Travel Trends with Dan Christian
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Travel Trends with Dan Christian
Special Hospitality Series: Season 2 Grand Finale Episode
Welcome to our grand finale episode of Season 2 of our Special Hospitality Series in collaboration with Forbes Travel Guide, the global authority on luxury hospitality.
In our finale episode, we're thrilled to feature three extraordinary "Leaders Behind the Stars." First, award-winning travel journalist Jeannette Ceja shares her journey of pursuing a master's degree in France while maintaining her global media career. Her perspective on representation and finding one's voice offers valuable insights for industry professionals.
We then dive deep with Marc Friedland, founder of Couture Communications, who reveals how he transformed traditional printed communications into emotional touch-points that create lasting connections between luxury brands and their guests. His remarkable story of designing the Oscar envelopes demonstrates how tactile elements can elevate momentous occasions - a principle he now applies to hospitality settings where thoughtful design creates what he calls "emotional imprinting."
The episode culminates with Freddie Moross, founder of Mindstream, who's revolutionizing how hotels approach sound design. Moving beyond background music, his company creates strategic sonic environments backed by neuroscience.
The thread connecting these conversations is clear: in a digital age, thoughtfully designed sensory experiences - whether through personalized notes, branded tactile elements, or carefully composed soundscapes - create the meaningful connections and memory anchors that distinguish truly exceptional hospitality.
Thank you for joining us for our special 10-part Forbes Travel Guide Hospitality Series. We sincerely hope you enjoy this insightful finale and look forward to our continued collaboration with the Forbes Travel Guide team.
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The idea is how do you immerse into them and, specifically, how can you immerse into them in a way that's relevant to your brand? How can you do it? In a way, particularly if you have a portfolio of properties, can you use techniques like building sonic motifs that you can then recreate regionally in order to then be relevant to a particular area or location or culture.
Speaker 2:even and that's where you can start being quite intentional about how you design audio for a particular space and the value it can drive. Hello everyone and welcome back to our special hospitality series in partnership with our friends at Forbes Travel Guide. This is your host, dan Christian, and all of these interviews were recorded live at the Summit in Monaco earlier this year and we actually started introducing these episodes the week after the event and every Thursday over the last 10 weeks we have been introducing you to one of these extraordinary individuals that came together for this amazing event that really represent the world of luxury and hospitality, and today I have the privilege to feature three extraordinary individuals on our final episode, episode 10. But just before I do that, I did want to say a special thank you to the Forbes Travel Guide team, especially Amanda, jennifer, stuart and Herman, who created this fantastic opportunity for Travel Trends to be there in partnership. They brought us in last year to Las Vegas and that podcast series got a lot of attention and recognition and we had so much wonderful feedback from the amazing guests that we featured last year. We were invited back this year to Monaco, which is going to be the site of next year's summit in 2026, so we certainly hope to have the opportunity to be back with you again. It is an extraordinary community of luxury and hospitality and service. I've certainly learned so much about the Forbes Travel Guide brand that I'm sure our travel trends listeners have as well, and it's been wonderful to reach a new audience of hospitality executives globally. If you want more information about Forbes Travel Guide, be sure to check them out at ForbesTravelGuidecom. They've kindly been posting clips and highlights from all these conversations on their social channels as well on Instagram and LinkedIn, so be sure to check those out at Forbes Travel Guide. And, of course, we've been posting them on our Travel Trends channels, which is at Travel Trends Podcast. We've been posting it on our Travel Trends channels, which is at Travel Trends Podcast. We've been posting it on YouTube and LinkedIn, as well as Instagram.
Speaker 2:Now today we get to speak to Jeanette Ceja, who is an incredible travel journalist and an award-winning Latina TV host. She was actually on our series last year and was one of our most popular guests, so I was very keen to catch up with Jeanette again. She's got a great perspective on everything that's happening in the travel industry. She's American with Mexican heritage, but she's based in France. She's been finishing her master's there, so we get to catch up with Jeanette first, and then we're gonna speak to Mark Friedland, who is actually based in LA, but we were together for the event. I met him last year in Las Vegas and was really keen to interview him because he's been such a key partner of the Forbes Travel Guide community for many years and he runs a luxury communications business based in Los Angeles and has worked with celebrities from Brad Pitt to Oprah Winfrey and many different prestigious organizations, including Forbes Travel Guide, but also Cirque du Soleil and many others, and his organization are renowned for creating these extraordinary invitations. You know, when you arrive in a hotel and you get that beautiful handwritten welcome letter from the general manager. Well, that's just one small example of the type of work that they do, but they actually worked with the Academy Awards for many years and we'll highlight that in our conversation with Mark.
Speaker 2:And then we're going to finish off with Freddie Morose. Freddie runs a company called Mindstream that's Mindstream with a Y, and it was one of the most fascinating presentations that I had a chance to see at the summit in Monaco this year, and we talk a bit about that. But we also talk about this extraordinary company that he's built, which is basically the world's first music streaming service dedicated to enhancing the spa experience. We have a really interesting conversation about the world of wellness, and he was one of the key partners that was featured not only on stage but in their exhibit, with all of their partners as well. So I got a chance to meet him and the team, and this is just a sampling of the types of people that come together for this extraordinary event. So I'm looking forward to bringing you all three conversations today and I look forward to seeing you back in Monaco in 2026.
Speaker 2:Now let's get things started and bring in Jeanette. Jeanette, it's fantastic to see you again. Thanks again for joining us on this special hospitality series. Season two the leaders behind the stars. You're certainly one of those. Welcome back to Travel Trends.
Speaker 3:Thank you, dan. I'm so happy to see you, I'm so happy to be back on your show. Congratulations again. Your setup is incredible and you know I'm so excited to hear all your other interviews. And you know I'm so excited to hear all your other interviews and it's good to be back at the Forbes Travel Guide Summit.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Yeah, no, this is one of the highlights for me is getting a chance to see you hanging out with you and then sitting down and having this conversation. So let's talk about all the amazing things that have happened in your life over the past year, and one of them, of course, is the fact that you've moved to France and you're studying in Paris, so tell us. You're taking your master's. So tell us what brought this about and what you're doing.
Speaker 3:So I now live in France and this was actually a dream of mine for over five years, but it wasn't until three years ago that I started to look into ways to come to France. And then I started to look at master and I found one in international relations that I really liked, and then I just applied and they accepted me and I said, okay, this is a great opportunity for me to study about the world from a different perspective and a whole nother region of the world like France. And, uh, so I just I made the move, yeah.
