Speaker 1: 0:02

What's up? Denver event professionals? Welcome back to another episode of the Denver NACE podcast. I'm super excited today because we've got a special guest. By the way, I am your host, Jared Judge, music director at Extreme Strings, Electric Violinist here at Denver. But we've got a special guest who recently gave a beautiful talk to our NACE membership here. He is not based in Denver, but instead he is based in California and you have probably interacted with some of his things at one point or another. I'm actually just going to kind of let him introduce himself, but I want to welcome to the Denver NACE podcast Kevin Dennis. Welcome. Thanks for being here.

Speaker 2: 0:40

No, thanks for having me. You want me to go? Should I jump in and tell them who I am? Let's do it. Go for it, okay. So I'm, as he said, kevin Dennis. I'm my own Fantasy Sound Event Services, which is an event-based business. We do a lot of weddings now. We used to focus on a lot of corporate events and then good old dot-com boom happened and then we realized that hey, we're really good at weddings, so we kind of switched, but we do. We started out as a DJ 35 years ago. This last February we just celebrated our 35th anniversary of being in business. But we started out as a DJ. Then we grew into doing some AV work and then where we really have grown right now is we do custom chandeliers, chandeliers, drapery and lighting for wedding and events, and that's kind of where we are.

Speaker 2: 1:28

So I started and I always like to tell this story because I'm a nerd I started out in high school DJing. So I've been DJing now for 37 years because I started two years before I started my business. But I noticed really quickly that I was the guy standing on the sidelines watching all the girls dance and was too nervous to go up and ask them to dance. But I noticed that they all went up to the DJ. So I learned really quickly that I need to learn how to become a DJ, because then the girls will come and talk to me, and so I basically became a DJ to meet girls. So that's my really bad story so long, long time ago. Well, did it work? I bet it did. I wasn't so shy anymore and it kind of brought me out and then everyone got to know who I was and yeah. So back in the day it did work and then I kind of quickly became like a really highly requested school dance DJ and then, you know, started growing from there.

Speaker 1: 2:21

So yeah, that's awesome. So you initially got into it for some social reasons. I assume you had to learn the technique from scratch. Were you using vinyl and everything.

Speaker 2: 2:31

I was actually a vinyl DJ. I was working for a neighbor of mine. It's kind of an interesting story. So for two years I worked for him and I was his, basically, roadie. I would set him up, I would do like the first 30 minutes of the dance and then he would come on, you know, because like the first 30 minutes of a school dance the kids are still getting there, they were getting in and then he would take over.

Speaker 2: 2:54

Once all the kids got there and I was like, after doing it for almost two years with him, I said, hey, we should probably get another setup and we could start. You know, I could start doing it on my own, you're doing it on your own. And he looked me square in the eye and he said you'll never make it, you're not good enough to be a DJ. And I was like, and so I kind of went home that night and thought about like what he said and I'm like you know what, I really am good enough to do this because, you know, I'm the one that did all the work for him and I wasn't charging him. I just kind of went along. He was my neighbor, we were friends, and the next day I said, hey, you know what, I'm not going to help you anymore and I'm going to let you kind of go out and do it on your own.

Speaker 2: 3:32

And I went out and saved up my money At the time. I started working for other DJ companies. I got hired right away and really quickly became a highly requested school dance DJ back in the day. And then all the money I was making from that I bought my own speakers, turntables and I was already had my own vinyl. And then the rest is history. I started going from there and the best part was is he was done and out of it in about maybe a year, year and a half after I stopped working with him. It was yeah. So it's not that I was the glue that kept it, but I'm the one that did all the dirty work, like setting up the speakers and the lights. And you know I would do all the dirty work and he would just.

Speaker 1: 4:12

He just basically wanted all the glory, so without the work, so I mean that in itself has so many great lessons, Like if you don't know how to do something in an industry, well, go and shadow somebody who does Do the dirty work, get your hands dirty and then become valuable enough to a point where you now have leverage and can go out and make your own career out of it. That's really cool.

Speaker 2: 4:33

And that's how I'll be honest with you, that's how I was working. We'd be subcontracted out to do work for a company in San Francisco and to do AV. And that's really back in the day where I really learned a lot of my AV stuff and got to do like the very first event I ever did with Bill Gates was one of the guest speakers, so it was like out the gate I was already like, wow, okay, this has gotten real, you know. So it was kind of very interesting and I met a lot of, did sound or AV for a lot of famous people over the years working for this company. But that's where I got my education.

Speaker 1: 5:06

That's awesome. Did you ever take any classes in sound engineering? No, never did.

