Keith Alper is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, and powerhouse in experiential marketing and event production. In this episode of BEATS WORKING, he shares stories from 40 years of leading global events for iconic brands, the secret sauce for connecting head and heart at events, leadership lessons from accidental entrepreneurship, and why crafting unforgettable moments hinges on the smallest details (and the best snacks). You’ll be inspired by Keith’s passion for people, culture, and elevating every in-person experience from like to love.
Resources Mentioned:
- Keith Alper: Website and LinkedIn
- Book: “From Like to Love”
- Nitrous Effect
- Alysse & Libby: Bios & LinkedIn
Connect with Us:
- Website: www.beatsworkingpodcast.com
- LinkedIn: @BEATS WORKING Show
- Instagram: @beatsworkingshow
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- YouTube: @BEATSWORKINGPODCAST
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BEATS WORKING is a platform on a mission to redeem work—the word, the place, and the way. We believe that work is the most honorable act in the universe, and through inspiring stories and practical insights, we want to transform the way people think about work and help them discover greater fulfillment in their lives. We invite you to join us as we build community through sharing and actively demonstrating what we learn.
If you have a show idea, feedback, or just want to connect, email producer Tamar Medford at tamar@workp2p.com.
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
Keith Alper [00:00:00]:
And what we’ve learned is people want to go to lunch with each other again. People want to meet at a bar, people go to concerts. You know, as you see, everything live is on fire, right? From Coachella to a baseball game to a concert, to your kids, parents, teachers, whatever, because people crave people. So.
Alysse Bryson [00:00:18]:
So I will say I saw that there’s also a version called Coachella where you can watch all the live streams from the comfort of your couch. And that feels like more my speed.
Libby Sundgren [00:00:30]:
Well, I mean, people are even buying tickets to the, to the Fyre Festival 2.0. I’m like, are you insane? Didn’t you learn your lesson with the first one? But I think that shows you how much people really crave that in person experience, where they’re like, ah, this criminal’s back doing a. Doing a, you know, concert on an island that nobody knows about. I’ll just do it.
Alysse Bryson [00:00:56]:
Welcome to Beats Working Winning the Game of Events, where we share stories and strategies to turn any event or life moment into something unforgettable.
Libby Sundgren [00:01:05]:
Events are wild, and the people who work in them are some of the most resilient humans on earth. If you know, you know.
Alysse Bryson [00:01:13]:
So come with us behind the curtain for a look at their most memorable experiences.
Libby Sundgren [00:01:19]:
As they say, the show must go on. So let’s get on with the show.
Alysse Bryson [00:01:29]:
Today’s guest is Keith Alper, a visionary entrepreneur, bestselling author, and a powerhouse in the world of experiential marketing and event production. We are so excited to talk to him because we already had a little talk behind behind the virtual doors and he speaks our snack language, so we’re very excited today. He has over 30 years of experience because clearly he started when he was. And Keith has founded and led multiple award winning agencies under the nitrous effect, including CPG Agency, Eventive Upbrand, and so many more. From launching his first company at just 17 to producing global events for some of the world’s most recognizable brands. And we’re talking about some big ones. Ulta Beauty, Carnival Cruises, L’Oreal, Jimmy John’s, Southwest Airlines. I could keep going, but I won’t.
Alysse Bryson [00:02:25]:
Keith’s impact spans industries and continents, which is exactly why we wanted to talk to him. He’s been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Inc. And Fortune. And his work has earned more than 200 industry awards. As a champion for innovation, entrepreneurship, and inclusive leadership. Keith continues to shape the future of how brands connect with audiences. Welcome to the show, Keith.
Keith Alper [00:02:51]:
Thank you. And thank you for giving me that introduction. I’ll have to thank my mom for writing that. She.
Libby Sundgren [00:02:55]:
Yeah, thanks mom.
Keith Alper [00:02:57]:
She’s my Jewish mom. I mean she’s my Jewish mom. She did great job.
Alysse Bryson [00:03:02]:
Great job. Well, we’re just so excited to talk to you because you have so much experience with so many cool brands. We were already talking about snacks. Like I don’t even. Libby, where do we start? I’m just so excited, so excited.
Libby Sundgren [00:03:18]:
And I mean we really only have guests who are good people. But Keith, you are a good person and that your mom didn’t just tell us that. We’ve heard that from other people too.
Alysse Bryson [00:03:32]:
We did our research. Let’s start at the company you started when you’re 17. I have to know what that’s about.
Keith Alper [00:03:38]:
Well, let’s go back in time even further. I did my first Barry Lewis telethon, Backyard Carnival when I was about 10, so I’ve always known. And I did shows in my parents basement. So like I like to say, like I’m doing my dream as a kid still now, like literally I wanted to be a producer, an entertainer. I didn’t know what it was. And so I’ve been doing this a long time and I still love doing. I mean literally I zipped here. We’re doing the numerous St.
Keith Alper [00:04:04]:
Louis’s inauguration tomorrow. So I just zipped from the setup to get here. But there’s nothing like show business. A live event, connecting with people, experiential. There’s nothing like it, especially post Covid. But my first business, I started with a friend, Steve and we worked in the shows department at Six Flags. I was in high school and I was 15 and met Steve. And long story short, while we worked there, the general manager asked us to do some projects away from our job.
Keith Alper [00:04:33]:
And that’s actually how we started. We was kind of the accidental startup. We didn’t know what an entrepreneur was, we didn’t know how to spell entrepreneur, but we loved what we were doing. And then one general manager told another part, general manager, oh, these guys are doing these films which were called slideshows back then and we would do them for Magic Mountain in LA or in Georgia. It was the old kind of music video to get the 16 through 23 year old that would work at Six Flags as a summer job all pumped up and why would you want to work for 250 an hour back then or whatever. And so that’s how we kind of accidentally started our business. And it’s just kind of accidental. But we loved what we did, you know, so that’s how we started.
Keith Alper [00:05:13]:
And actually this Year is our official 40th year in business. Which is crazy. Which is crazy.
Libby Sundgren [00:05:19]:
Oh my gosh.
Alysse Bryson [00:05:20]:
Wild.
Keith Alper [00:05:21]:
You know, it’s wild.
Alysse Bryson [00:05:22]:
You know, Keith, I didn’t, I didn’t have my startup event business was not as profitable as yours. But I did when I was about 10, I made an ice sculpture museum. I took all my mom’s Tupperware and I filled it with water and weird objects and put it in the freezer that was in the garage. And then I got my dad’s company that was like a block away. It was a orthopedic center. He was the accountant to be this sponsor. And then I went around the neighborhood selling tickets to come to my show. So you’re, you’re right.
Alysse Bryson [00:05:57]:
When the bug is in there early, it’s just in there early.
