Good day everyone It's Wednesday At one o'clock. I'm back again every Wednesday at one o'clock It's been a good time to just make stuff and I look forward to it very much. So thank you for watching and First I'm going to go through some of the stuff that We did last week and then address some of the comments that were in the comments section Hopefully we can get where we're leaving comments there. Hopefully we can answer all your questions and What else and then I have two things that I wanted to do today. So we'll do all that but first happy Canada Day everyone's at home today and I Didn't want to miss this Wednesday because again, I look forward to it and I had a plan So here we go Yes, what's the update? We're in Canada. Hi David. Hi Jeff. Happy. Oh, hi mom Jeff's not with us today. Hello Sonya's crafts. Hi Dave Okay, try in the world day so Jeff is at home with his family because it's Canada Day and And so it'll just be me holding that. Thank you Evelyn It'll just be me holding the camera and then putting it on the tripod So it won't be as smooth as we've been getting we've been Learning happy best country the world day Hello from New Jersey. Hello Lisa. Okay, so let's just start by walking around and seeing some things from last week. Hello cook with mom So last week we were we went over some basics for doing these ocean pours. I got a bit crazy I was showing what silicon stuff does to it Q8. Hello Belinda you made it. Well, welcome Venice from Illinois Detroit, Michigan. Hello everyone. I hope you're all Hanging in there So these were some of the ones. I mean look at the so this was we put sand in it and Memphis, Tennessee. Hello Kathy So this is really oily because we put silicone oil in it, but it does look cool. I mean It's a bit intense. Look, that's that's a silicone oil dripping down it. I just went crazy with it So what I'm probably gonna do is I'm probably gonna wash this with soap and water And then I'm going to pour another coat of resin over it But it looks neat and that's what we just went over some basics of doing these water pours So what else did we do? Oh, then we had our corona Hello, thanks for joining. We had this one which took was two different sessions. So the first one we were just showing There's feathers in there and some liquid pigment and then bottle caps now. There are some bubbles on the surface So I'm gonna sand this down And maybe I'll polish it I'll sand it and polish it. I'm not gonna do that today though and then That'll be done But we just went we just looked at a lot of different things while we were making this there's no bubbles in it just on the surface So that's done this coaster mold To success as I'd say what else did we do? Oh, we're continuing to just experiment with this Again, this is just a purchase from Amazon Where you can make these pyramids so we have some gold leaf in there and some dried real flowers and Some pretend kidney stones in honor of Jasmine What else do you work on oh? You worked on this. Do you know how to speak in Urdu? No, I don't know how to speak in Urdu. Sorry I'll try and learn for next week. So we did this one and it turned out lovely And it's just so bright in it and then what I do on the bottom is I put some Linseed oil on the bottom and it seems to have kind of worked. So the bottom of the wood is oily. There's a couple spots on here I'll heat gun off But I'm I mean just to finish this off. I'm gonna sand the edges paint them I'll probably paint the edges white and then call it done. Hello from to ran to ran to ran Mr. Ur welcome I'm here in Canada and In Canada our west of Toronto And we're doing all right. We're doing all right. I hope everyone else is doing all right out there So here's the story for this painting that we did Last week it was this is a book that I did with my daughter and my brother so that's my daughter Zoe and my brother Ryan and It's about an octopus that has How much does it cost for 10 gallons of resin? Hey guys love the book. Oh cool. You got the book That's so fun So see we had to come up with sock designs. So me and my daughter We're just we just left this canvas out on the table and we just you know Would scribble on it every once in a while and then pick out the socks that made the final cut So that's a special piece for me And then I got to show Zoe that you can finish a book and get it printed all by yourself, you know So that was a really fun project that during this coronavirus And if you want to do your own book, it's so easy to do and it's print on demand and we just used Amazon It's called a Kindle direct, but it does it used to be called create space That's so good We got like a book made and I you can only order one you can order whatever you want anyways I encourage you to just make a book Okay, what else do we have to talk about I got the checklist if anyone has any questions or ideas for next week Let me know and I'll write them down That's how we do it. So Next week one of the questions. I'm not gonna address today was there was a question about putting resin on mirrors Hey, Melody from Augusta, Georgia. Welcome mirrors, this will so this is next week Next week mirrors and I'll gather some props and we'll just do some experiments But the main question I'll show you what we're gonna do today So there was questions last week about resigning photographs Can you resin wood stairs? Yes, you can definitely resin wood stairs. Hello mirrors sound great. Okay, cool wood stairs So you'll want to look into There's three different ways to mix in aggregate With epoxy resin and this is used for flooring. So you don't want it to be super sweet. Hey, Ollie I'm making a gift for you guys down in Texas today. Welcome. Ollie is the CFO of art resin and strong American from Texas Welcome Ollie. We're just answering questions about using art resin on stairs and I was suggesting to look into a mixing aggregates into Mixing aggregates into the resin Hi, honey. Great to see you as always you too spammy Lee Okay So I got distracted. I Get distracted so much. That's what this list is good for. So we're doing this bottle cap USA art. I'm gonna add this Canadian flag things in the top and then I'll be done for Texas. Could you use art resin? Yes Mount a photo and resin it I'm gonna use a bunch of art resin So that's what we're doing today Mount a resident mount a photo and resin it and this beer cap art. Oh And then we're talking about tape for the bottom Wish I could stay have a great day. Oh, by Louise. Have a great day. We'll see you next week So here's what we're gonna do. This is a wooden support. This is a picture that I'm gonna be mounting see This is me and my daughter and son just standing on the deck and I just love how her arms around me And it was taken on an iPhone, which is amazing the quality you can get and my son and Add a nice pond with a fountain in it. So could you use art resin for wood stairs? Yes, you could use art resin for wood stairs. I mean you just the final thing is do you want to be slippery or do you Want to have some grip? That's just something to consider But yes art resin is fantastic on wood. I'm doing a lot of wood stuff recently Okay, so I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm just gonna do this and Then if you have any questions, hopefully I can get to them I'm gonna have to put it up on the tripod. One thing is taping the bottom.  Oh good the torque. You got that's so good You got the torch headpiece. They're just a comment. This is something that I that See this torch headpiece so it turns a flame from like a straight thing to an a fan shape, right? And I need to sell them. I need to sell them or I'll leave won't let me make other products and It cost four thousand dollars to get a mole made So that they can make these Interesting, I've never made something like manufactured something out of metal, but that's what it cost Okay, look, I'm distracted again We were talking about taping the bottom of your canvas to avoid drips on the bottom Sorry, I'm so scattered There's so much to do so I Usually use masking tape Torch taps for the minis. I think yeah, I think it does Someone like I'm distracted again. That's why I need Jeff. We have the small handheld torches That use butane like this see and This clip. Oh, it doesn't fit. I never even thought of that Interesting maybe we'll look into that because if it could work on both of them, that would be great Okay So I'm not gonna look at questions right now. I'm gonna put this up on this tripod. Oh my gosh Just broke it See, this is why you need Jeff Right. She's me. Sorry guys How's that? So I'll work there and get this photograph So I used to use this stuff But I don't use it anymore. I find that People that I've mounted to canvases with this has peeled off over time more than once I've found that So I don't use this Also, if any of your spray gets on top of this by accident it reacts with the resin and creates bubbles So this spray is and then look at poids. Look at how poisonous it is So and when you're spraying anything into the air, that's you're likely to get it into your Buddy, so I just like glue sticks good old glue sticks Don't gotta be fancy when you're mounting.  I just found at our house where I guess Rebecca had drawn this dinosaur on for Xavier to color in and when he was very young so that was some coloring it in and it's just terrible terrible So I'm just covering it up these babies Can't even so there and I want to spend extra attention with glue there and there and there You don't have to overthink this process. There's no fancy special professional glue. I mean, there probably is but you don't need to go buy that Okay Look at how much glue is on there. I feel really good about that So this picture is a tiny bit larger than the actual canvas I'm not being told but it hangs over a tiny bit and I just find it easiest for Getting it perfect because you'll just trim those edges with an exact knife So there we have that on there But a paper with a surface and then These are rubber rollers used in printmaking. It's called a brayer. They come in handy to have and look There's a great use for a brayer just pushing out any air bubbles and really pressing it on there Okay That'll do it punch line of this octopus book. So the octopus he's got all of it. Okay, so you trip up on those socks Then you can't find one one's missing then He freaks out he throws his arm up he gets his hand in a trumpet and he gets a great idea throws away the socks We got watermelon a plant a lamp a fish And he's so happy a cake Teapot a seashell He's like there. I did all my new socks and then he goes down the stairs makes all these funny sounds and Then his mom says but where are your boots and that's the that's the punchline, right?  