2021 Year In Review

My 2021 Year In Review Numbers and A Lesson In Resilience

2021 has been a weird and wild ride for a lot of people, but here we are, at the end of another trip around the sun.



I didn’t end up where I thought I would when we started the year, but then again, none of us got the answer right to "Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?” back in 2016.

But as I review my year end numbers, I see there’s a lesson to be learned from them, which I’d like to share with you now.

Here Are My Year-In-Review Numbers for 2021

11 Virtual Emcee Events


3 Virtual Keynotes


7 In-Person Events


21 Virtual Shows


5 Virtual Game Shows


10 Virtual Workshops


38 YouTube Videos

And I Got To Work With Some Really Big Clients This Year, Including:

ARCO

AM/PM

Amazon

British Petroleum (BP)

Uber

Adobe

and Zoom

Check out the video below to see a fun wrap-up of all these amazing events...

My Clients Have Been Great!

They’ve mostly been hiring me to emcee their virtual and hybrid events this year and that's led to a lot of new business that I look forward to expanding in 2022.

But what you'll notice is that the keynote speaking side of my business has basically collapsed. I worked hard to build that up for several years and it was going great until Covid hit.

When One Door Closes, Another Opens

The last event I booked before everything shut down last year, was a keynote speech at The Million Dollar Roundtable in Dubai.

This is like the Mount Everest of gigs for a keynote speaker. When Covid hit, they went virtual instead of cancelling the event.

I did my keynote for them from my home instead of from a stage in Dubai. That was my first virtual gig. It was for 8,000 people and I was learning how to do it on the job. Trial by fire as it were. And now, as you can see from the numbers above, virtual events are practically my entire business!

Not only that, but even as the speaking side of my business shrank, a whole new line of work opened up... emceeing virtual and hybrid events. And I love it!

And Herein Lies The Lesson

re·sil·ience

/rəˈzilyəns/

Learn to pronounce

1. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

2. the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.





I never intended to do virtual events. I didn't even know what they were before the pandemic. But opportunity knocked and I opened the door. 

I intended to speak at events, not host them as an emcee, but once again an opportunity presented itself and I took it... and ended up loving it.

We All Make Plans...

Especially this time of year. New Years resolutions. Goal setting. Intentions and such. And that's all well and good. But as the poet Robert Burns once wrote, "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry".

In other words, as we all head into the new year and resolve to hit goals and make accomplishments of our own design, it's important to remain flexible and open to opportunities that may present themselves disguised as problems. 

It's A Pattern

When I moved to Hollywood after graduating film school in NYC, it wasn't to become a voice actor. I intended to become an on-screen actor. 

But after years of work and only a few bit parts to show for it (if you don't blink you can see me in a scene with Robert Downey Jr and Kevin Kline in Chaplin) I had an opportunity to voice a cartoon. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

It wasn't what I intended to do, but voicing animation was like rolling a boulder down a hill instead of up one. So that's what I did. And it remains the secret to my success today.

Just Stay Open. Be Flexible. And Stay In The Game.
Even If The Rules Of the Game Keep Changing.

If you've still got a chip and a chair after all we've been through in the past couple of years, then in my book you're winning.

Thanks to all my wonderful agents, bureaus, coaches and advisors, network of knowledgeable friends, clients who kept me in business, and most especially to my kids for keeping themselves occupied and quiet while I did all those virtual events in the next room!

Here's to 2022 and whatever new adventures it may bring!