19: Mastering Events and Private Screenings for Short Films

Our latest episode features the amazing event marketing expert Kathleen Sykes. Drawing from her extensive experience with opera companies, symphony orchestras, museums, and more, Kathleen reveals the art of crafting unforgettable in-person events. Organizing private events to showcase our creative creations can be exhilarating yet overwhelming all at once.

How can we leverage in-person events to build long-term community engagement?

To make Kathleen's top tips even more tangible, she is taking us through a real example of how host Cindy Claes could set up an in-person screening for her 10min dystopian short film "All Dogs Go To Heaven". In this episode we uncover new avenues for community outreach and engagement. Our conversation seamlessly blends practical tips for event logistics with deep dives into the emotional and intellectual impact of storytelling.

Whether you're an event organizer or an artist (filmmaker, choreographer, etc) looking to enhance your community-building skills, Kathleen's expert advice will equip you with the tools to create memorable, impactful events that resonate long after the final curtain call!

Here is the teaser of short film "All Dogs Go To Heaven":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru8ltTzm-ew

Guest Contact:
kathleensykes.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleen-m-sykes/

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Lad Whisperer Takeover podcast.
Today we're going to talk aboutin-person events.
For example, I just finished myshort film and I'm so proud of
myself and the work that my teamdid and how we made it happen.
But now we're going to startfestival season.
We also really should organizeprivate projections.

(00:22):
To be honest, just the thoughtof organizing in-person private
projections can feel heavy, notbecause I'm not excited to share
the film, but because I canalready feel the burnout coming
from afar.
I've been organizing manyevents in my life and while
there is this exhilarating sortof energy, there is also this

(00:43):
thought of While there is thisexhilarating sort of energy,
there is also this thought of ah, there's so much energy going
into it, and then what?
Especially when you havesomething like a film where you
have the impression you'reorganizing a private screening,
people pay 10 euros, 10 dollarsto get in and then that's it.
Everything stops there.
How can we build long-termcommunities?

(01:03):
How can we actually engage withour audiences in the long term?
How can we make that eventmemorable for everyone?
I have a special guest today,all the way out of the United
States, kathleen Sykes.
Hi, kathleen, how are you doing?
Hi, good, good to be here.
I'm so excited to talk to youtoday because I hope to find a

(01:27):
lot of inspiration and kind ofget rid of that really heavy
thing that I have on myshoulders when it comes to
organizing in-person events.
So you do specialize in that,but you do also other things in
your business.
Can you please tell us a littlebit more about what you do,
what you specialize in and, ofcourse, what you're passionate
about?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, no, I understand the burnout this has
been.
The majority of my career isgetting people to events and it
can be a bit of a slog gettingthere, but anyway.
So I run a small marketingagency that is focused on
getting people to events andcapturing that information and
then reusing it to get them toyour next events.
And you know also, you know inthere some building some

(02:09):
community, getting peopleexcited about things, telling
the stories that you need totell about the events to get
people there and to get themexcited.
And what am I passionate about?
I am like the kind of personwho is like obsessively
interested in everything I love.
I love the arts, I love likejust diving in deep and like

(02:29):
figuring out every single thingI can about these kinds of
things.
And that's one of those thingswhere it really helps.
If you're a marketer and you'reobsessively interested in
everything, because you justbecome fascinated by whatever
your client's project is, youbecome very passionate about it.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Can you give us a couple of examples of events
that you've worked on, or someof your clients or some of the
artists?
I know you worked with theatercompanies.
You worked on other type ofevents.
What type of events have youhelped organizing?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, For about five years of my career, I actually
worked for an opera company anda symphony orchestra.
They were combined and so thatwas like kind of the baptism by
fire.
This is, you know, event afterevent after event.
It was the what are the onlyfull-time orchestras in the
United States, and so it waslike we had four operas a year
and maybe oh gosh 70performances like symphony

(03:20):
performances per year.
So it was a lot.
And then I, after that and alittle before that, a little
before that, I had a museumclient for a while when I was
working at an agency, but afterthat I started my own business.
I started getting clients whowanted to do retreats and who
wanted to do networking eventsand that kind of thing, and so I
definitely have some experiencein all of these places.

(03:41):
But I can do things from likesmall events, like little
intimate retreats, to biggerscale events, like we need to
sell lots and lots of tickets.
So that's that's the point ofview I come from on that that's
amazing.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
And so do you have clients internationally, or do
you only work locally?
Or do you also work withclients that go on tour?

Speaker 2 (04:01):
So I currently am only out of the United States
right now.
I work remotely, so I mean I can, and I have come in for events
like in other parts of the US,totally open to doing that for
international clients as well.
There is always that kind ofchallenge of understanding the
culture there, because I mean, Inoticed this even just within

(04:21):
the United States Like I meanthe United States, I think
people sometimes make fun ofAmericans for not being
well-traveled, but it's like theUS is so big and so it's like,
you know, I have a client downin Texas and it's, you know, the
culture and just theperspective of the people who
are going to their things arevery different than people who
are, say, in Seattle or who arein New York City or who are in

(04:44):
Louisville, which that was alsoanother thing.
Like I had another client who'sin Louisville who had a retreat
in Louisville and it was justlike a very different challenge,
and so that that is one ofthose things where it's like I'd
love to work internationally,but I also understand there's
some cultural things and I haveto rely on my client for that.
But anyone who wants to do thatplease reach out.
I love traveling, I love othercultures.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Where have you been traveling, just you as a human
being?

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Oh, my favorite place is Spain, of course, because I
lived there for a little bit,but I also love the UK.
I've been to France.
I studied French in college.
I'm very rusty with my French,let's see.
I've been to Germany, theGermanic countries, a bunch of
times.
I'd love to go back to Japan,into Canada when else have I
been?
Scotland, netherlands, just awhole smattering of countries in
there.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
When you work with clients.
What sort of things do you dofor them?
Are you coming in as aconsultant to establish a
strategy or do you actually dothe work on the ground?
Do you do their social media ordo you do their newsletters, or
does it just depend on theground?
You know, do you do theirsocial media or do you do their
newsletters, or does it justdepend on the gig?
It?

