S1E13: We Recorded Our Audiobook

Show Notes

Summary

Our audiobook is here! In this special edition of The Intentional Organization Podcast, Sara Hicks and Mathias Meyer celebrate the availability of The Intentional Organization in audio, narrated in their own voices. Find the book and explore the available formats.

To bring the book to life, we met in Montreal and spent five days recording in a red booth inside an old shoe factory. We share what it was like to narrate our own work: learning to breathe, keeping our voices going, and discovering just how many times we had written the word “months.” Mathias tackled English pronunciation, Sara encountered a German place name she thought she had successfully assigned to him, and both of us found sentences we wished we had made shorter.

Reading the book aloud also gave us a chance to reconnect with the stories and ideas we had spent years writing. We reflect on why its focus on people, collaboration, feedback, and leadership still matters as technology changes—and why recording it together, in person, felt right for this book.

Beyond the studio, we talk about the friendship behind our partnership, the German word Weggefährte—a companion on the journey—and the shared experiences that help us stay connected across nine time zones. There are Montreal bagels, bikes, bouldering, white asparagus, poutine, and a visit to a knife shop. As ever, we come back to taking care of our tools, whether in leadership or the kitchen.

Keywords

audiobook, The Intentional Organization, author narration, Montreal, leadership, management, human connection, collaboration, partnership, friendship, writing, beginner’s mind

Takeaways

• The audiobook of The Intentional Organization is now available, narrated by its authors, Sara Hicks and Mathias Meyer.

• We divided the narration around our own stories, sometimes switching voices within a chapter so each of us could tell our experiences firsthand.

• Narration takes more physical and mental energy than we expected. Breaks, pacing, breathing, and patient coaching helped us find a rhythm.

• Reading your writing aloud reveals things silent reading can miss, including long sentences and awkward phrasing.

• A beginner’s mind can help you settle into unfamiliar work. Making mistakes is part of learning the process.

• The tools around work keep changing, but collaboration, delegation, feedback, and human connection remain central to leadership.

• Shared experiences and time together help sustain a partnership across distance and time zones.

• Look after your tools—and sharpen your knives.

Resources mentioned

• The Intentional Organization by Sara Hicks and Mathias Meyer — now available as an audiobook narrated by the authors.

• S1E5: Kitchen Knives — more on the connection between kitchen tools and leadership.

• Weggefährte — a German word we use here to describe a companion on the journey, encompassing our friendship and professional partnership.

• Montreal favorites discussed: Mile End, St-Viateur Bagel and Stay Sharp.

Chapters

00:05 Recording the Audiobook Experience

07:56 Challenges and Surprises in Narration

17:47 Reflections on the Process and Lessons Learned

18:14 Timeless Insights in a Changing World

20:45 The Importance of Human Connection

21:26 Defining Partnership: A Unique Perspective

23:22 Exploring Montreal: A Culinary Adventure

25:18 Reconnecting Through Shared Experiences

27:21 The Significance of Tools in Leadership and Life

Transcript

Sara Hicks (00:06) Well, here we are. Hello.

Mathias Meyer (00:07) Hello.

we just came back from the lovely city of Montreal where we recorded the audiobook version of our book. We opted to narrate it ourselves rather than letting someone else say the words or letting an AI do it.

we just wanted to chat a little bit about what the experience was for each of us and also for us jointly together.

Just yeah, to give you some ideas on what the process would l was like, why we actually did it in Montreal of all places you could argue. and yeah, just share a little bit about what what was fun about it, what was weird, and maybe what surprised us Where

Sara Hicks (00:53) Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (00:53) should we start?

Sara Hicks (00:54) Well, I mean, I think we just jump in. It is Tuesday morning for me, Tuesday afternoon for Mathias

which is our standing weekly, which we've had on our calendars. think, Mathias you said it's been eight years that this meeting's been on our calendars. Last

Mathias Meyer (01:09) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (01:10) Tuesday, we were actually sitting together at St. Viateur Bagel. No, or were we?

bagel. Oh, Ohio.

Mathias Meyer (01:16) we were at Ohio. We we were sipping we were sipping a coffee. Yeah.

