Welcome to the latest episode of "The Last 10%"! Today, we're joined by the dynamic Nirjary Desai, the founder of Kiss Cubed Events, as our special guest. Nirjary takes us on a journey through her multicultural upbringing and the valuable lessons she gained from her Indian immigrant parents. As an event planner and entrepreneur, she shares her insights on the blend of Eastern and Western cultures, the challenges of balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood, and the impact of COVID-19 on the events industry. With a focus on building connections and creating meaningful experiences, Nirjary's expertise shines through as she elaborates on transparency, authenticity, and impact in ways that ensure success. Join us as we delve into her story and gain invaluable wisdom that transcends the world of event management.

Nirjary's Company Website

https://www.kiscubedevents.com/

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/nirjarymdesai

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nirjarydesai

Mentioned in this episode:

1on1 App Information

https://www.thinkmovethrive.com/1on1-app/

Hey, everybody.

We're talking to near jury today.

What an amazing woman.

She is the owner of kiss cubed events, has some incredible stories

about how to produce one of a kind event experiences for top brands,

celebrities, and personalities across the U S and even globally,

she's a great new friend of mine.

You don't want to miss this incredible conversation.

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

I am Dallas Burnett sitting in my 1905 Coke Brothers Barber

chair in Thrive Studios.

But more importantly, today we have a great guest.

She's an event planner, extraordinaire, a champion for women, diversity

and inclusion, understands business culture, competency, and

loves to share that with people.

And also someone who was born in Zambia.

Raised in South Carolina and educated in London.

Oh my goodness.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you so much, Dallas.

I'm super excited to be here.

Well, we were talking before the show and we're

here just having the best time.

We actually had to hit record because we were having so much.

Fun before the show.

Now, I'm so thankful to have near jury on the show because.

We found out we have some things in common.

We actually grew up not too far from each other in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

How about that?

I know.

What are the odds, right?

What are the odds of this little Indian girl that's going to be on

your podcast that, you know, you meet, that grew up in South Carolina?

It's amazing.

So tell us a little bit about your story.

It is an amazing story.

So, I was born in Zambia.

My two Indian immigrant parents.

My parents left India, in the sixties, late sixties, early

seventies, and moved to Zambia.

that is where I was born.

My parents got married there.

and then we moved from Zambia to Botswana and Botswana to Joburg, then to London.

my father was a chemical engineer working for Unilever at that time, starting

different soap production plants.

South Central Africa.

My mom was a pathologist.

and like every Indian and South Asian, you know, they have.

The itch for the American dream.

And we immigrated to the United States where the first place

we landed was Philadelphia.

you know, my dad's sister lives there, in a town called Phoenixville.

Pretty much right by Valley Forge through Amish country.

And, and then, you know, my mom's cousin lived in Beaufort, South Carolina.

So we kind of went there.

my parents got into the motel business, like any stereotypical South Asian, in

America, got into the motel business.

And then they decided to move.

You know, my sister was born in Beaufort, South Carolina.

then they moved to, Spartanburg.

So I grew up in the upstate of South Carolina where, you know, I

grew up in this Indian immigrant household of my parents having

this like completely Eastern life at home, and here's me going to.

The schools and everything in this completely Western world in South

Carolina, where people didn't understand, you know, when it was

like back then, Oh, I'm from India.

What?

You're, what tribe are you from?

And I was like, no, I was like, no, I'm dot, not feather, dot, not feather.

No.

So it was just like,

That's so awesome.

I'm dot not feathered.

That's hilarious.

having to, Explain myself, you know, through this journey, has

always been really exciting and funny at the same time, for me, but, I went

to the university of South Carolina, you know, Gamecock over here and then,

moved to London for MBA school and then moved back to the States and started

my business back in the early 2000s.

Wow.

That's amazing.

When you came, I mean, going to, I can only imagine from, you know, the

South Asia to Buford, South Carolina, that, that had to be a culture shock.

And then even in, in Spartanburg and the upstate of South

Carolina, how was that for you?

How did you.

you seem like you adjusted.

I'm sure you made like friends very quickly because of your personality

and how, how well you speak to people.

But how was that for you to adjust?

Like, how did you adjust to that kind of culture shock for you?

How hard was that for you?

It's actually very hard.

the reason it was really hard was, you know, growing up in a traditional

Indian household in the United States, families, our parents and families who

immigrated at the time, like for example, when they left India, you know, in the

early sixties or late seventies or so on and so forth, they left with that

mentality of what India was then, right?

Where joint families, everything, you know, your community,

your culture, all of that.

So being transplanted from all of these different countries and, you

know, when you're Indian and you leave at that early stage in your life.

If you hold on to that, because that is my parents version of India, you know, that

is my parents version of their culture.

