California Wildfires & TikTok Shutdown: Lessons for Attractions

Philip (00:00.541)
Okay, from our studios in Los Angeles and Tampa, this is green tag theme park in 30. And this week we are going to talk about how California is on fire and TikTok was back after being banned for a little bit, maybe like a few hours.

Scott (00:13.896)
Banned for a hot what four or five hours something like that

Philip (00:16.785)
Yeah, what was it traumatic for? Let me tell you. For a lot of people. But Scott is back with us this week. Yes.

Scott (00:19.245)
F.

I'm back and I'm upright. Yeah, I just want to say, first of all, want to say thank you to those of you who reached out to me individually to wish me well. I really do appreciate that. Thank you, thank you, thank thank thank you. I think it was a thank you for everyone who did it. And I just, I also want to say I had, I was inspired to talk a lot about.

people with disabilities exploring theme parks as I was trying to walk around even my doctor's office. So suffice to say that for those of you who didn't hear, haven't heard, don't really care, I was diagnosed with sciatica, which is not life threatening in any way, shape or form. It is not even necessarily a chronic condition, but basically it is severe. For me, it is severe lower back and leg pain after walking.

standing, sitting, laying down, holding the same position for any length of time. But I am able to walk again. I am able to sit up for any length of time. I am very much on the mend and will start traveling again early in February. all is well. All is well. Thank you for your kind words. Thank you for your kind thoughts. I appreciate them.

Philip (01:37.085)
Okay, well we're so glad to have you back Scott and thank you everyone for, you we had a little emergency episode last week, but here we are back to the news. so we're gonna talk about the wildfires in California. And obviously we were gonna talk about this last week, but it's okay because more news has come out. You know, these developing stories as usual things always update and change. So where we are right now is as of Thursday afternoon.

At least 27 people have been declared dead in the fires. There's going to be more as things process. But the fires span over 38,000 acres. At one point there were close to 200,000 people under evacuation orders as crews tried to battle back the fires. And that was in the heat of the peak days when that was going on, when there was the largest evacuation orders.

They think that the insured losses from last week's fires are going to exceed 20 billion and the total economic losses could reach around 50 billion according to the estimations published by JP Morgan. And the largest fires are still burning. I think that's another thing you may not realize that there are the two major fires and the two smaller fires are actually still burning and they have varying containment rates. But essentially what they're doing is really just trying to

contain the spread, the fires are just burning to burn themselves out because they're just too large. know, 38,000 acres. I mean, we're talking about the size of Chicago that is on fire. And so you can't really, it's like trying to extinguish the entire thing is just not really feasible. winds are supposed to pick back up tomorrow as we're recording this and go through on Tuesday. So everyone is kind of preparing again for another round. Um, I'm actually located in the

Los Angeles area, kind of north. we, didn't need to evacuate, but there was, there was a fire that's close to me, but because of the way that the winds are blowing, which is south, it kind of blew it away from us. So it didn't, if it had been blowing north, it probably would have reached where I'm at. But there was a few smaller fires when the winds picked up that came down the street. But essentially what they're doing is trying to just close off the larger fires.

Philip (03:48.859)
That way when the smaller fires start, can come in and they can set them out before they spread. And so that's kind of been what's happening where I'm at.

Scott (03:58.126)
Philip, have you heard any power issues?

Philip (04:00.315)
We had power issues, yes, both power outages and forced blackouts because they're kind of doing both of them because what they'll try and do is they'll try and black out certain areas that are in high wind areas in order to prevent power lines from starting new fires. So they will cut, they will deliberately cut power but then you also lose power if power lines fall due to winds. So we had both of those happen but our water's fine, you know, in the affected areas.

Now a lot of the water is not drinkable because of the ashes, you know, seeping in. So that's a new issue that's cropping up. So it's going to be a little bit, cause we're still waiting to see, you know, what the winds are going to happen. So it's like here, a lot of people have emergency packs that are packed where their cars are packed to evacuate. And so it's like people are unpacking now they're repacking because of the new, the new crop of winds coming in. we're just, we're just waiting to see what all that happens, but.

