Your Next Move - Finding That Balance Between Work and Rest

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

In this episode, Inc. editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin speaks to Fauxcades founder Kate Fishel. The Dallas-based event design and production company ranked No. 2,936 on the 2024 Inc. 5000.  Including carpentry, welding, painting, lighting, graphic design, and signage, the company gets its hands dirty taking events from concept to creation. In addition to talking about how the company has managed its ongoing growth after the pandemic, Kate explains how it approaches work-life balance by supporting a culture that allows employees to fully unplug while on vacation.

I'm Sarah Lynch and you are listening to Your Next Move, Audio Edition, produced by Inc. and Capital One Business. For this season, we gathered a bevy of conversations with entrepreneurs who made last year's Inc. 5000 list. They joined us in our Your Next Move booth at the Inc. 5000 to share lessons learned and anecdotes from building their businesses. In this episode, Inc. editor-at-large Christine Liguorio-Chafkin spoke to Kate Fischel. She is the founder of Dallas, Texas-based event design and production company, Fassades. They were ranked number 2936 on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list. The company gets their hands dirty with events, taking them from concept to creation.

That includes carpentry, welding, painting, lighting, graphic design, and signage. Christine started the conversation by asking what happened since the pandemic that really sparked their growth? Yes, the pandemic, we've got a great pandemic story too, because obviously we're event planners, and we looked at that and we said,

this is an event and it needs servicing. And while everybody- The pandemic. Oh yes. Wow. So my national sales director, Lynn Duncan, who's here with me this week, she came up with the idea of doing organic

hand sanitizing stations that were branded, because at that time in March of 2020, we thought events were still happening. So we figured out how to produce all of that in-house. So when the pandemic did hit, we were the only people open and we were selling those like crazy. So that's every business that wanted to stay operational, keep people in, needed that. So we were able to stay open, which was great. And that was kind of the catalyst for this growth was because unfortunately it was illegal to gather. So that was crushing for our industry

was because unfortunately it was illegal to gather. So that was crushing for our industry. And so many other companies sadly closed. So because of Lynn's brilliant idea and some other stuff we were working with the hospital partners on, we stayed open. So then once the pandemic cleared and people were ready to party, we had our whole team. So where other people just unfortunately

had to switch industries and those companies weren't there anymore, we were ready to go. And you had that moment of that ingenuity to kind of look back on and say, like, we made it, like, we made it because we thought outside the box. And was that able to help you continue to think outside the box in terms of events going forward? Absolutely.

What were some of your big first ones kind of like as it was tapering off? What were your big first events? So one of my favorite ones I've done since I started there is called Cattle Baron's Ball. It's the largest single night fundraiser in the country for American Cancer Society. So that one, obviously with all fundraisers, the booze and peer pressure raises that money,

so it's hard to do all that digitally. So the first one back was just exciting and fun. And of course the money goes towards the cancer research. So all had a good cause to it, but that was just exciting and fun. And of course, the money goes towards the cancer research. So all had a good cause to it. But that was just, I just remember, it's about 3,000 to 4,000 people. And everybody in the room just going like, we're here. We're touching each other.

We're drinking. We don't have masks. I can see your smile. And just being able to get back and do good stuff was really fun. Yeah, that's fantastic. What's the weirdest request you've ever gotten for an event? Okay. I don't know if this is weird, but it's the top of mind.

So when Virgin Airlines was launching into Dallas Love Field, Mr. Branson, brilliant creative, of course he likes to theme it to the location. So he wanted a longhorn on the tarmac because he literally lands the plane, rolls up, and you have your team ready to unroll the red carpet right there and the whole event has to be set. And the Longhorn, I don't think, was fully sedated yet

and got a little out of his pen. Oh yeah, like a real Longhorn. So wait, I thought you were like, oh, we constructed a Longhorn out of paper machine, not like a real ball. Really animal. Oh yeah. We have a wall in our office that says, things overheard at facades.

Or like, the Longhorn's on the run on the tarmac, the plane's about to land. What world are we living in? So it is- So to be clear, the plane did not hit the Longhorn. No, it did not. The Longhorn got back in its pin. But just, you know, it's live events.

