Meet The Disruptors: Walter Kinzie Of Encore Live On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Always know who you’re about to sit down in a meeting with. Always do your homework and be prepared.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Walter Kinzie.
Walter Kinzie is Founder, President and CEO at Encore Live. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Encore Live is the preeminent leader in event production and dynamic human experiences — while widely being regarded as one of the most dynamic and innovative entertainment companies in the country.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Like so many people around the world, I grew up in the humblest of beginnings. My very first job was at the age of 5, when I would get paid $4 per week to sweep the local lumber yard retail store. When I was 7 years old, two very important things happened to me. The first of which was being able to take out my first business loan, which was fairly unheard of back then and I don’t believe is legal today. This loan helped launch my first company and demanded that I meet with my banker quarterly to balance my checkbook, speak about my business, and discuss profits and losses. I ultimately grew that to be a full-blown cattle operation and small ranch by the time I was 18.
The second thing that happened when I was 7 years old was my dad volunteered to put on a concert at our county fair. I watched the show and was just amazed by all the people that came out to the show and what my dad had planned. At that age, I told him that was what I was going to do for a living, leading me to put on my first concert in that same rodeo arena when I was 18.
Outside of those two things, another important event that led me on this career was an exchange I had with a young man when I was 18 years old. I was in the hospital to have a kidney transplant and I got to know him while there, he explained how his condition was terminal and how he didn’t have insurance. Once I was out of the hospital, I founded a 501-C3 and set out to raise money to help him get the medicine he needed, as well as to achieve the things in life he wanted before he passed away. He wanted to go to prom, he wanted to graduate high school, and he wanted to be a college student — all of which we helped him do. It was very fulfilling being able to put on a concert to raise money for him to be able to do what he wanted to do in life, all while figuring out that this was really what I wanted to do with my life. It was at that point that I started doing this part-time, all while I had a regular suit and tie job to help pay my bills after my kidney transplant. I never went to college, or never completed college anyway, and as soon as I was 27 years old, I was debt free. I had $500 to my name and I quit my job. That’s when I started Encore Live and the business has grown from there.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
What most people don’t realize is that the biggest tours and concerts in the world are reserved for the most affluent people. Between parking, drinks, food, and tickets themselves, a night out at a concert can cost people anywhere from $100-$700 to attend, with most people making great sacrifices, saving for months, or forgoing other life experiences to see their favorite artists perform. Disrupting this cycle, our Encore Nights drive-in and theater concert beaming experience has completely democratized live entertainment.
We are making it incredibly affordable and accessible for people to attend, with our tickets running between $12-$16 per person on average. With nearly 4,000 venues in 51 countries that we send content to, combined with our incredibly affordable tickets, we are making it accessible for the world to come out and enjoy music. We are constantly working hard to give people as close to a real experience as possible. Whether tailgating at one of our events or in a movie theater with a great sound system, we try to partner with venues that can give fans the best quality experience they can get. I’m very proud of how easy it is to get to our venues and to get into one of our shows. Despite our inexpensive ticket prices, we like to offer payment plans to those who need a little more time to pay us. We go to great lengths to make sure that any traditional barriers of time, distance, or money don’t get in the way of anybody who wants to attend one of our shows.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One learns and grows through failure, so we really try to embrace making mistakes at Encore Live. I made a lot of mistakes and still make a lot of mistakes. Very early on we got our start by throwing extravagant, over-the-top parties. We threw a birthday party for a client who was used to spending millions of dollars on events. It was a birthday party with 400–500 guests attending, so I wanted to make sure there was an awesome cake. This was at the height of when shows like “Cake Boss” and similar big TV shows were out, so crazy over-the-top cakes were being made. For a culmination of different reasons, it wasn’t going to work to use some of the folks that had these popular shows. I tried to find the best version of that possible and I found this place in Dallas called Frosted Art Bakery. I went and sat down with their executive chef and like an idiot, I explained to her ‘I was really trying to go for this, but it’s just not feasible to get one of those cakes from New Jersey or New York all the way to Texas, and I tried to make it work and it didn’t work so here I am.’
