Jes Gordon is the CEO and Creative Director for her design firm jesGordon/properFUN, and the author of Party on the Moon and Party Like a Rock Star: A Celebrity Planner’s Tips and Tricks for Throwing an Unforgettable Bash.
She has been in the event game for over thirty years now, yet she remains youthful and consistently setting the trends. Incredibly humble about her achievements during this conversation we talk about the personal cost and toll it takes to be great, being open to new ideas and evolution, the impact of the COVID19 pandemic and what connection means to her, both internal and external.
Connect with Jes: Instagram | Website
Transcription
Maya: Hi, welcome to What You See Is What You Get – growth through meaningful collaboration and connection. I’m super, super excited about my guests today. It is Jes Gordon.
Jes is a phenomenal human being and a rock star, and just one of the most humble people I have met and she is known for Jes Gordon/properFUN. It is event design and management company that has a ton of style. Jess has a very long career and I will let you look her up and Google her and see all the beautiful work she’s done.
The reason for inviting Jes today is. I think she’s one of the most authentic people. She calls it like it is. With her, you truly get what she says you’re going to get. But on the other hand, she has a side to her that is phenomenal. It is warm. It is giving. It is so not necessarily the persona that people think she is.
Oh, I can’t wait to get started. Hi, hi Jes.
Jes Gordon: Hi.
Maya: How are you today?
Jes Gordon; I’m good. It’s getting cold.
Maya: I know, but when it gets colder, it also means it’s going to get warmer. So, I look forward to that little bit bright side on the other side. Thank you for coming on today and making the time. These days we have nothing but time. So, I still do appreciate you making the time.
So, for those people listening in, watching, who don’t know. Who is Jes Gordon?
Jes Gordon: Oh, man, you have six hours. Professionally – Yeah, I guess professionally, you would call me an event producer, kind of an overall creative. Most recently, I became an author. I’ve been in business for about 36 years, so that’s a long time. And we do basically, all different types of projects, not just social events, not just corporate events, but set design, creative consultancy for restaurants and homes, and basically helping people find their creative vision and also making that vision come to real life with logistics and production.
Maya: That’s fantastic. So that’s what you do now, but how do you make your first dollar? I’m curious about your origin story. What was J Gordon’s first dollar that you put on the wall?
Jes Gordon: So, the first dollar that I put on the wall was, my mom sent me, as a very young girl because I was a hyper, like pain in the ass. And she sent me to go work in her best friend’s flower shop, and I was 12 and a half at the time. And I was a really great athlete and I did a lot of really cool things, but that afterschool period, I needed to do something. So, I went to go work for this woman named Linda. And I wasn’t allowed to touch the flowers because I was too young.
But as I grew older, I, I swept up the shop and I wrote tickets and things like that. And finally, she let me put my hands on the flowers and I was like a bit of a prodigy. And she was just like, wow. I guess I had just watched these designers do this for so long. I became the designer in her shop by the time I was 16, 17. And I started getting my own clients and that was how I first started making my first money own.
Maya: Talk about starting early and just jumping right in. That’s, that’s amazing. Subsequent to that sort of prodigy moment, what would you say had gotten you to where you are now?
I know that sort of, with the situation where we’re now. you’ve had, there’s been various versions of Jes Gordon. So, I’d love to get to, people to know, how did you go from child-floral prodigy, and I’m just gonna call you that, that’s going to be like my nickname for you.
How did you get to today and what are you working on right now?
Jes Gordon: I believe that everybody’s careers should imitate, like in a stove range, meaning that, all of your pilot lights should be on, all the time. And some of them will burn a little bit brighter than others. So, it’s almost like a rhythm that you get, like with your career.
And for me, I would be bored if I just did one thing. So, I was always very open to all these tentacles that grew out of what I did, including television, and mentoring, and teaching, and, things like that.
So, throughout my career, it wasn’t just floral, it just became like a creative journey. And people would contact me and be like, Hey, do you want to be a design expert on a show? Or do you want to teach kids at the school of Visual Arts or, things like that. And I would often say, yes. And I think that’s a very important word to say, particularly right now, because right now I think a lot of us are doing things we never thought we’d be doing, including me. So even though I still very much have my company, which is on pause at the moment, as events are on pause. We’re planning for the future, but at the same time, I decided that I wanted to lay down some roots and go back to that old school florist mentality, where I was really happy as a young kid.
