Starting a business from a passion worked for Ray Pulver, who turned years of volunteering on a hometown parade into Upbeat Parade Productions in San Jose, California. His company now works with 23 parades from Portland to Palm Springs and Las Vegas. He tells his friend Jeremy Van Wert how networking, trust and a positive habit of mind built it.
ᛉKey takeaways
- Ray built his company almost entirely on networking and relationships, and he says he does not put out ads on Google.
- He never opens with a sales pitch; at conferences he teaches how to run a parade and lets people decide whether to call him.
- Ray names two things as his real value: the network he has built and being well organized so parade day runs like clockwork.
- When frustration hits, he steps away to reset, then comes back and says they will pick things up and keep going.
- His advice for anyone with an idea is to follow your passion, build your network and learn from people already doing the work.
ᛃ Moments in this one
ᚠHow a volunteer hobby became a parade production company
Ray Pulver grew up in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts and loved parades as a kid. He volunteered on his hometown Fourth of July parade in his hometown for almost 20 years, learning every part of putting one on. He says that parade became the first nationally televised Fourth of July parade in the country, carried in 200 markets on PBS.
Along the way he held day jobs. He studied architecture in high school and worked for an architecture firm until layoffs hit. He then spent 11 years in banking, working up to managing a department of nearly 30 people, and later joined friends in a retail business that struggled after about three years.
Around then he met his partner Tom, who told him San Jose was looking for someone to manage its holiday parade. Ray says it was a hard decision to move 3,000 miles from family, but he figured he could always go home, and he did not want to wonder what might have happened. In his words, what has happened is far beyond what he imagined.
ᚢStarting your own business: the leap from city job to Upbeat Parade Productions
Ray worked on the San Jose parade for the city from 1994 through 1999. When the city wanted to take the parade in a different direction, he started his own company in March 2000. Friends and family scratched their heads, he says, since few people had heard of anyone making a business out of parades. He says there are only about five professional parade producers in the country.
He already knew two parade company owners he admired, one in Southern California and one in Atlanta, and he calls both mentors. The Atlanta producer hired him to help with the Chinese New Year parades in San Francisco after Ray moved west.
Ray did not feel sure it would work at first. He says he knew it was taking off about three to four years in, when towns he had never contacted called because other communities had recommended him. If you are weighing a leap like this yourself, Jeremy, a licensed therapist with an MBA who is a former CEO, shares more about that background on his About Jeremy page.
ᚦNetworking and trust: how Ray grew a business without ads
Ray calls his business a networking business. He joined event associations, spoke at their conferences and served as president of the California Nevada Festivals and Events Association board for 12 years. In his first year he had three clients, including the Oakland holiday parade, which came after a seminar presentation led someone to recommend him.
He keeps relationships alive with touch points: an email, a hello at the parade, a call to the band director or the man who drives the antique Jeep. Several groups follow him from parade to parade because they know what to expect.
Ray says he does not want to come across as a salesman. When he speaks at conferences or colleges, he explains how to get entries and put a parade on the street, and he never tells the room to hire his company. He says he wants every parade to succeed, and that clients call when they need help.
Ray also says he chose his company name so a web search for parade production brings it up for free. Conversations like this one are what the Mindful Mutiny community is built around, with live Fireside Chats and a course library.
ᚨStaying positive through caregiving and a pandemic shutdown
In 2003 Ray's partner Tom had a massive stroke. Ray says Tom spent 15 weeks in hospitals and has needed a wheelchair since, and Ray became his full-time caregiver while keeping the business going from a home office. He sat in on therapy sessions so he could continue the exercises himself.
Ray says he first asked why it happened, then looked for a lesson in it. He says it made him more positive and less bothered by small things, and he avoids surrounding himself with negativity. He brings Tom to parades and has him check lineups and spelling in the office.
Then the pandemic left him without work for 18 months. He collected unemployment for the first time in his life and used grants, unsure whether the organizations or their cities would survive. Before it, he had about 15 parades. Afterward, he says, cities and downtown groups wanted to bring parades back, and the company grew to 23, with possibly more coming.
Jeremy calls Ray's positivity a superpower. Ray admits he gets frustrated and sometimes goes into the garage to cool off, then returns and resets. He credits an aunt, his mentor and the president of the parade committee back east, for the advice to pull your bootstraps up and think positive.
ᚱWhat a parade producer is really paid for: organization and safety
Asked what his real value is, Ray names his network of resources for floats, balloons and costumes, and being well organized. He builds folders for his staff with the lineup and staging map, and he wants parade day to run like clockwork. He admits he is his own biggest critic, and says his team helps make things work when something slips.
Behind the scenes there is also safety work. Ray says rules and guidelines are strict, since safety comes first, and that parades have had floats catch fire, protesters and riders thrown from horses. He says security has changed, with large trucks used to block closed streets, bomb sweeps in staging areas and police monitoring from rooftops in some cases.
His reward, he says, is the thousands of people lining the street and the reaction of the participants. He still pinches himself that he gets paid for it.
ᚲAdvice for anyone starting a business around a passion
Ray's advice is to follow your passion. He says that once he was doing parades, it felt a bit like retiring because he loved the work. If you are passionate about an idea, he suggests going for it, talking to people already in that industry and building the network.
If you are weighing a career change or a new direction, Jeremy offers a private 30-minute conversation to talk through where you are.
ᚨ Questions people ask
How do you start a business from a passion?
Ray says to follow your passion, build your network and talk with people who already work in that field to see how they became successful. He did this with two mentors in the parade industry before starting his own company.
How did Ray Pulver get clients without advertising?
Ray says his business was built on networking. He joined event associations, spoke at conferences and was recommended from one community to another. He also says his company name helps people find him in a web search.
What does a parade production company do?
Ray says his company plans and manages parades. That includes gathering entries, working with cities on street closures, detours and security, handling television or media, writing scripts for announcers, and sometimes arranging bleachers, stages and sound.
How did Ray stay positive through hard seasons?
Ray says he looks for the positive side, avoids surrounding himself with negativity and resets after frustration instead of letting it take over. He also credits a mentor who told him to pull up his bootstraps and keep going.