The Type A+ Podcast Episode 11: How to Make Your VIPs Feel Special - Links & Show Notes
Episode Description:
This week, Beth outlines how to make sure the Very Important People in your life feel special and have a great experience. Whether you own a business, manage day-to-day customer interactions, or are involved in internal communications, there are easy ways to make your VIPs feel as appreciated as they should. Pop culture references include The Devil Wears Prada and a (phenomenal) Lizzo concert!
Links mentioned in the episode:
Podcast:
The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram
Host:
Beth Lawrence & Company Instagram
Beth will be back each week, delivering bite-sized tips (15 minute episodes or less) on how to optimize your life and work.
Episode Transcript can be found below:
Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Type A+ podcast. I'm very excited this week to be talking about how to give your VIPs a great experience. So obviously I will be talking about this from a hospitality event planner perspective, but no matter what position you hold you can obviously have VIPs that you deal with. So I'm gonna use a couple of pop culture examples this week. The first one is a movie that I feel needs no introduction. Devil Wears Prada. I think Devil Wears Prada has a lot of conversations that could be had about it.
I could talk about it all day, frankly, but the thing that I find very smart, That Miranda did, and in this case obviously a very high-powered VIP like Miranda. She has two assistants and there's this big event that she's prepping for and there's gonna be a lot of people there. She has to make sure that she's on her game and she has to make sure that the conversations that she is having are worthwhile and that she gets to the point quickly. Right? Because it's a networking event, so, Andy, is told at the last minute that she needs to attend this event, and the first assistant takes these two giant binders and crushes them on Andy's desk, and says, You have to memorize all of these names and all of these faces by the event this evening. And that may sound like a daunting task, but I believe it is brilliant and taken from someone like me who has done a lot of speaker communications.
There's nothing better than coming to an event where someone already knows who you are and why you're there, especially with someone who is giving their time, knowledge, and resources to help you or your event or your cause.
Obviously, you're gonna wanna make sure that they have a great time. So I think that it was smart, twofold. I think obviously the process of having a way for people to familiarize themselves with their pictures, names, and titles, and also making sure that she had those people right behind her strategically at the event to make sure that in case she does slip up, they can jump in or whisper in your ear in that case as far as who the person is. When it comes to event planning and how I work with my clients, my speaker onboarding forms really do that due diligence for me, especially if I and maybe one other person are doing a lot of the speaker onboarding, we are updating the website maybe where I have folks on my team who create social media posts.
The more that you look at someone's name and face, the better you're associating. Again, creating systems to memorize makes it easier for you to do your jobs. The more you see the person's name and face, whether you're looking at their LinkedIn profile or whether you are doing the speaker onboarding process as I do, it really makes a huge difference.
I have personally seen people's faces light up. When I say, Hi Molly. It's really nice to meet you in person. I'm Beth. I've been emailing you for the past few months. Thank you so much for helping today. Rather than, Hi, can I help you? What's your name? Knowing full well that we've communicated, we have a rapport now.
If I can approach them with their name and say hello. It really makes them feel more welcomed and that's. Making your VIPs feel special is all about. And the second point is to create a community and invite your VIPs into that community. And what do I mean by that? The pop culture reference for this is my amazing trip to the Lizzo concert this week in Philadelphia.
Shout out to my friend Greg, who surprised me with the tickets. It was, as someone who loves live music, it was the. Most unique and special, no pun intended, concert experience I have ever had in my whole life. And why was that? It was because Lizzo, as an artist, as a brand, and as a human being, has embraced her authenticity, such that people like myself who are huge fans of hers, all feel as if we know her.
We feel as if we're her besties. We feel. Excited. When she's excited. We feel upset when she's upset. That night, not only did she talk directly to the audience, not only were there moments where she got emotional with the audience, but she invited the audience to be part of her performance. In the beginning, she had a theme that she announced.
She said This is a night about self-love. This is about loving yourself and embracing yourself for who you are. And she had mantras that she had us repeat. It was, I love you. You are beautiful and you can do anything. And just hearing those words screamed in an arena, with tens of thousands of people, really set the tone for an evening of just celebrating life and celebrating who we are.
And all that means, all the layers of that. And it was an incredible experience. One of the things that she did also that really brought it home and touched me as an event planner, as someone who curates experiences, but also as a lover of music and a huge, huge fan of Lizzo, she was shouting out to the audience, putting the spotlight in each.
Part of the arena and even down to what people are wearing. Thank you so much for coming. Hey, you there? I really, really love your style. Hey, I see you up there all the way in the back.
You think I don't see you, but I do. You're waving a white t-shirt in the air. I see you. And if you spend. Whatever you spend a percentage of your income to go to an arena tour, especially if you're in the quote-unquote nose bleed seats, as I definitely have been in much of my life, you sometimes can feel disconnected from what's happening on the stage, and Lizzo made sure that no one there felt disconnected.
Everyone felt like it, felt like we were at a big, amazing party. Only Lizzo could host and she personally invited all of us, it was extremely special. There were a lot of special moments, and I'm not going to reveal them all because if you are a Lizzo fan, I highly encourage you to get tickets to her shows if you are able.
I just think that music and artistry and the way that musicians and artists approach their relationships with their fans, Lizzo is not the only ones. Obviously Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, there's a lot of fandom around music and I think if brands and organizations are trying to create experiences trying to accomplish a goal if you bring people in on that goal, that's absolutely the way to achieve success faster.
When it comes to your VIPs, again, It. Things can get lost, especially in the hectic craziness of planning events. But if we forget that the people that are paying for the tickets, the people that are sponsoring our event, the people that are dedicating their time and resources to make sure our event is a success, if we forget them, then what's the point of doing the event in the first place?