May 4, 2021 • 40 mins
Never stop growing! Listen to Mike Peraino of Killer Creations dish on how he started small and grew to cover over 6 different states with his photography business.
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Mike Peraino can be reached at Killer Creations.net
- The Event Guys Detroit: Mike Peraino, Derek Rafferty, and Nicholas Hardy
- The iceman, Wim Hof Method
- Traction, the book by Gino Wickman
- Profit First, the book by Mike Michalowicz
- The Red Coat Ladies founded by Pat Blackwell
- Amy Porterfield podcast for Online Marketing Made Easy.
- To get the free download JPM Top 12 Wedding Words the Best Vendors Know click: LOVE a good freebie!
- For more information, check out the Jewish Party Maven website Click Here
For information on how to get on the Jewish Party Maven Certified Vendor List just click here: I want to get on that Certified Vendor list
CLICK HERE to get the FREE DOWNLOAD JPM Top 12 Wedding Words the Best Vendors Know
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:05):
Hello there are you entrepreneurs out there? I know
you got a business going, whathave you wanted to have a second
studio or a third? What wouldneed to change for you to have a
photography studio say in Idahoand Los Angeles and San
Francisco. My guest today isMike Peraino, the CO owner,
(00:25):
photographer and cinematographerat killer creations. He is a
self described lover of allthings Italian. And Mike has
figured out a way to combine hislove of travel with his very
successful business killercreations. They go around the
world, but they specialize inIllinois, California,
Washington, Idaho, Montana, andOregon. Tune in today to hear
(00:49):
about Mike's story, how hestarted his business, and even
more importantly, how he keepsgrowing his business. As a
Catholic farm girl in Minnesota,I certainly never expected to
ever be the Jewish party Maven,but 4400 parties and 26 years
later, I am indeed an expert atJewish party.
(01:10):
I am fiercely committed to helphim the best vendors book more
parties in this amazing,lucrative and incredibly loyal
Jewish party market. Let's go.
Hello there, Mike. How are you?
Hey, Pat. Good morning. Good tosee ya. Oh, my gosh, I haven't
seen you in ages. You got thenew look going. It's been a year
since I've seen you. I know.
(01:33):
It's been crazy. I know. It'sgreat to see you. I feel like
it's been too long. And thenthanks for noticing the beard.
It's definitely grown out. Ithink there's a lot more gray in
here then. Yeah, telling me thatit was a year ago. But hey, it's
been you know, it's been aroundlike a year to definitely learn
and grow.
So thanks, man, what you havebeen doing this year? Have you
(01:56):
been busy, we've been busy. Sothis year kind of is starting to
feel a little bit more more likewe're returning to normal. So
last year, everyone knows, youknow exactly what happened. It
just stopped brakes hit. Andnothing happened from March,
April, May, June, July, August,we kind of did some smaller
backyard events, which weregreat real, real small events.
Sometimes I was one of eightpeople, you know. So you're you
(02:20):
get this really cool, immersiveexperience. And then you're
capturing these emotions andthese connections that you might
not be able to get on an actualwedding day where you have 600
people so raised to doing hugeevents. So it was a really nice
change to do some of thesesmaller events. So
we did that we kind of switchedover and did a little bit more
(02:40):
of the corporate world. So we'vebeen doing a lot of smaller
commercial things, which arenice, but those also happened
during the week. So we hadweekends pretty much wide open
for a huge sweep of thatsummertime, which hasn't
happened in 15 years for me,which was crazy. Exactly. It's
such a weird thing to haveSaturday's open. And yeah, I
don't want to get used to that.
I love working Saturdays. Yeah,I love it too. For a while it's
(03:02):
like, Huh, you know, maybe I'lljust become a greeter at
Walmart, I'll work Monday,weekends open. But that didn't
happen. But I did really spend alot of time with my family. So I
have three kids under seven. Somy daughter is six, my middle
son's four, and then I have analmost two year old so I get to
spend a lot of time with themand my wife at home, which is
(03:23):
really cool. So we did somesmaller trips in and around
Michigan, and hung out, youknow, as a family group and
really got to grow together. Sothat was the bonus. The huge,
you know, diamond in the roughwas that all that family time,
and then a lot of personalgrowth stuff too. So you kind of
panic for a little bit. And thenyou get over that and you're
(03:43):
like, Okay, now what am I goingto do so? So what are you doing
to develop your business,developing the business. So we,
you know, we always say we have,you know, when we're busy in the
middle of the wedding season,you say there's not enough time
to really work on the business,you're just working in it. And
so we didn't have some more timeto work on the business.
Obviously, we had to put out alot of fires, we moved more than
(04:05):
74 events, I think that took alot of time pushing them from,
you know, one year to next,sometimes to the next and then
even to the you know, to 2023 wehave people Move, move, move,
move. So we're doing that. Butthen once that settled down, we
had some time to do notnecessarily rebranding but just
kind of approach how we're goingto be dealing with our brides
(04:28):
and grooms again. So, you know,we get past this busy and we
want to figure out how we canserve them once we're back into
the real world so to speak. Sohow can we serve them best? What
processes can we put in placenow that there's time to read?
You know, revisit thatconversation so that while
they're were connecting to gothrough the timeline where you
(04:48):
know shooting the day of we'refollowing up afterwards, we're
going through the album's andthe final video processes and
all that how can we best servethem so we really focused on
that and As a team,the backup a little bit tell us
what you do. What do I do? So wedo photography and
cinematography, both in thewedding and event world. We've
(05:09):
been doing it for over I thinkwe're going on 12 years now
under the killer creations name.
And then I've been doing itwhere and so Yeah, good question
started in Michigan. So I'moriginally from Michigan. I live
Royal Oak area our studios herein Clawson. But we kind of grew
(05:30):
from there. We're out in LA inSan Francisco and in San Diego,
Montana. Pacific Northwest, wehave Seattle, Coeur d'Alene,
Idaho. Yeah. And then we do alot in Detroit. And then in
Chicago is kind of like just ahop away on northern Michigan's
braid. So we ended up out west,because
(05:54):
a good friend of mine who Ihappen to just sit next to one
day in church, you know, you sayhello, you stand up. And then
you ever see that person again.
He was in the video, I was inthe photo, this was more than
this was like, you know, 12years ago or more.
We kind of grew the businesstogether, him and another. So
that'd be Jason, we have MikeHubert, and we kind of grew this
up together, Jason unfortunatelymoved out west, where his
(06:17):
family's from, or his wife'sfamily. And then, you know, we
had a little bit of downtime,where like, Oh, we missed
working together. So we broughtthe company out there. So that's
kind of how we started digginginto those things. And we've had
great contacts throughout thoseother markets as well. So it
sounds like we're this hugebusiness, but we do a lot of the
traveling ourselves, which isgreat. So you know, we'll get to
(06:37):
do you know, I was in, I'll bein New York, in a bit in three
weeks, in two weeks, I'll be inSan Jose, I was in Utah at the
fall. So there's a lot of reallycool kids, we get to go which
you know, help tell our story.
So that's what we do. We tell,you know, a couple of stories
through photography andvideography, not only here in
Michigan, but you know, anywhereelse Fingers crossed, we'll be
(06:58):
looking at Orlando next. So howdo you find a new? How do you
determine this is a market Iwant to be?
So I'll use Orlando as the nextone. Because we have all those
others, they work out. So weeither we've either been there
we'd have family there, we knowthe area? Well, we have friends
(07:19):
there. So it's not just kind ofpicking a spot arbitrarily and
saying, All right, let's justkind of dive in here. So we
will, you know, kind of do asoft test, see if we can, you
know, get anything. So will wereach out to people like
yourself to people who arealready in the industry dug in
in that area and say, Hey, thisis what we do. Looks like you do
an amazing job and you love itas much as we do. We're thinking
(07:41):
to come into that area. Is itworth it? Are they friendly to
us? They're like, Oh, we don'twant anymore? Yeah, totally.
Because we really just loveworking with people, whether
it's our brides and grooms orthe other vendors on site, we're
all there to, you know, to workfor the couple. And if you're
not doing it as a team, youknow, I guess they'll be there
or it's no fun. Sobut yeah, so we've I picked
(08:04):
Florida because I have cousinsthere. Orlando is one of the
best spots for weddingphotography in in the state.
They have the year round trafficgoing there. But but then for us
in Michigan, you know, we slowdown, we do some winter
weddings. But November,December, January, February,
it's pretty sparse. But that'swhen things are picking up in
(08:27):
Florida. So I actually had achance to do a wedding.
The end of February in Orlando,it was amazing. It was 80
degrees. And then that's whenwe're like, okay, we're gonna
try this so connected with myfamily, and who should I reach
out to? And then some we're kindof trying to soft launch and
it's a two hour flight. So youknow, cool, awesome. So tell me
(08:50):
how it works. When you go offpremise. Do you haul all of your
equipment from here?
Yeah, so um, depends where we'regoing. So if a couple of us are
traveling, it's not too bad. Sowe'll kind of bring half in
half, we have a pretty smallstreamline kit, you know, if
we're doing like a biggerproduction, it's it's harder. We
did a really cool productionshoot for like a TV show pilot
(09:12):
out in San Jose a couple, maybetwo months ago, we needed to
rent everything we brought asmuch as we could, but we need to
trucks load, you know truckloadsof things to do that. So in that
case, we're renting most of thetime, like I'll be in San Jose
again for wedding. I'm bringingin like my gorilla gear. So I
have a roller bag of camerasthat I packed some socks and
(09:32):
underwear in there pretty muchwear what I'm gonna wear the
whole weekend and throw abackpack on the back with a
change of clothes and thenthat's what I'm bringing in and
we can survive the weekend withthat so I don't need everything.
