S2E03 with David Stevens - Same Same ... But Different

As Co-Founder of Olympian Meetings, a wellness consulting firm for events, meetings, and conferences, David Stevens helps clients create impactful experiences that drive engagement, raise awareness, and boost revenue—all while prioritizing the well-being of attendees, speakers, sponsors, and staff.

On this week’s episode, David shares his journey as a fitness enthusiast and award-winning speaker with a passion for experiential marketing, networking events, public speaking, and sustainable, wellness-focused event design. Through his podcast RETURN ON WELLNESS, he highlights the science and benefits of integrating wellness into events and daily life, showing how small mindset shifts can transform an experience that appears to be similar, into something different all together.

A true changemaker in the industry, David is on a mission to empower event professionals and attendees to reach their full potential while making a lasting, positive impact on their own lives and the lives of others. He is an incredible force, and I’m thrilled to introduce him to you today!

To listen to RETURN TO WELLNESS, visit https://open.spotify.com/show/5SCV9u7TqvgJRAJQ1PIpNc?si=2c029c22cb794637

To check out Olympian Meetings, visit https://www.eventmarketingauthority.com/olympianmeeting

Thank you for joining us and we can't wait to welcome you back again next week! New episodes drop every Thursday and can be found wherever you find your favorite podcasts!

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Transcript

0:05

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the JUST DO YOU podcast. My name is Eric Nicoll and I'm your host. If you are a first time listener, welcome to the conversation. And if you're a regular, I'm honored that you've decided to join me for another episode. The JUST DO YOU podcast is centered around a network of conversations, which are meant to connect us, to inspire https: otter. ai And who knows? We might even learn a little something new that ultimately allows us to live in the sweet spot that I like to call the just you, you space it being. Each week I have the privilege of sitting down for unscripted conversations with friends, family, colleagues, community leaders, and influencers that all share their own personal journeys. I hope that you enjoy our time together as much as I have. We are certainly gonna laugh, and yes, we might even cry a little, but in the end, we're gonna know that we're not alone during our life's journey. So, are you ready? Great, let's do this. Welcome to The Conversation. All right, everyone. Welcome to today's episode. I am really excited to introduce you to today's guest. You know, wellness has become one of these hot topics that have been discussed agnosia the last couple of years, so I'm going to jump right in and introduce everyone to David Stevens. Hi, David. Hi, how are you? I'm wonderful. Thanks for joining me today. I'm very happy to be here. Thank you for taking some time today to sit down and talk for our listeners going to introduce David a little bit. He's the co founder of Olympian meetings, which is a wellness consulting firm. But. Specializes in events, meetings, and conferences. And we're going to talk about that wellness component and how that correlates. You're also the host of return to wellness, which is your podcast. Return on wellness. I'm sorry. Return on wellness. Pardon me. I know because it's going to tie into our conversation, right? So yeah, I typed it wrong. So let me say that again, return on wellness, your podcast. Well known. keynote speaker, and we're also going to address this. You have been named, and won, six time fittest male event professional. Yes, it's something I have earned and have inadvertently self proclaimed. Okay, I love it. I love it because it's all over your marketing and I think it's fabulous. So we're going to talk about that. You're based in Austin, Texas, and so one of the things that I really loved about your profile is that you said your mission is to empower event professionals and attendees to achieve their full potential while making a positive impact on the world. And what I thought was really great about that was That last part of that statement, a lot of times in wellness, we talk about what it does for us personally, but I love that you take it a step further and talk about making a positive impact on the world. So I'd love to spend some time with you today, talking about wellness, but I'd like to take you back just a little bit. I always love to take my guests back to their childhood, because I think that's where it all starts. So if you could just give us a little bit of background where you were born, brothers, sisters. What's what was what was life like? And we'll start from there. How about that? Yeah, me as a human. I'm a Silicon Valley native. So I grew up in Campbell in San Jose, California, the original Silicon Valley. And I actually, my first, well, I guess technically, my second job was for an internet company in the late 90s. It was actually my work experience job. So growing up there, it was just part of who I was. Prior to that, I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, as an only child, and my parents were 38 years apart. That's, that can completely derail the episode, so we'll just move on. That's a whole other episode, how about that? Don't worry, everyone was legal, it was all consensual. There was no trafficking involved, but long story short, yes I grew up, my dad was a greatest generationer. He was born in 1922. And my mom was kind of boomer slash Gen X. And yeah, I lived there. I lived in, in the South Bay until probably, until 2001, I moved to Sacramento. I've also lived in Wisconsin and all over the Bay Area after I came back from Wisconsin, and then about three or four years ago, we moved to Texas. During the pandemic. Originally, I was supposed to go to London and I had another friend of mine who lived here in Austin. And he's like, I have a four bedroom house and it's just me. You can come stay with me while you figure it out. And although Austin's not London, that would have been an amazing choice as well. I'm sorry, those plans got derailed. That's always been a dream of mine as well, to spend a little time there. Question for you. So did you, when you were growing up, when you were in school, up in Silicon and up in that area, were you always kind of wellness and fitness? Was that something that you were interested in? Did you know you were an active kid? Cause I grew up before I'm, I'm a, what they call a Xenial spelled with a X. Okay. Cause I'm in that, that we were just talking about last night, a micro generation. So I grew up when I started in school, everything was still analog, if you will. Sure. By the time I graduated high school. I had already moved from a, from a pager or a beeper to a cell phone. They weren't smartphones yet, but so I experienced that entire digital revolution, you know, while I was in school. So I would just say I was active. But I think a lot of kids were just more active then. For sure, because I was so busy going to, we'll just call it church and services and whatnot. I didn't get to play any sports or anything growing up because every night that I would need to go to a practice, I was going to a Bible study or something. I lifted weights in gym class, my senior year of high school. That was my first. entrance or experiments With that didn't really necessarily stick with it I put on a lot of weight when I got my first job in a cubicle because I didn't understand how food worked and I Coming off of being a high schooler with an incredible metabolism who I worked prior to going into tech I worked at a plant nursery. So I was literally throwing 50 about 50 pound bags of crap over my shoulder And putting them in people's cars and picking up plants and just I was just