The Boss Box with Hillary Gadsby
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Episode Summary
Instead of competing, team up and learn from and with each other. Hillary Gadsby’s success isn’t defined by how much money she has, it is the people in her circle who paints the most honest picture of who she is. As the founder of The Boss Box, Hillary aims to help women entrepreneurs by showcasing their products through collaborations and educating each other with the many facets of wellness, beauty and fashion. Have fun, be different and rock those stilettos like the boss you really are.
Today’s guest on The Successful Pitch is Hillary Gadsby. She is the Founder of Stiletto Gal and has a fascinating story about how she came up with that name. From there, has launched a company called The Boss Box which is a box that comes to female entrepreneurs with everything from mindset to usable tips on how to be a better business person. She’s really created something big and interesting here. She said, “If you help people to give them the tools to thrive, they will use those tools.” Her big question that we talked about is how do you define success? It’s much bigger than just money. She said, “When we’re all about collaborating versus competing, things really take off.” She said, “Be at peace, not in pieces.” She’s got something on there called Bossfidence, which is a play of confidence that I think you’ll really enjoy.
Listen To The Episode Here
The Boss Box with Hillary Gadsby
Today’s guest is Hillary Gadsby, a marketing dynamo whose international career spans the US, the UK, and France. Hillary is known for creating and producing outstanding and diverse events including a wide range of corporate events, public relations, corporate meetings, product launches, fashion shows, you name it. Her extensive experience in sales and marketing event management shows that she has gained recognition among some of the world’s best brands like Ralph Lauren, Gucci and Vera Wang. She’s been nominated as a Woman to Watch for 2016 Women of Influence Awards. I’m thrilled to have her today. Hillary, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me, John.
It’s always interesting to me how people and women like you have their hands in so many different things. If you wouldn’t mind, would you take us back to your story of origin? You can go back as far as you want of when you were in college or before you went to college. Did you always know you wanted to do this?
Yes. My mother has always been an entrepreneur. Unfortunately, she’s failed miserably each time but she really was somebody who would pick herself back up and start over again. I’ve followed that in my life as well, in my business. I’m from Sun Valley, Idaho. It’s a prominent area. You know that you can charge a good amount of money for babysitting services and that’s what I did. I started out with one family and then it built up to several different families. I can’t be in the same place at one time so I recruited some girlfriends. I charged $20 an hour for my services. I gave my girlfriends $15 an hour. I created my little staffing company, if you will, at ten years old. I stopped doing that thing. I went into school and life happens.
A Gadsby Affair: Strategic Marketing Solutions
Fast forward to 2008, I was working with a concierge firm in San Diego helping them to build their LA business. I was a consultant and I had one client who came in and wanted to do some client appreciation events. I had not really done anything entrepreneurial ever since my ten years old. This client was coming in. We haven’t signed the contract yet. It was an accounting firm and they wanted to do client appreciation events for their clients. We were working with this other firm and I decided that I was not going to continue with them. I called up the client who I had brought in and I said, “I’m not going to be working with this company anymore. I know you’re going to sign the contract, but I just wanted to let you know I won’t be there.” He said, “Hillary, the reason why I signed this contract was to work with you. I want your skills. I know you can do this. I want to work with you. Why don’t you just work with me instead?” That’s how A Gadsby Affair was born. Within a couple of seconds, I became a business owner. Within that weekend, I had a domain name. I had a logo. I had it all. Then I had to start pitching myself. I was lucky to start with this one client. He said, “We’re going to do one event with you and then we’ll see what happens.” We did the event and then he hired me for nine more.
You had the ultimate proof of concept there, didn’t you?
I did, definitely a big boost in my self-esteem there.
Also to prove to him and other people that you can deliver what you say you’re going to deliver, which is so important, the integrity. People want to know that they can trust you to do what you say you’re going to do. I see that time and again in successful entrepreneurs like you. You deliver, people trust you, then they give you more money for your startup or they give you more clients or more business. That repeat business is everything, isn’t it?
It is everything. That’s what I’ve actually built my company on, is the repeat business. It’s people referring me. I have never really done a lot of marketing in my company. It’s been more referrals through other clients. It’s been really, really lucrative. I’ve had some amazing clients like Four Seasons and Toyota and it’s because of the reputation that we’ve built over the years.
Now, you’ve got your hands in a couple of other things. Let’s talk about Stiletto Gal a little bit.
Stiletto Gal came about in 2012. Going back to when I started A Gadsby Affair, I didn’t really have any mentors. I’ve just started. I was like, “I’m going to fake it until I make it.” I called upon some people within my sphere, my circle who were men. I didn’t have any female mentors and female advisers. Stiletto Gal came about because not only do I want to create my own personal brand, which is all about confidence and women, and I was always known for the shoes that I wore. I came up with Stiletto Gal because it has nothing to do with shoes. It had to do about walking a mile in my shoes and doing the things that I did. I wanted to create something where women could look at the content and feel inspired by it and also to give them tools on what they need to do, “Here’s what I did wrong. Here’s what you can do right.” That’s how Stiletto Gal was born. It started out as a blog in 2012. It was all about a day in my life as a woman entrepreneur. I did it five days a week, which I’m sure a lot of bloggers know that five days a week blogging is a lot of work. People loved walked a mile in my shoes and then I created Walk a Mile in her shoes every Thursday where I featured another woman in business. I feel like learning from other women was a great platform for not only myself but others. In 2014, it turned into a Speaker Series called Secrets of Successful Woman Entrepreneurs where it was a fireside chat between myself and a woman entrepreneur. It started out with Toni Ko, the founder of NYX Cosmetics.
Don’t you find as a host you learn so much from your guests?
Yes. I want to write a book from the stuff that I learned from my guests.
I literally did. That’s so funny you said that. I took ten of my favorite podcasts and took the transcripts and turned it into a book. That’s another takeaway for everyone listening today, is there are all kinds of ways to repurpose your content.
I definitely want to write a book one day from the stuff that I’ve learned from the speaker series. One of the questions that I ask that’s so important is, how do you define success? A lot of the women do not say money. I love that because I don’t believe in that either. I don’t believe that success equals money. I believe that success equals happiness. I believe that success means the people you surround yourself with, the people who are in your circle, I believe that that’s where success comes from. It’s being well-known and having the integrity in your circle of friends and colleagues.
If you don’t enjoy the people you’re working with or the people you’re hanging out with, your life is miserable no matter how much money you have, is what I found. Unfortunately, seeing people like that in the media that you go, “Why are they so unhappy?” It’s because of one of the things you said. They’re not purposed. They don’t have integrity. Stiletto Gal led to The Boss Box. Is that correct?
Yes. I had always wanted to do a subscription box for women in business. At the time, I was like, “There’s nothing out there like this.” There’s the Birchboxes and the FabFitFuns, all these different subscription boxes for women but there wasn’t anything that provided some educational material or tools. We actually call it #ToolstoThrive. I found a couple of women on social media who were doing similar things. They wanted to empower women. They wanted to inspire them and give them the tools to do so. The first person I met was Shalini Vadhera. Shalini has Passport to Beauty, which is this global beauty brand. She took all kinds of ideas from beauty tips all around the world and creates her own product. She wrote a book, a best-selling book. She also has Power Beauty Living, which she launched on the floor of the UN a few years ago. It’s all about empowering women through their not only beauty but inside and then also their business.