I can kind of pare down my kitbut you know, I don't I don't
like to check anything because II've had people lose things
flying in usually flying the dayor two before but if you fly him
(09:54):
I've flown in on the day. Forlike an engagement session.
We're supposed to meet at thebeach at sunset and
They lose your luggage. Youknow. So I'll have like, I
always bring the basics with me.
But I had like this whole setupfor, you know, lighting for the
sunset never began when I checkanything unless I know I'm not
using it for the next two days,so Wow. Okay, well, I bet you
have some awesome stories. Well,my company is called the Jewish
(10:19):
party Maven. And we've had thegreat pleasure of working with
you as the red coat ladies overthe years, and you do such
incredible stuff. And I know youdon't do specifically Jewish,
but I mean, you do an amazingjob of Jewish parties. But you
don't, that's not your forte,you specialize in all kinds of
wedding. So how do you learnwhat's important to your
(10:41):
clients? How do you have theconfidence to say, Yep, I can do
an Indian wedding? Yep, I can doa Greek Wedding. Yeah, I think,
you know, it's really all aboutlistening to what the client has
to say, you know, listening towhat they have. So it depends
whether it's a Jewish wedding inany wedding, a Greek Wedding,
Middle Eastern wedding, anItalian wedding, you know, just
sort of depends where they're aton that tradition spectrum,
(11:03):
sometimes they're verytraditional, and they have all
of the things that are going tohappen. And then sometimes
they're like, we're just gonnado one or two, you know, it's
really important to our parents,but for us, so you have to
listen to that and not expect,you know, one or the other.
And then really just kind ofasking questions. So first of
all, they'll kind of give youtheir vision, and then I'll dig
(11:24):
in and be like, Alright, sowe've done a lot of events,
either at your location thatwould seemingly be similar to
yours. But tell me thespecifics. What are you going to
do? What's the surprise, you'regoing to pull out at the
ceremony? Or at the reception?
Are there any other traditionsthat are beyond the scope of
what you would consider normal?
For me, you know, just to beprepared. So the timeline is
(11:46):
really important for us. So weknow when to be where, and if
any of those additionaltraditions go and kind of say,
this is what I would expect.
What do you guys have plannedabove and beyond that, and tell
me if I'm right, or I'm wrong,because sometimes we've even
done events where you have thesame family, but then there's
influences from, you know, maybethe bright side on this side of
the room, side and that side,and now traditions kind of skew
(12:07):
in a different different way,even though they're playing? Oh,
no, it's exactly the same asme like, wait a minute, it's not
the same at all. So I guess,just listening to what they
have. If you do have questions,ask them. I always like to say
it's better when everyone knowsthe rules ahead of time and time
of just instead of just guessingat him, you know, the day of or
whatever, even things like whatare you aware? Right? Yeah, what
(12:29):
outfits are you gonna wear? Howmany times are you changing? You
know? No, I mean, what are youas a professional? Yeah, what
should we be wearing? Right? Doyou need to be in black tie? It
should? Are there certain colorsyou should avoid? Is there
something that? Yeah, yeah, no,I just finally get to dress up.
I haven't done you know,usually, I'm wearing either a
(12:49):
black tie, or just, you know,something like this. So, but I
haven't gotten to wear anythingsuper crazy yet.
Okay, so are there times whenyou worked? Because this again,
is the Jewish party Maven, Arethere times when you've worked a
Jewish party, where you thought,Oh, my gosh, I wish I'd have
known that beforehand.
(13:11):
Yeah, I guess so earlier in our,you know, in our, you know,
career path, when we werestarting out, we wouldn't ask
all those questions. So youlearn from making mistakes, or
you learn from other things. Alot of times, and I know I've
even asked you questions, likewe're doing this event, this is
what I'm expecting, you know,cuz now not all the time, do you
have the chance to connect withthe bride and groom as you would
(13:33):
like, they're busy, they liveout of town. They're both
doctors in the residency,whatever it might be, you can't
get all the details. So weconnect with people like
yourself that know all thedetails that have dotted the i's
and cross the T's to say, Okay,this is what we're expecting,
what should What should we be,you know, looking for, or what
are we missing? So, I guess thatwould be the best answer. And
(13:53):
then also,you know, on, I guess we've had
in the early days, we would justhave people say, Hey, we want
you for X amount of hours, justshow up and get whatever and
then go home at the end of theyou know, the coverage and
that's like the worst way topossibly do it. But every once a
while you get someone like thatwe've learned that's never the
way we approach anythinganymore.
(14:13):
Because you're gonna misssomething or something's gonna
happen that even they didn'tknow a lot of times we'll have
things that the bride and groommight not have any have even
expected because it's atradition tradition that mom and
dad put in there or somethingthat's for grandma and grandpa.
So if the whole family isavailable, or on an email chain,
or whatever it is, I generallywill say, hey, if there's any
secrets or traditions that areout there, just email me
(14:35):
independently so that you don'tspoil it, but I want to know
what's happening and how we canbest serve you get, sir. Well, I
focused on training all kinds ofvendors. And so we watched a lot
of things happen. I had a partyseveral years ago now,
thankfully, where the party wasat a kosher venue and the Fatah
(15:00):
First assistant brought asandwich. And it happened to be
a ham and cheese sandwich.
Yeah, big oops, it caused a hugebunch of tumbled and almost
ended the day for thatphotographer and his crew. But
we worked it out. But thosekinds of things you just don't
(15:20):
know to ask. And so it'simportant to ask a lot of
questions. It's important tounderstand traditions. And
that's what this whole JewishParty Movement was about. We
want to focus on teachingvendors how to do their very
best job for these clients. Andyou mentioned that earlier, it's
all about what's important tothe client. And right, we love
(15:40):
happy clients. And we're all inthis business, because we want
to make those clients happy. Andone way we can make them happy
is by honoring their traditions.
And that's what this is focusedon. Tell me about
this other thing you got goingthe event guys, the event guy,
so that's the secret. Yeah, soeveryone's asking about that. So
(16:03):
Derek, from he three Detroit andDan Rafferty band, and then
Nicolas, from the leasingexperience, and I had kind of
just always been criss crossingat events. We've known each
other for years and years now,Derek, actually 10 years ago.
180 days from now, it did my mywedding. So he was there as the
entertainment and the band formy event. Oh, that's awesome.
(16:26):
Yeah, so and I was lucky enoughto fill in his wedding.
Nicholas's wedding as well. Sowe kind of just have a good
mutual respect for each otherand what we do, and they
approach the business and areenthusiastic for personal
growth, business growth, and allthat. So that brought us to this
idea of just like, we'd havethese like mastermind sessions,
like, how do you do this? Whatdo you deal with when this
(16:48):
happens?
And then kind of figure like,Okay, how can we share this. So
similar to what we're doingright now, we'd be zooming, we'd
be meeting up, we'd be, youknow, going grabbing a coffee or
a drink. And then we said,let's, let's create something
that we can share. So it's asimilar idea, we're kicking off
the podcast soon. So hopefully,you guys can hear a little bit
about that, we'd love to haveyou on as a guest as well, to
(17:10):
grill you with all thesequestions. But it's really
about, you know, hopefullyoffering something to our
listeners that could help themgrow the business, learn
something new people with anentrepreneurial mindset, you
know, overcoming these hurdles.
So as a business owner, as youknow, you don't just wear you
know, the hat of organizer,photographer, you know,
(17:30):
decorator, whatever it might be,you also then have to, you know,
lead your, your crew, you haveto motivate them, you have to
teach them the varioustraditions that they need to
know to be on site to better theclients, and all that. So that's
kind of you know, how we cametogether with this idea, the
event guys, with the name cameout. And that's what stuck with
(17:50):
me. And it's kind of fun. Sowe've had some great guests so
far. And no, it's a podcast, itwill be a podcast. And right
before the shutdown, we did whatwe were planning on doing were
like, kind of quarterly events.
So we did the event at the fifthin, no, I have no VI, there is
going to be just a chance to youknow, to get together to mingle
(18:12):
almost networking with more of aan exciting, fun spin on it,
just to get us together. Becausewe work so hard. It's fun to
play a little bit, too. So thatwas the idea behind it. But I
would say pretty much every day,if not 10 times a day, the three
of us are chatting or, you know,connecting just that, you know,
inspiration going. So is that abusiness you intend to monetize?
(18:36):
And we'll see what happens rightnow. It's just the chance for us
to connect and share some of thethings we've learned, connect
with others and hopefully learn,you know, from them as well. And
then just, you know, see whathappens. So, you know, it's
always great to monetizesomething, if not, we're really
enjoying this kind of doing it.
And I guess, you know, westarted out saying, Hey, you
know, it's cool, we'll havethis, this podcast, and it can
(18:57):
promote some of the stuff we'redoing. But the inverse with that
we've already learned is evencooler, is that we're getting so
much information from our gueststhat we're growing, we're
learning and it's just beenreally insightful and inspiring
us just to have these amazingguests out and then go from
there. Very cool. So you do allI mean, as a party manager, I'm
(19:19):
not so incredibly concernedabout the quality of the video
or the quality of the sound. Butyou guys, that must be a whole
different animal when you have acinematographer and a sound guy
and a music guy. Yeah. Derek athis place had built out a pretty
awesome studio, which you'll seewe have been happy to have you
(19:40):
guys in there. So you know, I'mdealing with the lighting. And
Derek and Nicolas are worriedabout the sound and the audio
and then I'm dealing withediting again. So it's kind of
fun. So I guess the one wrenchit throws in there is like we
try to get it to perfect andthings haven't come out yet
because we're like, oh, let'schange this. Let's update this.
