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Looking for inspiration, insightful advice, and a supportive community to help you navigate your business journey?
The Carolina Women's Collective is your one-stop shop. This biweekly podcast, hosted by Booth Parker, features interviews with a powerful network of female entrepreneurs and business leaders, sharing their inspiring stories, actionable advice, and industry expertise.
Whether you're a entreprenuer just starting out or a seasoned company executive, this show has something for you.
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[00:00:00]
Booth Parker: So today on the Carolina Women's Collective Podcast, I am joined by Virginia Frischkorn. Virginia has been named one of the top 50 planners worldwide by Vogue and Martha Stewart Weddings, a top 10 innovator in EventTech, a DBJ 40 under 40, and is also the founder of Partytrick, an event planning platform that is the operating system powering the experience economy.
Booth Parker: Welcome to the podcast today.
Virginia Frischkorn: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here!
Booth Parker: So I am going to immediately circle back [00:01:00] to that Partytrick tagline I just mentioned and ask you: what exactly is the experience economy?
Virginia Frischkorn: Great question. You know, I feel like today, I, you know, I've been in the business of events nonstop.
Virginia Frischkorn: If you talk to most people, they say, "Well, I don't do events." Well, do you gather, are you doing an activation? Like what is the experience that the human has? And that's really what we're behind. It's creating these amazing human experiences, whether you classify that as a party, an activation, a community gathering, a dinner, a date night, anything where we're kind of gathering and it's about the human experience.
Virginia Frischkorn: It's, it's this kind of ecosystem all around it. I feel like it's more all encompassing these days and people have placed this premium on the experiences that we're all having, like more so than even physical goods.
Booth Parker: Excellent. And I think Covid brought a lot of that realization out as well, how much we need those human experiences too.
Virginia Frischkorn: Totally. And time is so precious. One, we need to share it with those that we love. But the time that we do have with that precious time [00:02:00] should be spent on great experiences, not lackluster ones. Let's put it that way.
Booth Parker: That's right. That's right. 'Cause you can't take the stuff with you, so you might as well enjoy the experience while you're, while you're at it.
Booth Parker: Correct. Yes. Yeah. So you just kinda mentioned that you have spent your career in events. You have founded multiple event companies over the years. Can you tell us about some of those experiences with the event companies and how they have helped lead you to where you are today?
Virginia Frischkorn: Definitely. You know, I grew up in a family that hosted a ton.
Virginia Frischkorn: My father was an entrepreneur. We hosted as a family, kind of for his business and I just kind of fell into it naturally. But professionally, started my career in a luxury hotel. Five star, five diamond property in Aspen, Colorado. Pretty soon thereafter, I wanted to up the game and realized that a lot of the experiences there like weren't so great.
Virginia Frischkorn: And so, and it just came so naturally. So created my first company back in 2010 called [00:03:00] Bluebird Productions. That was the one that was one of the top event planners by Vogue, Martha, that fun, all those fun publications. And realize, look, most people place a premium on guest experience. If you ask people what they want to remember at the end of an event, whether it's a brand activation or a wedding,
Virginia Frischkorn: they want their friends to have a good time, they want a great experience. And so it really started informing how do we create this experience kind of for everyone. Ultimately, you know, I was focused on the luxury and ultra luxury market. I, I was able to create a little sister company out of that because I love systems, I love operations.
Virginia Frischkorn: And so I documented everything and made these like workflows in Asana, which made me realize, "Oh look, I can scale this and I can create a way to give these amazing experiences, you know, in kind of an analog fashion." Fast forward, COVID, created a course for planners and realized we had the whole makings for the software that we created.
Virginia Frischkorn: So this whole background in events has really led up to how do we operationalize and how do you systematize kind of like the nuts and bolts so you can [00:04:00] really place a premium and pay extra special attention and care to the experience that people have, once the structure is actually within place.
Virginia Frischkorn: So kind of a long roundabout, answer how it all ladders up.
Booth Parker: It just kind of stacks on top of each other. I, I love that. And while you've been doing weddings, you've also been doing some, some big corporate events for very large companies such as Google or SoulCycle. Tell us about some of the differences and maybe there's probably some similarities in that process of weddings and corporate events.
Virginia Frischkorn: You know, it's so funny. I, I find that people can like poo poo weddings, and I was speaking actually with a PR woman earlier this morning. She's like, these aren't your just typical wedding flowers. I'm like, okay, depends on the type of wedding. So, what's interesting and that I find between like weddings and corporate:
Virginia Frischkorn: events are the same. The client is very different in terms of the pieces of the puzzle. Within weddings, everything has to be customized and super, super specialized, and the most [00:05:00] unique version and the emotions are so much higher. The attachment to budget is so much higher, and I find in corporate they want great experiences.