She and I met on Instagram and we were just, “We have to meet. Let’s help each other.” That’s what Boss Box is about. It’s helping other women. It’s helping showcase other women’s products and not only that, it’s getting women to collaborate instead of compete. Shalini and I started that. It had a different name. The Boss Box popped into my head one day. It’s funny, a lot of things pop into my head daily that turn into great businesses. Stiletto Gal popped in my head as I was having coffee with a girlfriend. She said, “I like your stilettos.” That’s how it happened. Boss Box was the same way. Then, we brought in another partner about six months ago named Heidi Nazarudin. She’s The Ambitionista. She’s a lifestyle influencer in fashion and lifestyle and she’s building some really amazing brands. The three of us together wanted to just collaborate with each other and help as many women as we could. It’s a quarterly subscription box for women in business. Everything from leadership to education to wellness, mindfulness, fashion and beauty, all in one box every quarter.
[Tweet “Collaborate; don’t compete.”]
I also love that you’re connected with Dale Carnegie in doing this. That’s the mindset’s impart, yes?
Yes. The soft skills and the leadership skills are so important especially when you’re pitching yourself and how to do that effectively. We partnered with Los Angeles and Ventura County Dale Carnegie, and an amazing man named Brian Barry who’s a top coach there. He has been a friend of mine for many, many years. We’ve always wanted to work together. He’s always seen the stuff that I’ve done with my events and always really admired everything that we’re doing. I came up to him with this and he was, “I’m in.” We created The Boss Box Academy series with him. Every box has its own booklet, which is the lesson and then the workbook as well. You have to go back and do the lesson yourself on your business. Not only that, each one comes with a 60-minute online live coaching session with him.
That alone is worth the cost of the subscription.
He’s one of the most amazing coaches I’ve ever seen. We did a training a couple of weeks ago and it was just incredible.
I work with people all the time on their confidence before they get up to pitch to get a new client or to get funding for their startup. You have a really clever word that I have never seen, Bossfidence.
That’s how Bossfidence was created. She is our case study for what we do.
Bossfidence is a brand that this lovely girl, Ashley Gibson, created. I’ve known her for a couple of years now. When I was doing my events with LA Business Journal, she worked for the LA Business Journal. I mentored here along the way. She started writing pieces for our Speaker Series. I thought she was a great writer. I said, “We’re building The Boss Box and we have TheBossBox.com and there’s going to be content on it. Why don’t we give you your own column?” That’s how Bossfidence was created. She is our case study for what we do. She has this whole brand and she’s doing well. She’s got 1,500 people following her so far. She’s only been doing it for a couple of months.
The one that really jumps out at me is be at peace not in pieces.
She’s brilliant when it comes to that stuff. I’m really proud of her. We’re excited to have her with The Boss Box.
It’s quite exciting to watch all of that happening. What is your strategy on getting people to subscribe to The Boss Box?
We’re lucky the three of us combined we have over a million followers on social media so that helps. I’m not going to say that that’s the only thing because I think it’s important that we get our faces out there too. I’ve done an event where there was a room of ten women. It was a small mastermind and I sold six boxes out with that. It’s really important for us to get in front of people because they have to see the passion. With social media, you could have so many followers but it’s also the engagement. Luckily, we do have the engagement and a lot of our subscribers come from Instagram. I think that you really have to have people who are ambassadors for you, really believe in the brand to get it out there. That’s really what sells is when people are saying, “I love this product. This is what has helped me do with the case studies that come from it.” That’s what sells a product.
Let’s hear one of your stories of who this is for and who this is not for. I think that’s always so helpful to have that down and very clear who your avatar is. If you wouldn’t mind sharing that, I think it will give people not only a great example of how to define their avatar, but also determine whether this is a good fit for them or not.
We have two target markets, which is interesting. We have 18 to 35, the millennial market. They may have a corporate job but they want a side hustle. They want to start their own business but they just don’t know how. We give them those tools. It’s also for a corporate executive who maybe wants to level up in their career, who’s stagnant right now. Not only does the educational materials help them, but also there’s really fun, inspirational items in each box that do that. With those two target markets are really who we target. People who are more established in their business, the entrepreneur who has maybe had an exit. That’s not for them.
You’re solving a problem for people who have an urge but don’t know how to do it and they stumble and fall without your guidance. The Boss Box is a clever way to get some inspiration, get some guidance and be part of a network. This is what I see is happening.
We have a network of around 15,000 between all of us. If you don’t subscribe to the box, you do have the network. You can come to our events, which are going to be launched later this year in other cities. Boss Talks will be launched in Dallas, in New York. We’re only in LA at the moment but later this year, we’re going to be launching in other cities. It’s really exciting. We’ll be inspiring women all over the country and giving them tools to thrive.
[Tweet “Be at peace, not in pieces.”]
I think it could be its own reality show in a way. I think this is really great stories. Speaking of stories, can you share a story of what it was like to work with either Ralph Lauren, Toyota or Four Seasons?
Ralph Lauren was quite an experience. I unfortunately had the experience during 9/11. I was in Paris. I worked for Ralph Lauren in Paris, which is really close to the American Embassy. It was so fun to work with them. I worked on the women’s side, the men’s side and the children’s brands. It was so fast-paced. These women were incredible. I was in the marketing and PR department. Every single day was different whether it was a product launch or PR press materials, anything like that. I had a really great time. I learned a lot. I would say, John, I learned a lot more from another brand that I worked with in luxury and it was the France Luxury Group. A gentleman by the name of Mounir Moufarrige is one of my mentors. He’s a man. He took Phoebe Philo to Chloé, Stella McCartney to Chloé. He’s all about making brands better; taking older brands and revamping them. I worked for him for about a year and watched everything he did. I did everything from marketing to PR to being his executive assistant to sales to watching dresses in haute couture being made from a sketch to putting beading on a dress. I learned from him what a brand is and not only what a brand is, how to make it different, how to stand out from anything else. In my business today, I use every skill that he gave me.
Can you share what are the secrets of how do we make our brand stand out?
You have to be different. With Stiletto Gal for example, I took a shoe and made women feel confident, “It makes me feel confident. Why can’t it make other women feel confident?” That doesn’t have to be wearing a stiletto. It could be wearing a flip-flop but what makes you feel confident. That’s one of the things that I can say is, you can take things that resonate with you and that gives you something different.
I love that because for me I’m known as The Pitch Whisperer, you’re known as the Stiletto Gal and now the founder of The Boss Box. When you have something catchy that people can remember more than your name or your company, I think it really helps get the sticky factor and the awareness up. Yes?
I agree, 100%.
If you had one piece of advice for our listeners about either branding or networking, what would it be?
I would say for networking, meet as many people as you possibly can in your early stages of your business.
I would say for networking, meet as many people as you possibly can in your early stages of your business. One of the things that I did is I worked with a lot of financial services firms. That was my niche because of the CPA firm that I started with. I thought, “They definitely need some help. We need to get some return on investment. It’s all about bringing them new clients. Not just throwing an event, but giving them that return on investment.” I started going to accounting firm events, associations, business forums international where it’s all finance firms and networking with those people. It’s really important to network with the people who you want as your clients because that’s where you see the pain points. They’ll tell you what they need. It’s not about going to just random networking events where there’s all kinds of different people there, which is great. You want to build your Rolodex as fast as you possibly can. However, if you do more targeting and re-targeting of the people that you meet, you’ll go much further in business.
Have a laser focus of who you connect with so you’re not talking to people who are not in your sweet spot. Is that the essence of it?
Exactly.
Since you’ve been so successful producing so many events, what makes a good event in your mind?
There are a couple of things. I think a really good event needs to have education. I think that’s so important. What are you going to learn from it? What’s the takeaway? Great networking and then also, it’s got to look good. You’ve got to stand out. If you’re a brand and you want people to talk about you, you have to stand out.
That means investing in lighting, flowers, food and all of that stuff.
Not only that, investing in somebody like me who’s going to build an entire strategic marketing plan for you so that you can get business out of it instead of spending $400,000 on an event that doesn’t result in anything.
