Shay Wheat | Grace and Ease Productions, Inc. | Pixilated Podcast Season 2

Patrick Rife: 0:06

Hello and welcome to another episode of the pixelated podcast, I am your host, Patrick back again for another interview with another excellent net professional for those of you that have been following along the season, you know that we've dedicated, dedicated season two, to speaking with people throughout the event professional world, trying to find folks that occupy very specific niches in the events world. So we get a chance to understand a little bit more about what goes in and out of those kind of, you know, sections of the event world that maybe we never have time to learn about. And today, it will be no different. So today we're going to speak with Che we certified event producer amongst other superlatives that we'll get to here momentarily. But before we get any further che, welcome to the pixelated podcast.

Shay Wheat: 0:55

Thank you so much. I'm super excited to be here.

Patrick Rife: 0:57

Yeah, yeah, we're super excited to have you here. So shake, typically, we're gonna get into some fun, organic questions about whatever. But before we go there, why don't you let everybody know kind of like who you are, what you do, what your background is, and then we'll follow up from there.

Unknown: 1:13

Yeah, absolutely. So if you're not familiar with myself and Grace and Ease Productions, we support our clients in creating powerful and profitable events. So this could be in person, it could be virtual live, it could be hybrid 50 people in a one day event to over 4000, attendees and our three day events. And we really have the honor and privilege of collaborating with some pretty well known celebrities, you might have heard of Dr. Oz, Lisa Nichols, Bill Barron, Alison J, Prince, and a ton of other amazing individuals and souls out there doing some good stuff in the world. But what we really, really specialize in is that speak to sell client, the ones that are wanting to essentially fill their six month or year long program in three days. Just recently, we were able to actually support one of our clients in generating over$2.1 million in her virtual live three day event. So pretty exciting things on the horizon, how we get to play with our clients, and really see the transformation that happens with their attendees.

Patrick Rife: 2:22

Awesome, great intro. So to clarify a little more grace and ease. You say we, what's your team? Like?

Unknown: 2:30

Like, how big is my team? Or what is it? Yeah,

Patrick Rife: 2:33

like, what's your Yeah, what's the kind of the, you know, the makeup of your, your team and organization?

Unknown: 2:39

Mm hmm. Yep. So we, because of pandemic, we've become a virtual team. And so I've got people all over the United States, and we actually help our clients also internationally. So whether they're in Florida, and you know, you want somebody that is in person with you in Florida, bam, we've got somebody, we've got people in Hawaii, we've got people all over the states, but we just really focus on the logistics, the planning, the speaker, sponsor support the production things leading into the event. And then we also take a look at what is the strategy behind events? So we were chatting a little bit earlier about, like, what is the event promise? What is it that we're leading people to does it even make sense for you to be doing this type of event. And so we do a little bit of coaching with our speakers as well. So instead of just a team that comes in to implement what your vision is, we're also going to support you in strategizing to make it that much more experiential and profitable for you. Awesome.

Patrick Rife: 3:43

So how did you know how did you get into it? You know, like I, you know, perused your LinkedIn. I see that, you know, like, your company has been around for a while now. But what was the entryway like to, to getting into production? What was the entryway like for you? It looks like you're, you know, you are maybe an entrepreneur, longer than you've been specifically and offense entrepreneur. So what was that? You know, like, what's that history like for you? And how did you get into, you know, building a company around the event space?

