Rick Denton: 0:05

You're listening to CX Passport, the show about creating great customer experiences with a dash of travel talk. Each episode well talk with our guests about great CX, travel...and just like the best journeys, explore new directions we never anticipated. I'm your host Rick Denton. I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport. Let's get going. Lived on an island in Greece. Check. <oving to Malta and Cyprus check. Toured with Cirque du Soleil for a decade. Check. Four passports French father, New Zealand mother group and Australia. Check check, check check. What a guest for CX passport today as I get a chance to talk with Carolene Meli, the owner and liver of all of those experiences. Carolene led over 50 experience teams in 17 different countries and continues today helping individuals brands and companies redefine how they create experiences. A fellow podcaster Carolene leads a discussion on how great experiences can beautifully impact our lives in the experience Creators Podcast. So listeners hit pause, go search up the experience creators. Subscribe, then come on back to this CX passport episode with Carolene . With all that in her past and present. You can see how Carolene became the experience strategist that she is today. Carolene had this host fascinated with "lived on an island in Greece". And then it just kept building I am so eager to hear how all of those have shaped her approach to experience and travel Carolene , welcome to CX passport.

Carolene Mli: 1:42

Thank you so much. I feel like that intro sums up everything beautifully. Do we even need to...

Rick Denton: 1:47

That's right

Carolene Mli: 1:47

the episode,

Rick Denton: 1:48

everybody and enjoy the episode subscribe download, leave a review. I hope you enjoyed today's episode with Carolene. No, of course not, there's so much more that you have to say, I know we are definitely going to get to that cert experience. But first, there's a quote of yours that I really enjoy on LinkedIn experiences are the currents of life. Tell me what you mean by that.

Carolene Mli: 2:09

I don't know how that quote came about about I definitely I write a lot of poetry. And I read a lot of poetry about the Mediterranean. So I think that just came out of that. But when I look at experienced designers and experience strategist in all the things that I've done, up until now my 36th year of life, I think of the experiences that I've had have just been very integral into who I have become obviously the same as everybody else. But one thing that I have really focused on in the last, let's say 18 months that is obviously correlated with what has been happening in the world in the last 18 months is this idea of the experiences that we go, we go through and they've obviously been, they've shifted dramatically over that time. And we were looking at things in so many different ways. Whether it no matter what you're looking at customer service travel, just, you know day to day going to the supermarket everything. It's completely reframed now. And so when I think about the experiences that I create for others, whether it's professionally, whether it's personally, whether it's through consulting, whether it's writing, whether it's me having a relationship with someone, like a good friend of mine, the experience that I'm creating for them, all of these different elements, I think about the fact that they're just strung together, and we're looking at them differently. And it's important to look at them differently. And that's a big part of what I do and what I believe in and what I kind of share every single day with my work. So that's kind of where that came from.

Rick Denton: 3:41

appreciate the fact that you said that you write a lot of poetry because that's what it felt like to me, it felt very poetic. There's a lot of customer experience descriptions that can be transactional logical, or, or some of that, but there was something poetic about that. And that idea of the fluid nature of experiences and how it just continues to flow. And perhaps if you stand at one place, the current will pass you by. But if you kind of flow with that current what that might look like, That's what gets me thinking a lot about Cirque when I think of a Cirque show I actually think of flowing I think of almost occurrent When I think of what I see on stage. So let's let's just jump right into that 10 year journey that you had at Cirque, which is stunning to even just say that sentence but I can't wait to hear the rest of it. How did that 10 year journey come about?

Carolene Mli: 4:22

So I always knew about Cirque du Soleil because I grew up a gymnast not to any great standard not to anything near surface ly standard, like just just get that out. Straight away like I was just a regular gymnast bla bla toys knew about successfully when I was 18 or so. I was studying at university and Cirque du Soleil came to my town as they do to Brisbane, Australia. And I worked behind the bar I got a job like selling popcorn and making hot dogs and pouring drinks and at the time it's ironic because I was studying a science degree in nutrition So a funny combination of those two,

Rick Denton: 5:03

please don't eat what i'm serving you, please don't eat this!