This did impact the theme park world, which is why I was bringing it up in this context. So Six Flags closed for one day and Hollywood, Universal Studios Hollywood closed for two days. But of course, the impact of this goes much further because a lot of the employees of course were impacted because the employees are, know, essentially staying in some of the areas. And so, you know, there are a lot of areas on fire. It's not just the rich areas. I think most of the news has been focusing on the mansions that have been burned.

but there are a lot of lower income areas and apartment complexes that were also impacted. And those are the areas where the employees are staying for the theme parks. So it does reach out into the theme parks. Like the theme parks were not themselves damaged, but there it's more like the employees and the staffing and those things. So in line with that, both Disney and Comcast announced donations and efforts to release. So I'll read a little bit about those, but.

Disney committed 15 million to recovery efforts and they quoted here, we will be supporting vital organizations offering essential services on the ground, including the American Red Cross, the Los Angeles Fire Department, and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank among others. Disney is also supporting its employee relief fund to help cast members facing hardship due to the fires which have burned thousands of homes. Disney's corporate headquarters in Burbank stands not far from the Eaton Fire, which destroyed much of the community of Altadena, which has been home to many Disney cast members and Imagineers.

Philip (06:27.805)
As this tragedy continues to unfold, the Walt Disney Company is committed to supporting our community and our employees as well as work together to recover and rebuild from this unbelievable devastation," said Bob Iger. And then Universal is giving 10 million. So Disney's gave 15, Universal's giving 10 million. And they said similar items where they would put it to local funds, but also providing emergency financial funds to their...

their own employee fund there. The Comcast NBC Universal Employee Disaster Assistance Fund. The company's providing grants to team members in need as well as making a special company double match for employee donations made to the fund through Comcast NBC Universal Matching Gift Program. They're also doing temporary housing and hotels at discounted rates so people have been displaced. yeah, it's interesting with these files because we've talked about how whether

disasters like this will be getting worse. And I was trying to explain this to friends. It's not really funny, but it's kind of like, when you look at it, you're like, well, right now it's fire season impacting these theme parks. And then when it comes to September, it's going to be hurricane season impacting like Scott's theme parks.

Scott (07:41.794)
It's so funny because I was just going to say having just been through, well, most recently Milton, I think it's very interesting because I agree with you. think one of the major takeaways is weather is going to impact the theme park industry. So we just need to be post-crisis leadership. We need to make sure that

Philip (07:47.773)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (08:04.782)
Our crisis leadership is ready to go. That we have a plan. Don't make a plan when you understand that there are fires looming over the next hill. Don't make a plan when the first hurricane warning comes out. Have a plan. Have a plan now.

that is, and maybe it's a multi-tiered plan so that if we don't have power from this source, then we can get power from this source, and then if that source goes down, then we go to generators, and where do we store the fuel for those generators, et cetera, et cetera, et Because I was looking at some of the comparison numbers, and I think that we have to, one of my wonderful cohorts that I worked with opening SeaWorld Abu Dhabi,

has lost everything. Her entire home, everything she owns, is just gone. And I got to thinking about it because, you know, when you try to compare the wildfires to the hurricanes, they're both what I call land-consuming disasters. They take everything in their path, you know, and everyone's like, well, yeah, but if it burns up, you know, it's really gone. No, once you lose your roof, everything in your house is now gone, basically.

Philip (09:05.415)
Yeah.

Scott (09:17.166)
because you can't, it's hard to clean it. Some fabrics you can clean but your walls are gone, your floors are gone, anything that had any paper product is gone and depending on how long you have to leave it.

Then it becomes a mold issue, it becomes a bacteria issue, and really the same is true with fire. I was in an apartment fire once and I understand that devastation as well. But it was interesting because I was trying to compare the two and not to say whose disaster is worse, but one of the things to keep in mind is the fires, although they are still not under control and they may continue to expand, the fires during the evacuation order was what, 200,000 people?

