Build Income Streams with Brooks Conkle - AI, Side Hustles, Online Business Ideas, & Work Life Balance
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Build Income Streams with Brooks Conkle - AI, Side Hustles, Online Business Ideas, & Work Life Balance
Starting an Event Planning Business with Shana Jordan (#290)
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All right. So I got Shana Jordan on with me today. Shana.
Shana Jordan:Howdy. Hi
Brooks Conkle:Brooks. I'm good. How are you? I'm doing really good. So I want to talk, I want to talk about the event business. I want to talk about your business. I want to talk about how you got into it. I want to talk about why events, let's actually start there. What, like why events? Why do you like the event based business?
Shana Jordan:You know, events bring people together like nothing else. Like it is one of those things that really connects the community and connects people. You can have some very diverse groups come together in one place to either. For the love of music or for the love of, organization, you know, it pulls all different demographics together in one place. Like nothing else.
Brooks Conkle:Actually, let's, uh, you just made me think of something. So let's stop right there. You're like the love of music. You, you work with a really big organization, uh, in the city where we live, that was like, uh, basically a giant event based business, right? Like a, a giant music festival. For the city and it is called Bayfest. People listening to this, like, maybe like, okay, I don't know what that is. If they're from Mobile or they've been to Mobile, Alabama, they probably would have heard of, of Bayfest or whatever. Was that like your introduction into a Event style? Stuff like businesses.
Shana Jordan:So, no. So actually in college, my minor was sports and event marketing. I didn't know that. Yeah. I always had the desire to be around events like the energy. I'm very project based minded person. So like when something starts and ends, I like having that, that hype or that adrenaline of coming up to an event and getting the event on and then the completion where you have a little bit of a break. So my. My minor was sport and event marketing. And, my first, I say my first real job, the job that I love the most, right after college was being the director, of marketing for the civic and convention center, the mobile civic and convention centers. So all we did was events, civic center, obviously, you know, public events, entertainment events, and then over at the convention center, you know, trade shows, consumer shows. So the majority of my career has been in events. So before Bayfest music festival, where I spent nine years, three volunteer and six as executive director, I was in events. So I just have a love for events. It feeds me, it is a passion of mine. And so just start a business and put on some events.
Brooks Conkle:That that's what, do you think, do you think people can start an event based business without. All of the experience that you've like compounded over the years, or do you think it would be really difficult?
Shana Jordan:You know, I do think it'd be difficult. Do I think it's impossible? Absolutely not. you know, I was just listening to another podcast and it was a lady who's putting on events now for a living that had never put on an event before. You know, she started small, she had mentors, along the way she learned from her mistakes and. Yeah, it's definitely doable. Is it easier for me to start an event business because of my experience? Absolutely.
Brooks Conkle:yeah, we're the lady that you're listening to, or is it, uh, online events or in person events? In person. In person, is it a public events or like for like, what's her, what's her target?
Shana Jordan:Her target is women is connecting business women. And so, yeah, so she is, it's a membership based organization. So you can come to an event, check it out and then decide if you want to be a member of this. Women's organizations, basically like a resource for women business owners.
Brooks Conkle:so that actually makes me think like there's so many, there's so many different avenues you can go down, for events, right? Like you and I, you and I've talked before and talked about like corporate style events, which I think is one of your kind of forte's or that's like one of your main things that you're really good at is like, but that's a total different beast than a membership based women focused event. Right. I mean, those are like, those are completely different, but like, what are the things that connect them? Like, what would make those similar? Like if you, if you're saying I want to run an event based business and maybe you wanted to do both or something that was in both veins, like what, like what are the underlying things that. And your eyes are the same, like for both of those.
