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Building a Team with Loni Anderson
45 Plays4 months ago
I had a great conversation with Loni Peterson all about building a team. Learn more about Loni and all the places you can connect with her below.
Bio:
Loni Peterson is the founder and owner of LP Creative Events, she has lived in Colorado for 12 years with her husband, their dogs, Dax and Penny, and horse, Dusty. She has been a planner and logistics wizard for as long as she can remember!
Loni has a wide range of experience in planning weddings, engagement parties, galas, golf tournaments, luncheons, grand openings, large-scale experiential marketing events, and 5Ks and endurance events! She is a Certified Wedding Industry Professional and is serving on the National Board of Directors for WIPA as their Secretary for 2024.
Loni is a Full-Time Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, teaching in the Advertising, PR, and Design Departments. In addition to planning events, she has been a keynote speaker and panelist for industry events and organizations like PartySlate, the Wedding Industry Professionals Association, the Boulder Wedding Showcase, and the International Wedding Summit in Rome, Italy.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Host
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you a wedding planner just starting your business or have you been in the industry for just a few years? Do you want to build a profitable and enjoyable planning business that you're excited about every day? If the answer is yes, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the business of wedding planning podcast.
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm your host, Amber Peterson. I was a wedding planner for 10 years, a marketing strategist for service-based businesses, and now the owner of Planner's Lounge. I know what it's like to work so hard as a planner but not see the growth and profit you dream of. I also know that while you can be the most talented planner in your market, if you don't have the business foundation, it will be hard to continue growing.
Support Through Planner's Lounge
00:00:45
Speaker
I have seen so many talented planners burn out because they become frustrated with things unrelated to wedding planning, like finances, marketing, team growth, and operations. This is where the Business of Wedding Planning podcast and Planners Lounge come in. Our mission is to help you learn what it takes to build the business of your dreams with simple digital product solutions, educational content, and the support of our free community, the Very Important Planners Lounge, or VIP Lounge for short.
00:01:15
Speaker
I understand what it's like to work in this unique industry while having a lot on your plate. During my time as a planner, I had three daughters, bought and moved to two new homes, and launched two other businesses. I am excited to combine my education, industry experience, and passion to help you reach your business goals.
00:01:37
Speaker
Welcome to the Business of Wedding Planning podcast, friends. Today, we have a special guest that is going to be discussing building a team with
Meet Lonnie Peterson
00:01:46
Speaker
me. A little bit about today's guest, Lonnie Peterson is the founder and owner of LP Creative Events. She has lived in Colorado for 12 years with her husband, their dogs, Dax and Penny, and horse, Dusty. She's been a planner and logistics wizard for as long as she can remember.
00:02:04
Speaker
Lonnie has a wide range of experience in planning weddings, engagement parties, galas, golf tournaments, luncheons, grand openings, large-scale experiential marketing events, and 5Ks endurance events. She is a certified wedding industry professional and is serving on the National Board of Directors for WIPA as their secretary for 2024.
00:02:24
Speaker
Lonnie is a full-time professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, teaching in the Advertising, PR, and Design departments. In addition to planning events, she has been a keynote speaker and panelist for industry events and organizations like Party Slate, the Wedding Industry Professionals Association, the Boulder Wedding Showcase, and the International Wedding Summit in Rome, Italy.
00:02:45
Speaker
I hope you enjoy our discussion. Let's dive right in. Welcome to the Business of Wedding Planning podcast. Lonnie, I'm so excited to have you here to talk about team building. I know that that is sort of a sticking point for a lot of planners who are in that kind of tricky phase where you have enough business that you need people, but you aren't to the point that you actually are feeling confident enough to hire. So I'm really excited to have this conversation with you today.
00:03:10
Speaker
Great. Glad to be here. Thank you so much. First, before we get into the team questions, can you share with us a little bit your journey into and through the wedding industry? Because I know not everybody follows the straight line.