Let's do that. Now we're like,okay, it's really
Just about getting theinformation out there. So stay
(20:02):
tuned. And very shortly we'llhave the first couple episodes
coming out. Somebody justrecently said, If you wait until
it's perfect, you waited toolong. Yeah, I agree completely.
And we're learning. You're nottotally embarrassed of your
first podcast, you waited toolong.
Right? I always like every timeI see myself on camera. When I
(20:24):
see myself on this, too, I'll belike, Oh, man, I just you do
things you don't really noticethat you do until you're, you're
scrutinizing yourself, buthopefully, nobody notices all my
weird tics. Oh, that's so funny.
Well, you always do an amazingjob of understanding what's
going on and seeing the bigpicture. And I love working with
you for that reason. But tell meabout how you learn. Are you a
(20:45):
visual learner? Are you apodcast learner? Are you a book
learner? How do you I say, Ithink I'm a cross between a
visual learner and a booklearner. One of my big goals
every year I you know, like mostpeople, the I like, okay, 2020
ones come on, what are thegoals? Let's write these things
down. I have a goal of reading100 books this year, and I'm
(21:07):
around, give or take 10 a month.
That's my goal. So I'm going togo over I think wedding season
gets here, it will slow me downa little bit. But I've been
reading some amazing books aboutwhether it's personal growth,
health, longevity, businessservice, all of that. So I
learned from kind of gettingthat information, getting
(21:27):
excited about it, and then youknow, sharing it with someone.
So tell us your favorite books,books. Um, so there are a couple
that like, sometimes I'll findan author I love and I'll dive
into them like crazy. So there'sthere's one I'm reading right
now is this really nutty? Dude,who I actually love. His name is
(21:48):
Wim Hoff. It's kind of a Are youfamiliar with him? The Wim Hof
Method?
Yeah, so cool training. So I'vebeen doing that. And it's really
it's really cool. It's, it's, Ilike, kind of these crazy
challenges. So I read a coupleof his his books. And just kind
of what he stumbled acrossaccidentally and found through
(22:10):
the cool training and throughthe breathing is really
interesting. me so kind ofbrings a lot of these different
things from my past together. Iused to do martial arts as that,
you know, so through that, andmeditating and breathing. So now
this is just, you know, let'sadd cold to that and see what
happens. Butare you doing cold showers? are
you jumping in the lakesomewhere. So both cold showers
every day, and then my parentslive on a lake. So I jumped in
(22:34):
on Christmas, I'm freezing cold,it was snowing, which is great.
And then every once in a whilewhen we're out there, I'll jump
in there. But if I'm not able todo that, it's always a cold
shower every day and then thebreathing.
So that's kind of like thehealth the health corner I'm on.
(22:54):
I've been reading some books. Sothere's Tony Robbins, there's
I can pull up a list. I'm goingto pull up my list real quick
here because I'm going throughmy crazy. Are you a podcast
person too? Do you haveI you know, it being a podcast
or now myself, I'm trying to getinto podcasting more, but I just
have such a long list of booksthat I'm not always you know,
(23:17):
listen to podcasts because I'meither reading or listening to
these audio books. So I kind ofhave a whole recommendation from
Derek from Nicholas or someother friends. So if you have
some I'm happy toto add those to the list because
I got to get these done. Andthen I jumped back into that. I
find that I read for pleasure.
(23:39):
But I don't read for businessvery often. But I like to listen
to audiobooks for business. AndI spend a lot of time driving so
I listen to audiobooks when I'mdriving. So who are you
listening to? I just listenedfor the second time to Gino
wickman traction. Yeah, I thinkhis book is fabulous and profit
(24:01):
first. I listened to that againand Mike mccalla Wits does a
really cool job of doing thingsdifferently than other people
do. And I appreciate that.
Because I'm a very much out ofthe box kind of girl and my
family's out of the box familyand, and his whole way of
looking at your business profitis different than anyone I've
run across before. I have anaccounting background. And
(24:25):
it's very different to hearsomebody say
All my life I've been taught totake your sales minus your
expenses, what you have left isprofit. He says that's totally
wrong. And you will never have aprofit if you do that.
Interesting. He says take yoursales minus your profit. And
what you have left you willfigure out how to deal with in
(24:47):
terms of that's all you have todo for expenses. And if you need
to cut expenses, you'll figureit out quickly that way. And you
know what? I think he's right,right. He gives an analogy when
you have a whole tube oftoothpaste you
spit out a whole tube oftoothpaste. And if it drops in
the sink, big deal you put onanother one. But when it gets
down to the end of that tube,you're squeezing and twisted.
(25:07):
And you can make do with a wholebunch. And that's the way he
looks at business expenses. Andyeah, well that's I mean, that's
super timely now for kind ofwhat we've been going through.
Because of the this, thetoothpaste tube has been
squeezed very tightly this lastyear here, and I'm lucky enough
that I work out of my house, andI don't have a lot of expenses.
But I know you have this big,beautiful studio, that's just
fabulous. And you have a lot ofequipment expenses. So yeah,
(25:32):
unfortunately, I mean, I'malways I'm like, I'll keep
things as long as possible untilwe buy it. My my business
partner is always about the gearwe want to upgrade this year,
and like, Let's wait six moreyears, we don't need to upgrade,
you know, and then we kind ofback and forth. So in the
studio, you know, studio was abig step for us. We had been in
a really cool blessing cube kindof we were renting for a while
(25:54):
in Royal Oak and pointing thatway and downtown Royal Oak. Um,
somebody bought the building wewere renting and just was not
the best landlord. So thingswould change weekly, monthly,
and whenever we're like, Okay,so we're gonna move, so we look
to rent, to rent to rent torent, and then this building
became available for sale, andwith a down payment, the No, no
(26:17):
monthly afterwards, it wascheaper to get a building and do
it. So we ended up doing that.
And it was it was kind of one ofthose big things where I was
like, 10 years from now I'll beable to do this. And then it
happened in two years. So youknow, some of these books that
I've been reading, like, it's Ithink it's so crazy how this
happens. It's happened so manytimes in my life, when you focus
on something so intensely, it'sliterally the only thing you do,
(26:38):
and it's a laser, and it justhappens way faster than you
think it could or would. And Iwouldn't even credit myself for
it. But just thinking about isthe only thing I thought about
because we literally had to getout of there at a certain date.
And by that date, we had foundthis place. So sidetrack but
yeah, it's amazing how thatworks, that I listened to Amy
Porterfield a lot. And I loveher teaching style. And I love
(27:00):
her detail in what she does. Andshe's very systematic about how
her approach to things and oneof the things she makes you do
is write down a list of fivethings as if they already
happened by outrageous goals asif they already happened. And
yet, it is interesting how yourmind works that way. So what are
(27:24):
some of your big outrageousgoals? Well, I'm working on
Jewish party, Maven, and I, mygoal is to help 1000s of vendors
be better vendors in this Jewishworld. And I still have the red
coat ladies. And I love the redgold ladies, and I love working
these parties. But I watchpeople who are terrific vendors
not give their best to ourclients because they don't know
(27:46):
better. So my big outrageousgoals are to help all kinds of
vendors with the Jewish partyMaven, make a bunch of money
doing it, and live wherever Iwant to live. I have a goal that
someday I'm going to be a nomadand live with my computer and
run my company from anywhere.
(28:06):
I was supposed to go to Portugalthis February, and I was not
able to go there because ofCOVID. Right going there in
December, and I'll spend severalweeks there and I love to
explore. I like no new new trysomething different. Nice. My
family often criticizes me andsays okay, if you want to, I
(28:27):
mean, they'll say can we go todinner? Okay, where should we
go? Well, sorry, we've alreadybeen there. No. Yeah, but it was
really good. Can we go back?
Sure. When I've been to all theother restaurants. And once I
get to all the other ones, andwe can do it. I love it. Yeah.
And so that's exciting. But howabout you? Do you have advice
for people who want to breakinto this photography cinema
(28:49):
market? What advice would youhave for someone whose goal is
to become like Purina becomeDon't be Mike Marino, that's
number one.
You lose your hair really quick,and you go gray. But
I guess the best advice, youknow, never stopped rowing. You
know, earlier, I guess it kindof in everyone's career, you
(29:12):
kind of get to this plateau. Andthen you're like, what else is
there to learn? Where else am Igoing? What else can I do? Am I
even you know, you have like amid career crisis almost, or
whatever you want to call it. Ihave one of those every couple
years, like what am I doing withmy life, and then you kind of
you find another anothermountain to climb and it's
whether it's improving yourskills as a photographer,
improving your skills. Now alsophotography can break down to
(29:33):
hundreds of things, it can belighting, it can be posing, it
can be you know, shooting, itcan be editing, and then then
you have the business side ofthings kind of in that pie
chart. always improving on everyone of those bits that go in
there because if one of those,you look at it as a wheel, it's
not going to turn very fast butwe have great photography skills
and no business skills or peopleskills by near horror like
(29:56):
you're, you're you're saying ifyou don't know the traditions or
The, you know what your clientsare expecting? You're not going
to be able to serve them? Well,you might be great in the art,
but without the service, you'renot going to get very far. So I
don't know if I have anysuperpower, first Jewish? What's
that? How did you get your firstever Jewish party?
