Full Transcript – Virginia Frischkorn – Wild Business Growth Podcast #221

This is the full transcript for Episode #221 of the Wild Business Growth Podcast featuring Virginia Frischkorn – Party-Planning Animal, Founder of Partytrick. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

Virginia Frischkorn 0:00
Get out there and just do it. If you have the idea, go do like get into motion and get into action

Max Branstetter 0:20
Hello, you wonderful people. Welcome back to the Wild Business Growth Podcast. This is your place to hear from a new entrepreneur every single Wednesday morning who’s turning Wild ideas into Wild growth. I’m your host, Max Branstetter, Founder and Podcast Producer, MaxPodcasting. And you can email me at Max oh wow I said that really fast. You can email me at to save time with your high-quality podcast. This is Episode 221 and today’s guest is Virginia Frischkorn. Virginia is a serial entrepreneur in the event and party space. Basically she parties all the time, and she thought was really really cool parties. And she is the founder of several companies, most recently at the time of this recording Partytrick. Partytrick is a tech platform that helps you put together awesome, memorable parties that are totally curated. They are fantastic everything from decor to timing to music, and they could have themes anywhere from White Lotus to Super Bowl parties to eating sushi. In this episode, we talk how Virginia launch Partytrick based on some awesome insights from previous businesses including Bluebird Productions, Something Blue, The Aspen Picnic Company, more and more and more, we talk how to come up with those golden super creative ideas that can turn your service from you know, standard to over the top awesome and creatively custom. And of course, how to pass the time when you are running marathons or flying across the world. Because Virginia is an expert at both of those things. It is the wonderfully korny, Virginia Frischkorn. Enjoyyyyyyy the shoooooooow!

Aaaaaaaalrightyyyy, we are here with Virginia Frischkorn, the fantastically serial entrepreneur, which I always think of Cap’n Crunch and Cinnamon Toast Crunch when I say cereal entrepreneur, totally get that behind many awesome party planning businesses and her brand new baby in addition to her children, that is hot off the press Partytrick, which we’ll get to today. Super excited to get into that, Virginia. Thank you so much for making time. How you doing today?

Virginia Frischkorn 2:23
I’m doing well. Max, thank you so much for having me here.

Max Branstetter 2:56
Of course, of course sorry for the corny jokes already came out of nowhere, but

Virginia Frischkorn 3:00
Well, I have korn in my last name. So you kind of have to roll with

Max Branstetter 3:03
that. That’s true. Sorry, sorry for the Frischkorny jokes. But really excited for your your party planning background, past, present and future. And I want to kick off by by talking about parties because obviously, you know how to throw an awesome party and you and you’ve made a career out of it. Is there anything in your childhood growing up that points to a passion for parties and having a having a good time?

Virginia Frischkorn 3:29
Honestly, it stems from my childhood. My parents were you know phenomenal host hostesses. My dad was an entrepreneur ran a very large company, and we entertained like every single week, some were just casual dinner parties, and some were large multiple, like 100 people at our house. So I grew up around a lot of parties. I was a very shy child, though. So I hid behind my mom’s skirts, like the whole time. I love probably like many party planners, I love being in the background, I didn’t want to be in the forefront. My sister, on the other hand was like let me put on a song and a dance for all my parents friends. So I would just like hide and watch the parties happening. And it gave me this taste where like, I love how happy and the joy and the connection and the community, that gathering and parties bring. And that kind of obviously it stayed with me throughout my whole life and has had many different iterations at this point.

Max Branstetter 4:21
What is it about it? Like there’s something just even about hearing the word party that like gets you excited? And like lots of positive vibes attached to it? What’s the best part of parties, you know, from your perspective? Like, what’s the good that it brings for people?

Virginia Frischkorn 4:37
I mean, I think the anticipation of a positive event is the best thing. I mean, I think about that, for many people having a vacation to look forward to is better than sometimes the vacation like the anticipation of something positive and I think party has such a positive connotation. The funny thing here is I mean, despite the fact that brand is named party, or party drag, like one of the things I don’t love is I think that party as a title can be very, it’s not inclusive enough. Like I would say, Max, I came in and asked him like, Hey, do you throw parties? Like, what’s your answer? Do you think you throw parties are not really

Max Branstetter 5:12
not like, ourselves? Not really like we Yeah, like we, we’d like to entertain and have people over and you know, absolutely loved her wedding and kind of all the parties tied to that. But yeah, definitely different kind of connotation when you say you throw parties.

Virginia Frischkorn 5:27
Yeah, most people are like, No, I don’t throw a party. And then I’ll say like, Hey, Max, but you probably have people for brunch, or maybe like to watch the Super Bowl, or, you know, and especially obviously relate to your wedding and special events, like those are parties. So people think of a party these days as a fancy dinner party or a special event. And I think that generally speaking, it’s a really positive thing. But it’s so fun to just think, okay, cool. You know, I’m having people for brunch, technically, that’s a party. Like we’re having multiple people over and it could be two or more. We’re celebrating and we’re gathering and there’s some food that’s party. And hopefully there’s music. So I don’t know I love I haven’t liked party because I think it has brought up that I don’t throw a party. But when you actually stop break it down, you’re like No, like partying is a good thing. And partying is fun, and it takes you back to your college days. And at least in mine, there was a lot of partying there. That was a very fabulous memorable time.