Virginia Frischkorn: They don't care as much, because it's not the only one. Right? And typically most people are like, oh, I'm only getting married one time. Whereas a corporate activation, they've got budget, they need to spend their budget. They don't have an emotional attachment 'cause it's not their money. But they do care, right?
Virginia Frischkorn: And they're realizing if you're gonna spend money on something, it better be worthwhile. So there's some similarities, but the pieces of the puzzle are almost always the same. And I think people kind of like look down on weddings, but the premium on weddings, and what I find is that the experience is typically better 'cause there's a lot more thought and intention that goes into it.
Virginia Frischkorn: And when we were hired for larger corporate events, they would go to more traditional corporate event planners and realize that they were very cookie cutter and turn 'em and burn 'em. And that level of attention to detail to the guest experience wasn't as prioritized. We'll put it that way so they [00:06:00] could like,
Virginia Frischkorn: again, turn 'em and burn at a higher volume, which is in alignment, but what wasn't in alignment was that kind of like social feel, and that always won us whenever we were like bidding on corporate business. They, they were like, "Wow, we want it to feel social. We want our corporate event to feel like a party that people actually wanna go to."
Virginia Frischkorn: Instead of, "Oh God, I have to go to another work, you know, fam trip. Or I have to go to another, you know, retreat." A lot of brands, I think, are starting to place a premium on experience. And so we were able to see: it was more about the decision making than actually the nuts and bolts of an event.
Virginia Frischkorn: I think a lot of corporate events can be really boring. We just didn't take it that way. And so ideally, I would look at any event, whether it's a corporate event, a wedding, a social event. They should all be great experiences all around, no matter whose money it is or what the composition of people actually is.
Booth Parker: Yeah, I, I love that there are some similarities and it's, it's funny 'cause people kind of tend to think of a wedding like a party, and a corporate event, like a conference as being [00:07:00] stuffy or not fun. So, I like that similarity of focusing on that experience for the attendee. Now, while you are doing all of these events and everything over the years and leading up to Partytrick,
Booth Parker: was there one main thing missing in the space that kind of made you launch Partytrick? Or was it just a culmination of ideas you had over the years to create the platform?
Virginia Frischkorn: I think one of the things I identified early on is that there's no tooling and there's no systemization within events. And I think it's a shame.
Virginia Frischkorn: Hence the reason we're here now. And that's more for kind of, again, like whether that's me hosting for my children, or doing something social with my friends. But I, I mean, I spent so many years again doing these social events and looking for basically a one-stop shop. Something, an end-to-end platform, as opposed to like, let me go to this for my invitations and let me go to this for my floor plans.
Virginia Frischkorn: Let me go to this for like organization. And so over the years, I, I saw, [00:08:00] I was always seeking and looking and I think there wasn't like a, a simple moment per se. So I started just like building it because every planner, and I have a lot of friends who are in this industry, whether it was corporate and or social,
Virginia Frischkorn: everyone does something really differently and people will complain and vendors would complain: "Well, you do it this way, this other planner does it that way." I'm like, there's gotta be a way to make this more streamlined. And even I was talking with a friend and colleague who was in the events industry ages ago with me, and now we're, we're pitching them as a client.
Virginia Frischkorn: She's like, "Oh, I want all these planners to use this because then we can all like level the playing field and in a way have a, an equal communication tool, essentially project management tool, communication tool." So it's kind of fun to see people now start to identify it in a way that I've identified for a while that there's,
Virginia Frischkorn: there are tons of different ways to skin a cat and we won't wanna systematize and have everyone do it exactly the same way, but there's a lot of inefficiency that if we could, it would be amazing to kind of help and support others. So, not really one moment. Lots of [00:09:00] moments that led up to it.
Booth Parker: Yeah, it sounds like it.
Booth Parker: And so the Partytrick platform, I was on your website like learning about it and it's almost like it's looking at an event like it's its own business, so to speak. So it kind of offers everything from templates to reporting and all, and all sorts of things like that. So, tell us about the platform, exactly how all encompassing it is and what all it is able to do for event planning.
Virginia Frischkorn: Yeah, for sure. So Partytrick is, for better or for worse, unlike anything else out there. And the idea here is that it is an end-to-end platform that helps with the design, to the planning, to the execution, to the reporting, to the marketing in one stop. It is like your, again, single source of truth that you can plan on individually
Virginia Frischkorn: or with a team. And everyone has a different pain point around events. So when you log in to the platform itself, and so we kind of have three kind of key areas. [00:10:00] There's the consumer version that we're relaunching very soon, which was out for years, that we just put it to rest, to move it over to our new technology.