Keith Alper [00:05:59]:
It doesn’t matter. I, I, I was at my family for Passover the other day at my nephew and his 9 year old kid made such an unbelievable 2 minute video that I’m like, you have to put him on SNL right now because the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, it was like an SNL film and I’m like, I’m going to back him because he’s just brilliant. So, you know, I talk a lot and speak a lot of things. By the way, age means nothing and you are caught by some kind of bug that, thank God your parents let you do that. And so I don’t know, I feel like at the time I was the youngest and now I’m the oldest at times and I don’t give a right. You’re just there to do what people love and connect people. So yes, back to your original question. We kind of started this accidentally at 17 and then I went on to head up shows for Six Flags.
Keith Alper [00:06:47]:
My first job out of college, my, my business partner went to do something else and then within two years we were running our own business. We like quit our job, we had a business, you know, and stuff like that. So, you know, small, didn’t pay ourselves, you know, all this stuff.
Alysse Bryson [00:07:02]:
How did that early hustle that you obviously have shape your approach to leadership and how is it still impactful today?
Keith Alper [00:07:09]:
Well, so I’m a, I’m now a very, I’m a, I’m an addicted entrepreneur, meaning I don’t play golf, I don’t play tennis. I love meeting leaders, I love meeting great people and I love meeting entrepreneurs because if whatever you do, if you’re doing the ice sculpture museum or if you’re whatever it takes somebody to have an Idea and either be successful, mediocre, or fail. And then you pick yourself up and do it again. And so I will tell you, the success of anybody is hustle. It’s hustle. If you hear it from anybody, it’s hustle. And I’m not saying I like these guys or don’t like these guys, but, you know, Mark Zuckerberg goes to work every day still. Tiger woods still, you know, takes lessons every day.
Keith Alper [00:07:53]:
Simone Biles practices. So it takes hustle. So that’s what it takes for anybody to be a great. Did you ever hear the book? I forget the name book, but you have to do something. 10,000 hours. It’s a famous book. Yeah, and he kind of proved it out. They’re like, oh, you know, Bill Gates was an overnight success.
Keith Alper [00:08:12]:
No, he started programming it at nine. And he did it for a long time. And we had his company at 20. He did it like 20,000 times. So that’s my belief. If you’re a cellist or you’re a cook or whatever, it’s hustle, and it’s hustle. And by the way, if you don’t love what you do, you’re not going to be successful, because who wants to do that? We can have a whole podcast on things we hate to do. But so in leadership, we just find out, like, love who you work with, love what you do, and you got to put in the work.
Keith Alper [00:08:42]:
You got to hustle. I hustle every single day still. I’m still one of our greatest salespeople. And it’s not selling. I just love to say, hey, you know, if I could cure cancer and I was a doctor, I’d love to do that. But here’s what we can do for a client and when we can make results happen, I’m talking about real results. Every company talk about is a Fortune 100 company. And so it’s not just about pretty tablecloths.
Keith Alper [00:09:06]:
You know, it’s about strategy and connecting. And I’ve discussed this a lot. It took me a while. When people go, what business is you ring? It took me a while to like, here’s our business. We connect head and heart. That’s all we do. We connect head and heart. And if you think about it, from elections to sales to employee engagement, it’s head and heart.
Keith Alper [00:09:26]:
You have to have your head and heart. So that’s what we sell. It’s mushy, right? You can’t. I can’t put it anywhere. And so that is always kind of what we do, running in our background. And you have these core things running all the time. We do that all the time. So I want to figure out, you know, at least how to make you laugh.
Keith Alper [00:09:44]:
I can make you laugh because I’m, I tell stupid jokes or how to make you cry. We could talk about a lot of really tough things in our lives that would literally bring us down. But if we can harness all that in an event or a one on one interaction, that’s worth trillions of dollars. Literally, it’s worth trillions of dollars. And so we try to figure that out if it’s in our ad agency of marketing, if it’s one of our event companies.
Libby Sundgren [00:10:06]:
I love that. And it’s, you know, the thing that I love about events is that it is just such a place where you can be human with other humans and really connect with people. And, you know, you likely said you’ve produced global experience for some truly iconic brands. What, you know, I’m sure some of those events are huge. You know, you don’t have like a 10 person, tiny, you know, dinner party to create, you know, this connection for people. So what do you do to create experiences that really move people, that really do connect the head and the heart? And how do you keep that connection alive with so many different kinds of event formats?
Keith Alper [00:10:53]:
Yeah, well, first of all, really big question, and that’s hard. It’s very hard to do. So let’s take an example. We work with a big health system. They have about 50,000 employees. They’re in one, just merged into the other one. And they’re a non profit, you know, but they have great health. They’re connected to a big university.
Keith Alper [00:11:13]:
You know, one of those things, for example, for them is we always start very high up. Like, what does success look like? What is your, what we call your desired outcome if you start there? So nobody said like, I want to have an event, to have a pink napkin, or nobody. Well, I mean, people, when you deal with some nonprofit committees, all they’re doing all over here, we’re like, wait, wait, wait, why are we here? Like, literally, why are we here? And so a lot of times the show, the big aha is what is the purpose of the event? What are you trying to accomplish? And then what are the storytelling channels now, by the way, if we could put 10 people in a room, we get together, we do a little kumbaya, we have a little breakfast, but we, you know, we spend the night, we have drinks, we do all that, those people will be very close within 24 hours. They’re going to figure out oh my God. You know, my son is also allergic to that. Let’s trade recipe. Let’s do all these things. It’s hard for any company to know 50,000 people, right? And there’s no way this, the CEO, she’s going to know everybody, you know, all these different things.
Keith Alper [00:12:16]:
So when you do that, we act as a broadcaster, right? And what is a great story and how do you tell the stories? So you walk away as an employee or as a vendor, as a partner, as an investor, to get them to say, wow, they are speaking my language. They understand my language. And look, we’re in a world right now that’s not very lovey dovey, okay? There’s a lot of rollbacks and things and stuff like that. There’s a lot of really good companies that still want to say that message. So at the end of the day, it’s story, it’s connection. So that for that 50,000 company, we might do a kickoff series of events. We might do so for them. We regularly have the top 1,000 people in leadership get together.
Keith Alper [00:12:57]:
Okay, now that’s not a small group either, but these are the top 1,000 people running this healthcare system, right? Accounting, surgery, doctors. And then you’ll do a series of things. What’s the best way to connect them? By the way, in my early days of my company, the average video, when somebody said, would you come and produce us a video? Was an hour to a half an hour, an hour and a half. And then we’re like, you know, we really think you should get this down to 10 minutes. Right? We are now in a TikTok 22nd, maybe one second Scroll World. It’s the hardest thing to get you and connect with you. So that is hard. And Also, out of 50,000 people, everybody is different.