Shana Jordan:Well, a lot coming up with an event concept. So like designing the event for both of those, you would need to do that. You need to choose a venue, create a budget, get people there. So whether it's a private event or a public event, you still have to invite people and promote it. You know, to your audience, whether it's a membership based, you know, you need to promote to your membership or if it's corporate and I'm trying to get employees to sign up for an employee event, it's always just getting people there and then running the actual event. Once the event starts, event management is about the same. So, obviously that's like a. Open event, open to the public event. There's tickets. There's a lot more to deal with. That's one of the reasons I like corporate events. Now I've done tickets for a long time and I'm, I like the corporate events. I like doing education seminars and so forth. Totally. In my happy
Brooks Conkle:space. Speaking, speaking of the public event. So you and I have been together having cahoots help develop a public event. And yeah, I like, I cut my teeth on that. Like learning what that, what that takes and what that means. I, I guess I, I kind of style myself as like an idea guy, like, cool. Like I have ideas and some marketing and promo, but like, if, if I didn't have, uh, if we didn't have like partners, like you, like on the event, yeah, the rest of the team that had their forte is like, there's no way. Yeah. There's no way I feel like just one, one of us could have like. You know, done as well with, with growing that event. And just, just so people know, the event's called is, it's called King Cake off. It's in Mobile, Alabama. If you ever come here to mobile, come and check out King Cake off the home of Mardi Gras. The, the official Mardi Gras, the plug Exactly. Uh, the events right before the Mardi, it kicks off the Mardi Gras season. You test all the king cakes. It's a, now it's well over a thousand, Person event. And I think it just might be, maybe we can make it a Southeastern staple.
Shana Jordan:I think so. I think so, but lots of hard work, like people do not know, like you, people do not know exactly how much it takes to go into, especially a public event.
Brooks Conkle:Exactly. I think the public event, like, and. And, and people, yeah. And I don't, I don't know if people watching this, like what they're going to have in their mind, like what they're kind of looking to start. Right. Like an event based, are they looking to launch like, like, like a public event like that, are they looking to produce a public event on behalf of a company or, or what, but yeah, you're totally right. There's so many moving pieces. with the public event. And like you said, There's all the, I guess that the pre stuff, like planning the idea, I think you said the timeline, the marketing, the promotion, but then, but then you just said like, yeah, the day of the event, but I'm like, man, that's like a whole, that's a whole like hour long conversation in itself. Like the actual event itself, like how the, how those logistics go is wild to me.
Shana Jordan:Well, just a quick example. So for a non public event, I just spent almost 50 hours creating the concept and coming up with an agenda for a client. So it actually, I'll take that back. It is a public event. It's a small public event and it's non ticketed. So I don't have to sell tickets, but you have to promote people to sign up. So just the amount that it takes to come up with a concept and to design what the event's going to look like, and then come up with a concept. Come up with an agenda for this education event, you know, just the amount of time.
Brooks Conkle:And that exactly. I think, there's something else too that I find interesting that now when you go to events, attend events, even small ones, that seems so simple. You, you like, like once you've been a part of one, you have a newfound respect for like what went into the planning, and maybe it's an event that would just like. A handful of tables. There's some flowers on the table. Simple. Maybe there's a little catered meal, you know, it's just this little simple sit down luncheon, but all that has so many moving pieces just for that, like that one hour long event. You know what I mean? So, yeah. Okay. And so you mentioned corporate events. What do you, what do you like about corporate events versus public events?
Shana Jordan:Well, to be completely honest, no,
Brooks Conkle:no, no. I want you to, I want you to lie to us. No, honestly, it's cool.
Shana Jordan:Yeah. I mean, you know, so most public events, you're trying to make money there. There's revenue that needs to be, you know, come in to either help them break even or help them raise funds. If it's a, you know, fundraising, event. And so with the corporate events, they give you a budget and you determine how you're going to use that budget. And so obviously that's a lot easier.
Brooks Conkle:Yeah, that's a great point. I guess for a corporate, for a corporate event, their goal isn't necessarily to generate revenue with their event. They may be having a luncheon for their people or a weekend date or a, uh, educational seminar or, or, or producing a pub, like you said, producing event for the public, but they're not trying to. They have the budget to spend on the event to have the event.
Shana Jordan:It's just literally it's for community awareness. Like they're not trying to, get new clients. They're not trying to raise funds. So yeah, it's one element stress that you can take away when you're not having to raise money with the event. And then also most corporate events are, you know, somewhat during the day. And on weekdays, you know, so they're within that Monday through Friday, eight to five, so, you know, as I'm aging, I've like been there, done the nights and weekends thing, and I, I like the corporate events a little more.
