Episode 30: Five Industry Events and a Crash Course in Power

Episode Summary

This year, I said yes to five industry events, and each one has given our new team a chance to stretch, experiment, and learn together. I’m sharing why I call it the year of mistakes, how our vendor partners help us grow, and what happened when a WIPA event in the Texas heat took an unexpected turn. With a lead technician unavailable, I found myself learning to manage power and leading a team I don’t normally oversee. It was intense, humbling, and a reminder that trying something new can open up a whole new set of skills.

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julianleaver.com | @julianleaver

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Full Episode Transcript

Hello, friends, and welcome back to Mind Over Matrimony. I hope you're having a good summer, and that you're geared up and ready for the fall. This summer at Julian Leaver Events, or the summer at Julian Leaver Events, is usually quiet. We're either producing some destination events, and a lot of the time we'll end up in Europe or we'll end up in the mountains where it's nice and cool.

But this year we really have ended up in Texas at home, and it hasn't been as quiet as normal. And this year has felt a little bit different, because there's been lots of changes at Julian Leaver Events, and we have new team members, and we have new processes, and we have new direction. And I feel like there's a fresh energy that's come out of all of that. And also, interestingly, we're committed to doing more for the wedding industry,

which is common to do one event a year, like for the industry, plan something, or design something, and let that rest. But interestingly, this year, we're doing four of these events. And I'd like to also just say to the clients, thank you so much for letting us do these, because it's been like this interesting kind of labor of love for us in some ways, like back to the wedding industry of saying, thank you so much for supporting us,

and thank you so much for believing in us. And it's been a really cool way for us to do some design reps. I feel like it's like going to the design gym, we're lifting the weights, and we're running on the treadmill, and we're just exercising in a different way that's allowing us to be super crazy creative and think a little bit about different ways to do things.

And sometimes it's really nice in an industry event to be able to take a chance on a new idea. Like, we just produced this event this past weekend that a lot of you saw was for WIPA, which is the Wedding Industry Professionals Association. They had a conference here in Dallas, and we produced their kind of end of night or the end of conference gala, and we got to try something totally new.

We put the DJ in the middle of the room on top of this insane platform, and we put the bar all around that, and then the dance floor around that. And it just changed the energy of how people interacted with the space. And sometimes we need to try new things out so that we can see if they work or they fall flat. And this one worked. It was really so successful.

Everyone has had such lovely things to say about it and been so kind. And I think it was nice to see people interact with the space in a little bit of a different way. And so we get to try those new things out for you. And so thank you. Thank you for that space and that time to be able to do these different things and try them out so that we can use them for you, our current clients.

And hey, we maybe need to tweak this floor plan because we just learned this really cool thing. Or that didn't work. So let's never do that again, right? And it gives us that freedom and gives us those design reps. I also think there have been all of these changes at Julian Leaver Events. And so I really wanted everyone who we work with from a vendor perspective

to really have a chance to interact with the new team in a way that they actually got to work with them. Not just, oh, this is the new person. This is the new person and this is how we work together. And this is how we communicate together. And what can we do to better communicate, right? And I think that's the thing that, just to call back, I think a few episodes ago, we were talking about this business question that had been asked.

What are the things that you are allowing in your business right now? And my answer to that question was I'm allowing mistakes, right? It's the year of mistakes because without little tiny mistakes that we can learn from and fix that don't impact the larger understanding of an event or the larger execution of event, it allows all of us to learn and learn.

And so by doing these kind of four different events, we did the Julian Leaver Events Party, which is great. It's for us. Obviously, we're celebrating you, our clients. We're celebrating all of our vendor partners. And that was just a nice way to say, thank you so much.

And thank you for your support. And we look forward to working with you in the next 10 years. And of course, beyond that, but that was for us. And then there was this WIPA party, which is a more national event and for the wedding industry as a whole. And then we have an event next week coming up at Rosewood Sand Hill for the Rosewood Brand.