Virginia Frischkorn: So we're super excited to bring that back. And that would be something like I would use to plan something for my kids or a girls night. It's great for date nights. Our, our primary ICP there is like a girl in her hosting era, 27 to 31, getting her first house, all the bridal events. but she can jump on there, plan with friends, plan for herself.
Virginia Frischkorn: If it's a small business, it's very similar to consumer. But it's business content. So you go on and you can kind of browse these themes and we call them blueprints. So they're event templates. You can go on and they're suggestive and say, here's what I should buy, here's what I should DIY. Here's how I pull it all together.
Virginia Frischkorn: Here's my tool to invite my people and my guests. Here's my budgeting tool to know how much money I'm spending. So it's very comprehensive for them, and that's just generic business content. Then our premium version is this very collaborative, white labeled tool. So for businesses who wanna operationalize their brand guidelines, [00:11:00] essentially, how do they like scale events with quality control?
Virginia Frischkorn: A lot of this is like, again, brand activation, samplings, demos, in-store popup events. It allows them as a team to have like a very consistent way to take those decks that they already have. And knowledge transfer, work as a team and know, "Hey, we are, you know..." I'm looking at like a mug. Like am I Yeti?
Virginia Frischkorn: "We're Yeti. This is how we do our events and this is our brand guide." And whether we're doing our event in Texas or California or New York, it's going to look, it's going to feel like us. Here's our like again, paint by number solution. And by the way, events are collaborative. So hey, you're doing the invitation component, you're doing the catering component.
Virginia Frischkorn: It's already preloaded to tell you event best practices, so you don't need to be an event pro. All the best practices are fully baked. It is like the dorky way of saying it is, it's content rich. So it makes it very streamlined. So for brands, it's their content. For our consumer and our small business, it's the [00:12:00] event experts who have already loaded, "Hey, here's the best event practices."
Virginia Frischkorn: It's curated. You have that confidence that we know it's gonna be great already for you. It's a very long answer, but long story short, it's like having a party planner telling you all the things that you need to set yourself up and make yourself look good, like visually, so the food that goes with it, and then giving you nudges along the way.
Virginia Frischkorn: Here's what you need to be doing at particular timings.
Booth Parker: It sounds like very, very well thought out because you have all this experience. And so for someone like me who is not a techie person at all, I think it's my age. You know, I'm pushing, pushing 50, and I'm just that cutoff where tech just did not get my generation.
Booth Parker: How does someone go about getting a whole operating system platform like you have created, built from your ideas... how do you kind of take the cocktail napkin sketch, so to, so to speak, and build it into this actual skyscraper kind of thing?
Virginia Frischkorn: [00:13:00] You fall down a lot. No, it's been such a process and I've been, you know, initially I, I went and I worked with an agency that's kind of a development studio,
Virginia Frischkorn: and said, "Hey, here are my ideas. How do we do this?" Because I'm not into, you know, I, I did an analog version with the tooling that I knew that was out there, but didn't know, like I'm non-technical, so I'm like, "Here's my vision, here's how I want it to work." Like, imagine even just saying like, "Here's, here's the car I want." Like, I don't know how to build a car, but I can go to someone and say, "Here's like what I want it to look like and here's what, what I want to operate."
Virginia Frischkorn: And so that's where we were really started, where we started with this kind of like almost all encompassing agency that allowed us to build out the first version for consumer, our MVP for the consumer almost two and a half years ago. It was, okay, one: here's how you build a product. And then two: how do you build a business around it?
Virginia Frischkorn: Which, you know, I mean, I, I've built [00:14:00] a, built a handful of businesses now, but that's really going back to the basics. What's the business plan? How are we thinking about everything from, like the product we're selling, how we're marketing it, how are we selling it? But the product side, in the building, the technology was, let's, let's fall a lot.
Virginia Frischkorn: This is our fourth rebuild. We built something that wasn't scalable. We built something that kept breaking. We had an issue with a developer. As a non-technical founder, going in and not understanding the nuts and bolts and inside working... and now I do much more, so, a lot of trial and experiment and realizing that you're just gonna fail and fall on top of your face.
Virginia Frischkorn: Because in my mind I was like, look, this isn't any harder than doing a multimillion dollar event production where I'm managing for 35 vendors at the same time. I don't need to know how to like, run cables for power, but I know how to direct them. So I'm like, "Oh, this will be the same." It's very different.
Virginia Frischkorn: And realizing that, it's, it's very humbling. Let's put it that way.
Booth Parker: But when you, there's no such thing as failure, so to speak. You just get back up and you keep, keep fixing and doing.
Virginia Frischkorn: Yeah. You fail forward and you keep going [00:15:00] and you know you're going to, and you learn through that. And I look at every time, they're all amazing learning opportunities of what not to do again and learn from those like stumbles.