Brooks Conkle:Totally, Do you think, do you think if you're starting off, you could, you could start? Straight into corporate events, or do you think you need the resume of, of everything else that you've done, or at least some of the other things that you've done? What do you think there? So
Shana Jordan:I totally think it just depends on where you're coming from. So, you know, if you came from working. In event planning at the Convention Center Civic Center or one of the hotels or you an event planner for one of the larger companies here. I think that you probably could go ahead and go straight into corporate event planning. You know, I think that you would already have some background in that, if nothing else, you attended a lot of those type of events and so you have some knowledge of how they should be set up and how they should run. And, so I don't think that you have to do the big things to know how to do the small things. I just happened to be my path. And now I'm just wanting to narrow it down. So, you know, finding your niche is super important, you know, I would say there's probably not a ton of event planners or event companies that do weddings and corporate events. There's a few, but most of them kind of choose whether they're going to do like personal events, like a wedding or a family reunion or, an engagement parties, or they're going to do, you know, corporate style events.
Brooks Conkle:Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, yeah, if you did both of those, that's probably, that's not, not narrowed down enough, probably for sure. Well, it
Shana Jordan:would definitely make it, it would make it harder, you know just. Because you're trying to market to like any and everyone and yeah, what's your specialty? Oh, well anything just
Brooks Conkle:Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, you have an event you have an event. I'm your girl. Yeah Yeah, not the not the not the uh, the tagline you want necessarily, right? No What do you have? So do you have some sort of um like checklist? For, I don't know where I wanna go with this. Like, start? Yes. Not, not, yeah. Yeah. I know you have checklist. I know you're a checklist person. Yeah. I know you're a checklist person. I don't know. So, so if someone wants to get into it or someone wants to break in, like, I guess just give me whatever you want. Like, like, is it, is it a checklist? Is it, or, or just some, some, some words of words of wisdom or things that people need to think about?
Shana Jordan:Yeah. So like starting an event company. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do that. Let's go back to that. What we just mentioned, the niche thing. So determining that niche, determining what you really want to specialize in. and you know, Even when I started my company, I was like, well, let me just try whatever and we'll see, you know, what the market needs. So sometimes that is the case. However, I will not do a wedding. I've never done a wedding. Never say never, but I don't plan to ever do a wedding. so determining your niche and then just coming up with a business plan. Cause a lot of people, I would say entrepreneurs, cause you and I are a lot alike, our minds can be everywhere. We're like, Oh, this is a great idea. This is a great idea. This is a great idea. Like, what are we going to do to actually generate the revenue that we need to run the business and how are we going to run the business? And so creating a business plan. And I think, you know, I use a program called Live Plan. L.I.V.E a live plan. Makes it really easy. Ask you a lot of questions and you plug in your information and it looks really nice and the financials are there. And so it's kind of all in one place. to me, those are the two biggest first things. And then you kind of get into, okay, well I got a good business license, for the. at least the city and the county that you're doing business in. And you may need a state business license. If you're a female or another minority, you can get a minority business license. So that's something you can also look into.
Brooks Conkle:That's a special business license? Yes. Like in the, in the city and the county or what?
Shana Jordan:In the state.
Brooks Conkle:A state, in the state. Okay. Yeah.
Shana Jordan:Yeah. So I have a, women's minority business license. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It can be a DBE, diverse business. Or you can be a woman in business. So there's two different ones. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So things like that. And then of course, if you're going to do events, you need vendors. You need to kind of develop those relationships with your suppliers and your vendors, you know, your catering company, your rental company. So that you kind of have those go to people that you call on. Cause a lot of times you're going to need to provide a quote to someone and you may then not get that piece of business or it doesn't work out at that time. So developing those relationships where people are there to help you, even if you don't end up getting the business, you know, is crucial.
Brooks Conkle:Yeah. Good point. So would you go ahead and have those, I guess you kind of need the vendors lined up from the very beginning, like start doing those relationships, right?
Shana Jordan:That's really part of your business plan is you identify what people you will need. And so you'll identify the types of vendors that you need, and then it'll ask you to go ahead and like list the type of vendors that you need and possible companies that you could use. So that's part of your business plan as well. Cool. Yeah. Okay. So then just. Pricing. So that's been one of the hardest things I think for me personally, is development pricing. Some people use an hourly rate. Some people use a project fee. I personally feel like it's hard to develop a project fee unless you kind of know how many hours you're going to spend doing. The project. Right. Right. So over the last five and a half years that I've run my company, I have a better idea now of what it's going to take to put on an event. Honestly, before when I worked for the Civic Center Convention Center Bayfest, I didn't really keep up with it. It was my full time job. Yep. So I didn't know how many hours I put into things. I didn't track my time. But in, you know, owning your own company, you need to know what time you're spending on something. Then you need to value your time. So kind of trying to come up with a pricing has been evolving thing for me. So, I'm working more towards project fees now than hourly rates. That makes sense. I guess your client. Would like that because they know what they're paying, right? I guess if it's hourly, like, if they were paying you hourly, I guess would you set some sort of cap? I guess we would still have an estimate. We would provide the estimate, but it would be like, okay. So this estimate is, based on 40 hours of work hmmm And 40 hours at this rate. I got it. So now I just leave that part out. I just say project fee is. This many dollars, and this is the scope of work for what it entails. Anything beyond this scope of work can be estimated as well. But the deliverables are really what they want. They want to know what they're getting. Yeah, exactly. In my proposals, I'll do a project fee. And then I'll tell them what the deliverables are gonna be. It's like, these are the things we're gonna provide for you for this amount of money.
