This is the entrepreneurs versus coronavirus podcast with your host Ryan Kononoff.

In this next interview, I had the opportunity to speak with Jordan. Kettner creative director and founder of Kettner Creative. In early March Jordan saw over a quarter of a million dollars in revenue wiped away through Corona virus related cancellations, almost overnight yet despite what for many would be the end of the road Jordan shares how he saw this as a remarkable opportunity to try something new and to invest. 

Welcome to the entrepreneurs versus corona virus podcast so just for those that haven't heard of have nerd of you or Ketner creative tell us a little bit about what you do and and a little bit about your business yeah totally so get your creative is a production or audio visual company located in Surrey BC, most of what we do is downtown Vancouver, so we do somewhere around a thousand events a year, so an event could be a TV rental for a trade show booth or an event could be like a week long event for 20,000 people. 

So it's pretty big range of what we do we've been full-time audio visual or event production since 2013 we're going on year seven right now before that we were funny enough we were a web design company that moved into a video production, oh well just moved into AV after that just path at least resistance and following demand right on and tell me a little bit about your customers who are and you mentioned a couple of examples there trade show on the larger event side of things, like who are your customers in terms of who are customer is a customer could be. 

A bride and groom for a wedding a customer could be a professional event planner or it could be a Fortune 100 company that has their own internal event management team that just needs help with equipment so we service be the seed beaded be and be the G we also work directly with government on things like press conferences, so we yeah, we have a wide customer base for sure and just to give us a bit of a scope as to the size of your operation how many staff do you have office remote even? 

I would imagine when you spin up an event you probably. Have some some part-time or or short-term contracts that you bring on tell us a little bit about what the staffing looks like at Kettner, so there's four of us full-time we have one full-time kind of quoting and logistics management person we have a warehouse and operations person and we have two of us that can kind of independently oversee crew at events and then we have a call list of independent contractors and on-call employees that's both 40 to 50 people deep depending on the season and a little bit about your revenue model, how do you sell do you have? 

Any sort of recurring model is it one time sort of event pricing that you would go in and quote on for a particular event how does that look for your business yes, so it's pretty a la carte some people will just email us what their event is and we'll quote it on what it takes what we think it takes for the event to be successful on a good better best sort of platform offer them a couple different options to choose from so it is really based on rental rate of equipment plus labor and it's all broken out and spec so really. 

I don't think in the 10,000 events that we've done that we have ever quoted the same price twice type of thing, it's all pretty custom okay and what portion of that business would you consider repeat business we in terms of revenue we probably have 40% of revenue is with repeat clients and that's probably 20% of events that are repeat we have a lot of new events are first-time people that come to us so you talked a little bit about your journey to where you are today. 

And as far as starting out as a marketing company doing some video production and then the natural progression took you to where you are today where did the idea come from what sort of launched you into the event space? I guess what give you here every year about somebody falling into an industry that's literally what happened. 

I was doing web consulting the firm and Kelowna and I just decided I wanted to do it myself and go out of that way so I moved to Vancouver where I figured that there'd be more business and a part of that was expanding to video production, which had a little bit of a background in. 

I had a client that wanted me to film a keynote speech that they were giving at a conference actually out in Harrison. Okay went out to to film their beach and the audio was feeding back like crazy, so I kind of went and sorted it out for them at a little bit of a background from earlier in my life. 

I grew up doing sound in church and that sort of thing so I sorted it out for them and then they just they literally harassed me it was about the clients called me the organizer that conference called me about 30 or 35 times asking me to do audio their next one. 

I was not interested because I had a small web design companies kind of like a two-man band sort of thing but we were having fun. When we enjoyed what we were doing this and this client was relentless so I just fine I'll do your four events for you so we just kind of rented and we just kept meeting people and people just kept asking us to do it and it's we just kind of kept saying yes because we couldn't believe like like we didn't think we did anything incredible but apparently they did and so we just kept saying yes and then that was like 2012 and May 2013 started to phase out our web design and video production stuff and I think by 2014 I was full-time in the business it's such a good story. 

I think there's so many examples of what We're businesses have found their greatest opportunity just through the simplicity of listening to their customers and and what their customers are asking for them to do and being able to deliver on that so that's really cool thanks for sharing that so let's pivot here let's talk a little bit about coronavirus what were your immediate thoughts when the coronavirus and co-ed 19 started to hit the news yeah, so almost immediately. 

I think tail ended December we knew it was a problem in January we had a couple of events with. Four. Organizers and and events that were kind of had a worldwide audience where people were flying in we had two events cancel on us which wasn't too crazy we kind of saw that coming we had a lot of discussion about it and then I believe it was Thursday Thursday March 12, I was at a BMW launch and my phone kind of kept going off like kept calling the office and they're kind of like it's bad it's pretty bad there's a lot of people canceling today. 

I guess that's the day that the word pandemic was dropped the best of my memory and then I got into this shop that eight or nine am on Friday the 13th of all things which is kind of notorious now an event industry and yeah, you're looking down the barrel of like a hundred and fifty emails of events canceling and the file rigging every five minutes the same. 

We can't do our event venues closed the schools closed the convention centers closed the auto shows canceled and it all put a video together in YouTube my brother recommended that I kind of document the journey but yeah about a 24 hour period as best as we could tell we lost about three hundred thousand dollars of revenue which was a pretty power of fighting got punched that is you think you prepare yourself and you think you run a diverse mature business with a good safety net but I don't think A lot of people anticipate a 24 hour period taking your business to zero you anticipate that you will have the ability to react and pivot. 

It's unprecedented like it really was like we're on our heels totally caught off guard yeah was a gut punch if I've ever had one before so let's talk about that video because I've had the opportunity to watch that video and in fact that's what led to us jumping on this call today tell me a little bit about the response you chose to document that experience in that time and kind of put it out there for others to to follow along on the journey with you on what was or what has that feedback looked like what kinds of responses have you had from that kind. 

Of content that you put on YouTube yeah it was barely one off but it was substantial there's probably like 50 or 60 kind of comments or DMs or text messages that came out of it and it was like, yes, there was like an acknowledgement of how horrifying it was and just how wrong emotional that feeling is you just kind of sit with it even when I every once in a while I'll pull it up and just be like just takes you back you feel all those feelings again, but yeah a lot of interesting like however production company in Australia twice your size and we're all missed together. 

I have a company in Florida and we're both half your size and yeah it's brutal but you know what can you do and I know there's a lot of that people reaching out that I've never heard from before in Vancouver there's kind of been like a text message group amongst a bunch of us that own production companies we're actually shockingly anti-competitive everybody's pretty friendly and the industry if there's just yeah, it's just all good people in the industry but yeah just a lot of when this all goes over we're gonna go for beers and tell our war stories but yeah, that's kind of the, Feeling there is like a sense of community and I think there's a lot of people that are kind of hurt right now we're definitely not even close to being one of the big companies, you know the comment I mean the video like there's dudes that lost millions of dollars and 24 hours that was unprotected even the big guys no amount of diversification would have protected them like the whole industry went to zero in 24 hours well so on that video you talk about some of the changes that you were seeing that you had to make in your business, can you can you share some of those with us yeah, I'm super fortunate I grew up in. 

The family with the dad that's an entrepreneur and three older brothers that are all entrepreneurial if they don't own their own company, they're definitely in management roles where they are working and yeah, they have rock solid advice we have a slack group between us and we need for dinner every two weeks but between the four of them dad's own businesses will last forty years again those the drill under recession hits and you just said get at it, so we have some equipment leases and the phone call is pretty honest with them just hi we have zero money we're all in this together. 

If I fail you fail so I need some help me negotiating this and it's pretty pretty surprising how fast they react because they realize that we are all on the same team, you know, some pretty good partners that way the only ones that were really not friendly at all were the landlords it's still a problem but the best they offered us was they could spread our rent over four weekly installments throughout the month. 

I'm not sure that helps the problem when you have zero income but yeah, yeah just that immediate reaction on day one you've. Really got to walk around with your fire extinguisher print off a balance sheet of everything we spend in the last 30 days and make sure that we don't spend any of it in the next 90 so that was pretty much the process just going lined by lying turning off every auto payment and just viciously protecting the business because although we do 100% want to uphold the obligations that we have we need to make sure that we make it because that's the only way that we're actually going to be able to fulfill the obligations and survive it's in everybody's best interest for us to survive so the the leases that you mentioned on the equipment that you had in. 

Our house can you share a little bit about what kinds of financial plans or structures like what what did they offer you and how how is that going to help get you through the next steps here yeah for sure so it's the straightforward equipment leasing it's hilarious because as of August we were supposed to own everything in our warehouse, but in the meantime for the next six months that we were so close it looks like about a $10,000 a month payment so that's spread across five different leases, but we called them and they came down and they said that they can't charge us nothing but They can charge us a hundred dollars per lease per month so from ten dollars a month of payments to $500 you could imagine the weight that that comes off of when you're looking at a burn rate that's looks suicidal so so that basically bought us life. 

I think between that and some of the options of the government's offering us. I think we have about eight to 12 months runway now where we don't need to make money but the other day for helpful yeah and then what about your team and and I know that was one of the things that really hit me on your videos when you talked about, The the people. 

It rely on your business for their own livelihood and how did those conversations go for you? I mean, they all heard the phone ring. I think when I came in office on Monday, the one girl said well after a day like this and a day like Friday, I'm just gonna go ahead and lay myself off now like by then the cat was out of the bag the articles grow like every production company every if you're at all affiliated like all the layoffs were already in the press so sure everybody kind of saw it coming where we did. 