Virginia Frischkorn: So it's, again, it's like, it's like a kid. If you think about children and we, you know, both have kids. I have an eight and a ten-year-old. When they're learning how to walk, they fail. They fall over and over and over. But you know what? They don't give up. They just get up over and over. Imagine as adults, if we fell the way that like toddlers did, we wouldn't get back up.
Virginia Frischkorn: I think we lose a lot of that persistence because of just how our brains are wired later. And I feel like this whole process and any process when you're trying to learn something new and build something that you don't, you're not inherently like building yourself when you're trying to direct someone.
Virginia Frischkorn: It's that constant stumble and pick back up and learn each time. How do you optimize from it?
Booth Parker: I love that. I love that. And you just gotta keep going and not worry about what everyone on the sidelines might be saying at the time. So just prove 'em wrong.
Virginia Frischkorn: Completely, yeah.
Booth Parker: So I'm gonna change gears a little bit [00:16:00] here.
Booth Parker: And so in addition to being this tech and event kind of guru, so to speak, I have found on your fantastic LinkedIn profile that you are quite articulate with words, and there was a quote on one of your posts that I really, really loved, and it says, "Tech is the conduit. Human connection is the real product."
Booth Parker: Can you elaborate on your thoughts behind that quote?
Virginia Frischkorn: Yeah. You know, right now, let's, let's just give an example. We haven't met in person, right? But the beauty of this is all about the connection, the conversation that we're actually establishing right now. But it wouldn't be possible without the tech that's behind it that actually like interconnects us all.
Virginia Frischkorn: And I look like I live, I bounce between a handful of places. I'm in Colorado some, I'm in New York some. My best friends are all over the world. What matters at the end of the day is this, this, this human connection. That's really the product, [00:17:00] because we're able to build together, we're able to build connection, we're able to build community, we're able to extrapolate and expand upon ideas, but we're not able to do that
Virginia Frischkorn: without the things that are connecting us. And whether that is Instagram, whether it's Zoom, whether it's our phones, actually that allow us. But we build it. Without humans like there's nothing that actually directs it. And, and we build a human experience. And the, the connection really is again, the, the product that we're building. Not necessarily like, "Hey, here's this piece of hardware or software."
Virginia Frischkorn: Without the hardware and software, humans couldn't get together. We wouldn't be able to do what we're doing. And, and I don't know, that's kind of a weird roundabout way of saying it, but hopefully it paints the picture a little bit.
Booth Parker: It does, it does for sure. And then I'm gonna, cite one more of 'em that I really liked.
Booth Parker: There was a ton of 'em. I had to, I had to narrow this down. So, it's quote, "The most interesting technologies don't replace human interaction. [00:18:00] They amplify our most profound capacities for connection, creativity, and meaningful experience." So you had kind of started to, to speak on that a little bit there, but we are now in the age of AI, so how can we use
Booth Parker: technology to keep furthering that human interaction and not letting AI kind of take over so many things? 'Cause there's a lot of talk about AI taking jobs and a lot of in-person, kind of office things away. So what are your thoughts on that?
Virginia Frischkorn: You know, I, I'm a big AI fan. I was actually with an attorney this morning.
Virginia Frischkorn: That's a good friend, an investor in my company. I've worked with her personally. The reason I bring this up is there are ways that we can use AI to, again, amplify the situation, right? And so I can think more strategically. I can use it as an editing tool, but it's never a replacement. And so with her in particular, like [00:19:00] I was talking about, how do I position what I wanna say, with that lens where that's not my background? One, you can put it in there and like in chat specifically, like in this particular like instance that I was talking about this morning.
Virginia Frischkorn: Where, okay, let me go back, let me, let me have a thought partner that's not necessarily that I'm paying a ton on the hourly basis to kind of like work through these ideas. But when you're talking with chat, and so like I use Chat GPT a ton. And I talk with chat when I drive sometimes, and I'll have it work on strategies. That's not the same as having an intelligent conversation with someone who has the depth and the knowledge and like the depth and breadth of experience that we have as humans.
Virginia Frischkorn: And so, it's great 'cause it gives us a shortcut. It allows us to like, refine thoughts. It can be a great editor, but it doesn't, yet, allow us to kind of like... It doesn't replace it. Nothing replaces that human interaction. And it, it allows you to kind of like, formulate, edit, and, and amplify your work, [00:20:00] expand how much you can do.