Speaker 2:Did they know you were famous? When did you put that in the application? Was that part of the consideration?
Speaker 3:I was like I said, I am famous.
Speaker 2:Don't you already know? I'm just like. I asked wait a second, do I have to apply?
Speaker 1:Do I really?
Speaker 3:have to apply.
Speaker 2:And I just have my assistant call in. Now you follow the traditional process, and credit to you. I mean, this is where, like you're a smart, educated, strong process and credit to you. I mean, this is where, like you're a smart, educated, strong female leader in the travel industry and this is where you know it's an honor to know you and to be able to call you a friend and also just be able to have these types of conversations. So I think it's great that you are. You know you clearly are someone that always challenges yourself and you want to be intellectually stimulated. And here you are doing your master's. It's not something you had to do, but you've chosen to do it. So what do you see yourself doing? Because you're still working full time while you're doing your master's. So how do you see this playing into your life going forward? I mean, obviously, being in Europe is an amazing opportunity. You're planning to stay here longer? Yeah, tell us where you're headed after this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, great questions and thank you so much for the compliments I received that and I appreciate that. I'm always seeking to challenge myself and I think grad school is definitely challenging me in many ways and I love it, and so I am still learning vocabulary. So, um, yeah, but uh, back to your question. It's, it's been great trying to balance working. I'm still writing, I'm still doing television, I'm still a journalist and also going to school, and it's a full, it's going to grad school as a full-time job.
Speaker 3:By the way, it's like all the assignments, all the classes, um, probably give you like hundreds of pages of reading per week and it's, it's like all the assignments, all the classes, um, probably give you like hundreds of pages of reading per week and it's, it's intense. And I'll tell you a story. I was in a lecture a couple of weeks ago and I was listening to the lecture but my phone kept buzzing and my, my computer kept getting buzzed, uh, from alerts, and I was getting contacted by a producer in New York who wanted to see if I could do the evening news for Univision in Spanish, to do a travel segment, to talk about travel.
Speaker 2:How cool is that and.
Speaker 3:I was in a lecture and I said oh, my goodness, okay, yes, what time? And she said in two hours. I said got it? What time? And she said in two hours. I said got it. And then I had to leave my lecture, run to my house, have a little light ring ring light set up, put as much you know decent makeup as I could and you know, review quickly any you know talking points. And boom, I did the news like that from you know my living room. It was just like that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Literally like juggling. Good living room. It's just like I'm literally like juggling.
Speaker 2:Good for you. That's where, like, the student becomes the master. You're like, you know you've got this and this is where I think it's interesting. You've decided to embark on this journey and I find it genuinely inspiring myself, because I think this is where you know we can always be learning and we can always find a way to improve. You know we can always be learning and we can always find a way to improve.
Speaker 2:And also, it's going to expand the number of opportunities that are available to you. It's going to expand your network. It's going to, most importantly, obviously, um, it expands your mind, right, and it's like then, all of a sudden, you recognize new opportunities. So the fact that you are, you know you've already had the success you have, and add that into the mix. So I'm I'm really excited to see what you'll do next, but I think there'll always be a next and an ex with you, jeanette. So, but yeah, tell us about the connection to the one of the things we talked about I think would be interesting for our listeners just to learn more about yourself is your background, given the fact that we talked a lot about Hispanic culture and just the importance of actually your young girls. Even when you were growing. You didn't see people that looked like you or sounded like you on television.
Speaker 3:Right, right, and which is something that I, you know, still advocate to this day for more women, representation, more diversity, especially like February, where Black History Month in the States and then March is Women's History Month back in the States. Those are always great months to uplift the voices of diversity and history. But I really love to advocate also year-round and I really feel passionate about women because, just like you were saying, when I was younger I didn't see—Samantha Brown was doing travel shows at the time and that's all I knew. And she's a legend in herself and she's incredible and she's still doing in herself and she's incredible and she's still doing travel shows on PBS now, um, so she was incredibly inspiring to me as a woman, um, but I also didn't see a lot of Latinas that like me. But I do remember, dan, a specific moment.
Speaker 3:I was subscribed to Cosmo girl magazine. It wasn't old enough to get cosmopolitan, but I was subscribed to a Cosmo Girl and I remember one month I got an edition with Jennifer Lopez on the cover and she was just making the movie Selena at the time, so she was still up and coming. But I remember being so positively impacted that I said, oh my gosh, you know, I look like her and I hand wrote a little letter because it had a letter to the editor. He hand wrote a little letter to the editor and I said something like thank you so much for putting JLo on the cover. It means so much to me to see another Latina Like. I really just hand wrote like my gratitude, and I mailed it to the post office and like let it go, never expecting anything, and I just forgot about it, right?
Speaker 3:So months go by and one of my best friends, isabel, who was also subscribed to Cosmic Girl, she said Jeanette, did you write to Cosmic Girl? And I said yes, why? She said because you're the only Jeanette I know who's 16, who lives in Franklin, tennessee, because we were living in Tennessee at that time and I was like, so I got that, I got that edition and I looked and they had printed out what I wrote a couple issues later in the magazine. So that also was pivotal moment. I was 16. I realized the importance of representation, not just on me.
Speaker 3:It was very positive to see other women and Latinas but, also like my voice is heard, like I had zero expectations that anyone would even read it, let alone print it. Sure, so that was also why I feel like everything is like your voice representation, everything is important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's why I thought it was so great that you were there in Vegas last year and we had the chance to connect and um cause one of our good common friends, danny Guerrero, who's been on our show, who's a big advocate for the gay community and the Hispanic community, and he's got a very unique voice because he runs the cultural group, which is very much focused on actually helping companies better embrace. I've learned so much from him and so, yes, that was one of the points of connectivity between us and why I was so keen to meet you. But also, here we are in Monaco 2025, a year later. So I'm thrilled to see you again and also the fact that you're here at Forbes Travel Guide and they brought you back. You are obviously on the media track, like myself, and so I wanted to get a sense of what brought you back. Obviously, you really enjoy Forbes Travel Guide as well and the association, but yeah, specifically, what brought you back, aside from being in Europe already, what brought back to forbes travel guide this year?
Speaker 3:yes, uh. Well, first and foremost, so much gratitude to everyone at forbes travel guide the team, steward, amanda, um gina, everyone. They're incredible and I'm so happy to you know, to know them and to have met them. Um, last year was an incredible experience that in Vegas and meeting you as well, and just being at the Forbes travel guide summit and seeing seeing how it goes, and it was incredible. So I just wanted to come back, especially when we were there, when they announced that it was going to be Monaco, I was like, wow, that's incredible. I love Monaco. As you can see, there's many reasons why it's stunning.
Speaker 2:You're in your element here. I'm in my element.
Speaker 3:So yeah, long story short, I just kept in contact and I, you know, I just said I'm here already. So if there's anything I can do, um, I'm just literally a train right away and that's it was. That's how you know. And I'm still been working ever since. As you have you seen me busy throughout the year since then. I've still been doing conferences and TV and writings, and you know there's still things in the pipeline that have, like, I wrote a chapter in a book that's going to come out next. Uh well, in a couple of months it's about women's solo travel. So I wrote a chapter in a book for lonelyely Planet that's going to come out.
Speaker 3:So there's a lot of things in the pipeline that are yeah.
Speaker 2:That's great. One of the things that I also wanted to ask you about, since I value your viewpoints and perspective, is what you have benefited from being here this year, since you were obviously there last year, like myself. There's a number of things I see differently about Monaco this year One. Obviously, it's a number of things I see differently about Monaco this year One. Obviously it's a much more international crowd. There's a lot of new faces. We were both saying last night at the function but yeah, tell us about some of the highlights from Monaco 2025 and some of the things you're paying attention to or participating in here at the conference.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so many highlights, Like you said, so many new faces. A lot of the panels have been incredible I mean last year as well, but having Prince Albert open the show.
Speaker 2:That was cool.
Speaker 3:That's pretty one of a kind right and that just shows the caliber of people that are here and that Forbes Travel Guide is working with and collaborating with.
Speaker 2:I now have the privilege to speak to someone I was so keen to interview last year, mark Friedland. I got a chance to get to know him and his company and I was so impressed and amazed. We didn't get the chance to sit down last year, but here we are in Monaco and we finally have the chance to sit down and get. I'm really keen for you to get to know him. But, mark, welcome to the Travel Trends Special Hospitality Series. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 4:Thank you, Dan. It's great to be here with you.
Speaker 2:Now I want everyone to know your company because this is where I was so amazed at the Forbes Travel Guide community last year and obviously it's amazing being back again this year in Monaco together at the summit and seeing you in your booth as I saw you earlier today that before we had a chance to come up and record together. You know your booth is always busy, but tell everyone listening to this what it is you guys do, because you've got a remarkable background and I want everyone to hear this story, especially around the Academy Awards. I think that's one of the coolest stories I got to know.
Speaker 4:Sure, sure, sure. So my category is a little bit of a. Sometimes it's a little tricky to explain only because we're different things for different people. But we really specialize in heartfelt communications, luxury communications, and what that really means is whether it's for grand openings or product launches or guest experience, design all the things that we design, we make.
Speaker 4:So it's kind of combining some old world craft of you know, we do all of our foil stamping, embossing, die cutting, all made in our studio. So they're all of these handcrafted pieces of communication art as we sometimes refer to it. But it's really all designed to foster deeper engagement, deeper connections between whether it's the property, the host or their audience, their guests, their clients, all that type of thing. So the best way sometimes people sometimes refer to us there's no real Tom Ford of luxury communications and that's kind of the sector that I've really carved out and I've been doing it for about 39 years. If you want to get into it a little bit later in the podcast we could talk a little bit about the origin story, but you know, it is all really about just um, connecting more deeply with individuals through pieces of really beautiful tactile, digital or print medium.
Speaker 2:So but you mentioned something really important there too, mark, that really stood out to me tactile, and I know you do digital as well, as you just pointed out. But when most people check into these incredible five-star properties, one of the things that they may be familiar with experiencing is a handwritten note from the general manager, and it's one of the things I certainly look forward to. There might be a little gift in the room or something like a personalized message, and one of the things I have back in my office that Mark gave me last year is this great little box called little notes of gratitude, and it's a series of small cards that says many thanks, and I've written on them and given them to a number of people, and I think this is where, in the digital age, it actually is that much more important to have something that's tactile. So that's one of the things that stood out to me, just in terms of what it is you guys do that is so special. I mean inv invitations, incredible print pieces and uh.
Speaker 2:But I do want our listeners to hear the origin story and I'll just make sure that, for those of you who are multitasking as you listen to this conversation, it's markfriedlandcom, which is, uh, mark, with a C Um, and obviously the company is Couture Communications but markfriedlandcom. You can go and learn a bit more about, uh, this amazing company. But I think it would be worth telling everyone exactly how you got started, because I don't actually know that story and I'm very keen to hear, and I'm also keen for our listeners to know how you guys ended up doing the Academy Awards for a number of years.
Speaker 4:All right, sure, sure, sure, I'll try to get that all in. So really, the company goes back around 39 years. What is kind of cool was my background. I always, um, I had originally planned on going to medical school. I came out to los angeles is where we're based uh to go to grad school in uh, believe it or not behavioral sciences and health education. I got my master's in public health. My last quarter I just for just took a mixed media art class.
Speaker 4:I never had really an art background, design background or anything like that, and I always loved, as a kid, putting things through the mail and seeing what I could mail to myself. And you know, sometimes you've heard, you know, when people went on trips years ago, they would send themselves a coconut or different kinds of things, so I always loved getting mail sells a coconut or different kinds of things, so I always loved getting mail. So the way that this kind of took form was my original entrance into this was through hand-done greeting cards and they were very witty and fun and I would make all these greeting cards go store to store to sell them, and there's a reason why I'll come back to the importance of that in this origin story in a little bit. But from the invitations and I was selling to stores probably about 300, 400 stores nationwide and I was in my 20s and one of the trade shows was doing a publication. It was the gift show, actually in New York in the stationery show, and back then they were doing a feature on hand-painted product. All of our cards were hand-painted, hand-assembled, and so they were going to feature our product in there. And I said, well, you can't do an issue about hand-painted product without doing a hand-painted cover. And they said what do you mean? We do 24,000 copies of this trade publication. We can't possibly do that. I said, well, let me figure it out.
Speaker 4:So I was in my late 20s and what was really funny was we did hand-painted covers for this trade publication featuring hand-painted product. Well, lo and behold, that got them on the front page of the Wall Street Journal in the marketing section, and I knew from that moment on that creating these one-of-a-kind handcrafted pieces, there was really something to that. But as we jumped forward, you know, people started buying these cards and asking me if I could do invitations for their personal events, and so things just kind of continually evolved and evolved. So, you know, when we did the covers, it was really a lot of fun because, you know, I pulled together a bunch of artists. We hand painted the covers, we sent them off to the printer, they bound them and now, 39 years later, 35 years later, they're pieces of collectible art. In that regard, nobody would have ever thought to do that stuff.