Keith Alper [00:13:43]:
But other things, what we do is what I like. We douse people in engagement. So when we do a big event and we’ve got 5,000 people in the audience, with the senior leadership, with the board of Directors, with the CEO, what do you want to accomplish in three days? By the way, you’re going to have 20 billion of your revenue in one room. All your store managers, all your leaders, all your board, what do you want to get done in four days? And by the way, you have very little time and nobody wants to hear you speak, right? Like you get all these things. Well, I mean, nobody wants to hear a CEO speak for two hours about, you know, whatever. No. So you got to figure out if it’s the oldest thing in the world is what’s in it for me in the audience, you have to go, what’s in it for me? Now, Libby, what’s in it for you is very different than at least what’s in it for me, right? You’re different people or whatever, you might share the same things. And so it’s hard to figure out what that is.
Keith Alper [00:14:33]:
But the best companies that win at experiential and events and meetings is really honing that message, selling it throughout. By the way, the minute you get the invite to the meeting, to the minute you get back from the airport, we say there’s a hundred moments of touch. And if those are really well curated. I’m a big fan of Disney. I’ve always been a Disney geek. There’s, well, curation things that they never expect. So they’re like the hidden Mickeys. Well, the hidden mickeys were there and now people look for them.
Keith Alper [00:15:03]:
But the little details that Disney does, down to the nth degree, it’s actually about getting the little things right, not the big things. If you think about favorite restaurants or brands, if you get the little things right. So, Elise, I think I told you a story. You know, at the end of our events and stuff, all of our team rushes into the restaurants, right? We all go into the restrooms and we go to hear what people are saying, right? Because they might not fill out the survey. They might not do this, or they might be afraid to speak up. And you go in the bathroom, and I might go in the bathroom here. Oh, my God, that speaker was incredible. Is this the same company we used to work for a year? This is incredible.
Keith Alper [00:15:42]:
Or you. Same bullshit, same message, same whatever. So we can get feedback in about three minutes. Okay? And because that’s what people do, most people don’t know each other in the bathroom, in the men’s bathroom, you know, they’re standing next to each other in urinals. In the women’s bathroom, they’re online forever. So people don’t. Forever, forever. We need the AI restrooms.
Keith Alper [00:16:05]:
I don’t know how we do it, but we need to AI this thing. So when you hear people online and they go, oh, that was pretty cool. That was pretty cool. And then people jump in. So we do that. And we also take a very weird. I just was talking with a young associate of ours today, said, hey, we act like we’re in charge of everything, even if we’re not. Until client.
Keith Alper [00:16:23]:
Until somebody said, hey, that’s not your purview. Because nobody is looking out for everything. So, like, before even a meeting, even if It’s a hotel. We go and inspect the restrooms because if the restrooms are dirty, then you’re gonna have a bad experience. Right? So it goes into all this, like, what we’re hearing, what we’re seeing. We’ll go back in the kitchen, we’ll see if the kitchen’s clean. Nobody’s asked us to do this. And so the reason about this feedback loop that I was talking about, I think I went off on a tangent a little bit, is every little kind of moment of truth in every experience.
Keith Alper [00:16:53]:
And that’s how we tell stories. So, by the way, we do do a 30 people meeting. We might do a board meeting. Okay. By the way, it might not be a good board meeting. Okay. No, I’m just saying, like, there might.
Libby Sundgren [00:17:05]:
Be some bad news at this board meeting.
Keith Alper [00:17:07]:
Bad news. So I’ll just say in front of everybody here, you know, Southwest Airlines, one of our biggest clients, we’ve done work for them for 10 plus years. We love Southwest Airlines. We love the team, we love what they’re about. They might have been a little late to the game on certain things. They’re going to get through it. They have investors that say, we want to make changes. And so there’s not always a fun day at the office.
Keith Alper [00:17:30]:
I don’t care who you are, you guys, me, whatever. There’s different days of the office. Like Covid happened and I can’t produce an event for two years, or, oh, there’s a recession. In the recession. I had six CEOs call me in a week and said, we’re not doing anything anymore. We’re very out of business. So the fact is, on top of all this telling stories, then there’s other stuff that you don’t even have to do it. That hits the storytelling, right? We are very big on at the very end of the day, how do you affect the people in the audience or whatever? And I think, Libby, you said it.
Keith Alper [00:18:04]:
I said an event starts when you put two people together. That’s an event. Okay? That’s an event. If you meet at a bar, if you meet at a concert, there’s a connection of some sort. So. And then you add three people or 100 people or 20 people. Now, look, we were doing virtual before virtual was cool because of COVID because I had another company that we thought we were going to change the world. And then Covid happened.
Keith Alper [00:18:25]:
We went up and then kind of came down because guess what? Nobody loves virtual anymore. Nobody’s like, oh my God, I want to do another zoom. And what we’ve learned is people want to go to lunch with each other again. People want to meet at a bar. People go to concerts. You know, as you see, everything live is on fire, right? From Coachella to a baseball game to a concert, to your kids, parents, teachers, whatever, because people crave people.
Alysse Bryson [00:18:50]:
So I will say, I saw that there’s also a version called Coachella where you can watch all the live streams from the comfort of your couch. And that feels like more my speed.
Libby Sundgren [00:19:03]:
Well, I mean, people are even buying tickets to the. To the Fyre Festival 2.0. I’m like, are you insane? Didn’t you learn your lesson with the first one? But I think that shows you how much people really crave that in person experience where they’re like, ah, this criminal’s back doing a. Doing a, you know, concert on an island that nobody knows about. I’ll just do it.
Keith Alper [00:19:28]:
Yeah. And, you know, it’s kind of interesting because I’m a marketing person, I’m a vet person, but I’m really. I try to study a lot every day. And the only way to really study is with your ears and your eyes. And so, like, a friend of mine will go out and, like, and, you know, I’m 62, friends, much younger, and we’ll go to a club, and he’s learning. I’m like, you know what? Most people in the world, I don’t care if you’re in Russia, the United States, or Columbia. A certain age of people that work their entire weekend for experiences, right? To go out with their friends to have a great night, they might drink. They might not drink.
Keith Alper [00:20:06]:
They might just cook dinner at somebody’s house. We all, at the end of the world, just want people to be happy. We just want to have a good time, like. And a lot of young people, like, my daughter is at Coachella right now for her first time, and I just talk to her. How was. Oh, my God. This was the most fun. Like, don’t take anything.
Keith Alper [00:20:24]:
Don’t look at anything. Like, whatever. And she. The good thing is she doesn’t. But she was having the time of her life connecting with young people. And the tickets were, like, $800. I mean, they’re not cheap.
Alysse Bryson [00:20:35]:
And I saw it’s like, 100 bucks just to get a plate of nachos there.
Keith Alper [00:20:39]:
Yeah. Yeah. So, but here’s the deal. These people are waiting in line for a day. They’re. They’re camping in tents. Like, there’s something there that puts that demographic versus a different demographic. So at the end of the day, all these events have something that give people happiness and joy.