Max Branstetter 6:15
Yes. And I Okay, I mentioned to go back to college now so thank you for that. Right totally. When you look forward to your professional career you know you’ve spent over a decade you’ve spent several years putting on party you know throwing parties you know putting on parties for for people and for you know helping people bring their their visions to life so you have an amazing background there obviously, endless love for for wedding planners after our experience and every all the all the magic with our wedding. When did you know that you were actually going to start a party planning or event planning business in the first place?

Virginia Frischkorn 6:53
You know, I was still young and really rather stupid. I moved to Aspen after college, I did the ski bum thing. I lived in Aspen in the winter, New Zealand in the summer, and I did this endless winter for two years. And I mean, it was so fun. And I partied a lot during that time and saw the phenomenal parties that happened and Aspen fell in love with with this town. And I was like okay, I don’t want to just keep on going forever. Like it was great was very fun. But I decided to get a job at the Little Nell Hotel, which is a 5-star 5-diamond hotel. And that really sparked my love for luxury ultra luxury events and then and then down and I’ve developed different brands from there, but I mean, I was 2022 23 because I was a young one for my class. And then I launched my brand when I was 25 which was Bluebird Productions. And then for the last you know, 1013 plus years it’s been party after party all different types. So you know, corporate events, these massive multimillion dollar weddings. And it’s been such a like such a trip and so many amazing experiences. And I’ve loved how it’s evolved from doing itty bitty weddings to these multimillion to realizing it’s not about having like this multimillion dollar wedding or having you know some GRAMMY like award winning artists play like that actually takes away in my opinion from some of it because you remember that you don’t remember the time with your friends so I’ve it’s been an amazing up and down but god I got into parties when I was so young, young stupid and it turned into something fabulous.

Max Branstetter 8:23
There should be there should be a movie or party documentary about your all the story I’m sure you have stories and stories from everything you’ve seen in experience yourself.

Virginia Frischkorn 8:33
Oh, yeah, that’s a that’s an exit plan. It’s gonna be the new The Devil Wears Prada. But related to like the weddings and some of the tell all the horrendous things that have happened, but horrendous and like horrendously funny, and that’s like actually one of the number one questions I get, which I won’t answer if you ask, what are like, what are those, like, give me the horror stories? Because they are. I mean, they’re amazing. And sometimes with close friends, we go into it. It’s like, I can’t believe that happened. Like oh my god, but take it out of context. It’s not so yeah,

Max Branstetter 9:01
a little cliffhanger there for something we will not discuss. So stay tuned. But you have to stay tuned forever.

Virginia Frischkorn 9:06
One day, there’s gonna be a book coming.

Max Branstetter 9:09
Perfect. On the business side, what is a lesson you’ve learned from you know, starting several businesses now. That kind of is like it a staple that rings true no matter what business you’re starting,

Virginia Frischkorn 9:23
I think always remain curious about everything. I think the time that you go into business and you think you know, everything about every facet is the moment that you’re going to start falling on your face. We all need help. We all know what our areas of strength are and are not and finding people to kind of fill those holes. Like especially as I pivoted I mean partnerships, a tech company. I’m not a tech person. I’m an industry expert and events, but I brought it like as I started this Yes, I know parties. I know. That’s really fun. And I know business. I had a phenomenal mentor and my father and I have great mentors in my life who are all universe successful entrepreneurs. They’re what they were My name is find what you’re good at run with that. And I’m also great at bringing teams together. So yes, sir great party, but the if you go ahead and find your strengths, and you’re curious about yourself, and the only fears about where you don’t have those strengths and fill those, that’s when you’re gonna have much better success because, again, other words, it’s just like a practice, I think about like business versus practice, practice, like a therapist, what have you, right? Like, it doesn’t go on without them. And the business will continue to run. But that requires, like so much different input.

Max Branstetter 10:31
So I’m curious about party tricks. So let’s get the party tricks up at the time of this recording party trick is really like a brand new baby of the business, you know, started in the past few months. And I know you’ve been working on it for a bit before that. But as far as going live like this, this is brand new. So it’s really cool to speak to speak to you this early in the in the party in the party trick. So you mentioned that it’s a little bit different than what you’ve been doing in the past, because there’s a tech side to it. Where did you get started in, you know, developing the tech or finding the right people to bring party trick to life on the tech side?

Virginia Frischkorn 11:08
Great question. You know, like you said, we just launched, we launched October 13 of 2021, or sorry, 2022, or 23. Now, wow.

Max Branstetter 11:18
You’re when you’re within a year? Oh, you know,

Virginia Frischkorn 11:21
so yeah, we did a beta of party trick back in 2020, that when we were not able to produce live events anymore, we created something called Bluebird in a Box. And it was a great learning opportunity. I think one of the biggest failures of it and opportunities for growth and like learning lessons was that we didn’t have the tech it was more like a glorified blog. And I think people don’t understand that about party trick. Now, for it to be successful. It truly requires like all of the more like, techy things, which is funny, because again, not a tech person. So after it’s done bluebird in a box decided that I wanted the vision and the mission is the same as what I was doing, then the iteration and how we are bringing this to life is incredibly different. So I started talking to like everyone I could find. And you know, I’m based in Denver, well, Denver and Aspen, and havenly is a company that is based here. And actually, I have a handful of connections there. So I started talking to some of their employees as well as previous employees. Hey, like, what do you know, because my what I’m doing is very similar, we’re bringing a luxury service to the masses. So something that like a lot of people only do for various special events, or it’s more of a luxury versus there every day. Similar to interior design, my goal with party check is to bring this service that only was kind of a luxury prior to as many people as possible the way that they do for interior design, like I said, So started talking to them, they started making connections in a ton of different faces from designing the brand and naming. And ultimately, I found a phenomenal agency that I worked with called shake maker, and they named us they did the branding. And they did all the tech. And fortunately, I found a really amazing advisor who helped me as kind of my head of product. And he’s now on an advisory board for me, helped me learn and identify my holes and my blind spots. Again, I know what works like I know from a party perspective how to throw it together. I know that I wanted to be interactive, like all of our parties when we’re jumping ahead, but it’ll demonstrate this quickly. There are 30 Plus pages in a G doc format. No one’s gonna read a 30 page party on how to throw a barbecue. Like they’re just not that sucks. So we had to build something that was going to be truly easy to use highly interactive, and how that works, and how it like actually, iterated requires so much creativity, again, chipmaker did a phenomenal job. And then Aaron managing them like I they’re amazing, I would be lost without them. So a lot of asking around and then trusting and then staying true to the vision. Like I knew certain things that had to be my way. But I let go of a lot. And it’s hard to let go as well.

