Rodney Hart: Hello and welcome in to another episode of Event Perspectives. Really excited to be joined by Laura DeGood today. Generally we talk a lot about the kind of journey into events and what people are working on. Laura, I’m really excited to have you. First of all, welcome. I feel like I say this every time: I’m really excited for this conversation. I generally am, but I think this one will be a pretty interesting perspective. How are you feeling?

Laura DeGood: Thank you. Excited to chat about it. It’s an interesting lens on this series that you have, so I appreciate you having me on.

Rodney Hart: I can’t wait, and I’m sure people will have a lot to learn from it. But what we like to do before we get going is get everyone a little bit warmed up. So I like to start with an icebreaker, if you’re game for that. Let’s go with something you learned early in your career that you think others learned too late.

Laura DeGood: Sleep cycles are about 90 minutes, maybe up to 110. So plan accordingly. Go to bed when you should, based on when you need to get up, and set an alarm if you’re going to take a nap. Sunlight in your eyeballs is the best way to wake up. If you’re traveling internationally and feeling really tired or didn’t get a lot of sleep, get outside and get in the sun. Those are the top two I can think of right now.

Rodney Hart: I really like those. They’re both around sleep. And I will tell you, I have not had a lot of sleep before this conversation, so fair warning. But 90 to 110 minutes: does that mean if you have an hour and a half to two hours, that’s sufficient? But if you’ve got three, do two? Is that what we’re saying with sleep cycles?

Laura DeGood: Once you get through a full REM cycle, into deep sleep and everything, it’s usually about 90 minutes. So if you have three hours, you can probably get two REM cycles and that’ll be really great. But it’s also like 30-minute chunks. So if you can only do a nap for 30 versus 45, take the 30-minute nap. That power nap is going to be way better than trying to wake up at 60 minutes when you’re in the middle of a cycle.

Rodney Hart: That’s critical. I feel like sometimes for what we do, that’s pretty important. And the sunlight thing: I need some right now. I need to go find some sunlight for my eyeballs.

Laura DeGood: Yeah, the other thing too is if you’re staying in the same hotel as your event and it’s in Vegas, make it a point to go outside once a day. There was one time I was on site and I realized I had been inside the hotel, casino, and convention center for five days straight without fresh air. So I always made it a point to go outside at least once.

Rodney Hart: There’s something about those Vegas hotels. I mean, it’s by design, I guess. The first event I ever did in Las Vegas was very much the same. I remember it dawning on me that I was seeing sunlight for the first time in what felt like a week. I went out to the loading dock toward the end of the event and I was like, I forgot that this exists.

Laura DeGood: The outside world. It exists. It’s not just painted on the ceiling.

Rodney Hart: One last quick story on that. The first time I was at the Venetian, on the floor where they have the fake outdoor area with the gondola and everything, I am embarrassed to say: the very first time I went up to that floor, I actually thought it was outdoors.

Laura DeGood: You know, they did a really great job of making it look that way. Good job, designers.

Rodney Hart: It might have been 10 at night and I was looking at a blue sky like, whoa. But anyway, I’m sure I was tired. Great. I think we’re off and running. Laura, we’re going to talk a lot about what you’re working on now. But before we do, tell us a little bit about your event journey, what got you there, what you spent your time doing in events.

Laura DeGood: I started in live production when I was in college. I was a casual hire for the IATSE stagehand union, so I worked at places like the Santa Barbara Bowl and various theaters. That took me into stage management after I graduated, and then I moved into a smaller events company and found a contract position at GPJ, George P. Johnson, before I got hired full time. I started in their registration department and lived there for a long time. I was in Reg for the vast majority of my career, and then I started moving into more security operations, because Reg and security really do go hand in hand.

Rodney Hart: I could geek out on Reg for a long time. But before we go down that path, let’s hit some more totally relatable things. In terms of events, did that path feel like a natural fit, or was it more like 10 years in, you kind of realized: I guess this is what I’ve been doing?

Laura DeGood: I think maybe a little bit of both. But I’ve always liked that registration in particular worked so well for me because of the stage manager background. Everything I’ve done in a role has been very nucleus-based. A stage manager is the person calling all the cues for the show. Reg is kind of like that too. They’re two areas of an event that every attendee touches: Reg and Security. You’re going to interact with a guard at some point, but you are going to pick up your badge. You may not do anything else, but you’re going to pick up your badge, because then you can take it to your boss and say, look, I went. And it gets into everything, because the answers collected during registration feed content suggestions, and it’s all the data that goes into leads. I’ve always worked really quickly and Reg requires that, particularly in big tech events. And I’ve always really liked solving puzzles, and at the end of the day, that’s really what registration is.