They took that to every country they went to and then they formed their own

communities and families there as well.

And those individuals left probably earlier.

So they left with what their India was at that time, you know, and

then moving to a Western society like the United States where, you

know, it's this big dream to come.

Two for a lot of, immigrants from around the world is every day, you know, I

had to check into being Indian when I came home from school and, you know,

what was expected of me in my culture through my parents growing up and what

they were instilling in us to going to.

This, you know, predominantly American Caucasian school with

very limited diversity, living this Western life, you know, and not

just Western, Southern Western life.

You know, like you're,

Very

South Carolina is the deep South, so it's different.

I mean, you know what I mean, right?

Absolutely.

so it was an adjustment.

It was a big adjustment for me.

You know, I think it was very different for my sister growing up because

she was born and raised here, right?

So she never got to really experience that, the changes of environments,

you know, except for, Hey.

I was born American.

I am American.

Sure.

My parents are Indian.

I have this Indian, heritage and background, which, you know, we are

still very close to and all of that, but we've kind of formed our own culture

in that, you know, we, I think we take the good of both cultures and kind of

have formed it and made it our own.

I

I would love to hear your perspective on this because it's, it's

a very cultural question, but if you had one thing that you would say that you

wish Western culture would be able to.

Adapt to be more like Eastern culture.

What would that be for you?

I mean, that's the kind of a odd question, but if you could take it and say, I'm

going to meld this and kind of make it more this way, what would it be?

What would you change about Western culture?

Make it more Eastern.

Yes.

for example, like.

You know, my parents are in the service business.

They are in the liquor, beer, wine distribution, the gas station, the hotel,

hospitality business, the subway stores, like typical Indian, like, you know,

it's like an episode of the Simpsons.

Right.

It's like, these guys do it all.

Right.

But I think the biggest thing is patience.

I think patience, because, you know, when immigrants come to

this country, they conform to.

Being of service and being very patient with their bosses or the

environment in order to absorb it and take it all in and grow.

Right?

Whereas Western society doesn't have the patience because it's this

sense of entitlement of well, I grew up here, you're in my country,

so you need to just learn my ways.

I think that if we all took the time to actually Understand each other's

cultures and educate each other through culture, cultural competency and kindness.

And there's a lot that would come.

I think, you know, businesses would be thriving.

Communities would be thriving.

Internally within your businesses and your understanding culture competency and that

patience, you know, of everybody would really bring a different level of, you

know, growth, and perspective internally.

So I think patience is a big thing because we're so quick to lose our patience just

because we don't understand something versus asking the questions of, okay.

Explain to me why this is done, right?

Because, trust me, I work with people of so many diverse backgrounds and cultures.

You know, I never say religions because, you know, religion

is such a passed down thing.

I like to say culture.

And I think working with people of diverse cultures is so important for

me that I understand their culture.

And my biggest thing is, it's let's find a commonality in both of our cultures that

we can both laugh about and bond about.

Because That's what the true meaning of coming together and

celebrating each other is, you know?

yeah.

I love that.

And I think that's a very good perspective.

And I think that is true.

I think that you've really hit on something that.

You know, that would help everybody.

And that is that patience, that idea of patience, but also that idea of

engagement that we were not just in, it's not transactional it's more engaging

and when we can gauge with people from different cultures and backgrounds and

experiences, it just, it helps us grow.

It's like you said, it helps us grow.

So I love that.

That's really good.

So let's talk a little bit about, let's talk a little bit

about what it's like to be a.

Entrepreneur, a female entrepreneur, and running the show.

Let's talk about business a little bit.

Tell us about your business and kind of what you do.

So I'm a multicultural event producer.

We work with corporate clients, brands, and individuals, where we are traveling

the world, producing events for them and activations for them based on

their brand, whether it's a destination wedding to whether it's doing something

for Amazon audible or, you know, a tech company, so on and so forth.

So it's really conforming to What is their messaging?

What is their mission?

And we do a lot of amazing things for our clients, to not only celebrate

their brands, to celebrate their events, but to celebrate their people.

I think that's extremely important as well.

being a female entrepreneur, I can tell you is it's a lot of hard work,

you know, it didn't happen overnight.

Lots of experience, lots of adversity, lots of sleepless nights.

I think also it's just like conforming to understanding like, is this my why?

There's this lane for women.

You know, and I think like people always think that women just have

to drive in that lane and, you know, they can't switch lanes or they

can't explore and so on and so forth.

Or, you know, after she hits a certain age, you know, it's I think I heard.

CEO Indra Nooyi talk about like the biological clock and the career clock are

constantly fighting against each other.

And that's so true.

And even in entrepreneurship, you know, it is that, you know, I started my business

in like my twenties, you know, Who I am today at almost 43 with the amount of

experience I've had is very different.

