Audio Only - All Participants-1: Welcome
to Operations Unfiltered, the podcast
that takes you behind the scenes of
influencer and talent management.
I'm your host, Zaina, and
I'm so glad you're here.
The weather is finally warming up
here in Baltimore, and that means
festival season is officially in
full swing, living near the water.
We're spoiled with open air
markets, local events and festivals,
pretty much around every corner.
Today's episode is a special one.
I'm chatting with Jeff Berry, one of
the key organizers behind the Iconic
Fells Point Fund Festival, one of
Baltimore's longest running festivals and
get this, it's completely self-funded,
not a single coin from the city.
We got into how it all works, what goes
into planning something of the scale,
and how the team keeps the spirit of
the festival alive year after year.
Even better.
Jeff is a fellow Mustang.
That's right.
He's a Stevenson University alumni, which
makes this a Mustang Meetup episode.
So if you're a current or future Mustang,
this episode is especially for you.
So without further ado, grab
your favorite coffee or matcha.
Get comfy and let's get into this
week's episode of Operation Unfiltered.
Zuryna: Thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode
of Operations Unfiltered.
, I actually came across the Fels Point
Fun Festival through a Facebook ad.
So I guess before we get started, can
you tell us a little bit about yourself
and the Fels Point Fun Festival.
Jeff D: Definitely.
So my name's Jeff Berry.
I'm the, volunteer festival chair.,
I've been doing involved in the Fun
Festival for about 12 years, maybe more.
More now.
I've lost track.
Yeah.
Time flies when you're
Zuryna: having fun, right?
Jeff D: Yeah, absolutely.
It does.
Time flies when you're having fun
and when,, it's actually, you know.
For, for my day job, I, I work in the
federal government, you know, you
leave that job, you continue on this
kind of like my fund, , get to try
things, experiment things, outside,
outside of doing your day job.
So it's.
Volunteer work.
And then, a little bit about the festival.
The festival is actually, , a
very interesting beast.
It actually started out as a protest
back in 19,, 67 and 68, which
was the fact that, . Bell point
and, , lots of other places in the
city were gonna be demolished for
I 95 to come straight through it.
So if you can imagine, , I 95 coming
straight through the, , the inner
harbor, what would Baltimore be today?
There'd be no Camden Yards.
There would be no, no m and t banks.
So this festival was started
as a protest to that plan.
To show how unique the neighborhood
of Fells Point was, and along
with, the true feral hill in
the neighborhood of Feral Hill.
So, we've been doing
this festival now for,
59 years next year will be our 60th.
We're the longest, the longest running
true community festival, in Baltimore,
that has been happening, for, you know,
59 years, , to be only to be beat a
little bit by, , flower Mart out in Mount
Vernon, which has been running for about
110 years, but very, very different.
Zuryna: Yeah, a very different audience.
, but that is an amazing story.
And so I'm originally from Houston, Texas.
I've lived in Baltimore for a very
long time, so I consider myself half
Houstonian and half Baltimorean.
But I love the Fells area.
I've loved Fed Hill, and I never
knew the history, so that is
actually a great way to protest.
So thank you for sharing that.
So you mentioned that it was started
by the Society for the Preservation
of Federal Hill and Fells Point.
Who are some key players behind the
scenes that help make this event happen?
I know you mentioned yourself, you're
the vice president, but anyone else
who helps keep this thing rolling?
Jeff D: Yeah, definitely.
So we have a team of, of
about four to five.
10 99 contractors that work for us.
One of our lead festival coordinator is
Kathy Hoig of, , five star Festivals.
She, she is awesome.
She's, been on the festival
beat in Baltimore for years,
formally ran, Artscape, Oh wow.
And then left Arts Scape
to start her own company.
So, you know, that was, I have to chat
Zuryna: with her too.
Jeff D: Yeah, definitely,
definitely hit up Kathy.
Kathy's great.
If you wanna talk.
Program management and stuff.
And then we have some other folks that
are working on, sponsorships, dealing
with the, vendors and everything.
, I used to be almost a one man band.
It just became too overwhelming.
So I really implored people that to make
this profitable, to make this work, you
need to bring in more people, which, you
know, my board was able to, we were able
to work together and bring those folks in.
So.
Zuryna: That is amazing
and perfect timing.
I actually just finished the
associated Black Charities Board
pipeline development program.
So this is like a real world case
STU study example, because we've
learned all about the logistics
of the board and all of that.