Speaker 4:So I learned early on that capturing people's personality, their individuality, we didn't subscribe to the rules that if you did a wedding invitation it had to be Ecrustop with black ink. You know we really took the lead and said you know, this really needs to reflect your personal kind of sensibility, and so all of the pieces that we've ever created really capture the client, the individual, the company, whatever it might be, in very, very distinguishable, distinct ways. So that's kind of how it evolved. Then it, you know, merged from invitations into something we called event branding, and we could talk a little bit about that in terms of how it relates to the summit. And then from there it evolved into what we now put it under the umbrella of as guest experience design, client experience design and what we've just learned over these last 39 years.
Speaker 4:And there's a great quote by Maya Angelou, which is people will forget what you said, they'll forget what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. So if you'd kind of take a look at where we are today and you know, being a pioneers in guest experience design to our origin if you really think about a greeting card, it was kind of the most, you know, non-technical, you know, purest expression between the giver and the receiver. You know, non-technical, you know, purest expression between the giver and the receiver, you know, and just celebrating a moment. And you know we just took that and kept on amplifying and expanding that until where we are today. And you know, as a related to the Oscar envelope, which is a great piece of my company's history, it was on our 20th anniversary, I think, or 25th anniversary, and you know I always kind of figured what would be, you know, and traditionally this category when it was for consumers, you know, if you really think about back in the day, you know stationary departments were on the fourth floor and the department stores next to the credit department.
Speaker 4:You know, and I always thought this was to be much more of a lifestyle perspective. People spend all this money on how they build their homes, the interior design, the art that they collect, the clothes that they wear, but how they express themselves was always relegated to something you find off the shelf. Themselves, you know, was always relegated to like kind of something you find off the shelf. So that's where the emergence of couture communications really came from, and we really sometimes consider some of our things to be kind of like a writer's wardrobe and just as much as you would wear a black tie to one function or, you know, casual wear to something else, we felt the same way in terms of how you express yourself. You know holds true to that as well.
Speaker 4:So when we got to the 25th, I was trying to think, you know, what would be the most, you know, pinnacle in my category, being that this category never really existed. And I always remembered Steve Jobs when he launched the Mac and he did something during a Super Bowl. It was that very infamous 1984 commercial and I said, ok, what would that be equivalent in my area? And so, you know, being here in LA and you know, thinking about the Oscars, you know the most famous phrase, that the two most famous phrases that come out of the Oscars are, you know, the envelope, please, and the Oscar goes to. And I said, oh my God, that would be kind of the dream come true.
Speaker 4:So, through fate or luck or just you know, alignment of the stars, it turned out that I discovered an old colleague, an old friend of mine was the production designer on the Academy Awards, and I said, you know, I just had this idea. He goes oh my God, I'd love that. And you know, when we raised it up the flagpole to the folks at the Academy, they said well, thanks, but no thanks, because we already have a printer. And I said, no, that's not really what I'm talking about here. This is not just about just a printed piece of paper. This is creating just as much. As you have the statue that goes along with the Oscar goes to what is that keepsake piece of, you know, communication art that goes along with the envelope, please? And that's how the envelope was really born. And I said you know, we'll make this really easy. We'll give you the first year for free, you know, just for the bragging rights.
Speaker 4:But I want to prove to you that it's something I think they were going to like staples or something like that. Get one of those like foil lined envelopes. I think they were printing the winner's cards probably on their laser printer. There was no there there to it. It was merely a tool for a very rudimentary tool, where we took that and kind of elevated that into a keepsake.
Speaker 4:But one of the most important things, dan, that I learned from that experience was here again, with the least amount of technology.
Speaker 4:Yes, the winner's card and envelope, it was all beautifully done.
Speaker 4:It is on my website if you want to check that out at markfriedlandcom. But what I realized then was with the least amount of technology, I knew that the person who received that envelope, that winner's card, 25, 50 years from now, if they kept that as a keepsake and we look at our pieces as keepsakes it transports them back to that precise moment in time. It conjures up that memory. It kind of does everything like a great song or a great scent would do. And what I started to learn was that it really created this emotional imprinting and that emotional imprinting is part of the secret sauce to what we do, because while there's a lot of great designers, we operate on a very, very subconscious level. So when you get something in your hands and you hold it or you share it with a friend or you keep it, you know, prominently displayed. All of that is all very much by intention, and so we oftentimes think about how we, you know, combine neurocognitive sciences with great design, great style, and in these kind of everyday moments.
Speaker 4:So that's a long-winded answer to a very quick question.
Speaker 2:So, well, no, it's a great story, both the background on the company itself, Mark, and then also the Academy Awards connection. So I appreciate you sharing that, and I also just want to clarify for all of our listeners that was not in any way connected to the 2017 envelope gate, where Okay, that's another.
Speaker 4:Okay, that's another great point. So when that happened so we had been doing the Oscar envelopes for probably about seven years and what was so great about it was it was one of the first, freshest stories about the Oscars and the meaning of the Oscars themselves. You know, prior to that, a lot of the stories being told about it were about, you know, what the parties were, what people were wearing. But what this really kind of demonstrated was that moment of, you know, you know excellence, you know, and what is the tool that commemorates that moment of being recognized by your peers for your excellence, then it really kind of took on a whole different meaning. So when you know an academy is, you know they're a finicky bunch, you know they're kind of a very insular group and they decided to bring this in-house. So we didn't. It was an interesting marketing dilemma because we didn't want people to think that we weren't doing it, you know. So we weren't promoting that, we weren't doing it.
Speaker 4:But yet when the fiasco happened, you know we didn't want people to think that it was ours, but we took such care and thought into engineering it was really precisely engineered when we did the envelopes that we were pretty confident that it wouldn't have happened with ours for a variety of reasons, and that's the difference between really thoughtful design, really precision design. It's not just ink on paper but when we did these, we made sure that no matter who was opening the envelope, it wouldn't get stuck on the opening. We waxed the sides of the card so it would be easy to take it out. We made sure that the type was really really legible front back flap, you know, so that you know, under the lights of, you know, the award ceremony, the billion people watching, the nervousness of that moment.