You know, do I regret my past?

No, I wish certain things in my past I could have probably handled differently

or the people I was working with, you know, could have handled it differently.

but the journey of entrepreneurship, no one can prep you for, it's

basically like having children.

You know, there isn't, there could be, you can read so many different books,

like self help books and all of that.

But the true meaning of entrepreneurship and success is not going to come until you

truly experience the highs and the lows of it and the failures and the wins of it.

I agree with that.

That's so true.

Very well said on that.

I want to know how you decided you, you went in, you studied in London

and then you came back to the States.

What was it that, did you already have entrepreneurship in your mind?

It's this is what I want to do.

And this is kind of the path I want to go.

And you're moving that direction.

Or was it something that was more organic?

So I'll tell you this, like any Indian person, you know, I

was down the path of becoming a doctor.

and.

That I was like, nope, this is not for me.

You know, I did research in a lab one summer, for pediatric cancer

research, and I was like, Oh, hell no.

This is.

I'm sorry, but I'm not rotting in this hell, you know, more power to

everyone that does it, but I was like, Oh, heck no, I, this is not for me.

And, you know, I think like the biggest thing was like, when I graduated

from undergrad, I was working for American Airlines at that time.

And so keep in mind, this was pre nine 11, I was working.

So I, I started working for American.

I got.

Basically, I got hired for my job the day after I graduated high school.

And this is a part time, this was supposed to be a part time job, right?

And so that was kind of like my first true taste of like corporate America, I

guess you would say, you know, I've worked for my father, like I've run his stores.

I've volunteered, I worked in retail and.

Everything.

I think like what a common teenager would normally do.

I've had those jobs in food service, retail, and I think that where it

truly came was like seeing my parents in this entrepreneurial journey, ever

since we've been in the United States.

I think it's like just.

it's that hustle.

It's you know, they hustled hard and I, those values never left me, you know?

So it's if they can dream this big for their family and

relocate them around the world.

I can dream for myself to create something for me, you know, and I think the other

thing too, was, my bosses at corporate would laugh because, you know, I was, I

was a great employee when I was there, you know, but school was also a focus for me,

you know, education was always instilled as a number one priority in our household.

and so, you know, I felt like I grew up so quickly because getting hired

for that job while my friends were partying in college and, you know, going

to football games consistently, I was driving from Columbia to Spartanburg

to go work at the airport, you know, and I think the biggest thing also that

kind of like where I am today was, you know, I worked for the airline industry

during nine 11 when that happened.

And.

Think about it like, again, being of any ethnic background in South

Carolina and you're at the airport after everything just happened and like

any, anyone that was Anglo chose not to speak to me because it was like,

Oh, it was like this whole thing.

So it was like, all of this was just kind of like, I was just soaking it all up.

And I was like, you know what?

I'm seeing my parents in this country build a name for themselves and not

even just, it wasn't even about a name.

It was building a life for themselves.

And they conformed to whatever, you know, they came here, they

ran a motel, then they, you know, then they ran a gas station.

Then they got into the subway sandwich store business.

And, you know, it's like you go from independent working under someone to

buying a business that was basically run to the ground and bringing it

back up while my father, you know, my mother ran the gas station and my

father was a car salesman for Subaru.

I remember this you know, and then.

He would get off of work, go relieve my mom and work and just seeing this cycle

of hustle through them, you know, it,

Yes.

it never left me.

And I think and I think me and my sister, like we truly thrive on that

because, you know, working hard, I don't know anything outside of working hard.

And so I think that's the biggest thing.

It's I think the story of being an immigrant American, you know, is that when

immigrants do come to this country, it's like, they're here to hustle hard and.

Send it home, you know, and there's always this like challenge.

And I think for me, it's I quickly realized that I was born to be a

leader, and I wanted to lead, but I wanted to lead on my own terms.

I also never want to ask for two weeks of vacation off when I can

go on vacation whenever I wanted.

Um, you know, so like it's very different.

I think the other thing too is opportunity comes in very different ways.

You know, and when you're an entrepreneur, you have to be

on, you have to be on 24 seven.

There is no this Oh, I've left work at work now, you know, and I

think even now, like when I see my parents in their late sixties, early

seventies, where they are, you know, they're still buying new businesses.

They're still hustling.

I'm like, dude, can you guys chill out?

And you know, and they even say to me, they're like, if we sit still and retire.

My, my mom literally, she's so funny, If I sit down, I will die.

And I was like, Oh, relax, lady.

I was like, you are so dramatic.

But, you know, that, that gives you this, that gives you this

mentality of like, I can't ever stop.

Yes, yes, no, as I agree, I've, we have very similar backgrounds as

it relates to, parents that hustle and are still hustling in their early seventies.