Virginia Frischkorn: But it's only as good as the user. And for those who are afraid of things getting overly replaced, it's not there yet. We're just learning to become better thinkers and prompters versus doers. So we can use it to like leverage our time, but it doesn't replace it. and again, like I have a virtual assistant who
Virginia Frischkorn: I would much rather have her than, use an AI email tool. The, the, the nuances are really different. And it's, it's the nuanced kind of component of humans and the emotional knowledge and again, depth and breadth that are so... I don't know. It's, it's important to know what the time and the right place for each of these things is.
Virginia Frischkorn: So I'm speaking probably not as articulately as I would like. 'Cause again, I'm just, I'm thinking as I go. It's just, it's really, I look at so much of tech that's out there right now as: we have to embrace it 'cause this is the way of the world. But also recognize everything has its limitations and there's a lot of false that's there.
Virginia Frischkorn: So like how do we edit? How are we aware? And then [00:21:00] how do we bring in, again, our counterparts to put different lenses who have different backgrounds and experiences. So anyhow, long ramble.
Booth Parker: No, I, I like that though, because it, you said that, you know, it has limitations and it really depends on the user's prompts and how it's used and everything.
Booth Parker: So I, I think there's a lot to take from that on what you can use AI for to better yourself, to increase your human interactions. And, and then it's kind of a domino effect from there, so...
Virginia Frischkorn: Yeah,
Virginia Frischkorn: I think the last thing with that is like it also opens up time. There's a lot of AI that if we use it effectively, it speeds up our workflow.
Virginia Frischkorn: And so we either can take that time and put it back into work, or we can take that time and actually like do something that like self-care or focus on, again, connection and actually engaging with others. And I think that's really where we're gonna be in an interesting place of like, if I can get done, because I've leveraged AI...
Virginia Frischkorn: Say I work 10 hours a day, right? If I can do that now in six, because I can email faster, I can do whatever my [00:22:00] tools are faster, do I take those additional hours and do I throw it back into work? Or do I take that and do something for myself that's enriching in a different way? Like that's, you know, it's a blend.
Virginia Frischkorn: And I would encourage everyone to think about that really heavily now of like, you can still get the same done from a productivity measure in a different amount of time. So are we further pushing the ball forward and doing and just throwing it back into work? Or are we actually taking advantage of that to do something that's more rewarding potentially for ourselves as like humans?
Booth Parker: That's a fantastic way to look at it. 'Cause it does create efficiency, for sure. Now, a minute ago, you mentioned community. You kind of talked about community multiple times. So my co-founders and I with Carolina Women's Collectives, we founded this to foster a community for women. So we're, we are big on community as well, and you kind of believe that the focus of events are about the community.
Booth Parker: So how can events, maintain that community focus? Regardless of their size or budget, [00:23:00] because a lot of people try to put something together, almost like a grassroots sometimes, and then you have some of these over the top kind of events. How can they all just keep that community focus?
Virginia Frischkorn: I mean, I think as with almost anything, setting an intention is incredibly important. And I find a lot of times with events and experiences,
Virginia Frischkorn: the why isn't always contemplated. And so if community and engaging and fostering connection and community is, is the intent, events should be thought of and planned with that in mind. And so there's always that moment of like the low budget to the super high budget where they say experience matters, but how are you designing that experience
Virginia Frischkorn: to, encourage engagement? And what I mean there is, it doesn't matter whether you're doing a $200 something or $200,000 event where you have a Grammy Award-winning, well, that wouldn't work in that budget anyhow, but you know what I mean. I'm like, okay. But maybe that's their fee. The reason I bring that up is I think some of the best experiences are not the most expensive, [00:24:00] and it's really about how you're setting in this stage and setting the groundwork
Virginia Frischkorn: for the attendees to engage with one another. And so whether it's a tiny budget and you've literally like, and I do this a ton where I'll just like go to Trader Joe's, grab a ton of things and invite 30, 40 people over. It's not fancy. It's really about how are we encouraging people to like communicate and having, like, this sounds silly, but like little micro activities because that lets people's guards down.
Virginia Frischkorn: I think people need to learn how to reengage and everyone wants community, but setting it so that they don't have those awkward moments of how do you, walk up to a group of four people who seem to be mid-conversation without feeling awkward? It's, it's how are you designing these spaces to maximize that human interaction?
Virginia Frischkorn: And that can be expensive or not expensive. I, I think you can do that very inexpensively. But it's thinking about, I used to say this lot with weddings: imagine that you are the girlfriend of a groomsman, right? And you just started dating [00:25:00] him. You're the plus one. You don't know the friend group. You know you're gonna go to this experience and your new boyfriend is gonna be running around and like being wild.
Virginia Frischkorn: How do you as an event organizer, make that girlfriend comfortable? How do you encourage her to have a good time? And if you think about all of your guests coming in that way, that is setting the stage of like: okay, cool. There's a proper amount of communication. We know where there's water, we know where there's a bathroom.