Speaker 4:We really tried to take every factor to troubleshoot to ensure that it was basically a fail-proof piece of engineered art, if you will. And the best part about it was Tom Hanks was the first one who used the new envelopes and he was the first presenter and did an amazing call out, you know, and literally it was just sitting there in the audience. So I would go every year. It was. It was really one of the, I would say, top five highlights of my 39-year career. There's been many, but that was definitely one of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I can imagine. I think and for those of you who are going to a trivia night in the near future and need to know the answer to this question, which was 2017, when it was supposed to be announced that Moonlight was the winner, it was accidentally. La La Land was announced as the best picture by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway because they had been handed the wrong envelope, which contained Emma Stone's name for best actress. So when Beatty opened it and handed it to Dunaway, she saw that it was Emma Stone, but she saw La La Land and just announced La La Land. So that's how that all went down. So, yeah, it's crazy how life works.
Speaker 2:Right, One minute, you're cozying up to say this is what we do, and next minute you're dissing yourself. So that was not us.
Speaker 4:That's exactly right. But where that's translated into hospitality and I've been doing hospitality work for quite some time you know it really is, and that's why we've kind of repositioned ourselves as kind of leading the path in guest experience design, because again, it gets back to. You mentioned the handwritten note that you get when you check in. But what is the way? This is what I love hospitality and the category.
Speaker 4:People spend all this money in building mega resorts, luxury resorts, going through all the amazing training, creating, you know, standards of service with the Forbes team, and yet you know, when it comes time for those, whether it's your itinerary when you check into a place or the communications that you get, those become the lasting memories and they are so subtle and so subconscious. But if it's done well and if it's done right and it's designed with thoughtfulness in mind, then they become the mementos of that incredible experience, right so because of how it made you feel. So that's where and we always tell our clients you know, you can't teach people thoughtfulness, you can't teach people appreciation, gratitude, and when you put that amount of energy into whether it's a grand opening invitation or a turndown note or, you know, just a welcome piece or a thank you, note. We know by now experience of thousands and thousands of projects and millions of people have received our you know pieces, the impact that it makes in their lives.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, no, it's, and I think that's where I'm keen to actually understand how you made that transition, if you will, into the accommodation and luxury hospitality space. I certainly we're going to share a few links with this recording as well, just for our listeners. Beyond the website, you can see quite a bit of the work that Mark and the team have done, which I find quite inspiring. I mean, there's some of the hospitality brands you work with Four Seasons, the Wind, atlantis.
Speaker 4:Fountain Blue, atlantis, yeah.
Speaker 2:So how did you get into hospitality, specifically Mark, and then the relationship with Forbes Travel Guide. Ultimately, how did you guys get connected, because you're clearly a core part of this community, both last year in Vegas and here in Monaco. So tell us a little bit how you decided to focus on hospitality.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, it's there too. It's a great story and that's been the great joy of this journey, because the red thread that links everything together, you know it's kind of, it's great. So my clientele is basically comprised. And I learned this early, early on, so probably late 80s. I had done my first the Museum of Contemporary Art here in Los Angeles and I promise you I'll get to the answer to this, but just giving you a little, you know tidbits along the way. So asked me to do a. They were launching a young person support group for the Museum of Contemporary Art and this was for a first gala to get a next generation of donor involved and whatnot. And I had learned early on then that the people who sat on the boards of the nonprofits usually one of them was CEOs of the corporations and usually their other spouse handled the social entertaining for the couple or for the family or whatever the social entertaining for the couple or for the family or whatever. So understanding the relationship between nonprofit organizations and the board members who serve on those nonprofits, the luxury brands or corporate brands and then high net worth individuals, because typically the people who served on the boards were wealthy philanthropists or donors or things like that. That triangle really became the hub of my work and what I really started learning was, especially with high net worth individuals. They all went to the same resorts, they all kind of celebrated in the same ways the level of social graces that were employed in their celebrations and their milestone moments. And so I started, just by nature of how my brain works, making those connections. I actually called it social marketing, before computers, before any of that, because I knew who was on each other's list and I knew, let's say, dan is on Amanda's list and Herman is on Dan's list. I can make those connections right. So when I would go pitch our projects it was like, oh, dan, I don't know if you've gotten this, I knew that you had. But look at this piece that we did for Amanda, let's say right. And you say, oh, my God, I got that. You do her stuff, so I need to do my stuff Right. So that's how it all kind of started formulating.
Speaker 4:But where that led to Dan was as I was working with a lot of high net worth individuals on their personal milestones, and that could be everything from, you know, birth announcements to bar mitzvahs, weddings, milestone birthdays, you know any of those life moments. What I started seeing was that a lot of our clientele had, you know, second, third homes, estates and I really started thinking about, you know, this concept of residential resort living right. And what I mean by that is a lot of people who have these second or third homes, you know, wanted that from all of their travels to these five-star properties. They wanted to create that experience at their home. So that's where I started piecing that piece together. So the estate and yacht branding kind of was born out of that.
Speaker 4:But the connection back to Forbes goes back to an incredible individual that I'm sure you've interviewed and I'm sure everybody listening knows is Jerry and Zerillo. So Jerry and I were introduced back in 19, probably 98. And once you meet Jerry your world changes right, just by who he is, just his positivity on life, just his vision and whatnot. So Jerry was working for an organization called Kirzner at the time and opening this property, atlantis in the Bahamas and that's how we met. And from that moment on I'm honored and thrilled to have been Jerry's go-to guy for everything related to. He got it, you know, hands down. There was no pitching, there was no convincing. He understood the power of what these tools could mean in terms of launching a brand, in terms of garnering celebrity ambassadors and whatnot.
Speaker 4:So that history has been an incredible history. And of course, then when Jerry came on to helm Forbes Travel Guide, I was one of the first calls he reached out to to say, hey, I could use your help here. And that's how the work with what is now known as the summit took place and the reason why when Jerry first, it was really just the five-star awards and celebrations. So basically, prior to Jerry coming on board, it was a dinner honoring the five-star winners of that year and it went from that dinner celebration to what it's become today. But he had that vision from the very onset of making this the Oscars, if you will, or the Golden Globes, if you will, of the travel industry and really to the testament of Herman's vision and Amanda's vision and the incredible team there. To see what has transpired in the seven short years that I've been working with them into now being in Monaco is kind of an amazing thing to take a step back and observe and see what's happened.
Speaker 2:I now have the privilege and the real honor, I would say, to speak to Freddie Maras, who is the founder of Mindstream, and for those of you that follow our Instagram at Travel Trends Podcast, or even mine at DC Trips, would have seen what I consider to be the most inspiring session here at the Forbes Travel Guide Conference in Monaco, and it was all about the brain and the impact that music has and this incredible person, derek, who I don't want to tell the whole background story, but it was so inspiring because he's blind and he's autistic and he's this incredible gift for sound and for music and he was playing the piano yesterday and Freddie was playing music, playing a sound for him, and instantly he could turn that into a song. It was really impressive to see. But he has this really incredible company called Mindstream that I went to speak to afterwards because I was so inspired and Freddie has kindly made time to speak to us now. So, freddie, welcome to Travel Trends, thanks for being here, thank you Dan.
