About Us!

Hey everyone, SweetHart here, and I wanted to do a quick About Us Blog post, because I've gotten a lot of questions from people about methodology and why I started SweetHart Entertainment in the first place, so this seemed like the easiest way! As always, we hope you're able to take something valuable from this post, whether it's encouragement or an added positive outlook, so hopefully I can make that happen while taking you on a quick journey through Comedy and how Entertainment can improve your professional skillset.

SweetHart Entertainment was a culmination of so many different factors, but the main ones were the places I've worked, and my passion for comedy. I started performing comedy when I was 20, and for me, it was never about being in the spotlight or being the main focal point for attention. I loved comedy strictly because I've always loved making people laugh, and I love the effect laughter has on all of us. Laughter is infectious, and for many of us, laughter is medicine! Plus, our lives here on earth are too short not to enjoy, so if I can help people enjoy life at a higher level...that's a pretty good goal!

As time went on, Comedy became less of a hobby and more of a passion....maybe even an obsession if I'm being honest. I watched countless hours of comedy on Netflix, YouTube and other avenues, and I even started a journal so I could track trends and answer some of the questions I had. What made some peoples' material better than others? Why did some viewers enjoy one comedian over another, especially if they had the same style of content and delivery? Why did some people connect easier with some comedians over others? Was it their style, their personality, their material, or a combination?

After about 3 years of doing Comedy, I had 2 unique opportunities come knocking. My first was the chance to start performing in larger cities with a professional Comedy group, which was an incredible experience. We performed in DC, New York, and all over North Carolina, and then I also had opportunities to do Comedy on the West Coast and even over in London. The experience was insane, and I truly never thought that would happen, but it made me love the Comedy scene even more than I already did, which again, I didn't think was possible!

The second unique opportunity is that I got my first professional, 40-hour office job, complete with salary, a desk and everything. This was baffling to me, because I didn't know if I had the right skills to sell, and I had never done phone sales in my life. Turns out that I started working for a Professional Training company, so I spent my work week talking about how to improve the skillsets of people in the IT industry.

At first when I started, I was definitely aware of my shortcomings and my lack of experience in Sales and in the IT world, but that wasn't going to stop me. I had a great team of people who were beyond excellent at selling, so I was going to take notes, learn from them, and hopefully soon, I was going to be just like them! This worked in theory, but after about a year of being at that job, I realized something very important - I wasn't like them at all. I was getting better with my conversations, closing more deals, and connecting with people, but I still wasn't at their level at all. What was missing? Well, I was told that, out of everything, I was missing. I was just copying other people, and since I'm not like them, my style came across as insincere, and sometimes a little scripted. Bleh! That was the worst feedback ever I think I've ever gotten.

Alright, so how do we fix this? Well, I had to start being myself. What does that even mean? Well, I had a naturally outgoing personality and a passion for comedy...so why not just try some jokes with clients and see where it got me? I mean, seriously what was there to lose? So that's exactly what I did! I started joking with people I never thought I would get to laugh - Managers, Directors, and even a few C-level Executives. Turns out, they're human. Who knew? My jokes and my down-to-earth approach was apparently what set me apart from the hundreds of other people calling them on a weekly basis, and they always enjoyed talking to me. They started trusting me more, giving me more information, and sure enough, I started closing larger and larger deals in my territory.

It wasn't long before other people on my team started to notice I was selling more, and more and more often, people were listening in on my conversations to see what set me apart. When they heard me joking around with clients and dropping dad jokes on certain calls, most people were blown away. I even got called unprofessional by a few people who said that I stick to selling and stop treating clients as if they were friends. That was definitely the worst advice I ever got, because that's what made me sound robotic, scripted, and just like everyone else. Worse than that, I felt like I was robotic, scripted, and just like everyone else when I wasn't joking with people. At the same time, I kept reading more, listening to podcasts and Sales professionals, and getting more information on how to succeed in Sales, and everybody was telling you to try unique approaches. Why couldn't comedy be my unique approach?

