Soul in the Horn
Five tools, one screen. Every sale, every channel, every campaign, and the follow-ups run themselves.
$26,736
Summer flagship gross (Eventbrite)
37 → 269
Tickets, four days out to the night
100+
Dancer track purchases, first month
$250
From 2 campaigns to the inactive list, in 2–3 days
Where it started
Soul in the Horn has a loyal crowd, the same faces at every event. But the team was running the business across five tools that didn’t talk to each other: Eventbrite, Stripe, Shopify, Klaviyo and Instagram.
- ·Every campaign was written and sent by hand, so the list got too many emails and sales from email kept dropping.
- ·Nobody could say which post, email or ad actually sold a ticket.
- ·Dancers got in by buying a track, and every receipt was checked by hand, with discount codes typed out one at a time.
- ·Social posting through a third-party scheduler had been failing for weeks.
How I approached it
Don’t add another tool. Put everything they already use on one screen, then automate only the campaigns the data showed actually sell tickets.
What I built
The Control Center
Every event shows whether it’s on pace or behind, and why, compared against past events.
Campaigns that arm themselves
The system checks Eventbrite every 30 minutes. When a ticket tier changes, a new act is announced or an event falls behind pace, the right email or SMS is ready. The team previews it, tests it and arms it.
Attribution
Tagged links on Instagram, email and ads, so every ticket shows where it came from, with a chart marking the sales each campaign produced.
The dancer portal
Dancers submit their receipt, AI checks it, rejects duplicates and emails a unique ticket link automatically.
Content DNA
Reads their Instagram and shows which formats and themes sell. For them: videos, and lineup drops above all.
How it works, start to finish
- 01A new event goes up on Eventbrite.
- 02Pre-sale, lineup, last-chance, BOGO and recap campaigns are lined up for it automatically.
- 03The team previews and arms them from one screen.
- 04As tickets sell, the dashboard shows which channel sold each one.
- 05If the event falls behind pace, a pace-push campaign is ready to go.
- 06After the event: a recap for people who came, a “you missed it” for people who didn’t, early access for regulars.
Decisions behind it
Fewer, meaningful emails
The data showed that sending less, and only what matters, beat the old volume.
People stay in control
Nothing sends until someone on the team arms it.
Built on their own accounts
Eventbrite, Klaviyo and Instagram stay theirs. The dashboard sits on top.
What changed
- ·June: a post that had failed for weeks went live on Instagram and TikTok in one click, on the call.
- ·June: two campaigns to people who had stopped opening emails brought in $250 in 2–3 days.
- ·July: I built the full campaign plan for The Real Summer Party. It grossed $26,736.
- ·October: an event sitting at 37 tickets against 600 capacity four days out. We changed the ticket tiers so they move up after 50 sales instead of by date and ran daily email and SMS through the system. It finished at 269 tickets, $7,666 gross.
- ·The dancer receipt check flagged 2 reused receipts, and shared dancer codes were replaced with single-use ones.
- ·When a funded AI ticketing company pitched them, the founders’ question was what it could do that “our Control Center” couldn’t.
“I appreciate your brain, man. You’re making things make sense. I’m part of the team at this point.”
Derick Prosper, Founder