Speaker 2 (05:48):
just depends on the gig and what the client's budget
is.
I will do some kind of morecustomizable services and some
consultation for people who, youknow, maybe they don't have a
huge budget but they still needsome ideas on like how to get
started, how to avoid gettingburned out.
And then I also do some likemore bespoke packages for people
where we just customizeeverything and it's half

(06:09):
production, half consultationand creating strategy for them.
Some people really do need toreally need help with that
strategy, and there are justsome people who just need to get
some emails written and somesocial posts created and that's
all I need to do for them.
So, yeah, it's a mix of bothand that's all I need to do for
them.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
So yeah, it's a mix of both.
I was super excited to have youhere to help me see a little
bit clearer of what I could do.
So to give the listeners alittle bit of a context, you
have seen my short film.
I've sent you a very privatelink and so my short film that I
made was an amazing team inBarcelona we were actually 26

(06:45):
working on that project.
It's called All Dogs Go toHeaven.
It's a 10-minute sci-fi, it's adystopia.
It's quite dark.
There will be a trailer in theshow notes for the listeners
that will just want to have afeel of what the film is about,
so maybe they can understandmore the advice that would be
given.

(07:05):
I'll also read a very quicksummary of what the film is
about.
So all dogs go to heaven, ashort film, a 10-minute sci-fi
in a dystopian world, in asociety controlled by a neural
ship designed to eradicateemotions.
F1, a government scientist,faces a crisis of conscience

(07:27):
when her final test subject,grace, shows unexpected
resistance to the chip effects.
As F1 delves into the mysterysurrounding Grace, she uncovers
buried memories of her own past,leading her to question the
morality of her research and thetrue nature of the oppressive
regime she serves.

(07:48):
So, if you are our listeners,go to the episode notes and
there will be a trailer.
It's 45 seconds long orsomething.
Kathleen, when you saw the film, and like when you just had a
vibe of this sci-fi, what wereyour first thoughts?
That kind of came up, oh mygosh.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Okay, so these are actually the kinds of stories
that I'm absolutely fascinatedby.
It reminded me if anyone hasseen the show Severance, where
basically these employees, theygo into work and they have this
brain, this chip in their brain,and they forget about their
entire outside lives whenthey're away from work.
They don't know what's going onat work.
I just I love this sort ofphilosophical question of if you
could take all the pain out ofyour life, would your life

(08:29):
actually be better?
And I think the film definitelyshows like okay, it's not, it's
never going to be better if youdo that and you have to you,
know you have to have the badstuff along with the good stuff
to actually have an enjoyablelife.
but I love at the beginningthere are like a couple of
people who've had this chip putin and they're basically saying,
oh, this is great, I can justlive my life without guilt or
pain or suffering or anythinglike that.

(08:51):
And I think we tend to look atthose things that way, where
it's like, oh no, we, you know,we have, you know, a human
experience and have a goodexperience as a human.
We need to have all of theexperiences, not just one very
narrow sort of way of looking atlife and one way of
experiencing it.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, so this film is really about?
Are we ready to feel both sidesof what life has to offer, both
the highs but also the lows?
And there is some sort of darknarrative, that sort of unravels
in that film.
All right, so basically Iunderstand that, first of all,

(09:32):
if I was to, with my otherproducers, if we were to think
about private projections,in-person projections I think so
at the moment because themajority of the team is is in
Barcelona let's say that wewould start in Barcelona.
Then eventually we would wantto organize private projections
in other cities.
But to keep it simple, for thefirst question is we want to do

(09:54):
one in Barcelona.
So I guess the first questionwe have to ask ourselves is who
our audience is or would youstart somewhere else?

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Who is your audience and why do they want to come to
this thing?
I know that's a question that'sa hard one to answer, and I
definitely asked it before, andpeople get offended when I ask.
Sometimes I'm like, well, okay,how does this serve them and
why is it that they want to goto this kind of thing?
And I can help you narrow downyour audience a little bit so
you're not going too broad.
I think sometimes we tend totry and boil the whole ocean by

(10:24):
saying like no, it's foreveryone.
We want everyone to see it.
You might want everyone to seeit, but not everyone wants to
see it and not everyone.
This is not the kind of thingeveryone wants to do, and that's
a hard thing to come to termswith.
But once you can do that, it'sso much easier to find out who
is the kind of person who wantsto come to this, where do they
hang out and how can I talk tothem and how do they want to be

(10:47):
talked to, um, and to also get abetter idea of, like what the
scale of this thing is.
So we're starting out inbarcelona and we have an idea of
who these people are, but it'slike do these people also exist
in other places?
How do we replicate this?
Is this just going to be aone-time thing, or do we want to
turn this into like a littlemini short film festival?

(11:07):
And I think that it's like agood place to start of refining
your vision, refining who thisaudience is.
How does this serve them, whatvalue does it give to them and
what does it bring into theirlife?
And it can be a lot of thingswhere it's like, you know, I
think, especially post COVID,there are a lot of people who
feel very lonely and theyhonestly just want to get out of
the house and go interact withpeople who are interested in the

(11:30):
same things that they are.
And so you can start there andask yourself okay, so they want
to get out of the house, theywant to interact with people.
How much of it is going to beinteraction?
How much of it's going to bewatching a movie?
How much of it is going to bewatching a movie?
How much of it is going to betalking, and then work from
there and try and build thatexperience.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
One of the things you said hey, could this eventually
become a short film festivaland then our film could be a
part of it?
Or would this be a short filmplus other activities?
I guess interactive activitiesthat could be a Q&A.
That could be other activities.
Activities I guess interactiveactivities that could be a q?
A.
That could be other activities.
For example, here, how would Imake my decision?

(12:11):
Or how, me and my otherproducers, how can we make our
decision?
Would we more go for?
If we turn this into a minishort film festival, this means
that we're gonna attractaudiences from other people and
then different audiences willinteract.
Or is it better that we say no,we need to build our audience

(12:33):
only, but really develop theexperience of what the event
will be about?
It's not because obviously, a10 minute short film is not
enough to have a whole eventright.
We would need to have somethingelse happening around that.
So on which criteria should wemake our decision to go for one
or the other?

Speaker 2 (12:52):
I think that depends completely on your goals.
With a short film festival,there is a benefit there you
reach out to audiences that youwouldn't normally be in their
sphere, because you're alsoattracting other filmmakers and
their followers and the peoplethat are interested in their
work and you're bringing theminto your sphere here.
But if you go the other way andyou will just want to do one

(13:15):
film and then create anexperience around the film, then
that's going to be serving acompletely different need for
the people who are coming.
Where they're coming mostly forsocialization.
They're mostly coming to talkabout the film, to talk about
the philosophical questions thatarise in the film, and so it
kind of depends on your goals.
What is your vision here?
What do you want this to turninto and what do you want it to

(13:36):
turn into long-term?
I think if you want it to turninto something long-term, your
small, mini short film festivalis probably going to be a little
bit easier to sell.
Though, if you want to docultural events where you're
really just building a communityand getting people to talk
about philosophical questionsand also like really drilling

(13:56):
down on, if you just do one filmand an experience around that,
like how do you replicate thatand why is it that people are
coming not only to your firstone, but your second one and
your third one?
Are they coming for thesocialization aspect, or is it
that every time you do this filmit's we're talking about
philosophical questions or we'retalking about production like

(14:18):
film production?
So what you know need is thatone just filling that.
Maybe the other one isn't.
What is your goal there and howdo you want to replicate that
over time?