I imagine part of your strategy includes helping people get publicity out of it to keep it going. Yes?
Absolutely. I can tell you one of our clients Joiful. They are an on-demand wellness app. They started out as beauty and wellness. Now, they’ve gone into massage and we did two events for them. The first one was all about getting artists. Getting the artist, the hairstylist, the makeup artist, the massage therapist, and the aestheticians to get onto the app and be the artist on the app that you use. Then, the other one was the consumer one. For the artist one, they invited about 200 people to this event and we got 75 artists to sign up on the app that evening. It was really good for the first one. Then the second one, funny enough we brought on Heidi in Marque Media, my business partner on Boss Box. We wanted to have something that had a lot of influencers for the consumer launch. Heidi brought in 17 million hits in two days for the event.
What do you attribute that to? Having a really good hook?
Our event was incredible. What we did was we created these vignettes where you could see exactly the type of service that you were getting in the event. We had this really big 10×10 boxes with a landscape behind them. There were massage therapists doing massage, facialists doing facials, hair stylist doing hair and braids and curls, and then makeup artists so you could really see and feel and experience what it would be like to use the Joiful app.
What you just did there is you painted a picture for us with all those details. It almost makes you feel like you’re in the movie and that you created the cinematic experience for people way above what you would just think of in terms of an app for wellness and massage. It became something much, much bigger and that’s what you need to do when you’re pitching anything is paint a picture, get people in the story, and then you have the big wow effect that you consistently have. Congratulations. It’s thrilling to watch and see.
It was a lot of fun to produce as well. A lot of work but a lot of fun to produce and the results were incredible. The client loves us. I think it’s really important. I agree with you, John, that telling the story is probably one of not if the most important part of selling your brand.
Now with full circle to what we’d started off the episode with was how do you define success? You just gave a great example of it, all that great outcome and having fun.
[Tweet “How do you define success?”]How do you define success?
It’s really important to have fun. If you’re not having fun, you might as well not do it.
People can feel that energy at the event even looking at the pictures whether it was fun to be there or not. I think that’s contagious and that’s ultimately what people want is they want a feeling when they’re buying or trying any new product or service. There’s a feeling that you’re going to get. When you get The Boss Box, you’re going to feel, I imagine, that you’re not alone. That’s an a-ha moment right there because being an entrepreneur can be scary and lonely. If you got The Boss Box coming to you quarterly, you feel like, “There’s other people out there doing what I’m doing, cheering me on and I’ve got some real tools that I didn’t even know where to go to find them and they’re all here in one box. How wonderful.”
That’s why we created it is really to show people that they’re not alone and we are here.
That’s why we created it is really to show people that they’re not alone and we are here. Our earlier subscribers in the first box, we give them access to us. I reached out to a couple of people on Instagram when we launched our first box and loved what they were doing. I reached out to them and I talked to them about The Boss Box and they bought it. This one young lady was on the training the other day and she said, “I didn’t even realize I needed this.” That was the nugget. That was it.
That’s my favorite definition of luxury. When I was calling on big brands like Banana Republic and Lexus, we always had conversations of luxury is giving someone something they need without even knowing they need it. For example, Lexus would allow your phone to ring and be connected to your music so the music volume would go down so you can hear your phone. “I didn’t know I needed that but that’s really great.” Banana Republic started putting phone charges in their flagship stores so that people could charge their phone while they’re shopping. That’s really nice and the sales went up because people kept shopping while they waited for their phone to fully charge. It just keeps going and going, doesn’t it?
It definitely does. I like that idea, it’s smart.
How can we follow you on Instagram, Twitter, all that great stuff? How can people sign up for The Boss Box? Tell us everything about knowing more about keeping in touch with you, Hillary.
Personally, you can go to all the social media Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as @TheStilettoGal. The Boss Box is @TheBossBoxOfficial on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. If you want to buy the box at www.TheBossBox.com.
Thank you so much for being such a great inspirational guest with amazing stories. Please, how many people have worked for Ralph Lauren in France no less? It’s just fantastic. Thanks again, Hillary.
Thank you, John.
Links Mentioned
- Stiletto Gal
- The Boss Box
- Bossfidence
- Hillary Gadsby
- A Gadsby Affair
- Walk a Mile
- Speaker Series
- NYX Cosmetics
- Passport to Beauty
- Power Beauty Living
- The Ambitionista
- Dale Carnegie
- Joiful
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How to Raise $120M with Greg Centineo
Posted by John Livesay in podcast | 0 comments
Episode Summary
For the body to be healthy the brain needs to be healthy. Join Dr. Steven Masley as he explains why having a healthy heart is a better brain solution. Learn how your heart rate tells a lot about your brain functions and how exercise is the best way to live healthy. But having a healthy body will require proper nutrition. Discover how all these factors make for a healthier version of you.
Today’s guest on The Successful Pitch is Greg Centineo. Greg has quite an interesting background as it relates to the entertainment business. He rose over $120 million for an animated film made outside of the system. Imagine trying to go up against Disney and Pixar and raise money for an animated feature, the team hadn’t done it before and there’s a recession going on. He has all the skills about how to have perseverance, tenacity and how to create trust with total transparency. He said, “You want to really figure out how to get people to trust you, like you, and show that you have your own skin in the game.” Enjoy the episode.
Listen To The Episode Here
How to Raise $120M with Greg Centineo
Today’s guest is Greg Centineo, who is the co-founder of Pulse Evolution Corporation. Recently, he was not only the Executive Producer, but headed up how to take that from DVD to worldwide distribution of Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return. We want to ask him about that. He successfully completed production and promotional funding for the largest budget animation feature film ever produced outside of the studio system. He has leveraged his skills in structured financing that he honed early in his career at Washington Mutual. Through his groundbreaking funding strategies, Greg has successfully raised $120 million and 100% of the film’s required capital. Greg, welcome to the show.
Thanks, John. I appreciate being here with you.
I know that’s just the tip of the iceberg but I saved the best for last. I’m going to ask you to take us on your own journey. One of the things that obviously is so interesting about you, there are many things, but tell us about what you did with Michael Jackson in a hologram?
That was actually a backyard startup with some great, great minds and skillful intelligent people from the digital space of special effects. It was an idea that was nurtured from backyard right to a public company, but the idea was started with Tupac. They decided to bring Tupac with Dr. Dre. Snoop had the idea of, “Can we bring Tupac on stage with us at Coachella?” A team of digital animators sat down and figured out, “How can we do this? How can we take it off of a screen or a monitor and bring it live?” It started with Tupac. It was a huge success at Coachella back in 2012. One of the light bulbs that went off was right after that, Tupac, who had been deceased for twelve years, all of a sudden his music was back in the Top 10 Billboards. The estate was seeing massive money coming right back to them now after twelve years.
That’s when the light bulb went off and said, “There might be something here of bringing back deceased musicians, entertainers, etc.” John Textor, who came up with the idea of creating a company called Pulse called me and said, “I know what you did with the animation film. I need your help.” We sat down with his amazing team and masterminded a way to bring Michael back and the rest is history. When we launched Michael at the Billboards, that Billboard show created 98 billion mentions worldwide. That was phenomenal. That opened up many, many doors with the Elvis’ estate, Sinatra’s estate, Marilyn Monroe’s estate. The only thing was if that company was public at the time, it probably would be a different situation today for that company, but they went public about three months later. That was a really exciting project.
I like to open with a little bit of sizzle. It doesn’t get bigger than that. It’s iconic. If you would take us back, Greg, nobody starts a career in their life getting to do something that impressive, what were your dreams when you were growing up?