I Felt the cutting matter. Maybe it's pellet, but I'm using it as a cutting mat upside down Exact line. There we go done. Okay. It's ready. You may have noticed on the bottom. I have packing tape Slippery packing tape. I pushed it down really hard at the edges So my resin drips are gonna flow over the edge Down the side and rub it into the side and then In theory when the drips went hard and just pull this tape off and all the drips come off Isn't that great? Okay, I'm turning you over here So I just again have two things that I wanted to resin. What do you think about Mod Podge versus glue sticks? What do I think about that Mod Podge is May it depends on the paper Mod Podge is Liquid and it might get the paper wet and make ripples so That's what I think Just don't use too much of it. Yes okay, so this is the piece that I was going to send down to Texas and I and I just got this at the dollar store filled it up with beer with that There's some corona Stars Mod Podge isn't acid-free. Okay, so Mod Podge isn't acid-free. I don't know how that'll affect things Acid and then look at the red white red white. This is a Canadian beer Got a candle flag on it, but I just want to add one more thing up here and I'll show you what I'm gonna do and then it's gonna be finished Base paper mixed media Okay, so I'm just gonna get some sandpaper here Actually, I'm gonna I'm gonna roughly sand the whole thing because I'm just gonna put resin everywhere And I'm just doing this so that the resin will Stick to it because there's already a coat of resin on here to hold all these bottle caps in I'll tell you my idea here acrylic paint markers, which we were talking about Couple of Wednesdays ago someone asked about acrylic paint markers So how they work is there it's a spring-loaded cap Happy Canada Day. Yeah, and I'm doing something for Canada Day. Thanks Laura. You too if you're a Canadian Happy Canada Day See so it's spring-loaded and you have to like press that down to get Acrylic paint onto the tip of the marker Get it and I'm using red today. Oh, we're neighbors Laura Andrews pickering cool. I'm from New Jacks So here's what I'm doing today. So art resin the Company that this channel is for Has an office in Canada and an office in Texas. It's manufactured in Texas. And so Oh Grimsby cool. Hey Dale So having one business that has two locations in different countries Can be very difficult because like any relationship It's about communication and it's so it's very difficult when your business is in two different countries working on the same project So at times It feels like Canada versus the USA You know with Work and so I was gonna send this down there and I'm putting a little instead of a candle plague I'm just freehanding on here What looks like a candle flag with a nice heart to finish off this piece? And let them know that we love them and then they'll say all those nice Canadians Every time they see it. I think that's It makes work so much more enjoyable when you enjoy the people that you work with and you're all on the same team Communicating well So these paint there it's acrylic paint. It dries super fast. I'm just gonna resin it right away Yeah, look at that done But a big butter boom Canada up there USA perfect Okay, it's hot here. Oh So now I'm going to set up these two pieces for resonating this piece already has been taped on the bottom I use packing tape So I'll show you what I'm doing to set this piece up these painters pyramids And this is a table covered in some plastic sheeting Okay, excuse me while I move this camera straighten this. Hi my resin dried in some space in some part just ain't very sticky Nostalgia, sorry to hear about that sticky resin. That's so annoying. We've all been there. So What most likely happened is you mixed up all your resin But you didn't scrape the bottom or the sides while you're mixing and then what you pour Most of it is cured, but then at the end you scrape out every last bit and there's blobs of stuff that just wasn't mixed in so what you can do If you if you were to hold it up vertically and your sticky resin was going would Run down the surface Then you're gonna have to like muck it all out of there with like a spatula and rags And then you can fill it in and you can fix it all If it doesn't run then just sand it down and resin over the whole thing Okay, so I'm gonna set up these two pieces Green markers Sweating it is so hot up here in Canada Which is what you want? Not complain for a second Just need a swimming pool Okay, so that was good to go this You have a resin this Let's set up our American Canadian Corner stand So the next step is doing some math the hardest part of all of this Okay So I'm just gonna say this is one and a half square feet I'm gonna say this is two square feet just by looking at it Orange County, New York. Hello so 1.5 and 2 I'm just gonna say we have four square feet. Okay, I'm just writing on the side of this in the highlighter So you can't see it at all So I want four square feet of resin. So here's how I do it. I just know that our 32 ounce kit The bottles that come in this size so two of these bottles does eight square feet. I Just know that hey Detroit. Hi Alexis. So four square feet Would be half would be 16 ounces Gain cuz 32 ounces does eight square feet. So I want 16 ounces, but eight of that is in resin And eighth of that is in hardener. So eight ounces of resin eight ounces of hardener. I'm gonna mix that up right now That math wasn't too hard was it? No Little triangle stands They're easy to find in the painting section of hardware stores or we sell these little white ones Like these are our ones these white ones and right now we sell them in our accessory kit We don't sell them individually yet just because they're Too expensive to make right now, but if people like them, we will sell them individually just developed painters pyramids Any hardware store in the painter section or Amazon or by our accessory kit Now one of you had a great I was complaining about having sweaty hands and changing my sticky gloves and We had lots of great suggestions. I ordered some disposable cotton gloves to put on first and leave on I'm not gonna use baby powder Let's go measuring cup So I'm measuring cup and stirring up Actually, I'm just gonna do that Eight ounces and eight ounces that's I did a lot more than needed to Because it's so hot in here. The resin is super ready. It's more like water Which means less bubbles So now three minutes of awkward stirring What do you want to talk about for three minutes? Well, I stir I Don't want to talk about I don't want to talk about the news I've been look I look at the news every morning. I wake up. I look at the news I just can't not do it if I stand a surface to get rid of pinholes Do I need to resin the whole piece again? You can do the spot resin resin and then a bit of polishing and stuff and see if you like it or not um, you know If it's depending on where it is in the piece and how obvious it is But it's hard to just spot fix stuff in resin because the whole thing is like a sheet of glass, right? But it's not impossible So yeah, you can try and do that with some polishing What I've found is as much as it sucks. I Just say I'm gonna do the whole piece again If you and then yeah, I mean it's not always perfect There might be a bubble or two, but You do the best you can you get the best result you can Depends on how much of a perfectionist you are but yeah Obvious bubbles just ruin the whole thing and often you have to do the whole thing again Okay Have you taken a semi dried? I'm sorry. I missed it. I got distracted As that question what varnish do you recommend to coat art resin? Let me think So we did a bunch of tests with lots of varnishes I think it was a golden paints product was the one that came with the best Golden paints. I forgot what it's called. I'll remember in a moment. Have you ever used resin spray? well Yeah, if you spray that I think what you're talking about is there is how once you've poured it Only has one bubble. It's a new tiny. Hi there. I think that if you've poured But what resin spray I think you're referring to is is especially when someone is doing a big floor with resin They'll pour it and then they'll still mist Over top of it and what that is is that's alcohol actually I think that's what you're talking about So if you were to mist alcohol, I'll do it today to show you if I remember you missed alcohol over the surface It does something that forces all the bubbles up So and I don't know what it does, but the problem is as soon as you As soon as you turn something into an aerosol It's a pattern part. So not to know. Okay Alcohol nine takes the bubbles out with a mist. Yeah, exactly Kelly. It takes that with a mist The thing is and I guess just you know, we sell a chemical and we had a lot of labeling requirements We had to learn a lot about you know safety badges and as soon I Think it'll pull off of melamine really easily as soon as you turn something anything into a mist It becomes a whole different category of toxicity just because all of a sudden you've made it really easy to enter your body So that's why I don't really like the idea of misting stuff not talking about art residents resin But if my room smells like resin, it's likely something If your room smells strong like resin, it's having the things called their solvents Spraying vinegar is harm. Yeah, exactly. Okay spray even spray just turning anything into a spray is all of a sudden makes it like Accessible to you, right? So the comment there was spraying vinegar is harmful. Okay. I've sprayed for a long time This resin looks super clear Those bubbles there from stirring, but they're not too bad So if when residents have an overpowering over those are called solvents and solvents make the product cheaper to buy Because the raw materials are cheaper But there's a couple problems when there's a chemical reaction with epoxy resin that makes they get heat up and Then when it heats up that makes some solvents evaporate into the air and that's called a VOC or a volatile organic compound So and often that means odor as well Okay, here we go How should I do this? You know what? I'm gonna take you along for the resin ride Shoot some sweating in here. It is hot Okay, excuse me while I prepare this handle be filming. So again, this is a photograph Mounted to a wooden panel. How does our resin of such good UV