So like I said, this is perfect timing.
And then here at Operations Unfiltered, we
love talking about the people, processes
and tools that help organizations thrive.
So can you talk a little bit more about
what you guys use behind the scenes?
And I'm talking like.
Program planning systems, are
you guys a Google Drive team,
Excel, Asana, or something else?
Jeff D: Yeah, definitely one.
One of the major things is being,
working with program management in
the federal government sphere was
I wanted to bring in a lot of.
Software and everything, to
make our lives easier.
As I said, we have a small team
of four, four people mm-hmm.
That are working around the clock.
Of course we bring in people for day of.
But, to do that and to make that
easier, you know, first iteration
when I first originally brought in, a
contractor, , to kind of be the festival
coordinator, they weren't well based in.
The new technology of like Google
and everything, trying to get them
to respond to emails and everything.
It was a lot old school stuff.
Stuff was still being done on paper.
, we ended up, we just couldn't deal
with that, so we moved forward.
So yeah, we mostly work around, , Google
Drive, which is, which is great.
. You know, we have a, that's actually
Zuryna: how I grabbed your logo, which
was very efficient, which I appreciated.
Jeff D: Yes.
So, yeah, I have a, you can also feel
free to talk to,, our creative director,
John Rohr, from the Fells Group.
, this is kind of his passion,
passion project for that.
And, you know, he's been great to do that
because, that group handles a lot of like
political candidates and they handle a
lot of grassroots outreach and advocacy.
So having them on board,
, they facilitate that.
So one of the major thing was, okay,
we're gonna set up a, basically I had to
re, I had to rebuild this whole airplane
while we were trying to fly half the
Zuryna: time.
Oh, wow.
Jeff D: Uh, so, uh, was implement,
, you know, implement Google Drive.
And then the major thing was,
was, which was tough for a couple
years, was vendor application.
There was no, there was no software
to really do vendor applications.
Luckily, a couple, a couple pieces
of software have come out in the
last couple years as all cloud-based,
which is which is, is event hub.
And then we moved just this year to
event need, which is actually very nice.
It's all based on HubSpot.
So we have that base based customer
relations management built in.
Our team can put notes,
can put everything.
It's all encompassing.
So, and we can communicate back
and forth with vendors because it.
Laborious.
'cause we have vendors emailing
multiple people, emailing the
wrong person and things like that.
That I'm sure trying to, there's
probably like a knowledge
Zuryna: gap.
You probably couldn't making some,
making sure someone else got the message.
I'm sure that was a big
obstacle for you all.
Jeff D: Yeah, a huge obstacle was just
how, how to figure out communication
and you know, I kind of took it
from a vendor, a vendor standpoint.
We bring in about.
200 to 300 vendors, just small mom and
pop vendors, , come in and set up the,
for the, two days of the festival.
So having to get them load in,
having them feel comfortable,
having them pay us, having all the
communications, all the questions
that come outta that, trying that.
So I took that as more like, okay.
Let's take that more as like a help desk
approach of them communicating to us.
They're gonna ask questions,
how do we form this out?
How do we track this?
Question's been answered, you know?
Or we need to get together and answer this
question because it's just so out there.
So
Zuryna: yeah.
If you have to have a lessons learned,
from implementing that whole process,
from onboarding, you know, from educating
the staff on how to use the system,
what would you say was your biggest
lesson learned from that whole process?
Jeff D: I think number one, getting
everybody to understand what
were, uh, you know, the staff and
everything we're trying to do.
Everybody was quick on that.
It's mostly dealing with the, the
vendors and the folks that are
coming into us, , because they
may not understand the software.
They may be used to paper, they may be
selling, you know, this widget, that
widget trying to get something simplistic.
I started out my career in college
working for, , I call it the eighth
layer of health, which was, I loved it,
but I worked for Best Buy Geek Squad.
We were one, I was one of
the first employees for.
Best Buy Geek Squad when they
rolled out nationwide for Best Buy.
So, you know, we were a different
experience for Best Buy because
people weren't coming to us to have
the, to have fun and buy something.
They were coming to us because
their stuff was broken, complain
and how do you work that?
So, and two, also, you had to
break it down to the most common,
you know, common denominator of
what is everyone gonna understand.
And that's like when we were implementing
software for the vendors and.
A walkthrough is like what
is the most simplistic thing
to do, to do for the vendors?
I love that.