Brooks Conkle:Yeah, that makes sense. I guess. And and before when you did it on the hourly rate, did you still, would you still have those deliverables in there or not as detailed because they were not as detailed?
Shana Jordan:Yeah. Yeah, they were not as detailed and, you know, it left a lot to be, misinterpreted, I believe. Mm-hmm. And they're like, well, no, I thought that that meant you were going to do that also. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, no. So, you know, just being really specific in my proposals about what something includes. Yeah. Because, coming up with a concept for an event is different than designing the layout for the event, you know? Got it. So, misinterpretation, if you're not super specific and then having it with the project fee and writing out those deliverables in a different way, just really shows them exactly what they're getting, at least less questions.
Brooks Conkle:Yeah. That's a great point. And it's probably like, I'm not suited to do that. Like that aspect of it, I could, but it is not something I would enjoy doing. But like, I it's like, but, but I know in my mind, logically it's like that extra work on the front end save so much, like potential, like issues, it saves the issues down the road. Right. I can, because
Shana Jordan:I didn't use to do it that way.
Brooks Conkle:Gotcha, but I guess also like once you kind of have done some and you can kind of create some templates or formats You probably you probably get a little bit like it's probably easier to set those up. I would imagine. Okay
Shana Jordan:Yeah, I have some project templates and I have scope of work templates. So like if I'm doing one type of an event, I could start with that scope of work template or if I'm doing this type of event. And so, then you just customize it for the client and making sure that all their needs are being met and making sure if they're not in those deliverables, they know they're not getting it. And so we need to just discuss and make sure everything they want us to do is in the deliverable list.
Brooks Conkle:Gotcha. And when you're creating the scope, when you say like scope template, is this, is this like inside of a tool or is this literally like a, like a, like a word document or like, it's like a word. Yeah. Okay. So like with the template inside. Hey, cool. Which actually makes me think, are there tools that you use to run your business that you're like, man, I couldn't, I couldn't live without these, I don't know, does anything come to mind?
Shana Jordan:A couple. And I'll tell you, and this is really like generic, but the drive, Google drive, the G suite that I use for Google. I remember back in the day when we had to pass documents around and try to find the changes on them.
Brooks Conkle:Ah, wow. Yeah. Yeah. So you're like,
Shana Jordan:wait, is this the latest version or is this the latest version? And I'm like,
Brooks Conkle:I think something's changed, but I'm not, I'm not sure. I can't tell exactly. I can't remember
Shana Jordan:what change I made. So yeah, the Google Drive has changed my life. I've been in business long enough to remember the days before it. And just having documents that you're able to share with your clients and then being able to see the latest and the greatest at any time when they pull up the link is amazing. So yeah, not live without the Google drive. I'm a huge fan. And, and then, you know, this, I use Asana for my project management platform and I love Asana. I'm able to assign clients tasks, along with keeping up things. with my team. So I have a board for each client and then we have a board for Oyster Shell. And so being able to keep up with what everyone's doing, because a lot of us work remote. Yeah. At least part of the week. And just being able to see when things are being done and if they have any questions and it's kind of all in one place because I get. So many emails that I just can't keep up with what, again, is the latest information. So those are my two top platforms that I really don't think I could operate without. Of course I use QuickBooks, but I'll be honest, I have a bookkeeper, so I don't use it as much as I used to. But, just knowing that I have something to get invoices out and, you know, receive payment for like that takes that off on my mind. I think some people are still like... You know, typing invoices in a document and sending, but
Brooks Conkle:yeah. Recreational work. And, and using QuickBooks is pretty cool. Cause obviously that's, that's, you're using that for your, uh, financial statements as well, I'm assuming. So it's like, it's your invoicing. It's all, all built in. Yeah. That's, that's cool. Yeah, I, I use something called wave, wave accounting. And I use square for invoices. But if I use QuickBooks, I would totally use that. I would totally use that feature because it all being all being built in for sure. Yeah.
