Jules Miller, founder of The Revelry Cooperative, an event management and consulting firm thrives on building teams. In this conversation we talk about what it takes to build a cohesive team, what it means to all-hands on deck, the attributes a planner or venue is looking for in suppliers so they can be added to the preferred list. We meander off for a bit and talk about the books and podcasts we are reading and how it influences our business.
Connect with Jules: Instagram | Website
Transcription:
Maya: Welcome to What You See, Is What You Get! My name is Maya Jain, and I am your host! I am the founder of Tyrian Purple Consulting, where we work with event service providers to grow their sales through meaningful connection and collaboration.
What You See, Is What You Get, is a series of conversations with extraordinary entrepreneurs, heart driven event pros, and sensational creatives, who I know, and have the pleasure and privilege of working with. These interviews revolve around the importance of connecting authentically and purposefully, and how it leads to personal growth and business success. My wish is that with access to these insights, you too will grow, learn, and benefit from creating meaningful connections and partnerships.
Welcome, everyone. How are you? This is another episode of what you see, is what you get – growth through meaningful connection and collaboration. Today, my guest is Jules Miller. She’s the founder of The Revelry Cooperative, an event management and consulting firms specializing in nontraditional events spaces in New York City, The Hudson Valley, and of course, beyond. Their mission is to create a complimentary but noncompeting portfolio of unique venues that offer incomparable service to their clients through their management partnerships, and this is why I want to talk to Jules. The fact that she brings together all these different spaces that can offer value to their clients. It’s all about partnership. It’s all about connecting. It’s all about building that network and learning and seeing how you can bring the best out in each other.
I’m super, super excited! Welcome Jules! Hi Jules!
Jules: Hi!
Maya: How are you?
Jules: I’m great. How are you?
Maya: I’m doing really well! I am so excited to talk to you today.
Jules: I’m very excited to talk to you, see your face.
Maya: I know! It hasn’t been that long though? For you, and for me, it hasn’t been that long yet. We’ve seen each other regularly, and we talk all the time. For the people that don’t know you, as much as I do, tell us more about you, what do you do? What’s your company called, and why are you here, or why do you have the company?
Maya: Okay. My name is Jules Miller, and my company is The Revelry Cooperative. We are a venue consulting and management firm, which was born out of what I think was a need. As been used for opening, particularly outside of the city by people who’ve worked – necessarily, event people but wanting to monetize their properties. I’ve been in the wedding industry for 13 years now.
Jules: For the first eight years, I was production manager at a venue in the city. I’ve also worked with planners. I worked with caterers, and then started my business a little over three years ago. It started as consulting, and then moved forward as the venues I was working with for opening that I stayed on to help manage them as well.
Maya: What’s the difference between the consulting side of the business and the management side of business?
Jules: The consulting is ideally happening before the venue is open, and while it’s still under construction, so we can go in and spec out dressing rooms, the electrical needs for the kitchen, what kind of lighting that you’re going to have in the venue.
I wouldn’t call myself a designer, but I certainly incorporate that input in terms of just having events, and what I think works best in terms of vendors coming in, allowing them a true blank canvas to do what they need to do, and facilitating that in a way, whether there are rigging points, loading, slop sink on the same floor as the venue is so, the forest don’t have to be running to the kitchen every time.
All of those sorts of things that can set you up to open and be at third base already in terms of just how easy it is to work in your space, as opposed to starting out and having to go through a lot of trial and error for the first two, three, five years at your venues and operation and say, “Oh, I wish I would have made the kitchen bigger. I wish I would have made the lobby smaller”, things like that, that you might not always know.
Maya: You’re looking at it not necessarily just from the guest experience standpoint, but you’re looking at it from the vendor experience, from the flow, from the actual operational side of things, when it comes to this consulting part. What is venue management part of your business look like?
Jules: That’s basically – it’s like property management for, like in real estate. It’s essentially like you have a venue, you have a property, you have an estate, you have a cool warehouse space, and you don’t want to touch. You don’t want to talk to a client. You don’t want to be there for an event. So basically, you collect your mail.
Maya: You just want to cash the check.
Jules: Exactly! Everything from the forest inquiry, comes straight to me. I do the tours, we do the walkthroughs with your vendors, all the email correspondence. Me or somebody from my team is onsite for the day of the event, the follow up, though, it literally is just you collect your money. You would deal with me only, so, if there’s a question, if there’s a special circumstance, you’re dealing with one person as opposed to dealing with a hundred couples or 50 couples.