Max Branstetter 13:55
Some extra curious now 30 page documents per party. That’s a ton. And obviously it it looks different when you’re the consumer. So first of all, who who is your target consumer with party trick because I’m wondering if it’s if it’s different at all from kind of your previous businesses. Oh, it’s

Virginia Frischkorn 14:15
so funny. It’s so different. And people are like, Oh, you’re still really set like no, my my last like 14 years. My clients are not my client at all anymore. So my clients are party check my customer for party trick. Going back to that target audience is target with a capital T. Right. So I want people who our target I want Walmart I want maybe Nordstrom if you’re thinking about like big stores in relation, I want someone who’s 26 to say 32 is our target a who is that that phase of life right where they miss some of their college days. They realize that the community and the connection is just kind of dissipating. Maybe they’re getting married or getting their first home they want to entertain in their home or they’ve got these other like milestone events that get the momentum going. It’s male it’s females, primarily female at this point, but it’s applicable Is the board for everyone. So that’s our target demo. And I would say 2632, probably anywhere in the country. And ideally, in the future, it’ll be anywhere in the world. But previously, I really only served the top point zero 5% of the country. And we really want the masses, like, my goal is to empower everyone, not just people who know how to do something and make it better. I want someone who like hates would rather get on a plane and fly to Europe and like host a baby shower for their friend, to feel so empowered, that they are just going to crush this party. And that’s the goal. Like it’s, it should be so hate saying it this way. But like idiot proof, we just wanna make it simple. Doesn’t have to be complicated.

Max Branstetter 15:38
Well, if it’s idiot proof that I can’t use it, so sorry, no, I’m just No, that’s it. That’s a really great descriptor of your, of your target market there. And definitely a lot of things that you spoke to resonate with me, and I’m sure with my wife, Dana, as well, because you know, when you get married, there’s like, the big exciting lead up as you were talking about, and then the wedding is like, amazing, and perfect, and so much there, and you’re reliving it through pictures and video and everything there. And then after everything comes down, like we kind of look at each other, like, alright, let’s like, make some plans. You know, it’s like, let’s make plans to like, meet up with our friends and like, Okay, what do we do next? You know, you know, before our time with honeymoon, because it’s like, it can start to feel a little quieter, like, you’re, you’re bummed. It’s over. And then there’s the next like, Alright, what’s what’s next in life where we have fun? So definitely, yeah, definitely, definitely struck a chord there. So for that target customer, what does party trick look like for them? So like, Can you can you walk us through kind of the experience if they decide to do a party with a party trick?