constantly doing something or riding bikes or whatever. And then when I got a job in a cubicle, I couldn't eat pasta the same way. And I, I miss those days. I miss those days so bad. Yeah. I remember my senior year. I used to be able to sit down and eat two Big Macs. Like it was nothing, nothing, not a thing now. I yeah, but it wasn't, I didn't really come to terms with my, my health and whatnot until essentially 2006, maybe 2007. I don't know. I had moved to Wisconsin. I. Was coming out of winter in Wisconsin and there's not a lot to do in winter in Wisconsin. And I very much leaned into the Wisconsin lifestyle of brats and beer and cheese curds and whatnot. And I was in a relationship that ended. And I thought, I'm a sloppy mess. I need to get it together. And that's kind of when it all started. So I'm going on, I guess, almost my 20 year anniversary of realizing that I needed to start taking better care of myself. Yeah. It's something that happens at different times for all of us. I think, and it also takes a moment, right? It takes a moment for us in our life to say, Oh, maybe I should pay attention to this, or maybe I should. Yeah. You know, maybe work out a little bit more, exercise a little bit more, eat a little bit better. I am 100 percent behind you. And I think for me personally, in my life, food has definitely always been a comfort for me. I love to eat. I travel a lot, so I love to try different foods. And as we get older. And in this, I'm also too in this meetings and events world. And, you know, we know how to eat. We know how to plan great menus. We know how to find the best restaurants. We know how to do all of that. And so for me, that's been the biggest problem is traveling so much in and out of airports and out of hotels and out of events on the go on the run, loading in, loading out, grabbing the quickest bite. It's like those craft service tables, you know, in the studios, never anything healthy. It's always. Sugar, sugar, sugar. So a couple of times I was on set. That's true. Well, that's true. That's true. I used to do Oscars, golden globe, sags, Grammys, and Emmys. And I remember our craft tables were always full of just junk food. And those are the times that I miss the most, but I'm curious were you doing events at the time? Or were you still in that tech world? When did that shift over? Yeah, my shift from, so I was in tech sales and the shift was when the first. com imploded, exploded, whatever, early 2000s. I was working at a radio station part time as a street teamer, promotions person. And I was going through a divorce at 21 and of a five month old marriage and the dot coms were imploding all at once. And so I took the time where a friend of mine said to me, you've always been the responsible one. You always do the right thing. You need to go have fun. And. I realized that because of the, let's say the lack of responsibilities that then were imposed upon me, I didn't have anyone to else to worry about except me. And I was like, I can take this job that pays next to nothing, literally 6 and 75 cents an hour. working for a radio station full time in Sacramento. And it doesn't matter. Cause I'm going to be renting a room from some friends. I was also, you know, 21 or 22, maybe at this point. And so I went to work for this radio station. So I started events full time in Sacramento. 2002 was my first full time events job. So I had been, and, but much to your point, I worked for a radio station. So when we showed up to places, it was, what can we get you? What do you need? Basically, what can I bribe you with to get your people to talk about us on the air more? So. It was free food, free booze, free whatever. And this then fast forward a few years I was coming off working MTV spring break and that was a wild time. What was it about the event world that interested you or intrigued you? Well, my, when I was working for that first internet company, we went to a trade show and I was hooked. I was like, look, they never told us about this in school. This is a job. And I showed up as the sales rep, but I was so enamored with the whole thing that I wouldn't leave. So I'd actually get there early, work my entire shift and then try to stay and work more because the whole thing was just a spectacle. This was. This was I love that. I'm just dating myself. This was Mac world in the late nineties. Wow. So it was crazy because nobody, everyone just thought they found the magic fountain of money. And so the booths were giant and people are just giving everything away. And tech was. Just bounding faster and faster and everyone's buying computers. And yeah, it was, it was, it was a very interesting time. So it just, the, the spectacle of all of it and then somehow winding up in, in radio. Which then you have, you get to go to concerts for free and all this other cool stuff. It, it, it hooked me very quickly. Same with me. I wanted to produce movie premieres and all of those press junkets and all that stuff for the studios. And I got my first job and I was hooked. I was absolutely hooked and I started pretty much the same time you did. I launched my company in 2004, so it wasn't too far after, but I remember those even prior to launching my company. I remember the event jobs and it was just, I'm like, I can't believe that we get paid for this. Yeah. The closest I ever got to that was we got to do the early screenings of movies. Yeah. Went through the radio station. They give out the, you know, the free passes to see it a week before it comes out. Sure. Sure. Those were, oh, pandemonium. Pandemonium. I know you've mentioned MTV. I did MTV concerts with altitude that were in up in Colorado. It was actually outside in the mountains of Colorado. And I remember that with a big jumbo trunk, crazy time, crazy. there's a funny story, during the concert, some craziness ensued. And I'll just leave you with this guy got stuck to the ice, froze to the ice in a place that you don't want to get stuck. Frozen to the eye. So I'll just leave it there and we can use your imagination. It was quite a quite a An interesting experience having to call the paramedics to get that taken care of as an event producer, but we'll we'll leave it there Anywho, let's jump into tv events are intense. I So intense for spring break. I had to show up because I was the lead on the on the event and I ran front of house back house and stage I, and I was responsible for the talent and the hospitality writers and all that stuff I had to go to city council meetings in Panama City because the year before they had banned Lil Jon, they had made flashing a felony, and they said if I, if I allowed Girls Gone Wild to be on site, and if I saw them, and I didn't act immediately, they would press charges against me personally. I'm sure there could be entire podcast episodes about the experiences that event producers have had over the years that would make it quite entertaining, but just on MTV. Just on MTV. Oh, a hundred percent. Oh yeah. Other story. Other podcast. All right. So questions. Cause they're rambling through my head. I want to ask you when you started Olympian meetings, but I want to really delve into this conversation about wellness because I want to talk about the six time thing first. Oh, is that first? Okay. Let's talk about that. Was that before? That's what triggered all of this. Got it. I'm sorry. I had no clue. So thank you. Let's go back. So yeah, I'm, I'm a, I'm a pretty linear thinker. So through this timeline of this life of mine, I'm going to say it again though. So you're six time fittest male event professional. So go. Yeah. So I got my self together in, in Oh six and started working out. And then fast forward a number of years and along the way of this far from straight path, I ended up working at 24 hour fitness, running all their corporate meetings and events. I taught spin class for eight years. I, I, I went all in on