We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Peggy Phillips a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Peggy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Being an Event Producer is who I am. I have the right personality for it. I make everything look easy. I’m calm, professional, organized, and I put much pre-planning into each event. My job is to be creative, solve any problems that may come up, seamlessly coordinate everything, and let people relax and have a great time. All my life I’ve been creating and producing events. I moved from The Bay Area to Los Angeles to work with the best talent. I immediately wrote and produced a show called, Dial M Murder Mysteries. It’s an interactive event with a mixture of mystery and comedy where the guests try to solve 4 crimes. In fact, It’s LA’s longest-running show and still one of our most popular events.
Dial M Murder Mysteries was a huge success, with great reviews and press which caught the eyes of Las Vegas. Within a year I was writing and producing shows for The Mirage Hotel and other Casinos. They too were all interactive events. I became known for, creating and producing large interactive events that allowed the audience to become involved with the show. And that caught the attention of the Corporate world. I started producing events for businesses. Along the way, I was gathering a great team of performers, which led me to provide talent for parties and corporate events. You name it, I have it. Celebrity lookalikes, actors, bands, musicians, magicians, emcees, jugglers, cirque performers, murder mysteries, hosts, and I have the best stilt walkers, with the most amazing costumes. All of our costumes are high-quality, custom-made, and designed by me. Quality and professionalism are at the top of my list.
For folks who may not have read about you before, can you please tell our readers about yourself, how you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc, what type of products/services/creative works you provide, what problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others. What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.
The problems I solve for clients are about setting them at ease and providing what they need. If this is a corporate event, someone has been given the task of finding the entertainment or team-building activity for the company. They don’t necessarily understand what is involved. It’s a huge responsibility. If it’s a private party they too are nervous about who they’re hiring for their special event. They want it to be great, to make everyone happy, and to know that by selecting Dial M Productions they’ve made the right choice. We’ve been a successful business since the 80s, with a long-standing, great reputation. There’s comfort in knowing that we’ve worked for many Fortune 500 companies, high-end clients, celebrities, and Casinos, as well as a Mom or Rabbi – all with positive results. Our clients are also set at ease knowing that I, or one of our event managers, will be at their event to take care of everything. We are in this together.
I am proud of the relationships I have with our talent and clients. We have performers who have been working with us for 25+ years and clients who return year after year. We’re a well-established business. Most people know Dial M Productions and they know me because I attend and supervise my events. This is how I develop a bond with the performers and a good working relationship with our clients. Being hands-on is important to me.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Our reputation was built on results. We provide a great service and the word spreads. One client tells another and that’s where the future business comes from. We don’t advertise. We rely on our good reputation. Establishing relationships and keeping clients coming back is important to me. I believe in taking great care of the performers, paying them well, arriving early, having rehearsals, providing terrific costumes, and producing a tight, well-thought-out fun event where the talent and client are happy to have been involved in a Dial M Production.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When I first started Dial M Productions it was for entertainment reasons, then a CEO asked me to create a team-building event for his company. I had no idea what a team-building event was. It was a new idea back then. He explained what his team-building goals were for his company. This opened up an entirely new concept for me. I was off and running with now a 2nd division of my Company. This was a great decision because a few years later we had a recession and everyone stopped buying entertainment. Several colleagues of mine had to shut down their businesses. Companies were downsizing and employees were asked to do the job of 2 people. Teambuilding was in demand and I was already well-established in producing these events. I would meet with a company to understand what their issues and goals were. I’d create an event that would boost morale and establish new ideas to get them to work together as a team. This recently happened again with COVID. We’ve never stopped producing team-building events, but now there was a new situation. Employees couldn’t go to their offices. They were all working remotely and didn’t know their teammates. That brought us to virtual team bonding events. When it was time for people to return to their offices they didn’t want to be in the office environment. People needed to be brought back together and bonded as a team, so live team building events were back on. I enjoy creating team-building events, and I’m good at it. We have Team Building Workshops, Culinary Team Activities, Custom Game Shows, Minute To Win It Style 60-Seconds Success Games, Picnic Games, Beach Games, Murder Mysteries – and many more custom team bonding events.
We were also asked to bring events to the Balkans to boost the morale of our troops overseas. We did 7 overseas tours. Being on tour with the casts, meeting our men and women serving our country, and understanding how much they sacrificed changed our lives. After every tour, we came home grateful for what we had in the USA and thankful to have met these men and women. We continue to perform at the bases here in the States.
I am excited for the future and to have the opportunity to work and meet new people. I still work closely with Casinos. Together we come up with fun, creative, new ideas designed to entertain their casino players and invite even more people out to the casino. I enjoy producing, casting, and costuming these events. Rewarding sales personnel is also popular. Companies offer their sales staff goals that will allow them to attend an event we’ve designed just for them. I also work with Resorts via their destination management department. They hire us to be one of the scheduled entertainment or team-building events for the corporate clients staying at their retreat. We also get to see companies in development. We had an event with Elon Musk where we couldn’t tell a soul what we were doing or seeing at their place of work. That happens with Celebrities too. We provide entertainment for many celebrities and sign a “do not disclose” agreement promising to not tell or post on social media anything about them, their guests, or their event. It’s always thrilling being at their home and meeting all their high-profile friends and business associates. We always leave with a big smile on our faces. These are just some of the things that make me continue to be excited about being an Event Planner. There are no limits to what we can create.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.dialmproductions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dialmproductions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dialmproductions
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dialmproductionspeggyphillips/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dialmproductions9214
- Other: Team Building Website: https://www.teambuildingactivitiesla.com/Murder Mystery Website: https://www.murdermysterylosangeles.com/