Philip (09:56.349)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (09:57.122)
Yeah, with Milton it was six million people were evacuated. But the flip side of that, the blessing and the curse, is the fires take longer. The hurricanes come across, they come in a wall, or you just don't know quite where they're coming and that's why there's such huge evacuations. But with the big hurricanes, they come across and they're done. The fires are basically, from what I've seen, like a small...

relatively speaking, a small pocket the size of Chicago that is just basically chasing its way around the California hills.

But I will say, have your plans ready. Have your plans ready now, not when you need them. Have them get them ready ahead of time. And also, because as Philip pointed out, so many cast members from both Universal and Disney and so many, and that's not just frontline cast members, that's Imagineers, that's senior leadership, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Please, if you have the wherewithal and the ability, please support the financial efforts to support these people.

My friend Suzanne, who I mentioned.

Her GoFundMe is on all of my social media. And I say, even if you don't know these people, because we're all in the industry, pay it forward. you know that there is someone in your life who has done something that has helped you. So if you have the opportunity to pay that forward, and some of them, unfortunately, we don't have the opportunity to pay back because they're no longer with us. So if you have the opportunity to pay it forward to somebody who has worked in the industry and they have just basically lost their life in a puff of smoke,

Philip (11:15.922)
Yeah.

Scott (11:36.117)
Please consider that if you can and it doesn't have to be a gazillion dollars every little bit is gonna help. Okay, I'll stop playing telethon now.

Philip (11:41.798)
Yeah.

Well, it did sound a little bit like a telephone. Yeah.

Scott (11:46.744)
Well, it did. But it's important to me because I think that, you know, as an industry, all too often as an industry, we're being competitive with one another and that's dumb. So,

Philip (11:53.361)
Yeah. Well, I think also in that same vein, I was thinking about this too. It's the same thing as we talked about during the pandemic where

I knew, I have many friends all over the area. And so we've been checking each other constantly and this and that, but just the idea that you're having to go into work to Universal or to Disney to make people happy, but your trunk has your evacuation kit and you're not sure if you're gonna be able to get home. That's like, I mean, I also think the mental, I don't know, I think that we...

we are too quick to forget in this industry, right? Like, you we just had the worst hurricane season on record and then, you know, we kind of stopped talking about it and, you know, we continue to build and expand, but, you know, just like with the Lagoon show, right? Like that universal that where the steel beam snapped because they didn't do the proper rating for hurricane grade winds. I mean, like, come on, like, I think it's, it's like remembering that.

when we build structures at these parks, we need to try and make sure that they are fire friendly, even if the codes don't require it. Making sure that you do what you can and also on the mental preparedness, making sure that we do, I think we really should look, I think we should look at this and think about just the idea of how we kind of rethink some of our trainings and be like, what are we gonna do in these cases? And also rethink the housing.

because it's becoming a problem for Halloween for a lot of places now that they have to bring in cast members. like, I mean, what this is gonna do, like just in the LA region, it's already doing this, but it's gonna make living more expensive in the area just because if, yeah, and that's what I mean. So really it's the people who are still making $17 an hour, $18 an hour at your park, where are they gonna live?

Scott (13:43.886)
Hey, that's just what the LA region needed.

Philip (13:56.399)
So it, they're moving to Florida and hopefully not in the hurricane area. So hopefully like in Orlando and not on the coast.

Scott (13:56.59)
Florida. They're moving to Florida.

Scott (14:02.7)
Yes, exactly. And that's my point. That's exactly my point. it's you've got to take when you when you do your your crisis plan, you've got to include both the things that you think up front, like I mentioned earlier about power and also the things that you don't think about. that is where is your staff going to live?

Philip (14:23.389)
Yeah, where are they gonna live?

