PNC is proud to support Business Forward, where community leaders discuss the issues confronting business in Central Illinois.

(upbeat rousing music) (upbeat rousing music continues) - Welcome to "Business Forward."

I'm your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight, Kelly Sticklemaier and Lisa Ullenious, of Bright Idea Creative.

Welcome Kelly and Lisa.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thanks, Matt.

- Well, let's start with you, Kelly.

Bright Idea Creative, I knew you before you started this company.

This company is now 15 years old.

That's crazy.

- It's really nuts.

I can't believe it's really kind of flown by, but.

- Yeah.

So I'll start off by saying, you two really put on the best events that I've ever been around.

- Thank you.

- And I've put on a lot of events myself, so good job to that, but why don't you tell the audience what Bright Idea Creative really is.

- Yeah, so we started, I started Bright Idea Creative, like you said, 15 years ago.

And we, we're really just one client, and had, Wildlife Prairie State Park was still estate park back then.

And we rebranded the organization.

Lisa would come and help me with my projects as we would get busier, she would come and help and join in, and then finally came on board 10 years ago, but we do special event planning, focus on marketing, public relations and graphic design for a wide variety of clients, but a lot of them happen to be not-for-profit organizations.

- Do you ever think that what you did for them, and now with Roberta English as the CEO and what she's doing there, that you really did have an early hand in getting them kind of that nudge.

- It's fun to see where our not-for-profits really start, and where they end up.

Because we're usually, and I told you this when you asked us to do this, is we're typically behind the scenes, and don't, and that's the way we like it, because we want our not-for-profit guests to be attached to the charity and not know that Lisa and I even exist.

So it's really cool to see how things evolve and change after we get involved with the not-for-profits really.

It's a fun part of the business.

- So Lisa, so there's obviously, we're talking about the event piece, but there's a lot more to this.

So what else do you do?

- Yeah.

And the last couple of years really gave me a good sense of us being a diverse business.

In other words, a lot of people do know us for events, but we do marketing and creative work on other levels as well.

So in the last two years, we had clients that we had done events with, obviously had to pull back, but I was very glad for the diversity we had in our portfolio to help them with press releases, remote events, corporate packaging, and redesign of things of that nature.

So writing, design, events, we have a broad spectrum of talents and people we can call upon to help when we need to.

So Kelly and I joke a lot that we don't say we can't do anything very often, because we're willing to give anything a try, and reach out to our network of people to get a job done for a client in need.

- And I think you become well known too, once you start working, because really in the non-profit space, especially there's boards, and every non-profit's governed by a board, and a lot of those boards if you take a company like UnityPoint or PNC, they have board members throughout, and they see the work, whether it's at Red Cross or Wildlife Prairie Park, wherever it may be.

And you've had your hand in a lot of events with a lot of non-profits.

That's pretty cool.

- Yeah.

There's definite crossover and communication between boards and CEO's and that, and we are fortunate enough to get a lot of good word of mouth and press if you will, in that regard.

So it does help our business grow and evolve for sure.

- Yeah.

- A funny little component to that, is kind of a full circle thing when Prairie Riverfront Museum opened, we did, I think nine or 10 grand opening events for them.

And they, we came in and helped with a little bit of marketing when they opened, and as their staff evolved, we didn't, we weren't needed.

So we kind of swooped in when they needed us, then we hit the bricks when we don't, when they don't.

But now we've been called back to help them with their events again.

And it's really kind of a cool kind of full circle because it's, we're coming up on the 10th anniversary of that.

Or is the 10th- - We're past that.

- We're past the 10th anniversary.

- For sure.

- It's very cool to kind of see it where it started, and again, to your previous question, and how it's grown.

And John's done an amazing job at the museum, and it's fun to be able to work with them in this capacity.

- Yeah.

John Morris was on this show too, and he's one of the great non-profit leaders of the whole region.

And, but what's happened too with non-profits, just like other businesses, you kind of go in and just fill gaps, because development departments, or event departments, however you want to call 'em, they're busy.

It's not just fundraising.

It's, there's a lot of stewardship involved in the departments.

There's a lot of things.

What you do, is you come in and assist, and help in the things that, logistically.

So when I've worked with you, you've come in, both of you have come in and helped with pretty much everything under the sun.

But the thing that takes the pressure off someone like me, is being able to secure a tent outside, or to work with the city on permits, or fire department or whatever it may be.