Zuryna: It's true.
And I'm all about a templated approach.
And it seems like you figured that out
with this new system that you're using.
So congrats to you because that
sounds like a quite a big obstacle.
, what has been the feedback from
the vendors that have been with
you all from the beginning?
What was their response to it?
'cause I know you, with the
employees, there's not a big team,
they can kind of adjust their agile.
But with vendors who may have been
with you guys from the beginning or
been with you for a few years, what
was, what was their response to this?
You know, change in system, I.
Jeff D: Their major response,
changes system was, , they
were, they were appreciated.
I think a lot of the
vendors were realizing that
everything was moving online.
The days of paper applications
and everything were gone.
So, , that too, we were
able to do payment upfront.
That was a major thing, was
trying to deal with checks coming
in via the mail and everything.
Yeah, it, it just was, and how
to track that became a mess.
, we do credit cards upfront.
I think, I think the major thing was
everybody came, became after the pandemic,
more comfortable with doing a lot of
this online applications and everything.
So I think that helped
us, helped us tremendously
Zuryna: for sure.
And now the logistics part with
the city, is there like permits
that you all have to have?
What does that relationship look like?
And then I guess from a project management
perspective, how far in advance are you
reaching out and, and doing these things?
Jeff D: Yeah, we let the city
know about almost, , January 1st.
We let the city know, you know,
what dates we're looking at and
everything, and there's, there's a
lot of negotiations on the backend
where we have to negotiate with like
Baltimore Running Festival and folks
to make sure we're all coordinated for.
For events.
, I will say, , as much as I love the
folks we work with at the city, the
city's, , process is a bit laborious
and doesn't have the true management
that you would come to believe.
, but we, we get through it.
It's a lot of reaching out to
people, ping 'em, it's moved
this along, things like that.
So
Zuryna: For sure.
And if you had one piece of advice for
them from your perspective, as someone
who's worked with them for years,
what would you say to them to help
kind of make it easier for you all?
Jeff D: Yeah, this is no, you know,
this, this is no surprise to them.
I've actually testified in front
of the city council on this is
if I can have, if I know where my
pizza is in the, in the process.
I should be able to know where
my permit is in the process.
It shouldn't be I have to
call someone, wait for someone
to call me and everything.
It should be at web application.
I should be able to look for that, so I
Zuryna: love that.
Jeff D: Yeah.
Zuryna: The pizza tracker analogy is so
useful in so many different situations,
and it's like, I don't know how Domino's
and Papa John's have simplified.
Situation.
So, so right, right there with you.
Okay.
So you mentioned sponsorships or,
and through my research, I've, I've
learned that sponsorships are a big
part of making this event possible.,
I was wondering if you could elaborate
more on what your fundraising
and sponsorship outreach strategy
looks like and is that something
that you do throughout the year?
, is that something that you rely on?
Previous relationships?
I'd love to learn more about that.
Jeff D: Yeah, the sponsorship and
outreach stuff was, it's, it's kind
of been our Achilles heel and we've
really focused on that this year.
, it used to be this whole festival was
based around selling, selling alcoholic
beverages and getting the beer sponsor.
Uh, that's not the way the world worked.
So we brought in, , will Backstrom.
He is, he is great.
He worked for, P-N-C-P-N-C
back in the day in.
Philanthropic, department.
So we brought him in to try to bring in
those work, those connections, everything.
A lot of it is who you know, who
can you get to, how, you know,
get, get to the money basically.
A lot of times you can't come up through
an organization, you have to come.
Down through an organization to
get for sure some of this money,
because if the boss says, give them
money, you're gonna give them money.
So, , that's what we're focused
on hitting, you know, some
of the major players in town.
You also, the, the hard part about
Baltimore is the fact that you have very
little Fortune 500 companies in Baltimore.
, you have t Rowe, you have that, and
they're kind of the revolving door
of everybody hits them up for money
and how can you show it and make it
a little bit different and special?
So.
Zuryna: What do you think has been
your, I guess, claim to fame and
why you all have been able to have
such strong relationships with
the sponsors that you do have?
Jeff D: Well, I think for our sponsors is
we've continued to do that relationship.
It's all about our relationship, so
continuing making that relationship
work and then, you know, just
continuing to drive value.
As I said, we're this, we're basically
like the, we are the second largest,
uh, festival in Baltimore next to,
. Next two Artscape.
So you know, doing that.
Zuryna: Well that's definitely
a good selling point.