(30:19):
How do we get it? Um, I thinkthat that wasn't because they're
like we saw you had a bunch ofJewish events. It was we saw you
work. We liked it. It'sdifferent. Have you done any
Jewish events? And so I grew upin the event industry. So I had
done all sorts of events that mydad was used to be an owner at
Laurier rostering Entertainment.
So really, yes. So I literallybeen to every kind of event you
(30:43):
can think of, for the last, youknow, 30 years, everything from
being a mascot to being a cottoncandy maker to being a blackjack
dealer to being who knows whatit is, I've done it all get a
call, you know, day before,like, Hey, we need an extra this
or that? Okay? I mean, don't doit.
So, you know, so we fast forwardyears later, I was talking to
(31:05):
her now, hey, we like your work?
Have you done any Jewish events?
I've been to lots of them, butas a photographer, and then so
we kind of like, well, that'sfine, we're cool with that, you
know, we're gonna explain someof our traditions what we
expect? And then so that's kindof how we open it up, or like,
I'm gonna be honest with you, Idon't know, everything I should
know. So fill me in here. Whatdo you guys need covered? What
do you want? You know, there'salways I always say, there's two
(31:28):
lists, you have your list ofwants and your list of needs,
you always have to geteverything on the list of needs,
no matter what the list of wantsis kind of that icing on top,
you know, the cherry on top ofthe icing or whatever it is. So,
and you want to go above andbeyond that. So you want to hit
the wants and the needs in theday didn't even think of but
without having, you know,essentially the rules out in
front of you. You don't knowwhat what the game is. So we
(31:51):
chatted, I don't know, this maybe 10 years ago now. And they're
like, I said, Okay, so we'regonna do that, you know, this is
the ketubah signing. And this ishow we do it. And this is how
you know, our family kind ofwhere our family expects, you
know, and then we're gonna doportraits over here. Because,
you know, when we did last time,that's how we did it. And we
wanted the exact same thing. Sowe can hang it up next to the
other ones, so they looksimilar, and then just kind of
(32:12):
walk through it. And then,you know, years later, I know
that I've encountered you on anumber of events as well. And I
was probably, you know, like,what do I do what's happening
next, you know, because eventhough you have a plan, certain
things can either, you know, popup out of nowhere, like you said
earlier. So, you know, throughthe years, I've learned a lot
from you, as well, you know, asa rental lady, before the party
(32:35):
maybe even existed, but you'vealways been in there teaching
us. So I appreciate. But again,our goals are similar, our goal
is to do the best job for theclient. And that comes through
in the work that you do all thetime. And I hope it comes
through in the work that I do,because I'm not the caterer I'm
not the DJ, I'm not thephotographer. But I want those
vendors to do their very bestjob, and they can't do it
(32:59):
without an understanding ofwhat's going on. And so
yeah, I think you helped bringall of those pieces together at
the events that you're at, forsure. Because you know, you you
have, you have a lot of hats ina wedding, you're dealing with
all of those other people.
Whereas a photographer ongenerally, I might be dealing
with you and then the bride andgroom, and then maybe the the DJ
or the band, but you know, Ihave four spokes where you're
(33:22):
dealing with, you know, a lot ofthem, and then you bring them
together, making sure thatpeople are, you know, not being
crazy, and then they're noteating ham sandwiches when they
shouldn't be.
So I won't bring any hamsandwiches in any future events?
No, I appreciate that. You'renot bringing them to Jewish
events, at least.
(33:42):
Other events, it's totallyacceptable. That's another one
of those things where justunderstanding basic customs is
huge. And so I know that youwork hard to learn all kinds of
things. And I appreciate that.
And I'm always learning fromevery party. There's something
new at every party, and I lovelearning from vendors. And I go
to some photographers, and theyhave no idea how to set things
(34:04):
up. And I find myself channelingmy inner Okay, what would Mike
say that that.
And now he says to stand thisway, okay, put your shoulder
back, but you have bags to putyour weight on when they go. And
you have all these amazingthings that you're good at that
you just take for granted. Andit's wonderful that you are
(34:24):
going to do this event guys,Detroit and share some of that
knowledge with the community.
And I look forward to seeingsome of those things come out
and hearing them on podcasts, oryour podcast, visual podcast.
They're gonna be both Yeah. Sowe'll have audio component, the
visual component, and then someof the main keys will be broken
down and kind of like shareableor something. Yeah, good. All
social media. So let's talkabout social media. What's your
(34:47):
favorite social media platform?
I am the worst person talkingabout social media, but I know I
should be doing it. I don't.
We're kind of that's one of thethings we had. Well, we were
Working on the business like,Okay, what can we do because I
don't have the discipline or theneed to want to post post post
post. But what has worked wellfor us when we do post regularly
(35:11):
is Instagram, we a lot ofpeople, we don't have a huge
following at all, you know,maybe, almost 2000, we have a
video, a video on a photo one,and they're separate. We're
thinking to bring them back. Butwe do some boosts. And we do
things like that. And we getpeople finding us on Instagram,
I always think it's crazy thatpeople find us and we don't do a
lot of the things you'resupposed to, you're supposed to
(35:32):
do SEO, yes, all this and wehave the basics covered. And
you're supposed to post 10,000times a day, and all this stuff.
And we kind of do the basicsand, and it happens. But I think
a lot of our business does comefrom word of mouth, from all the
other vendors we've worked withover time, which we're super
thankful for. And we, you know,we work hard to recommend
everyone we love working with aswell. But I'd say Instagram is
(35:54):
kind of my favorite right nowjust because it's it's really
easily approachable. But youknow, there's a lot of downsides
to it, too. If you just turninto scrolling instead of you
know, on the other side,pushing, pushing stuff out there
is great and easy. But thensometimes you get sucked into
consuming too much of it.
(36:15):
I have had a personal Facebookpage for years. And my personal
Facebook page turns into mybusiness Facebook page, because
my clients call me by name. Andso I generally post almost
nothing personal. And I postonly business things and it's,
it's a challenge. Yeah, it'skind of the same for me, I'll
(36:39):
have the you have the, hey,here's an event we just shot. So
we have our business one, butthen it also goes on to mine.
And then if you look at my feet,it's like 90% weddings. And then
then it's also my daughter'sbirthday. You know, like that's
Oh, sorry, Rosie. But you know,I don't think I need to share as
much of my family stuff onsocial media, or me I see it
(36:59):
more as a business, you know,business minded setup. Well,
that's awesome. Well, if peoplewant to get a hold of killer
creations, where should theyfind you? What's the best way to
reach out to get your services,the best way so you can give us
a call, or check out ourwebsite. It's killer creations.
dotnet and we're still dotnetafter 12 years of doing this
(37:20):
the.com somebody else bought.
And it's like $10,000 to buylike, Yeah, I don't know. So,
people, here's a quick funnything. So, to all the naysayers,
when we start a business, wecouldn't, we couldn't you can't
have a wedding company that hasthe word killer in it. And if
you're not a.com no one's gonnafind you.
(37:41):
And we're still alive, you know,more than 10 years later with
killer dotnet. So what were ourkiller creations dotnet you can
get a hold of us through theiremail is great, give us a call,
we'd love to chat. We love tohost our couples in the studio.
So we're here. And we're goingto set up the you know, the
couple sitting there when yousit near going over work in
India albums, the checkout,things like that. So there's a
(38:04):
lot of personal touch to it. Thewhole COVID thing obviously put
a put a little bit of a stop tothat so Zoo mortals have been
working well for us. Butyou know, we love to love to
meet up and to get a coupleyears because then you can
really have a feel like a littlebit more of a get to know you.
Yeah, we already know eachother. But if we just met over
(38:24):
zoom, it's a little more formal.
So I like to have you know, havea coffee. Have an espresso with
with a couples that come in andgo from there. So come on down
and visit us here or get intouch via email. Okay, and I
will post your email in the shownotes so that people can find
it. But killer creations dotnetfinger Yeah, info at killer
(38:48):
creations. dotnet is the emailand then we'll get back here.
Super quick. Awesome. Well,thank you very much, Mike for
joining us today. It's always apleasure working with you and I
appreciate your sharing yourworld with us. I I know you're
doing great things and the threeof you guys were getting
together doing that. Detroitevent no event guys, Detroit
(39:09):
right event. Yeah. Yeah,whatever. Three Amigos
powerhouse.
Yep. Let's try something goes.
So yeah. So thanks so much forhaving me. It was great to hang
out and chat and connect alittle bit and to see a smiling
face. I know a lot of times I'mjust sitting here behind the
computer these days. So it's funto connect, even if we're doing
it over, or zoom. So hopefullyyou get to do some traveling
(39:32):
before I see you next timebecause I know you're itching to
get out there too. So, indeed.
Thank you very much. You heardit here. never stopped growing.
That was Mike parados quote andone I firmly believe in. He
mentioned some of his favoritebooks, and they can all be found
in the show notes at Jewishparty Maven slash 15.
(39:57):
Peter Drucker said it a littledifferently when he said
Whenever you see a successfulbusiness, someone once made a
courageous decision.