00:03:24
Speaker
Oh yeah, don't we know careers are always a wiggly path and you kind of don't know where it's gonna take you but if you are able to be observant with each role you take and realize what you like and what you didn't like about those roles you'll end up where you're supposed to be. I grew up as a professional dancer and I started running a competition dance team and And I had to do the planning, the budgeting, the rehearsals, the costumes, the parent management, the whole nine. And so I started developing those skills that you really need as an event planner, better communication, good organization, tracking budgets, all those things. When I came into meeting and looking for a nine to five type job, because we we can't teach dance all day, which would be fabulous, but
00:04:04
Speaker
I started working at a nonprofit and they were raising money to put arts education in the classroom, so teaching K-12 curriculum through an arts lens. Anyway, I was the entire development department. I did the event planning. I did the corporate management, individual giving, all of it. So if it could raise money, I was helping do those things. And through that job, I found that the event planning portion was right up my alley and I was looking forward to planning those events. And when they came around, I was excited. So I just started looking for more jobs that were event planning specific. And then, you know, nonprofit is wonderful. The jobs that we do for the people that we serve are so good and fantastic and so beneficial. But sometimes as an employee on the nonprofit side, your soul gets
00:04:47
Speaker
sucked out of you a little bit. So I ah decided to take a step back from nonprofit. And I was like, I have a good handle on this event planning thing. I'm just going to launch and see how it goes. And my husband and I, we chatted and we're like, OK, we've got six months. You dedicate to building your business. And if it looks like it's going to take off, then go for it. And if we need to you know go back to the drawing board and get another type of job, then we'll do that.
00:05:11
Speaker
I thought about weddings because of the sheer volume of people getting married. I was like, the quantity is there. Like people or somebody is going to say yes. So that's kind of what took off the wedding stay. And then I realized like this is the like happy medium of all of my experiences in one event is a way. I've got the logistics and the planning and the the communication and all the organization. But then You know, it's just this like a beautiful, special day for somebody and you get emotionally attached and you get drawn into your clients and you build these relationships. And so it was the perfect, you know, fall into category of events to start the business. And since then I've, you know, been gradually adding some more nonprofits. I've been doing some consultation work, working for for-profits and corporate people, doing conferences. So it's been nice to kind of bring all those roles back together ah here recently, especially.
00:05:59
Speaker
That's very interesting. And when you started out, i my daughter just joined a competition team for dance. And so I am one of the parents being managed right now. Yes. And I can see how that would lend itself to getting you into that like career path of events and just all that because it seems like a big job.
00:06:17
Speaker
It is. And you know, it's your child. So you're emotionally invested in their time and their energy and what you're spending your money on. It's the same emotional attachment to a wedding. And so being able to have conversations with the parents or who are providing any service to kind of maybe talk them off the ledge and, you know, walk them through the the process and why we do things. i was It was good practice for sure.
00:06:37
Speaker
Well, I love that. Thank you for sharing that with us. You're here today to talk about
Building a Team in Wedding Planning
00:06:42
Speaker
building a team. What I'm assuming is that you got into wedding planning, you were scaling, and you had to add teammates. And like I said at the top, I think that is a bottleneck for a lot of planners who, because it's scary to hand off a part of your business and entrust someone. And I know that I've talked to planners that there seems to be a ah fear of, I'm going to hire someone, they're going to learn everything and then go be a competitor. And so, yeah, that's why I'm excited to kind of chat about this. My first question is, how did you even come to the point where you're like, I need to build a team and what did that look like? Just kind of broad overview of of how that process went for you.
00:07:22
Speaker
Yeah, so early on, I definitely leaned on my nonprofit community. You run into a lot of the same vendors, you work with the same keyering companies, design firms, things like that. So I initially reached out to my nonprofit community of vendors that I enjoyed working with in those large scale events saying,
00:07:39
Speaker
Hey, Jessica, do you have Saturday available to like help me out because I knew their work ethic that they knew about events and I could drop them in the deep end and they would survive, you know, it'd be a couple of hours of time. And so that turned into some yeses. And I was like, OK, cool. And then, you know, teaching has really brought in that younger group, people who are excited about hospitality and excited about you know, getting an internship and learning the ropes of events. So that's been the latest thing of the pool of opportunities through teaching, which we can definitely dive into in a little bit. And, you know, I also find that the people who sought me out and set my company an email saying, hey, I'm interested in events. Can you tell me more? Can we meet for coffee? I felt those
00:08:20
Speaker
Outreaches were from people who are actually dedicated to hospitality and interested because they've done their research. They read my website. They've looked at Instagram and they felt connected to the company and the clients that we have and the events that we do. So I really valued people who took that initiative to do the email outreach and ask for coffee and say, hey, can I just get to know you better? And can I can you ask me some questions? I'm new in the industry. So those are kind of the initial jump points to getting a team started.
00:08:49
Speaker
OK, yeah, very interesting. One of the things that I found, at least in our area, and I'm in Western Washington, a lot of planners, I know they actually reach out to teachers during the summer because that summer is our big time here because teachers are so great at like managing a classroom and all of that. And it's like they're able to manage a crowd. Yeah.
