Party Promoter to Entrepreneur. Jeff Krauss

Bob Wheeler:

Jeff, welcome to the show. So excited to have this conversation with you.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Bob, thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate it.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Alright, so you are really like in the business of celebrity, right? And so can you just tell our listeners how you got here, this journey, how you got to creating IE Group and Fan Room Live and like here you are.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Well, I mean, without going through too long of a story here, I’ll try to keep it as short as possible to the point. Back in college, I started throwing parties. I got connected to a couple of promoters, and I just started throwing parties and really just loved bringing people together. And as I was going through college, I kept wanting to throw my own parties and kept building and building. And when I got out of college, I ended up being a partner in a bar lounge.

 

That lasted about two years, didn’t really work out, but I did learn a lot of stuff. And I just then went and started maybe producing more of my own events, started to consult for nightclubs and restaurants. more as a director and less as, you know, quote unquote, the owner, meaning I would get hired to put everything together, but I wasn’t the owner.

And that worked better for me because this way, I didn’t have to deal with the stresses of, you know, whether the venue’s paying their rent on time and all this other stuff that I just, you know, I didn’t want to be bothered with. I just wanted to do my thing, make the place hot, bring all the people, book all the events. bring celebrity, whatever it is, and just do my thing.

So as I was doing that, that started to, you know, I would do a venue for a few years, make it hot, great, okay, onto the next. And I started to just really figure out that I really just loved throwing my own events for different fashion brands and all that kind of stuff. And I started to do charity events with celebrities. I started working with George Wayne, who was at the time writing for Vanity Fair, started throwing all of his parties.

And then I started to consult for restaurants and started to do programming for restaurants that let’s just say they had a lounge in the restaurant kind of thing. So I would do the marketing with the restaurant and then I would do the events and program the lounge downstairs.

That kind of a setup or if it’s a rooftop. The events that I was doing separately and through working with the restaurants and lounges, I ended up, well, I shouldn’t say separately from that, I ended up partnering with one of my best friends, Mitch Faulkner. What we would do is he was more interested in booking celebrities for conventions, for autograph signings, for that kind of stuff. I was more about… getting celebrities and just great people into the restaurants and lounges.

So we just kind of came together and started doing it that way. Well, what ended up happening was after a number of years of doing it that way, people started to call me, like publicists that I’m just friends with, and say, hey, I wanna get a celebrity to host this brand launch or whatever. And I would say, okay, I’ll call niche and we would just start making calls to our connections and we would get them the celebrity.

So it just kind of started to slowly grow that way but unintentionally. It was never intentional to do that. My only thing at the beginning was just I wanted celebrities to come to my parties and to come to the restaurants and lounges that I was working with really and grow my relationships.

But things just started to escalate. So then all of a sudden those conventions that Mitch would be booking for, they would wanna tap certain, or tap into certain celebrities or certain agents that I had the relationships with because I was working with them for their clients’ dinners and all that kind of stuff. So then that started to grow. And now all of a sudden we’re booking celebrities for conventions and Comic-Con type stuff and speaking engagements.

So I, but what I realized was that I wanted to keep the other stuff going because now at that point, I was also doing like, you know, I was scouting spaces for Saturday Night Live for their after parties or after parties. Then they, you know, I’d be hiring the DJ all of a sudden, six months to a year in. Now instead of one party, I’m doing most of the parties for their after parties.

So I would want to invite the celebrities to those parties because it’s just a natural thing. They, you know, it’s just a natural progression because they would want to go to the party and obviously they would want to have them. So it would just kept building and building. And then of course pandemic hit and everything was shut down.

Bob Wheeler:

Right.

Jeff Kraus:

Pandemic hits and we’re just sitting in our. you know, sitting in our houses, apartments, doing nothing, bored out of our minds. Mitch calls me up and says, Jeff, I, you know, we’re so bored. You know, what do we want to do? I mean, I want to get some of my athletes and wrestlers online to do something. So I said, well, how about we raise some money for some charities? I mean, now this is April of 2020.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Right.

 

Jeff Kraus:

We are beyond bored. Everybody is scared of this thing.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah.

 

Jeff Kraus:

And we just decided, okay, we’re gonna just start making calls. I said, maybe we could do this with celebrities too. Called Cedric the entertainer. And we threw the idea out to him just naturally, like, hey, what do you think of this idea? We can get some celebrities onto online and create some money and they can meet their fans and just a very basic. skeleton pitch kind of thing. Wasn’t even a pitch, it was just an idea. And he says, you know, guys, I actually love this idea. I’d love to co-produce it with you. So we were like, oh, well, that’d be fantastic.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Cool.

