IAM2677 – Reimagining Networking: Quality Over Quantity and the Design-Oriented Mindset

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In this episode, Gresham Harkless speaks with Magnolia Sevenler, Founder and CEO of Pendulum , a platform and event series that reimagines how founders and investors connect. Drawing on her background in producing high-impact cultural events like Formula One and Art Basel , Magnolia brings an experiential, design-oriented mindset to building communities in the startup ecosystem. Pendulum's approach emphasizes quality over quantity through small, curated gatherings focused on meaningful relationships.

Magnolia shares that she comes from a family of entrepreneurs and approaches her work through the lens of design thinking , treating it like a creative project. Her experience launching an influencer marketing platform led to her current focus on events. Pendulum's Founder Series was born to bring her network together in intimate settings, focusing on specific themes and facilitating connections between founders and investors.

For her “CEO hack,” Magnolia stresses the importance of having mentors who have successfully done what you are doing. Her “CEO nugget” advises fellow perfectionists to prioritize speed and iteration, noting that if you reach 80% satisfaction, “it's good enough,” because waiting for perfect leads to lost opportunities. She defines a Founder CEO by the critical role of accountability and being the visionary steward who sets the company's culture every day.

Website: https://pendulumfounderseries.com/

LinkedIn: Pendulum

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Full Podcast Interview

Full Audio Transcription:

 

Magnolia Sevenler 00:00

Having mentors that you really look up to that have done what you're doing is a big hack. I think it's such an important thing to go and find someone that's done what you're doing or has done it successfully.

Gresham Harkless 00:43

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today at Magnolia Sevenler. Magnolia, excited to have you on the show.

Magnolia Sevenler 00:52

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 00:55

Yes, I'm super excited as well too. Magnolia is doing so many awesome things. I'm super excited to kind of dive in. But of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Magnolia so you can hear about some of those awesome things and Magnolia is a founder and CEO of Pendulum, a platform and event series that blends culture and commerce to reimagine how founders and investors connect. With a background in producing high impact cultural events from Formula One to Art Basel to Fashion Week and music festivals featuring headliners like Tiesto and the Chainspokers, she brings an experiential, design oriented mindset to building communities in the startup ecosystem. At Pendulum, Magnolia leads the Founder Series, an intentionally curated set of gatherings focused on small, high quality interactions rather than large scale networking events. She designs these events to facilitate meaningful relationships building rather than transactional meetings. And one of the really cool things I loved around everything that Magnolia is doing is I was reading and it kind of reminds me, like I say so many times, you're your environment will determine the altitude of what you're able to do and what you're able to accomplish. I think so many times we forget about how important that environment is and I love that their DNA is rooted in designing spaces where relationships feel natural and not forced and the importance of a course. Quality over quantity. So Magnolia, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Magnolia Sevenler 02:21

Yes, I am. Thank you for having me.

Gresham Harkless 02:23

Absolutely. Well, let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, I would love to rewind the clock a little bit here, little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Magnolia Sevenler 02:32

Yeah, so I, I, I mean, I was one of, I'm one of those founders that I just always wanted to be a founder. I love entrepreneurship. I've, you know, since I was a kid, I've always, you know, had some kind of business I was trying to start even in high school. And I grew up around my, you know, my entire family. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, so it wasn't such a foreign intimidating thing to start a business. You know, I meet so many people and it's just like, they'll go off and they'll work at Instagram, Facebook. But starting a company is, like, just so scary to them. For me, it was like, always, like, that was the only option I had. Like, I was a very creative person since I was, you know, very young. And I went to design school, and that's kind of what really shaped how I see the world. And I look at everything that I do through the lens of design thinking. And so, you know, whether it's a brand, a product building, a team, I approach it like a creative project. And so when I was, and I went to, you know, when I was in design school, I actually launched a influencer marketing platform that later became influence.com. and so that experience was really formative for me because it was something that we built from the ground up, built our own proprietary software. And it was back in, I think this was like eight years ago. So it was when influencer marketing was still becoming a thing. And, you know, through that, I met so many creative people, worked with a lot of cool brands and, you know, connecting brands and influencers. And we, you know, played a big role in creating those campaigns and doing a lot of storytelling. And that experience really, you know, was kind of the, the, the gateway that led me to events because a lot of the brands, a lot of the projects we were working on also had this event side to it. And I met so many, you know, interesting, cool people through that, and that's kind of what built my network. And over time, Pendulum was kind of born.