Maya: How do you find venues? Do venues find you? Walk me through what that process looks like a little bit.
Jules: It has been, for the most part, it’s all been through word of mouth through other vendors. A lot of times when somebody is opening a new venue, they start to reach out to planners. A lot of planners we’re doing this consulting work for free, and I think a lot of times they were approached, and it was said, “Oh if you help us out, we’ll put you on a preferred list”, which doesn’t always work especially with the new venue, because it’s a new venue usually attracts a lower budget client to begin with, and sometimes they can’t.
But that was all been through word of mouth, except for one client found me on LinkedIn. But everything else has been through intros from obviously having worked in the industry for 13 years at a venue and you make a lot of connections.
Maya: You make a lot of connections, and that’s a great segue considering the episode is what you see, is what you get – growth through meaningful connection. I’d love to dive deeper into what does that look like for you? What does a connection look like for you? Is it I guess how important is connection and collaboration at the end for you?
Jules: It’s my favorite part of the job! And I think that we’re really fortunate that we work in an industry that’s full of fun, creative, interesting people. It doesn’t really feel like work, and it doesn’t feel like it’s intentional or that I’m trying to make a connection for something that might benefit me in the long run. It just really feels organic, and I think, and I’m sure you feel the same way.
I get a lot of people starting out in the industry, somebody is trying to expand their business here. I’ll never say no to an intro or to meeting somebody or even at The Bordone days before COVID when we could meet up for a coffee. I just feel like there’s enough work to go around for everybody, and you never – if I said no to meetings, I wouldn’t know you. I wouldn’t know half the people that I know. I think that’s when I think in the long-term goal of my business, this is the piece that I never want to step away from. I’m happy to step away from tours, and being onsite the day of the event, but this kind of thing is I think, is the biggest plus of the job.
Maya: I think of the industry, when you say. I think we’re all very collaborative, we’re all meshed. We all know each other and we’re very happy and very inclusive to have when new people, like you said, when somebody new comes along, it’s not mistrust. It’s a very – let’s see where you’re at and we’ll go from there, but let’s see where you’re at first impressions.
What would you say when you meet somebody new? And again, like you said, you take a lot of first calls and meetings, and things like that. When you meet someone new, what’s the first thing you want to know about them?
Jules: The first thing I want to know is how they came to work in events. A lot of times it’s because they plan their own wedding, and segued into planning events, and other times I feel like so many of us had totally different lives before we entered in the event life.
I know for me personally, when I found events, it was this AHA moment, that I can’t I believe I’d never thought of it earlier, because I think about all the parties that I would throw in college and eat when I was a kid. My brother had the risk board game, and I would be playing with it. I would pretend I was throwing a party and make it into a cooking situation. Ever since I was a kid, play, acting at throwing parties and it just never occurred to me to do it.
Maya: How did you fall into making a living through events?
Jules: I worked in retail and fashion, basically from the time I was in high school until 13 years ago or 15 years ago. And then I worked in music for a couple of years, doing background music for hotels. I left that job and a friend of mine at the time owns a venue and she was like, we need somebody part-time, you can just come and answer phones, and just help us out with this big mailer. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next. I was working there just a few days a week and then I didn’t even work any events, I think that first year.
It was just the owner, a full-time person, and me working part-time. Then the full-time person left, and I stepped into her role in back then.
Maya: And that was it.
Jules: That was it! I felt in love.
Maya: I just knew something new about you. Music for hotels, background music hotels? Was it like putting together a playlist or actual music?
Jules: It’s like doing the licensing and creating platelets. My friends owned the company and they both went to architecture school and they were both DJs. It was fancy, elevated views act. People would go to these hotels and we would sit around, and just monitor every zone had its own player. I was in the pool for three hours, and see this is when it gets busy, this is what it’s lively and we would schedule the playlist based on the site visits, but obviously the recession hits, and the first thing that goes is the fancy background music.
Maya: Of course, but that sounds really cool. So, what I heard you say, and I know it’s not as simple as that, you sat around a pool for three hours and you figured out when to go busy and not, and then you put a playlist together.
