We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Heidi Luerra. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Heidi below.
Heidi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
My company, RAW Artists was forced to rethink everything after the pandemic hit in March 2020. We were poised to celebrate our 11th anniversary with a champagne soiree at our headquarters in downtown Los Angeles on March 12, 2020, when instead we sent everyone home for what we thought would be a short couple of weeks. We all know what happened next.
Since 2009, RAW:natural born artists (RAW Artists for short) planned, promoted, and produced local arts showcases for independent artists in film, fashion, music, visual art, performing art, accessories design, hair & makeup, photography, tech, and handmade craft. Our showcases occurred in 70 cities around the world and over our tenure showcased and spotlighted over 200k artists and welcomed almost 1M attendees.
RAW was 100% bootstrapped from $0 at my kitchen table and grew to an international brand and Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Company by 2019.
As you can imagine, a pandemic isn’t friendly to an arts event company. Going from an international organization with 55 employees and hundreds of arts showcases running per year to an absolute standstill overnight was devastating. It was perhaps the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to navigate. Leading in a time when there was no one to turn to for advice or comfort was even more challenging. It was safe to say that not a single soul on the planet truly knew what would come next, and for small businesses in the events industry, it was even more of a question mark.
After understanding that COVID-19 was going to be around for a while I made the difficult decision to bring our business down to an idle. That meant releasing our employees and permanently shutting down our office. We liquidated everything we could to ensure our survival through the storm. After over a decade in business, the amount of paperwork and negotiation, and sleepless nights it required to wind everything down was beyond daunting. Eventually, it was done and I was left with a feeling of “what now?”. I decided to use the downtime to shut off my phone for a few weeks. Get into nature. Rethink this new life we were headed toward even though it was still murky. As well as mourn what we’d lost so abruptly. What I knew for certain was I didn’t want RAW to be a casualty of the pandemic. I had the will to ensure it survived.
That’s when I decided it was time to give away everything we had learned and pass the torch to the creative community at-large. My process was simple:
1. Put together a list of everything it would take to disseminate information to our community
2. Run the numbers on what it would take to be sustainable
3. Figure out what players I needed on the team to make this happen
4. Make sure we had enough money in the bank to get to a basic program that made sense
5. Plot my milestones/deadlines for execution
6. Checked in with myself that the plan and the execution of it would fit into my lifestyle without working myself to the bone
Once I had these top-level elements, we got to work and by December 1, 2020 we announced that we’d return to market in 2021. On September 1, 2021, we launched PLATFORM by RAW Artists™ to the public! PLATFORM by RAW Artists™ is a licensing program that empowers creative entrepreneurs with RAW’s trademark, proprietary technology, and nearly 20 years of industry experience to plan, promote, and produce their own showcases events in their own communities.
PLATFORM by RAW Artists™ has a full jumpstart program that prepares licensees for launch and a vast library of resources that help guide them through each showcase event instilling our best practices. Licenses are exclusive to a territory for a four-year term and start at $2,500 per year in most major metros.
To date, we have welcomed over a dozen new licensees into our program and have showcases popping up regularly again around the country. It hasn’t been an easy road and we’re still learning a lot about how to ensure our mission can continue to be fulfilled, but I’m overjoyed that we survived the pandemic and I believe the best is yet to come!
Heidi, 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?
For almost 20 years, I have built, bootstrapped, and founded businesses in creative industries such as the arts, entertainment, fashion, and technology. I have an innate entrepreneurial spirit. I started my first business when I was only 11 years old and have since built and sustained a global multi-million dollar enterprise, wrote and published my own book, and worked with thousands of creative brands throughout my career.
With a deep respect for the underdog, my businesses have largely been built on the notion that independent artists, entrepreneurs, and creators deserve to be seen and heard. By harnessing technology, and unorthodox creative problem-solving I’ve managed to disrupt industries, democratize communities and build a platform and space to incubate this personal mission.
As a creative entrepreneur myself I have a knack for organization, a producer’s grit, and a heart for paving the way for others. I also seed invest in small businesses that echo my ethos. Currently, I split my time as both the CEO of RAW Artists Inc and a Business Strategist through my boutique consultancy, Hatch Planning & Strategy, where I help other entrepreneurs build their business plans to strategize for profit and sustainability. I have also started seed investing in small businesses through a new branch of my consultancy I call, The Hatchery.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Over the course of my career, I’ve had to learn over and over that there is no one coming to save me. In tough times where it feels like all is unraveling, I’ve had to take a long hard look in the mirror and remind myself that I’m in charge. That I am the problem and also the solution. I wish I could have learned this just once, but this same theme tends to repeat itself in my career, albeit less frequently than in my younger years.
I’d like to blame Disney for teaching me that when the story seems hopeless the knight on the white horse shows up. That’s not how it works! One has to be the hero of their own story.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I bootstrapped my business from $0 at my kitchen table to a $MM global company. It took seven years to become profitable and another couple after that to realize how to scale without breaking the bank. We were never much focused on profit though. We were first and foremost driven by our mission. We wanted to be the biggest with the furthest reach and we did accomplish that! Growth typically means investing everything earned right back in and that’s what we did.
I have had many funding experiences from investors, to sponsors, a bit of my own money and nothing to invest but time. Speaking from those experiences I think it’s important to note that there isn’t a one-size fits all funding solution. While investment is ubiquitous with start-ups these days it’s not always necessary. There are also pros and cons to taking different kinds of money:
Investors will always be concerned with getting their money back with a return (which is their right and the reason they are investing). That comes with pressure whether they place it on you or not, you will feel it. You’ll always have someone to answer to in regard to your decisions or why you’re going the direction you are. In more toxic situations they might push you to build in a space that’s more lucrative but doesn’t align with your ethos.
Bootstrapping is a slog. It’s long and at times arduous but you have ultimate freedom as you’re betting on yourself. I recommend trying this way first and if you have some significant traction that could deliver VC attractive returns go out and raise!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.HeidiLuerra.com, www.RAWartists.com/platform, www.HatchPlanning.com
- Instagram: @RAWartists, @HatchPlanning