In that moment, I realized it was an arrogant, dumb, insulting thing to say to somebody. The chef, Bronwen Weber, now a close friend of mine, was totally cool about it. She said, ‘that’s totally fine, I’ve gone head-to-head with all of those guys on Food Network and Discovery Channel and I’ve never lost to them, and I’ve actually beat them several times.’ Come to find out she is the most famous pastry chef in the world, and I hadn’t done enough homework to realize I was sitting next to the person that those other chefs idolized. I had no idea that I had totally stuck my foot in my mouth, felt like a total idiot, but since then, she’s made dozens of cakes for me, for world leaders, and some of the world’s most affluent people. I learned very early on you must do your homework regardless of who you’re sitting down with. In short, two of the biggest lessons I learned are first, to not say dumb or insulting things and second, you might have access to what you need much closer than you think.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
In my life, I would say two folks have been impactful mentors. First, there is Trevor Rees-Jones, one of the world’s wealthiest human beings who took a chance on a young man he did not have to take a chance on. He could’ve hired any party planner out there, but the very first question he ever asked me was ‘Why am I talking to a mattress salesman about throwing a really extravagant party?’ He believed in me early on, he’s the one that pushed me to start my own company and has constantly nudged me in the right direction, serving as an incredible point of inspiration. Trevor also comes from humble beginnings, he likes to tell the story of how he dug a lot of dry holes early into his oil and gas career, but he just kept going and when everyone else wanted to quit he never gave up. When no one else believed or invested in him he found a way. Today he’s one of the most successful oil and gas pioneers in the world. He is just such a profound human being. In the early days of the pandemic when I seemingly lost my company, he told me not to waste this moment. Everyone else is going to quit, go on vacation or give up, you keep your head down, keep going and you’re going to prevail. I think about that every single day. He believed in me and pushed me when no one else would.
Second is a gentleman named Steve Stagner, the former CEO and Chairman of Mattress Firm. While I was employed at Mattress Firm, he was my boss and has continued to be a mentor, opening many doors for me. When I left to start my company he gave me a blank piece of paper, he signed his name at the bottom and said, ‘You fill out the details, I don’t want to lose you.’ On that piece of paper I wrote, “If I call, answer that call and if I fail, rehire me, but hire me at the bottom of the company. Make me work my way to the top again and give me a shot,” and I signed my name. He said, ‘That’s not what I was expecting you to write.’ I could have written any salary, any position and he would have willingly given it to me. He has stuck true and continued to be my mentor, I talk to him a dozen times a year to pick his brain and run ideas past him. He employed me as a contractor in the past and gave me Mattress Firm’s business, making me earn it. That confidence and work early on set me up to be successful and gave me the revenue I needed to get Encore Live off the ground. Those two guys have had the greatest influence over the course of my career, they’re incredible mentors and remarkable human beings.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I think where people get in trouble is when they set out to disrupt, yet their only goal is to “disrupt.” That is where people find themselves in trouble, and frankly that’s where businesses fail. There are tons of examples of people that have announced they were out to disrupt something, and it brought about great embarrassment, failure, and a loss of hope when they didn’t do it. You’ll never hear me use the “D” word in anything I’m doing because I’m not on a mission to disrupt anything.
When companies are created with the goal to be inclusive, with the goal to create for all, with a goal to bring the world together, that’s when you see disruption. Whether that’s affordable airfare from Southwest Airlines, an incredible piece of technology from Apple or a platform like Facebook, that is where innovation and disruption happen. All of them share a goal of making everyone’s lives easier and bringing people together. While we are not on a mission to disrupt anything in what we are doing, I have a great deal of admiration for my team and the folks that work for us because for the first time ever they’ve created an opportunity through a network of venues to create accessibility and affordability in an experience that was traditionally reserved for the most affluent and wealthiest of people.
