Jared Judge: 0:02

Welcome back to another episode of the Denver NACE podcast, where event professionals go to learn and grow. My name is Jared Judge, violinist at Extreme Strings Electric Violins. I'm joined today by President Desiree Kelly of the Makerake Cake Company, and we are here to chat about partnerships. How are you doing, des?

Prez Dez: 0:22

Oh, I'm doing awesome. We had such an amazing event on Tuesday and you know, things are just going awesome. My dad moved in. He's great, and I just. I couldn't be happier with where NACE is going this year.

Jared Judge: 0:37

Ooh, I love that for you and me. So tell us a little bit about this last NACE meeting that you mentioned you're so excited about. What was that all about?

Prez Dez: 0:49

Oh wow. You know we just had the most amazing panel. It was an empowerment panel and, you know, jenny Maxwell from Plenty Diva was there, shannon Martinez from Olive Poppy, heidi Brown and Danielle Fibbin from Access DMC, max Libby oh my gosh, these women and what they have accomplished, and you know, coming out of COVID and it was just, it was amazing. You know, they were vulnerable. They answered our questions, they answered Brian's questions and he threw a couple curveballs, which was even better. So just what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it is just phenomenal.

Jared Judge: 1:33

That's amazing and that's a power of NACE. It's kind of like this giant mastermind where you can learn so much from each other and get the support and relatability.

Prez Dez: 1:45

Yes, absolutely, and having a community about you that totally gets it is so impressive, so important.

Jared Judge: 1:53

Yeah, for sure, and it sounds like it's a wonderful partnership, because this panel consisted of different types of events businesses and they all came together to partner in this specific area, to share their experiences and journeys, and that's kind of a nice transition to what we wanted to chat about today, which is partnerships in the events industry. So I guess, to kick this off, what do partnerships mean to you?

Prez Dez: 2:23

Oh yeah. So you know there's all kinds of partnerships. I mean, the first thing that I thought of was, you know, with my MBA, there's your business partners, where you actually go into business with people with legal documents and all that with the same business. But what we're talking about is more business to business and you know, for me I would consider a partnership, you know, kind of something official. It doesn't have to be written down but, like you know, I'm going to refer you this piece of business. You take over my clients. Well, you can refer me back, and it doesn't have to be the same form of business, but just people who work together strategically to help each other's businesses.

Jared Judge: 3:05

I love that. So work together strategically to help each other's businesses, and the idea there is that the strategically working together is you're providing something to that other business that they they aren't necessarily able to get without your help. So it's like it takes a village to be in this events community.

Prez Dez: 3:27

And it has to be mutually beneficial. I guess in my own definition. What about you? What is your definition of partnerships?

Jared Judge: 3:34

Yeah, I mean it's very similar to yours. I think it's two different businesses providing value to each other that I don't know. The combination of the value is like the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Prez Dez: 3:49

I agree, and some of it is not measurable. You know, like if you have a really good partner that takes care of your clients well, that makes you look good in return as well, and so that's a lot of things that kind of play into, especially a partnership where there's a feeder market, where they're, you know, a little bit higher up in the booking process, and so having good strategic partners to refer your clients to is super important for someone like a caterer or a venue or a vent planner.

Jared Judge: 4:19

Yeah, and this is a really great, great way of looking at it, because you mentioned the booking process. You know we're in the events industry. Every event needs more than just one vendor. It's not like they're just going to book a venue and that's it. No, they also need caterers, they need a bakery, they need photographer, they need live music, they need lighting, et cetera. And so the way I like to think of partners is we all fit in that journey. It's like the story of the event, and it typically starts with one of the businesses and then the rest of the story can be filled out by the other partners.

Prez Dez: 4:58

Right Go ahead and, quite honestly, you know, when I have clients that come to me, I'm probably the third or fourth person in that booking order. You know they usually do the venue first, because that gives you the date. They might have the dress already before the venue or slightly after. Then the caterer you know it's kind of like the big boulders you put the big chunks in and then everything else fills around. And so I know, when I meet with people, I have partners that I like to refer. So you know, djs, florists, photographers, those types of people and those are my partners. Those are the people that make me look good when I refer them.

Prez Dez: 5:41

And you know, in Colorado there's also like we're kind of a unicorn industry where we are very, very collaborative. We help each other out in any way we can. Where you know other places that is not the case, and so I will give my clients a list of people it comes as an email, sometimes it's before they come to see me and sometimes it's after of people that I know like and trust. Those are the people I want to work with.