Scott (14:24.13)
If all of their homes are destroyed, where is your staff going to live? And there are those business people out there who will say, well, we can't plan for that. We can't invest in that because there's no return on that investment. And my response is, well, if you don't invest in that, you got to close your park. there's no return on investment in that either. So stop thinking about certain elements like

emergency housing or like stop thinking of those things as well that's just us being overly overly kind to our employees. It may be perceived as that if that is and if it is perceived as that great but the truth is it's a good investment in your business. So keep that in mind.

Philip (15:11.335)
I agree with all that. And I think to wrap up the story, I would like to see less of us thinking about these as like emergency funds and more of the mindset of like, let's plan on a fire happening every year in California and let's plan on a hurricane happening every year. And let's stop being surprised when they happen. And let's stop being surprised when our employees are dislocated or have to, you know, I mean, come on. I mean, just, let's just start the conversation with.

Scott (15:32.92)
Thank you.

Philip (15:38.573)
every year, what are we gonna do with the employees who lose their homes and are we gonna provide housing for them? And how are we gonna do that? Let's start from that frame of reference and then work backwards. Even if it means like, it's going to happen. Yeah.

Scott (15:47.598)
It's part of the budget. It's going to happen. And if it doesn't, it's a windfall. And that is number one. I mean, it's so funny because I was cleaning my desk and I just looked over and I saw this. When I got my post-crisis leadership thing, that's the very first thing they say, is make it just a part of your budget. And if it doesn't happen, great. It's a windfall. Go straight to the bottom line.

Philip (16:01.041)
Yes. Yep.

Philip (16:07.378)
Yes.

Scott (16:11.412)
If it does happen, you're not thrown under the bus and you're not kicking and scraping to try to find ways to just keep your parks open. Yeah, there's gonna, we talked about this when Disney was using, both Disney and Universal were using the weather impact as why their numbers were down. It's Florida, it's gonna be summer, it's gonna be hot and it's only gonna get hotter and hotter. It should not be a surprise. There's going to be a hurricane, there's going to be a fire and I don't.

Philip (16:20.626)
Yes.

Philip (16:33.607)
Yes, yes, yes.

Yes. There've always been fires here. There's always been fires. Yeah.

Scott (16:40.366)
There's always been fires in California, there's always been hurricanes in Florida. There's no, you know, and now they're coming at a more, a more regular rate. So it just, it just makes sense.

Philip (16:52.081)
Yeah. Well, okay. TikTok. All right. So yeah. And so I've been following this. Obviously I'm, I use TikTok and I am a creator and I do, it is not a big part of my revenue. It's a very small portion, but it's something that's given me revenue. But so TikTok, what they did was they shut down Saturday evening. I want to say that like 5.

Scott (16:57.499)
Ha

Wait, what time is it? Has it changed yet?

Philip (17:19.015)
Pacific ish. don't know. remember checking it and seeing the notification, but essentially what happened is they kind of pulled it themselves ahead of the deadline. They shut down the app. And then this is not something that you can use a VPN to get around by the way, because of the way that the data is stored. can't, they, know, so that doesn't work. So it's based off of your, elements you can't really change. You can't really get around it. So it shut down and

Even in the shutdown message, they said that they were kind of like hopeful because the Trump administration had said they were going to be working with them. so they kind of like, it's like when you open TikTok, it just gives you a message about how Trump is going to save them basically. yeah, so, so it shut down Saturday evening. That caused a crazy avalanche of outcry from users all over the internet. And then.

Scott (18:01.804)
And lo and behold, he did. And he's not even an office yet.

Philip (18:14.255)
It came back this morning right before we started recording. So I actually had to, I was like frantically texting Scott to like delay a little bit because I had to update with all the updates. So it came back this morning. And after president elect Donald Trump said that he would issue an executive order to stall the federal ban on the app. The abrupt shift came to hours after the major app stores removed the popular social media site and it stopped operating for us users. The company said in a post on X that

An agreement with our service providers, TikTok, is in the process of restoring service. Mr. Trump said in a post on True Social on Sunday morning that he would issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law's prohibition takes effect so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. It is unclear whether Mr. Trump's efforts will be successful in the long term. His executive order could face legal challenges, including over whether he has the power to stop enforcement of a federal law.

