Transcript

We Had to Cancel Our Work Trip Because of a Cartel. So We Went to Medieval Times.

From Pretty Funny Business · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 39 min · 7,658 words · 201 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "We Had to Cancel Our Work Trip Because of a Cartel. So We Went to Medieval Times.", an episode of Pretty Funny Business published June 16, 2026 (39 min, about 7,658 words). It mentions 8 people, works and ideas, including Pretty Funny Business, Playa del Carmen, Medieval Times, Slackies, Big Tech Energy.

What this episode is about

In this episode of Pretty Funny Business, the hosts pivot from canceling a work trip to embrace a “workation” at Medieval Times, using travel mishaps, flight quirks, and airline etiquette rants to lampoon the highs and lows of business travel. They share stories about travel crimes, first-class etiquette, and the chaos of planes, planes, and more caffeine-fueled passengers, turning travel frustration into sharp, humorous commentary. Listeners will come away with relatable, bite-sized anecdotes and a new lens on the comedy of work travel.

Key takeaways

  • Work trips: the messy truth is more travel crime than travel brag.
  • First-class vibe: the 'best people' illusion cracks under caffeine and etiquette.
  • Airport gripes + plane logistics: tiny battles, big laughs, same old inconveniences.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Pretty Funny Business
  2. – 10:00: Playa del Carmen, Medieval Times, Carlota's
  3. – 15:00: Playa del Carmen
  4. – 30:00: Big Tech Energy
  5. – 35:00: Slackies
  6. – 39:17: Medieval Times, Pretty Funny Business, TanglEd reference Tangled song

Notable quotes from "We Had to Cancel Our Work Trip Because of a Cartel. So We Went to Medieval Times."

  • Hello, welcome to Pretty Funny Business.
    about Pretty Funny Business · at
  • I fly a lot. One thing I've noticed that first class is actually the highest concentration of the worst people you've ever met.
    about Delta · at
  • They we got a Airbnb. It was large. Everyone like really had their own space. There was a really lovely coffee and really good breakfast tacos at Carlota's. Shout out to Carlota's.
    about Carlota's · at
  • Pivot. And Airbnb wouldn't refund our money because of the US Embassy restriction unless it was still in place on the day we were supposed to check in.
    about Playa del Carmen · at
  • Ethan has said is you'll see my hat if you can see my hat. [clears throat] I may be throwing off my big tech energy which is one of our loving things that we've had since the…
    about Big Tech Energy · at
  • And there were I would say two moments that were really fun. Number one you created and surprised everyone with an award ceremony.
    about Slackies · at
  • And then our last night, our celebration, we ended up at Medieval Times. [clears throat] One thing we did during this trip that I thought was really fun was we started.
    about Medieval Times · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

Companies & orgs

  • Delta — Company · Airline provider (context for travel upgrade anecdote) · 4 mentions
    Referenced in the anecdote about flight upgrades — one host gets upgraded for free via Delta which set up the first-class complaints story.

Products & tech

  • Slackies — Product · Internal/team awards (event_experience / cultural product) · 3 mentions · first at
    Custom award certificates given during the workation as a team-building exercise; created from Slack content and mailed to recipients.

Concepts & topics

  • Big Tech Energy — Concept · Branding / cultural descriptor · 2 mentions · first at
    A cultural/branding phrase used by the hosts to describe tone and positioning of their business; discussed when Ethan referenced 'big tech energy' and tried to understand it.
  • TanglEd reference Tangled song — Concept · Cultural reference / prompt for 'dream' question · 1 mention · first at
    Reference to the song from Tangled used as inspiration to ask attendees about their dreams for the day during the trip.
    Times. [clears throat] One thing we did during this trip that I thought was really fun was we started asking everyone what their dreams were.

Places & events

  • Playa del Carmen — Place · Original planned workation destination (canceled) · 2 mentions · first at
    Primary intended destination for the group's workation; trip was canceled due to regional cartel violence and a US Embassy travel advisory, prompting pivot to Orlando.
  • Medieval Times — Place · Event experience / team outing venue · 7 mentions · first at
    An activity the team attended during their Orlando pivot workation; discussed as a memorable, once-in-a-lifetime group bonding event (dinner & jousting show).
  • Carlota's — Place · Local cafe / food vendor at Playa del Carmen trip · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a favorite local spot in Playa del Carmen for coffee and breakfast tacos during the prior trip.

Media & podcasts

  • Pretty Funny Business — Media · Podcast · 2 mentions · first at
    The episode's podcast title — the show where the conversation occurs and which occasionally runs sponsor reads and community messages.