So if I was a sponsor, I definitely
wanna tap into that market.
So good thinking there.
And my other question is for how has
digital marketing, especially social
media and paid ads, impacted the
success of the festival in years?
I mentioned that's
exactly how I found you.
'cause I wasn't aware of this festival.
So I'm wondering have you seen other
measures of success from ads and
other digital marketing methods?
Jeff D: Yeah.
So, uh, ads, ads is a major, major player.
You know, our, our main thing that
we're trying to focus on right now
is how do we connect with Gen Z?
, and Mark Cuban had this great, uh, gray
article on, you know, your ROI is not
there in the Facebook ad space anymore.
How do we, how do we continue to
capitalize on, organic marketing,
viral marketing and everything.
One thing we started to do is, , we
invited a lot of local influencers to
our VIP tent and everything, and try to
get them involved at the festival where
they can, hype it up, do things like that.
That's been one of our major focus
is try to get the influencers more
involved because that more organic
reach works a lot better than
that, that Facebook ad,, lately.
Zuryna: I love to hear that because a
lot of small business owners that I've
talked to just don't know the power or
aren't sure how to leverage the power
of influencers and content creators.
So I'm , actually really
happy to hear that.
And if you had to have the perfect content
creator relationship , for this upcoming
festival, what would that look like?
I'm thinking behind the scenes voiceovers.
What would be your perfect.
Content.
Yeah, content story.
Content,
Jeff D: yeah.
Yeah, we've talked about that a lot.
Is, we, one of our major
components of the festival is music.
We would love to be able to get that
more, mainstream music, content, career
on board,, that way you can start bringing
people more in regionally, not just
locally and that's really what we're
, trying to go for, , a couple years ago
we had, the band, the Gym Blossoms and a
couple other hi hire name bands come in.
But my big thing for that was we just,
the way we booked them, I, I didn't
like it because those bands came in,
but no one knew they were actually here.
They never hyped it on their social media.
They didn't do that.
, then the next year we kind of transverse
and got some more kind of . up and
coming bands and they were able to hype
it on their social medias and everything.
Mm-hmm.
, you know, I think that
ROI proved out, right.
It's just how can we get that going more
Zuryna: For sure.
And this might be a question
that you can't answer or aren't
comfortable answering, but is there
a specific percentage or budget that
you have specifically for content
creation or marketing in general?
Is it like five to 8% of revenue
or is that just like what It
does, it vary based on each year.
Jeff D: It varies based on each year, you
know, we tweak things and everything.
As I said, for our creative director,
this kind of his passion project.
So he, yeah.
You know, the charges of, the
creation, he does most of
the creation, very minimal.
And we then, we focus probably about
anywhere from 20 to 30,000 towards ads.
So.
Zuryna: That's a generous number.
So yeah, a lot of businesses
I've talked to range the,
from 5,000 from as low as 500.
So that's, that's a good
number to, to have in my back
pocket for, for well, that'll
Jeff D: right.
That also, that also includes not.
Your traditional media, media stuff.
So that includes, you know,, not
just Facebook, but we also do
some, we do a lot of bill, we do
billboards coming up to the event.
And then we just kind of more
focus on the, then on the web ads.
So.
Zuryna: Okay.
And in the past, do you feel like there's
one method or medium that performs
a little bit better than the other?
Jeff D: Uh, yeah, I think the Instagram
history, like people, when we post
like a historic photo or anything
that really just gets people's
attention, so we try to focus on that.
I guess you're
Zuryna: heartstrings Yeah.
You're tugging about the heartstrings
and the nostalgic Baltimore.
So I, I could see that.
I could see that.
The overall goal of this festival is to
really celebrate the vitalization of this
area, celebrate the charm of that area.
, do you see the potential for other small
businesses in Fellows and in Federal
Hill to benefit from working with local
influencers kind of in the same way
that you are to promote this festival?
Jeff D: Yeah, absolutely.
We, we see that.
, I think they can, they can really up
their brand, I have this conversation with
restaurants and things like that is, yeah.
You have to evolve sometimes, and you
have to bring those, those folks in.
You can't just say, well, no one's coming.
I'm like, well, you haven't evolved.
You're still selling the same
cheeseburger you did back in back in 98.
I'm like, the, the
place doesn't look great.
You know, unless it's
an institutional thing.
Like you have to evolve, you
have to bring those folks in.