Jared Judge: 6:08

So yeah, and that's fabulous. I love that you mentioned these are people that you know, like and trust. This means that these partners really are the kind of people that you want to do business with Right and you trust them. It's because they've proven themselves to be consistent in their positive dealings with your clients. They're not going to make you look bad because you referred somebody who then ghosts them.

Prez Dez: 6:34

Right, exactly so. Or even shows up and doesn't do a quality job. That's pretty bad too, so yeah, for sure.

Jared Judge: 6:42

So that's that is, holding up your end of the bargain as a partner is like you know, if you're a musician, don't get drunk on the job.

Prez Dez: 6:51

So bad, so bad. So yeah, and honestly, the associations. So you know, this is obviously the nice Denver podcast, but you know, any association you go to, those are like the upper echelon of the vendors. So if you're looking to partner with somebody, that is a fabulous place to go, because not people who are new, people who are inexperienced not that they're bad, but they don't have the track record and you can't stake your reputation on it but going to an association to find your partners is an amazing source of people who are reputable, trustable and likable too.

Jared Judge: 7:31

Yeah, that gets to a really good point of like, how do we establish these partnerships? And I'll tell you a quick story of how I discovered that partnerships exist. Because I'm a musician. They didn't teach us a lick of business in music school and so, man, I know right, I had to figure it all out myself, but luckily I did. And so I began my wedding music journey in Milwaukee, wisconsin, and I joined the NACE chapter up there.

Jared Judge: 7:58

But before I did that, the thing that led me to this whole concept of partnerships was I had listed my services on those directory websites wedding wire, the knot, etc. And they work. But you know they're kind of hard to make work. I did get some weddings out of it and these were my first weddings that I ever played that were my own, the ones that I had booked, and I played them and I made sure to do a good job because obviously, like, I wanted to build that reputation and so played them, did a good job, got some good reviews.

Jared Judge: 8:31

And then, a couple months after I played one of those weddings, I got an inquiry in my inbox from a couple asking if we were available, and in their message to me it was we heard about you from our venue. St James was the name of the venue, st James 1868. And you were highly recommended to them. So we're wondering if you're available and I was like wait, other people in this industry could recommend my services. That's crazy. I thought I just had to pay money to wedding wire and it's like Right right.

Jared Judge: 9:06

And so.

Prez Dez: 9:06

How did I learn? I think I went to an association of bridal consultants meeting like way long time ago because the maker is almost 18 now and I think the first person that I learned could actually be a really beneficial relationship was Tom Harper, and it was the food guy catering. And when he retired they sold it to Karen and Brett Tucker and they rebranded it as relish. And so, tom, he heard that I did cake and apparently, way back when it was like sort of hard to find a baker who would actually like show up on time, do what they say they were going to do and for the price they said they were going to do it, and those three things are just so elemental and I was just like blown away that people weren't just doing what they say they're going to do, right.

Prez Dez: 10:02

So, anyway, tom actually looks at me and he points to the chair next to me and he's just like sit down, I need to talk to you. So I start talking with him and he's like OK, I think I can send you a ton of business if you are willing to provide me with samples, and maybe when Tom talked to a few people at these group tastings, that I do, are you willing to do this, this and this? I will refer you this, this and this, and it just like it took me back a little bit that I could do something for them to make them look good. And then they in turn, because they book their clients before they get to the cake process, they in turn would be like here you go see Desiree, she'll take care of you, and I'm just like what. I had no idea no idea.

Prez Dez: 10:50

And, honestly, I had no idea why I was going to this Association of Bridal Consultants meeting in the first place, other than someone said, oh, you should go meet these people. That didn't correlate to me that there could actually be a mutually beneficial relationship in there for me.

Jared Judge: 11:03

Yeah, exactly, and I love it that we just keep hammering this. It's mutually beneficial you make them look good to their clients and, as a result, they provide you business. It reminds me of a quote by Zig Ziglar I think he was a sales trainer and motivational speaker. And it goes goes something like you can have everything you want in your life if you're willing to help enough other people get what they want in their lives.