taking care of myself. And then I met my now wife and she convinced me to start doing CrossFit, which when I was at 24 CrossFit, it was just starting and it was pretty wild times. A lot of people were getting hurt and so I was very anti CrossFit. And actually the first fight her and I ever had was about CrossFit, which is fantastic. We still laugh about it. And we don't buy Costco ready made margaritas anymore. Anyways, so. In 2018, they introduced an occupational hashtag in this global qualifier they do for the CrossFit Games. The CrossFit Games is essentially the Olympics for CrossFit. Okay. They do this thing in the early Late winter, early spring called the CrossFit open. That is. Open to anyone and everyone to participate in. And the idea is there's a series of workouts. Everyone does the same workouts and then you rank on a global leaderboard. And they introduced these occupational hashtags in 2018 to. There's a marketing ploy to, so that someone could claim to be the fittest firefighter and someone else could be the fittest cop and someone else could be the fittest doctor and blah, blah, blah. So I did it and I put hashtag event prof in it and I was a corporate planner. I was still working out. I was still taking care of myself and I put hashtag event prof on there and nobody else in the world use that hashtag in the entire world and the entire world. And there's. I don't even know how many people participate in it a lot. So, because CrossFit is global. So I was like, I paused and I thought about it. I thought about looking around the room when I was at, Industry events and I was like, hmm, I guess that doesn't totally surprise me There's not a lot of people that prioritize taking care of themselves physical health what we eat the way we drink the way we stay up late None of that stuff seems to be important to anyone in those rooms Let alone they put everyone else's problems before their own And I thought about that and then 2019 came and went same thing happened You And I was the only one and I was like, you know what, one, I'm kind of sick of this crap that nobody's taking care of themselves. And two, I can say I'm the fittest event professional in the world because that's at the CrossFit games. That's the title you earn. Fittest on earth. Sure. And so I was like, I'm the fittest event professional in the world. And so I, I added it to my LinkedIn is really just kind of a big, to me, it was like a way of putting a flag in the ground to say to the industry, like, why isn't anyone taking care of yourselves? Let alone. I was, I was also trying to find my community because I would go to events and I'd go to the hotel gym and I'd work out by myself. And I'm like, I can't be the only one doing this. Like, there's gotta be other people. Right. So that's, that's kind of how it started. So that was in 2019. And then later in 2019, I had this conversation with my now co founder. And she, and she asked me kind of, she's like, what, what's up with this whole, like fittest fittest event professional in the world. So I told her and she's like, and I told her what, what it made me start thinking about, because from 2018 to 2019, I really started paying attention to industry events and I was like, yeah, nobody cares. Nobody gives a crap about how they take care of themselves. Everyone's showing up hungover. Because they all ate too much. They drank too much, et cetera, et cetera. And I just really started thinking about it. And she's like, well, why don't people take better care of themselves? I'm like, I don't know it. Like our meetings don't have to be that way because they were never like that when I was at 24, we were very formulaic there. Cause we were living our brand. Right. And she was like, well, why don't we. teach them. And we came up with this concept that was basically the way I planned events at 24 and we called it fit meetings. And this was late 2019 and we didn't really get a chance to go to market with it because well, we know it happened. But to, to, to kind of add a little caveat in 2020, the ladies showed up. And so that's why I had to go from fittest event professional to female event professional. I had, I had a, a woman who runs. He had some competition. Yes. I had a woman who runs. events and community and brand for a nutritional supplement company on my podcast. She was actually episode number two, and she went to the CrossFit games with a team. And so I was like, yeah, I'm not, I'm not fitter than her. She's which no surprise. I'm not surprised by any means, but I've been, but the, the male category is widely desolate. And I think next year might be the last, I might do it two more years because now I'm in an older age bracket. Sure. And this is my last year in this bracket, which means And the years, I think they're four or five year windows. So I'm going to get my butt handed to me this year because my birthday is literally like two months after when this all happens. For sure. So I'm basically the next bracket, but I still have to compete with people five years younger than me. So, so our listeners can't see you, but I have a feeling you're not going to have a problem. I'll just leave that there on the table. But I'll probably do it two more years just so I can see, like, where I'm gonna peak. Because I will be young going into the fresh bracket. Into the fresh bracket. Yeah. Well, let me, let me go back just a minute because I think this is important. I don't think you're gonna get hates in the comments. And if we do, I think that sparks an even bigger conversation. Because I agree with you. I've been in this business and this industry a very long time. 30 years and I can remember many conferences, industry conferences that I don't remember. I'm going to say that again. There are many conferences that I remember that I don't remember and it was because of the drinking and staying out late and partying and You know, eating too much and all of that to do what to let off steam to relax a little because as you know, and I'm sure you've seen the memes and the t shirts and the and the actual study that the events and meetings industry is one of the top five most stressful, professions and as we've gone through massive upheavals in our industry, whether it be, you know, Whether it be the pandemic, whether it be the global economic crisis that we had in 2008, all of those things caused more stress. I know for me, I started my company in 2004 that 2008 was one of the most difficult times and I didn't take care of myself back then. So I don't want to brush over it as a, as a, As a tongue in cheek, I think it's something that needs to be addressed. Like you, where you sat and got frustrated. We talked about this when we first jumped on to have an onboarding call is your frustration was my frustration now currently, because I attend all these events, I'll probably get the flack for this statement, but I attend these events now where they are trying to introduce wellness components to these meetings and. One of the reasons I was so excited to talk to you today was because you have a yeah, but conversation about wellness in meetings events and in conferences and why I like yes, and Yes Okay, yes, and Stan corrected. You have a yes. And, and I, I really appreciate that because what I'm seeing is wellness being introduced as almost a fad or kitsch factor, as opposed to the benefits. And one of the things that you and I talked about is, and one of the things that you've talked about on podcasts, I w I listened to you on a panel. You talk about how companies need to invest in their employees. And. That's super important. We don't always talk that way in the meetings and events industry. We talk about what's the bottom line on the budget. How can we make all this fit? How can we possibly, you know, fulfill the goals and the dreams and the needs of our client? And then fit in this, this, this. element