunch of different places, 'cause it's just like,
Oh yeah, just take all the photos off of my phone and put
them in a folder and I'll get around to them.
No, no, I will not. And then also I have to remind
myself that when you provide going to say too much value in a
comment, it's not quite what I mean.
But when you explain things too well in a comment on your
Instagram, like in the caption, you're actually limiting the
amount of engagement you can receive on that because then
people won't ask questions. So like, rather than telling
them like, Oh yeah, this is my notebook, these, it depends.
All of this, you're taking away an opportunity for people to ask
that. Like it's kind of a balancing
act of doing the work upfront to put that information in so that
then people don't have to ask if they, you know, want to know but
they don't want to type a comment.
But then also like if engagement is important or if engagement
maybe is more important than not putting that information in so
that you can have those questions and interactions with
people. So I just need to find the the
happy balance and. This is why you're the social
media professional. And I'm the kind of person that
is like, look, I don't want you to have to ask me.
So here's the pen I'm using, here's a notebook that I'm
using, here's everything in this picture where I got it from.
And some people will be like, wow, that's real salesy.
Mark, I'm like, no, no, no. I'm literally doing this.
I just want people to know, I have a conversation with you
about it, but if you don't have to ask me something and you can
just look at it, then you know why.
But at the same time, I do put those things and people will
still ask me like, what notebook is that?
What pen is that? And I'm just like, OK.
Yeah. And then you get that moment of
like, it's kind of a selfish moment maybe, but you're just
like, can you read kind of a thing?
I'm like, I put this effort in for you.
But again, we like comments. We want comments.
That's how you like, you know, build engagement, build
community, build connections and all of that kind of thing.
So comments are good. So those are the elements that
I'm kind of preparing for like, you know, getting my content
out, you know, international travel of that.
But I'm going to say that yours is probably looking a little bit
different with the hosting of wild crop and stuff, maybe less
travel, more like actual stuff to do while you're there.
What can you tell us without, like, spoiling anything about
your planning process? I've very much been thinking
about this because I knew we were going to talk about it and
I'm thinking, well, how much do I want to share about this?
Again, I can't share any of the special things that Zebra and I
have in store because I very much want that to be something
that everyone gets to experience on their own at the event
itself. But for myself, the biggest
thing for me honestly has been thinking about the workshop part
of this. Because as I mentioned before,
I've done a lot of these virtual conferences before, even live
ones before with different brands.
And and those just are very scheduled, right?
It's like, here's what you do, I follow my outline, we go about
it and everything is great, right?
And that's in my mind how this was going to go.
So that's exactly what I did. So my preparation really was a
lot, just thinking about what I was going to do as a part of
this workshop because being someone who has never been a
part of Go Wild before, really experienced, I wasn't sure.
And some of the things I did again, the UX researcher in me,
I was like, hey, can I get a call with the Go Wild people and
Zebra? I have some questions because I
was asking about demographics. I was asking about the type of
planners that people are using. You know, are these people
notebook, digital? And they were just like, it's
literally everything, Mark. And I was like, OK, but if I
talk about bullet journaling specifically, is that going to
bore people? Like, I want it to be something
that everybody can use. And they were like, you just do
you like, that's why we have you as a part of this, Mark, because
of the content you put out is so fun.
And like, it's, it's engaging. And all of this, I was like, OK,
but I don't want to be like, here's how did you set up a
bullet journal? And everyone be like, well, I
don't bullet journal, so I don't need that.
So what I've decided to do was not set up a bullet journal but
actually talk about cool elements that you can use,
things that I do use inside of my bullet journal but that
everybody could use regardless of the type of planner system or
planner or how you like to plan. So we're going to be working on
a lot of, like, I call them, like core skills, but things
that push people a little bit. So some of those things that
usually intimidate me or I think about people who are like, oh, I
would love to do that, but I can't do that things around
lettering. I do it, but it's not great
grade or so. I don't think it's awesome.