Virginia Frischkorn 16:37
Oh, totally. I think there’s so much misconception just in people’s heads, when they hear it. They’re like, Oh, you’re like a party in a box, we’re gonna send you a box. We’re not we’re 100% digital. And the other thing kind of going back to like my basis for events, I look at events in three different ways. I think it’s it explains how our deliverable works, really, parties have these components, one, what it looks like, so most people go to Pinterest, and they like, come up with all their ideas of what a party is gonna look like, even if it’s just a dinner party or book club. So there’s the what it looks like, then there’s the details, like the nuts and bolts of the menu, the playlist, what you’re going to wear the conversation, you’re gonna have what cocktails or what wine pairing, right? So like, really, the detail is what makes it happen. And then there’s how you bring it to life. So as a professional event planner, it’s the event design. It’s the event planning, and then the event production. And so every party has that again, even if it’s just a brunch, how am I gonna fold my napkin for my brunch? Hey, am I gonna serve eggs or french toast? And am I doing like, What time am I setting my table is the day before it after. So when you’re a party trick member, we’re subscription based, but it’s incredibly affordable. Like we’re $9 a month were less than the cost of a cocktail, you jump in, and you can choose any party. And there are these three sections, what it looks like, and we’re gonna give you like shoppable moments. So hey, if you want to buy the napkin that we’re showing you on the tablescape, here’s the link to Amazon, everything goes off where we don’t hold any physical product. Here’s the bathroom candle, everything’s curated. So you don’t have to go on Pinterest and spend hours like, finding out Does this match this, oh, I love this idea I found on Pinterest, but I’m never gonna be able to replicate it because the product doesn’t exist anymore. So our first part is like, we’re gonna show you the details when we make him. Like we empower you to make it look great. And if you don’t want to buy anything great, we have all the DIY ideas as well, because I don’t want people to just have to go and buy tons of party products, like most people don’t have enough space for it. And then in the details, we’re gonna give you menu options in food and beverage we like go to Spotify playlist. So I find a lot of people just play like the same playlist over and over. And it’s fun to mix it up, like having different music. And that happens when you go to you know, large scale party. So it should happen at your house to for dinner party or for brunch, right. So the middle section, again, it’s an interactive, it has these options. And then my favorite, favorite favorite feature. And this is the nerd event planner, me with our event production component of it, which you call the timeline, we actually send you either SMS or email notifications to keep you on track. Like I’m again, as you said, I’m a mom, I run way behind when I’m with my kids professionally, I’m on it because I don’t have them distracting me but life is full of distractions. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thrown a party even as a professional planner, I forget to like the bathroom candle or I forget to take out the garbage or I’ve exploded more bottles of champagne that I can tell you because I leave them in my freezer too long, right? So our timelines remind you to do all this stuff. It’s like, Hey, you’re two weeks out from your party, send out your invite your two hours before pull that champagne out. You are one hour before go get your butt in the shower. And they’re cute and they’re cheeky. And they like keep you on time and scheduled. Because I think anyone can make your table look pretty but if you don’t go into the party relaxed and calm because you’re frantic because like you’re running behind, you set off a bad tone when people walk in the door, things like that. The greatest gift is when you have people over and you’re just that relaxed, chill hostess, people take their cues off of you I used to tell my brides and grooms and I don’t know if your planner ever said this. If you want your guests to do Don’t get on the dance floor, your guests follow your lead, right. So if you want a great fun dance party, the bride and groom better be dancing. Like, it doesn’t matter how good the band is people follow the bride and groom around. Same thing when you’re entertaining at home, people follow the lead of the hostess. So if you’re like frantic and nervous, because you don’t, yeah, it looks pretty, but you don’t know how it actually executes. It doesn’t matter. Like you have to have all of those pieces for the party to be successful. They don’t need to be over the top elaborate, they just need to be considered. And so the timeline features like my favorite, we actually even if you’re throwing a party and not using any of our themes in terms of like our products, our suggestions, our menus, so what like we you can just use that timeline feature. So if you’re having people over for, I don’t know, a World Series party, and we don’t have one yet, you can use our timeline to like, keep you on track and remind you and I love that because it allows for a lot of different ways to use this, like however works best for you. It’s prescriptive, but it’s super flexible.

Max Branstetter 20:59
There’s so many things that you said there that like my mind is just like jumping up and down like wow, like just hearing about parties and party playing is planning is exciting, but like the creative ideas that you’ve infused into this, I think brings it to another level because that like the custom Spotify playlists and like the timing notification with, you know, corny jokes and fridge corny jokes in it, I think is what really differentiates it and brings it to life. And you mentioned our planner, shout out Joni Scalzo from Florida, I think you guys are in different enough markets that have not direct direct competition. But she was totally on top of it. And super helpful in terms of like making sure yeah, we’re on the dance floor and everything in that regard. But these type of parties that you’re helping people throw with, with Partytrick, or these types of gatherings and events. Can you give us some examples of kind of the themes or what some might look like?

Virginia Frischkorn 21:51
Oh, yeah. I mean, we have our goal is to have everything. So I know that’s really exhaustive. So again, it could be a brunch, it could be a bachelorette, it could be a bridal shower. It could be a kid’s Pokemon birthday party, I’m actually releasing that one student because I just threw one for my son as a beta. See how he throw Pokemon? Totally. I’m like, as a mom, having someone is to be like, hey, you know, you have to be seen parties. You know, you’re gonna get judged by all the moms. How do you throw a party for your kids? That’s like on theme. So I mean, we have a fun 31 We thought again, the kids parties, the adult parties, just standard farm to table there’s a sushi night, a caviar dreams. We had a ton of holiday parties that came out Friendsgiving Thanksgiving, if there’s a reason to celebrate, we’re gonna come up, we actually did a really cool we call them a mini party. We did a White Lotus season finale mini party.

Max Branstetter 22:42
Awesome. We could do a whole podcast I want to spoil for people who haven’t watched yet. But yes,

Virginia Frischkorn 22:48
it’s amazing. And that’s a fun thing. Like we’re gonna we will do these mini parties that are like, you don’t need a ton of like a full blown party behind something like TV, like a season watching party. Right? But it’s so we were doing a time we launched like three to five parties a week right now. We also have if people want themes, the ability for people to write into us and say, Hey, will you write me something for this, because right now we’re just writing so much content. Our goal is that we’re going to have, again, anything from a brunch to birthday party, we won’t do weddings, but we’ll do the wedding related side events. But it could be a 50th anniversary for your parents.

Max Branstetter 23:27
So I guess there’s a couple aspects there. So there’s your crowdsourcing, or crowd parting ideas for parties, as well as writing yourself? How do you in the team come up with new ideas to to add parties at this rate you’re doing? Oh,

Virginia Frischkorn 23:44
gosh, well, when we were brainstorming, I probably wrote a list of 500 parties that I wanted to throw, which is crazy to think that you can come up with 500 Different themes and parties, but I can’t

Max Branstetter 23:53
even 500.