Keith Alper [00:20:58]:
If you and I go to the symphony and we like that. If we’re going to a friend’s house for dinner, it’s really what we live for, happiness and joy. I mean, it’s a pretty easy recipe. So without getting too hokey, if you can figure out people’s psyche again, the head and the heart, then we can apply that. If it’s a tough board meeting, if it’s a tough managers meeting, or we’re just trying to pump up the troops to say, hey, we’re going to go on our busiest Christmas season ever. Work your, you know, we’re going to have more fun this year. We’re going to do breakfast. We’re going to do it.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:31]:
Keith, you have so much energy, which I love, one high energy person to another.
Keith Alper [00:21:37]:
And I’m curious with so many sponsored by add. Okay, go ahead.
Libby Sundgren [00:21:41]:
Yes, exactly.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:42]:
And this is brought to you by. We have so many, many moving parts. How do you keep your teams aligned and energized?
Keith Alper [00:21:51]:
Well, you know, first of all, I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve made a lot of adjustments along the way. There were a lot of key developers out there and when I didn’t know what I was doing and you know, whenever, you know, I might not have been the best boss or I might have been a little tough with the team, you just learn by style and you get mentors and stuff like that. So we do this. I’m very fortunate that now I kind of serve as a executive CEO chairman, but I’m not involved in the business day to day as much. So that’s. So I’m working on high level stuff, working on senior leadership, helping us go get big deals and also helping my presidents learn how to become better leaders. Right. And so I’m there it is upside down.
Keith Alper [00:22:33]:
I work for all my employees. Okay. So I work for my employees. You call me in the middle of night. So we need help here and I love that. And I’m like, okay, let me go do that. And so if you have a great work environment first, like we love and respect people, everybody’s welcome here. We literally will do anything for our clients that’s legal.
Keith Alper [00:22:51]:
And like I keep on seeing this, but I’ve been preaching this team creative in anything, however you work is great. But our belief is you have to actually over service the customer. And by the way, how many times have you been over serviced lately? Right. You go to the car shop. Yeah. You know, so if we even over service. They’re like, wow, we love your product, we love your service, and we love your people. That’s a pretty.
Keith Alper [00:23:16]:
It sounds easy. It’s very hard to go back to. The question is, we’ve got great leaders and we have great training, and we just have these core beliefs like, there’s no jerks in our company. Literal. We get a few every once while they sneak in and we fire them. And we’re just like, not right place for you. Not right place for me. We have a thing that.
Keith Alper [00:23:34]:
Can anybody be thrown in a situation, even if they don’t know exactly what they’re doing, can they stand up and be the right people? Because, you know, my team right now is with, you know, some of the biggest people in the food industry in the world, with their board, their CEOs and stuff. How do we. How do we project? You know, and stuff like that. So a lot of training, but a lot of hiring the right people. It’s like a filter. And by the way, we’ve learned over time, I can’t tell you how many times we hire a salesperson, like, oh, my God, he says he’s the greatest in the world. He sold this. He sold this.
Keith Alper [00:24:06]:
He sold this. He sold this. Then they gave me. They don’t sell anything. Like, well, you know what I mean? So we’ve learned better in how to also filter people. And, you know, this. This was at one time very controversial. Not as much.
Keith Alper [00:24:20]:
So if we’re looking for somebody in sales and like, I sold all this stuff, like, hey, congratulations. We’re really excited. By the way, will you send us your W2 from last year? Now, if it’s no, it’s BS and if it’s yes, it’s great. We do some testing, we do some creative projects. And. And the best one, you’ll love. And I tell this all the time. We haven’t done it for a little bit.
Keith Alper [00:24:43]:
Now we’re doing it post. Covet again is for years we would have a job. Let’s just say we have a producer’s job. And the other thing, like, we’re based in St. Louis. We didn’t have a lot of employees outside of St. Louis pre Covid. Now, 30% of, you know, our biggest company are all over the world.
Keith Alper [00:25:01]:
Like, you guys are like, someone’s in Seattle, someone’s in Vancouver or whatever, and we keep them clubbed in. But we used to have, if we were interviewing St. Louis producer job, we would bring all candidates in together, in a room together.
Alysse Bryson [00:25:15]:
Cutthroat.
Keith Alper [00:25:17]:
Well, here’s the deal. What we would do to be efficient for us and efficient for them. What we would do is we would bring them in. But before they ever came in, what we did is we did a secret. Our receptionist marked what time Elise got there and what time Libby got there. Well, Libby got there 15 minutes early and I won’t use loose Elise. Susan got there six minutes late. Susan is not most of the time.
Keith Alper [00:25:43]:
Susan will be asked to leave, won’t be in the interview. You can’t be at your job interview on time. You’re not going to be at the big meeting on time. So. And then we’d. And we’d have our whole executive team and we’d present to everybody about our company. We’re so happy we’re here. And then each team member, you get a five minute interview and an hour and a half later out of our 10 candidates, we’d have our pile of three the next day.
Keith Alper [00:26:05]:
We’d schedule interviews and we’d basically make an offer in three days. We’d send nice letters out. You didn’t get it. It was efficient on them and efficient.
Libby Sundgren [00:26:12]:
Yeah.
Keith Alper [00:26:13]:
Well, what if somebody sees me there and like then don’t interview. But this is how our process works. I like it. Yeah. So it’s just kind of, some people kind of weird. I actually saw it once in Ink magazine in a different way and we just re redid it, you know. So what other fascinating questions did the snacks girls have?
Libby Sundgren [00:26:32]:
The snacks girls.
Alysse Bryson [00:26:33]:
The snacks girls would also. I’d like to hear a little bit about your book from like to Love. I have not read it yet, but I’ve got it dog eared because I think I want to after all of this exciting conversation.
Keith Alper [00:26:46]:
Well, here’s the deal. I have hundreds of books and I haven’t read it. I have friends who write books. I go to books and get a conference. I was just. I can’t stay with A major, major Fortune 10 CEO that just happened to be after a thing. He had a lot of people back to his condo and I saw all these books and like if you read a few. I haven’t read any.
Keith Alper [00:27:04]:
Except, well, no, except this one because everybody said I had to read this one. So for someone who’s ADD and don’t read a lot of books, I do spend about three hours a day. Newsletters, Wall Street Journal, I read a lot. But you know, it’s very hard for me to like, I get overwhelmed with a lot of chapters. I’m like, oh no, I got to get through this. So I wrote A book. We wrote a book. And I wrote it for somebody that could read it very quickly, but it could be helpful to someone.
Keith Alper [00:27:31]:
So our books are good. But the idea from like to Love is over the years, we got in the employee engagement business, and so now we, you know, we’ve worked with Southwest Airlines and a lot of great companies. Like, okay, you have these people on the front line or however do they like their job or they love their job. So the book is called from like to Love. And it goes a little bit old school because it’s got. We kind of use the up the heart. And like you, I used to like on Facebook. Right.