Carolene Mli: 5:07

And so that's how I started, I did a great job. And then I actually traveled myself to go meet them into other cities in Australia. It's something that I paid for on my own, I found my own accommodation, I booked my own flights, but I really, really loved it. And I wanted to be in that world. And so I went to two other cities in Australia. And then Cirque du Soleil lived as they do. They, they toured the entire country, Australia and New Zealand, and then off, they went to Asia. And at that time, I went back to university. And then again, a couple of years later, after that same thing, so to say, comes back to town. And the food and beverage manager was actually the manager that I had had the previous time around. And so I was already at a different in right to somebody else, just getting a casual job, again, started up, same thing. But they were down a supervisor, like a permanent supervisor on tour, and I naturally just slotted into taking on that extra role. I was just I really excelled at that. And then the job opens up, they decided to open it up, I applied and I got it. And so that's how it began. And a lot of the front of house teams often start that way, because they start as those local staff members and they get immersed into that world, they get quite knowledgeable, obviously, around the operations, because it's very different operations to anything else, really. And yeah, that's how it started. I actually came in left three different times. And I Yeah, did 17 different countries, I once tried to count all the cities that I went to, and I couldn't I couldn't

Rick Denton: 6:47

Oh, my goodness.

Carolene Mli: 6:48

Yeah, I really wanted that statistic. But I, I gave up but 70

Rick Denton: 6:53

That's amazing that you can't keep up with the cities. Now, you said something interesting in there, the idea of working at the front of the house that that was the beginning of your journey. And I think there's a lot of value in that because you're right there at the frontlines of that customer experience. You're, you're serving them popcorn, you're serving them hot dogs. But that that is the foundations and certainly took you in a 10 year journey of evolution. How did that or less about how did that but tell me more about how your 10 year journey continued as you evolved from front of house and then moved into other functions, that operational function, those experience functions? How did the what you experienced at Cirque really come about?

Carolene Mli: 7:30

Yeah, I credit. My journey at surface. I grew up professionally there because I was very young. When I went on school full time I was 23 I was the baby. Not many people went on to have that young. And so I really grew up professionally, obviously, I'd had jobs before in Australia, it's very common to start working when you're around 15 or so. So you know, we I had jobs before that. But yeah, I grew up professionally there. And, and what was really interesting about that roll is I actually got to do every roll over that entire time, you know, I went from Box Office to head our show to concierge to the boutique to the bars. And where I ended up where I liked the most was in the VIP. And I specifically liked the VIP because it's a different kind of touchpoint that you have with the customer, when you're working in what we call the concession tent, you know, just the main area that everybody comes in once their ticket scan, just like a typical venue, you have different bars and stuff like that. I mean, you're dealing with 1000s of people right per show. So it's not really it's very it's interactions are about efficiency, it's about efficiency, and then trying to bring this element of magic obsequiously into it, but it's very quick interactions VIP on the other hand, not only does it require a different caliber of service, but it also you have an opportunity to create more moments with the guests. And the maximum I ever had was about 250 usually would be around 150. And not only did I get to spend more time with him, but the coolest thing was, and anyone that is listening to this that has worked in events will know this will have experienced this is that I got to see their evolution throughout the entire experience. I got to see them when they arrived. I got to see them, you know, just before they got into the big top to watch the show, then they came back at the intermission. And then they you know the different actions and they went back for the second half. And then they came back at the end. And so I got to see his experience in its entirety and actually live it for so many years. Just watching guests from all over the world have different experiences, and just see how that plays out and my role in that in our role in that as a team and so that that's really that's really where that experience took off and laid the foundation for every single other thing that I did after that because to give you an example, I had the opportunity to go and work on cruise ship knew nothing about cruise ships. hadn't ever stepped foot on a cruise ship. As a traveler, I would never go on a cruise ship. It's just not my style of travel. And I applied for a job. This is at a point when I wasn't working for Cirque du Soleil. And they kind of contacted me and said, you know, you're, you're overqualified for that would have you ever thought about being an assistant cruise director on a cruise ship? And I thought to myself, I don't even know what that means.