00:09:07
Speaker
That's a perfect fit. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that a lot of planners, too, it's like it's not immediately like I need a team member. I have to hire full time. It's it can be baby steps, which is nice. When you're looking for a new potential team member, what are the traits that you're really like? This is what I need to see to feel comfortable.
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah, so I think event planning and event management is newer to the ah let's get a degree in it, let's get certified in event management. I think event planning is becoming that, but I think your personality and your creative problem solving skills, how you interact with people, those things matter more to me than a piece of paper that you got from a college. And I say that as a professor because In events, like you don't learn what it is really like until you're on the ground dealing with people, managing vendors, cleaning up garbage. You know like you don't really understand what events is until you're doing it. so The personality traits is what I look for more. and just met As I mentioned, like the go-getterness of like, hey, I knew I'm interested, can we have a meeting? like Just the forward motion and people being proactive and reaching out. Those are definitely the top five. You're outgoing, you're a good problem solver, you're eager to learn, you're not
00:10:18
Speaker
Gonna you know be upset that you're out past 8 p.m. Or that your weekends are gonna get gobbled up So those are many things that I look for because a lot of the stuff and events the logistics the planning You learn by doing and you learn on the go so I can teach you to do anything But if you're not a good problem solver and a good communicator is someone that's really ready to just jump in and give it a hundred and ten percent and I can't teach that. Yeah, absolutely. I think there is definitely a perception of what wedding planning is and what it's like to work at a wedding. And then there's the reality. I had a couple of assistants that they were great on paper. I thought this is going to be great. And then in the actual moment, it's like, oh, this is not very glamorous. I'm like, no, this is not a... I mean, you have to be willing to do anything that needs to get done.
00:11:03
Speaker
Yes, and the amount of time that I've been told, oh, you just didn't show up in your cocktail dress. I'm like, no, I've been here since 6 a.m. I stink. Like, I don't understand. Yeah, I'm on my fourth pair of shoes to get my feet from, like, really hurting. So, yeah, I think that it is very helpful to have that just go getterness and willing to get the job done.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah. And I often, I always say this to all of my staff, like I'm not going to ask them to do anything that I haven't done before. I'm not willing to do with them. So if you're on trash duty, I'm probably going to finish up what I'm doing. I'm going to be right behind you on trash duty. And the buddy system is huge. We learned from watching and doing. And like, I think the best thing a leader can do, especially in the events rolled is like show by example and also be there to do the not so glamorous things sometimes.
00:11:47
Speaker
Absolutely. So you mentioned that you're also a professor. How has Teaching College helped you when it comes to building your team? It gives me a wonderful opportunity to connect with juniors and seniors that already have an interest in hospitality, event planning. um I teach in the Communication College and a lot of that is advertising and PR, experiential events. And so they're already kind of in this like people focused world. And so some of them have an interest in the event planning side of things. So they come to me and they're like, Hey, is there something I can shadow? And I'm like in the summers for sure. And once you graduate, we can absolutely like talk about it. So it's nice to kind of get people interested that already have kind of an affinity for the industry. So we've kind of knocked that off the list. Like they know what they're getting into. If you're going to get into advertising and PR, like
00:12:36
Speaker
you're ready to hustle and you're ready to work hard and work weird hours and, you know, have hard conversations with people. So that's been so nice and a really wonderful team of freelancers and coming from them being my student to then coming on site that we've already built this level of respect from student teacher point of view. And so then when they come on site, they're really receptive and they're like, okay, yes. And they ask questions that we kind of build that teacher-student relationship even more offsite in these real life experiences. And then,
00:13:03
Speaker
I get to kind of let my proverbial hair down a little bit and show a little bit more personality because um we you go through these intense situations at events, like you you build a little bit more of a rapport with your staff and being on site and going through the late nights and the long hours. Well, that's very cool. It must be amazing to have sort of like a bit of a pipeline of kind of, okay, I like you in Natasha. I'm like, let's see how you do in my business. So very cool.
00:13:27
Speaker
What is something as you step into a leadership role of a team, what have you learned about being a leader or about yourself as a leader that you find interesting? So I think one thing I've noticed recently is that I, if I'm bringing you on as a team member, I want you to just watch and learn and be a fly on the wall. No matter how much experience you have in events and hospitality and hearing, I'm going to do it differently. And then you're going to do it. Then somebody else is going to do it. So just the efficiency of watching and learning and asking questions, you know, and then
00:13:59
Speaker
the initiative starts to come into like, I know what she would do. I can see this problem coming up. And then the initiative starts to slowly come into action for the newer staff. Being on site, watching and learning, doing it and kind of being there together, kind of mirroring one another, just having somebody follow you around and kind of learn the ropes, I think is huge.