Do is we kind of trimmed everybody down to twenty percent so we carried them for basically like a day a week with what the government's offering now we can actually bring everybody back starting Monday with the new 75% subsidy so we're super thankful super proud to be Canadian super happy with what the government's done for us because that allows us to keep butts and seats and allows us to have employees that don't have to apply to go somewhere else because they like where they work that really prevents that whole like victim mentality kicking in when you sit at home for four weeks in a row in terms of like add. 

Itude and moral and stuff we're super happy with kind of what the government's done to kind of keep the team together for us yeah that that's great so that's a perfect segue here let's talk about the pivot and the adjustments that that you've had to make in your business so how what are you working on right now what is keeping you busy as you're as your team starts to come back to work on Monday, it sounds like what will they be working on yeah totally my brother pretty wise brother is some pretty fortunate that way, they recommended that I read the book called they ask you answer by Marcus Sheridan. 

Like that but basically it's a story of a guy that owned a pool company in the 2008 recession and how he built a contact marketing strategy to build trust for one business came back the idea is that the pie will be smaller but when the industry kicks up again, you want a bigger piece of that pie not everybody you will be as proactive right now, so we're kind of going after that we've built a list of like maybe 200 questions that are clients asked on a regular basis and we're committed to producing between one and four pieces of content every day for the next three months that help address that. 

Just we have that content library both from a marketing and SEO perspective but also a customer satisfaction and internal training perspective so building a lot of those process on top of standard like we can do equipment maintenance and we can tidy up some of our internal process but we're mostly focused on creating customer facing content for SEO and marketing right now so at a time when so many people are ramping down or and I mean, there's lots of businesses that just cannot open their doors, they cannot do business you're fortunate enough to. 

Be able to to get right back at it and to be investing in fact that's me is really remarkable about your story so let's talk about the timerizing here what what happens or what do you perceive to be the greatest challenges if this persists for another six months or or beyond? 

Ah, yeah, I would say that well we are hoping for a best-case scenario is everybody is tired of being cooped up and this whole thing resolves by Canada Day and there's a huge push on Canada. Day to celebrate being Canadian and be in a community and getting through this together and that would hopefully knock on wood kick off the love of events again. 

So we're really counting on that bounce. Of people realizing how good events are and how special they are to have face-to-face connection with community. Canada Day would be the perfect timing because it is national holiday but if that doesn't happen until September October November then we're probably in a situation where we're riding out until the following March when event season typically kicks in again. 

So that would be quite the slog. So events, it's all about keeping efficiency and, Trying to position ourselves, so when they do start that we're the first and everybody's left I got so you're when you look at your annual revenue projections spring and summer tends to be a is that your big season and then that kind of gets you through the remaining part of the year. 

We're kind of rare in the industry our year is flat. Most people you're correct for the music guys made to September is money-making season. For the corporate guys, the season is end of August until early February so luckily we kind of have our hands in both pots where we're not the biggest in any category, but if it wasn't for coronavirus typically were booked 365 days a year to maximum capacity and the whole strategy for 2020 was how do we do less events? 

Well, I guess be careful what you ask for. So now we're kind of we were we had plans to specialize and, Things like that but obviously now we're in full take everything you can get mode So yeah that's the challenge I guess just trying to adapt from what we had planned. 

Now you mentioned your brothers at a number of times who's that support group around you. Is it just your brothers? Do you have other people in your life? You also mentioned the number of people in your industry that you've had communication with how are you staying motivated right now and inspired and and who's on your team, you know, aside from some of those resources you've already mentioned? 

Yeah, totally. So the brother group and with my dad is 100%, like I consider them the board of direct. Ive. They understand everything about every part of the business and they offer great feedback. The family that I grew up in is super book driven and like personal growth driven and they like that that's just born and bred like we all at least read. 

100 books a year at least and it's all based on the recommendations that each other give each other so that itself is about an acknowledged that we tap into but from a community perspective obviously talking with a competition isn't quite as friendly from a intimate business detail standpoint but the support is there like the like we all actually care about each other we all work on jobs together and events together like we all have our specialty within the event production wheel house so when you see the same 20 people probably 150 of Events a year you get to know each other quite well and you actually do care about each other and each other's families and all that sort of stuff you don't wish harm on any of them but in terms of what wakes me up in the morning, I would say it's the drive especially from my brothers that's like okay, what are you doing to solve this problem today and here's what I think you should do today you need to read this book now because I think this part will be helpful literally born into privilege by being pushed that way you really can't beat that yeah anybody I talk to nobody. 