Unknown: 4:16

Yeah, yeah. So I originally wanted to become a doctor, medical doctor. And that's what I went to school, like having my brain going towards. And it wasn't until I was sitting there doing organic chemistry, that I'm like, oh my god, this is not how I'm supposed to help people. So from there, I was already in a network marketing company. I decided to, you know, finalize my degree, go into network marketing a little bit more full time did really really well there until the company we were with ended up selling to a different company and cancelled our con trapped completely. So I was like back on the streets again going okay, now what do I do? I fumbled around a number of times found a different company that I was with. But in the process, I loved going to events, right? And so, um, they're going okay. I have no idea what the heck I'm doing. I'm become a Reiki Master and energetic healer. I'm speaking on different people stages, like fumbling around. And it wasn't until I was on a stage speaking about appreciation, marketing, and how to send out to give that I was messing around with the guy that had my microphone before me. And I was like, Hey, dude, don't go spitting on my mic. It's like, you're funny, are you? Right? Because I'm like, I know, buddy. Come to find out. He was the head of education for Dr. Oz's nonprofit. Like, Oh, that's awesome. I went to Maria Shriver's women's conference, which was 14,000 tickets that sold in 14 minutes, I couldn't get a ticket. So I volunteered. And through that, I ended up meeting his sister softball. And he was like, Hold on, wait, she's best friends with our CEO, and we're doing a women's conference, you should help us. And so I looked at him and was like, Okay. And that's kind of how I got started as being an associate producer. I was in charge of over 70 speakers and 100 volunteers. And from there, I was like, Okay, I think I can do this.

Patrick Rife: 6:37

Now. That's what you do. That's what I do. That's great. That's awesome. So for your business, is that a lot of is that a lot of retainer clients that you're that you're servicing on a regular basis? Or is there like a decent amount of you know, like, new with the old?

Unknown: 6:53

Yeah, it's a lot of new with the old. So I have clients that are with us for years, that, like I was mentioning, they do speak to sell. So they're looking, the objective for them is to fill their six months or a year long program, and do one to many, they're looking to leverage their time and energy through an event. And so I'll have them do one or two events a year, but big events. And so that means, you know, I'm only seeing them for, say, we're doing the planning, three months, four months, five months before, and then once the event is done, I don't see him for another year. So I do have a kind of an influx of new people coming in, that are wanting to start this and utilize events to grow and leverage their business. And then I have the clients that are been with me for years and years and years. Just continuing. Hence, the reason why I'm able to grow my team is because I've got the repeat clients, and then I've got the new clients coming in.

Patrick Rife: 7:51

Yeah, yeah. Like that base, right. Mm hmm.

Unknown: 7:56

them. And the funny thing is, even though I've had the clients for, you know, let's just say three years in a row, the event is never the same.

Patrick Rife: 8:06

Sure. But particularly over the last three years, right? Yeah, for sure. So I think something that will be interesting, right, so like this, this, this needs that you fulfill, right, kind of planning a lot of these, you know, big household names, celebrities, they're kind of direct their direct events. What was that? ECOSYS? I mean, I'm sure there are a lot of commonalities that were there, with all the events and their experience over the last three years. But what are some things unique to that type of ecosystem that maybe people, you know, wouldn't, wouldn't think of, you know, whether whether it's just general uniqueness, or whether it's things that happened during Dorian COVID, right, like, was it? Was it harder, or was it less hard to recover, because, you know, like, my whole thing, and it's a talking point for pixelated because, you know, like, we ship photo booths all over the globe, right? Like, we can build them out, you know, back and build 100 out for, you know, fortune 100 company, and I can send one to a bar mitzvah just as easily. But a big part of our thing has always been about first person owned data and email addresses that you're capturing on site. So we've always been big proponents of owning your list. And, you know, a lot of people talk that very few people actually practice it in the businesses that went into COVID with no list versus the businesses that went into COVID. With, you know, whether that's like a brewery, or whether that's, you know, like someone that is doing thought leadership, there's a lot of power that happens there. And I would imagine that for the communities that you know, Dr. Oz has that you're activating for his life events. That that was probably already there are some some virtual elements that were already already happening there. But that being said, any any any thoughts around that prompt?

