066: How to take risks in creative design – with Kristin Banta

Even if you wouldn’t call yourself super ‘creative’, you can learn how and when to take risks in business to create connections with your clients. Let’s talk how to take risks in creative design.

Would you consider yourself a risk-taker? Someone who pushes the envelope, a natural innovator and disruptor in your industry? Or maybe you’re someone who has a keen eye for what’s wrong in the world and passionate about fixing it?

I know you’ll glean a few ideas from today’s conversation. Settle down for an episode that’ll inspire your work, and help you decide what to pitch to your clients next.

My special guest today is a super successful and innovative celebrity event planner.

Kristin Banta simplifies how to take risks in creative design.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How to create like an Event Designer and how she collects her ideas and inspirations in a practical way
• What “experiential event design” means
• How the risks Kristin’s taken in producing past client events paid off
• Why risk taking in design is so important on a deep level
  • How it helps to make a positive impact on the world around us
• How a wedding planner could make their wedding designs more ‘experiential’
• How to get a client on-board with your creative vision and warm them up to take more risks
• What the ‘bake time of design’ is and how that plays into risk taking and client relations
• Kristin’s predictions for the next two years about where live experiential events for brands are headed
  • How to take part in this huge surge of opportunity

You may not realize this about me… but before I was a business coach and podcaster, I was an event planner. I produced non-traditional, large-scale events for 12 years in my career. So, whenever I get the chance to sit down with my clients, like Kristin and talk (event) shop, I just absolutely LOVE it.

Hear me geek-out with Kristin, an absolute innovator and disruptor in the live events industry. Kristin is working behind-the-scenes on some of the biggest movie studio premiere after-parties and brand activations out there. Who knows, maybe you’ll see her design work at Coachella, SXSW or on the runway in the year ahead.

#DoTheThing!

Links, people and apps mentioned:

Tool mentioned: Pinterest

Movie: The Favourite

Premiere Party for Creative Rich Asians movie: Crazy Rich Asians Premiere by Kristin Banta Events Inc.

Event produced for Bumble: Winter Bumbleland by Kristin Banta Events Inc.

Book: The Magic Path of Intuition – Florence Scovel Shinn

Book: Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life – Gary John Bishop

Favorite quotes from this episode:

[05:22] “One of the things that we really champion here is this idea that it’s okay to take risks. They pay off when there is a polarizing nature to what we’re doing.” – Kristin

[06:08] “What makes live events so special when they’re done well, is that they’re connecting people in unexpected ways.” – Mary

[13:43] “We need to disrupt, we need to awaken. If we don’t do things that are polarizing and that thereby take risks, we don’t get their attention. And of course we don’t want to elicit negative attention, but we can’t be afraid to disrupt. It’s that simple.” – Kristin

[14:27] “Inspiring people to think, inspiring them to connect, to go deeper. And you had mentioned to me offline, waking people up from the rat race of life.” – Mary

About Kristin:

Kristin is the creative visionary behind Kristin Banta Events and is the maestro of executing ambitious—and often unconventional—live event experiences. Her work reflects a bold, can-do attitude, where bringing a client’s vision to life is not only possible… but paramount.

As a leading authority in the world of luxury event planning, Kristin consults with individuals and corporations on client service, experience, and conceptual design.

She appeared as a weekly wedding expert for Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family; host of the Style Network’s Keep The Party Moving; featured designer on the Mark Burnett/DreamWorks series for TNT—Wedding Day; host and designer for Syfy’s My Big Fat Geek Wedding; guest judge on the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars; and in her own Bravo special—The Ringleader—which re-aired for an encore presentation as The Wedding Party.

Kristin credits a background across multiple disciplines as key to her creativity, production savvy, and innate flexibility. After graduating from Pepperdine University, she worked in publishing, catering, interior and set design, film production, and eventually music marketing—as a graduate of UCLA’s Music Business Program, before launching Kristin Banta Events.

Kristin’s vote for the perfect guest on The Simplifiers Podcast:

David Stark – visionary and leading NYC Event Designer

Alli Webb – amazing female entrepreneur, founder of Drybar

Where Kristin hangs out online:

Website: kristinbanta.com

Instagram: @kristinbanta

Twitter: @KristinBanta