Speaker 2: 5:10

Wow, learned all from other engineers, like on-site and you know, like learning to do it. And yeah, the best I did sound for Tony Bennett, which was I thought was really cool and I knew I was going to do sound for him. And then the one that was really a surprise, like it was surprised to us and surprised to all the guests. Only the event planner knew. But Bono came to this one corporate event we were doing and did an acoustic set and so literally I had to do his sound on the fly, like we did no sound test. He plugged in a guitar. I had to have a guitar and a microphone ready to go and that's all I knew, and so it was kind of so I had to mix Bono. Bono on the fly.

Speaker 1: 5:51

It was kind of fun and it worked.

Speaker 2: 5:52

He was. He was very amazing and and really gracious.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Yeah, We'll talk about a high pressure situation.

Speaker 2: 5:59

Well, yeah it was cause I was like can you, can we do a sound check? No, can we do that? No, we don't want anyone to even see who this person is. And it was only like two people in the company, like even the boss didn't know who was coming, and it was just Bono by himself. It was really crazy.

Speaker 1: 6:15

It was cool, though. Yeah, well, cool. I'm curious. You said that you were a subcontractor for a bunch of companies before starting your own business. What was that path to turning what you were already doing for others into your own endeavor?

Speaker 2: 6:30

So I was doing it. So I started DJing for other companies and then when I started my business, I didn't go DJ for anybody else at the time, I just kind of built up my own clientele. But then when I was like, all right, I need to figure out if I can make a living at this or not, and that's when I was like, oh, and someone's like you can rent, like during the week, when you're not using your sound system, rent it out to people for you know events and you know business meetings and stuff like that. And then that's when I got connected with the guy in the city and then so I, he would sub me out and we were doing like a company called Murder on the Menu, so we would go out and do dinner theater and I was actually at one point I was doing three to four dinner theaters a week.

Speaker 2: 7:14

It was back in the day when corporate event, you know, corporate people were spending tons of money on you know off premise events and different things and they would do a dinner and have some kind of entertainment at night. And we were doing a lot of dinner theater back in the day and you know, and then we would do like big running races for you know 10, 15,000 people, runners, you know a lot of that different stuff in the city so and one of their contracts was the world trade club, which we used to do a lot of work at. But then the St Francis yacht club, and then they were. They went out and the St Francis yacht club Club went out and won the American Cup and so we were doing a bunch of stuff around the America's Cup and it was. It was a lot, it was fun, it was like I said, it was an. I took it as an education because I learned from a lot of great different people on how to how to do it.

Speaker 1: 7:55

So yeah, for sure, but also there's something to be said for the fact that you kept getting hired over and over by the same people. Yeah, what would you say was the reason why they kept bringing you back?

Speaker 2: 8:06

Well, I had a good rapport with the gentleman, but also I was cheap labor. I mean, back in the day he was paying me hourly because I wasn't using any of my gear, I was using all his gear. So and I really took it as I would fill my holes in my calendar. So, whatever I didn't have for myself, I'm like all right, yeah, I can do that event for you and I I kind of took what I could and took as much as I could because I wanted to get as much experience as I could. So I kind of treated it as my my college education into the you know events world. So it was fun.

Speaker 2: 8:36

I really, yeah, I, I would, I would do it all over. I mean we were doing like some mornings you were up at like three in the morning because I had to be at the World Trade Club at five in the morning to get you know, and back in the day that was. I mean I'm this is, I'm going to date myself and tell you how old I am. But they were have I would set up the overhead projectors, the slide projectors, the sound systems. And just towards the end of me doing it is when we started getting digital projectors and you know that was a whole. It was kind of a crazy thing but we'd have to get. They had 12 rooms at the World Trade Club so we'd have to get all the AV ready to go for the morning meetings and, you know, be there just in case any of them needed a change or had a had an issue, and so it was. It was an education. I really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1: 9:15

Yeah, that's fantastic, and so I guess let's fast forward a little bit, because now you've got Fantasy Sound, and how did that transition look like from being a sound operator for others to marketing your own services?

Speaker 2: 9:29

So I was doing it, you know I would try to pick up. So they were in San Francisco. I'm out in Livermore, which is 45 minutes east of San Francisco, so he didn't want to work out in my neck of the woods. So it was easy to kind of like promote what I was doing for him out here, you know, and then if I needed gear, he would let me sub, rent gear from him, you know, and I would continue as I would make more money, buy more gear and do all kinds of fun, different things from there. But it was I would learn like, oh, that you know, I would kind of learn from him his trials and tribulations, like you know, cause he was pretty upfront and honest, hey, we did that, that didn't work really well and we would learn from it and grow and things. And I'm like, all right, and I would mark that in my head All right, we're not going to do that, we're going to move forward and go from there. But so I was building my business while I was still doing it with him and then in 95 is when I really realized I was like all right, I'm going to.