And I’m opening up a shop in upstate New York in August. And it’s not going to be a traditional floral shop. It’s going to be more like the Ikea of florals where, things are pre-made, and beautiful, and simple, and people literally just walk in and grab flowers. That would be one element to it, and then the other element is of course, weddings, and parties, and things like that. But we’re not doing deliveries, we’re not doing trips to the hospital or anything like that.
Maya: Fair enough. I like that, the Ikea of floral. I have a feeling you’re going to be like, the very fancy Ikea. I,-
Jes Gordon: But I need to dumb it down a little cause where this is opening is not priced like New York City is, or London, or any of the other places that I have worked. So, that’s going to be a real challenge in creating beautiful high concept, high quality things for a price that people will understand in this area.
Maya: I think people value design, and art, and beauty in a way that- I think if you’re naturally human, the human instinct is to be drawn into sort of something beautiful. And then price becomes, -you can get, you get what you pay for.
Jes Gordon: Yeah.
Maya: But what I’m hearing is, this new initiative is called Grow Then Gather, or is it something else?
Jes Gordon: Yeah, it’s called Grow Then Gather.
So, it’s initially the shop, but it’s also, event production and interior design, all this kind of stuff, that’s up here. It’s going to all fall underneath that umbrella. And, I wanted to create something that didn’t really have my name on it. Because my whole life, I have been, and I don’t mean this in a negative way, but I’ve been stuck with my business, my entire life, because my name is on the door.
And back in the day, in the eighties and the nineties, that is what you did. You put your name on the door, it was like your firm, but there’s consequences to be had with that. In this particular case, there, there can be somebody that I hire to look after the shop and it doesn’t have to be me all the time.
And I wanted to be able to give myself a little freedom to live my life and create more of a brand rather than more of a Jes Gordon brand.
Maya: When you’re thinking of creating a brand, now for, and by the way, the Jes Gordon brand is, it’s massive. People come to you, and you’ve had some amazing celebrities, and you do so many amazing things.
Do you think that this is also a chance for you to create a sense of community that is bigger than yourself? To create connection that’s bigger than yourself? Is that sort of, because What You See Is What You Get-Growth Through Connection, leading us towards that, where does connection lies for you when it comes to this? Is this sort of your, because obviously, when you create beautiful moments for people, you create environments in which people can connect. So, is this sort of the next, connecting? Way for you to connect with your community or get the community to connect with each other?
Jes Gordon: Yeah. I mean, it’s going to be, it’s a real learning curve for me.
Number one, I’ve never done retail before. Number two, I need that internal connection to even make it become external. Because if I’m not into it, I can’t pay attention to it. I’m very ADD that way. I can hyper focus on something that I’m absolutely passionate about, but if I hate it, I walk away from it.
So there’s two levels of connection, I think that it needs to happen. It needs to happen internally, and I want to be able to bring that same passion to this and that same, schwab, the vibra to whatever I’m trying to attempt. And then, when it’s out there in the public, I think the most important thing is even with events, you want to provide something that’s digestible through all the five senses, through every demographic.
It can’t be exclusive just to okay, maybe there’s five people in the room that really appreciate a certain aesthetic, when there’s really a hundred people in the room. So it is a way for me to connect with a larger pool of people, rather than that exclusive client set that I have been focusing on for many years.
I want to sell flowers to the garbage man that comes and gets his wife flowers on the way home. I want to become a little bit more connected to the general public. Because I feel like what’s happening in the world today, particularly even with politics and believe me, I won’t really go there, there’s been a missing link between different compartments of the public. And we’re all going off into these tangents and into these very exclusive little pods that aren’t agreeing with each other, and that they’re not harmonizing.
So, luckily like what I do through beauty and through celebration, most of the time people want to harmonize through that. And I want to spread that out so more people can do so. It can’t just be people that have millions of dollars or, know the finest venues, or the finest wines, everybody deserves the right to celebrate. No, no kind of demographic profiling or anything. Everybody equally deserves to celebrate.
Maya: That’s- that is amazing. I have, maybe, I have to say the thing that connected with me right now is what you said, it, the connection has to be internal.
Jes Gordon: Yeah.
