We recently connected with Eric Vincent and have shared our conversation below.
Eric, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I started Black Ink Creative Partners because I was always a gig worker, a freelancer. I couldn’t survive in a cubicle or answer to HR. It also didn’t help that I was a HS drop out and had a criminal record, things frowned upon in the professional world at the time.
Though Black Ink wasn’t my first self-employment endeavor, I ran a successful real estate brand development company for several years before the market collapsed in 2007-08.
I took some time off from the space to regroup and in 2013 launched Black Ink as a two person graphic design company, but that quickly scaled up. Client’s always asking for more and entrepreneurs always saying “yeah, I can do that”. This resulted in bringing in my former partner and expanding Black Ink. By 2016 we were looking for a more stable income space for our, now expanded, services. Moving from graphic and visual design into creative strategies, marketing, and brand development we wanted to spend more time operating and creating than chasing unpaid invoices, so we became government contractors.
From there we felt our way around in the dark trying to figure out how the whole government contracting space operated, and we did this with no guidance other than the internet. We didn’t really know there were resources out there to help a small business navigate the government contracting space.
While on this journey we were hired by an electronics event production company that was redirecting into government contracting event production. We came on board to rebrand them and develop the brand experience, and history repeated itself. The question came up, ‘can you do this’ and we answered with ‘sure’. We found ourselves co-producing the events.
It was then in 2018 I realized that our client/co-producer wasn’t going to change from his 1980s marketing mentality and this brand was not going to flourish the way we felt it should. So, speaking to my partner and talking to many of the connections we made, we decided to launch our own small business event production brand.
When we finalized the brand concept, mission, culture, etc. we found a partner who would help us get the word out to small businesses in the northeast region. Our concept and plan was met with enormous positive feedback and we were on track to launch. We had support from the region 2 office of the SBA, NJSBDC (Small Business Development Center), VA, New Jersey Economic Development Authority and many other agencies and not for profits. However, our plans to launch in early 2020 would be shut down due to the pandemic.
There was no overcoming a national lock-down, and we weren’t prepared to hold a virtual event, so we shelved the project.
Our goal with the ProcurementCon brand was to create something more than just another event, we wanted to put all the resources for small businesses under one roof, all the things we wish we’d had when we started out. We wanted to create a brand experience that would encourage follow up from both vendors and small business owners. We were excited, we’d developed a post event marketing strategy that would make the event itself a resource for attendees. The brand was everything a small business needed to help them achieve their goals, except it was crushed by a virus.
It wouldn’t be until late 2022 that we would have a resource partner reach out and ask us to launch the event. Over the next 12 months we produced and prepared, but now it was a different landscape. We had been quiet for the last couple of years and had to rebuild trust, especially given the economic climate. This wasn’t easy, and believe it or not we were met with a lot of obstacles despite these other organizations being on the same mission as us.
Each not for profit, each state and federally funded organization is actually in competition with one another despite their unified missions of supporting small businesses. They have to throw up numbers, have increased sign ups, have to provide more and more services in order to obtain more funding to continue operating. Given the fact that almost everyone was in dire straits post pandemic, it was like everyone was cutthroat, it took extra work to get people to come together under one roof.
On top of that we were being hosted by a local university and they were not going to allow classes to be canceled mid-week for an event. Not because of the students, but because of the Teacher’s Union. They offered a holiday which we took, they took it back, they offered a Friday, which we took, they took it back, finally we settled on a Saturday. No government agency pays employees for Saturday, so we were threatened to not have headliners, speakers, etc.
I think it was shear determination, maybe a bit of tossing out some grandmotherly guilt, but we not only had agencies agree to show up in their own time and dime, but we filled the space on a Saturday with attendees, 200 small business owners signed in between 7am and 8am on a rainy Saturday (Columbus Day Weekend).
This is when we knew, without a doubt, that we were finally in our niche. The feedback was insane, the follow up and connection never ending. For me as a creative and an entrepreneur it is genuine validation when something you create is living and breathing. After more 30 years as a self employed hustler I knew I finally landed on something that was the perfect amalgamation for everything I do and believe in.
Always helping my peers is something I really loved doing, being an entrepreneur and creating has always been a passion, by trade and training I am a designer, but I always loved marketing and advertising. Specifically brand building. Putting together this event seemed a natural path, but it wasn’t until the first event happened and we received a ton of amazing feedback that I really could see beyond the horizon line.
What we ended up doing, and continue to do is put these events together unlike anyone else. Industry days are these cookie cutter events agencies put on because they have to. Always the same, always lame… informative, but boring, not memorable. Small business events that pop up everywhere are just comicons for businesses. What can they sell, how many paid subscriptions can they land. Producers are just filling a room with vendors trying to sell… this isn’t genuine business support and doesn’t fulfill any mission of business or economic growth. We saw that and we knew that between our branding and marketing expertise, our team’s backgrounds, and our own experiences as small business owners, we could create something that is unlike anything else.
We found that we could fulfill a mission while creating a unique experience that really engages our fellow business owners. That really encourages and excites them and puts everything they truly need under one roof. Think about having a fashion show at a business conference or choosing between a marketing workshop or a team building obstacle course for your afternoon class. Then leaving the event to only hear from the event producers about follow up and access to resources.
This works and we believe it works as a perfect mix of a business conference and interactive, entertaining event. It excites me to face the challenges that come with it and prove that I am not here to preserve the status quo, I’m here to overthrow it!… This is a quote from Nicolo Machiavelli and so far we’ve, I have proven it to be true. That’s what excites me… proving that what can’t be done, actually can be done.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I had a pretty average childhood, bad family situations, abuse, pretty much a story a good number of people have. I dropped out of high school and left home due to the toxic and abusive situation when I was 16 and began my career as a hustler. I worked several jobs, side hustled, got into to trouble, the usual stuff. Drugs, bad decisions, crime, parties, no sleep, arrest, all the stuff that people at that age are doing, I’m just doing it without parental supervision.