Prez Dez: 11:30

Oh, I love it. I love it, it's, it's, it's beautiful. So, yeah, and there's a gosh. Going back to this panel on Tuesday I believe it was Danielle that mentioned you know, I think the future of our industry is going to be all about making your clients journey like easier, and so if you can put together like a package of vendors, which these would all be people you associate with, that is where people are going to be going, because anything easier, you know, make it a less, less, what they call a barrier to entrance for finding what you need and being reputable and having good things. So you know there are venues in town that do the like package and if you can kind of get in and service those packages, then you know that's a good source of just kind of baseline income. So really great way to not service the higher end, you know, because they're just looking for the baseline. But it's something to you know. Keep your people busy and, you know, in the off season, keep your some steady income there too.

Jared Judge: 12:43

Yeah, for sure that what you just described reminds me of a partnership I just recently started with one of our venues up here in Lafayette, and they I'm going to leave their name out, but the this specific partnership they've added me to their preferred vendor list. I had to sign a contract for their preferred vendor list and in exchange, they are recommending me directly to their clients and I give them 15% of all business that they bring to me, which I think it's totally, totally a fair deal here, because I'm not paying for that marketing, that advertising. They're doing it all for me.

Prez Dez: 13:27

Correct and you would get so many more clients due to that relationship as well. So, yeah, yeah, and I mean that that is basically just wholesaling your services. That is all that is. And so you do that with you know three or four different places and you're going to be set as far as like being able to, to you know, just pay your bills throughout the whole year.

Jared Judge: 13:49

So yeah, it's great. We just actually got our first wedding booking in from them and already have my 50% retainer in my bank account.

Prez Dez: 13:57

Yeah, absolutely, Perfect, Perfect, yeah, absolutely. And then you know, the more of those relationships you can build, the better. You know some people are like well you know, do I have to reserve my dates and times for their clients Because it's a lower price point? And absolutely you should, because they're handing you a larger volume of business. So yeah it's super important to keep those relationships alive and going.

Jared Judge: 14:23

Yeah, for sure. So let's talk a bit more about starting these partnerships. You mentioned attending organization events like NACE or the wedding. What was it? Wedding business? What was the name of that one?

Prez Dez: 14:40

Oh, the Association of Bride and Consultants. They're not around too much but we have several associations here in Denver. There's WIPAA, wedding Industry Professionals Association, there's CEA, colorado Events Association. You know there's quite a few. There's some that are kind of regional, like there's a Northern Association. I mean any of them. Be a part of any of them. Nace is the best, of course, but you know it's better than not being a part and being kind of like solo and you don't have anybody as a sounding board and you don't have the support system and you don't have anybody to ask those tough questions like how do I get Zapier to make Square talk to. You know, my.

Prez Dez: 15:26

Google Calendar. How is this happening? You know, because there's all these things. All of us start our businesses because we love our trade and then you realize at a certain point that, oh my gosh, I actually need to learn business. And you know, a lot of people transition into the business side. Like myself, I don't touch cake all that often anymore, but if I'm not working on my business then it doesn't help my business. And part of that is developing the relationships that feed the business its income.

Jared Judge: 15:57

Yes, Now, that makes perfect sense and that's the beauty of what I consider to be one-to-many relationship building. When you attend these networking organization events, like you know, there'll be 25, 50, 100. If you go to like the MIC conference, there'll be a thousand people all in the same room together.

Prez Dez: 16:16

And that's what. And if anybody's not going to the MIC, stop it. You need to go to the. Mic conference because it's right here at the Colorado Convention Center, it doesn't cost very much and there's a hosted buyer program for planners. Just stop it, go Go.

Jared Judge: 16:34

Yeah, no, it's great. I went to the M I C conference last year and from it I built partnerships with a bunch of the DMC's right off the bat. It was amazing.

Prez Dez: 16:44

So you were up there on the big stage playing your violin. So I mean sponsorships, you guys, if you are not sponsoring stuff like the M I C conference or the Association meetings, then you need to, because it gets you visible, it shows people what you do and then they can refer you business because that will start your, your relationship with them. They have to see what you do to be able to refer you.

Jared Judge: 17:09

It's funny. I tell my I work with a lot of musicians teaching them the business of this and I tell them that all the time it's like the reason why Costco sells so much food is because they have people giving out samples of the food in the aisles.

Prez Dez: 17:21

Yes, yes, yes. You have to show people what you do, especially the people who can refer you.

