We recently connected with Dianna Feliciano and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dianna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

DFNTLY Entertainment is based on working with talented people to entertain at events. So from day one I worked with different performers from different backgrounds. But I did all the back work from sales, marketing, bookkeeping, costume design, recruiting, and creative vision. Which were humbling times of working until 2AM hemming costumes, while still having another day job. In the beginning, I didn’t have a washer and dryer at home so I would have to take the costumes to a laundry mat.

Then finally when the company seemed stable enough that I knew I needed more help. I hired my first hourly through a conversation after a large production we did and AJ had lots of valuable experience in the entertainment industry that I did not have and a creative side that matched my flow and we worked together on concepts that literally kept the company afloat during the pandemic.

The story of my next hourly person start before she even was hired. A vendor asked me if I had “another you” to do what I do when I am unable to. I told him no, it would be really hard to have someone just as passionate about my company as me. But then here she is. Lina was one of the dancers I would hire on occasion for events. When I posted I was looking for a coordinator she approached me about the position. I was surprised honestly. But as she explained to me why she would want to work for this company, it made me realize she was perfect for the position but also that my company DID mean something and making a difference to other people.

Building that core team is essential to grow and to push you to do more and better for the company. Your team should teach you from their expertise and learn from you and find a value to being part of your company over any other. Understand your staffs motivations and nurture that seed. A person you can not pin motivations at interview that your company can not contribute then may not be the best fit.

Dianna, 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?

DFNTLY Entertainment (definitely): We are an entertainment talent agency. We are known for amazing shows and interactive fun like our party starters known in the industry as Hora Loca (Crazy Hour) which our brand is DFNLTYaParty that provides a unique mix of entertainers in one hour of fun on the dance floor. We also offer other acts that cater to themed parties and so much more. If you ask us, we just might have it!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

What helped build our reputation was understanding how we want to be portrayed within the market. For instance let’s use the analogy of baking a cake. There are many ways to bake a cake, but mostly all require the same basic ingredients to be considered one: eggs, butter, flour, etc. But what would make your cake different? Buttercream frosting? Fondant icing? No matter how you make your particular cake it leaves an impression on those that indulge it.

As an event entertainment company, we market ourselves as high-end but attainable. We want to give great quality work that works for the masses. The hardest part of this particular company is illustrating what we do and how our clients can hire us. So it is a lot of show and tell. Once a person experiences us in action, they get it! Which helps spark our reputation with the event industry for our unique services.

We also pride ourselves in our costumer service from first contact to after the event. We want to understand the events needs and goals to see how our entertainers can fill that role. Is this a internal company morale event, a product launch, or are we trying create a one-of-a-kind experience for private function? Then building our services from there, matching with the right talent to the event to create the best experience, possible.

Last but not least we work closely with our entertainers to provide them everything needed to have a successful performance. We are only as good as the talent be bring onboard. Putting all these ingredients together, leads us bake a delectable creation of a company.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

March 2020 was the big pivot for majority of companies and the arts and events industry was one of biggest to be hit. With public gatherings shut down we had to do major budget cuts to all aspects of our operations and kept less than a handful of talent. But with this small mighty team we came up with more ways to serve by doing weekly courtyard shows, virtual date night dance lessons, and doing mascot and masked characters. As restrictions started coming up we were able to survive and thrive in this new economy.

Contact Info:

• Website: MyEventEntertainment.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dfntlyentertainment/

Image Credits
Danielsonphoto – Daniel Huerta, Cecilia Grace Photography