Affordable Live Entertainment For Small Towns

We meet Brandon Bell from World X Storm and talk about building affordable, family-friendly entertainment that brings small towns together. We dig into how he promotes concerts, comedy, wrestling, and community events while staying transparent and mission-driven. 
• World By Storm’s mix of concerts, weddings, comedy, and pro wrestling 
• The origin story from touring musician to event promoter and booker 
• Keeping most tickets at $10 to make live entertainment affordable 
• Partnering with local nonprofits and donating proceeds to community programs 
• Industry misconceptions about shady promoters and how transparency builds trust 
• Marketing through social media analytics plus local radio and newspapers 
• Who the events are for, with a focus on families and ages 25 to 40 

Transcript

Welcome To The Show

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Virginia McConnell.

Meet World By Storm

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast Live. Are you in need of an entertainment production company? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to our good neighbor, Brandon Bell, with World by Storm. How's it going?

SPEAKER_02 0:28

So far so good. But like I said, been looking forward to this all day. I just got home from my regular job and I'm ready to talk about uh something way cooler than my regular job.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Nice, nice. Yes, we're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your company.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Okay, so we're world by storm. Um if you're if if I don't know how the links are gonna work on this, but it is uh it is spelled world x storm. Um we learned pretty early on that in terms of domain space and copyrights and registering that world by storm was a lot more expensive than world x storm, but it is pronounced world x storm or world by storm, like four by four.

Concerts Weddings Comedy And Wrestling

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Got it, got it. And um, so what what do you guys do exactly?

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Uh we do a little bit of everything. We're primarily rooted at entertainment, entertainment, but we're very community uh oriented. So we do a lot of networking with local businesses, local artists. Um we do everything from affordable concerts in small towns uh to uh we've done weddings. Uh I've done stand-up comedy. I worked with the trailer park boys from Netflix and brought them to Pinyan, which is a tiny little town. Uh, I brought Pro Wrestling to the Yates County Fair. Uh I've done tons of concerts. The most recent one was Punk Rock Prom 5. We also like to partner up with uh local non-for-profits uh with most of our shows and donate most of the proceeds to local profits. Um and again, networking, like putting businesses and artists and entertainers and uh our little town on the map and making sure everybody has the resources that they need to create special events, like I said, from anywhere from weddings to full-blown rock and heavy metal shows.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Nice. And how did you get into this business?

The Affordable Ticket Mission

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Um, so years ago for for most of my life, I guess I'm on the other half of it now, but for years I was a traveling performer and a rock band. Um, we kind of peaked out uh 15 or 16 years ago in the Rochester Syracuse market, Elmi Recording market, and I found out I was gonna be a dad in 2014, so I retired as an active performer to focus on being a dad. And my passion for entertainment and live music and live entertainment, all that stuff, I kind of shifted gears and started promoting and booking. Uh, I learned graphic design. I went to college for marketing with a uh focus on branding. Um, and yeah, me and my ex-girlfriend, my daughter's mother, started this in 2015 in Watkins Glen. And the idea was just like some people in our area, like everybody's kind of like right about at the poverty line. A few of us live way above it, a few of us live way below it, but I wanted to do affordable entertainment because sometimes your favorite band comes to Rochester and it's 75 bucks a ticket, and you want to go with your wife or your best friend, and it's just not affordable. So I figured 10 bands for 10 bucks, five bands for 10 bucks, uh bringing in somebody from Netflix, the the trailer park boys, uh, for 24 bucks 25 bucks at a bowling alley, by the way. And it was just uh trying to bring the community together and offer affordable entertainment options, and even still to this day, our last event, punk rock prom 5, was$10. Uh so for 11 years now, I've kept I've tried my best to keep my price point as affordable as possible. I would say 90% of our shows are$10 no matter what. Occasionally I get offers for some bigger names like Randy from the Trailer Park Boys, so we have to go a little bit above that. Also, 90% of our shows are family friendly. Um, and I like to create an environment where you can decide if your kids should be there or if you want to bring grandma. Now, you know, we do the trailer park boys, it's like you have to decide what's appropriate for your family, but there's never anything ultra violent. Um, it's always meant so that you can bring your kids or your aunt. If you want to, you'll have to investigate the program. But that was basically an affordable family-friendly entertainment for our little area because we're kind of secluded. It's it's an hour to get to this place, an hour to get to that place. So if if we can create three or four special events every year in our little market, and then that evolved. You know, I went through a separation with my daughter's mother, and now I'm married. My wife and I relaunched World by Storm in 2023. Uh, we've done just a handful of shows. The last one was super successful, Punk Rock Prom 5. We raised almost$600 for the local uh backpack program, which supplies kids with all their school needs, nutritionable, nutritional supplemental items for kids that uh maybe need on the weekend. And we've we've done this five years with them. And uh that yeah, that was it's it's a very strong sense of community here in Pinyan, which was what inspired me to relaunch and try to give back to the community that has supported me for so long.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

That's awesome. And what what are some myths or misconceptions in your industry?