Keith Alper [00:27:57]:
The heart or the thing. Now there’s a million emojis. You do. There used to be like two. And here’s the best thing about the book that we figured out. You know, my. My partner help. We had another person help, but we just took all of our knowledge.
Keith Alper [00:28:10]:
We hired a ghostwriter to clean it up. You know, there was no chat GPT, and I still wouldn’t use ChatGPT. But here’s the business plan. From like to Love. That’s it. So if you can think of your business, how do you get from here to here? So we’ve done that with a lot of our things. So we talk about plusing it up when the sweat big bowls of candy on our reception desk. We give the UPS guy or whatever, Hershey bars.
Keith Alper [00:28:36]:
We want everybody to have such a great experience and interaction with our company that, like, when clients come to our office, they. They’re like, we’ve never been to a place there might be like, searchlights going and music, and we make them feel special.
Libby Sundgren [00:28:48]:
Snack rooms.
Keith Alper [00:28:49]:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And muffins. And so what we wrote in the book is basically, we’ve all been there, either ourselves or somebody that we know. You either hate your job, and if you hate your job, it’s either your fault or the employer’s fault or whatever. It’s pretty hard to get somebody to go from hating to loving. It’s pretty hard if you hate your spouse. It takes a lot of work to get to love. Okay.
Keith Alper [00:29:13]:
What we figured out, though, is a lot of people really like their job, but they never use the word love. So from like, the love is very doable. And so imagine I like my job. And you’ll say, you know, hey, Libby, how. You know, how do you like working in xyz? I really like it. I mean, the people are great and whatever, but if we get you to say, I love your job because, like, I love It. I want to work here forever. I want to do this.
Keith Alper [00:29:36]:
And it’s figuring out what those tweaks are. And sometimes it’s better listening, better planning. But then if you could do that. So we do that now for brands, how do you get somebody from, like, to love? Like is like, at times, met like, oh, yeah, I like that restaurant. But you both have restaurants. Oh, my God, I love it there. We would do anything to go there. That is worth millions and millions of dollars.
Keith Alper [00:29:58]:
Down the street from me, there’s Walgreens. Walgreens falling on. I. You know, I wish that they would be a client. They have a lot of work to do. But there’s some lady there. She’s probably in her 60s. She’s been there forever.
Keith Alper [00:30:09]:
She’s got a necklace full of, like, pins, awards, like, heavy thing. And she is the greatest employee ever. She’s in my book. And she would, like. I would be, like, getting, like, a Diet Coke in here and that. You’re like, anything you could do, I could do better. I’m open in the, you know, cosmetic. I don’t know if you need it.
Keith Alper [00:30:27]:
And you go there. And I’m like, hey, where’s this? She goes, let me show you. Let me take the walk. She’s taking it. I’m like, this woman is worth $100 million for Walgreens. And how often do you get to somebody? And so then I asked, you said, why do you like her? She goes, I love my customers. She didn’t say, I love Walgreens. I love my customers.
Keith Alper [00:30:45]:
And I work for Walmart, and Walgreens lets me be who I am. So, like, this woman is unbelievable. Every time I see her, she just makes me happy. So the whole idea of, like, to love is, how do you take your team? Or how do you take anything from going to liking it to loving it? And. And I call that plusing up. So we do that for all of our events. Okay. We sold this event to a client, and I will ask my team, without spending a lot of extra money and without Billy the Magnet, how do we think this thing over the top? How do we make it extra special? How do we do it? So we kind of throw a lot of things in that, like, the love buck.
Keith Alper [00:31:19]:
Like, most people are not always great to their vendors. Our vendors love us because we pay them on time. Our vendors love us because we say, hey, here’s a referral. So a lot of our partners, what we call them, not even vendors. We’ve been doing work for 20 and 30 years because guess what? When I just called a flower guy right before the marriage inauguration, said, I want to have these flowers, the guy had a truck there donating them in 20 minutes. 20 minutes, like what?
Libby Sundgren [00:31:45]:
That’s wild.
Keith Alper [00:31:47]:
The cool thing is people need to listen, people need to work or whatever. But, and by the way, we’re never perfect. So somebody goes, well, I don’t love it here, Keith. And so I don’t love you either. You’re late to work, you bitch about people, you’re always in the gossip club. So you’re not going to love it here. Probably not the right place for you. But also in most relationships it’s give and take.
Keith Alper [00:32:08]:
There is no employer. I can’t mention this person’s name. But I, I, I met with a big CEO once who used to work at Mary Kay. Remember Mary Kay? It was a big Mary Kay and we were talking about employee engagement, said, yeah, you know the Mary Kay people, they just love that place. She goes, yeah, it was a great consumer product, blah, blah. So what we learn in HR is whatever you give somebody, they’re going to want more and more and more and more. So you never, you can never please everybody. And you also have to find people where they are this day.
Keith Alper [00:32:40]:
But it’s a back and forth just like any relationship. But if you think about the brands that you love, I’ll tell you brands that I love and I’ll tell you brands that I absolutely hate. And this sounds bougie. So this is not a bougie alert, but it sounds bougie. I happened to go to a conference two weeks ago. My old VP of sales, Dane. And when we would talk bougie, she goes, and so this is one of those. So I happen to go for a small group event in to Bangkok four weeks ago and we were at the, we were at the Four Seasons Bangkok.
Keith Alper [00:33:15]:
Okay? Now this hotel was exquisite.
Libby Sundgren [00:33:18]:
Sounds very White Lotus.
Keith Alper [00:33:20]:
Well, there’s a, there’s a connection there because that’s where the White Lotus launch party there in Bangkok. But I told the general manager after our stay, I said, I’m in the hospitality business. We consulted airlines and hospital, blah blah blah. And I said, I have no nothing to tell you because you guys are perfect. I’ve never been in a perfect place. Your people were amazing. The food amazing, the rooms amazing, the building amazing. There was my.
Keith Alper [00:33:47]:
And I look for things like that. So it was amazing. And you find out that, you know, bank hacks is different pay style, whatever. But they took such good care of the employees and the employees were so proud to work at the Four Seasons. Right? And. And you could tell it was contagious. Like, the minute you got off an elevator, there’s somebody just standing there because everybody goes, where is the this? And there’s the this. And at other, maybe American hotel chains, you can’t even find an employee at the front desk.
Keith Alper [00:34:14]:
Right. So a lot of what I’m talking about weaves to, like, little detail. It’s like the little things, not the big things. A lot of people go to do the big things, but you can’t get there without the little things.
Libby Sundgren [00:34:27]:
How.
Keith Alper [00:34:28]:
Have you seen you guys? Are you exhausted?
Libby Sundgren [00:34:31]:
No, I’m just gone from, like to love.
Keith Alper [00:34:34]:
We’ve gone like, I love you guys.