Rick Denton: 10:25

First Tell me what it is. And then...

Carolene Mli: 10:27

so I said, and also because I had no knowledge of the cruise industry, I just had no, I had no frame of references, but they sent me the job description now. That's kind of that's kind of similar. And what was really interesting is, it was a new cruise ship that was in its first I forget what the maiden voyage is called Shakedown week, I think is what you call that that first kind of week before the paying guests come. And I was part of that, that whole process, which to me, felt like moving from one city to the next. That's Cirque du Soleil. So I was very much used to this operational style of working because of Cirque. And it was so incredible, to me how effortlessly I just kind of went into that new role, having no idea of of that entire industry, but operationally, I'd been doing something very similar. So it was really interesting to see the correlations and how they overlap and where your skill set when you're working with guests and with customers. And in my in my case, in live events, how that translates very quickly into other different industries.

Rick Denton: 11:36

Yeah, I can see that I actually had a guest a couple of episodes ago, it may be a several episodes by the time your episode here is released. But Paul Rutter talked about as a multi decade experience in the cruise industry, exactly that the operational challenges that mean, my goodness, you're living with a guest. So there's that aspect of it. But I want to taking what you just said there the operational kind of triggers that let's talk about those VIP experiences. Cirque is all over the globe. And these, you talked about your 17 countries. And so somehow Cirque and you have to create this experience that is both repeatable, so it can actually be a business. But it's unique and oriented to the country, the community in which that show takes place. How does that come about? For you? How did you help bridge that bridge that sort of operational efficiency with humanity and uniqueness specific to that community?

Carolene Mli: 12:25

Yeah, so what I will say is a lot of the actual creation of the experience obviously happened long before I am ever involved in at head office, you know, it's from concepts, the creators of the shows in those kinds of things. The role that we have as, as the front of house teams on tour is really to connect that local element, like you mentioned, and the key to this is in the staff that we hire. So every city just like me, remember how I started at Cirque du Soleil just like me, when I arrived there, we hire local staff to work for us in every city, we provide about 100 to 150 jobs while we're in town, let's say. And they play a huge role in the experience that we're creating, because obviously, they need to be local. And when I say local, to a certain extent, they need to be able to speak the language of the guests, because they're interacting, will be traveling all over the world. So I don't speak every language there is all over the world. So that touchpoint needed to be had by heart, but by our staff, but so not only operationally were they doing the job, as you would say, but they were providing an insight into the guests that we didn't have, you know, when I was in Russia, first time I've been to Russia, I had no idea what to expect, except stereotypes. That's that's how we all enter into a country. Right? So you don't know. And especially from a work point of view. And so I was heavily reliant on my staff to really give me insights into what potentially would work and what wouldn't work and what the guests would like. And in the VIP, the extra the extra element that exists is it's catered, right, whereas the rest of it is more like concession bars and stuff. So we're catering. And usually, it was when I was there, it was very much local catering companies, or it would, they would have the contract for the entire country, let's say depending on the country. And so they were bringing their expertise into it. So it was this very beautiful mix of different groups of people that have different expertise is coming together to put on the experience and me as the leader. I was kind of making sure all of that happened seamlessly and beautifully and there were no customer service issues, which of course is almost impossible to get away.

Rick Denton: 14:44

Especially if the VIP layer. Yes,

Carolene Mli: 14:46

well, exactly. And that's how it came to be in that that's how it works so well at surface layer because of those different elements coming together. If I was there with a team that I always traveled with, that didn't really have touchpoint on that local on the gas, if I didn't think it would work as well, I think it would be very different because you're you're already have that disconnect.