So I completely relate to that and I completely relate to what you said

about, that's all, you know, the hustle is what you were raised in.

And it's

it was, and it still

normal.

It

so normal.

It is so normal, you know, and it's so different because it's like, my

husband and I talk about this, you know, cause he, he has this entrepreneur

spirit as well, but he also has a.

A normal job and he's always like, Hey babe, can you sit down and chill out?

And I was like, I don't know what this means.

And you know, my son just recently, my, my son is like 16 months old.

He just started like an early childhood development Montessori program.

And you know, my dad's really funny.

He's like, why does he need to go to school right now?

There is no need, you know, and whatever.

And I was like, dude.

He needs to go learn.

And so, you know, I was talking to his teacher recently and this just makes

me laugh because I'm like, when I use that term, hustle is hard and real and

busy is I'm like, Oh, how's he doing?

Oh, he's busy.

He's always busy.

They're like, is he busy at home?

And then it's like my husband and I are observing and I was like, Oh my

God, he's totally picking up after us.

Cause we're just kind of busy.

Like we're doing things.

So you know, and it's like.

This quality or I don't even know if you want to call it a quality, this

lifestyle of, it's just constantly passed out, you know, you're in this

environment and it just happens and I think that's kind of why, you know, a

lot of people ask, Oh, why are Indians or South Asians so successful in America?

It's you know, like that.

Unity of family, you know, keeping family close, ask, having them as your

well wishers, you know, going to our temple is not for religious reasons,

it's for building community, it's for supporting each other, you know,

so I think that is really important, you know, for me, and I think that's

why I am who I am and where I'm at.

I

I think that's a neat, I think that's a neat balance.

And I think that sometimes we get lost, especially, I think Western culture

can get lost or tends to get lost in.

In it, if it keeps the hustle, but it loses the relational component.

Cause I love how you said we all are hustling, but we go

to temple for community and we go to have that connection.

And I think if you have the hustle without the connection, you're just a time bomb.

You're just, you're it's you can't handle the weight.

You can't, you're going to get out of balance in some aspect of your life.

think the other thing too is, I think the other thing too is you

know, you asked me, before we started recording, you asked me about balance,

you know, like entrepreneurship, being a mom and balancing, you know, it's

I have this conversation with someone else recently on a, another interview.

And I said, There isn't a balance, you know, it's like people, you

know, people are basing balance and all this stuff on what they see on

social media and so on and so forth.

I'm like, guys, like for lack of better words, the balance is called

the everyday shit show, you know?

And it's really, it's what you make of it, right?

I think it's also like with you and your spouse and your team, it's like

you come in and you're like, Hey guys.

I'm at 90 percent today, you know, so I need the rest of you to pick

up the 10 or I'm at 10%, I need the rest of you to pick up 90.

And that's the same kind of like ideology, even in a marriage,

in a business partnership, in entrepreneurship, you know, that happens.

And I think it's important to communicate that.

I think a lot of it is we all try to make it look easy, you know, but it's not,

you know, I always tell people, you know, some of you were like, well, you went back

to work so quickly after having a baby.

Yeah.

I went back two weeks later cause I work for myself, but you know what?

Like I almost died giving birth.

So my.

I woke up out of this whole experience very different.

you know, we, more women should talk about the birthing experience,

going through all of that.

You know, people are like, Oh, what's your birth plan?

I was like, I didn't have one.

Cause you know what?

I didn't know what the hell was going to

Ha

And that's the reality.

There is no plan.

it's more like get this child out of me.

It's time, you know, that is the plan.

And, you know, and in the process of you know, going

through 31 hours of labor from.

Pushing for hours and hours to trying to get my son out through a vacuum to

going through an emergency C section and hemorrhaging and all of this.

And

Oh

you know, your life is your life in this, in that moment is just

really going through your head and you're like I have to get to this light at the

end of the tunnel . So I tell everybody, I was like, there is no balance.

You choose what you want to balance.

yes,

in, in this moment, if you're like, okay, getting this project

done is important and sacrificing this outing with my family is not important,

then that's what you're choosing.

Or you're like, Hey, spending time with my family because, my parents are older, this

is happening and and we have such limited time here, so I want to maximize on this.

Then that's your priority.

And I think that's the biggest thing is like, what are you choosing

to prioritize because that is in entrepreneurship in business, in, you

know, in corporate America and all of that, there is different priorities.

And we all choose to prioritize and make important.

What makes sense in this moment?

I think that is so fantastic.

And I think that's great advice because I think balancing, when you hear people who

we've got to balance this and balance that it's almost like you're supposed to keep

everything at even keel and everything's in this perfect harmony all the time.

And that's just not real life.