So everything's different. Amazing. I'm sure Mr. Branson loved that as an actual part of his event, though. It was before he landed, fortunately. He was none the wiser. There we go. Sorry to break it to you, Sir Richard.

Don't tell him. In your company as it is today, what makes you stand out? What internally as a company, like values, culture, what makes people come to work every day and how would you describe that? We are really focused on the work-life balance. Events are nights and weekends. so that's part of it. So we really try to offset when we can. We try to do summer hours.

We try to make the office environment just more accommodating. We actually just expanded our offices, and my favorite little piece of our new one is our Zen den. So really focusing on mental health, and I think that really came up big during the pandemic for everybody. And we just realized how important that was to integrate that in the workplace. And people really just need a minute to take a beat, because especially event planning, your job is to constantly analyze what can go wrong, what do we need, what are the needs, and to turn that off really hard. Yeah. And I mean, event planning, though, also is full of individuals who are really good planners and who are really good at being on, right?

So how do you get your employees to say, like, I need to turn it off for a minute, or, hey, I worked till 11 p.m. last night. I don't need to be at my desk at 9 a.m. Like, how did you change the culture there? We do comp days. So if you're working nights, weekends, you're tired. So if you're tired, you're making mistakes. And if you're doing budgeting or designing or whatever, you're not at your best.

And then we have a very serious vacation rule. We don't know you when you're on vacation. You don't know us. We unplug your access to the server. You are not allowed to work. You just don't call somebody on vacation. You don't. We have a joke of like, if there's emergency, please call 911. But you don't call that person. So really respecting when they're on vacation, they need to fully unplug and not feel like they have to check their email or if they're going to get a call or if my name is going to pop up on their phone.

It just doesn't. And we just really respect those boundaries. And I think that goes a long way. Yeah, I love that in theory and in practice. But in practice, I feel like it's really hard for some companies to pull off. Yes. How do you pull it off in terms of do you have the right redundancies in place there for someone who is taking vacation?

You have to you have a partner. Okay Yeah You have a partner when you leave and then they know to anticipate what's coming up or if a client calls or we're waiting For approval on that so we can have a buddy system with that. Oh, that's great. So it actually works It does and about two years ago is the first time ever that I actually Listened to my own roles because i'm always you know, making was the first time ever that I actually listened to my own roles because I'm always, you know, making sure the employees are taken care of, but wasn't really realizing like, I'm not at my best either when I'm on vacation working

the whole time. And then I come back and it's frustrating because I'm tired and went through all that and spent the money and didn't really get the R&R I needed to reset. So once I started doing that, I realized how much better I am for my people too. And obviously, it's better for myself as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, the balance for everybody. When we come back, Christine asked Kate about tips for business owners trying to find that balance between work and rest.

But first, a quick break. What's your tip as a business owner for that finding or trying to find that balance? I mean, even if it's not perfect, like what's the thing that you need that you make sure to make space for? So the best advice I got with this, because I feel like I'm such all in, all out, I'm on, I'm off, was find the middle ground and the little things help. I think we've all heard forever and ever like,

take deep breaths, take them up. And you're like, I'm breathing, I can't not breathe. That's instinctual, what are we talking about, I'm breathing. And finally realizing, no, like really take a minute. We do that in our sales meeting, we teach some breathing techniques, kind of start it with a breathing technique just for everybody.

You know, you're coming in hot, make sure you're there by 9 a.m. Maybe you're in traffic, maybe you had a fight that morning with your spot, whatever's going on, but just to like mentally reset. And just finding like those little 10 minutes, five minutes, even doing a breathing exercise

as we're sitting here talking right now. But that's the only way to do it, because to take today off and go to a spa, that doesn't work all the time. You gotta find the hacks. Yeah, no, even taking two hours off or something. No way, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's so tricky,

that's great that you've integrated it. So what's in store for the future of your company? What are your plans for the next year or five years? Are you going to try to continue this same amount of growth that you've seen? I mean, it's been really fast over the last three years. Yes. And I think the silver lining of the pandemic for us

was there was so much business, we had to start being selective. We didn't use to have minimums because we didn't want to. We always wanted to take care of everybody. But fortunately and unfortunately we've grown so much we can't anymore and we have to choose and we have to make sure we're taking care of our loyal clients that come back which typically are the larger annual events. So with that that kind of gave us the in to start almost being more boutique. We want to do fewer events, but just bigger events.