Full transcript with timestamps

The captain said it was going to be a long time. He was like, "If you have to go to the bathroom, like you should go to the bathroom." So, he went to the bathroom, I went to the bathroom, and then some more time passed, and then this lady walks by, and he hits me again. He's like, "Hey, can you believe that dumb bitch?" Excuse me? What gave you the impression that we are friends, first of all? Second of all, that you can speak about another human that way to moi for no reason?

For no reason? He was like, "We're going to be on We're going to be in the air in 10 minutes. She couldn't hold it?"

He just said it was going to be forever that we're on the ground. What are you talking about?

Hello, welcome to Pretty Funny Business. Hi, how are you today? I'm good. How are you?

I'm good. So, we most recently saw each other Florida. One of my favorite moments of the year.

One of your favorite cities to visit five times in two months. what I was going to say. What I was going to say is that we host a trip called a workation.

Yeah. Every year, once a year. This is our third year in a row. Consultants. And everyone's an independent consultant.

Yep. And so They don't really get to do work travel very much. trips. Especially not fun work trips.

get to like tell their spouses and their families, like, "Sorry, got a work trip.

Got to go. Got to go. It sucks, but have to. Yeah. So, we rent a house, we pick the place, they get their butts there. Um and I know that we have talked previously about like travel crimes. We have a few new stories, unfortunately.

updates to the travel crimes. Yeah. We've listed them. Uh-huh. I know everyone knows we're not fans of taking your shoes off.

No. That's disgusting. No flossing. No flossing. needs to get past you, get out of the road. Do not make me crawl over your dirty, musty, dusty lap.

Mhm. Okay. I will say that I think on the way home from our most recent trip there was a crime committed.

Oh, no. And it was a woman, which is not typical. But for the ladies since we're always hating on the men you you cannot pick your cuticles.

Oh. You cannot bite your cuticles. No. And you cannot discard of them [clears throat]

on the ground. That's gross. I would extend that to peeling off your nail polish.

I I was visibly bothered. Yeah. Like she I almost felt like she couldn't help herself. I get that this is actually like an anxious move for a lot of people. But I was trying to leave the building.

But we were in the sky. And I was in the window seat, like please stop. Please stop. And she was picking them, picking them, and throwing them on the ground. I wanted to die. You on the same plane?

Yeah, to bring some balance back to the world. Um mine was actually my flight to Orlando. I'm going to say some things that are going to make me sound

gross. annoying. No, not that. I've been riding first class a lot lately because I get upgraded for free from Delta. So I want to make it clear to everybody that I am not paying for first class, nor would I, to be honest.

But you fly a lot. I fly a lot. One thing I've noticed that first class is actually the highest concentration of the worst people you've ever met. The normies they keep in main, and the psychos are in first class. Perhaps present company not excluded.

On my flight to Orlando, there was a man sitting next to me in seats 1A and 1B. And the first thing I noticed about this man is he boarded the flight with a Trenta cold brew with light ice.

Yeah. Which is an insane drink to consume before a 4-hour flight. Cold brew and iced coffee are not the same thing.

No, cold brew has way more caffeine. Way higher concentrated of coffee. Way higher concentration of caffeine. Uh and a Trenta is 30 oz. With light ice means he is basically

illegal. I cannot believe that Starbucks actually We're going to try and get rid of THC drinks that have 2 milli

So Starbucks, I don't even know how many milligrams of caffeine are in a Trenta cold brew with light ice, but it's

Too high. way more than your weekly allotment of caffeine, okay? So he boards the flight with this and I'm like, well, that's insane.

And he was [snorts] wearing the first class white male uniform which was a Patagonia better sweater vest with his company logo embroidered on it and on cloud sneakers.

You should have taken a picture and gotten him fired. Uh you don't need a picture. It's he's every man that you've ever seen.

Yeah, okay. First thing that he did as an affront to me was you know, in first class they give you a drink before the plane takes off. And I got a diet coke and I should just not get a drink when they offer this because there's nowhere to put it.

I was actually going to comment that like I don't like sitting in A or one or anything cuz like you don't really have your bags, you don't have your stuff.

they have to like take your stuff somewhere else and there's no yeah, like you can't have your tray table out and

Okay, so there's nowhere to put your drink. And the drink is like sitting in the armrest situation.

there. Yeah. And I am watching TV on my iPad. Actually, I was trying to get the live stream off of LA meetings or I'm Abdani and I went to reach for something and he went Hey, and he like hit me.

He's like, hey. Um ow. You almost spilled your drink. And I was like Oh, sorry. I mean, I didn't.