of wellness to it. So I'm, that's why I was really excited to talk to you about it today. I even shared with you, and then I'll, let you elaborate on that, is that I even, even watched our industry professionals go to some of these introductory let's say a morning stretch or a morning yoga session before we go into a general session or a meeting and everyone's still on their phones. And I literally wanted to stand up and scream at the top of my lungs. There is no benefit to this. If you're doing downward dog while you're checking your email. Yeah, I think, by the way, I'm not afraid to call people out. One of my core things on LinkedIn is wellness washing Wednesdays. And one of the most one of the most egregious conferences I've gone to. And I did a whole video where I covered it, but it was a wellness Association whose event I went to thinking, Oh, this should be best in class. And it was 75 minutes sessions, 15 minute breaks, carb, heavy lunches, carb, heavy breakfasts parties. And and I was like, this is. Absolute nonsense, they, like, they don't, they are talking out of both sides of their mouth because they're talking about how to take care of people and then they don't even walk the walk at their event. I was Why do you think, why do you think that is? I think people are usually too comfortable with what they've done in the past, and command C is easier than command, and command C, command V, copy, paste, is easier than rethinking through things, and I think, depending on the organization most event professionals are so constantly overwhelmed, that they're so busy treading water, they don't have time to The, the room or the opportunity to actually move. They're just, they're stuck. And because they, they, there's, there's only two things. Well, there's two things that we're really bad at. One is setting boundaries and two is enforcing them. And because we are notoriously bad at that. We set ourselves, we are self sabotaging ourselves because we're not giving ourselves the opportunity, the white space, the, the time to think about how to upgrade or enhance or improve things because we're too busy just being reactionary. And that's not where progress lives. And what do you think that does to us as professionals, but also to, let's just keep going on this event and meeting route. It burns us out. To our attendees. Right, but what is that, like, what's the long term, what's the long term effect? It burns us out. But then what happens? Do we just get complacent and go through the hamster wheel? Or do we burn out and quit? What happens? What do you see happening? Some people burn out and quit and attendees quit coming to your events. Because it's the same old crap. And the people who like what was done the first year, and then there's also different people. And that's just, this is why I believe in yes. And think about vacations. There are people that go to the same place, the same week. Every year, year over year, over year, over year, over year. That's their thing, right? Like we go to Cabo, we stay at this place, we get the same room and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Cool. If that's what makes you happy, I'm happy for you. And that's why yes. And as a thing, because you're not trying to, to appease that person. But if you're trying to grow something, you have to introduce something new for those people, for the other people that vacation, they go, Oh yeah, I've been there. It was great, but I don't ever need to go there again. I'm going to go somewhere else. The world has what? 256 countries or something like that. And I've only been to 50, so I got to see more. There's those people and you, when, when you have an event, you have to talk to both of those people to ensure that you keep those people coming back for more. And if you just keep doing the same thing, you're going to burn out and those people are going to burn out. And that's where you're going to see your, your attendee churn. Is that complacency, or is it, what is that? Well, I don't want to necessarily call it complacency, but it's also kind of survival. I think it depends on the situation. There, there are some people who just like to do things the same old way every single time. And there's, and there's other people who have a growth mindset. And depending on what your goals for your event are, That's going to dictate what makes the most sense for you. So flipping to the company side or the corporation side, why do you think companies should invest in their employees with the element of wellness? Cause they think they're investing in their employees with the meetings and the educational sessions. Why do you think now that we're talking about wellness as a key component, moving into 2025, I think we're going to need it more than ever. I'm just putting it out there. I think 2025, we are going to need to have our attendees and ourselves and our partners. CEOs and all of our people operating on full board. So why do the companies need to invest in their employees outside of just that meeting? Well, I think it's one in the same and, and really our, our existence as an agency is to bridge the gap between corporate wellness and corporate events, because what's good for a person is good for a person. When people are well rested, well fed, well moved and well connected. They overperform, they outperform the people who aren't like, let's, let's just talk about sleep for a hot second. If you get a full night's sleep, are you better than if you don't? Are you functioning at an optimum level? If you're hung over and then that's when you're going to have your CEO address people. Like, let's just think about it. It's corporate wellness is no different than event wellness. But yet, when we do corporate events, for whatever reason, all the corporate wellness initiatives go out the window. Yeah, and I wonder, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that, and then on top of that, then why is wellness, again, finger quotations, being so heavily talked about in the industry? I've been to five wellness events in the last six months. Yeah, well I think, I think it is, it's a very cool trend to talk about. The other thing is, it's, the hotels have jumped on board because they saw the opportunity for, for revenue. But I think the, one of the things that we, we at Olympian Meeting believe strongly is wellness is not a luxury. Wellness is basic. And a lot of times people overthink what wellness has to be. In order for it to be effective. Giving people the option to eat healthy is not expensive because you don't, if you have 100 people coming to an event, you and I both know this and, and event professionals know better. You don't have to order only one page of the menu for 50 people. You can order page four for 75 and you can order page six for 25. If you want, you can do that. You can do whatever you want. It's not that hard. You're it's about giving people options. You don't have to make, so you don't have to tell everyone. Everyone gets grilled chicken and steamed broccoli. No, no, no. Just make sure there's grilled chicken there. So the people who don't want to eat the saucy ribs can choose the chicken They don't you don't have to force everyone to do this let alone You don't have your your wellness doesn't have to be Well, we can't afford to bring in all this gym equipment Well, guess what? You don't have to you can have someone to come in and run a bodyweight boot camp swear to god for a hundred dollars You And they will make the fittest person in your group absolutely hate their lives. We overthink this stuff so much because I think because of social media and because of what looks good on Instagram and things of that nature there was a group that did puppy yoga and I talked to somebody who went and they absolutely hated it. And it was like mandatory. And they're like, I took two showers that day because I smelled like