Virginia Frischkorn: How do we like make her feel, "Oh, I know where my seat is. I know where to go put my coat." Those are small things that allow people to feel safe. I know that sounds like weird to use the word safe there, but it's safe and secure because they don't feel this. Like, I feel incredibly out of place, I don't know anyone.
Virginia Frischkorn: And when community and connection is like the goal, you want people to feel safe and allow it to be kind of like vulnerable and engaged. So I really encourage people to think about the intention behind that of like, how are you creating these little micro moments that break down, that uncomfort of like walking up to a pod of people? Or something that's like.
Virginia Frischkorn: encouraging little icebreakers. It's [00:26:00] silly, but they actually, they really work. And like conversation topics to, to kind of keep things rolling.
Booth Parker: Yeah. And then I do, I think, I know you used the word "safe," but I think when people feel safe or like comfortable in a situation, it, it almost is a little bit of a confidence booster to, you know, kind of engage more and, and things of that nature.
Booth Parker: So that was a really good point about the little things like, where's my seat? Where do I put my coat? Just those little things that kind of take the edge off and make someone feel comfortable in the experience.
Virginia Frischkorn: Yeah, this is silly. I went to a breakfast recently that was a tech founder breakfast in New York by this person who's supposed to be a phenomenal host.
Virginia Frischkorn: And I say that in a kind of snarky way because he actually has no idea how to kind of like create and set the stage for the event. He can fill a good room and get people to pay for the event. But when I got there, one: I'm thrown off guard, right? Because I'm a female founder in a space that's heavily male dominated, and I've always been in female dominated industries.
Virginia Frischkorn: I'm like, literally, I think there were two women in a room of about 30. [00:27:00] I go, they've moved the breakfast cards, like place cards around so many times that I wanted to know, okay, where do I go put my bag? Where do I go put my jacket when I get in there? And I, the basic things of like, where do I even get a cup of coffee?
Virginia Frischkorn: So setting the stage for making me feel like I'm going into a spot where I don't feel comfortable at all. I'm like, "Oh God, this is like not my scene." I can go into it. And this is like me being very vulnerable. 'Cause obviously if you'd seen me in that space, you would've been like, "Oh, she's fine. She's great."
Virginia Frischkorn: I was like, so uncomfortable on the inside. I'm like those little moments. So it was like, don't move the place cards as people are arriving. Like, be intentional, get it done. And I realize there are last minute changes, but think about once guests are there, how do you make sure again, they get their cup of coffee right away?
Virginia Frischkorn: They know where they're going? 'Cause that really allows, again, that kind of like level of security where people can then open up and not feel like, "Oh, I don't know what's going on." And, and kind of throw 'em off guard, especially women.
Booth Parker: Yes, for sure. So that community, that engagement that people are having at these events [00:28:00] and the experiences, that is where a lot of people develop their networks that they're going to use throughout life and the value of our network can show up, you know, every day in expected ways, and then pop up in very unexpected ways sometimes as well.
Booth Parker: It's funny, I got a text this morning from a woman who I probably haven't talked to in three or four years, and she just needed a reference for something and she knew I would have it and she sent me a quick text, "Hey, how you doing? Do you have this contact?" You know? So that network really does stay with you long term, I feel like as, especially as you build it.
Booth Parker: So how can people nourish their networks and make the best use of it, however that network shows up in their day-to-day lives?
Virginia Frischkorn: You know, gotta love the saying, "Your network is your net worth," right? And so the connection community, the network that you're cultivating is incredibly important. I think events are a great way to kind of expand upon it, right?
Virginia Frischkorn: You're always, it, it's so dorky to say it this way, but it's like they're [00:29:00] top of funnel builders for your network. How do you then maintain that relationship? And so I, you know, I had a very similar experience. A girl I went to college with reached out the other day. She's like, oh, I see you're connected to so and so.
Virginia Frischkorn: Would you make a warm intro? And like of course I will. In part, we've maintained a relationship because there's been some consistency and when you're thinking about nourishing, one: there's the inbound that you wanna kind of like always be growing a little bit, but it's about cultivating with consistency.
Virginia Frischkorn: And so even those people, and this is like, I'm gonna sound like kind of psycho. I mean, I set reminders. I set like basically in my Asana, I have like a networking, almost like a project, that reminds me to kind of like maintain some of these relationships because that consistency is what it is going to kind of.
Virginia Frischkorn: Allow you to have that breadth. and then obviously you go deep in depth with those that like you really, truly resonate with. But it's about, I think a lot of network and a lot about, community is, is some of that consistency. How many times are you able to actually [00:30:00] see someone engage with them?