Shana Jordan:And I'll tell you, this is not really pertaining to, event and event business so much, it's just business in general, deciding which platforms to use. Has been one of the hardest things for me. I absolutely hate having to research platforms and to compare them and see what they do and taking the time to learn all the things. So, you know, I know some of the platforms that you use But it's hard for me.
Brooks Conkle:I'm with you. I'm with you. That is really hard too. And I think like once you get in, like once you get ingrained with something, if it works really well, like there's no reason to look at anything else, you know? And, and there are times where like, I'm actually in the middle of changing like email, email platforms. I have one newsletter that goes out on this company called Beehive. And then I use this company called ConvertKit for it, for my personal. For my personal newsletter and I'm a, I'm soon to switch. I'm switching mine over to beehive. Because I think they just I think they kill it. Like, I think they're awesome. And they're, like sometimes you come across a tool where I guess it's worth it potentially for you. To make a move, you know what I mean?
Shana Jordan:Yeah. Yeah. And then sometimes if you're, you changing of your business, I mean, I've survived COVID so I've changed a couple of times. Uh, we used to use HubSpot and, you know, I had someone that loved putting in all the information into HubSpot as our funnel and I'm just not that girl. I'm just not going to take the time to do it. So I'm now getting rid of HubSpot and using something else for the few things that I was actually using HubSpot for. So sometimes you change platforms because you just don't need everything they offer.
Brooks Conkle:Yeah, exactly. Yeah. CRM, especially like really involves CRMs like HubSpot or like a, what's that? Like Salesforce is like the biggest old school one. Yeah. Those are really tough. Cause like, if you don't, if you don't input all the information. Then like it, you're not getting anything out of it. Yeah. Then yeah, you have to like take the time to input in order to sift through it, for it to send you info at a later point and until you help you follow up or whatever. Yeah. It all has to be in there, right? You have to log everything. You have to log every call, log, whatever.
Shana Jordan:I got an Excel spreadsheet and I, I mean, I'm just saying totally works. some ways I'm very old school, you know, like. Yeah. That's just easier for me, again, it's in the Google, Google drive. So anyone can look up the information if they need it. It's just,
Brooks Conkle:yeah. So that, I mean, there are so many times actually where like. That is a great, like a great solution. I mean, I'm totally with you. I've, I've used different CRMs and sometimes I'm in like, man, if I have a thing going on or I need to, if it's not like a forever thing that I have going on and I'm like absolutely a spreadsheet, like name, email, contact information, notes, let me add a column for the date that I contacted and then like, you can just go and refer back to that and kind of know what's going on. I, I mean, I feel like that totally works, especially if it's like a list of like 50 to a hundred, you know. People or organizations or something that you're trying to communicate with. Maybe if you get into the thousands and you're in like full full time sales and you're making like 50 sales calls a day. Okay. I guess I get it. You, you would need a CRM.
Shana Jordan:I think one of the things like this is the, to me, the point where you need a CRM is when you have multiple salespeople. You know, I think that that's helpful, even though, you know, it's a Google shared document, they can go in and look, when I did have multiple sales people, I think, well, he liked HubSpot, so he used it more, but I think that that kind of helps keep everybody on track more, but. Just because I've determined I want to be the salesperson. I'm good with just using the Excel for me. So
Brooks Conkle:totally. Yeah, no, totally. Okay. What's free style, free flow. What's something that I haven't asked you yet that you're like, Oh man, I wanted to, I wanted to share this about, about the event based business.
Shana Jordan:Oh, well, I think probably. any and everybody can understand, you know like, you have a business and you think you are secure. And then, you know, something unprecedented happens where there's like a global pandemic, and then there's no events to be had for a bit.
Brooks Conkle:That is nuts. Yeah, absolutely.