So saying no to some business to sort of unlock the bigger business. And to lean in to the big ones. You know, that sometimes we can't accommodate some of their spin-off stuff. We're just doing like their big gala or their big conference. But now we can just be totally comprehensively do everything for them. So it's a nicer relationship, too, that we can just be their go-to for everything. That's great. Do you have an exit strategy in mind at all?

I don't yet. You know, I was 30 when I took over the company and I was always so focused on like, what was next, what was next, what was next. And now that's been 10 years. And I feel like I'm not done. You know, I look at that, cause I think then I thought maybe 10, 15 years and I'll see where I'm at.

But we just keep taking it to the next level and just bringing on incredible talent. Lynn Duncan, who's here with me, Michelle Simpson, who's here with me, are my two directors that are just, they've just elevated us to a whole new place. So I think we're just all kind of organic, flexible, like seeing where this takes us, because definitely this year has been a really pivotal year for us. The company, it's the 20th anniversary of the company. So that was a big one. So and then to make the Inc. 5000, we're like we had a good numbers year. So we're very proud of that. So I think this just motivates you to just say,

okay, well what's next and how can we do more and just keep enhancing it. So we're fired up right now. Great. Have you ever got any advice that changed how you operate or how you think? There's many things I feel like. I do love trust, but verify. That's the lens, that's my favorite one.

Oh, that's great. As a journalist, that really resonates with me. I mean, events, and that's the one thing I love about events too. It's so humbling. I'm sure even this ballroom, when they were setting it up, there's probably hundreds of people. There's the AV guys, the caring guys. You know what it looked like three hours ago? Nothing. There was nothing in this whole huge space.

So just the collaborative effort required to pull something off is really cool, but it's a lot of moving parts and a lot of room for error. So see it with your own eyes. Trust but verify. Like, I'm confident you can do your job. It's just my job to double check and make sure it's completed. And our number one rule at Facades is don't assume nothing. I'd rather you triple, quadruple, check it 100 times

than just assume something. Anytime something goes wrong, what happened? Well, I assumed. So you're not even, that's like, Neil's on a chalkboard. So no one even says that word. They know, don't say that word. They're like, it's gonna be on your gravestone.

Everybody knows, don't assume. That's great. What is your favorite and least favorite kind of task or thing to do as a founder? What's the favorite thing you've kept on your plate and what's the least thing that you're like, I need to get this off now. Like, this is time is time. So favorites definitely designing. I love designing everything. I don't know that it's the least favorite I think just being more realistic with my bandwidth and like what I can handle and

Not taking on so many accounts myself and again now I've got the team that I trust and they can handle it and they've got amazing ideas and I don't get stuck in all the meetings and the stuff. I can just kind of focus on the high level work that I do like doing and help everybody with the design I want in their events. If a young founder came to you, and maybe you do mentoring, I don't know, do you mentor any young founders at all?

Some have come to me, yes. Yeah, so when one comes to you, or if one comes to you in the future, what's something you want to be sure to impart on them, especially a young woman founder? Just go for it. Yeah. So when one comes to you, or if one comes to you in the future, what's something you want to be sure to impart on them, especially a young woman founder? Just go for it. Yeah. Yeah.

I think that's the biggest thing is just go for it. No fear. Just. No. Like step and it'll appear. And if it doesn't, that's fine. Just keep rolling with it. When I was graduating from college,

I was trying to decide if I was going to do teaching or if I was going to move to another city and try to jump into event planning that had no contacts, no education, and just blindly go into something. And I remember my mom was like, just choose one. And if it's the wrong one, go back and do something else. But you have to wholeheartedly jump in because if you're one foot in, one foot out, you're never going to get anything done and you're never going to be successful.

So go all in and give it a full shot. And if that's not it, that's fine. Then redirect and go all in and give it a full shot. And if that's not it, that's fine. Then redirect and go all in there. But I think just giving it your all, no matter what that is, that's the key part. Great. Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you. That's all for this episode of Your Next Move. Our producers are Blake Odom and Avery Miles. Editing and sound design by Nick Torres, executive producer is Josh Christensen. If you haven't already, subscribe to Your Next Move

on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Your Next Move is a production of Inc. and Capital One Business.