Speaker 2:Tell us a little bit more about Mindstream. Tell us about this company that you've created and the whole backstory, because it is so compelling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm happy to, and thank you again for having me. It's an honor to speak to to you. Um, so, mindstream, very simply, we have, uh, we're on a bit of a mission. Um, we believe strongly that in the power of music, uh, and that's kind of why we brought derek specifically, who's, as you mentioned, just an incredible talent, an amazing person, and um, I got to know him by working with his his uh friend, colleague and teacher, um, adam ockleford, who's been training him for 40 years, and adam himself is a professor of music and a neuroscientist and an all-around great person. And I got to know Derek through a research relationship I'd built with him.
Speaker 1:And so really the the impetus for, for wanting to understand music better as a one, a functional tool, but also to be able to deliver it and integrate it into spaces and make it useful wherever possible, that was the sort of driving force behind it.
Speaker 1:And when we started discovering all the different places music are used but possibly don't have the same level of professional programming strategy and intention that we're used to in our kind of core business, which is film and television, and that's kind of the background of my family and where I've been lucky to grow up sort of witnessing how music creates these magical moments on screen.
Speaker 1:And when you go into hospitality, I think the same level of intention could absolutely be applied. And the biggest sort of distinction is in a film, music is an asset, right. It drives part of the film that certainly drives the brand. It also drives revenue, it drives return, and so the big distinction that we saw when we started moving into spa and hospitality is that the way that music was being applied was it was there to set background and to sort of minimize silence as opposed to maximize the, the utility of a space and the function and obviously also drive roi. So mindstream was kind of born as a distribution and service company for wellness music predominantly because that's kind of our core space whereby we look to essentially utilize all of the infrastructure we've been privileged enough to be able to borrow from my father's company who's incubated us for the last three or four years, and start essentially changing and transforming how music is seen in the hospitality industry.
Speaker 2:Well, I had the pleasure to speak to several of your colleagues yesterday at your booth and, from as I understand it, you've got about 15 team members now spread out globally. You have an office in LA, and that's where I was speaking to one of your colleagues that is focused on the music industry in LA, which obviously seems like a perfect fit not only for entertainment but wellness, and so I actually had the headset on. So tell everyone what with your booth that's set up here, what you're trying to achieve and communicate about Mindstream, beyond, obviously, the onstage presentation yesterday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the main point is that music plays well with others. We're with a soundtrack to something, and so what we wanted to showcase here is a partnership with. We often work a lot in partnerships, um, and we have a partner called wellscape who do these beautiful immersive visuals and they're setting up these micro led screens that can go into a dark space. So if you're in a spa with a with in a basement you don't have natural light, for instance, and you want to create a beautiful vista, they'll take over the wall of your sauna and they'll create a a gorgeous sort of backdrop of different places or regions and, um, it's quite transformative. But it's very difficult to get the micro led screen set up properly in a conference setting. So what we did is we we just brought a headset and we kind of showcase what we're looking to try and achieve, but the soundtracks that we created for these different scenarios.
Speaker 1:The idea is how do you immerse into them? And, specifically, how can you immerse into them in a way that's relevant to your brand? How can you do it in a way, particularly if you have a portfolio of properties, can you use sort of techniques like building sonic motifs that you can then recreate regionally in order to then be relevant to a particular area or location or culture, even and that's where you can start being quite, uh, quite intentional about how you design audio for a particular space and the value it can drive. So that was, that's what we were trying to show you today, while we're here.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, it was clear to me because I had the chance to actually sit down and experience that with the headset and the uh, the other thing I just wanted to reference too you mentioned Adam, the neuroscientist and the professor who was on stage yesterday and, as you highlighted, he's been working with Derek for 40 years and one of the things that he called out that really struck me at the beginning of the talk was the fact that when we listen to music, our brain releases oxytocin, which is clear and understandable. I mean, I think we all enjoy music so much and what is happening in our brain chemistry. But one of the things he specifically called out was the multiplier effect when you go to a concert and you're surrounded by other people who are also enjoying the same music, and I think to so many of my colleagues, including the producer of our show, zach Van as, who is a massive music aficionado. He obviously likes sound because he produces the podcast, but he actually loves going to live concerts and it's one of the things when I see him at a concert and I don't go to nearly as many concerts, but seeing him at concerts and then when I go to concerts, I'm like I need to do this more often because it does have a profound effect.
Speaker 2:But the the part that I'm coming to, that is what he ultimately ended off on, and I guess where it connects to the hospitality is that music, and our connection to music, is often more memorable than any words can convey, and so our mind can access memories, and I know this myself. When I first moved to Australia, one of the latest Coldplay albums had come out, and anytime I hear that I am driving on the coast of Australia, it instantly takes me back when that music comes on, and so it is very transformative. So tell us a little bit about that connection to memories, and especially when you tap into the power of nostalgia, for example, which, for all of us as humans, that is actually one of them, and that's a lot of marketing. Success has been tied to that, as you well know. But tell us a little bit of how you're applying music with Mindstream to make these properties memorable for their guests.
Speaker 1:First of all, great choice. Coldplay is always a winner and, yes, absolutely so. No, music certainly has amazing properties. There are a couple of points I want to pick up on. The way you discussed, you mentioned the ability to communicate and feel that social connection. Adam speaks beautifully about this in some of the books he's written and some of the papers he's published.
Speaker 1:But music is very much an evolved format. We used to use it as a base form of communication before language became so sophisticated, and that functional element of communicating still exists intrinsically in content and music. It evolved into an art form, but it maintains its core functional approach, and so you can tap into that and you can see it viscerally when you go to concerts. In that way, um, music has layers to it and, and one of the beautiful things is when you think about the outcome you're trying to achieve when listening to music. Let's say, you want to try and help yourself fall asleep.
Speaker 1:Some people like to listen to, uh, to heavy metal when they do that, but it's a very, it's a very small, small subsection. The majority of people prefer something a bit more melodic, very slow tempo, something that lulls them into a feeling of, um, of rest, and that function. Of course you can design for it. So you can, you know, do, use a certain tempo, you can, uh, use dynamics in a particular way and you can actually build the content for the purpose. But that, if you call that the foundational layer of music, there's an another element of me, um, that sort of lies on top of it, which is one the individual's preferences, uh, which is exceptionally important. So if I play you, um, something, uh in strings and you just hate the sound of violin, it will not have my desired effect, no matter how good I am at creating the content for you. You do need to account for, for preference.