Virginia Frischkorn 23:57
So we’re like we’re slowly toning down those but then all of a sudden, we’re like, wow, people are loving right? Lotus. Let’s run with that. So we abandoned something we were working on. I have some of my old team members from bluebird who are writing parties. For me, I write a handful the parties because I think they’re so fun. So I have some I have people in all different age groups that are writing these for us and our contractors. And as well part of our team, like employees on our team, where we just brainstorm something’s popping up. Fortunately, because of how our platform works. If we come up with an idea on Monday for a party, we can push it on Thursday even faster. If everyone’s like that we need to touch it is done. So if something fast happening, oh, yeah, I like this is so fun. I want to do it this weekend. We’ll run with it. But I have this backlog that could go on forever and ever because it’s all the fun things like you go back to like your favorite again, go back to your favorite college party. How much fun would it be to do that now? Like, for me, I’m 37 so, you know, 14, whatever, 12 years, I can’t even do math in my head. 15 years later. Like I go back and it’s like, oh, I want to do progressive. Yeah. I want to do that kind of a party. Now, I wouldn’t have wanted to do that years ago. So now we can kind of create these and write these. I mean, there’s so many ideas, it’s insane.

Max Branstetter 25:08
But I feel like it’s, it’s gotta be energizing just being creating a business where it’s so much of the content comes from brainstorming and creativity and like, it’s inspiring, just hearing about it. That consumer that you alluded to a little while ago, I feel like that there’s like a wrinkle within there, or there’s a wrinkle within your, the people that you’re trying to find for for Partytrick that, I think is pretty difficult. But it’s a fun challenge. And that’s, I’m hypothesizing here from full scientific method. I’m assuming there’s like, in the world, there’s some people that just want to be as simple as possible and not spend much money and just throw a party quick and like not worry about stuff. And then there’s probably also another sector of consumers that really wants to kind of go all out and get into the details and like, throw just awesome, memorable, super unique parties. And I know your platform makes everything simple and easy and pretty low cost overall. But it also is, you know, there’s a lot of details to it. So it kind of skews to that ladder consume, you know, people that want to get more into the details and throw really unique theme parties there. So how are you? How are you able to identify those customers that are truly like the perfect fits for using party trick? I know that was like a 10 minute question.

Virginia Frischkorn 26:23
No, I’m thinking about the best way to answer that I think maybe I articulated incorrectly. I think our parties again, are super detailed, but I don’t think that person necessarily is going to follow them step by step. I think if they use 15% of our what we deliver, it makes their lives better. I think those people who are so amazing, I want to throw those overtop parties aren’t actually going to be our client. I look at I have a friend who was using this recently for his wife’s 40th birthday party, he had to throw a party. He’s like, he’s a finance student, he has no idea what he’s doing in terms of like throwing a 40th birthday party for his wife. And they’re in the south, by the way, too. So like, it needs to be more polished. And he came in and he just pulled a couple ideas used our DIY, it was perfect. He’s like, I never would have thought that I would have used this. I think about also like, so when we’re finding people, we’re finding the different people in different markets and what their needs are, are driving kind of a how we’re building things. More than us going and finding who we think our ideal is, I want to see, just get the feedback. We’re in that feedback phase, right? Where I thought people were going to ask for custom parties left, right and center. We’re not getting as many custom party requests that would skew to someone who would like want to hire an event planner, but then maybe realized, do I really use them that much money for like an everyday party? Probably not. So as we’re looking at finding like there’s a lot on social, I think we all have large or like my team is all over the country, we only have a few people based in Colorado. And so we’re all leveraging our networks and trying to test and get the feedback. Fortunately, we’ve been so lucky that we’re getting really great feedback. And we’re getting a lot of people that aren’t related to us, right? Like, that’s what we hope like, we’re gonna get validation, the sooner that it’s random, random people that there’s no direct connection at all, which is kind of the point that we’re hitting right now. And again, I don’t think we have enough data yet to say this exactly is like, that’s my idea of who our idea ideal client is. I think my gut feeling is the person who wants to have that super, super detail. They’re not coming to us with the exception of DIY. And using just our notifications, I think it’s someone who wants to dabble doesn’t really know what to do. And if they run with most of it, they’re good. So kind of that in between person is like perfect off the bat.

Max Branstetter 28:36
Yeah, no, that’s that’s a helpful distinction. There were a couple examples of the some really surprising feedback that you’ve learned so far.

Virginia Frischkorn 28:45
People didn’t realize it would be as helpful as it would be.

Max Branstetter 28:49
That’s a good thing. Yeah.

Virginia Frischkorn 28:51
Yeah. They’re like, Oh, my god, I didn’t realize like I’ve been doing this for years and years. And there’s these little hacks that we share with people and like within each section, so like in the Details section, we have a Tips and Tricks tab. And it has just like our planner tips. Whether it’s using double stick tape to hack how you tie a ribbon, what have you like that’s a little extra and like, most people aren’t going to do that. But it’s Oh, that’s so easy. Or again, how to weave tips and tricks under the hosting details like how to remove the smell of smoke if you have a campfire like we have a s’mores party that I love it’s like one of my favorites. And but I hate smoke smell like I do for like that night like the smell of bonfires. Awesome, but then the next day, you’re like, please get this off of me. Um, so all of those little hacks are really helpful and people are loving the hacks. I thought they’d like a little bit more just kind of some of the superficial the looks the ideas, but the hacks are actually really helpful because if you go on a lot of websites, there’s just too much. And so it really pairs it down. It saves you so much time and so we’re getting that validation and so some of that feedbacks been really amazing so far. It’s more positive validation. We haven’t gotten really much negative, which is really good.

Max Branstetter 29:59
It’s good. Yeah, it’s it’s a very positive space to be in totally positive party. What is there any big shift or change in kind of vision with the company that you’ve had since, like the early, early initial ideas when you’re first thing and this, you know, just based on things you heard are starting, get the company running.