Maya: Before you ever connect with anything outside of what you’re doing, it has to be on the inside. And I think that’s very important. I think people forget that it’s not, in you, somehow, that it doesn’t matter how hard you work at it, it doesn’t matter how early you wake up. If you’re just not, if you’re not feeling it, you’re like whatever, it shows. And I think that people forget that, even when they’re walking into a room.
If I want to have a conversation with you, if I’m Oh, hi, Jes. And not, in it with you, you’re going to be like, I don’t understand why I’m having this conversation, let’s just, it’s like, you can feel it. I think there’s a very- when somebody cares about what they do, it just comes so much from the inside.
Speaking of people being _ in this sort of like, this impression that people have, that only certain types of people should have certain style in events, or certain size of events, or spend a certain money on the kind of event.
Two words, that you would describe, how do I say this? Two words you would like people to describe you. When somebody thinks Jes Gordon, what are the words you would like them to think of, for you?
Jes Gordon: Authentic, and eclectic.
Maya: Ooh, those are two very good words.
Jes Gordon: Yeah. College graduate.
Maya: Very well done.
Coming, with keeping on the theme of sort of first impressions, do you think, and being in the sort of event slash design, floral design industry, do you think there are stereotypes that people put towards? Because one of the things that for me when I’m doing this series, What You See Is What You Get is, it’s not always true what you see, is what you get.
We’re, we’re bigger than, people are so much more than what they want you to see in this day and age of social media or what, based on their gender, their age. What they, what their bio says. But I think that also applies to industries, like somebody says finance, you automatically think of a certain type of person or a certain type,-
Hi, Supreme. That Supreme would be Jes’ as very lovely puppy, in case you didn’t know.
Do you think there’s a stereotype that people think of when they think of the events industry? Again, it doesn’t have to be good or bad, but, is there, do you think our industry is pigeonholed? For lack of a better word?
Jes Gordon: Gosh it’s very sad to say this, but yes.
It never was back in the day, going back to, when you put your name on the door. It’s such your personal firm, that you’re proud to put your name on the door, and you can be an individual, and people are coming to you, because you’re you.
Now, I am noticing that there is a lot of pressure for a lot of us to maintain the external vision that we live like our clients do, which is very not true. This luxury kind of ambience where everybody has the best of everything, and they’re traveling, and they’re staying in a hundred star hotels, and only doing the best. There has become a little bit of an elite ism that I think has overshadowed the most important part of what we do.
We are a service industry and we are so lucky to be creative, to be in an industry at all. How blessed are we to be able to be creative and make money at what we creatively do? And I think that got lost somewhere, where we became rock stars and we’ve been on television, and it’s falsely elevated, and diminish the fact that we are service industry, period.
We might be performing a really special task and that is very true. But now, even with social media, and the infiltration, and the over-saturation of people that have come in that have just claimed that they can do what they can do, it’s hard. In my world, you would never claim to do what you can’t do. Because you get caught pretty fast.
Maya: Yeah.
Jes Gordon: But yeah, things have definitely changed. Not really for the worst, but definitely not for the better.
Maya: If you had to say, the one thing that you’re like, Oh, I wish people would just stop doing this, or you personally have chosen to stop doing the one thing. Like now, in the last year, this past year has been, an opportunity to reflect and look back.
It’s if you had to say, I’m not going to do one thing or I’m stopped doing one thing, or I wish people would stop doing whatever. What would that one thing be? What do you think?
Jes Gordon: I think the false bragging is very tough. I think, when the pandemic first started, I would speak to some of my associates and they would be like, Oh my gosh, this hasn’t even affected me. I’m so booked, I don’t even know what to do.
And in my mind, I’m like, if I’m not booked and I’ve been in business for 35 plus years, there’s no way you are. Or if you are, your book was something that you’re not getting paid for, or maybe that you’re choosing to do. I think the falsifications need to stop, the exasperations need to stop. I think the need to be _ on Instagram is tough.
There are certain members of my associates that are really showing very lavish things right now, that I find a little bit untimely. So I think the need, I think what I’d like to stop is the non-authenticity, because I feel like the pandemic is going to weed out people that are not being truly authentic. I don’t think they’ll prevail. I think the insecurities, and the need to keep up, and the need for speed. It just, it only hurts you.
Maya: Yeah, I think this past year has been a real lesson in what a speed bump can look like and not taking advantage of that speed bumps seems silly.
