What Your Marketing and Events Team Needs to Know About Entertaining Executives and Engineers
I finally figured it out. I feel like I have to share this with you.
For over 20 years, I’ve wondered why my magic and mentalism always seemed to land so well with engineers, heavy industry executives, doctors, lawyers, and business people.
These people bring me to events like The Masters, and they want me entertaining their clients and customers at hospitality events, executive summits, and sales meetings.
Their marketing departments and event planners seemed to think they were crazy, too. “Why would magic be a good fit for this event?”
Now I know.
It’s all about DISC.
If you’re unfamiliar with DISC, it’s a four-way classification system psychologists use to categorize communication styles.
Your communication style has a tremendous impact on how you perceive others and how they perceive you. I don’t have time to go into it here, but you can learn more here.
The DISC profiles split two ways:
“task oriented people” (Type C and D) vs. “people oriented people” (Type S and I)
Typically, event planners are very detail-oriented people who really like to talk with other people and have fun conversations.
Most of them are in the Type S and I groups: they like everyone to agree, they love to talk, and they want everyone to like them. They get energy from talking to others.
Focusing on “things” and “problems” takes energy for an I or S (not that they can’t do it, but it takes energy).
Engineers and executives, however, are typically Type C and D. They are task-oriented people, they get energy from solving problems and doing things, they like to move fast, they like to compete and face challenges. Doing stuff gives them energy.
“Chit chat” and “small talk” drains energy for a C or D (not that they can’t do it or don’t like it, but it takes energy).
The problem is that everyone thinks everyone else is just like them.
So when an event planner says,
“Our people don’t need anything to get them laughing and having fun together, they all know each other. They just go to bed at 9pm”
She is 100% correct. Her people do know each other, and they can talk and have fun together. She doesn’t think they need anything to make the cocktail party work, because networking talk and mingling gives her energy.
At the same time, the Type C and D engineers and executives at the event will spend a lot of energy doing the small talk, and they’ll get tired, disconnect, start answering emails on their phone, or even leave the event early.
When I discovered DISC, I realized why my engineering and executive clients kept requesting me back for their events year after year:
Having a problem or a challenge to deal with gives Types C and D a tremendous amount of energy. Working on a problem together actually helps them bond and build rapport with other Cs and Ds.
So having their mind-blown by a magic trick, watching other people get their minds blown, trying to figure out the secrets, and then talking about the magic afterward played right into their communication styles.
The magic and mind-reading gave them tremendous energy in a situation they would normally find draining.
That’s why they stayed later at the events, why they built stronger relationships around the magic, and why they were talking about the events months later.
What does this mean for your events?
I don’t know.
Magic and mind-reading seem to play well for executives, engineers, spreadsheet-enthusiasts, and people who work on “things” and details, but they’re probably not the only things that appeal to the Type C and D.
But you’re open to a conversation about an upcoming event, give me call.
I never noticed this until I wrote this post, but in this image there’s at least one CEO, an electrical engineer, two business consultants, and a guy who manages casinos. All Type C and D personalities, and given that like-attracts-like, you can expect that their spouses are the same…