Jules: But the biggest challenge was, we were obviously a small operation, and in order to have access to any major label catalog, you had to pay a huge amount of money before you’d even have access to it, which we did not have that kind of money. This was like the age of Myspace. We had a few indie labels that we could work with, but then, they started being eaten up by larger labels. The source material got higher and higher. There was a lot of bad musical that I listened to.
Maya: Okay, I envy you for the three hours of pool. I do not envy you for that music part of it. No, I kind of just imagine you’re sitting there cringing, like this was awful!
Jules: Sitting around the pool I was working, so I was not lounging with a cocktail. I was in work attire, so it wasn’t…
Maya: You were the awkward person, like odd people going, why is she sitting over there like that?
Jules: I was dressed in black and Puerto Rico, I don’t…
Maya: I don’t think she lady, what is she doing? This is actually – I did not know this. This is why I like having these conversations. I always found that, like this one thing about somebody that I’m just like, wait, I’ve known you for this long. How did I not know that about you?
Creating atmosphere, creating ambience and I’m to segue a little bit using your music experience. Do you feel the same way about events, like this idea that there’s first impressions to everything? What’s a great first impression for an event? First, and then what’s – like your mind, like when you think of first impressions for an event. What comes to mind for you?
Jules: For me? Because I’ve worked on the venue side, it’s all I can think of. It’s making sure that everything is cleaned up and put away before guests start to arrive. Having worked as many weddings as I have, you can imagine that there are varying degrees of chaos leading up to that half an hour before the arrival time when you know people start to get there early.
It is just making sure that somebody’s walking into a set room, music is playing, somebody is waiting to give you a drink. Somebody is not sweeping in the corner.
Maya: There’s a rush – that rush in the air is gone.
Jules: There was one time, I’ll never forget working in a wedding, and the musicians wouldn’t play. They contracted us at X time. They didn’t contract them for welcome music, and guests were entering in a silent room and it gave me anxiety, because it just doesn’t feel welcoming at all when you’re walking, you just hear footsteps and echo, and pans clanking in the kitchen.
It just doesn’t feel like you’re coming somewhere special. It’s like to have – the lighting is right; the music is right. Everything! I do it at home, I’m sure you’re the same.
Maya: Yes, of course! It doesn’t matter if I’ll slouch on the couch, but it’s all ready to go!
Jules: You wouldn’t open the cabinet because everything’s going to fall out, same with event! It’s not really – it is just how you entertain in your home on a larger scale. I think that all of us that do this, love it, and that’s just how we live our lives.
Maya: Now I understand, I wouldn’t say that was ever your worst collaborative experience where the musicians won’t want to play, but what’s been your best collaborative experience.
Jules: I would say there was – at The Bordone, who was one of one of my consultant management clients we did. In our first season of very large, major production wedding with a wonderful couple, a planner who I love, Amanda Savory.
Maya: I love Amanda!
Jules: Little Sister Creative, did the flowers. It was just an amazing team! It was a ceremony setup that, I’d never seen before. They did an outdoor ceremony, and it was made to look like a living room. It was so incredible. We had to a loading in an overnight tent, and I ended up leaving the tent, while we thought we didn’t need the tent, but we did an overnight load in – it was literally 36 hours of continuous set up event right down. Everybody was working in shifts. We had somebody come in on the venue side, like I left at midnight and then we came in from midnight to five, and then I came back at 5:00 AM. But there was a moment where all of a sudden, all this rental furniture is outside, PATINA, upholstered, and all of them, then dark clouds.
We all look on dark skies and we’re like, it’s going to start raining in 10 minutes. You go out there – and it was like everybody’s team. It was Amanda’s team. It was Julie’s team. It was the lighting guys. It was like – nobody was doing anything else. We’re all out there covering the furniture, rolling up the rugs, tilting the chairs over, everything!
We make it through. We’re like, okay, no more rain. Five hours later, three hours later again, and this time it is a downpour. It is raining! Delights are coming down. Water is collecting in the plastic cup. We’ve thrown away all the garbage bags and we need more garbage bags to cover and stuff, but it ended up being perfect.
The sun came out at six o’clock guests came at six 30. There was a beautiful sunset. They never knew that we saved that furniture from being soaked, and it was just it, that could have gone with a different team of vendors, it could have been a disaster, and we made this really stressful situation. We made it through, nobody freaked out. It was – we laughed about it. Everybody approached it the right way, everyone pitched in, and it just…
Maya: Do you think it’s because? Just for background, you know Amanda really well, and the team over at Patina really well, do you think that’s what makes a difference?