Jes Gordon: Yeah.
Maya: It’s your chance. It’s a chance to reset. And I think anybody who’s being delusional, sorry, about the fact that it’s just going to go back to being the way it was or that attitudes were changed, seems, yeah, again, silly. Silly is the word that comes up for me, when you described those things.
Idea is for people to get to know you a little bit better, aside from your social media profile, and aside from your bio, and the wonderful work that you do. Most of us have some sort of metaphorical mountain that we’ve had in our lives. What is the one mountain you’ve climbed, that in an interpersonal sense, but it comes to other people, when it comes to connecting with other people, what would be the one mountain climb?
Jes Gordon: I think it’s, it’s one really tall mountain and it’s ever going, it’s really the need for people to define my personality is annoying to me. Because I think, I’m a culmination of different personalities. Again, when this business first started, it was about your connection to people. And, it didn’t necessarily mean that’s who I was when I went home. I used to call myself the most amazing extroverted introvert ever, and I still feel that way.
I think that there’s a misconception even, and I hate to pull this card, but when a woman is somewhat powerful in, in her kind of mode of creativity or mode of business. It can almost be very confusing, because I’m so approachable, and so adaptable, and so kind really, that sometimes it doesn’t match up with my supposed accomplishments.
What’s not understood is that those accomplishments have chipped away at my very being, in a lot of ways. I do not have children, I have not had successful relationships. I have given up some of that interpersonal items that take a lot out of somebody, in order to be able to keep up my level of commitment for everybody else.
I think what’s happening to me right now is I’m taking a step back, and I’m quietly creating a situation for myself where maybe I can have it all. And that’s the first time in my life that I’m like, Holy shit, Jes, like you might give yourself the best gift you have ever given yourself or could ever give yourself.
And for that, I almost thank the pandemic because I was flying very fast on a highway that had no exits. I can tell you that. And, this made me exit and get off at a rest stop and take a look at the other highways I could potentially go on.
Maya: That is a phenomenal metaphor, I have to say, to describe what, I think, it’s specific to the events industry, I think we’re all on that. Just like fast, we don’t stop.
We’re the only industry where, not anymore, but we all can tell each other what we’re doing on Saturday at four o’clock, 2022, April, pick a date. We have things on the calendar so far out that we’re sometimes missing out on that moment, missing out on family moments, missing out on- even taking a moment to see the beauty you’ve created, because you’ve deliver for the client.
Your wedding is on, Oh, hi, nice to meet you. Oh, do you love your ballroom? Great. And you’re already like, okay, we’re going to do breakdown and onto whatever else it is. And I think that’s, it is a-, while we’re in the business of helping people connect and create memories. We’re not connected to that actual experience that we’re saying we can create for them.
Jes, tell me if you have to, I’m going to go back to something you said before, you’re the most extroverted introvert. And I think that’s the case for a lot of people because as creatives naturally, if you’re creative and I might be stereotyping a little bit, so I apologize and I’m happy to have people tell me that I’m wrong, who need some internal time, some me time, to be able to take all the things you see in the world, all your inspirations and process them.
So I think, by nature, and creatives tend to be more on the introverted side, I think there’s a scale of a spectrum for everything, but if you had to give a piece of advice to somebody that’s coming into the industry, or even generally, and they’re like, I’m not really good at this networking thing, but I need to run a business. I need to be out there, whatever that means. What’s a piece of advice you would give somebody that was a self-proclaimed introvert that has to learn to be an extrovert.
I had to learn, I- my, my life is a sales person. Life is very hard to be selling things, if you’re not, ready to go, and everybody makes the assumption that you are just this super sunshine person. You’re like, no, you don’t realize sunshine takes a breath before it walks into the room.
A piece of advice would you give to somebody that wants to emulate being this person that’s out there, and is recognized, and has press and media, but they consider themselves an introvert?
Jes Gordon: I think there’s a couple of different ways to go about that.
Number one is, surround yourself with a team that will do that for you, which some people do, which is a little unrealistic at the moment since everybody in the world is furloughed. But the other way, is to authentically go into groups of people that you relate to.