Speaker 2: 10:21

I started my company in 89 and 95. I was like all right, I'm going to go into this full time, I'm not going to have a part-time job. I'm, you know, I'm going to stop subcontracting for that gentleman and I'm just going to jump face in. And really, you know, I joined all the local chamber of commerce out here. I joined, you know, the local, you know event groups. They're all different now from when I started. You know, ilea was still starting to get going, nace was not even a thing out in my neck of the woods back in the day. But I joined the groups and then that's how I grew my business. You know, I really feel I touched on it on my talk. It's about relationships. You know, in 92, as I was building my business, I met the person that I was primarily, probably 60% of my revenue that we still do today. I met her back in 92, you know. So it's it's about that longevity in the relationships.

Speaker 1: 11:16

Yeah, and for those who are not like bought in or understand this, even, what do you mean? 60% of your revenue still comes from this one person.

Speaker 2: 11:24

So I met her through a morning networking group and at first she didn't want anything to do with me Cause I was like this punk kid, I was 22 years old. I would. It was a seven o'clock morning meeting. I, you know, as a DJ I was more of a night person, not a morning person. Um, and so I would. But my dad's boss really he was kind of the president of the group at the time he goes, I will, he goes. I need you to join, I want you to join. There's a lot of wedding people. You might get some work out of it. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I did.

Speaker 2: 11:53

I showed up, but I would show up in like jeans, you know, maybe a hoodie and my hat on, you know, ball cap on, and, and basically I did it for maybe about nine months and I realized that we're not getting any. You know, I'm not getting anywhere. And we happened to do a speed networking where we we sat across from people talking about how you can give more business and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Learn from your, learn from each other. And I sat across from her and she said all right, she called me record spinner. She goes. Okay, record spinner, this is what you got to learn. And she goes you got to dress like you're in business. You got to act like you want to be here, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so the next meeting I showed up in a suit and tie or not, I mean, sorry, shirt and tie. And so she looked at me. She goes, that's one. And literally about maybe six months down the road she finally gave me a gig and I've been working with her ever since. She's grown, we've grown and our relationship.

Speaker 2: 12:47

At one point she would come to me and this is before Google and all that stuff, and she goes record spinner, I want you to figure out how to do this. And so I would go back to those contacts that I had working for those companies in the city. It's like, hey, has anyone you know? So I'd work the phones and I would call people that I knew you know how to do it, do some research. And then you know, and I would figure out how to do stuff for and I go all right, I figured out how to do it and this is what it's going to cost. And she's like all right, you buy the stuff and I'll hire you to do it, and that's how my business grew with her. Yeah, and now it's a whole lot easier on google. You could throw a photo in in google image search and how do you find it? You can actually find the product online and you can do all kinds of cheat it's. It's a whole lot easier now than it was back in 92 oh for sure.

Speaker 1: 13:31

And now you can even just throw it in chat, gpt, and it'll recognize the elements in the picture and give you a step-by-step plan to get them. Exactly, exactly. That's awesome. Was she a wedding planner?

Speaker 2: 13:42

no, she's a caterer actually and then so she had her commissary kitchen at a hall here and so we were doing back in Livermore we didn't have really big. We had some outdoor really nice winery properties at the time, but no event venues. And so she was kind of the first to build a real event venue out here and so, and she built the first one and then she built a second one, and now since people have copied her, her, her idea, but still to this day her one venue is 22 years old and the other one is going to turn 15 in October. So she's been around for a while and really has worked it and we are exclusive lighting partner for her. So anybody getting married or anyone touching her ceiling, they have to hire us or one other company.

Speaker 1: 14:33

So wow, that's a powerful position to be in.

Speaker 2: 14:35

It really is, especially when people want to negotiate with you. It's like, well, no, I'm sorry, you know it's like. Some people are like, hey, can you do it, you know, or I don't want to pay for this, or you know whatever, and I'm like, well, it's, either you pay for it or you don't get it.

Speaker 1: 14:47

Yeah, for sure. Oh, there's so much to talk about because I want to also get into. You know, you were president of WIPA. You are now a national speaker. You also run Wedding IQ. But I do want to kind of dig a little bit deeper because this does relate to the talk that we heard. I think I remember you mentioning. You know, relationships is the game and getting on preferred vendor list is one of the biggest ways to grow your business. But you have to do it in a specific way. You can't just go for the jugular and ask people hey, I want to be on your preferred vendor list. So wondering if you might touch on some of that, the things you talked about in your talk to us 100%.