Rick Denton: 15:08

Yeah, I would expect exactly that. First you describe the language barrier, but that alone, yeah, but the cultural things right? What is what is Russian concession or food that might what might that look like? I don't know. And someone who lives there might know that. Is there a particularly unique experience that you have from one of those? Is there a story or perhaps a favorite, either of a VIP experience, or perhaps a concession experience or something like that from one of those 17 countries?

Carolene Mli: 15:36

Oh, my goodness, I will say since since Russia is top of mind, I, my staff didn't speak English. So I was running this whole operation through a translator. And I don't know if you've ever had to lead anything where you need to translate it. It is it is such an underrated experience in that, for example, I would be leading my team and I'm usually quite laid back. And I like to joke and you know, really bond with the team. But every time I would say like a joke or something, it would be me saying it laughing at myself. That these guys staring back at me with like blank faces because they literally didn't speak English at all. And I don't speak I spoke like 10 words of Russian at the time, the translator then translating it, me standing there awkwardly, and then then hearing it, and then hopefully, maybe kind of laughing. And so the whole experience was crazy. We were we were communicating with like Google Translate. We had different ideas, and they were bringing me ideas. And when the translator wasn't there, we were just, it was just it was actually when I think I think very Funnily, of that experience. It was challenging, of course, because you can't just go up to somebody be like, Hey, can you go and do this? Like it's a whole process, right. But what I found is, the more time that I spent with them, the more time that I really showed that I really cared about them. And I cared about their opinion as well, that was a huge thing. We actually created this really cool ecosystem and learned how to work amongst each other. And so yeah, that's probably the one that comes top of mind. Yeah, the Russia experience.

Rick Denton: 17:14

Fun! That is true. I've done some work where I've required a translator not to the degree of what you're describing. And there is that awkward part of you're like, Man, I just nailed it. This is a hilarious thing. Why is everybody staring at you? Of course, you know why, but that there's that moment of, Wow, that really landed poorly. But then a few sentences later, you realize, let's talk about that, that global experience kind of with you with four passports, the dozens of countries, you've led a relatively nomadic life. What drew you to that style of living? What's that been like?

Carolene Mli: 17:46

I think I was born into it. If I'm going to be honest, both my parents, you mentioned my father's French, my mother's kiwi, and we grew up in Australia, but they were big travelers, they they actually told us the story goes, The Legend has it that the day after they got married in New Zealand, they left on their honeymoon and they didn't come back for two years. They just they lived on a kibbutz in Israel, they did all sorts of things. And so I think I have two sisters. And we're all very similar. I think I'm the most nomadic but that I think, has a lot to do with Cirque du Soleil. You know, I was constantly on the move, I didn't need a home, I didn't need even a bass, you know, I was just always moving. And it's just now a way of life on my, usually after about three months, I start to get a bit like I start to get, I just have a feeling that I need to move, you know, I need to go somewhere else. And so I'm trying to get out of that habit now as well, now that I finished that part of my career, but it's, it's definitely just something that is built within me. I think it's just always been there.

Rick Denton: 18:50

It sounds like it is definitely a part of your DNA. And for the listeners that Carolyn has now landed in Cyprus and is living there and we had a good, good laugh about finding apartments that had no furniture in it so that you could put your own furniture into a place that actually becomes a little bit of your own. But in that sort of vein, that kind of level of travel. How did you find connectivity and build relationships as a digital nomad?

Carolene Mli: 19:16

Yeah, it's very challenging. I think for me, that's just how I've always done it. So I don't feel like I've ever had those, you know, really strong friendship groups, you know, all the girls we get together every year, I've never really had that just because of my lifestyle and how I've always moved. But I I invest a lot of time and effort into people who I really want to stay connected with. And I think that comes back and I think, you know, it's something that you have to work out and you have to constantly keep in touch and I mean, it's great with social media that I'm able to just like put stuff on Instagram stories and like people just see it. But I'm also I also take a lot of time to send pictures through WhatsApp to my different friends and my Following viously and send videos and do little videos of me, you know, and send it to them instead of like a, like a just a text message, you know? So I think that that's something that I will always be a reality for me I think probably till I'm 85 still doing the same thing like what's happening of people my, my day to day but it's it's, that's it's a huge part of my life because that that's it's always been that way. But I definitely think that it's really it needs to be you need to actually put some effort into that

Rick Denton: 20:41

Carolene and I don't know that I've had a guest that needs the first class lounge more than I think you need the first class lounge with that much travel with that roaming the world sometimes it's nice to just stop down and take a brief dream travel location from your past.