Sara Hicks (01:21) Anyway, yes, we recorded the audiobook That was...

what drew us to Montreal. we call it meet in the middle-ish. So a few years back, we met in Nova Scotia.

That was lovely. Although we decided after that, the requirement was, both of us only had to do flights.

maximum and

Mathias Meyer (01:42) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (01:43) Halifax for Mathias required three flights

And well, not to get political, but the politics here in the US are, well, let's just say challenged. So

Mathias Meyer (01:52) Mm-hmm.

Sara Hicks (01:53) we chose Montreal. Mathias had never been. I haven't been to Montreal in 10 plus years, 15 years. It's a lovely city.

we try to meet, you know, in person once a year around this time. And we just decided, okay, why don't we make this year meeting to record the audiobook Last year we met in London.

And that was around LDX 3 where we did a joint keynote and kind of book related tour and selling some books. And this year it was about recording the audiobook So Mathias, how did we find our studio? Let's talk a little bit about that.

Mathias Meyer (02:31) I think I mean I did the simplest thing you could do, I went on Google Maps or maybe on a Google search or something and I looked for audiobook studios in Montreal. And you you now find a lot of studios that specialized in podcast recordings, that's now a common theme. And of course studios for specializing in music. We only found one at least

on the island of Montreal, where, you know, they they offered the services of an audiobook very explicitly. And then we just had a call with Martin, our guy, who was recording the book with us and just felt qu felt right or quite right.

as I would say as a German. so we just, you know, said, Okay, this is our guy.

We showed up to the studio and he was our guy. He was there and he did super well.

Sara Hicks (03:25) Yep, and he was, it was just lovely. The studio was a single room in an, I don't know how old the building was, but kind of a, what was it, an old warehouse? Shoe factory, yes. And so

Mathias Meyer (03:37) An old shoe factory is what it was. Yeah. Yeah.

Sara Hicks (03:41) the wooden floors were just delicious. just.

Mathias Meyer (03:44) Yeah. This was early

ear early twentieth century. is

Sara Hicks (03:48) had just great character,

yeah, really felt industrial. It was industrial. And Martin had a recording booth in the corner of this big room and all the exterior walls of the booth were painted red. So the red box is what we refer to as

Mathias Meyer (04:05) The red box, yeah.

Sara Hicks (04:06) we spent pretty much the entire week, all the weekdays.

One of us, one at a time, inside the red box with headphones on and yeah, being coached by Martin and reading and narrating the audiobook.

Mathias Meyer (04:22) Yeah, yeah, I had sent him a few test recordings before we flew in, just to see if I could get, what s re speed of reading would be right. But then I did a few test runs and measured it out like how many words per minute I would be reading and then s just send them to him. he just wrote back, Well Yeah.

Sara Hicks (04:41) And he was like, no, this is going to take a

while.

Mathias Meyer (04:46) This

is gonna be a while. you should try to sound not as monotonous as on these test recordings. And it's like, okay. I did not focus on that at all. but then again, we had no idea what to expect going in. Also like I hadn't listened to an audiobook in a while. So I had to also just find my way back into just what does engaging audiobook

narrating sound like? I'm still not sure I have a good idea, but like there's only so much engaging you can sound when you're reading a nonfiction, let alone a business book.

Sara Hicks (05:22) Yeah. I mean, I didn't even send any audio files over in advance because I was sort of cringing at the whole thing because I'm the person who doesn't even like to listen to my voice. So I just didn't even want to go through that exercise. Of

Mathias Meyer (05:37) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (05:38) course, I had to listen to my voice a bunch doing this project.

I came to think like going into narrating, going into the sense is that it was going to be tedious. It was going to be really interesting, but the tedious kept being the word I was, I was like, gosh, this is going to be a lot of work. And yeah, it was, it was a lot of work. And at times it was quite tedious. But I think that, you know, it's

Mathias Meyer (05:59) It was that. Yeah.