I grew up in Brooklyn. It’s a little bit fuzzy for me when I go back. I think I always had this real entrepreneurial spirit. I didn’t want to do what everybody else was doing. I didn’t want to conform. I didn’t want to get a regular job. I didn’t want to work 9 to 5. I was wondering about bigger questions, the meaning of life. I always kid = and my first existential crisis was when I was five.” I was always philosophical and wondering. I wanted to find meaning in life. I realized early in life, if I’m doing something whether I’m working at Foodtown in Brooklyn putting out produce in supermarket and I didn’t like it, I didn’t find meaning in that so why do it? At an early age of sixteen, I left Foodtown. I said, “I’m not going to have another job again in my life. I’m only going to do what I love.” I did that ever since. I set out a course in my life and said, “I’m going to look for opportunities. If I find something that I think is worth doing, worth getting out of bed for, I’m going to get out of bed and do it and I’ll put everything I have into it.” That’s how I live my life.
Did you have any bumps along the road? Usually, whether you’re working for somebody else or working for yourself, there are some lessons that we have to learn about resilience, for example?
Life is tough. There is no question about that. It’s tough for everybody. The only thing to have is tenacity. You’ve got to keep going. I had tremendous amount of obstacles that I faced. I just had this drive in me not to fail. I wanted to succeed at whatever it was that I was doing. I started way back. I go back to the day when I was in my mid-20s, I became a youth minister, believe it or not. If you want to talk about learning a lot, I went into the institution church. A guy like me who’s a free thinker and wants to experiment, the goal is to reach people and make life meaningful, you’re going to rub some people the wrong way in leadership. I learned in those early days how to co-exist in a traditional setting and yet I was very non-traditional. That helped me out a great deal and also with my communication skills. I was probably speaking three, four times a week. I was speaking to the toughest audience that you can speak to, highschool students. If you can keep their attention you can keep anyone’s attention. It started there for me but I always felt even then, I wanted to do things well. I wanted to succeed. I wanted to impact people’s lives. It went from that to other industries. I decided that I felt I could have a better effect on people’s lives if I didn’t work in such a conservative traditional model and went out into the real world and just spread my wings and fly.
Tell us how did you get involved with Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return? For those people who may not know about that, paint the picture for us on how this became such a big animation feature film?
It started out as just an idea. It was a small independent production company out of California that burst the idea of taking some of the great Oz sequels by Roger Baum, who is the great grandson of Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz. They had the idea to take the series of books and, “Let’s go out and try to make animation films.” They were already doing live action films type. It was a tremendous leap into animation because that’s a real specialized industry, the best were Disney, DreamWorks, and Pixar at the time. Often, they’re really high-budgeted films. Typically, independents stick around the $2 million, $5 million range and you get them into animation film. Starting out as a DVD, you’re looking at $20 million, $25 million budgets. I got approached. I had no experience in that industry but I had a good reputation of understanding how to leverage, how to structure things and also how to persevere and get things done. I got a random call one day from that CEO. He said to me, “I need some help. I have a great idea.” He introduced the idea to me and I said, “No. I’m not interested.” He said, “But I didn’t even tell you the whole thing.” I said, “You don’t have to. I don’t want to get involved in Hollywood or movies.” It’s not my thing. He pestered me, and I use that term lightly. He pestered me for seven months. He would call every other day.
I finally looked at what he was doing. I really took a deep dive into it. I remember walking away and I thought, “These guys will never do this. This is an improbability.” No independent has ever done anything like this in the history of Hollywood, plus we were in the middle of a recession. How do you raise money in a recession with an independent who has never done animation?
Wrong time and not an experienced team, that’s usually the kiss of death, isn’t it?
How to Raise $120M: I would wake up in the middle of the night and I’d think to myself, “What if these guys succeed?”
Absolutely. That’s why I said no for seven months. What’s funny is I would wake up multiple times a week in the middle of the night, sweating. I knew the idea was good. I knew the industry of animation was lucrative. I knew no independent has ever played in it. If we could succeed, it could be huge for us. I would wake up in the middle of the night and I’d think to myself, “What if these guys succeed?”
That’s the question, “What if?” That is a great thing to say to a potential investor, to yourself, to anyone you’re trying to get to hire you to be a client, “What if?” You paint a picture for someone or even yourself if you’re selling yourself on this idea, it sounds like. That’s such a great phrase. What was it in your background that made them even reach out to you in the first place thinking you could do this?
I spent some time at Hollywood with producers and actors just teaching in concepts of leveraging money. Most people had never been taught how to leverage money. Most of humanity is taught how to give it away. You pay your mortgage. You’re paying your principal and interest. You pay your principal. It lowers your balance in your mortgage but you didn’t lower your payment and you just gave the money for free. What do you think they do with your money? They invest it. We’re taught how to give it away, not to leverage. I was teaching leveraging principals like Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad. It’s just helping people rethink how to handle money. I did a good job in Hollywood with a lot of producers, directors and actors. My name got around. I never did this. Actually, he called me, “Do you raise private equity?” I said, “Yeah,” but I didn’t, John. I never tried, so how did I know I couldn’t? That’s how I look at things. Of course, I raise. I don’t know if I can. Why would I say no? That’s how the conversation began.
When I was an executive producer on the project, an investor would contact me and say, “I’m interested in this project.” I would sit with him and I would tell them, “This is probably not going to happen. We probably will not succeed on this. Most definitely will not succeed on this because look at the obstacles.” I don’t like the term pitching. I like presenting what you’re doing. What I was doing is what I believed in. What I was doing, I have my own money. What I was doing, I wanted to see come to fruition. I would say to potential investors, sitting and talking with them and say, “You’re going to lose your money. There’s no question. At this point, you’re going to lose all your money.” They will look at me and say, “Can I ask you a question?” I say, “Yeah.” They’ll go, “Are you actually helping this project?”
There are a couple of things you said there that I want to underline for the listeners. Number one, you are passionate about it and you put your own money in, if I heard you correctly. Is that right?
My money, my family’s money, my siblings, my nieces, my best friends, everyone. That’s where it starts.
[Tweet “Be transparent to build trust.”]
That’s what investors tell me time and again, Greg, and you’re just a living example of that. If you expect them to put their money in, they want to see that you have your own skin in the game, that’s number one. Number two, what I really heard here was you were completely transparent and trustworthy saying, “This is probably not going to work,” as opposed to painting something that was so unrealistic and giving them all the objections to say no. You already took all that away upfront and said, “This probably isn’t going to work. You’ll probably lose your money but here’s why I’m doing it.” That disarms people. They said, “Are you helping this project?” They know that you’re not lying to them and even you’re not lying to yourself, right?
[Tweet “Be transparent to build trust.”]
Exactly, John. By saying that, it’s just being honest. I really felt the monumental climb that was like climbing the Mt. Everest in sandals, shorts. Just be honest about it. A person would look at me and say, “Seriously, you’re trying to help the project?” “I am.” They’d go, “That sounds a hell of a way trying to help the project. Telling me I’m going to lose my money.” I said, “You are.” He said, “I have one more question. If I’m going to lose it, why would I give it to the project?” This is what I would say to them, “Just in case we pull it off.” Bottom line, all we own in this world is an opportunity. Again, I would say this to them, “The project is not what you’re looking at. You’re looking at me. Your bet is on me because that thing doesn’t even exist right now. I’m being honest. It’s going to be a hard road. It’s going to be a difficult climb but what I’m going to guarantee you is one thing, I will do everything feasible in my power to make this happen. Bet on me.” That’s the bet.
I can’t say that enough. You sell yourself first. So many founders, when they’re pitching for investors, whether it’s an app, movie, whatever it is, they think it’s the movie or they think it’s the app or the product that people are putting their money in and it never is. It’s all about the team, your own personal why, and your own personal passion.
