From Distressed to Profitable: The Festival Business Turnaround

What would you say is your biggest pain point, challenge, or problem that you're experiencing at the moment? We're in amongst it, and I'm on my own, and I'm feeling distressed. One of the most successful events I've ever been to, one thing they do is... Hello. Nice to meet you. What's your name? Luke Hazel. Luke, nice to meet you. So tell us, what's your business? I run True Valley Events, and it mainly focuses around one festival at the moment called Valleyfest, and a farm. Excellent. And local as well, I believe? Local, yeah. We're just outside Bristol, overlooking the stunning True Valley Lake. Okay, so you've got this awesome festival coming up, and you shared with me pre-recording what some of the challenges are, but what would you say is your biggest pain point, challenge, or problem that you're experiencing at the moment? At the moment, we had a tremendous, remarkable, like, yes, you're back, sold 1,000 tickets off the bat first week, and then since then it's just been slow, slow ticket sales. So we've got 12 weeks to go, we've got a mission to double ticket sales now in 12 weeks. Okay, and you're worried? Yeah, it's like, yeah. I can see a bit of the stress and the tension going on there as well. See you, your pants. Do you want some help with that? Massively, yeah. Okay, fab. Right, welcome to the Business Bench, let's get to work. So, Luke, give us a little bit more of a background, and tell us a bit about the history of the event, and keep it pre-seed. Yeah, we've been running this event for a decade. It started in 2014, and it's grown organically, started with 700 people from the local community, my mates, my family, coming together, raising money for charity, and trying to then create a harvest festival, communicating to people about food, farming, educating people about where it's from, and that story then evolved into slightly more people. We've peaked at about 14,000 in 2024, and 2023 was a good attendance, but with some big bands, like The Coops, and Tom Adele, and like Deacon Blue, because I like Deacon Blue, and a few, you know, and it's sort of got a bit out of control. That happens with business, unfortunately, sometimes. And this year we decided to have a year off, because we did a decade straight, year off, felt the right decision, and then we've relaunched for 2026, and now we're in amongst it, and I'm on my own, and I'm feeling the stress. Great, so you've got 12 weeks until the event, you've got shortfall in ticket sales, or at least revenue from the event, and you're feeling the pinch a little bit, stress-wise. Yeah, and you know, I know the community will come together, I know they will be late in buying tickets, and I know that people are lastminute.com nowadays, or does that website not exist anymore? No, I think it does actually, yeah, it does feel like a bit of a blast from the past. So I think there's a couple of things which we can look at, because a lot of the time, and again, you can correct me if my assumptions are right or wrong here, but a lot of the time when people are focused on events, they focus on the day itself, and ticket sales on the day, and it feels like there's this zero moment of truth, whether on the day did you sell enough tickets or not, we succeeded or we failed. Yeah, there is a lot of that, yeah, and this is why you look around this event here, it's like, without these sponsors, without you guys coming on board and giving her the support that she needs, it also doesn't stack up. Yeah, that's it, and I think what we've got to get out of the way of thinking, and I think you'll be on this judging by our conversation pre-recording, but we've got to get out of this binary thinking of it's a winner or a failure when we get to that zero moment of truth on the day, and actually, in business, it's not just about a one-time thing, it's about how do we take the noise, which you're creating from a marketing perspective, and then turn that into dollars, let's put it bluntly. Yeah, but not just dollars on that particular day in 12 weeks' time, but on top of ticket sales and after the event as well, and I think if we can get you to a point where you're able to see a vision for building up customer lifetime value, where rather than it hinging around a £175 ticket sale, what if actually that £175, if we could double that through some of the other avenues, now all of a sudden it's less about selling more tickets, it's more about extracting more value out of the people who've already put up hands and said, yeah, we'd love to do this. Yeah, and I have been trying to rack my brains about how we can pivot the festival, create a more regenerative future for it, and one of the concepts is that we try and take the community that believe in us, that have been there for the last decade, and really love it and get it and understand it, but I want to take them on another journey for the next decade in creating this model of sustainability regeneration, so I'd love for the ethos of the community farm which we've started to be done on mass scale, so perhaps there's a way in which I could invite you to come and plant a thousand trees and then we spin some tunes after and we have a good time for the weekend. Yeah. And collectively… Which I love the sound of, by the way. So we're asking the participants to participate in doing something good for the planet and have a good time at the same time. So the only downside, I'm going to sound like a pessimist here, but the people that know