SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

How Fun Fun Fun Fest Went From 3,000 to 16,000 Attendees in Under 5 Years, EP 275 - Graham Williams

10 Jun 2016

17 min

3499 words

2 speakers

10 Jun 2016

Audio

Description

Graham Williams, one of the creators of Fun Fun Fun festival and head of Transmission Events. The festival's first year had only 3,000 attendees...now it lasts 3 days and welcomes 20,000 people. Listen as Nathan and Graham talk about building up an event, the economics of festivals, and why you should start building your dream sooner. Favorite Book? – I've never read a business book… 1984 What CEO do you follow? — None What is your favorite online tool?— Gmail Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— I think I made the right decisions for the most part...I wish I'd started my company a little earlier. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:15 – Nathan's introduction 01:40 – Welcoming Graham to the show 02:10 – Started Fun Fun Fun festival in 2006 with the head of Alamo Drafthouse 02:45 – Cost around $100k to produce and sold around 3000 tickets in the first year 03:15 – Left Emo's to start Transmission Events, a booking and promotions company 03:20 – How did you get 3000 people to an event that had just launched? 03:40 – "A lot of flyering and street-team work" 04:07 – Now a 3-day festival with 20,000 attendees 04:24 – Now costs $4-5 million to produce 05:50 – Currently run by a local manager 05:10 – What's driven the growth of the festival? 05:40 – "You find your audience and respect that audience" 06:22 – Ticket sales are the bulk of revenue - then sponsorship and bar sales 06:55 – A weekend pass costs a little over $200 07:22 – Around half the total revenue is in ticket sales 08:30 - Sponsors pay more per head because of the opportunity to target an audience 11:00 – The festival feeds into Graham's year-round business 11:20 – Find Graham at Transmission Events or Fun Fun Fun Fest 12:35 – It's aimed at licensing information obtained from defunct websites 3 Key Points: Learn all you can - but you need to put that learning into action. Find your audience and respect them. Cater to their needs. Build your niche. Start sooner. Whatever you're thinking about doing...do it. Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Chapters

1. What is the main topic discussed in this episode? 2. How did Fun Fun Fun Fest start with only 3,000 attendees? 3. What marketing strategies were used to promote the festival? 4. What factors contributed to the festival's growth to 20,000 attendees?

Featured

Nathan Latka

Graham Williams

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 15.768 Nathan Latka

This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base. You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have.

Chapter 2: How did Fun Fun Fun Fest start with only 3,000 attendees?

16.268 - 19.391 Graham Williams

I'm now at $20,000 per top. Five and six million.

19.411 - 43.167 Nathan Latka

He is hell-bent on global domination. We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark. And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. Okay, Top Tribe, this episode is brought to you by FreshBooks, the invoicing tool that I use to make sure I collect all my money in an efficient manner. To claim your free month, go to nathanlatka.com forward slash FreshBooks and enter the top in the How Did You Hear About Us section.

43.147 - 67.855 Nathan Latka

Every Monday, I give one of you, Top Tribe, $100 to invest in your idea to get it to the top. To enter for your chance to win, simply subscribe to the podcast on iTunes now, and then text the word NATHAN to 33444. Okay, Top Tribe, coming up tomorrow morning, you're going to hear from Rob. He was 26 and gave up a $400,000 salary for his company, HourlyNerd.com.

69.067 - 89.747 Nathan Latka

All right, guys, we're gonna jump into our next interview. Those of you who are music fans are really gonna love this one because he created, he is the creator, one of the creators of Fun Fun Fun Fests, right? Anyone go? Yeah, fans? Yeah? Okay, Graham, local celebrity, very cool. Also runs a very successful agency here locally called Transmission Agency. So we're gonna get the full story.

89.788 - 92.791 Nathan Latka

Please help me in welcoming to the stage Graham Williams.

96.734 - 97.335

Oh my God, Graham, I love you.

97.957 - 99.238 Nathan Latka

I've got a lot of fans here.

101.381 - 102.542 Graham Williams

Juice Land, represent.

102.882 - 109.089 Nathan Latka

Juice Land. Smart marketer, Matt. Okay, so what came first, the agency or the festival?

