Experience vs. Degree

While other children typically experience movies, theme parks and occasional family vacations, this kid did that and more! I traveled more, was exposed to more and got to observe the positive work ethic of my mother - which had a large effect as I grew up and started working. It was an experience that would give any young person a "leg up."

 

 I literally grew up in the business. When Extraordinary Events produced the opening of GM Place in Vancouver, I took a few weeks off from college, and my role was to be Shania Twain's hospitality manager and take care of communication with the Vancouver Canucks hockey team. Not bad, right? My friends were pretty jealous, and all wanted to change places with me.

As I grew older (late 20s), I was in charge of some fun tasks like driving Kenny Loggins or Ziggy Marley around Las Vegas. In fact, on one of those days, while driving Ziggy and his band, we stopped by Guitar Center for some items. Once there, about four or five of them grabbed instruments and put on a nice little acoustic show for the customers. It was certainly a highlight!

Over the years as I was growing up, I attended entertainment showcases and traveled to MPI meetings nationally. A great bonus was meeting all of Andrea’s closest friends in the industry, whom I am so lucky to work with now.

Even with this great experience under my belt, I went off to California State University Northridge to explore journalism and got an opportunity to try covering high school and junior college games for the Los Angeles Times. From there I went to work for another Southern California paper, and that turned into 10 years of on-the-job education.  

So, here I was, with a job I loved covering UCLA athletics, local sporting events and being at Kings, Dodgers and Lakers games, and winning awards for doing it! But, even though I loved it, the pay was never good, and I never saw my wife, since she worked days and I was always working nights and weekends. Something had to give. A family meeting determined that a move to Extraordinary Events would be good for both Andrea and me and the future of EE.

At that point, I took the opportunity to get my Master’s degree in Business Administration at the University of Phoenix. It was the perfect opportunity to balance my home and work life and earn the degree. The advanced education allowed me to use EE for data and explore our internal management practices, discover business ideas I’d never considered in the past and improve our processes.

This was a stark difference to my days at the newspaper, which were all about learning through experience. So, when other event producers ask me how I compare having a business degree to practical experience, I have to say they both have a number of strengths and weaknesses.

There’s something to be said about learning under fire and working on your craft. In my first two years at the newspaper, I learned more than I ever would in two years of school studying the subject. I found a few really strong mentors who were open to sharing their knowledge, and I would advise anyone starting in the business to do that.

And to be fair, I had the mentor of all mentors in the event production business as well! The most valuable experience (my big takeaway with having Andrea as my mentor) was seeing how she deals with vendors and clients. Her communication skills and the way she rectifies situations are amazing to me. She’s fair, compassionate and listens to their needs without making emotional decisions. These are the values of having a mentor to emulate.

  

“The benefits of experience vs. book learning - If you need to have brain surgery, do you want a medical school’s most recent graduate who has scored well on many tests or a doctor who’s successfully performed such surgery many times before?” –Andrea Michaels

For people starting out in the business, unless their goal is to own a company, my advice would be to reach out to quality event production companies and offer to support them in pre-production and on-site projects. This provides an opportunity to gather work for resumes and gain valuable experience. Working hard and showing a company how much you can help them is an invitation for them to let you stick around!

For those who want to become owners, a business education is crucial if the company is to grow from a small, tight-knit company under five people into a true event company. The knowledge and education you’ll receive will help you organize the firm correctly as it grows. Otherwise, once the business expands, you will experience too many growing pains along the way!

I have to admit that my road hasn’t been perfect, but each challenge has led me and EE to places of which I am proud. Ultimately the decision to join Andrea and EE was the best business choice I have ever made. Working with family is not the easiest thing to do, but there are far more benefits and rewards from the experience.

Best of luck to you in all your endeavors,

Jon Michaels, co-owner/EVP, Extraordinary Events

The Story behind EE’s Good News-Letter

A Little Good News...

 Wherever I go, whoever I meet, here’s the first thing I hear….”I love your newsletter; I wait for it every week.” These are inevitably followed by comments on Taylor’s Tunes or Chris’ recipes, my messages…most of all, comments on how good it makes them feel. Often I’m asked what gave me the idea to get it started.