 

Jeff Kraus:

You know, yeah, that’d be awesome. So we partnered up. We, you know, spent a little time of just going back and forth, picking a name and format and all that kind of stuff. And within a few months, we launched what is now called Fan Room Live, where celebrity comes on, they get to meet their fans. Some of the events are for charity. Some of them aren’t depending on the, you know, celebrity and what they’re, you know, what they’re trying to do. Um, and yeah, we just been kept, kept building it. And then my events started to come back for in-person. So now we have both Fan Room Live and we have all the other stuff. And that’s the short story of how we got here today, basically.

 

Bob Wheeler:

That’s how it happened. So let me ask you this. What is the, you know, first of all, I mean, I guess we all want to go to the party so we can forget about our everyday lives and we can just go have some fun. And then you add the celebrities in. Is it because we want to be able to say we’ve, you know, touched elbows with the rich and famous? Or it’s like, we want to be a celeb? What do you think the appeal is to like, that’s where the action is kind of thing?

 

Jeff Kraus:

Well, I don’t so here’s the thing if we’re talking about there’s different there’s different aspects to this right so if we’re just talking about why would somebody want to come to a party because there’s a celebrity there I don’t I don’t know that it’s necessarily of oh I need to meet this celebrity and I need to go to this party because the celebrities hosting I think that it’s more along the lines of If the celebrity’s hosting, you know that party is gonna be hot

 

Bob Wheeler:

Right.

 

Jeff Kraus:

and it’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be good. So you know, I wanna be there. Now that’s one mindset. The other mindset is, oh, you know, I saw that person in this movie and I’m a huge, you know, I love that. I wanna go. And sometimes it’s just you heard the celebrity was at a specific venue or through that party and now you wanna throw your party there because you heard. about that venue and that it’s hot. So there’s like different layers to like why somebody would want to, why somebody would want to be around that, if that makes sense.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, to me, it seems like with Fan Room Live and with the pandemic having happened, part of it’s connection. Like we all wanna be in more connection and like if we can be in connection with our celebrity people that we look up to or we enjoy seeing on TV, we get to feel a little closer maybe.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Well, the thing with Fan Room Live is that Fan Room Live, a lot of times celebrities will come on, they’ll meet their fans, and the fans will start talking about telling them, hey, you really inspired me to do X, Y, and Z, or you really helped me get through a dark period in my life, where you wouldn’t get that kind of intimate conversation at… a party really or at a comic con because or at any kind of convention because and I’m not saying that they don’t get any kind of connection but you don’t get that you’re in their green room just sitting next to them talking type vibe like yes at conventions you can get an autograph you can get a selfie but it’s one two and then there’s somebody rushing you off the line because they’re trying to get as many signatures and as many whatever in a short amount of time as possible, right?

 

Or you might go and there might be a panel and you get to speak, but you’re speaking from you’re speaking from like the audience on a microphone. You’re not sitting next to them face to face talking to them. So it’s a little it’s a little different. And that’s what that’s what we love about it is that it’s up close, intimate, personal You know, we also try to, you know, we have some great hosts, Jay Benjamin and Stacey Toy, who are also co-executive producers. And they also really, they bring the energy to the experience. You know, they might throw in, you know, a little funny thing here or there. I mean, there was one time where this guy came on to meet Crystal Reed, and he’s, you know, up-and-coming. or trying to be an up and coming rapper.

 

And the guy, and Jay pops in and says, hey, why don’t you throw a rap for Crystal Reed? Why don’t you throw some beats? And the guy started trying to do it. And then we realized he couldn’t, he wasn’t doing it. I don’t know what he was doing. So Jay came on and said, hey, let me help you out. I think I could help you out. And he started, Jay started rapping just to, you know, get the guy going. And then all of a sudden the guy starts rapping and it’s like, you know, this funny thing. I mean, it was just hilarious.

 

Bob Wheeler:

That’s

 

Jeff Kraus:

So

 

Bob Wheeler:

cool.

 

Jeff Kraus:

yeah, these moments just happen and it’s, uh, it’s a lot of fun and brings a lot of, you know, a lot of joy to a lot of people basically.