Sara Hicks (06:01) over 11 hours of recording that, you know, we're now.

now finished with it, I think doing it with Mathias and together meant that we had a lot of breaks. Our

Mathias Meyer (06:12) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (06:13) book, if you don't know, it's part memoir and leadership book with lots of frameworks, which means there's lots of lists. And we both wanted to read

our stories, our memoir parts. And so we divided up the book, not chapter by chapter, sometimes in the middle of a chapter, Mathias had a story that he shared from his perspective. And so it just made sense that he would read that. And then it would switch over to a story that I had shared and I wanted to read that. And that kind of, I think, helped us because it broke up.

the monotony, some of the tedium.

Mathias Meyer (06:48) Yeah. Yes.

Sara Hicks (06:50) So I wasn't in the booth for hours upon hours. Although I, Martin did say I did break the record. I did get the gold star. Like I recorded, think one full chapter, which was hour and a half of straight recording.

Mathias Meyer (07:03) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (07:03) Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (07:04) Thirty seven pages in total, yes, and you were in there for one hour thirty one minutes, I think I remember. Yeah, that was intense.

Sara Hicks (07:11) Yeah.

I think once we finished that, was like, okay, we're going to get this done. You know, our goal was to

Mathias Meyer (07:17) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (07:18) try to get it done. We started on a Monday morning and we wanted to finish by Friday so we didn't have it hanging over us on the weekend. And once we finished that particular chapter, I was like, yeah, we're going to get this done. Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (07:30) Yeah. Yeah.

I mean even the first day, like we first day may I mean I thought maybe we get the introduction in and the first chapter, but then we just we got into a rhythm pretty quickly. And yeah, as you said, it did help that we could just switch like for either chapter by chapter or story by story. and, you know, take a pause. 'Cause man, we were in this studio for

five

hours every day for five days and a

Sara Hicks (08:00) Yep.

Mathias Meyer (08:00) single person could not read as much. Like it is I w I had all kinds of medicine on me, just because my voice gets strained really easily, just to be prepared. And I came in with a slight with an ever so slight cough or cold or something stuck in my throat.

this was it was intense. Like I think towards the

Sara Hicks (08:21) Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (08:22) end of the towards the end of the week I had like I had to take a break in one of my readings because it's just it just got so bad. yeah. Intense experience.

Sara Hicks (08:29) Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's not,

he's not lying, folks. I just want to say he had throat lozenges, some German brand of throat things I've never seen. I even brought some organic throat coat tea, which he was drinking like

Mathias Meyer (08:47) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (08:48) all the time. We picked up some ginger from the store, lemon

Mathias Meyer (08:51) Some lemons, yeah.

Sara Hicks (08:54) ginger tea that he was having every day.

and even

Mathias Meyer (08:56) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (08:57) then there were still times, you know, when one of us was in the booth where you're like, okay, pause. So if you don't know you're in the booth and you have like a clicker obviously have a screen you're reading, you know, you've got your what you're supposed to do and the mics right right in front of your face. And if you mess up or if Martin tells you you messed up, which is you both happen, you press the clicker.

and the clicker shows a spike in the software. So Martin knows that's where he's got to do an edit And then you re-record it. And so if you have to cough or sniffle or you mess up a pronunciation or miss a word or whatever, you're clicking that a lot

Mathias Meyer (09:31) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (09:33) and super interesting. And then on the last day,

you're going back and fixing a lot of those things that can't be just fixed in the software. So you're re-recording and recording over specific sentences or things. with that, Matisse, my question for you, was there any words or any lines or any passages that took an embarrassing number of takes or was there anything that just cracked you up? I can think of one for me, but I want to ask you first.

Mathias Meyer (10:00) Well, I think

I think like narrating an audiobook forces you to face a lot of things. It is, as you already said, your own voice. like learning to listen to it without, you know, it cringing about it. and also, you know, appreciating the stuff that, you know, we've written at this point many years ago. it also especially like for me as a non native English speaker.

even though it's kind of almost like it's you know, second language is maybe the wrong word, it is maybe my one and a half language. and that, you know, that TH or already brings me to what was really challenging. like properly pronouncing a TH z

Sara Hicks (10:40) Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (10:45) is quite the challenge. its own. And then the proper German pronunciation would be z right? We would maybe pronounce it like an English Z or something like that. And if we

Sara Hicks (10:46) Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (10:57) then put it together make it a plural. Like not just month but months. Plural of month.

like when I when I read that the first time I just read it month. Like just like it's it was the same to me. Like I can I cannot go easily from a TH into an S in in just one swoop. can't do that without breaking without stumbling over my own tongue. And Martin was just like just

Sara Hicks (11:25) Click, stop.