Libby Sundgren [00:34:38]:
I just really. It honestly really resonates because our boss, Dan, is totally on the same plane. And it has been like, his passion for, I don’t know how many years to really, you know, inspire other people to love their work too, you know, and, you know, one of his taglines is, getting paid to practice beats working to get paid. And that’s really the way he looks at work. And it, you know, being at this company has really transformed the way, like, the relationship that I have with work. And I always, you know, liked my jobs and loved them at times, but I don’t think on this level.
Keith Alper [00:35:17]:
So I love that language because I love leaders that get the language. By the way, running company, not easy. It’s a 24 7, keep you up at night job. But if you can have that there and you’re the real deal. Like, I have many, many flaws. And one of mine is like, I can’t remember a lot of people’s names. Susan. You know what I mean? That was Libby.
Keith Alper [00:35:38]:
I can’t remember a lot of names. And so, like. But I think she told me, like, he knows everybody’s name, and he knows people’s family’s name. I’m like, oh, my God, I wish I could do that. I wish I could do that. But it shows that he cares, and it shows in a lot of leadership. If they’re the CEO or owner or managers, do you know, I forget the percentage. It’s very high percent.
Keith Alper [00:35:58]:
Like, 80% of people leave their jobs because of their manager. Because of that. Yeah. I mean, the shipping department, it could be someone over here. It could be a bar and restaurant, and this guy thinks they’re going to listen to me or whatever, and nobody wants to work, and it’s toxic. And, you know, I always go back to a lesson my dad, you know, taught me years and years ago, when I was a kid growing up is, he said, all you have in life is your reputation. And the minute you lose your reputation, you don’t get it back. Think about that.
Keith Alper [00:36:28]:
You don’t get it back. And so we’ve always worked hard to be above board in everything we do, respected in everything we do, whatever it is. And so you know your company and what they invest in and what they do. To hear you say, I love where I work, that’s worth a million dollars. So what we say is, how do we make employees worth a million dollars? Because here’s what they do. They work late, they’ll help their friend. They’re like, not out of here at 350. Like, I’m out of here.
Keith Alper [00:36:54]:
Screw these guys. You know, I just came from the City hall of St. Louis. We’ve got some issues. It was like that. It’s like one department’s like, no, we’re not doing that, because we weren’t behind you there. And I’m like, I wish I could Elon Musk, Doge these people, because it’s not what’s happening with tax. And by the way, I’m not for that.
Keith Alper [00:37:11]:
But like, like, you know, and by the way, I live in a kind of wealthier suburb just because this is where I was born. And our, you know, our city hall is unbelievable. You call about a pothole, you get a ticket, you know, Joe’s going to work on it, you get the follow up. I love. When do you ever hear you love government? So it’s those type of thing of systems people, and like you said, the culture. I don’t think anybody at your company doesn’t know the culture because it’s probably driven every day. And I love the paid, get paid to practice. I’ve actually used that a few times now, so let him know that.
Keith Alper [00:37:45]:
But I love. Because really, I do that every day. I love what I do, and I get paid to practice every day. And, and, and you guys did, too. I could tell in your eyes and in your smiles. You guys love what you do. You know, I got the background on why you guys are doing this podcast and stuff like that. So here’s the deal.
Keith Alper [00:38:05]:
There’s millions and millions of people that are really good people that care about what they do, they care about their craft, their bosses care about it and stuff like that most. And this is going to be a little sexist towards men. Most men were never trained to be men. And so, you know, his great grandfather was a drunk, and then his guy was a Drunk and his guy. Nobody ever taught them how to live and how to deal with emotions and having people and saying, hey, I’m not going to use this as a vehicle. I got to get myself together and stuff. So, you know, I’m in the. Maybe the second generation of dads.
Keith Alper [00:38:40]:
Nobody taught anybody how to, like, my dad was a great guy, but my dad came home, my mom made dinner, he sat, read, read the paper, he ate dinner and then he sat back. Did he help clear the dishes? No, but nobody taught him to. Did he help raise breath? Changing? No, that was not a man’s thing. And so the reason I say this is nobody teaches people how to be great leaders. You know, I mean, you really don’t. You might, you know, work at bank and stuff like that. So. So all this is interconnected.
Keith Alper [00:39:06]:
And I love what you say about your company because you love it there. So we do.
Alysse Bryson [00:39:11]:
There’s just been so many similarities. We also use. We use head, heart, hands when we’re describing different things. So there’s just. There’s a lot of overlap here. So I just love that we’re all on the same event page. I do have to know, Keith, when you’re on site at an event that you’re going to be at, let’s say it’s all day, like, what. How do you prepare for that? What tricks do you have in your fanny pack? Or like, what do you do to, like, get yourself in the zone?
Keith Alper [00:39:41]:
Yeah. So up until like 15 years ago, from the time I was 15 to whatever, I was the guy on the event. Me and my business partner, a few of our team, we were smaller, and we’d do it, we’d be on site for three days. The CEO would want to rehearse again at one in the morning. We’re like, oh, my God. What? We didn’t have sleep or whatever. So I’ve been through all those things. And by the way, event people are the hardest working people because there’s not a playbook.
Keith Alper [00:40:08]:
It starts new every day. And nothing against the guy that builds the car at Ford, but the same part goes in, whatever. There was a big defense company. We got a contract to do their senior leadership meeting. The top 100 people. And we built like a Pentagon briefing room. We had all this equipment on the truck, and we got a call the day before. The trucks had already rolled.
Keith Alper [00:40:28]:
Hey, the CEO got fired. The meeting’s canceled. Meeting’s canceled. We’re going to pay you, but he’s gone. There’s no leadership now, and you’re gone. So the point is, this stuff changes. So back to your question. I don’t go to any events anymore.
Keith Alper [00:40:41]:
Really few a. Because I trust my team and I don’t want to spaz them out a little bit. But they know when I’m in an event, they know kind of our expectations. These are all weird. Like the backstage I want immaculate, like a surgery center. I want furniture from the executives. I want the executives to feel like these guys know what they’re doing and they’ve planned for everything. My favorite thing is every client’s like, oh, we’re going to be your worst customer.
Keith Alper [00:41:07]:
Because we made changes last minute. I said, you know what? Every client makes change the last minute. It’s in our DNA. We got it. We breathe. You can come a minute before. We don’t think you should, but you can come a minute before. So what I do now is my role is very different.
Keith Alper [00:41:20]:
I went from the only producer on site, the producer showcaller on site, to then over time that we have people much better than me. And my business partner who retired a few years ago is we really were there to support the team. So when I go to Ultra Beauty in a few weeks, I’m there to see the CEO and she’s incredible. We started with Image Restore Director 10 years ago, and now she’s CEO three months ago. So we’ve written with her. Amazing story herself. You know, she was a single mom and her and her daughter stayed in the car for years. You know, like crazy stories.