 

Bob Wheeler:

That’s cool. Let me ask you this. So growing up, was this your vision or did your parents tell you like, you know, you need to go be an accountant or you need to be an engineer or like, was there any pressure or was it was just like, Hey, go find your path. Um, and was this a path forward initially, or it just sort of. Like, I know it developed sort of organically, but was that even on the radar when you first started doing this stuff?

 

Jeff Kraus:

No, first of all, growing up, I had zero, I mean, I had literally zero interest in any of this stuff. I mean, it would be the furthest thing from my mind. In fact, when I first, the very first party that I ever threw, one of my best friends, he had to convince me. for weeks on in to throw a party with him to do it. I did not wanna do it. I had zero interest in it. I was like, promote parties at nightclubs. I don’t wanna do that. What the heck? It was not, it was literally the furthest thing from my mind. And then he kept pushing and pushing, come on, Jeff, let’s just try it once. And then after I tried it once or twice, I was hooked.

 

Bob Wheeler:

That’s cool.

 

Jeff Kraus:

I was like, I love bringing people together and, you know, but no, it was the furthest thing from my mind.

 

Bob Wheeler:

And was that something that your parents got behind? Were they like, oh my God, that’s such a great idea? Or Jeff, what are you doing?

 

Jeff Kraus:

No, it was more like Jeff, what are you doing kind of thing?

 

Bob Wheeler:

I don’t know.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Yeah. Well, no, you know what? It wasn’t. It was more of like, Jeff, what are you doing? But then as you know, time, you know, when I just remember when I started doing this, I mean, I was only. I mean, I was just going into my, you know, sophomore year of college. So this was not again. This was something where I. just started doing it and just wanted to keep going. But their more idea was the typical, you know, nine to five kind of thing. And, you know, find something in college that you like and all that kind of stuff. But for me, it just, I just kept doing it really. And eventually they, you know, they were supportive. It’s not that they weren’t supportive. They

 

Bob Wheeler:

Right.

 

Jeff Kraus:

just weren’t like, I don’t. really love this, but okay, you know.

 

Bob Wheeler:

It’s just concern.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Yeah.

 

Bob Wheeler:

I just wanted to work out for you. That’s

 

Jeff Kraus:

Exactly.

 

Bob Wheeler:

that makes sense. Jeff, we’re going to take a moment, we’re going to jump to Test Your Nerve brought to you by TheMoneyNerve.com. This is just a way to find out what’s going on with your money mindset. And to the listeners out there, I dare challenge you to confront your finances without fear. Step up and take the free TestYourNerve.com quiz today. Do it. All right. Yes. Jeff, are you ready? We’re gonna test your nerve, your money nerve.

 

If you could collaborate with any historical figure living or deceased to create a unique event or experience, who would it be and what kind of event would you envision with this person?

 

Jeff Kraus:

Ooh, that’s a good question. Hmm, that, that would take some… Hmm. Well, I’ll tell you what. I would probably make I would envision this event. The event would be special guest Gandhi for Peace and Love.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yep.

 

Jeff Kraus:

I would take in another room, Eddie Murphy doing comedy.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Kraus:

I’d have in another room, Madonna and Prince performing.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Cool.

 

Jeff Kraus:

And in another room, I’d have I don’t know, maybe Elvis in the next room performing. And all the money that’s raised would go to a charity that would disperse all the money to all different types of, you know, whether it be AIDS research, cancer research, homelessness, and I would diverse. I would pick four causes. that are the most needed in humanity, and also maybe the environment, and divide them all equally.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Perfect, love it. That’s a good thing

 

Jeff Kraus:

Hope

 

Bob Wheeler:

and

 

Jeff Kraus:

that’s a good answer.

 

Bob Wheeler:

that’ll work. And yeah, I’d love to, would have loved to have met Gandhi. That would have been pretty cool. Do you have any hidden talents or hobbies outside of your professional realm that ever directly influenced or inspired an event concept?

 

Jeff Kraus:

Well, I mean, I wouldn’t say that my hobbies inspired in an event concept, but I do watch, I do watch, you know, WWE, UFC, all that kind of stuff. I do watch like, you know, Dana White interviews, CM Punk interviews, just, you know, I like to see what goes on behind the scenes. in those respective companies, AEW, just because I want to, I like to, I like to see how people, how people come up with things like, why was this person held down?

 

How did they navigate? For example, I think that the story of AEW is the most beautiful story ever. The fact that, you know, Vince McMahon didn’t counter Chris Jericho’s fee. And he basically now has a competitor, all because he didn’t counter Jericho’s fee. And if he had he done that, had he actually brought Chris Jericho back to WWE, AEW would not be on TNT right now.