And that one is more primarily West Coast partners that we've worked with and some new ones that we're getting a chance to work with. And it's for wedding planners, mostly, and designers who are coming and who work with Rosewood. And they just get a chance to experience the brand and how it works.

And then we're doing another event in November in New York for our East Coast partners. That is, it's for WedVibes. And what WedVibes is this really interesting kind of online platform. But what the event is centered around is this conference that they do that benefits VOW for Girls.

And so it's an in-person thank you event. But it's got another kind of style and personality to it, then all of the other three events. And then also we're actually doing an event in Paris in September. So it's actually five, shame on me, five events.

But it's been, it's different, right? Normally I would only agree to one or two of these a year. But this has been really important for me to test our team, to see where we are lacking, to see where we can do better, to see how we all react to these certain situations,

and to push us a little bit out of our comfort zone. Hey, each of these is a very different event. Can we flex to go Moroccan? Can we flex to go super Brunello Cucinelli? Schiaparelli vibes, right?

Can we do a full on Gilded Age party? And then we're going to Paris and we're going to do a Western party, right? And so we've got all these different vibes happening, and we're learning how to interact with people and learning how to do something different. And it's also just an interesting test for me to say, okay,

I've built this new team and we are all working to trust each other, to do better work, to understand our roles, to figure out what lane we are all operating in. And what's cool about all of this is the feedback. It's like some of it very positive. And some of it like, Hey guys, you could improve in this little area.

Hey, I'd love to know who exactly I should call about this specific thing. And then we can change it, right? That's the coolest thing about all of this. It's like nothing is set in stone. Nothing is like, oh, this is the way and it's only this way.

And nothing can adapt and nothing can change. And so it's been fun to get some cool feedback about, Hey, we love the way you did this, but we'd love to know when we get in this sticky situation, who do we call? And that's been really fun.

And I actually think has helped our team dynamic in a lot of ways to push and take. And okay, this works and maybe this doesn't work. And let's try this out here. It's like this tinkering philosophy I talk about here all the time. That's what's actually the tinkering is like, who is doing what?

And which base are you on? Right? And there's three bases and a mound, right? And then I guess there's actually four bases. There's four bases in a mound.

Let me get my baseball facts, correct? But there's five of us, right? So we all play a different role. Who's the pitcher? Who's the catcher?

Who's on first and second and third, right? And then sometimes someone has a go and play shortstop. And so we're learning about who does those roles and what those roles look like so that we can serve our clients better and also so we can serve all of our vendor partners better. And that's cool.

It's a little incubator experiment year. While also producing some really wild and crazy events for some fucking sick clients. The people who have trusted us this year with their events, I am in awe. And I'm so thankful for all of them because they have all challenged us to do something different.

They have all challenged us to be better. They have all helped us in more ways than they actually know, I think. I don't know that we like, yes, we say thank you. And yes, we like all of those things are communicated, but I don't know if I've ever said like to all of our clients this year about just how deeply grateful that we have been for you.

In trusting us in allowing us to have the time to figure this new system out. And for just celebrating in the victories with us because it has been so much fun. And there is so much yet to come and these events that we do for the wedding industry are very interesting. They're usually very elaborate.

They're usually a showcase of every single tiny little detail and customization that you could possibly do for an event. Nothing that we have the chance to do always for every single client. But what's interesting about them is that the people that we're partnering with, they're donating their time.

They're donating their services. They're donating their labor in a lot of cases. A lot of these big events, they don't really have a budget per se. It's not like a budget, like a client brings to us. And so it is a very interesting, it's a very interesting role for me in a lot of ways.