Let’s go back three years and a couple of months to January of 2009. Everyone was miserable. Everyone was depressed. The economy was tanking and showed no signs of recovery. Businesses (like those of my competitors) were closing their doors; companies were being downsized; salaries were cut, benefits cancelled. Newspapers were filled with doom and gloom. And I was fed up with it. I don’t like being unhappy and being surrounded by depression. So I made a conscious decision that I was not going to fall into that trap of “oh, no, poor me…I’m suffering.”

Instead I knew that the pendulum of life dictates that though it swings in one direction, it will invariably swing back, usually landing somewhere in the middle…and that is called stability. I decided that I wanted to surround myself with just good news, and thus our Good News-Paper was born, in utter simplicity.

See my opening issue that the EE team produced. We emailed it to our entire email contact list and lo and behold got some very supportive messages back. People liked it and encouraged us to keep going. Even without their support, I had no intention of giving up. Why? I wanted to feel good. So I scoured the Internet, the newspapers, and all media to seek out only good news. I promised myself there would be no promotion (and oh, it’s a temptation to promote) but only happy tidings from all over the world.

At the next trade show I attended, the feedback was incredible. I was stopped in every aisle with a “thank you” of some kind and the question, “Can I send this out to my friends and family?”  Soon we started getting contributions and our reach grew and grew. Every week people contribute, and my team (bless them!) is fully engaged. The only time we ever hear a negative comment is when one of Chris’ recipes does not appear, or Taylor misses a week and then one of their fans is disappointed.

 Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is! - Anne Frank

China. India. South America. Everywhere I go people are still stopping me. Since I write about my grandchildren a lot, they now are known in almost every country and their adventures (some with me) are commented on worldwide. I can imagine when they are old enough to travel with me that they will have a lot of friends.

 I will never regret that in 2009 I put the misery of the world behind me and sought to instead be pro-active. I don’t believe in waiting for someone else to bring me joy. I’ll create it…for myself. And if in doing so it brings happiness to someone(s) else, it’s an extra bonus. But I confess.  I started this just for me. So maybe being selfish sometimes isn’t so bad, is it?

 As Always, thank you for taking this journey with us!

Andrea

The Value of Education

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - Yeats

 

 I write a lot of books. I teach seminars all over the world to industry peers as well as to college students. Whenever possible, I also mentor novices who want to enter the event industry and even some who just want advice on how to navigate this stressful world. Why do I do this is a question I'm always asked.

It's not because I have a lot of spare time on my hands. EE produces events globally, and I run a very complex business and travel for work. Sometimes I'm away on business more than I am at home.

So back to "why." I'm guided by the philosophy that when you give freely, you get so much more in return. That was reinforced by my role models. David Wright, President of Insight Publishing, asked me in preparation for one of my books, Bushido Business - The Fine Art of the Modern Professional, (co-authored with Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracy and Stephen M.R. Covey) to share my role models with him. I have three. Joann Roth Oseary, President of Someone's in the Kitchen, because she taught me that while most people think about how to hold onto everything, her philosophy is how to share everything. And she does...and is one of the most caring, giving human beings I know, the first to always give to others. Another is John Daly, President of John Daly Inc. and The Key Class, who is my personal cheerleader and inspiration. He has taught me how to be a selfless friend because that is what he is himself. He values humanity above all else. The third is my son, Jon, who has taught me about commitment. He is a devoted son, husband, and father, unwavering in his standards and ethics.

 It is important to take what I've learned from these role models and everyone I've met along the path of my life and pass on what I've learned and share with others so that they won't make the same mistakes that I did. Perhaps they'll make other mistakes, but at least it won't be from not having a formalized industry, books, university education, or seasoned professionals who are willing to take them under their wings. More importantly (I hope), I want to pass on what I've learned about survival. All these in one form or another are what all my writings and teaching are about.

