SpotCorp Events

What We Value

Our goal is to create accessible, judgment-free spaces for people to explore their own stories under the power of the spotlight. We aim to be an be an international platform for self expression that defies the typical expectations of being center stage.

We want everyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, to feel seen, heard, and valued in their everyday lives.

About

SpotCorp Events creates consumer, corporate, and theatrical performance spaces where people can explore authenticity, empathy, and self expression.

Our Story

A message from CEO Jesse Pudles

Our SpotCorp story begins the same way every great company begins - a fight with a roommate.

As the fight is coming to a close, I am stuck in a heightened state of emotion; I need to escape. Unfortunately, it’s the height of COVID, so I’m left with little option but to go for a walk outside.

Then, I stumble upon the famous Paul Smith Wall, that light pink wall that’s usually crawling with influencers… but this time it’s empty. Behind me is now this giant, pink backdrop, and in front of me is a single large light illuminating the space, almost like a… Spotlight.

Like most theater artists, I’m constantly being gatekept from stepping into it, whether it’s lack of time, finances, or a casting director just doesn’t think I have the “right look.”

But now there’s no one around. This Spotlight is mine.

So I step into it, performing for no one except myself. I put on one of my favorite musical theater songs, and for the next 6 minutes I disappear; into the moment, into the lights. When I finish, I think – do I have something here? Is there a way to share this with everyone?

Over the next few months, I craft this experience to give others this same experience, but at the eleventh hour, doubt creeps in, not the least of which because my business partner at the time has to drop out of the project. So, I tell my best friend (and now current SpotCorp CPO) Peyton that I have an idea but that I don’t totally believe in it.

She does.

“This has to exist. Jesse, you have no idea what you created!” With newfound inspiration, I charge forward.

So on January 25th 2021, in a Garage in Orange County, with a flashlight and 20 willing participants on Zoom, Spotlight is born.

Over the next couple of years, our community grows. Spotlight sees some of the most vulnerable and authentic shares, true community get built, and even people become roommates.

Then, during a session, someone says, “I wish I had something like this for work.” Another idea strikes. So, with a background in Corporate Consulting and Theatrical Performance, and with the new addition of an incredibly eager COO who doesn’t sleep, we build a new platform, and our namesake of SpotCorp begins.

This is just the beginning of the story. We’d love you to help us keep telling it.

CEO

Jesse Pudles

Jesse Pudles has always had a passion for theatrical performance. He started acting at the age of 8 and has experience performing all over the world. Graduating with a degree in Theater from Chapman University, Jesse always enjoyed theater but felt like something was missing. The same year he graduated, he participated as a counselor at a Leadership camp for high-achieving High School students. This revealed his deep passion for helping others grow and develop through activities and games, leading him to simultaneously pursuing acting and wellness in the workplace. During his first year in Los Angeles he performed in 3 professional productions and worked as a Positivity Coach for McKee Consulting. During his time at the consulting firm, he was inundated with experience on how to create a safe space for employees and teach through more traditional means of lecturing or conversation. This lead for a great foundation for things to come.

Meet The Team

Over the next couple of years, he experienced many jobs that would prepare him for his upcoming role of CEO. As a Standardized Patient, he learned how to bring acting into a more corporate environment in order to have impact on a larger industry. As a teacher at a Hebrew school for the arts, he learned how to create lesson plans which mixed both performative and non-performative artistic mediums in order to teach complex concepts through fun and innovative mediums.

Additionally, his experiences producing theater and theatrical events around the world have left him with an understanding for things like budgeting, inventory, client acquisition and leading a team just to name a few. All of these traits make Jesse poised and ready to be a successful CEO for SpotCorp Events.

Spotlight was created during a time when people could not gather, could not release their feelings, and could not perform. Noticing this need, he knew he needed to take action, so people all over would be able to share their stories and be heard, seen and valued. This practice of catharsis, laughter and community provided a space for self expression and authenticity. But Jesse didn’t stop there!

He realized that as much as he loved the Spotlight Event, this wasn’t the best way to create sustainable financial value; so he sought out to create products that have the same impact but increased financial opportunity. With help of Izzy Salant who works in marketing at JNS, and Answer.net CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Gary Pudles, Jesse created two products which have ultimately become the backbone of his company. SpotCorp brings the soul back to the workplace through classic teambuilding and innovative theatrical tools he learned from multiple years in that industry.

Izzy joined the SpotCorp team two years ago, when after every Spotlight he went to Jesse and said, “Hey I have ideas.” Finally, Jesse took him to lunch. Now he’s COO.

COO

Izzy Salant

One of his ideas was just to put “Spot” in front of everything this company does, which is how the name SpotCorp came to be. Seriously.

Originally from Maryland, he traveled up the east coast to study at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, obtaining two Bachelor's Degrees in Theater and Journalism. He then realized he hated cold, humidity, and being allergic to going outside and relocated to Los Angeles.