dog. I don't have anything against dogs. I don't necessarily like them. I don't really like animals. And that was their own thing. And we put up all these barriers for Instagram pictures by creating these grandiose over the top experiences. When wellness is really, really, really basic, we just tend to overthink it and overcomplicate it. And. When you do some things like that, it can get really expensive, and then it's not worth doing anymore. Yeah. I want you to go back and say what you said earlier, though, about wellness is not a luxury. Say that again. So, Wellness. Wellness doesn't have to be a, a luxury item. Mm-hmm It's basic. It's basic human needs. I want that to resonate with people. I, that's why I asked you to say it again. That needs to resonate because I think people feel like wellness is a luxury, well, let me put it, I will, I will say it poignantly and have a long pause afterwards. Luxury doesn't equal wellness. And wellness doesn't equal luxury. We'd like to lump those two things together because we think spa, but guess what? When I did wellness for 400 plus people at a hotel in Las Vegas I gave zero, you know, what's about what their spies cause they can't handle that many people, let alone. I'm not putting people in the spa. I don't care about a spa when I am doing wellness at scale for groups, not relevant, but a lot of times we think, Oh, how nice is the spa luxury wellness. We got to pay someone who has some weird accreditation and fly them in from the jungle or something. If that's your thing, cool, but you don't have to, right? You can keep it simple. And that's how you start these things before you offer 15 modalities. At your event, why don't you just start with the basics with feeding people well, and giving them time to sleep and helping them connect with their fellow attendees? Does that cost anything? No, you're going to spend the money on food and beverage anyways, right? Just make some different choices. Less time in the agenda. Means less time that the AV crew has to be there. So guess what? You might save some money. Well, the other thing too, that I think is so fascinating is you said it earlier. You know, we keep, when we stack these schedules, I've been doing a meeting for years now, we stack the schedule. They're up early. We give them this carb heavy breakfast, and then we expect them to sit in a. two and a half hour session, which after that breakfast, no one's paying attention to not to mention the fact that their computers are on their desks or on their tables and the phones are on and they're not centered. They're not even in their own body. I think they're floating out somewhere here. And I was laughing and I think I shared this with you. I work with a Japanese client. And we used to show the video that they show in Japan of the corp, the businesses doing this workout out in the field before they go. And the entire audience of Americans laughed at this video. And it was so interesting to hear the Japanese executives response to that, which was, it wakes you up. It centers you, it gets your blood flowing, it gets your energy going, and you go in and you sit down and you have your meeting and then you have multiple breaks, right? They're on multiple breaks, they're eating healthy, and yet we're just sitting here, carb loading. And that's the thing that I thought was so interesting was, okay, wait. So what you're doing with Olympian meetings is coaching. Planners, coaching companies and corporations on how they need to set their attendees up to retain, to be present, to learn, to absorb, and to be able to go back out into their jobs and out into the company and make an impact for the company and out in the world with their product, let's say. And I don't think we educate anybody on the benefits of, let's say a breath work session or a stretching session, or a just. Getting in tune with your body session. We don't educate people as to why that's important. And that's the part that I think is really missing. It's frustrating is. We try to do a lot of that. And that's usually what I talk about. So we, we have four main things. We talk about mindfulness, movement, meaning, and meals. And when, when I get the opportunity to go out and speak on this stuff, I don't just talk about it, about why in theory, it's a good idea. I'm married to a physician, so she fact checks me on a regular basis. Sure. Sure. She always wants to see where I found said research because she's just inherently As a practicing board certified medical doctor, she is always interested in these things and we have gone through each of those four categories and figured out exactly how and why and what the science is. on how this benefits an event. So I'll give you a quick, a couple of quick examples. Yep. One is movement and a, a bout of high intensity work. So basically when you do a workout gets your heart rate up to 70, 80 percent of max, and that's your max, not my max or anyone else's your max. What that does is it triggers your sympathetic nervous system, which is your fight or flight Which is, holy crap, am I gonna die, right? Fight or flight. It And what happens when, when you do that is it turns on the learning center of your brain because it's evaluating and it's critically thinking is the environment and what I'm doing going to harm me and is up to your brain to figure out if it is it is or not. Well, what happens is when you do that workout and then you go to class and there's multiple studies on this or you go to a session, you are primed to learn more than the person who didn't because all those chemicals, all those signals, the fact that that part of your brain has been actively lit up and awake and alert and ready to go sets you up to learn more than the person sitting next to you. Didn't that is a is not my opinion is not how I feel it is a physiological Science and evidence based fact sure, but what do they always offer in the morning yoga got nothing against yoga If that's what you do because you want to do things fine. Totally cool But you got off. That's where the yes and comes in. It's not about this, the runners. That's great. But what if you can't run them? What then you're left on your own, right? And if you're in Vegas and the gym doesn't open until eight o'clock, but your breakfast starts at eight o'clock and you have to be down there. When the hell are you supposed to work out? Oh, I guess you don't get to, unless you want to just do something in your room. But then that's just the movement part meals. There's all this fascinating science coming out. It's not peer reviewed yet. So I want to caveat that it's not in my, my wife is very intrigued by it. She's like, but let's see the studies when they come out. I worked with a software engineer who told me anytime he had a high protein breakfast, he didn't have to take his ADD, ADHD meds. And I said, I'm sorry, what? He goes, yeah, I seem to be able to focus better. So I looked it up and there are a number of websites that are, let's call it holistic health style websites that have all kinds of stuff about it. But. I spoke with a dietician and she said, well, she goes, I could see that because your brain needs those essential amino acids. She goes, but what's probably even more meaningful is if you give people who are taking ADD meds, a high protein breakfast, their meds will actually last longer because the protein in their bloodstream up slows the uptake of the medicine, which then prolongs the efficacy. Of those meds. You spent how much on that keynote? And then you fed your people nothing but carbs. There is, there is dollars and cents on the line. When it comes to wellness that is so above and beyond and I'm gonna, I know the tone will make this sound derogatory when I talk about like sound baths or stuff like this, but because we offer those, we can do them. There are really, really black and white science based things that