The Type A+ Podcast Season 3 Episode 2: Calculating Return On Relationships with Jim Cohn of Mid-Atlantic Events Magazine
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Episode Description:
On today’s episode, Beth interviews her first and longest-lasting mentor in the hospitality industry, Jim Cohn. Jim is the owner of Mid-Atlantic Events Magazine, a trusted industry expert, kind resource, avid connector, and relationshio builder who has personally introduced countless event professionals to their next opportunity.
Learn about calculating ROI vs ROR, and why the return on your relationships should be the focus of your networking journey.
About Jim Cohn, the man behind Mid-Atlantic Events Magazine:
“In 1987, we transformed our family printing/advertising company, which was geared toward radio station record surveys since 1960 to start a new venture, Mid-Atlantic Events Magazine, which is for those planning meetings, conventions, trade shows, corporate travel, group outings, galas, and special events.
Fast forward to 2023, our perspective is to always be involved and always maintain and continually build relationships. As the Magazine progressed into a total eMagazine in May 2020, that building of relationships is the number one aspect that we will always keep consistent.
We have also created, produced, and partnered on events with clients and customers and attendees have talked about year after year.
Events include the Think Tank Talk series, Hospitality Summer Outing and DineArounds, Visit Delco's Taste and Tour of the Countryside and Meet Me in Delco, ILEA Jingle Jam, Chester County CVB's Culinary Challenge along with co-hosting many CVB and resort presentations regionally as well as Familiarization trips to those destinations.
Jim is a Past President of HSMAI Greater Philadelphia chapter and had previously sat on boards of MPI Philadelphia, NACE, DVSAE, ISES, MEET National and is currently on the Executive Board of the Elmwood Park Zoo. “
Links mentioned in the episode:
HOST:
Beth Lawrence & Company Instagram
The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram
Beth and other Type A+ Guests will be back each week, delivering bite-sized tips on how to optimize your work and life.
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Episode Transcript can be found below:
Beth Lawrence: Welcome back listeners to the type a plus podcast. I could not be more ecstatic because I have one of the first mentors of my career on the pod today. His name is Jim Cohn. If you are in the Philadelphia or mid Atlantic area in the hospitality industry, you know, Jim Cohn, you probably know him as the godfather of the hospitality industry.
At least that's what I tell everyone you are, but Jim, I've talked on the podcast about how you gave me opportunities and so many other people in the industry opportunities when we needed it the most. For me, it was when I graduated after the recession and right into the recession.
And you really led me to a lot of the relationships that were pivotal in my career. So, please tell the listeners a little bit about yourself.
Jim Cohn: Great. Thanks, Beth. I loved getting to meet you and get to know you. I love to help with others who are coming into the industry. I started on publication back in 1987. So most of the time I'm older than most everybody, and I was the kid at one time. And it's funny you mentioned the godfather events, at one time, the mayor of Philadelphia, Mayor Ed Rendell called me the second mayor of Philadelphia once and awarded me an award, which was so cool.
And, I was also known as the governor, at something. So I've had a variety of titles and I think it's fun, but it's really just getting to know people and, taking what your life experiences are and were and move it to the new future is how I look at everything. So thanks so much for, uh, for having me.
Beth Lawrence: Oh, it's just a pleasure. And I, I learned so much from you early on and we'll get into it obviously about the ways to go into specifically networking relationships.
I saw a huge contrast when I would go to, for example, chamber events in my very early career years. By the way, folks, we're talking about when I first graduated from college. So I was in my early twenties, really didn't have a connection in events. But what Jim taught me was... you have to go in thinking about not what that person can do for you, but truly what you can do for that person, whether that's introducing them to someone or possibly hosting an event at their location or, really just thinking about the relationship and not necessarily the transaction.
From humble beginnings in 1987 to the governor and the mayor and the godfather. How did you get started? What came before the magazine?
Jim Cohn: That, you know, it's a long story and I'm going to try to condense as much as possible on this.
I grew up in a family, I'm the only child and my mother and father worked constantly. 24 7. They were trying to keep a business going as a printing and advertising business, but it was really only a few people. And my dad had clients going back to the radio station world.