For me, I’m really into fitness. I love getting to know all these different people outside of my usual demographic, through fitness. So that was a big part of my socializing. And, I would quietly get to know like, girls in my classes that were getting married, or work for Chanel and needed event producers. I think that there’s a way to go from the inside out, which is really more authentic anyway, rather than getting out there and splashing yourself up on a banner or something like that, or in social media even, is to multi-facet yourself and little- and show the other parts of you, that you have interest in.
Even dog meetups, or if somebody is really into needle pointing, or book clubs, or anything like that. I think kind of circumvent the matter at hand, and go through a different entrance if you can, and expose yourself to different demographics all over.
That’s the other thing that bothers me about the industry right now, is we’re so insular. There’s a big world out there. And I think what’s happened is, with all the symposiums and everything, which are wonderful, as we know. We are putting ourselves, we’re pigeonholing ourselves. We are actually connected to many other industries that we should be speaking with or co-joining with, architecture, art, music, everything.
So, I tend to try to be like, okay, if you’re an introvert, at least go grab joy in the areas that are of interest to you, and try to connect with people that you really admire in other areas, and draw them into your world.
Maya: So, speaking of drawing people into your world, what kinds of people excite you the most? Like when it comes to collaborating and being creative?
We- on one hand, not to be insular, but like we’re all naturally drawn to a type of person that we are like, Oh my God, I love – doesn’t have to be a specific person, but like a personality where you’re like, I love that type of person because they let me do whatever.
It could be a client, it could be, somebody that you work with, but what type of person, like really gets you going where you’re like, Holy shit, this person is fantastic, I cannot wait to see them again. I can’t wait to work with them.
Jes Gordon: Honestly, less is more.
If a client comes in and they’re just like, listen we trust that this is what you do just like I would call a lawyer and be like, here’s my money, do what you need to do. This was something that occurred a lot more in the past and it does now. There’s a lot more micromanaging now.
I have very current clients that almost everything I have ever done, they have absolutely loved on the very first round because, I think it’s very important to get to know who you’re dealing with. And, in order to become inspired by someone or something, you need to take the time to get to know it. And that’s the difference between a business and a lifestyle. And that is where this becomes a very intricate, a recipe as life.
So for me, I’m trying to mix the both, but if I am not interested in the person that I’m working with or collaborating with, I will most likely shut down. And that’s when it becomes a business transaction and that person doesn’t really need me. They could have somebody from my team or something like that.
So, I think really just going on your intuition. And, I think just being really honest with yourself, does this excite you or not?
Maya: Yeah, for sure. And keeping that in mind, right? Of course, we all have teams. It’s when we’re collaborating, you work with team members, you have people in your surrounding area that excite you.
But while you may have an exciting relationship, and you’re really into what you’re doing with them, they’re the perfect match for you. What part of that type of a relationship requires courage?
Jes Gordon: I think all of it does, because in order to really connect with somebody, you need to be vulnerable and you need to be honest.
So that means like often if you’re in a project, you might get so excited about something and that client, or that person might have so much belief in you, that they think you can do anything, whereas you might not be able to. And I think that you need to be open to being ready to admit that.
So we’ve had clients that have been repeat clients for a hundred years, and once in a while, they’ll come to us and be like, this time we want something like this, and I actually have to say, you know what, I’m not great at that. I can certainly give you my input and I can find the right person to do it. But it takes a lot of courage to be like, I would love to have your consistent business and I would love to have you think that I’m super woman. I’m only going to hurt you and hurt myself if I’m not real, if I’m not honest about it, about my strengths and my weaknesses.
Maya: That is actually fantastic piece of advice, just knowing what your limits are and being honest about it.
I think a lot of us are just so used to being people pleasers in our industry, like naturally giving and we want to do the best we can. And I think that’s such a great piece of advice just being honest with yourself, with whoever you’re working with. Because I think, it also sets up other people for failure, if you don’t know what your limitations are.
Jes Gordon: That’s exactly what I mean. At the end of the day, you’re not being a people pleaser, you’re hurting somebody.
Maya: Yeah. There’s a difference between wanting to do good by somebody, and then just being like, “And yes I can, yes.”
But, is that in your greater interest? Is it in there – if not in your greater interest, are you willing to risk their greater interest? I think that’s, I think that’s something I wish we all could spend more time thinking about.
Jes, what are you thinking about these days? What’s the one big question that you’re thinking about?