Virginia Frischkorn 30:20
You know, I think the biggest shift has been trying to slow down or having people tell me to slow down and testings more before I, I have a lot of things in the pipeline, some great partnerships that I want to work with a community component that I want to work with, like an AI plug in that basically will kind of all these things are to come. And so right now I get super excited. I’m like, I want this and this and this. And so some of the shifts has been like, Nope, you can’t do that until this point. Let’s test this. Let’s run. So that’s been a really great when we talked earlier, like in terms of tips across the board, it’s like, be curious, test something thoroughly vet it before you move on. And so the idea, I always just try to stay fluid, as long as we’re working with our vision and mission of empowering people in a world where we’re more connected, how we get there. Maybe it’s custom parties, maybe it’s these more prescriptive ones that we’re writing, it doesn’t really matter to me, I’m not set on like this is the end product, it has to be just as saying, I just want to empower people to party and have fun and like, build that community. Like we just, I think COVID hit home, so much how disconnected and we feel like maybe we’re connected because of social media. But there’s nothing better than a game like a movie night just sitting around a table with your best friends. And that feeling afterwards, where you just feel alive again, we need that. And I want that for everyone. And that’s kind of probably why I’ve shifted away more from some of these like super high end, luxury weddings that are great for a night, I want to every day, I want every day to be a little bit better. If you can have every Friday night just that much better than I feel. I feel like I’ve done something that has an impact.

Max Branstetter 31:57
Who doesn’t want to get a little bit better if you want to get better at podcasting. And also better at dealing with some terrible. No good, very bad jokes. You can sign up for the Podcasting to the Max newsletter at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. It is a wonderful party, plentiful party mix. It’s a party mix of podcasting tips behind the scenes stories from the Wild Business Growth Podcast, and some puns/dad jokes/just straight awfulness. You can sign up at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter and join fellow subscribers who are signing up from all over the world. It is pretty cool. Pretty, pretty cool. Now let’s get to a segue that doesn’t even deserve to be a segue. So let’s get a little bit better and impactful from it. inspiration and creativity since that was a terrible segue. But this is how it works. I’m curious about you on. On the creativity side, I mean, you’ve shared plenty of creative ideas and tactics and things that actually like consumers can now see in your business. So I’m curious on that front, as well as just you on the personal side. But on the business side. So like these ideas like launching Spotify playlists for different parties, and having a timeline that one you could do a timeline planner, but also having just like the text and email notifications for a timeline, like little features like that I think are so cool. And as just as envisioning as someone who’s like hosting a party, those would be a huge, huge help. So you can see the value in that. But how do you and team come up with ideas like that, that really enhance the overall offering?

Virginia Frischkorn 33:44
You I think a lot of the original ideas and where we are. It came from my career. And you know, my old company bluebird productions, were one of the top 50 planners in the country while technically like in the world, depending on the list by Vogue and Martha Stewart. Yeah, so it’s one of those things where you learn that you have to contemplate every piece. And that’s just as relevant, like a dinner party at your house as it is in these large scale. So again, remembering to do those things in the push notifications. My favorite party hack, like ever, is using alarms on my phone and labeling them at when I throw a party or when I throw a wedding I would go I mean I’d have 35 alarms go off on my phone all day long. 10 minutes until guests arrival right and dressed first look 10 minutes. So cocktail ends, and every single wedding. One of the like the things in my Asana that would go off on Fridays, set your alarms because they kind of move around. So I think that was when I wanted the timelines and notifications. I’m like, okay, when I host at home, I use these alarms when I do large scale. Like there’s nothing like that that exists for parties having a checklist on a piece of paper. I’m never gonna touch that, especially for a dinner party at my house. So these ideas all come from some of the stuff that we did with Bluebird or you know the world is always changing. And we I love asking people like what your favorite party hack is, and then finding out how we can incorporate it. I don’t know like, what do you love? Like, what’s your favorite? Do you have a trick up your sleeve? Like when you’re hosting? Or you’re like, oh, shit, I hate this. I’m like, not gonna write what? What do you like? What’s your trick?

Max Branstetter 35:16
Well, I think musics a big part of it. So it’s kind of funny that Spotify playlists, like it would definitely cater it towards the audience and also the mood at the time. But I think Spotify as a whole has just been incredibly helpful. Because you I mean, I, at this point, have 10,000 songs start saved that like, so it’s like an amazing shuffle. kind of risky to put it on shuffle, because a wide range of genres there. But play it plenty to choose from there. But also the ability to create playlists within Spotify, and also the ones that they’ve pre curated. And that’s not even considering the ones that you’ve picked out with party trick. I think music and like setting the vibe and being able to control it just whether it’s you or somebody else to be DJing I think that goes a long way. Also, I love food. So anything food, Super Bowl, party specialties is great. But anyway, I see I see how you get energized by being in the space asking questions like this. Oh, love

Virginia Frischkorn 36:06
it, and incessant rolling with it and talking with the team and talking with. Again, I’ve been lucky enough to have phenomenal employees and team members with Bluebird, Something Blue. Also, they’ve been all over the place like my lead planner from Bluebird was in New York City. And then I have team in California. And so we talk and we all do different things. And we’re all right. And so what what we’re all sitting down brainstorming, what’s the most valuable tool to you like, it’s really different for me at this phase in my life than it is for some of my team members. And I think it keeps us all really relevant. And it keeps us all like engaged and curious. So again, music is so important. But some people don’t see that also, which is crazy. Like, I don’t know how people don’t see that having music as part of your event. Like it has to be there. So we want to make sure that they’re contemplated too, because some may say that that’s just easy, like it’s a trick of mine. But doesn’t everyone know this? Well? No, they don’t actually. So we want to make it easy.