Speaker 2: 15:24

So I'm a big believer.

Speaker 2: 15:26

It takes time. So that's the first thing you need to remember. If you go to a Denver NACE event once, you're not going to get a lot of business. It's going to take reputation. It's going to take an investment on your part to continually show up. Once other people see that person shows up every month, that's when the real relationship building really starts happening and then that's when you could start really growing and getting work.

Speaker 2: 15:55

You know I'm a big believer you need to do two to three years in a group. Some people see results quicker, um, some see it a little longer. But I'm a firm believer in the two to three year model. Is in your head. You got to go. I'm not going to just join once and expect to get business. You know, especially when that renewal comes around. You know sometimes people are like, oh, I didn't get much business. Well, where are you in this process? Are you in year one? Ok, you need to continue, continue, continue.

Speaker 2: 16:24

And because it's it's a couple of years and and it's really it's funny, because I joined my local NACE chapter as a new year's resolution, I was like I'm gonna get out there, I'm gonna join. I looked at all the groups and I'm like, all right, I'm gonna try NACE. So I literally showed up in January to their very first meeting. I'm a brand new member and I walked through the door and who's the person checking me in the other? Walk through the door and who's the person checking me in? The other? Lighting the one and only other lighting company in there. And she looked at me and she goes I checked you out, I know who you are, but I want you to know these are my people. And I looked at her and I was like, okay, well, welcome, welcome to the event. I'm like, all right. And then so I kind of took that as a challenge, like, okay, I, you know, and I'm like I'm okay with your seconds. I'm like you can't do every event that's out there, you know. And and I kept a positive attitude, and they, within like a year, they asked me to join the board. So that's kind of a big thing is getting involved. You need to get involved, whether it's on a committee or be on the board, you know. And then from there, before you knew it, I worked my way up and I was president of our local chapter for four years, which then led me to getting involved in the foundation and learning more people and NACE, and then got to my speaking career.

Speaker 2: 17:39

But if I would have walked in that room and let her the same thing going back to the lady that was telling me you need to dress like I want to be there, if I would have took that and walked away, I probably wouldn't be doing this today. But even with her, I probably wouldn't be that involved with NACE if I didn't go. Okay, I accept this as a challenge and I'm going to. You know, and I looked at her. I said we'll be friends before this. You know, I go, I'm not your enemy. I would.

Speaker 2: 18:05

Every month I would continue to go to the meetings and I would joke with her and be friendly with her and like I'd be in groups and we'd be talking. I'm like, oh yeah, Maddie's the preferred lighting person here for the group, for the next group. But I go, I take her sloppy seconds and you know like I would, I would make it humorous and have fun with it and before you knew it, people were hiring me to on top of you know, again, she can't do every event, you know, and that's the biggest thing you know. So there's enough out the work out there for everyone and you know you've got to be one of the one of the options and be friendly about it and be, you know, and then eventually the relationships grow and they become deeper and then that's when you become the go to person for that person.

Speaker 1: 18:44

So yeah, for sure, and that's incredibly valuable. But I want to go a little deeper, because it's not just about the tactics of, like, showing up and, you know, being friendly. I think it speaks to kind of a mindset that you have that I don't know, it's hard to exactly describe it, but you seem to have this resilient mindset, an abundance type mindset, and it really does make you persistent in certain situations where others might not persist as much. I'm wondering if you could talk about, like, what is the mindset you go through life with that causes you to have this resiliency?

Speaker 2: 19:19

I'm competitive, so I, before we got going, I think I mentioned I coached little league baseball. So I'm there, I've this next year will be my 17th year coaching little league baseball, so I've always been competitive in my life. So you gotta, I think as a business owner, you gotta be competitive. You got and you gotta have a drive and you gotta be out there, willing to put yourself out there, and you gotta be okay with no and you gotta be okay with uh, you know, with rejection Cause if you don't, you're, you're gonna, you're, you're gonna crumble and you won't, you're going to crumble and you won't be out there. So you've got to continue to go. But I also feel like you can't be that creepy person that is I call it spray and pray. They walk around the room throwing out their business cards, praying that someone will hire them.

Speaker 2: 20:03

I think you have to know that it takes time. You have to talk to people, jared, I would have to, you know, like if we were in the same market and I came to the meeting. Get to know, you, get to know about you, your family, where you from, you know your likes, like everyone knows, like in my market. I'm a huge Texas Rangers fan, you know, and I have season tickets as a Sacramento Kings so, and I have three kids and you know, and I'm the you know in on Southwest, I always take a photo and I always go for that seat where there's not a seat in front of it and I joke that I call it Southwest first class. You know, so there's. You know people and then to the point where people, when they do get that Southwest seat, they take a photo of it. Kevin, I got your seat. You know like it's developing that deeper relationship to where you really, where you get to know people, where you become top of mind.