 

That’s my opinion, because they needed a star. And while- The rest of the wrestlers were all big. They were big on the indie, they were known, but they didn’t have that star power that a television station like TNT and TBS would be looking at. So little stories like that, that I’m like, that’s really interesting that he underestimated Chris and a week later he’s calling him up saying, hey, can you get out of that contract? Because he realized all for, money that he should have just offered, he now has a huge competitor.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah, exactly. Why

 

Jeff Kraus:

If they’re

 

Bob Wheeler:

do you

 

Jeff Kraus:

not

 

Bob Wheeler:

think?

 

Jeff Kraus:

on TV, then what are they?

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah, you gotta be seen. What do you think the fascination is with wrestlers?

 

Jeff Kraus:

When you say fascination with the wrestlers,

 

Bob Wheeler:

Well,

 

Jeff Kraus:

what do you mean by that?

 

Bob Wheeler:

people like, you know, I went to school in Memphis and wrestling was the number one sport and there’s so many places you go and they’re like, it’s, you know, whether it’s UFC fighting, whether it’s wrestling, whether it’s maybe boxing, not as much, but like there’s, like people love wrestling. I work at the comedy store. We have had wrestling events in the main room and it’s just people love wrestlers, it feels like. And so I’m just.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Well, I feel like, well, okay, so there’s kind of two types of wrestling fans, or maybe three. There’s wrestling fans that just love to see the action, meaning like the cool moves, the, you know, how did they flip out of that? Or, you know, how did they reverse this? And more of that kind of stuff. Like, have you ever watched the… the wrestling in Japan, it’s very hard hitting.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Even though again, yes, it’s choreographed, yes, it’s a work, it’s fixed. The moves are a lot of times like very rough. But then it’s like, hey, can they really do that in real life? Like what would happen if they got into a real fight? And then you look at a guy like Brock Lesnar and people were like, all right, well, he’s big, he’s… was a national champion, but can he really fight? And then you see him in the UFC and you’re like, oh, okay,

 

Bob Wheeler:

Oh yeah.

 

Jeff Kraus:

oh yeah, this guy can really, can really go. And I think then there’s another part of the audience that’s more into the characters and the story. And they love the entertainment part of it where it’s more of, you know, diving into that character. How relatable is that character to what you can, what you could see. Like, look, everybody loved Stone Cold Steve Austin, because he was that guy that didn’t take crap from his boss,

 

Bob Wheeler:

Right.

 

Jeff Kraus:

and he was pissed off. He’s been held down for all these years, and he doesn’t mind flipping you off and drinking a beer right in the middle of the ring and saying, hey, who’s going to do anything about it? So, you know, it again, it depends. And then there’s the kids. The kids love, you know, They’re heroes like the Hulk Hogan’s and the John Cena’s and whoever.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah.

 

Jeff Kraus:

I mean, it’s something for everybody, so to speak. So that’s one thing that I would say why people love wrestling is because there’s something for everybody. But the stories make the characters and the characters make you wanna watch.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Well, there’s certainly a lot of drama. They’re, I’m gonna kill you. I’m coming for you.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Oh yeah.

 

Bob Wheeler:

And yeah, there’s always, even if it’s over the top, it’s still a lot of fun, I think sometimes.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Oh yeah.

 

Bob Wheeler:

If you had a time machine and you could go back in time and organize an event in any era of history, what period would you choose?

 

Jeff Kraus:

I would probably say I would love to throw a party in like the late 80s. Um, just because like it would just be so cool to get like a, you know, if you, if you go back in time and you look at like the seventies and the eighties when like studio 54 was going and you see the people going in there, it just looks so much fun. I mean, you got like young. uh, you know, young Madonna, young, you know, uh, these young actresses and young, you know, like that you would, you would see today, not that they’re not, you know, and when I say young, I’m talking like, you know, twenties young, I mean,

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah, yeah.

 

Jeff Kraus:

like, it was a party and, you know, the, the people were, you know, all really dressed, really, you know, cool and funky. And it was just, I don’t know if that’s I would say yeah, probably the late 80s would be something that would be, or the mid to late 80s would be just something really cool to see how people, you know, partied back then for real.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe that’s been a while. That’s been a while.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Yeah.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Let me ask you this. What initially sparked your passion for the field? I mean, your friends pushed you into it. Once you sort of said, you know what, this is sort of fun. What was it that, was it just seeing the people coming together and having a good time and you knew that you brought them together? Was it like… Well, I just like putting events together. Like, do you

 

Jeff Kraus:

It was,

 

Bob Wheeler:

remember?