Keith Alper [00:41:55]:
And so when I go on site, my number one thing is to support the client and support the team. So I’m like there for support. So I’ll go say hi to our clients, show them that I believe in them and thank them for their business and thank them with that. And I’ll go to. To make sure my team. But if I see something, I will say something. You know, they say, if you see something, say something. And I’ll say, it’s kind of weird.
Keith Alper [00:42:17]:
We have all this drape here and you have lights, but why aren’t they on? And then they’ll go, oh, the client didn’t know what to do. She had. Or I’m like, whatever, whatever. So every once in a while I’ll bring something up, but not to be. Not to be a jerk, but rather to do that. So to get my mental head together because I’m so add. I don’t like standing in the back of the room and watching the show. I’m too nervous.
Keith Alper [00:42:37]:
It’s like a live. It’s like watching your kid at the play. So I bop in and by bow, you know, I’ll go backstage a little bit, I’ll do whatever. Just because it’s like a real, like, issue for me. I can’t just stand still too long. So I’ll sit down, I’ll watch the important things. I’ll go, you know, just talk to people in the hotel, whatever it is. So.
Keith Alper [00:42:56]:
But I think everybody, for anybody watching this podcast, it is like playing the super bowl your day. And how do you prepare for the Super Bowl? So, like, this sounds stupid. You have comfortable shoes. Oh, the other thing we do is it’s a big, big deal. It’s like beyond. We want to make sure our team is well fed and nourished at all times. Snack tip, snack tables. Ding, ding, ding.
Keith Alper [00:43:20]:
Yeah, See, snack tables.
Alysse Bryson [00:43:22]:
It always comes down to the snacks.
Keith Alper [00:43:24]:
Always down to the damn snacks, right? And we also try to find out if this is the. If this is our produce. Who wants what snacks? You can’t get Doritos if nobody likes Doritos, right? And so we have a bunch of snacks and we find out what people’s drinks are. Because our people are working really long days. And we ask the client, if you’re doing a big banquet, we want the same banquet meal for our team and our local stagehands. Like, we don’t want to treat like anybody, like second class citizens. Now they’re going to say, hey, it’s costing 175 bucks ahead. We’ll bring something in or whatever.
Keith Alper [00:43:56]:
So a lot of times what happens is our producer, we’re too busy. Richard Linton. But the team is like, hey, I need food. So good shoes. Have a plan for meals. Always have a backup plan. This is kind of. It’s not.
Keith Alper [00:44:08]:
I hope it’s not like, what’s it called? Woke too. Woke. But we had a team member do. It was like a famous, like Indian proverb, like, you know, Native American wahaba. And they kept all. Our office had these wahaboos and like big totem poles, like, what’s a wahaboo? And we always said, like, always have a backup. And we have a backup for everything. We’re thinking of everything.
Keith Alper [00:44:31]:
So, like, we just did a big meeting for thousands of people in Puerto Rico. Well, Puerto Rico power goes out a lot. So you have to tell the client we think you should have generators standing by or whatever. You know, we think you should be doing this. So, like, when I’m planning an event, so like, I’m helping plan this inauguration for my friend and we’re helping them last minute, and we’re thinking of every little itsy bitsy detail. But for me, it’s game plan. What am I wearing that day? What are we going to eat that day? What’s the crew going to eat? What’s our client going to eat? How can we reduce any stress? Like, literally? I talked to the guy that runs the building of city hall. I said, make sure the bathrooms are clean tomorrow.
Keith Alper [00:45:09]:
Make sure there’s plenty of toilet paper. The last thing you want to do is find no paper towels. It’s like it ruins the whole thing. And so mentally, being prepared for, like, win the war, the Super Bowl, a big dance, whatever that person is, it’s a mental plan. And it’s really female because guess what? Live events are scary because things can go wrong. How many times have you been there when the mic doesn’t work? And then, like, there’s a nerve. I get it. So nervous even when I’m at other people’s events.
Keith Alper [00:45:37]:
I mean, so. And that’s. That’s mental stress. Like, I’m so stressed for tomorrow that it goes right, and I know it’ll go right. But we have a backup. You know, we did a recent meeting, and we did a meeting a few months ago, and, like, it was a kind of a big deal senior leadership meeting, but for some reason, when the CEO came out, his handheld didn’t work, which is, like, our fault. Okay? It was our fault. It was a stupid fault, okay? Our audio company didn’t do it, Whatever.
Keith Alper [00:46:04]:
And they got back up and whatever. So we’re doing that meeting two weeks ago, and I told my team, even though it’s a small meeting, love, Mike. Back up, Mike, and we will let the CEO know. So I just told him the other day. I said, hey, you didn’t know this, but, like, I was not only sorry, I told somebody on my team. Literally, if the sound doesn’t work right, somebody’s getting fired. And that’s not. That was not a joke, because we got to be in our game, and we messed up once before.
Keith Alper [00:46:30]:
We owned it. We owned it because none of us are perfect. And it goes, oh, my God, I don’t know what happened, but I had two lavalier mics, a fan mic, and then everything goes down. Go over there. So at least we don’t make that mistake. So. But guess what? Think of this. You can think you’re doing a giant meeting in a stadium.
Keith Alper [00:46:49]:
Do you know what the stress is on our team and what the stress is with our client? Because if we mess up, she might lose her job. Literally.
Alysse Bryson [00:46:57]:
Yeah, no, yeah, it’s from the CEO.
Keith Alper [00:47:00]:
And so it’s like. It’s like live theater. But if that mess up. So there is a big mental game in live events. TV is easier. This is easier because we can stop and start and stuff like that.
Alysse Bryson [00:47:11]:
Sure.
Keith Alper [00:47:12]:
But a live event is miserable in a good way. Like, once we’re done, we’re done. We’re done. But we’re on an adrenaline. So there was a long answer to how you should prepare.
Alysse Bryson [00:47:20]:
Well, you know, Keith, if you decide to start a podcast called Toilet Talks with Keith, like, oh, that’s a good one. We’re there.
Keith Alper [00:47:29]:
I. I think I would flush that one down.
Alysse Bryson [00:47:32]:
Well, Keith, you’ve. There. We’ve covered so much ground today. You’re such a joy. I love, love, love your experience and your ideas. I’ve definitely learned from this conversation today. Like, yeah, when we’re scouting a venue, have I ever checked a bathroom? You might have, Libby, but I don’t know that I have.
Libby Sundgren [00:47:50]:
I do. And I also. One time we had an event out on a patio. It was only 30 people. Right, Elise? It was the first event I did with work P2P when I started, and.
Alysse Bryson [00:48:02]:
Oh, right.
Libby Sundgren [00:48:03]:
I went out there and when Elise showed up, I was sweeping and she was like, she was cleaning. What you doing? I was like, well, there’s little stray leaves. And, like, I don’t want people to see a leaf underneath that chair back there. It just. I can’t do it.
