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Entrepreneur Spotlight
Nick Gray – Creator of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party
- Favorite Tools & Services: Trello, Birdy, ConvertKit, WordPress, OptinMonster (why?)
- Where He Finds Talent: Upwork and Shepherd
- You May Not Know: Nick worked on private jets with his dad right after he graduated college.
“We would hire stand-up comedians and Broadway actors to lead these live interactive experiences.”
Nick Gray, creator of “The 2-Hour Cocktail Party” and Party.Pro, is also the founder of a company called Museum Hack.
“Museum Hack did renegade museum tours at some of the biggest and best museums in America.”
Museum Hack had a quirky way of getting the masses interested in science and history.
“We would hire stand-up comedians and Broadway actors to lead these live interactive experiences. We used tech and software to power and grow our sales and our leads.”
But in the past few years, Nick Gray has turned his focus to his true passion; hosting parties.
“I sold that company in 2019 and now I have this weird book that is called The 2-hour Cocktail Party.”
Background
“I'm obsessed with gathering people for online and in-person relationships.”
“What I work on now is marketing [The 2-Hour Cocktail Party] and trying to encourage a whole new generation of hosts, whether that means a cocktail party or a happy hour or a mastermind group or a networking event.”
This book was born out of Nick’s passion for bringing people together.
“I'm obsessed with gathering people for online and in-person relationships. Really, that's what I'm most excited about.”
He saw first-hand just how beneficial hosting gatherings can be for entrepreneurs who are looking to build not only friendships but also long-lasting business relationships.
“I hosted hundreds of parties myself in New York City and those parties helped me build a network that helped me then grow my business and launch my multi-million dollar company, Museum Hack.”
(Sort of) Jetsetting
“For almost all of my 20s, I worked in the avionics industry selling electronic equipment for small planes and military aircraft.”
The company, started by Nick’s dad in the basement of their house, was a family business that Nick helped grow into a large, successful operation.
“I joined right after college and helped him hire his first employees and then we grew it to over 70 people. I attended trade shows, I traveled all around the world talking to jet owners and working with this electronic equipment.”
Nick also spent a fair amount of time on private jets… but not flying in them.
“It was really weird. I would be on private jets all the time, but they were always broken. It's not like I was flying around the world in private jets, I was usually trying to help them fix their planes and quote new equipment that would be used in the retrofit or refurbishment cycle.”
“It was a wild world.”
Finding Talent
Favorite Place to Find Talent: Upwork and Shepherd
“I can't think of a better platform that includes reviews and ratings…”
“I can't think of a better platform that includes reviews, and ratings, and it's just easy to use with straightforward filtering and pricing. I've used Upwork for maybe 10 years.”
“I hire a lot of virtual assistants from the Philippines. If you have the budget for it, then I'd use a headhunter like Shepherd”
Nick's Toolkit
Favorite Project Management Software
“I use Trello with all of my team members, I use it with my virtual assistants and my freelancers to help assign tasks and track them through the publishing process or different projects that we're trying to do.”
Favorite A/B Testing Tool for Twitter
“I did an A/B test of my profile name using Birdy and it helped me get better new followers and more conversions. I also use Birdy to A/B test my profile description. For anyone who uses Twitter, it sounds like I'm shilling for them but I'm not, it really is a good tool.”
Favorite Marketing Platform
“I like ConvertKit because it plugs into my website. ConvertKit has a V. I. P. support team that will help you migrate from MailChimp to their service and platform. They'll import your name and set up your database and they do it all for free because they're trying to get some new subscribers.”
Favorite Content Management System
“I have two main blogs and it's really my content management system for all these articles. It allows me to have a really good website. We use GeneratePress to have a lightning-fast website for good Google search engine scores.”
Favorite Lead Generation Software
“OptinMonster gives me these pop-ups and lead forms to help me capture people's email addresses on my blog. I'll be honest, it was a little bit hard to set up but once we got it going, it drastically improved all the new leads that we were capturing.”
“I also really like that OptinMonster lets us do A/B testing to see what type of copy really converts the best between different headlines, bodies, and graphics.”
Where to Find Him
You can find Nick Gray on the internet at NickGray.net.
You can also find his book, The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, which will “help you make new friends and build your network in an authentic way.”
Find him on Twitter (@nickgraynews) and Instagram (nickgraynews).
Check out his articles on Party Pro: How to Host a Housewarming Party and 42 Cocktail Party Ideas for 2023.
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