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Um I would say there's there are a lot of snakes out there. There can that can be a promoter, that can be a venue owner, there are people that are creating art, whether it's music or I would say comedy, but I don't snakes, but they're very self-interested, and I'm trying to remove that stigma so that when you come to a world by storm event, you know that you're just as important as the band, and the band can't do this without the sound guy, and none of us can do this without the venue. And I'm gonna bring in a brewery, I'm gonna bring in a nice uh or a winery or a local business, and like I said, we're gonna create an atmosphere that your family can enjoy, and knock on wood, we've never had any issues with that, but if there ever were, I'm totally transparent. Like when I'm sorting through my numbers with these donations and stuff, I'm like, hey, we haven't donated yet, but this is what it looks like, and then we make the actual donation, and most of the time it's exactly what we projected, but then I also provide uh paperwork and documentation to prove that, and so I try to be transparent to remove the stigma that everybody in entertainment is a snake, and I don't know what it's like in LA, and I don't know what it's like in New York City, but I can tell you in my little town, uh, people have learned to trust my programs and my vision, and I just want everybody to know like I've lost so much more money than I've made on this idea. But the idea is to create that sense of community and safety and family-friendly fun stuff. We've had petting zoos, we've had bounce houses. We just whatever we can do to get the whole family out for an affordable price. Typically, we don't charge uh for like you know, kids under a certain age for certain events, and even when we bring pro wrestling in, sometimes the bad guy can be a little bit edgier, but we're never gonna really cross too many lines to where you're mortally offended or or hurt. So I guess that's the stigma in my industry that I try to steer away from and assure people that we're not doing it, just don't want to be toxic, don't want to be a snake, don't want to take advantage of anybody. And like I said, I've lost more money than I've made, and I'm proud of it.

unknown 7:52

Okay.

Finding Families Through Local Marketing

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Well, we all know that marketing is the heart of every business. Who are your target customers and how do you attract them?

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Um I I use all the social media analytics uh kind of guide me through. I don't really have a tool. One of the things I do is I work with a local newspaper, I work with the local local radio station. I've been uh doing business with them all for 11 years, officially as World by Storm, but even prior to that with my old bands, uh upwards of 18 to 20 years. Um and uh I'm sorry, I think what was the question? I was like what what is your target customer and how do you oh okay, so I guess like I said, there it's families. Um I think in the type of entertainment I do, I primarily hard rock on the music side. I do a lot of stand-up comedy. My stand-up, because I do perform, is all clean. Uh, but I would say that probably 28 to 40 uh is my my range. I like to look at analytics that especially show me what's going on and the attention that we're gaining in our little town, in our county, and our little community from Watkins Glen to Penyan to Geneva and a little bit beyond. We have uh a little bit of a presence in Rochester and Syracuse, but um I track analytics through Facebook, through TikTok, through Instagram, all that stuff. But I think our target audience in terms of demographics are gonna be 25 to 40, both men and women, but especially families. Um with a a kid or two that you know, if you want to go out to a rock show and want to bring your kid, you still can.

Podcast Plans Life And Final Message

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Nice. Okay. And have you ever thought about having your own podcast?

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Oh, yeah. So I have these headphones. I have uh I got this out, but I haven't used it yet. My wife has been uh ever since the pandemic coming out of it, like we wanted to start one. We had a big move into a new house that we're buying, and we have all the stuff that we need to start a podcast. Uh, we just haven't created the space for it and can't seem to find the time.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yeah. Um, okay, and then outside of work, what do you do for fun?

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Oh man. Well, this world by storm is fun. Uh, and everything that we do, uh, my wife and I, I have a daughter, I have three stepdaughters and a grandson now. Um, my daughter's 11. The other, my stepdaughter in the house is 13. So, like, what we do for fun is like we go on vacations every year. Me and my wife have traveled to Phoenix, Arizona. We go to Nashville, we take the girls down to North Carolina every year. So that's what we do for fun. But world by storm is the fun. My wife is a professional chef, she has a full-time job. I clean toilets out of college, so world by storm is the fun, and it's all like my wife has a business. Again, I try to network, um, and I that's what we do for fun. But we we try to carve out time for the family. I took my daughter to the bowling alley, we go to the movies, but traveling, creating moments, the same thing I try to do with the business, create moments for the family.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Okay, Brandon, uh, tell our listeners one thing they can remember about World by Storm.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

If you come to a world by storm show, no matter what, I think you're gonna have a great time, especially like if you look at what's going on and you're interested, you're gonna have a blast. But even if you just give us a chance, I bet you'll fall in love with what we're doing. There's a thing in pro wrestling about suspending your disbelief or just letting yourself go and having a good time. And I think if you come to any of our events or if you hire us for your wedding or whatever the case may be, I do think that you're gonna notice uh a strong sense of professionalism, but also a lot of fun. Very easygoing laid back, and we just want to create affordable options because uh, you know, we're living in weird times. The economy is not great, doesn't seem like you can afford to do anything sometimes, and I understand that I'm part of that little crowd, so I'm just trying to make sure everybody can do something fun with their family. And if I could build a theme park, I would.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Okay, Brandon. Well, I really appreciate you being on the show, and I wish you and your business the best moving forward.

Plugging The Music And How To Nominate

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Thank you so much, Virginia. And I I want to mention real quick, I have a band, I'm in two bands, but my solo project is called Sweet Dreams Virginia, and I named it after you. I just decided that. So if anybody's interested, Sideline All-Stars is my rock band, Sweet Dreams Virginia is my solo project.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Sorry for the shameless plug, but thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpsarasota.com. That's gmpsarasota.com or call 941 949 1865.