Mathias Meyer (11:26) click stop and just say it months. Months

And he he it took him a moment to understand and appreciate that for an a for a non native English speaker, this is a challenge. And there were many words like that, once he w

Sara Hicks (11:43) It turns out that

we've used the word months a lot in our book. Who knew, right? Or paths or, yes, breath. Yeah, so many.

Mathias Meyer (11:48) Yeah. There were th breaths yeah, it's I

still I I will hire an English coach to help me just just nail this exact pronunciation. But I think

Sara Hicks (12:01) Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (12:02) yeah, months I mean maybe it was it ended up being your word of the trip. I'm not entirely sure.

Sara Hicks (12:06) My favorite

word of the trip because finally, you know, day whatever three or four and we're still trying to get past this word many times. And finally, I'm like, Mathias, just pretend there's no H in it. Just go months. say it fast, months. Get rid of the H.

Mathias Meyer (12:22) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (12:23) And so now that's how we think months, which is fine for that word, but you can't do that with paths because it's not paths

Mathias Meyer (12:29) my god, they are

Sara Hicks (12:32) anyway.

So things like that kept coming up for me. cracked up because there's a part in our book where we use a German word, which is where we met once for an offsite.

Mathias Meyer (12:42) Mm-hmm.

Sara Hicks (12:44) it's I should have practiced it again. Scharmützelsee Scharmützelsee I don't know. Getting better.

Mathias Meyer (12:51) Yeah, yeah. That was better than

bef than better than before our trip. Yeah.

Sara Hicks (12:55) But so

I was the one who actually divided up the book to figure out who was reading what. And I thought I had separated it so that Mathias would have to read that word. So I wouldn't have to be on record trying to say that. But as.

Mathias Meyer (13:08) Yeah, you you had announced

that with a high level of confidence. Yeah, that I would

Sara Hicks (13:12) I thought I was

very confident and then lo and behold, I'm in the booth and I get to that paragraph and I just start cracking up. And so Martin's like, okay, click, you know, so I start reading it and I do the best that I can. And it's definitely a favorite moment because for an English speaker, not the easiest German word to say, although Mathias is coaching me on it. I'm getting better.

Mathias Meyer (13:37) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (13:37) But that was a fun moment where we all cracked up

I think for me, what was harder than I also expected was at least the first day, I definitely got into a rhythm, but breathing control, I think I was nervous

Mathias Meyer (13:49) yeah.

Sara Hicks (13:50) when I started and I thought when I did my first time in the booth,

And I was reading and I was forgetting to breathe because I was nervous and I was just like nervous that my breath could be heard on the audio and that I was like too loud and then I was like trying to gulp for a breath because I had forgotten to breathe. And I thought, I don't know if I can do this people. Like this was a mistake. Like this is going to be the longest

week of my life. But then I just kind of got into the rhythm, you know, like I was like, OK, beginner's mind

I tried to treat it like a meditation. I'm just going to go

Mathias Meyer (14:23) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (14:24) into this, go into this booth. You're kind of going into, this protective layer and focus in on my meditation breathing. yeah, you just get more and more comfortable. And I also knew the process like you know, of course, I'm going to mess up. Of course, everyone's going to mess up.

Yeah, it just got easier and more comfortable and I figured out my breathing techniques. So, I don't know, it's done.

Mathias Meyer (14:43) Yeah.

It is done, yeah. Towards the end it's also like reading the last chapter or so maybe getting close to the air it's like you really have to pace yourself to not speed up too much, to j to just like I wanna get to the end. I wanna finish this. so close. It it I mean it is it takes a shocking amount of time almost to read one single page. Like just out loud.

But yeah, it does really make you appreciate the stuff that you've written. Like we at some point we had said, should have done this exercise before we fin before we fully publish the book. because it is an interesting experience to read your book out loud compared to just silently reading it, because when you're silently reading it you're just you're just parsing the words visually and you're trying to figure out if it makes sense.

