An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Compartmentalization — When you are in business with your partner, you need to be able to separate business life and conversations from personal life and conversations. In business, with two results driven people with perspectives, similar to a corporate job, there will be differences in opinions and tense conversations. It is important to leave business conversations as business and not let that be a reflection of your romantic relationship.
As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Darnell and Alyssa Gilet.
Darnell and Alyssa Gilet launched House Party Entertainment to create memorable experiences that bring people together.
They developed the brand with a collective 20+ years of experience in media and entertainment, event production, talent acquisitions, and project management at companies that include NBCUniversal, Scripps Networks, A+E Networks, Discovery Communications, Unilever and the NBA.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you two to your respective career paths?
Darnell: From a professional perspective, my background is in Human Resources with a focus on Talent Acquisition, Diversity Strategy, University Relations and Employer branding. In school, I studied marketing and expected to work in the advertising space in the media industry. However, my first position out of college was not what I expected as I started in a sales position in a management trainee program. However, I leveraged that experience to pivot into talent acquisition which is marketing and sales in a sense. Since then I have had the opportunity to work with a variety of companies across the media, entertainment, sports, consumer packaged goods, and technology industries. Entrepreneurially, I am able to use my experiences in project management, organizational design, and diversity to build out our business operations and brand identity for House Party Entertainment and Do You Know Black?
Additionally, I have recently received certifications from University of Cambridge, Wharton Business School, and Cornell University in the areas of Circular Economy and Sustainability Strategy, Business Strategies for a Better World, and Equitable Community Change with hopes of leveraging the learnings to ensure the work I do professionally and entrepreneurially are rooted in purpose driven foundations. It is refreshing to be able to take the things that I have learned from my years corporately and educationally to apply them to what we view as an extremely important and impactful entrepreneurial project.
Alyssa: My professional career track has been in marketing, brand partnerships, and event production. While I’ve worked in corporate, I’ve always considered myself pretty creative. We loved hosting friends for game night and I would take the time to create new games and experiences. Back in 2016, I had the idea to develop a Black pop culture trivia card game called House Party and our business was born. We launched House Party Entertainment shortly after because we saw a need for more positive, thought-provoking entertainment that amplifies and elevates Black stories.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you two got married?
ANSWER: We have been together going on 12 years now and have been married for 4 years. The most interesting thing about our marriage and relationship as a whole is how we have grown together. We grew up in the same town together and went to the same high school but did not know each other. We were introduced through a mutual friend after we both graduated college. At the time we were both early in our careers with a lot of passion but little direction. Since then, we have challenged each other and supported each other in growing personally and professionally. When we first started dating, we used to speak about the things we wanted to do, places we wanted to work, things we wanted to have, etc. 12 years later, we have been able to do a lot of those things and even more than we had imagined. Now we are setting new goals and new visions together. Looking back to who we were when we first started dating to who we are together today is interesting.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
ANSWER: It is funny to think about how naive we were to the process of building a business. Thinking about how quickly we thought things would happen is laughable. For example, when we first taped season 1 of Do You Know Black? in 2018, we expected the episodes to be edited in full within a few months of production. After two years, we still did not have a finished product. However, about 1.5 of those two years was waiting for things to be done, trying to figure out how to properly manage contractors and outsource work. The process was humbling.
However, as entrepreneurs, it taught us the importance of not only time management but also time horizons. This means that it isn’t only important about how you manage your time on a day-to-day basis, but also important to give yourself the appropriate amount of time to get something done or you will put undue pressure or stress on yourself.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
The entire foundation we are building is purpose driven. We are taking time to ensure that our “why” and our end goal is aligned with creating tangible, measurable, and sustainable change and adds value to the Black community. Where we are today is not where we plan to be in 5-years. We are confident in the infrastructure, brand, talent network, and community we have so far and are looking forward to continuing to build this out.
For example, with Do You Know Black?, our entire production crew is Black and Brown. We have over 50 contestants that represent a range of Black people ranging from engineers, entertainers, educators, entrepreneurs, healthcare workers, immigrants, first generation Blacks, African Americans and more. We strategically partner with over 50 Black-Owned businesses as part of our All-Black Prize Pack to feature Black-Owned businesses in a unique way. Additionally, our content features over 500 questions about Black history and culture. This is all a part of the infrastructure we are building. Our productions are filmed in front of a live-studio audience. The experience is unexplainable as you really have to be there to feel the energy and the atmosphere of Black people coming together around a production that is fun and meaningful. In 2023, we plan to leverage the full foundation and network of our brand to make a unique impact in Black communities so stay tuned.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We are currently working on two new projects. One project is a unique conversation series set to launch in fall of 2023. We are beginning production in October. The other is programmatic and experiential in nature. Specifically, we are building a plan to show Do You Know Black? in action. We will be able to share more specific details in Q1 of 2023.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?
This depends on the maturity of your company and organization. Where we are as entrepreneurs in the startup phase, there are a few things. The first is to make sure you have a strong “why”. Why does what you do matter? What is the purpose? What is the impact on your consumers’ lives? If you establish a strong purpose for your brand, it will help motivate those that interact with your brand, including your employees. The second is to stay connected to what it takes to get certain jobs done. As entrepreneurs in a startup, we have greater involvement in tasks that founders of larger organizations do not have their hands in. While delegation is important, understanding what it takes to get a variety of tasks done allows us to properly set goals and timelines for employees, contractors, partners, etc. This also helps with setting realistic expectations of yourself and your team. As our business grows, the keys to successful people management may change. However, the ultimate “why” will always serve as a north star for anyone working on our projects.