Companies subject to the law may determine that the text of the order does not provide enough assurance that they will not be punished for violations. So TikTok as of this recording is operating again. And just for like some clarity, okay, it's not just TikTok, it is also people that provide services to them, which mainly includes the data servers and the app stores. So it's not like TikTok is deciding on their own, like.

From my understanding, TikTok decided to, they were the ones on their own that decided to stop the app functionality. But in order to run it past the law's deadline, which would be today, they need the cooperation of the servers and the app stores. Like all these companies need to work together. And I think the main concern for those companies is they don't wanna be sued because they're violating the law. And so I guess they've all decided to take a bet on Trump, even though as this article that I excerpted read,

it's unclear whether or not because it's a federal law. And so now it's kind of unclear whether an executive order can stop a federal law or not. The only thing is that the law does say the law does say that the president does have the ability to forestall it as long as there's significant progress being made to resolve it, which a lot of people say there's literally zero progress because no one has had any discussions. And so, well, whatever. Anyway, I guess they've decided that

Philip (20:35.453)
It's good enough for all of them. And so they're gonna proceed. So we have TikTok back as of this recording. I just checked it. You might be wondering, you know, why this is important to theme parks or why we're talking about it. I just think that it involves everyone, not just parks that have social media channels on there, but it also involves a lot of the creators that create on the platform for theme parks and this whole ecosystem. It's a lot of people. It's, you know, roughly half of Americans are on this. So it's not a small...

impact and it definitely does have impacts into the theme park world for all of us. But I don't know what I'm going to say on this. I'm I'm I'm taking the perspective of more like an operator. So, you know, an operator of an attraction or a marketing department for the attraction or whatever. And the first thing is. As usual, you know, this is rented land. Don't build your house on rented land. Every social media platform that we use.

for our attractions is rented land. And we should not take any of them for granted because we don't own anything. You know, we put a lot of money and we provide a lot of content for these platforms, but we don't own any of it. And any of them could turn a switch off tomorrow. It could be Meta, it could be TikTok, it could be YouTube, it doesn't matter. And so think making sure that you're not investing too much into that. And what that means is now is a good time to sit down with your marketing team.

and say, are we doing to get people off of social media and onto a platform where we control the dialogue? So getting them onto text messaging or email or a newsletter or something where you can control it. You can take it with you. You can always take the email address with you. You can take the phone with you and really reevaluating that. I know this sounds cheesy. It sounds like, you know, the nineties are calling, but these are still effective methods.

And they are some of the only methods we have nowadays to make sure that if you can get their phone number, it doesn't matter what happens because you can always text them. And that is like what we need to get to because we want, you you need to stop trusting these platforms to be an intermediary for your discussions with your audiences. Like, I'm sorry. Also just remember like TikTok is different people. A lot of people are saying that you can just go to Instagram.

Philip (22:58.599)
That is not true because they're fundamentally different ecosystems because TikTok is actually built to be a shopping network. Like TikTok is supposed to be like the home shopping channel. That's actually what it's supposed to be. It's not a social network. It's actually a home shopping network. I think Americans are using it more, like Americans are trying to make it like a social media app, but it was designed to be a shopping network. And the American users are only 20 % of the people using TikTok, by the way.

So it's not like it's a, we're not even in the majority here. So, so just keep this, these perspectives in mind. Like the majority of what TikTok is for is the TikTok shop function, which is to kind of mimic what they have in China, which is where, you know, you have singular apps that do everything. And so, you you watch people talk about products and then you buy it within the product, but that's what, so that's been a good thing for attractions for theme parks because

you can watch a video of the park and then buy your ticket directly inside of it, like with one click, right? And you can buy merch from theme parks, then it will form clicks. So it's really not a one-to-one comparison. So with the marketing teams, when you're sitting down, I would also recommend that you go in and you think about like, what are we gonna like, where will we shift our budget? And I would recommend shifting your budget into stuff like podcasts actually, which I think have a better one-to-one ratio like this one. Yes.