. I think there's very much a loss of
the understanding of social media too,
is , people think if I just post, if I
just do, if I continuously post and do
this, this kind of stuff, I'll, I'll
get, I'll get likes and things like that.
What you're doing nowadays, especially
with the AL algorithms, , is.
Just that that doesn't work.
You have to be able to have kind
of that viral moment or something
that is able to be, or more organic.
You can't just con continuously
just post every, every two hours.
And that is, that was old Facebook.
That's not, not today's Facebook.
, you know, you have to have
to engagement all have, be
Zuryna: agile.
Yes.
Right.
Engagement.
I love that.
Key word engagement.
I could go on and on about engagement and
I think that that's the thing that people,
like you said, they miss and i, I know
from my personal experience, like I said,
I'm a talent manager for content creators.
What do you feel like is the
biggest barrier in understanding
that for small business owners?
Do you feel like it's a lack of
money, a lack of understanding,
a lack of education?
What do you think that is?
Jeff D: I, I think it's
a lack of education.
I think it's a lack of understanding
and I think, you know.
For us, you have a lot of small business
owners that they've hit their pinnacle
now and, , started the company, , the
small business in the early two
thousands, maybe even in the nineties.
And they're, they saw the advent
of Facebook, but they don't truly.
Understand that , they
just view it as free.
This is free.
Yeah.
But you actually need to be,
you need to monetize that.
Mm-hmm.
You know, talk, talking about that
is,, with, with our creative director
John Rohr, is we, we focus a lot
on targeting and audience, what are
we targeting, what are we doing?
What zip codes are we, are we
even getting this down to a block?
Do we know like an event is
happening here that may be similar
to, to Fells Point Festival?
Should we geo box that event and say, you
know, let's try to push some ads that way.
Things of that nature that
we do on a, on a basis.
And then we do do some organic things.
But, using all those tools in
the toolbox that you may not think
about of, , okay, , we know a
group of people are gonna be here.
, let's do a targeted during
this time and things like that.
So.
Zuryna: No, for sure.
It sounds like reporting is
very helpful in forecasting.
So to that point, do you use reporting
to measure success of your event
beyond like attendance and the numbers?
And if so, are there any specific
KPIs or post event wrap up, , that
you rely on to, to gauge success?
Jeff D: Yeah.
, mostly the, what we're using to gauge,
it's hard to do attendance with, a
free festival and a street festival.
We can guesstimate based
on pictures based on this.
Mm-hmm.
things like that.
Well, we really focus our, as I
said, we still one of our major.
Portion of this is, is selling alcohol,
is how much alcohol do we sell?
Mm-hmm.
And that, and that's a whole nother
project management you can ask
me about, is, you know, how
many drinks are we selling?
Because some of our biggest sponsors
that come in are the alcohol, brands.
So we try to make sure that we're showing
value to them . You know, for us, we,
we serve about 12,000 mixed drinks.,
oh wow.
Point festival.
, then probably anywhere around,
you know, 15,000, beers.
We get this question all the time.
Is that 15,000 people or 15,000 drinks?
Well, how, the only way I can report
that nowadays is, , I know a transaction
occurred and this many, these many
drinks were sold during that transaction.
I can't get down, you know,
with the, the anonymization of.
Personal data especially with the
advent of ad tech and ad IDs, I
can't get down to say, yeah, , Jimmy
bought 50 beers for everything.
I . Can't get that granular and
you could get that granular, but.
The amount of money and effort to do
that is just we, we can't scale to that.
We can't scale to like a Live
nation and I honestly don't
Zuryna: think you guys need that.
Like, you know what I mean?
I feel like you then, you know, go
out of the scope of this is what this
original intent of this event was.
So I appreciate the small charm, city
nature of it, if you will, you know?
Yeah,
Jeff D: exactly.
Exactly.
So,
Zuryna: yes.
Now I know this is the 59th year,
but the 60th year is coming up.
That's a huge milestone,
a huge anniversary.
What milestones or legacy moments are
you hoping to create with that festival?
And are there any special plans in
the works that you can maybe give
us a sneak peek at or insight into?
Jeff D: Yeah, definitely.
We've already started having
conversations about the 60th.
The major thing is, as I said,
our Achilles skills was,, bringing
in that sponsorship money.
We were more focused on
the, on the beer money.
So I said we brought in a dedicated
person that all they do is to go
out there and get sponsorship.
That's Will Backstrom
from Backstrom Korea.