But reading it out loud forces you to read it slowly. and also like when you're sitting in the booth, you're also reading it out loud while at the same time observing your own breath and speed and and those kinds of things. while I'm sitting there just sweating like hell in that tiny booth. but you're also like you're parsing the words when you're reading it out loud. you're appreciating what is there.

what is being said in those words. And sometimes you also like, this is a sentence we should have definitely shortened. This this sentence is too long.

Sara Hicks (16:09) Yeah. Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (16:11) which you I think you just only discover in a mode like that when you a

Sara Hicks (16:16) Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (16:16) actively take the time. And that's something something to do for future writing, I think. reading it out loud.

Or maybe even in this case having some maybe if it's a c computer voice, read it out loud to you. Because you do

Sara Hicks (16:30) Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (16:31) really focus on the words and not just on on character by character and pressing that.

Sara Hicks (16:38) Yeah, you literally hear it differently because you're hearing it. think that was also surprising and I'm glad you brought it up, which was there were parts where I was reading and I felt really proud. was like, yeah, this is a good book. Like it's timeless. There's a lot of good, still very relevant, actionable information. I felt good about it. And then I'd hit a sentence or two or a section. I'd be like, gosh, who wrote this? know, like this is this sentence.

It feels like a run on sentence or why this sentence

Mathias Meyer (17:05) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (17:05) is so long. Why didn't we cut this into two or certain certain chapters and not chapters, but sections where I was like, okay, yeah, I think I'd want to rewrite that part. But on the whole, it felt really good. And it was a good exercise

Mathias Meyer (17:19) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (17:19) to kind of I hadn't, you know, spent a lot of time back with the book in a while. You know, we published the hardcover.

just over a year ago. And project itself, as Mathias said, has taken many years. So it's been a while since we wrote those words. So I was happy to re-engage with it and looking forward to doing a launch the audiobook later this summer. Or I think we're thinking, well, by the time you listen to this, You should have it available,

Mathias Meyer (17:47) Yeah,

for sure.

I

Sara Hicks (17:49) Should we touch on Montreal a little bit more?

Mathias Meyer (17:52) Yes, lot. I had I think the one thing

Sara Hicks (17:53) Okay, hold on.

Mathias Meyer (17:54) I wanted wanted to still mention is like going go A, like we we talk about a few sentences that we found too long. Overall I think the book is still it's

Sara Hicks (18:04) Yes.

Mathias Meyer (18:04) still if we may say so ourselves, it's still Chef's kiss what I what I noticed going through this, like this book was we started writing it

when

the modern generative L AI LLMs were not a thing yet. this was like we started working on this twenty twenty, which means when the audiobook comes out, that'll almost be like the six year anniversary of us writing the first lines, which is intense. such a long book project. and the one thing I kept realizing as you know, y I was reading, as you were reading, it's like

Yes, there's all of this AI stuff now, that can help with many, many things, but what we talk about in the book, is still timeless. And I wouldn't just say that because we wrote the book. like we wrote the book like focused on on people, on humans, and not on well, here's every single way on how you can be as efficient or productive or hustling as possible in your business or startup.

we want you in your management and leadership work, we want you to focus on the people around you as people and on yourself. And I thought

Sara Hicks (19:13) Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (19:13) like reading it, there weren't a lot of chapters where I thought this would really gain a lot if we were talking more if we would be talking more about AI in this chapter. I think the meetings chapter might be

Sara Hicks (19:24) Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (19:25) one, but the rest is just so focused on the

on the stories, on our stories, on the the memoir parts of it and how you can get people to collaborate,

Sara Hicks (19:34) Thank

Mathias Meyer (19:36) and to get getting the best out of people, how you can give them feedback. And there's

Sara Hicks (19:40) Yep.

Mathias Meyer (19:40) sure AI could help with a few of these things, but overall, you know, that's the work of management that is still to be done, even with AI in place. And I I appreciated that reading the books.

Sara Hicks (19:47) Yep. Yep. Yep.

