Beth Knox - Leadership

Beth: 0:00

This is Beth Knox and you're listening to One Hour to Doors.

Jon: 0:10

This is One Hour to Doors, a podcast about the business and soul of the festivals and events industry. I am your host, Jon Stone. Every episode of One Hour to Doors explores the people, issues, insights and trends impacting the enterprise of bringing people and communities together in common cause. We are recording today from the WFEA annual conference taking place this year in the city of Issaquah. If you've listened to earlier episodes of this podcast, you will certainly recognize our guest today.

Jon: 0:46

Beth Knox is as acclaimed of an event producer as you will find in the Pacific Northwest. She has held critical leadership roles at Seattle institutions such as Seafair and One Reel. She produced the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games and is currently president of the Seattle Sports Commission. Beth has been widely recognized for her work by organizations and influencers far and wide, but to me perhaps Beth's most important credential is that so many people point to her as their mentor, role model and inspiration. Welcome to the show, Beth. Thanks so much for having me. Jon, In preparing for our session today, I was kind of using the way back machine and my first memories of you, I think, are from when I first went to work at the One Reel offices on Westlake mid 1990s or something like that that sounds right, and although we both played for the same team for a long time, we didn't work together collaboratively that much.

Jon: 1:50

It's like you had your things and I had my things. We didn't cross paths all that much.

Beth: 1:55

Yeah, and I think in part that was because my job at that point, especially in those early days, was leading the sponsorship sales team and then I would work with the troubleshooters and the production team that was helping to execute the sponsorships, but I don't think that you were involved with that so much. So we were working together, but not closely.

Jon: 2:17

Parallel. That was such a remarkable time to enter One Reel in the mid 90s. To me that was kind of a crescendo of output from the organization, which is so many things happening all at once.

Beth: 2:32

I felt like it was such a privilege to work there, especially looking back. But I have a very distinct memory of driving to work during it was some point in the middle of my eight years there and just taking a moment to acknowledge the anticipation that I had going to work and thinking how lucky am I that I cannot wait to get to my job today and every day it felt like that. I mean, I could probably have counted on one hand the number of times that I didn't feel like going to work. There was something magical about that organization and the people that we worked with during that time.

Jon: 3:09

I was just going to say, the magic was the people. And there was a mind blower for me especially. I mean, I grew up on a farm, relatively simple life experience up until that point, but then to all of a sudden go into the One Reel offices at that time, like the mines that were working there every day. It was transformational for me. Simple as that.

Beth: 3:31

It was, and it was also inspirational and it really taught me to keep reaching higher and to have higher expectations and not limit myself. I had so many opportunities to experience that where they remember this. When the team said, hey, we should, let's do weddings at Bumbershoot, let's have people get married at Bumbershoot and I thought, okay, that's ridiculous, who would want to get married at Bumbershoot? And it turns out a lot of people and I never dreamed of the creative production that were so spectacular coming out of those weddings and what remarkable experiences that was. We had so many great leaders there who really pushed us to think more creatively, think bigger, think wilder, and that really set the stage for the foundation of my career same.

Jon: 4:28

There was no such thing as good enough, Like the high bar was always just a little beyond grasp, and in my recollection that's what we did every day was just kept reaching higher, further, to see what happened.

Beth: 4:45

To see what happened, right! And as a result, we had just extraordinary achievements that resulted out of that.

Jon: 4:57

I tried to explain what a leap that was for me being invited into those offices. I don't know if you're a Star Trek fan, but there was an old Star Trek, I think, TNG episode where the crew gets sent to this mysterious planet to try to establish contact with the beings there, which had been attempted before but always ended disastrously because for some reason they couldn't understand the language and even their universal translates like they could hear them speaking in English, but it didn't make any sense and, skipping to the end of the episode, it turns out that those particular beings they spoke only in metaphor and cultural references. Oh, wow, I thought. Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what it was like in those offices at that time.

Beth: 5:37

Right. Well, and I did love that, as each of us were doing our own jobs, all toward a common goal. In the middle of that, we were constantly learning through our colleagues and peers at the office. The programming team would be teaching us about new artists and new forms of art that were up and coming or things that they wanted to explore. Those were lessons that helped to inform me culturally that I might not have explored if I wasn't in that environment.

Beth: 6:10

The production team, with David Doxtater and so many others that really brought a new level of expertise to the production team and taught me how that could be done. And the list goes on and on. And then I would say that one of my favorite takeaways from being at One Reel was working with so many women leaders that were my mentors and really served as my role models Jane Zalutsky, Sheila Hughes there were just so many there that made a difference to me, and there was a shared kinship in what we could achieve together and an encouragement to each other that I don't know that I've ever experienced that elsewhere. It was really a special time.

