A Discussion with Jody Tatro, Co-Founder and CEO of ProExhibits & BeyondLive

Emily Chang: Hi, I'm Emily Chang, author of Brotopia and host and executive producer of Bloomberg Technology. Welcome to the SHEconomics series, honoring women who are blazing trails as founders and CEOs. Today, I'm joined by Jody Tatro, co-founder and CEO of ProExhibits and BeyondLive, companies focused on delivering the next generation of virtual and live event experiences.

Jody, thank you so much for joining us. It's great to be here with you.

Jody Tatro: Emily, thank you for the invite. I'm so honored and I'm excited to chat with you.

Emily: I have to start with the pandemic. What was it like running a global events business when the world shut down?

Jody: Wow. It was crazy. As a business owner, we've been through difficult times with the dot-com, and that, which was good because we were able to have an idea of how to react fast and how to handle stressful times, really stressful. Dot-com was really tough on a lot of businesses. A lot of businesses went under. Pandemic hit; we went from live events... Fortunately, we got a little bit of a head start or a little bit of a warning. We were in Orlando in different cities setting up exhibits for clients and a lot of the international clients were having to cancel. So we started to see a little bit of a warning. And then when they shut us down completely, live events didn't come back for a long time, probably till about the summer. You started to see a little bit of a movement.

So, they shut us down for a lot of our team, except for the core management group. And at that point, we were looking ahead and saying, "Okay, shelter in place for two weeks." Two weeks went by and we were like, "We need revenue. We need to find another revenue source." You can't get by on live events. What are you gonna do? So we did mini pivots and pirouettes. How's that? We started out thinking we were gonna become a makeshift medic tent company. And that didn't work. Didn't have a huge need for that. Then we went into testing, pivot again, didn't have a huge need for that. We needed some way to employ our people in our manufacturing shop. So, we ended up, on one side, the ProExhibit side, we ended up doing high-end sneeze guards for, you know, the best description, for people like Tesla, Ariat, high-end companies that wanted really nice-looking sneeze guards, yet protection for their employees and still be able to operate. So that was one blessing.

At the same time, we had events. How are people gonna talk about their brands and introduce new products? Have a sales conference? And that's when we came out with the BeyondLive software platform. It's a virtual event software platform where you can have... instead of just having the constricts of a building, you can go from 1,000 people regionally, to 10,000 people globally. So it was a great way for brands to talk about their upcoming products, to interact, for people to still get together and for brands to get some movement. And it's been a great revenue source for us, and it's been a whole new company and a whole new product. So it's been exciting. It's been really fun. Takes me back to my roots.

Emily: Well, it's good to hear you use the word "fun" especially after navigating so many challenges. You've been running this company since long before the dot-com burst and I'm curious what lessons you learned from that that may have served you as you were trying to make these mini pivots and pirouettes through the pandemic.

Jody: Well, the one thing that's constant in life and business is change, and unless you're ready to adapt, move and change, you're gonna die as a business. And we just had to keep changing. A lot of things hit you in life and business and things aren't always great. When we first started our business, we had a lawsuit. Not gonna go into that. But life has ups and downs and you really have to embrace those bad times and grow with them. That's when you get your greatest growth is through your tough times. The lessons learned over the years during the tough times were huge and it allowed us to keep going and to be stronger and to be positive, and look for that silver lining during the pandemic and during the closure of live events. Because I think if we didn't and we just sat back and waited, which I saw a lot of companies do in our industry. Just sat back, waited for somebody to save them. And there's no one there. It's on you. And especially as an entrepreneur, you don't have the backing of millions of dollars in stock money or anything. It's you and you need to learn and grow from those tough times.

Emily: Tell me your story. You started off in the '80s working at Xerox. You worked at a couple of HP spin-offs. What was it like being a woman in those very early days of a very male-dominated Silicon Valley?

Jody: Yeah, lots of fun stories.

Emily: I'm sure you have stories.

