Greg DeKalb chats with, Corporate Event Planner turned Entrepreneur, Shana Prymicz on how she leveraged her work experience and network to pivot in 2020.
"I started doing four events per year, on the side, but they were large. They'd take six, seven, eight months, nine months to plan. I started to like take calls in my car all the time. And then I was using vacation time to travel for another conference and just got to be unmanageable. I was at that pivotal point of either going on my own and take the risk or stay in my corporate job and stop taking clients on the side."
"If you aspire to be a certain person let the family know. Family are the first people to champion you, when you start taking those risks, and they're the ones that are going to also tell you the truth. Whether it's something you should, do or probably not do, you'll know to some extent."
Originally from Centralia in Southern Illinois, Greg DeKalb has become quite the mover and shaker in Chicago focused on launching start-ups. After receiving his B.S. from Eastern University and an MBA from DePaul, Greg followed his entrepreneurial passion creating his own company, AppointmentsIQ, an on-demand sales and recruitment firm aimed at humanizing the process and encouraging engagement amongst decision makers.
Together with his long-time friend, Tony Paoella, he co-founded Tony P's Networking Events planning and executing energetic networking experiences all over Chicago that give professionals an opportunity to meet and make meaningful connections. Proven to be wildly successful, even if you haven't met Greg personally, chances are you've been to a Tony P event. While expanding the reach and depth of Tony P's to other networking groups like Green in Chi, he's also been busy scaling his solutions thus far nationwide by building a proprietary SaaS Digital Marketing Platform technology.
While he's not busy launching start-ups or spending time with his kids, Greg makes it a priority to give back to the Chicago community. He's currently a board member for St. Jude's Global Warriors and A Boy and His Dream Foundation. A big believer in the values that were instilled in him by his parents, Greg is committed to serve as an inspiration to his own kids reminding them to stay true to themselves, stay focused, and always create.
