Global Entrepreneurship Week: Turning the Family Business into a Prize-Winning Powerhouse

This year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week theme — “Entrepreneurs Thrive Here” — speaks to the power of an ecosystem built on connection, shared experience, and support, which Joey Goone knows well as a member of EO St. Louis. His journey from taking over his family’s events business to winning US$100,000 on Alex Hormozi’s Scale or Fail, is a testament to what can happen when entrepreneurial ambition meets the right community.

When Joey Goone's mother, Jodi, founded Utopia Experience in 2002, she had a simple but ambitious vision: Create events that bring people together and leave them with lasting memories. A former schoolteacher with little experience in the events and entertainment industry, she built a business around the belief that gatherings could be transformational.

After she passed away in 2013, Joey stepped in alongside his father to carry her vision forward. And he has certainly made her proud: This fall, he won Scale or Fail, a YouTube competition hosted by renowned entrepreneur and influencer Alex Hormozi. One of eight business owners selected to compete, Joey ultimately walked away with the US$100,000 grand prize and a coveted opportunity for ongoing mentorship from Alex and his team.

"Do not disqualify yourself. Do the thing. Apply for the thing. Walk into the room. Take the swing. Bet on yourself and then go earn the confidence behind that bet, because I surely did not have it — until I did."

- Joey Goone (EO St. Louis)

The competition challenged entrepreneurs to evaluate their businesses, identify growth constraints, and execute a 90-day scaling strategy. For Joey, the experience reinforced a lesson he has increasingly embraced throughout his entrepreneurial journey: Growth comes not from having all the answers, but from surrounding yourself with people who challenge you to think bigger.

We spoke with Joey about honoring his mother's legacy, the business lessons that helped him win the competition, the role EO has played in his development, and why his biggest advice to fellow entrepreneurs is simple: Bet on yourself.

Utopia Experience began as your mother's business, and you took over after her passing. Tell us about the company's origins and how you came to lead it.

My mom started Utopia in 2002 as a bar and bat mitzvah event entertainment company. At the time, there was not an entertainment company that was serving that space in St. Louis. When I took over, we started to cut our teeth in larger event planning deals and corporate event planning. I saw some dollar signs there, but I fell in love with nonprofit work.

In 2014, we ended up doing an event for Camp Rainbow and then subsequently for Make-A-Wish. That lit my soul on fire.

What were some of the pivotal moments in the business’s evolution, and what challenges did you encounter along the way?

I believed for a long time that being an entrepreneur meant that I was supposed to have all the answers. I am the CEO and everybody comes to me for solutions — EO has taught me the opposite.

The greatest acceleration in my life has come from putting myself in rooms of people that are better than me in a skill that I am trying to learn. It requires being vulnerable enough to say, “I don't know about this. Can you help me better understand it?” And, from there, taking what I have learned and implementing it in my business.

Through COVID, we could not do live events. So, we converted overnight to a virtual production studio. We did about 200 virtual events and raised US$50 million for charity in a year-and-a-half when they could not have live events and fundraisers.

When we went back to live, I kept opening the aperture. And the irony in opening the aperture is you cannot be all things to all people and do it exceptionally well. The biggest constraint for me genuinely was thinking that we could do everything.  

So, what Alex and EO have helped me see is when you narrow the aperture and you laser focus on a particular sector or segment, that is where you hit all your upside.

Joey Goone (EO St. Louis)

What specifically have you narrowed your focus to, and how has that changed the way Utopia approaches its customers?

Franchise brands. Almost every single one of them does an annual convention. And nine times out of 10, there is an operations manager or marketing manager or PR person who is trying to plan the annual convention on top of doing their day job. And they are burning the candle at both ends.

Now that we have really focused on that, every single time they see our content or they land on our website or they book a discovery call with us, they say, “Oh my gosh, you have really honed in and you understand who I am and what I need.”