I feel like I take on this kind of ambassador role of helping everybody fit the puzzles in and get all the pieces where they need to go. And sometimes there's some politics involved. And so you have to make sure everybody is playing right and that the rollouts are right and that the tagging is correct and everyone gets the recognition that they rightfully

deserve because the lifts on these events are pretty massive. And so it's very interesting for us to have the chance to work with people that we've worked with in the past and who are so supportive and come along for the ride. And then also the chance to work with new people, right? It gives us a chance to work with maybe a new photographer or a new videographer or a new

decor company or a new tent company or et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All these events are different. They all have different components. And so it's this very interesting kind of cool mix of, okay, these people we've worked with before, they know how we work, these people are new to this project.

And so we fold them in. And so that's also a very interesting piece about the learning of these events because in a lot of ways, yes, it's going to the gym. But the other really great analogy of this is like we're going to almost like a masterclass in how to do this and we're learning it in real time.

And there's not that many things in this business in terms of education where you get hands-on education, right? We are actually getting to go and build the thing. I feel like the people who get this type of education, photographers and videographers for sure get this type of education.

They go to these courses and they learn all about how to shoot something from a master and figure all of that out. I also feel like florists go to a lot of these where they're learning from a master florist. And oh, this is a cool new different way to do this. But a lot of the other rest of the industry doesn't get to do that, right?

Rental companies are not going to like, oh, this is the rental place. And we get to play with all these fun cool things. It doesn't really work like that. They don't get on the ground training in this. And so in some ways these events are like the little master classes.

And so we get to come together. We get to all see how we work together on this group project and who's on first and who's on second. And that's a very interesting different kind of dynamic. And it's not one that we get to participate in all that often.

And so when a really good opportunity like that to learn for everyone, for myself and my team, and then also for all these other people who don't usually get to participate in things like that, it's pretty cool. It's a really interesting dynamic of everyone coming together to produce their best work and to showcase their best and what they can really do.

And it's fun to just dream and it's like a little incubator. And the ideas that come out of these little incubators then get diffused throughout the industry and then they become a standard and then off we go. It's a very cool proving ground for all of us. Through a series of events, the lead technician was no longer able to be present to run the power.

And so I had a very interesting opportunity because I chose to hire someone as a contractor outside of my team to come oversee the setup because my girls were all attending the conference. And so I wanted to be able to let them have that really cool experience and enjoy it and see all the speakers and just enjoy that experience. And I don't know.

There was something that I had it in my gut. This is an interesting thing too. It's like you got to listen to yourself, right? Even though everyone is saying, oh, we've got this. Oh, don't worry, Julian, there's five of us here, right?

We can get done. What we need to get done. We can also go to the conference. We can do. But I really was like, no, this girl needs to be here.

And I'm not listening to the rest of you. I love you dearly. But I am running this, like, how I feel. And I feel in my gut that I want this girl there. And the girl we brought in, her name is Lauren, she's a badass.

And she does event contracting and comes in to help produce large scale events. And I wanted the opportunity to work with her because I saw her in action at an event I went to in California and she was like, next level. And I thought, I'm going to work with this girl. And so I got a call set up with her.

And I thought, okay, this is actually maybe a good chance to try her out, to see how she operates and see how we do, right? And so she was there. I'm talking about kind of Monday at the WIPA conference. And I had spoken that afternoon.

I spoke around one. And so I was in the ballroom in the morning. And then I spoke around one. And then I was going to go back to the ballroom. That was my plan.

Okay, this is great. And I'm just going to go and help with some of the final setup stuff on this day because all the rentals were being delivered that afternoon and being put in place. And then I got the call that our lead tech needed to leave. And so I was like, okay, great.

This is wonderful. I actually have the space to go and do this. And this pocket opened up in this interesting way. And my gut was right. I was right because I thank God I trusted myself.

Which is like, that's definitely harkens back to sobriety of just, okay, listen to yourself, listen to your instinct, listen to your gut. And it doesn't usually lie to me. And okay, this is cool. This is an expense I'm eating, but I'm just going to buy myself some peace.