When I started my career in the event industry in the early 1970s, there were no mentors, no classes, no books, and no event history to follow. There was none of that. It was all trial and error. That's part of the reason I wrote Reflections of a Wallflower - Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life. I wanted to share how the lessons I had learned in my personal life helped shape my business and vice versa!

Why Is Education in This or Any Industry Important?

 

 "Let us never be betrayed into saying we have finished our education; because that would mean we had stopped growing." -Julia H. Gulliver

 

I don't ever want to stop growing. And I want to impart the value of education to all those I meet, too. Through the evolution of technology, the art of events has continued to evolve, now at a lightening rate. Think about it. Where once clients wanted us to get them some entertainment and a few simple decorations, we morphed into producing elaborate themes, more elaborate marketing events and marketing strategies, then experiential events and now hybrid events and who can even imagine what's next?

Learning from those who have been there and done that is essential...not just for novices but for seasoned professionals and especially pioneers like me. I'm learning how to work with an entirely new generation of people with different ways of approaching their careers and business communication and who understand the new technologies and methods of communication better than I do. The learning never stops. So as they can learn from me, I can learn just as much of value from them.

To those in the events industry, I welcome you to learn from my adventures. But, what other subjects would I advise you to thoroughly immerse yourself in other than all the latest and greatest technology and methodology for events? I'll repeat some information I shared in Stepping Stones to Success - Experts Share Strategies for Mastering Business, Life & Relationships co-authored with Deepak Chopra, Jack Canfield and Dr. Denis Waitley. First, take a class in psychology. Psychology teaches people about skillful communication, and this will lead you to a better understanding of clients, vendors and co-workers. This is where you can realize your goals through win-win situations. I think most people are reactors, and as a result they don't really get what they want.

If I could teach only one skill to anybody, it would be creative listening. Really listening to other people is the greatest tool on the way to success. Think of what can be accomplished if you really understand what someone else is saying, clarifying what they want, and then finding a way to deliver it. It's not curriculum skill; and it takes great practice, which can start right at home or in your office. In the words of Larry King, "I never learned anything while I was talking." 

I would also include creative writing, another communication skill that can be so expressive. Though long-winded proposals are a thing of the past, creatively expressing your concepts, even in short passages or bullet points, is an acquired skill that takes practice.

Other topics? Social media communication. (That's something I personally need to study.) International protocol, international communications, and how to deal with other cultures. As we expand our world and business, we have to realize it's not just our way we have to respect, but we have to be open to other ways of thinking. We have to understand and respect everyone, and I think that's an eye-opener.

Speaking of respect, I want to add something that came to mind from my latest book, Mastering the Art of Success, co-authored with Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield and Les Brown. Everyone should brush up on personal integrity and ethics. As I said in the book, they are 100 percent of our business. To me, the most important thing in life is honesty and integrity and a sense of great ethics that never vary, no matter what is asked of you. It can be tempting sometimes to just tell a little white lie here and there to make things "easier." I don't believe in that. So, for myself and everybody around me, including my team, I would never consider myself a business success if integrity, ethics and honesty faltered - ever.

I hope you are "listening" to what you are reading. Life-long learning is invaluable to both your personal and professional success. Never stop growing!

Until Next Time,

Andrea

Another book by Andrea: Yes You Can! Reaching Your Potential While Achieving Greatness was co-authored with Dr. Warren Bennis and Jim Rohn.

Andrea's Seminars: Special Events A-Z; Creativity; The Profitability of Doing Business; Creative Writing; Risk Management; Speed Pitching; Stress Management; Anatomy of an Even; and Working Globally.

HANWHA SOLAR WINS AT WORLD SERIES!

Little did we know when we signed on as the North American Marketing Agency partners with Hanwha Solar to create in stadium branding and a multi-day marketing activation that the branding would become so visible. The goal was simple – become a visible brand in the San Francisco and U.S. market. The timing could not have been better as their branding was seen by over 40 million TV viewers during the National League Championship Series and the audience grew to 12 million TV viewers per game as the San Francisco Giants shocked Major League Baseball by winning the 2012 World Series. 