you can do drives higher. Stronger ROI every single time at your meetings, be them internal or external, that's going to impact your bottom line after that event, correct? It is not a nice to have. It is something we need to start integrating holistically. I'll touch on sleep real quick. I appreciate you letting me rant. No, you're not ranting. This is great. Have you seen Inside Out 2? Not yet. Okay. Well, there's a scene that's scientifically accurate in that movie, which I'm sure you're not surprised, especially Pixar and Disney and whatnot. They, they're like the little girl's going to bed and everyone's like, okay, we got to file everything. And they start sending the short term memories to long term. Storage. When you sleep is when you, when your brain takes short term memory and converts it into long term memory. How much sleep are your people getting? You see where this all starts to come together? Like, yes, it is so wildly obvious. We're constantly talking about how do we get more ROI out of our events, but yet we keep doing the same things that sabotage our ROI on a regular basis. So here's, here's the yes. And I shared with you, I went to a wellness event here in Newport Beach, and it was one of the best events I've ever been to. And it was because the meetings didn't start at 8 a. m. We had a great healthy breakfast. There were options that were not shoved in a chafing dish, right? There wasn't carb heavy breakfast. There were some, of course, little sweet treats, but it was mostly very healthy. The dinner, the welcome reception was probably by far, and I've been in the industry for 30 years. One of the best welcome perceptions I've ever been to. There wasn't a chafing dish in sight, not a chafing dish in sight. And the other thing that made that. So remarkable. And I've shared this with them. I've been on three fam trips with them recently. And I shared with them the fact that at that event, I do not drink. I have stopped drinking for choice, not because of recovery, but for choice in my health, and I have not for the past 10 years, every time I go to an event and I say, do you have a zero proof cocktail? They look at me like my head's crazy and they hand me an orange juice, calling it. a virgin screwdriver. I'm like, nope, that's just orange juice. It's just orange juice. And there was an entire movement about zero proof cocktails now. And so this event had a zero proof bar and it was by far one of the best events I've been to because I then also felt like I wasn't walking around with a Diet Coke and a tall, skinny glass. I was walking around as a participant in something that was maybe a little sugar filled, but you know what, didn't have a hangover the next day. And I also wasn't over gorging with the food. And I remember the next morning waking up and I do this for a living. I do this for a living. I plan menus. Every single month and I do my best. But you said something earlier that was so kind of jaw dropping to me. And even I didn't remember that. I don't have to serve the same thing to the a hundred people. Yeah. So what's the pivot? So let's jump to the pivot. Oh God, that word. I know, but I'm using it because most of you are going to relate to it. We have to educate. Is that the pivot? Is that the change marker? Is that the change point? What is it? I, what's missing is the opportunity to experience it. That's what's missing. There's been no shortage talk. There's been no shortage. I mean, I'm two years deep in my podcast and I've spoken, All over the place. It's, it's great to hear people are listening. I mean, I'm seeing, I was talking about oxygen masks back in like 2022 or 21 about when it came to self care and because that was my, my plot twist, my M night Shyamalan tribute at the end of these presentations is I would just talk about how all these things can improve your attendees experience and the planners are like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I'm like, but what are you doing about yourself? And they're like, Oh. Yeah, I don't deserve any of this. No, no, that's where the, that's, that's the shift that needs to happen. And that's why it happened for me. This is purely selflessly motivated because I kept going to industry events and I would have to leave the event to go find food that I wanted to eat. I would they're big enough. They'll, they'll be fine. I went to see vents opening reception in San Antonio this year. Nothing but fried food. And the only non alcoholic drink they had was Topo Chico. Sorry. That's a sparkling water. For those of you who don't know what a Topo Chico is, guess how much time I spent at their opening reception 20 minutes because I was hungry. I'd actually worked out right before. I was like, I'm going to go to the gym, work up an appetite, then go hit this opening reception. Go see some people, have some hugs, blah, blah, super excited to be there. And I was so hungry. I was just like, I'm out. You guys suck. And I left salty and hungry and hangry and because they didn't provide. Now they got together a little bit the next day. They actually on their break, they had candy bars next to protein bars, which was, I was like, no, this is nice. This is a nice change, but it's not about forcing anything upon your attendees. It is really about optioning with, it is adding to your event. Not taking away. So I use this analogy. We, one of our clients is a very large mental health services company for corporate companies, for corporate wellness programs. And we did this break at this hotel where we set things next to each other. That were almost the opposites, but they were still the same. So same, same, but different. That was basically what we nicknamed the break was same, same, but different. We put a carrot sticks next to Cheetos. They're rectangular and crunchy and orange. Same, same, but different. We had gummy bears next to a bowl of like whole assorted fruit. Same, same, but different. So what you can do with these displays is have fun with it and help your people see that you're not trying to say, no, no, you can't have this. I'm your parent and I'm making the choices. What you're saying is, hey, we see you choose what you want. And it's the same thing with the bar, a wellness event. And also that's, that's a big difference. There's wellness events and there's wellness at events. And we specialize in wellness at events because it's still a corporate event, but we leverage wellness as a strategy to get more out of the corporate event. As opposed to working with us. Sure. We can put on a retreat, but there's going to be business outcomes. And they're going to do some wellness stuff along the way, but they're going to talk about business. We're not going to go in and lecture them about wellness. So it's the same thing with a bar. I was talking with a very dear friend of mine who works for a large hotel group. And we were talking about their display at IMAX. And I said, what are you going to do for a non alcoholic beverage? You've got to do one. And she said, well, I can't do it. Like the sales reps will literally have a mutiny if there's no alcohol in the booth. And I said, no, no. You're, you're not thinking about it. Think about it differently. You're adding a non alcoholic option. You're not taking away the alcohol because if people want to drink, cool. If people don't want to drink alcohol, that's also cool. But as a gentleman said at the event that we did later that week at IMAX called Beyond the Bar, just because you're not drinking alcohol means you deserve any less of an experience. So at their booth both their signature drink and their signature mocktail or zero proof botanical I think they called it. Mm hmm. They were both served in martini glasses. Mm hmm. So it didn't matter. Mm hmm Because it doesn't matter why you don't drink maybe You had your first one it hit you a little hard and you're like, oh, I need to pace