John, I’m not a fund man, I don’t raise money. I build companies. That’s what I get into situations. I’m not a fund raiser. Anybody that’s building a company who is passionately involved, you have to ask for money. There’s no way around it. If you’re a CEO, you spend the good bit of your time bringing money into a company. It’s just how it works. For me, I look at two things. I get called by companies all the time to help them. I’m very selective. I’ve done maybe four companies in my entire life because I’m choosy. I look at the leadership and I look at the idea. If the idea is good, that becomes secondary because what comes primary for me is leadership. The ability to execute because in getting any project to the finish line is all about leadership and execution. The greatest idea, some of them are still in garages because they’re just going to leave it.
That’s the question that you’re actually answering is why are you uniquely qualified to execute this idea. You raised $120 million, a little over that, to make this Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return happen. Did you do it in big chunks? Was the first part of that fundraising the hardest? How did that all happen?
How to Raise $120M: There are always obstacles.
It’s always the hardest the first part. That’s what I originally thought but it’s actually hard throughout. There are always obstacles. The production company, they were working on the project probably three years before they engaged me. They had raised money the traditional way like Hollywood independents raise their money. When I got onboard, I had a look at this. We were right in the middle of a recession. As a matter of fact, everybody around me said, “You shouldn’t even do this. No one’s going to put money into anything right now.” There weren’t. Banks are going bankrupt. Countries are going bankrupt at the time and then Bernie Madoff, horrendous environment. Nobody was going to write you a check for $50 million if they had it because they were worried about their own accounts and assets as everybody was. What happened, John, one of the aspects that nobody saw including myself was that all of the traditional investments that we know: real estate, stock market, 401(k), everything that we traditionally would invest in, was on fire. What I didn’t realize was we were doing was something alternative to this. People started to look at this and go, “This is different. This is an alternative to everything else in my portfolio that’s burning.” People were losing 30%, 40% in their IRAs at the time. People would take a ticket on us and say, “Here’s $25,000,” and they hand in balloons.
You were taking amounts as small as $25,000 and you ended up raising $120 million, that’s staggering.
Absolutely staggering; $25,000, then we moved it to $50,000, then we moved it to $100,000.
It’s still buckets of water out of the ocean, isn’t it?
Very difficult.
How long did it take you?
It’s not just me. It took a team of people years to do that. It was probably a six year endeavor. I think we were officially probably in 2008 right to end of 2013. It was thrilling in a lot of ways because it was so difficult. The obstacle was so large in front of us. I just tell people too, “This is good for the audience and if you’re out there trying to build something.” People always ask me the question when it was over, “You must have amazing belief that you can do this.” I said, “Not belief. Do you think there was one day I ever woke up and I thought I can do this? Never.” If I woke up on a Tuesday morning and thought, “The goal was $100 million.” I never believed we would do it. The difference was I never stopped trying. That’s the difference. If I believe, you’ll put me in a straitjacket at that point. There wasn’t so much to believe. There was belief there but I didn’t even want to know. I didn’t want to know how much anybody was raising. It didn’t matter. When you got a number like $100 million, even if you raised $5 million, that’s a drop in the bucket. Who cares? Don’t count. Just put your head down and do the work.
What did it feel like to actually see the movie for the first time knowing all that work, all those pitches and presentations as you prefer, came to fruition to make this into something?
It was incredible. The first time I saw the film in its entirety, meaning outside of a storyboard or automatic was in 2012. To watch it from start to finish in color, to be honest with you at that point, it was great but at the same time, I was a little bit disappointed in some of the storyline and some animation. I actually was in a dinner that night with the president of the studio. It was not a real good meeting for him because I was a little bit upset of what I saw. It didn’t even go so well with the president. I was really unhappy with the quality of film at some levels and also the storyline. The truth of the matter is they went ahead and that was the first roll in filming. They made the right changes. They brought another people. The film actually developed itself really, really well. It’s a fantastic show. It’s got five stars in Netflix right now. It was beautiful.
I remember talking to Bill Damaschke a couple of years ago. Bill was formerly the Chief Creative Officer for DreamWorks for 25 years. He called me a couple of years ago. We’ve talked and he congratulated me on the achievement and the enormity of the project. He’s like, “I had a question for you. The animation in the earlier scenes compared to the scenes in the world of Oz were different. The Oz animation was spectacular and brilliant.” I said, “Yeah. We were raising money the whole time. Making the film while raising money.” No one ever thought we’d raise all the money so the quality of the animation in 2009, 2010 was based on what was coming in on a monthly basis. The big year for us was 2011. When we brought in enough money in 2011, it changed the entire scope of the project. That’s why the animation changed because we were able to put heck of a lot more money into the animation. Not just the film, we were able to make it a musical. We were able to bring on A-list cast and build a franchise which was licensing in transmedia. We had major licensing in that film.
The really important point here is you didn’t pitch all of that when you were getting the money for the movie. You just pitched to get the movie made. That’s the mistake I see a lot of people making is, “We’re going to boil the ocean. None will be this and this and this and this.” You need to keep it very focused that your money will go to make the movie. Once that’s done, all these other things can happen, but like Amazon just sold books, you’ve got proof of concept. Don’t you agree with that principle?
How to Raise $120M: You have to scope out what the strategy is.
I do to a certain level. You have to scope out what the strategy is. In the first three years, there was a ban in animated film. When we got to that point, I think it was $33 million raised. We knew we had the film locking down. We made a decision to go from that to go to 3D and to create a franchise. Once we’ve locked the film down, we said, “Let’s go for it.” The thing was, “What are we going to do? Will it be a small release or going to be a DVD? Let’s go for it.” At that point, we sat with the investors. We explained the strategy and the vision. What do we take? We have another $77 million to go for this. Those are big numbers especially in 2010. We felt that we did the first round and we got the budgets for the film, we should move to the second, we should go for it. Who knows if we’ll have this opportunity again? We did them.
Let’s talk a little bit about what you’re doing at Pulse now. That’s the present, correct?
No. I finished Pulse in 2015. I’m not a manager. I go in, I help, make it come to a certain point. Get it to delivery, get it to market and then I’m done. That’s not my skillset to manage something. I went on after that. After Pulse, I went on and worked with Bill Damaschke and his team in Broadway. I helped them with their first Broadway show called Half Time, which comes out at the end of this year. That was a great experience for me. I do a lot of consulting with those out there trying to launch companies, projects or raise money in the market that we’re in and the economy. Now, I took a role with Preatech, which is a really phenomenal company. I said I’d probably never do anything like this again, but I actually said yes to Preatech because I was so enamored with their technology and their concept in the advertising space.
They’re named the number one startup of the year back in 2016. What you’re doing is really interesting I think. You’re taking your experience from the entertainment world, taking it to retail, if I understand it properly, in this whole gamification of getting people engaged that way. Is that a fairly close description of it?
It’s right on. It’s taking gamification, which is growing to a $5.5 billion industry. Anywhere you look in society, somebody’s on their phone playing a game. Gamification is a huge part of how culture and societies are geared. It’s about fun and being entertained. They apply that concept to advertising. Advertising in general is a push. They push things on. If we watch hockey and there’s a commercial, we walk away. We fast forward. They hit us with a banner ad. We can’t exit out quick enough. It’s a constant push. What Preatech’s concept is, “Let’s do a poll.” This is beautiful idea, that’s why I did it. I thought this was groundbreaking, this is pioneering and it works. You walk over to the kiosk. It’s a nine-foot iPad in the middle of the mall with 5 foot screen, you can touch it. All of a sudden, all these brands are on there. You get a chance to play for free and play to win something like sweepstakes. Let’s say hypothetically you pick Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. You get to play a game whether it’s Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, or one of the other twelve games that they have right now. You play the game, win or lose, you now have a chance to win something in Auntie Anne’s, whether it’s pretzels for a year, 50% off of the pretzel, or you buy one get one free, whatever it is that Auntie Anne’s provides. You play the game for free then you get a coupon. It goes to your mobile app. All of a sudden, you go back to Auntie Anne’s. Why? Because you wouldn’t have played for it unless you wanted to eat it.