But doing some things around that that you can do easily
inside of your planner, we're going to talk about also just
like setting up, let's say setting up weeklies, but I do
want to share, like this is how I plan and here's some helpful
things, but how can you take a foundational kind of basic
layout and up it a little bit without going too far?
We talk a lot about like the decorative side of planning.
And for myself, like I'm not a super decorative planner, but I
do like stamps. I like to pop some stickers in
there sometimes. I love pens, so I'm always like,
OK, how can I incorporate those things?
And luckily Zebra has a lot of pens.
They have a mild liners, right? So we're going to be using a lot
of their tools to create things that you can use inside of your
planner. There's even a little bit of a
throwback to a conversation we had on those podcasts, which is
about performative tracking or performative bullet journaling
and the idea of how can we create these and then actually
use them and what can you use them for.
So without going like into like detailed details, which I just
want to spill it all now in a not that it's a secret, it's
just that you know, if you're going to be there, come out to
the crop. Because I think everyone gets to
go to it if they want to. And the idea is that you're
going to come, we're going to have fun, we're going to learn
some things, and you're going to have stuff that you can take
away and practice on your own and learn from that you could
use in any type of planner that you're doing.
So we're going to be doing everything by hand.
But if you're a digital planner, come and learn, because
everything that I can do with a pen, you can do with your stylus
or an Apple Pencil, right, If depending on the planner that
you're using. And then everything else, I
honestly kind of feel like I haven't had to worry about it,
which is very helpful. So like, Zebra has been taking
care of a lot of, like the travel arrangements and things
like that. They just asked me kind of like,
where do you want to leave from and when do you want to leave.
And I haven't had to book anything for myself, which feels
very weird to say out loud because I'm like, I haven't had
to book anything myself. But I have it.
So I think probably because I haven't had to do that, I feel
less kind of connected to it. I just have my planner when I'm
leaving the flight that I'm on. I know when I have to be there.
Unfortunately, I actually have to leave on Saturday because I
have to get back here to Baltimore for an event that I
can't not go to. So it was something that
happened after this whole thing was going on.
I was like, crap, is this going to affect anything?
And luckily it's not. I just won't be able to see kind
of the rest of Saturday that's going to be going on.
But just thinking about getting there, trying to very much just
be in the moment, you know, not checking work emails or text or
anything that's going on with that and just being there and
being mindful and just being and enjoying that is really kind of
what I've been thinking about. And because I don't know
anything, I'm just kind of going in it with that mindset.
Like Mark, you don't know. So go with the flow like that.
Normally in my life anyway, but at this event like I will just
be following. Well I'll be following you
probably around like a little puppy dog.
Like show me just how I do things because again I just
don't. I just feel like you know just
another person at this conference.
So I will just be there to absorb it and enjoy it.
I definitely can't wait to hang out with everybody and meet new
people. I mean even last year is it's
kind of funny because I think we're all sitting down to eat
lunch. A Co worker of mine that I work
with and I had no idea even goes to things like this or is into
planning. We saw each other and I was
like, hey, what are you doing here?
She was like, I love planning and I was like, this is great.
It was so cool to come back to work the week later and just
talk about planners and how she uses her planners for work and
how I use mine, which were very different systems.
It was just super fun. So I really can't wait for those
conversations, personally. No, I love the idea of, like,
meeting, you know, somebody in another area of your life in a
space that you thought was kind of like disconnected.
Sometimes it's a bad thing, but in this case it sounds like it
was a happy thing. A good thing.
It was very much a good thing. Yeah.
As more and more people find out about, like, the social media
stuff, it isn't happening as much at work anymore.
It's actually happening with my girls and their friends.
They'll come down to where my studio is and they'll be like,
what's all this? And my girls will be like, oh,
my dad like, does videos and YouTube and stuff like that.
And they'll find me online and they'll be like, your dad's
famous and she's like, oh, I don't know.
They're like, no, no, he has a lot of followers on Instagram or
he has a lot of subscribers on YouTube.
Like, he's kind of a big deal. And it just feels weird to me
because I'm just doing this in my basement, you know?
