Do What You Want, Not What They Tell You

Day 10 of 30 of my very own “Take My Life Back Plan” – Geared for chefs, but can be used by anyone.

For those of you that don’t know, I own a high end event company called Allen Event Group. We specialize in super high end events that involve food as the star of the show. As a business owner I want to capture all the events that I can, right? I am ditching that mentality as of today, I don’t want to do all the events I can anymore. I want to do the ones that matter to the client, and to my team.

We did an event last week for a client and they were so very disappointed in our service, to the point that I gave them almost all of their money back. In the beginning they haggled me down on price twice and the day before their event they canceled the stewardess service to save even more money. So now I am less than half of my most inexpensive option that Allen Event Group has and out in the middle of Table Rock Lake in the hot ass sun and all the food we brought is disintegrating into nothingness because there is no stewardess to serve the food, just the over worked chef doing an event he hates doing because of the food choices his boss (me) allowed. (Think corn dogs and chicken nuggets) It was a total disaster and I was the one to blame, not my client, not my chef, not anyone but me!

Of course the client calls in with total disappointment, and I refund the money, and go into a very low spot in my own head and had let my first client down.

Please let me give you advice from my failures in life, do not let the “nay sayers” get to you. I am speaking in general, they are trying to destroy your business, they wake up in the day and think to themselves, how do I get the most out of life while walking all over who ever I have to walk over to get there. If you don’t have someone hating on your awesome video you made, you haven’t reached enough people!!!! Haters are going to hate!!!! It is up to us to surround us with enough positive people to bounce back!!!! #surroundyourself

First off it is your fault for excepting the low end event in the firstplave, second of it is your fault for working with the client that has all the problems in the beginning, and third off why do an event you don’t specialize in? (That would be like a low end event company doing a higher event, it just doesn’t work) My advice, pick your niche and stick with it, and don’t buckle for anyone.

Now let me tell you about an event we did this Sunday at Allen Event Group. It all takes place in Brad Pitt’s favorite lake house on Table Rock Lake near Kimberling City, Missouri. If you would like to book all you have to do is contact http://www.lake123.com and search for Great Elks Lodge.

It is a beautiful mansion built of logs and timbers and very rustic-chic. From the back of the house you can walk right up to the water, or actually zip line, lol. (Seriously, there is a zip line) We have been working on this event for over two months and it is only for 6 guests and cost over $10,000.00

We have a serious team in place consisting of a 5 Star Chef, a Sexy Stewardess, Three Piece Band, Professional Photographer, a Pirotechnician, & his Assistant Mike Boyles.

We literally pulled out all of the stops on this one. The clients called me today to personally thank me and for me to thank the team about how amazing everything was. They told me everything naturally was just flawless. They also told me it was the most expensive birthday they have ever had for their daughter and almost cost as much as the wedding, but they wouldn’t have changed a thing!

The reason it was flawless is because the team knows what they are doing and they are designed for this. When I told them to shop I didn’t tell them to get the cheapest things they could find like most companies out there that are cooking for you this very day. I tell them to get only the finest that the area offers, get the best stemware so when the clients lips touch the crystal it sends them to a spot you can only achieve with the thinnest of lips. (I’m talking about a wineglass with a thin lip, if you know wine, then you know a glass has a lot to do with the experience) I instructed my chef to only get wagyu beef, the best produce and the finest seafoods money can buy!

The reason I paint you this picture is because we specialize in high end events, not low end events. So I do not want to take every event that comes my way, I only want to take the best of the best so that we can do exactly what they want us to do. Sometimes it is hard to learn this lesson, but we must go forward and stay true to our hearts. I encourage you as a business owner, to do what you specialize in, and take nothing less. Your heart will thank you later, and I truly feel so will your pocket books.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the past couple of days:

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