Unknown: 9:54

Yeah. So from our clients perspective, what I love and adore appreciate about our speakers, coaches experts in the, in this niche is they are quick to go, Okay, this is not working, we're all going to lose our businesses if we don't change something really, really fast. And it's not a huge ship that they have to turn. Because they're still the CEO, they don't necessarily have a board, they've got maybe a team of Max 1015 people on their team. Otherwise, a lot of our clients have less than five people on their team. So the pandemic was, I think, a great opportunity for our industry to look at things differently. You know, we were kind of riding along doing the same thing, and it was working, but it was starting to get a little bit boring. And what that allowed us to do was look at it from a new lens and a new perspective. So we could come in, and how could we take what we did live in person and create it as a virtual live experience, and still feel the connection? I think that's why we like utilizing platforms like zoom is because you can see each other. Another piece that I like about our clients is they are looking at it from the perspective of how can I serve my audience at the highest level, like they always have that in mind. And so knowing that they need to be able to see and experience and have them have a community because of the mental issues that were coming up for people being so isolated. They knew that if we drew people together and create a community that would not only support them, but it would also help their businesses grow. So in the pandemic, our business actually grew, instead of went to the wayside, which unfortunately, some other businesses did, because we were going, how can we how can we how can we how can we support our clients, just like our clients are asking how they can support theirs, and there are potential clients. So I feel that's definitely something different in this industry that others deserve to take a look at.

Patrick Rife: 12:15

Yeah, yeah. So you know, I'm curious, just, I feel like it's really sage advice in general, and we can get our guests to share because as I know, as I've been forthright about, right, we're very colleague focused, right, like the listeners to this show, and the guests on the show are largely event professionals. And you know, one of the things that we know, all of the rules are being rewritten. And the events industry in and of itself is so dynamic, complex, fragmented, all of these things, that is, without having the conversation out loud, it's very difficult to move to a consensus, right, and to establish new best practices, new kinds of run up show. So with that in mind, you know, coming out of COVID, what are some of the things that you're most surprised? At, you know, in regards to how events are taking place now?

Unknown: 13:20

Yeah, I think we're in another flux of change, right? That's the only constant is change, honestly. But people are starting to play with hybrid events. And what I'm seeing is, a lot of education is having to now come upon us as the event professionals to support our clients with before I saw it kind of the other way around, I saw them as educating us or telling us the vision of what they wanted. Now I'm seeing more of that professionals being the ones that have to stand up and go, Okay, I understand this is your vision. However, let me explain to you and educate you on what this actually means. Right. So from our perspective, in our niche, when you do a hybrid event, you're doing two events, because of the way that we created the virtual live experience to be so experiential, we will never ever be able to go back to straight live streaming, like we were before, where people were just watching the show. Now we actually have to keep the audience engaged. Also, the virtual audience is going to be the larger audience. So our clients not only have to be thinking about the in person audience, and then split their brain to think about the virtual audience and how you're going to engage both pieces. So us as the event professionals need to bring that awareness to them. I've had a number of conversations with my clients to go I understand that but let me explain to you what this actually looks like. And they go Oh, fudge. Yeah, that's gonna cost me a ton more money, a ton more energy, a lot more team, a lot more vendors, we're going to have to bring in. I don't know if that's what I really want and how I want to support people. Great. Here's the alternative, do one in person six months later do a virtual one. And they go, Oh, thank God, you have the answers. So, I'm really seeing is we now get to step into our leadership as the event professional and as the event expert, and lead our clients, because honestly, that's why they're coming to us. They go, you know, what's happening? what's working, what's not working? Please tell me what I'm supposed to do.

Patrick Rife: 15:39

Yeah, yeah, fair enough? No, I think one of the things that we work with, you know, as I mentioned, before, clients, both big and small, and in some ways, like are, like the big, the big guys that we work with, you know, what I'm hearing from them is that they can't find any hybrid solutions that are actually hybrid. And, you know, I think that there are a lot of gaps in the event technology cannon, and I'd love to hear what you think the maybe some of the largest pain points are. And it's astounding, given the amount of capital that that, you know, like flooded in to the event technology ecosystem that, you know, like, we have a whole lot of websites that you can embed a live streaming option on and, and call it an event, a virtual event platform. But, but my clients are, are there, they're struggling to find good solutions that are, that makes sense. And instead, what they're seeing is like a lot of ad hoc, right, they're seeing virtual, you know, like virtual companies that their life elements are, you know, like, printing QR codes for their customer, and then like, and then honestly, like, putting a charge on like, each scan the QR code, I've heard, I've heard some pretty incredible things, which literally, all they're doing is they're putting a toll booth on an access to the virtual tool when it's being utilized inside of the live space, which, you know, I've got a lot of feelings about it in general, but but to skip all of those, it's certainly not a hybrid tool, right? It's not, it's not helping you strengthen what you're trying to accomplish. So, you know, what are the where are the biggest, you know, gaps, and, and, you know, feel free to not take it from like a complaint perspective, you know, like, take it, take it from a perspective of like, it's a it's a risk, that there's not something here for this or, you know, like, or it's a detriment, or it could be a huge win if this was here, because, you know, when you're developing technology, and if the developers are doing it and the feedback from the front lines, right, and we build things that aren't valuable, like that's, that's the pipeline that needs to exist from a communications conduit, right. And now a word from our sponsors.