Yeah. And he was like, "Well, it would have spilled on you." I said, "Okay, well, that's still not okay." Um and then we were like taxiing around for a while and you know, it's you know, just snows. You got to wait for deicing, whatever. It's like a long time we're on the ground. And the captain said it was going to be a long time. She's like, "If you have to go to the bathroom, like you should go to the bathroom." So, he went to the bathroom, which like

Of [ __ ] course he went to the bathroom. He's got a train to cold brew with light ice. Go. [clears throat]

God. So, he went to the bathroom, I went to the bathroom, and some more time passed, and then this lady comes up the aisle. I'm Again, I am watching TV on my iPad, all right? I'm working my way through Shameless. And this lady walks by and he hits me again. He's like, "Hey, can you believe that dumb bitch?" Excuse me? What gave you the impression that we are friends, first of all? Second of all, that you can speak about another human that way to moi?

For no reason. For no reason? He's like, "We're going to be on We're going to be in the air in 10 minutes. She couldn't hold it?" I was like, "He just said it was going to be forever that we're on the ground. What are you talking about? Then, last but certainly not least for the crimes this man committed, he did keep his shoes on.

Good for him. Due to the 30 oz of cold brew he mainlined before our 4 hours in the sky, the man experienced what I would call severe gastrointestinal distress

for the remainder of our time together. Was he at least like otherwise silent? No, because he had to get up and use the restroom four times.

I know. Your flight to Orlando is longer than mine. Yeah, it's a long flight. It's like three?

It's like three and a half, four. What? Yeah. Oh my gosh, no, it's like 2 hours. Cleveland to Orlando is the flight. I spent time there.

That's why the Midwest loves Orlando. I wish we had more flights to other cities in Florida. I need more flights to Miami. It's It is like a half hour longer, but please. I will I don't mind Orlando. I've just I've I've done it. I've check check check check check check plus plus now you've you've done Medieval Times.

I mean, it like it was like the last thing I had to do was Medieval Times. And we can talk more about that because it was a blast. I'm glad that I did it.

Um but I've I've done it all. I've I love you, Orlando. We had some time. We've had so many times. We've had times so many times.

I've lived there times. Every time you can have has been had in Orlando. Lived there for a couple of months during COVID, like, you know, lot It's fine. Actually, we talked about my husband and I moving there at some point. We're not going to. But the saddest travel crime was an actual crime.

Okay. We were supposed to go to Playa del Carmen for our workation. Oh, yes. And we went to Playa del Carmen last year for our workation, and we had a great time.

It was the best time. People loved it. They loved it. They we we got a a a Airbnb. It was large. Everyone like really had their own space. There was a

really lovely coffee and really good breakfast tacos at Carlota's. Shout out to Carlota's.

Um and the beach was right there and was right on I think the main street's Fifth Avenue. Like it was like

It was lovely. We had a great time. Um and so we're like let's run it back. Mhm.

And what had happened was not what the universe wanted for us, but particularly that is not what the cartel wanted for us.

I Yeah, the cartel I does want tourists cuz I do think that it is their primary source of funding. But they were angered when their leader was murdered.

Yeah, by the government. government of Mexico. Yeah. And so as leaders of a business, we were made aware I think we're supposed to leave on Wednesday.

Yeah. And Sunday night Yeah. we were made aware of this murder. Yeah, and more importantly that the United States government, the US Embassy was like Do not go.

Do not go to Mexico. Do not go. Do not go. Yeah. And so we know that like everything that was going down in Puerto Vallarta on the other side of the country, like I'm sure we would have been totally fine, albeit incredibly anxious.

Yeah. But as business owners and leaders and caretakers of our community and Yeah.

And we just didn't feel responsible. Right. To be like, It'll be good. It's probably going to be okay. Like probably going to be okay just didn't feel like enough. The other thing that really freaked me out is everything I was reading was like, "You know, it's probably going to be fine as long you're staying at a resort, just like use the transportation provided by the resort, go to your resort and just stay there." But we were not staying at a resort. We were staying in an Airbnb. We didn't have transportation provided by a resort. We were going to just get in taxis and that seemed like not

Yeah. And they weren't like murdering people. No. They were more like closing roads

Closing roads and creating ruckuses and just like stuff that we It was just It was

many people for us to feel that we could keep safe. Yeah. It was prudent for us to say, "Better not." I was incredibly stressed out over this decision because people paid their own way to get there. Others Poor Hollene was coming from Lisbon

Yeah. to go to Cancun. to get a special visa. It was just like a whole thing. So when we moved, we we decided to move the trip to Orlando, which was We picked it for a couple of reasons. One, easy hub for people to get to. Two, affordable for us. And three, still sunny and warm, which is the whole reason that we do this vacation at this time.