But it is very cool when you're meeting other people out and
about and talking about that because I don't feel like I get
a lot of that. Like, how do you use your
planner professionally in my day-to-day?
Because even at work for myself and my team, there's some people
who write things down, but people aren't necessarily using
a system like I am. So we'll geek out on like pens.
I'll get like a new fountain pen and everyone would be like, oh,
that's so cool. But I don't think anybody else
on my team use fountain pens. It's more like an appreciation
for. So this type of environment for
me, I think it's just going to be, I'll probably be like you're
saying, by the time the night comes, I think my battery will
just be drained in the best possible way.
But I don't even know what time that'll be because honestly, get
a few drinks in me, I can go all night.
Well, we certainly did last year.
Like the Wild Plan Jammer Party kind of wraps up around 10 and
everyone's like, no, no, no, no, we're going to take this part
into the lobby. We were like, I don't know who
bought the music, but we were all having a great time into the
wee hours of the morning. And I was like, I for the hotel
stuff because they probably just like, please go to bed, ma'am,
we need to tidy up and everybody's.
I'm very curious what the hotel stuff thinks about something
like this. Like, I'm sure in their minds,
so like, here's a bunch of, like, notebook stationary geeks
that are getting together the same way some people like, look
at like movie cons or like Star Wars conventions or any type of
other convention where if you're not as a part of that community,
you're like, why are these people so into this?
I feel like that's very much what's going to happen here.
But who cares about them? Because like, we're around all
of our planner pals, so it's going to be awesome.
Exactly. That's the best part about it is
just getting around people who get you like they understand
your enthusiasm because they are that way as well.
It's always the best part, I reckon.
And that's kind of why I decided to go back this year, because
after last year I was like, OK, that's my one and done, you
know, this was an expensive trip.
And then the advertising came out for the next one.
I'm like, but I really loved hanging out with all of my
online friends and I want to go again.
I walk back into Vogels office like, please Sir, can I have
some more? And he's like, fine, so very
excited about that. I think it's very cool that
you're coming again. I really thought about it before
I got asked. I think you had already planned
on going and everything else. And I was like, oh God, like the
ticket and the travel just seems like a lot for this.
It was different when it was in DC and I was like, oh, I can at
least go there. I think by the time I kind of
really found out about it, it was sold out already.
So I couldn't buy a ticket. And that's just how my life is.
I'm very much like, oh, actually I should go to this.
It's like, sorry, we're sold out.
You're a week before the conference.
Like, you can't just do that. So this is one of those things
where I really thought about it and I was like, oh, that would
be cool to do. But then to find out that like I
get to go and like do all these things is extra exciting for
this year. Very much so.
So I really can't wait for that real quick.
You did just mention this pajama party, so I was told about this
thing. I personally, just, I'm going to
be totally honest, I was not necessarily looking forward to
that because I'm like, I like, I don't own a pajama set, you know
what I'm saying? Like it's I'm sure it's very
like on theme for people and they probably theme it out or
buy special pajamas for this thing.
I'm a little too on the nose with things sometimes.
But when does that happen and should I have to prepare for
that or not? Because like I said, I do.
I need to buy pajamas. Yeah, you need to mentally,
emotionally, spiritually prepare.
No. OK Because I'm I'm the same.
I don't own pajamas. I have like a bed top and that
top is the top that goes to bed. It's not this top.
This is the day top. And I've got like 7 of it.
And then I have the bed top. Like, I don't really want to
wear my actual bed top to plan jammer because it's kind of
like, I don't know, It just feels an approach like that's
for me and my partner go away. It's not that kind of sexy, but
whatever. It's like literally a $10
T-shirt from the warehouse. Some people do go out and
actually buy, like proper pajamas for it.
And I was tempted to do that. But I am so against the idea of
single use items, like bringing something into my, you know,
closet house, whatever, where the intention is to use it once.
And and because I was only going to be going to go wild once, I'm
like, I don't really feel good about paying for pajamas that
are nice enough to wear out outside that I only wear once.
So I just ended up going in my regular clothes.