And so it, people just think event planning- - It just happens.

- It just happens.

- Everything's just so fun.

And it is fun, but there's a lot of detail work in putting on a successful and safe event for our community, so.

- So Lisa, how do you stay...

I don't know, hip's not the right word, (Lisa laughs) but how do you stay above the curve in developing new ideas and making sure things are fresh?

Because a lot of times too, in events, people, if the event's not fun, I'm not going back next year.

And I'm gonna go to, because it's not just about mission always with a non-profit, 'cause you do for profit.

We'll talk about that too.

But as a non-profit, it's not just about mission.

They want it to be fun when you go.

- Yeah.

And I think connecting with event participants and guests at that level, they're already there supporting.

They believe enough in a non-profit that they're gonna put their dollars and their presence behind that.

But when they get there, if you can get them to sort of connect with that mission at a level where they walk away going, "I had a really good time."

- Yeah.

- And then you associate those positive feelings with a non-profit, with a charity, with their mission.

And it only reinvigorates and re-energizes you to be involved with them in the future in the go forward.

So we're always looking for new ideas on things that haven't been done in this market, or haven't been done recently, or a theme or something to follow that just sounds fun.

We haven't done it.

We'll pitch ideas.

And ultimately, our clients are the ones that have to own it and get behind it, but we're, we're kind of been been all over the board with that stuff.

- [Kelly] Yeah.

- Yeah.

I guess Kelly, I guess you'd have to have some thick skin too, because one year you may be thinking, "Okay, I'm all in on this event."

And "Boy, this is a good contract."

'Cause this is your business.

This is what you do.

You have to make money.

And then the next year, "Well, I only need you about a fourth of the time."

And in your mind, you're budgeting, and you're laying out the full year because in this type of business, I'm guessing 'cause you have other projects, you've really gotta time things out.

- We do.

- How do you do that?

- Well, we, the good news is, is event season, we call it event season, is typically like spring and fall.

There's stuff that falls in between obviously, July 4th, we're helping the museum with that.

Peoria Magazines and WTVP has an even in July, but we're lucky to kind of have a good lead time on the events that are happening.

Things do drop in, and we're again, Lisa, like she said, we never say "no."

(Lisa laughs) So with, and we do so, and we're trying to be conscious of making sure we're not taking on too much so we don't provide bad service to our customers.

So yeah, we just kind of are lucky in our big labor intensive events.

We usually have about a year to plan those.

So we can see that coming at us, so we kind of know what we can plug in around it.

- And so one of the services that you do provide, is if I was to hire you, you go in, you can go as far as negotiating the food, securing just about everything you can think of.

- Yeah.

We have vendor friends in our industries across, everybody.

I have people that even just call me for advice, friends and family, "Hey, I need a florist."

Or "I need a pipe and drape guy."

And we have contracts and friends in all those industries.

And so yeah, we do everything or we do as little as...

I've been hired, just hired us to write some scripts, or rewrite articles, or just, "We just need center pieces."

We've done that too.

Or "We just need table linens."

We have a limited quantity of that.

We have contracts with people or contacts with people that have a lot more than what we just have in house, so.

- And so to hire a group like yours, it makes sense, because you can actually use your, I don't know if it's buying power as much as knowledge, to be able to go in, and to call the linen company or whatever it may be and figure that piece out.

- Yeah.

And one of the things, especially in not-for-profit land, Rob Park said it best when she was the head of the foundation at UnityPoint, she said, it allows me to go out and raise money.

You guys handle all the detail stuff.

So obviously we keep every one of our clients in the loop about every decision that is made, but she can go out and focus her time on the thing that's most important, raise money.

- Yeah.

- And we can talk to the food people, talk to the AV people, talk to the linen company.

And so keep that all straight for them.

- Yeah.

See I think a lot of times, people, I'm gonna go to you on this one.

A lot of times what will happen, is people will say, "Oh, we've got this event to go to."

And it is for a non-profit, and they go to the event, and then there's people on the business side of it that are a part of the non-profit, and they're going, "This is a fundraiser."

- Yes.

(laughs) - It's fundraiser first, party second.

But the participants, and you want this feeling, you want them to walk in and go- - Yes.

Yes.

- Right.

- To be memorable, yeah.

- To be memorable.

- Yeah.

It's a, it's a balancing act for sure.

Because as we alluded to earlier, event planning, and it's just this elevated glamor.