Virginia Frischkorn: And it doesn't mean you actually have to see them. Like I've cultivated deep relationships with people who I honestly am like very just like virtual and then phone calls with. But there's been repetition and consistency. So making sure, and that, and again, it can be as simple as DMing someone and just kind of allocating time and effort to nourishing it versus just doing that cold, like, 'cause otherwise it feels transactional, right?
Virginia Frischkorn: And you actually wanna get to know someone and show up vulnerably and authentically. That's what's going to kind of like open it up and then allow you to kind of let that network flourish.
Booth Parker: I like that. Great tips, great tips. I know I'm always trying to build my network and especially when you kind of get, you know, forties plus and maybe your career is pivoting and you really need to kind of, not start over but build a new network.
Booth Parker: So that is great tips for nourishing that. So I am gonna switch gears one more time, a little bit, and we've talked about, you know, you're a very successful founder and entrepreneur, but you're also a mom. I think you said your kids were eight and ten. Is that [00:31:00] correct? Yeah. So moms that are working... obviously the word balance, I don't, I don't know.
Booth Parker: Some days I like it, some days I don't. But you have a system that you use that you call the sacred predictability system that you use with your life. I saw that on your LinkedIn and I loved it. So can you tell us exactly what that is and how you execute that, being a mom and an entrepreneur?
Virginia Frischkorn: Yeah. You know, the theory behind this essentially is... it's about one: resource prioritization with boundaries and very clear boundaries. So with my children, I'm divorced, and I'm not with them all the time. So the time I'm with them is insanely precious and I, my phone is always gonna ring. I get a thousand plus emails a day. It's constant inflow. My kids are my number one priority. And so they know this and they know that this is their, the time I'm with them is their time.
Virginia Frischkorn: They know that yes, occasionally, very occasionally... And I will [00:32:00] ask them, and I'll get their buy-in. "Hey, mom needs to do something. Are you okay with this?" If the answer is no, that's fine. And I put up very firm boundaries with my time with my children. That allows me to, when I'm at work, I'm present with work.
Virginia Frischkorn: When I'm with my kids, I'm present. And I think as moms we juggle so much. And this multitasking is really inefficient. As you can tell, I love efficiencies, but every study shows it. We do have to do it. There's no getting around it. But if you can ruthlessly prioritize, put those hard boundaries when you're in mom mode, go into mom mode.
Virginia Frischkorn: When you're in work mode, be in work mode, and you'll supercharge those periods of time. It's about staying focused and staying prioritized during those. But I, I look at this and my team knows it. My kids know it. I'm also very strict in terms of, and I think about this with my kids. Like I don't, my notifications are off when I'm on my phone with, with my kids.
Virginia Frischkorn: Like my Slack doesn't bother me. I do not get a single ding. like I have certain things that'll ding and I'm like, I'll tell my team if it is urgent, like, urgent, urgent, but we're not doing [00:33:00] brain surgery. Like people are fine. they can, they can Slack and I'll get back to them later. And so I think that firm boundaries allows us to not set balance, but it allows us to set kind of blocks, which allows us to kind of optimize and have as much quality time if the quantity isn't always as great as we want it to be in any one area. Which there's never enough time, right? I hate that, but there just isn't.
Virginia Frischkorn: And so how do you kind of like create those priorities around it and those very, very strict boundaries? It just took me a really long time to get there, but I feel like I've finally like. I've realized this is what sets me up. It sets them up for success. Because I think before when we're young, we're like, "Oh, we can do everything." You can, but like you're never doing any of it that well.
Virginia Frischkorn: So how do you do everything as good as you can? And I think that's about boxing it a little bit more and "boundary-ing" it.
Booth Parker: I like that a lot. And so how do you go about... I mean, this is one thing I've struggled with, so I'm curious to hear your take on this. How do you go about, once you've made those boundaries, how do you communicate them
Booth Parker: to [00:34:00] your team and especially your clients?
Booth Parker: I, I tend to have more trouble with the clients sometime than the team.
Virginia Frischkorn: Yeah, I, you know, I totally get that. And I struggled with that for so long because again, it's like, how do you manage when a client wants you? And we are people pleasers, and in service, and you're like, "Yes, I can get back to this right away."
Virginia Frischkorn: And how do you set and manage those expectations? And a handful of years after I started my first business, I actually came up with almost like a client expectations guideline that when we onboarded new clients, we would implement. And so what we would do is when we onboarded a new client, we were saying, "Hey,
Virginia Frischkorn: here's what we'll do for you, but here's what you need to do for us." And, and essentially like, here's what you can expect, but here's what we expect as well to set ourselves up for successful relationship. These are kind of like, almost like ground rules, and I hate saying ground rules, but it worked really well when we did that because it was, "Hey, you know, we are off on Mondays.