Shana Jordan:It's crazy. Then people were going into a virtual events. And now we're kind of back to having, in person, of course, a lot of events are doing a hybrid, solution, but, and then, You know, I think just being prepared to pivot if you need to, we hope that we never have to, you know, close down and not have events again. But since you and I have experienced this, I would tell people, just make sure that you are set up to pivot if you need to. Otherwise, you know. You may not have a business when you come out of something. So, thinking of the different revenue streams, I personally did not get into doing virtual events. I am just an in person person. I like to touch and feel and shake hands and hug you. And, Read people's faces. I tried to do a couple of virtual presentations and I couldn't see anyone's face and I just felt so awkward like giving this presentation. I'm like, what are people thinking? What are they looking at? Are they even looking at me? Are they typing on their computer and trying to get some work done while they're doing this? It just wasn't for me. So I, I looked into doing some virtual events and I just decided I would wait. So, you know, went back. And to, you know, more marketing, I did, you know, overall marketing strategies and social media and helping people develop brands and so forth. But, so that was my pivot. So now post COVID, I am back into majority of events and then I like to do cause related marketing. So that's mostly with nonprofits, that could and could entail an event or straight be a marketing campaign So forth. So I would just say be open minded and don't be so, focus. And actually you've helped me some of this, like, don't be so rigid about what you're doing that you don't try some other things, just be more open about. Possibilities.
Brooks Conkle:Yeah, that's good. And if I said it cool, if I helped you with that, that's cool. Yeah. I, I definitely think like a percentage of your time, like, or your energy, right? I mean, definitely don't want to go all in sampling stuff, but I think like, if you feel, you know, like if you feel pretty confident in what you're doing with like 80% of what you've got going on, great, well then like, cool. Use maybe your remaining. Whatever, 15 or 20% of your, of your energy. And maybe, maybe try some stuff or sample some stuff. And if you're not that risk averse, maybe it's less, right. Maybe it's like 5% or 5% or 10% of your, uh, of your time. But like, yeah, like who knows if you do that, you may come across something that's amazing that you didn't even realize was amazing or something that you. Didn't know to try or whatever, you know?
Shana Jordan:Yeah. I mean, I just feel like, you know, keeping your options open and always thinking about other things, even if you don't ever take action with them. But I mean, like right now we're in a recession, you know? So, so they say, I mean, I do feel it some, and so just people, you know, marketing and advertising a lot of times cut, that's the first thing that's cut, we know it shouldn't be, but it is, but events seem to still be going pretty strong and I don't see any. You know, downsizing with people doing events and so forth, but you know, I hope we come out of this recession soon and everybody's got plenty of money to spend with us.
Brooks Conkle:Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Okay. Is there just in general when you chat with people and maybe do some sort of interview? Is there something you wish like people would ask you about, but they don't?
Shana Jordan:Oh, well, I told a funny one time and I got picked up for a long time. Like people use this thing, you know, like, you know, why did you want to be? In events, like what, what spurred that desire, for you to go into event marketing. And, I did my internship actually at the mobile civic center. So before I worked there, I interned there in college and the general manager at the time had been a tour manager. He had managed people like the Eagles and Stevie Nicks and like really big people and I was always so in awe of these The entertainers I was like, I want to do that. I want to be an entertainer. I have no entertaining talent. I cannot sing, I cannot dance, I cannot play an instrument. But I was like, you know, it's fun to be around them, just the energy that they create in a room. So I don't have to be the person creating that energy, but like the energy they create. And you know this, Brooks, because I've told you this, but I don't even like meeting the artists now. I met a couple back in the day and I'm just like, you know what? The image I have in my head of them is probably better than the real thing. They're just regular people. Like, let's not build them up so much that, they feel super special, but, uh, they do have a great talent and I love to play off of the energy, but I'm going to keep it at that.
Brooks Conkle:Yeah. Not yet. And that's a good point about, yeah, people are people ultimately, people are people. So it's funny that you don't it's like you want to keep that, persona. I do, I do. Instead of like, instead of meeting him or whatever. That's, that's interesting. It's cool.
Shana Jordan:Yeah. I just obviously had a bad experience with meeting a couple of them. So,
Brooks Conkle:so you're like, yeah, let's avoid that. Let's avoid that. Let's avoid that going forward.
Shana Jordan:But I would just say, you know, being like a hard worker, I mean, Obviously, owning your own business, you know, you have to deal with a lot of constraints. You have to deal with a lot of working a gazillion hours. People think, Oh, you, you own your own business. Like. You can work whenever you want to. Well, that is true. Yeah. However, we work twice as much as people that don't own their own business that punch a clock and go home.