Jon: 6:55

That is a really, really important fact, and I think about that often. I have thought about that often through time, simply because I was, I think, 25 when I first went to the office, and so that was my first real office job, and there was a large I don't know how many people working there 40 or something like that at the time but it was predominantly really strong women that were running and driving the whole show, every aspect of the show, and so to me that was normal. I didn't really grasp that wasn't necessarily, that was a relatively unique situation even at that time, you know, until after the fact, and so even to this day, that's just something that I carry with me. My presumption is certainly there's nothing unusual about women driving the show.

Beth: 7:48

Well and you know I'm often asked as a female leader was did I experience difficulties along the way or times when my work was, my path was thwarted? And In many ways I would say no, because I was always in environments where we were just supported, we were encouraged as leaders. It wasn't oh, you're a woman, so we're going to push you harder or give you anything. There was nothing different. It was just we were allowed to be strong leaders. I started my career at Seafair and had that experience there. I had it at One Reel. From that point on, I always felt like I have a place at the table. I expected to have a place at the table because that's what I was taught from the beginning. That gave me a confidence that I don't know that I would have had otherwise. I feel very fortunate to have worked in those two environments that were foundational in who I became as a leader.

Jon: 8:57

Talk a little more about who your mentors were, both at Seafair or throughout your career. Have you had the benefit of really strong mentors?

Beth: 9:05

Yeah, really amazing people. There's a lot of my peers that have served as role models and inspiration to me, but my first and probably most influential mentor was my boss at Seafair when I first started as an entry-level employee in the late 80s early 90s. His name is Bob Goebrecht. He was the president of Seafair and was also someone who pushed us, and in the right way. Like you, John, I grew up on a farm in Michigan and often would ask myself in those early days how did a farm girl from Michigan get here and get to do these things? Bob really pushed me to leverage my Midwest nice personality where needed, but then also tap into someone who is stronger than that and not just trying to please everyone, but to stand up for what I knew was right or what was needed, and be assertive where appropriate. He taught me to have a voice and absolutely pushed me out of my comfort zone many, many times Then that really led to being more comfortable, being uncomfortable. That was something that was a real takeaway for me that I can lean into being uncomfortable and it meant that I was growing, even when it was hard. Bob was someone who I long after we weren't working together. I mean, we worked together five years and it was an amazing, amazing time because we worked so hard together and we played hard as well. We celebrated after every success, every event, and learned from those as well.

Beth: 10:55

Others that I would really speak to would be, I mentioned, Jane Zalutsky. She was my boss at One Reel and also just gave me so many moments of inspiration and served as a role model for what it meant to own your voice and to lean into that and what it meant to be a business woman. I really admire her capacity for taking on big projects and then seeing them all the way through. She was not intimidated by anything. I don't know. You're right. You just saw that Jane was someone very special to me. But the other women leaders in my life working at Seafair Beth Wojick was someone that went on to continue to be a mentor to me Sheila Hughes and Jeannie Falls and Renee Duff and Susan Eastley all of these strong women at One Reel became a foundation of a collective mentorship to me. That made me feel confident in my ability to take on the next challenge, because I saw all of them be successful in that way as well.

Jon: 12:08

Jane was, I believe, my first perception of a real leader, and yes, I would agree. Do you have the benefit of a mentor presently?

Beth: 12:22

Well, I would say that I have peers that I turn to based on the specific need, or sometimes it's just the emotional need. You know, when you are a leader, especially in a CEO position, you know they'll often say it's lonely at the top and it can feel like you don't have anyone to talk to because you have to be a leader to your employees. So I do rely on many of those same women that we just mentioned when I just need a sounding board, when I need someone to commiserate with, and then that encouragement which just it always just helps me rebound when I have that time with these individuals, that that I still consider a mentor in a different way. So, yes, I very much rely on those people.

Jon: 13:18

Absolutely understood, and you're kind of touching on this. I'm going to go tangential just for a moment. We're talking about leadership, the loneliness at the top, which is just a very real, profound thing to have to deal with. What methods have worked for you over the years to help you take care of yourself?

Beth: 13:37

I wish I was better at it, frankly. So I'm reminded frequently that this has to be a priority, and so it's something I would have to work at intentionally to make sure that I am taking care of myself. A lot of it for me is connecting with those peers, those mentors, who help to restore my energy. That's one way of taking care of myself.

