#awinewith Melissa Yu
MEET Melissa
Melissa is the Founder of MCO Events.
Find Melissa here:
MCO Events website or Instagram @mcoevents @mellieyu.
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:06):
Amazing. Mel, welcome to Spark tv.
Melissa Yu (00:09):
Thanks for having me. This has been a long time coming, so I'm super excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Danielle Lewis (00:14):
Of course. Yes. I think you and I might be the two busiest people. I know the two people who crammed so much into their days, it's probably ridiculous.
Melissa Yu (00:24):
So this actually happened, we've scheduled half an hour together, so I am looking forward to the conversation and I hope the listeners do too.
Danielle Lewis (00:31):
Totally. Me too. Well, let's start basic. Who are you and what do you do?
Melissa Yu (00:37):
Yep, so my name is Mel. I'm based in Melbourne, Victoria, and I have an event management company. We are a boutique agency. We run events from concept to delivery, so all year round our events look like charity galas, VIP launches, business launches and evenings, expos, conventions, private functions like weddings. We do the whole shebang. So if you guys need an event and basically the planning and the process and the delivery of that, that's kind of our bread and butter. But outside of events as well, during Covid, I actually launched the coaching arm of our business. So outside of that, my personal brand, I do a lot of business mentoring and coaching, personal development coaching as well. And I think that kind of sums it up in the main things of what I do, but and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Danielle Lewis (01:29):
I love it. I love it. So how did you get started in events? What was the inspiration to actually start an events management business?
Melissa Yu (01:37):
Yeah, this is a good one because I feel like so many people ask me, oh, did you study events or did you study marketing? And I didn't really do any growing up and coming out of high school, I actually have a psychology degree, so I have an honors in science. Wow. Postgrad deep in psych. And I was actually quite academically driven. However, life had a different set of cards for me. I feel as with most of us. But early on in my twenties, a tragic had tragic thing happened in my personal life where I lost my late partner to suicide. And then from there it was kind of the fork in the road where psychology, as much as I loved it and stuff, I was pulled to do things more community driven or more community focused. So as much as I loved relationships and counseling and things, the one-on-one was a bit much just with my own personal lived experience in trauma and in mental health and in that kind of area.
(02:35):
So it naturally shifted. It actually initially I was just looking for something else to do and build a career somewhere else, but it wasn't planned. And I fell into working as a project manager for the Australian Tattoo Convention. So I started doing these expos and these trade shows in a really non-conventional space. The tattoo industry is very arts, very creative and was something that was completely left of center of what I was used to. But I fell in love with it. And what I fell in love with was that community element and working with people in hindsight, starting an events company was very naive. So I worked as a project manager for these tattoo conventions traveling around Australia from 20 13, 20 14 to 2017. So for about four years. And then I call it a glass ceiling, but I hit a glass ceiling as the two IC of this company and was like, I can just start my own. I'm going to go out there and start my own event management company. This is fine. So I did.
Danielle Lewis (03:36):
I love the naivety. It's so good in life, isn't
Melissa Yu (03:39):
It? Absolutely, yeah. But I just thought, oh, I know how to run events. I'm really good at it. I think there's a place for me to build my own legacy. I really love legacy work and leaving an impact and sort of leaving something for longer than when I'm on this earth. And so I quit my job and built an events company and that was the most premature thing, but I really didn't have much to go off, honestly, when I look back and I'm like, I definitely quit way too soon. I didn't know just how much work it entailed to knock on doors to get leads, to get clients, to manage cash flow, to even pay a salary. All of that was very, very new for me. But I think you need a little bit of naivety to start your own business. You need almost a bit of that irrational optimism.
Danielle Lewis (04:32):
Yes, rational optimism is like my lifeblood
Melissa Yu (04:38):
And then you kind of mature as you go. But yeah, I've been running it for five years now. We started in 2017, we're still running. We have four girls that work with us. So it's growing quite organically and here I am. But obviously lots of struggles and challenges and everything along the way. But I didn't have any event experience. I honestly fell into it. I didn't even have any event education or academic education behind it. But in saying that, I think a psych degree really did help me position my skillset in a professional setting because we deal with people every day. So my psychology skills transferred essentially into my events and business and management skills.
