We were lucky to catch up with Elissa Jane Mastel recently and have shared our conversation below.
Elissa Jane, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
Going back in time, I’d like to tell you about one of the biggest failures I had early in my career, and what I learned from it.
In 1993, my then partner and I embarked on producing a music festival in Vermont. It consisted of nonstop music for three days, with all out production and offerings. We created a hospitality partnership renting out condos and lodging in addition to your ticket and came up with some unique offerings that no one had come up with before us. In order to break even, we needed about 2500 additional paying guests.
It’s been a long time, and what I can tell you is that we lost over 16,000 and threw one of the best events of all time with half the amount of people needed to make it successful financially. For the people who were there, they had an incredible experience, and we know it was one of the best events of its time.
What I can also tell you is that this was my first and biggest failure of all time. Here is what I learned in the aftermath.
In the early days of this event backfiring, I went into isolation and dispair. It was impossible to get out of the house and I was sure that I’d never do anything as awesome as that event again. In some ways, this is still true, but I’ve evolved so much since that cannon moment. To make ends meet, I got a terrible job doing data entry for a health insurance company, and it sucked.
I didn’t get out of the cacoon and start building a new entrepreneurial venture for several years. Here are the things I’ve learned from this that still apply to my life today:
1. FAILURES ARE INEVITABLE: Every entrepreneur fails on a host of levels. Sometimes it’s massive like the event I mentioned, and sometimes it’s messing up a client project. Whatever it is, it happens. Dust yourself off as quickly as you can, make amends wherever you can, and get back up and get back on the horse. The longer you linger in your mistake, the longer it takes to repair, adjust, pivot, and move on. I took way too long to get out of the funk and missed out on a lot. It’s ok to mess up, just fix it if you can and get on with your business.
2. DREAM AS BIG AS YOU CAN: When you live in the Delulu, anything is possible. I definitely dreamt really big when I created that event, and the outcome was remarkable. For the attendees who showed up, they still tout it as one of the best events they ever attended. I accomplished incredible things, and I learned that if I can say it can happen, it can happen. Go big, but also be a little responsible with the funds.
3. MINDSET MATTERS: After this big failure, I elected to make it my whole identity. I took this on as a roadblock and didn’t attempt to do a big project again for many years. If I had opted to take charge of my mindset and see this project as a growth opportunity, there are many other outcomes I could have experienced. I could have thrown more events with smaller budgets to make that money back, which I did five years later. When you opt into the idea that you can do it and you will do it, you can do it and you should! Having a great idea is awesome, and if you can visualize a positive outcome you can make it work. If I looked at this epic fail as a stepping stone, I could have leveraged what worked and done it bigger, better, more profitable the next time around. It took me five years to get back out there. Imagine if I had gotten up and tried again that much sooner. For the guests and artists who attended and had an epic time, they would have helped me build the production company and brand. I missed that opportunity because I stopped believing in myself and what I’m capable of. I have not made that mistake again.
4. PLANNING MITIGATES RISK: When you plan out what you want to execute and look at all aspects of the project, you lessen the risk because you’ve plotted out what might happen. If I had created a more robust financial plan, or communicated better with the different providers, I could have cut back on my financial risks exponentially. When you map out a program of what you are doing in a business plan, marketing plan, and financial projection, you can take that risk with a little more precision. Of course, remember, all plans are just projections, and if things don’t go according to plan that’s ok. You can bring extra parachutes, but if you jump and don’t have one, look around and enjoy the ride down.
5. CREATE THOSE OPPORTUNITIES: It was the great Wayne Gretzky who once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Do you want your dreams to die on the vine or do you want to shoot your shot? I made a lot of professional jumps, and connections, and learned from the big shot I took throwing that big festival event. It wasn’t really a total fail, and if I didn’t do it I wouldn’t have created a name for myself in the industry in the way that I did that weekend. I’ve thrown a lot of “risk-taking” spaghetti onto the wall since that legendary weekend. What I’ve learned is that I am always able to survive after just about anything I try. If I don’t put myself out there and take risks, I will never know what could have accomplished. Instead of avoiding risks, take more of them.
What risk are you ready to take on now?
Elissa Jane, 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?
I’m launching a new initiative I’m really excited about. The 1111 Empress offers coaching, classes, and marketing services to help creatives, founders, C-suite, and marketing teams level up their efforts and manifest bountiful abundance.
Services include:
Fractional CMO
Abundance Manifesting
Business Coaching
Marketing Strategy
Marketing Action Items and Implementation
Team Building and Training
Healing Your Relationship to Money
1:1 Sessions Customized to Your Needs
I can be found at www.the1111empress.com
and you can come for private sessions at my HQ in Denver or new private healing office opening on Federal soon!
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Make sure you’re operating from a place of inclusion and empowerment. Model the behavior you want from your crew and you’ll get a team of people who want to lift each other up. When you focus on team building and creating camaraderie, you’ll be working with a team of people who enjoy collaborating and working together. The other important thing here is to coach each team member and not only play to their strengths, but teach them to diversify and master their skillset. When you empower your team to be awesome, they advance in ways you never expected.
Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?
I have sold two of my businesses. The first one was a brand I created in NYC called Urban Monster, and the other was a culinary gourmet honey business called Phoenicia Honey Co. in the Catskills.
I waited too long to sell Urban Monster. I should have sold when it was at its Zenith in popularity. I had a small bidding war between a few people and I decided to keep running it as an online store. This ended up being profitable for a while, but I would have made a lot more money if I sold it during the bidding war. When I sold it as an online shop I had one buyer and I ended up settling for less than my asking price. It’s a matter of remembering that letting go makes room for abundance and other opportunities.
Since I learned that lesson before, when I was ready to sell Phoenicia Honey Co, I didn’t wait. I picked someone I knew would love the brand and grow it, and gave her an offer she could not refuse. Everyone won and the business thrived and continued after the transferring of the spoon.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.convertgomarketing.com/ejm-links
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chillempress
- Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/elissajanemastel
Image Credits
Elissa Jane Mastel’s portfolio.