Rodney Hart: I love all those answers. I’m going to ask for some event stories before we get too far. I remember on a team where everyone was debating who had the most important job, I waited until everyone had said their piece, whether it was content, keynotes, the exhibit floor. And I said: none of them will get to you if they don’t come to me first. That was my line. But also picking up badges: I saw my fair share of people cozying up from the casino with an hour left in the event saying, I’m here to pick up my badge.

Laura DeGood: They keep on coming. Thanks for getting my numbers up. I appreciate you.

Rodney Hart: Exactly. Checking in, grabbing their photo, walking back to the casino. I’m curious, Laura: any fun stories come to mind?

Laura DeGood: My craziest one actually spans two years. This was way back when I was still using CR80s, the little credit card-size badges. My client was doing an NFC chip in those, but then they wanted to put a UHF antenna in a backing badge that was mostly creative. Because they were two separate badges, we didn’t want people swapping the creative piece and mixing up the data. So we had to figure out a way to lock them together. I worked with a vendor to create a snap that would not come apart. The sample was great. Then we get on site, and the snap worked: they did not come apart. But they were hard to put together. We wound up buying pliers for every single printer so the ambassadors could lock them more easily.

So after that, back to the vendor, we’re trying to figure out a better solution because we still need to snap them together. They wind up going with a different manufacturer and a custom-shaped pulley. Again, samples were great. We felt great about it. Everything looked beautiful. We get on site. This is a very long reg open: we would open for vendors and employees well before attendees arrived. Maybe the second day into registration being open, so still very early in load-in, people start coming back because their pulley just hasn’t retracted. They’re coming back to get a replacement. It starts becoming so bad that I call my vendor. They ship out standard pulleys to get things to me that still lock. It’s probably 60% of my pulleys that are droopy. People are walking around with badges down around their upper thighs.

At one point there was an executive walkthrough and my account director calls me: “Hey, the CMO has a droopy pulley. I need you to bring one.” I’m walking around show site with lanyards around my neck, pulleys stuffed into my pockets, a Leatherman. The guy hands me his badge and is trying to pull it apart. I’m like, can I please just have it? He hands it over, and I whip out a knife to cut open his pulley. The look on his face.

There were photos of droopy pulleys in that client’s office for a couple of years. Every time I walked past one, it was just a moment. It was definitely a day, a week, two weeks for sure.

Rodney Hart: The things that stay with us forever and also cause us to think on our feet. I think that’s what I still love about this industry. In the moment you’re like, oh my god. But I’ve learned to embrace that and think: this will be funny one day. Were you a badge collector?

Laura DeGood: Droopy pulley? Absolutely not. I have tried to get that out of my sight and brain for as long as possible. But yes, I had a very large collection of badges. It was sort of a professional requirement: I could use them as samples and look at different things. As I left registration and then eventually left the industry, I started thinning out the collection. I’m down to what some people would call a sizable stack, but it’s the most important ones, the favorites, the coolest ones.

Rodney Hart: So you’ve decided which to keep based on fondness of memory, not nightmarish memory. Talk a little bit about your transitions: agency to client side, then to Salesforce, then a VP role on the security side. What was the thought process behind those moves?

Laura DeGood: I feel really fortunate. I think I did 11 Dreamforces. I went from GPJ to a different agency, then internal at Salesforce. At Salesforce I started on the dot org side, leading overarching event technology for the Salesforce.org marketing team. Then a position opened up on the Salesforce strategic events team. That had sort of been my goal: to get internal on strat events and lead registration for that team. The transitions were fairly easy because I knew so many of the players. I remember when I first started at dot org saying to my manager, “I just want to know the things I don’t know now.” I already knew so many people and so much of the inner workings because I had been working with Salesforce as a client for so long. And when I went over onto the security side, again, it was a company where Salesforce was a client. I had worked with these people for years. There were learning curves every single time, but it was nice to get through those transitions with such a strong base layer of knowledge, expertise, and knowing who people were and how to get things done.

Rodney Hart: So as you looked at those moves, there were goals or roles you could envision, but there was also a baseline of knowledge and of the people you’d be working with. In an industry as small as ours, knowing the people probably helps that transition.

Laura DeGood: Absolutely. And I’d always say nothing replaces historical experience. Particularly when you’ve been working on a program like Dreamforce for that long, if something comes up you can say, we tried that and this is what happened, or this is why we do it this way. Being able to know who you need to go to for approvals or gut checks, who to loop in: a lot of the time people newer in the industry won’t necessarily realize how something will touch so many other things. Having that level of experience and tribal knowledge was really helpful for me through all of those transitions.