Brooks Conkle:I'm totally, I was just having a conversation with, with it, with another business owner, earlier. And we kind of brought up that point. It's so interesting. it is both of those, I feel like it is, it is both of those. You do have some flexibility, right? Cause you absolutely can choose. You could absolutely choose to take off tomorrow and be like, I'm not going to do anything. Uh, now there are repercussions for everything, every decision that you make as a business owner. But like, yeah, so you do have flexibility, but you're right. At the end of the day, Yeah. You may not get the clock out at certain times. Uh, so yeah, it's both of those, isn't it? It's like, it's both sides of that coin for sure. It is It is but it's worth it. It's worth it. Yeah. I totally agree. I was also joking with the saying that like, yeah, there's been so many times over the last 15 years where I'm like, why am I doing this? Let me, uh, let me get my resume. Let me get a job. Let me go work at, go work at a company. That would be easier and more fun. But yet I keep doing the same thing. Like. 15 years later, I'm still, I'm still rocking my, rocking my thing. So yeah, I think totally worth it too. All right. So do you have a certain, certain vision or just something that you see kind of, it could be in a near feature or far off feature. It could be 20 years from now. I don't know. It doesn't matter. But do you have some sort of vision of where you see your business maybe going to where you'd like to go?
Shana Jordan:Yeah. Of course I've dated my business plan. So, We are rolling out event coaching, somewhat different than, you know, the, what we're doing now, obviously, because we wouldn't actually produce the event. So it's, it's similar to event, consulting, you know, it's coming up with the concept, coming up with the event design, doing the, creating the budget for the client. We can do everything from contacting the vendors or just giving them a list of what they need. So kind of just depending on, you know, what they need help with. And the reason I came up with this is I started doing this for a couple of clients and sometimes, it's an organization that has a lot of volunteers. So they just need somebody to, to plan it for them and tell them how to run the event. And they have plenty of volunteers that can do it. You and I've been a part of one of those events are now going to just take it over. And then there's also the clients that have a full staff, like, uh, one of the manufacturing facilities that I work with here, if plenty of staff that are very capable of putting on an event, we just tell them what to do. So we plan the event for them and get everything ready and everything delivered and set up. And then we give them, them. An event work order, which kind of just lays out the flow of the event and what they need to do at certain times. And we go over that with them before the day of the event so that they can ask any questions or if they want anyone else to be on that call or meeting. And then they do the event.
Brooks Conkle:So is that not something that you've offered before?
Shana Jordan:Not really. I've always done the event and, you know, I got clients that have teams of people that can kind of, you know, implement the event and then also have nonprofits that maybe can't afford to pay us to actually produce the event for them. Right. And so, it's kind of a, you know, a happy medium. I also want to get, I want to expand out of this area. Yeah. And I feel like that's one of the, the, the things that really could be useful to some larger companies that, just needed some assistance with helping plan an event.
Brooks Conkle:Interesting. So like, so with a larger company out of the area, like, like you may just be doing like consulting calls and just making sure that they're on track like that type of thing. Interesting. Yeah. Have people requested that from you in the past?
Shana Jordan:Yes. So, yeah, yeah. One of the manufacturing facilities, I do some events for here, locally in Mobile. They just want me to plan the event. They don't have time. But they want their people working it because a lot of times it's for the customers, they have contract workers or they are doing some type of special event for the employees. And so they want the leaders, you know, down actually like serving and whatnot. So they don't need me to come in and run it or, you know, so I just plan it for them.
Brooks Conkle:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I would think that's a new offering for you. Cause I would think, and of course I don't know. What do I know? I'm just, I'm just, but I, but I w I would think that that would be something that a lot of companies would actually have like requested, like, Hey, we want an event planner, but like, we don't, we don't want you to do it, but we do want your expertise that we do want you to help us. Like make sure we we're we know that we're on time that we're on the right timeline that we're doing the right things but but we want to do it like we have Hey, we have a company with 500 or a thousand employees Like of course we have the people that can do it like we're already paying these people. So let's yeah Yeah to like pay you for the extra expertise. So you're like how it's kind of you're kind of taking me down a vein But like how how how different? How different of a format or a structure will that be for you? What will any of that be like any, any of that be like templated, like something that's a repeatable thing, or will all of it be like consultation based? Like everyone's going to be different, you know, kind of based on, on what they're doing or what?