Speaker 1:So what we often do, particularly when we're curating for a space, particularly when you have multiple people, is you try and account for optionality. You want to keep the expertise at the core. So making objective choices like is this relevant for the brand, is it relevant for the ambience, is it trying to make it work for the space? And try and then be as broad as possible with the demographics you're servicing, and try and then be as broad as possible with the demographics you're servicing. It's super critical, but to that final point of memory anchors, that's the final kind of aspect to it. So not only is preference important, but prior experience.
Speaker 1:So let's say Happy by Pharrell, very simple track, very, very popular, very major and very happy. By name and by nature it is designed to make people feel energetic and happy and certainly most people will feel that when they listen to it. But if you happen to listen to it 10 years ago in a stressful incident let's say it was playing when you had a traumatic event like a car crash and I played it for you today it would no longer make you feel happy. It very much will make you feel stressed, because content has these memory anchors associated to them so you can bring people back and forth, so you can have fun playing with that.
Speaker 2:Now that's fascinating. So tell us if there's a few specific hotels or hospitality providers you're working with today, or is it part of the intention to actually break into this market now? So yeah, tell it. I just I'm keen to know if there's any existing use cases, because I and I found it so compelling I was at your booth yesterday. I'm like man, this has to be a massive opportunity. So, yeah, when are you guys at in your journey and the partnerships?
Speaker 1:So we are. We're established in certain areas and very nascent in others, I'd say. So we have a very significant distribution network within our consumer business, so we're a preferred partner to Spotify and Amazon and Apple. We have a six and a half million subscriber base on our YouTube channel, so we're able to service consumers fairly well. And what actually happens is we're able then to leverage that distribution network when we create content with our enterprise partners, and that obviously allows you to then drive passive income back to those partners, which is super exciting, because royalty income is not something that hospitality has been exposed to before and it's a completely brand new revenue line that we can deliver passively and in perpetuity, which is good fun.
Speaker 1:So where we are right now in our B2B journey, if you want to call it that, or the enterprise side of our business, is we have just started working with quite a few of the major groups.
Speaker 1:We're very lucky to have been chosen as the first ever official audio partner to the Forbes travel guide, which was kind of our jump-off point, and this is very much our jump-off event in that regard.
Speaker 1:We've managed to scale out across spa relatively well, specifically as a if you want to call it, our beachhead into hospitality, but we still have a lot to learn about how we can help serve the hospitality groups in other aspects of of spaces, as opposed to just being focused purely on spa and the functional areas. I think the driving learning from where we come from that we're trying to then understand where the sort of intersection is is that the wellness consumer, particularly when they're traveling, is incredibly valuable. They, on average, spend 40% more than an individual just traveling for pleasure or business, and so how can we help and support in simple ways, using audio or rituals, multi-sensorial experiences, how can we support converting a normal tourist into a wellness tourist and help drive revenue for a hospitality brand? So a lot of our conversations are about our expertise in wellness, which is really the world we come from, but really we're here being curious, asking questions about hospitality and just trying to see where can we potentially find more alignment.
Speaker 2:Well, it seems like the perfect fit for you being here, and I think that it wasn't obviously just myself that was so impacted from yesterday's session, and clearly your booth was busy afterwards as well, and I was talking to colleagues about it at the event last night, and so a number of people were struck with it, and even the people that didn't go had been told that they really missed something special. So I actually felt bad for the people who were like, oh, I wanted to go and wasn't able to. But yeah, so tell us how the Forbes Travel Guide Partnership came about and I guess what you're hoping to achieve from this association.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess a little bit of luck and timing is probably usually the answer to any question when it comes to partnership. We were introduced to the Forbes Travel Guide by a partner of ours and the timing felt really, really good for both parties. Audio you know, we're by no means the first people to say music is important and certainly we're by no means to say that in hospitality. But what we are is very fortunate to have an infrastructure to be able to deliver it at scale and unlock the value, the commercial value behind the asset of music. And what hasn't been done in any significant degree is the creation of new content, new audio, consistently and at scale, consistently and at scale. And that is where you can start doing things like building luxury, unique experiences, giving takeaways, developing rituals and and then earning passive income on all these new assets that are created and so that construct of. Let's not just curate a space Clearly, let's understand a space and create strategy around that space, but let's figure out where the high impact moments could be to create something completely new. And that's where I think we we kind of fell in love with amanda and herman at forbes travel guide, because you know what they do as, um, you know, obviously, their incredible work as a rating agent and traveling around the world is they're trying to inspire best in class, consistently across unique and luxury experiences. And so we, and so we had a meeting of the minds where, in my ideal world, we would redefine the way that audio standards are considered, where the core value proposition of just making sure audio is in a space or not in a space the reliability of consistent playback.
Speaker 1:That, to me, is a hygiene check. You shouldn't be delivering a service because you can deliver the service. It's really about what's the value add from that. Are you doing something super intentional? Are you crafting a unique guest experience in a journey? And then how do you define what makes it special? And that's where we really want to come in and play.
Speaker 2:Now tell us a bit more about your role, both as the founder and, clearly, the visionary for this business, and you highlighted you know you come from a family that has a real passion for music and you know has been working in film and television. So obviously you know this is something that you've has been your life's work. In many ways I'm sure that's connected to your dad and what he's been working on. But now obviously you're charting your own path, creating this company and moving into hospitality. So tell us a little bit about your role and how your focus is and priorities over the next year.
Speaker 1:My main role is casting director get great people in the right seats and then get out of that way most of the time. For me, there's a real distinction between founder and CEO, and I play both roles right now, and I try to play both roles differently where I need to, but for me, the founder is the person who paints the big picture, drives towards a vision, make sure that. Then you know that there's roads to run into to some degree. The CEO is then making sure that the operations are working and, effectively, all the road bumps that come on that road are effectively removed where needed to be, so that the amazing people who you entrust with that vision and build that vision with because by no means is this a single person considering this strategy and sort of driving this forward. I'm very, very fortunate to work in a company with, as you mentioned, 15 people now who mentioned of 15 people now who, um, every single one of them is just an incredible, incredible person with their own thoughts, ideas and energy that they bring to the table. So it's, it's really an amalgamation of all those considerations and then the added the gift of being able to watch my father build what he built in film music and understand and learn all of the pitfalls of managing music rights and understanding how to own effectively, distribute effectively, collect which is also very tough and do deals where I can leverage infrastructure efficiently, and that's been the real barrier to entry.
