We Did It!
It was about 5:30pm when my phone started to blow up.
Texts, phone calls, Facebook messages, all of it.
I was with a client, so I was purposely not looking at my phone.
But it wouldn’t stop vibrating.
So I finally took it out to see dozens of message alerting me that the Knitting Factory was on fire.
For the past 5 months, my team and I had been planning and coordinating an Impact Club Boise event at the Knitting Factory [Boise]. It was scheduled to be the biggest venue and crowd we’ve had to date.
A lot of careful planning had gone into making sure the event went off without a hitch.
But, as I looked at my phone, it became clear that the Knitting Factory was not going to be available for our event, which was scheduled to start in less than 24 hours.
It was definitely an “Oh Sh*t” moment.
I got home, sat down at my desk, and began to call all other venues in town to see if they could accommodate up to 200 people for an event the next day.
I was calling after 6:30pm, so all I got were answering machines.
I sent out emails to Impact Club members and made posts on Facebook to notify people that we were aware of the fire at the Knitting Factory and were activity working on securing another venue.
My wife checked on me a few times during the evening, seeing how I was doing. Worried about my stress level.
I was ok. I wasn’t panicking. But I was concerned. It was after 8pm. I wasn’t getting ahold of anyone. The situation was looking bleak.
I finally spoke to the manager of the Knitting Factory at 8:45pm. I found out that no one was hurt from the fire, thankfully, but confirmed the space was definitely out of commission for the time being. She said that she had made calls to some other venues in town, in hopes of finding us another location.
The fact that she was even thinking about us and trying to help during this crazy situation was very admirable. My respect grew instantly.
I also saw many friends on Facebook reach out to venue owners they knew in town.
I could quickly see I had many people in my corner to help us find a place to host Impact Club.
By 11:30am the next day we finally confirmed with The Reef Boise. They had to move some things around to make it work, but we were fortunate that Drew and his crew over there could jump into action on such short notice.
It really helped that we had done previous Impact Club events at The Reef, since there are so many little details to coordinate and we had less than 6 hours before people began showing up.
In the end, the event was a great success.
We gave over $20,000 to the Speedy Foundation, which is the organization that started and maintains the suicide prevention hotline in Idaho. They do amazing work, and now with help from Impact Club they can help save more lives.
We also heard from Brent Taylor with the Wyakin Foundation, who had received over $20,000 from the previous Impact Club event this past June.
He shared how with the funds from Impact Club, they were able to significantly add more veterans into their program and how that was impacting their lives.
It is so rewarding to see Impact Club funds in action.
Beyond that, I love to see the Impact Club community rally around great causes.
Every event I see the awesome members of Impact Club.
It’s such a great group of people from all corners of our community.
We all have different backgrounds, we all have busy lives. But we all share in the good we are doing when we come together 4 times a year.
It creates this energy in the room that is hard to describe. But it’s there. You can feel it. And that feeling lingers with you even after you leave the event.
It’s the feeling of knowing that you just did something truly special. Something that will positively change lives. And it was easy and fun to do.
It’s a really good feeling. Intoxicating even. Which is why I’m always beating the drum to get more people to at least come check out one of our Impact Club events.
But today, I just want to conclude with a very important shout out about the people behind the scenes making these events as successful as they are.
At every Impact Club event there are volunteers from my real estate office who have always stepped up when needed. And within my office I have my core team that works for months organizing and planning each event.
It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you are surrounded by amazing people.
So cheers to all the people that helped make this latest Impact Club event a huge success.
I can’t wait for the next one!
Mike Turner