One of the things that I’m really impressed with, Greg, is that it’s games that people already like and know how to play: Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune. We know what that is. You’re not asking us to try and learn a new game at the mall. We’re like, “I know this is fun. I’m really good at this versus that. I’m going to play this game and I’m going to get something that’s the prize would be right here at the mall.” It’s just all so synergistic. That real expertise was coming up with getting the rights obviously, to get that game that is not a foreign game because you’ve taken down all the barriers to get the people to participate.
That’s the genius of it. It really is. They launched in Tampa and Orlando. Now, we launched third quarter in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia. For me, usually I don’t come in this late stage but this was an eight-year startup before they got that. They just got to market first quarter this year, John.
What are you looking for now? Are you looking for an investors for this? What’s your goal?
They’re in the final round right now, capitalizing the company. They’re looking for investors at this point, final round of investors. They got to get this thing to the next level.
Is revenue already coming in so you’ve got proof of concept?
Proof of concept is in, it’s working. They’ve got revenue now. The goal for the company is get it to the major cities. They got some really great partnerships out there with the top number eight media company in the country. They’ve got relationships with all of the malls in America. They’re going to airports, arenas and stadiums. This is great play.
Greg, you have been one of the most entertaining guests, I have to say, because of your entertainment background. I feel like I’ve not only learned a lot about pitching, but learned a lot about the magic behind the magic as it were. I can’t thank you enough. Is there any final piece of advice you have for the listeners?
How to Raise $120M:Proof of concept is in, it’s working. They’ve got revenue now.
I would love to give them as much as advice that I can. My time is always limited. Just go to my website, GregCentineo.com. I’ll have something special for you guys. There’s value you can download. Some of the things that I’ve learned, the things I value, that help me achieve the success that I have achieved in moving investors along and seeing the bigger picture, help you build your companies, and hopefully raise some funds and get these projects to the finish line.
Thanks again, Greg.
Thank you, John.
Links Mentioned
- Greg Centineo
- Pulse Evolution Corporation
- Michael Jackson in a hologram
- The Wizard of Oz
- Rich Dad Poor Dad
- Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return
- Preatech
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Relationship Secrets from Hong Kong with Priscilla Chan
Posted by John Livesay in podcast | 0 comments
Episode Summary
After working for the Hong Kong government, Priscilla Chan decided to test her courage and character when she started her own business. As she spearheads Speakers Connect, Priscilla encourages speakers to spend time and passion on what they want to talk about. What speakers need to remember is that they shouldn’t sound mechanical when giving their pitch. Clients will listen if your research is tailor-made for them, which will in turn make you sound human instead of a robot. These are some of the relationship secrets that will translate to a successful pitch.
Today’s guest is Priscilla Chan, the founder of Speakers Connect, which is a speaking bureau based in Hong Kong. She has an amazing story of how she worked for the Hong Kong government and quit that job to start her own business. Not only that, but she had to start a business that nobody really understood what that business was. They only understand it in America and Australia but not in Hong Kong. She was quite the pioneer eight years ago and continues to be very successful doing it. She said, “The pain of staying stuck in a job that you don’t love is worse than the fear you have of trying something new.” She took that leap of faith in herself. She said, ”Running your own business really is a test of your own character; what kind of values and integrity and how do you communicate with people.” What she looks for in a good speaker, and I think this is true in any situation, is someone who’s got passion, expertise and customization of what they’re talking about. Enjoy the episode.
Listen To The Episode Here
Relationship Secrets from Hong Kong with Priscilla Chan
Today, I’m honored to have Priscilla Chan who’s the Founder and Director of Speakers Connect, which is based in Hong Kong. She has such a fascinating story of how she works with speakers from around the world and clients around the world. She really has an insight into how she decided she was going to do this business after working for the Hong Kong government for years and decided she was going to go out on her own. In addition to that, she writes a blog on technology and startups. Priscilla, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
It’s an honor. We met through our mutual friend, Freddie Ravel. I always find that some of the best people I meet come from introductions. Do you find to be true for you, Priscilla?
Yes. I think it’s also because you feel the trust that the friend actually introduced both of you to each other. I also find that actually speakers are always very helpful. They like to introduce people to each other and they help each other out. I really enjoy working with speakers.
Before we get into what you’re doing now with speakers, let’s go back to your own story of origin, I like to call it. I know you went to the University of Hong Kong and got your MBA there. Did you ever have a thought while you were working on your degree that you would eventually have your own business?
Relationship Secrets: I got many different experiences, but sometimes this is something that I really like.
It’s actually a process. After I graduated from my first degree also from Hong Kong U, I started to work for the Hong Kong government. It’s a good training for me because Hong Kong used to be a British Colony. Even after the British left Hong Kong, the civil service system is actually quite the same. We actually follow the British Civil Service. Being a government official in the Hong Kong government, I actually have been posted to different departments and different positions every two to three years. The exposure was very good. Every now and then, I was exposed to totally different and unrelated positions. I learned a lot from my previous experience. Just after sometime I find that this is interesting. I got many different experiences, but sometimes this is something that I really like. Sometimes that may not be something that I think is the most suitable for myself. This is not up to me to choose because we follow the rotation program. Whether you like it or not, you’re going to be there for two to three years and then you proceed to the next position.
At one point, I was posted to the secretariat for organizing international events hosted by the Hong Kong government. I find that this is interesting. I have very little sleep. I sleep maybe two to three hours closer to the event day. My energy level was actually better than when I was going to a 9 to 5 job, which is basically just handling more documents or maybe working on Excel files most of the time. This is what I like. I like to see things happen and I like to see good ideas spread. I started to think whether in the coming further years I still want to work in the government or I want to do something that I feel more passionate about. Then, I started to do research and find that there’s something called speakers bureau as a business. In Asia, this is quite new at that time. I started to think whether I can do it. I decided to maybe before my next promotion, I’d quit the government job and started my own business.
Having said that, it’s a very long journey. The learning curve was very steep because working for the government means that I basically do not have any business training. The decision-making process is totally different when you are basically using the money to buy services versus when you are actually the person who is selling the service. The first two years was actually quite miserable.
The key that you said to me really jumps out is your energy level was completely different even with less sleep when you were doing something you were passionate about versus the 9 to 5 when you had all the rest in the world but it was drudgery. I think that’s such a great litmus test for everyone to take away and say, “If you’re not energetic and passionate about what you’re doing, it’s time to take a stock of your life. Either change your job or change your approach to it.” That seems to be such a nice a-ha moment for you.
Everybody actually can feel it if you are honest to yourself. Sometimes we may not want to admit it. Maybe we have fear of the unknown. Giving up a very stable salary and just jumping into something that you do not know whether it would be sustainable or not. It’s challenging even making the decision itself and just trying to do it. At one point, I find that I’m basically unemployable leaving the government job because the private sector may not necessarily think that this is something relevant for them. At that point, I just think I have to make it work. At the end of the day, follow your heart. It’s cliché to say but it’s quite real as well. If you feel that every day you’re going to work and you do not feel this is really who you should be, it’s actually quite painful as well.
Not following your heart and your passion can be just as painful as staying. You think, “If I’m going to stay in a safe job, I’ll feel okay.” You’re actually going to feel just as much pain as you will with dealing with the fears of the unknown of a new career. I think that’s a really interesting point to make that everybody has to take that leap of faith in themselves, make it work and figure this out. Let’s take a little bit of a deeper dive on this experience you had from going from being someone who was buying things, working for the government, to now having to sell yourself and your agency to companies to get to hire you and the speakers you represent. What was the biggest challenge you faced trying to figure out how to do that?