So I grew up either a, they were working or b., we would have parties at our house and notice that my dad had clients that he was working with constantly year after year after year and he was struggling with it because it might not have made the monies that he could have, but he enjoyed it and he just kept building the relationships.
And I looked at that as I kept moving forward. At the printing business I worked in the dark room. So I would be in the camera room for 2,3,4 hours a day. And my dad would be out selling and then he would come in around 4 o'clock, change from a suit and tie into an apron and start working in the printing plant.
And I would, at that time, switch to a suit and go to a chamber mixer or go to something else. . But then one time I had gone over to a club in New Jersey and I had a couple women with me who were very nice and friendly and met one of the Flyers, the Stanley Cup guys, and being in Philadelphia was crazy about the Flyers in a time period.
We started to hang out. They kept inviting me back. You know, I never got an autograph. Never wanted anything more. And next thing I know, I met Sky Rick McLeish, Dave Schultz, and Bernie Perrant. All these guys, Bob Kelly. And then I met Ron Jaworski, because he would hang out there, and Vince Papali.. And then, after probably four or five months of seeing these guys, I was asked by a friend to help with an opening of a nightclub called Fizz Nightclub at the Royce Hotel in Bucks County, which is now the Sheraton Bucks County. And they asked me, hey, can you bring the flyers?
And I said, sure. You know, I mean, these guys were coming out with me, so now I show up with four or five of the guys. About two o'clock in the morning, we got up, did a photo, and I have a picture of Bob Kelly, Bill Barber, and Rick McLeish. And I didn't know what to do with it. They kept asking me, Hey, what's the next party? And I looked around and there was no resource of where to go, what to do, how to plan, there was a magazine called focus magazine that listed the hospitality industry once a year.
And there was nothing that was correct in the publication. So I started a newsletter. So at that same breath, I had a friend who did incentive travel for Pepsi Cores Canada dry bottling. And she wanted me to go to the islands with her because she felt uncomfortable with all these male bottlers, and herself running a program in Nassau.
So I ended up going with her and I handled all the greeting and the aspects of the people coming up to me, I was the go to person and so I liked that too.
And then I looked at what I was doing with the idea of a newsletter. And put together a 44 page publication. Gave away most everything in the magazine. But it was how to plan, where to plan, what to do.
And then what I think really turned our publication was, there was a honey baked ham company, it was pretty well-known. And the general manager and I became very close friends. Unfortunately, he passed away about a year ago, but we would go to different events and we would take hams. They became the ham source and we came up with an idea for a party and we Invited all the Flyers, The Eagles, quite a few of the sports celebs and we helped with the re opening of about 600 passenger vessel And we termed it the Ham Ball.
Honey Baked Ham brought the ham and I brought the ball-- black tie. We had 600 people show up, and then the boat pulled back into dock, and another 400 people came on board.
So we had close to a thousand people on the boat. And it was all complimentary and we took that idea, did Ham Ball two, and then we took it to the Franklin Mint Museum. We did "making of a mint" ball. We took it to the New Jersey State Aquarium, which became Adventure Aquarium, and we called it the "Fish and Chips Ball."
We talked in our magazine about how to plan an event, how to throw an event, how to bring people together.
And that was the full history of how we got started.
Beth Lawrence: That is an incredible story. There's so much that you said that I can see. shapes you. First of all, the image of you and your dad, like swapping duties and making sure that you're building these relationships, I think is really amazing.
And it shows like, that's fearless at an early age to be able to go out and go network. Were you always really good at relationships and talking to people? Or were you nervous when you started going to these networking things?
Jim Cohn: Well, it's, it's funny. I grew up actually with a lot of babysitters because my folks worked so much.
