[Top Agency Series] Creating Heart-Centered Experiences With Joey Goone

Joey Goone is the President of Utopia Experience, a nationwide audiovisual production company specializing in creating immersive and personalized event experiences. With a background in finance and a passion for entrepreneurship, Joey transitioned to leading the company originally founded by his late mother. Under his leadership, Utopia Experience has grown into a full-scale event production business, serving clients coast to coast. Joey is also a board member of EO St. Louis.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [00:54] Joey Goone talks about Utopia Experience and its service offerings
• [02:01] The work involved in producing large-scale conferences like EO XCentric
• [04:08] The origins of Utopia Experience as a bar and bat mitzvah company
• [06:01] How Joey transitioned from a finance background to leading a legacy business
• [07:30] When Joey first discovered his entrepreneurial spirit as a nine-year-old mowing lawns
• [12:20] The compassionate and disciplined life lessons Joey learned from his mother
• [19:30] How morning practices significantly enhance focus and motivation in business environments
• [20:26] Using strategic generosity and Giftology to foster meaningful connections

In this episode…

Crafting unforgettable experiences is both an art and a science. But what truly sets apart those who leave a lasting impact is their ability to blend technical expertise with genuine human connection. How do you turn events into heart-centered experiences that inspire, engage, and transform?

According to Joey Goone, it starts with compassion and intention. He highlights that creating meaningful moments requires not only technical precision, but also the ability to see and meet the emotional needs of others. Whether it’s integrating cutting-edge audiovisual technology or infusing personal touches that make attendees feel seen, Joey believes every detail contributes to an immersive experience. This approach stems from values instilled by his late mother, who inspired him to lead with empathy and authenticity — a philosophy that continues to drive his company’s success and legacy.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Joey Goone, President of Utopia Experience, to discuss how he builds heart-centered experiences through events. Joey shares the pivotal lessons he learned from his entrepreneurial journey, including the importance of compassion and the power of persistence. He also gives advice on leveraging relationship-building strategies to create meaningful connections.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Joey Goone on LinkedIn
• Utopia Experience

Special Mentions

• EO XCentric
• Coterie Spark
• Hal Elrod
• The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) by Hal Elrod
• Lisa Atherton on LinkedIn
• Wim Hof Method
• Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention by John Ruhlin
• Front Row Foundation
• Jon Vroman on LinkedIn
• Jeff Hoffman on LinkedIn
• Jon Berghoff on LinkedIn

Quotable Moments:

• “When my mind is still, my soul speaks.”
• “I learned the importance of not telling white lies and just being authentic.”
• “I loved the freedom of being outside, the flexibility of creating my own schedule.”
• “It’s like, we’re not just giving people handouts, we’re giving them hand-ups.”
• “I always feel as though it’s a beautiful day when I’m able to get vulnerable in a day.”

Action Steps:

1. Adopt a morning routine: This helps align your mental and emotional state, providing a strong foundation for personal and professional growth.
2. Leverage technology for business growth: By incorporating cutting-edge tech, you can create more engaging and interactive experiences for your audience to stay ahead in a competitive market.
3. Cultivate genuine relationships: Use thoughtful gestures to build meaningful connections, creating deeper professional relationships and networks.
4. Embrace vulnerability and authenticity: This approach can build trust and empathy, creating a more supportive and understanding environment in both personal and professional settings.
5. Practice resilience and adaptability: By being open to change and learning from setbacks, you can effectively navigate obstacles and pursue new opportunities.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:15 

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz 0:22 

Dr Jeremy Weisz, here we are here live at EO XCentric in Dallas, and this is a live episode of Inspired Insider. I’m excited to talk to Joey, who has done all of the production stuff behind the scenes and not behind the scenes here at XCentric, and we were talking last night, and you run Utopia Experience, I’d love for people to know — tell what your company does and what you do.