And that's the push I think that does make me want to pop out of bed so at 7 am and keep my daily routine and keep pushing without the brother group. I would probably be where a lot of other people are right now still back in the pity party that I was in like 14 days ago, so let's jump back to that first video so first video and then you publish another video what was that period of time between that pity party as you call it that you had on the first one and then when you're right back at it feeling inspired and motivated and what was that switch that flicked in your mind that got you there? 

I think I'm in acknowledged it in the first video where we're not gonna miss this moment the moment was profound it was a feeling like no other I actually couldn't even film that video. I did take it twice because we kept getting interrupted by phone calls people still trying to cancel their events that moment is like, You don't want to dismiss it, it deserves the attention it got just because of how heavy it was but I by the time I've done filming talking about how. 

Poorly it made me feel I knew I would I was gonna sit with it for that evening, but when the sun rose the next day, it was time to start walking and start marching out of it, there's no like I know I've been getting fairly into like the Rhine holiday solar system stuff and it's like the one thing I can control is my attitude my actions from here. 

I can't control the industry the can't control the virus. I can't control the government canceling events, like objectively all those the train is sent and it was strange because there's an entrepreneur. You don't like being a passenger and I don't like blaming people for my mistakes. I like being responsible for things. 

I do in decisions. I make but I felt like I couldn't control any of that but I could control. My attitude and keep searching for more knowledge to solve the problem that's great so what we can say to those who are listening who are struggling in their own businesses and maybe they haven't found that opportunity to pivot or they just don't know what shifting looks like or what kind of innovation they can introduce in their own businesses what kinds of suggestions would you make to them? 

Funny. I I kind of made a we put together a YouTube video on our ketner creative page for like what to do if you're like an out of work tech right now and I think the same thing applies to any business owner right now one you need to set up your daily routine that's super important you can't stay in bed until 10 am that's not gonna help anybody so pop out of bed do your usual routine. 

To spend 15 minutes a day and make contact with three people tell them hi I miss working with you and how are you doing three use the opportunity for training if you don't have something to do in your business throw it into training. I mean the amount of time that you have right now is unprecedented as something employed people we always talk about what we would do if we had time to dig a sink our teeth into something so here's that opportunity. 

For try something new, you know, make slime with your kids you might awaken a new passion that you never knew existed. Five you've never had this opportunity in your life for work-life balance as a self-employed person, it's never happened like I've dialed it back from 80 90 hour weeks to 40 and it's like reintroduce myself to my family I say that as a joke but not really and it's great so take it because you have it and oh six point was journal document the process right down three things every day that you're happy for that you're thankful for and right down bullet form every single thing you did that day because sometimes In the space right now it's easy to feel like you haven't done anything when you go to bed and you be shocked at how long that list is if you keep that journal with you every day and it does make you feel like you're moving forward and then right down to things that you want to conquer the next day, so when your alarm goes off at seven you have something to do right away that was kind of the advice that I gave to freelance text that are looking for work right now, but I think it applies all the same as business owner. 

I love that. I think in particular the idea of writing things down and journaling. I mean, you you chose to talk. Number you mentioned in our conversations today how you've already gone back and watched that and how that's been such a great reminder of where you were and acts as a starting point for this new journey that you find yourself on and in this challenging time, I think that in particular I mean in our own business we encourage our staff to do these time audits and it's that's this idea that you take a journal and you divide your page up and everything 15 minutes you write down what you're doing and it's this idea that so many times the day goes by we look back and we have no idea what we really accomplished whether we made any significant progress when you look back at the Time audit. 

It's so often reaffirming that yes I did accomplish a lot today I made I did make progress and other times, it just gets perspective on the fact that maybe you spent time working on something today that didn't matter and and not enough time on the things that did matter and so writing is such a powerful way to help us to reflect and to keep track. 

I also really love the six steps you shared. I completely agree that that those six steps are absolutely imperative for anyone who's finding themselves in a situation similar to yours or just even in business in general is they're trying to innovate and Make the most of of this time that we find ourselves in Jordan thanks for taking time out of your day to come on the show and to share your story with us for those that want to reach out to you and connect what's the best way for them to do that yeah if you just Google kettner creative my email is Jordan j o r d a n at kettner creative.com k e t t n e r creative yeah that's it if anybody's out there that's in the same boat definitely happy to hear from people awesome thanks for sharing your story and a little bit about the investments that you're making right now awesome thanks right.

Thanks for listening to the entrepreneurs versus coronavirus podcast with your host Ryan Kononoff for complete show notes and additional information visit clearbridge.ca/podcast. Ryan is the founder of Clearbridge Business Solutions. To find out how investing in technology can help your business, especially during uncertain economic times visit lifewithclearbridge.ca connect with Ryan on LinkedIn or on Twitter at Ryan Kononoff, that's RYAN KONONOFF. 

Thanks for listening.