That's social

No, you know, and the only other way to create balance too,

I think the other thing is I tell people, I was like, pay for help.

yes,

What do you work hard for?

When you die, this money's not going with you.

When you die, none of this goes with you.

We all came into this world the same way as we're going to leave.

If you're going to keep worrying about the dollar.

Your mental health is going to suffer.

And that's the number one thing that you need to put forward.

If you don't put your mental health and yourself first, then there's no balance.

You can't even focus on creating that balance.

I agree with that.

And I think that you're speaking towards understanding your priorities and how

people's priorities are different.

And they're different at different stages in their life.

Obviously your priorities before children and after children is just different.

Like you just can't, you just said going through that experience is just different.

And so it's very hard to speak about balance when you don't

even know your life 10 years from now, it's not even look the same.

And so I love how you kind of shifted that too.

Know your priorities and then do what it takes to focus on those priorities

so that you're creating the kind of environment or the kind of life or

whatever that you're looking to create.

And it's just intentionality around priorities.

And I think that's, I think that's a fantastic point.

very good stuff.

So I want to talk a little bit about events and listen, by the way, if

you're listening to this, you need to check out our website because.

When she says she's an event plan, whatever you're

thinking, it's not big enough.

You're like some of the stuff I was like, Oh my goodness.

That's amazing.

So you're doing some amazing stuff, but I want to talk about that.

Cause we do, we produce leadership summits for some clients of ours.

Now they're not like the kind of events that you do.

These are just, they're leadership summits, but.

Well, we love leadership summits.

we love leadership summits and we have a lot of fun.

So I want to get to talk to you a little bit about events and

your, like how you approach.

I would love to hear how you approach when you have a new event,

come in, what's your approach?

Like from a, from an event planning perspective, what's your approach

to create this amazing experience?

So it's, you know, it's I recently talked about this.

I tell people, I said.

When your client comes to you or you're put in charge to create

this experience, number one, it's like lead with passion and purpose.

Understanding what the goal is of the event, what the mission is, number one,

what's the budget, you know, because we can dream up amazing things, right?

I think it's that.

The other thing is also transparency, authenticity and impact.

I think, you know, Be having transparent conversations with your consumer, having

transparent conversations with your team, your suppliers, the troops that it takes,

your army that it takes to produce this, you know, Authenticity I think is so

important because you know, like a lot of brands and a lot of corporate clients,

like even leadership summits and stuff, they are building their platforms and

their events on authenticity, you know?

And I think more so than ever, you know, for me, it's I've always been this way.

So like the fact that this term authenticity is being thrown around

everywhere, it's really interesting.

because I'm like, how do you not know how to be that?

You know, like, why

I am who I am, yeah, what is this a thing?

this used car salesman pitch is gone, you know?

there's none of that anymore.

I think it's just about what's right for you.

And I think impact is also you know, what's the impact you want to

leave on your client and what's the impact do they want to leave with

the guests and attendees from the event and the overall experience.

I think.

All of that has to do with it, you know, and the right strategy, you

know, you know, is it the right strategy that's going to help build

your audience to gain visibility.

So I think all of that really goes into producing the right events, you know,

when we work with our corporate clients, we have to completely shift of like

into their mentality, you know, when we work with our luxury destination.

Event clients or wedding clients, what's important to a father of the bride who

could be a CEO, of the corporate company.

We're producing a corporate client for, and what is his mission

for his company and his brand?

So it's like learning to balance the conversation, but both sides

and both types of clients need the transparency, authenticity and impact.

Ah, I love that.

I love that perspective.

And I love how you've just been able to distill it down because it just is

a great framework, a great scaffolding for approaching any type of event.

Now I also know, you know, we've talked a little bit about before the show that

you have been growing this company.

you've.

Just done some amazing events all over the world, but it's not come.

It's like you said earlier, it's not come without some bumps in the road.

You've had a couple of things that you've had big obstacles you've

had to deal with along the way.

Number one was the big elephant in the room is COVID 19.

You know,

Oh yeah.

was its own challenge, but then you've had some

other things internally, as you've gone through the entrepreneurship

as it relates to your partners.

Tell us about some of, tell us about some of the challenges that you've experienced

as you've gone through this journey.

Yeah.

Well, number one, I think with COVID let's start with that one, you

know, our whole industry shut down.

Hmm.

We could not have live events.

We couldn't engage, so I kind of made it my mission.

For the event industry to build content for individuals.

Because at this point, everyone went from being seen as different

tiers of suppliers and vendors and who you were in the industry to

playing on the same field, right?

That's what COVID did.

COVID basically shut everybody out and everybody realized, okay, now.

We're all starting back at ground zero, right?

So what I basically made it my goal, which was something that I've

been wanting to do for a long time was educating the event industry

on how to build a better business.