Considering that all of these conversations revolve around connection and network, and what that means, do you think having – again, I’m not saying that you wouldn’t work that well with somebody you don’t know as well, but you think it adds that just having had worked with them before, you don’t need to be best friends with people, I’m just saying.
Do you think having that rapport and having that connection, knowing them a little bit more than just, Oh, these are people I work with and making that effort. Do you think that sort of plays into it?
Jules: Yes! Because I think you know that everybody is on the same team. I’ve certainly worked with other events where, I think sometimes vendors forget that we’re all on the same team here. Nobody’s trying to take something away from you. Nobody’s competing with you. We all have the same goal at the end of the day, and I think that when you’re working with vendors, you all know that you have the same philosophy about that, it definitely makes things easier.
Maya: Part of your what you do at the Revelry Cooperative is, like you said, venue management then consulting. In the part of the consulting, it’s also referring vendors, and creating a vendor list, and all the fun stuff that make you a proper venue. How do you pick vendors?
Jules: This is the hardest part because having done this for so long, and having so many friends in the industry, I don’t want to have a 50-page vendor. I love having the opportunity now to have a few different venues where I can diversify the lists, and that I really try to take into account – like in every category, I try to do, like who does really great vegetarian food, who’s does great cross-cultural weddings, who is on a lower end – still doesn’t really a great event but has amazing staff, and then the higher end. Because we have to take into account so many different budgets, especially when they’re coming without a planner, they’re really clueless, so we’re trying to guide them into the right direction. Being able to have a cross section amongst the venues, and it doesn’t mean that I only recommend people that are on the list, but it has been helpful to be able to start because – I try to think about the style of the venue, who the client is that’s booking there and try to put the vendors on there that make the most sense for them.
Maya: When you’re vetting vendors. What are the things that you look for? Again, a lot of what we do and from the story you just told, it is a lot of fun, right?
What we do as event people is super, fun, but it’s also very, stressful. Things change one second to the next, and there’s very high expectations especially for social celebrations. Clients are – their heart and their soul, and it’s emotional and it’s all those things. I’m not saying that corporate nonprofit isn’t, but it’s a different type of involvement,
It’s a different level of energy, and it’s a different sort of intensity if you would because for a corporate nonprofit, they know what they want, they laid out for you and you call it a day kind of thing. You hit those things that they’re looking for, but with, social…
When you’re vetting somebody, what do you take into account? Is there – maybe a better way to ask this is, what’s something when somebody shows up whatever category you wish and you’re like, hell no.
Jules: I think you can immediately tell when somebody’s showing up, if they are used to working in a raw space doing off premise work. I probably have, and mostly a caterer that comes in. Somebody wants a restaurant caterer, or somebody who wants – sometimes I think I don’t know how to describe it.
There’s just a vibe you get. Because if you and I show up at a walk through together, we speak the same language. Sometimes the vendors don’t speak the same language, and that always is a little bit of a red flag to me. That’s in the initial meeting, and then in terms of response, I typically, when I meet somebody new and they asked to get on the preferred list, I say I can’t, I don’t do it until I’ve worked with somebody. Especially from a catering or planning standpoint, just because at a raw space, those are the most important vendors that you’re going to work with.
I think especially caters, sometimes if they’re not used to doing that, they don’t realize that they have to do all the setup of the tables and chairs. They have to break down, they have to clean up, they’re the last ones out, leaving the space broom cleaned, and when they don’t understand that I get nervous because to me that seems like pretty standard. And that’s always for me.
Maya: It comes from experience knowing, of course. You know what you’re looking for considering and what your clients at the end of the day are looking for as well. It’s not the couple of clients, but the venue clients, you don’t want to, as somebody once said, it’s when you used to be able to borrow VHS tapes, it said please be kind, rewind. Leave the space cleaned, and if that’s not part of what you do, then I can see why that would make you nervous. What are you thinking about these days?
Jules: So many things! I’m thinking about if we’re going to have a normal wedding season this year.
I just had my first fall 2021 moved to fall 2022. They’re in the restaurant business too, so, I feel like for them, it’s just a one less stressor for the year. It’s stressful for them too. But I think it, because it’s not as busy as it normally is at this time of year, I’m really trying to focus on learning more about how to be a businessperson, because I just started this because I felt like there was a need.