Gresham Harkless 04:54

I would love to drill down more and hear a little bit more on what you're doing at Pendulum, how you're making that impact, how you're serving and creating that experience for clients and customers. Like, could you take us through a little bit more on what that looks like and what you're doing there?

Magnolia Sevenler 05:06

Yes, of course. So Pendulum, at its core, we're an experiential events company. I like to say that it's really a community company. So we design gatherings that bring together founders, creatives, Investors and we actually started out doing events around cultural moments, so around Formula One, Fashion Week, art baseline, different sporting events. And it was initially to kind of build on the community that we had and do parties and through that. So there's two parts to our business. One is the production side that was kind of born through doing those cultural events, and that's Pendulum Live. And then the second part is our event series is that we do. So when we were doing big parties around cultural moments, we had a network of like, a lot of like, founders and creatives that were attending these and people like, would just reach out all the time, like, oh, I want to connect with this person. Can you connect me with that person? And that's kind of how our Pendulum founder series was born. It was really to create. We already had this network of really cool, interesting people that we wanted to bring together in intimate settings. And so now our founder series really revolves around. It's different themes. We host them in New York and la and they're always, you know, the, the different. You know, we'll do Web three events, we'll do an event on content, we'll do an event on AI. And so it's. It's essentially to bring together and curate the right type of founders that might want to meet each other and then a handful of investors that can also kind of like meet and hopefully, you know, work together.

Gresham Harkless 07:05

I heard you say, you know, early on, like, how you to some degree see the world different. I imagine seeing the opportunity to curate and connect people and part of like how you're able to have these international events and say this person probably should connect with this person. Do you feel like your ability to be able to kind of see the forest, for the trees, to understand the real, I guess, the reason and the quality behind connections. Do you feel like that's part of your. In the business's secret sauce and what makes it unique?

Magnolia Sevenler 07:33

For me, I think I'm intentional about my network and my time and. And I'm really disciplined of where I put my energy. So for me, spending, um, it's not about going to the big parties and you know, we've started doing the little intimate gatherings. But it was born from the big parties, because the big parties in like big events, it's just everybody's kind of like socializing, running around. And for me, I find that I connect and really get to know someone at the. The small, intimate dinners, small gatherings, and that's why we've created those events ourselves. So something that I was like, it was so Useful for me. And that's why we have this series that's specifically just for founders and investors too.

Gresham Harkless 08:28

I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. You might have already touched on this, but this could be an Apple book or a habit that you have. What's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

Magnolia Sevenler 08:39

The one CEO hack I have, honestly, is having mentors that you really look up to that have done what you're doing is a big hack. I think there's like a lot of, like, you know, books you can read on, like managing people, negotiating, how to run your business. But at the end of the day, I think it's really so valuable to have people around you. For me, I'm really fortunate that I have investors that are very well seasoned. So when I'm making big decisions, they're there to guide me. I'm not completely alone in that journey. And so if you don't have that, I think it's such an important thing to go and find someone that's done what you're do, you're doing or has done it successfully, and that can guide you through some of these big decisions that people have to go through in their business. You know, another CEO hack, that one that you could find, that mentor is, is being really intentional about your calendar, how you spend your time, what events you go to. And that's why we've, you know, created this founder series, is so people can come and find mentors and they have, and, and, and these mentors can really guide you into, and not even just guide you, I think, like introduce you to so many different people as well. So I would say that's a big hack for me is having well seasoned founders and investors around me.