Scott (24:22.766)
mean like this one, Phillip? Is this the podcast? okay.

Philip (24:25.275)
Maybe not this one, but maybe like a local one that target. But, yeah, anyway, I don't know that that's my like small rant. You know, I have, I could go on for like hours about this, but I think like, I think all that, you know, is just sitting, it's a good opportunity to sit down with your marketing plan, your marketing team and really talk about your objectives and whatnot. And, remember also that.

Scott (24:27.95)
Wait, could we earn some cash? Maybe it is this one. I don't know. I don't know. Just saying.

Philip (24:54.149)
you don't own any this content and you're just, I just, I'm so tired of social media. But yes, just sit down with your team, be like, okay, what is really working? How could we shift this market span? How are we gonna do this around? And also be sensitive to the creators that are losing their livelihoods too, right? And personally, I think that we need to rethink how we treat creators altogether because our algorithms have changed to make it so that follower accounts are basically irrelevant and each...

No matter what channel you're on now, you're getting a curated feed that has nothing to do with who you subscribe to. And so it's really more about the content, which means that creators are really part of your marketing team. They are making advertising for you. They're not like, anyway, I just, I'm done. Okay.

Scott (25:39.17)
Well, so I agree. is far more educated and far more experienced in this realm than I am. I have a TikTok account. I think I've made five videos total in my life. So it exists. And I know it exists. I do understand the power of it. No, I don't. I recognize the power of it. I don't understand the power of it. But I want to just kind of take half a step back outside of my TikTok ignorance.

and start with, wow, this was fun optics, because it's exactly what it is. The whole reason TikTok decided to back out prior to the date, in my opinion, let me scare, hold on, let me stare into the crystal ball and see what I can see. My guess is they decided to shut down early because they already knew that Trump was going to at least claim to come back and be their knight in shining armor.

Philip (26:22.461)
Yeah. Yeah.

Scott (26:38.738)
when they shut down, it got everybody talking. It made it, you know, my God, I had to survive without Tik Tok. I saw parents posting how their kids are just melting down because they have no, because most of my friend's kids use Tik Tok in lieu of Google. So they use it as a search engine basically. so, you know, they were just, they were just melting down and didn't know what to do, even though

Philip (26:59.185)
Yes. Correct. Yep.

Scott (27:08.212)
every function that they use it for has something else that does the exact same thing. And those are so funny that you say that because those are the two that were mentioned by my friend, their father. So.

Philip (27:11.399)
Correct. Yeah. Google consumer reports. mean, there are other places, but

Philip (27:20.007)
Yeah, but that's exactly my point is that it's not used like you would use Instagram, Like people are using it to search, like what is the best theme park or what's the best attraction to go to, whatever, like they're using it to search. Yes.

Scott (27:30.638)
Well, and I know people who use YouTube the exact same way. I know people who use YouTube the exact same way. So, but what it did was by shutting down early, it gave everyone just a little taste of, this is what could happen to you. And then it kind of puts a little bit of extra pressure on President-elect Trump.

to solve the problem. You know, he has to do that. He has to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico. He has to look make eggs cheaper. He's got to do all that in like the first 15 minutes. But right after he takes over Greenland. But the the idea here is is that, you know, the optics are great. The TikTok was really smart in how they played the public, the media, et cetera, because, of course,

Philip (28:10.179)
jeez.

Scott (28:20.204)
the moment they're gone and the moment somebody says we need them back, Trump is going to come on and say, don't worry, when after I'm elected, I'll do an executive order, which he doesn't really know whether he can do or not. But that hasn't stopped him in the past. So he's got that executive order ready to sign and ready to go. whatever the outcome is going to be, the optics were brilliant. Congratulations, TikTok, for creating a narrative there.

I often say that that is the key to success. I hope that for all those involved, it helps. All of that said, the biggest issue, the biggest takeaway that I want to kind of jump on that Philip has already mentioned is you're on rented space.

