Today we’d like to introduce you to Rina Jean Bindi.
Rina Jean, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Entertaining fell into my lap. While on retreat in Julian, CA, I happened to come across about 40 kids from Mexico on vacation. They were all swimming, running around the pool, and I ended up playing games with them. They were diving in after my set of water rings and eagerly bringing them back to me, so I’d throw them in again. Two hours later we were all done playing and I went back to my cabin. I had the time of my life playing with those children. Nothing else mattered, other than being engaged and at the moment with them. The following week during lunch with my friend Susie, her husband joined us by happenstance. I shared my retreat experience with them and at the end said, “I wish I could get paid to play with children”. Her husband Dune looks over at me and replies “You’re hired”. I looked back at him puzzled and asked what he meant. Unbeknownst to me, Dune is a career children’s entertainer.
Within three weeks, I was at my first Game Master party and onward to my career as a professional children’s entertainer and soon, CEO. Only a year after discovering my passion to work with children, I moved to Colorado in October of 2012. I was determined to continue working as an entertainer once I moved out here yet had no contacts. I called every entertainment company I could find on the internet and asked them all for work. None of them had space on their team or any work due to it being the winter season. Out of sheer desire to entertain and desperation to pay my bills, I started showing up at fundraisers to practice face painting and work for tips. Eventually getting into the Golden Corral Restaurant on Monday-Wednesday to twist balloons for tips. I picked up a job as a nanny during the daytime and started building a digital empire online during the winter season.
Once spring came, so did the opportunities. I started getting noticed and asked to do events where I would need multiple entertainers. So, I found others like me, hobbyist or beginners, trained them, and started working them at events. By 2014, I was answering my phone booking parties, working 60+ hours Monday-Friday as well as an additional 12+ hours Saturday & Sundays. I had grown to the point to where I needed help in the back office and a good system. I took the leap and started hiring people to work in my back office. There is nothing more powerful in this world than a great Customer Relationship Management System for back-office tools! By 2016, I implemented the perfect back-office system, started creating videos for training new employees and had a team of 20 entertainers. We provide 13 services and had expanded into characters for princess parties as well as superheroes. Plus, we use winter “downtime” during the slow season to build our website presence and successfully market online, which makes being found online easier.
In 2018, RJ’s AMAZING Entertainment was awarded small business of the year by Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce. It came as a shock to me, (but not our team members) I didn’t realize our company made such an impact in our area as to where we’d be recognized as a force of good in our community. Please see https://kidsfunpartyideas.com/rjs-amazing-entertainment-llc-small-business-year-2018/ for video footage and acceptance speech. Today, we are still growing and involved in most local community events. Parents know they can trust us as a company to provide quality kid-friendly entertainment. We hire exceptional artists, talented upcoming actors, and people who love to make kids happy. It’s such an incredible journey thus far growing our business in the Loveland and Fort Collins community. We feel honored when the city or an event asks us to participate in their upcoming festivals. We enjoy bringing our face paint tent, twisters, characters, and boosting community events on RJ’s AMAZING Entertainment’s Facebook Page. We desire to live in a family-friendly community. We help build this foundation and do whatever we can to improve our area, with the services we provide! Recently, I started a second business, which offers the foundation marketing services which make RJ’s AMAZING Entertainment truly AMAZING online! Every business ought to be utilizing these services if they want a share of the digital market space!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I didn’t know I would end up where I’m at. I told my husband (dating at the time), I was going to be a professional face painter. He had no prior experience with face painting and didn’t know “it’s a thing”. I’ve had a lot of break downs, tears, and “why am I doing this?!” moments along the way. I’ve been audited by the Colorado Department of Labor, IRS, my company was duplicated and ripped off by a former employee, who worked with me for one summer, charged half of our prices, and then attempted to steal my team. I’ve had team members I trusted, cut out our company and steal business for themselves. Competitors move into town and again, try to poach my team. I’ve suffered through the winter season, relying on my husband to pay our bills due to my not bringing in enough business our first few years. I’ve hurt peoples feelings, been misunderstood, had to express to others hard truths, and felt humiliated for unsuspecting, accidental, unethical, mistakes I’ve made. When I do make mistakes, I ask for forgiveness and make situations right between myself and others. I’ve been made an example of in both extremely positive and negative circumstances. And above all else, I forgive unconditionally while empathizing with the other person’s situation, which is not always easy to understand when they themselves created so much pain towards my business.