Rodney Hart: So well said. And a lot of this stuff you can’t really learn without just doing it. That’s maybe one of the beauties of events to me. Any problem you don’t solve today you have to solve tomorrow. It’s not somebody else’s problem. And that decision, that problem we solved for, is ultimately going to materialize in person. Which is where maybe some of the pressure comes from, but also some of the joy.

Laura DeGood: Also when something is similar but not the same: you’ve had something happen, and then something new comes up and you’re like, wait, I know how to do this because I’ve done something like it before. Those were fun moments, where I was like, I can fix this.

Rodney Hart: Let’s start talking about what led you to where you are now. When did you start thinking the next chapter for you was not another event role?

Laura DeGood: Early to mid last year, 2025. I think anybody who has worked with me knows that I grind. I was becoming a little concerned about my persistent sleep deprivation, because I can function off of very little sleep for a very long time. But I also know that sleep is the most important thing for your health overall, hence my sleep cycle knowledge. And I was realizing: I have two boys. My older one started his junior year of high school, and my little one is 12, so he’s not so little. I’ve missed so much already, and I only have so many more years with them at home. Just because you’re good at something doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s good for you. I still loved the people for the most part. There’s always somebody who’s going to rub you the wrong way, always. And I was still very good at the work, but it was becoming more work than internal drive. It was like I have to get this done, not I get to get this done.

Rodney Hart: Great. So that sets the table. You’d built so much of your experience and identity doing something you were really good at. Did it feel like starting over? Or were there realizations that these things are transferable?

Laura DeGood: Again, yes, both. It was really kind of terrifying. Toward the end of last year as I was making the decision to leave the industry, another job opportunity came up. I interviewed, and I even knew some of the people I was interviewing with. And I had this moment: I have this unique opportunity to take a risk and try something new, go down an entirely different career path. Or, if I am offered this position, take it and it’s a lot safer. I have kids, it was a W-2, all that kind of stuff. And I had this moment where I thought: no, that feels like the bigger risk. Like it feels like the bigger risk to do that. And at some point throughout the process of thinking about what I wanted to transition into, I realized that the people have always been the most important part to me. I’ve always been very diligent about making sure my team feels like actual humans. They have lives, emotions, things going on. If they need support, I’ll be the first one down in the trenches with the intern versus going to dinner. I’ve always been someone who wants to hear what’s going on. And I was like: you have been doing this, and this has always been one of your favorite parts of the job. It’s always been the people. It’s always been hoping to create something better.

Rodney Hart: Was there a moment where you thought: this is what I want to do, I want to build a business around coaching?

Laura DeGood: I had heard of coaching before, but I really just started doing a lot of research around what I could potentially do. My dirty little secret is that I put my birth chart into ChatGPT and said, based on my astrology, what are the suggestions? And then I went and started researching the things it gave me. As I started learning more and more about coaching, I was like, this actually feels kind of cool and kind of right. I’m the kind of person where I’ll make a decision internally and then shop it with my closest friends. Once it felt really settled in my body, I started doing the training. Obviously there were things to learn and unlearn, and there were growth edges for me for sure. But it came really naturally. In these longer-day seminars, we would go into breakout rooms and do practice coaching on each other. The feedback I was getting from the leads and the people in those trainings just felt really good. And then when I started actually having my own sessions, I left feeling excited and energized. I’d reflect back and think: I think I did that really well, and here’s an area where I can do it better. It just felt really settled. Once I made the decision, I felt really at peace. That’s how I knew it was right.

Rodney Hart: There’s an event term I love: building the plane as you fly it. How much of figuring out how to make this a business happened as you went versus what you planned out upfront? You’ve worked with massive brands and have a lot of marketing background, so I’m curious: how much is built and how much is still being built?

Laura DeGood: At this point I feel like a lot has been built. But there have been moments along the way. There are a handful of easy steps when you start: file the LLC, open a business bank account, file your paperwork with the state. But then somebody shows interest and it’s not just a friend, and you can’t really say, hey, can you Venmo me? Suddenly I need to set up a Stripe account, register a domain, build a website. And if I’m going to build a website, I’ve worked with major brands: what is my brand identity? What is my voice? What is the background on the page versus the font? What’s my hierarchy? I’m sure there are plenty of coaches who got started without going through that thought process. But it was really important to me, especially for when I did the intro post announcing everything on LinkedIn. That was the one where I was terrified, frankly. I needed it to be buttoned up because my brand and my reputation within the events industry is that I was really good and I was buttoned up and my stuff was on point. I couldn’t go in front of all the people I’d worked with for 15 to 20 years and be like, hi, here’s my Google Form. So a lot of it has been building and reworking as I go.