How do you define “Leadership”?
Leadership is doing what is necessary to drive targeted outcomes while maintaining healthy environments. At times this may require a hands on approach. At times it may require a hands-off approach. This definition of leadership is flexible. Leaders need to adapt and adjust their approach based on the problem they and their team need to solve.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There is no specific person. Unfortunately, we did not have much help from any one individual in the form of a mentor. However, we are grateful for the network of people that have taken their time to support us and be part of the process of building out or projects. We have 70 contestants that volunteered to be on our programs with very little details. We have a wide range of Black creatives behind the camera that spent a lot of hours working on this project and pouring into it. We have over 50 Black-owned businesses that sponsored prizes for the show. For us, we are grateful for the opportunity to be able to network across. Networking across and creating situations of shared value and shared vision has been critical for our success to this point. We view all of these people that have invested their time and thought as the greatest help we could ask for. We hope to build a brand that can make everyone proud to be part of the Do You Know Black? Family.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
We are still working to do this. One of our major goals in 2023 is to leverage the Do You Know Black? Brand to make a tangible, measurable, sustainable impact in Black communities. Presently, our shows have created a platform that can celebrate and educate on Black history and culture in a fun and engaging way while creating safe spaces for all people to learn more. Additionally, our conversation series have allowed our viewers to see healthy dialogue around important topics that impact our communities. Our brand is built on purpose. We aim to elevate and uplift the Black community through content, experiences and events. We look forward to increasing our impact in the coming years and having the Do You Know Black? Family on the journey with us.
What are the “5 Things You Need To Thrive As A Couple”? Please share a story or example for each.
These are 5 things you need to thrive as a couple doing business together. 5 things to survive as a general couple is a bit more philosophical and personalized.
Compartmentalization — When you are in business with your partner, you need to be able to separate business life and conversations from personal life and conversations. In business, with two results driven people with perspectives, similar to a corporate job, there will be differences in opinions and tense conversations. It is important to leave business conversations as business and not let that be a reflection of your romantic relationship.
Appreciation — When working together, even if you are working on different workflows, you have to take time to appreciate each other and the value we bring. One example is in our strengths and weaknesses. Alyssa is very good with fine details and taking a project from 80%-100%. Darnell is very good at taking a project from 0–1 or (0–80%). In instances where we can not appreciate the part the other person is playing in delivering the product, it can create frustration. However, appreciating the contributions the other is making, and the skills and quality it takes to deliver that portion of the project at the high level it is delivered is important.
Boundaries — When you are working on a big project together with limited people resources, you have to invest a lot of time. Especially when you both have full time jobs. We have learned to take time away from working on business to engage with each other as a couple and to pour into our relationship. Sometimes we shut down working for the day even if we are way behind on a deliverable just to spend time with each other or leave the house. This is something we have been intentional about.
Roles — We have different strengths and different weaknesses. We assign roles based on what has to be done and who is best equipped to do them. For example, for production weekend, we had to create over 700 trivia questions. This requires extensive research, verification and strong writing. This is a strength of Alyssa’s and it is critical for the show. Darnell is strong in project management and mobilizing people and managing competing priorities. While Alyssa managed the content, research and writing side of the project, Darnell managed the project including people management, logistics, relationship management, etc. We have come to appreciate what each other do well and what we don’t do well and assign tasks accordingly.
Shared Vision — Passion is important. If both individuals are not passionate about the project, it will create tension. When we started building Do You Know Black?, it was one thing. As time evolved and we learned more about ourselves, the brand has evolved into something that speaks to who we are as people individually, as a couple, and what kind of life we want to live and the legacy we want to leave.
You are people of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Our 2023 goal is to do this exact thing with the Do You Know Black? brand on a local, then national level. What we have done so far is build a purpose, an identity, and a foundation. In 2023, we plan to start to use this in a tangible way that has a positive and measurable impact on people’s lives.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Hope is not a strategy. When we first started the business, it was just an idea. We thought there were five primary keys to success. Most of those keys to success required some level of luck or virality. When hoping that something you create will be so great it will just become viral, you set yourself up for disappointment and failure. Given the resources that we had and the limited amount of market data, we had to take every piece of feedback and every situation as a reference point to learn what it would take to create something sustainable. We realized that it would take years of strategic thinking and consistent execution to build a business that is sustainable as opposed to a product or piece of content that goes viral but does not feed into the next phase of your business strategy. When thinking with strategy instead of hope, it has allowed us to have a sense of confidence in ourselves and the future of our business because it gives us more control over our destiny.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Darnell — I would love to have breakfast with Tyler Perry. Specifically because of his rise to fame and how he built his empire. When he originally started with his stage plays, I am sure he had a much bigger vision for the business he wanted to grow that other people could not understand. This is my perspective on where we are with Do You Know Black? I would love to sit with him not from a resource or necessity perspective. Rather, just to have breakfast and an engaging conversation about business theory.
Alyssa — I’d love to have breakfast with Charles King, the founder and CEO of the media company Macro. I’ve always loved and respected how he left a successful career as an agency partner to launch a media company aimed at elevating diverse stories. We share the same mission for our Do You Know Black? brand. Seeing how many stories Macro has brought to life, and how much the company has grown since, solidifies the need for this work and motivates me to keep going.
How can our readers follow your work online?
On Instagram follow @doyouknowblack on Tiktok follow @doyouknowblk on Youtube Subscribe to House Party Entertainment.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Darnell & Alyssa Gilet of House Party Entertainment was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.