Beth: 14:02

I know that in my job I have a lot of extroverted moments. I have to be on, I have to be present, I have to be leading, and so I restore by being alone and having that quiet time. Sometimes I spend that time working, but I do it quietly and without any interruptions. That's a gift for me that restores. But I do try to, of course, do the exercise and the massages and things that help me physically restore as well, but that's something that I have to work at consistently. So I would say that it is an area that I am trying to turn my attention to more emphatically so that I can be a role model in that area, because I don't know that I am at this point. I want to be better at the well-being.

Jon: 14:54

That is a very honest self-analysis.

Beth: 14:58

Yeah, I think it's that type A. I don't want to say workaholic, although maybe some people would say that about me, but I think what happens is that I get into a pattern of hard work that is needed. When I took over the sports commission, it was during the pandemic and it was just me, so I was the chief cook and bottle washer, and so you put in the hours necessary and our kinds of jobs to be successful. It's hard for me to then shift gears and say, okay, we're at a good place right now. I can rely on other people to do these things instead of myself. So that's something intentional. That I'm focusing on is to use the people around me.

Beth: 15:42

I have a great board of directors who frequently says how can we help you, how can we support you? And taking advantage of those offers, or doing the outreach and say, hey, this is what I could use from you today. That isn't easy for me to do, because I was taught to be self-sufficient and when I was young I used to thought asking for help meant that I had failed. And even though I know that 100% that is not accurate, there's probably still a little bit of that muscle memory that I fight to this day. So that's an effort that I make.

Jon: 16:17

Is there a big difference between Beth Knox the person and Beth Knox when you're in your work role? Do you feel like you put on a face every day to go into work? Maybe another way of asking is to speak for myself. I've never really been able to separate work from life internally because I think, for all the right reasons, generally speaking, I love what I do and I know that's not. Most people don't have that privilege in whatever they do for work. Work is more of a job. It's something you do in exchange for money, but for a long time it's just like I do what I do and I don't really have hard lines between where my work and where my everything else is. I know in talking with other people on this show that's kind of a common thread. On one hand, I think that's fantastic in terms of being able to do what you love. That's a good thing. But it can create challenges in kind of that self-care mode. You know what I'm saying.

Beth: 17:17

No, I completely agree with that and yes, I love what I do. There is no, it's five o'clock and now I'm on personal time. There are times when I've been envious of those kinds of jobs where they clock out and they don't have to think about anything related to work until they clock back in. There's certainly some appeal to that on some level, but I wouldn't trade what I do for that Absolutely not. I think I would grow bored with that very quickly. There is no hard line and most days I think that that is something that is what fuels me.

Beth: 17:55

I love being able to go from the kind of the quote unquote workday into an event, whether I'm being hosted somewhere at a sporting event or I'm producing an event and entertaining other people. There's a real joy in that because it is my community, it's my world, and I love being able to connect with those people and make new connections. So that's something that does fuel me and it also can be exhausting at the same time. So, finding the balance of what can I do just for Beth instead of going to a game where I'm on that's the hard part is I really get to go to a sporting event and just cheer on the team and sit there and talk with my husband and just enjoy the game, because I'm usually entertaining someone and quote unquote working, making time for those moments, because I certainly can go to a game and not be working. I just have to make those opportunities intentionally.

Jon: 18:57

How would you describe your leadership style?

Beth: 19:01

I am someone who works hard to communicate the vision and then empower them to get to that point. I'm not a micromanager in any way. That doesn't mean I'm not. I don't have high expectations and I'm not demanding of meeting those expectations, but I do expect my team to have the same level of commitment and that quality experience. I think that's the key is that everyone understands what the end goal is, what the event vision is, so that they can execute it in their own way. But that's I want it to be a team effort. I want us to all feel like we are headed toward the same outcome and that we can celebrate collectively. You know, good, bad or otherwise I mean, no event is perfect and I love the, that debrief point where we talk about, sure, what didn't go right, but how can we make that better next year? Even if it went well, we know we can improve it next year. And that's what I try to bring to the team is instill that kind of mindset of how can we do this better and keep growing it.

Jon: 20:12

Through your lens. Has your leadership ability, have your leadership chops developed in a linear path? Has your career has gone along or have there been certain moments, maybe traumatic moments, where you feel like you took a big leap forward?

Beth: 20:28

Yeah, I think it's both, Jon. I think that you know I am someone who is really dedicated to personal and professional development. It's just something that I love to do. I'm constantly reading the next book on leadership or becoming a better individual, whether it's at work or in my family. That is something that I just strive to do on a regular basis. But there is no question that the traumatic moments in my career, the ones that have been the hardest, have been the greatest leaps of growth as a leader, and whether it's my confidence or my wisdom, my outlook those took dramatic leaps during those really difficult times, no question.