Virginia Frischkorn: We'll get back to you as soon as possible." Because we worked most weekends when we were doing event production, right? [00:35:00] And so, Mondays is our day. We set expectations with clients, especially around like responsiveness. With weddings, and especially in event worlds, if we're working at nights and we're working on weekends, a lot of times people plan events in their spare time. So they're done with their workday,
Virginia Frischkorn: so they go to plan and then they wanna call us at eight o'clock at night, right? They are on Christmas break, and so they're with their whole family and, and especially in the social world, "Oh, well that's when I wanna plan my wedding." I'm like, "But this is my time with my family as well." Right? And so it was a lot of managing, expectations of,
Virginia Frischkorn: this is when we're in events. And when we're on an event, and especially when we're in your event, don't you want us to be present? So reminding them like, if you are one of my clients, I wanna be present for you. So therefore if I'm with someone else, I need to be present with them because that's the type of service that you would want from me as well.
Virginia Frischkorn: And so setting up a really clear and almost just having like an expectations conversation. That goes back to predictability and what we were just talking about with those boundaries. When you break a boundary, [00:36:00] it's not predictable anymore. So if you have firm boundaries, it's predictable in terms of what, people can expect of you.
Virginia Frischkorn: So one, outline the expectations. Two, maintain them. Because then it's, again, it builds trust because it's predictable and it's consistent. So it's a, how do you have that consistency within it? And it's just an ongoing struggle. And I think I learned really the hard way, 'cause it was just too stressful, to be honest.
Virginia Frischkorn: Like, and life is too short. and what we all do is stressful enough. And it's really hard to go back and say, "No, I'm sorry. I'm not gonna talk to you at this time." But honestly, like your doctors don't pick up the phone when you call all the time. So why should we? I hate saying it, but...
Booth Parker: And I love the way you talk about setting those, those expectations, because sometimes we feel like we're going to, you know, offend or make someone upset with us. But actually when you're just really clear and upfront in your communication, you avoid the misunderstandings to start with. So, that's a great way to go about it.
Booth Parker: I love that so much. So I had one last question for [00:37:00] you after, after the mom questions, what is the best piece of business or life advice you have ever received?
Virginia Frischkorn: Wow.
Virginia Frischkorn: you know, I'm not positive, but what I would say today, ' cause every day's gonna be different based on the struggles that I'm going through today. My father, who was my person, and we lost my dad in 2020, would remind me whenever I would get really stressed. And I care so much, for better or for worse, but I care to my own detriment and it would just stress me.
Virginia Frischkorn: I would call him and he is like, "Virginia. Think about James Bond." This is really silly. It's good life and business advice. James Bond always calm, cool, collected in these insanely heated situations. He looked sharp throughout the whole thing, and it was almost just like, make like a duck: let the water roll off your back. And basically channel your inner James Bond with whatever you're doing.
Virginia Frischkorn: Why would... like he, you don't see him getting stressed out. And it goes back to like almost Mel Robbins right now. Like, let them. Let them let me. But with the James Bond [00:38:00] situation it's like channel your inner James Bond. How am I, calm, cool, collected through this? How am I responding, not reacting, and what am I letting go versus what am I retaining and like am I laser focused?
Virginia Frischkorn: So all of that kind of explanation behind: channel your inner James Bond. Do it. Stay focused, stay clear, stay calm, cool and composed. Because that will allow, one: it's confidence inspiring for yourself as well as for others. And it allows you to kind of keep pushing forward. But again, that embodies the, like, Nike: just do it.
Virginia Frischkorn: Like I always, like, I fall back on that all the time. Just do it. Like that's a great piece of life advice. Just do it. But he does the same thing. It's letting people do what is appropriate for them by maintaining kind of that sense of integrity for yourself. So if you can do one thing, take what my dad would say there and, you know, channel your inner James Bond.
Virginia Frischkorn: Don't let your feathers get ruffled, stay calm, cool, collected through it. Respond, don't react. And, and so that, that would be kind of my long, roundabout [00:39:00] piece of advice.
Booth Parker: I love it. It's fantastic though. This, this has just been a super interview. Like you're so well-rounded and I, I love everything you've, you've said about community and networks and building this operating system is just baffling to me 'cause I'm not, not a tech person.
Booth Parker: So, for all our listeners, I will share the link to Partytrick in the notes so they can check it out and see your offerings for their events that they're doing. I really wanna encourage our listeners to go check out your LinkedIn profile. I'll link it as well because it really is full of very well worded posts that are very inspiring and relevant to us women entrepreneurs and business leaders.
Booth Parker: So thank you so much for your time today, Virginia.
Virginia Frischkorn: Thank you so much, Booth. It's been such a pleasure.[00:40:00]