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Unknown: 19:06

Yeah, yeah, I'm still looking in technology for that perfect fit. Because the biggest thing for my clients is they need to be able to see and experience what the audience is doing. So if they can't physically see their mannerisms, they can't see their head like cocked to the side and like that inquisitive look on their face. If they can't see what's happening those those what are they call it like the the mannerisms and such that you have that you're not saying but showing up all over your face or that is a detriment to the client. Because when we're in live there's there's such an experience when you're in person, right? Even though both are live in person you You're just like you're there, you're all in, you're not walking around with a bag on your head, versus when you're in virtual and you turn off your camera. And that's essentially what you're doing. So only do do we need to look at, from the perspective of how do we get everybody on camera? How do we keep everybody on camera with us for three days, like we do eight hour days for three days with our clients on a virtual live event, and people are actually with us. So in order to do that, you have to make it experiential. And so if there was technology in a way that would allow you to engage not only with the host on stage, but also with the in person, audience and the in person audience with the virtual audience, I think you have a huge Goldmine right there. I haven't seen it come across yet, I keep looking like I'm going to do a demo later today was somebody else that's going to be showing me how they feel we can utilize it going forward. But what I've seen to this point is, they're usually heavy on one or the other, virtual or in person. And I don't know what the answer is, I know from the perspective of the gap is we need to be able to see people, we need to be able to engage with them, we need to be able to have our team engaged with them, we have to keep them with us and make it experiential, because we're not competing with another event. We're competing with Netflix, right or a movie. And in order to keep the audience with you when they're not physically in the space, and you essentially can shut the doors. Not that we do that. But like, how do you keep them with you? Sure. So that that is a huge gap, I think that we're now trying to solve for we have some ways to do it. But if, for instance, for your company, if there was a way that we could do some type of call to action for our audience that says, Okay, on this break, I want you to go to this booth. And I want you to take a picture and do X, Y and Z with it. And maybe we create a team or something, the team that goes out and reaches the most people with it, over the break wins a prize. Right? So then we're utilizing your technology to engage an in person and a virtual audience to go out and reach the masses. You're right, like, if you could come to us going, Hey, I have a way to engage your audience more, and stick with you to keep it fun. And this is how it actually relates to what it is that you're teaching or selling. I'm all yours.