So, what are your courageousdecisions going to be? What are
your big outrageous goals? Iwant to hear from you send an
email to Pat at Jewish partyMaven.
(40:19):
I really enjoyed catching upwith my credo today, and I hope
that you learned some things.
But that's just the start.
Hopefully you learned somethingfrom this amazing entrepreneur
that you can go out and apply toyour own business. Thank you for
listening. see you right backhere next Wednesday. At the book
more weddings podcast, with theJewish party Maven herself. Pat
(40:41):
Blackwell.
Hello there are you entrepreneurs out there? I know
you got a business going, whathave you wanted to have a second
studio or a third? What wouldneed to change for you to have a
photography studio say in Idahoand Los Angeles and San
Francisco. My guest today isMike Peraino, the CO owner,
(00:25):
photographer and cinematographerat killer creations. He is a
self described lover of allthings Italian. And Mike has
figured out a way to combine hislove of travel with his very
successful business killercreations. They go around the
world, but they specialize inIllinois, California,
Washington, Idaho, Montana, andOregon. Tune in today to hear
(00:49):
about Mike's story, how hestarted his business, and even
more importantly, how he keepsgrowing his business. As a
Catholic farm girl in Minnesota,I certainly never expected to
ever be the Jewish party Maven,but 4400 parties and 26 years
later, I am indeed an expert atJewish party.
(01:10):
I am fiercely committed to helphim the best vendors book more
parties in this amazing,lucrative and incredibly loyal
Jewish party market. Let's go.
Hello there, Mike. How are you?
Hey, Pat. Good morning. Good tosee ya. Oh, my gosh, I haven't
seen you in ages. You got thenew look going. It's been a year
since I've seen you. I know.
(01:33):
It's been crazy. I know. It'sgreat to see you. I feel like
it's been too long. And thenthanks for noticing the beard.
It's definitely grown out. Ithink there's a lot more gray in
here then. Yeah, telling me thatit was a year ago. But hey, it's
been you know, it's been aroundlike a year to definitely learn
and grow.
So thanks, man, what you havebeen doing this year? Have you
(01:56):
been busy, we've been busy. Sothis year kind of is starting to
feel a little bit more more likewe're returning to normal. So
last year, everyone knows, youknow exactly what happened. It
just stopped brakes hit. Andnothing happened from March,
April, May, June, July, August,we kind of did some smaller
backyard events, which weregreat real, real small events.
Sometimes I was one of eightpeople, you know. So you're you
(02:20):
get this really cool, immersiveexperience. And then you're
capturing these emotions andthese connections that you might
not be able to get on an actualwedding day where you have 600
people so raised to doing hugeevents. So it was a really nice
change to do some of thesesmaller events. So
we did that we kind of switchedover and did a little bit more
(02:40):
of the corporate world. So we'vebeen doing a lot of smaller
commercial things, which arenice, but those also happened
during the week. So we hadweekends pretty much wide open
for a huge sweep of thatsummertime, which hasn't
happened in 15 years for me,which was crazy. Exactly. It's
such a weird thing to haveSaturday's open. And yeah, I
don't want to get used to that.
I love working Saturdays. Yeah,I love it too. For a while it's
(03:02):
like, Huh, you know, maybe I'lljust become a greeter at
Walmart, I'll work Monday,weekends open. But that didn't
happen. But I did really spend alot of time with my family. So I
have three kids under seven. Somy daughter is six, my middle
son's four, and then I have analmost two year old so I get to
spend a lot of time with themand my wife at home, which is
(03:23):
really cool. So we did somesmaller trips in and around
Michigan, and hung out, youknow, as a family group and
really got to grow together. Sothat was the bonus. The huge,
you know, diamond in the roughwas that all that family time,
and then a lot of personalgrowth stuff too. So you kind of
panic for a little bit. And thenyou get over that and you're
(03:43):
like, Okay, now what am I goingto do so? So what are you doing
to develop your business,developing the business. So we,
you know, we always say we have,you know, when we're busy in the
middle of the wedding season,you say there's not enough time
to really work on the business,you're just working in it. And
so we didn't have some more timeto work on the business.
Obviously, we had to put out alot of fires, we moved more than
(04:05):
74 events, I think that took alot of time pushing them from,
you know, one year to next,sometimes to the next and then
even to the you know, to 2023 wehave people Move, move, move,
move. So we're doing that. Butthen once that settled down, we
had some time to do notnecessarily rebranding but just
kind of approach how we're goingto be dealing with our brides
(04:28):
and grooms again. So, you know,we get past this busy and we
want to figure out how we canserve them once we're back into
the real world so to speak. Sohow can we serve them best? What
processes can we put in placenow that there's time to read?
You know, revisit thatconversation so that while
they're were connecting to gothrough the timeline where you
(04:48):
know shooting the day of we'refollowing up afterwards, we're
going through the album's andthe final video processes and
all that how can we best servethem so we really focused on
that and As a team,the backup a little bit tell us
what you do. What do I do? So wedo photography and
cinematography, both in thewedding and event world. We've
(05:09):
been doing it for over I thinkwe're going on 12 years now
under the killer creations name.
And then I've been doing itwhere and so Yeah, good question
started in Michigan. So I'moriginally from Michigan. I live
Royal Oak area our studios herein Clawson. But we kind of grew
(05:30):
from there. We're out in LA inSan Francisco and in San Diego,
Montana. Pacific Northwest, wehave Seattle, Coeur d'Alene,
Idaho. Yeah. And then we do alot in Detroit. And then in
Chicago is kind of like just ahop away on northern Michigan's
braid. So we ended up out west,because
(05:54):
a good friend of mine who Ihappen to just sit next to one
day in church, you know, you sayhello, you stand up. And then
you ever see that person again.
He was in the video, I was inthe photo, this was more than
this was like, you know, 12years ago or more.
We kind of grew the businesstogether, him and another. So
that'd be Jason, we have MikeHubert, and we kind of grew this
up together, Jason unfortunatelymoved out west, where his
(06:17):
family's from, or his wife'sfamily. And then, you know, we
had a little bit of downtime,where like, Oh, we missed
working together. So we broughtthe company out there. So that's
kind of how we started digginginto those things. And we've had
great contacts throughout thoseother markets as well. So it
sounds like we're this hugebusiness, but we do a lot of the
traveling ourselves, which isgreat. So you know, we'll get to
(06:37):
do you know, I was in, I'll bein New York, in a bit in three
weeks, in two weeks, I'll be inSan Jose, I was in Utah at the
fall. So there's a lot of reallycool kids, we get to go which
you know, help tell our story.
So that's what we do. We tell,you know, a couple of stories
through photography andvideography, not only here in
Michigan, but you know, anywhereelse Fingers crossed, we'll be
(06:58):
looking at Orlando next. So howdo you find a new? How do you
determine this is a market Iwant to be?
So I'll use Orlando as the nextone. Because we have all those
others, they work out. So weeither we've either been there
we'd have family there, we knowthe area? Well, we have friends
(07:19):
there. So it's not just kind ofpicking a spot arbitrarily and
saying, All right, let's justkind of dive in here. So we
will, you know, kind of do asoft test, see if we can, you
know, get anything. So will wereach out to people like
yourself to people who arealready in the industry dug in
in that area and say, Hey, thisis what we do. Looks like you do
an amazing job and you love itas much as we do. We're thinking
(07:41):
to come into that area. Is itworth it? Are they friendly to
us? They're like, Oh, we don'twant anymore? Yeah, totally.
Because we really just loveworking with people, whether
it's our brides and grooms orthe other vendors on site, we're
all there to, you know, to workfor the couple. And if you're
not doing it as a team, youknow, I guess they'll be there
or it's no fun. Sobut yeah, so we've I picked
(08:04):
Florida because I have cousinsthere. Orlando is one of the
best spots for weddingphotography in in the state.
They have the year round trafficgoing there. But but then for us
in Michigan, you know, we slowdown, we do some winter
weddings. But November,December, January, February,
it's pretty sparse. But that'swhen things are picking up in
(08:27):
Florida. So I actually had achance to do a wedding.
The end of February in Orlando,it was amazing. It was 80
degrees. And then that's whenwe're like, okay, we're gonna
try this so connected with myfamily, and who should I reach
out to? And then some we're kindof trying to soft launch and
it's a two hour flight. So youknow, cool, awesome. So tell me
(08:50):
how it works. When you go offpremise. Do you haul all of your
equipment from here?
Yeah, so um, depends where we'regoing. So if a couple of us are
traveling, it's not too bad. Sowe'll kind of bring half in
half, we have a pretty smallstreamline kit, you know, if
we're doing like a biggerproduction, it's it's harder. We
did a really cool productionshoot for like a TV show pilot
(09:12):
out in San Jose a couple, maybetwo months ago, we needed to
rent everything we brought asmuch as we could, but we need to
trucks load, you know truckloadsof things to do that. So in that
case, we're renting most of thetime, like I'll be in San Jose
again for wedding. I'm bringingin like my gorilla gear. So I
have a roller bag of camerasthat I packed some socks and
(09:32):
underwear in there pretty muchwear what I'm gonna wear the
whole weekend and throw abackpack on the back with a
change of clothes and thenthat's what I'm bringing in and
we can survive the weekend withthat so I don't need everything.
I can kind of pare down my kitbut you know, I don't I don't
like to check anything because II've had people lose things
flying in usually flying the dayor two before but if you fly him
(09:54):
I've flown in on the day. Forlike an engagement session.