me, they know that I'm an optimist by heart, so it's rare for me to say something like this, but unfortunately it's a very busy world that we live in these days and it feels like the people have got quite selfish and one of the things which they're thinking is like, what's in it for me all that? So I'm fully 100% behind what you've just said, but there are going to be other people that need a stronger reason to get involved in that community piece and actually that could take a decade. You don't have that, you've got 12 weeks. I've got 12 weeks, yeah. We still have to be realistic, there is a deadline here, okay? And again, it's not a matter of like in one fell swoop, let's find a sponsor who's going to come because I know you had a big sponsor previously who supported you for nine years, unfortunately they've decided time is tight and maybe they've got their own pressures financially, but we won't just find immediately another sponsor to replace them, but what if we could find, explore other ways to extract value out of the audience we've got? So first question I've got for you, and it's a very specific question, how many people, and be as exact as you can, how many people have attended your events over the past however many years you've been running it? As it's grown, probably well over 100,000, yeah. Do you know exactly? No, I don't. Do you know how many people are in the database? About 20,000. Okay, so you've had 100,000 people at the events but only 20,000 in the database. Yeah, because you only get the ticket holders and one, you might buy four tickets, five tickets, you know. So here's our first thing that we can do when we, certainly through this event, how can we put something in place where we can gather not just that one ticket holders, you know, ticket purchasers' details, how do we get the other four people signed up? Obviously kids exclusive, but husband, wife, aunts, uncles, grandparents, brothers, sisters, let's try and gather their information, so what could you do? Well, a QR code system of something, of some sort of date, I don't know how we, you make it fun to participate in something to get their details. Okay, so we've got 12 weeks where we could run a campaign which is bring along a family member, they're going to get entered into a competition, say, to win some free tickets and you're going to send it out to a database of 20,000 people with a view that they'll pass it on to their brother, brother signs up to the competition and in we go. And there could be other things that you could kind of include within that to start to incentivise it. So in this next 12 weeks, could we grow that list from 20,000 to 25,000 or 30,000? Okay, we all know in business that data is worth something, so the more data you can collect the better. Could also be at the event, maybe that some kind of a competition continues, you mentioned about camping space that you've got coming up later in the year, maybe you could, there could be some kind of raffle which is just off a QR code or within the guide for the event that people can scan, put their information in. And again, so if we could get you from 20,000 to 25,000 by the event and from the event 25,000 to 30,000 because of all of those people there who are scanning codes and entering competitions and things like that. Well, the other pivot that I was thinking was trying to launch a crowdfunding campaign, maybe now for a 2027 or a 2026 ticket, but also enabling that ticket to be something extra. So we do run additional wellness events. We do have a sauna on the farm. We do have the opportunity to have feasts. We run a campsite, so that 300 quid ticket could be a year of membership, not just that one weekend. And that's something I would like to launch. So that's, again, extending that customer lifetime value out. And I think you should, I would pick a certain number of people in the database, 200 people out of the database. Have you got the telephone numbers? Yep. Call them. Hey, this is Luke from XYZ. We've got this thing coming up. We're not trying to sell you anything. We're just phoning to see whether that's something that you would be interested if it was available. Yeah. Just a bit of market research. Yeah, okay. Heavy lift, because you've got to make all those phone calls. But what we want to gauge is if 10% of those people think, crikey, £300, that's a bargain. You know, we know we're on to something. And then you've got 20,000 other people who've raised their hand, signalled their interest in what you're doing over the past decade, not just got the £175 ticket sale. You've got a £300 upsell membership, whatever it looks like. Yeah, yeah. Future revenue. Yeah, and that's it. It's just whether I can pull that off in 12 weeks. Maybe get some other people involved. There'll be plenty of people who are behind what you're doing, who would give you two hours to spend on a phone, maybe give away some free tickets for a day. Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea. There are lots of people who are very hard up in 2026, you know, cost of living crisis, who had a £175 ticket. Yeah, I'll sit on the phone for a day for you. Yeah, hopefully, yeah. I'll get my husband in as well. Can we have four tickets? No problem. Let's get everybody down, right? When do you start? But this is about, it can't be, if you get too focused on one outcome that day and hitting that number, you lose sight of all these other little things you'd be doing. So it should always be, what can we do to get 20 more tickets sold? What can we do to reach out to our list? What does our list want? So it's all what-based questions. Not how, but what. And it makes it, you know, that much more kind of specific when you're starting to kind of reverse engineer it. Okay. What have you got from this so far? Yeah, some really good ideas. More specifically. For the listeners, what have you got specifically? I'm going to go away from this and try and think how I can create the membership thing for me. For me, that's got the most legs. Yeah. Because I know that I've got something really special to offer people. Okay, I'm going to say don't do that. Yet. Okay, not don't do it ever. But how do you see yourself in your business? What role do you see yourself as sort of taking up? As a vision or like, I mean, I suppose what I want to, my dream is to be like this advocate for regeneration. So I'm a farmer. I'm only a small-scale farmer, but I feel like I've got a voice to try and help this transition of other farmers reach the regenerative roadmap that I want. So you're probably then the Steve Jobs to somebody else's Steve Wozniak, right? So you're like, hey, let's build some really incredible products because we want to inspire and revolutionize and things like that. Steve Wozniak was the engineer behind the products that Steve Jobs came up with, right? But what was Steve Jobs really good at? The finesse of the... When you picture Steve Jobs, where do you see him? At the top of the tree, controlling the... On stage in his black turtleneck jacket, pitching a new product. Yeah. So when he's pitching a product, what is his job role? To be the spokesperson for the brand and the advocate for the product. Break it right down into like just basic business functions. What is he doing? The leader, I suppose. And the... Sales. Sales, yeah. That's all he's doing is marketing and sales, okay? You have this amazing, incredible platform and such a great vision, but ultimately when it comes down to the business, your job right now is to see yourself as the sales guy within your organization. So money... Sales produces money. Cash is now the lifeblood, the oxygen for your business. And everything which you should be doing should be thinking about how do we raise customer lifetime value? How do we bring more cash into the business? How can we get leverage? What assets we've already created? That email list that you've got, that list of telephone numbers, that is a cash machine waiting for you to dive in there and just have some nice down-to-earth conversations with people who've already bought into your brand. They've already attended your event. Yeah, they have, yeah. But what's stopping you from doing that? Do you know what? It's the barrier that I've created that I'm not a good salesman. Okay. I think that's it. Yeah. And I know I probably am, but I automatically have that... Like, yeah, if there's something stopping... What is sales to you? What does it...? Sales... Well, you're selling a product and being a salesman is not an easy job, actually. Why is that? I don't know. Because it's that... Well, it is time as well. So I am not very time rich. Okay. But imagine if for every conversation that you had that was 15 minutes long, it was like a cash machine, you banked 300 pounds. Yeah, I know. Are you motivated now? Yeah, of course, yeah. So it's needed. Let's play word association game. How would you define a salesperson? What's your typical... So you see a salesperson, what do you think? Well, annoying. Annoying. Okay. What else? Well... Say it. Say what's on your mind. Needy. Needy, annoying, pushy, persuasive, aggressive. And I'm not, you know... You're not that. No. You're Luke. Yeah. Right? And Luke is just... He's on this mission. He's got a very passionate message which he wants to spread. But in order to be able to do that, he needs to have that audience of people in front of him so they can start to be involved in his world and see a difference. Yeah, yeah. Be part of that change, okay? So it's far easier, rather than persuading people who don't want your thing and don't want to be a part of that, it's far easier to find people who are already on that train. Yeah. They just need a bit of gentle, well, hey, come on. Come inside. Yeah. It's an invitation. The example I always give is like, well, you don't need to push somebody like that. What do you want to do? You want to push back, right? But if I say, hey, Luke, come over here. Come over here. No, literally. Yeah, I'm going to follow you. You get it. So it's a really simple invitation. That's all we're doing. So what I was doing this week, I've been brave this week and I've picked the phone up to a number of businesses that I am trying to sell their concept of bringing their staff to the best staff party, summer party they've ever done. Yeah. And I have done that this week to try and sell 5, 10, 20, 50 tickets, you know? How have you gone? I had a good response. Yeah. So what have you said? No, I didn't sell any yet. But I've sent them emails of the information that they need. Because probably- To make that decision. It feels like probably there's resistance, tension. You have to be a bit persuasive there. You're trying to get budget out of them. But you've got 20,000 people who've already bought into your products, your brand. Okay? I would literally be sat there. So pick 200 people out of the phone book, out of that list. Oh, hey, it's Luke here from XYZ. What's the event called, sorry? Valleyfest. It's Luke here from Valleyfest. I'm the organiser. Listen, I hope you don't mind. I'm