We were lucky to catch up with Diego Hernandez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Diego thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

To me, success comes from how you make your customers feel at the end of the day. Being in the events management field I pride myself in making sure everyone I come in contact with, whether in person, by email, or via DM, has the best experience at any of our events. Hearing from people who have attended our shows express how much enjoyment they had or overall experience has made an impact on their lives even if it was just a momentary escape. I feel that this is the reason why we have repeat attendees to our shows because Henn House Events as a whole prides itself on customer satisfaction.

Diego, 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?

My name is Diego Raul Hernandez-Hennessey, I’m 33 years old and have lived in Philadelphia PA since 2009 after studying and earning my degree in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Philadelphia. I have worked my way up in the local design scene, working jobs from lower level positions to free-lance jobs to my current position as Senior Graphic Designer at Helium Comedy Club.

In my current role as Senior Graphic Designer, I oversee two junior designers with their weekly tasks. I help curate all of our design needs from flyers, social graphics, website assets, and physical media for our 9 locations across the country. I also helped launch our Tiktok channel which has grown to 92.7K followers.

Throughout my professional career, I have let my passion for creativity and art lead the way to explore avenues outside of design. This has led me to my recent endeavor of event producing.

In 2022, I got married to my now Husband, a talented local drag queen. named Jenny Henny. Over the 6 years we have been together, I have adapted my creative abilities to fit the world of drag from sewing and creating outfits, creating visuals for shows, and organizing shows from the beginning stages.

We co-founded an event production company in 2023 called Henn House Events along with our friend who is also a drag performer named Yari. We focus on providing quality drag/burlesque/vocal artists to all of our events in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas.

Something I think that makes Henn House Events stand out is due to my experience in design, my professional connections, and my ability to provide a quick turnaround for our assets. Due to this, we are able to book and sell out big-name venues. For example, I was able to go to the higher-ups at Helium to let me produce a Taylor Swift 1989 Drag Brunch that sold out 250 seats. A few weeks after our show we had Pete Davidson perform on the very same stage and being able to say we sold out the same stage as someone as big as him has been one of my career highs.

I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish in my professional career, especially over the past few years. Balancing a full-time graphic design job with an event producer has been challenging but very fulfilling and I am excited to see where it takes me next.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Because of my career background, I feel that we have been able to keep our social media channels atop the newest trends and patterns of our customers. Something I pride myself in is how I’m able to adapt our social media presence to follow what the newest method is. When we started Henn House Events the first task that I took upon myself was to create all of our social channels and websites. We have had our Instagram account for a little under two years and recently have started noticing steady growth. We feel that because we advertise our shows, cast, and any fun information on our channels it has kept us engaged with our audience.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

To me, hearing how much enjoyment our events give to people is the most rewarding. I feel a great sense of pride when someone tells us they had the best time at one of our events and say we outdo ourselves and give the bigger productions around us a run for their money. Something that we have always kept in mind when doing any show is to make sure our audience can connect with someone from our cast, we strive and pride ourselves in making sure our events are diverse and different from one another.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://diegoraulh.com/ & https://the-henn-house.com/
• Instagram: @diegoraulh & @henn_house_events
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DiegoRaulH
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diegoraulh/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiegoRaulH

Image Credits

Wedding photo @ashleygriffinphotography on Instagram