Hi Aaron!
Post #1
I asked someone this morning what they think of when they think of events.
Franck from Father of the Bride. Jennifer Lopez from the Wedding Planner.
We're a fucking joke.
Recently we've had two proposals completely ripped off and produced by other companies. And when we've lost jobs the answer has been “you're the most qualified, but we had no choice but to take the lowest bid.”
A week before Christmas we were asked to bid on a government event. Quote due December 24th. We prepared a really nice proposal.
The response came back: “you're clearly the most qualified company for this project. However, you didn't win because the only thing we needed was the lowest price.”
I'm the most qualified company. I clearly have everything you're looking for. But our experience costs too much.
People aren’t willing to pay the value we're worth. You could ask 50 different companies what they charge for a producer and get 50 different answers.
I think we’re faced with 3 main problems.
1. We don't promote strategy. We are just doers. We don't get a seat at the table with the marketing company, the PR company, the advertising company — we get called in after the decisions are made.
2. We hire people and six months later they think they can do it themselves. They go sit in the corner of their parents basement, start an Instagram account, use their cell phone number, and drive our prices down. And our associations put those people on a pedestal.
3. Our business owners are too afraid to hire people in different areas who know things they don't. Because all of a sudden the vanity of being the owner or the top dog goes away.
Until those three things change, we're still just Franck from Father of the Bride.
Post #2
Everyone online is promising to 10x this or scale up that.
I'm here just trying to figure out how to find the ideal designer, project manager and agency leader for us to continue to be prosperous and successful.
But the industry diluted itself and expanded in ways that no industry could sustain.
We hire people and six months later they think they can do it themselves. They go sit in the corner of their parents basement, start an Instagram account, use their cell phone number, and drive our prices down.
And our industry applauds those people. Our industry loves those people. Our industry invites them to all of the associations. And our associations don't want those people to go away.
These are the people who are fracturing our industry.
So instead of growth we need a phase of contraction.
Good talent needs to become available. Companies like mine who have the resources to take on good talent need to actually spend the money to reinvest back into people and the industry.
Then comes standards, guidelines, ethics.
Because it's okay to be a hobbyist. But there's no way a hobbyist should be able to access the same type of revenue, opportunities, and clients just by providing the lowest price.
Every industry has a north star.
Someone you look at and say “that person took risks, built something, hired well, and now has an unbelievable business. I can grow into that.”
My industry doesn't have one yet.
Post #3
The clients who trust us are the clients who get our best work.
The best work we can do is when a client says “here's roughly our budget, we trust you, come back to us with something that's going to blow us away.”
We try not to be typical. It's never just “here's what we recommend, here's one option.”
It's “we understand this is maybe a little bit more risky. Here's a safer option. Here's someone you might not have heard of before, but here's why they're good.”
We recently brought out Gene Simmons to speak to a bank group. It's a risky play to bring someone like that out to a company who's very heavily into DE&I. He did an awesome job for us.
Before COVID we were close to signing a real estate event that would’ve had Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg as the keynote.
No two events are ever the same. We never take one event and copy it for another client.
That's the work. And it only happens when clients get out of the way.
Entertainment Industry Ghostwriter
Turning entertainment founders, investors and execs into personal brands that attract clients, investment, talent and deal flow @ Loge Noir.