Speaker 1 (14:30):
So there's also a question, the way that it lands
right now.
There's also a question of howdo I want to contribute to the
wider world.
How do I, as an artist, want tocontribute to the wider world
in terms of, yeah, impact, myaudiences?
Basically, is there sort of abrand that I'm developing, want
to contribute to the wider worldin terms of, yeah, impact, my
audiences?
Basically, is there sort of abrand that I'm developing like
philosophical questions aboutthe future, sci-fi, whatever

(14:50):
that is, or is it?
No, it's actually about theexperience of film and sharing
with other people from theindustry first, and that kind of
trickles down to how theaudience experiences it.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah Well, and it's like on the other side, if you
do the film festival thing, youcan also really curate that
experience as well.
So I mean, if this were like aconsultation with a client, I
would probably push them more inthat direction, just because,
one, it's going to be easier forthem.
Two, they're going to beworking with other people's
networks, and then, three, youcan actually curate a really

(15:25):
good experience the same waythat you would over on just the
single film side, but you alsohave a lot more people working
on it with you, um, and so itcould all be like these very
sci-fi philosophical films on.
You know, maybe you do justthree or something in the course
of one evening.
They're all 10 or 15 minutes.
Um, the little mini filmfestival might be easier for you

(15:47):
to replicate.
Again, this also depends on yourgoals.
You want it to be a filmfestival might be easier for you
to replicate.
Again, this also depends onyour goals.
You want it to be a filmfestival?
Maybe you just don't want it tobe a film festival.
You don't want to work withother people, you want to have
the focus and spotlight on yourjust one film.
But again, that comes down togoals, and what is it?
How do you want to impact youraudience?
What do you want them to beable to get away?

(16:07):
Bring away from it.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
If we were going to do the other route, which is one
screening and then otheractivities around so that there
is a true experience.
What sort of activities couldwe do?
Because, you know, when I'mthinking about different events
I've been to, it's generallybeen a q a with the artists
involved, eventually q a'saround the topic.
Are there any other thingswhere you're like, creatively

(16:34):
speaking, you could actuallythink about this?
I've seen this being donebefore.
What other, yeah, immersive,interactive things could we add
to that right?

Speaker 2 (16:46):
that's also one of those things where it's okay so
you can do the obvious things,where it's like you can have a
bar in there, you can have anicebreaker event and you can
have a photo booth or something.
You know those things arealways really fun, but I think
you know, you, this is kind ofwhere you want to start thinking
about who your allies in thecommunity are, who can help you
create an event as well.
Like, when I was watching this,the first thing that came to

(17:07):
mind was like there is going tobe some university philosophy
department who is just going toeat this right up and reach out
to those professors and askwhich of their students would be
excited to work on this withyou, and that can turn into
something like it can turn intoan icebreaker game where it's
like you know you have the film,but then you're also talking to
each other about thephilosophical questions that

(17:30):
arise from it.
Um, let's see what else isthere.
I mean, one of the bigquestions that comes up is
mental health.
Is this is like you know, do youwant to completely get rid of
your emotions or do you want tofeel them, understand them and
use them to build your life withthem.
And you know there might belike some really good, like
mental health practitioners inthe area who have a lot to say

(17:53):
about this and we're going to,you know, want to.
They're probably also going tohave some ideas about what
things to include in there.
I would avoid having thingslike just a booth with a bunch
of pamphlets, but, you know,having someone you can maybe
talk about, have a paneldiscussion about, you know what
is happiness, what is sadness,why do we feel these things?

(18:15):
So you can have, uh, you know,just looking to like who can be
your allies in this process, inthis creative process.
What can they contribute tothis?
And, you know, how does itactually relate to what I'm
doing and how I'm fulfillingthis need for my audience?

Speaker 1 (18:32):
there are three things that are um popping out
from what you said.
Number one is you mentioned theidea of a photo booth and I'm
like ah, that is amazing.
Like I remember I went to thebirthday of a friend of mine and
she really threw a party and wehad a photo booth.
There was something thatcircles 360 and it's a new thing

(18:54):
that they throw in parties.
Now I'm thinking all of thatcould really be even tailored
towards take pictures with thecharacters or something in the
movie.
You can make something quitefun out of it.
Or imagine that you are beingchipped or you just got, you
know, the chip has just beenremoved from from you, you know,

(19:15):
or you escaped, or maybethere's even something in the
photo booth where we could becreative with.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
So that was one thing .
Yeah, oh, that could be so fun.
Sorry, I just like I wasthinking like in the movie.
I think you have a littletattoo right there where that's
like is that where your chip is?
Yeah, yeah, hey, you should getsome tattoos to give some
people.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Oh, yeah, we could do that as well, yeah, or even our
makeup artist could be thereand giving everybody the tattoo
yes, awesome, I love that.
And then we talked about havingallies or finding organizations
in our local area with whom wecan partner up with, and so I
guess the first route would beschools, but it doesn't have to

(19:56):
be per se film schools.
Film schools could come becausewe can talk about film, but
maybe other schools could beinterested because they want
their students to develop theircritical thinking, because they
want their students to developtheir critical thinking yeah.
And then there could be otherorganizations that could be
interested in having justconversations around where
society is going and how wemanage emotions.

(20:17):
But that is to bring in biggergroups of people at once.
Because I'm guessing I'm justcontinuing the brainstorm, right
, because we are in this thoughtprocess.
I'm thinking, maybe during theday we have a one-hour event,
and maybe a school comes in.
In the afternoon we haveanother school that comes in,
and what?
Another one-hour projection,and then in the evening it's

(20:39):
more of a like individuals thatwe contacted, um, right, we have
maybe even three differentaudiences and we have the room
or the space or the cinema for awhole day, but we do three
events in one day, so we makethe most of the space we have
and reach as many people as wecould in one day.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
This is like such an American thing.
Like every wedding I've been to, there's been a photo booth.
But, like you know, this couldalso be one of those things
where I had a friend who she didan influencer photo space and
so she had all these rooms thatwere painted, fun colors and
everything and to invite peoplein not only to do the screening
and to ask the questions and tolearn about these things.