Speaker 2: 20:51

I think that's that's a lot of it is is as much as you can, you know, keep active on your social media, which I get I'm bad at, but then being out there and developing the relationships, what I feel like I'm really good at checking in with people, you know like if you haven't seen someone in a month or two, it's like, hey, send them a text. You know, hey, jared, how's it going? I haven't seen you in a while. Hope is this as well. Can we get a coffee, get a lunch? You know like continuing to try to grow the relationship. You know like, if you're a gardener and you don't put water on the plant, it's going to wilt away and die and you've got to think of it. This is the same thing. You've got to continue to water it, continue to put a little fertilizer on it, continue to grow and really work at it.

Speaker 2: 21:34

And I think too as we mentioned too is about you know, I mentioned getting on the board and being part of a committee that is your, especially if you don't know anyone that's part of the group or you're wanting to get to know, like it's. Susie the great wedding planner is on the Denver Nace board and I want to get more work, or I want to get to know her, but I don't have that connection If I get on the board and I do my job. Where I think a lot of people go wrong on boards is they just get on the board and they don't follow through, they don't respond to emails and before you know it, that's a reflection of you, you know on your business and so they're going to think you're not going to follow through and you're not going to return emails because you don't do it there. So you got to go in there with the mindset that it's a part-time job and I'm going to give it my all. Like what you're doing right now, you're going the extra mile by having these podcasts You're the one out there doing it, so that helps. It helps make the brand for you putting yourself out there.

Speaker 2: 22:31

So I think if you go in there with that mindset that you're going to, you know, persevere and you're going to get through it and you can handle the rejection. I think that's the biggest thing is handling the no's, because you're going to have no and no's are hard. I still still, to this day I've been doing, been in my business for 35 years now and when we get a no sometimes of something that I really want or a piece of business I really want, it's hard, it really is. You know I'm gloomy that day, I'm not happy, you know, but but that I take that and I turn it into like a fire on how to get it Like, okay, what did we go wrong?

Speaker 1: 23:04

How do we like brainstorm it with my team, think about ways that we can make that next process, when that next opportunity comes that I really want, even better For sure, and I think that also speaks to another part of this whole equation is the ability to figure things out, because you were figuring things out since you were in high school and I imagine, did the relationship building come easy, or was that something you also had to figure out?

Speaker 2: 23:27

I had to kind of figure it out but I kind of learned it really quickly because I am, as much as I go out and speak and do so, I'm still kind of an introvert. I don't do well going into networking situations by myself. Like one of the things I talked about, one of the questions I asked your group, you know, is it better to have a, you know, to be with a, have a wingman or woman with you, or go by yourself? And I think the answer is different for every person and me. I'm a little still to this day, as much as I've done this, I get a little shy when I walk into a room of strangers that I don't know. So it takes me a little bit to warm up. So I do better.

Speaker 2: 24:05

So I learned to like oh hey, susie the wedding planner, you're going to that meeting, can we go together? And the next thing, you know, we have a group of people all going together and then I I'm in the room with a group of people and I feel more comfortable and I open up more and it was more success. And you know, I find that I'm more successful. So you know, I think I learned really quickly that I needed that. It was like a crutch of mine, and once I got those people that you know and develop those relationships, it was easier to open more doors.

Speaker 2: 24:33

Oh yeah, because what happens too, it's like, oh, susie the wedding planner, and next thing you know, it's like, oh, she knew this person and I'm going to connect you, cause that's a whole nother thing that we could talk about is about being a connector, cause there's a lot of power in being a connector, especially if you meet someone for the first time and you think they would do well with you. Know, like you have a friend that's a caterer and you just met someone that does cigar rolling and you're like, oh, that would be a good compliment to their business, connect them. You know there's a lot to be said in being the connector as well.

Speaker 1: 25:02

Oh yeah, for sure. Reminds me of a Malcolm Gladwell book I forget which one it was, but he categorized people into three distinct categories and one of them, I think, was called the Maven, which was the connector role, and how important connectors are to societies. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:16

And a lot of people know Gigi you just say the word Gigi and a lot of people in NAIS know who she is. But she was the president after I was the president and we've become really close. But she took it upon herself to be the connector in our group, like that was, and she would take the roster list of of nays, see who was coming and go okay, she goes in. Whoever's working the. Uh, the door had to be like hey, oh, let me introduce you to Gigi. And Gigi would take this person around the room and introduce them, cause she wanted them to feel welcome and she wanted them to come back to another meeting. You know, and because there's a lot of times I can tell you I've been to networking events where you show up and no one looks at you, no one talks to you, because you are the stranger in the room. So, and I think there was a lot of power in what she would do is take it upon herself to be the connector and go out there and be the one that's connecting everyone together.