Patrick Rife: 22:48

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, like, you were speaking earlier about how, you know, now it's, it's become the planners turn to educate and, and to help guide who so like for, for our perspective, right. So the pixelated we we produce our own software, right? So pre COVID, we had photo kiosk software that allows us to run, you know, like one device or 25 devices on a single account or multiple events, you can change it from one place, it's like a very enterprise kind of tool that was built. And then when when COVID hit, we built a virtual photo tool as well. And, and went to bat selling it. But for us from from day one that was our job was educating, you know, like it wasn't it all had nothing to do with the virtual photo booth we built, it had everything to do with helping people understand what a fiddly was, and how you might embed a link and what a QR code is, and how you leverage a QR code visually and what the value of getting people to engage from this device while they're attending from this device, right and thinking about it as a remote control. So there was that side of it. But then the whole other Trojan horse of it was being like, you know, a very happy hour, call it a virtual photo. And that's fine for happy hour, tell people to have fun or do whatever, but for the other four days of your programming and the three days that leads up to it, and the two days after it, you need to constantly update your call to action. So that way people are being updated on why they're using it right? So like three days before the event, the email goes out and it says right like three days out super excited. We want everyone to go find a favorite memory from a past and share it right and then maybe two days before if it's an internal event. It's like okay, what what colleague Have you relied on the most to get you through work from home right or like, you know, one day before is show us your work from home setup or show us where you're going to attend from right all of these things where you're looking at your community, you're looking at what They're about why they're there the things that they do the things that make them proud. And you're, you're changing that call to action, right? But you're just saying, show me with a photo and that photo like it, like, it could be a selfie, right? It could also be a note that you jot down on your phone, and then you screenshot it, right. It's like, put your three priorities for today on this thing, and we wanted up there for accountability, right? And it's that whole side of it where you can't. If you if you add 60 bells to your live event, it's just ends up being insane, right? It's really the content and what you're asking them to do, and which few tools can you use to accomplish it in a multiplicity of different ways, right, so that the fundamental tool isn't something someone needs to relearn every time you have a breakout session, but it's just they're thinking about how they're going to use that same tool that they just used. Sorry, you know, like diatribe, but really hearing hearing you kind of talk about that. I think it's really true. You know, like, it's not about having 1000 colors, it's about having enough colors with enough variability that it allows you to bring. It's the programming, right? Like, if you don't, if you don't send the link and say, Hey, you can click this and share a photo. Like, nobody knows the link is there, right? Like, and that I think was the heart, one of the hardest parts that we found was just, there were so many moving pieces. And you know, like, I mean, taking it all the way back to your mantra when you started the call, right? Like, what are we trying to accomplish? And if we're not checking everything that we're adding, and making sure that it makes it to the bottom line, it's superfluous, and it's, it's not going to do what you think it's going to do for

Unknown: 26:41

you. Exactly. Well, it also adds event professionals, you know, if we can show our clients how, by working with us, we can create a bigger ROI, they're going to stay with us. So you know, that's, that's part of our charge is to go, okay, yeah, you can hire me for this much. And I'm going to help you save this much, or I'm going to help you bring in this much. I'm gonna take this off of your plate, so that you can reach more people have more bodies in in your space, and be able to, you know, sell that much more. Yeah.

Patrick Rife: 27:19

Yep. So what are you looking forward to most next next 12 to 24 months? Like, what are you excited about?

Unknown: 27:28

I'm excited personally, for growing my team. Me being a little bit more of the face of the company and bringing in the additional clients and having my team really run with serving them and leading them to the next level. Personally.

Patrick Rife: 27:49

That's awesome. That's great. So we're getting towards the end, but I always have some, like, fun questions that I like to, to throw out there. So a question one, are you um, Are you American, California native, or is that? Is that a second home for you?

Unknown: 28:07

Yeah. Native to Sacramento, California, the Capitol. But I love travel. So we kind of travel I mean, pre COVID We were going all over the place. Now post COVID. We're starting to get back into it. But yeah, born and raised in California, even though I kind of end up picking up accents. So like, you know, cousins. I've talked to them from Middle America, I'll start having a bit of a southern drawl and things start coming out of fiance's English. So every once in a while, I'll be talking about how you throw something in the boot. You know, just random stuff.

Patrick Rife: 28:45

Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Okay, so last place that you went.

Unknown: 28:51

Last place that I went, like, physically traveled to? Sure. Yeah. Yep. We were just in France. And yeah, we're in northern France, kind of like Normandy area. So that was really kind of nice and fun. Wonderful

Patrick Rife: 29:10

place that you're that you're that you're into. Trying to get back to, but you haven't been there yet. Post COVID.

Unknown: 29:20

Post feel good place. Um, Carmel. I love Carmel. Yeah.

Patrick Rife: 29:25

Awesome. I am. If I'm coming through Marin, and I am looking for the best hike for the afternoon. Where am I going?

Unknown: 29:40

You definitely want to go to Muir Woods. Okay. It's gorgeous. Trees are amazing. I mean, even if you just go to the ocean like anything on the ocean is gonna be fantastic too. There's like this little crash what is it called? Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Patrick Rife: 29:58

Yeah. Awesome. Oh, Hey, are you a reader? I do read absolutely got a book recommendation for us.

