We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Teresa Mercsak a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Teresa, thanks for joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

Unifier Entertainment was created as a hobby project back in 2005 with my bestie, Katya, and we only started to get serious about the business a few years later once the clients became a little bigger. At one point, I had to decide whether or not Unifier would become a full-time business for me, which would require me to quit my career as a college English instructor. I loved teaching, but I loved creating more. In 2016; I fully acquired the business from my business partner, decided to “go big or go home,” and leapt off the career cliff.

Because of this leap of faith, all of my energy went into the business, as well as all my saved-up funds, and I started seeing a little return on investment within a few months. It was slow… for four years, I worked day and night. I was on the computer more than I’d like to admit. I was researching, networking online–reaching out to as many people who would listen to my pitch, sponsoring networking events, attending other networking events, visiting venues, and buying coffee for a sit-down with as many planners and vendors who would let me. At the end of 2019, I spent A LOT more money on some of upcoming gigs that were contracted for the following year. This mega money investment was going to pay itself off, and then I was going to be seeing great profits by year’s end. Cue COVID…and I was left with tens of thousands of dollars in brand new equipment, but no gigs to pay them off.

There I was, on the brink of success, and then, I was flattened by the pandemic. Thankfully, I had a good support system, and during this time I went back to part-time teaching, but I still had debt. So, instead of giving up and throwing in the proverbial towel, I got back on my computer and researched, something I pride myself in. I talked to industry people, called friends, asked family, and looked for any and all assistance programs and grants that I could apply for. I wouldn’t take any loans I had to pay back because I knew it would just put me in more debt, and I knew in my heart, the universe would provide.

And it did. I found myself at a very neutral place coming out of the pandemic, and all the work I had put in for years before quarantine, was just waiting for me on the other side. I got right back to reaching out, networking, and reminding all those connections I had made that we were ready to party.

…And the work keeps coming in. So much so that I had to hire two employees in the last year alone.

The bottom line: hard work, full commitment, and investing in myself and my business is how I became successful.

Teresa, 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?

The success of Unifier Entertainment, a full-service entertainment company, specializing in high-end corporate acts, cirque-style performers, and unique performance scenarios, is really more of an evolving story that starts as early as childhood.

Throughout grade school in a small town in Ohio, I performed as a marching and concert band musician, a baton twirler (I was 8 years old when I held my first fire baton), and a backstage manager for some of our school plays. I continued in performance as a dancing waiter in college and was heavily active in the arts program even while pursuing a Master of Arts degree in English. I knew one day, even by age 15, I would move to LA and have my hand in the entertainment industry.

In 2000, I moved to California, found myself a cozy career as a college instructor; however, even throughout my 22 years as an educator, I was still heavily involved with the arts. I had met my tribe of people through the Burning Man community in early 2001, starting spinning fire and stilt walking, and before you knew it, I had a small fire troupe, which in later years turned into a small entertainment company with a friend and business partner.

Honestly, it was a hobby for many many years. In 2006, I was at a massive turning point. My business partner and I were at a pivot point and I was no longer fulfilled with teaching. I reevaluated my dreams and goals and knew that I wanted to make this hobby a full-time career. So, I took the leap of faith, quit my job and started putting all my attention and focus into Unifier Entertainment.

Unifier Entertainment focuses on entertainment within the event industry. We provide musicians; specialty acts like aerialists, stilt walkers, acrobats, mermaids, etc.; any and all types of dancers; character actors; children’s entertainment, magicians, fortune tellers, and SO MUCH MORE!

Unifier Entertainment is unlike any other because of our dedication to our clients’ visions, offering cohesive in-house custom costuming and styling, significant attention to detail and high level of communication/client attentiveness. Entertainment is an extension of your brand, your dreams, your philosophy. We look to partner with clients, vendors and planners of like mind.

We are exceptionally proud to be one of the top entertainment companies in Los Angeles, and we host one of the most extensive collection of apparatuses in LA. We love fabricating new props to add to our ever-growing collection. Some of them include our aerial rigs and a range of hanging apparatus, champagne service towers, bikes, skirts, dresses, hedge walls, our 48″ rotating disco ball, our massive birdcage, and a number of insanely amazing 4-legged stilt costumes.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

This is the million dollar question, and the question that if I fully knew the answer to…well, you know the rest.

On IG:
I think that many businesses who started with social media years ago, especially on Instagram, blew up with followers (via real and perhaps fake accounts–which was common in the app’s infancy), and if you jumped in later (like I did) you were left behind. I tried to figure out what I could do to catch up, and I still feel that way to some extent. In order to gain business, aka followers, you have to create content, and what kind of content do people want to view other than hot girls in bikinis puckering their lips and finding the perfect selfie angle?

I knew this was the way in though, so I was dedicated to bringing up the numbers on IG. I began researching online, as I do… I saw what content was being liked, who was liking what, and started seeing what content I had that was worth posting. Well, at first, I didn’t have much. In fact, I would often be so frustrated with the images I had as a company. So, I began focusing on content. CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT. I took pictures and videos at every event, almost to the point of exhaustion, and then I started posting. I would post only a few images per month, and as we grew, I posted more, and more and more.

And then, when I brought on my first assistant, I handed the social media torch. She is younger, more in touch with the current generation, and knowledgeable about what seems to work. It was a smart choice to assign this task to someone who could increase our numbers. Also, it was a major lesson for me personally to give up some creative control.

Still our goal is posting daily, or every other day, but we also know that we have to be kind to ourselves in this journey.

On Advertising:
I never wanted to spend money on advertising. Advertising seemed to be out of my reach–something that big companies do because they can afford it. However, one day, I had an epiphany. How the heck did those large companies get big to begin with?

So, I jumped in. I signed up for Google Ads and put a cap on it so I felt comfortable but just comfortable enough to also be uncomfortable. lol And, the calls started coming in. The lesson here…never say never.

On Tik Tok:
We have an account, but omg… it’s too much. I think that’s the neck level for us–but it’s almost a full-time job. And here again, getting in late in the game is perhaps detrimental, but doesn’t slow and steady wins the race?

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

We currently just acquired a company, and it was certainly an investment, but is proving to be a very good move for us.

After many years of partnering with Lucid Life Entertainment on countless events, we were delighted to announce the acquisition.

We adored working with Lucid Life’s founder, Kaitlyn Rose, and it was such an honor to be trusted to carry on the legacy she had built. We are committed to continuing to provide outstanding service and entertainment offerings to existing Lucid Life clients under the umbrella of Unifier Entertainment. Additionally, we were thrilled to offer all of our clients an even greater variety of options for costume themes, characters, and performance apparatus.

Because of this move, we were able to add to our costumes, apparatus, client list, and vendors. Another lesson…it takes money to make more money.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://unifierentertainment.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unifierentertainment/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unifierentertainment
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trexattacks/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Unifier_
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/unifier-entertainment-los-angeles

Image Credits
All photos are property of Unifier Entertainment