Speaker 1: 26:16

Yeah, for sure, and I think that's just even non-leaders like not to say that people aren't leaders, but those who are not on the board can still take it upon themselves to be the connectors of our chapters. That's something you're kind of inspiring me to do more of.

Speaker 2: 26:27

It was hard to do last meeting because I was playing, but well, of course, but it's funny that you say that it's like gg inspired all of us and so we all, we would talk about it at a board meeting. We, you know, or gg would send out an email. Here's the five or the eight people that are new, that have never been to an ace meeting before, and we would all take it upon ourselves to to be like g's assistant and we would take on that connector role and it really we tried to foster that environment at our meetings, where we're welcome, we're friendly, you know, come again. You know, and it did. It definitely helped our attendance.

Speaker 1: 27:02

Yeah, for sure. There was one other thing I wanted to touch upon from your talk, which was, you know, aside from just meeting people for the first time, you have a very systemized way of maintaining those relationships. I believe you talked about planned gifts that you send people, or national holidays. Would you kind of reveal that secret sauce? Yeah, of course.

Speaker 2: 27:25

Of course. So I was sitting. Remember I told you about the venue over here in Pleasanton, that I met the lady back in 1992. So I was sitting. Remember I told you about the venue over here in Pleasanton, that I met the lady back in 1992. So I was sitting at her venue in their office waiting for a holiday event to start and I was just talking with one of the girls and literally I noticed so See's Candy.

Speaker 2: 27:43

I don't know if you guys have See's Candy out by you, but See's Candy was started out here and everyone around the holiday times you get a one pound box of chocolates and it's a big thing out here on the West Coast. And they literally had about 25 pounds of chocolate on this table. And I looked over at the girl that I was talking with and I'm like where did you get all that? Who keeps bringing you all that chocolate? And she looked at me. She goes I have no idea, it just keeps coming. And I took that. I was like so you're at that point, you're one of many, to the point where she doesn't even know who it came from. So that little, you know, 30 pound or $30 box of chocolate is going to get you nothing because they don't even remember who you were.

Speaker 2: 28:26

So I took it upon myself to never celebrate the holidays again in December, because no one is everyone stressed out to begin with and no one remembers. So that's when we started. I went back to my team and I'm like. I told them the story and we found there's a website out there called national holidaycom, or if you Google it you'll find it. I always forget. I have it saved in my computer, but you can go to any website or you can go to any day and it will literally tell you there's always some kind of food connection with every day there's always some kind of something to celebrate and there's some days there's like 15 to 20 different things to celebrate for every day. It's national, whatever day, and I bet you uh, world ufo day.

Speaker 2: 29:10

Yeah, there you go. I mean, so you can kind of be silly with your social media about it. You know, there's all. Is there any kind of food in there? Um?

Speaker 2: 29:19

anisette is national anisette uh national disco day oh, there you go, so djs can have fun with that yeah, um national fear from fear, freedom from fear of speaking so I don't know, unfortunately, but so food or like even like that, like today's national disco, so you throw out there on your social media or you send everyone a little disco mix and happy national disco day. So you're so, at that point, you're one of one, you're not one of many, you know, going around, so you so find your downtime. We take it upon ourselves to try to do four touch points a year with all our big planners, the venues and a lot of people that refer us business. We try to have a touch point with them four times a year and our whole goal is to not celebrate the same holiday all over again, and so we try to find a different holiday, something to touch on, where we're one-on-one, and then people don't get disappointed. I'll be honest with you. They don't even pay attention to what happens during the holidays because so many people send them stuff and don't really pay attention. But the other thing we did I don't know if you guys are heating up, but we are in the little weird heat bubble here in Northern California where we're in triple digits for almost 10 days, like, and it started yesterday, and so we had this.

Speaker 2: 30:41

About four years ago we had the same scenario came up and we went and bought bougie popsicles from whole foods and we took one of our delivery vans and made it like an ice cream truck and we would just show up at all the venues and show up at like the florist that we work at and we just brought everyone popsicles because it was so hot and we got a lot of love for it on social media, you know, because it's again outside the box, one-on-one and we're getting the recognition.

