Brian Bauer remembers the parking lot.
It was March 2020, outside a coffee shop in Brentwood. His company, Bauer Entertainment Marketing, sold tickets for a living: festivals, tours, venues, sports teams. Tickets were still selling, but events were being postponed as the world reacted to the spread of COVID-19. So Brian got his team on a call from the parking lot.
“I huddled with the crew and quelled some fears,” he says. “I was like, listen, this is something that we’re going to get through, and we’re going to get through it together.”
Six years later, BEM is on the Inc. 5000.
Side Hustle Mode
Before BEM was a company, it was the thing Brian kept doing on the side.
He’d worked at one of the largest independent ticketing companies, managing its marketing firm. He did marketing for an IT company and a tour management app. He was even trying to build his own ticketing software company. “I was really just kind of hopping from thing to thing,” he says.
The freelance marketing was the through line. Festivals, artists, and industry conferences kept asking for help. Around 2018, Brian went all in.
His reasoning ran the opposite of most people’s. Staying employed felt like the gamble. Going out on his own “was less risky to me to be my own boss and to carve my own path forward than it was to put my future in the hands of an employer.”
He started with part-time help and interns. The first person he told was his dad, whom he calls his mentor.
A Beacon
Two years after Brian went full time, live events shut down.
BEM went into triage. Every client needed something different, and every client needed it now. “It was sort of a flurry of activity,” Brian says. “It was reactive, but keeping calm as best as we could.”
Meanwhile, everyone’s inbox was filling up. Every company “you never knew you signed up for” sent a COVID update in the same day or two. “None of them were helpful,” he says.
So Brian made a call: BEM would be the useful email. “I really made that decision that we were going to position ourselves as providing some guidance and being as much of a beacon as we could.”
That meant practical guidance for clients with no events on the calendar: how to retain cash, how to keep sponsors getting value so they wouldn’t walk, and how to keep engaging fans digitally until the doors opened again.
The Photo in Every Proposal
In 2021, BEM won the NEXT Award for Emerging Business in Music, Sports & Entertainment. The Emerging category was for companies under $1 million in revenue.
Brian had known about NEXT for years. The company that moved him to Nashville to run its marketing agency had won one. He respected what it took to earn it.
“Winning a NEXT Award was incredibly validating,” he says. “It really solidified for me that this was the right choice, one that truly had legs.”
He still uses it. “Since winning, we have included the image of us all holding that award in every proposal that we have sent out. It is something that we’re super, super proud of till this day.”
Betting on Ourselves
A service business runs into the same wall eventually: there are only so many hours in a day.
After years of watching campaigns deliver, Brian changed how BEM charges. Instead of a full upfront fee, event producers pay a per-ticket commission. Less risk up front for the client. More upside for BEM when the tickets sell.
“Seeing how we could generate more fans, more sales, more profits so consistently, it became clear that we could bet on ourselves,” he says.
He knew it was working when he compared what BEM would have billed at standard rates against what it earned after delivering. The clients came out ahead too.
Where BEM Is Now
This year Inc. ranked BEM No. 4,145 on the Inc. 5000, No. 90 in Tennessee and No. 358 in Advertising, Marketing & PR, on 55% revenue growth from 2022 to 2025. Inc. ranks private companies by growth rate, and only independent companies qualify. In an industry where many of the big names have been bought, that leaves few live-event companies on the list.
BEM has worked with more than 500 music, sports, and entertainment organizations. In 2021, it was about half the size it is today. Revenue has more than doubled since.
The change Brian cares about most doesn’t show up in a ranking. “What has really changed is that we’re far less volatile in terms of economics,” he says. “We don’t really experience the same feast or famine that we did back then.”
Bigger Than a Couple of Hours
Brian’s dad recently found the ticket from the first game Brian ever attended, Yale versus Harvard football, and gave it to him.
His dad is a drummer. So was his dad’s dad. So is Brian, and now, so is his son.
“Each ticket that I have represents things that are bigger than ourselves,” he says. “These memories that can last lifetimes, these connections that go far beyond just the couple of hours that people were physically together.”
He has spent time on the stage and behind the scenes. “Both of those help me facilitate more shared experiences,” he says. “That is really ultimately my purpose.”
Just Keep Going
On October 19, a new class of NEXT winners walked off the stage at the Schermerhorn. JamJuice took the Music, Sports, Gaming & Entertainment award, the category BEM won in 2021.
Brian’s advice for them: “This is a game of high highs and low lows. Sometimes at the same exact time.”
Use the award as fuel for the lows, he says, but don’t pat yourself on the back too long, because there’s work to do. And don’t spend time on regrets. “There’s really nothing to skip or redo. All the good, the bad, the ugly have all contributed to who you are today and who you will become. So just keep going.”
That’s what the parking lot call sounded like too.
See every 2026 NEXT Awards winner: ec.co/next-awards
Do you want to see who’s building the NEXT award-winning businesses? Nashville Entrepreneur Day
Bauer Entertainment Marketing: bauerentertainmentmarketing.com
Images provided by Bauer Entertainment Marketing (BEM) 2026
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