So when I was really young, most people were older that I was around. And it wasn't really that I was too nervous. I would always gravitate towards someone and then I would try to introduce them around and then move on. When I started to sell, I was like 16, 17 years old, going to places, I was seeing how I was treated by people who were in the industry of mostly the advertising world. And some people just saying, Oh, he's the printer or he's a delivery guy. So I, I learned that how people treated people. And even when we started our magazine, I had my cousin, who was a movie critic, write our first couple issues, and that was probably my mistake, the word critic, but he wrote and he was negative about Atlantic City and things like that, and it wasn't what I went to see in the magazine, so then I said, there will be no negative press in the magazine.
We don't do a best of worst of, because everyone is trying to be the best. That's for sure.
Beth Lawrence: Yeah. And in events and hospitality, one venue or hotel or location could be the best for one group and it might not be the best for another group.
So I think it was really smart on your part. Cause we have a wealth of phenomenal places to visit in this mid Atlantic area. One of the things in your bio that you submitted that really struck me was you said, "I never wanted to be a big magazine, wanted to focus regionally, be a partner and be a go to resource.
I am committed to working closely with advertisers and to be the glue to our readers. "And can you talk about. Why you think that was a successful strategy, long term?
Jim Cohn: I remember that there was a friend of mine, a planner who had asked me to go with her to some site tours.
And she didn't want to be the person that went up to the desk first. She wanted me to go up and then she would come up and see how she was treated compared to myself being treated. We waited. She would say, "Well, Jim, this is how they treated me. This is how they treated you. What do you think?"
And we bounce things off of each other. And I think how we try to structure. The way that we want to be the glue and not just a big magazine. I want to have consistency. I don't want to have to keep going back. We have probably 20, 30 advertisers. We never signed a piece of paper. I was just talking to a couple of them last week and I said, you want to change the ad up? He goes, well, what do you think? So we're the ones who really would try to get the message out because we spend most of our time with our readers. Whereas I think a lot of pubs don't even know who's reading their publication.
And what I love is when you, Beth, would book a client because of something we recommended or you saw in the magazine you know, that's the things that Beth. Really that I enjoy is to help out.
Beth Lawrence: Yeah that's been my experience with you all throughout my career and my knowing you is... listeners for those who have not listened before my first experience with Jim.
I went to an event. Do you know Roland Moracek? Does that...
Jim Cohn: yes Yeah...
Beth Lawrence: I've not seen him in a long time tell him I said hello But he took me to an event when I was working out In Bucks County and I wanted to be in the city. I wanted to be an event planner in the city and he told you that and you proceeded to very nicely introduce me to everyone that you knew at that event who could be helpful to me.
And you said you didn't say. Beth works for the place I was working for the place I was selling and that's it. You said Beth works for these folks. She's really great. She's wants to be an event planner in Philadelphia looking to make connections. So you were able to not only connect the dots for what I did then, but also what I wanted to do in the future and kind of bring that whole person into a discussion.
And I remember. distinctly going to other events. I always pick on the chamber. So I'm sorry, chambers going to other membership based networking events and having it feel so transactional or to your point, like I wasn't welcome there, or I was too young. People would just say, ah, she's just an event planner.
She's just, she's a party planner. She's this, she's that. When I started to approach things differently, and when I started to look at networking differently, a lot of people think it's a return on investment. It's a return on, "Well, I spent 30 on that event. I need to get at least, you know, 60 worth of business or whatever it is to make it worthwhile."
But you have a different philosophy. Please tell me about your philosophy and why it's different.
Jim Cohn: Well, you know, there's an investment of something when you're going out to places and What I looked at is that when I was out, I wanted to not look at how much I'm spending, but to look at who I'm meeting and how that was going to be a building scenario.
So I always ask people, so what do you think of ROI? What's that I mean to you? And 90 percent of the people say their boss said, "You got to get 25 business cards..." and I said, "no, you don't, it's all about ROR... return on relationships." And I think that's the key. There are certain industries that, you know, maybe they don't care about the relationships. They just selling how many fans they could sell or how many pens or whatever. But in this it's really keeping the people in touch because you don't know where they're going to be the next step.
And that's why with our interns, I could name probably 15 of them that we are talking to constantly. It's funny because I had spoken a couple of colleges and I do not have a college degree.