 

Jeff Kraus:

yeah, it was a mix of both. I loved getting, I loved the idea of bringing people together and being the reason for it in a sense. I loved the people leaving being like, oh, I had such a great time, great experience. Just gave me purpose in a sense. It was just something that was like, there’s no feeling in the world. when afterwards somebody says, hey, I had such a great time at your party, or, you know, we had such an amazing time at this restaurant, you know, for this dinner. The food was incredible, the service was so good, the music was great, and you know, there’s no feeling better than hearing like, hey, you delivered this great experience. And that’s really what it is for me when you strip everything away from it. having a great time at basically at my expense in a sense.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, let me ask you this. So you, you know, everybody’s having a good time. At a certain point, you got to have a money conversation, whether it’s with the celebs, whether it’s with the charity organizer. Like, sometimes there’s these conversations. How fun is that? Does that ever get uncomfortable? And, or do most people just go, yeah, whatever, it all works. Because it seems like for this to work, you have to have some financial structures in place. And you can’t just, I would imagine you can’t just do this for free all the time. And so do you have to have those conversations and are they hard conversations?

 

Jeff Kraus:

Well, it depends on the structure of the event. So there’s different ways that these events come to be. Sometimes a celebrity says, hey, I want to throw this party and I have a budget and whatever. Sometimes they don’t have a budget and they want to trade certain things from the venue or they want to trade, or their publicist wants to trade things out. Sometimes they say, hey, we don’t care about any of that stuff.

 

This is our budget and, you know, it is what it is. Sometimes it’s the charity or the charity has a brand sponsor. Brand sponsor says, hey, I’ll give you X amount of I’ll put up X amount of money to have a celebrity host or performer. And sometimes if it’s a charity event, the celebrity may go down on their fee or they may work with them because it’s a charity that they like. And There’s all these little logistics that go into it of how these things come together.

 

As far as for my purposes of my money, I don’t really, other than the, unless the celebrity says, hey Jeff, I wanna throw a party in LA, I want you to fly out, I want you to plan the party at my house, and… or whatever, and I have this budget and blah, blah. As long as it’s something that makes sense to me, most times I’ll just try to work within their budget because at the end of the day, they could, A, number one, they could go to somebody else and B, number two, it’s, and now again, that’s if I’m available to do it, of course,

 

Bob Wheeler:

Right.

 

Jeff Kraus:

but as long as I’m available to do it, sometimes I just look at it like, hey, you know what? I’ll try to work within their budget and supplement it with whatever. There’s no real one way that

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yep.

 

Jeff Kraus:

this happens. Most times though, a lot of times, these things happen where either the venue is paying me or there’s a… So for example, if a convention wants a celebrity, they’ll pay me separately from paying the celebrity. They sign autographs, they do their thing. Same thing with a charity. Charity has a sponsor, sponsor pays me, sponsor pays the celebrity, and then, you know, other than the celebrities that are being paid, we just invite people to come whoever’s around. So like, there’s really a lot of different ways that these things come together. There’s really no one set, one set thing.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah, no, that makes sense. It sounds, it’s more like follow the fun. If it sounds like it’s going to be fun, um, and doable, make it happen.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Yeah, look, sometimes there’s situations where whatever I have doesn’t work out. Meaning like, for example, if, if I’m doing marketing for a restaurant, and a celebrity comes to say, I want to throw my birthday party, but that restaurant that you’re working with isn’t really the right fit. Can you get me this other place or whatever, if it’s something easy. Sometimes I might just do it because again, it’s relationships. Um, maybe the venue does throw me a little something. It there’s so many variations to this that it’s very hard to pin down, uh, one particular way that these things happen.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah. Now, well, that makes it more fun. It makes every day different. Makes

 

Jeff Kraus:

Yeah.

 

Bob Wheeler:

every day different. That sounds like fun. Jeff, we’re at the M&M moment, the money and motivation, our sweet spot. I’m wondering if you have a practical financial tip or a piece of wealth wisdom for our listeners, something that works for you in your everyday life, because I’m sure you got to manage your own money just as well.