Eventually, my time at that job came to an end, and I thought about what I wanted to be the next step of my career. I thought it would be tough to find my next job, because I left that job being told that I was unprofessional, and that I should scale back my personality. Who would take someone like that? Well it turns out that a lot of people wanted someone like me, and I got 3 offers the same week I left my old job. However, I thought I would be bringing some Sales knowledge, a mentality for a data-driven strategic approach to growing accounts, and the ability to close deals. Turns out, while I brought those to the table, none of the Recruiters and/or Managers cited that as why they wanted to hire me. They said they wanted me for my Communication, my Creative Problem Solving, my Confidence, my personable approach, and my down to earth style. I knew I had those tools or skills, but I had never heard someone compliment me on them before in a professional setting.

That was my major light-bulb moment, because I remember leaving that interview and thinking, "I'm glad they saw those skills in me, and I believe I have them, but did I get those from working in Sales? Where did those come from?" As I thought about it, and as I thought about those individual skills, it turns out I didn't get any of them from my old Sales job. They didn't really develop any Soft Skills in me, but Entertainment did. Doing Stand-Up and Improv Comedy gave me those skills, and I had no idea how truly valuable they were in the professional world, but apparently, those exact skills set me so far apart from other applicants with similar experience levels that I got 3 job offers!

This is where the idea for SweetHart Entertainment truly started. I realized quickly that the skills I learned from learning Entertainment didn't just give me skills to compete with others in the Sales space - it gave me an advantage. Most people are terrified or nervous during presentations, especially with C-level execs, but I never had that fear. Most people use the same approach over and over because that's what they were comfortable with, but I had the creativity to try multiple different approaches. Most people came across as artificial or nervous, but I came across as relaxed, confident, and genuine. Remember back when I said the best part of Comedy is spreading laughter and improving the lives of others by doing so? Turns out I feel the same way about helping people through their professional careers. Who knew?!

It took me a while to figure out what I would want SweetHart Entertainment to look like, and I still needed to do research into if that was even a marketable approach. Lucky for me, I was able to get the chance to do Corporate Entertainment, and a few Soft Skills Seminars through the Entertainment group I was with at the time, and I treated them as my dry run for SweetHart Entertainment. After all, if I could do these well, that would be all the proof I need that Entertainment can be a great avenue for people to learn more skills that translate directly to their professional careers. I received amazing reviews from those clients, and I started formulating how I could make this my full-time job, because what could be better than a full-time job where you help others build themselves up and move forward through their careers? I couldn't think of anything better, and still can't!

Not long after that, I started getting larger companies looking for Soft Skills Seminars and Corporate Entertainment options, and I was always happy to help. After getting great reviews from companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cisco, and IBM, there was only one thing I needed to do. I needed to leave my comfortable lifestyle and bet on myself that I could successfully live out my dream as a Corporate Entertainer with the ability to use the Soft Skills learned through Entertainment to improve the skillsets of various teams, including Sales, CSMs, SDRs, Leadership, and even HR.

The best part about our approach here at SweetHart Entertainment is that we teach Soft Skills in a unique, innovative way, so that people aren't stuck in a room for 8 hours listening to something equivalent to the teacher from The Peanuts. We get people excited, engaged, and active during our seminars, because what we do is actually FUN! Remember back when school used to be fun? That's exactly how we want our Seminars to feel, so that you're engaged and having fun while learning the tools that improve your current skillset, which leads directly to improve employee efficiency, promotions, and the raises that come with them. As an organization, these improved skills lead directly to Sales, Employee Retention, and an improved happiness in your organization to go with your improved team efficiencies.

Well, that's all I have for now! That's a lot about where I came from, how I adopted my mentality for Soft Skills Seminars and Corporate Entertainment, and how I know that my approach works. I hope you were able to get something out of this that encouraged you, whether it's affirmation that you're allowed to be yourself while at your job, whether you're thinking about betting on yourself and becoming an Entrepreneur, or even if you just liked my writing style for some odd reason. If you read something you'd like to learn more about, feel free to use one of our Contact Forms to get in touch with us, or just email us at SweetHartEntertainment@gmail.com!

- SweetHart