Speaker 2: 31:07

You know we're keeping top of mind and it's like I my whole thing with my staff. I try to be keep us fun, like I want to have fun with whatever we do and doing. I feel like, you know, delivering popsicles. You know we celebrated national pizza day, so there was like literally eight of us that had to divide and conquer, become pizza delivery people for all over the you know, the East Bay that where we work, here we were. You know we all delivered about four different pizzas to four different people and we had all kinds of different pizza parlors. But it was fun and we had fun with folks and I think that's a part of it. If you can make yourself one-on-one and have fun, so that's my advice Awesome.

Speaker 1: 31:48

Well, that is a fantastic relationship retention strategy, oh 100% and even building.

Speaker 2: 31:53

If you're starting to get in with someone, you can send them a little. You know national chocolate chip day, every kind of cookie has a national day you can celebrate there's. Cookies are easy, food is really easy to do. But, like you said, you know there's all kinds of things and find a time. I always say don't do it when you're busy and everyone's busy, but find, like you know, hey, we slow down this month, like I feel like the one thing that WIPA taught me is, um, going across the country.

Speaker 2: 32:20

I, that was my favorite thing. I got to travel to all the events. So if New York was having an event, I would go to their events. You know, whoever was having an event, I got to travel, attend the event. But I learned we all have different wedding seasons, you know, and so everyone has a different time. So what's your downtime? When can you touch them? You know, when can you give them those touch points to remind them you're here, you want to still work with them, you enjoy being with them, you know all that kind of stuff. So you know.

Speaker 2: 32:45

Another thing too is I would offer I think I mentioned it at the talk and I might not, I might've forgot it, but like I'll work with people and never they don't know what you know. Like, for example, I'm on your NACE board. It's like, hey, do you know Denver, nace? Do we have upcoming events? No, I don't know. I would actually buy them their first ticket and get them to come and that has helped build some of the relationships we have, because I'm the person that brought them to the event. I would make sure to meet them, I would sometimes have a drink with them before, try to get them to know them a little better. But I would bring them in and I would be play the connector role and introduce them to everyone. But I would buy them a ticket, you know. So buying one ticket does not is is very small investment to try to get some new business.

Speaker 1: 33:29

Yeah, that's a great idea. I'm getting so many good ideas. This this is a nice transition to now talk about. You know many people. When they're growing their business, they're in a constant state of growth personal growth, business growth but it seems like you have transitioned now to contribution to the rest of the industry through WeddingIQ and through your speaking career. I'm wondering if you could chat a little bit about why you have transitioned to more contributing and how that's going for you. Well, I'm old.

Speaker 2: 33:59

So that's part of it is, though it's when I wrapped up. So I was national president for WIPA twice, and so, after I did it, the second time is when I was like I want to continue to give back. And how do I continue to give back? And so, being involved and going out and speaking, I have no secret. If you're my competitor in town, then I may be a little bit more secretive of what I do, but I don't hold back and I'll tell you how I failed and I'll tell you how I succeeded, and I'm very passionate about the relationship building, because that's how I built my whole business, you know on, but I'm also I love tech apps.

Speaker 2: 34:39

So I do a talk on tech apps. I do a you know a talk on productivity. You know, like how, how we, how we manage our productivity here in our office, you know. So I, I and we're working on a couple of new topics for next year, but you know, but I like to. My whole thing is I felt like I've done my 35 years. I'm not ready to stop yet, you know, but I feel like it's time for me to give back and that you know, you got to leave a legacy and that's what I want to leave my legacy with.

Speaker 1: 35:06

Yeah, that's awesome. So did I also hear you mention Megan Ailey with the OFD Collective as a way to get started?

Speaker 2: 35:13

Yeah. So I have a joke Megan's my sister, so I tell her, if so, if you go out there and meet Megan, please tell her you met her younger brother. I'm older than Megan, so that's why I do that, because Megan has gray hair and I don't have hair, but but but anyway, that's literally I don't know why she takes the abuse, but like she has me introduce her at. If we're at a conference together, she generally has me do her introduction and I generally make fun of her all the way through it and she keeps having me come back. So I don't know if she likes the abuse or what, but but getting to like Megan has the OFD collective and she does a whole thing on training people how to be speakers.

Speaker 2: 35:51

But you know, even if you don't want to spend the money with something, like you know the collective, you can even do something as simple as HARO, help a reporter out, and so that's another way to start getting your name out there, cause there's reporters out there that need information, you know, like they may need a musician, you know about a wedding, blah, blah, blah, and they they need to interview someone about that.

Speaker 2: 36:12

So I've done a lot of that over the years and that's how you continue to get your name out more on the national level, you know. And then I think a good way to start too is is getting you know, like attending the conferences, getting to know people. But if you're a little nervous to take on a topic and speaking by yourself, like try to get a group of people together and do a panel, because I think panels I love. What still this day, probably my favorite thing I do is sitting on a stage with a group you know two, three to four or five people and just having a conversation about a topic and then really cause I'm, while I'm on stage, I'm learning from other people. You know like I I'm there and I think the audience gets a lot out of it because you're getting you know three, four or five different viewpoints on on you know on on the same topic in a 45 minute to an hour time. So that's a good way to start.