Carolene Mli: 20:58

I think I would say I would like to go back to New Zealand. I was born in New Zealand, but I haven't ever spent a good amount of time there. And I would I would like to go back and reconnect with my family there and my roots there at one point.

Rick Denton: 21:13

There's something about your birthplace right, you it will always be a part of you. I was born in Germany now this was a US military thing. My dad was on an Air Force base at the time. So I don't have any German family. I'm not German heritage or anything like that. But even with that, there's something about going back to your birthplace. So yes, I can see how New Zealand is that? That dream? Okay, education from your past and there's just that connectivity to birth. What is a dream travel location you've not been to yet?

Carolene Mli: 21:42

Morocco? I was supposed to go to Morocco in what was it? April 2020. And we all know how that that 2020 happens. So it was but it was it was a trip that I was very much looking forward to it's a culture that I'm just dying to get immersed into. And yeah, it's it's on the list back on the list.

Rick Denton: 22:03

Boy I bet so it's a pretty easy trip I would imagine from Cyprus over to Morocco. I got a little more challenge getting there from Texas but yeah, I think I think you definitely will get there that's it's a neat it. It's appears to be this neat, exotic but accessible culture, the foods, the smells, the sights, all of that sound incredibly appealing. So in that food because traveling food get together, what is a favorite thing to eat?

Carolene Mli: 22:27

I love Lebanese food. If anytime I open up UberEATS or one or the equivalent, the first thing is that, you know there's all the categories and if there's Lebanese there, it's like I can't I won't even look at anything else. I'm like done. I love Lebanese food.

Rick Denton: 22:45

Yeah, something tells me the algorithm is going to feed you that Lebanese choice every time now as it starts to learn even more about you. On the flip side, and I don't know as global as you are, this may not be an answer for you, but a thing your parents forced you to eat but you hated as a kid.

Carolene Mli: 23:02

So I grew up in Australia in Brisbane where it's very hot and humid and gross for a lot of that. I mean, you're from Texas, actually. Right. So you're in Texas. So Houston, Texas, in Brisbane, Australia have very comparable climates. We used to eat. My mom used to make us a lot of like salads, but that just had a lot of raw vegetables in it. And I'll always remember all the raw cauliflower. Now I could now I could eat that easily and I choose it but I Yeah, growing up having that put on my plate.

Rick Denton: 23:36

I was like, Ah, I know that sensation. Right. A lot of us have talked about vegetables and a lot of guests have talked about vegetables. It's funny how much we enjoy it now as adults and and yes, I am familiar with the Houston I only lived in Houston for a few years. I grew up in Austin and live in the North Texas region. But it is a it is a very swampy and hot destination. Absolutely. What is now you've been quite the traveler. So what is one travel item not including your phone, you will not leave home without

Carolene Mli: 24:05

a book, a book for sure. I'm a huge reader. I'm a writer. And there is something very romantic about a book I think, and so many people are trying to get me to get a Kindle. Because my suitcase always ends up I have to give away I just had to give away like 15 books when I was in Greece because my suitcase was overweight and I was so devastated. I have a very bad habit of buying books and that's not a good thing when you don't have a home and you don't have anywhere to put them but there's something very beautiful about I think of walking in the streets in Bordeaux in France or being on the Greek island as we mentioned, you know and just sitting down and opening up a book anywhere and just reading that so a book would be my answer

Rick Denton: 24:57

Carolene those four passports come back to mind now you told me before, that you've had a discovery that you had a Canadian passport. And that discovery was kind of funny. Tell me about that Canadian passport discovery.