Joey Goone 0:54 

Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, we are an event production company headquartered out of St Louis, but we have clients as far west. We go coast to coast, as far west as San Diego and as far east as Jersey, and we are here in Fort Worth producing. This is a full circle moment for me, because we’re producing the entire show, working with the Event Planning Team, coterie spark. We’re doing all the audiovisual, all the cameras like, we had this conversation last night on the bus, and we just texted the team and said, hey, can we pull off a podcast interview together today? And they have the cameras and the audio and all the things to make it happen on-site. So we’re doing it’s sort of like, all the large audio video production here, but sort of, this stuff that’s happening, these small touches that allow all the entrepreneurs on site to, like in any corner of the venue, get additional content for their respective businesses, which is what we’re doing today. It’s really cool.

Jeremy Weisz 1:50 

So you have a full booth set up, people can record and also on the main stage with the big screens, and talk a little bit about the different services you offer for conferences or companies?

Joey Goone 2:01 

Yeah, absolutely, yeah. So it’s all of our technology we use, like, on the main stage, we have three large LED walls, so the center screen is about 35 feet, and then the two side screens are roughly, like 20, 22 feet. And for us, like the LED wall technology, it’s like, it’s where the future’s headed, like Jeff Woods was on yesterday, talking about AI. And we’re thinking about like, how do we now, now integrate AI into our offerings and our core offerings, of bringing it into tech to make the experience more interactive, but just generally speaking, all the cameras, all the audio, all the visual elements that are going on here at EO are handled by our team.

Jeremy Weisz 2:41 

Some favorite conferences that you’ve covered. I know, obviously we have EO XCentric. What are some other ones throughout the years that like, this is a fantastic conference people should check out.

Joey Goone 2:54 

I am a big we talked on the bus to the social event last night, on our way to the social event, we talked about Hal Elrod’s event, which he no longer does. That was, hell, bring it back. Yeah? Hal, come on, man,

Jeremy Weisz 3:06 

Yeah. Where love the book, Miracle Morning.

Joey Goone 3:08 

Incredible. Yeah, he really. My introduction to personal development was attending his best-year-ever blueprint event. My introduction to personal development was attending his best-year-ever blueprint event in San Diego, attended three years in a row, and I just couldn’t get enough of it and he stopped doing it for personal reasons, because he just got so busy another area. It’s a big undertaking, massive undertaking. Yeah, the and EO XCentric. My face leaked yesterday. I was just bawling talking to some of the EO, some of the central region board members and organizers, because this is a full circle moment for me. My mom started this company 20 years ago, almost 21 years ago, and we started out as a Bar and Bat Mitzvah company, which I know we briefly talked about last night, doing these, you know, celebration, mitzvah celebrations for girls and boys who are then entering into adulthood. And the first one we ever did was my sisters, and this was in 2001.

Jeremy Weisz 4:02 

Was that where the idea came from? Because it was your sisters and then your mom just decided to produce the video.

Joey Goone 4:08 

She had a really, a not-so-wonderful experience with another local company when she did my Bar Mitzvah and my brother’s Bar Mitzvah just two and three years before my sisters and so she said, well, if they’re going to treat me this way, why would I just not do this on my own? Because it’s something that I enjoy. It’s a period or a season of life that I’m currently going through where all of my friends are Bar and Bat Mitzvah going through the Bar and Bat Mitzvahs for their kids. And so there’s certainly a stickiness, because I could offer this to all of my friends who are going through this season of life with me, and I think I can do it better and do it in a way that we make the experience more like personal and fun and immersive and enjoyable, whereas she felt as though she was treated like a transaction when she went through it.

So she started Utopia, which it was Utopia Entertainment back in 2001 and I say it’s a full circle moment, because my mom, she’s no longer with us, and the company has since evolved from a bar and bought mitzvah company to a full-scale Audio Visual Production Company. And so three years ago, I didn’t qualify for EO. And so, as you know, to be an EO member, you have to be running a company that’s a million dollars or more in revenue. And so three years ago, we hit that then I became a member, and now we’re here actually producing the conference for the organization that has helped me tremendously in my entrepreneurial journey. So I just got super emotional about that, thinking about how proud my mom would be of what’s become of her company.

Jeremy Weisz 5:40 

Yeah, and at the time, so was she setting out to start a business where she’s like, we’re just gonna do it better. We’re gonna do my sisters. At what point was she like, yeah, you know what, I’m gonna keep doing this for other people, because you were about 15, 16 at the time, like, when she starts this production company.