We do it like late February, early March. We want to deprived of vitamin D. Yeah. Like we we are sad. We are S A D

You're S A D and we need the S U N and depressed. Yeah. Yes. And so, yeah, so we did that. So, we pivoted. Almost everyone could make it. There were three people that couldn't. One additional person was able to join us for a bit. Alyssa, she lives in Orlando. That was wonderful. But that was like probably the most stress I've been under as a like during my career.

Yeah. Because I felt like I had to make a decision on behalf of other people when like their money, time, investment, trust was involved. Like, I know it was the right choice, but it still like felt [snorts] bad about

Yeah. Yeah. It was It was stressful. I mean, I felt so much anxiety about Mexico

that I was so relieved when it I could not explain why I felt anxiety about Mexico.

knew. I truly like if I had felt anxious about Mexico for months and there was no real reason for it. I was like, is is there something going on

Like we had a great time last time. It was totally fine. last time. I wasn't worried about it at all. And this time for whatever reason, I just felt really worried about it.

Well, how do you feel about going next year? Because Hopefully Hopefully fine. Hopefully fine. That was the other unfortunate thing was because the travel restriction was in place on Monday.

Yeah, Sunday and Monday. Yes. And so, we had to make a call because the trip is Wednesday. And if we're going to make it like leave like Colleen was supposed to leave on Tuesday. Like if we were going to make a pivot, we had to like go ahead and make the pivot. Pivot. And Airbnb wouldn't refund our money because of the US Embassy restriction unless it was still in place on the day we were supposed to check in. And then we made the call to pivot to Orlando.

Pivot. And the restriction was lifted on Tuesday. Yeah. So, we could not get refunded for the Airbnb in Mexico. Fortunately, our host of the Airbnb in Mexico was like very gracious and allowed us to basically rebook the trip for 2027. So, Amy [snorts] Consultants 2027, same same week basically. See you there.

See you there in Playa del Carmen. Sydney's going to be an anxious mess the whole time, but

that maybe it'll be okay. Yeah, because like lightning can't strike twice. Right. I think it's going to be fine.

I think it's been proven it it can, but it's improbable. Improbable. Improbable.

Yeah. So, we got that over with. That's fine. Rip that band-aid [clears throat] off.

Rip that cartel band-aid off. Rip that cartel band-aid off. They were like, "Who are we going to sell Not I'm not saying that they were going to sell the drugs to us, but they're like, "If we don't let the tourists

then What's our plan? to sell the drugs to each other?" It's only going to get us so far. Anyway, I would like to reconfirm not us.

Not us, no. But others. So, team gathering, um we pivoted to Orlando. We got a really nice house.

was really great. Had a great pool. We went to Epcot. So, we still got to go to Mexico.

It was much smaller than I remember Mexico Mexico being, but we still had a great time.

If your marketing tech stack is basically a haunted house of random automations and abandoned salesforce fields, marketingops.com is your new happy place. Templates, advice, a job board that doesn't suck, and a community of humans who get it. Honestly, it's like therapy, but cheaper. Sign up with code PFB10 for 10% off paid membership. Your stressed out marketing ops self will thank you. So, in a previous life {slash} episode, we talked about how we like to hire, which is based on vibes. Vibes, coding.

Yeah. Of We find a person. ourselves. We fit them in. Yeah. Well, so it's funny that one of the people that we've hired since that episode would really hate that trait.

That's so true. And so, in a dream In the reality In my dream, Emmy, I know this is the craziest thing you've heard. In my dreams, Emmy hired a straight white man.

Sounds like a nightmare, but you know what? It's been a comes CRUMBLING DOWN. OH, WHAT?

YEAH. SO, WE HAVE hired an a growth advisor. His name is Ethan. He's [clears throat] awesome.

Yeah. He's You know, I think that the advisor we never had. He's the advisor we never had. I mean, he was our advisor for a while, and now he's full-time.

Yeah. He um I think for you and I, we sort of grew Emmy as much as we possibly could until we were like,

That's all I got. That's all I got. What's next, boss? Don't know. Just looking at each other. What do we do now?

Right. It was like we were riding a tandem bicycle. I don't know how long I'm able to take this analogy, but like we were like riding a tandem bicycle, and we were like up a hill, like maybe up the hill, and we're like, "We're doing this, right?" But it's not feeling good.