Carolene Mli: 25:10

So I was venturing to Montreal for a project that I was working with and accept disarray. And usually I'm traveling on my French passport for the most part, just because I spend most of my time in Europe. And my application to enter the country in this one particular year was denied for on the French passport. And because I have this situation, it's very rare that I have any issues you know, entering because I because I have that, that flexibility and those options, and we couldn't for the life of us, this is me, myself, and so to slave figure out what the hell was going on. Like, we just couldn't work it out. It turns out that the year previous, the the rules had changed in in Canada, whereby, if you were a citizen, you now needed a possible you it was it was compulsory, okay. And my father, he was actually born in Algeria when it was a French colony. And when he him and his family fled, they actually fled to Montreal because of the work opportunity for his father. So he grew up, he spent his his youth in Montreal. And so when I was born, he decided to get me that citizenship, just for another another option, right? Just for kicks. I knew about it, obviously. But I just It never was it never, I mean, never needed it. It never was a thing that we spoke about, it just existed. So when that when that rule change happened. That's how it became kind of top of mine again, and then I have to go through the process to get the passport. But yeah, no, I have it

Rick Denton: 26:51

What a crazy story to be denied to realize, oh, wait, oh, yeah, that's right....

Carolene Mli: 26:59

I am Canadian!

Rick Denton: 26:59

Oops,

Carolene Mli: 27:00

it's definitely something that I'm incredibly grateful for my father for doing for me.

Rick Denton: 27:05

It appears that got you into the country. So thank goodness, what a crazy thing. Now, Carolene, we talked earlier, and I'm looking at the clock. We're kind of nearing the end of time here. But I know that I kind of wanna close out with this. We talked about the how operations comes together, right? And a lot of it is using local community and understanding the local community and using that to help leverage a repeatable, but unique experience. And I'm curious, let's take that, let's take that search experience as its whole your nomadic life, all of that. How does that translate into what you do today? How are you helping brands find their best experience creation.

Carolene Mli: 27:45

So my career as an experienced strategist, now as a consultant is something that I created. As of when I finished with Cirque du Soleil in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, I created this consultancy, because I felt like I had a unique skill set and experience to be offering in terms of experience design. And it took me about a year to honestly put all these pieces of puzzle of the puzzle together. And now what I really focus on is, I work with business owners, different leaders who maybe have an experience that they offer in their business, or they want to create one, and I help them build that out, or I help improvement. So improve that. So to give you an example, if If a company wants to create an annual event, you know, an annual event for their employees, they haven't done it before, it's now all weird, because there's hybrid, and there's remote people, and then there's office people, and they want to create something that's a little bit special. But that also really is a touch to their ROI to touch with their company goals. You know, it's not just a random event, it's not the Christmas party that we throw. Another example would be a client that I've just recently been working with is they have an online academy and the process, the system and processes are not built out in a way that makes that a very efficient, efficient back end of the experience. And that of course has ramifications on the customer experience. Right? Right. If the if the backend is at that foundational piece, the the journey of the trainer's that they bring on the journey of the customer, what is that sequencing looking like? It's all a little bit messy right now. So I'm actually going in there to kind of fix that entire process to make sure that the end result the experience that they are offering to the guests in the form of online courses and webinars is really, really at a high high level. And so I work on many different programs. I work on many different projects, but it's all around experience design. And I come from that really operational background as we've talked about and that global experience as well. So I'm able to kind of bring that operational into, okay, what do we need to do on the back end of these variances to make sure that when you actually put it on whatever that means for you that it's actually it's going to be incredible. So that's really what I'm focused on right now, what I absolutely love doing,

Rick Denton: 30:13

that makes a ton of sense, the idea of what's on stage. And if we just consider experience as being on stage, that doesn't have to be a literal state, literal stage, but it is on stage, it's visible to the customer. It's great if it's creatively designed to a fantastic experience. But if it can only be delivered once through a Herculean effort, because the operational reality that supports it is not as strong, then it will not be a sustainable, great experience for every customer every time. And I I definitely see a line between what you described as your search experience to what you're doing now, as an experienced strategist helping blend that creative design along with the reality of you've got to have an operational backbone and structure to be able to deliver that creative design.