It's just selecting linen, and food tastings, and that's all fine and dandy.

And you can have an image in your head, and then you can associate a price tag with it.

And so we think, "How can we mimic or duplicate that at a level that's gonna still allow the non-profit to maximize their return on this?"

Because if you spend $400 on a centerpiece, it's not like "Who wore it best?"

We have a star in a name brand outfit, and you can downplay that with something more local or more, at a lower economy of scale.

And that's kind of where we fit in, to be like, "Okay, we have these champagne dreams, but we aren't gonna spend a champagne budget."

It just doesn't make sense.

Like you said, at the end of things, it's the fundraiser.

And so we're trying to have the fun, but raise the funds while doing it, and balancing that and expectations is pretty important.

- Yeah.

I think it's, you make a good point, because if my goal, I'll just throw out a number, is a hundred thousand, to raise a hundred thousand, I need to net a hundred thousand.

- Exactly.

- Not just gross a hundred thousand, so that my expenses have to be over here, and I don't have time to figure out the 50 expenses that are flowing in.

I've gotta worry about what you said with Rob.

I have to look at the revenue piece.

- Um-hmm.

Yep.

- All right.

- Yep.

- Let's change topics here.

- Okay.

- Pandemic.

- Oh, that was fun.

- Now I hate talking about this, but in this business, it is a game changer.

- Yeah.

- Because I look at a lot of other companies like yours throughout the country, and they're not around.

So I remember I was doing an event, and I hired a band.

And then COVID hit.

And that band dissolved, and I, you know, "Where's my money?"

"I put down a deposit.

Where's my money at?"

And you're not gonna go chase it but at the same time, not only the companies dissolve, bands dissolved, caterers dissolved.

How did you, as a very, I'm gonna call you a boutique group.

- I like that.

- Two of ya.

- How did you weather that storm?

- So we had, we were optimistic when everything started to shut down.

So we had a ton of events planned in April, and really in the fall.

And we kept thinking, "Oh, surely by August, it'll be fine.

It'll be fine."

And we would re, there was like this mad dash for dates.

Not just us, all not-for-profits, all event planners, weddings, anything, we're trying to move your events forward to be able to still have the event.

So initially, it was that work of moving everything forward and talking to the vendors and saying, "Obviously this can't happen."

Our job is to get people together.

That clearly wasn't happening.

So we figured out a plan to kind of move everything forward.

Well as we learned more, and as everything kind of fell apart, then it was partly our job to cancel everything and make sure it was done in a way that if deposits were made, and the company was not able to give us the money back, "Okay, can we move it forward?"

And just making sure those contracts and everything were honored in the go forward when eventually we could come back to the world as we know it.

But then we leaned heavily on a lot of other stuff.

- Yeah.

- We had, like Lisa said, we had some writing work.

We did some weird stuff like signage for PPE.

And Lisa did some technical writing about, for handbooks and how PPE was gonna be distributed, and some of that stuff.

So we were lucky enough to have some other work.

We did some social media stuff.

We had a handful of clients who did virtual events, and virtually, virtual like events.

So Illinois River Road National Scenic Byway did a photo contest.

It was our idea.

We're like, "Hey, this, is everyone's home and bored."

- I'm familiar with that.

- Yeah.

Let's do a photo contest.

- Yeah.

- And so we set up the app, and set up, and it was wildly successful.

We gave some prizes away.

Didn't cost them much, but it was, it really boosted their social media numbers.

We did an online golf outing.

We did a drive-in theater.

We did, UnityPoint, you mentioned earlier, does a huge employee recognition dinner.

And it's a thousand people every year.

Well, clearly we weren't having that.

And so we worked with their team and came up, it was, the theme that year was supposed to be 80s.

And we came up with a box that everybody that was getting an honor that year got the box in the mail, and they got a little fanny pack 'cause it was 80s, and we thought that was fun.

And we got 80s steam themed candy.

And they all got dinner from a local restaurant.

And so that also poured that back into the economy, which was amazing.

And we hired a band, "Jam Sandwich," and they did a closed circuit concert for people.

So on this day- - That's cool.

- They had a week full fun.

We hired the guy, I forget his name.

Crease, John Crease.

And did a cameo video to wish the wells, well wishers from Cobra Kai to the, to the staff at UnityPoint.

They put it on their portal at the hospital.

So it was looking for ways to fulfill some of those obligations in a creative way.