Speaker 1:I think A lot of people want to create content, but unfortunately, creating music as easy as it might be to play a few chords on a guitar um, although I can't do that, so I probably shouldn't say it's easy but, um, as easy it may be to actually, you know, write it, write a tune um, it is very hard to get that into a world and more more, even more challenging, to get it heard effectively in a way that then pays back. And so what we're in a very privileged position to do is is to be able to create content that people get to hear because of our distribution and our relationships, and that's kind of the secret source has allowed us to accelerate into an industry who, um, I think, have been crying out for a solution where the experience has put first for a very long time. It's just, unfortunately, because of music rights infrastructure, it's very challenging to do it, and if we didn't have it in the film music, we probably wouldn't be able to do it here now.
Speaker 2:So we're we're relatively lucky well, it's interesting one of the creatives that was on stage just before your session was talking about the fact that a lot of times our memories are will go back to a bad experience than a positive experience, and it's very difficult.
Speaker 2:He was a yacht designer and he was talking about one of the things that he focuses on before.
Speaker 2:He was talking about family, but he also was talking about the difference, having something that's really unique and special, and I guess that's where, when I'm at hotels and I hear music in the elevator and I'm like it's awful, when you go into a club or you go into a restaurant that has a great vibe and they're focused on the entire, what you'd say in film would be like the Maison Saint the whole experience, where the lighting and certainly the music and the sound it really makes a difference to the entire experience, sound like it really makes a difference to the entire experience, and so I can think of so many opportunities where high-end hotels and even the hospitality industry in general could really leverage your technology and expertise. So I guess the question I'm trying to get to, freddie, is for you a year from now, when we're speaking again at Forbes Travel Guide 2026, wherever in the world that may be. What does success look like to you and what do you expect the growth and journey to look like over the next year?
Speaker 1:It's a really good question and quite a challenging one, I mean, for me. There's a few areas that I've put my benchmarks to, as it were, that I really believe we have an opportunity to grow into, and certainly hospitality is an area that I want to become a really good partner to as many groups as I possibly can and deliver this service at scale that we've designed and refine it to a way that it becomes a valuable proposition, and certainly by the end of the year I would hope that we're doing that in our stride. Certainly we're doing it in pockets now with some great early partners who've backed us for a couple of years and that's been extremely helpful as we've learned the industry. But, realistically, this concept of partnership where you're not just selling a service but you're developing something that becomes intrinsically part of an experience and part of their brand, it's really about being a partner in every sense of the word. So we will always be curious as opposed to, uh, um, just expert. Clearly, we come with a certain set of skills and a certain set of knowledge which we'll always look to bring to the table.
Speaker 1:But you know, events like this and then every conversation thereafter is always trying to be about. It's always trying to learn what we don't yet understand fully, and certainly I have a lot of questions in that regard. And then separately to that. You know, crafting experience is not just limited to hospitality. I believe strongly in the power of music I've had the privilege of learning about it from great experts like Professor Ockelford, and I believe there is an opportunity to not just do this for luxury experiences, but also in clinical care, and so I'm spending quite a lot of my time developing pathways, doing more testing, pilots and and learning environments in dental clinics and care homes and oncology units and renal units and a variety of other care spaces where we're not just looking to improve patient experience but we're looking to actually validate and create efficacy behind the content and actually improve patient outcomes, which is which is fun and challenging, and a lot of academia, which is way, way over my head in many, many ways, but thankfully I'm surrounded by great people who keep me around.
Speaker 2:Well, you definitely are and that's clear. And I think that's what really struck me was just that this is backed in science, but it's also accessible and I think you can see the practical applications of what the research clearly connects the dots between a great guest experience and music. And I think this is what you talked about hospitals there, which actually my wife works in, and I was speaking to a colleague that he's in hotels and she's in hospitals and we were talking about the connection between the two because ultimately both are about hospitality. And if you think about hospitals, especially given the importance and especially in late life care, because the founding concept for our show was my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I stepped out to take care of my dad. So the fact you mentioned that resonates with me because, as you can learn how best to take care of people, especially in those final stages, or even to help them my wife works in a rehabilitation hospital so for people on their journey to go home and how music can play a role in overall mental health and wellbeing and wellness. So, if you can take some of those things that apply in that setting and apply it to having a holiday, which I think most of us want to do as many of those, while we're healthy and happy, as possible. I think it will elevate that guest experience, and so I've thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 2:I'm sure many people are now inspired to learn more about Mindstream, to connect with you, freddie, and also to partner with you, so I would love if you wouldn't mind leaving us with all the ways to be able to do so. And one other thing I have to say to you, freddie, that I'm desperate for is a TED Talk. I really need to see you on a TED Talk. You're perfectly suited for it and I would watch it in a moment, and I hope this helps lead to that opportunity at TEDx, because the world needs to know more about you and Mindstream.
Speaker 1:I'll give you a big shout out on the TED stage when it happens. I'll give you a big shout out on the TED stage when it happens. I really appreciate the conversation and the time. Thank you so much for having me. Please feel free to get in touch. Mindstream is M-Y-N-D stream. Have a look at our website, mindstreamcom, and we have social platforms, I believe, so feel free to follow us and drop us a note. We're interested to hear anything you have to say awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, I will be following you for sure, and thanks again for making the time and wishing you much continued success in the years to come. Thank you, dan. Thanks so much for joining us on this special hospitality series. I hope you've enjoyed all 10 episodes.
Speaker 2:In today's discussion with Jeanette and Freddie and Mark, I so thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be back with Forbes Travel Guide again this year, this time in Monaco the summit. I certainly look forward to having the opportunity to be back again next year in 2026. Special thank you again to Amanda, jennifer, stuart and Herman for making this all possible and to all of our listeners that have now joined us in the world of hospitality. Be sure to stay tuned in to Travel Trend trends podcast as we go into season six starting in september, and we're going to do a special hospitality series as part of that as well.
Speaker 2:Thanks again to all of our guests for making the time to speak to us. It was wonderful to meet so many of you and make so many wonderful new friends and connections and many new fans of our show, which was truly wonderful as well. But thanks again to the forbes travel guide team. I wish you all great success in the year ahead and anyone that is now newly familiar to Forbes Travel Guide, make sure you check them out at ForbesTravelGuidecom for more information about how to get involved and partner with them. Until next time, safe travels.
