My Event Full Life is your chance to take a peek inside the lives of the honorees of Eventbrite’s inaugural Brite25 list as they share the secrets behind their success. What lessons have these seasoned organizers learned along the way? What advice has been the most valuable? And what keeps them up at night? Get ready to be inspired.

Jabari Johnson first made a name for himself on YouTube interviewing rising stars, which ignited a passion for the live music scene, but rather than becoming an artist himself, Jabari forged a different path. 

He now runs “genre amplification company”, COLORS Worldwide. Launched in 2014, it amplifies under-served music genres through live events, merchandise, and content creation, and its flagship brand R&B ONLY is now in more than 50 cities worldwide. 

Delving into the pivotal moments of his career, here Jabari reveals how patience and audience feedback have been key to the growth and direction of his company…

I was a content creator first. I was one of the early people interviewing people like Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber on YouTube. That then evolved into me going on the road and making short-form documentaries on artists like Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Fun fact – I have the only footage of the making of the Thrift Shop video!

That’s how I got into the live space. When I was on the road, I would see their shows grow from a few hundred people, to a few thousand people, to big tours around the nation. I was just like, man, I really want to get in on this!

I started off throwing small hip-hop parties. At the end of them, I would play R&B music. One day I just stopped the music and asked the crowd, ‘If we did an R&B-only show, would you guys come?’ And then the crowd went crazy. That’s literally how you know you’re on to something. 

We wanted to create an environment where it wasn’t really artist-dependent. We looked around the landscape and saw that hip-hop had a bunch of different music festivals and a huge ecosystem for people to go on different podcasts and perform on so many different stages. But, when you compared that to R&B, it wasn’t the same. We wanted to create something where we could play R&B music from past to present, curate it, and blend it in a unique way, adding some production value and storytelling.

It’s been a wild journey. In our early days, there were about 200-300 people at each show. Now, we’re in over 54 cities and the shows range from a thousand people on the low end to 20,000 people on the high end in arenas. It’s definitely scaled up. We’re still really heavily building out the content side of the business, and we’re also now helping other artists market their tours and shows.

One of my favorite things about my job is surprising fans. I love seeing people’s faces when they come to one of our shows and get a surprise – whether that be a special guest performance, or when a confetti or cryo blast we’ve meticulously timed goes off. Every tour season, the show evolves, the music is changed, the special effects are changed, and we’re always creating new visuals. There’s a lot that goes into the production of a show and we try to make fans have a really memorable experience at each one. 

One event that really stands out is when we went to London for the first time. We played at a venue called Electric Brixton, and it was just a packed house and a great show. I think in the UK – and just sometimes outside the US – there’s a certain appreciation for what we do. I’m not going to say it’s better or worse, but it’s just different. Folks over there know we’re an American-based brand and we’re not coming over there that often, so when we do come over, it really is something special. People really let us know that, and we feel the love so, so, so much.

Our first seated venue presented a challenge we overcame. We play in primary, secondary, and tertiary markets – everything from a small town to big major metropolitan cities – so, you have to deal with the venues that are available in a certain market. In this particular market, the only venue we could work out a deal with was fully seated. But the demand for us to come there was so high, so we just said, ‘You know what, let’s just try it.’ That show was one of the most legendary. People were standing on seats, and dancing in the aisles. Since then, we’ve done plenty of shows in other seated venues.

My biggest lesson has probably been that everything compounds. Like compound interest in the finance world, the more you keep investing, you really start to see the benefits of it. I think the same rule applies to the longer you’ve stayed in a business. You’re always open to new things, but you keep iterating, and eventually, it really gives you that competitive advantage.

But I also had to learn to be patient. I wanted things to just happen really fast. The rate of growth is a lot faster now because we have a product-market fit. We have such a wider net of people now, so when we’re trying to get a new audience, it’s a lot easier for people to ask somebody, ‘Have you heard about this?’ In our industry, word of mouth is probably the best marketing. 

The next brands we introduce are going to be very surprising for people! Over the next few years, we really want to tap into some other genres that we feel are underserved, and also provide experiences that are not even necessarily music-focused. I’ll say one is another music event, but another is a traveling pop-up museum… We’ve been working on them, doing research and development, and really, really honing in before we are ready to announce them – but they’re shaping up really nicely. 

Find out who else made it onto Eventbrite’s inaugural Brite25 list