It was totally fine. But some people go hard out, you
know, people like come in their robes with their, like, you
know, fluffy cuffs and stuff and they looked so glamorous.
It's beautiful. And then everybody's gets very
into the leopard print. Of course, because we're going
wild. Last year in our welcome box, we
actually got an eye mask that said like, Wake me in
Washington, DC, where Washy was like in a different lettering
style. Oh.
That's cool plan. Of people.
It was cute, so we had a lot of people wearing those as kind of
like headbands and stuff. So people do get very into it.
It is very much like a fit, the vibe type deal.
But you don't have to. I mean, everything's optional.
When they mentioned it to me, Zebra was like, you don't have
to, but if you want to get into it.
But I actually, again, I feel like I don't know why I feel so
disconnected from this as much as I am.
I think just so much of my focus has been on the workshop and
like preparing for that. I don't even think I've really
looked at the schedule. So like is that when does that
pajama party? I know that's what I'm saying.
I feel, I feel like the most like non planner person right
now to go to a planner conference is not being prepared
and I just don't know how to. Like, I think now that like, I
got the OK stamp, maybe I should just really spend some time with
this so I know what I'm getting into, but like, when is that
pajama party? So Planjama happens on the last
kind of official day of the conference, I suppose.
So that is on the Saturday night, which means sadly you
won't be able to go. This time, so don't have to
worry about getting a pajama set.
No, you'll be fine. I mean, unless you want to wear
your pajamas up on stage like it's wild crop.
I'm here at my PJS. Don't do that.
I mean you can but. Yeah, that was The thing is, I I
don't know. I'm the same way as you.
Like it feels weird wearing your pajamas you would wear at home
because I would just be wearing shorts and AT shirt essentially
like. Because I'd just be wearing
T-shirt and underwear and I'm like, nobody wants to see that.
So, like, let's not. I mean, I could do the same
thing. Maybe people want to see that,
maybe not. I don't know.
I feel like I will be a part of a very small demographic of
males at the Planner conference personally.
No, we're gonna keep that for the only fans, Mark.
Oh my gosh. Only Planner fans.
If I was in more shape, I would totally do that.
That would make so much sense for me financially, a lot better
than what I'm making on YouTube. That affiliate money ain't got
nothing on it. So then after the pajama party
happens, that's kind of the send off.
Then the next day would be Sunday.
I'm assuming that's just a big travel day for most people.
Yeah, so it's really like a pack up, ship out kind of day.
So it is on the official schedule.
It's like you know, brunch with your friends, but it's like it's
all self organized. So technically, like it's the
last safe weekend, you're still technically there.
If you're not shipping out like super early in the morning, you
could go do some stuff. Last year this is when I decided
to do my meet up. This year I'm not doing it on
the Sunday because I was so hungover.
I was probably the least person to be with.
So like, I learnt from my mistakes.
I'm not doing that again this year.
So yeah, our meet up is on Thursday instead before the kind
of big major festivities happen. So I have like the most energy
possible for the community. I feel like that's going to be a
much nicer just to be. Around.
I think that'll be super fun. Like I said, I definitely want
to tag along with you for your meet up.
I if you're OK with that. I feel weird doing that because
it's a just meet up and I'm just.
I'm just going to go with you, if that's OK.
Now I'm just going to cross it out and be like planner pals
made-up. That's what it's going to be,
no. That's what I'm saying.
That's why I don't want it. I always feel that I was like
because that just kind of happens, right?
Like if you're hosting things or people do.
And a lot of people, we have a lot of cross community.
They're all part of the same community, right?
So I'm just like this is a just meet up.
Like I don't, I don't. I just feel weird with stuff
like that because it's almost like when you're going to
something like this, Like when I crashed it last year, I was
like, I felt like I was kind of messing with the mix, right?
You're at this conference and you're here with your people.
And then like, I kind of like interject myself.
I felt like for a very selfish reason of like getting to meet
people and I kind of live it without living it.