(21:25):
Learn about these things, but,you know, to I think there's an
element there of, like you know,the more you integrate the
actual experience of the filmand the actual experience of
being in the physical space, themore you're going to be able to
build that audience further out, because, and then you know, I
always recommend to have abranded hashtag and just put it
everywhere.
Tell everybody to take a photo,this is how you should post it.

(21:47):
Please bust it with thishashtag, because then people can
actually start seeing thatexperience, being like oh wait,
that looked really fun.
Maybe I should go to this thing.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
I love the idea of a branded hashtag being everywhere
.
That is so important becausethen also when you go back home,
you can just search yourhashtag and see how many people
have shared about the event.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
That's a great way to collect also testimonials in a
different, in a different wayabsolutely yeah and go in there
and like comment on their stuffand, you know, say, hey, thanks
so much for coming, we'd love tohave you again.
Yeah, that's one of thosethings where people get really
excited when the people who arethe actual artists are
commenting and being like, oh mygosh, I love this, thank you so
much for this.

(22:26):
People get really excited whenthey start to feel like actually
part of the community.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
So, yes, and so, going back to our allies in the
community, yeah, would you haveany?
I mean, it's a broader subjectand it would probably be a whole
podcast episode in itself, butcould you summarize in any
nutshell a few top tips abouthow to actually approach, for
example, businesses ororganizations that could also

(22:52):
add some money in the pot toorganize these events?

Speaker 2 (22:56):
Right.
This is one of those thingswhere you have to consider it's
like your audience what valueare you giving them?
But now it's your communityallies what value are you giving
them?
And for some people like I mean, if it's a mental health
organization, they're going toreally love any chance they can
talk about mental healthresources, that kind of thing.
But of course, you also need,like vendors and you need food

(23:16):
people, you need someone to setup a bar, you need all these
other things, and so obviouslysometimes those things will cost
money.
But you can also sometimes tellthem like, hey, they're going
to be people here.
If we set up a cash bar and weallow people to like your
organization to take that money,or if we set up a food cart
outside, we know that we canguarantee tons of people are

(23:38):
going to be there and they'regoing to want to eat tacos,
whatever it is you're selling.
This is a chance for you to beable to not have to go and find
the best place to go sell foodthat night.
We know people are going to behere.
We know they're going to wantto be able to not have to go and
find, like, the best place togo sell food that night.
We know people are going to behere, we know they're going to
want to be eating food, and thenthis is also another chance for
you to look at other artists.
Okay, so we're doing one filmscreening, but are there other

(23:58):
artists in the area who lovethis kind of work?
Do you know mural artists whocan paint something in the space
, if you're allowed to paintsomething in the space, of
course?
Do you know other artists whowant to present their work that
are in the same vein of sci-fi,futurism, curious about these
philosophical questions?
And just tell them like this isthe value of you being at this

(24:19):
event More people will see you,more people will want to talk to
you.
This is an opportunity for youto network, or this is an
opportunity for you to sellsomething, and so framing it in
that way is a lot more helpfulinto getting people there, and
also getting people there whereyou don't necessarily have to
pay them up front yeah, and I'mjust again brainstorming and

(24:39):
bouncing from your ideas,inviting other artists, food
trucks, like, for example, inbarcelona we have something
called, and it's like a reallymassive road.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, it's a massive sort of road where a lot of
tourists just walk right fromone side to the city to the
other, and it's full of artistssuch as, for example, people
that are drawing caricatures.
But then I'm thinking, oh, evensomething like somebody that
does caricatures, maybe somebodycan do sci-fi caricatures with

(25:14):
this tattoo we have in the filmand people can get their sci-fi
caricature done just to add tothe experience of being there,
or something like that.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
I think that's the question of, like, how do you
marry the experience with theactual film and, yeah, the idea
of you know you have caricatureartists there and people drawing
you as like a sci-fi character.
That actually helps pull thewhole thing together, because
the last thing you want is justan event where you have a movie
that's completely unrelated toall the other things there and

(25:44):
those things are all unrelatedto each other because it just
ends up being a hodgepodge ofthings.
But to think about, like, whoare your community allies, that
and the other people who wouldwant to be there and people
who'd be getting value by beinglike a vendor there or value
being an artist there, what theyget out of it, and if they
fully understand the actualconcept that you're trying to,

(26:04):
um, the concept that you aretrying to achieve here, that I
can like really pull the wholething together what makes an
event memorable?

Speaker 1 (26:15):
what?

Speaker 2 (26:15):
in your opinion makes it memorable.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
It's just not the average event.
Yes, okay.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
So that's the thing is that people, they don't
always remember details aboutthings.
There is really just a chanceand like like please don't be
sad about this if this everhappens to you that you have
this beautiful event and the artis incredible and you have this
great movie, and people go homeand they like don't remember it
, but they loved being there isthat people don't always

(26:43):
remember details but theyremember how they feel and so,
considering, like, what it, whatit is being someone who's there
and what makes that eventreally good and really fun and
just really enjoyable to bethere, like it's going to be a
little bit different foreveryone, but I think that's one
of those things where make sureyou do a walkthrough.
Once you have all theprogramming in place, you know,

(27:05):
once you know what vendors aregoing to be there, once you know
, like you know what this isgoing to look like, the actual
shape of the event, just put onyour like audience shoes and
walk through it.
Like go through the spacephysically if you can, and go
through that experience of okay,this is where I give them my
ticket.
This is where I pay for myticket.
This is where I go to eat food.

(27:27):
This is where I go to look atart.
This is where I go to go listento this panel discussion and
understand like what it is theymight be feeling throughout that
whole experience.
Because I mean there's some likereally technical things where
it's like you have a musicfestival and the lines are
really long and like I have seenthis before where it's like
someone goes to a music festivalconcert and the music, the

(27:51):
artist is incredible, but thenthey go home and they complain
about it and they leave the badreview on yelp and it's not.
It wasn't because of the artist, it was because of the
experience where it's like youknow they're waiting in line all
this time and they received itclose to the port-a-potties and
you they're just like theparking was bad and consider

(28:12):
what that experience might belike, because it could be.
You know you're going throughthis little mental walkthrough
and hopefully a physicalwalkthrough if you can do this
and you start to see, okay, weput the food people too close to
the entrance and so now peoplecan't get through the space and
they're getting frustrated withhow they walk through the space
and so how do you build thatspace out and that experience

(28:33):
out so that people are goingthrough it with as little
frustration as possible.
And also, what is it thatpeople can take away from it?
I think that having like littletokens of your appreciation,
whether it's like you know thephoto booth, is a great thing,
and I will always recommend aphoto booth if at all possible,
because then people actually getto take a physical or at least

