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In this podcast, I will be interviewing travel/adventure writers and athletes as well as people who worked for resorts, hotels, cruise ships and airlines and we’ll talk about their experience in travel and tourism.
Episodes
Monday Mar 14, 2022
Monday Mar 14, 2022
My guest today and I kept missing each other at various villages and have never met, despite having a whopping 102 mutual friends. Her first season was in Club Med Punta Cana in November during the 1992/1993 Winter season as a Fitness and Dance G.O. Originally from London, Ontario and now living in beautiful Vancouver, please help me welcome Shelley Markevich Lawrence! Shelley has a very good memory from her first season and lets us take that first season journey with her in this interview. Shelley actually had an ex-boyfriend drive her to her Club Med interview in Montreal, from Ontario, which was conducted by Kevin Batt. From her first season with CDV Howard McCarly, to hosting Atlantis for the week, Shelley has a ton of interesting stories. Shelley worked in Lindeman Island, Australia as I did (her season was with Kenton Smith in 1998), so we speak of the good times we both had there. Discovered during the interview is that both Shelly and I share a love for all things Jennifer Lopez and we end the podcast talking about the acting industry in Vancouver, Canada.
Please check her out on Instagram and give a follow:
https://www.instagram.com/shelleymarkevich/
**My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to and is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Monday Mar 07, 2022
My guest today and I have never worked together before despite having a combined 20 years in Club Med and 45 mutual friends. Her first season was in November of 1990 in Club Med Paradise Island as an au pair Snorkel/Picnic G.O. From Montreal, please help me welcome, Silvy Dufour! Silvy initially went to Paradise Island as a G.M was but was invited to come back as a G.O by the interim manager. Her first season was jam-packed with talent and there were a lot of future CDV’s in Paradise Island that season: Xavier Corne and Saber Fajr (both at Tennis) and Jean-Marc Desy (Golf) and ET (Animation) and Momo was the Chief of Sports. She also worked alongside Jenner and Red at Snorkeling. As you can imagine, Silvy has many great stories to tell. To meeting author Mary Higgins Clark, actor Antonio Sabàto Jr., Judge Judy and former NYC mayor, Michael Bloomberg. From teaching three-time Super Bowl champ Emmitt Smith how to snorkel in Eleuthera, to helping build Sharkies bar in Turks, to hanging out with Pavel Bure and Trevor Linden from the NHL, to watching internationally renowned marine photographer Bob Talbot in action in Columbus Isle, Silvy has got them all! You have got to hear her 1992 NYC/Martinique charter story! It has to be heard to be believed, trust me!! **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to. My First Season is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Monday Feb 28, 2022
My special guest today was one of those rare G.O’s that I always heard about during my time in Club Med, but sadly never got the chance to work with. He does confirm one of the stories I heard about him if it was true or not. Do you want a hint? Okay, it involves something called a “Stuntman Shot”. We did, however, finally meet at the EXGO reunion 2 in Cancun in 2008. His first season was in Club Med Sonora Bay in March of 1998 as a Waterski G.O. He only goes by one name, because one name is all he needs! Everyone, please help me welcome to MFS, the one and only, Boone! Boone was going to school at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington (where they had a collegiate waterski team no less!!) and it was a professor who told Boone about Club Med. Boone did not want to pass out towels for 3 months to earn credit for a course, so this professor told him about a former student who did an internship at Club Med. The rest they say, is history. We talked about so many different subjects during this interview that I completely lost track of time. So if you want to listen all the way to the end, please do so! We also cover Boone’s stand-up experiences and his comedy influences. Boone had so many great and funny stories to tell that I don’t want to ruin any of them by mentioning them here, but I will say that we both share a love for all things Rocky Horror, Bugs Bunny, and Ryan Leach. Boone does have a very funny Neil Diamond impersonator story you have to hear, as well as a scuba diving story involving Corona beer in Sonora Bay. And lastly, he has a very full-circle moment with the person that interviewed him for Club Med all those years ago, Steve Miller, that I swear will not sound believable. And we do get his version of the story about how he and his wife Suzie met in Sandpiper in 2003 and yes, I mention my “Brouette theory” to Boone! **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to. MFS is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.
Check him out on Instagram and please give him a follow:
And please subscribe to his YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI0sA_8fGU8t6OfnCdd6e4A
And please check out his wife Suzie's sites!
https://www.instagram.com/oakandpark/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/OakandPark
Friday Feb 25, 2022
Friday Feb 25, 2022
Hello everyone and welcome to a very special episode of MFS. It’s not often you get to interview a student at the university where you work, which is Concordia University in the Gina Cody School of Engineering & Computer Science in Montreal, Quebec, and who just happened to win a bronze medal at the XXIV Winter Olympics Games in Beijing, China! The closing ceremony was held this past Sunday, Feb 20th and this very special Aerospace engineering student-athlete has agreed to come on and tell us what it was like attending her first, of what will be many Winter Olympics appearances, I am sure. Please help me welcome back to My First Season, a bronze medal winner in Mixed Team Aerials, the amazing, Marion Thénault!!