Unknown: 30:07

One recently is the wealthy entrepreneur by Bob row. He's actually one of my clients. And he came out with this book. And I was like, shut up, really. Everybody needs to be looking at their, their accounting and their finance, because I don't know about you guys, but I don't like looking at it. But I had him on one of my summits recently, and he was telling me how something silly like 92% of us are paying more tax than we need to be. And I'm like, dang it, Bob. Yeah. Okay, I hope I'm a part of the 8%. But I'm reading this book to make sure that I get closer and closer to that you'll get

Patrick Rife: 30:49

work your way there. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I just finished my hike at Muir Woods, and I am hungry. Where am I going for a bite?

Unknown: 30:57

I'm okay, so I'm a little eclectic. And random sometimes. So it depends on what you're feeling it I'm also somebody that will like go and dig a hole and plant trees and then turn around and go to a black tie dinner. So if you're looking for something that's more a hole in the wall kind of bar, there's this place called the warehouse cafe in Port Acosta. It's very random. It's very eclectic. There's like this huge polar bear, um, inside the bar. And then the way the bar goes is you walk in and you're like, Okay, great. The bar is at normal level. And then you walk into the bar a little bit more. And now the bar is like, up to my chin. So it goes from like waist to chin. I don't know how it does that. But, you know, it's just very fun and different. And then just recently, we went to a Michelin star restaurant called shape me. In Berkeley. This woman has, I think she's done it all. She just now opened back up from pandemic. And I kid you not like Grapes, grapes, you wouldn't think grapes would be like, awe inspiring. But there was these grapes that we had. It was just like, Shut the front door. That's amazing. Where do we get these and it's all farm to fork, which is really kind of nice, too. So depends on the mood that you're in.

Patrick Rife: 32:31

Awesome. All right. Last question. Last piece of music person artists, whatever that you were like loving literally on the on the on the driving today and hearing whatever Barracuda or something, but like, What's that song? Who's that person?

Unknown: 32:52

I don't know who sings anything. But, um, I recently I've been on Pandora. So you know, I live in in the Bay Area, and I go in trouble and see my family in Sacramento. And so I'll put Pandora on. And recently, I've been listening to like the version of jock jams. But there's this guy, DJ godfather. That does mashups. Oh my gosh, I'm digging the Mashups right now where he's just kind of blending things together. And you're like, oh, okay, feeling this song. And he starts to like fade in this other one. And you're like, oh, yeah, I love that song. I would never have thought of putting them together. So DJ godfather.

Patrick Rife: 33:34

Father, it is wonderful. Say this has been an super fun chat. I really appreciate your time. Your candid answers your interesting thoughts. I know that our listeners are gonna love it. Before we go, I want to make sure that anybody that is listening that is getting totally stoked, knows, you know where to find you why to find you, whatever the case may be. So why don't you go ahead and let everyone know where they can connect and follow along?

Unknown: 34:02

Yeah, absolutely. So on social media, you can find me either under Shay wheat, or grace and ease productions on all the social medias as well as website Shea wheat.com Grace, and he's productions.com. And then if you're somebody that is brand new to the space, or you're looking to move into maybe supporting with sales and enrollment events, I actually certify people in becoming certified event producers. So you can simply go to certified event producer.com and see if it is a next best step for you happy to have a conversation and tell you a little bit about how we support our clients and grow our business all the same.

Patrick Rife: 34:43

Awesome. Sherry, thank you again for taking time out of your day. I hope that the rest of your day and your weekend is amazing. But yeah, thanks for being a guest on the pixel your podcast.

Unknown: 34:54

Thank you so much. It's an honor.

Patrick Rife: 34:57

Alright guys, so that's it. Another excellent interview. You I hope you got as much out of this chat with Shay as I did. If you aren't yet please make sure that you are subscribed to our podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts so that way you're notified each time we publish a new episode. And if you can, please take the time and leave us a five star review your words and ratings help more people like yourself, find our podcast and help us grow this community. So without further ado, I'm Patrick rife. Until next time, peace