Becoming a CEO wasn’t what I had originally set out to do. Yet it’s become apparent beyond all doubt that putting people, where they thrive, is something I enjoy doing. Most of my struggles now, revolve around employees. Booking the events, and streamlining the business has been easy now that I have the right tools and started creating training programs. Still, finding good humans, who are passionate about the service, be it face painting, or princess-ing can be challenging. I have no ivy league or college education, I barely graduated high school, and had a tough time keeping a job. I did not know anything about SEO, building a business, hiring people, or being a CEO.
My inner fire and desire to not fail, lead me to find classes through the Loveland Chamber Business Development, helped me surround myself with people who are much smarter than I am, and network around town asking people about subjects they are experts in. I also became friends with the local competition, face painting companies, or fellow balloon twisters, and help them out with parties where they need extra entertainers. They also return the favor and help me out when I’m short-staffed. If you’re just starting out, regardless of your career path, as long as you’re doing the footwork, staying true to your word, keeping commitments, and fair to the people who you work with, it’ll all work out. Remember to pay yourself first, always, and use whatever is left to grow your business. There are a few books which helped me along the way. Chuck Blakeman’s “Making Money Is Killing Your Business” Michael E Gerber The E-Myth Revisited, and Mike Michalowicz entire series, especially “Profit First”. Implementing these strategies gave me the tools I needed to create my own road map for success.
Please tell us about RJ’s AMAZING Entertainment.
RJ’s AMAZING Entertainment is known for providing quality family fun. If we are at an event or post it on our page, you’ll know it’s kid-friendly and a good place to hang out! Team RJ employees are really the glue behind this business. They are empowered to create new services, attend different events, and let their imagination run wild. At this point, I fund whatever they need, and let our team play out their ideas. We create and put on annual events like The Enchanted Princess Tea Party, Ice Skating w/the Ice Sisters at Foothills Mall, and this September is our first charity fundraising event SuperHero Laser Tag, at Loveland Laser Tag, benefiting Emmadity Foundation. Being able to team up with a local business like Loveland Laser Tag, and entertaining to raise funds for a good cause, is spectacular. This particular event and foundation line up with our beliefs and fits into our company culture fairly easily and our company isn’t profiting from it financially. We get asked to volunteer or donate in fundraising or nonprofit events weekly. Which, if we did them all or even half of them for free, we wouldn’t have a thriving business! Instead, we came up with a solution to have a deeply discounted rate. And it’s been working out nicely for everyone involved. My work within RJ’s consists of working on the business, rather than in the business, yet I still entertain regularly. My second business www.GetMoreReviews.Today is more challenging. I’m building a digital empire once again, from the ground up. Which means I currently spend most of my time in front of my computer. I help other businesses who are ready to take the next step and want help with business listings, generating reviews, content for articles or blogs, and website optimization. What’s most rewarding, is I am able to provide services I know from personal experience will aid in laying the foundation for which another business is built upon. And this excites me!
Were there people and/or experiences you had in your childhood that you feel laid the foundation for your success?
Asana, Slack, and my CRM which is specific to the entertainment industry are the apps I can’t live without. Chuck Blakeman’s “Making Money Is Killing Your Business” Michael E Gerber The E-Myth Revisited, and Mike Michalowicz entire series, especially “Profit First”. Implementing these strategies gave me the tools I needed to create my own road map for success. I have an entire audible library which is so rich in content, I will listen to the same book 4-5 times while driving or sitting at home just to ensure I am implementing as much as I can and didn’t miss anything.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kidsfunpartyideas.com and www.GetMoreReviews.Today
- Email: RJBindi@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/co_kid_entertainment/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rjsamazingpaint/
- Other: https://www.ampleva.com, https://www.rinabindi.com
Credit for article