But we're going. Keep going. And the [screaming] bike's huge. Are you happy? Cuz I'm tired, and it's hot. And like Ethan came along and was like, "Girls, uh I don't know if you knew, you could AFFORD A CAR."

LIKE HE WAS LIKE, "JUST JUST GET A CAR." JUST GET A CAR. He's like, "Look how much faster and further you're What are you doing?" And we're like, "Oh my god, thank god." Someone told us to get a car. He's like, "Why do you guys keep sharing hotel rooms? You're not going to save this company into success."

We're like, "It's sweaty." He's like, "Turn on the air conditioning. What's wrong with you?" So, he's just

Like, you know, he has experience in leading agencies. Yes, he's smart. He knows exactly what he's doing. Yeah.

So, he comes in comes in and starts talking about all this stuff. I'm like, "I've never heard these words before."

Yeah. Accrual-based accounting. I That is not it's not really something we're passionate about.

No, that was never going to be something that we were doing. Never ever ever. But Ethan is, and that's great. Something else I would like to say about Ethan is you know, I've had plenty of experiences working with and for men that I would say were not favorable.

And Ethan, I always had a good vibe from you. Even though I just met you that night.

before. Yeah. So, there was like But you still had to trust me that like this was going to be fine.

Yes. And I did trust you that it was going to be fine. Um I don't know why because plenty of men you introduced me to that were not fine.

Fair. I held myself back. I held myself back from saying any names there, but you know who you are. Ethan has had to explain accrual-based accounting to me I mean no fewer than 10 times, at least 10 times. And it's he's doing a great job, man, explaining this to me, but I just you know, we've been doing this a certain way for so long, and the concerns around how we were doing it that way are really stuck in my mind. And he's I'm trying to like unlearn some stuff and learn some new stuff, but every time that he has had to re-explain the same concept to me, he has been so patient and he has never made me feel stupid.

And it kind of hit me one day that I was like, I know I'm having a hard time grasping this and he's doing a lot to help me and he's not making me feel like an idiot. I was like, I think I need to tell him that. So I did and he was very happy. And then one of our team members, Sarah, had sort of a similar experience. She was like trying to figure out a billing issue with a client. She was like kind of worried about it and she jumped on the phone with him and he was like, I got this. Don't worry. And he just kind of took it from her and was like, I'm going to figure this out.

Everything's okay. Everything's fine. Whatever. And she came to me and she was like, I love Ethan.

I couldn't think of anything. I was like, me too, man. What What happened? And she told me and I was like, I've had a similar experience with Ethan.

I feel like she even said something that was like, I see why you were okay hiring him.

Yes. She said I I That's exactly what she said. I love Ethan. I see why you two were okay hiring him.

If it's going to be him, then it's okay. Yeah. And then she told like she told him that, too. And he was like very touched by it. But Ethan is wonderful. He's great.

And frankly like things like you were just mentioning, why am I spinning my wheels working on that? Why are you even figuring that out? We are better served

doing stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So, if you want to know more about accrual based accounting, subscribe.

Don't call me. I know. Just know that. I mean, I understand it. I don't understand understand all of it, obviously. But every time I have to ask him about it, it's like my brain wants to understand it right now for this meeting and then it doesn't ever want to have to think about it again, which is why the next time we have to talk about it, you're going to have to explain

it again. Cuz I just need to know for the next 30 minutes. Right, right, right. That's right. The thing that I had to realize and I don't know if we want to put this out there that I'm this dumb. He's like I still was trying to make it be like regular.

Yeah. Like it's just a different form of cash. Like no, it's not. It is an entire different way of keeping score.

Yeah. Like it's just like we don't do that. And every once in a while I'm like, don't we care about cash?

Because like that's that's still the currency the United States uses. Exactly. Like I'm like, are we sure accrual accounting ISN'T LIKE BITCOIN?

IS THIS CRYPTO? Is this crypto? Because did we just put our whole books in the blockchain?

Yeah. He's like, it doesn't matter how much cash is in the bank. I'm like BUT DOESN'T IT?

ISN'T THAT HOW WE PAY EVERYONE including ourselves? Yeah. So accrual accounting, mysterious and important word.

Mysterious and important word. It's numbers, you circle them, you group them. Actually, that's exactly what you

You group it based on at it, it's going to make you feel happy, it's going to make you feel sad.

No, does this feel like January or do we feel like February? Does this feel like a 20 This was 2024? 2025 purchase or if it How's it feel?

How's it feel? So Ethan has been wonderful because he's really smart and he knows what to do with our business when we don't.

