April 3, 2017

Meet Drew Hester of Modern Illumination in North Hollywood

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Drew Hester.

Drew, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We started Modern Illumination in 2012 with my wife Carrie and another partner. They both worked in the event industry and I worked in the entertainment industry as a musician. The 2 of them originally wanted to start the company then I came in as the investor. As time passed, I began working as the operations manager and would run most of the jobs onsite. As the company grew we had some growing pains, as all small businesses do. My wife stepped out of the company and began a full time job with the YMCA. That left me with our partner at the time to continue on. After a year or so he decided to leave the company and pursue other business adventures.

So here I was, with Modern Illumination. The funny thing is I grew up in the theatre doing lighting and studying design. I use to rewire lighting consoles and dimmer racks as a kid in high school, and also played music. I was wrapped up in it all. I worked on the crew of the Pageant of the Masters at the Irvine Bowl after high school and studied lighting design at Saddleback College. But then the music bug hit and I became a professional musician for the next 20 years.

So in September of 2014, when I took over the company I was concerned that by being only in operations, that sales were going to be foreign to me. But, I picked up the phone and started cold calling people from an email list my wife had helped put together. And things quickly began to happen. I will say there are a few people that truly stuck by Modern Illumination that gave me the courage and enthusiasm to continue on. Our company grew at a staggering rate and it was difficult to keep up at first. We have grown 400% over the last 2 years. It has been amazing and I hope we continue to grow. But I only want to grow if the quality of customer service, great equipment and solid work ethics continue as well. In terms of what defines success, as I see it at least, I want Modern Illumination to be a respectable company first and foremost, I want our customers to be happy and I want my employees to feel respected and paid in an honest way. And I think if Modern Illumination does all these things, my family and I will be happy.

Modern Illumination has started off to our best year ever in 2017. So hopefully we continue to grow at the pace we should be growing at, not too fast and not to slow, but a respectable pace!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has been a path with a lot of twists and turns. My wife and I went through some struggles being small business owners together. All these things are probably pretty much par for the course in small business, but being our first small business together it was quite an adventure. But we all came out stronger, leaner and I believe a better company to serve our clients in the event industry as a full service production company.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Modern Illumination – what should we know?
Modern Illumination is a full service production company. We pride ourselves on having the best customer service with superior lighting, audio and video equipment. Being a small to medium size company, Modern Illumination is able to adjust much quicker than the larger companies, which I think our clients appreciate.

I am most proud of our company employees who continue to try and make this company a cut above the rest of the competition.

I know there are a hundred choices in Los Angeles for a client’s production needs. But whether it is a small private event, a large corporate meeting, concert or a wedding, I truly feel like each client deserves our full attention. And the crazy thing is, there is plenty of business to go around. I try and be honest with our clients, in terms of our strengths and weaknesses…. yes, we have weaknesses, but in acknowledging them, I believe we will fix them quicker. And I believe as we grow, our weaknesses will become less and less. In the end, I want my client to be happy, and if that means bringing in a competitor to make it happen, I’m all for it. I don’t have a fear that we will lose the client, and if we do, we need to try harder to earn their respect more and work harder next time to keep it!

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Well first and foremost my wife deserves credit. She puts up with my long hours and also gives me great advice and is an excellent business partner!

Also there has been some great people that have stuck by Modern Illumination that have been in this business for decades. They have taught me the right way to do things, and I believe that has been more helpful than anything I could have asked for. I will always be grateful to them!!

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