We're supposed to meet at thebeach at sunset and
They lose your luggage. Youknow. So I'll have like, I
always bring the basics with me.
But I had like this whole setupfor, you know, lighting for the
sunset never began when I checkanything unless I know I'm not
using it for the next two days,so Wow. Okay, well, I bet you
have some awesome stories. Well,my company is called the Jewish
(10:19):
party Maven. And we've had thegreat pleasure of working with
you as the red coat ladies overthe years, and you do such
incredible stuff. And I know youdon't do specifically Jewish,
but I mean, you do an amazingjob of Jewish parties. But you
don't, that's not your forte,you specialize in all kinds of
wedding. So how do you learnwhat's important to your
(10:41):
clients? How do you have theconfidence to say, Yep, I can do
an Indian wedding? Yep, I can doa Greek Wedding. Yeah, I think,
you know, it's really all aboutlistening to what the client has
to say, you know, listening towhat they have. So it depends
whether it's a Jewish wedding inany wedding, a Greek Wedding,
Middle Eastern wedding, anItalian wedding, you know, just
sort of depends where they're aton that tradition spectrum,
(11:03):
sometimes they're verytraditional, and they have all
of the things that are going tohappen. And then sometimes
they're like, we're just gonnado one or two, you know, it's
really important to our parents,but for us, so you have to
listen to that and not expect,you know, one or the other.
And then really just kind ofasking questions. So first of
all, they'll kind of give youtheir vision, and then I'll dig
(11:24):
in and be like, Alright, sowe've done a lot of events,
either at your location thatwould seemingly be similar to
yours. But tell me thespecifics. What are you going to
do? What's the surprise, you'regoing to pull out at the
ceremony? Or at the reception?
Are there any other traditionsthat are beyond the scope of
what you would consider normal?
For me, you know, just to beprepared. So the timeline is
(11:46):
really important for us. So weknow when to be where, and if
any of those additionaltraditions go and kind of say,
this is what I would expect.
What do you guys have plannedabove and beyond that, and tell
me if I'm right, or I'm wrong,because sometimes we've even
done events where you have thesame family, but then there's
influences from, you know, maybethe bright side on this side of
the room, side and that side,and now traditions kind of skew
(12:07):
in a different different way,even though they're playing? Oh,
no, it's exactly the same asme like, wait a minute, it's not
the same at all. So I guess,just listening to what they
have. If you do have questions,ask them. I always like to say
it's better when everyone knowsthe rules ahead of time and time
of just instead of just guessingat him, you know, the day of or
whatever, even things like whatare you aware? Right? Yeah, what
(12:29):
outfits are you gonna wear? Howmany times are you changing? You
know? No, I mean, what are youas a professional? Yeah, what
should we be wearing? Right? Doyou need to be in black tie? It
should? Are there certain colorsyou should avoid? Is there
something that? Yeah, yeah, no,I just finally get to dress up.
I haven't done you know,usually, I'm wearing either a
(12:49):
black tie, or just, you know,something like this. So, but I
haven't gotten to wear anythingsuper crazy yet.
Okay, so are there times whenyou worked? Because this again,
is the Jewish party Maven, Arethere times when you've worked a
Jewish party, where you thought,Oh, my gosh, I wish I'd have
known that beforehand.
(13:11):
Yeah, I guess so earlier in our,you know, in our, you know,
career path, when we werestarting out, we wouldn't ask
all those questions. So youlearn from making mistakes, or
you learn from other things. Alot of times, and I know I've
even asked you questions, likewe're doing this event, this is
what I'm expecting, you know,cuz now not all the time, do you
have the chance to connect withthe bride and groom as you would
(13:33):
like, they're busy, they liveout of town. They're both
doctors in the residency,whatever it might be, you can't
get all the details. So weconnect with people like
yourself that know all thedetails that have dotted the i's
and cross the T's to say, Okay,this is what we're expecting,
what should What should we be,you know, looking for, or what
are we missing? So, I guess thatwould be the best answer. And
(13:53):
then also,you know, on, I guess we've had
in the early days, we would justhave people say, Hey, we want
you for X amount of hours, justshow up and get whatever and
then go home at the end of theyou know, the coverage and
that's like the worst way topossibly do it. But every once a
while you get someone like thatwe've learned that's never the
way we approach anythinganymore.
(14:13):
Because you're gonna misssomething or something's gonna
happen that even they didn'tknow a lot of times we'll have
things that the bride and groommight not have any have even
expected because it's atradition tradition that mom and
dad put in there or somethingthat's for grandma and grandpa.
So if the whole family isavailable, or on an email chain,
or whatever it is, I generallywill say, hey, if there's any
secrets or traditions that areout there, just email me
(14:35):
independently so that you don'tspoil it, but I want to know
what's happening and how we canbest serve you get, sir. Well, I
focused on training all kinds ofvendors. And so we watched a lot
of things happen. I had a partyseveral years ago now,
thankfully, where the party wasat a kosher venue and the Fatah
(15:00):
First assistant brought asandwich. And it happened to be
a ham and cheese sandwich.
Yeah, big oops, it caused a hugebunch of tumbled and almost
ended the day for thatphotographer and his crew. But
we worked it out. But thosekinds of things you just don't
(15:20):
know to ask. And so it'simportant to ask a lot of
questions. It's important tounderstand traditions. And
that's what this whole JewishParty Movement was about. We
want to focus on teachingvendors how to do their very
best job for these clients. Andyou mentioned that earlier, it's
all about what's important tothe client. And right, we love
(15:40):
happy clients. And we're all inthis business, because we want
to make those clients happy. Andone way we can make them happy
is by honoring their traditions.
And that's what this is focusedon. Tell me about
this other thing you got goingthe event guys, the event guy,
so that's the secret. Yeah, soeveryone's asking about that. So
(16:03):
Derek, from he three Detroit andDan Rafferty band, and then
Nicolas, from the leasingexperience, and I had kind of
just always been criss crossingat events. We've known each
other for years and years now,Derek, actually 10 years ago.
180 days from now, it did my mywedding. So he was there as the
entertainment and the band formy event. Oh, that's awesome.
(16:26):
Yeah, so and I was lucky enoughto fill in his wedding.
Nicholas's wedding as well. Sowe kind of just have a good
mutual respect for each otherand what we do, and they
approach the business and areenthusiastic for personal
growth, business growth, and allthat. So that brought us to this
idea of just like, we'd havethese like mastermind sessions,
like, how do you do this? Whatdo you deal with when this
(16:48):
happens?
And then kind of figure like,Okay, how can we share this. So
similar to what we're doingright now, we'd be zooming, we'd
be meeting up, we'd be, youknow, going grabbing a coffee or
a drink. And then we said,let's, let's create something
that we can share. So it's asimilar idea, we're kicking off
the podcast soon. So hopefully,you guys can hear a little bit
about that, we'd love to haveyou on as a guest as well, to
(17:10):
grill you with all thesequestions. But it's really
about, you know, hopefullyoffering something to our
listeners that could help themgrow the business, learn
something new people with anentrepreneurial mindset, you
know, overcoming these hurdles.
So as a business owner, as youknow, you don't just wear you
know, the hat of organizer,photographer, you know,
(17:30):
decorator, whatever it might be,you also then have to, you know,
lead your, your crew, you haveto motivate them, you have to
teach them the varioustraditions that they need to
know to be on site to better theclients, and all that. So that's
kind of you know, how we cametogether with this idea, the
event guys, with the name cameout. And that's what stuck with
(17:50):
me. And it's kind of fun. Sowe've had some great guests so
far. And no, it's a podcast, itwill be a podcast. And right
before the shutdown, we did whatwe were planning on doing were
like, kind of quarterly events.
So we did the event at the fifthin, no, I have no VI, there is
going to be just a chance to youknow, to get together to mingle
(18:12):
almost networking with more of aan exciting, fun spin on it,
just to get us together. Becausewe work so hard. It's fun to
play a little bit, too. So thatwas the idea behind it. But I
would say pretty much every day,if not 10 times a day, the three
of us are chatting or, you know,connecting just that, you know,
inspiration going. So is that abusiness you intend to monetize?
(18:36):
And we'll see what happens rightnow. It's just the chance for us
to connect and share some of thethings we've learned, connect
with others and hopefully learn,you know, from them as well. And
then just, you know, see whathappens. So, you know, it's
always great to monetizesomething, if not, we're really
enjoying this kind of doing it.
And I guess, you know, westarted out saying, Hey, you
know, it's cool, we'll havethis, this podcast, and it can
(18:57):
promote some of the stuff we'redoing. But the inverse with that
we've already learned is evencooler, is that we're getting so
much information from our gueststhat we're growing, we're
learning and it's just beenreally insightful and inspiring
us just to have these amazingguests out and then go from
there. Very cool. So you do allI mean, as a party manager, I'm
(19:19):
not so incredibly concernedabout the quality of the video
or the quality of the sound. Butyou guys, that must be a whole
different animal when you have acinematographer and a sound guy
and a music guy. Yeah. Derek athis place had built out a pretty
awesome studio, which you'll seewe have been happy to have you
(19:40):
guys in there. So you know, I'mdealing with the lighting. And
Derek and Nicolas are worriedabout the sound and the audio
and then I'm dealing withediting again. So it's kind of
fun. So I guess the one wrenchit throws in there is like we
try to get it to perfect andthings haven't come out yet
because we're like, oh, let'schange this. Let's update this.