Keith Alper [00:48:16]:
It’s the little details. And it’s like, I told you, this guy delivered flowers last minute. It’s me and one of our associates. And we’re like, who’s going to bring this up? We’re bringing it in. Like, let’s move these trees. I got dirt on my pants. Because here’s the deal. Nobody, nobody knows what happens until that light goes out in your life.
Keith Alper [00:48:34]:
You’re alive. Of that. You know, the. The furniture is behind the back room or, you know, whatever. So there’s no business like show business.
Alysse Bryson [00:48:44]:
There is no business like show business. So, Keith, can you please tell our many listeners where they can find you? Find your book, Follow along all the things.
Keith Alper [00:48:55]:
Yeah. So we don’t hide from people. And we’re always happy to answer questions on anything. And so my companies are@nitrous effect.com. that’s where all our agencies are, and we work worldwide and we work very small things and very big things. My personal website is KeithAlper.com KeithAlper.com and my book and what we do and cute little video and like to love is it from like to dot love. It’s a dot love. I loved having a dot love when we could get that love.
Keith Alper [00:49:27]:
Yeah. And yeah. So those are the places. And you know, it’s weird. We’re all in this together. If you’re doing an event or however you can help anybody, it’s that person walking out and sweeping and going, I want this to be right because that’s my own pride and craftsmanship. But it also makes our company look great. Unless you walked into pile of leaves that wouldn’t have looked great, you know, so.
Alysse Bryson [00:49:49]:
Yeah. Okay, wait, I have another question before we close. I know we’re probably over time. I’m sorry, but I have to know, like, what are you excited about for the future? Because, yes, the pandemic was hard, but I agree with you that people are back at events now more than ever. Like, they’re very invested in having in person experiences. So what are you most excited about? If you look at the events in the next five years, what are you the most excited about?
Keith Alper [00:50:17]:
Well, it’s like I always look to the future, so I’m big on AI. I’m big on AI. And I think just AI is another tool. You know, people used to draw and then there was a thing called Illustrator, and I’m like, oh my God, people are gonna lose their jobs. No, whatever. Now, could you, could you do a logo in 30 seconds on something? Yeah, but the events industry, it’s hard to AI an event. It’s hard to an event. It’s hard to make somebody cry or laugh.
Keith Alper [00:50:44]:
It’s hard to deliver that special cocktail or the Kumbaya. And what I’m excited about in events is actually just people getting closer and connecting. And really the thing I said before, whatever it is, is what’s your desired outcome? So if you guys want to go have a great concert. Actually, actually, I’m going to bitch for a second because do tell.
Libby Sundgren [00:51:05]:
I’m pulling up my chair because here’s.
Keith Alper [00:51:08]:
What my plan is or my, My worry is Amazon does a great job. You. I mean, so I ran into Jeff Bezos years ago at my first ted. He was there walking around with his mom. I just walked up and, you know, and I just said, hey, I love you to death and I love your company like 15, 20 years ago. And I said, I think I have mental issues because I buy something every day, on which I do. I bought something every day for like whatever. And he goes, we thank you for Your mental issues.
Keith Alper [00:51:33]:
He was just so cute how he said it. But here’s the deal. And this is why every business works in your guys businesses. If you can reduce friction, that’s when you win. So now I can click on and get any song in the world. Think what Spotify did, right? I can click on Amazon and get anything in the world. So now it’s still sometimes hard to go to events, still hard to figure out how to get the ticket from Ticketmaster and then go to the app. Like nothing seamless yet.
Keith Alper [00:52:02]:
Think one day that you’ll have your phone and you’ll be able to have the concert ticket on. You didn’t even have to do anything. You’re already pre secured. Your phone lets you in the parking lot, it lets you in the gate. You already have money on your thing so you can order anything and it’s a seamless event. But going to like big events is a pain. It’s problems. Checking in a hotel is a pain.
Keith Alper [00:52:27]:
It’s problems. You gotta go here, room not ready. We’ll give you a key, we’ll call you back. I went to a hotel that we do some work for and I’m gonna talk to the CEO because like they missed five big things and I’m like, if you do five big chains like this, you’re not going to be the hotel chain you think you are. And it was all stupid stuff. So that’s where AI is going to help. Like let’s use things that we don’t need emotions to do to get me the key, get me the drink, walk in the door. But like there’s a big live nation, big amphitheater here.
Keith Alper [00:52:59]:
And it’s like, I dread going there. I dread it. You got to wait in line to park, then you have to park. $40 to park. Then you got to walk, then you got to go through, you got to go through security. It’s like some people think travel is glamorous. It’s not glamorous. So for all the event planners out there, make it easy.
Keith Alper [00:53:16]:
Make it easy if you remove every barrier. So that’s what I’m excited about is how do we use AI to make the experience better. I’m talking with a great friend of mine. He’s built two huge successful companies and, and he has developed AI for now, 20,000 companies on customer service call centers. And we’re just talking about what they’re going to be doing for events, which excited me because again, lapse the unpleasant things of an event. Yeah, so that’s, that’s what I’m excited about. And I’m just like a geek. I’m still the same 15 year old thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if.
Keith Alper [00:53:53]:
Wouldn’t it be cool? But it was a pleasure being with you, Libby and Elise and I looked you guys up before and I, you know, your producer when we did the pre ding, like, these two are great. And you go, you both kind of have this ray of sunshine and smiles in your eyes. And so thank you for being so great and making it easy. And also thank you for what you do for your listeners because, you know, we’re in on these things to get bits and bites of right knowledge, daily lives. So thank you for what you guys do.
Libby Sundgren [00:54:23]:
I mean, I feel like we could do an entire series with you, Keith, because you probably have so many stories and so many good tips. So we’ll be hitting you back again.
Keith Alper [00:54:32]:
Hit me back. And we have so many fricking weird stories on concerts.
Libby Sundgren [00:54:36]:
We’re gonna have a weird stories episode.
Keith Alper [00:54:38]:
We’re gonna have weird stories.
Alysse Bryson [00:54:39]:
Just weird stories.
Keith Alper [00:54:40]:
Just weird stories later. And that’s a weird story.
Libby Sundgren [00:54:43]:
So that’s a teaser, folks.
Keith Alper [00:54:46]:
Teaser. Yeah.
Libby Sundgren [00:54:47]:
All right, well, that’s a wrap for this episode of Beats Working. If you’ve got an idea or want to reach out, email us at @InfoatsWorking Show. Remember that every detail matters, every moment counts, and no matter what, the show must go on. Thanks, everybody.
Alysse Bryson [00:55:03]:
Thanks for listening to Beats Working, Winning the game of events where we explore what it takes to make moments unforgettable.
Libby Sundgren [00:55:10]:
If you’re leaving with a little more inspiration, a little more perspective, and a big side ache from all of the laughing at our funny jokes, then we’ve done our job.
Alysse Bryson [00:55:19]:
Beats working as a work. P2P production. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review us on your favorite podcast platforms.
Libby Sundgren [00:55:30]:
Your support helps us keep the magic going.