Rodney Hart: You mentioned something I want to unpack. Can you say more about the unfair advantages your events background gave you in building the business, and then on the flip side, what you’ve had to unlearn?

Laura DeGood: My background in technology has been a definite edge: knowing how to register for a domain, build a website, mask a URL, integrate a domain into Google so I have a professional email. Those things were really helpful because I knew the baseline words and what they all do. Managing budgets has been helpful too, because now I’m running a business and supporting a family. I have to know how to price things out. And coming from a marketing and agency background around brand and look and feel: if you’re trying to get professionals as clients, those things matter. They give you a little bit of credibility.

The biggest surprise was that, at the very beginning of my training, one of the first things I learned is that I don’t give advice. I remember when they told me that, I was like, I’m sorry, what? I have the best advice. I tell people what to do all the time. This is why people come and talk to me. And then: wait, no, I don’t do that. Because in coaching, we believe that everybody has both the question and the answer inside themselves. My job isn’t to tell you the answer or tell you what to do. My job is to help you figure out your own answer. Because if it comes from you, you are way more likely to implement change, stick with it, and have it be sustainable. I’m just there to help you figure it out.

Rodney Hart: I want to scratch that itch a little. How hard is that for you? Are you ever in a session where you’re like, I’ve got great advice here and I just need you to find it yourself?

Laura DeGood: This is 180 degrees from what I did before. It can be hard for sure. But through the course of my training and then just the work I’ve been doing, it’s become more natural not to give advice. I’ve had some sessions where toward the end, if there are a couple minutes left, I’ll say: I’m going to take my coach hat off for a second. Usually it’s people I’m a little bit closer with. I’ll say, I’m not coaching you anymore, but here’s the thing I wanted to say because I love you and I’m going to say it. But no: I go into every conversation pretending I’m an alien. I don’t know anything. Tell me, explain it to me. Actually, I’m not even asking them to explain: I’m asking questions to help my client understand more themselves. What’s important about it? What makes you angry? What are these different things? And being able to sit with somebody and give them a safe space: that’s been a lot of the work.

Rodney Hart: In your previous roles, did your career path teach you any of that? Or do you think that’s a skill that’s transferable for people who are still in events?

Laura DeGood: I don’t think I ever went into a situation pretending like I was an alien when I was in events, because historical knowledge is, in my opinion, the number one thing you can have. Pretending I didn’t know anything really wouldn’t serve anybody. But I do think one of my superpowers in events was that I was able to hear what a client or colleague was saying, interpret what they actually wanted, and then take that and give it to a solutions consultant or a BA or someone. I was able to translate between client words, client desire, and technology speak. That was one of my superpowers. And I think it was really about listening and being able to ask specific questions to dig out what might not be said, and to make sure that all of the inputs were supporting the outcome that was desired.

Rodney Hart: That’s something I’ve always secretly loved too: listening to get at the heart of what problem you’re really looking to solve. Not just accepting the solution someone has already prescribed in their mind.

Laura DeGood: The other big thing I’ve transitioned away from is asking the question “why.” I don’t ask why. Like, why do you want that? Because it can put somebody on the defensive. Instead, what’s important, or what’s meaningful, or what’s possible: those kinds of questions start from a much more open, meaning-fulfillment-based place. And I think that has also made me a better listener.

Rodney Hart: I’m not quite ready to be done, so I’m going to ask one more question before the final section. For someone who’s listening and thinking: I’m doing this, maybe enjoying their career, maybe not sure where they want to go. They’re thinking: I’ve spent 10 to 15 years doing this and I don’t know what else I’m qualified to do. Is there something you would help them think through?

Laura DeGood: Outside of putting your birth chart into ChatGPT, I really encourage writing things down. Some people call it journaling. I use my notes app. Think about what you like about your position. What’s important to you? What makes you feel happy? What motivates you to put in the extra effort? What do you not like? Because one of the best ways to mine for values with a client is to ask: what makes you angry? Because the inverse of it turns into a value. So being able to identify what your values are, what’s important, what you really want: write it down. Write it down because then you can go back, reflect on it, and start to dream what could be possible if you had all of these things. Or take all of those things that are important and start to see if there’s another thing that could be a good fit. At some point you’re going to have to take a leap of faith. And that’s probably the only part that I can’t really coach you through.

