We recently connected with Charles Chan Massey and have shared our conversation below.

Charles , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

At the end of December 1994, I took what was potentially a big risk – I quit my job as Director of Sales and Marketing at a little boutique hotel in West Hollywood and decided to make a go of it on my own, something I’d been thinking about for the past several years. I had been working on the side as a freelance conference and event planning assistant, helping friends here and there with their own projects, and had one solid client who was the executive director of an association of physicians and allied health professionals. While she was clear from the start of our discussions that she wouldn’t be able to keep me fully employed I was confident that she would (hopefully) be able to at least pay me enough to make rent. I had met this particular client through my professional association, Meeting Professionals International, and along with other potential employers I’d also gotten to know through the organization I was cautiously optimistic that I was ready to take the “plunge” into the world of self-employment. SYNAXIS Meetings & Events was born, the first “employee” being me, myself, and I.

I also found myself in a new relationship in 1994, and around the same time my career transition was happening we had moved in together, so you can imagine how things initially went when I came home and said “hi honey, I quit my job today!” I’m exaggerating just a bit – he was supportive but we were both cautious, as neither of us knew what would really happen next. So, when I made my first phone call of the day on Monday, January 2nd, 1995 to my client imagine my surprise when her assistant answered the phone and said she was in the hospital, having almost died over the holidays. The next morning, I headed to her office, picked up the mail, and went directly to the hospital, spending my first day at “work” at her bedside, where she was communicating with me by scribbling notes on a pad as she was still too weak to talk. You see, her annual meeting was coming up in less than three months and little did I know at the time that I would end up being the lead meeting planner that year, a position I had never held but one I was sure I could handle. The rest, as they say, is history…

Charles , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The meetings and events industry is largely misunderstood by the general public. Even people that have attended meetings and events don’t fully understand that it takes a team to pull them together. That’s how I was at the beginning of my career, which I used to say started all the way back in 1983 when I got my first hotel job as a bellman in a historic hotel in Charleston, SC. In truth my career had really began several years earlier when I took my first job outside of my family’s retail business, selling tickets at a theme park.

While a bit monotonous, I got a regular paycheck and best of all employees received free admission to the park during our off hours – as a teenager that was a nice perc. When a job became available in the park’s Guest Relations department I applied and was hired. My duties included conducting demographic surveys as guests entered the park and handling guest complaints and “situations” and was my first official foray into customer service. I was hooked almost immediately.

SYNAXIS Meetings & Events provide hotel contract negotiation, registration, creative services, promotional products, etc. for our clients. Folks think of us as an extension of their team. We take the tactical aspects of planning a meeting or event off their plate, allowing them to focus on the core of their business.

I’ve always been a bit of a risk taker. A number of years ago we came up with a slogan that we used for quite a while – “We save you from yourselves” – because in reality that’s what meeting professionals do for their clients. We even had it printed on the back of t-shirts which we would wear to industry networking events. Some thought it funny; others found it unprofessional. The folks we wanted to work with loved it and told us so and, better yet, many times hired us to help them.

I would say that I’m most proud of taking the leap and never second guessing myself. I’ve been self-employed since 1994 and never been in a position where I needed to take on a part time job. That in itself is something to be proud of.  Potential clients need to know that with me what you see is what you get. I don’t mince words and sometimes what I say might initially come across as offensive but I have their best interests in mind. I won’t let them down.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

n 2012 I ran across a video about a young man who had lost his life partner in a tragic accident. I watched it over and over and over again. I couldn’t shake it. It was to be the first of several signs that I was supposed to do something other than negotiate hotel contracts and write meeting room set-up specifications for the rest of my career but I wasn’t yet sure what. After a couple more signs I finally looked up at the sky and said “OK, I know I’m supposed to do something with this but what?”

So, I did what any smart, Internet-savvy person would do at the time – I took it to social media. And voila – The Personal Stories Project was born within the next year. That’s the VERY short version. Without going into too much detail the longer version included things like 1) I still had a “day job” to do, and I was neglecting it; 2) I was in a relationship – we got married in 2013 once the US v. Windsor and Proposition 8 decisions were handed down – and I was neglecting that and 3) I wasn’t concentrating on what was immediately in front of me and I risked letting others down, something that isn’t in my nature.

Of course, me being me I didn’t fully realize any of this until it all collided. Luckily, I have a supportive spouse and a great circle of friends and they helped me pull myself together in the nick of time (just barely) and I emerged relatively unscathed, with a few bumps and bruises and one less client but in the end, everything happened as it was meant to and I’m still here, still happily married, and now working with two organizations – my business and my passion project.

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

I have so many stories to tell. That’s probably one of the reasons I was called to start a story-sharing platform. But I digress. One story in particular stands out and, to me, is a lesson in resilience I’ve never forgotten. I’ve never shared it in writing until today and even now I won’t get too specific. I mentioned earlier that I was involved for many years with an association of meeting and event professionals and those who supply products and services for the meetings and events industry. After serving in several positions, including chapter president, at the local level I ran for a position that included a one-year seat on the international board of directors.

I was well on my way towards potentially progressing up the ranks when an unfortunate situation occurred at a board of directors meeting resulting in me taking the fall for something – a trap I fell into quite easily, as I was apparently less savvy than I thought.

In short, the organization’s executive director had set me up to be the “fall guy” for something he wanted to happen but that didn’t make sense, at least at the time, for the organization. In the end, the decision to set me up became part of his downfall and the ultimate result was that in a matter of months he was gone, I was still there, and I spent many more years as a member of the organization, building additional business relationships, learning new skills about emerging technologies, and most importantly cultivating lifelong friendships. As life lessons go, what at the time was one of the most depressing moments of my professional career became one of my greatest and most important life experiences.

Contact Info:

• Website: synaxismeetings.com/ and personalstoriesproject.org/
• Instagram: instagram.com/chazmassey/
• Facebook: facebook.com/charles.s.massey/, facebook.com/synaxismeetings/, and facebook.com/PersonalStoriesProject/
• Other: All my links in one place: https://allmylinks.com/chazmassey

Image Credits
All images are my own