The women of productionglue share their industry insights and career advice.
What advice do you have for women pursuing a career in live events?
Ha! I fell into this career, so I can’t say I pursued it. It just turned out to be a great fit for me. What I would tell women pursuing this or any career is to listen, observe and try to keep your ego in check. Do your research…look into brands you like and what campaigns they’ve produced. Look at their marketing campaigns and brand experiences that have been brought to life. Experiential Marketing and Event production started with brands wanting consumers to experience their brands in real life, with all of their senses to build brand affinity and loyalty. Look into the brands your loyal to and see how they are marketing to you, what events they are executing. Then look into the companies that produced the work and learn about them. Then see if you can get your foot in the door. It’s okay if you don’t know what you don’t know, it just means there are things for you to learn. Don’t let fear cripple you from doing something new, you’ll develop more skills that way. Start from the bottom, learn the basics, and work your way up.
What three characteristics best describe a successful Senior Producer?
The first characteristic best describes a successful Senior Producer is empathy. In this position, you are the liaison between your internal team and the client. You have to be able to give both sides what they need to be successful. In order to do that you need to be able to put yourself in their shoes and understand their needs, demands, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, all of it and proceed with all that in mind. You have to be able to see things from both perspectives. Secondly, event production is an imprecise science. Something can and will always go wrong, and you need to be able to anticipate that and therefore you have to be solutions-oriented. Sometimes you are the ones to solve it and other times you help to pull solutions out from your team when you get them all thinking about the task at hand. Lastly, being calm under pressure. Your team feeds off of your energy, and when things go wrong, they need to be reassured that all will be ok in the end, and you need to be able to help guide them in that positive direction.
Describe your proudest moment at productionglue. Why was it special?
Meeting Colin Kaepernick. I can’t exactly say where or what or how because we are sworn to secrecy, but it was around the launch of Nike’s new Just Do It campaign that states, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” That day and that moment for me was more personal than business and it was a genuine honor to meet him and express my support of him and what he’s fighting for – proud to have been present that day. There was a moment where it was no longer about work but about the fight for the lives of those who look like me and one where I was ready to sacrifice everything for that one moment in time.
What are three career lessons you’ve learned thus far?
I started my career in new business development out of college for an event marketing company which at the time was a field I knew absolutely nothing about. My boss, whom I’m still close to taught me a few rules that while they pertain to sales, I believe are relevant and applicable in not only business but in many aspects of life. The first rule of sales is to follow up. In life, you are always selling in the sense that you are showing people the person you are for them to want to engage with you. You have to give/ show people a reason to want to be a part of their life and to remain a part of their life. You have to have something of value to share. The second rule of sales is you really start selling after they say no. Apart from convincing someone to award you their business, in life, there is always someone that will tell you no, or you can’t do something and that can easily shut down someone’s dream. Well once someone tells me no, it sparks the need to prove them wrong. It can mean fight for what you believe is right. To me, in those two rules “sales” can be substituted by the word “life”. The third rule I learned from him is you are nothing if not your word. Your word is bond, not much explanation needed there.
What are your hopes for our industry? Specifically, for women in live events
I hope to see more women of color. This is an industry and field that I don’t believe many women of color or people of color in general, know much about or what it fully entails, or that there is even a career path in experiential and live event production. I hope to see more women of color as all levels of Producers, Stage Managers, Show callers, Designers, Technical Directors and more. There are skills that they develop in other areas that they don’t even know can be applied here. Just like many people at our agency have a theater background. You don’t have to be a Stage Manager on Broadway. You can be a Stage Manager for brand experiences and live events that are part of a larger marketing campaign. Or if marketing is where you want to be, steer in this direction of marketing.
What do you enjoy most about being a Senior Producer?
What I enjoy most is to see it all come to life, the end product, to see it all come together – all the hard work, late nights, blood, sweat, and tears brings to life a beautifully executed end product; a happy client and proud team seeing what a feat they accomplished in the end. That’s the best part of it all.
What does true leadership mean to you? How do you embody leadership?
I think true leadership entails, empowering those to do their job and to do their job well – to feel confident in what they bring to the team. I want people to feel like they know what they are doing because they are great at their job and the role they play. I want them to feel they are knowledgeable enough to make decisions or to present solutions and just do great work – that they can come to me with questions if they don’t know and with answers that they have. I don’t present myself to be an expert in all or to be knowledgeable in everything, but I try to pull greatness out of you and provide them with the opportunity to figure things out and shine. People usually know more than they think they know…and if you don’t, do the extra legwork and figure it out. Lastly, treat everyone equally and with the same respect that you want to be treated with – it doesn’t matter if you are a stagehand, the executive producer or the cleaning crew. Everyone has a role to play and each role is important and serves a purpose for a greater goal. I do my best to make sure to let members of the team, vendors, event staff, etc. know they are valued.