 Welcome back to Geeks are sexy. I'm Jason the Duke here with my second guest today Christine Curtis We're gonna tell you all about her in a second But first we're gonna talk about our sponsor this month is 5 a.m. Global They're a marketing agency and one of the things they do really well is social media And that's why I want to talk about them before your segment because we're gonna talk about your business Social booth LV, which is all about social media, right? So so they can do you know one of the things I think is great about what 5 am global does for your social media Is they don't just take take your info and just start posting for you They really spend some time to sit down and figure out what platform is this platform to be on? I mean as a business consultant LinkedIn is where the platform that works best for me on social media But you were you work with people all the time we use different platforms So let's talk about you because that's what we're here to do today Christine is the CEO and owner of social booth LV and you are a Las Vegas resident born and raised You've been described as strong focused driven and sometimes even a little bit relentless So we'll get to that but you're born and raised in Las Vegas you got a background in HR project management and sales And we're gonna learn today about how you left all that behind to start social booth LV. Welcome to the show. Thank you Thank you. So How did you come up with social booth LV and how did you go? How did you transition from what you were doing to what you're doing now? So social booth LV originally started as a little bit of a project between my partner who is Marie amazing inside and out and she She and I had worked for an event technology firm for many years And we're working with you know fortune 500 companies working with big marketing corporate budgets And we learned a lot about production quality and being born and raised from Las Vegas I wanted to bring that to the community and for an affordable price and be able to have that high quality For a smaller budget or smaller events But still be able to show off kind of what we what we learned and be able to give it to the community Well, and one of the things we talked about in our pre-interview was you wanted to bring this to people's private events Personal their family events their weddings their graduations their family reunions and also the smaller businesses Who appreciate the care? Yes that you put in yes Because it's all about you know quality of the product but also service so that excellent customer services is kind of a pillar to our Company we want to make sure that people are excited to work with us because we're excited to work with you too And it's not all about the money, you know, it's it's about the end game for us So you you have a really interesting piece of technology That's the core of what social booth LV does and you're willing to thought about choosing that technology Tell us tell us about the technology you're using and tell us what you thought about when you were choosing The key piece of technology to base your business on right so both Marie and I very very picky on choosing our technology It took us a couple months We kind of vetted out a lot of different companies But ultimately the three things that wanted to focus on where that it's aesthetically pleasing Easy to use what the users to be able to come up take about have fun and be able to share your Your photo your video your death very quickly onto social media and then also the logistics part of it So we actually you know, we want to be able to do outdoor festivals or outdoor events you know smaller venues and not have the Something holding us back like the footprint being too big or it's too hard to set up Things that and it's super easy to use you go you you get your picture taken and you put in your we put in our phone Numbers other other things they can do you post your right to sit right to see your social media from now right now the way that Facebook Twitter and Instagram work they have Restrictions for that, but it's very easy to send to your email or text message and then download it and upload it But if you were looking for something easy to use for your event where you don't have to have one of your staffers Manning this photo booth or or paying someone a man a photo booth because it's complex to use I I was able to work it and that That's that's a volume because I'm I'm an engineer, but I'm not great with social media So so we talked a lot about how important is to shift your perspective? When you own a business when you from when you start a business to as the business grows How has your perspective shifted? How is your perspective shifted from when you work for someone else? to When you started that own a business and then how is your perspective changed? From when you started your business because you guys have been going nine months now a year Yes, so we originally started with our consulting agency, which we still have chaos consultant and then and that's for years but the social the photo booth business did start only a couple months ago and To answer your questions, so you're asking about how my perspective change you so I'm a firm believer that your business life is going to be influenced by your personal life and for me One of the biggest changes that I've had in the past couple years Would be you know travel and so when you travel There's a lot of people focus on the you know the mental aspect that your mentality changes because you're immersed in a different culture And that's very true But I also believe that you physically your biology changes when you go to different continents different places and When I've traveled I've kind of learned how I occur to the world and how business occurs to the world and how I want to Make sure that the company that I have is is a benefit to the community that it's in that's actually more important to me And that's why we do like non-profit events. We do a lot of a lot of non-profit events for free Mainly because we want to help the community. That's what our goal is. It's not all about the money. That's great So that's somehow your perspective is shifted from working for someone being a business owner. What have you learned? What have you learned since starting your business? We all as business owners We all learn and grow and we make a ton of mistakes at least I have what have you learned since Since starting well you're starting your consulting company or starting social booth healthy things I've learned so one of the biggest things is that When you're so a lot of times people just want to sell sell sell Start your business. You just kind of constantly want to talk about it Yeah, but I think it's all about the relationship And I think that's one of the bigger things is just networking and relationships are a lot stronger and they last longer And so that's one of the biggest things that I've had. Yeah That was the I think I definitely fell into that category in the beginning and the deal I made with the universe was if you just put me in front of the people I can help I'll figure out how to help them right whether that is doing business with them or whether it's really just helping them And I think that was a lesson. I learned anyway, so so tell us what's coming up next for social booth lv Where are you taking this company? So, um, you know in 2019 if we have a lot of big changes We have to tell for our first time. Yeah being there. It was You know just the fact that we were able to get into that in a short period of time You know, it's a big milestone for us. We do want to do corporate events festivals sporting events But right now what I'm trying to do is kind of get us onto some vendor List for that venues here. I mean biggest does tons of events and we want to be a part of it So, yeah, it's a it's kind of a party What's your biggest challenge to getting on those vendor lists or what's your biggest challenge to getting connected up with those sporting venues? um, so I would say that you know, we're a small city and a lot of times people say Vegas is a who you know type of city and for me I want to get over that obstacle and I'm really looking forward to that challenge because Um, I want people to not just use us because they know us I want people to use this because they know when we're on site. You're going to have high quality photos You're going to have a great production team and exit customer service. That's that's what I Am looking to so if you have a venue space I know there's a ton of you in town who have venue spaces Ranging in size from small to very very large and I know you're always looking for your vendors and your support contractors and that kind of thing Connect with pristine And so besides venue owners, who are you looking to connect with? Um, so I also was in project management. So production coordinators event planners. Um, Those are my peeps. Uh, so I would definitely love to connect with I have someone for you actually. Okay. Keep me in there. Keep me to connect you Okay, so event planners if you're watching this Howl at your girl, right? LinkedIn christine furtis. Um, my website is www.socialboothlv.com and I'm on I'm in the middle of me also I'm on instagram facebook That's awesome. So we have we have another minute left. So what's some advice you would give someone starting a business? Um, so I would say the biggest thing is to plan ahead I think you might have a great idea but plan ahead and think about your one year three year five years six months three months Planning is is key and also my personal belief is that when you learn about Your like personality style and your emotion intelligence It's going to help you with your sales and you're going to always be a salesperson When we bring pristine back for the panel discussion all three of our guests today are going to talk about We're going to talk about we're not going to dig too deep into it. We're not going to get too But we're going to talk about emotional intelligence. So that's great advice You know, I'm in flight testing. We always talked about our tech director always talked about you've got to have a plan before you can deviate from it. So Yeah, so it's true, right, you know, you if you go with no plan It's certainly going to be a mess if you go in at least a little bit of a plan at least you can go All right, let's move some stuff around and it's not quite so much of a mess, right? So So but you know, they're going to be days that everything's a mess. So well, thanks for being here christine I'm going to bring you back in a little bit for our panel discussion where we are going to talk about emotional intelligence And how we apply it to business. I'm Jason the Duke. This is Geeks are sexy on the fourth Friday of the month We'll be right back. Stay here