Episode 5: Survive or Thrive... Redefining Success in Event Season

_1_09-27-2025_104242: [00:00:00] Episode five. Episode five. Do you realize that we always repeat that We do. It's like our thing, we are winding down event season. I hope for all of your sakes that you're almost done. Mm-hmm. Rounding it out and can't help but wonder how'd it go?
Did you simply survive. Or did you thrive? Did you have goals that you were trying to accomplish, and did you have any fun or was it just a slog? Yeah, exactly. Are you just tired and broke? Did you make money? That's kind of important. That's why we're doing this, right? I think so.
All right. Well, that's what we're talking about today. Let's buckle up. Here we go
entry song Do, do. Welcome to, it's just My Face with Adrienne and Leorah. It's just my face is the after party where event pros get real about the work, the wins, and the what the fuck moments We're gonna be mixing stories, [00:01:00] strategies, and yes, some rants. But we're here to help you grow your business, lead your team, and keep your sanity in this chaotic world we call the event industry.
_1_09-27-2025_104242: All right, let's get after it. If you guys listened to our first episode, which was about networking. Mm-hmm. We talked a little bit about. The shroud of Instagram and how many events you did and how things look in our industry. And obviously we would be remiss if we didn't discuss what success actually looks like, right.
And the myth that surround it. Totally. You know what's funny is that, a lot of the Instagram content is so much like, it's so cute with all the bts and even that's not behind the scenes. Totally. Because I guarantee you, none of that looked like how it really looked when you were trying to get all that set up.
Totally, you see these stories, and it's like, look at these 22 things I did in the last 48 hours. Oh [00:02:00] yeah. Right. I and I'm curious to the listeners, are we impressed by that or do we find it to be almost like.
At times slightly sad, right? Well, it's like, look at me, look at me, look at me. And it's like, what are you asking me to look at? Sure, sure, sure, sure. Just that you like ran around and you didn't pee and like probably didn't eat anything. And you just did all these things , is that a good thing?
Sure. Like what's the message am I supposed to take away here? I mean, we all laugh about that kind of stuff though, right? We all, we do laugh. I love the, the funny posts and the reels about the event planner who did pee for 12 hours and it's like, yeah, that, that's funny. We all chuckle about it 'cause we've done it.
But also, don't we all know that, on the end of that. That's why you get a UTI, you know what I mean? Like there's, that's, that's not good. That's not good. And we probably shouldn't laugh about it, and I don't think you should be proud of that. No, we And maybe like fucked if that happened, we're fucked.
Yeah. If that happened, maybe like, [00:03:00] don't share that because , what that implies to me is . Well, then what did you do wrong? Sure. Yeah. To get to that point, Yeah. Or what did you sacrifice? Yeah. Yeah. I think that's more of it. Like what did you sacrifice or what did you do wrong? Or, what did you say yes to that you should have said no to?
Oh, that led you to that? Well, probably everything. Once you get to that point, once you've gotten to that point, you know, and you're going to the bathroom for the first time and you're sitting in that bathroom stall all by yourself, and you're question, you're questioning your life choices of what you've done to yourself, you know, and that's, and that's the end of your season.
Like, that's, it's probably not great. Yeah. Right, right. And one thing that I, I saw is we have this tally of how many events that we do, , and , I feel like that's everybody's goal, year over year. So say you start out with like 22 events.
Okay. Year two, I want to do 50 events. Year three I want to do 80 with a team, with a team of two people. Um, and it's [00:04:00] just keeps getting bing and bing and bickering. That's from the Lorax. I have a 6-year-old, sorry. Okay. Um, but like that's what's happening, right? Yeah. But is that really. Is that a measure of success of a successful season?
Is that a measure of a success? I think it's not. I mean, I feel like a lot of the planners that I know on the luxury circuit, their goals are to do less and less and less, right. To be c choicier with the business, they take demand higher price point. Mm-hmm. So they only have to do five weddings a season, you know, or what a month and.
Call it good. Sure. And focus that time and that energy on those few weddings. Mm-hmm. So that. They don't have to work so hard For sure. And I think that's, you know, the obviously different models, right? And I feel like we could spend a lot of time talking about that , being a luxury planner or being more of like a turn and burn, , coordinator who, , provide tremendous value for events.
Mm-hmm. Right? But you know, that's a little bit more of that rinse and repeat type model, so, for those [00:05:00] people a hundred events. Could potentially make you a lot of money. Yeah. But maybe are you gonna be satisfied in the end? Like that to me again, we've talked a lot about Yeah.
As we get older. Sure. Yeah. And our bodies hurt. Yes. Easily. Yes. And then we have other demands, like children and mm-hmm. You know, aging parents, aging parents at the whole thing. It's like. Do you really wanna spend all that time doing that? Sure. Yeah. I mean, I didn't really, you know, I moved in another direction because of that.
Yeah. To be frank, , I was one of those people who did like more of that busier model. Right. And, you know, I did start to move my career in a direction a little bit more away from that because of the grind, because of the physicality of it.
And you have to of course, make sure that the biggest measure of success in all of this should be what do you have in the [00:06:00] bank at the end of your season? Yeah. And if it's not what you need or if it's not what you thought it should be, it should be evaluated. Totally. Right. It doesn't matter if you did a hundred projects, if you're just broke and tired.
Well, yeah. Then what was the point? There was no point. In my mind, there was no point. Sure. Maybe I'm being too opinionated about it. No, I mean, it's, it's a hard realization, I think to come to, right? Is that, , some people are very, very good at their jobs. So maybe you're the most bomb event manager that has ever existed, but you suck at finance.
You suck at maybe managing the finances of your business. Yeah. Your expenses. Maybe you have high turnover. And all those things impact that. Right? And you, you go after it with the best of intentions, and then you kind of turn around and you're like, yeah, I had a great season. I had really great client satisfaction.
Look at all my five star reviews. Look at all these beautiful pictures. Look at all this [00:07:00] content, but I'm broke. But you're broke. So if you're working that hard Yeah. And you're succeeding in your execution and you're succeeding with your customer reviews and you've made no money. Mm-hmm. Do you measure that as successful?
I don't feel like you can. I really don't. For me, no. I think that there is a pretty hard line. That people need to be looking at. And I think that's a goal that hopefully people are setting at the beginning of their season.
And it's not necessarily how many events you're gonna do. Sure. Maybe that's one of your metrics is, but it's like how much money are you gonna have going into your slower time when you're not depositing checks every other day. Yeah. And you still got bills to pay. Like you need to be looking at that number.
Right. Because that's what gives you freedom. That's what gives you time. Is that number I agree completely, , and I can't help but wonder, are you satisfied with those benchmarks that you've set for yourself?
If you've, you walked away from season without [00:08:00] making the money that you wanted to, are you satisfied? Mm-hmm. Like, is that something you're gonna do again next year? Right. Or are you gonna change it? And the same goes for the opposite too. Maybe you made a ton of money. Mm-hmm. But , did you sleep?
Sure. Yeah. Right. Or , were your clients happy? Yeah. Or did you just turn and burn so that you could get it all? And then hope that no one writes a bad review so you can do it all again next year. Yeah. What does that look like? Totally. Yeah. I think that I'm sure many of our listeners, go into your season with goals, right?
And the best of intentions. Mm-hmm. And , maybe it's revenue reviews, amounts of events, whatever those things may be. . And , over time things get in the way. Yeah. Like I always, I had a goal at one point of. Having one weekend off or one Saturday off per month. . And I was gonna protect this one Saturday. And I would say no to jobs and I would assign jobs to other people I did. Everything I could to protect that, [00:09:00] except for I fucked up in one big key place. I wasn't protected from turnover. Mm-hmm. So if I lost, , a lead, , and I already had people assigned to other jobs. Then I was fucked.
Yeah. Then I had to give up that free Saturday with my family that I was trying to protect. I had to give that up to go and cover that. Right. And I know, of course you did. So many people can sympathize with that story. But obviously there's ways that you can learn from that stuff, and I think the bigger thing is like if you're not happy with your season or you're not happy with some sort of outcome, then I think the only real sad thing is if you choose to do nothing and you choose to repeat the problem again.
Right. That's the only real big problem. That's the only real Greek tragedy. Yeah. Like nobody says , this has to be the way it is forever. So, , I did five things, I think, to combat that. The next season I charged more uhhuh, right? For even like my base level of services, I kept one person in reserve and we had a rotation.
Right. So we didn't sell out [00:10:00] every fricking weekend, and so we kept that protection for turnover for in case somebody got sick. That was always something I was like, shit happens. Yeah. And that was when I felt the brunt of it as the owner. When shit happened, it would fall back on me, which that's my, that's my sword to bear.
Yep. Um, my burden to bear. , But , I was like, okay, if I don't want this to happen again, like I literally have to do eight things. To protect this one day. Yeah. With my family. Like that's, but that makes you a smarter business owner, right? Because you are, you know what shit could happen and you're planning for that.
Mm-hmm. You're creating the guardrails around that. Yeah. And I think that's important. I would love to explore these ways that we measure success . Yeah. The bullshit ways that we , measure success would be in, , the amount of likes and engagement I get on Instagram. That's a, a false measure of success to me. , The amount of events you did, false measure of success. . But I have to say, , in your opinion, yeah.
These are false measures of success. But for a lot of people, these are the measures of [00:11:00] success. Sure, sure. You know? Yeah. Okay. I've said it. Yeah. And I said it. Yeah. And I think everybody sees success differently. Yes. How about that? I think that's a good way to think about it, right? So one person, they might go into season, think I will have a successful season.
If my PR is like popping. Yeah. . If I'm published, if I am featured in this, I'm on this, my engagement is crushing it. 'cause you know, that's my goal. Yeah. Right. Or that's my, that's my measure of success for this season. And you attain that. Awesome. You know, but then somebody else like me, right.
Maybe more of my measure of success is the creation of time. Mm-hmm. Uh, I believe time is the most limited resource on the planet. Preach. So if there's a way that I can free time. For myself, for my family, for even for me to work on other things in my business or whatever. That's how I measure success.
Yeah. So for [00:12:00] me, when I say those things are false to me because they don't align with what I believe is success for me. Right. So I guess, you know, to back that up. Yeah. To maybe some people that's their measure of success. Then who am I to tell you you're wrong? Well, I also think that it's important to say that.
How we measure success depends, on the stage that you are in your career, right? Mm-hmm. Because if you're a younger planner, sure you need , that. Engagement online. You need to be focused on that. You need some volume, you need to be getting out there, get the R in and get it, get it up. And
let's be honest too, as we've said, you have more energy totally in that stage , to take it on and, and to do all those things. , And you also have a lot of lessons to learn from the execution side of things. Sure. You know, , you had to learn. To keep someone on Sure. On back rotation to fill in and things like that.
You, only way you learn those [00:13:00] things is by needing to learn it because not that it was a mistake when you didn't have it, but you had to kind of make that mistake in order to learn how to fix it. Sure. So, , I think early stage planner. Needs to learn these lessons and they're gonna measure success in some way, and they may not make as much money Sure.
As hopefully somebody who's a more seasoned planner. Yeah. And maybe they work into that. . Yeah. , And we all know that there's, especially this industry, there's such a level of paying your dues. Totally. Right. And you learn on the job. In order to get good at this, you need to be there.
You need to be in it to learn the problems and to get good at it. Yeah. And that so a hundred percent agree with, what you're saying there. Yeah. I was thinking while you were talking. There's another, area of success that I feel like I measured by and it's if I'm having any fun. Oh, good.
I know that's, does that sound so late? No, I think it's important because I think. That sometimes that definitely does disappear. Yes. And so it's like, did I enjoy my clients this year? Did I have a good time with [00:14:00] them? Did you feel good while you were doing these things? Yeah. And I mean, you can't expect every job to be the best.
. And every client to be these beautiful rays of goddess sunshine. Yeah. That just you're, oh my God, I'll do anything for you. You're such an amazing human. Yeah. You know, because then the next day you're gonna have an asshole. Mm-hmm. Um, but you can't just say like, well, I had one bad experience.
My season is shit. But I do think you should evaluate. How much fun did you really have? Yeah. Are you choosing wisely? Yeah. 'cause they, your clients choose you, but you choose them too. Like we talked earlier today about like how our careers are like halfway over. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. You know, so we're in our forties probably gonna work for like 20 more years.
Hopefully. Hopefully. And as lame as it sounds, don't you wanna have fun? Yeah. You know what I mean? That should not stop. Right. So I think that the measurement of fun, I'm gonna make sure it's now on the forefront of my mind with what I'm doing.
It's like, did I have a good time? I love that. Did I have more fun than I had a shit time? [00:15:00] Yeah. That's because I'm gonna have a shit time at some point. That's important. That also brings up choosing clients. Another point, which , leave it to me. I'm gonna turn left from, fun again, but, um.
Yes. If you're choosing your clients and going back to making money, are you choosing clients that are going to make you more money? Mm-hmm. Are you choosing clients just because you like them and maybe they're lower rated and then you've blocked yourself off of making more money down the road?
Yeah. How smart are you making your choices? Sure. 'cause everything is a choice. Yeah. And I, there's a lot of fear at the beginning of booking. Season when you still have all these open dates and it's like, oh fuck. Should I fill it? I'm gonna fill it, I'm gonna fill it.
And then , maybe you didn't fill it with the right things. Yeah. Yes. I've totally done that. Yeah, I've totally done that. Yeah. Or yeah, like you really like somebody. Yeah. Right. You have a great meeting with a couple and maybe. , You compromise on one of your terms for them just a little bit.
, But we know that [00:16:00] thing, you just, give a little, and then before you know, you turn around, it's a fucking mile. Right? Yeah. And it's, and you, it's 'cause you like them or whatever. You, 'cause you like them and then you keep giving it to them and then it falls apart. Or you discounted them mm-hmm.
To make it work. And then they keep asking for things and then the awesome couple turns into being an asshole couple and , well you bred it. Yeah, you did. And those of course, again, are hard lessons. And it's funny, I feel like we learn lessons and then yeah, sometimes you end up repeating it and it's like, okay, you some lessons.
I only needed to learn once. I don't know why. Yeah. Other lessons I needed to learn. Like eight times. Eight times. Like, what the fuck? So you think it's a one off? Yeah. And then eight later you're like. Maybe it's not a winner. That's so funny though. I wonder why that is. Some lessons you learn like that and other ones like, no, no.
I have to get hit in the head like eight times by this. For me to actually make a change, we should get some sort of expert on to explain that to us. We like a psychologist on that. Like why does some stuff you instantly are like, Nope, never again. Nope, never. I'm good. And then other ones you're like, maybe, maybe [00:17:00] it is a therapy session.
Maybe now we know. Now we know. Yeah. And so another measure of success, we kind of touched on this before, , is if you met your goals. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But that also begs the question, did you set goals? Sure. Going in? Sure. So if you did not set goals first, then this doesn't apply. You can skip ahead for five minutes, you can skip ahead, but hopefully you did.
Yeah, and we could talk more about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you set your goals, now that it's over, did you meet them? Sure. Were they achievable? Right. Yeah. I definitely in my time, set some goals that were like, man, I was smoking something when I said that.
Like, what was I thinking? Like that was not attainable. Yeah. Like maybe I thought my numbers were gonna be way higher or something. Right. And then they weren't realistic. Yeah. Yeah. We all like saying you're gonna have a weekend off. [00:18:00] Right. And not giving yourself any backup for when somebody gets sick.
Yeah, totally. Or that, you know, you were gonna book some super ginormous corporate event, but then, , you, , slacked on all your marketing efforts 90 days leading up to that 'cause you got busy. Mm-hmm. And then all of a sudden you didn't get any more corporate leads. Yeah. Or that you are going to get all these amazing reviews.
Yeah. . But you took so many events that you weren't able to give time to your clients to actually burn them. Yeah. Or do good follow up, , and encourage them to go give you reviews to do that. Yeah. Yeah. To have that back wrap up of your event. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I've had that problem as well too.
That's your day off, , or you're just exhausted. You're like, do I really wanna boot up my computer and send a couple emails? Yeah. But in hindsight, could that have been queued up and organized ahead of time so you didn't have to actually do it, do it properly, and also when you're then tired and you need to focus on your next thing and mm-hmm [00:19:00] you run out of time and energy because it totally zonked you.
, I think just in general, there's so much reflection that should be done, and it's hard 'cause I feel like , we're not really great at creating space for that. Mm-hmm. So, you grind out during events and then you neglect relationships and then , we all go right into relationship management in the fourth quarter and then we go right into selling and then we go right into season.
So it's like, I hope that people are taking time. To reflect on their season with their teams or even just by themselves. If that's all, if that's all you have, right. It's just like, yeah. And really comparing it to where you started and where you are now and if it's where you wanted to be and what you should change and what you should keep.
'cause I'm sure there's things that went really good, right? And like, good for you. Yeah. , If , if you're satisfied with your season, then , great, because maybe you did make money. Mm-hmm. And you did get good reviews and you did have some time and you didn't feel like you were working your ass off and you felt like you were well received,. So what inspired me to have this conversation today? Because [00:20:00] here it is, it's over, right? Mm-hmm. The season's wrapping up. And how we ask everyone, it's the small talk thing. Well, how was it? I'm like, it was so good. And of course, social media is there to prove us, right? Mm-hmm.
But to your point, like are you really just taking a moment to reflect? But I think in having that moment to reflect what you have to be doing is. Deciding what that success looks like to you. You have to define it. Yeah. There you have to. Because what's successful for me is totally different than what's successful to you.
A hundred percent. And it depends on the season. It's not the same every year. And it should change every year. 'cause your life changes year after year. So , your goal should change, your business should change with you. Mm-hmm. If you are doing the exact same way that you did when you started your business eight years ago, I bet you're probably not having a good time.
Because it's probably not supporting whatever you wanna do in your life currently. Yeah. I don't see how those things can match up if you're not, to your point, changing that every year. Yeah. Yes. I [00:21:00] agree. That also makes me think about another. Way to measure success, which is trickier, I think. Um, but it's Did you take risks? Yeah. Right. Because like that's how you evolve to your point. Yep. And are you thinking about taking risks?
Mm-hmm. , If you do, how did it go? And so is that a measure of success too? Maybe you took the risk. And , it failed. Mm-hmm. But you took it. Sure. So is the fact that you took the risk, the success, yes. Always. I think I would say yes. You lose every shot you never take, right?
Yeah. So if you wanted to try a new division. If you brought out some new offer and it booked a handful. It's a handful more than you had last year, taking a risk is , raising your prices a hundred percent.
A risk is. Deciding to take less a risk is, uh, bringing on staff and training them , and having the faith and the confidence that they're gonna uphold your name and learning and do a good job delegate and learning to [00:22:00] delegate. For those of you who are just starting to enter that world of leadership and management, that's a huge risk.
You could just hang out and take jobs just for yourself forever. Mm-hmm. And you could, but growth is a risk. But it can be fun. Did you say no to clients? Did you turn them down? That's a risk, yes. Did you get , this person is a nut bar, you could tell from and take 'em anyway.
That's a risk. That's a risk. Or they sent you that email, have like 22 questions and then at the end of it they're like, can I talk to one of your previous brides or can I show up at one of the weddings that you're planning and check it out? Did you tell that person to get to step in?
'cause you saw those red flags.
I think, that if you're a little uncomfortable, pretty much all the time, you're doing it right? Mm. I like that. That's it. I forget who said that, but I remember that.
The only failure is if you don't take any action, whether you improve something or you learn from something, that literally is the only way that you should ever deem yourself as you've failed or [00:23:00] fucked up. Yeah, , I agree. That should be the true measure of success.
Did you improve? Did you learn? Yes. Yes. Then you did great. That should I agree with you that if we're gonna define it here today, that should be the true measure of success. However, I think most people are measuring their success with a combination of , how much money they made. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I think that's important too, because we are in business, so you do need to be making a profit and.
The bullshit kind of things. I don't wanna say bullshit because there's some importance to it for some people, but how did it look on Instagram? Sure. But that just feels so shallow. You're like, so it's my money and it's my fit Check.
Yeah. That, that's it. A combination, I think of all those things [00:24:00] Yeah. Is ideal. Yeah. Anthony Lobato from Footers Catering.
During COVID, he sent out a newsletter that said you should not walk but run towards the life that you want to create, the life that you want. Mm-hmm. Whether that's, , in your business, changing the industry, , having a family, whatever those things are, and then do the things that support that.
Mm-hmm. So I think the measure of success a hundred percent should be deemed on where you want your life to go. Are you supporting that? So if you really care about what people think about you on Instagram, then fuck yeah. Post every day and put a lot of energy into that. If that's what makes you happy in your state of being, by all means, totally knock yourself out.
That doesn't mean that we have to necessarily agree with it, but I think we could understand why that would be important to you. Okay. No hugs from dad. Sorry, that got too deep. Oh. Oh, I don't think so. Sorry [00:25:00] ladies. Um, sorry. And maybe gentlemen, , and then to the people that want to, , build businesses that are bigger, they wanna create something, , then do what you should to support that.
Yeah. Take the steps to support that, and if you are taking those steps to support that in a season, then you should measure that as a success and know that, yeah, you probably fucked up at least somewhat I think the important thing with all this is that you stop to think about it.
Mm-hmm. At the end of the season, just take that moment to reflect. However you choose to measure your success doesn't matter. Mm-hmm. Totally. But stop to think about it. Yeah. That's, that's the takeaway. Agree all day. So I think it would be super cool if you guys told us like what your measures of success were. Yeah. Would love to know.
Would love to know. Was your measure of success being able to go to your kids' [00:26:00] birthday party that happens to be on a Saturday in September? Mm-hmm. Or was that your measure of success? Mm-hmm. I saw a bunch of people doing that. I thought that was so awesome. Yeah.
Were you able to plan a party for your parents? Did you grow your team? Did you start your season with the same people that you ended it with? Oh yeah. Did they survive? You're all here.
Let's all go get drunk now. Or are you all alone? Or are you all alone? I'm broke. I'm broke. But again, then the only failure is if you choose to stay there. Yeah. If you choose to do nothing.
So yeah, let us know. . . This has been a fun one. This was episode five. Episode five. Thanks for listening. Like, subscribe, follow, do all those things. Okay. Thanks for listening everybody. Thanks for listening. Bye. Bye.