Jes Gordon: Man, that’s a tough one, because I actually try to control during COVID. I tried to stop asking questions, because not knowing the answers was upsetting. So I guess the question is that I’m asking myself are, what are the right questions I should be asking myself right now?
Maya: No, that’s phenomenal. That – it’s work. And again, I think the whole, this whole conversation, it’s very true to who you are. You’re willing to say, “I don’t know. So I’m going to work on knowing,” And I think, right now, my policies, I don’t think longer than a week, I think more than a week, I’m just like, ah, I can’t, it just the idea that the current situation we’re in, the environment that we’re in, is going to, God knows how long this is going to go on for is it’s.
Yeah. So, I do agree with you not thinking about and trying to find answers to something that there’s no control over. I think that’s true. It’s, there’s no point to that.
Since we’re talking about connecting, there is another way you found to connect with an audience, which is Party on the Moon. Tell me more. I wanted-
Okay. I know this is, everybody wants to know. So in case you don’t know, Party on the Moon is Jes’s latest book. It is apparently a work of fiction, but I’m going to ask you the question, you sure you haven’t woven in some little, like tidbits from all the wonderful work you’ve done over the years. I’m sure there must be somebody in there.
Jes Gordon: Oh, yeah. The main character is definitely based on me, but she has been tarnished with a whole other veneer. The base character, it’s based on my career, lots of parts of it, but she is in a different form and she’s in an evil form. It’s almost like a bad Santa, you have Santa, and then you have evil Santa, and that’s what this main character is.
And yes, many things that have happened within the book mirror, some, many of my experiences, maybe with a little tweak here and there. But I do like to keep people guessing on what they think really happened and what they don’t think really happened. I’m certainly not as promiscuous as this character is. I wish I was, but,
Maya: Slightly more exciting life than you were already, very excitingly.
Jes Gordon: Yeah, she’s much more exciting than – I would like to hang out with this.
Maya: Now in case you want to know what kind of people Jes like hanging out with, go read her book and then turn into that person, then Jes will love you.
No, all jokes aside. No. I haven’t had the chance to read the book yet, but it is on my night table. I just – it’s there. It was my Christmas present to myself.
Jes Gordon: Oh that’s great. Thank you.
Maya: I’m actually really excited to get into it. And then before we wrap up, cause I could go on for hours and ask you all sorts of things, but I want to be cognizant of your time and everybody else’s as well.
Talking of connecting, where can people find you? How do you prefer people reach out to you? What’s the best way?
Jes Gordon: I have to say, I am the most non-, I am a non-millennial, age-wise. I am obsessed with Instagram. I absolutely love it. I love the visual way to express things. I like communicating, the sliding into the DMs. I have found that is, I’m on that basically all day. I never speak on the phone. I hate it. I just get bored.
Emails, yeah, that’s cool. But I find that Instagram is probably the way that I connect with most people on a daily basis. Even my clients.
Maya: It’s good, you’re looking for some amazing inspirations.
I personally, am a huge fan of Jes’ last day post. Like in her story, she always has a post at the end of the day, her bonne nuit post, is always spectacular. I, I, I’ve been so tempted to like DM you, and be like, where’d you get that? Where do you get the images? I’m not going to ask because it’s just,
Jes Gordon: I always give credit, I always give credit to who, wherever I find them. I just look around.
Maya: It’s my joy at the end of the day.
Honestly, because they’re just, some of them are ethereal, some of them are dark, some of them are just- It’s so creative and it always blows my mind how beautiful those images are in your bonne nuit series and how timely in many ways. Like, you seem to pull from – I want to say, and being presumptuous here so correct me if I’m wrong, but you are personally in that time, in that space, and it tends to be very reflective, and I love it.
Yes. Jes’ Instagram is at Jes Gordon. Go find her Instagram, don’t bother emailing her. I’m not going to give you. I’m keeping that for myself.
But Jes thank you, I appreciate you taking the time and letting us chitchat about this whole, and helping-.
I really want her, for people to see that you don’t have to be a certain way. Just because your title says, I don’t know, Creative director or copywriter, or if there is ways to be that, without fitting the box. So I appreciate you giving insight and letting people take a quick peek into your living room, Supreme getting us- That’s beautiful. Thank you, Jes.
Jes Gordon: Thank you so much.
Maya: I’ll talk to you soon.