just doing a bit of research because we've got the event coming up. I'm not trying to sell you anything. You know, it'd be great if you could come along. But I've just got two questions to ask you. First of all, what was it that brought you to the event in the first place? And then the second question could be something simple like, look, you know, I noticed you haven't booked your ticket yet this year. Can I ask why? Yeah. And see what they say. And then just take that feedback, go to them. And you might find that just because you made that touch point, there's people who say, oh my God, yeah, we came to that event three years ago. I don't know why we haven't booked tickets yet. Yeah, we should really, really incur. Let's do it. And all you say then is, oh my God, that's incredible. It'd be wonderful if you could support us. Listen, can I, is it okay if I've got your number? Can I text you the link for the tickets? Not being pushy. Yeah. You see, I bet you will find you do 20 calls like that, you know, a day, you'll get five, 10, 15 ticket sales. You do that every day for the next 90 days and then run up to the event all of a sudden. Yeah. Plus, like I said, plus they can then get a redeem code for your friends and give your friends a discount code. Yeah. So take, would you mind sending this out to your brother? Get them to do the thing. We've got competition coming up as well. If you do a referral. Yeah. So build a whole kind of referral system into it as well. Yeah. Um, the other thing as well, which I would then look at is, um, at the event itself, um, it's really easy to get lots of concessions around. Yeah. Um, and they're charging everybody like 20 pounds of bloody, you know, poke bowl or whatever and stuff like that. Whereas I wonder if there's a way that you can, you can monetize your audience once they're at the event as well. And it doesn't have to be by much, but if you've got a thousand people there and they're spending an extra, you know, 20 pounds or 50 quid or whatever it is. Now, all of a sudden the gaps close from quarter of a million down to 200k. Yeah. It's a little bit easier. You do the membership on top of that and then that, that brings the gap down by another 75k, for example. Um. Launch the membership post event. Yeah. You do a, you do a massive campaign to get your campsite busy when it opens up in, you know, later on in the year once you've got the right permissions and things like that. Yeah. So that there's some incentive for people to book. Now all of a sudden, yeah, you didn't make the money at the event, but we've got 40,000 pounds worth of bookings because people have got their 10% off discount code. Yeah. As a one-time thing for going to that event. Yeah. Okay. And then, and then afterwards, so what, one of the most successful events I've ever been to, um, is an event called Atomicon which is held up in, uh, Newcastle. Right. Um, it's a sales and marketing conference and the one thing they do and have done consistently each and every single year, um, is at lunchtime, during the event, they pitch next year's event and then at the end of the day, just before the final keynote speaker, they pitch next year's event again. Right. They're already pre-selling tickets for next, next year and most people, again, we make these assumptions, these silly rules that we create for ourselves, that, oh yeah, they'll know what to do, they've booked a ticket this year so they'll go and re-book next year, won't they? No, they won't because the moment they leave your site, yeah, after the festival, yeah, there's a lot of distractions, some nice, you know, stories to tell and stuff like that but, but also, yeah, life gets in the way, distractions and everything else and lo and behold, they then miss the emails next year for whatever reason and this, that and the other but, if you can incentivise people to then sign up for next year's ticket because, you know, open the cart for, on the day but for three days afterwards so there's some big incentive to get them along next year and then you're already, again, it's cash flow so you've got to watch that because, obviously, you don't then want to spend all of that money but, again, if that, it's all about, right, let's pull this lever, close that gap, let's pull this lever, close that gap, pull this lever. Yeah, it's a good, good point. But, yeah, unfortunately, you're Luke the sales guy now. Yeah. You've changed your job. Yeah, good. No longer Luke the farmer. Yeah, alright. For the next 12 weeks, next 12 weeks you are salesman. Salesman. Yeah, okay, I can deal with that. But, see it more as, you're not selling to people, it's, invitations. You're sending out invitations, lots of invitations to anybody who's interested to listen and encourage them to come along. Yeah, well, thank you. My pleasure. Hopefully see you there, in the field. It's my opportunity now to do a shameless plug, Luke. So, I always try and do this at the end of these episodes as well. So, if you've enjoyed this episode, listening to Luke's story, hearing some of the business tips and advice and things like that. My book is coming out on the 1st of June, my new book, Fearless Pricing. It's on pre-order at the moment or if this comes out after the 1st of June, then you can go and grab it on Amazon or your favourite bookstore and also, we'll pop some links into the description below as well so you can go and access all of the resources we've got through Fearless Business. Thank you very much, Luke. It's been an absolute pleasure. Yeah, thank you.