myself But I sucked that first one down a little too fast. I'm gonna have a non alcoholic one now Mm hmm. If you're gonna do that, just please be conscious and aware. I call them calorically conscious mocktails Think about the sugar content and also don't offer me an agua fresca. That's an agua fresca and call it a mocktail. Much like a quote, virgin screwdriver driver. This is the funniest thing I've ever seen, David. I just need to look at how you didn't politely tell that. Like I, my, my initial response is explicit. I went, I went to an industry event one time and I asked the bartender, I said, Oh, do you have any non alcoholic beers? Because usually, yes, that's been around forever. It's usually the basic. Yeah. And he goes, yeah, we have two. I'm like, cool. Which ones are they? And he's like no, no, no, just two. We have two of the same kind in the bar. Listen, I, I love your approach to this and I love the, and I'm not saying this demeaningly, but I love the correctiveness of some of the statements. And so I appreciate that because I find that I get in my own head about it. And Where I think we, as an industry, and this can relate to anyone, we're talking about the meetings and events industry, but this conversation can be applied to any company, any corporation, without you know, a meeting or an event. This can be applied to their commissaries, this can be applied to a lot of things that they do, their holiday parties that they do internally. It doesn't have to be some big event. What I think is really interesting, and I'll, I'll relate it back to, I used to work for Nestle many, many years ago. And I remember going to the commissary and Nestle at the time owned Carnation and Contadina food groups. So you'd walk into the commissary and there'd be Contadina pasta, Stouffer's pizzas, a little teeny salad bar and a burger bar and all this stuff. And then when you left on the right side, as you walked out was the Nestle Tollhouse cookie bake shop. And on the left side was the Carnation ice cream sundae shop. And Working there, I probably consumed my body weight in chocolate. It's also where I found out that I was allergic to chocolate. Oddly enough, a year later, when I left there and went to work somewhere else. That's, that's a terrible allergy and you have my sincerest condolences. It's okay, I found the secret. It's dark chocolate and it's really, really good dark chocolate. Not, no offense to Nestle, but not over the counter milk chocolate. So there's a difference. Oh, so you're allergic to cheap chocolate as well. Cheap chocolate. Yes, I just, I can count on you, David. Yes. Cheap chocolate is what I'm allergic to. Anyway, what I think is so interesting now is I travel and this again could be a whole other podcast. I've done events all over the world. And what I think is really interesting is And this is the other podcast. The U S is approach to effort. Food and beverage is very different than that of I just did a program in Portugal and was also in Costa Rica, completely different approach to food. Absolutely. Completely different. And so, and also too, with the alcohol and all that, I want our industry and my hope for our industry is that over this next year as wellness becomes this. Continual component of, Hey, let's go sit and try the massage mat, or let's go into a breathing session but I, my point is, is that we need the David Stevens of the world. To be the ones who educate and to say, this is why let us consult with you. Let us have a conversation with you as to why this is important or how this makes a difference. And you don't even need to say that you're married to a doctor. I was married to a doctor too. A lot of people didn't mean Jack because they're going to do what they do because it's what they do. And it's easier to do it than to make the shift. giving up gluten for me. There's cardiologists that smoke. So, you know, a hundred percent, a hundred percent, but it was, it took everything I had to give up gluten heart gluten and sugar. Sugar is my addiction. Gluten was even worse, but giving those up were extremely difficult. What I know on the other side of it, however, is the 32 pound weight loss. I no longer have migraines. I'm able to function better throughout the day. I'm actually, I'm not even drinking. Coffee anymore because of a, of my a fib. But my point in sharing all that is, is that I wake up now after a good night's sleep, thanks to my aura ring, I get to track how I sleep, but I wake up every morning for the most part in a very different mindset and energy level to go tackle the day, to tackle my job, to tackle the things that I need to tackle. And I'm not sitting in a two hour general session. So. I know from what I've learned from you and watched on your videos and kind of learned from doing my research with you in this conversation is as a planner, it's my job to sit down and have the conversations with my clients. Some may be CEOs, some may be executive assistants, but as to why there is a benefit to be on this side of wellness. In events through events, not just the component of, Hey, it's a kitschy thing. Let's do it and stretch a little bit in the morning before we go in for a meeting. That's the thing that excites me. We need more of you. And so my hope is, is that our listeners hear this and, and spend some time kind of delving into this. You know, we're going to put this up on LinkedIn. We're going to put it up on our social media platforms and. Have people check it out, but I really want people to pay attention to what it means for them. And this is you, this was probably the golden ticket for your conversation today amongst many really golden nuggets. This was the golden ticket, which is we as individuals have to take care of ourselves first. And end of story. I fully agree. And, and I want to contextualize that because there's some research you brought up, Nestle, There's four big studies that came out this year that I spent the time and sat down and read. Nestle came out with a study on food and beverage trends, non alcoholic skyrocketing, customizable, skyrocketing like I, all that made me think of was like a make your own spa water concept where you people can add different fruits to their water or something of that nature or whatever. Or you have, and I'm starting to see those water machines showing up. Mostly I've seen them in the sky clubs. But you can choose like fruit infused water, right. And you can pick and choose what you want. That was a big takeaway from Nestle, non alcoholic and customizations. Lululemon came out with a study and this was. They surveyed 16, 000 people on five continents just for for size. Over 60 percent of people are feeling well being burnout because as we're talking about 2025 and this coming into the mainstream, people are already sick of hearing a wellness. The LinkedIn algorithm has hated the term wellness for a long time. Anytime I put in something, I post tanks. But Over 60 percent of people, two thirds, are feeling burnout. Now, here's the thing. Because of what they think they're supposed to be doing for their wellness. Something I'm very proud of that was an absolute happy accident, but it couldn't be more of a gift from the universe to reassure us that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing. Our company name is Olympian Meeting. And Olympian provokes a certain thought when you hear that intense competition, hard training, early hours, heavy weights, like all those, that, that intensity that, that is the best of the best. Our nickname is Ohm, which is a very different feeling. And what we say is everyone lives in that space in between because very few people are Olympians and not everyone's into Ohm, but somewhere in the middle is where everyone lives. So a big thing that we actively promote is that wellness means different things to different people, whatever an influencer tells you. And I know