He has consulted for and/or served as a marketing and social media manager across numerous companies, and consulted for many more, including MTM, JNS, and Lost Tribe. He also served as an executive at numerous startups, including Stropse.com and SYFT.GG. He is a proud member of the Alliance of Jewish Theater, the Playwrights Center, and the Dramatists Guild, as well as an artist in residence at the Braid in Los Angeles.

He’s also a practicing magician, which isn’t necessarily helpful in his role at SpotCorp, but it’s pretty cool.

Peyton Ashby is the proud Head of Production for Spotcorp Events. Ever since she first heard the pitch about Spotlight from CEO Jesse Pudles over a cozy fire, she knew that she had to dedicate herself to it. Starting in her father’s garage over Zoom to now running several different types of events and taking on the corporate consulting sector, Peyton was and is always focused on the quality of each product that the company produces and the experience of those sold to.

CPO (Chief Production Officer)

Peyton Ashby

Having her first experience in the Corporate world with Barwell Machinery Inc and Polymer Machinery Company, companies that sold Machines that molded and injected rubber, for over Six years. She got her feet wet by participating in numerous Trade Shows and being liaison in communication to their overseas parent Company: Panstone. After so long in this space, however, Peyton yearned to find work that more aligned with her beliefs and wanted to do more for the individual than just sell to them. With the motto for SpotCorp being “Bringing the soul back to the workplace” ringing in her ears, it turns out she needed to find exactly that in her own career, and couldn’t be more thrilled to spread that message every day.

Peyton acquired her Bachelor of Arts studying Theater, Directing and Dramaturgy at Chapman University, Graduating class of 2015. She has always felt more inspired and comfortable when using her intellect and curious mind to infuse and endow performance - which lead to the creation of the most recent product of the company, Spotlight Presents; a live theatrical event that bridges the audience and the performances together to reflect and ask themselves how they would answer a tough question. She directed the inaugural performance in December of 2023 and plans to direct many more in the future of the company, as well as expanding the capabilities that Spotcorp Events can do in the Theatrical World.

Sai has spent most of her adult life teaching and learning, but she’s always had a love for performance and emotional expression that she’s thrilled to channel with Spotlight.

Production Coordinator

Sai Panguluri

After studying Public Policy and History at Duke University, Sai ran courses and programs for high school students, thriving in a role that was as much about management as it was about teaching. She continued working part-time as a tutor when she moved to New York City to pursue a Master’s Degree in Experimental Humanities at NYU, a degree that re-ignited her love for media and culture, and especially for comedy (which became the subject of her nearly 200-page thesis).

At her first-ever Spotlight over a year ago, Sai admitted that she’d always loved performing, and that she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t earnestly pursue that passion. As a high-schooler, she played a schizophrenic old woman in a black box show called the Rimers of Eldritch, and she still considers that role one of the most worthwhile and moving projects she’s ever been part of. She also had main roles in her choir’s Madrigal Feasts, and thoroughly enjoyed being the comedic relief in a monologue show she performed in as a senior in college. Although she’s been busy building curriculums, writing essays, helping others write grants, and regularly hosting events in the thriving co-living community she’s part of in Brooklyn, Sai also wants to work stand-up comedy into her life. But right now, she’s focused on turning the Spotlight onto other people through Celebration Spotlight.

Beckett is a designer and entertainment professional with almost two decades of experience in different facets of the entertainment industry, and a web designer of 15 years. Her creative empowerment coaching serves creatives & artistic entrepreneurs of all stripes who want to build a career of freedom through expressing their creative gifts, and unburdened by the shackles of the “day job.” Some of her prominent web design clients include International speaker, TV host, investor, influencer, and entrepreneur Didi Wong, former Cirque du Soleil music director Deborah Hurwitz, and Feature Documentary Film “Broad Minded City.”

Web & Graphic Arts Director

Beckett Arnold

With a BA in English & Comparative Literary Studies from Occidental College, and aims at writing in Hollywood, she had no ambitions to join the circus, but sometimes life takes you by surprise. For 10 years, Beckett worked as a professional circus performer and teacher/mentor, in such disciplines as Aerial Lyra, Hammock, and Silks, stilt walking, and contortion/flexibility. In 2019, she participated in a professional training intensive at Circus Warehouse in New York City, which was a popular training ground for Cirque du Soleil performers, and the official training center for performers in the film “The Greatest Showman.”

Beckett has been involved with Spotlight since it was a Zoom Meet led by Jesse and Peyton tuning in from a garage studio in 2020. Since then it has grown into so much more, and Beckett has enthusiastically watched it grow and evolve into SpotCorp, so when she was approached to create its branding, website and graphic assets, there was no other answer than “of course!”