protection? Well, I mean Zeckie, how does it have so good UV protection? It's because we just focused on it and did an all of our testing and we're still constantly learning and testing and A cup of your using where can I find these cups? Oh, I'm only some motorcyclists these cups are just buying from the dollar store Yeah, dollar store. Okay, here we go. And we were we were talking about We're talking about UV protection. So I mean our resin is a mix of many different chemicals and There's two things that Well, one is we only buy products that are very clear, which means you have to pay more for them and There's a rating system called it a fa I believe or APA and The lower the number the clearer it is because we don't want any color in our materials But there's two things there's something called halls hindered amine light stabilizers And there's materials called UV stabilizers and then Okay, I'm gonna hang this back up and when you put these but then there's also another thing is shelf life. So There's anti oxidants is another thing. But then if you want to cause oxygen the APHA color scale, that's right. Thank you, Ollie When oxygen hits liquid especially the hardener It oxygenates like a banana. So then another thing that's mixed in the chemistry to keep it clear is anti-oxidation chemicals, so Jeanine what you do with your mixing cup is you put it upside down and Leave it. I don't know if you could see just put it upside down and leave it I wish I showed you how I the next day you can just rip it right out And I usually get maybe five or more uses out of one of these before it gets too gunky But yeah cleaning it. It's very impossible. It's very difficult. I mean, it's a it's a strong glue this stuff a varnish It's water-based. Is this the varnish golden polymer varnish I'm gonna run upstairs and find out golden Okay, well with these pieces here, I still have to spread spread it out and torch it But I'm gonna go upstairs and find this varnish testing thing And then I'll tell you the one that I might I hope I don't lose you on the internet You can add to the description. Hi there. Thanks for coming. I'm just got distracted and I'm running upstairs to look at Some tests that we have going on. So these this is a different varnish test here. It's called isolation coat And I don't know if that is a varnish but Hi Dave. Hey free spirit art. So the reason that we did this test is This is white paint varnish and an art resin and We wanted to see what varnishes stay clearest over time or what varnishes react with the resin and discolorate and so Whatever isolation coat was by golden one Like really one That competition, but I guess it depends what you want your varnish to do in terms of varnishes that stay clear It was golden a coat That was fun So now I'm just gonna put on new gloves with my sweaty hands I should just get some baby powder. I just need to man up It's exactly what I need. Have you created a 3d item by molding the resin item over a vessel? Oh, yes, great idea. I Have them upstairs like you can so you can pour a sheet of resin and then once it's You know in eight hours or so you can bend it over top of a bowl Do you need to know you don't need to varnish the resin? I don't know why you'd want to do that But sometimes you want to varnish your material before you resin it in order to prepare it for example a magazine Image if you mount it and then varnish it first and then resin it will be fine If you mount it and don't varnish it the resin will make it wet transparent and you'll see through the image on the other side Okay Sometimes you might want to var a reason when you might want to varnish resin is say if you want a matte finish or a different Type of finish cornstarch, okay? So if you wanted a matte finish you would sand off the shine and then you can varnish it to whatever finish you would want, right? Varnish top final coat for a coaster. You don't have to Okay, so Spread out this resin torch it and then cover it and then we're done Timeless brand finish for digital prints of photos. Oh breathing color. Yes breathing color has Quality stuff. I'll show you but then I'll also show you one thing about it. Yeah, this was It's called museum grade Varnish it is by a company called breathing color It's called glamour to what someone just mentioned in the Comments and breathing color their materials are very I'd say archival so they create stuff with longevity in mind Which means really good quality stuff and they're especially around photography. I believe but and I mean, I like work. I've talked to them. I like them. They're a great company But I have these bits as do not use without a good respirator because then when I read the I mean It's just scary This product. Yeah, it's just some scary chemicals and some scary warning signs So I just don't feel good using it But it's good quality. So if you have the proper If you have the proper safety equipment And sometimes you have to with these types of chemicals, which is the good thing about our resin All right, enough chit chat. We have these epoxy spreaders They have three different sides of this so as you pull along the epoxy some of the resin stays and It pulls the rest of it so you can get a thick coat So I'm just scraping the epoxy Right to the edge of the photograph All sides and it's dripping down and here So I always start with a scraper, but then I just turn to my gloves and I'm just rubbing all the resin into the edges I can have you can today to anyone who's new here I'm up in Canada and it's Canada Day So I'm alone at the Art Resin Canadian headquarters down in Texas. They're still working And once this cures, I'm gonna send this down to Texas and they'll put it on their wall Just rubbing all the resin into the sides Just to basically finish the edges. So like everything I do. It's just super messy.  Oh, I'm gonna torch it actually Let me get the torch out and I'll bring you along for that exciting ride Yeah, that's all I need to do. Where's my to-do list? Okay, so we did the bottle cap art Man at the photos. So next week we're gonna do glass and mirror and we'll see what else comes up in the comments And that's it Good Thanks for putting up with me.  I missed that top question. Sorry Thanks for putting up with me as I kind of I I feel a bit disorganized But we made it so the propane torch head and Again, you use a torch to get rid of bubbles It what the does How do you clean the scraper the same way I put it down? I just set it down on this. This is plastic It's a roll of plastic sheeting that we cover the tables with and then next time this will it'll all stick on here I'll pick it up. I'll just kind of bend it and then peel the Same thing with the stir stick Just leave it sit there. You can use a silicone mat like you can get them from baking Yeah, like a baking silicone mat is really good to have if you're doing a lot of resin, okay, let's do these bubbles Okay I'll try the bending bending part Maybe I'll run upstairs and I'll show you like you can make bowls Out of resin you can make little dishes Okay Here we go. Yeah, thanks. I love the torch head. I found it maybe 10 years ago bubbles keep coming up sometimes need to be I Don't usually retorch. I usually do it once cover it and get out of there. I Used to go back and like pick at it and look at it and stuff But If you over torch that could be an issue too, so You're usually good with one torch. Why did half of my resin cure in half not? Can I use the Tika um? the teak Resin in the tea cups bottom. Yes, you can use it in the tea cups bottom We have all the certified food safety certifications and tests. We've done them all we had to do them all So there's no leaching of any kind So once it cures as long as you mix and measure correctly you can It's food safe Okay, so this is all done. I see a couple more bubbles. I'm gonna just pop I'm gonna do one more round and then I'm gonna cover it In the meantime, I'm not familiar with timeless varnish, but I know that breathing out there has Really high quality products and actually in terms of varnishes That's a lot. I know them for their varnishes. So Like this dish It was a sheet of resin flat South Africa, I don't think so Lindy. Sorry. We'll get in South Africa Send a message to info.rizin.com so See so out about the You know say five to eight hour mark or even on the 24 hours would be too late you can bend your sheet your poor resin over top of objects And make things like bowls That's the only example I can see right now But How's that? Anything else we should talk about This Wednesday at one o'clock Can I get yours in Ireland? I Think so because we saw in the UK art resin. See I like I miss can you buy from art resin.co.uk in Ireland? I'm sorry. Please try that Okay, everyone That's it Thank you for watching. Thank you for the questions. I Hope you're all doing well. I Hope you're all making stuff. I feel like now more than ever is the time to Hustle really hard as This has the world being kind of recreated or whatever is going on so Yes, good luck hustle hard. We'll see you next Wednesday at one o'clock Why did okay, so I'm gonna address Sherry before I go celebrate and be safe Yes, you too happy can today. Okay, half of the cure and half of it didn't cure Well, it's all about measuring and mixing really well. Yeah. Have a great day everyone. Thank you It's all about measuring and mixing. Well, so if half of it didn't cure I mean, I would guess that half of it wasn't mixed Justin Bieber hoodie. Thank you for your teach section the Justin Bieber hoodie. Yeah I'm I don't know. I'm very disappointed. But thank you for asking. I'll wear it again next week I'll wear the Justin Bieber hoodie boo. What Sherry? Bye mom. Thank you. Love you. Thanks for watching Sherry, I don't know why half of your resin didn't cure Like it should just work Can you send an email? We'll try and figure it out info at resin comm or write to me David at resin comm and I'll help talk you through it. Well, I'll just probably have some more questions But don't say boo. I know it's very frustrating. I know it's frustrating Okay, we have friends with the swimming pool. So I'm going to exploit that Bye everyone