Yeah. But Ethan has inserted a certain level of process, accountability dare I say corporate that did not exist before.

And he knows. That's how he knows. He's incredibly self-aware. It's he's like, you do you. I love the Emmy brand. I love the business model, we think. And he's like, I'm not going to try and be anything but myself.

Yeah. But we like we like you are your own person. But sometimes, my guy says some stuff.

He's using some words that I'm like wow, that was a choice. There was one time where I could tell you were like, Warren is not going to let this go. He kept saying So, I think he was maybe talking about a cruel accounting AND SOME LEAKAGE.

AND HE SAID THEY'RE GOING TO be okay if there's some leakage. It's okay if there's a little bit of leakage.

Like here and there or like from He said, and it was not just liquid leakage, it was something else. And I said Don't ever say

Don't ever say that again. You know, it was funny because like the day before we had that meeting, I was on a different meeting with him

and some other people on the team, and we were talking about project managers, and he kept saying connective tissue.

I would like to like on the record, when Ethan says connective tissue, he also does this.

This is the connective tissue. motioning We didn't need that. It's a visual aid.

actually need any of this. He's like, you know, when the connect What's the connective tissue?

ligaments and tendons and arteries meat space meat space The project managers are actually the meat space.

disgusting We're like, bro. When he first started, we had this client that was also the name of a Guardians of the Galaxy character, or maybe it was like a different Marvel character.

And he was like, that's my favorite Marvel character. And we all were like, Marvel?

What's that? didn't have to teach us boy stuff. I ALSO REMEMBER THE OTHER FUNNY thing that Ethan does, sometimes he says weird stuff or corporate stuff or like euphemisms, whatever, that I guess are common in the corporate world that we're like, that was disgusting. Um, but other times it seems like he is trying to adapt to the new world order that he finds himself in. He has teenage daughters and I think he's picking up some stuff and he's trying to he's trying to work it in. So, he said in a LinkedIn message with you and me, you'd sent a job posting that someone put up.

And he said seems like a thirst trap. AND HE SAID MY KIDS SAY I USED that wrong.

He also said that when we're recruiting or trying to find you can find He got in a booty call.

Why'd you say that? Okay, so one of my favorite things that Ethan has said is you'll see my hat if you can see my hat. [clears throat] I may be throwing off my big tech energy which is one of our loving things that we've had since the beginning. And I remember coming up with this. I was at a brewery with my husband, you and I

You had big big tech energy from the day we met. Had we ever even met before? I think it was like his birthday or our Like it was so early when you and I started talking. And I would like I remember I texted you and was like, isn't this so funny? Like I for some reason just thought of it. I think because I had seen recently a like outdoor rug that said big tech energy. And so I was like my brain just was like big tech energy. It's so funny. I was like laughing so hard. Ethan said to me um a couple of weeks ago, like what does big tech energy mean to you?

Like he like really wanted to understand that from the brand. I was like, well, you know, it's like provocative and but also like it you know, I I think it's funny. I've always thought it was funny. I just like cried laughing when I thought of it. And but it still like shows that like we're technical, it's what we do, it's who we are, like it still like you know, we're we're we're good at our at our jobs. I was like, you know, like the same like the same thing as big dick energy, just like our spin on it. And he was like

He literally wrote in his notes that he was sharing dick. On a mirror board, I believe.

On a mirror board, dick. Also, mirror board never something we've used before. Never.

Never. I'm happy about it. Yeah, it's fine, but like so funny. I was like, I think I sent you a screenshot. I was like, Ethan just wrote this in his notes, dick.

And I was and he was like, I never put that together that that's what that was. I think this was months after he had been working with us.

from that is Ethan is not our ICP. No. It's fine. Our ICP does know what big dick energy means.

so he said so later that day I asked my daughter, "If I said to you big dick energy, would you know?" And this she was like, "Yeah, dad, big

big dick energy. And he was like, "Shh." You made that poor girl say big dick energy to her father.

To her dad, yeah. She was like, "Shh." I can imagine being like, "Oh, I blew it."

I blew it. Thought I was cool and I wasn't. Uh last thing that I love that Ethan did is I sent a LinkedIn post to you both this morning, in fact, and said

I would just before we share this, I would like to say that Lauren sends a lot out of pocket LinkedIn posts. You feel like you're just scrolling and you're like share. Like, that's

That's interesting. Let me offload that to Lauren, to Cindy and Ethan. We're like, "You guys, what if we did this?"

Yeah, it is like a little bit like that. Yeah. So, there was an interesting post and that I I mostly don't want to forget about it and I also like am not on my big internet.

