June 29, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by Silencer Central. 

Jessica Crawford was an event manager at Universal Studios in Orlando when her job essentially disappeared overnight.

In 2020, the pandemic caused “the event business to be dead in the water,” she said.

She tried her hand in marketing, and when the event business began to return, “I realized I’d grown accustomed to working from home, so I looked into remote event manager jobs, and this popped up,” she said.

From her Florida home, she interviewed with Silencer Central founder and CEO Brandon Maddox, “and I thought it sounded like a great opportunity,” she said.

“This is my first time in trade shows – my past life is corporate events and weddings – so I figured it could be new and exciting, and here I am a year and a half later.”

Crawford is the lead event manager at Silencer Central, which took off as a startup by educating firearms enthusiasts at events about its suppressors.

“It was a lot of knowledge to take in all at once, but now I’m at a fun part,” she said. “We’re able to branch out and try new things and evolve our events.”

Her colleague, Amanda Gibson, joined the team from Connecticut a couple of months ago.

“My background is heavily diversified marketing – I’ve done everything from catalog merchandising to social media management and content production,” Gibson said. “But the one thing I did regularly was trade show management, so I came with that background.”

She hit the ground running, coming to the Silencer Sioux Falls headquarters her first week, flying home to the East Coast for a few days, then attending the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association in Indianapolis, followed by a big event in Phoenix and then a marketing conference in Georgia.

Amanda Gibson and Jessica Crawford

“If you like to see a lot of places, if you’re a people person and you like to problem-solve, it’s definitely the right place for you,” she said. “If you love logistics and making sure you check every mark on the checklist, this is it.”

At Silencer, both women found a team that’s all-in when it comes to events.

“In some places, like theme parks, events are a backfiller – it’s what you do when you need to boost attendance,” Crawford said. “Here, we were critical revenue for the company. When I realized how much Brandon believed in events, that’s how I knew I wanted to be part of that. And once I got here, I realized our sales team eats, sleeps and breathes Silencer Central, so that says a lot about the company and what we stand for.”

Gibson noticed the same thing.

“Everyone is just hungry and genuinely wants to be here and enjoys what they’re doing,” she said.

“They’re collectively working toward growth and success, and the attitude is super positive. Brandon was the final person to put his stamp of approval on my hiring, and he’s very much involved and wants to know everyone’s background and doesn’t want them to be a stranger in the office.”

While they travel frequently and work from other states, both women virtually attend Silencer Central’s morning meeting when they’re home to connect with the team.

“We join the team every morning we can to catch up on things,” Crawford said. “And we try to come to Sioux Falls at least once a quarter. We always come here before the summer crazy season hits.”

The women and their team exemplify what has helped Silencer Central achieve its success, Maddox said.

“Both Jessica and Amanda have been phenomenal additions to our team,” he said. “We built this business one conversation, one relationship, one sale at a time through trade shows, and now they and their team are our face around the country. So it’s an extremely important but also fun job, and they’re doing it extremely well.”

Some parts of the year are busier for travel than others. December through April is a popular time for trade shows – luckily in many warm climates – and July through September is a peak season too, including the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Each trade show – and there have been more than 160 worked or planned already so far this year, with more to book – requires a team of admins.

“We hire for a very specific kind of person for our admin team,” Crawford said. “You don’t have to have a background in our industry to be an admin, but you have to have the flexibility we need because we have shows every weekend and we need admin teams each time. Brandon believes to heighten the customer experience, you have to have human interaction, so that’s what we provide.”

The ideal candidate enjoys traveling and has the flexibility to do so, she said.

“We’re looking for someone who is approachable and likes talking to people,” Crawford said. “We’ve found former military members or gun enthusiasts find it’s a great role to start in, and it often leads to people becoming part-time sales staff as they learn the company and our products.”

Firearms enthusiasts already love to talk about their hobby and often own suppressors, “so they love to share and talk about the experience,” Gibson said. “We need a core group of admins in the Sioux Falls area because we don’t ship firearms or suppressors (to shows) – they travel with a salesperson or admin – so they always have those in hand. If it’s within 12 hours of Sioux Falls, they’ll hop in a van with a salesperson and go, and if it’s further, we get them on a plane and send them out.”

 Silencer Central continually is hiring for these part-time roles “because we want people to grow within the company,” Crawford said. “We want our admins to move into other roles if they choose, so we continually need to replenish them.”

That part-time role can lead to full-time jobs in sales and customer service, she added.

“It’s a great job. A lot of times, we’ll fly the admin in a day early to help set up a booth, and then you have time to go explore a new city,” she said. “We always do team dinners at the end of a show, and we really value the time we spend together because many of us are remote across the country.”

 Crawford and Gibson split oversight duties of all events, from coordinating everyone’s travel to making sure operations run smoothly at the show.

“We have a lot, and we’re continuing to grow,” Crawford said. “We’re at 162 now, and that will definitely increase because every week we’re adding new events.”

Would you like to join the Silencer Central events team? Watch for openings here.