Jody: Yeah. Started off, got out of college with an economics degree, thought, "Wow, women are powerful. Women are just equal to men." No offense to the men in the audience, but I really came out of college with those rosy glasses. And I saw a lot of different things. I think the most shocking to me was when we acquired ProExhibits and I met with the manufacturer, with my business partner who's male, and it was the three of us in the meeting. And I was shocked because he treated me like a lamp. And I thought, "Oh my gosh. This is the '90s, what's happening? We're equal. You're not better than me. I'm not better than you. We're all human and equal." And it was a really big shock and revelation to me that it's still a very... It's still a boys club out there. And a lot of industries, as you've written about in your book, which I love, by the way...

Emily: Thank you.

Jody: There's a lot of boys clubs and women need to be strong and they need to support each other and not try to push each other down because someone's gonna get further. I think because I am very pro-women sports and it's a very good way to, you know, compete and to learn how to compete, it helped. And I have two daughters and I always tell them, "It's equal playing field. I don't care what color, who you are, everybody, it's an equal playing field. And you gotta just be the best, work hard and be smart and give compliments when compliments are due. And, you know, bring others up. Surround yourself with trees, not willows." I mean, redwood trees, not willows. You want your tribe really strong and I think that's huge.

Emily: Well, speaking of your tribe, Jody, I know you mentioned your business partner is a man. And I hear from male-female founding teams all the time that they often will choose who does what based on how they believe it'll be received. For example, pitching to a room full of male investors, you might put, you know, your male co-founder up for that meeting instead of you, or sometimes it's vice versa. And I'm curious if you're conscious of that? Do you think about that as you're making business decisions and defining your roles?

Jody: Yes, 100%. So, at the end of the day, it's about the company. It's not about me and it's not about my business partner. It's about the business, the team. I'm responsible for not just my team, but their families. And I think you have to check your ego at the door. As a woman, as a man, whatever, you have to check your ego at the door. So right now, we're looking to raise funds for BeyondLive and as Emily knows, it's very much a male-dominated group. So I have stepped back. My business partner is leading the charge and raising funds. And it's about doing what's best for the company. And as long as it's a win for the company, I don't care. I don't care if people think I'm the janitor. When I first started, somebody thought I was the secretary and asked me to get them coffee. And, you know, it's like, you know, "Whatever." It's fine as long as there is an end game and a goal and it's for the betterment of everybody. And I think that's what we do. We play bad cop, good cop.

Emily: Right. Is that a shame, though, that you feel like you have to do that? I mean, I guess another approach could be, you know, doing it yourself and trying to shake up people's beliefs and break those age-old stereotypes, but I know that's hard.

Jody: It is hard. If I had the luxury of time, I agree, 100% shake it up. I have done a little bit on my own, but... Actually, I was starting down a path and I had one of my mentors from my software days was helping me, and he passed away suddenly. So that kind of put a crimp in that a little bit. But we don't, right now, have the luxury of time. As you know, with technology, it leapfrogs. And if you're gonna get to market and you're gonna be the hottest thing out there, you don't have the luxury of time. And for us to get this growing faster, we need it now, not in a year. So yeah, if I had the luxury of time, 100%.

Emily: So let's talk about where you feel you excel as a leader and where women excel as a leader. You were talking about change earlier and how we all have to change. And that strikes me as something that women are really good at doing, evolving.

Jody: Yeah, I think women can be amazing leaders if they let themselves. We, as women, have to... Especially as you get older, you become, you know, a wife, or just a mom, you have children, you have a business. We multitask so well and we're able to do everything. You see some amazing women, like somebody I know that has four kids, that's juggling a successful career, wrote a book. I mean, Emily, you're living it. And I know when I was raising my children, I was getting up early. I was, you know, checking all the boxes. I wasn't perfect. I didn't bake the cookies. I, a lot of times, had to buy 'em. But you know, you can do it all.