Let's turn to Scale or Fail. What was going through your mind when you realized you had won the competition? Did you think about your mother and the legacy she left behind?

I definitely went back to my mom. I was thinking about her being robbed of not being able to walk my sister down the aisle, not being at my wedding, not meeting my wife, not being able to hold her grandchildren.

The fact that I am still here and I get to be a part of her legacy and still be connected to her in such a meaningful way — to me, that was the most profound thing. There was something inside my soul: My mom's got me and she is here with me.

Before the final taping, I had been meditating, visualizing, and saying regular affirmations: “I am going to win. I am going to win.” I know that helped. Now, I do not think that visualization substitutes for execution. You still must go out there and do the work, build the skills, and put yourself in the environment with the right people that can help and guide you along the way. You have to take the feedback, implement it, and, most importantly, put yourself in the arena.

What meant the most was not that I and the company had won the money. That prize was evidence of all of the years I have spent doing hard things, staying curious, failing, learning, trying to evolve every single day: Most importantly, staying curious and betting on myself.

Beyond the financial prize, you also earned access to Alex Hormozi and his team. What does that relationship look moving forward?

I get to go and hang out with Alex and a bunch of other entrepreneurs for a day-long workshop, and I get coaching directly from him. Then, I get quarterly check-ins with the Acquisition.com team following the workshop.

Frankly, to me, that's the most valuable part. The coaching that I will get from being in person with him again in December and then the subsequent coaching conversations that I'll have with the Acquisition team feels like they are worth millions.

You have talked about the importance of growth and scaling, but what does long-term success actually look  to you?

I have to thank EO for this.

I had the pleasure and the privilege of hearing Steven Bartlett at this year’s Global Leadership Conference. What does success look like? He said subjectively meaningful work with people that you enjoy being around and solving problems for other people.

And I think that is it for me.

Business can feel heavy and burdensome: carrying the load of the responsibility, financial and otherwise, every single day. So, I try to close my eyes and remember a time when mom was still around. I was still that kid playing video games in my basement with my friends. I was not thinking about getting to the next level. I was just thinking about playing the game and having fun and being with my friends and my family.

These moments are so fleeting and so finite that we never really know when it is our last breath or our last opportunity to connect with a loved one. I am not really looking at the destination. I am thinking more about the journey of having fun and bringing really cool people into our orbit and not scaling just for the sake of scaling, but scaling because we are solving big problems that people really appreciate us solving — and we are making money as a byproduct of that.

Ultimately, what it comes down to: I get to do this with my family and people that I love. As long as that continues, I am in. I am not looking for an exit plan or a PE firm to come and give me a fat check and let me sail off into the sunset. I am having so much fun.

At Utopia, Joey works closely with his wife Stephanie and his father, Neal.  

You have credited EO with helping you grow as an entrepreneur. What has the community meant to you personally, particularly during challenging times?

Sometimes you have to place your belief in others until your belief in yourself catches up. EO has given me the community to do that.

There are so many times where I have been deflated or I have felt overwhelmed, and one of my EO Forum-mates turns to me and says, “Dude, you do not realize how awesome you are, how much joy you bring to this group, and how proud your mom would be of you?”

Hearing that every once in a while is important, because I want to be the source of light and the battery for others here at Utopia. So, it is not often that somebody else is giving me that kind of affirmation. That keeps me going.

Finally, what advice would you offer other entrepreneurs and EO members who might be considering taking a big swing in their businesses or personal lives but are not sure they're ready?

I am just like you: Do not disqualify yourself. Do the thing. Apply for the thing. Walk into the room. Take the swing. Bet on yourself and then go earn the confidence behind that bet, because I surely did not have it — until I did.

And now I feel like I could do anything. It is just about making those little decisions that seem inconsequential in the moment. Apply for the thing on Instagram or LinkedIn that would be such an easy thing to scroll past.

I took the swing — you should, too.  

Interested in becoming an EO member like Joey? Learn more here.