Danielle Lewis (05:20):
I mean having the ability to be able to speak to people and understand them and reason with them and read between the lines and manage people on their off days, I mean that is running a business. So maybe every business owner should have a psych degree.
Melissa Yu (05:38):
Yeah, I feel you. It's definitely beneficial.
Danielle Lewis (05:42):
And so these events aren't like small fries I've seen, I've not attended one of your events, but obviously I've been a long time stalker of yours on Instagram. These are huge, huge events.
Melissa Yu (05:55):
So our flagship events are trade shows and conventions. And what I mean by that is they're three day events that bring in tens of thousands of people. Consumer based shows, you've got one or two days to bump in. They're normally at your convention centers or your showgrounds really large kind of venue spaces. And we build and we take a day or two, we run it, we bring lots of people together and then we tear it apart by the Sunday night, Monday. So they're very high energy, they are large scale. And I guess when people do think events, it's like, oh, so you're a party planner or you do birthdays? And I'm like, not quite,
Danielle Lewis (06:37):
No, not at all.
Melissa Yu (06:39):
A lot more stressful. But we love it. I think you've got to really sort of love that stress or that pressure and putting out fires to play in the event space. It can be quite a stressful environment
Danielle Lewis (06:52):
And it's so concentrated as well. Obviously you've got time leading up where you're doing the planning, but it's like everything just happens within those days. So actually managing that container of stress, you've got to sort it out. Now this isn't like a, oh yeah, I'll just wait to do that next week. It has to be sorted out in the moment.
Melissa Yu (07:10):
And with events, you've kind of got this, I love it. I thrive on it. As soon as you announce a venue date or a show date, you have to reverse engineer all of your time and planning to make sure that it actually executes on the day that everyone's coming. You can't really, well barely ever can you really be like, we're not ready, we're going to postpone it. So you do whatever it takes in the lead up. So the planning part is essential to a successful event, which I think most things could say failing to prepare is preparing to fail. And that preparation phase really does sing true, especially in my industry.
Danielle Lewis (07:49):
I love that so much. You are so right. I was having a conversation with someone this morning about their vision for their business and I almost think about that from a planning point of view as well. It's so easy to get trapped in our to-do lists in the kind of busy work, but actually having a vision, a strategy, a plan, I think is so key to essential in business or any success.
Melissa Yu (08:13):
I was coaching a client last night as well, and one of her pain points I guess was time management. And it's that age old saying where, look, we all have 24 hours in a day and how do we manage that productivity? How do you manage those energy levels? And I do think that most people are busy, but they're busy in the mundane tasks that don't actually move the needle forward. And as a business owner, I think we have to really focus on what are the things that move the business forward? What are the things that bring in profit and continue to make the machine work, and how do you delegate the rest? Because otherwise you do end up having these extensive to-do lists as I'm sure we can all imagine, but the to-do list that then just continues to move on to the next day and the next day and the next day and you kind of scratch a few and then they pile back onto the next list. And so how do you actually manage your time and avoid procrastination, avoid doing the hard stuff and getting this task that are essential to your business moving forward. I think that's a skill that business owners must learn to be able to achieve that success.
Danielle Lewis (09:20):
Yeah, I totally agree. So do you have any advice on how you manage your time and energy?
Melissa Yu (09:27):
Yeah, so I'm an avid diary person, so I still have very much, I've actually got it here, but I use manual diaries very much listening or watching on video, but I have a manual diary and I block things out to the T as much as I might not have the luxury of having so much spontaneity, but yet what I find is when I block time out and I go nine till 10, is this task, 10 to 11 is the next task, 11 to 1130 is the meeting. When I block time like that out, I actually have a lot more quality time in that hour that I've allocated to. So quality time is scheduled in date night and social dinners with friends, they're all still scheduled in. And I find that actually helps me be more present in the moment because I know that this is the time for me to relax. This is the time for me to be working and I can actually, I find myself being able to take off that hat and be able to actually be present with my friends. So blocking out time to the hour, if that works, it might be a bit excessive for some, but for me as a coach and continuously as a business leader, I do find people, you'll notice when you block time out how many hours you might potentially waste scrolling, binge watch the tv, all of
Danielle Lewis (10:42):
That. It shines a light on what you're really doing, doesn't it? Yeah,
Melissa Yu (10:45):
It does. And when I do that, when I do this exercise of time blocking with my clients, they're shocked at how much they're wasting time on tasks that could be done in an hour. Yet they've taken two to three hours of really not doing that much productive work. And that comes down to again, how do you move the needle forward? How do you actually continue to do tasks that matter in the scheme of things and what can you drop that's like this isn't a must have done is better than perfect.