I'm Cappy McGar, and I serve on the Board of Trustees of the LBJ Foundation, and it's an honor to welcome you to the LBJ Library for what I know is going to be a great conversation. A big thank you to our sponsors for the evening, St. David's Health Care and the Moody Foundation, who do such incredible work every day. Following the program, book sales will continue in the upper lobby, and also after the program, I invite friends of the LBJ Library members to join us in the reception of the Great Hall. One of the great things about LBJ is that there's a story for just about every situation, and there's two that I think that are relevant tonight. The first is about a special car that LBJ had at his ranch that could basically turn into a boat and go in water. So he would take people for rides in this thing without telling him what the car would do, and he would drive up its big hill down to the lake and then he'd blast down the hill like the Apollo rocket, and then he'd tell his guests his brakes had stopped working. You know, back then a president went downhill towards danger at breakneck speed. Pretending the brakes weren't working while betting he'd stay afloat at the end, that was called a prank. Today we just called it a government shutdown. The second story took place when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964. At the time his daughter Lucy was 17. When Lucy Asquire gave Everett Dirksen, the top Senate Republican, a pen at the signing, at the bill signing, her father gave her a disappointing look and said, Lucy, I didn't have to convince one of the great civil rights leaders to be for that legislation. They were already for it. But because of Everett Dirksen's decision to support the law and bring his supporters with him, the great civil rights leaders and I have a law, not just a bill. That's why Senator Dirksen got a pen. Imagine that. Republican and a Democrat working together and a president grateful for the political opponent. But how would LBJ feel about if he saw the country today? And that atmosphere is so poisonous that different parties hardly talk to each other. The way people attack each other so viciously on Twitter. I think he would be devastated that the great society had been replaced by the great schism. When trust in Congress is lower than the glasses on Chuck Schumer's nose, it's pretty clear somebody's got to change. So that's why I'm so glad that Lee Berman and who is White House social secretary and the president, George W. Bush and Jeremy Bernard, who has had the same job on President Obama, have written their new book, Treating People Well. It's fantastic. And I'm not just saying that because I happen to be in it. Sure, I am. But my experience in producing seven White House shows and events for the president sure gave me new appreciation for what Lee and Jeremy had been through. For example, Paul McCartney was going to perform in the East Room of the White House for a show I was executive producer on. Paul's bodyguard, his armed bodyguard, tried to come in with a gun. Of course, the Secret Service said absolutely not. This is the safest place in the world. That's when Sir Paul's team tried to sneak the bodyguard by putting his name on the production side, being a part of the production. The Secret Service caught that too, and they were not happy at all. So they said Paul McCartney's bodyguard couldn't come in the White House at all. The fight with Paul's team and the Secret Service got to the point where it looked like there was no bodyguard, there would be no Paul McCartney performing at the White House. So I called Juliana Smoot, the White House secretary at the time, and she set the meeting up with the head of the Secret Service, where we got the whole thing straightened out. The one for Juliana's help Paul McCartney might not have shown up at the White House. It's a good example of why social secretaries are the unherald heroes of the White House. They're basically quiet problem solvers. Heck, McCartney basically wrote the song, We Can Work It Out. So listen closely what Lee and Jeremy have to say today. They've seen people at their best, and they've seen people at their worst. And they know the power that comes simply from treating people well. Today, we're fortunate to have a Washington legend as a moderator, Capricia Marshall, she was social secretary in the Clinton administration and chief of protocol under President Barack Obama, the German ambassador called her Superwoman. But before I turn it over to Superwoman, let me close with a question that LBJ asked, something that we're still asking today. In August in 1965, two astronauts set an American record for the longest duration in space for the first time. But as but as our eyes turned to a new frontier, LBJ was thinking a little bit closer to home. Quote, he said, as man draws near to the stars, why should he not also draw near to his neighbors? So we're 50 years in this time of deep division. His question is more important than ever. Lee and Jeremy can help us find that answer. So let me welcome without further ado, Capricia, Jeremy and Lee. Can't believe you told the ending of the book. Well, thank you. Thank you, Kathy, so very much. And welcome to everyone. Kathy has been a dear, dear friend for for many, many years of every administration. I want to thank you and also Larry Temple, chair of the board here at the LBJ Foundation and Amy Barbie, executive director of the LBJ Foundation and all the other members of the board for inviting us to be here this evening with everyone. Additionally, I want to thank Mark Updegrove, who regrettably is out of town for this event, and also Sarah McCracken for all of her wonderful help in arranging all the fantastic details. It is such a pleasure to be here with my two dear, dear friends, Lee and Jeremy. Before we get into the conversation, though, I was asked to make sure that everyone knows I'm going to leave a few minutes at the end of our discussion for questions. So while we're talking, you might want to take some time and think of a few questions. There are microphones in the aisles up here near to the front. And so in about 40 minutes or so, if you feel like you have a wonderful question to ask our two fabulous authors, please just line up behind the microphones and then we'll start to we'll start to ask those.  It is beautiful. What a beautiful book. I clearly am reading it a lot. I am turning down pages and making sure that I tell my 17 year old son all the wonderful advice that that you have shared. So I hope that everyone now has loaded up on their Valentine's Day presents for all of their family members. And if not, they're going to continue to sell books and it's in all the bookstores around town. So make sure that you get those. The social secretary is a wonderful club. We make sure that no matter the political background, no matter the president that's in office, we take care of one another, we give each other really frank advice, and we celebrate one another's achievements. And so I'm so proud to be here this evening to celebrate this wonderful achievement of the two of them. And I know secretly that I am your favorite social secretary sister, right? Without question, at least for the next 60 90 minutes. Excellent, excellent. Although we do need to celebrate our wonderful social secretary sister, best able, who was President Johnson, social secretary, greatest storyteller, hands down of any storyteller. And I'm sure we're going to hear a few of those stories this evening. I thought that we'd begin first and the two of you telling a bit of your backgrounds and how you came up with the collaboration. So I'd like to start with you, Lee. And it's been so wonderful getting to know you over the years.  And it's so clear that through the forward that she wrote in the book, it is just so warm and lovely, just like her when you see her, she has this just elegant calmness about her. Tell us a little bit about your background and how did you become the White House social secretary? Well, I am a very unlikely candidate to have ever been a White House social secretary. I grew up on a grape farm in Ohio. I didn't have any playmates until I went to kindergarten. So I was always a very socially backward child. When I went to college, that all changed, you know, the way it does when you go to college. And I was interested in politics. I worked in Washington for a number of years. And then I became a full time mother for 10 years, when I had a call to come and interview for the position of social secretary to the vice president. So I worked for the Chinese for several years as social secretary. And then later her chief of staff and thought I was finished. And then after President Bush won the second term, Mrs. Bush interviewed me to come be the social secretary. And I was deeply intimidated by the whole idea of it. But as I had always considered it a great character failing that I was so awkward and uncomfortable around people, I thought this is exactly what I need to do with my life. And I did. And it helped me so much that it's part of the reason Jeremy and I came around to writing this book because all social behavior is learned and we can all get better at it. And if you're uncomfortable when you walk into a room full of people and you don't know where to start, there are specific things you can do to make that a more pleasant experience. And so that's my unlikely path. Well, Jeremy, my I also was a very shy kid. I would be on the steps in kindergarten at recess and I didn't want to go play in the you know, kindergarten teachers can be mean.  I hated it. I hated it. And so if you had told me then that there was this job and that I would eventually have it, I would be like wrong person. But I was I started working for the Obama's in 2007 at the beginning of the campaign, got to know them, which as you know, it's always a plus to know the before they're in the White House because it's intimidating. I mean, you have the Secret Service, you have the Health of the Chief, it's all very overwhelmed can be overwhelming. But I had a great relationship with them from the campaign. I was serving in the administration. I was actually living in Paris, working for the US Ambassador in Paris, and got an email saying, would you throw your hat in the ring for this job? And I was like, Yeah, really? No, I mean, there's no way. But sure, I'll try it. And I flew out and I did the interview.  And I don't know play settings. I don't know China. I don't really know if I'm the right person for this job. And she is that you'll have people to help you with that. I need someone with good political judgment. And it wasn't political as Democrat Republican, but on how you deal with people. Because what our job was so important, as you know, is making all the guests no matter where they're from, or what party welcomed. And that was our job. And so you represent the president first lady so anything you do could embarrass them. So we were very careful. And it was great in a way because we learned, Well, we should really do this all the time. But it's easy in this time, I think, to bad behaviors contagious. And it's very easy to get into that routine of responding.  