That's all he does is
to that kind of stuff.
And our focus is to show, 60 years of.
This.
And, also, we're the only ones
that we self-fund ourselves.
We don't, the city gives us no money for
this festival, so we actually self-fund,
so we have to raise all that money.
And two, it's just a great
story about Baltimore.
Baltimore without the festival
would be a very different place.
And how, we plan on celebrating is
really showing off, focusing, saying
the money's gonna go towards a specific,
. A Pacific restoration,
a neighborhood project.
And also, we hope to bring in a
larger, a larger band, maybe even
a firework show, you know, so
Zuryna: Ooh, to do that.
Yeah.
Okay.
A little, little operations
unfiltered, exclusive.
I love it.
Right.
I love it.
Right.
Okay, so now I wanna get to a
little bit of the fun stuff.
This is celebrating Fells
Point, federal Hill.
What is your favorite go-to
restaurant in the area?
Jeff D: I would say my favorite
go-to restaurant in Fells
Point would probably be, do this
tavern, which is still family run.
That's a great place.
Great crab cakes.
Family run.
Everybody knows everybody there.
You run into everybody.
Mm-hmm.
On the, on the Feral Hill
side, which is kind of on the
borderline of, uh, feral Hill, it's
actually Riverside, is Barflies.
Barflies is great.
, once again, still owner run
great whiskey bar . Great.
Pizzas, you can find me
hanging out there someday, so.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
I'll have to
Zuryna: add those to my
list of Baltimore phase.
The other question that I have for
you is what podcast is currently in
your rotation other than operations?
Unfiltered, of course, but
Jeff D: that's right.
You, you know what's funny is, I,
I've been listening to a lot of,
professor Galloway, if you've seen
him, he's, he's good talking, talking
about statistics and things like that.
He's appeared on Bill Barr.,
I, my favorite, my original podcast
has always been the Tony Kornheiser
show, because I, I love how Tony mixes
in sports . I find Tony , just funny.
It's so, so funny how he mixes in
and, Tony Heimer wasn't even a.
He was a sports reporter, but
then he was also, the editor or
reporter for the style section
in the Washington Post for years.
So like he mixes all, yeah,
he, he mixes all that together.
So it, it's just fun, fun
to listen, listen to him.
Zuryna: I'll definitely
add that to my rotation.
I'm always looking for new stories,
new things to laugh at, so I'll
definitely add that to my rotation.
And then last but not least, are you guys
looking for volunteers for the festival?
If so, how can people sign up?
Jeff D: Yeah, definitely.
Just, shoot us the email
Jeff at Fell's Point Fest.
We're always looking for people
that may be interested in helping
us and going from there, what
we're really looking for.
As I said, I've been doing this 15 years.
I, I would love to find a group
of volunteers, wanna take this.
Take this on for a
couple years and do that.
And, this is on the marketing end and
everything, this is, this is a great
place where if you wanna learn something
give you a great example, we have
volunteer, uh, Olivia, she was a, she was.
Being a waitress in, in the neighborhood.
We brought her on, she served
as the volunteer, , coordinator
for a little while now.
We started giving her a little
bit of a stipend for it.
But this actually helped
her get a job outside.
So, , building , that resume
and seeing how long events run.
It's definitely something, . I take the
whole view on events and running events,
is this, , Lauren Michaels said this,
, about Saturday Night Live is, the show
doesn't go on because it's ready, it goes
on because it's 1130 on SA on Saturday.
Yeah, so you're never gonna be ready.
You just, you just have to do it.
And also for the spectator, for
the person that's attending the
festival, they may not actually
see all the drama that's going on.
You know, it's a great ballet because
even if you're a ballerina, when you
screw up, the audience may not see it.
They just saw the ballet.
So,
Zuryna: yeah, I love that analogy.
That's such a cool like
way to think of it.
I never thought of it
that way, so that's cool.
Yeah, and shameless plug, I'm a
graduate of Stevenson University,
BizCom major, and they have a PR club.
I'm not sure if they still are
taking on clients, but that
might be a good partnership.
I know they've helped with some
conferences, so that could be a good.
Good collaboration effort,
just throwing that out there.
Jeff D: And also, I, I, I am
so, I, I, now they're all gone.
They don't hate me anymore.
So my class was the class at Bill Julie
that we graduated at the name change.
So we had the, yes, we had Baltimore.
Yeah.
