Last night was my second Heart & Soul Zoom Podcast. The topic was Chocolate. As you might imagine, it was great fun with lots of humorous chocolate stories shared by the audience. We also enjoyed a wonderful interview with Andrew Watson Beecher, a fourth generation chocolatier in his family's Watson's Chocolates Business.
All in all, the podcast was a great success---although it didn't start out that way!
At 6:50 (the podcast begins at 7pm) my laptop that I use for Zoom decided it no longer wanted to connect to the internet. As I determinedly (and in somewhat of a panic) worked on changing my laptop's mind, my producer, Colleen was setting up a two-camera system of one laptop and one phone. We needed it for the podcast cooking segment where I was going to make my "world-famous" hot fudge sauce.
Eight minutes, and a select number of inappropriate phrases later, my laptop and I came to an understanding. My Zoom screen was up and ready to go. Colleen and her two-camera setup were not.
As she furiously kept trying to make it work, another of those inappropriate phrases escaped my mouth. Without taking her eyes off her laptop screen, or her finely manicured hands from the keyboard, she softly stated:
"I'm dealing with a lot at the moment and I don't need to hear those kinds of things. If you would not say anything like that again right now, I would appreciate it."
Now, I've been dressed down by a lot of people in a lot of life situations. Never....ever....has someone in the midst of a tense situation, spoken so softly, or stated their issue so politely. Truthfully, it was so shocking that it took me ten seconds to even understand she was telling me to shut up and buck up! I immediately responded "Absolutely," followed by a quiet, "Sorry."
Seconds later, Colleen made the decision to use her laptop as our second camera. I had my doubts, but this time I did kept my mouth shut! With no time to spare Colleen opened the podcast and we began a wonderful hour of words, people and stories that matter---and often made us laugh.
Moral of the story: that's why Colleen is the producer...and I'm not!
Here's the link to the podcast. Now that you know the story-behind-the-story, give it a watch