Let's do that. Now we're like,okay, it's really
Just about getting theinformation out there. So stay
(20:02):
tuned. And very shortly we'llhave the first couple episodes
coming out. Somebody justrecently said, If you wait until
it's perfect, you waited toolong. Yeah, I agree completely.
And we're learning. You're nottotally embarrassed of your
first podcast, you waited toolong.
Right? I always like every timeI see myself on camera. When I
(20:24):
see myself on this, too, I'll belike, Oh, man, I just you do
things you don't really noticethat you do until you're, you're
scrutinizing yourself, buthopefully, nobody notices all my
weird tics. Oh, that's so funny.
Well, you always do an amazingjob of understanding what's
going on and seeing the bigpicture. And I love working with
you for that reason. But tell meabout how you learn. Are you a
(20:45):
visual learner? Are you apodcast learner? Are you a book
learner? How do you I say, Ithink I'm a cross between a
visual learner and a booklearner. One of my big goals
every year I you know, like mostpeople, the I like, okay, 2020
ones come on, what are thegoals? Let's write these things
down. I have a goal of reading100 books this year, and I'm
(21:07):
around, give or take 10 a month.
That's my goal. So I'm going togo over I think wedding season
gets here, it will slow me downa little bit. But I've been
reading some amazing books aboutwhether it's personal growth,
health, longevity, businessservice, all of that. So I
learned from kind of gettingthat information, getting
(21:27):
excited about it, and then youknow, sharing it with someone.
So tell us your favorite books,books. Um, so there are a couple
that like, sometimes I'll findan author I love and I'll dive
into them like crazy. So there'sthere's one I'm reading right
now is this really nutty? Dude,who I actually love. His name is
(21:48):
Wim Hoff. It's kind of a Are youfamiliar with him? The Wim Hof
Method?
Yeah, so cool training. So I'vebeen doing that. And it's really
it's really cool. It's, it's, Ilike, kind of these crazy
challenges. So I read a coupleof his his books. And just kind
of what he stumbled acrossaccidentally and found through
(22:10):
the cool training and throughthe breathing is really
interesting. me so kind ofbrings a lot of these different
things from my past together. Iused to do martial arts as that,
you know, so through that, andmeditating and breathing. So now
this is just, you know, let'sadd cold to that and see what
happens. Butare you doing cold showers? are
you jumping in the lakesomewhere. So both cold showers
every day, and then my parentslive on a lake. So I jumped in
(22:34):
on Christmas, I'm freezing cold,it was snowing, which is great.
And then every once in a whilewhen we're out there, I'll jump
in there. But if I'm not able todo that, it's always a cold
shower every day and then thebreathing.
So that's kind of like thehealth the health corner I'm on.
(22:54):
I've been reading some books. Sothere's Tony Robbins, there's
I can pull up a list. I'm goingto pull up my list real quick
here because I'm going throughmy crazy. Are you a podcast
person too? Do you haveI you know, it being a podcast
or now myself, I'm trying to getinto podcasting more, but I just
have such a long list of booksthat I'm not always you know,
(23:17):
listen to podcasts because I'meither reading or listening to
these audio books. So I kind ofhave a whole recommendation from
Derek from Nicholas or someother friends. So if you have
some I'm happy toto add those to the list because
I got to get these done. Andthen I jumped back into that. I
find that I read for pleasure.
(23:39):
But I don't read for businessvery often. But I like to listen
to audiobooks for business. AndI spend a lot of time driving so
I listen to audiobooks when I'mdriving. So who are you
listening to? I just listenedfor the second time to Gino
wickman traction. Yeah, I thinkhis book is fabulous and profit
(24:01):
first. I listened to that againand Mike mccalla Wits does a
really cool job of doing thingsdifferently than other people
do. And I appreciate that.
Because I'm a very much out ofthe box kind of girl and my
family's out of the box familyand, and his whole way of
looking at your business profitis different than anyone I've
run across before. I have anaccounting background. And
(24:25):
it's very different to hearsomebody say
All my life I've been taught totake your sales minus your
expenses, what you have left isprofit. He says that's totally
wrong. And you will never have aprofit if you do that.
Interesting. He says take yoursales minus your profit. And
what you have left you willfigure out how to deal with in
(24:47):
terms of that's all you have todo for expenses. And if you need
to cut expenses, you'll figureit out quickly that way. And you
know what? I think he's right,right. He gives an analogy when
you have a whole tube oftoothpaste you
spit out a whole tube oftoothpaste. And if it drops in
the sink, big deal you put onanother one. But when it gets
down to the end of that tube,you're squeezing and twisted.
(25:07):
And you can make do with a wholebunch. And that's the way he
looks at business expenses. Andyeah, well that's I mean, that's
super timely now for kind ofwhat we've been going through.
Because of the this, thetoothpaste tube has been
squeezed very tightly this lastyear here, and I'm lucky enough
that I work out of my house, andI don't have a lot of expenses.
But I know you have this big,beautiful studio, that's just
fabulous. And you have a lot ofequipment expenses. So yeah,
(25:32):
unfortunately, I mean, I'malways I'm like, I'll keep
things as long as possible untilwe buy it. My my business
partner is always about the gearwe want to upgrade this year,
and like, Let's wait six moreyears, we don't need to upgrade,
you know, and then we kind ofback and forth. So in the
studio, you know, studio was abig step for us. We had been in
a really cool blessing cube kindof we were renting for a while
(25:54):
in Royal Oak and pointing thatway and downtown Royal Oak. Um,
somebody bought the building wewere renting and just was not
the best landlord. So thingswould change weekly, monthly,
and whenever we're like, Okay,so we're gonna move, so we look
to rent, to rent to rent torent, and then this building
became available for sale, andwith a down payment, the No, no
(26:17):
monthly afterwards, it wascheaper to get a building and do
it. So we ended up doing that.
And it was it was kind of one ofthose big things where I was
like, 10 years from now I'll beable to do this. And then it
happened in two years. So youknow, some of these books that
I've been reading, like, it's Ithink it's so crazy how this
happens. It's happened so manytimes in my life, when you focus
on something so intensely, it'sliterally the only thing you do,
(26:38):
and it's a laser, and it justhappens way faster than you
think it could or would. And Iwouldn't even credit myself for
it. But just thinking about isthe only thing I thought about
because we literally had to getout of there at a certain date.
And by that date, we had foundthis place. So sidetrack but
yeah, it's amazing how thatworks, that I listened to Amy
Porterfield a lot. And I loveher teaching style. And I love
(27:00):
her detail in what she does. Andshe's very systematic about how
her approach to things and oneof the things she makes you do
is write down a list of fivethings as if they already
happened by outrageous goals asif they already happened. And
yet, it is interesting how yourmind works that way. So what are
(27:24):
some of your big outrageousgoals? Well, I'm working on
Jewish party, Maven, and I, mygoal is to help 1000s of vendors
be better vendors in this Jewishworld. And I still have the red
coat ladies. And I love the redgold ladies, and I love working
these parties. But I watchpeople who are terrific vendors
not give their best to ourclients because they don't know
(27:46):
better. So my big outrageousgoals are to help all kinds of
vendors with the Jewish partyMaven, make a bunch of money
doing it, and live wherever Iwant to live. I have a goal that
someday I'm going to be a nomadand live with my computer and
run my company from anywhere.
(28:06):
I was supposed to go to Portugalthis February, and I was not
able to go there because ofCOVID. Right going there in
December, and I'll spend severalweeks there and I love to
explore. I like no new new trysomething different. Nice. My
family often criticizes me andsays okay, if you want to, I
(28:27):
mean, they'll say can we go todinner? Okay, where should we
go? Well, sorry, we've alreadybeen there. No. Yeah, but it was
really good. Can we go back?
Sure. When I've been to all theother restaurants. And once I
get to all the other ones, andwe can do it. I love it. Yeah.
And so that's exciting. But howabout you? Do you have advice
for people who want to breakinto this photography cinema
(28:49):
market? What advice would youhave for someone whose goal is
to become like Purina becomeDon't be Mike Marino, that's
number one.
You lose your hair really quick,and you go gray. But
I guess the best advice, youknow, never stopped rowing. You
know, earlier, I guess it kindof in everyone's career, you
(29:12):
kind of get to this plateau. Andthen you're like, what else is
there to learn? Where else am Igoing? What else can I do? Am I
even you know, you have like amid career crisis almost, or
whatever you want to call it. Ihave one of those every couple
years, like what am I doing withmy life, and then you kind of
you find another anothermountain to climb and it's
whether it's improving yourskills as a photographer,
improving your skills. Now alsophotography can break down to
(29:33):
hundreds of things, it can belighting, it can be posing, it
can be you know, shooting, itcan be editing, and then then
you have the business side ofthings kind of in that pie
chart. always improving on everyone of those bits that go in
there because if one of those,you look at it as a wheel, it's
not going to turn very fast butwe have great photography skills
and no business skills or peopleskills by near horror like
(29:56):
you're, you're you're saying ifyou don't know the traditions or
The, you know what your clientsare expecting? You're not going
to be able to serve them? Well,you might be great in the art,
but without the service, you'renot going to get very far. So I
don't know if I have anysuperpower, first Jewish? What's
that? How did you get your firstever Jewish party?
