Click here to download the article!Pet Projects
Entrepreneur Cathy Erickson has built a reputation on producing events that are as much fun to attend as they are to create.
by Carol McGarvey, photos by John Johnson?It seems to be a career she was destined to do. For Cathy Erickson of Adel, Iowa, passion for public relations and event planning has been a lifelong pursuit. In her business, PROJECTS by Cathy Erickson, she helps others promote their activities and, at the same time, fulfills her dream.
Cathy has worked for insurance companies, nonprofit organizations, media outlets, and agriculture marketers, but she thrives when being her own boss. This is her second business. The first was Spur, a business she operated for seven years, before Clear Channel Radio, a client for four years, bought her out. She then worked for Clear Channel for seven years.
“Both my parents were self-employed, so it’s in my blood,” says Cathy, 50, a woman with seemingly boundless energy. “I love the flexibility. Yes, I may work 80 or 90 hours per week when there’s a major event going on, but I truly love it.”
Details, details
The impetus for being her own boss was being laid off from a job, but she was immediately hired back as a freelancer because she knew what was going on and how to pull off the details. “Trust me; it’s all in the details. That’s where you live or die in this field.”
One of her first forays into large-event planning came a number of years ago when Court Avenue’s character was developing. “I was freelancing for the first time, providing publicity for Downtown Des Moines Inc. [now Des Moines Events Group], which included writing an events column for the Skywalker [now CityView]. They wanted to create the first downtown bridge party, The CARP Festival [Court Avenue River Party], but no one had time for a management role, so I volunteered. It was the first time I created a big event from scratch. We had no budget, so we did goofy things like putting smelt from Waterfront Seafood Restaurant on toothpicks and called it ‘carp on a stick.’ It was so much fun, and I was hooked.” Other established events she helped lock in place were Ageless Iron, a worldwide showcase of antique farm equipment; Taste of Des Moines, a yearly celebration of local food and music; WHO Radio’s annual Great Iowa Tractor Ride, shepherding 500 tractors on a three-day trek through the Iowa countryside; and the Two Rivers Art Expo, the annual downtown art show, during which she met her future husband. In addition, she’s been behind the scenes of dozens of corporate
events from fun runs and ground breakings to staff appreciation parties and industry forums.
No one should have been surprised. Cathy grew up involved in high school, 4-H, and college events. “Events are living, breathing entities, and they take on lives of their own,” she says. “When you are working on events or programs, the others involved become your short-term family. You are working on a common goal, and you spend so much time with them. It’s a great joint effort, and the more you do it, the better you get at it.”
Cathy came to Des Moines from rural southern Illinois in an interesting way. High college entrance scores brought recommendations that she should consider West Point, a Catholic college in Kansas, or Drake University. She chose Drake’s
journalism program. “It was close, but not too close, to home, and I knew, for example, that I could never follow all the rules at the other two,” she says with a smile. Her father died many years ago, and eventually her mother and brother moved to this area as well.What’s important
In the years she has honed her craft, this dynamo has learned what’s important to her. “I have realized that I don’t need a big corporate job to make me happy. My marriage and family provide that.” She and her husband, Larry Erickson, an executive editor at Meredith Corp., have been married 16 years.
Cathy’s non-work passion revolves around her three horses, Jesse, Mick, and G-Man. “In all honesty, I work to ride. Our house may not be magazine-ready, but we have the nicest truck and trailer, the nicest fencing, and the best hay in the barn. That’s what’s important to me.” An accomplished rider, she and Jesse, now 26 years old, have a gold medal in dressage; have spent time fox hunting, trail riding, and jumping; and have even taken home those big purple ribbons from the Iowa State Fair for western and halter categories.
Larry, she says, will ride with her to humor her, but he would just as soon be out on their sailboat at Saylorville, where he is commodore of the Saylorville Yacht Club. She chuckles that when Larry contemplates her relationship with the horses, he likes to invoke an old Rick Springfield song, “I Wish That I Had Jesse’s Girl.”
At this year’s state fair, Cathy, ever the good aunt, helped niece McKenzie Carroll transport her horse to the fairgrounds. “We sat in line for two hours to get in, so I spent my time in the truck making business phone calls. With flexibility comes creativity.”
Another passion is photography, and this year one of her photos—of nephew Will Carroll playing rugby—was one of 500 accepted in the fair’s photography exhibit. Protégé Molly Pins has known Cathy for 12 years. “She hired me right out of Drake when she had her previous company, Spur. Cathy is the most creative person I have ever met. She thinks outside the box all the time in an effort to figure out what is best for her clients. It doesn’t matter if she is working on a small or an unlimited budget; she gives her best effort at all times.”
Molly and Cathy worked together at Clear Channel as well. “She has unending energy, and I have learned so, so much from her,” Molly says.The Practical Side
“If you do your job well, it looks easy,” Cathy Erickson says. “The details make all the difference.”
As for advice for young entrepreneurs, she advises using some business basics. “Events don’t always make money, especially at first, so you have to make each one interesting. If you want an event to grow, you must change it a bit so that people will want to come back next year. It’s not [in a movie where] Mickey Rooney hollers, ‘Let’s put on a show.’ Public relations and event planning have to be measured and planned.”
She also says that small-business owners shouldn’t be afraid to borrow some money. “In my first business, I thought I could run it on a cash-flow basis, charging things on my credit card.
Do you know how much interest I was paying? It would have made much more sense to borrow it from a bank at a much, much lower interest rate. Having a good business background, or being willing to learn, is so important. Also, no matter what field you’re in, learn to write. It’s invaluable.”
One event she’s proud of is the Great Iowa Pet Expo, which she has developed and grown, now in its ninth year. (See info box on opposite page for details.) “The whole pet industry is a wonderful niche community,” Cathy says. “People spend so much time in their cubicles and in front of their computers. Pets of all kinds give them pleasure and free them up to enjoy everything around them. It’s all about creating fun.”
She loves it so much, in fact, that she’s taking it on the road. She is putting on The Great Indy Pet Expo in Indianapolis in November. Down the road, she hopes to expand to even more Midwestern cities.
Another aspect of her business is sponsorship evaluation. “Many companies would like to add sponsorship to the mix but aren’t sure where to begin or how to negotiate and activate the process.”
It’s also vital to Cathy to give back to the community. She has been on the board of the Iowa 4-H Foundation and serves on the Iowa Equine Task Force, through the Department of Agriculture, working to provide a central source of communication for a variety of horse-related businesses.
In addition, she volunteers with Wildwood Hills Ranch near St. Charles, which provides camp and horse experiences for underprivileged youngsters. There’s little doubt—Cathy Erickson is still riding her dream.
