The Local Table Podcast Show Notes
Our Guest
Welcome back to The Local Table Podcast! Today, we’re talking to the queen entrepreneur, Kristal Mallookis. Kristal is a lover of all things business and the arts. She has a background in dance and theatre and upon arriving in New York City immediately adapted to the city hustle. Kristal owns multiple businesses including being the Founder & CEO of Mustard Lane, a national event staffing company since 2006. Mustard Lane was built to be a source of gigs for artists and now 14 years later, Mustard Lane is in 70+ markets with a talent database of 5,000. She also runs an intimate event space in Manhattan called MEAUX. Always eager to grow, in 2019 Kristal founded Off The Lane, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and currently serves as President. OTL is designed to be a resource for the creative community. Kristal is extremely passionate about all of her endeavors and loves traveling and spending time with the internets favorite Pomsky, her puppy, Sazzy.
Key Takeaways + Tips
Kristal is originally from Colorado and was raised in a family of entrepreneurs, so she saw first hand how it was to run multiple businesses on your own. She went to school in Colorado to study dance and theatre and knew she would want to move to NY immediately following college to pursue dancing. After arriving in NY, she discovered that while she loved to dance, her real passion was for business.
While in New York, Kristal was working a bunch of different jobs and realized that the artistic community needed a source for jobs. While working promotions at a growing café, she would gather a group of friends to help with the gigs. This was her inspiration to begin a staffing business as her full-time job. As her business gained traction in New York, it wasn’t long until she was approached by companies requesting help in Los Angeles. Kristal was able to expand to what the company is now. Currently, Mustard Lane has over 5,000 “Laners” nationally and they were doing anywhere from 1-20 events a day, ranging from pop-ups, street teams, retail experiences, etc.
Since Covid-19, Kristal has created a few virtual experiences within Mustard Lane, including a virtual telegram where they’ll pick the perfect singer/songwriter to craft a specific message for the recipient. Thankfully, despite the event business taking a hit, her non-profit business has thrived and it’s been a blessing in disguise so she could focus more on the mentorship program. (This is another reason why diversifying with multiple businesses is a good idea!)
“You need to give it 150%, even if you don’t have 150% to give.” – Kristal
Advice For Starting Multiple Businesses
The number one piece of advice Kristal has for entrepreneurs is you need to jump in headfirst. You need to give it 150%, even if you don’t have 150% to give. Additionally, network all the time and have conversations with others. It’s a great way to connect, learn and find inspiration for your business. Lastly, it’s important to embrace both the lows and highs of the business. The lows will make you better but the highs can be a long drop if you go to high. So keep your emotions in check and stay even keeled. Celebrate both the highs and lows but don’t make it a roller coaster of emotions.
Things We Mentioned
Fun fact: Kristal is huge Beatles fan! She called her boss at Café Metro, “Mr. Mustard” and he called her, “Penny Lane”. Once Kristal decided to make her company, she immediately knew she wanted to call it Mustard Lane and the rest is history!
You can find Kristal on her multiple businesses through her website or Mustard Lane’s Instagram. Additionally, you can reach out to Off The Lane on instragram or through Kristal’s event space in Chelsea, Meaux Space.
Tune in for a new episode of The Local Table Podcast on Spotify and iTunes! And if you missed the last episode, you can find the show notes here.
Thanks so much friends for listening in! In the spirit of sharing with my community, I want to share 2 platforms that I love to use for my business and personal life! The one project management system that I swear by to keep my business afloat and running smoothly is HoneyBook. It makes running my business so easy and I can set up workflows for all my clients from the initial inquiry to contracts and payments! Who doesn’t want to get paid while they sleep!? I wouldn’t survive in my business without this project management system and you can get in on it now too! Just use the link here to sign up and get 50% off your first year or just head to https://bit.ly/fahoneybook to get your deal!
Lastly, if you need to design or print anything for your wedding like invites, table numbers, save the dates and more, just head to https://www.basicinvite.com/! You can even order your Holiday cards through them. They have amazing designs and customer service! Just use the code FeatheredArrow20 to get a discount on your order! Now these are some great deals! Enjoy, friends!
Quick disclaimer friends, this post contains affiliate links. If you use these links, we do take a commission from each purchase and it helps support our small business! All thoughts and opinions on these services are my own!