I think women are very, very good at multitasking. I think men are more compartmentalizing things and not as great at multitasking. And women also have, you know, a greater empathy. A lot of women understand that, you know, it is hard out there and there are a lot of things to juggle. And I think we as women, if we step back and don't try to be a male leader. We're who we are. I'm not my partner. I'm me. I have different experiences. I'm a woman. So, I think we have to embrace that and move forward and be confident.

Emily: Well, I mean, it's amazing what you've accomplished. You have founded and run a company for a couple of decades through a dot-com burst, through the financial crisis, through a pandemic. When you look back, what advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?

Jody: At some points, I just got sucked in at taking life too seriously and forgetting about myself. I think one thing as women we do is we do put everybody first and we forget about our own health, both mentally and physically. And I think we aren't good for anybody if we're not healthy. And I think whether it's a walk around the building a couple times a day, whatever it is, I think I wish I had kept up with my own self-health a little bit. I mean, I did once I got a little bit of a wake-up call and then I went back to my routine. You know, I lived on coffee and Diet Coke for a little bit there and that's not healthy for anybody. So, that's one thing.

And the other thing is, don't be afraid of change. So many people are afraid of change and I think you really need to embrace it. There's a silver lining. It's just a new chapter. And you might not know where the path is gonna be, but embrace it and run with it because change is gonna happen. Change happens in life and you need to learn how to embrace it and move forward because standing still isn't gonna help anybody. So those are two things that I'd really emphasize for people in their 20s.

Emily: What are the goals that you're setting for yourself as a leader for, let's say, five years from now, at this stage of your career, at this stage of the company?

Jody: Hawaii. No.

Emily: Yeah, me too. I'm in on that.

Jody: So, I have personal... You can't see it, but I have a whiteboard right next to my desk. And it changes every day. I have my business goals and my personal goals. In five years, I am hoping BeyondLive is successful. And I'm not sure if it's been acquired by somebody or what. But business goals are five years from now, to have BeyondLive up, running, successful and to be the leader on that platform. So that's that business goal. The personal goals. And five years is an interesting time. A lot can change in five years. I kind of shoot more towards the three year...

Emily: Let's talk about three years then. Let's make it a little more manageable.

Jody: Yeah. So three years, to have built out BeyondLive, built out the ProGlobalEvent side, merge the ProExhibits with the ProGlobalEvents. So a lot of changes in both structure and financial and breaking apart a couple things. Those are our goals for three years for business. Three years from now, I'd like to see... Backing off a little bit. I have my travel and etc.

Emily: Your bag to Hawaii is packed. Is that what you're saying?

Jody: Well, this year my goal was... for 2021, our business goals were get BeyondLive up and running, get clients, get some beta test. And we exceeded those goals. And my personal goal was to hike Half Dome and so I did that. Next year, it's the Santiago Trail. I wanna, both physically and mentally, push myself as I'm getting older. I think those are key components. And surrounding myself with some really intelligent, young people is great. And that's one of the exciting things about BeyondLive. So, those are one-year goals. Three years out, I told you the business goal. The personal goal is to have a ranch.

Emily: Yeah. I like the specificity. It's good to be specific.

Jody: Yeah. So, it's a ranch on the Central Coast where I can have some fun animals.

Emily: All right, well, we will see you on your ranch or in Hawaii, maybe in three to five years' time. I said we'll see you on your ranch or in Hawaii, maybe in three to five years' time. I think those are some good life goals.

Jody: Yes, yes. You know, I just think it's about moving every day, staying fit. And a ranch in three years out... Not giving up city life, too, but having that as a second option, with chickens and horses, would be fun.

Emily: Jody, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. So I really appreciate the opportunity to learn from you. And I think what you've accomplished in two, three decades plus is amazing given all of the tectonic shifts that have happened in technology in that time. So, thank you for joining us. We'll keep watching you, Jody.

Jody: Thank you, Emily. Thank you so much. What you've done for the community and for women is amazing. I thank you. I loved your book. I'm very honored to be on your program, so thank you.

Emily: Thank you. Thank you. It's great to be here with you. Take care.