Carolene Mli: 30:58

Yeah, I mean, imagine if you if you, like, if since we're talking about Cirque du Soleil, think about it this way, you you have the show, which is guaranteed probably going to be quite spectacular, right? It's almost a guarantee if you're a guest. Not many guests walk away from a show going that's usually usually

Rick Denton: 31:17

No that's not the brand. You're right.

Carolene Mli: 31:18

Yeah, it's not the brand nicely put, yeah. But imagine if a guest couldn't find the site, because the directions were like, not clear, they go to the parking it was 20 euros $20. The parking attendants was super rude to them, they had to walk like a kilometer from our mile from where the parking was to the entrance, they got to the entrance, the box office didn't have their tickets, they got into the concession tan, you know, and so we can continue. example, example example. So that's even if you have that main event, really spot on, we anyone that's listening to this that has any, any foot in the door of customer experience knows that there are so many touch points that equate to an incredible experience overall. And one of the mistakes that is often made is that only that one element is really focused on all the all the eggs in that one basket, and then oh, we'll figure the rest out, or the rest will be fine. You know, because they're going to love that main thing. And that's, that's the perfect analogy of going to a show and you could you know, any any kind of live event where you have a shocking experience up to when you're actually sitting there and the show starts, of course, you're going to enjoy the show. But everything has now had an imprint, right and affects your overall experience. And so that's what I'm trying to do is look at that entire journey as an experience, hence why I'm an experienced strategy. And look at where all those gaps and how we need to level up different operational elements or the different processes? Or does it need a little bit more creativity? Is it too efficient? And robotic? Those kinds of thing?

Rick Denton: 33:01

So how can so let's let's close out with this? How can people get in touch with you to learn more about making sure that their experience is great that working with an experienced strategist is something they need to ensure that they've got the creative and the operational to create a great experience? How can people get in touch with you.

Carolene Mli: 33:18

So my website is the best place to go, you can have a look at learn a little bit about me look at there's different resources there have a look at the different consulting opportunities that I have. One thing that one service that I'm offering right now is an experience audit. So we take 90 minutes, we'd go through your entire experience. And in a 90 minute time frame, I'm able to give some strategy and give some improvements to be made. And that's what that's a short experience that I offer. And then a longer consultancy experience, a couple projects that I'm working on one is three months long one is six months long. But all of that is is on my website. And then I'm most active on LinkedIn. That's where I like to do all sorts of cool things on LinkedIn. So both of those places,

Rick Denton: 34:03

I'll make sure to get both of those in the show notes. So you can scroll down, pull out your phone, scroll down on the app, and you can see those links there. And you can go straight to Carolene's website and to her LinkedIn profile. Carolene, thank you so much for taking the time today. I of course I'm just fascinated with hearing the search story, but the reality behind it of how it comes about and how it translates into creating a great experience and then certainly 17 countries and the life that you've lived across all of this world. I do hope that you find some some rest and stability there in Cyprus and enjoy a break from that life for a bit. But I gotta imagine Next time we talk we back on the road. But thank you today for talking with me on six passport. Really enjoyed it, Carolene, thank you.

Carolene Mli: 34:41

It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Rick Denton: 34:47

Thanks for joining us this week on CX Passport. Make sure to visit our website cxpassport.com where you can hit subscribe so you'll never miss a show. While you're at it, you can check out the rest of the EX4CX website. If you're looking to get real about customer experience, EX4CX is available to help you increase revenue by starting to listen to your customers and create great experiences for every customer every time. Thanks for listening to CX Passport and be sure to tune in for our next episode. Until next time, I'm Rick Denton, and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.