Joey Goone 6:01 

Yeah, yeah. So she was really, like, focusing on being an educator 50% of the time and working 50% of Utopia, 100% in neither. And at some point she just jumped off the cliff. In finance, my background is a wealth management we always talk about Cliff vesting, where there’s either gradual vesting, where your stock options are vested over a period. And for her, at that point in time, my dad was the breadwinner of the family. For her, at that point in time, my dad was the breadwinner of the family, and my mom had long since, was like raising the three children, getting us to a point where she felt confident in our ability to go out and be mature, successful adults in the world.

And when she got there, I think she was also working part-time as a teacher, and I feel as though she got to this sort of inflection point in her life where she’s like, now, what the hell do I do? I’ve raised my kids successfully, and I’m working part-time as a teacher, but I feel as though I’m missing something. And for her, Utopia was the answer. This was like, it gave her this new, like, zest for life and this purpose and this pursuit of this new challenge that she ran with.

Jeremy Weisz 7:18 

So your background’s in finance, you’re doing wealth management. Talk about the transition to taking over the company.

Joey Goone 7:30 

Yeah, I was, like many, 16, 17, I guess, 18-year-old kids to go into college. I had no idea what the hell I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur of sorts, because, like, I had this, okay, so I had this fascination with motors when I was a kid. And I was a nine-year-old kid going door to door, cutting people’s grass in my neighborhood. So that was my first business. And I loved the freedom of being outside, the flexibility of creating my own schedule. I loved the spring air and meeting all my neighbors like I knew everyone. I knew everyone on the street. And because I was this nine-year-old kid going door-to-door sales pitch. You remember, I think it was like cutting great since 98 which is when I said.

Jeremy Weisz 8:07 

Well, you just knock on the door and just pitch.

Joey Goone 8:10 

Yeah, just, hey, by the way, I just cut your neighbor’s grass. It’s $20. I’m your neighbor. I live three doors down. It would be awesome if you’d support me and I’ll take care of your yard for you for the summer. And who’s gonna say no to this.

Jeremy Weisz 8:22 

And by the way, if you’re listening, if they have kids, as I do, they can take and use that script for if they want to start their own business. Whether it’s mowing lawns, it could be shoveling driveways. If you live somewhere cold. I told my kids a good business idea would be to go and pick up the poop in people’s dog thing, because who wants to do that? So you can use that script that Joey just said for whatever. Yeah, so I love that.

Joey Goone 8:50 

And it teaches you that there’s no task beneath you, like, there’s no task that is like too. It gives you a level of humility, like, if I can pick up dog poop, then I’m not going to be the asshole CEO 30 years later in life, who’s like, yeah, the employees do everything, and I’m going to be in my glass office, not doing right, like, just dictating orders. So I think it creates that level of humility where we’re not just giving people handouts, we’re giving them hand-ups. And the hand up is like, go out and have the grit and the tenacity to try and make something of yourself, and you realize wow, those pants cost $100. As the speaker said yesterday, Lisa, the owner, the CEO of Bell, she’s like, my kids were like, wow, mom, those pants cost $100 and she’s like, Yeah.

Jeremy Weisz 9:33 

It’s like, 10 hours of work Yeah, 10 hours of work to get these one pair of pants go out and earn Yeah. Did you get rejection? People like, oh, no, we’ll definitely have you do it. You do.

Joey Goone 9:44 

Yeah, I think more so related to the question you originally asked, which was, like, you know, the finance thing. And so, I got to school is like many of the other, you know, 18-year-olds, I didn’t know what the hell I want to do. I just knew because I had this, enjoyment for entrepreneurship, as I did when I was cutting grass as a kid. I wanted to do something that gave me that same level of enjoyment. I thought finance would be able, I’d be able to have that connection to that entrepreneurial spirit and grow my own thing.

The rejection in finance was something that I dealt with nine times out of 10, and it taught me that, like, I shouldn’t feel, have this feeling of fearing failure, I should embrace it. And so at a very early point in my career, I met a gentleman named Jeff Hoffman, who we also, we talked about you and I, and he taught me about the stop, like, the first of all, you taught me about, like, stop trying to overcome objections. Go find yes. And so I just, I let those objections just roll off me, because I knew the more no’s I got, the closer I would get to a yes.