And it represents you. Well, I wanted to also say welcome home. Thank you. Thank you, San Antonio. They're San Antonio's here. Wonderful. It must be fabulous to be back here in Texas. Now, Jeremy, Jeremy and I have a very special relationship because as he served as social secretary, I was serving in another capacity as chief of protocol. And we really were at times linked arm in arm on so many of the events and memories you discussed. For me, it was like going down wonderful memory lane. And he of course worked for the fabulous President Bush, excuse me, President Obama and President and Mrs. Obama. It was spectacular working for for both of them. It's Cappy referred to this a little bit and you did just now, Jeremy, but this getting long between Democrats and Republicans and in Washington DC and and how this is seen throughout the country. It's so unique that people that come from relatively different political philosophies collaborate so beautifully. I mean, the book is written in a way that is almost seamless, their voice between the two of you. How did you come up with a collaboration? What was that like then working with one another? First, I just have to say having compresia here is like giving you all a whole another encyclopedia of White House stories. So as you're thinking about questions, this is the Clinton administration right here, and she's got wonderful stories herself. We really felt our collaboration was pretty natural and easy. The job, as Jeremy said of the social secretary is to always welcome everyone and we found ourselves and we found ourselves watching our bosses work extra hard with the people who were there at the White House who were not their supporters. They would have these long conversations where they would try to find something that they had in common. It would be movies or sports or whatever it was that they could break through and build a human connection. And I think that's what we all need to remember these days as things get less and less pleasant in the public arena and then on the Internet as well. Politics does not need to be in everything. And when we make everything a political issue, we run the risk of making enemies of people who simply have a different point of view. So for us, we were boxhole friends together and all of the social secretaries feel this way. If you've lived at a certain experience, you can understand and appreciate where that person is coming from and because you meet so many different kinds of people from different cultures and different walks of life, you learn to be a lot more open-minded about things. So I think it made the collaboration pretty easy. I've I met Lee at there's a tradition that the outgoing social secretary hosts a lunch for the new social secretary and the former socials come and it's a you know, one of those secret clubs that no one can know anything about. But we had this lunch. I met Lee there and then Lee hosted a lunch for me a couple of weeks later and then we would see each other and as I would call you or often in the hallways ask you, how did you deal with this or what do you do? Did you change staff? And I would call Lee and Gail and different. And it was when for every year I would host a lunch in the West Wing for all the former socials and then we'd like have dessert in the blue room or something. And Mrs. Obama on the my first one came down to say hello to everyone and she said it just so perfectly. She said, it's not about politics.  And that was something when we started talking, we were like Roxanne Roberts from the Washington Post suggested we do a book together because she said you guys get a long great different administrations, different parties, write a book together. I think she was thinking more of entertaining book and entertainment. And we're like, well, what would it be? And we worked on it for a while. And this we really thought what was so important about our job? Everyone thinks it's about throwing a state dinner or a big party. There's so much more to it. But at the bottom line, it's about how you treat absolutely absolutely is. And Jeremy was incredibly kind to to all of us by by extending that invitation to the former social secretaries and including us during the Christmas holidays. The decorations were so fantastic, really fantastic. And I was so pleased that it has continued on. So we were all just there recently in December enjoying enjoying a luncheon together. I love reading about the first days in the White House. I know those those first moments. It's it's so intimidating. It's it takes it takes your breath away when you walk through the gate of the White House. I will tell you a real quick story about my first day seeing as how Lee gave me permission. I we were staying with the Clintons and at Blair House, which is the president's guest house, and it's across the street on Pennsylvania Avenue. And during that time, there was actually traffic still on Pennsylvania Avenue. Now it's been closed off for security purposes. I I was given the duty of making sure that the first lady's gown was taken over and into the White House after after noon after the inauguration. And and I was so nervous. I wanted to make sure the gown got there. There was nothing that was lost. You know, I had the shoes and I had everything all packaged up and and it's literally right across the street. And so I was I asked, how do you get into the White House? And someone said to me, well, you wave, you're waived in you're waived in. I thought, well, that's so odd. You're waived in.  I'm here. Let me in. And the guard is looking. I mean, you can see the guards and they're looking at me like and they're looking at each other and they're howling like look at this, you know, and I'm like, well, that is not going to work. And finally a friend of mine who knew the process handed his license over. Of course, he had clearances, his date of birth, social security number, etc, etc. And I said, I'm waving like crazy Mike and he looked at me and he goes, no, wave stands. It's an acronym. It stands for some security thing for how you get in. He goes, don't worry, I'll wave you in. So that was my first day trying to get into the White House. With the First Lady's gown, all I thought was she will have nothing to wear tonight. I will have nothing for her to wear tonight. So what was your first days like in the White House? So it's overwhelming to a degree. You just can't believe am I really here? And when are they going to find out that that was a mistake and it shouldn't be me. But what was so great is Juliana, my predecessor, was able to lap over one day as long as I wasn't paid until the next day because they were very strict about payroll. And so I go in and she I'm following her around and everyone is just so great. I go by to say hello to the in the outer oval to the people there and the president comes out like hey it's good to have you in the family and everyone was so warm. I ran into you and the mess, the White House mess where we would go get consistently mediocre food. But you were so warm and you were so because Juliana said oh I want to introduce you. I know Jeremy and just so warm and the only thing that kind of threw me off was as I get into settled in my office I notice these steps and I was like what are those steps for? And say Siku who is my assistant at the time said oh those are because your windows are not actually just windows they're doors and they open out onto the roof of the part of the White House and I was like oh that's cool and she goes just make sure you call the Secret Service first so they don't shoot you. And I said should there be a sign or something? I mean what if you weren't here? So it was there were a lot of things to get used to. My first days were helped along by the fact that my predecessor Kathy Fenton was there and we overlapped for about a month and she took me around and introduced me to all the resident staff who are so important to the how the White House runs every day because these are people who stay throughout their careers they don't leave when a president leaves and they really hold the sense of tradition and the way things are done the eggnog recipe and so they're very important to teaching the rest of us as we come in what the standards and the expectations are and I remember at the end of the day Kathy gave me this enormous photograph of the extended bush family it was about 150 people in one photo and she said you need to learn them all and I said why and she said oh they come here a lot and you know this is a close-knit family they expect to be recognized like family and they will really appreciate it and it was probably the best advice she gave me because there were bush family members popping in and out all the time and if you recognize them and welcome them they were just thrilled and that it carried on it carries on today when Barbara Bush and George H. W. Bush come to the White House you would just see all these doors popping open all over that you didn't even know were there and staff running out to meet them because they just had such a great sense of affection for them oh that's so so true I remember those they create a real bond over the years that they are there and each of us serve presidents that were there for eight years and so that bond really becomes quite close and in even thereafter I attended the funeral of one of the White House butlers that Mrs. Bush also attended I was I was quite touched by that and I think that everyone in the executive mansion was very touched by that expression as well so just sort of toss-up question favorite memory for my it's tough to say it is a favorite not absolute favorite but Gail Burt once told me that your first-state dinner is like the first love it's nothing can compare I'm gonna be honest I don't remember my first love but I do remember the first-state dinner and it was the Germany State Dinner and it was so frightening because I had just started it was like two months into it and everything was just moving along so well because you were there at the protocol my staff had been there before me so I was just watching all these moving parts in the weeks that were leading up to the state dinner and the day before I went into brief Mrs. Obama and I brought someone with me that had been there in case I got stuck and they could answer the