Rodney Hart: One more piece of advice. For those who are in events and saying: I like it, but god, it gets stressful. What’s a favorite piece of advice you’ve either been given or like to give?

Laura DeGood: My number one has always been: protect your workout. Nobody’s going to do it for you. And quite frankly, you’ve got to get it done in the morning. Otherwise it’s probably not going to happen. But it will keep you sane. I remember I had an intern when I was at GPJ and I was leaving the office at four thirty in the afternoon to go to a five fifteen yoga class. The look on her face. And I said: okay, here’s the thing. I was here at 7 a.m. I am going to get my kids to bed. I will be back online at nine o’clock tonight. I’m probably going to work until two in the morning. And this is the yoga class that I want. Like nobody’s going to do it for you. It’s going to help keep you sane. Movement is medicine. Go get your workout, even if it’s just a 10-minute walk. And go get away: don’t look at your phone for a period of time. Everything is going to be okay. Unless you’re in medical or security, you’re not saving lives. It’s going to be okay. I used to joke with my Reg team that we were the podiatrists of the events industry: if we messed something up, it was going to hurt, but we weren’t going to kill anybody. It’s going to hurt, and yes, we are the first impression, so we need to get it right. But we’re not saving lives.

Rodney Hart: It’s not the first time that advice has been given, but it resonates every time. Movement is medicine: definitely another clippable line. And totally agree: work is going to follow you nowadays. So get it in.

Laura DeGood: Put your phone away. Take a break. Don’t look at a screen. Go touch grass. Do something.

Rodney Hart: Phenomenal advice. Thank you so much for your time. I’ve got one last section we call the lightning round: totally easy and fun. I’m not supposed to say anything back. I don’t always do that. But we can clip me out. Laura, are you ready for the lightning round?

Laura DeGood: I’m ready for the lightning round.

Rodney Hart: All right. TikTok or LinkedIn?

Laura DeGood: Neither. LinkedIn.

Rodney Hart: Neither LinkedIn: that’s a new one. True or false: you prefer smaller, intimate events over large-scale ones.

Laura DeGood: To produce, I prefer a large-scale event. It’s going to be the same amount of work no matter how many people. I would much rather have 60,000 people so I can say no to your 200-person request than have it be 200 people and not be able to say no to your 50-person request. That’s going to make my life awful.

Rodney Hart: Great answer. Which is harder to plan: multi-day virtual or in-person events?

Laura DeGood: Multi-day virtual. Hands down.

Rodney Hart: Window seat or aisle seat?

Laura DeGood: Aisle. I mean, I love to be able to look out the window, but I’m a woman and I’ve had two kids and I drink a lot of water. I’ve got to be able to get up and go to the bathroom. It is pure function.

Rodney Hart: What matters more: who’s speaking or who’s attending?

Laura DeGood: Who’s attending, because that’s where you get your deals. Speakers are great and yes, they can drive registration, but it’s who’s in the room.

Rodney Hart: You have a concert to close your event. Who’s your dream musical artist?

Laura DeGood: Fred Again.

Rodney Hart: I don’t know who this is.

Laura DeGood: He’s a British DJ, but he plays piano and he composes. I will send you a Fred Again set and it might change your life.

Rodney Hart: I’m in for it. What’s your go-to comfort food during event planning stress?

Laura DeGood: Rice Krispy Treats.

Rodney Hart: True or false: you’ve hosted an event in more than three different countries.

Laura DeGood: Yes, I have.

Rodney Hart: Keynote speaker or panel discussion?

Laura DeGood: Keynote.

Rodney Hart: True or false: you pack gym clothes when attending an event you’re planning.

Laura DeGood: I do. They don’t always get used as much as I would like them to. I started learning to pick up a little thing of detergent from Target and just bring one or two things and wash them in the shower. But yes, I bring it.

Rodney Hart: And closing event party: live band or DJ?

Laura DeGood: DJ. I’m a DJ girl. I’m going to go DJ all the way.

Rodney Hart: So Fred Again. It’s a combo. Laura, thank you so much for your time today. This was so much fun for me. I think people got a ton out of it, knowing about journey in and journey out. If people want to know more about where they can get in touch with you or have follow-on conversations, what’s the best place?

Laura DeGood: You can go to my website: stillpoint-studios.co.

Rodney Hart: I think everyone would benefit from a conversation with you, Laura, just like I did today. Thank you so much for your time.

Laura DeGood: Thank you so much for having me. I’ve really, really enjoyed this conversation.