Speaker 1: 37:03

For sure and that's kind of partially why I do this podcast is because I get to learn from all of my amazing guests.

Speaker 2: 37:08

No, it's see, and that's the thing. So I say, I've been doing this for a long time, but my goal every time I go to like we're about to go to NACE experience right there in your hometown of Denver, but my goal, I'm going to walk away. I want to walk away with NACE experience with one or two nuggets that I can bring back to my business. And that's always my goal Every time I go to a conference. You can't, you're going to learn 30, 40 different things that you can do better. Right, you got to only bring back one or two, because if you try to do 30, 40, you're going to get overwhelmed and you won't do, you'll do zero. But if you take you, you you look at them all and you're like all right, I really want to do this and and then and that, and one or two little nuggets that you're going to bring back. And you know, and you're never too old to learn, so you know and I learned that from from a past WIPA president, pauline Perry.

Speaker 2: 37:56

She runs Good Gracious Catering out in Southern California. She's very famous in the catering world and she even now has a book. But she would teach me she goes. You're never too young to learn. You know, and she's someone that was getting ready to retire at the time. You know like. She still goes to WIPA meetings, she still goes to events, she still goes to conferences because she wants to learn.

Speaker 1: 38:17

Yeah, for sure, that's awesome. Well, speaking of nice experience, you are giving one of the keynotes, would you?

Speaker 2: 38:26

mind telling us a little bit about what you're going to be talking about. Yeah, lighting and design One of my favorite topics to talk about. It's just kind of trends and what we're seeing. And I always preface it with what is going on in my market, because it's hard to give a lighting and trends talk or even a lighting or a wedding trends talk across the country, so I always preference it. This is what's happening in my market, because what's popular in the Northern California might not be popular in Colorado, so but it's. It's always a good idea to get ideas and how we're do things and you know trends we're seeing and all that kind of stuff. So I always say I did this talk about five years ago and I actually won. I was the highest rated speaker that year. So it was my little claim to fame. Yeah, I was at the top, I was top two. Yeah, I was one of the. Yeah, it was fun.

Speaker 1: 39:10

That's awesome.

Speaker 2: 39:11

Yeah, but so I always I'm like, so I was like I got to do that one again.

Speaker 1: 39:16

For sure, you will be competing with one of the speakers who's talking about how to incorporate cannabis into your events.

Speaker 2: 39:22

Oh yeah, a little competition. I'm sure that's, especially if they're giving samples.

Speaker 1: 39:28

So it'll be samples on every street corner in Colorado.

Speaker 2: 39:30

Yeah, oh, is there really OK? No, no, no, I did not experience that when I was there. Yes.

Speaker 1: 39:37

Oh well, this was so much fun, Kevin. I think we are approaching the end of our podcast, so I want to thank you for for coming on and sharing all your gold nuggets. What would be the best way for our listeners to learn more about you and the things that you're teaching?

Speaker 2: 39:50

Sure, so you can find it at fantasy soundcom, wedding IQcom. We're at Instagram. Is Wedding underscore IQ or F-S-E-S events? Either one of those or you can simply I'm old. I still like email Kevin at FantasySoundcom or Kevin at WeddingIQcom.

Speaker 1: 40:09

Awesome, fantastic. All of the above, yes, this was such a pleasure For our listeners. If you're interested in coming to your first NACE meeting here locally in Denver or across the country, the Denver chapter is nacedenvercom. We're not having an official meeting this month because of the NACE Experience Conference. A little difficult, a little difficult to be the host city, but we do have them once a month and they're so much fun. I highly recommend it. So go to nacenet to learn more about the conference and nacedenvercom to learn more about our more about our chapter.

Speaker 2: 40:44

Yeah, I'm going to say, as a foundation trustee, I'm going to plug. Don't forget that. Also, get go to the foundation event which will be Monday night at four mile park and it's where, from what I understand, we are going to be one of the first events in the glow event that they, where they put all the light up stuff around the park, we're actually going to be the very first event because the whole light up installation that they do will have just started. That like Friday or Saturday night before the conference.

Speaker 1: 41:12

That's awesome. That's going to be beautiful, so highly recommend it. It's going to be fun. Yeah, it's really fun, great Well. Thank you so much, kevin, and thank you to our listeners for tuning into another episode of the Denver Nays Podcast. Bye everybody, thank you.