I saw and did a lot of things no teenager should be aware of, but it never dawned on me that I shouldn’t know this stuff, do it, talk to those people, etc. I was in survival mode, anything goes.
I got my first ‘big’ freelance design job when I was 19 and as an untrained artist that’s exciting, except the sign I made had one crooked letter, so I didn’t get paid for the job. Lesson one, have a contract, Lesson two, do better work, lesson three, don’t physically threaten a business owner.
From 16 to 23 I pretty much floated around doing odd jobs, volunteering, getting into trouble, and while volunteering I met the woman who I ended up marrying only a year later. I found myself having to be responsible so I took a job in a commercial finance company in their marketing department. This was where I got started in marketing, advertising, and product branding. It was a good job and a good marriage when it all started. Five years into the marriage and the job, 1998, I was done. The marriage was turning toxic, the job was just ugly the way people wanted to market, and I was an angry man with lots of unresolved issues.
Fast forward into the millennium, I launched a design company for the real estate industry with a lawyer I met who defended me in a case. This was a short lived venture only lasting a few years, as I wanted to go in one direction and he had other visions. It was then when I met my current business partner, Mark. Mark and I built up a real estate and capital markets branding company from 2003 through 2008, but that suffered when the economy collapsed.
By this time I was in the midst of an ugly divorce and fighting two battles, my career and my personal life. I took time off and went to school, redirected my goals and in 2013 launched Black Ink Creative Partners with only one goal; a simple, small business that could sustain my family (I received custody of my children), and live simple. This wasn’t the case.
I struggled to build the business while raising two boys by myself and going to school, at which time after I graduated I ended up working at as an assistant teaching professional and part time lecturer. My plate was full across all fronts and as the business was growing I found myself chasing unpaid invoices a little more than doing actual creative work. That’s when I decided to take the company in the government contracting direction and repartnered with Mark. Federal, state and local agencies actually pay their invoices.
Fast forward to coming outside of the pandemic and I’m currently building the ProcurementCon brand.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
There’s actually two lessons which are interconnected. The first is if you’re in survival mode you have to be aware of that. Survival mode has it’s place when your world is in chaos and turmoil. More often than not when you’re existence or world is rocked so traumatically you autopilot into just trying to balance and juggle it all.
When I was a kid the abuse was relentless. The mental, physical and sexual abuse cannot be comprehended by a child, and it is a child’s nature to figure out how to survive, but at some point that child grows up and when I started to grow up, survival mode followed. Through my teens, survival, through my young adulthood… survival. I was trapped in survival mode, and I didn’t even know it. It’s not easy to take that and switch it into goal and milestone mode. Working towards something and achieving it through effort, problem solving, and collaboration. When survival mode becomes as common as brushing your teeth, you just don’t comprehend any other way.
Getting out of that mindset requires you being aware of your actions and reactions. Sadly for me it was the divorce that forced that introspection. It might have been better to do it through therapy, but my ego was too big for therapy.
That’s the second big lesson, ego. If your ego is bigger than your ability to reason facts, you’ll never achieve your goals, never be introspective, never escape survival mode. I had to relearn my ego. Not just the arrogant part but the survival mode part.
When you’re in survival mode (not to be confused with being a survivor) you’re always ‘doing it yourself’. If you operate in that space long enough, you convince yourself that you did all by yourself. Your ego grows, and can grow out of control. It bleeds over to everything you might do. Every success you have you may never give credit to the people that helped make it happen. Ego will keep you from learning new things, ego will not let you trust others with your vision.
You have to realize that even when you were in survival mode you were not alone, you have to accept that you might be a visionary, but you are not 100% equipped to do everything in the operation of your business (even in your personal life).
Learning to change from survival mode and letting go of my ego were two of the biggest lessons I learned in my journey through both life and my entrepreneurial career.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
Recently I was told that “it wouldn’t happen”. That’s the last thing anyone should say to me. I’m not a believer in “can’t, don’t, or won’t”.
When we launched the brand someone said ‘You won’t get anyone to show up on a Saturday”… even some on my team were concerned. I assured them we’ll make it happen, it’s going to take work and lots of it to make it happen. It’s going to require pulling out all the stops and doing things that may be considered stupid, ridiculous, annoying, etc.
The effort we put out (including the cost) was directed in not just having a fantastic event, but proving that we can do what everyone thought we couldn’t.
That, however, isn’t the real story. The real story is that the same people that said I can’t make a weekend event happen, are the same people that said I would never get a local casino to agree to give me their hotel and event space at no cost.
I got it. I not only got the casino to agree to give us the spaces at no cost, I got them to strike the attrition clause of the contract, and co-market the upcoming event.
How did I do this? First, I have an event brand that is built to be something unique and unlike most conferences and expos. I can’t divulge all my secrets, but second, I took some heavy lifting off their shoulders. Finally, I did my homework on all the casinos and targeted the one that would benefit the most from our efforts.
Then I did what I was warned not to do, I asked. I simply told them I didn’t want to pay and I asked them to accept that offer.
There is one rule all business owners and entrepreneurs must abide by if they only abide by one rule… A Closed Mouth Never Gets Fed.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.procurementcon.com
- Instagram: @procurementcon
- Facebook: @procurementcon
- Linkedin: @procurementcon
- Twitter: @procurementcon
- Youtube: @procurementconbrand