Yeah, it's a little internet problem. net if it comes through LinkedIn messages, it's cuz I'm on my phone and I'm like just you guys read this. And so there was a post that I thought was thought leadership interesting about someone had built something for AI and I was like, "Oh, what if we did something like this?" And Ethan's literal reply was just glad. [gasps]

What a guy. Ethan, we love you. Love you, love you, man. So we talked about Manasi in the past. Love her.

She's wonderful. She moved on. She is living her best life in HR now. Good for her.

She's always kind of been a lady of two worlds and she's gone back to her other world. We wish her all the best. Um after we learned that Manasi was going to be moving on

called the only other salesperson we know. First I panicked and then I was like you know what? Lady Effington she was dropped into our lives. Mike Rizzo's high school sweetheart, Leslie Douglas.

Mhm. Let me call her and um the problem was we Ethan had It wasn't a problem. Ethan had recently joined. He'd been there for like a month.

He was making us write job descriptions. Well, that was what I was going to say. In the past, as discussed per my last email, we have not been so much with the job descriptions and like recruiting and interviewing. It has been more like do do do do do. Jamie, do you want to work here? Um Ethan thought that it was a good idea and I do not disagree. This is like

Here's the thing about Ethan. He's like He's always right. He's always right. You know, like not always, but most of the time if he's saying like, "You know, maybe we should do it this way." Like that is the right thing to do even if it's annoying. Yeah. So he was like, "Maybe we should just make sure we have a full job description and like responsibilities and like think about what your best case scenario is from this role separate from this person that you have in mind so we can make sure that the person fits the role rather than the role fitting the person and I was like

[sighs] okay [gasps] so I made a job description and did all that he looked at it you looked at it but in the meantime I like I wanted Ethan to meet Leslie but I was also waiting Moniece was like deciding if she was definitely going to leave or not so I didn't really have a job technically open for Leslie but I just wanted her to meet Ethan so I had to set them up on like a fake blind date a date basically

What can you two learn from each other? Yeah I was like I would love for you to meet Ethan as we're thinking about our sales team and how it might grow just he's new to our team love for you to meet Ethan she was like sounds good and then she gets on the call with Ethan and I think they were just like you know talking about the company whatever and then eventually she was like I'm sorry is this a job interview or no?

AND I WAS LIKE YOU KNOW I DIDN'T set her up for success there Fortunately Ethan was also like we did not set Leslie up for success there

and they had a great conversation and you know I talked to Leslie Sarah and Jamie talked to Leslie like it was all great we had also fortunately of course been with Leslie at Mop Summit Palooza while she was Lady Effington yeah so the team got to know her a little bit already and it was just like fortuitous timing everything works out for us and Leslie's been on the team for

two months? [sighs and gasps] month and a half yeah not even that long she's doing great

she's wonderful she is very she brings um she brings some of our whimsy to life a little bit

at our location she had like you know those like crafty people who just do everything. She loves to craft. And like I'm jealous. I feel like she sent me a message that like made me think maybe she thinks that I think her systems are bad.

Aw. Yeah, no. Not It's fine. But it was mostly because I'm so impressed. Like I'm so like wow. How could you do that?

Mhm. I hope it's not how could you do that. It's not that. But like this she made these for the internal team plus she made for all the consultants that came keychain versions. And if you tap this

printed these. if you tap this on your phone it takes you to each of our LinkedIn pages.

Yeah, she programmed each one for each person's LinkedIn profile. Like what? That is so wonderful. What an insane thing to do and what an incredible thing to do.

Yeah. One of the things that was awesome two of the things that were awesome about our workation is that it was the first time that let both Leslie and Ethan got to join our team together. Um and there were I would say two moments that were really fun. Number one you created and surprised everyone with an award ceremony.

Yes, we had an award ceremony called the Slackies which I cannot take original credit for. That was from Jake Wyld who I worked with in a past life. He invented the Slackies. But I went through our Slack channel for the past year and pulled out everything that I thought was funny. They seemed panel of judge which was me. And I made up certificate titles for them and I put them on a certificate and Nano banana gym made them look like certificates. Uh some notable awards include most potatoes, uh most sympathetic to robots, most dubious units of measurement. Least supportive children. We have most Disney and least Disney.

Most flirtatious with the Marketo product roadmap. That was a three-way tie. Most influential woman, which was an award and a runner-up. The award winner was Dan Irwin and the runner-up was Pippa Aculino, your six-year-old. Yeah, and we gave away about 50 Slackies in total.