question and Mrs. Obama could see the absolute fear and shock in my eye at this you know dinner and she said you know what I know where to go this is easy they make a much bigger deal than it is just follow me you'll be great and she would walk into rooms when I was first and she'd see me if she kind of give a week this feeling of you you belong here and welcome and that I thought was really important to me and it really helped and the state dinner was beautiful out in the Rose Garden but because the State Department would not give us money for it we couldn't have a tent in case it rain and so we got this little mini budget and so everyone thinks oh well you work out why does must have a great budget it was horrible but we had this theater outside but there was a slight chance of rain and the military office across the way they were keeping track of it and they said we would say 20 percent chance and I thought you know usually I say when in doubt don't but it looks so good let's go for it and it occurred it was beautiful but as the night went on it got more and more humid that storm was coming and I just couldn't wait till they left and it turned out perfect it didn't it did not rain for a couple more hours the next day Mrs. Obama said to me we were talking about it and she said you know at one point last night Barack looked at me and he says you know this is really beautiful but you guys took a hell of a chance it's not like we didn't have a backup plan and she looked at me she goes we did have a backup plan that gate I looked at because I thought if this goes sour that's the gate I'm leaving I'll be the shortest term social secretary it's good we have a backup plan I said don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer in retrospect I think as time was there and we got more cautious you know we were we learned to be cautious I wouldn't probably make the same decision and we had the Turk the press conference in the Rose Garden that time they ran late and it started raining so I I learned to be more cautious and probably wouldn't do it the same way so I'm glad I didn't know better well I was social secretary in 2005 and 2006 which was a time when the war in Iraq was not going well it was before the surge and it was an embattled White House and we had an event every year called the iftar dinner and it was a celebration of the breaking of the Ramadan fast and we the president always invited all of the ambassadors from countries with large Muslim populations he invited various moms from around the country and they would arrive at a certain time and it had to be timed very exactly and exactly as the Sun set we were allowed to serve food and then they were invited in for dinner but before that we had arranged the East Wing we covered all the portraits we brought in prayer rugs and we had an Imam standing in the Grand Foyer calling the guests to prayer if they wanted to come and pray before the breaking of the fast and I hadn't been at the White House very long then and I remember standing there and thinking with all that is going on in Iraq right now and and the difficulties this country is having to see the way this religion is being honored here is just the kind of tolerance that I would like to see in my country and I was it was a very proud moment which is why it's memorable to me. Oh that's wonderful. That is a special memory. See you are so much better than me because I and she is she really is. Okay so not my favorite. I remember dreading that because it was usually near the longest day of the year and you couldn't do anything until sundown and it meant I was like this is never ending. But in the names were always so difficult we were always checking double check because if you got one thing wrong at the Secret Service Gate the person was stopped to take 20 minutes to get them in with the right information. So it was always a challenge. So I'm so glad that you have more positive spin. Oh you know having worked eight years in the Clinton administration and four years in the Obama administration you really get to know your boss well and you get to know their family very well very intimately as was pointed out to you Lee that you're going to have to know these folks and and and they'll be by often. What is something about what is a special a special story or a special aspect of the Bushes and the Obamas that you'd like to talk about that you feel most people just really don't know about them. Well I didn't know the Bushes at all when I went to work for them and one of the first things Mrs. Bush asked me when I started was to try to work with the chef because they didn't seem like they were all on the same page and I did to no avail and after several months the chief usher made the decision that the chef would be asked to resign and be given full honors and a great reference and so forth. And he the chef did not feel that that was fair and so he immediately went to the New York Times and said he'd been fired by a Dolce and Gabbana pants who were in socialite me and I really wasn't involved in anything except trying to help him and I was shocked because you know I'm still pretty much a housewife who ended up working at the White House somehow and now I'm in the New York Times and now and to be called a socialite I mean that is an insult. So I was really mopey that next day at work I kind of wandered around feeling sorry for myself and being very very quiet and at the end of the day the Bushes had a dinner and the family residents and I was seeing the last of their guests out and the president walked over to me and he said hey I hear you fired the chef and he started to laugh and I thought this is so kind of him I had no idea that he was that kind of person who would notice among all the staff he deals with every day but I'm really down and I just was surprised because I think he a president has so many other things to think about and it was actually very thoughtful of him and it gave me some perspective because you know people were saying a lot worse things about him every day and you know so why should I be upset about being called a socialite. I there one of the things as social secretary as you try to keep a low profile overall so you know why put a target on your back in it and so you've always tried to not be in the paper and then I found out that the New York Times was working on an article about me and I was scared to death and the reporter called me I said I'm not I'm not going to participate that there's no in a sense no reason for a story here well the article comes out and I find out on Friday that it's in the Sunday New York Times and I am at home with the duvet over my head like I don't want to go outside this is you know I was just I was just horrified how people would react what would be said and the next day at the White House I was so kind of like rattled by it because I didn't it was something I tried to stay away from and after the president says to me as we're walking to the elevator he goes Jeremy wow damn good article and a nice photos how do you do that they don't do either for me. It was and he's like you're doing a great job and as you know it always felt good no matter what having that affirmation and kindness so they were they were really generous in that way. That's lovely I agree they're very generous. One of my favorite chapters is using humor and charm in the book to deflect in particularly embarrassing awkward moments. Now thank you so very much for putting my most oops sorry I think I just just blasted the sound guys ears here. Thank you. One of my most embarrassing moments if you Google Capriccio Marshall Paul you'll get a wonderful video of me going down the North Portico steps during the visit of President Calderón of Mexico and I am half Mexican and so my entire family in Cleveland Ohio was watching this occur and I can hear everyone yelling from Cleveland Ohio I caramba it was horrible and I relive it often with my son who thinks it's really funny to pull it up and have it going me going up and down up and down up and down the steps but I love that chapter because most people just kind of cringe and they they fall they become a turtle in a shell and oh gosh and they can't talk a little bit about your most embarrassing moment or awkward moment and then how did you use charm and humor to sort of carry on the day. Well we should explain that when she says she went down she was dressed in the most beautiful Audrey Hepburn ask ball gown and the North Portico steps are marble and very very slippery and she she fell down backward and the photographer started taking pictures and President Obama said stop don't take the pictures and she got up like a swan and she opened the door and she welcomed the Mexican president like it never happened. So that's why she's in the charm chapter because she did it so beautifully her son. You know I I got dangerously close one time there at a previous government shutdown there we were the government was shut down for two weeks and none of my staff they they make were only essential workers and I don't know how they decide who's essential but essential workers can be at the White House the others legally can't show up for work. So it was two weeks and it got settled it was a Friday and there was an event in the East Room and the president walks in before going to walk into the blue room where the military guards or everyone all the assistance where he goes hey everyone it's it's good to have you back. Yeah. And they were like thank you Mr. President it's good to be back. Yeah you know Jeremy was running things for a while here and that's scary. And I said and I laughed and I said yeah this president yeah by the way now that people are back I can work on that that website if you need and it was a health care dot gov and you just heard everyone go.  