 

Jeff Kraus:

My only tip would be, if you’re trying to do what you set out to do, you really have to, and again, this is just my opinion, but you really have to be conservative with your money on what you’re spending on yourself for fun if you want to get ahead on the business side. yourself to propel yourself forward. That’s just my advice. Again, maybe to the next person, they don’t need to do that. I don’t know.

 

Maybe they don’t care about that. Maybe the business part of it is second and maybe the fun part is first. But I would just manage, for example, you don’t need to go out to dinner at a fancy restaurant every single night of the week if you’re trying to uh… put money into your into your businesses and propelled them forward you could go out once a week or twice a week and you know uh… do food shopping and order in uh… you don’t need necessarily the big fancy office you could have a small office and have people work remote you know there’s just certain ways of doing things that you can manage where you don’t have to uh splurge on unnecessary things when you’re trying to get to the next level. That’s my only uh advice.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah, no, I think that’s true. I think a lot of times people think they need the fluff, the extra stuff or the,

 

Jeff Kraus:

You don’t.

 

Bob Wheeler:

and you don’t. Like you

 

Jeff Kraus:

You

 

Bob Wheeler:

just,

 

Jeff Kraus:

don’t.

 

Bob Wheeler:

let’s get to basics. Let’s

 

Jeff Kraus:

I

 

Bob Wheeler:

get

 

Jeff Kraus:

don’t.

 

Bob Wheeler:

to basics.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Yeah, my thing is I don’t. First of all, I don’t I don’t need to impress anybody from my with my lifestyle or anything like that. What I need to impress people is the job that I’m able to do. I don’t care if, you know, people say, you know, hey, you’re flying first class or anything. Like, I don’t care about any of that stuff.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Right.

 

Jeff Kraus:

That’s just fluff.

 

Bob Wheeler:

That’s fluff.

 

Jeff Kraus:

What’s the crux of what you can do? What is the crux? And here’s the other thing, is there a connection? Is there a relationship? You don’t have to fake being Mr. Wealthy and Mr. Driving a flashy car and all that kind of stuff. All that does is just drives up your your expenses when you could be spending it on stuff that you really actually need.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Pragmatic.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Yeah,

 

Bob Wheeler:

Be pragmatic.

 

Jeff Kraus:

that’s my advice.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah. No, absolutely. Well, Jeff, you know, it’s been interesting to hear you talk about this because it sounds like a lot of this sort of happened organically. You just were sort of following your passion, trusting even when it didn’t seem like necessarily the right thing, but I’ll check it out, you know, and just sort of letting it happen. Um,

 

Jeff Kraus:

Yeah.

 

Bob Wheeler:

but also being mindful, uh, that you don’t have to fly first class and have the fanciest car to be able to connect celebrities and have a fun time.

 

Jeff Kraus:

No, you don’t. You just need to be smart. You need to make tactical, very good tactical decisions on how you wanna network and build yourself forward. Remember, all the people that you see that are celebrities, they all came from nothing. So most of them, unless they’re a jerk, are not gonna judge you based on how you fly and how you, you know. No, they don’t care about any of that stuff.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah.

 

Jeff Kraus:

in the reality of it. They don’t most of them don’t.

 

Bob Wheeler:

No. They

 

Jeff Kraus:

They

 

Bob Wheeler:

don’t.

 

Jeff Kraus:

care about hey, is this a good person? Is this a good person to work with? Can I trust that you know, they’re not going to be doing anything stupid? Are they gonna, you know, keep my events safe and private and all that stuff? That’s what they care about.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah.

 

Jeff Kraus:

All that other flashy stuff. They don’t. They don’t give a shit.

 

Bob Wheeler:

The rest is fluff. The rest is

 

Jeff Kraus:

Yeah.

 

Bob Wheeler:

fluff. Well, this is great. Jeff, where can people find you online in social media? Where can they find more about Fan Room Live? All that good stuff.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Instagram at IE group NYC for my company IE group. Fanroom Live, you could just check out at Fanroom Live on Instagram. And my website is iegny.com and Fanroom Live is fanroomlive.com.

 

Bob Wheeler:

We’ll be sure and put all that in the show notes. Jeff, it’s been great having you on the show, and maybe we’ll catch you at the next party. Or maybe

 

Jeff Kraus:

Yeah,

 

Bob Wheeler:

I’ll…

 

Jeff Kraus:

definitely man. I appreciate you having me on. This has been fun.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much.

 

Jeff Kraus:

Thanks, Bob.

 

Bob Wheeler:

Thanks so much. Just real quick, the…