(28:54):
a digital item away from withthem to be like, oh hey, I had
this photo I can post online.
It's very easy to post onlineand I want to post it online
because, like, look at thebackground, it's really fun and
I'm here.
But to also consider, what aresome other things you can do?
Like I remember once when I wasworking for the opera, we had
this libretti and libationsthing where it was basically

(29:16):
worked with a couple of the barsin the area.
They made a custom cocktail foryou know, la Traviata or just
whatever opera we were doing atthe time, and they we made a
custom coaster.
So if they ordered thatparticular cocktail, they would
have this really beautifulcoaster that they kind of wanted
to take home with them becauseit was too pretty to throw away.
And to consider, like, okay,what are the things that I can

(29:38):
do there?
Can I have bracelets, or can wedo these tattoos or something
that people can take away fromthe event and use it or show it
off to other people, and it getsthem talking to other people
about this thing.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
I love it.
I also love how you said walkthrough your event yourself
because it's so.
It is so true like sometimesI've been to just even a
restaurant, but because thebathroom was so nasty all of a
sudden the restaurant is amazing, the atmosphere is amazing
because, because the bathroom isso nasty, you don't want to go
anymore.

(30:11):
Like that's it.
Or sometimes, like you say, yougo to a music event and the
line is so like things are notrunning smoothly and all of a
sudden you're just put off.
You can't enjoy yourselfanymore.
That is so true, I love the factthat you talk about taking
something physically.
I'm going to talk a little bitabout something more digital.

(30:32):
Let me know if that is yourarea of specialism or not, but I
know that a lot of theaters,broadway and stuff are going
more into the NFT world.
Is that something that youthink?
Yeah, apparently like now thereare some shows that you can see
and then you would have an NFTthat comes with it.
It's not like a unique NFT, butthe NFT that a certain amount

(30:53):
of people would have and it'srelated to the show.
Would you say that that is athing, or is that maybe not your
specialty and you can't answerthat?
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
I think, like that brings up some good questions.
Ok, here's the thing.
I still don't fully understandNFTs.
There's my big admission there,but there's also part of me.
That's okay.
That could actually be cool andI think, especially for an
event like this, where it's moresci-fi, it's more based in the
future of technology, where anNFT could actually be a fun
thing to do, I think thedownside to that is that, since

(31:25):
it lives in the digital world,you're going to have people who
show up that probably don't knowhow to access it or don't
understand what an NFT isthey're like.
Why did they just send me thispicture?
I don't understand it.
So there's always that downsideof not having a physical item.
So it's like the movieInception.
So they go into their dreamsand they keep going down and
then they have what they call alittle totem and it's like

(31:47):
something that's completelyunique to them.
It's like a weighted chesspiece or a top or something, and
so they can use this thing inthe dream and then they know
that it's like they either knowit's a dream or if they use it
in real life, then they knowthat it's.
They're actually still awakeand they can tell the difference
there.
I think there's a similarprinciple here of if it's
digital and it's not entirelyreal, it's a little bit easier

(32:10):
to forget.
Humans are social creatures.
We experience the world throughsight and touch and smell and
all these other senses, and sothe benefit to having a physical
item with you, even if it'sjust like something that's
consumable, like you know, youcan get onto Eminem's website
and just like order a bunch ofEminems that are custom colored
and everything.
You have custom images on them.

(32:30):
That is going to be a littlebit more memorable than an NFT
where I mean, the benefit tothat for me is like oh great,
it's not going to collect dustat my house, but then I'm also
going to be.
It's really likely I'm going toforget about it.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
I hear what you're saying.
There's the fact that it livesin a digital space, so it's not
as present and you can forgetabout it.
And, like you said as well,maybe not everybody is familiar
with nfts, so it's almost likeit's a whole audience, an all
whole different audience initself, that you're actually
calling in to actually enjoywhat it is, because they have

(33:04):
heard of nfts or yeah, or ofthat space.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
They would be like okay, yeah, and that's the thing
where it's like you have tounderstand your audience in that
way, and that's going back tothe first question and really
understanding, like I mean, anexercise I would highly
recommend is to go through youraudience and talk about where is
it that they live, what aretheir beliefs, what do they like
to do, how old are they?
Are they married?
Do they have kids?
How do they spend their freetime?

(33:27):
And understanding, like, wherewho these people are, where they
hang out, what they have kids,how do they spend their free
time, and understanding, likewhere who these people are,
where they hang out, what theydo, that can really help you
decide.
It's a digital gift, somethingthat they actually want, where
it's like.
You know, if I were to do thisat the symphony, the majority of
people there are like in theirfifties or older, and so they're
just not going to understandwhat an NFT is.
They're not going to understandwhy they want it.
But if, like you, are trying toappeal to a bunch of like Gen Z

(33:50):
kids they're actually theymight eat that up.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Like they might actually really enjoy that.
I see what you mean.
Okay, so now let's talk aboutthe part that, for me, feels
heavy, which is okay.
It's great.
We have, like, put so muchenergy in creating an amazing
experience.
We find our audience, we gotpeople in.
At the end of the day, it's aone event.
Let's say that our event is anhour long, two hours long.
Who knows right?
Let's say that they pay 10euros, $10, 20 euros, $20,

(34:19):
whatever they pay their entrancefee.
That's it, and then that's it.
That's where I feel like, like,and now what?
So how can we basically createlong-term community knowing that
I only have one product to sell, right, which is we have one
event or one short film inperson?

(34:41):
Great, but now what?
Like the event is over, wehaven't maybe made that much
money, even, maybe we even goteven.
How do we build long-termcommunity where this can also
help us build for the next movieand so forth?

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Right, that's one of those things.
Right, we should probably likerewind a little bit back to the
question of what's the visionfor this event, and that's the
thing to have a successfulbusiness model.
I think, to some extent, thearts could probably benefit more
from looking towards for-profitbusinesses and seeing how they
run things and figuring out howto replicate and scale the works

(35:20):
that they are selling.
And that's not to say, like youknow, don't be an artist.
But you know also, if you wantto be a successful artist, you
kind of have to consider theseconcepts, right.
So, like you know, how is itthat we want to scale this
long-term Like, is this just aone and done event?
Maybe that's all you want to do?
No-transcript, there's somesecurity laws about that, so

(35:52):
you're going to want to researchthat.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
So, just for the listeners, we have something
called the GDPR and it'sbasically you need to put like a
sentence when you collectpeople's emails that they agree
in it, and it's sort of an extraagreement that people in the EU
need to take before you cancollect their emails and send
them any sort of updates ornewsletters.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, and if you are creating a website or if you are
building an email list in theEU, a lot of the tools that
you're going to use will knowhow to do that.
So if you're using Wix orSquarespace or MailChimp, they
are going to know how to do thatand they're going to have
tutorials on their website onhow to make sure that you do
that.
And, of course, like this isagain like wherever you go in
the world, there are going to bedifferent laws.
There are going to this wholepoint of like.