People have often asked me if I’m trying to disrupt entertainment and I’m not. I wouldn’t even consider us a competitor to anyone in our space. AEG and Live Nation are companies that do good work and provide a really good product. While we provide a similar product, it’s for a different group of people. We’re not trying to be them; they’re not trying to be us — that’s a winning combination. My goal is to create the best content that we can, while making it as accessible as possible. I’m trying to get people out of their homes to come together with like-minded strangers to enjoy a moving experience, regardless of whether it’s sports, music, cinema or whatever it might be.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
My first is actually the title of my book, “Get Your Money Up Front.” In the world of Millennials and Gen Z, everyone is trying to be a CEO. I’ve fallen victim to the mentality of “Hey, let’s just get the business done and we’ll worry about the details later,” and I’ve been burned several times. That’s why you get your money up front because you just don’t get another shot at it.
Second, always know who you’re about to sit down in a meeting with. Always do your homework and be prepared.
Third, culture is everything. It’s so important to take care of your employees. There have been plenty of times where I’ve let my emotions or actions get in the way of doing right by my employees and that’s just not the way to act or lead a company. You’ll be more successful in life by hiring really smart individuals that really care and love them and take care of them instead of being disrespectful or unprofessional.
Fourth would be to diversify your clientele. There have been several times where we almost lost it all because we put all our eggs in one basket. One example is that when oil and gas prices dropped to record lows in 2015, we almost went out of business. Have a diverse clientele and don’t let any one customer take up too big of a balance of share.
Finally, offer a product that is super inclusive. If you create something that is super niche it’s tough to stay in business, but whenever you create something that a vast and diverse group of people can use, and you consider all cultures while doing so, your opportunity for success is a lot greater. We’re seeing success across a lot of our businesses as a result of our Encore Nights business doing really well. Since we’re offering a product that everyone can use, it’s also offering a level of credibility and scale that helps elevate the other businesses under our portfolio, so it’s been remarkable to see the success there. We just landed a massive client under Encore Live solely because they knew about us from Encore Nights. We’re excited to share more about that soon.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
I’m really excited about some of the technology that we’re about to release that will complement our businesses, while giving even greater access to our customers. So, we’re taking future versions of currency, technology and inclusion very seriously right now and looking forward to deploying some of those things in the near future to really help everyone enjoy access to our products even more.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I listened to a brilliant educator named Angela Lee Duckworth give a TED Talk about grit that I have referenced and used a number of times in my career. I think the fundamental flaw of the Gen Z and Millennial age group is a lack of grit.
If I were to give another example, I was once very fortunate to sit down and have a conversation with President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton, where President Clinton spoke about the lack of empathy in the workplace today, and I think that has a whole lot to do with the great resignation and great departure, as well as overall lack of empathy and understanding. Employees aren’t finding it in the workplace today, so they are creating their own work environment to have that fulfilled.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“You are the sum total of all of the decisions you’ve made in your life.”
What’s been really interesting about that is I’ve taken the quote very literally and I’ve had moments in my life where I’ve traced back the decision and it doesn’t matter what the moment is in my life but I always stop at 8th grade. Andy Andrews wrote a book about the Butterfly effect, proving how a butterfly could flap its wings and the effect of that could spawn or create a hurricane somewhere. I don’t use the example very often because it can make even the simplest decision a stressful thing, but the point is to just make good decisions in life. It will catch up to you. There are plenty of times I make mistakes today and it catches up to me.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think what we’re doing as a company right now is a great example of that. Very few things in life move people the way music does. Very few things in life help people escape their reality like music does. Very few things in life create the brain break, the moment of relaxation, the moment of excitement and the moment of thrill that creates healing. There’s a lot of science behind happiness and euphoria around mental health. We create those escapes and make it incredibly accessible for audiences. While I have endless wild ideas of what myself and Encore Nights could be doing, I think I’m on the path right now that is going to bring the most joy, the most happiness, the most healing to the world and making it as accessible to everyone as possible.
How can our readers follow you online?
Please feel free to connect with Encore Nights and myself through the following:
- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/walterkinzie/
- Encore’s Channels
- https://www.instagram.com/encoredriveinnights/
- https://www.facebook.com/EncoreNightsSE/
- https://www.encorenights.com
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/encore-concert-series/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: Walter Kinzie Of Encore Live On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