Based on my experience, I’ve worked, and I’m trying to spend more time every day, reading, listening to podcasts, things like that, and trying to really envision where I want this to be three years from now and five years from now, which is something that previous to COVID times, I was just busy all the time keeping up with the needs of the venues, and it wasn’t really focusing on the Revelry Cooperative and expanding it. I felt, I was just letting everything come to me, like work so far, but really to make more of a presence because I think so many people, I meet they’re like, “we wish we knew about you before”, and just have to figure out how to nurture this business and not just nurturing my venues.
Maya: Without your nurture, they’re not being nurtured. What podcasts are you listening to right now?
Jules: I’m just listening to a lot of How I Built This.
Maya: Ah! That is a very good one.
Jules: Any recommendations that you have? I will gladly take.
Maya: Oh! Right now, I’m on lots of Self-Improvement with Andrea Freeman, right?
Basically, any podcast she’s going on right now, I’m listening because I think, one, she’s amazing, but she also – the one that I’m loving right now is Thom Knoles, The Vedic (World View), or I can’t remember right now, I just blanked on it, but it’s a really good one. It’s basically about spiritualism, meditation, what role meditation plays, and it’s very helpful. It’s a different perspective on the world, in the light on life, how to ebbs and flows – it’s been fascinating, again it’s not always the lightest material to listen to, and they’re long. They’re heavy sometimes but it’s the kind of podcast that you start listening to, you understand the rhythm of it and you start grasping the material it’s, been fascinating.
Not necessarily my style – my podcasts tend to be more business centric, The Murray for Lowe’s, and the Amy Porterfield and lots of business marketing-based stuff. Again, COVID gives you time and energy to -you’re not running from pillar to post. So, there is a little bit more time in the day to process some of this more internal enlightenment stuff.
Jules: However, I did! I was emailing with a colleague the other day and I was like; I can only do so much self-reflection I’m ready to use as much as I can, but I have to tell you too. I still do the 21 days of abundance meditations every morning.
Maya: Oh my God! Seriously, still?
Jules: I’ve done it every single day since we started.
Maya: For those that know Jules and I were in a meditation group. It’s Deepak Chopra Group, 21 days. There are exercises that they basically gave me, and you listen to meditation, and then you basically do a journaling exercise, that the short version of it. So, you cycle through all the 21 days?
Jules: Yeah.
Maya: Oh my God! I don’t have any idea. You should’ve told me I would have stuck with you.
Jules: Oh! You can just jump right back in. I’m starting I’m on day 12 tomorrow.
Maya: Day 12? Okay. So, we’ll start back up again, text me.
Jules: Again, I’m not doing the exercises. I just do the…
Maya: Just the meditations? I think the exercise – I think with all of these types of things, right? You do it, they come to you, these things come into your life when you need them. Then you do the exercises as you need them. There’s something to be said for overdoing. The other thing that I’m really enjoying right now is actually the five-minute journal. Again, it’s something I learned from Andrea Freeman, who is a mindfulness and business coach.
She’s a business coach that integrates mindfulness into her practice. The five-minute journaling because I’m not very good at journaling. It’s a habit I’d be trying to build, then I do it and then I don’t do it, but it’s two minutes of the things you are grateful for, two minutes of things that are good about you, and then you spend a minute about thinking about three things that you want to do for yourself, just for the pure joy of them now, because they’re going to do something for you or it’s on your to-do list, just three things purely for your joy. Something as simple as, I don’t know, if you drink coffee in the morning, taking the time to actually sit down, drink the coffee with the intention of smelling it, feeling it and letting it just take over your senses. It’s actually amazing how hard it is to start thinking about it.
When you start doing that, when you’re two minutes of writing down what I’m grateful for, it gets easier, and I love it. It’s a really great way to start the day. I’m at that point where I should go back to writing and back down again, but the first thing in the morning, I’m like, what are the three things I’m going to do that just bring me joy. It’s like a muscle now and the days I don’t do it, I can tell that I didn’t do it.
Jules: I have a – Arielle sent me the bullet journal method book. I’m working my way through that so I can start doing that because that’s also something I…
Maya: Have you actually read Hal Elrod, S. A. V. E. R. S? The S. A. V. E. R. S method, it’s the, I’m so terrible today without all my books are failing me. Oh, gosh, what is it? Hal Elrod, The Morning Method? Great! Let me look this up for you. Miracle Morning, thank you, that’s what it was. Hal Elrod’s The Miracle Morning, it has ways to do all of this stuff before your eight o’clock in the morning.