So I get to go and I get to go to this Monday night event that's being set up. And everything was in mostly a good spot. But there, the challenges largely had to do with the heat, right? The interesting thing about this conference is that it happened in August, friends in Texas. And so the temperatures this last week or that week really were like 105 feels like 110, okay?

Which no client would ever make that choice purposely for themselves. This is just when this conference could slot into the schedule at the host hotel. So that's what they chose. And they wanted to showcase all of the different spaces. And so they wanted to do a tent, friends, outside in August in Texas, which is something we would

never let a client do that a paid client ever do ever. And so here we are though, we're in this tent and like through a comedy of errors. And I say comedy in the world, like really more like a tragedy of errors. There was just a tragedy of errors that like led us to the point that this event needed to be set up during the day in the heat.

And so things were running a little bit behind for every single vendor partner. And so every single vendor partner needed to step in to make it happen. And so I was able to just take off my jacket and leave my pants on and my boots and like my button up shirt that I had spoken in that morning and get to work.

And what was fun about that for me was that I got to really understand exactly how my business works. I understand exactly how to set up power for an event, which is a new skill friends. I just learned a very new skill. Normally I am the one who orders the power and then the power shows up and then it all

gets plugged in and everything is fine. And I just felt the pressure that other vendors must feel all the time to make sure it works, which is a different type of pressure than being the planner. There is a different, it's just different, right? Like you have, whereas when you're the planner, you really have one client.

When you are one of these other vendors, you have multiple different clients because you are working with the design company and you're working with the planner and you're working with the tent company and you're working with the catering company and you're working with all of these different elements that really the planner, yes, they oversee all of those things. But I'm not in the trenches of like how you're making your food, right?

I know I've said, I'd like it to be presented this way and I'd like it to come out this way. And then the semantics and the circumstances of all of that are for you to deal with. And in Julian Leaver Events, it was more like that at the beginning, right? Like when it is a startup and you're like, okay, we're going to figure this out. And maybe I haven't done this exactly this way before.

And yes, there's still certain situations where, oh, I haven't done this before, but inherently because I've been doing this for basically 27 years. And you listen to that and you do it. But in this situation, I had to learn, okay, how many air conditioning units can we put

on this power source? How many air conditioning units can we put on this power source? You can put three, right? You could put three on each of these power sources and they run at 8.0 to 8.1 kilowatts at a standard level, you can't pull out more than 9.6.

If it goes over 9.6, you're going to be in trouble. So we got to unplug some things from that. And so it was just a very interesting way to learn it. And I don't think that I would have ever been put in this situation had this not series of events happened, right?

And, but now I know, I know exactly how to run it. I know exactly what to do. I know exactly how to plug things in and plug things out and what I need to turn on. I could run the whole system myself. And what was so cool about this was that there was like all these, there were like

three guys and two girls who were helping me manage all of this. And so I could just give everyone a task and make it happen. And it was cool. I'm so proud of them. I'm so thankful for them.

They all were like coolest cucumbers and they were all willing to collaborate together. And it was like leading a team that I had never led before. I'm not in charge of any of these people under normal circumstances, except for from a very high level. And so to see them operate on site and under stress and think through problems

and solve them and push forward was really cool. And I was really running two different companies. I was running the company that I co-owned, LOO Power, and then I was also running a lighting company, basically, because of this serious series of unfortunate things that those people had to go and deal with another situation.

And so I was like, okay, I'm now in charge of this lighting piece of things too. And so where are we and what have we done and how are we going to install these things and what is still left to be do and done. And I need you to come and help me over here so that then you can help me over here. And we're going to all collaborate together to move this whole thing forward.

And what was cool about it is that it worked. It worked exactly as we've said, it's going to work. It did exactly what it said it was going to do. Now, was it freezing in this tent? No, it's 110 degrees outside, friends.