So a couple of us wrote letters and we
kind of did a little protest of keep
the name and that you guys were the
Zuryna: troublemakers, right?
Jeff D: Our class had the choice of
what did you want on your diploma?
Did you want Villa Julie
or did you want Stevenson?
So we, I had, I ended up, even though
I wrote the letter, I said, well, no
one's gonna know what Villa Julie was.
They're gonna know what, they're
gonna know what Stevenson was.
So, oh my, well, I have Stevenson.
Zuryna: Oh my gosh.
Well this is now a Mustang meetup.
What was your major?
Jeff D: My major was, information
systems, , focus on, , computer forensics.
So I had, , if.
If you ever took, did you take Dean Cook?
And Alan, Alan Foot and all them.
Zuryna: Wow.
So
Jeff D: they were, they were around
back in the day I graduated oh nine.
So
Zuryna: I was a BS comm major, so I
graduated a little bit later than you.
I was 2016, but I do remember a couple
of my friends had classes with them.
So this is so, such small toor.
This is what I always say
when I talk to people.
You have no idea.
I didn't know that that
was our connection.
So, yeah.
Jeff D: Definitely.
It's
Zuryna: crazy.
So, Ari, when you did you graduate,
did you think that you would
be doing what you're doing now?
Jeff D: No, I didn't think I
would be doing what I'm doing now.
You know, it just, it just continues.
Life, life is fun and, you know,
might as well keep, keep on doing it.
So.
Zuryna: Well, now that I know you're
a Stevenson alum, what advice would
you give to a Stevenson who is just
getting started at, at su or Village?
Julie?
Yeah.
Jeff D: I would say
enjoy your college time.
And I, when we were going, we
were also the first ones in the,
in the dorms, in the apartment.
They had just built them.
Whoa.
So do you remember which
Zuryna: one you were in?
'cause I was an RA for,, Sushan.
No, Cromwell.
I was the RA for
Jeff D: Cromwell.
We were, we were,, I was at,, it
was, I think it was Tapco, which
overlooked like, oh, there too.
The bot.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, so I also, I started
out, as television production.
That was my degree, degree for, uh,
at Harris County Community College.
I then transferred to Stevenson
with focused on computer forensics
because I'm like, I don't think
I can do television production.
There's not enough jobs yeah.
Everybody has
Zuryna: that conversation.
Your parents are like, are you
really gonna make money with this?
Jeff D: Yeah.
So transferred did,
did, , computer forensics.
But what was interesting was I transferred
and , if you transferred, even though
like you transferred in as a junior,
you still have to live in the dorm.
They won't give you the apartment.
I know I
Zuryna: transferred from Old Dominion.
I was living with freshman.
Jeff D: Yeah, well we were living with
the freshman field hockey team at the top.
That's where we.
That, that was fun.
So, you know, but, , I would tell people
, make your connections around here.
Go to when Stevenson does the
speaker series and everything.
Yeah.
You know, stay in touch.
As I said when I was going, I was
a very much a computer school.
We all kind of worked, during college
but enjoy that, but also make some
of those connections because those
connections will be important.
Zuryna: Down the road.
Jeff D: You never know.
Like
Zuryna: right now I'm having a meet a
Mustang meetup with someone I even know.
And yes, I second that.
Please go to the events, especially
your RA events, because no one
would ever come to my events.
Everyone would just go
to class and drive home.
I would be sitting there with
my pizzas, waiting for everyone
to come and no one would come.
So, yes, take his advice.
Please go to your event.
Jeff D: Yeah.
Yep.
Zuryna: Oh my gosh.
Well this was so fun.
I really appreciate it and I
can't wait to come to Fels Point.
Fun festival this year.
I'll be a pseudo influencer
out there with my camera.
I'll bring my daughter.
It's just gonna be a blast.
I'm super excited.
How can everybody keep up with all
the things Fell Point Fun Festival?
Where can they follow?
Where can they buy tickets?
All the things.
Well, they can buy tickets.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
, Jeff D: you can buy beer tickets, right?
Yeah, you can.
Yeah, you can, , you can follow us
on Instagram, Facebook calls Point
Fest, , and then our website's,
calls Point Fest, dot com, check
it out, join our mailing list,
and, you know, feel free to hit,
hit us up when it comes time.
We'll, we'll throw you a VIP pass, so.
Zuryna: Yay.
Okay, perfect.
I'm super excited.
All right.
Well, thank you so much.