It's kind of how we survived.

- Yeah.

I mean, I think that goes to the creative part of your name.

- Thanks.

- Because you have to be creative or you go belly.

- Yep.

- That's as simple as that.

- Yeah.

- That's crazy.

So let's talk about, I had Mike Bailey, who's the editor in chief of the Peoria Magazines, and WTVP now has this magazine.

And it's a new look.

It's a good feel.

It was a great interview, but there's also, besides the magazine, there's also events.

And so you're going to be helping with the 40 under 40 right?

- Yes.

- So why don't you talk about that for a second.

- Yeah.

We actually just met about it yesterday.

- Oh okay.

- Not a lot of this has been announced yet, but- - Okay.

- Leslie said we could talk about it.

- Okay.

- So we are taking what has always been a very successful event in the past, and just trying to put a new looking glass over it and make sure that we're keeping this kind of more energetic and getting younger people, 'cause we're honoring people that are under 40, just like me.

(everyone laughs) - I was gonna say that.

- But that ain't gonna fly.

- A little joke.

But honoring folks under 40 and making them want to participate, want to be nominated.

And so we are moving it to The Scotty, which is very exciting.

Scottish Wright.

And we are going to kind of put a, I don't wanna say, it sounds bad to say, like a graduation feel to it, but we're honoring each of our honorees in a way that is a little bit more quickfire as an example.

It kind of moves the program through.

But what we have found, is the thing that our guests at all of our events like, is that connectivity time.

- That's right.

- That you and I talk, we get to have a drink.

- Exactly.

- We have our little appetizer and everything's fun.

And then, I don't know if we can announce who it is yet, but then we're gonna- - But let's not do it.

(everyone laughs) - But we have- - There's a fun surprise - Let's call it surprises.

- at the end.

There's a fun surprise at the night for this group.

So you can actually start nominating now.

They've got that online.

- That's pretty cool.

- Yeah.

It's gonna be a fun night.

- [Lisa] Open.

Open.

- So Lisa, when you look at kind of on a more serious note here, 'cause I, we all knew people.

The Civic Center, and in this whole region in Bloomington, in Galesburg, and Peoria that run banquets, banquet halls, hotels, and you saw people start being laid off, and you start seeing people hurting.

And I go back into my mind of, at The Civic Center as an example of seeing, thinking of basketball games, and the people that are frontline selling popcorn and all those things, and all those people go by the wayside.

Was there ever a thought that you had that we may not get back to this?

- Gosh, I think, I don't know if we ever- - To the fun?

- To the fun, I knew it would pass.

Just history tells us.

- Yeah.

This type of thing has struck.

Pandemics have struck before, and we've always come through 'em, but boy, time kind of stood still.

It was two years, and you lost track of it all.

I think we thought we would get through it.

We weren't sure how long, as Kelly mentioned.

In the beginning it was like, "We'll push things off three months.

Maybe six months.

Okay, Maybe a year."

Well now we're bumped up a whole 'nother year.

- Right.

- So, so it was a, an adaptation to that timeline that really accelerated rather quickly.

And then just coming to terms with that, our old people, our old crews weren't there to greet us back again.

And it was, it was, it was painful.

It was understandable.

And we're still growing back into that as we see more facilities coming up online.

But as everyone knows, there's a shortage of personnel, a shortage to meet demand, because everyone's so ready to get back to events and stuff.

But we're optimistic.

- Well I say that- - We're optimistic.

- Well I say that in the tone that I did, because we know a lot of people in this business.

The average person may know a person or two, but you know every venue.

You know people personally.

They've become friends.

- Yeah.

- And here you are.

I do have my favorite bartenders at certain spots.

And you see them, and they post something on Facebook or something and your heart just breaks.

- Absolutely.

- And so I think it's kind of people forget about that pain that a lot of people went through.

- Yeah.

- And now as we rebound, we're not gonna be negative anymore.

Let's get back to having fun, but we rebound and there becomes another issue.

Kelly, the issue is now everybody wants dates booked.

- Yep.

- Yeah.

(Lisa laughs) - It's busy.

- So how do you, I'm gonna go back to the question of how you plan, because now you're sitting here going, "Oh my goodness."

And now September that typically has roughly 15 to 17 events a year fundraising wise, now has 25.

- Yeah.

- Or whatever.

- We, and what's nice about our community, and I, and I've said this before, you've said this before, you've said this before.