Philip (29:04.658)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (29:05.836)
Be aware, I completely agree with every single takeaway that Philip has said in regards to reevaluate your spend, reevaluate your budget, reevaluate how you utilize creators or where you utilize content creators. And I'm not sure, I can't sit here and tell you I know what the answer is.

you know, whether it's a mailing list, whether, all the things that Philip mentioned are great ways to control and communicate with your existing group. However, they're not particularly powerful in reaching outside that group to bring in new clients. So that's a little bit tricky, but if you can make your existing clients feel like they're, you know, they have ownership, then they'll bring them in for you. That's what Starbucks did. So the other thing that I'm going to say is this is the time now to

Excuse me, really poke around and see what's coming next over the horizon. Say, for example, TikTok, the Trump thing doesn't work. TikTok goes away in the US. Done. Well, there's going to be something that's going to replace it. And it's going to be something that is not going to have the same challenges as TikTok. In fact, I would be I would lay odds that there's already.

another company in development right now to take over if TikTok doesn't get extended in the US. So keep an eye on all of the new crayons that are keeping, they're being added to your box there. Keep an eye on whether it is social media, whether, however, keep, looking on the perimeters because things change so quickly in this industry that if you don't have, if you're not at least familiar with the next new thing by the time it become, by the time it hits the mass populace, you're already behind.

So that would be my recommendation for a marketing team. And that's not easy. I know that is not easy. But I think it's something that is essential. And if your existing marketing team can't do it, hire an outside marketing consultant who their whole job is to find out what is the next big thing. What is the next thing that's going to put money in your pocket? And you don't have to hire them forever. Hire them for a three-month trial period or a six-month or a one-year or whatever.

Scott (31:14.306)
But just do that so that you have that information when you need it. Just like planning for a hurricane, just like planning for a fire, plan for the shutdown of your social media platform. Because it can very easily happen. We'll just refer to it as the MySpace syndrome.

Philip (31:33.895)
Yeah, or Vine, right? Vine, the TikTok predecessor. And what people are going to right now is, it's called Little Red Book, by the way, for people listening. That's where people are going now in lieu of TikTok. But yeah, I think a good way to end this is to just think about how these are both elements of crisis planning, and even if it involves your marketing team, but I think, you know, don't, I mean, I'm assuming most, any marketer that's worth their, you know, pay, I think should be thinking about this, but I think it's a good conversation to have with them.

Scott (31:35.03)
Or vine. Yep.

Philip (32:01.903)
And I think it's also a good time to reevaluate. Are you really getting the value out of the content you're creating? Or maybe could you move? And to Scott's point, you you should be thinking about social media. I guess what I meant to say is you should be thinking about social media, not as like, we're doing influencers and content, whatever. Don't make content for content sake, because you're not a creator. You're an attraction that's trying to sell tickets. Think of your social media as a billboard, right? All it is is getting new people into your funnel.

Okay, so if it's not doing that well for you for the amount of time and spend you're putting into it, then don't do it. But it's time to start thinking about that and thinking about if instead of your team running your stuff, maybe you need to hire influencers and just put money in them to essentially create ads for you to do this so that you can focus on looking at other ways to attract people and test out podcasting, anyway. Okay, we're gonna continue this discussion.

Scott (32:52.728)
Testing out podcasting, we've been testing out podcasting. We've been testing out podcasting for more than 30 minutes, so now it's time for us to go. That is the end of this episode. Guys, thank you so very much once again. Glad to be back. On behalf of Philip Hernandez and myself, Scott Swenson, this is Green Tag Theme Park in 30, and we will see you next week.

Philip (32:58.598)
Yes.

Philip (33:08.679)
We'll see you next week unless you're in our Patreon group. Go to patreon.com and look for green tag and we will there. We're gonna record a Patreon episode. So please subscribe in the new year and join the extended conversation there. Okay, bye bye.

Scott (33:21.112)
What do you say?