Please check her out on Instagram and give her a follow:
https://www.instagram.com/marionthenault/
And if you would like to listen to Marion's first interview on MFS from December 2021, please see the link below:
Monday Feb 21, 2022
Monday Feb 21, 2022
My guest today recorded her episode of MFS on December 10 2021 and she had just stopped working for Club Med at the end of November 2021, making her the most recent EXGO I have interviewed thus far. Her first season was in Club Med Sandpiper in November of 2018 as a Meetings & Event Co-ordinator. Please help me welcome to MFS, Sydney Gaudreau! Both of Sydney’s parents were G.O’s in Club Med and she spent her whole life going to Club Med on vacation, from Mini-Club to Teen Club. It was at her parent’s company in Oakland, California, Trapeze Arts, Inc. (since 1994), where Sydney took a liking to event planning. Trapeze Arts has shared the art of Flying Trapeze with many corporate groups from Google, Pixar, Wells Fargo, and American Express, to name just a few, so there was a lot of event planning involved when these companies came to Trapeze Arts. Sydney also has a Liberal Studies degree from Oregon State University with an emphasis in Event Coordination and Production, so she was well-prepared to start her new job at Club Med. Sydney has so many interesting stories to share, including describing what it was like working at Club Med Turks & Caicos in November 2020 during Covid and the many protocols that had to be followed when you worked there. I hope you enjoy this episode with an amazing, funny, beautiful and charming person.
Please check her out on Instagram and give her a follow:
https://www.instagram.com/sydneyyalexxa/
To check out Trapeze Arts, Inc. please see the link below:
**My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to. My First Season is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Monday Feb 14, 2022
My guest today was a Scuba G.O. in his first season in Club Med Columbus Isle in June of 1997. Please help me welcome, from Calgary, Alberta, Jay Tighe! Jay started to scuba dive at a young age in Indonesia of all places and got certified in Thailand. Fast forward a few years later and Jay was working as a Scuba instructor in Harbour Island, Bahamas where he would meet the odd G.O and they would tell him about working at Club Med. He snuck over to Club Med Eleuthera one day to check it out and found it was for him. Jay worked roughly 10 years in Club Med and has quite the stories to back it up. From Jennifer Lopez getting a private boat on her honeymoon in Columbus in ’97, to six-time NHL Stanley Cup champion Mark Messier buying about $1,500.00 in bar books to treat the G.O.’s on Canada Day, to catching an end zone touchdown from New Orleans Saints & Atlanta Falcons NFL quarterback Bobby Hebert during a game of beach football, to playing hockey with another NHL six-time Stanley Cup champion, Glenn Anderson in Turks, he’s got ‘em all! He even saw the current Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, on the dive boat in Columbus in 2005 on his honeymoon. One of Jay’s other stories from Columbus 1999/2000 (a hilarious story I had completely forgotten about) involves Jay, myself, a beautiful girl from Montreal named Sabrina (that we both liked) and a late-night, fence-scaling mission gone awry (for Jay) coming back from the Riding Rock. You will just have to listen to this entire entertaining episode to find out what happened. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
**My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to.
My First Season is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.
Monday Feb 07, 2022
Monday Feb 07, 2022
Hey everyone, today is a special day as it’s the one-year anniversary of My First Season! So let me officially welcome you to the second season of My First Season (see what I did there?) I called upon a special person to do a My First Season takeover, the amazing and current Vegas Golden Knights super-fan, Gabrielle Seidenberg! (wife of the Coney Island Striker-she’ll hate that I wrote that). Gaby graciously agreed to interview yours truly, Greg Hannah, (mostly to make fun of him) and I could not be happier with the interview as she is an amazing host! My first season was in Club Med Turks & Caicos on June 4, 1994, as Scuba Gestion. I was working in Westmount, Quebec as an investment banker when a client and EXGO first told me about working at Club Med. Having never been to Club Med or any resort for that matter, I did not understand the stories he was telling me about his former job. I discovered upon my arrival to Turks that judging by the many stories he used to tell me, he was an Animator. I have very vivid memories of my first season in Turks and I recount them here: The amazing “Rhino Records” celebration that we had that summer with the Village People (and others), my late-night arrival, my special encounters with JoJo, my first very confusing Bastille Day, my trauma of being put in the Rocky Horror Picture Show (my first show ever) and so much more. Spoiler alert: though everyone knows I did not like the power walk, water aerobics, or midnight rehearsal (I'm still on the fence about Crazy Signs...), I LOVED everything else! Fair warning, this interview with Gaby and myself goes slightly off the rails at times, but in a good way (I think?). If you are looking to bookend this interview with another episode, then I suggest listening to Gaby’s interview first so you will get an idea of her sense of humour (I spelled humour the Canadian way to irritate her). You can follow My First Season on all the socials (see below). **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to. My First Season is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM and Listen Notes.