[Tweet “Running your own business is a test of your character.”]
Running a business is basically a test for your own self to start with. Your character, your values, how you make decisions, how you deal with people is all around a test. Over time, you try different things and you get better. For me in particular, from a government background, I do not have the business decision-making process in my system originally. What I particularly had to learn at that time is, “Now I’m actually on the other side of the table and it’s slightly different.” I have to learn it, to learn how to communicate. Not exactly sell but essentially also selling my speakers, selling my services, but more how to communicate the service to the clients and let them know. If I have a conference and I’m looking for speakers, rather than I go to ten people and ask whether you’re good, and everybody would tell you that they are good, now you can actually go to a bureau and because we know the speakers, we can actually maybe give you some advice. I look at it that way. Having said that to start with, a speakers bureau or other business, I think the business itself is like another copy of you. How good the business is how good you are doing actually.
It’s almost like the business is a mirror of your values and your belief systems. It’s like, “Who am I attracting into my world? What kind of clients am I attracting?” In your case, not only clients that are going to use your agency and your bureau to find speakers but, “What kind of speakers am I representing? Do they represent my values and beliefs?” It all just starts to be a big reflection back to you is what I’m hearing.
I think it’s all decision-making, who you work with, how you deal with people. I think it’s very important. The respect, and whether you can be frank and honest with each other, those are important in doing business. Also, just in being a human being.
That’s interesting you said that because when I listen to people give a pitch to get their startup funded for example, they’ll say, “Please tell these people to be a human and not a robot.” So many people think like, “I’m giving a pitch now. I have to be formal and not be myself.” I loved your opinion on this, Priscilla, I find that the best speakers are those people who are authentic and human while on stage. It’s a little trickier than it might seem to be that relaxed and confident and vulnerable. If you can be, “I’ve worked very hard to do that for my own self. The more I do it, the more the audience connects with me.” Whether you’re talking to somebody one-on-one or you’re talking to a big crowd as a speaker, I think that the willingness to be human is the secret to being successful.
From time to time, I have people who actually would like to become a speaker asking, “What are the hot topics now?” I can definitely let them know what are the hot topics now, say for instance, technology, AI. But if you are not really in that arena, this is not your business. It’s more important to look inside to see what is the important messages, the uniqueness, the story that you can share with the audience. That is even more important.
For example, the whole concept of artificial intelligence and whether or not that’s going to take over jobs, robots and things and people have that big fear. I talk about how I’ve helped somebody in artificial intelligence that’s competing against IBM Watson come up with a way to take a very complicated concept and explain it in a way that’s still a story. What I did with him was I said, “You’re talking about structured data and unstructured data. Unless you really understand artificial intelligence, nobody knows what that means. Let’s talk about it in terms of an ice berg. There’s the tip of the ice berg, that’s what’s above the water. That’s the structured data. Below is the unstructured data.” Just that visual image when he was giving a pitch suddenly made it more compelling and understandable right away. I said, “What’s your big, unique difference whether you’re pitching against IBM Watson or anybody else?” He said, “We understand verbs and IBM Watson doesn’t.” I said, “Okay. The story is you come home, you see your wife crying. You don’t know if it’s tears of joy or if it’s tears of sadness or just because she’s frustrated you left your socks on the floor again.” Until you understand why somebody is upset, you can’t really respond to it.
Relationship Secrets: Just that visual image when he was giving a pitch suddenly made it more compelling and understandable right away.
Then, we took that concept of understanding verbs into an actual case study of a brand like Nike, for example, hiring and using this. Right now, they can just see if their social media is trending positively or negatively, but not why. Once you understand why, then you know how to respond to it just like you would a person. That’s what got him the funding. If that’s a hot topic of artificial intelligence, I think you need to have some experience of working with people in the field and being able to talk about it in terms of everyone can understand and not keep it so cerebral and unique to just experts.
Sometimes how I look at my speakers is actually they are the translators, translating something that people do not understand into something that they can understand.
For example, for me, one of the things I like to say when I give a keynote to an audience is one of the things that’s never going to be outsourced to a computer is trust and the relationships you have with people. While your particular job, if you’re an X-ray technician, a radiologist, that might be done by a computer because it can be done faster and more accurately maybe. But the relationship, that bedside manner as a person in healthcare, that is never going to go away. If you have some sad news to give somebody, that you have a tumor or whatever it is, you still want that to come from a doctor, in my opinion, and not a computer, right?
Yes.
I think that’s the big takeaway for people who might be afraid of artificial intelligence, because that’s a hot topic now, taking over everything or artificial intelligence creating additional artificial intelligence. What won’t ever go away is how we started the interview, it’s all about relationships and the trust that you build with people and get introduced that way. When you really realize that that’s what you bring to any situation, and not necessarily all of your knowledge but your essence, your personality, your values and your ability to emotionally connect with people. That’s what I hear you saying is really the secret sauce.
Yes, we are in the people business.
Can you tell us what it was like to get your first few clients to say that they would hire you to find them a speaker? How did you decide what industry you’re going to go after first?
We tried many different things at the very beginning because comparatively in Asia, speakers bureau is still quite a young concept. I remember in the early days, we did organize events, showcases to recruit the potential clients and come to see the speakers live speaking. Every time when I open the event I would ask, “How many of you actually have heard of this term called speakers bureau? Out of 100 people there for instance, maybe five hands would actually raise. It’s actually quite new. I would try to explain to them, “We’re like a model agency but not for models. We are for speakers but sometimes our speakers are quite good looking as well.” That’s how we explain the concept to our clients, but it’s quite a long way.
You told a story. You gave an analogy that people that could go, “Now, I understand.” That’s such a great example of a good pitch.
At the very beginning, we tried different things. We just see what actually would work because we cannot really just copy from the US or just copy from Australia. The market is different. Language is also another thing that we have to pay attention to because in Asia there are so many languages being spoken in different countries. It’s very different in the US or in Australia. English, basically you go everywhere, is one language. From the frontend to the top management, you can have one language. Asia is a totally different story. We have to handle that differently as well.
Do you have an example of some of the challenges? When you have a speaker come from the US to speak in Asia, do they typically have a translator there?
Relationship Secrets: For frontend, you may actually need the local language rather than speaking English.
Depending which country they are speaking. In Hong Kong, we do not necessarily need a translator but if it is in Japan for instance or in South Korea or in China, sometimes you may need an interpreter for the presentation. Also, depending whether it’s for the senior management or for the frontend staff, it would be different as well. Sometimes, for example, for insurance companies or real estate agents, for frontend, you may actually need the local language rather than speaking English.
When you work with these big companies like IBM, Nike and Pepsi Co, do you work with their US corporate headquarters or do you work with the people who are in charge of Asia?
We have both. Sometimes it would be the regional headquarters contacting us. Sometimes it would actually be from their headquarters. It really depends on different scenarios.
Do you find that if a speaker does a good job in one country for a company that then they would like to have him come speak to their team in another country?
Yes, they do. It’s also an easier decision to sell to the management as well. It happens, yes.
You and I in a previous conversation had really an interesting answer to the question of, what do you think makes a good speaker? Would you mind sharing what your criteria is for what a good speaker is based on your experience of what makes the client happy?
Firstly, you have to have a thorough understanding of the topic that you talk about. You have to have passion on that particular topic. You’re talking about it constantly, if you are not passionate about it, you are bored very quickly yourself. That’s very important. Particularly, more and more often speakers having just one presentation and go to every client with that particular single presentation doesn’t work anymore. We actually prefer speakers who would do the research and customize their presentation for the client. You can actually have the same framework but the examples you are using or what is the implication. I think the speakers should do the research and actually tailor-made for the clients for their particular interest. Whether their clients actually are facing some issues or they have a particular area that they would like to focus on, I think that we should be very clear about that. With the presentation, you help them to work out what they want to achieve.