In Game One of the Series, eventual MVP Pablo Sandoval, who represented the Giants in Hanwha Solar Opening Day Festivities, tied a MLB record with three home runs. All of these HRs were displayed on Hanwha’s enormous How Far Did It Fly LED board at the ballpark.

We are very happy to see one of our top clients get so much additional exposure and for many of our newest partner/friends at the Giants corporate offices rewarded for the dedication. They are a top-notch staff! Congratulations!

Annual President's Club Event in Aruba with Tips & Tricks of the Trade

Aruba...there couldn’t be a more beautiful vision than the turquoise seas - calm and inviting - azure skies – cloudless, perfect temperatures and friendly people everywhere. It’s the beauty of the Caribbean with the service level of the Dutch heritage.

Presidents Club, our annual event…this time with a group of 40 (20 couples), a program filled with experiences that were innovative and inspiring as well. So let’s tell you what they were.

Welcome Night at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, a simple night in a beach side palapa. Two steel drummers who played so beautifully that you would have thought there was an orchestra. Beatles, Maroon 5, Beyonce…all on two steel drums, pretty amazing. The dinner began by inviting guests down to the beach where a fishing boat pulled up onto the sand and delivered dinner. Curious? A fisherman pulled out the fresh catch that would be served that night and handed it over to the chef for grilling. Guests loved that special touch. The cuisine combined Caribbean and Dutch, with a cheese monger not only displaying but talking about the variety of Goudas guests could taste.

The next morning was our group activity, a jeep tour of the entire island. But this was not a standard road rally because on our site visit we explored so many beautiful places that we came up with the idea of giving a sophisticated camera to each guest (two per couple…each person had their own camera) and posting professional photographers at the various scenic points to instruct them on how to get the best shots, use the right apertures, etc. Our vision was to create a coffee table book with each couple’s very own photographs…a sort of “National Geographic” style. Two couples per jeep, with three different routes, started off to various points on the island, many of them not traditionally visited, and took photos at each extraordinary stop. They all met up at a beach side resort restaurant for a group lunch and handed in the memory cards so we could have the photos developed and mounted into their own book, delivered at the next night’s dinner (this was to be a surprise). The photos turned out so gorgeous, and everyone was curious what the other guests had photographed, that on the final night (more on that later) we installed a plasma screen and with each person credited, displayed everyone’s photos.

That evening guests got to experience another hidden Aruban jewel. In looking through one of the hotel magazines I found an article about a local artist, and being an art collector, I asked to see her gallery. It turned out this was in her beautiful home and she was a lovely, warm (as well as supremely talented) woman. I asked her if we could host a dinner at her home/gallery and she consented. She also designed clothing so I asked if we could have models wear some of her creations during the dinner and informally model them…she agreed. Then as our conversations progressed she also agreed to design and construct tables out of her artwork which would be used for the dinner. The evening was a highlight of the program and with an innovative menu, the guests were enthralled. Her family was present to be a part of the evening and this enchanted the group. She also created one unique work which was taken back to company headquarters. A lovely vocalist and guitarist provided the entertainment. Again, their talent was exceptional.

The next day was filled with optional activities, from spa to snorkeling to ATV and scuba adventures and then the final night took place at a restaurant quite literally ON the water…Pincho’s. Guests could enjoy their photographs on the plasma while a very talented guitarist (I wish he would be on “Idol” or “Voice” because he’s better than any of their finalists) entertained as they dined. The food was exceptional and the presentations lovely and it was a perfect ending to an inspiring few days.

Tips/Take Aways:

 

-          You know those magazines that you find at the airport and in your hotel room? Look for what might not be obvious and you’d be amazed at what you might find. This is how I found the artist who hosted the trip's highlight dinner.

-          Instead of accepting “this is what we always do,” open up your eyes and your mind and see what you might be able to do that departs from the traditional.

-          Never fear asking for what you want to do, even if it seems crazy or too complicated…the answer might just be “yes”.

-          Language barriers and cultural differences can be challenging when doing an event on foreign soil.  That said, allow yourself enough time to do a dry run-thru of every single element guests will experience to make sure that what the local providers “heard” was exactly what you asked for and expect.

- AM