I, I, I also love the irony of saying this of you, like, you don't have to do what I do to be well, you have to do what makes you feel good. What works for you. That's why there's Hundreds and thousands of these modalities and different things and that's why they call it a wellness journey as cliche as it sounds is because one, there is no destination and two, there's all these different things to serve you when they're supposed to serve you. I've done CrossFit, I've done weight training, I've done spin class, I've, I've done all these different things because they've, they've served me at different times. So you don't have to do one thing and do it forever. You can rotate and change things up and find the things you like. And that's, that's what really motivates us to tell, to, to. let planners know that when they go out and try to implement wellness, you can't tell your attendees what wellness is. You have to ask your attendees what wellness means to them. And what that looks like in a registration form is asking people to rank their favorite modalities and listing a whole bunch of them for people to choose from. Because then you understand what your group is into. If you're like, we'll have yoga, we'll have running. Well, what about everyone else? Now, I take this back, because there's two big things that, between the Lululemon study and Strava, Which Strava is very much on the, let's call it the Olympian side of the house. It's an app that you can track your works out workouts in, and there's virtual leaderboards and whatnot, but there's a cup, there was a really interesting cross section here. The, of the 16, 000 people in the Lululemon survey, 89 percent felt that they were pursuing wellness alone. They felt alone trying to chase their well, 89%, 89%. Wow. Now, there was four facts and figures about group fitness that all improved wellness, the feeling of wellness amongst people. It was different thing like team sports improved it by this much and whatnot. In the Strava report, over 60 percent of Gen Z made their friends in group fitness classes. And there was like a 25, I think, percent uptick. in people logging workouts with other people on Strava. This is all coming together because we have a enormous opportunity with events. The Surgeon General in 2023 declared a state of emergency or something of that nature on loneliness, declared a loneliness epidemic. 89 percent of people felt that they were pursuing wellness alone. And what was improving wellness in the Lululemon survey and what's driving people's friendships in the Strava survey is group fitness. And what do we do for a job? We bring people together. We have a tremendous opportunity to make an impact on people. And send them home different than when they arrived. Sounds like you've been a podcaster before you just brought that home right where you needed to, not to mention you asked and answered my last question for you, which was to let us know where Olympian meetings came from, which I, which I love. No, and the own part, which you just answered so beautifully, which I say it all the time. You do you boo. Yeah. Like wellness is an individual person. Look, you can this is going to sound ironic saying 89 percent of people feel alone pursuing their wellness. But, but the point being is because they're trying to do something that isn't theirs. There's, you got to find what works for you. And obviously the name of your podcast is just do you, that's what you got to do. Like find what works for you. And, And I love what you said as we wrap this up that everybody or a majority of the people are somewhere in the middle. And I think what I really respect and appreciate from that statement is having just been down my own journey these last couple of months of finding what works for me and I can't meditate for more than 20 minutes because my head goes 16 different directions. So I don't stress about it and I do 20. I also found a way to meditate. I meditate with a mandala book, which is just a way of coloring and it centers me. So my point and to your point is some people meditation is working out. Working out exactly. And there's no textbook definition for that. And I think what's so great about what you said, what being present, that's it. And also I think, and again, this might lead into another episode, which is already churning in my head is. You've got to do what works for you. You've got to find what works for you. And you also, I'm really big on accountability partners and that's the community that you talk about, or that's that non loneliness. I know that when I go to my gym every morning, if I was left to my own devices at a gym, I wouldn't work out. I rely on Michael, my trainer, and that's just how, but I can now do the things that I've been working out with him for a couple of years. I, when I go to hotels, I'm heading to a hotel in two weeks, going to be there for 14 days. You better bet he's going to text me every day and asking me, not telling me, but asking me if I'm at the gym doing some workout. So I really appreciate David, your directness and your slant and your observation of this wellness. movement, if you will. You said it's been going on for a long time. I'm really grateful to you for the time that you've spent with us today. I'm also grateful that you and your team are out in the world impacting and making a difference and educating and sharing your knowledge and why this is so important. I, I'm left with great comfort knowing that if people will take the time to listen and to observe and to learn from you and others that are out doing this. Our world will be a much, much happier and healthier place. So I'm super, super grateful to you today and for taking some time and just giving us this brief little, little glimpse. I think you and I could probably talk for days. So I want to be respectful of your time. Well, we'll work on a program together and then we can have all the time we need. I can't wait. I'm so ready. If I have to do one more, God, I'm probably going to get so much trouble for this. So I have to do one more meeting, 17, 000 data induced. PowerPoint slides that you can't read from the back of the room and no breaks. I'm going to lose my mind. So I am moving my company as I have learned from you and several others moving my company now in a direction where I feel that I can have the confidence to go in and have conversations with the Decision makers and really educate. Hey, let's not take it away. Let's add to it. Let's enhance it and let's take baby steps. So that's what I'm taking away from today's conversation. I'm so grateful to you, David. I appreciate it. I'm so glad we met and I'm really, really, again, grateful for your time today. Thank you so much for having me. It's been, it's been a pleasure and I appreciate you amplifying this message to, to make our industry better. Yeah, well, we're going to put your information up on our social media pages and make direct links so people can check out the amazing work you're doing. I encourage people to take a listen to your panels and your videos on YouTube, really educational, a lot of information, and we'll definitely make a difference as we move through 2025 and beyond. David, thanks again. All right. Bye for now. All right, everyone. Thank you again for joining us on today's episode. I hope our conversation resonated with you like it did me, and I cannot wait to sit down with you all again next week. Remember to subscribe to the Just You Podcast on your favorite platform so you can make sure not to miss a new episode, which drop every Thursday. If you like what you hear, you can easily share the podcast and episode Directly with your friends. And if you would rate us and leave us a review, we'd love to hear from you. You can also follow us on Instagram at just do you pod. As you go out into the world today, remember to just do you. All right. Talk next week.