**It might be a good idea to listen to Gaby's interview first if you have not yet! (see link below).
https://www.myfirstseason.com/e/my-first-season-gaby/
Monday Jan 31, 2022
Monday Jan 31, 2022
My very special guest today has a career spanning 25 years as a professional skydiver, BASE jumper and Wingsuit pilot, He is one of the most experienced extreme sports athletes on the planet with over 13,000 jumps combined. His adventures have taken him around the globe with success in all areas including becoming a world champion, a world record holder and representing his native country of Australia in both skydiving and BASE jumping in several disciplines. Please help me welcome to the podcast, from Melbourne, Australia now living in Switzerland, Chris “Douggs” McDougall! Through his extreme sports background and expertise in risk management, Chris founded the world's leading BASE jump school Learn to Base Jump, training hundreds of students - from beginners to experts. His life has been a series of mind-blowing ups and harrowing downs-life experiences that he brings to his courses. Chris McDougall is also an author and motivational speaker. He lives by three words: Dream, Challenge and Inspire-Dare to Dream, Challenge yourself to live out those dreams and then inspire others to do so themselves. Please subscribe to his amazing YouTube channel (with over 38 million views!) and please give him a follow on Instagram (douggsbase) and Facebook. And to check out the book he wrote, please head over to Amazon.com or wherever you buy books. Please enjoy this episode with Chris McDougall. He gives great advice that everyone should hear. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. My First Season is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM and Listen Notes. **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to.
https://www.youtube.com/user/douggsloosedude
https://www.instagram.com/douggsbase/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/ChrisDouggsMcDougall
https://www.douggs.com/?fbclid=IwAR33cRJc182VuFsyK1jcJbmmJgcKx1GKcV5iSisXZGhRCDByNiqNKkNYZTQ
Monday Jan 24, 2022
Monday Jan 24, 2022
My guest today and I have never worked together before, despite having a whopping 80 mutual friends on Facebook. Her first season was in Club Med Sandpiper of March of 2003 in the Mini Club. Originally from Chicago and now living in Atlanta, please help me welcome to MFS, Susan “Suzie” Dunford Dell! Suzie’s introduction to Club Med came via her mother, who was a travel agent, and Suzie went to her first Club Med at 5 years old. During her first week at Sandpiper, she saw onstage the man she was going to marry (yes, it was Boone!) and they were even in the married couple skit of the Tennis Cabaret. Suzie said that it was Boone’s sense of humour that drew her to him, but I jokingly suggest a theory to Suzie that the Waterski Show number called “The Brouette” might have played a small part. Suzie also has a family business called “Oak and Park”, which makes all kinds of arm bags: mesh, clear, and XGO arm bags to name just a few. Her arm bags can be currently found in the first Club Med to open in Canada, the beautiful resort of Club Med Québec-Charlevoix! So if you are in the Club Med resorts of Sandpiper, Turks and Caicos or Charlevoix, please stop in and buy some! You can also visit her website and please give them a follow on Instagram (please see below for links). Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to.
https://www.instagram.com/oakandpark/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/OakandPark
https://www.tiktok.com/@oakandpark
Monday Jan 17, 2022
Monday Jan 17, 2022
This is part three in the series, “Amazing Women Doing Amazing Things”. My guest today is a pop-culture geek with seventeen years in the travel industry as a Travel Consultant and Tour Director. She is the owner and operator of "The Geek Travel Agent". From Ottawa, Canada, please help me welcome, Erin Novodvorsky! Erin shares with us at what age she got bit by the travel bug and how she got the idea to be a geek travel agent. Erin runs tours for TV shows and movies like Game of Thrones, Lord of The Rings, K-Pop/K-Dramas on Netflix, Anime tours to Japan (Studio Ghibli) and the TV show “Outlander” on the Starz network (and oh boy, does Greg have thoughts on Outlander!!). If you want to hear me rant and rave about “Outlander” while Erin tries to talk me down, then this episode is for you! Though we may differ slightly on Outlander, we do agree on "Gilmore girls"! Erin shares a Hurricane Dorian story from 2019 that involved a nine-day trip to the East coast of Canada and a busload of tourists. She also attended Ottawa Comic Con on November 19 2021 and let’s us know what it’s like attending a Comic Con from the vendor side (no Sailor Moons?!). Please check out Erin’s website below and give her a follow on Instagram and check out her Facebook! Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
https://thegeektravelagent.wordpress.com/
https://www.instagram.com/geektravelagent/
https://www.facebook.com/GeekTravelAgent