Max Branstetter 37:02
What about outside of work? So I learned that in preparation for this interview that you are a big marathon runner, which kind of like that’s an unnecessary bit because marathons are huge and intimidating, but awesome. So so at the time of this recording, how many marathons Have you run?

Virginia Frischkorn 37:20
I’ve run four. I’ve trained for seven, which is cool. Wow, I know.

Max Branstetter 37:26
Wait, how did what’s what happened with those three ones? That didn’t happen?

Virginia Frischkorn 37:30
I had things that caused me to kind of back out last minute, which sucks, but I think the training is one of the best parts. Like for me, it’s like it’s my Zen. It’s my quiet. It’s my brainstorm time when I’m on on super long run. So the training is just as valuable. It’s actually running. But you’re after COVID There was a sickness, there was an illness like just accidents, candidly, that have caused those from not actually going in there. And they’ve all been towards the end. Like so. I’m already up at that running 1680 miles every Saturday morning kind of thing. But I love it. It’s my happy, happy place.

Max Branstetter 38:00
Wow. Yeah, that’s well, heavy marathons canceled If anything, it’s a fantastic way to stay in shape.

Virginia Frischkorn 38:09
The races went on. I just didn’t run them. Like I supposed to run New York. Yeah. So no, it’s a great way to stay in shape. Like mentally as well as like it’s a balance. It’s everything. I don’t know for me like that. That’s something that does it for me.

Max Branstetter 38:21
What is your best way to I guess spend the time or not get crazy bored when you’re running for like four or five plus hours?

Virginia Frischkorn 38:30
Well, fortunately, don’t ever run that long. I think my longest those are this ultra guys. My more like are the three to three to four is kind of like the longest I can

Max Branstetter 38:39
Oh, that’s not I could do that. No, just

Virginia Frischkorn 38:45
honestly, just getting past the first three to four miles. It’s the hardest. I hate that. Once you hit that, then you’re like, okay, cool once you’re at that point, but I would say when I’m doing those long runs, the first 3040 minutes sucks. And then I love listening to music. I love listening to different playlists. Sometimes I listen to the same one over and over. Sometimes I’ll mix it up, based on like how bored I am. Sometimes, and I hate this sounds sort of weird. But sometimes I take phone calls when I’m running. I am because there’s long runs, you’re running at a pace that should be conversational. So like, I’ll call my sister and we’ll talk for an hour when I’m running or my mom. And yeah, I’m panting a little bit. But it’s not at that rate where you’re, it’s a great catch up. Like I have a group of friends that I run with just for short runs, my long runs, I’d like to be alone, because then I’ll mix it up so that there are a handful of podcasts that I will listen to. I went through one year where I only listened to audibles and listened to a ton of like mindset and personal development. And then some that were just kind of crazy. So I tend to have something plugged in. I’m not a silent runner. I love either, like a little bit but primarily like it’s talking. It’s listening to music. It’s podcasts like that, that kind of keeps me going and it distracts me when you get to that point where you’re like, oh god, but don’t put me on a track. No, that is like torture those those ones take forever. I like the long outdoor like pretty.

Max Branstetter 40:05
Yeah, it helps so much to get yourself out of the house and it’s really nice to Yeah, I’m fully remote with my podcast production visit like I’ve been working from home from for a while, you know even before that. And I find that even if we’re doing like a long car ride like even though it’s like takes forever, it’s just so nice to like, get out of the house and like just take yourself somewhere else and listen to music or podcasts or something you love. So I could totally see that in my my wife Dana content, I’m sure it can definitely sympathize with you on the on the same page with you on the treadmill because she’s a runner as well. And she hates running on the treadmill. I think it’s quite different than the running outside.

Virginia Frischkorn 40:44
Oh, no, that’s a distraction and fresh air like it helps so much. And again, I’m like you said like you were working at home, whether it’s getting in the car and transitioning and like just leaving your house for coffee. It helps reset everything like we all need a reset. It’s so important to get out outside in some capacity or just like change locations.

Max Branstetter 41:05
So let’s change locations to Rapid-Fire Q&A. You’re welcome again for the corniness, the Frischkorniness. Let’s do a little Rapid-Fire Q&A ready for it? All right. All right, let’s get Wild. You just shared some details about how to pass the time when you’re running for hours on hours. And you mentioned that you used to split time between Aspen in New Zealand which is not the shortest flight in the world. What’s What’s your best advice for making one of the longest flights in the world seem not quite as long?

Virginia Frischkorn 41:41
Go in overtired take a sleeping pill, go to bed and wake up in the new place. Don’t go in well rested onto that flight to sleep as much as you can use it for sleep catch up.

Max Branstetter 41:53
Yeah, I had a feeling it might be related to sleep. But yeah, that’s that’s definitely one where it would not be fun to be up the entire time. All right. So I usually ask guests on the show about a weird talent or party trick that they have. And you your party trick you have is literally a business. But is there anything like not even considering like what you offer with the business? Is there like a weird talent or memory trick or just like almost like unique hobby, something that you’re really good at that has no impact on professional life?