Mathias Meyer (19:52) So like I was worried a bit at times, but I was like this is

still a timeless piece. And I think in a way, us travelling to Montreal, the the burden of travel, the burden of like flying across time zones in jet lag, and also the cost this incurs. it's still we wanted to record this book in person, in the same place, right, and not leave this to some AI. That was also important to us.

And I think there's

Sara Hicks (20:18) Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (20:19) a nice nice little you know, there's a connection there between those things.

Sara Hicks (20:24) Yeah, yeah, very well said.

work is still about people, right? And there's still requires collaboration and delegation and feedback, all things that we have written about in detail, because you're interacting with other human beings. And so that felt really good.

I feel like that that part those parts and most of the book is still very timeless.

You know, I think

One of my favorite moments of the trip was we were sitting, at our dining table in one of our Airbnbs and Mathias asked me, how I refer to our business partnership when I'm talking to others. And it was one of those like, oh, this is a sincere, like good question. I got it like.

put away devices and think about this for a second. And I wrote about it on LinkedIn because our business partnership has spanned a lot of projects together and companies and life events and a book that we've co-authored and this podcast and a coaching business that we've launched together and we've sold companies and

As many of you know, we're across nine different time zones. So there's, there's a lot of layers and nuance

Mathias Meyer (21:33) Hmm.

Sara Hicks (21:34) and complexity and, interesting things that we've cultivated over many years that we've been working together and a deep friendship. and so I was like, gosh, well, I usually just say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. usually say, okay, my good friend, Mathias also business partner and coauthor and

You know, it's a lot to say, then decided, maybe there's a German word and Mathias quickly surfaced, Weggefährte Did I say that right? Wegge fahrte Weggefährte Weggefährte Vig,

Mathias Meyer (22:01) Close, yeah. Weggefährte, Weggefährte

Sara Hicks (22:06) see that word. And it's like companion on the journey in both a professional context and collaboration, but also a personal friendship. it's like, of course the German language has the perfect word to describe.

Mathias Meyer (22:18) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (22:18) our partnership and friendship and, you know, collaboration. And I think that's kind of what ties A lot of what we talk about in the book, it is about people, it is about partnership, it is about, figuring out how to work with each other making sacrifices and making the time your life to meet up in Montreal to record the audiobook. Like that was our next container.

Montreal, such a great city. I this

Mathias Meyer (22:41) Mm-hmm.

Sara Hicks (22:41) was the first time where I spent more time kind of in the neighborhoods. Every time I'd been to Montreal, it's kind of been work related where I've been more downtown or in old Montreal. So I really felt like I got different flavor. It feels like Brooklyn, of course, because that's not so far away. was very green, lots of stoops. We were stooping a lot.

Mathias Meyer (22:59) Mm-hmm.

Sara Hicks (23:01) we had a bit of rain, but the weather was still nice that, you know, the streets were overflowing. It was during the World Cup, people just out everywhere. we are now connoisseurs of all the bagels, all the bagel shops in, Montreal, which is great. A lot of highlights. Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (23:14) Yeah. Good b they're good bagels. Yeah.

Sara Hicks (23:19) And yes. And there's the shirt.

Mathias Meyer (23:22) Yeah,

plenty of good food in Montreal and also just a really I mean we stayed in in Mile End. We generally stuck to the area northwest of Montreal, that excellent park and also Hill. it was just yeah, it was perfect. We had lots of good food, although we cooked at our Airbnb. I

Sara Hicks (23:44) a lot.

Mathias Meyer (23:45) I brought

one and a half kilos of German white asparagus to Montreal. because at the Scharmützelsee that Sara mentioned, many many years ago, seven actually, she had a a white asparagus ex experience, which is a very it's a German I don't know what's the word.

Sara Hicks (24:06) Delicacy!

Mathias Meyer (24:07) It's not just a tradition, it's not just a delicacy. It is just it's almost it's a religion.

That's what it is. Like

it's very very seasonal. Two two months every year is asparagus season.

Sara Hicks (24:18) That was a good one.

