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The Top Creators Of 2022

What challenges have you faced along the way? How did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge has always been around personal compromise. When you start a business, you literally give everything you have to make sure it’s successful. Your time, focus, energy, and finances.

This does come at a personal cost, and I always struggled with that balance that you need to find to ensure that you have a fulfilling life.

Burnout in our industry is very real and something that for a very long time I refused to believe I was suffering from. It was only last year that I realised that this neglect towards my personal physical, mental, and emotional health would be critical to the business if I did not get it sorted and address the challenges I was facing.

No business can survive if its leader is lost and unable to function, so I secured professional help to support me. Over the last six months, I have invested in a team of senior management to help take on much of the workload and contribute to driving the business forward, as well as a team of advisors and business professionals that can help guide me as we continue to move from our comfort zone and grow. Being at the top of any organisation is a very lonely place. I learnt that we all need support and people to talk to, and this has been a massive turning point in the success of our companies. I want to ensure we have a strong support network of peers and professionals that we can lean on.

What lessons have you learned as a result of launching your business?

The honest answer is too many to list. I genuinely feel that every day I go into the office I learn something new every day.

My first takeaway would be: always prepare for the unpredictable. We live in a world that is moving and evolving so fast, we have gone through a global pandemic, a financial crisis and so many other things. Every day presents new opportunities and challenges.

I have learnt to embrace this and go with the flow. All we can do in business is keep striving to provide the best possible service, experience, and culture. That ensures we have clients and team members wishing to come back to us for more.

In business, you really do need to be resilient. I have had so many knocks and disappointments but at the end of the day, no one on the outside sees that. They just see the results that you achieve and what you put out on social media.

Secondly, I have learnt a lot about people. Our industry is based on people and human interaction. Every human is different.

The way they communicate, understand, what makes them happy, what motivates them, what fulfils them, what their ambitions are, and what values are dear to them.

As we have rapidly grown our workforce over the last 12 months, I have quickly learnt that my role now is to provide an environment where people can flourish and grow. I’m no longer hands-on with the delivery of projects. Instead, I spend most of my days looking at how we can provide the most incredible space and platform for the team to develop, personally and professionally. Would you do anything differently a second time around?

In short no. I have made so many mistakes but have no regrets. Each of these experiences has helped me learn and grow into the person I am today and helped shape the business we have for now and into the future.

How has customer feedback helped shape the direction of your business?

Always. We are a service industry, so the feedback of our clients is imperative to being successful. Within the creative industries, it’s critical that we have an open dialogue with our clients and partners to ensure that we are delivering solutions that fulfil their needs and requirements.

Communication in any business or industry is probably one of the areas that are always under constant review and improvement.

Successes and achievements so far?

I am extremely fortunate to be in a position where we have achieved a lot. Key highlights range from opening ceremonies, Expo 2020 programming and events across the six-month festival, to launching cultural projects in Saudi, media campaigns for leading music brands, and recently the delivery of the Road to COP28 event - which was our biggest project to date with over 4000 change-makers in attendance.

What ambitions do you have for the company in the coming years?

A few months ago, we launched Echo, the holding organization for all the brands and companies which now fall within the group. Sustainability, people, and culture stand at the heart of this organisation, and it is my ambition that the group becomes a vehicle for global change across the events, entertainment, and media industries.

With a key focus on how we can sustainably deliver projects that leave a lasting impact and legacy on the world we live in, as well as a commitment to dedicate support and resources to the emotional, physical, and mental well-being of our team members.

It is my ambition for Echo to become a platform that supports the next generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs, utilising my experiences and journey undertaken over the last 20+ years to help support those that are taking their first steps into the daunting world of leading and building a business.

Dan Bolton

Dan Bolton CEO & Founder BE. An Experiential Agency EC[H]O