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Chapter 3: What marketing strategies were used to promote the festival?

685.477 - 700.498 Nathan Latka

Okay, so so many of you have been asking me, you're an agency and you bill for your time or you're a coach and you sell your hours to coaching clients. Well, stop fooling around with Word documents and templates or Excel files to try and send your invoicing.

700.478 - 726.115 Nathan Latka

I just did it I use this thing called fresh books it's a tool it takes me about 34 seconds to create and send an invoice and here's why I love it if you're a coach or an agency you know how you always spend time begging and pestering your clients to pay well fresh books makes and becomes the bad guy for you they'll send late payment reminders which means you don't have to chase people down and strain the relationship so I love that additionally I

726.095 - 745.618 Nathan Latka

When you create the invoice in the upper left, you can put your own brand logo and things in there so you can stay on brand and professional. So here's the deal. You know, the show is all about numbers. And the most important thing, listening for everybody, is that FreshBooks is simple, even if you're not a numbers person. Well, you know, actually, especially if you're not a numbers person.

745.639 - 764.067 Nathan Latka

Don't you dare come on my show and expect me not to ask you numbers questions. You guys know that I do. I go for the jugular. And you now can use FreshBooks to keep your numbers organized. To get your free month, go to nathanlatka.com forward slash freshbooks and enter the top in the how did you hear about us section.

764.528 - 781.736 Nathan Latka

Again, to get your free month, go to nathanlatka.com forward slash freshbooks right now and enter the top in the how did you hear about us section. No credit card required. Okay, top tribe, I have to tell you, many people go, Nathan, you came out of nowhere, your website's growing so fast, how'd you do it? The answer is simple.

782.117 - 800.141 Nathan Latka

So I use HostGator, I don't know if you guys know that, but I use HostGator, and the reason I do, they have like about 4,500 free templates I can use, because I don't code. They've got a great e-commerce plugin, and guys, I bug the heck out of their support. They've got 24-7 support. which I love. So what I've done is I've worked with him. You guys know I make great deals.

800.221 - 818.778 Nathan Latka

If you go to hostgator.com forward slash Nathan, you can sign up, get your own domain for 30% off and a 45 day money back guarantee. Okay. Again, I make great deals for you guys. Go to hostgator.com forward slash Nathan to grab that now. Awesome. Well, Graham, you've got to get this next question right.

819.098 - 819.679 Graham Williams

All right. We'll see.

820.601 - 826.188 Nathan Latka

Do you know what time it is? Go on. It's time for the famous five. Graham, number one, what's your favorite business book?

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Chapter 4: What factors contributed to the festival's growth to 20,000 attendees?

959.042 - 964.727 Graham Williams

But at some point, if you think you're ready to pull off that Band-Aid and go for it, just go for it. Like, what's the worst that can happen?

964.707 - 976.618 Nathan Latka

I love it. Top Tribe, there you have it. Start earlier, get going from 3,000 followers up to 20,000 attending Fun Fun Fun Fest, a super successful agency. Graham, thank you for taking us to the top.

976.818 - 978.683 Graham Williams

All right. Thanks for having me. Thank you.

982.291 - 998.994 Nathan Latka

If you guys enjoyed today's episode, go back and listen to Jason from yesterday. He invented a phone cleaner and will sell over $5 million this year. He launched in 2012 at CES. Top Tribe, I love giving away free money. I feel like Oprah giving away cars, and I have something special for you today.

999.535 - 1021.084 Nathan Latka

How many of you have heard our super sharp guests talk about success they've had with Facebook and Google Ads? Well, all of you listening right now, yes, if you're listening, you get $100 in free AdWords. Here's how you get it, okay? Again, thanks for listening. Get the free $100 from Google right when you sign up with my website host provider, HostGator. Go sign up now to get your free money.

1021.164 - 1041.019 Nathan Latka

HostGator.com forward slash Nathan. Again, that's HostGator.com forward slash Nathan. Okay, Top Tribe, I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning. And don't forget, before you listen to any other episodes, subscribe on iTunes right now for your chance to win $100 every Monday.