(36:46):
How do we replicate this eventor even a similar event later on
?
The first thing I wouldrecommend is, before you even
announce anything, before youeven say anything to anyone, is
to build just a one page website, if anything.
You can also make a biggerwebsite if you want to, but
having at least a one-pagewebsite where people know how to
sign up for updates, they canbuy their tickets through there

(37:10):
and you have their information.
And I mean I know for smallerevents and I know getting
started, like I had a friend whohe did a bunch of storytelling
events and the way that theywould do this is they would just
basically Venmo him their moneyand then he would like make
sure that their name was writtendown somewhere and, like you
can do that, I think you'redoing a smaller scale event,
like that's absolutely fine,there's no problem with doing

(37:32):
that.
But the issue comes back up ofdo you actually have their
information for the next timeand do they consent to you
giving emailing them again aboutthis whole thing where having a
website where they can justtype in their first name, their
last name, their email address,their phone number if they want
to give it, and then you justcheck a box, say yes, I agree to
receive communications from you, and then automating that and

(37:55):
this is a lot of like what mywork is is basically how do we
automate the website over toyour email list and you know,
using zapier or another toollike that, to basically pull
everything that's entered hereinto here and have that
information and tag themcorrectly to say this is just
someone who wanted moreinformation versus this is
someone who bought tickets andtreat them differently.

(38:17):
Um, so basically, you know, Ihave one client who they have a
website where they can eitherapply to go on a retreat or they
can just ask for moreinformation and depending on
which one they choose, we know alittle bit more about them.
Like one is very excited, theywant to go do this thing.
They're willing to spend athousand bucks to go do this.

(38:39):
The other one isn't so sure,and so they need to have a
little more reassurance and toset up emails.
I always recommend doingautomated emails for people who
just joined your email list, tosend them like two or three
emails over the course of a weekor two and say hey, this is who
we are, this is what we'redoing.
These are the events coming up.
This is why you should come,whereas people who buy a ticket

(39:04):
and they know things right awayyou're going to want to start
sending them emails to be likeokay, we're so excited for you
to come, this is what you canexpect from it.
This is how you should dress.
We're going to have all thesethings here and then just keep
pushing them in that directionof you're going to engage.
This is going to be fun.
We want you to have a good time.
Versus.
You need more information.
So let me spell it out for youhere, and that also goes later
on, after the event, sendeveryone an email saying how did

(39:27):
you enjoy this?
If you enjoyed it.
You can set up an automationthrough Zapier and MailChimp and
everything.
If you enjoyed, this is great.
Thank you for saying you gaveus five stars.
Go over to our Yelp page andleave us a review, or go over to
Google and leave us a review,or post your photo here so that
we can see it and also bring upthat branded hashtag again of

(39:47):
you know, continue to remindpeople.
Hey, post your photo, post yourphoto, post your photo.
Um, and then that helps, likeremind people.
Sometimes people just like needto be you know to spell things
out for them, and then maybe youcan set up a follow-up email a
few days later of hey, these areall the photos that were posted
.
Look at what a great time wehad.

(40:08):
Are you interested in coming tothe next event?
You can do a survey, you canhave just a button to say hey,
I'm interested in the next event, and it tags them and you know
that those are going to bepeople who are going to show up
at your next thing.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
And this is a big reminder to try and automate
most of it, because obviously ittakes time, a lot of time, to
collect all this information.
So the more we can automate it,and obviously the tools exist
now to automate all of that,whether it's a sequence of
emails or whether it's tocollect testimonials and stuff.
I just want to add a tinylittle detail, because that is

(40:40):
very different from the US.
It's now in Europe.
Not everybody does it, butactually we cannot collect
emails anymore, just on paper orsomething.
Or you know, if somebody payssomething you said Venmo, I
think or PayPal we cannot usethat, collect that data and send
them emails from there, likethey literally have to agree to

(41:02):
this GDPR rule.
That's what the whole GDPRsystem was, because I lived
through the transition beforeGDPR and after, and so
apparently it goes so far thateventually, let's say that you
have emails on a piece of paperfrom people and you put that in
your rucksack and then youforget your rucksack somewhere

(41:22):
and then people all of a suddenfind that piece of paper with
all these emails.
You could actually be sued forthat, because it's their
personal data that you'reputting out there.
So this GDPR thing is quitestrict in that sense.
So if you are living in Europe,make sure that you do the right
and correct research, becauserules can be very different from
other continents.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yeah, and even in America.
I think I would love it if wehad these rules here, because
it's just so annoying to likeyou sign a petition and then all
of a sudden, your email's beingused and all these other things
.
But that's just one of thosethings where you want to build
goodwill towards your audience.
You're going to respect that,and so don't just put things on
a piece of paper where they justdon't know where it's going to

(42:04):
happen.
Or, if they do, and if it's inthe US and you can do this,
email them.
And then your first emailshould be do you work to get
these emails?
If no, click this link.
If yes, click this link andthen tag them automatically so
that you're not bugging them,and that's the thing is like
people don't like getting toomany emails.
They don't like gettingmarketed to too much, and if you

(42:25):
want people to come to theseevents and not completely shut
you out, you do need to berespectful of their time and
their energy and their data sothat they're not frustrated with
you.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
It's so true.
It's just an act of kindnessand respect, respect.
So let me just ask you now afollow-up question, which is
okay, we have the data of thepeople.
They are like yeah, we want tobe a part of your tribe in your
community.
Contact me anytime.
Should we just say from time totime, we're going to keep them
updated until I have my nextfilm, my next event, my next

(42:57):
private projection?
Or should we actually, fromthis private projection, think
no, now that we have them as acommunity, we need to start
thinking about other things thatwe could do with these people,
aka, I don't know, a writingcourse, how to produce a movie
course, other events around,like we had a makeup artist, for

(43:19):
example, right, that did likespecial effects.
Maybe our makeup artist cangive some sort of makeup classes
or whatever.
I don't know.
Should we think about thesethings as follow-up events or
should we just say no, you know,you don't have to think about
that yet.
Just make your first event andthen you'll figure it out yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Well, I mean, that goes back to the question of,
like, what is the vision hereand how do you want to replicate
this?
And I think you know if you'regoing to do follow-up events,
follow-up courses, that's onething that you should be pretty
clear about from the beginningof.
Hey, after this event, we'regoing to send you some emails
and we're going to give you someinformation about, like,
writing courses or filmmakingcourses or makeup courses, and

(43:59):
if that's the model that youwant to do and basically the
film and the screening is theway to get people into that,
then you'll be pretty clearabout that, because, I mean,
there's always again, kind ofgoing back to that goodwill
people can be really frustratedof okay, I went to this event, I
thought I was going to filmevents, but now they're talking
to me about makeup courses andthat's not what I signed up for

(44:19):
and making sure that theyunderstand.
That's the progression of whatyour business is about and what
your event is about.
But, that being said, I thinkyou know the follow-up
information.
It kind of falls into a coupleof categories.
The biggest ones are Intel.
So basically, one of the thingsyou could think about is the
people who are interested in.
What else are they interested in?