Mathias Meyer (24:22) and I just I wanted to make up for that. And so I had learned maybe two or three years ago to make a proper Hollandaise sauce. And I went to my local co-op here and bought some asparagus.

and brought it into the country and thankfully all of that was doable. I declared it properly as you do. I did my research in advance. and then I could make Sara a proper meal. But yeah, outside of that we just we had breakfast, we had bagels we made our own breakfast at times too. But just there was it's it's just a really good city.

I enjoy being in some cities still, but generally prefer the countryside at this point. But Montreal was just really nice, really vibrant, the bike infrastructure was incredible. Just even com

Sara Hicks (25:10) So great.

Mathias Meyer (25:11) even compared to Berlin, which is not doing that well in comparison. Yeah, it was a good time.

Sara Hicks (25:18) we got lots of walking in. rode the city bikes to the studio almost every day. We even made it to a rock climbing gym and did some bouldering, which was

Mathias Meyer (25:29) yeah.

Sara Hicks (25:30) just a definite highlight. Yeah, I think Montreal is out of all the places we've met and we've met in some pretty great places. Montreal, think, is now at the top of the list of.

of cities.

Mathias Meyer (25:42) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (25:43) We did spend the weekend out in the countryside, just like an hour, hour and a half outside of Montreal. There's a bazillion lakes. And so we were right on this this lake, Lake Beauvoir.

Mathias Meyer (25:54) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (25:55) Yeah, it was just really lovely trip and a successful one because, we got the narration done and

More importantly, we got to reconnect as business partners as say the word, Weggefährte Yes.

Mathias Meyer (26:08) Weggefährte Yeah.

I did I did bring bagels back to Berlin as you did to LA and I enjoyed those. just over the last couple of days. now they're gone.

Sara Hicks (26:22) I learned

that it's not an everything bagel in Montreal, it's an all dressed bagel, which I kind of like. It's just so civilized. I'll have the all dressed

Mathias Meyer (26:32) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (26:33) bagel. So I brought some all dressed bagels home and they're long gone.

Mathias Meyer (26:38) Yeah. Yeah. It's a good s it was a good trip in in a lot of ways.

Also like it's still very fresh in our memory. This was a weird idea I had at the lounge while we're just after we parted ways at the airport. Just hey we should record a podcast episode just to

look back on a few things from our time in Montreal and that we did. We also I just want to make it clear to anybody who's who's wondering, like we did have Poutine.

Sara Hicks (27:05) All right, I can't believe we're nearing the end of this episode and we're just now mentioning poutine. Yes,

Mathias Meyer (27:09) Yeah.

it was some

really good poutine. Like we it is one of those spots that is quote unquote touristy.

but it was excellent poutine, excellent fries.

Sara Hicks (27:21) the fries were great.

before

we wrap up, Mathias we should share if you know part of our story together, if you've read our book, you know that we both appreciate sharp knives.

Mathias Meyer (27:32) right. Yes.

Sara Hicks (27:33) So Mathias is the type of person who travels with an Opinel knife just because you can't trust that any of the Airbnbs are gonna have sharp knives, because most of them don't. So we already had knife.

that we could use that was obviously sharp. He sharpened it before he arrived. Mathias had found prior to us even arriving in Montreal, a great knife shop called Stay Sharp. we decided that we were gonna buy partnership knives and we'd each buy a knife and take it home. And so we found this great shop, great...

folks working in the shop, so knowledgeable. We'll have to share some

Mathias Meyer (28:16) Mm-hmm.

Sara Hicks (28:16) of the photos. I got one knife that's just incredible. Mathias ended up getting two knives. So then from that point on, we had very sharp knives. And we even in one of our

Mathias Meyer (28:28) Yeah.

Sara Hicks (28:29) Airbnbs found a whetstone, a sharpening stone. So we were able to help them

Mathias Meyer (28:33) Yeah, that was different.

Sara Hicks (28:34) by sharpening their knives. yes, if you listen to the audio

book, read the book, just know that

Yes, your tools are important, whether it's your leadership tools or your kitchen tools. So sharpen your knives. Yeah.

Mathias Meyer (28:47) That is correct. That

is correct.

Sara Hicks (28:50) Okay, enjoy the audio book. We will see you next time.

Mathias Meyer (28:53) Enjoy the

audio book.

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