Shana Jordan:I still have the same checklist I start with. So that's the template so to speak. But, you know, everyone will have a custom, we like to customize events. So we'll start with the same checklist. We'll customize it. And then I have a template for an event work order. And so we'll, you know, provide that to them as well. But, it's, it's almost, And there'll be different levels that they can, you know, the package that they can choose, so to speak, like if they want us to actually, communicate with the rental company, and place the order, or if they want us to just tell them what needs to be rented. Gotcha. And then on the, the most help package, it is, okay, so we will actually place the order for you and pay for the order, and then we'll just send you one big invoice. That includes everything. So you're not having to pay the rental company. You don't have to pay for the decorator. You're not having to pay for all these different things. We will take on that. We'll pay for them and just give you one invoice. So there's a couple, there's three different ways that we're going to roll that out. And so I've created most of the packages. We just haven't gotten them, up and running yet, but yeah, so I'm, I'm excited about that because I do want to expand beyond. You know the gulf coast and I think that's one way We're going to be opening a remote office in atlanta next month So, you know, i'm excited about being able to offer, you know, not only event coaching but marketing consulting and so forth.
Brooks Conkle:very cool future So when you I when I've seen you say that you wanted to create that educate I I I guess I thought I thought you meant like like a course like an online. Okay. I am Oh, okay. Cool. Okay You're like, okay That's what I thought you meant and yeah, and that's what I'm trying to do a bit. So I'll tell you this create your course and uh, like license it to me or like let me be an affiliate of your course Or something. Yeah, so I have so i'm trying to build out destroy the box university. com So we have I have like two courses But but I want like I want like a hundred courses at some point But the only way from the only way for me to do that is that like part partner with people that are experts in like different areas and so Anyways, just keep keep that in mind. Um As you create your course, or if you need help or whatever, just like brainstorming for me, I'm here.
Shana Jordan:Well, and one of the other needs I saw, and this is the course we're actually creating and getting ready to roll out, is a brand strategy workbook. So like helping, you know, businesses create their own brand strategy. Again, so many people think of brand as a logo. And then also, you know, some companies don't have. The money to hire an agency to create their full on brand kit, right? We have created a brand workbook that we're gonna put out as a course.
Brooks Conkle:Very cool. Have you already done the research or like platforms or whatever or not quite? Someone on my team has Okay, cool.
Shana Jordan:The workbook is done. He's, doing the research on the platforms now. And then we'll be finishing up the workbook. But yeah, I'd love to talk to you about that because it's really one of those things. I just listened to so many podcasts and I'm a huge fan of like, you know, Amy Porterfield and, Donald Miller. And I love all these courses and I've taken quite a few of them.
Brooks Conkle:I'm all about. I'm all about any education that can, that people can find that's non traditional. I'm all about, I'm all about college and university, but it's a trade school for only certain people. And I think it's a trade school for, personally, engineers, doctors, attorneys, that's besides that, like people need a different avenue for education and it needs to be a different trade school. Uh, and so anyways, so there's that. There's that plug. Yeah. Destroy the box university. We'll have our university every, every course will be less than one hour of, one hour of coursework at my former Alma mater. That's my, uh, that's my promise. Hopefully I can keep to that unless I make some crazy grandiose, uh, fully involved immersed course one day. Maybe that one would be more expensive. I don't know. Yeah. Anyways. Go for it. Go for it. Anyways. Okay. All right. So if people, uh, as we wrap up, if people want to reach out to you, they're like, man, the Shana, the Shana person is really cool. How can I connect with her? Where do you want people to find you?
Shana Jordan:Sure. They can go to oystershellstrategy. com and they can also find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, under Oyster Shell
Brooks Conkle:Strategy. Oyster Shell Strategy. Okay, cool. Do you hang out on any of those personally as well? Like your name? I hang out on all of them.
Shana Jordan:I'm not the only one, but I am one of those, owners that peek in and, you know, so I just recorded some video that said, Hey, you know. Message me, DM me, cause I'm there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I, I try to be involved. I don't have to do all the things and I don't have to know all the things, but I wanna be in the know.
Brooks Conkle:Yeah, Totally.
Shana Jordan:Because my brand is me, just like your brand is you and, and so, as quirky and as different as I am, then that's what comes out.
Brooks Conkle:That's perfect. Well, Shana, this has been awesome. I'm going to let, uh, hang out with me for a bit. Let's chat for a few more minutes. Everyone else can watch this next interview that, that pops up and, we'll see y'all next time.
Shana Jordan:Awesome. Thank you.