So I just want to just be a part of the things just as it's going
on. So I, like I said, I'm going to
go with the flow. So like let's just just grab me
and be like Mark, we're going here and I'm like cool And I'm
going to chat planners with everybody else or whatever you
have going on. If you need any help your meet
up, let me know. Like, I also am a really great
wingman for helping with support.
Just just let me know. Always appreciate it.
But no, I completely understand the feeling.
It's like anytime, because I like to join live streams,
right? I like to jump in on a live
stream and like, you know, see what people in the community and
doing or whatever. And I always like to comment
because, you know, it's building their engagement or whatever.
And there's always that moment where people like, Oh my God,
Jess is here. I'm like, no, we're not here for
me. We're here for them.
Like, let's watch them, Let's get enthusiastic about them.
That's exactly how I feel about it.
And I'm not like, oh, Mark, you're going to walk in the room
and everyone is gonna know you and take away.
Like I said, I just know that because people in this community
know a lot of us where I'm like, I don't, I'm not here for that.
Like I'm really here to be a part of the conversation.
So as long as I'm not too, you know, as long as I'm helpful
that's what I wanna be there helpful and just have
conversations with our planner friends because that's that's
what this is all about. I'm I'm really excited about it
and thank you for sharing your experience from last year.
If anyone has any other questions, we can certainly
comment about it and talk about it in the chats and anything
else that we might have on this. Like we said, by the time this
is coming out, we'll be a week away and that's really exciting.
And one of the questions I know that we wanted to ask at the end
of this episode was about if people have gone to these type
of conferences before, because I'm just learning about one.
People have been asking me if I'm going to one that's in New
York. It's like stationary fest or
something like that. I've never heard of it before,
but we would just love to hear from you.
If you've ever been to a planner conference or a stationary show
or convention or anything like that, let us know about them
because I think 2 parts. One, what was that experience
like for you? But also, I love finding out
about these new things too. Because if you didn't know about
Go Wild and you're listening to this podcast, now you know.
But also if you've been to other ones that we're just not aware
of, let us know. Like that would be super cool.
If they're like, yeah, Mark, there's a huge stamp convention
that you can go to. I'd be like, yes, all the stamps
ever possible. Like, I know there's pen shows
and things like that too, but I just love to hear about what
else is happening out there in the community.
So if you have been to any Planner conferences, or if you
know of any, please do either drop them in the comments if
you're watching here on YouTube, or you can hit us up at
plannerpalspodcast@gmail.com or at Planner pals on Instagram.
Your comments always mean a lot to us.
We would love to hear from you. So when we come back from Go
Wild, we will be just filled with excitement about this and
meeting and so many people in the community as well, both
whether you've only met them online or in our cases where
you've been lucky enough to meet them.
Outside of that, our next episode, we wanted to talk about
community over competition, and this is something that I think
has wavered over the years, especially when I got started.
I felt like it was very hot and heavy and everyone's vying for
the number one spot. I don't know if because I've
grown over time, if it doesn't feel that way anymore or not,
but we're going to get into that conversation a lot more.
So can't wait to talk with you just about that, because we've
both been in this for a while and probably seen similar, but
also very different parts of it too, especially because I feel
like you've grown very fast. I feel like I've only recently
just kind of grown fast, but you've been doing this for a
much longer time, so you've probably seen more things than I
have, especially around this topic.
You've seen some things taking it back to that.
Yes, I think that there has been like ebbs and flows in terms of
it, but I'm really excited to get into that conversation with
you. So always, if you'd like to
check out the previous episodes of the Planner Piles podcast,
you can do so on all of your major platforming streaming
services. I'm sure if you're listening on
this one right now, you have a favorite.
So you head back to those and also over on YouTube, the
Planner Pals Podcast. And as always, if you have any
comments, questions, or even ideas for future episodes, we'd
love to hear from the community. You can hit us up at our e-mail
Planner Pals podcast@gmail.com. Can't wait to hear from you and
Jess, I can't wait to see you in just a few weeks.
It's going to be so much fun. I'm so excited that I will see
you then. And until next time, Platter
pals, thank you for watching.