I don't know if any air conditioning unit that's ever going to make it gently cold in there. But was it 30 degrees cooler, 40 degrees cooler than what the actual temperature of outside was? Hell, yes, it was, which is a miracle from God. And so all of the systems worked. They worked exactly how they were designed to work.

And I now know how to run them, which is pretty cool. That's a skill that I never thought that I was going to get to learn. I understand it from a very high level of, OK, this all makes sense. But now I can plug it in. I can make it work.

And there's this, I don't know, like a different energy almost of learning some new skill. We talked about before doing reps in the gym or going to a masterclass. I feel like I did a masterclass in electricity distribution overnight, right? In the five hour, very intense period of time. And that was cool.

And I learned a lot about it. And I learned that I could trust it and that I could trust my gut. And that math maths, right? If you do the math and you follow the math, the outcome is always the same, right? And that is different than event planning because in event planning, a lot of what we do is by gut.

It's like, does this feel correct? OK, yes, it feels correct. So we're going to go down this direction. Or does this design resonate with you as a human? Or does this work like spark joy, right?

But with power, it's a very it works or it doesn't work. And kind of situation, there's not any hiding around it. The power is either on or it is not on. It is a very black and white situation. And there was something fun about exercising the other side of my brain in that way.

Because I feel like in Julian Leaver Events, yes, it is very much left and right brain. And also over here, it's left and right brain, right? You have to be a little creative. You have to be willing to try something new and try different combinations to make something work. And what's cool about that is that it was scary because it was new, right?

It was almost like learning how to ride a bike without training wheels. Oh shit, they're off and the parent is not holding me, holding my back anymore. It's like, OK, here we go. Am I going to do it? Yeah, am I going to maybe fall down?

Also, yeah, am I going to scuff my knee? Yeah, but am I going to at the end of it have mastered a new set of skills? That's wild, y'all. It's been a long time since I really dove deep into something different like that. And so I'm thankful for that.

Would I want to go through that situation again under those circumstances? Probably not. Let's please not repeat that situation. But it worked out because math maths and that's been a fun new scrappy part of this journey is like, OK, we just have to get it done.

And in a year, totally different situation, totally different situation. I'm like in year one, basically, of this business. Yes, it started in 2020 and there's lots of iterations and there's lots of talking and there is lots of math that needed to be done to get us to this point.

But now we're at this point of, OK, it's cool. It's beta tested. It's trial and error. It's figure it all out. And then it works exactly as we said it was going to work.

So there's something really cool about that, friends. And something that I feel like I get to take from that and put into all the other parts of my life. And so Julian Leaver Events will benefit from that. The lighting company will benefit from that.

LOO Power, a million times over will benefit from that. Because I can speak to it on a molecular level about how it exactly works and how I can do it myself. I could literally set the entire thing up myself. That's cool as shit.

So learn something new, friends. That is 100% the message here. Learn something new. Be open to it. See what happens.

You could fail. That's also OK, right? Because try, try again. And just have fun. Figure out something that's going to push you and push the boundary.

And lean into it. How I made it through, unclear. The rest of the year is wild. And we're just going to have so much fun. And every party is so different, y'all.

It's wild. I have never dreamed in my wildest dreams that it could be this interesting and this dynamic. And so I really just want to say thank you to the clients, the current clients, and the future clients

for trusting us and letting us be with you on this journey. It's really truly such an honor. And we thank you deeply for letting us have the chance to flex those muscles, having the chance to go to the gym,

having the chance to do it again and again. And you don't get better unless you start. And this year has been all about starting something new. And so I'm grateful and thankful. And does next year look like four events?

Maybe I'm going to plan it a little bit better. But I'll say all of these events were almost pop up events in the year for us to plan. And if you get the chance to run a 5K, go run it and see how you do.

Because the next one you run, you'll be even better. And the next one you run, you'll be even better than that. So don't give up the opportunity. Plan a little. But as Persephone says, plans can change.

So thank you guys so much for being here. And I can't wait to see you next week.

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