To me, what I hear is the secret formula is passion plus expertise plus customization equals a great speaker that gives a good outcome that makes you look good to your client. To me, that’s the job of the speakers, to not only make the client happy but to make you happy and make you look good to that client. When that happens, then that client is going to continue to use you for other speakers. That’s how I approach my relationships with a speakers bureau like you. My job is to make you look good to whoever has entrusted you with finding the right person for them. I think that mindset really translates into a great partnership with you and your speakers, yes?
[Tweet “Passion + Expertise +Customization =Excellence”]
Yes. If the speaker can do a good job to meet the client’s needs and actually answer the questions, the burning questions that they have and the other things actually take care of themselves. I think respect of the client’s time, that the audience may be twenty people, may be 100 people, may be 1,000 people, they actually spend that one hour with you. The respect that they invested time in you and what you invest in that to give them, that’s very important. If we can actually think through that, the outcome would actually be good.
One of the ways you can show respect, and I know how important that is in the Asian cultures, is doing your due diligence and research and customizing your talk and learning their acronyms or their buzz words in that particular industry. For example, Nike, I used to call them for advertising when I sold ads at Condé Nast. Now, they have taken this concept of customization to a whole new level. Certain stores allow you to go on a computer in the store and pick the color of your shoe laces and have certain things set on your shoe so no one has your exact shoe. They realized that part of technology is giving customers customization. The irony of that is if you wanted to talk on that topic, then you obviously have to customize your talk to talk on that topic to Nike or anyone else. It’s a fascinating full circle of why customization is so important as your speaker because it’s so important to the clients that they need to do that for their customers even if they’re a big company like Nike.
I think more and more so with the advancement of the technology in every aspects. With data, with 3D printing, this is going to happen. The younger generations who are going to be our clients in making decisions, they’ll get used to this mindset as well. We have to be prepared.
Do you have any thoughts or suggestions that you want to give the listeners on being a successful entrepreneur besides the passion and overcoming the fear that you’ve mentioned?
I cannot claim that I’m successful yet. I’m not sure whether everybody is suitable to be an entrepreneur. I think some actually prefer to work in an employee environment. They prefer to work for somebody. If you take Steve Jobs or if you take Richard Branson, really famous entrepreneurs, I’m quite sure they cannot work for anybody else apart from themselves. If you listen to yourself whether you can actually face challenges when things are slow and you put a lot of effort in it and you still do not see anything. Whether you can actually still have the trust and confidence in yourself and just kept carrying on until you make it and make good decisions at difficult times or when there is dispute with your partners, with your colleagues, how you communicate your point of view across and get the support. When to make decisions to go ahead, when to make decisions to actually live it. I think those are actually important when you want to be successful in business, and I’m still learning.
Relationship Secrets: You have to keep trusting yourself even when something hasn’t popped up.
I think it’s a lifelong process actually, at least for me. I really love the fact that you said you have to keep trusting yourself even when something hasn’t popped up. With the sales career that I have as a background, things are not always linear and the expectation that it’s going to go straight up all the time doesn’t happen whether you are working at a big company or for yourself. To get comfortable as you said, trusting the process, I almost look at it like you plant a seed in the ground and you go, “How come it hasn’t sprouted yet?” If you dig up the seed, then you stop the process. You just have to keep planting and watering the seed and trust the process in your own career that all those seeds will in fact produce enough to continue to make you successful and along the way, not taking out any fear or anxiety on the people you work with as part of your own internal stuff of being frustrated that the things aren’t happening as fast as you may want them too. That’s some really great life lessons about business, but also I think just in general how you approached life. Now, it’s so melded that the concept of, “This is who I am at work and this is who I am when I’m not at work,” is much less than it used to be now. It’s all just who are you all the time. When you can get that authenticity going across, then it’s really what people respond to. That’s what I found, do you agree?
Yes. I think there’s more so for entrepreneurs because your character actually shows in your business, in how you deal with people, even on your website some of your character actually would show. Another thing is I find that eight years into the business, I actually become a calmer person. When things are good, I would tell myself, “Be calm because you know that sometimes things would be slow.” When things are slow, you still keep calm and just keep doing what you should be doing. It’s kind of like waves. It’s never a constant, but it’s just up and down. It’s actually quite normal. If you can understand that then you would have less pressure on yourself and you just keep focusing on what you should be doing.
I’m a big believer that whatever we focus on, we get more of. If we focus on scarcity and fear, we get more of that. If we focus on trust and confidence, we get more of that. Getting off the self-esteem roller coasters is one of my big missions and purposes as a speaker is to help as many people as I can. Stop looking outside of themselves for their self-esteem. In sales, you could say, “My numbers are up, I feel good about myself. My numbers are down, now I feel bad about myself.” You’ll exhaust yourself going up and down that roller coaster all the time. There are other ways to stay motivated and focused without feeling bad about yourself because you didn’t hit a specific number and a specific week or month. As an entrepreneur, you certainly have modeled for us how to do that and hopefully more people who will listen to this will have that same resonance of, “I do that. I only feel good if things are perfect and things are really never ever perfect. I might as well stop waiting for everything to be perfect and just decide I’m happy and I’m on purpose and I’m passionate about what I’m doing and it’s all going to work out if I keep doing that.”
Another thing is actually about problem solving. Nothing would be just be there and very neatly presented to you. There would always be something that you have to tackle with. You just find a way, “If this doesn’t work, then what? Then I try another way to do it.” I still remember in the first two years, not on day one, we had the first deal that we can actually sign the contract. Things were quite slow at the very beginning. I remember at that time, on top of promoting the services that we had, I just do whatever I can to actually have some income for the company. I also did events planning for clients. I also actually even go to teach some younger adults on various topics just to keep the income coming in the first two years until we actually rely on the business, we can actually sustain ourselves. I know many people do that in their early years just to sustain the business. If you have that mentality, you will find a way to do it.
Basically, I hear what you’re saying is do whatever it takes to keep the lights on as you grow your core business. Priscilla, you’ve been a great guest. We want to let everybody around the world know about you who listens to this podcast in 60 different countries. If you want to have Priscilla find you a great speaker and if you’re a big company, go to SpeakersConnect.com. How else can we support you, Priscilla? Is there anything else that you want to promote or tell us about, how we can follow you on social media or anything?
You can find me on LinkedIn, @PriscillaChan. Also during my leisure time, I write mainly in Chinese for the time being, sometimes in English as well on technology and also on startups. I talk about the impact of the new technology and the impact on society and also on business mainly because I work with so many futurist and technology speakers. I find that writing is a good way for me to, apart from serving my clients, but also to spread some of the interesting ideas to my readers and for general interest. I enjoy that a lot as well.
It’s all about embracing new technology. Like Blockchain currency for example, I’m getting very involved with ICOs and helping people with their pitch to have a good business model to use cryptocurrency as a new tool to help people grow businesses. It’s an exciting time that we live in. If you embrace learning all of it, then you can be part of the story.
[Tweet “It’s more about having an open mind.”]
It’s more about having an open mind. A lot of things, even for policy makers, you may still have to fear that Uber is coming to town so how about the taxis? Self-driving car is going to be quite popular. How do we make the regulation whether we’ll be a very closed economy or we embrace it. More and more I find that people actually have a more open mind and they embrace change, that new technology actually will do better in the long run because it’s coming anyhow. You’re either left behind or you’re just try to pick as soon as you can.
You’ve been a wonderful guest, Priscilla. It’s been an honor interviewing you. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your insights with us.
Thank you so much for having me today.
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