Project Management with Lucy Yezulinas
Our Project Manager, Lucy Yezulinas, lensed by Tiffany McCullough.
We have partnered with so many phenomenal clients at Broadway Crew. With countless shows and activations running cross-country simultaneously, you can imagine how tricky it is to balance everything - that’s where our Project Manager, Lucy, comes in to save the day! After graduating from Pace University, Lucy joined the team at Broadway Crew to help us staff, problem-solve, and expand our reach farther than we could have ever imagined! Today, I sat down with Lucy to chat about her BC journey, how she handles the highs and lows of the job, and more!
So! Lucy! Tell me more about your journey moving from the street team to project managing in the office!
Totally! It’s actually kind of a crazy story, how it all happened. Basically, after I graduated in 2021, I was living downtown and one of my mutual friends worked for this company promoting a relaxation beverage called Leilo! They were still getting on their feet and trying to organize a system for tastings and mobile street teams that worked for them. So, I popped in and mentioned they should hire Broadway Crew for their staffing! I knew we could handle the logistics and make things much easier. Three weeks later, Sam reached out to me that Leilo wanted to partner with them and offered me a part-time office gig handling the staffing. It was so weird that my recommendation doubled the work we were doing last Summer. So they brought me on to help organize staff for about 300 hours of work a month! They had me jump right in and start swimming, trusting me right away. They really encouraged me to forge my own path. It was sink or swim, and I swam!
Just keep swimming! I think, working with you, I appreciate how you blend the personality you need for a job like this with your stellar organization. So when you took on the role, what approaches did you take? How did you go about interviews? Finding your own systems?
I am a Virgo rising, so that Type-A-ness is innately within me. I love spreadsheets and color coding, making things fit into place, and being a project manager is basically rearranging tools the client gives you into something that works best for everyone. I got into the groove and started hiring people once I was in the swing of things, shadowing Sam for a couple of interviews. And when we’re interviewing people, it’s really a vibe check! Can this person listen to what I’m saying? Can they speak to people? Once you get that feel for what kind of person you’re looking for, it’s easy to keep doing the same thing. And Sam and I sort of think the same way, which makes it so much easier to work together. He took me under his wing and is really supportive of me going after the things that I want. He’s been the greatest resource throughout this whole process.
Every time we get a new system or software, we always geek out about it! Crelate is our applicant tracking system, so anytime people apply, we have people saved on a file. It’s so easy to keep track of who we spoke to, why we liked them, why they’re right for this job/but not this job, etc. It’s really nice to streamline it all in one place, I really feel like since I’ve been here, we really got better at systemizing the day-to-day. I introduced Sam to entering every little thing into a calendar and now he can’t stop doing it!
I just really like to add more structure to the day. I list everything out, and whenever I have extra time I clean the office or organize the staff room, things like that! I’m a big advocate for making the most of every minute.
I think that’s incredible. That leads me in to ask how you take this great work ethic you have and use it to scout for new staffing opportunities?
That’s a great question! I literally had this thought in bed last night, since I was spending some time with my family and drove by a new installation that was preparing to open…I was like, this could be a great opportunity. We worked with a similar attraction earlier in the summer, so I immediately thought we should reach out to them! I call them shower thoughts, little epiphanies about places and brands to reach out to, conferences to go to, things like that. Networking is really important, and going on-site to the activations we’re currently working with is also huge. Putting a face to the name! Showing them that we are on top of it and present, it goes a long way with finding new staffing journeys.
It’s a domino effect.
That’s a huge part of it, for sure.
I want to get into the problem-solving. So I’ve watched you deftly handle all sorts of things that have come up throughout the year, and I’m wondering…what is a time where you really felt like you had the tools to tackle those challenges?
Yeah, I mean, I feel like a lot of the problems that arise are callouts. That is the main problem that we are constantly solving is getting coverage for shifts. One that comes to mind most recently is for a Gala we staffed for. It was super high profile, and we were tackling a hiring process that was incredibly different than what we were used to. We compiled a list of a bunch of trusted, consistent employees we had and hired some new faces. Then, they hand-picked from our pitch for the staff. And then, one of our brand ambassadors tested positive for COVID right before we needed them. So I had to quickly jump on and own that myself and reach out to tons of people, my beloved heroes in New York that I love so much. I went to them, texting about 30 people within an hour, and found one sole person to step up.
That’s very real. You have a pool of reliable people, and an even smaller pool within that pool of people who are responsive enough for when you need them.
Exactly. People who work for us have a wonderful time, usually it’s a nice, familial experience. The person who ended up filling in for us hadn’t worked for us in so long, like four months. And she loved her time with us before so much that she was immediately down, no questions asked.
That’s incredible. So, I want to wrap things up by asking if you have any advice for people hoping to get into project management?
I honestly fell into this. This wasn’t something I studied for, this wasn’t something on my radar when I was studying business. The reason I accepted this position was because I feel like what I want to do in the theater industry changes on a daily basis. Every time I learn something new that is a part of creating a show and getting it to Broadway, I want to try all the things! I came into this job willing to do anything. Sitting through the meetings about payrolls, taking the tedious time to learn new systems. But it feels great because I get it. It feels great to get it. And it’s important to keep your personality in the job. It would be so sad to navigate all of this and get lost in the drone of constant spreadsheets and documents, etc. It’s easy to get all pent up about it, but that’s never gonna help. I think it’s important to remember that the work we’re doing, it’s a lot and it can get really hard, but it’s fun. It’s theater. And I’m happy to be doing it and having a great time. Have fun, live life, make money!
