The Future of Events: Matt Landes, founder of Cocktail Academy

From running underground event spaces to virtual happy hours, Matt Landes has lived on the bleeding edge of what’s next within our industry. Today he shares the ups, downs and lessons learned on his journey to creating, running and now saving a million dollar events company.

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SHOW NOTES

• Starting Apartment A
• Creating a name brand
• Entering the world of events
• Was called by other brands to create concepts and parties for them
• Commitment to becoming the premier cocktail caterer in the world
• Trying to do everything in the beginning
• Create a cocktail magazine
• Pop up bars
• Help brands accelerate
• Focusing on doing one thing really well
• Creating a premium drink experience
• Businesses do better when they niche
• Cocktail academy has niched into events and consulting
• Core values of Cocktail Academy
• Focus enables an entrepreneur
• Make money
• Attract talent
• Retain loyal clients
• Changing plans for 2020
• 2019 was the best year of growth for Cocktail Academy
• Plans were to expand consulting
• Fully leveraging in-person experiences
• First reactions to Covid 19
• South by Southwest event was canceled
• Hague Club event was postponed
• Steps to pivoting during the pandemic
• Successful pivots to the online space
• Hosting bartenders on their Instagram account
• Bartenders give a cocktail recipe and receive tips via Venmo from followers
• Cocktail nightschool hosted every Thursday
• Custom cocktail experience boxes for brands
• Digital streaming events
• CARE (Cocktail Academy Ready-made Experiences)
• Virtual experiences give retail bought alcohol more story
• How to manage fear
• Oscillating between excitement in problem-solving and total exhaustion
• You can be scared of your own ideas
• Having a great idea means you have to follow through
• Make it happen or die trying
• Questions to ask to feel more in control
• Will I feel better if I tried?
• What is urgent to do today?
• What tasks am I responsible for related to clients and my team?
• Managing work-life balance
• Wellness Wednesdays
• Wednesdays off
• We can only be efficient 3.5 days a week during the pandemic
• Mental toll of the pandemic environment
• Entrepreneurial disorder in the hospitality industry
• Responsibility to become a creative leader within the industry
• Oversimplifying what it takes to action new ideas
• Feeling exhausted after thinking of new innovations
• Opportunities in cocktails to go
• Lost Parrot concept
• Tiki Tuesday delivery with tiki cocktail mugs
• Bar in a bag
• At home experience
• Eventually opening a pop-up bar called Parrot to connect with customers who have had the at-home Lost Parrot experience