I did not go to college. I could not go because my dad had a heart attack when I was in 11th grade, and I had actually to take over the business for about eight to nine months.
So when I spoke at colleges. You know, I'll tell them, "look, you never know who's going to be where you never know this person." Going back to that woman that I would go to site tour with my friend, Mitty, she did the American bankers associations. We had a great bond, four states actually would hire me for their VIP tent to greet all 2, 000, 2, 500 people that came in through the four states bike race every single year.
You know, Mitty would call me up and say, "Hey Jim, are you available? I need you there." So I think when you build the relationships, you want to become the go to, but you don't want to be the person who's like, "Oh, you have to come to me or you're not going to get anywhere."
It was more, you just push it out there and say, did you meet this? And hopefully something will come about, you know, down the road.
Beth Lawrence: Greeting is super important at events. People want to know that they are where they're supposed to be, that there's a friendly face there who understands and is welcoming them. I think it's really critical that piece that you mentioned of greeting, because I think sometimes people don't think about how important it is. But even to this day, I see when you're at a networking event, even if you're not hosting it, people gravitate toward you.
And I think that it's that spirit that I think you taught everyone who's worked with you as well because I know a few of your former interns and even though I have never worked With you in staff for Mid Atlantic Events Magazine, I really took that on all of my roles. Anytime that I was an events chair or president of a membership based organization.
If someone walked in, I wanted to greet them. Because if, if someone walks into a new situation, it can be very daunting. So to see someone say, "hi, welcome, I noticed you, who are you here to meet? You know, how can I make you have a great time? That's so, so important."
Jim Cohn: Oh, it is so important.
It's almost like when I go to a restaurant even and walk up to the hostess stand or whatever and they say can I help you?
I wish you would have said, welcome to XYZ restaurant. I hope you had a pleasant journey in and because they know why I'm there. They're there to eat. And most people don't take a look at it. And that's what we always taught everyone.
We ran an event called Taste and Tour of the Countryside, which was out at Drexelbrook. It went on for close to 18 years, and last year we did, it was 4, 000 people.
And Temple University School of Hospitality and Tourism would make it a part of their curriculum for about five years, six years.
That they would bring, almost a whole class. And captains would tell the students, everyone needs to be greeted, walk them to their table, walk them to their exhibit booth, don't just say booth number 39, they don't know where booth number 39 is! Help them carry things, because that's so important. You get to be a friendly face, and that's what we did for all of our events. To me, I'm not out there to sell. I'm out there to connect or just to be relationship. And when I was president of HSMAI, uh, Hospitality, Sales, Marketing Association International, the Philly chapter, in the 2000s, the mid 2000s, we created dine arounds. It wasn't just about taking a group to a restaurant, we went to four places at that night or five.
It was those people walking together having a common denominator that they could talk about And going from restaurant to restaurant. And before that was, it was a summer outing. Then we turned it into a summer soiree.
Beth Lawrence: Summer outing was where I met you. It was on the Mooshaloo. Yep. Yeah.
Jim Cohn: Yeah. And we did that for 10 years.
Beth Lawrence: Well, when the details are facilitated, people don't have to necessarily worry. That's the other thing about a good greeting. You limit the anxiety of someone going, Am I where I'm supposed to be? Where is my name tag? Where do I have to go? It really allows them to be where they are, keep their head where their feet are.
And really be immersed in the experience. And I think you said something about your magazine and your relationship to your readers and how it is unique and different. And I think that is critically important for folks, not only who plan events, but maybe our leaders in membership based organizations. A lot of the time, especially if sponsors are funding a huge portion of either your organization or your event, it can be really tempting to spend a lot of time on your sponsors.
But I always remind my event clients that your attendees are your stakeholders to people that don't pay necessarily for the event are your stakeholders to your partners are your stakeholders to whether they have a dollar in it or their stake is their time and sweat and tears. And I think it really would behoove folks to Really think about everyone who touches their event, the vendors, all of these people, you need to have relationships with them and understand what they are looking for, why they're supporting your event, and how you can make that, make whatever their goal is, a reality.