We have such a generous community in that they like to have fun.

They like to go to events.

So when an event happens, we're all pretty good at playing in the sandbox together.

We try and talk to the other not-for-profits and say, "Okay, you're, when is Peoria Promise happening? "

"When's (indistinct) happening?"

"When's a tribute dinner happening?"

And we just kind of make sure that our timeframes don't butt up.

It's not a perfect system, but we try to make sure that there's enough room for everybody to have their events in a timely fashion.

So to answer your question, I guess, is we just kind of, it's just of a feel for us, what we, what we know we can do, what is respectful of our client's time, our time, so we're not nuts.

We do, we'll be nuts this fall.

- It's, it's very busy.

- Which is fine.

- That's fine.

We're excited about it.

But it's, and it's neat to put a new, a new spin on some of these things, and how do we do them differently?

How do we give our guests more opportunity to network and talk and, and hug each other?

People that, we'll go to an event, and I haven't seen somebody in two years, so- - Isn't that crazy?

- It's nuts to say- - Literally, I haven't seen you in years.

And before we said it off, an off-hand comment, but I mean this now.

I haven't seen you in years.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- So yeah.

- And some of the people, and back to that previous statement, I just wanna give a shout out to the Otzi guys and gals.

They are hardworking people.

That's the entertainment and theatrical union in town.

They stopped.

Everything just went away.

And these people, that's their lively.

It's our livelihood too, but like... - Yeah.

That was my- - And then they, Yeah.

And then it's so, a lot of these faces are back which we're really excited about.

- Oh good.

- Yeah.

But yeah, just to give them a shout-out as well, because people don't think about all the layer- - Layers.

- Yeah.

Lots of layers.

- It cascades down 20 levels deep and people don't think about it.

- So we're really blessed to live in such a great region.

- Yeah, very much.

- I love middle Illinois.

And the people just know how to have fun.

I think so.

- I agree.

- There's always that pessimistic tone or thread that goes through some people, but whatever.

But this is really a fun place.

So I'm gonna ask you both this question.

I'm start with you.

What does community mean to you?

- It's joining together to just bring forward what's important.

And I think, we all have things that we're passionate about.

But if someone's really in need, I have almost never seen anyone go without.

They, our community is remarkable at if there's something that's happened, the tornado, we lived through the tornado.

My in-laws lost their home.

We had people that I haven't talked to since high school calling me up and saying, "Hey, what can we do to help you?"

- Yeah.

- And so it's just the, the ability for our region to come together in whatever need is needed, in whatever issues that weigh, that they can kind of come together and help.

- Yeah.

I think that's well said.

How about you?

- Yeah.

I'm not from Peoria.

Now we've lived here going on 30 years.

- Yes you are.

- So I guess I can say now I kind of am, but I don't, certainly don't have the childhood connections and networks.

I've met so many people through people like Kelly and lifelong Peorians and stuff.

And this network, it's the smallest big town I've ever, I've ever been in.

You know what I mean?

There's just such connectivity, such a willingness to help.

And that to me is a sense of community.

Peoria's my community now.

- Yeah.

- I mean, you need something, all you gotta do is ask.

Someone's there.

- And not just Peoria because you do events in Galesburg and Bloomington, and other places too.

- Yes.

Outside, yeah.

- So, yeah.

Well said.

So last question here.

15 years ago, you started a business.

There's that entrepreneurial mindset.

It's hard 'cause you had a paycheck.

- Yep.

- It's consistent every two weeks.

- It was really nice.

- It is.

- Still miss that.

(laughs) - And then you start your own business, and it has its own plus, but- - Very much.

- Do you ever regret making that change?

- No.

And a friend of mine, Amy Blaine said, "Once you go to work for yourself, you'll never want to go back."

Now obviously if necessity made it so I needed to go find a, I call it a regular job.

We work a lot.

But I would do that obviously for my home, but, and my husband and I, but we've been very lucky, and worked hard to create a business where we don't have to do that.

- Yeah.

- So yeah.

I just, I've loved it, every minute of it.

And it's really, I can't believe it's been 15 years.

That's so cool.

- Doesn't seem like it.

- Bright Idea Creative.

- Yeah.

- Thank you, Kelly and Lisa.

Thanks for coming on the show.

We're proud to have you on.

I'm Matt George, and this is another episode of "Business Forward."

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Thank you for tuning in to "Business Forward" brought to you by PNC.

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