Peoplesp20
by Cynthia Marone
Talking to Treandous “TC” Cuthbertson it becomes clear his feet are firmly planted on the ground, but his mind is moving a mile a minute. Always 10 steps ahead, he is considering what to do next and how to make it magnificent, whether it’s the life he’s building with wife Jessica, the future of his company, EventRoostr, or a person’s upcoming wedding at his event space, The Falls Banquet.
At 28, he quashes the notions of millennials being lazy, entitled or narcissistic — as well as any other negatives a person can slap on his generation. “People try to put their experiences on me all the time, but I’m not shy about who I am, my interests, my beliefs,” said the CEO and founder of event management company EventRoostr and the owner of The Falls Banquet, both in Morrisville. “Some people are not shy about sharing their experiences. I’m not shy about refuting them.”
TC takes that confidence and tosses in a dash of creativity, a hint of imagination and a splash of ambitiousness to map his own personal road to success. It’s a formula that has taken him from housing insecurity as a teen to college to owning his own business all before age 30. The years leading up to this moment, which includes both purchasing a home and growing a business in Bucks County, are ones he values and credits with giving him his drive to succeed. “Every move I made was to establish myself,” the Detroit, Mich., native said. “I raised money for my first year in college by selling water on a corner. That showed me what business is like, how to turn a profit.”
His journey seemingly was fraught with rough terrain, but TC does not see it that way. When his high school in Michigan closed, he was given the chance and the choice to go to another school in the suburbs of Detroit. The problem turned out to be a positive, as TC found support at his new school for his ideas and ambitions. Yet life at home was becoming more challenging. “In senior year, I stayed at an auntie’s house and on weekends at our house. It had no gas, no heat and was in a state of foreclosure,” he said. “We would fill a plastic tub so we could have water. It was abject poverty, but it shaped me into a go-getter. These experiences I consider hidden gems. That’s what I came away with when going into college. It was the business school of hard knocks.”
He lived on the brink until he departed for Virginia’s Liberty University, where he majored in criminal justice. His degree didn’t exactly set him up for the life he has now — being the person behind the celebrations for people’s most important milestones — but no roads TC has taken have ever been without sharp turns, unexpected detours and intriguing side streets he was fearless in exploring.
One detour lead to his current career in event planning, which began at a staffing agency in New Jersey that had already sent him to gigs as a mascot and a shelf builder. Next up was being a consultant for a small banquet hall, which he did while also working at a marketing firm. “It was through confidence,” he said of how he secured the role at the venue. “I had no experience in special events, but I introduced myself as someone who could turn the ship around. Sometimes in business you have to have a gut feeling. My thinking is they had a gut feeling about me.”
That mutual belief in each other took TC from a probationary period of three months to a six-month contract and its multiple renewals. With his surefooted approach, vision and drive, TC wound up turning what could have been a short-term gig into about four years overseeing just about everything at the hall, from introducing the organization to marketing techniques to hiring staff to the purchasing. “It was sink or swim,” he said. “It’s having no fail-safe. When there is nothing there, you go at it 100 percent and hope it works out. Sometimes things don’t, but you go with the situation and things having an upside.”
That positivity cheers nervous brides and anxious hosts who come to EventRoostr, which has been at the helm of countless festivities for almost three years. EventRoostr is the planning arm, while The Falls Banquet serves as its locale. Many of the cutting-edge choices that are available to guests are inspired by the staff and the people who come to TC for their galas, weddings, quinceaneras and bar and bat mitzvahs from places such as New Jersey, New York and the Greater Philadelphia area. “We are multicultural — African, Spanish. I’m African American. There are white people on our staff. We have unique cultures. That welds all the different cultures into a unique dynamic. Our multicultural clientele introduces us to things, and we see what we can introduce to others,” he said, adding by way of example the thrones popular for quinceaneras that have become sought after by brides.
Having such a distinctive approach naturally spills over to the menu and party concepts. In addition to the Indian, Spanish, Tuscan and Puerto Rican dishes, there are sparklers that give way to firework finales, couples who can have their first dance on clouds and an LED robot that is always ready to rev things up. “The lights are out, there’s crazy dancing, the music turns up. It’s an injection of crazy entertainment,” TC said of the latter.
TC enjoys being at the helm of people’s major life events through EventRoostr, which true to the twists and turns he seems to ride with ease, did not begin as an event planning business. It was born as TripRoostr, where people could set up a vacation and add on escapades. Developed by TC and a group of friends, it lost momentum with the launch of Airbnb Experiences. It was a sharp turn he didn’t expect, but he found a silver lining. “We scrapped it, but I loved the name,” TC said.
TripRoostr morphed into EventRoostr and became an online tech platform. There was interest, but it never took off the way TC had hoped. He may have been disappointed, but as a rule, he is never defeated. “Even though you go after something with confidence, sometimes it falls short,” he said.
EventRoostr and The Falls Banquet are far from falling short with its constant stream of weekend events and off-site catering. Yet TC has his eye on the future, including ways to build the brand and invigorate his space. In the short-term, this includes a top-secret project on the grounds that will use lighting to create unique nighttime experiences, and in the long-term, having EventRoostr take a more prominent role in large-scale music events. “The sky’s the limit,” he said.
TC has a clear vision of what he would like to see coming down the pike, but it’s his family — wife Jessica, who is in charge of all things office related at EventRoostr, and sons Israel, 3, and Judah, 5 — that keeps him riding high. For a man that plans perfect weddings just about every weekend, he and Jessica decided to take one of those interesting side streets together. “We eloped,” he said. “It was young love. We had no money, we were in college, and we wanted to begin our life together, so it was, ‘let’s make it happen.’”
In a few years, the couple will hit its 10th anniversary and, true to his style, TC is already thinking about how to celebrate it. Though there is plenty of time to hash out the details, TC knows one thing for certain about the bash-to-come: “It will be big,” he said.
Cynthia Marone is a freelance writer from Philadelphia.