S is for silence, which is meditation, A is for, I think visualization, the V is for visualization, E is for exercise, R is for reflection and A, I forgot what it was for, but I think it’s writing, it’s the journaling. It runs you through this little program. It’s actually really good.
But coming back to what we were talking about. See, this is why I love Jules, conversations need to go. What excites you most when you’re collaborating with somebody or being creative?
Jules: I am definitely more of an operations person than a creative person, so I love, and everybody thinks I’m crazy, and I just had one this morning.
I love a bullet point, a 20-question email about logistics of a wedding. One of the venue owners I work with, she was like, this is a red flag. And I said, no, they’re doing the right thing. I’d rather have them ask now, and I live for these emails. A thorough email and then knowing to anticipate what their follow up question might be, based on your answer? I just answered it right away for them. It’s my favorite thing of all.
If I started another business, it’s going to be an email writing business, and teaching people. That’s my favorite thing, and I feel, I know we talk about this all the time. I don’t consider myself a salesperson, but I think that my strength in meeting with clients is that I’m – I don’t just – I think sometimes I find you – say this is the venue, bye! See you later. I really hold people’s hands and try to navigate them, so there aren’t surprises down the line.
Maya: I was going to ask you, what is it about your clients that you appreciate the most? Now I know, it’s a lot of questions and nicely laid out.
Jules: You don’t want to leave that stuff until the weekend of the wedding, and then you realize, “Oh, I can’t just bring on a cooler of wine for the after party, and I have to buy it through you. I wish I knew that first”. I just really try to, it goes back also to, before I did music, I worked in retail and I worked at like Neiman’s, Nordstrom, Bergdorf, Goodman, where high-end customer service is drilled into you.
I want to bring that to my venue management that as my team grows, I want to make sure that everybody’s giving a top-level service, because at the end of the day, we’re in the service industry. It doesn’t matter if you’re the most high-end designer or the fanciest venue, at the end of the day, we will have to make our clients happy. It doesn’t matter how booked you are, how, whatever; if you’re not treating people, it doesn’t really matter. And particularly with Roth basis, I think people tend to think.
Maya: For people that don’t know venue, and then don’t speak event, or don’t know, what is the difference between a venue and a raw space.
Jules: There are more, I guess you would call it, a catering hall or an event space that has everything that’s all inclusive. You have your tables, chairs, you have the food and beverages onsite. You basically have a few hours to set up at the florist just brings in their ready-made arrangements, and everything’s done in house for you. The venues that I work with, I like the style of it because every single one of them is different. You’re never going to see the same event twice at any venue that I work with because everything is brought in whether it’s catering, furniture, rentals different tents, everything. Everything is, unique. It’s obviously can be more work for the couple if they’re starting out on their own, but I think for the couples that I enjoy working with, they’re already more creative and design focused. It’s a big plus for them.
Maya: So you can actually create what their vision is, rather than trying to Jerry rig it into something existing. What kind of spaces are you like looking at right now? And I know you’re doing a lot of work in the Hudson Valley. What kind of spaces are in the portfolio right now? First of all, there’s a ton, I know. I’m not going to ask you for a rundown of them. Like right now, when you were looking for a space, what are you looking for?
Jules: I am looking for – what I don’t have right now in the portfolio is like a beautiful, like a state, which I would love to have. I want to create a group of venues that if Woodhouse Lodge isn’t the right fit for you, maybe for Linda’s. They’re complimentary but noncompeting. I don’t want 15 barns of 15 spaces, but I want the coolest. I want the Bordone that has a 5,000 square foot terrace that overlooks Manhattan. I gravitate towards it and seem to find my way working for a lot of women who own their own spaces, and are developing their own properties that are artists, designers that fit is already there.
But I do love, Foreland is my big project right now that’s opening in June, and that’s like an old civil war era factory that’s being renovated and, it’s going to be incredible. It’s going to be not just an event space, there’ll be a restaurant, artist’s studios, gallery space. I don’t want it to be this like wedding factory. A beautiful estate, like a stone house or something like that. Would be any of those like converted warehouse spaces that I really love.