Jeremy Weisz 10:03 

I love that. Yeah. And so eventually you got, at what point do you transition to the video company.

Joey Goone 11:03 

Yeah, this was 2014 when I made the transition and similar parallel journey to my mom. I was working 50% in both 100% and neither I would work at my wealth management thing, nine to five, and I would come home five to use the cliché, like five to nine, but it was way more than that. 1 am yeah, 1 am 2 am just trying to grow the business.

Jeremy Weisz 11:33 

Throughout, were you helping your mom at all, like she was doing different events or no?

Joey Goone 11:40 

I would help my dad with setup. My dad was like, he would moonlight. Yeah, he Moonlight is the weekend roadie. We’d have, like, the big trucks on our driveway, and my dad would be lugging equipment up this, like, 30-degree, like angle yard that we had, lugging it from the walkout basement up the hill into the truck. And I’m like, I can. I can’t let my dad do that by himself. So I would get involved and help them set up the events every once in a while.

Jeremy Weisz 12:06 

Yeah, and we were talking about your mom last night. I’m sorry to hear that, but just talk about some of the lessons you learned from her because you kind of just took over, and, you know, took over the legacy too.

Joey Goone 12:20 

Yeah, her role was we had something that my dad read as a part of her eulogy at her funeral, and they were Jody’s rules, and they’re just standards to live by. And I think the biggest thing that she taught me in my life was to be a mensch, and she was such a light. Sorry. I always feel as though it’s a beautiful day when I’m able to get vulnerable in a day, I’m gonna cry if I cry, I high-five and get to hug somebody. It’s a wonderful day, but she really was such a light. And I mean, like, our home was always the place people would gather. I would always have my friends coming in and out of the house.

We’d have sleepovers and slumber parties. And all my neighborhood friends would always know that they were always welcome at my house. Didn’t matter what ethnicity, what background, who they were, where they came from, my mom would always ask them questions like, how are you and, tell me about your day. What was the highlight of your day, and she was just the type of like, charismatic, caring soul that would sit down across the table from you and genuinely with a curious heart, like ask you questions and care about your answers, she would listen to listen and understand, not to respond.

And that’s something I learned about my mom, is, can I bring that same lens of empathy and curiosity and compassion and sensitivity for my fellow human beings that she brought to me and all my friends at that very impressionable point in my life when I really needed it, and that’s what she offered me. The greatest gift that she offered me was just to be a good human being and try to bring light where there’s darkness.

Jeremy Weisz 14:20 

What were some of Jody’s rules? Do you remember?

Joey Goone 14:23 

That was one tough love? Tough Love was another one tough love moment? Oh, man,

Jeremy Weisz 14:30 

At the time, it probably doesn’t seem like love, more like tough but.

Joey Goone 14:34 

Yeah, she was very, very much about discipline and so and she had this sort of this tenacity about her, where, when she believed in something and believed that it was the right way that she wouldn’t waver from that belief. And so there was a particular evening where I really wanted to have a sleepover, and my dad said, no, go ask your mom.

Jeremy Weisz 15:08 

Or you said no, and then you’re like, I’ll go ask mom. Yeah, exactly.

Joey Goone 15:11 

And so the persistent entrepreneur. That was it, yeah. So I was almost paying them against one another, and I shouldn’t have done this. This was a terrible thing of me to do. And then I went to mom, and I said, yes, are you cool with it? And she’s like, if dad said, yes, it’s great. Well, 30 minutes later, I had invited my friend, and they had a conversation, and they found out that I was paying, this was an awful thing of me to do. I can’t, like, I’m in…

Jeremy Weisz 15:36 

In the realm of things, not that awful, but…

Joey Goone 15:40 

Yeah. And so my mom sat me down, and she taught me a lesson about, telling white lies. And she taught me a lesson about being true to my word and being truthful, being honest and being open. And I learned an incredible lesson that evening. I slammed my door because I was furious that I wasn’t able to have the sleepover. But what happened as a result of that was I realized the importance of not telling white lies and just being authentic. And, yeah, that was one of her rules. So compassion, tough love, authenticity, and I’m blanking on the other two.

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