(30:19):
How do we get it? Um, I thinkthat that wasn't because they're
like we saw you had a bunch ofJewish events. It was we saw you
work. We liked it. It'sdifferent. Have you done any
Jewish events? And so I grew upin the event industry. So I had
done all sorts of events that mydad was used to be an owner at
Laurier rostering Entertainment.
So really, yes. So I literallybeen to every kind of event you
(30:43):
can think of, for the last, youknow, 30 years, everything from
being a mascot to being a cottoncandy maker to being a blackjack
dealer to being who knows whatit is, I've done it all get a
call, you know, day before,like, Hey, we need an extra this
or that? Okay? I mean, don't doit.
So, you know, so we fast forwardyears later, I was talking to
(31:05):
her now, hey, we like your work?
Have you done any Jewish events?
I've been to lots of them, butas a photographer, and then so
we kind of like, well, that'sfine, we're cool with that, you
know, we're gonna explain someof our traditions what we
expect? And then so that's kindof how we open it up, or like,
I'm gonna be honest with you, Idon't know, everything I should
know. So fill me in here. Whatdo you guys need covered? What
do you want? You know, there'salways I always say, there's two
(31:28):
lists, you have your list ofwants and your list of needs,
you always have to geteverything on the list of needs,
no matter what the list of wantsis kind of that icing on top,
you know, the cherry on top ofthe icing or whatever it is. So,
and you want to go above andbeyond that. So you want to hit
the wants and the needs in theday didn't even think of but
without having, you know,essentially the rules out in
front of you. You don't knowwhat what the game is. So we
(31:51):
chatted, I don't know, this maybe 10 years ago now. And they're
like, I said, Okay, so we'regonna do that, you know, this is
the ketubah signing. And this ishow we do it. And this is how
you know, our family kind ofwhere our family expects, you
know, and then we're gonna doportraits over here. Because,
you know, when we did last time,that's how we did it. And we
wanted the exact same thing. Sowe can hang it up next to the
other ones, so they looksimilar, and then just kind of
(32:12):
walk through it. And then,you know, years later, I know
that I've encountered you on anumber of events as well. And I
was probably, you know, like,what do I do what's happening
next, you know, because eventhough you have a plan, certain
things can either, you know, popup out of nowhere, like you said
earlier. So, you know, throughthe years, I've learned a lot
from you, as well, you know, asa rental lady, before the party
(32:35):
maybe even existed, but you'vealways been in there teaching
us. So I appreciate. But again,our goals are similar, our goal
is to do the best job for theclient. And that comes through
in the work that you do all thetime. And I hope it comes
through in the work that I do,because I'm not the caterer I'm
not the DJ, I'm not thephotographer. But I want those
vendors to do their very bestjob, and they can't do it
(32:59):
without an understanding ofwhat's going on. And so
yeah, I think you helped bringall of those pieces together at
the events that you're at, forsure. Because you know, you you
have, you have a lot of hats ina wedding, you're dealing with
all of those other people.
Whereas a photographer ongenerally, I might be dealing
with you and then the bride andgroom, and then maybe the the DJ
or the band, but you know, Ihave four spokes where you're
(33:22):
dealing with, you know, a lot ofthem, and then you bring them
together, making sure thatpeople are, you know, not being
crazy, and then they're noteating ham sandwiches when they
shouldn't be.
So I won't bring any hamsandwiches in any future events?
No, I appreciate that. You'renot bringing them to Jewish
events, at least.
(33:42):
Other events, it's totallyacceptable. That's another one
of those things where justunderstanding basic customs is
huge. And so I know that youwork hard to learn all kinds of
things. And I appreciate that.
And I'm always learning fromevery party. There's something
new at every party, and I lovelearning from vendors. And I go
to some photographers, and theyhave no idea how to set things
(34:04):
up. And I find myself channelingmy inner Okay, what would Mike
say that that.
And now he says to stand thisway, okay, put your shoulder
back, but you have bags to putyour weight on when they go. And
you have all these amazingthings that you're good at that
you just take for granted. Andit's wonderful that you are
(34:24):
going to do this event guys,Detroit and share some of that
knowledge with the community.
And I look forward to seeingsome of those things come out
and hearing them on podcasts, oryour podcast, visual podcast.
They're gonna be both Yeah. Sowe'll have audio component, the
visual component, and then someof the main keys will be broken
down and kind of like shareableor something. Yeah, good. All
social media. So let's talkabout social media. What's your
(34:47):
favorite social media platform?
I am the worst person talkingabout social media, but I know I
should be doing it. I don't.
We're kind of that's one of thethings we had. Well, we were
Working on the business like,Okay, what can we do because I
don't have the discipline or theneed to want to post post post
post. But what has worked wellfor us when we do post regularly
(35:11):
is Instagram, we a lot ofpeople, we don't have a huge
following at all, you know,maybe, almost 2000, we have a
video, a video on a photo one,and they're separate. We're
thinking to bring them back. Butwe do some boosts. And we do
things like that. And we getpeople finding us on Instagram,
I always think it's crazy thatpeople find us and we don't do a
lot of the things you'resupposed to, you're supposed to
(35:32):
do SEO, yes, all this and wehave the basics covered. And
you're supposed to post 10,000times a day, and all this stuff.
And we kind of do the basicsand, and it happens. But I think
a lot of our business does comefrom word of mouth, from all the
other vendors we've worked withover time, which we're super
thankful for. And we, you know,we work hard to recommend
everyone we love working with aswell. But I'd say Instagram is
(35:54):
kind of my favorite right nowjust because it's it's really
easily approachable. But youknow, there's a lot of downsides
to it, too. If you just turninto scrolling instead of you
know, on the other side,pushing, pushing stuff out there
is great and easy. But thensometimes you get sucked into
consuming too much of it.
(36:15):
I have had a personal Facebookpage for years. And my personal
Facebook page turns into mybusiness Facebook page, because
my clients call me by name. Andso I generally post almost
nothing personal. And I postonly business things and it's,
it's a challenge. Yeah, it'skind of the same for me, I'll
(36:39):
have the you have the, hey,here's an event we just shot. So
we have our business one, butthen it also goes on to mine.
And then if you look at my feet,it's like 90% weddings. And then
then it's also my daughter'sbirthday. You know, like that's
Oh, sorry, Rosie. But you know,I don't think I need to share as
much of my family stuff onsocial media, or me I see it
(36:59):
more as a business, you know,business minded setup. Well,
that's awesome. Well, if peoplewant to get a hold of killer
creations, where should theyfind you? What's the best way to
reach out to get your services,the best way so you can give us
a call, or check out ourwebsite. It's killer creations.
dotnet and we're still dotnetafter 12 years of doing this
(37:20):
the.com somebody else bought.
And it's like $10,000 to buylike, Yeah, I don't know. So,
people, here's a quick funnything. So, to all the naysayers,
when we start a business, wecouldn't, we couldn't you can't
have a wedding company that hasthe word killer in it. And if
you're not a.com no one's gonnafind you.
(37:41):
And we're still alive, you know,more than 10 years later with
killer dotnet. So what were ourkiller creations dotnet you can
get a hold of us through theiremail is great, give us a call,
we'd love to chat. We love tohost our couples in the studio.
So we're here. And we're goingto set up the you know, the
couple sitting there when yousit near going over work in
India albums, the checkout,things like that. So there's a
(38:04):
lot of personal touch to it. Thewhole COVID thing obviously put
a put a little bit of a stop tothat so Zoo mortals have been
working well for us. Butyou know, we love to love to
meet up and to get a coupleyears because then you can
really have a feel like a littlebit more of a get to know you.
Yeah, we already know eachother. But if we just met over
(38:24):
zoom, it's a little more formal.
So I like to have you know, havea coffee. Have an espresso with
with a couples that come in andgo from there. So come on down
and visit us here or get intouch via email. Okay, and I
will post your email in the shownotes so that people can find
it. But killer creations dotnetfinger Yeah, info at killer
(38:48):
creations. dotnet is the emailand then we'll get back here.
Super quick. Awesome. Well,thank you very much, Mike for
joining us today. It's always apleasure working with you and I
appreciate your sharing yourworld with us. I I know you're
doing great things and the threeof you guys were getting
together doing that. Detroitevent no event guys, Detroit
(39:09):
right event. Yeah. Yeah,whatever. Three Amigos
powerhouse.
Yep. Let's try something goes.
So yeah. So thanks so much forhaving me. It was great to hang
out and chat and connect alittle bit and to see a smiling
face. I know a lot of times I'mjust sitting here behind the
computer these days. So it's funto connect, even if we're doing
it over, or zoom. So hopefullyyou get to do some traveling
(39:32):
before I see you next timebecause I know you're itching to
get out there too. So, indeed.
Thank you very much. You heardit here. never stopped growing.
That was Mike parados quote andone I firmly believe in. He
mentioned some of his favoritebooks, and they can all be found
in the show notes at Jewishparty Maven slash 15.
(39:57):
Peter Drucker said it a littledifferently when he said
Whenever you see a successfulbusiness, someone once made a
courageous decision.
So, what are your courageousdecisions going to be? What are
your big outrageous goals? Iwant to hear from you send an
email to Pat at Jewish partyMaven.
(40:19):
I really enjoyed catching upwith my credo today, and I hope
that you learned some things.
But that's just the start.
Hopefully you learned somethingfrom this amazing entrepreneur
that you can go out and apply toyour own business. Thank you for
listening. see you right backhere next Wednesday. At the book
more weddings podcast, with theJewish party Maven herself. Pat
(40:41):
Blackwell.
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