Jim Cohn: Absolutely. Yeah, it's, it's win win for everybody is what you have to make it and we have our Ask Jim portal on our website's magazine. I'm the only one who sells the ads in the magazine. And then I also oversee the production. I do the final approvals, but my editor and art director, we look at the editorial structure together, and we try to highlight and I say give them a voice!
You know, our, our first issue as the pandemic was happening and I really hate using that word pandemic or COVID.
Beth Lawrence: It feels so far away and also like last week in some terms.
Jim Cohn: Yeah, well COVID is that five letter word that we don't try to say anymore. But what I did is I put boxes on our front cover of people like on a zoom call. People who were trying to be still involved in the industry, just a picture of who they were and their name was underneath it.
Beth Lawrence: Love that.
Jim Cohn: And then we co created a video called hospitality ready, and then event ready.
And what we did, four of us went out and got video pieces from different people around the whole region. We're ready when you're ready. And it was a phenomenal, emotional video. We always had to keep positive always had to keep pushing forward
Beth Lawrence: Yeah, and keep focusing on the people right? At the end of the day, it's people that power all of these brands.
So I love that you not only spotlight the venues, but the people behind it that are like, we are ready to see you again. Because I think especially for us in the hospitality industry, it was a rude awakening of, we still need to connect. We knew that it was just, how are we going to connect and for how long?
One of the other things I wanted to talk to you about you've mentioned a lot of events that you're going to or Planning or part of how do you because I think a lot of people really admire the fact that you can just go to all of these events. I swear there has to be more than one of you. How do you, when you pick a networking event to go to, what are your tactics? What is the approach to find success in a networking event?
Jim Cohn: I was averaging before 2020, probably about four events a week. I remember one time I did seven events in one night. So I always look at. A, is it something that interests me, that would interest my readers, the people who are involved with the magazine as the planners? Does it help a client of mine?
If it's a hosted event by one of our advertisers, I will prioritize that.
Beth Lawrence: And that's a return on your relationship with them. I also want to point out your use of partnerships over the years. I mean the Ham Ball is it's extremely Ingenious and it's really meeting each of the partners where they are.
What can you give? What can I give and then making a mutually beneficial partnership that also benefits the 1000 to 1400 people that were coming to your event. So I think partnerships is is part of your legacy as well. I would say.
Jim Cohn: I love those partnerships and I think what happens is you don't go in looking at what's in it for you, it's, what is it in for that you can bring to the table?
And that's really how I always looked at it.
Beth Lawrence: Yes. And that listeners is how I was able to go from being laid off to having my first two clients in two months, because I. The first thing that I did after crying for a few days was calling people and emailing people in my network, just getting appointments with them, letting them know what I was going to be doing now, talking to them about how our partnership might change or things that I might be able to do for them that I wouldn't before.
And ways that I could still keep them connected to the previous employer to further their goals and aspirations. And two months later. That led to two qualified referrals that allowed me to really take my business full time. And so I think there's something to be said for thinking about what each side can give.
Jim, this was fantastic. Please tell the listeners how they can get in touch with you from the "ask Jim" to following your publication.
Jim Cohn: Sure. Our magazine's website is www.eventsmagazine.com, and if you're in the planning world or part of it, if you're an admin or executive secretary that might do some things once in a while, or if you're someone who plans meetings and conferences all the time, it's for both levels.
If you want to reach out, my email is jim
at eventsmagazine.Com and I'm connected all the time. It's something that, you know, we we try to pride ourself because we see other ones not doing it. So we really try to help out and our phone numbers 2159478600.
Jim Cohn: Uh, if you need to call us, so all different ways to get in touch with us.
Beth Lawrence: This is gold. Everyone listening, this contact information is gold because Jim really is one of a kind and I can't thank you enough for everything that you've taught me and on behalf of everyone you've ever brought up into the fold.
Thank you so much for everything that you do.
Jim Cohn: Oh, thanks Beth. And you're doing an awesome job and just progressing everything.
Beth Lawrence: Thank you so much. And thank you type A plus listeners. I will be back in two weeks with a new episode. Take care.