Danielle Lewis (11:14):
Yeah, and it's interesting too, I think if you look back on your life, the time you spend scrolling on Instagram, you're not going to remember that time or value that time. So when it does creep into tasks that are really important to you, like writing that book or creating that sales page or whatever it is, I think it's easy for people to say time blocking is not sexy or whatever. But I think that you're so spot on, it almost actually gives you freedom by time blocking. Yes,
Melissa Yu (11:48):
Absolutely. The more that you can structure your time, the more freedom you find yourself being able to have.
Danielle Lewis (11:53):
Yes, I love that so much. So talk to me about, I mean obviously you explained a bit about the decision to go into events, but that decision to go from events to business owners, obviously it was a bit spare at the moment. I can do this, this is all good. What challenges did you face when you did take the leap? Was there anything that you weren't expecting?
Melissa Yu (12:16):
Yeah, that business didn't just come flying, knocking at my door. Yeah, I think, and the more that I coach startups as well, I find again that that comes to that naivety, not knowing what you don't know, but we launch a website and we think that's it.
Danielle Lewis (12:33):
That's it. That's all the hard work's done.
Melissa Yu (12:36):
Whereas we barely even scratch the surface. SEO isn't working in your favor, things just aren't happening at the moment. So for me it's recognizing that you still need it, you must chase leads or you have to find your foot in the market and have some presence and offer value to clients, especially when they don't know you and especially when your business has no record, no track record and no history. So when we first started, I had no events under our belt. If you looked at our registered A BN, it was less than three months young. So I think when you are such a young startup company, really going out and getting those referrals, getting word of mouth, putting yourself in the industries that you want to be, networking and putting yourself out there and being like, Hey, what can I do to help your business? And then in return they help you.
Danielle Lewis (13:30):
And I know, so you have a really strong presence on Instagram and LinkedIn and you very much have a strong personal brand that backs the business brands. How do you feel, were you always comfortable putting yourself out there or has that been something that you've had to learn to put out there as well?
Melissa Yu (13:49):
I definitely think that I'm a lot more naturally extroverted than most. So that means that I have an ability to be a bit more open with my community. But what I actually found was that the more that I showed up online, the more people got to see all facets of me. And that actually allowed people to trust me and build trust because I am super transparent as on my personal brand. You can see my good days, I celebrate and rejoice with my community, but yet you do see when I'm crying or I suffer, and it's not so much like show everyone every single bit. It's still in some ways just a piece of curated content. But I do try and be as transparent and honest as I can and that authenticity does seem to work in my favor and more often than not, I think vulnerability is courage. So when we recognize, especially what you're saying, when we're constantly scrolling and looking at people's highlight reels, real content that has substance and depth and that's raw and authentic, I think it just actually shines compared to everything else in our feed.
Danielle Lewis (15:01):
Yeah, you're so right. I totally agree, and it always surprises me what people take away from my content. It is, and it's usually the thing that I kind of do on a whim that is just a little bit of me, a little bit funny, a little bit authentic, a little bit stupid sometimes that people actually connect with. So I think you're spot on. It's so easy. I look at it as I say, it's like the Canva templates. There's so many brands now that look the same, and I kind of think, well, if we're all showing up just taking our little spin on the same quote or the same whatever, then how are we actually different to anyone else? But I think our uniqueness is us, we are our uniqueness. So by showing up, and as you say, it doesn't have to be everything, doesn't have to be every minute detail, but when we do let people in a little bit, then yeah, they do learn to trust us a little bit easier.
Melissa Yu (15:57):
Yeah, no, I absolutely agree. And I think when you recognize that no one is you and that's your superpower when you go, everyone has such a unique lived experience and no one has my journey, my point of view, my perspective on certain things, your lived experience counts, and if that's all you've got, show that online and those that will love it and resonate with it, they're your people. You are not meant to attract every single person. You're not meant to get along with every single person. Not every piece of content is going to land with everyone. And so I think consistency, far outplays, just kind of putting out whatever content. I think if you're consistent over time, people will see you for your character characters developed over a long period of time. And if you can consistently put content out there, I feel like people enter my business long before I even know they've entered my business or my world.
