Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sean Schuette. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sean, appreciate you joining us today. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

I responded to an email for a Content and Speaker Manager contract role for a company’s annual retailer summit. I interviewed over the phone for the role and was brought onto the team to help collaborate on this annual event. I ended up helping them execute the event for five cycles, and it was a great growth experience and an opportunity for my passion for event production to shine.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was an administrative assistant with Target Corporation and within a month in the role, I was asked to help plan an event for the launch of Club Web online gift registry. My boss partnered me with the events planning team, and they were a great partner in the process of planning that event. It was a big success and sparked my heart and passion for planning meetings and events. That led to several years with Target in the admin role and working on things from team picnics, two all-day meetings and other celebrations. I was noticed by other areas of the organization and asked to help on a higher level internal event as well as be an ambassador for an internal initiative called Fast, Fun and Friendly.

Eventually an opportunity presented itself to join a tradeshow management company and be a conference coordinator with the operations team. I spent four years there, working on events in various b2b industries, including events in the fire and EMS industry. It was there that I worked on my largest event in my career, Firehouse Expo, which saw 16K attendees over 4 days and where I helped coordinate and execute sessions for over 160 speakers. They included a general session for 2K attendees as well as breakout sessions. In my final year in the role, I had the honor of partnering with one of the speakers on their general session keynote presentation. This involved collaborating on theme, music, images, and overall messaging. They were incredibly grateful for my partnership with them on a great message for those in attendance.

After four years the opportunity came to be part of a young association management company where I was the Director of Meetings & Events for nearly a decade. I worked with local and national associations and partnered with them on single and multiple day events as well as working alongside their boards. I had anywhere from 6-7 clients at a time under my purview and was able to help execute a program at Disneyland Resort which was so much fun. I learned a lot in terms of working with member-based organizations and their focus in preparing programs for their membership and external audiences.

I left the association management company and decided to go on my own in November 2016. It was a huge leap and I continue to focus forward. The heart of my company is creating experiences that change people and environments. I have built strong relationships with clients, several of which have had me collaborate with them several times. I have had business referred to me as well, which has been a great stream to work with. I continue to service the clients and projects I have currently as well as forging new partnerships. I have narrowed my focus of offerings to be more production related and do entertain other full-service projects as well.

I have been able to mentor those younger in the industry which is a great give back lane. I also am part of some great communities like SPIN (Senior Planner Industry Network) and Club Ichi. The learning is ongoing and this industry I have been part of for over two decades is definitely like family.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The meeting and events world is always evolving and that also means clients are evolving. I helped a client on their annual event in the production lane. It involved collaborating with them on how visuals were created and executed as well as partnering with their speakers on their sessions given in the general session. I walked away knowing I had made an impact and that my skills were put to good use. I asked for the business again and learned that they were going in another direction for the next year. While that was hard to hear initially, it helped grow the resilience in me that my gifts and passions will make room for me. Sometimes a project comes along that becomes repeat, while others present themselves for one round only. Regardless of the length, I have learned that I was involved to help impact the project for the time it happened in the journey.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Those that know me often say that my countenance and tone of voice changes when I speak about things surrounding event production. I have taken my degree in technical theater and parlayed many aspects of it into the work I currently do with clients and projects. While I can handle full event management still, I am fueled when I can let my event producer experience shine. A colleague of mine a few years back gave me the needed push to focus on work opportunities in that arena so as to become a specialist and not just a generalist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://schuetteondutysolutions.com
• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/seanrschuettecmp/