We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful John Wilkinson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with John below.

John, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I absolutely love what I do and I love all the different pieces that go into creating a great event. I started my career as a graphic designer, and then moved into marketing a few years later. Although I love doing these things, doing it day in and day out on someone else’s schedule without taking the time to check in with myself & my happiness quickly became draining. I was always fine putting in the work at my job, but I never liked the routine of a 9-5 job. Having my own company means that not one day looks the same. If some days I want to work 18 hours, while some days I work 3, then I can and it’s totally okay! I’ve learned that everyone’s working style is different, and just because you do not fit in to the mold of an 8 hour work day does not make you lazy or less than.

John, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am in event coordinator who’s biggest and most frequent events are based on K-pop music. I first started listening to music outside the United States in 2004 when Utada Hikaru released her first english album, and it popped up on my Rhapsody app (the spotify of it’s time). I looked her up, and every article about her also mentioned BoA, a K-pop star who also found success in Japan (I guess they were their Britney & Christina). I started listening to more of BoA’s music, and then several years later when YouTube became a thing they start recommending me other Kpop music videos from Shinee, 2ne1, Big Bang, etc. At that point I fell in love with the music, and I couldn’t get enough.

Flash forward 5 more years & I had the opportunity to work with a group that put on 18+ kpop events in downtown Austin. The turnout was small, but had a dedicated fanbase that would come every month. After working with them for 5 years, I fell in love with event marketing, and wanted to create an event that was for all ages & in multiple cities. That’s how Kpop Nite was born!

Kpop Nite is part club night & part show, and I try to include as much of the community in to the event as possible. I play music videos that the audience requests, leave a stage open for them to perform the choreography they learned, and have local dance troops & craft vendors show off their latest work throughout the night. I’m always the most proud to see people’s confidence grow from their first events, and take the stage to perform in front of everyone. I am no dancer myself, so I’m always so impressed by what they perform each month.

Events are now in several cities throughout Texas, and we’re hoping to continue to grow!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Our Instagram recently reached over 4,000 followers. Still small compared to many, but for us it’s been beyond our expectations! Our engagement rate is through the roof, and if you know anything about social media marketing that sort of dedication is incredibly valuable. Everyone’s voice is going to be different, but for us we try to keep the page slightly more casual than other accounts in the space. We aren’t afraid to make jokes, post memes we love, and we are always resharing work that our community is creating to help spread the love. We are a very targeted page, so my advice for anyone is find a niche that you can really speak to so you will always have fresh content & can interact with your followers in an authentic way.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

We love putting on these events, and we’re always looking for ways to grow & create additional revenue in a way that feels natural to our audience. Many K-pop fans also love bubble tea, and so we recently started our own bubble tea company to be able to serve at our events. Several of our events have themes, and so we create drinks that tie in to the theme of the night as an additional way to enjoy the experience of the event. Custom cupsleeves (the little cardboard things you put on hot drinks so you don’t burn your hand) with different k-pop stars printed on them are also big in this community, so we started creating those as well to put on our bubble tea drinks. In the future, we are going to create more merchandise like clothing, tote bags, stickers, etc that we can sell & always bring something fresh to the table.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://kpopnite.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/kpopnitetx
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/kpopnitetx
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imjohnnorman/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kpopnitetx