Jared Judge: 17:29

Mm-hmm for sure. So that covers kind of one to many relationship building, and the one that I think I've spent the most time on is actually one to one relationship building, where I've been reaching out to, you know, as many venues and event planners and other vendors as possible on a one-to-one basis, scheduling meetings, coming to their venues and bringing my instrument along to show them what I do, shaking hands and I don't know. It's so great, it's like I meet new friends and then, as a result, oftentimes they start referring me business. It's pretty cool how that works.

Prez Dez: 18:06

You go and you play the music.

Jared Judge: 18:08

Yes, I do Little mini concerts for them, and there's that.

Prez Dez: 18:11

That's well, I guess. I mean, I take cake with me when I go for a you know one-on-one, so yeah and you know what.

Prez Dez: 18:18

You do have to be a little bit strategic about. You know, everybody has only this much time and so you have to, you know, ask somebody for a Zoom coffee, possibly, or in person, let them have the choice. Because if you want to have a one-on-one with somebody who just doesn't have a lot of time, you might actually be kind of hurting your chances of getting in with them too. So, but it's super important too, definitely, if you go to an association meeting, get three business cards. Start with three of people that you want to, you know, possibly make a strategic alliance with or a partnership with, and then meet with them.

Prez Dez: 18:56

Like I was telling McCory from Elevate Photography, he came to an emergent event Emerge is another. It's not an association but it's a group and he's like I just I really hate networking. I'm like why, mccory, all these people are here just to, you know, meet you. Basically, they're here to meet you, they are here to start a conversation with you. And he's like, yeah, yeah, but I feel uncomfortable. I was like, ok, how many business cards have you gotten? And he's like none.

Prez Dez: 19:23

I was like, ok, you need to get three business cards and you need to actually follow up with those people and set up coffee, virtual coffee lunch, something like that, because that's the point is to actually get to know these people what are their kids' names, what you know, what's their favorite sports, what do they like, and then afterwards you can send them a little email just because you you paid attention to them, just thank them for the time, a little blurb about what they said, and just let them know you care.

Jared Judge: 19:54

Yeah, that that follow up is also really important, because I think one of the things that will damage your reputation the fastest is if you are the, if you come across as just looking to make money off of people.

Prez Dez: 20:08

Yes, yes, that is very true.

Jared Judge: 20:10

People can smell quote unquote commissioned breath or sales breath from a mile away Right, right.

Prez Dez: 20:16

Or even insincerity, you know.

Jared Judge: 20:18

Yeah, exactly. So you know, one of the things that I do with my partners is like I try to be a true partner and I follow up with them, even like months down the road. I try to follow up with them, like at least once a month touch base with them, and then I follow them on Instagram. I like their posts, I comment on them to try to help them out, because, as we all know, these algorithms on Facebook and Instagram, they favor posts with lots of comments on them. So I try to help them out a little bit as much as I can, not just give me the booking and that's it.

Prez Dez: 20:51

Right, right, absolutely, because what's in it for them? It's not mutually beneficial at all. So that is being a good partner. Jared Kudos to you.

Jared Judge: 20:59

Thank you, I try Very cool. Well, yeah, anything else about partnerships that you feel like we should cover today?

Prez Dez: 21:09

to support them more than you are being supported. So, helping them with word of mouth, helping them get exposed around, social, like you said, and especially new people to take them under your wing, be a mentor, just give a little bit more, have a servant's heart and just help out people as much as you possibly can.

Jared Judge: 21:34

That's great. That reminds me of the quote that I mentioned earlier you can have everything you want in your life if you help enough others get what they want. And as a corollary, you're kind of saying give more than you take. And that's a perfect example of how a good partnership is built.

Prez Dez: 21:51

Yep absolutely.

Jared Judge: 21:53

All right. Well, this was a fun discussion. I appreciate your contributions to this. Thanks for being a great partner of mine.

Prez Dez: 22:00

Yeah, absolutely, you as well.

Jared Judge: 22:03

Okay, perfect. Well to our listeners. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Denver NACE podcast. If you're interested in going to our next meeting, go to nasedenvercom. That's N-A-C-E Denvercom, and our next meeting is actually in March. It is a happy hour that follows the MIC conference Meeting Industry of Colorado Annual Conference. So go to that conference and then become a NACE member. Come to our happy hour right afterwards and build your next partnership. All right, bye everybody.