(44:40):
And I think the idea of havinga chip in your brain or a chip
in your body somewhere, that'sso like Wired just did an
article with the first guy toget an early chimp in his head
and what his life is like now,and I'm like, okay, that would
be interesting information tothese people.
The second would be ideas ofwhat is it that we should be
thinking about?

(45:00):
What questions do you have?
Can you join our community ondiscord or whatever, and let's
talk about these things.
And the third one would beinspiration of like.
Look at the cool things Likethis is where the photos of like
encouraging people to follow upwith their photos and post it
and then following up in anemail, like that's kind of an
inspirational thing of oh yeah,we had this event, I forgot, it

(45:20):
was fun, it made me feel good.
So those are kind of your threemain categories of what you
want to follow up with people,but always just understanding
it's relevant to what theyexperienced while they were
there.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
So now we started this sort of thought process,
thinking okay, majority of theteam making this short film was
in Barcelona.
Our first event is in Barcelona.
What if we want to replicatethis event in other parts of the
world?
For example, my nonprofit isbased in Belgium.
One of the other producers,john.
He studied in Miami and he hasa large network in Miami.

(45:54):
We have people that are fromCuba, argentina, italy on the
team.
Who knows, maybe they havecontacts to make something
happen in other parts of theworld.
How can we now make this eventnot just in Barcelona, but also
go and replicate somewhere else?

Speaker 2 (46:10):
So that's one of those things where, okay, if
you're going to replicate anevent in different places
because I have another clientlike this who we have events in
certain cities, but we hadnoticed that the first couple of
times we did events in certaincities, but we had noticed that
the first couple of times we didevents in these very specific
cities, it was really hard tobuild an audience.
And I think, being realisticabout that, okay, we started in
Barcelona, but now we want to goto Milan.

(46:31):
The thing is, you don't have anaudience in Milan yet, and so
you're going to be doing a lotof what you did here in
Barcelona to Milan.
And yeah, that's again goingback to the whole vision of this
thing.
Like what, how do you want toscale this?
The first few times that you dothis event are going to be
really hard.
You might not make money, butyou're building your business

(46:53):
and you're building yourfoundation.
And so, let's say, we go overyeah, we go over to Milan or
like Berlin or wherever you wantto go, and we're going to be
doing a lot of the same things.
We're going to be finding thoseallies, we're going to be
creating a page for these people.
We're going to be figuring out,like who wants to come to this
thing, finding the food cartsand doing the same thing.

(47:15):
But once you have that, onceyou actually have that, you have
to copy and paste it a littlebit, obviously understanding
there are going to be somecultural differences and not
being too upset if, like, peoplein Berlin are just not
interested in this.
I don't know, maybe they aren'tCopying and pasting it.
But then, once you have itpasted, building it from the
ground up, and so, now thatyou've done this first event,

(47:38):
it's going to be a lot easier todo the second one.

(48:00):
No-transcript, like I would say,let's do maybe three locations
to start with, and threelocations where your team has
the most contacts, and then youhave, like, most friends and
they have the biggest network,and then start there and once
you start to see success from it, then start thinking, okay,
where's the next place we can go?

(48:20):
I think some of the like worstbusiness advice is to like just
scale and try and build thisthing really fast.
I think that's a great way toburn yourself out, because I
think, especially for a smallerevent like this, you're going to
be using people's networks andyou're going to be wearing them
out and it's going to be a lotof you reaching out to people on
LinkedIn or Instagram orwhatever and getting really

(48:41):
tired of having to do that overand over again.
So maybe starting in one or twocities, maybe a third one, if
you really feel like you can doit.
Building that audience thereand then building it up is a
great way to start that process.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Unless eventually let me know what you think, but
those are things I have done inthe past Unless the event in
Barcelona is extremelysuccessful, we document it well
and then we sell the event as apackage to a local organization
in another city, saying we bringour expertise, we bring the

(49:15):
film, the experience, but youbring in the audiences but we
sell it to you as an event, as apackaged event.
Yeah, you basically fund it,but we don't take charge of the
marketing or the audiencebuilding.
You do.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Yeah, actually, I think that's a really good idea.
That's I mean, that's how a lotof arts events are marketed now
is that basically create anevent and you are able to sell
the event to other people andagain kind of going back to the
question of what value does itgive them and, if you can like
really start your event planningprocess of what value does this
give people and how can I sellthat value to someone else.

(49:53):
So it's like you know you'regoing over to Paris or something
you know.
Why should someone in Parisreally care about what I did
here and really making sure thatyou're very because?

Speaker 1 (50:03):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
That's the thing is that a lot of times, when you're
selling things, it's not thebest product that wins, it's the
best communicator that wins.
And so being able to show hey,this is what happened in
Barcelona, this is what happenedreally well, here are the data
points.
Let me tell you why this shouldmatter to you, or why it does
matter to you, instead of, likeyou shouldn't tell people how

(50:25):
they should feel, but tellingthem why this is important to
them and why they're going tolike it, and then being able to
sell that over to them as well,that's a great way of doing that
.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
I love what you said.
It's not the best product thatwins, it's the best communicator
that wins.
That is really a gem.
What about scaling?
All of them?
What about scaling?
So let's go back to Barcelona.
We created an event inBarcelona.
Is there anything top tips thatyou could give about scaling it
, Staying in Barcelona or justmaking it bigger?