Maya: What’s the furthest up in the Hudson Valley that you’ve, or do you just go up and down Hudson Valley or just New York Metro, what’s, where are you looking? How far do you travel? How does that work?
Jules: Well, it seems to be the sweet spot is within two and a half hours of the city that people tend to look for. Right now, every place that I work with is basically near Hudson, it works out really great. I don’t have anything in the Western Catskills at this point. Not that won’t happen, but everything is within an hour of each other, which makes my life easier at this point. But I’m going to see a place next week that is, I think another hour North of them.
Maya: It’s a beautiful part of the world. You are by far, when for anybody that’s not familiar with the area, most of the time you’re driving along the river, you have views of the Hudson river. It’s beautiful, it’s green, it’s sprawling, it’s just stunning anytime of the year. Maybe now, it’s a little bare, but most of the time it’s sunny and there’s, actually it’s further up North, there’s probably still snow.
Jules: Saturday morning, I was up on Saturday, and I only had one tour. The owner of Woodhouse Lodge and I went and had lunch, and we hung out the lodge and as I left, it was snowing, and they had the string lights up over the Tavern patio. It was so magical!
Maya: Magical fairy tale?
Jules: Yes!
Maya: We all know you love venues; we all know you love about events. If it’s not obvious from this conversation that people weren’t listening, but what’s an activity that people may not know about you. What’s you’re one little hidden thing?
Jules: Okay. Didn’t think I feel like I’m so loud about everything.
Maya: You are not loud. You’re gregarious! Non-work interests.
Jules: I do a lot of cooking and baking. I really love baking.
Maya: Oh! Yes, that is true! I have had the pleasure of one of your pies. Oh! so good.
Jules: I would love to do more of that. I usually spend one day a week just trying something new, making something new, and it wasn’t playing around with cookie recipes.
Maya: Is there going to be a, “The Revelry Co-op Cookie Company” coming up?
Jules: Maybe?
Maya: You’re working on it? I know you! You can’t not work on it.
Jules: Yeah. I pictured myself someday with a seaside, like Hamptons Bakery or something,
Maya: Cake! And they get bought out and make your millions, and then have your own venue. You buy your own little stone houses in an estate, then it’ll be yours. If this conversation were a conversation, an opportunity to have a newcomer learn something from you, what would you – one piece of advice?
Jules: I would say, when you’re first starting out, you don’t really have like a – I’m trying to think of which direction I want to go, and part of me wants to say, “say no to more things”, but I think going back to what we said initially, just meet everybody that you can. Never turn down an intro. If I meet somebody new and they’re new to the industry, I’ll always check with vendors first, be like, “Hey, is it okay if I make this intro?”
Just because I know we can get overwhelmed with those, but I think we all can spare 10 minutes for somebody new. You don’t know what will come of it, maybe you just never know. And I just think being open to, just no matter if they’re 22 years old and just out of college, and want to start an event planning company, or if they are 60, I decided change directions or what.
Maya: What’s the most surprising introduction you’ve ever received? The one where you were like, “Oh, I don’t know what’s going on here”, and then it turned out to be like one of the best things that ever happened?
Jules: Meeting you!
Maya: Awwwww.
Jules: What, how did we meet?
Maya: I’m trying to think. It’s Parris’s fault.
Jules: Everybody that he introduces me to. That’s what I say, Parris introduces me to the best people!
Maya: Yes, he does! He knows so many people. It is shocking how many people he knows.
Jules: It’s is interesting. I’ve never regretted taking him up on it.
Maya: I’m really glad Parris (Whittingham) has agreed to have a chat with me too. Everybody’s going to meet Paris now! Before we wrap up really quick, where can people find you if they’re looking for you?
Jules: My website is therevelrycooperative.com, and the Instagram is @the_revelry_cooperative.
Maya: I’m glad I spelled that all correct at the bottom of the screen right there. You’re right! It does not roll off the tongue.
Jules: But I love your name, your company name. I was like, I love it too, but I hate saying it and everybody saying it.
Maya: Sounds for a rebrand Jules.
Jules: Guess it makes so much sense for what I do. It took so long to come up with it in the first place.
Maya: It’s fine. I’m just joking with you. I appreciate you chatting with me today. Super, super fun. I can’t wait to see you soon!
Jules: I can wait to see you too!
Maya: I’ll talk to you soon.
Jules: All right.
Maya: Bye!