It's crazy. And then you mailed out the ones that That took effort there. So much

Should we do that next year? Executive function from my brain to mail out all the Slackies. Yeah. Next year.

Ethan took over accounting so that you could send the Slackies. Slackies send the Slackies.

And then our last night, our celebration, we ended up at Medieval Times. [clears throat]

One thing we did during this trip that I thought was really fun was we started asking everyone what their dreams were. Like when we were in Epcot, we asked everyone what their dream was for the day. And there's something about that song from Tangled, whatever. But the last day we were there, we asked everyone what their dream was for the day. And Ethan had left, he left early Saturday morning, so we had one more day and Ethan wasn't there and it was like just the girls girls trip.

And Jamie's dream was to go to this Korean skin care place and then to go to Medieval Times. And I thought that it would perhaps be just me and Jamie at Medieval Times cuz it was also my dream to go to Medieval Times. But then everyone came to Medieval Times. And let me tell you, Medieval Times super fun.

Medieval Times is definitely something that I'm so glad I did. Mhm. I don't regret it at all.

No. I will never go again. I have been to Medieval Times four times. That's incredible. I actually came home and like I think Sarah maybe asked me if my kids would be interested in it. I was like, "No way." And I came home and told my kids I went and Michael was like, my almost 13-year-old was like, "I want to go to that." And I was like, "I cannot." And I was like, "All right, maybe I will go for him." And I was like, "I cannot eat that chicken with my hands again.

Yeah, so for those the uninitiated to Medieval Times, to be authentic to the time period, they do not give you utensils. It is a dinner and a show. It's like knights jousting show. You're assigned a knight when you get there, so you're cheering for one of the knights. We were the black and white knight. Um, they serve it's the same meal every time, no matter which Medieval Times location you go to. I've been to Myrtle Beach and Orlando now. You get roast chicken, tomato soup, garlic bread,

corn, corn, potatoes, and then eclairs for dessert. I mean, just look at my face.

The chicken actually didn't taste that bad. but you do have to eat it with your hands.

how where is this being prepared? Because there's also horses in front of you. Yes, it smells like horses in there.

chicken combination gets you thinking about the meat space. It's just uninteresting to me all around, you know? Like it's just you can't think too much about it.

No, but it was It's sort of like if you were to go to a sporting event with a bunch of just rabid fans of the team, and you're all like together cheering for that team. It's that, except it's a team that you just met that day.

Yes. And for whatever reason, you're super into it. And my husband had questions about like, are they really like jousting? Is this really And I was like, you know what?

It's all fake. Mary, one of our consultants, made a fast point. She's like, this is like wrestling.

It's the same thing as WWE. Yeah, it's the same thing as WWE. and I looked up how do they decide which knight is going to win? And apparently, it is the same person that wins every time, but they rotate what color they're wearing.

you're giving away their half secrets. Well, now you know. Now you know, behind the scenes of Medieval Times.

really thought it through because I like to have new experiences with my son, but I I just don't think I could do it again.

I don't think you could do it again. And I ate before. It's expensive. Like it's not not expensive. It was like 90-bucks a ticket. And those we were in the nosebleeds, yeah. Which thank god, like, I do not need to be any closer to those horses.

In conclusion. In conclusion, I we recommend Medieval Times. One time. As a bonding event.

As a bonding event. You know what? Someone else brought it. Um, I remember someone took their like clients and prospects. I don't think I do that. I don't want them to see me gagging over the chicken.

It's more of a food situation than like an event situation. Yeah, it's dinner theater.

No, thanks. In conclusion. Happy for our team. Love chatting about what we what we got going on and um, you know, that good stuff. Good luck out there, little podcast.

Good luck out there, little podcast.

Questions about this episode

What is "We Had to Cancel Our Work Trip Because of a Cartel. So We Went to Medieval Times." about?

In this episode of Pretty Funny Business, the hosts pivot from canceling a work trip to embrace a “workation” at Medieval Times, using travel mishaps, flight quirks, and airline etiquette rants to lampoon the highs and lows of business travel. They share stories about travel crimes, first-class etiquette, and the chaos of planes, planes, and more caffeine-fueled passengers, turning travel…

What is mentioned in this Pretty Funny Business episode?

8 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Pretty Funny Business, Playa del Carmen, Medieval Times, Slackies, Big Tech Energy, Delta. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "We Had to Cancel Our Work Trip Because of a Cartel. So We Went to Medieval Times."?

The episode runs 39 min; the transcript is about 7,658 words in 201 timestamped sections.

More from Pretty Funny Business

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated October 30, 2026.