So I collaborated with an amazing media team.

and this was.

Towards the wedding industry.

But, we transitioned it also, it could, the content could have been

great for both, but I worked with a media partner called Mandala weddings.

we produced it, with them and we interviewed people from all different

walks of business, whether it was press and media to philanthropy, to, you know,

building connection, to building the right brand, how to market yourself,

how to, what you're doing internally in your business from a standpoint of,

growing or just changing your processes.

During COVID since.

Work was stagnant, that's what we did.

we didn't let any of our clients also in the process lose any money.

we made sure we maintain the relationships wherever in the

world we were supposed to work.

Cause during COVID we were supposed to work, in London and Paris and

Morocco and different parts of the world that we were producing events in.

And then now having to figure out like plan B, plan C and

I think the other part of it too you were asking about I've had multiple

business partners before, and I think as an entrepreneur, you always want to

bring and collaborate with people or.

It's with the mindset of growth, and for me, those partnerships didn't work out,

or those collaborations didn't work out.

They don't work out because, you know, our visions were very different.

we.

We're very transparent at different levels.

We were very authentic at different levels and the impact we wanted to

create was very different as well.

You know?

so I think the challenges of partnerships also is always going to be there, right?

Do I want to, will I ever say I won't have another business partner again?

Oh, cause you never know, you never know the

never know.

That'll land your way.

I think the biggest thing is learning from it.

If you were to look back, if you were to look back on

those instances with the business partners and some of the things you

said, you're just out of alignment on several different levels.

If you were to think about going back and re the redo of those again, and

instead of talking about your situation, giving advice to young entrepreneurs.

Maybe that's going into or looking at valuating a partnership.

What would you either do different or advise either young entrepreneurs

or young female entrepreneurs as it relates to going into partnerships?

I think the biggest thing I would advise is like finding a co

founder or a founder with you that again, has the same hustle as you, a business

partnership is like a marriage, right?

everyone was.

Educated differently, brought up differently.

Their experiences were very different.

So if you take two people that were business, got into a partnership

and one was a stellar, a student and was very driven and was wanting to

maintain a certain level of excellence.

And one was did whatever to get by.

Then they may not be the best business partners.

Right.

But if you have two people that have that same level of elevated

excellence and bring that to their partnership, then thriving and

growth are, you never know, you,

Yeah.

Yeah.

What's the,

there.

So I think, I think the biggest thing is understanding when you

go into business with somebody,

It's not just about their strengths and their weaknesses.

It's truly more about, are you guys on the same page when it comes to hustling?

Are you guys on the same page about, liability?

Are you guys on the same page about who's bringing the money

or are you raising capital?

The other part of it also is, are we both going to be the face of the brand and the

company, or is it really going to be one of us or how are we going to handle this?

And.

what happens if one partnership dies or one person wants to get

out of it, you know The other thing is be fair to each other.

Depending on what industry your business is in and like in my

industry a lot of people want to get into it because it's so glamorous

and It's far from glamorous, right?

Like we, I always tell people in the event world, we do such thankless work, but

such behind the scenes, impactful work.

And we are constantly managing emotions and budgets.

Really?

that's what it is and experiences.

And I think like for young entrepreneurs that are wanting to get into any

business, Make sure you guys truly sit down and understand authenticity.

The other thing is go out and get experience first before

you start your business.

You know, for me, like I got experience in the hospitality industry, not only

working for an airline, then working for a major corporation like Starwood hotels

and resorts, I worked in the business.

Of when I wanted and how I wanted to start my business, right?

Cause my business then became a filter into these industries, right?

Where I could feed into them.

that's the other part of it.

Make sure your partner has the same level of experience or the same years

of experience in the field learning.

waking up one day and just saying, I'm going to start a business and

this is going to be my partner.

And neither one of you have experience.

And when I say experience, not just industry experience, life

experience, that's important.

Enthusiasm tends to, and tends to disappear very

quickly in a partnership without all those other characteristics

that you've, you've laid out.

Cause you can be really excited about it and whether you've got a friend or

whether you've got somebody that you've met and they're, you're just really

enthusiastic if you don't check some of those boxes off and really understand not

only the other person, like you said, but it really takes understanding yourself.

What is your hustle?

what is your experience?

What are you bringing to the table and understanding how that fits together.

It's a very complicated thing.

And I think people sometimes will go into it without putting the

weight of some of answering some of those questions on the table.

And I think that's

And it's like you said, enthusiasm, but enthusiasm wears off.

Eventually it comes down to economics, dollars

really, it

end of the day, two people are getting into

business or multiple people.

You guys are all getting into business to make a profit, And to make a living.

And at the end of the day, everyone should win.

And I think that's the other part of it, right?

