Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cindy Lo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Cindy, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?
I haven’t been asked this question as often as the others so I chose this one. I never noticed that I was a glass-half full kind of leader until about a decade ago. And then fast forward to March 2020 when I realized more than anything that my attitude of how we were going to survive the devastation of the live events industry (thanks to the pandemic) was going to determine if we were going to even have a future story to share.
I think it truly began when I was a child growing up in Houston with two immigrant parents. I was born in Texas and though my parents’ first language was not English, I was made to believe that anything I put my mind to, I could be the best at; especially if I was kind and showed respect to others. So I focused on working hard, getting recognized by others so that I could “climb” the corporate ladder and eventually one day hopefully be successful (in real honesty to make my parents’ proud). I honestly didn’t realize how much I needed to learn the ways of the world, and with my parents being immigrants, I didn’t realize how much more of a gap I had to close to get where my peers in Texas had above me. Thanks to my parents’ unconditional love and support, I didn’t see limitations rather I saw goals that I just needed to achieve with time.
Fast forward to college and professional life, anytime I’m faced with a challenge, I break it down to bite size pieces and ask myself what do I need to do to accomplish the goal at hand. So rather than viewing the obstacles as truly obstacles that can’t be overcome, I see them as mini-challenges.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
We pivoted RED VELVET during the pandemic to focus on live & experiential. Many questioned if this was good timing but again back to optimism – my POV is that there’s no better timing than a pandemic to reinvent yourself professionally. What some may not realize was that we were already in the throes of pivoting to this model pre-pandemic but the pandemic definitely accelerated the timeline. More explanation about the pivot can be found here in our October 2020 blog post – https://weareredvelvet.com/
What I am most excited about is that our future really is brighter than before – it was honestly hard to say this in late 2020 and even in 2021, as we (as a company) had to endure a lot of rebuilding pains of a what a startup usually experiences and were technically over that hump but boy did the pandemic reset everything.
In the short of it, live events have come back with a vengeance and it’s even more important for brands to tell their story in a creative way to really make their brand “sticky” and stand out in a crowded marketplace. This is where our agency comes in – since we hire the most creative, dedicated to the craft and truly care about the outcome, we feel we are primed to only succeed in the long run! Keep in mind, our industry continues to be voted as one of the top 5 most stressful jobs that is NOT a frontline job – so it definitely takes the right kind of team member and attitude to be successful!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Being Self Aware / Open to Always Learning 2. Tech-Friendly
3. Communicative
These 3 skills/traits I have listed here go hand-in-hand. And technically I am confident in saying that these 3 skills/traits can take you far in ANY career, not just in the events industry.
Being self aware means you are not afraid to admit what you don’t know, and that you are open to learning new skills. So important to receive feedback from others and always try to make yourself a better human.
With how fast technology is being adopted, YOU NEED TO BE TECH FRIENDLY. If you are afraid of using technology, you will quickly become a luddite.
And last but not least, I always remind our team that 50% or more problems are usually caused by miscommunications. Therefore, it’s better to over-communicate vs making assumptions. And learning how to write a proper email/text message is SO IMPORTANT – do NOT underestimate the written words.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
I am blessed to have worked with clients in all shapes and sizes – startups to Fortune 100 companies – over the last 20 years. But the one thing that has been very consistent is the clients that work best with our agency have the following traits:
– appetite for some risk to go BIG and make a bold statement with their events/live experiences
– a client that LOVES events (not just seeing it as a thing to do) but really understands the Event ROI aspect when it comes to sales & marketing
– a client that wants to disrupt their market in a positive way
– has a company culture that matches RED VELVET’s company culture – which means they encourage their employees to take calculated risks; they encourage authenticity; they respect each other
Contact Info:
- Website: www.WeAreREDVELVET.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/REDVELVETEVENTS
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/REDVELVETEVENTS
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/redvelvetevents/
Image Credits
RED VELVET