Speaker 2 (51:01):
I think it's like such a new way of running a
business but to think of likeyour products you're selling.
This is just like very simple.
Okay, we're making widgets, andhow do we sell those widgets?
And I think sometimes, likepeople start with like the
biggest widget and they're likeI need to sell this really
really, really big widget.
And not understanding like youshould have a couple of tiers.
This is just stories fromlearning how to run my own
business.
I have a couple of tiers.
This is just stories fromlearning how to run my own

(51:21):
business.
I have a lot of bespoke productsand then learning like I need
to have a fewer, just moreproductized products of things
that I can sell that are smaller, more affordable, easy to
people who can't really affordor, frankly, maybe don't even
really need my bespoke product,and so how can I sell that to
them.
And then also think of what arethe more passive things that I

(51:43):
can sell.
Like you can do a lot of likeyou can go to Printify and do
print on demand things and belike, okay, yeah, if people are
interested in my organization,what are some kind of passive
things I can do?
You can design a couple oft-shirts, put them on your
website and then Wix orSquarespace or whatever website
you're building or you're using,we'll sell them for you and
making sure that you have thoseads in your emails and that kind
of thing.

(52:03):
But scaling it, that's thatthing where it's like so far,
what we have defined as thisproject.
This is a big bespoke project.
So what is the thing below that?
Is it an online streamingcourse?
Is it a?
We do a webinar about filmproduction for people who came
to this event and, you know,invite local universities or

(52:25):
something to come into it andyou sell it for a much smaller
price or you can even just sellit for free to build up traction
for your next event.
But what's the thing thatdoesn't require as much work but
still fulfills the same needthat we found that our audience
needs this value and I like thatidea of okay, if you're like,
really straightforward from thebeginning of we are using this

(52:47):
event it's the big bespoke eventto sell, kind of our more
prototyped service of we have asix-week filmmaking course that
we can sell people.
It's cheaper, it's going to beonline and so we don't have to
have a space for it.
There's not as much effort, notas much money going into it,
but it still meets this need.
We invited like 30 filmstudents and they're interested

(53:08):
in this and they like the ideaof making short films, but they
just don't know how to write forit and to offer that to them as
well for example, if I'mthinking about tears here, let's
say that I'm doing a livepodcast, right, and I'm going to
record this live podcast atthis event about a specific,
specific topic.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
Maybe people can just yeah, maybe people can just sit
in the audience while we'rerecording a live podcast and
that's free.
And then the first tier wouldbe you come and see the film and
that's just the entrance to seea 10 minute short film, and
then you have a second tier,which is you pay for the film
plus the q a.
There's a second tier and thenyou have and the podcast and the

(53:48):
film and the q a and anadditional experience.
That's the third tier, and thenthe full experience, the full
packages.
Come and network in the eveningwith other filmmakers or
something.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
Yeah, that could, for example, an example of how you
would have different tiers, forexample yes, yeah, I think that
would be good, especially ifyou're thinking about, like, how
do I scale the events at theactual event.
And I mean, you know,performing arts organizations do
this all the time of you.
Look at their ticket maps andhow things are scaled there.
It's the best seats.
They're always going to be themost expensive ones.

(54:20):
But this has definitely changedin the last couple of years
where they found like, okay, youcan't just people put people
out in like the nosebleed seatsand expect them to be happy
about it, and so to have, likesome of those like $10, 10 Euro
seats just scattered around aswell.
So the, you know the plebes cango, you know, hang out with the
rich people too.
But having can go, you know,hang out with the rich people

(54:44):
too.
But having scaling things inthat way of like we have one
event and we have multiplescales to it is a great way to
think about that.
Where it's okay, the base priceyou have here is 10 euros.
People want to do a little bitmore and they want to have a
little more fun than they canpay 15 or 20, or if they want to
have a pool VIP experience andsell that to them, as not only
are you getting this really funexperience, but you're also
you're helping artists.
You know part of the proceedsto this go to this mental health

(55:06):
organization that we've beenworking with.
That's also a great way to sella little bit more value to the
people who are coming to thisevent.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
Love it.
Is there anything that I havenot asked you yet and where
you're like Cindy, one or twotop tips extra and I'm leaving
you with this for today?

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Oh boy we covered a lot.
The one thing I would want totell people is think about who's
going to spread the word ofthis for you.
We touched on it a little bit,but it's like I remember talking
to someone who she wasinterested in my services and
she's like I'm so exhausted.
I worked so hard to get peopleto this last event.
Not a lot of people came and Ijust want to be able to do this

(55:46):
in a different way.
And what she was doing was shewas getting on LinkedIn and she
was inviting everyone in her,like everyone of her contacts,
to this, this event, personally,changing the email to every
single, like the LinkedInmessage to something completely
different for each person.
She went out and she boughtcookies and tried to like give

(56:08):
these cookies to people withlittle invitation on them.
And you look at that and I'mlike that's a lot of value up
front for something that I justmight not have time to go to,
and so it's like you know't,wear yourself out, find out if
you're in your community whohave your friends, who have your
contacts.
We'll spread the word of thisfor you.
Give them a little bit of valueand then tell them, and

(56:29):
sometimes you just have to bereally straightforward and say,
hey, I need people at this eventand I know that we have a good
relationship.
We have a really good workingrelationship.
I know this is something thatyou enjoy.
Will you tell other people?
Like, go tell three otherpeople about this event, share
the website URL and let's getsome people there?
And that kind of goes back tolike having the community allies

(56:50):
, but also just thinking aboutwho are your friends, who, like
really has a stake in makingsure that you are a successful
person.
And there are, I'm sure thereare like plenty of people out
there that, like love you andcare about your projects and
just ask them, like even if it'syour mom, and just ask okay,
spread the word of this for mewhile I'm doing my other
marketing efforts and you know,on the backend, you're going to

(57:12):
be doing ads, you're going to bedoing emails, you're going to
be doing all these other likemore digital marketing things.
But, yeah, find out who, likeyour personal allies are those
people who can spread themessage of this for you.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
Never underestimate the power of word of mouth.
Yeah, this was such a reallyexciting brainstorm.
If people want to work with youas a coach, as a consultant, as
somebody to develop theirstrategy, or to be the person
that is doing all the groundworkfor their marketing, where can
they find you?

(57:44):
Where can they contact you andfind out more about you?

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Yeah, they can go to my website, kathleensykescom,
which I'm sure you'll put in thenotes, and my email is hello at
kathleensykescom.
Also, I'm on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
I will basically take anyone's connections and also
don't underestimate the power ofLinkedIn, because you and me we
actually met on LinkedIn andyou gave me like a free coaching
session because I was trying tofigure out my ways with the
podcast and stuff and I got somuch value out of it and then we
had a really good vibe.

(58:19):
And then here you are on thepodcast.
So yeah, it's just fantastic.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Well, it was such a delight to talk to you and I'm
like, yes, this is the kind oflike creative stuff that I love
doing and I love like bouncingideas off of people.
So, yeah, that was actually avery fun phone call.