We were lucky to catch up with Molly King recently and have shared our conversation below.

Molly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Molly Jo Events started very organically, with very little time spent “dreaming” and “envisioning”; I literally dove in head first, sink or swim.

I was born and raised in South Knoxville, coming home in 2014 after 14 years away, I’d spent about 10 years working in events and catering in the Bay Area of California, always working for someone else. The expense and the competitive nature of the industry there made the prospect of going it on my own extremely daunting, if not impossible, and I moved back with this same mindset. I managed a couple of restaurants and then, really desiring to get back in to event production, I began applying for jobs with local event companies and restaurants; no one wanted to hire me. I interviewed for jobs that I felt I was vastly overqualified for, and a few that perfectly matched my skill set. 5 interviews with one organization in particular, resulting in no job offer, left me particularly discouraged.

After 3 months of searching, I’d begun the process of applying for unemployment when, all of a sudden. . . the phone started to ring. I got three freelance job offers in one week and really started to think, “I could do this! I could do this myself!”

Maya Angelou said, “if there’s a book you want to read that hasn’t been written yet, you should write it.” I was picking up a few jobs here and there, weddings and private parties, thinking I’d need to get a part time job to supplement while I got started. I also decided I needed a publicity stunt, which is how The Long Table Dinner series was born — I wanted to do something outrageous and attention-worthy, but also wanted it to benefit the community and support nonprofit organizations. Long story short, it worked. More calls started coming in, and what I discovered was a gaping hole in event support for our local nonprofit community. East Tennessee is a destination wedding area, and also home to plenty of corporate and mid-sized business in need of event production, but I didn’t see a lot of truly spectacular nonprofit events being planned in the area (compared to San Francisco, where we see some of the most over-the-top charity events in the country.) I decided I wanted to be that resource. We still offer services for all types of events, including weddings and corporate events, as well as venue management, and hospitality consulting, but working with nonprofits is at the core of our passion and values, and is the niche we best fill in our community.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have an amateur background in theatre — since I was a child, I’ve loved putting on a show. That’s what events are to me. When you really get down to brass tacks: they’re a theatre production, one that gets set up, performed, and torn down in the space of a day or two. That said, no one is going to come to your show if it’s boring, if the reviews are bad. I think a lot of folks attend events, especially nonprofit events, because they want to support the organization, not because they expect their minds to be blown. I’m trying to change that by creating experiences people are excited to show up for, and not just because they feel obligated to. I’m trying to build my brand around the hope that people will see “A Molly Jo Event” advertised and think, “I’m totally going to that, I know it’s going to be amazing!” I want MJE to be the first name people think of when they want to do something really memorable and over-the-top and unique.

As in theatre (and movie) production, an event producer orchestrates an experience in partnership with dozens of creative and technical professionals. Our services do not consist of showing up to tie bows and put flowers on tables. We partner with expert florists, sound and lighting designers, caterers, artists, musicians and performers, to create magical, immersive experiences. A 5-course dinner for 216 guests in the middle of a city street; a roaming, dinner-theater-style circus on a moving train; a Mardi Gras masquerade with aerialists, fire dancers, and drag divas. We do elegant and traditional to whacky and whimsical, but always unique and exciting. I’ve always said, if white polyester tablecloths and chafing-dish chicken are “good enough”, I am not your girl.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

It may sound trite but, word-of-mouth, 100%. My best clients have come from referrals, or through folks who have attended my events and been impressed. A referral is invaluable, as is a potential client experiencing first-hand what you are capable of.

I come from a high-end hospitality background, where the general wisdom is, “if you’re advertising, you’re failing.” For a high-end, boutique service, it just smacks of desperation. People should just “know” that you’re the hot ticket. Social media is an incredible supplement, and I have an amazing social media manager and photographer (shout out to Aw, Snap Media!) but it can only go so far if you’re not fulfilling on the promises made online. I do a ton of networking and volunteering, and I think the face-to-face interaction, the personal connections, are the biggest assets you can cultivate. I am incredibly friendly, positive, enthusiastic, and easy to work with, and I think that makes us memorable.

Any advice for managing a team?

This is a HUGE consideration for me. Managing and maintaining staff with the utmost respect and support is of equal importance to me as treating my client well. Same goes for communicating and interacting with vendors. These are the people who are representing you, both on and off the clock, and people who are as responsible for your success as you yourself are. My staff knows I would never ask them to do anything that I am not willing to do myself (except maybe drive the 27′ trailer truck, but that’s just a safety issue, ha ha!)

To me, treating staff respectfully is the bare minimum. Please and thank you are not optional, and threats, yelling, and insults are unacceptable. If you, as an employer or manager, are not even achieving the base level of Maslow, you have no business in your job. I not only want staff to show up feeling safe and confident, I want them to show up excited for work, excited to make my production the best show ever. I am a big proponent of teaching — if you can show someone a new skill or teach them something they can continue to use in the future, you’ve created value in your relationship with them, and if you continue to cultivate that, the relationship only continues to become more useful and rewarding to you both. One of the best compliments I ever received from a staff member was something along the lines of, “you’re really good at assigning people to tasks that you either know they will be good at, or know they will enjoy, or both.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mollyjoevents.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollyjoevents/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MollyJoEvents
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-king-27199486/

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