(16:51):
They're playing in my world six to 12 months without me really knowing. And then one piece of content will land for them and they'll be like, Hey, I've been following you for quite some time. I want to do coaching with you, or I've got an event now. I know you do events now. I want you to run this part for me. And so you never really know who's watching, but I think you can play in your truth, share your personality, get your unique point of difference out. Exactly like you said, if everyone's doing the Canva tiles and templates, what makes you different? Where is your personality? Because in a world where we're so digitally consumed, how are you going to show up and stand out compared to everyone else? And the simple answer is just be you.
Danielle Lewis (17:35):
Yeah, I love that. That's so good. And I love what you said too about time that character is developed over time because I think in the world where it's so quick and easy for us to consume on Instagram, we kind of get disappointed sometimes when it's not like one post and we've sold out of whatever it is that we do.
Melissa Yu (17:54):
And I think this is another one, when people post their latest course or their mastermind retreat or whatever it is that they're doing, how can you expect you putting one post out and selling out? That's actually a unicorn business model. Unless you've got an incredible influential personal brand behind you, which most of us don't, we have to work towards it. And unless you do that, you kind of have to show it more than once. For sure. As a consumer of content, they say nowadays, in marketing world, it takes 16 times for someone to actually even make a purchase or contemplate a purchase. They have to see your brand over 16 times across different platforms to build trust and then to make a decision. And so in such a world like that, we can't expect that we put 1% out, put one post out and have it sold out.
(18:45):
I constantly teach people that you have to put on your stories the way the algorithm works, even not everyone gets to see it. So you have to change it up a bit. You have to do stories, you have to DM people, you have to have a much more high touch approach. I send personal messages to people inviting them to my events because we might see a piece of content, but it's like, oh, that's not for me. But if you directly message people, if you can go a step above what everyone else will do, you'll reap the rewards.
Danielle Lewis (19:14):
I love that so much. I always say that about cold outreach emails, cold outreach emails and LinkedIn. People are like, you do what? And I'm like, no. Well, I send personalized messages to people every week without fail. It's a habit in my sales every week and people are shocked. And I'm like, yeah, but the reason why it works is because no one else is willing to do that.
Melissa Yu (19:38):
I think we've all seen on LinkedIn a completely cold templated obviously now, and it's just so yucky the follow, and I've got LinkedIn chains where it's just the one person having a conversation again and again and again and again and it's just obviously not landing, but it's not a person that's recognizing, okay, am I actually solving problems? Am I actually providing this person value? A thing with a personalized approach is looking at their feed, looking at what they've posted and potentially just DMing them or LinkedIn messaging them being like, Hey, I saw your son play soccer. Hey, I can help with these jerseys or whatever it may be. Actually tap into what that person is doing because again, that authenticity and that high level of touch, what no one else is doing is what's going to get you over the line.
Danielle Lewis (20:29):
And it's really interesting because again, it's the not sexy stuff. It's not the, I made a post and it went viral, I made a reel and it went viral. It's the back to add value, work hard one-on-one relationships. It isn't the sexy stuff, but it's the stuff that works
Melissa Yu (20:47):
And it's also the things that everyone wants a secret recipe to, or the tip or what's your one thing that made you successful? And it's like it's actually all the little micro things. It's all those mundane tasks, seemingly tedious tasks that actually add to the bigger picture and add to our success.
Danielle Lewis (21:11):
Oh, it's so true. Have you noticed, I was just thinking about the fact obviously you're a business owner, but you coach women in business as well, business owners. Have you seen any recurring themes from the people who you coach? Is there something that's consistent across business owners that they all struggle with that there is actionable tips for?
Melissa Yu (21:34):
I think a consistent theme is our own limiting beliefs. We all actually somewhat have them no matter what success or what we're striving for. What I find is we all still have some level of self doubt or imposter syndrome or something where if we just really stepped into our power, again, easier said than done because when we're in the objective, we can see really clearly for someone. And so I think for business owners and entrepreneurs and leaders really recognizing our thoughts and our thought patterns and recognizing if they are ours or if they're someone else's that we've adopted. More often than not when we feel like we can't do something or we're uncertain about something, it's not actually us that has created that thought. It comes from, it might be childhood trauma, it might be your inner child work, but somewhere along the lines, someone told you that that wasn't possible.