Jon: 21:15

As I listened to you say what you just said, I flashed back again to early one reel and that, now that I think about it, that was a really strong value of the organization at that time is that failure was embraced and it was examined from all angles regularly and it was never a punitive environment. It was always a learning environment towards the end of making it even bigger and better next time around.

Beth: 21:43

Right. I remember very specifically after it was my first year there it was the fourth of July Fireworks Show event and overall it had gone well. But there were definitely some challenges. We had cloud cover that covered the fireworks from the VIP event perspective and a variety of other things, some out of our control and some in. There was a document on the printer from our boss, Norm, who had identified all of.

Beth: 22:12

He had done his own debrief of all the things that he wanted to improve on, and it felt initially like a shock to me, like these are all the things that went wrong. And then we talked about it as a team and that was the basis of now how can we do this better? And to see that flip of, yes, we can acknowledge something that either failed or didn't go as expected, but now we shifted into then, how do we remedy? What does it look like next year? And it wasn't you all suck because this didn't work, it was how do we grow from it?

Beth: 22:47

And that was a pivotal moment for me to be thinking about that. And it got to the point where I had to caution myself during an event because I would be in the middle of an event and already wishing for the next year because I could do it so much better. I could see those places where we could do it better. I would have to remind myself stay present. You're executing this festival right now and there's amazing things happening. That gives me a lot of joy to look at how we can improve.

Jon: 23:17

It's one of the cruel aspects of live events is that you don't get any do-overs or, if you do, you have to wait a whole year.

Beth: 23:24

Exactly exactly. It's a long time.

Jon: 23:27

And by then everything's changed. You've been super busy the last couple of years at the Sports Commission, now everything's still trying to restart and establish some sort of new post COVID baseline for what normal means. What kind of trends are you seeing out there in the live events world?

Beth: 23:48

I don't know if this is a trend, but I know in my world what I am doing with the Seattle Sports Commission is so strongly connected to the community and I am being very deliberate about making that connection.

Beth: 24:02

We could just put on the MLB All Star week of activities with the Mariners and keep it very close to the chest and in our own silo.

Beth: 24:11

But I so believe that these sporting events will play a role in restoring the vibrancy of downtown Seattle, with putting our city on the map globally, not just nationally, in transforming our city and how we see ourselves as a city. So I am pushing really hard to make sure that every one of the events that we have coming up whether it's an NCAA championship or a league event like an All Star game or whatever that we are weaving that into our community in a manner that is engaging our city departments, our agencies, engaging the community leaders, finding ways that the businesses can build off of these events, so that it's a holistic approach and not just a one-off that happens, goes away and something we look back on years later and say, yeah, we did that event. I want it to be much more than that. So that's my own personal trend is forcing every one of these events to play a role in the community in a meaningful way.

Jon: 25:17

Briefly and from 30,000 feet. What are some examples of some of the challenges that you find are hurdles currently?

Beth: 25:26

Well, there's the obvious things of staffing shortages with Seattle police, oh yeah, and I think that I don't think I've talked to anyone who hasn't felt like the volume has just been turned up in their work space as far as how much volume of work they're doing. So everyone feels stretched already. So that's a challenge to help inspire them to take on this next thing and have them be excited about it. Fortunately, it is inspiring to think about hosting these mega events in our city, so that helps.

Beth: 25:59

The other challenges are when I want to have that kind of an impact. It also can lead to the mistake of trying to be all things to all people and you can't, and it's that the balance that I try to strike is how can we collaborate so that you can be successful in your business without it being that the sports commission or Beth has to make your business successful by bringing this event? So I think it is about how we position what this event can do and that can be any live event in any city. How do we amplify, how do we build off of each other and support each other without making one either a significant hindrance or an obstruction or responsible for the success outcome of that business. So I think that's an ongoing challenge to find that happy medium.

Jon: 26:50

It's an ongoing challenge. But it also occurs to me that another silver lining, if you will, of the pandemic is it's kind of created a new window for us as event producers to do that positioning, to tell that story. It's not necessarily a new story, but it's a new time.

Beth: 27:08

It's a new time. That's exactly right, and I think it is reminding people because they do think about things differently post pandemic, we all do so. Recrafting that narrative and the relationships, I think we're rebuilding them in new ways and many times better ways. I think that has to be intentional when we are proceeding to find these connections with our partners in the community.

Jon: 27:34

Wise words, Beth. I know we're on a tight timeframe today, so we'll wrap it up. I wanna thank you so much for making the time and sitting down with me today.

Beth: 27:42

I've loved sharing some memories with you, Jonn. This has been fun.

Jon: 27:45

We'll do it again sometime.

Beth: 27:46

Okay, sounds great. All call, one hour to doors.