Don't go into a partnership where, you know, It becomes this

competition between the partners.

It's more about There's room for all of you to win.

And when you go into it with that mentality, that's going

to be also very different.

You know, the end results are going to be very different as well.

hundred percent.

I love that.

That's great advice.

I hope all the listeners of the show had their pens out and we're taking notes or

we're just record the episode and let's do it again later, because that was awesome.

That was really awesome.

Well, I want to give you a chance because, you're obviously very passionate.

You're very skilled at the work that you do in, in, in all these events

all over the world, which is just.

And I'm telling you guys, you got to check out our website because

these are crazy, good stuff.

Crazy good events.

I want to get to what your, why is, why do you feel so passionate

and passion driven towards events?

what is it that it gives to you?

So for me, my why is truly championing

change and women entrepreneurs.

you know, we've formed a, A new company also called leave her mark.

And it's for anyone and everyone who identifies as being a woman.

And what that, what my goal is I want to help fuel tomorrow's women

entrepreneurs with the tools they need to be successful, right?

Because 20 years ago or so, when I started my business, these

tools were not there, right?

And for me, it's really important that I want to.

Give back in that capacity.

And I think my biggest thing is, event wise, I'm only as good as my last event.

But for me, I've been part of this hospitality event

industry for a very long time.

And what I want to see, Now that I have a little human that I'm also

responsible for, I want to help shape a business world, whether

it's in hospitality, whether it's in construction, whether it's in the

airlines, whether it's in food service, so on and so forth, medicine or whatnot.

the meaning of being of service doesn't go away.

And for me, it's about leaving an impact, in my industry.

For the better, right?

I think the biggest thing I love to educate people on is culture, cuisine

and celebrations because we all live such diverse cultures in our homes,

in our communities and how we were brought up and so on and so forth.

Cuisine is what bonds us.

we can all get a seat at the table and dine over amazing food and talk about our

experiences and celebration is how do we choose to come together to celebrate each

other's successes and wins, And I think overall, like that is extremely important.

I think is so important and I think that what you're doing is a

fantastic way, not only to share culture, but strengthen and create culture in

organizations because we talk a lot about in the book lift we had just come out.

We talk a lot about rituals being one of the ways that you strengthen

culture and that people in business don't think that way, but it's a shared

experience and it's also a celebration.

And so these events that you can do and put on, it's so much more than

just an event, it's events that are bringing people together, giving

people the opportunity to share experiences so that they can go and

relate better at the office on Monday?

I think the other big thing, Dallas, that really is when I work

with my corporate clients, I think when we are going into either on set, we work

a lot with the film industry as well.

we're either going on set and creating like staff appreciation type events, or

we're going into, different tech companies or hospitality companies or whatever

doing training or so on and so forth.

I think the biggest thing and one of the feedbacks I get the most, from,

Individuals that are attending the events or, are part of the staff or whatever is

them feeling seen right when you as an organization, when you as an organization

choose to celebrate global cultures internally in your organization, and you

have a staff globally, but that are, let's just take Delta Airlines for an example,

If you're gonna you have staff globally, your staff, Is of so many different

ethnic backgrounds and cultures.

If you were to take, think about all the different holidays and celebrations

that every culture globally has from, you've got lunar New Year to

Diwali, to Christmas, to Hanukkah,

. If you as an organization take those.

Holidays.

And I wouldn't even call it holidays because these are

community celebrations, right?

They're not just holidays.

They're community celebrations, right?

If you were to take a little bit of each of those and create these activations

in your organization revolving around culture with Your staff of different

ethnic backgrounds cuisine and so on and so forth and making them feel seen and

celebrated at that table What a great way for them to feel like that This

organization has created space for me,

I love that.

And I think that you're positioned so well to educate the, your clients, it's almost

like you could give them an educational culture, not just event planning, right?

Because you've had such a breadth of events all over the world.

It's like when you engage with one of your clients, you're bringing all that.

Information with you.

And I'm sure they appreciate you for that.

It's one of the reasons why you're one of the best, absolutely.

It's why you're on the last 10%.

So, I would love to give our listeners just a quick kind of idea of some

rookie mistakes that people make when they're setting up and going to plan

an event or party in this season.

I think the number one rookie mistake people me make

is They don't hire the right team.

I think that a lot of organizations want to cut costs because they're like,

Oh, internally, this person can plan it But internally, they're so focused

on your business and your industry.

They don't understand the event execution side, planning an event.

Isn't just Calling up a caterer and saying, Oh, come

drop some food off, right?

If you're, whether you're planning a internal employee celebration or a

client appreciation, or you're planning a kick ass holiday party, because

that's what you want to do, right?

I think, again, it comes down to, the transparency, the authenticity and

impact, and planning, planning it with.

passion and purpose, right?

What is your mission with this?

Is your holiday event going to be something that later you're going to

donate to charity or, or are you doing some sort of community outreach and impact

that's going to help people around you?

, I think that's the biggest thing I can tell you.

It's we see it all the time and then we get last minute calls

to like do damage control.

Oh, this person didn't do this.

They dropped the ball.

The other thing too, is I've been in business for 20 years.

I have a set Rolodex of.

Who we work with because we know the quality, we know the level of excellence.

We know the professionalism, right?

if you are today's consumer, that's solely just focused on price and not focused on

the overall execution, the logistics, the labor, all of that, then we're going to

have a hard time working together because,

I can't sit here and teach you why the rental company needs two days to load

in and so on and so forth and the labor in there or why the balloon artist is

charging, so much money because you want an entire ceiling of your event

covered, because the material cost might be low, but the labor, the talent.

All the time and hours that takes to blow up 10, 000 balloons to

create a ceiling is very different.

It's, and I think like that's the other thing is, when people are planning

events, it's like they don't understand.

the production value and the behind the scenes that goes into really

making it happen, because as an industry, we post beautiful images.

I try to post a lot of tips in my images, on our social media and

everything, because to me it's important.

I want an informed consumer, to come to me.

But I think that's the biggest thing.

It's call the right people, internally at your organization and at your business.

Focus on creating the meaningful impact so that you want to, and that doesn't

happen by removing, adding on this.

Burden, because a lot of times when we deal with some of the internal team and

planning events, they are so stressed out, because they know that if they do

a good job on this, it's their promotion or their raise or so on and so forth,

Yes.

a lot of pressure to put on an employee, you know.

That this is the, and when that's not their expertise, right?

so I think the biggest thing too, is it's we always go into it or we

tell our client, if we're dealing with someone internally, we're like,

listen, we want to make you look good.

So just be straight up with us.

Cause

Yes.

you're telling me, you're telling me what's online for you,

I'm letting you know what's possible in the short amount of time that

you're giving me a phone call.

And

Well, I think that's fantastic advice and it's, it is true.

There's so much, there's so many layers to that.

There's so many different situations.

And the last thing you want to do is as, as a company to get

the call at the last minute.

Like we didn't do enough.

We didn't spend enough.

We didn't have the expertise enough.

And now we need you to bail us out because it's just

The best analogy I can use and my husband laughs because he's

a GC and I always tell people, I said, planning an event is like building

a home, building a hotel, right?

Think about it.

You need someone to come clear your land.

And select your venue for your home, right?

Then you need someone to lay down the foundation and all of that, which is

give you what the vision could be.

Then you need someone to start with the framing and so on and so forth, your

sheetrock and building it all up, your pipes, your electrical, all of that.

You're not going to hire, if your company budget is, A half a million dollars

or a million dollars or whatever it is for the type of event and the summit

that you're trying to plan, you're not going to hire someone that only knows

how to build a house that's 50, 000.

You know, because that's, there's a lot of that.

So I think keep in mind that's how producing an event is.

it's like building a home.

There's a lot of layers that go into it before we can even start designing

an experience and executing it.

Yeah.

I think that's awesome.

It's very, it's a complicated process and you need help.

You need help.

So, all right, we are so thankful that you were able to be on the show today.

and I always ask guests as we get to the end of the show, who they would

like to hear or see on the last 10%.

and so I would love to know who is it that you would like to see on the show?

Um, think you would have a great episode.

you should interview my father.

I think, I think that would be quite entertaining for you.

I think, you know what?

I would love to see my sister on this podcast for you.

she's a She is an airline executive, for American airlines now, we, I left

and got her hired and here we are, referred her to my old boss and he

hired her and, now the rest is history,

that's awesome.

I love your suggestions and we'll definitely, we'll have to

talk after the show about that, cause that sounds like fun.

we'll definitely get in touch and see about that.

Cause that'd be fun.

We'll tell people, near jury.

how can people get in touch with you?

Find out more about your work.

If they're interested in events, how do they find you?

they can find us through our website.

It's www.

kiscubedevents.

com or if you want to personally reach me for any sort of training

or cultural competency things, you can go to, Neerjari, N I R

J A R Y D E S A I dot R O C K.

You can find me on Instagram, on Facebook, and even on LinkedIn.

Awesome.

She's everywhere.

So you have no excuse.

You've got to find her near jury.

Thank you for being on the last 10%.

We're so thankful for the wisdom and the insight that you shared and for

all the work that you do, that's great.

Thank you for being on the show.

I appreciate it.

Thank you so much, Dallas.

And it was a pleasure to speak to another South Carolinian.

That's right.

That's right.

Well, thank you again.

Thank you.