(22:30):
And then we go through all these things in our adult lives to unlearn all of the stuff that we once kind of were taught inner a younger self. So I think for us is recognizing what our limiting beliefs are. Is there evidence for that? Have you tapped into your full potential? Is there more of you and expected of you? I think that's the exciting part as a coach because when you get those aha moments or when you see the glass ceiling lift out and they reach another level, that is the stuff that I live for.
Danielle Lewis (23:02):
It's so cool. I just got goosebumps. That's also for me, I feel is never ending. You can continuously break glass ceilings, burst bubbles. Absolutely. I feel like as soon as you've lifted a limiting belief, there's another one. As soon as you've hit that revenue milestone, you're like, okay, well what's the next one and why do I not think I can get there? Okay, now I've hit that. Okay, what's the next one? I feel like the exciting part of that is you can continuously grow and continuously bash through any new limiting beliefs that come like the work's never done.
Melissa Yu (23:36):
Yeah. Well, I can't remember who said this quote. I think I saw it in a Oprah and Violet interview. It's on Netflix I think, and she says, life is a constant dying of self, and I kind of really love that because every level that you need to tap into requires a new version of you, which then requires you to shed some limiting beliefs or your old, you quote unquote to die and what got you to 10 K month revenues? What's going to get you to 20 K, 50 K months? I once thought a hundred K month revenues were like, I couldn't even fathom what that meant until I started playing in that realm and having conversations with people that were making a hundred K months. It was like, okay, this is going to require me to expand so much more than what I thought. But then once you hit those targets, you're kind of like, this is fun.
(24:27):
Let's unlock some of this. And that's where mentorship, tapping into networks, programs, masterminds, all of that stuff is what's going to get you to get to that next level. I love mentorship. That's why I fell into the personal development stages. I think the people that you're around with is going to force you to grow. If you talk to people and having 100 K months is normal, you're going to naturally creep up to that level and constantly check in with your circle. Who are you surrounding yourself with? Are they empowering you? Are they exciting you? Are they having conversations like this where it's like it just gives you goosebumps.
Danielle Lewis (25:06):
I love that. You're so right. We need to almost stretch ourselves and surround ourselves with people that are already where we want to be. I know sometimes it's intimidating talking to somebody's having already achieved the goal. We don't want to feel like we're bringing them down or we don't want to seem stupid or whatever it is. But those people are already amazing people. They've done the work and I find that they're so generous. So you really, I think that's the best advice ever, is actually surrounding yourself with those type of people. Because you're right, they do play at another level. They do talk about different things. And it is so funny how sometimes just a couple of minutes of conversation with people who've already unlocked what you need to unlock just can accelerate your growth and expansion just immediately.
Melissa Yu (25:55):
And just on that, it does come down to your mindset. I think it can be either inspiring or intimidating, and this is what happens because people go, I'm so intimidated to talk to them. And I'm like, but allow that to inspire you to go and talk to them. Allow someone that even if you feel pangs of envy or jealousy, whatever may come up when you see someone post about their big cash month or whatever it may be, allow your self-awareness to maybe recognize. It's like, but it is possible because often I hear people get really intimidated by being like, you shouldn't be gloating. You shouldn't be celebrating your big wins. But I'm like, we should celebrate all wins. And one person's success doesn't dampen your opportunity for success. I truly, truly believe it's a mindset of mine that there's enough success out there for everyone to win, and I just think that's a way lighter flowier way to live rather than this is my little black book of contacts and networks and I don't want to share it. I made this all on my own. It takes an army to build an empire of any sort, and as soon as you kind of get into business and your business starts scaling, you very quickly realize you need people. You can't do it as a solopreneur because it's not scalable. There's only so much you can do on your own.
