The Thing I Love About Workin WHAT MAKES A STAR A STAR?
L ast fall, my team produced a gala dinner for the 2022 Executive Conference on Real Estate (eCore) Summit in Miami. It was a high-pressure job, and one of our duties was wrangling the night’s talent — renowned businessman and “Shark Tank’’ star Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary. I’m not going to lie: We were a little nervous! I felt confident that Mr. Wonderful was the right fit for our audience and could hold the room, but on “Shark Tank,” he’s known for his aggressive, direct, and sometimes outright difficult personality. That left a big question: What would he be like in person? (Personality-wise, working with celebrity talent is a little bit like playing Russian roulette — you never know what you’ll get.) When I arrived on set to prepare Kevin for his speech, I braced myself for an onslaught of demands and scathing looks. But I shouldn’t have worried. It turns out Mr. Wonderful is one of the kindest, most welcoming people I’ve encountered in my many years working with keynote speakers. He was helpful
and open-minded during the entire prep process, and the second he walked on stage, he enthralled the audience with stories about his unique approach to business. Kevin’s unconventional speech had nothing to do with real estate, but that didn’t matter: He engaged the crowd immediately and kept them hooked with his business knowledge and insights into his decision-making process. It was incredible to watch! When he walked off stage, I compared his personality behind the scenes with his powerful presence at the mic. I thought, “Wow — so that combination is what made Kevin O’Leary famous.” Discovering the source of each person’s “it factor” is one of my favorite things about working with celebrities. We all have impressions of people like Kevin O’Leary, Shaquille O’Neal, Andy Cohen, and Magic Johnson from seeing them on TV and reading about them in the newspaper. But an in-person experience is different. When you get up close and personal with that skill, talent, and magnetism, you can really see what makes a star a star. It’s the difference between watching a basketball game on TV and seeing one from the first row of the bleachers, with the squeak of shoes all around the lightning-fast hands of a pro dribbling just a few feet away. I’m lucky enough to have this opportunity all the time. In the last year, my team has produced events featuring all of the celebrities I just named, plus dozens of others, including paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy and Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska (who appeared side-by-side with Hilary Clinton, Matt Damon, Jimmy Fallon, and other A-listers to launch her foundation). Through that kaleidoscope of events, I discovered that Magic Johnson is a natural-born storyteller. He wouldn’t stay on stage while he spoke at the Executive Capital (eCap) Summit. Instead, he jumped down into the crowd and walked through the tables, spinning stories as he went. I also realized that one of the keys to Andy Cohen’s star power as a talk show host, producer, and writer is his ability to improvise. When he arrived to host the Humane Society of the United States’s To the Rescue! Gala last fall and got a feel for the room, he took the script we’d worked on for weeks and made brilliant, last-minute changes to engage the audience even more. Last but far from least, I found out that Shaq’s big personality is a match for his physical size and skill on the
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator