Episode 15 - Systems, Team Building and Leadership with Lauren Smith

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE:

In this episode, meet Lauren Smith: a passionate event planner, connection-creating expert, and lover of all thing’s events + travel.  Lauren helps busy entrepreneurs create in-person connections with their online community so they can strengthen their relationships, provide incredible value and turn their community into raving fans.

With over 10 years of event planning experience working with Canada’s largest financial institutions, Lauren brings countless unique and innovative ideas, and an impressive tool-box of skills to the table for her clients, spanning from an unmatched ability to pivot on the spot to killer negotiation skills and the creative ability to think outside the box while easily landing her (and her clients!) dream event partners and sponsorships.

In this episode, Lauren shares about her journey of what this past year looked like as an event planner. Danielle & Lauren also dive into topics around team building, systems and leadership!

You are going to really enjoy this conversation!

Key Takeaways:

  • About Lauren

    • Owns and run an event, PR, and travel agency

    • Events: curate experiences for people to bring together their dream ideas

    • PR: partnerships, brand deals, sponsorships, etc

    • Travel: started this during covid, but hoping it will be all set up when travel is allowed again

  • What were your first thoughts when Covid hit?

    • When everything was shutting down and clients were asking questions, it was the first time she didn’t actually know what to do

    • But since then she’s always thought that this is a very temporary situation

    • Going virtual has allowed access to a wider audience

    • Covid has pushed her to do different things and not get comfortable in what she had been doing for so long before

  • Getting into entrepreneurship

    • She was in the corporate world for a while and loved the people but didn’t love the role or the industry

    • She quit her job when she realized she wasn’t content, but with no backup plan or savings

    • For once in her life she believed in herself so much and knew if she didn’t do it now, she’d never do it

  •  How has your business changed / What lessons have you learned?

    • Adding PR to her business in light of covid

    • Launched coaching, brand deals, and virtual events

    • Burnout is real and learning that systems and time management are so important

    • She’s learned to trust herself in what she wants to do with her business and not listen to anyone else

    • She day-blocks her days: 

      • Monday’s, Wednesday’s, Friday’s she doesn’t touch client work

      • Tuesday’s are client work

      • Thursday’s are her call days.

    • Delegating tasks have been a game-changer to a team that is passionate about what they’re owning

    • Learning to involve your team in developing the best processes that make sense to everyone

  • Hiring a team

    • She hires for personality because you can teach skills

    • She’s not married to the idea of staff staying in the same roles

    • Being flexible to understand that every role will have elements that you don’t enjoy and finding people to bring on to fill those spaces

    • Have boundaries and recognize when things just are working

    • She wants her staff long term and wants to know how and where they want to grow

  • Challenges

  1. Saying no when it doesn’t feel right

    1. At first, you say yes to everything, even when it doesn’t make sense for your business

    2. She was wronged by lots of people in that first year of business

  2. Realizing not everyone has the same heart as you

    1. Try to not get jaded by other people

    2. She set some strict boundaries to protect herself from people taking advantage of her business-wise

  3. Will not take on events with less than 3 month prep time

  • Hustle Culture

    • You don’t need to hustle to be successful and everyone’s hustle will look different

    • Hustle leads to burnout

    • Burnout is in the nature of the event industry

      • after an event you crash and that’s okay

    • Hustle culture makes you feel like you should always be doing something and makes it hard to stay in your lane and be committed to your specific priorities

  • What makes you believe in yourself so much?

    • “If I’m not going to, then who the heck will?”

    • Trust in your ability and passions is so important in being an entrepreneur

  • Solo Entrepreneurship vs. Team Entrepreneurship

    • She loves having a team and being responsible for 5 other people

    • Solo entrepreneurs make more, but it’s what works for you and how you define success

Show Notes:

Danielle Wiebe