Danielle Lewis (27:10):
Oh my God, there was so much there. I love it. I was just thinking you used the word jealousy. Sometimes that comes up for people. I saw this amazing Mel Robbins quote, actually not so long ago. Oh, I know. And she said, use jealousy. So she's like, when you feel jealousy, it's like, what is it that brought up that emotion? She's like, maybe you actually want that. So it's actually, if someone's driving a fancy car or living in a beautiful house or going on a holiday and you're feeling jealous, well, maybe it's actually because something that you want in your life. So actually use it as more of a signpost and realize that it's actually just giving you information. So perhaps you weren't ever working towards a fancy car or a holiday, but it's like if you're feeling jealous, maybe that should be something you have up on your vision board or as one of your goals for the year, something that actually might be important to you that you just hadn't figured out yet.
Melissa Yu (28:01):
Absolutely. I really couldn't agree more channeling those emotions. And again, it comes down to self-awareness, really understanding what your vision is, where your values are, and they become your compass. They really become your north star as soon as you identify what you value in this world, what you hope and strive to achieve, because success, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. It's out there and there's many people that have paved the way for it. So allow yourself to feel inspired and pulled to follow those people that have done it already.
Danielle Lewis (28:35):
I
Melissa Yu (28:35):
Love short note, Danny as well, just quickly that generosity. What I find is the more success people genuinely have, the more generous they are with their time, and that comes down to that freedom because they've done the hard yards, they've done the work, and I find if you seek mentorship and you want to ask someone, Hey, I'm starting this in my business, just wanted to have 15 minutes of your time or buy you a coffee and maybe you could just assist me in mentoring, people are quite generous. They're not going to give you everything also, but people will give you 15 minutes of their time.
Danielle Lewis (29:11):
Oh, totally. And I mean, even if they're not in the same location, we're so lucky we've got Zoom and we've got all of these technology that can help us connect with people all around the world, and that even makes it easier and quicker for them when they're jumping on that. So you're so right. And even I love, there's so many podcasts out there, there's so many books. We can find mentors in so many different ways now. It doesn't have to be just the coffee. I think if we expand a little bit and kind of go, I can get the to any question I have to anything I need from anywhere the universe starts providing,
Melissa Yu (29:48):
And Google's always a good place. It's so true. We underestimate that good old search engine where you can type in anything you want. How do I raise a dog? I don't know. There's literally so many things. How do I cook pasta? What are the five ways that I can make money? How do I use 10 K to invest in my next thing? Any question, Google spits out such an accurate search engine, at least for you to search up podcasts, YouTube videos. We are very spoiled for choice. Unlike the last generation and the previous generation, we are tapped into this thing called the internet, and it's crazy how many beautiful relationships have formed because of it. We're literally having this podcast and able to record and build a relationship purely from an online platform.
Danielle Lewis (30:38):
Oh, it's so true. I absolutely love that. Especially now where I've temporarily relocated to the middle of nowhere. I haven't lost any customers or connections. And yes, that nothing beats having a wine with somebody in real life, but you're right. We live in an age where it has never been easier to get the answers and connect with people.
Melissa Yu (30:59):
We're
Danielle Lewis (31:00):
Incredibly lucky. Oh my God, you are incredible. One last question to wrap things up. So listener wise, women in business, and we've got kind of two camps of listeners, people who haven't quite taken the leap yet and people who are starting to scale. I'd love for you, thinking about when you went from, I guess employee to business owner, any advice for people who might be hesitating in starting their own business?
Melissa Yu (31:27):
Yeah, this one's so easy, and I say it all the time, think so true to me, but it's the quote that I live by. It's dream big, but start small. And that mentality was, like I said, I was so naive because I dreamed the big dream and then did not execute as well as I would like to. But have the big dream, have the big vision, build your empire, influence and impact all the people. Imagine your sales records shooting through the roof. You have warehouses of stock that you can't control and dream that big dream, but then start with where you're at and start small and take those little baby steps and micro steps. Reach out to a mentor like yourself or myself, ask people how to get started and then just take that leap of faith. If you have been called to start a business, you've got an idea and it's itching at you, you're at your nine to five and it's potentially not serving you anymore, trust that and follow your gut. Really lean into that and start small baby steps, but you'd rather go through this crazy whirlwind of a journey in entrepreneurial worlds, or you live a life with regret. And what if it's such a no brainer for me
Danielle Lewis (32:38):
When put it like that? Oh my God. You are amazing. Mel, thank you so much. Thanks so much for having me, for sharing your time with us. Absolutely incredible. I know everyone will be just glued to their screens or AirPods right now, so thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