Virginia Frischkorn 42:23
I’m an insanely good parallel parker. Nice, everyone’s surprised. Well, they were like, wait, I did not see that. They’re like you’re not that good of a driver. But you’re really good. Parker. I’m like, Yeah, both sides left and right.

Max Branstetter 42:36
Perfect for the ambidextrous ambidextrous parallel park parking, which I am learning as tough to say, as I speak. I saw on your LinkedIn that you studied art history and psychology. In college. What’s the most interesting thing that you learned in art history,

Virginia Frischkorn 42:54
that it’s not about the history of art, it’s about art, explaining history. I know that sounds weird. Sometimes it is about the history of the art. But I loved like periods, often really fast progress about where like history, art is the best way to learn history. And it’s a visual way to learn something versus just reading history in a textbook. And so it prompts you and so for me, that’s a really different thing than like, Oh, this is a cool fact about some artists, like you come up with your right, whatever. Not really whatever. But at the same point, like that’s, that’s what I loved about it, it kind of is a twist. And it’s a great way to learn about various different periods of time and the psychology, the psychology behind the artists, it’s like, fascinating.

Max Branstetter 43:32
You can take as much time as you want. I’m the one that’s extra slow with asking these. And then you mentioned doing I mean, your whole past decade plus really a couple of decades has been party after party, whether that’s planning it or participating in it, or creating it for your for your consumers. Do you ever get exhausted from all the partying? Like do you have any like recovery tips or just kind of chill tips after you know a long string like that?

Virginia Frischkorn 44:01
Honestly, my favorite party is a party for one in my bathtub with a good book and some like quiet. So that is my recovery, like getting again, exercise and like it’s about pacing, and nothing, it’s not sustainable to go and go and go all the time. In that social capacity, at least for me, the funny thing is like most people think I’m very, very extroverted. I’m actually very much an introvert. I’m just social. But I need that down. And I need that rest time in order to keep going professionally as well as I mean, yeah, professionally pretty much so making sure I have a lot of that alone and that quiet time is the most important thing. So for others just take that time. Don’t over schedule.

Max Branstetter 44:44
Totally. Yeah, I’m excited to chill after after every interview. Regardless, I guess I know. I know what you mean there. And then last one. What is the most unique party that you’ve ever thrown or attended?

Virginia Frischkorn 45:00
So funny. I just had like visions of party slashing theory. I’m like, Okay, what’s the right answer here? Well, there’s no right answer, right. But I remember I think one of the most unique and impactful parties was a party at a silver mine. So Aspen has a mine called the Smuggler Mines where they actually found the largest piece of silver ever. And everyone asked me everyone hikes up Smuggler, we call it housewife highway. It’s really funny. So if you’re ever in Aspen, or anyone who’s there, and you want to go and get some really good look just like people watching, go sit at the bottom of Smuggler watch all housewives, but the mind is shut down. But gosh, it was probably 10 years ago, there’s a cool wine company that’s based in Colorado, which is not a good place to go drink wine. But they threw a party at the mine. And it was grungy, and it was dirty. And there was a tattoo artist, and they did mind tours. And it was just all these pop up. It wasn’t fancy. It wasn’t glamorous. It was so cool. And it was so different, especially in the context, because there’s this deep history, amazing food. But it was gritty in a way that for me, the juxtaposition like having that in Aspen made it really impactful and really unique. I mean, I can say tons of performers or various cool decor ideas. But that was just it was unique. It was special. It was a little bit different. And that’s what I loved about it so so much.

Max Branstetter 46:18
Yeah, it’s such a unique and it’s overused, but authentic one that like that just seems like such a genuine experience and totally perfect for like that environment and the cool places around you. So Virginia, thank you so much. This has been absolutely awesome. I can’t believe we made it this far in the interview. And I, we’ve talked about Colorado, but your name is Virginia. And I didn’t make any corny jokes about that. And we almost made it out. But now I’m talking about it. So sorry. But But thank you so much for coming on sharing your tips, your stories, all the amazing parties that you throw in and help people throw and the Partytrick story. Where’s the best place for people to try out party trick as well as if they want to connect with you online.

Virginia Frischkorn 47:01
Awesome. So try us out at Partytrick.com. We’re @Partytrick on Instagram. If you use the code: Virginia you’ll get 4 months free of our Partytrick of our Party Pro Membership. And then additionally, I have a personal website. It’s VirginiaTrafton.com. And we’ll put that in the notes I’m sure. And that has links to my Instagram, my LinkedIn, all the good things and information about the other businesses as well as some of my favorite little tips and tricks in there as well.

Max Branstetter 47:29
Awesome. Fantastic. Yeah, we’ll definitely link to all those. And last thing, final thoughts. It could be a quote, a line, just kind of words to live by whatever you want. Send us home here.

Virginia Frischkorn 47:38
Get out there and just do it. If you have the idea. Go do it get into motion and get into action.

Max Branstetter 47:47
Action! Thank you so much, Virginia for sharing the corniest, awesome-estis the story of – yeah, story of Partytrick and your other businesses and beyond and all you do for the good times of the world. And thank you Wild Listeners for tuning in to another episode. If you want to hear more Wild stories like this one, make sure to follow the Wild Business Growth Podcast on your favorite app and tell a friend about the podcast and then try out Partytrick with them and whip out those Partytricks. You can also find us on Goodpods where there is a party of awesome podcasts and podcasts, people and recommendations. And for any help with podcast production, you can learn more at MaxPodcasting.com and sign up for the Podcasting to the Max newsletter at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. Until next time, let your business Run Wild…Bring on the Bongos!!