That's awesome. Do you have a story? You know I don't think I handled this with great charm or humor but I handled it. There was a particularly difficult official dinner luncheon for the Chinese and it was marred from the very beginning because there was a heckler at the arrival ceremony which was very insulting to the Chinese president and then the walk of the White House communications announcer referred to him as the president of the Republic of China rather than the People's Republic of China and you know they care about that a lot. We heard about it. Yes. Probably the delegations will hear about it forever and they thought it was intentional and they were just both stupid mistakes. The heckler was let in on a press pass and so then the delegation started pulling out of the luncheon and I had been told by the state department before the luncheon that there is a thing that the Chinese sometimes do which is to try to have their translator work for both their president and our president and I was told not to let that happen under any circumstances so I went over and immediately of course the Chinese translator has pushed the American translator out of her seat and she's standing behind it looking kind of crestfallen and I explained that the Chinese woman needed to move so that the American president could have his translator and she pretended she didn't speak English. And so you know I turned to the American translator and said when I get this chair open I want you to sit in it and do not get out of it until this luncheon is over and I tipped the woman's chair forward a couple of inches and she jumped up in world on me in a fury and I pushed our translator into the seat and then I could see the Chinese chief of protocol coming at me like he was going to physically attack me and just that moment I was literally saved by the marine band who struck up hail to the chief because the two presidents had entered the East Room and that was it my most embarrassing but also probably my most disappointing moment the social secretary. I would have to say that no that's imperatively important you know from our perspective at the state department because it is that translator is the voice of the leader and so whatever comes out of them that is taken verbatim by fact and so we don't we don't know what you know our bilateral partners translator saying you know if there's if they're actually translating or because we don't speak Mandarin right and so we you did was Bravo for you you didn't be absolutely right thing to do and you know if you have to tip them out of a chair you got to tip them out. That's what you got to do. So that's probably also your difficult person scenario. I would I would guess. Jeremy Cappy talked a little bit about managing a story a wonderful story earlier about managing difficult people in the White House. You know as you mentioned there's lots of secret service the formality of being in the White House. How did you deal with folks who were disappointed or you know we all have heard the well I'm just going to go to the president then when you tell them no. Oh right right you manage people. It was the one of the things I had talked to Mrs. Obama about in the interview was that to get more people into the White House and that from an outsider it seemed like there was the same people going in and that there was there were so many people to get in and she said absolutely you're absolutely right. So I would go through the holiday list that I would get from the DNC and from Ledger Farrell and I would cross out people. I have my staff look and see how many parties they have been and I cross them out and I got so much help for it but Valerie Jarrett went with me to the DNC and said this list is no good and they gave us more people new people. I would get calls from people saying well I've been to the last two part of it why would I not be able to go to the holiday party this year. And I'm like during the Clinton administration I got three invitations over eight years and I was thrilled and surprised each time I got one. And there was there are some people have a feeling of entitlement and it's you once said because you were dealing with a country where the delegation had been left outside because of some information issues and how they reacted by when you went messing with me. And you said you know just remember you're dealing with school kids at all of it really was you know you really people would say well I understand why they need more people in but they want to see me I'm important and you had to manage and someone would complain to me that they they were at a dinner in the East room and by the window looking out the North lawn and she said could you put me any further from the president and first lady and I was like there are no bad seats in the White House. Well and we all hear the same thing after the Clinton administration. Guests would come to us and say you know they had a lot more people here for this event in the Clinton years or you know their parties used to go much later into the night and you're pushing us out it's 9 30. We could never meet the standard that people came to expect after going to the White House. You had a boss that enjoyed your life on it and he would go and he'd be scheduled for what for an hour and he'd be there for two three hours and people started to think that's the norm and it really isn't. So it was yeah yeah it's built in time. Yeah that's what we called it in just a couple of minutes. I think are we OK on time. Can we keep going a bit longer. OK. So if for those who are interested in queuing up for a question please begin to do so. Now I'm going to I'm just going to talk through one more scenario and then we're going to bring it out to you in the audience. Again the microphones are in the aisles. You talked about and I really again this chapter is so spectacular I think and the advice is really everyone should take to it is listen first and talk later. And you really you know you talk about how navigating the White House is like sometimes walking a tightrope and you know people of of course are congratulating you on your wonderful accomplishments but they're really looking for like when you don't do well. And it's always happens that there are those scenarios when you have very high level guests and things are you know just at their peak of importance and you tell a wonderful story about how you I'm not going to get it right but the type of listening that it's intended in attentive attentive listening. Can you talk a little bit about that. Well you know you have to think about the kind of individual who's drawn to work in a White House as a political staffer. They are hyper ambitious. They're combative. They love politics. They love to fight about everything. However insignificant and they love status. And there's an attitude that you know if they can take a little power away from you they're definitely going to do it because it's just fun. And then you have people like Jeremy and me coming into a White House and we're basically civilians in that sense. We aren't thinking like that. So it's a little bit harder for people like us to interact with those people successfully because they tend to view nice being nice and as a form of weakness and something you can walk all over. So we had to learn to listen really carefully to what people like that had to say and try to figure out what they really wanted what they really needed and if we could give it to them we would. But we didn't engage and we didn't develop feuds and we really tried to keep away from all of that stuff which is rife in every White House because you can't get anything accomplished like that. It's a complete waste of time. And so you have to learn to listen very very carefully not just to what people are saying but what they're not saying try to figure out what they want and then sometimes when you need to communicate with them instead of coming right out and saying what is that you really need you have to do this thing we call funneling where you say so how are your kids and they say fine and say you know we haven't seen you around much is everything OK. And then maybe they'll say to you well actually my wife's been really sick and down with the flu and you can understand why they haven't been showing up for work on time instead of starting in by saying your absenteeism is a problem and I'm seriously thinking about firing it. So they're just born diplomatic ways to listen and to then communicate to get to a place where you can work over the long term with people who might not be so pleasant or easy to work with. I think we see it. I was watching the other day one of the cable news networks. I won't say which one because that's that gets sticky. But I was watching and there was there were two guests and one had his talking points and the other had his talking points and they didn't listen at all to each other. All they did was go through the same talking points. It we really have gotten it and it was who was going to get the best jab who was going to win the battle. And it was never going to be one by anyone because they were both screaming at each other. So I think we've gotten in a time where is it is very popular in reality TV which I will admit I don't watch. But I know enough that bad behavior is what the producers like and what they want. And so we're seeing how bad behavior is rewarded in those instances. But that's different than in life. And and it's really important. You don't want to be. It's one thing to be on TV and trying to get the ratings. You don't want to be that person that people remember. Oh my God. Were they impossible. And so which I think we just need to step back. Take a breath and not react because reacting so quickly is often what gets us in trouble. Yeah, no. I agree. Does anyone have a question from the audience? Oh, wonderful. I have a question. Was there a condition of your employment in this very special category that you had restrictions as to what kind of a book you might like to write someday? Did you have to sign some kind of document that would restrict your vocalization or written word? Well, I will tell you that I think recent history shows there is no such document for the federal voice. There is no. I don't believe it's allowed. It certainly was not even talked about in the Obama administration. I'm sure not in the bush either. I think that it's. You know, we at the next book we're going to write is called This Is What We Really Think and we're going to do all the trash stories. But it, you know, we feel very lucky to have worked for such generous and wonderful bosses. And so the last thing we want to do is do anything that embarrasses them or has a story where someone is embarrassed because we named them or that they do something. So we always use code except for Capricia because it's on video. But it was, you know, it really you can't write a book about treating people well and then trash people much as we would have liked to at times. Yeah, we kind of self censored. And, you know, not everyone, everyone's human. Not everyone behaves perfectly every day. And sometimes we have off moods and, you know, you wouldn't want to be described based on that one really terrible day you had. And so we tried to average things out. But there was never