Gresham Harkless 10:25

So you might have already touched on this as well. But what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I like to call SEO nugget? So this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell someone at the events or your favorite client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

Magnolia Sevenler 10:41

I would probably say, and I know we talked about this a little earlier and I was like, not everybody's Steve Jobs. So like the advice, you know, if you're building a small business, you gotta, you know, have like the nuggets that work for you.

Gresham Harkless 10:55

Yeah.

Magnolia Sevenler 10:56

And so for me, a personal nugget is that like, I am a perfectionist and I've kind of like now as I've gotten older and like, if I meet 80%, it's good enough. Like 80% is. That's 100 to me. And being a perfectionist, you, you know, I used to just try to make the perfect event, the perfect app, the perfect product, and you. You end up just losing on time. And speed is so important that, like, you can iterate everything over time. But if you wait for perfect. And I have so many friends that, you know, want to start something that have been working on a business plan, and they'll just work on it forever and just miss the opportunities. And so for me, it's really about, you know, like, the best companies are built through iteration. So you just have to put it out, test it and your customers. I mean, this is such a. It's very, I feel like a cliche advice, but it really is like the foundation for me. It's like, just get it out there fast because, like, you know, whether it's like a party, you know, your attendees will tell you what was wrong. If it's an app, you know, you gotta have your users test it out and give you new ideas because you just, like, try to make it perfect. And, and it's like you're in like this perspective of just your thoughts and your experience. I think that you lose on time.

Gresham Harkless 12:29

Absolutely. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote, unquote CEOs on this show. So, Magnolia, which is being a CEO means you.

Magnolia Sevenler 12:40

There's a big difference between being a founder CEO and being a traditional CEO. So as a founder, founder, CEO, ultimately, I think for me it's accountability because every part of your business is like, any success, any failure, kind of all comes back to you. And a founder CEO, you. You really end up having to learn every aspect of the business somewhat so you can kind of hire for the right roles for the. And build the right team. And, you know, it means a lot of things, but. But it's really accountability because it's just, maybe I can build on this, but it's also being the visionary steward of the business. And I think I always say this is like, you don't set the vision and just kind of like delegate to your team. You're setting the vision every day. You're setting the vision every day, and you're building the energy and the culture of the company. And when you're a founder CEO, it really is your job to Kind of motivate your team, Magnolia.

Gresham Harkless 13:51

Truly appreciate that definition. And, of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best people can get hold of you, your team, find out about all the awesome things that you all are doing.

Magnolia Sevenler 14:06

Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, I think one really cool thing that we're doing at Pendulum is so not only do we partner with brands on events and, you know, we have those opportunities, but a big part of it is that the partnerships that we do work on and collaborate. And a part of our founder series with a lot of tech brands and other lifestyle brands is that we partner with them not only to feature and showcase their brand, but also build on their community. So we have, like, partners that we, you know, we have a blockchain partner, right, that we do events in New York and la. So we not only stand up the events for brands, but we build on their community and we add our own community to those brands as well. So I think that's a big one for us. And anyone can reach out to us on pendulumfounderseries.com or our Instagram Pendulum founder series. And we have a LinkedIn, so that's called Pendulum. And so anyone can reach out to us there if they're a brand or a founder that would like to be featured or even a panelist. So, you know, we always look for really interesting founders, join our panels.

Gresham Harkless 15:23

And so, yeah, awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much, Magnolia. Of course, to make it even easier, we're gonna have the links and information in the show notes as well, too, so everybody can follow up with you, find about all the awesome things that you all are doing and the impact that you're having. And I love, love, love everything you've been able to kind of do with those partnerships. I think that speaks to everything we've been talking around. I'm a big believer in, like, the abundant mentality that it's not either or, it's both and better. I think at its heart, it's around design, thinking around thinking about things differently and saying, how can we do both? Not either or, but both. So I love that you've been able to do that in so many different ways. Love that you took some time out with us today, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Magnolia Sevenler 16:01

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.