any kind of agreement to be signed. And when we finished the book, I sent it to Mrs. Bush and I said, if there's anything you don't like, please let me know. And she didn't change a thing. Thank you, sir. My question is, how many different bosses or people did you have to answer to? The president, the first lady, the chief of staff, secret service, all of the above? It's a good question. The truth of the matter is, is we reported to the president and that was our boss. I think it was Gail Burt talked about one time, maybe it was Don Rieger or something, said she was fired. And Mrs. Reagan was like, what is he talking about? He can't do anything. You know, he's not in charge of you. We really answered to the president. But I went every morning to the senior staff meeting, which was run by the chief of staff. And I tried to keep the chief of staff as informed as they wanted to be on things coming up. And, you know, Jack Lew would say to me, just tell me where I have to show up. And whereas daily wanted details, why was this person on the list? Why was that person? So we learned how to navigate to make sure people felt like we were listening to them. But we really, I don't feel that we had a bunch of bosses. We just had a lot of, there were a few people that like to stir the pot, but bosses, it worked out pretty well. Everything is moving so fast that it's difficult for people to really get in your business for very long because by the time they get around to figuring out what's happened, the event's over. And so I kind of took advantage of that as much as I could. But I think every White House is different. I worked much more with Mrs. Bush than I did with President Bush directly. And so I just would call her up and say, what do you think about this or that? Or she had a wonderful way of coming down to the East Wing and she'd pop her head in the door and say, what are you working on? And she'd sit down and I'd show her what I was doing and we'd have a nice chat and she'd go down the hall to the correspondence office or the press office. And that way, everyone in the staff felt like they had a personal relationship with her. She was building loyalty without, I think even maybe realizing that's what she was doing because it was clear that she cared about not just the jobs we were doing, but us personally. And so I felt like we all worked with her pretty regularly and she was very hands-on. I would say that every social secretary works very, very closely to and with the First Lady. But ultimately, we all in the White House served at the pleasure of the president. And so he really, he up until now, will always have the ultimate say on whether someone stays or goes. In the second inauguration, before it, there was a, the week before there were some receptions. And at the end of one of the receptions, I was with the president and Mrs. Obama and Jake Hardy. And we were talking about something which I don't remember except that the president had said something about Mrs. Obama's hair the day before that didn't go over well.  And he goes, what are you doing? Why would you say that?  You are assistant to the president not to the First Lady.  And I grabbed Mrs. Obama's arm. She was like holding my hand. I grabbed her, I put my head on her shoulder and said, but I know who the real boss is. Wise, very wise. Yes, sir. What can you say about your position in the current administration with all the chaos that's up there now? Well, the person who has the job now whom we all know is a wonderful event, a planning professional and she's been doing it for 20 years. She doesn't come from politics but she certainly knows how to do events and I think she's very good. I don't know her as well as you do as long as you do, but she is wonderful and she was very gracious to host us in December and I think she's doing a great job. I don't know what's real and isn't real because so many things are rumors so I tried to stay away from it. Once we kind of talked about our experiences and our predecessors and we'll let who's there now talk about this once they're done. That's a good way of not answering the question. Yes, sir?  I'd like to know how you got this job. Everybody always asks that and it's different for each of us really. How did you get the job? Well, I was working in the White House already. I was a special assistant to the First Lady and worked very closely with my predecessor Ann Stock and because I work so closely with her and you get to know the style and the manner in which the First Family really wants to do things. Mrs. Clinton then asked me if I wanted this position and I was so incredibly touched by her offer because I was already performing a job that was important in her life and in the frame of the White House but she wanted me to grow in my career and that's what she said to me. She said, you need to have this position now, Capricia. You need to rise and become a manager and have a staff and it's time for you and your career and I was just so touched that she was thinking about me personally in that way and offered me the opportunity of a lifetime. These jobs are really extraordinary. They're hard but you have so much fun doing them. They're very creative. There's nothing like sitting down and thinking, okay, we're doing a dinner to honor Shakespeare's birthday. What are all the ways I can do to make this really unique and special and it's just enormously creative and you have this wonderful staff of calligraphers and chefs and everyone who makes it work and makes it work so well. I basically have no idea to answer your question how I got this job. I truly did not think that I would ever have the job and I realized quickly that one of the reasons we all had the job is because the president and First Lady really trusted us and knew we had their back and I think that goes to loyalty and to the importance of trust because I think that she really, she said I want someone that is political and understands us and has our back and I think that's the only answer I can give, what I would tell interns because they would often ask, I said I didn't plan this and it happened so sometimes it's better not to have a rigid plan if you have a gut reaction to do something different and that's what I did when I was working with the campaign and it started to look like he was gonna win, I'm not moving to DC. I was living in LA, I didn't want to move to DC but things just happened and that's I think kind of how it worked with all of us. It was, I wish we could say we planned it. Do we have time for one more question? Okay, I think this has to, oh, do we have, oh we have one more. Hi. My question is, I mean you all had such extraordinary experiences in the White House. What have you taken from that time into your personal lives now? Like there's sort of this before and after. What have you learned from being there that you find extremely valuable now in your lives? That is a great question and it is the point of the book also. I found that it changed me as a person when you're very motivated to make sure that every interaction you have with every person you're encountering is positive. It changes how you do things and we never wanted to be in the newspaper for a negative press story. We never wanted to do anything that would embarrass the president or first lady and that just alters everything you do. So if someone comes up and they're irate and they're complaining, you don't yell back. You try to accommodate them and you deflect and diffuse and you do whatever you can to please them and so sometimes I used to think I had a thousand bosses because whatever anybody wanted, that's what I would try to do to keep them happy and if you keep doing that over and over, it changes how you interact with people and you stop being as combative. You have a little more patience. You listen a little more carefully and it really honestly made me a nicer person which is why I think the book is useful because we could all do with being a little bit nicer now and then and the other thing I learned watching the Bushes was how important details are. Details really matter in life and I remember one night had been a really long, hard day. There had been several events. It had been snowing and sleeting the whole day and so getting people in and out of the White House had been chaotic and I was finally leaving at about 9.30 at night and I was exhausted. I'm dressed like social secretary with high heels and skirts. Not you as social secretary. And I was... It did, it did. I was dreading going out to my car and I walked outside in the snow and the sleet and someone of the groundskeepers had cleaned off my car and it brought me almost to tears. I was so grateful. It was such a little thing. It meant so much and the point of the book is that the little things that you do, the incremental changes you make can really be life changing in terms of how people respond to you and then it makes your life easier and less stressful because life is just easier when people like you. What I took from the White House, some of the Reagan China... So that would be illegal. The Ars Nixon would say that would be wrong. I think it was really that... I remembered coming to the Clinton White House the first time I'd come and it was... It tells you something that I called from California to RSVP and whoever answered was telling me about this great new thing, hot wire. And if I hadn't got my ticket to use it, go on that because you get cheaper tickets, cheaper hotels, they were so helpful. And you give up, or you have to say a lot to get in the White House. You have to give your social security number, birth dates. You won't believe how many people get to the gate and something didn't go right and they have to secretly tell the Secret Service oh, that really wasn't the year I was born. But it's not easy to get in and what you really want is people to feel welcomed. And I felt that when I was there and I told Mrs. Obama, I think that's what is the most important is they get in, that they feel welcomed after going through the metal detector, the dog that sniffs the gate and the line, you want them to feel welcomed. We cannot thank you both enough for this beautiful book for these wonderful, wonderful stories, the anecdotes, and especially the extraordinarily poignant advice. Again, I hope everyone goes out and buys five to 10 copies each. And we want to thank the LBJ Library and Foundation. Thank you all so very much for this invitation. And let's all leave and try to teach, try to treat people very well. Thank you very much. Thank you.