00:14:17
Speaker
And, you know, they're gonna make mistakes and they're gonna think something was the correct answer, which may mean you would have done something slightly different. But having the capability to do that on site while you're managing all the other things is a skill that is always being developed because you're always being put in new and unique situations and kind of have to handle things with grace and positivity.
00:14:39
Speaker
and keep it a learning opportunity as well because they just were there in good heart and feeling of like, I'm going to try this and be good. I'm an employee, I'm doing a good job, but it's always a learning curve. and I tell this to my students on the first day when I teach my event planning and management class, it's like, I still learn something from every event that I do. I either add something to my emergency kit, I add something to the timeline, or I add a question that needs to be asked earlier on. so It's never done. The learning is never done with this job.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I feel like every event, it's like, okay, there's something I want to add to my contract that I will do or won't do. or Yeah, you're always figuring out new things. You mentioned what happens when a teammate makes a mistake. Let's say it's they they've been with you for a while and they make a mistake that shouldn't have happened. How do you deal with that? Because I know that's that's something that I think people get nervous about when they have people that they're leading. is Then I have to deal with them when I have to. It's a hard conversation. How do you go about that?
00:15:38
Speaker
Yeah, so I think it depends if the mistake was handled via email or if it was an in person on site thing and you have to kind of gauge where the misstep happened and then, you know, put it on a green yellow red scale of like the severity of the mistake. Right. So sometimes you have to stop immediately what you're doing and handle it because it's a red.
00:15:55
Speaker
mistake or an overstep. But sometimes it's like a yellow or I'll jot it down for our weekly connects and say, hey, how'd you think this went at the event? Let's figure out you know your thought process and then I can share mine. And then you can kind of talk about it and come to a solution for next time or a better way of doing something.
00:16:12
Speaker
um And I think the most important thing to take away with mistakes is either going to happen and they should happen because your your employees are going to learn so much more from making mistakes in there from just being successful all the time. And I think the immediacy in which you're able to address the mistake. So again, if it's a red level 10 on site made a booboo, like we have to stop everything and handle it then.
00:16:33
Speaker
But if it is something that needs to be addressed, like don't wait two weeks to talk about it, right? Try to set up a call or go out to coffee, be somewhere casual and comfortable and have that conversation. And I find asking the question first of like, how did you think this went? and What did you think went wrong in the situation? And hearing their side of the story first is important because you might not have the whole picture and they don't have the whole picture. So when you get together, you're able to maybe put that whole picture together and figure out, you know, what should have been done and what can be done in the future. So immediacy on addressing the issue, I think, is imperative because things can fester, emotions can get heightened, you can start having resentment and then you're just back into the trenches the next weekend, you know, and that's a stressful situation. So things start to pile. So I think, you know, being able to find time and take time to address issues sooner than later is always going to be a better outcome.
00:17:24
Speaker
I like that. I'm someone that used to be before I had a business where I had a team. It was I avoid, a avoid, avoid. I did not like hard conversations, but you're 100 percent right. Like with when things aren't addressed, it tends to get worse in people's heads, even if it's not reality. And then you just have a bigger thing to deal with. So I love that. Those were sort of all of my questions. But I do want to talk about do you have anything that you're doing in your business that you would love to share with us? Anything you're working on projects? We would love to hear it.
00:17:55
Speaker
Yeah, one thing I took on this year is I'm a national board member of the WIPA wedding
Lonnie's Role in WIPA
00:18:00
Speaker
association group. And that's been such a wonderful experience to meet people from all over the United States. And I just got back from visiting the Nashville chapter. So it's been really fun to go across the country. I get to go to two chapters, meet new people, see how different chapters run their events and really connect ah with folks outside of my little Colorado bubble. um So it's been so fun with, again, meeting people, networking, and just seeing how different parts of the United States function and have events and what kind of people are in those areas. It's been ah really eye-opening and I've been given and provided so many wonderful opportunities that I wouldn't have if I didn't take the leap and apply for like an association board type role. And, you know, traveling a lot. I think Colorado's beautiful. and We have a ton of folks that come in and call Colorado their destination wedding, but people from Colorado also like to go out to other places. And so that's been a really fun add to the portfolio is being able to
00:18:53
Speaker
go to different states and execute weddings and destination locations and just kind of add a little bit of a variety to the the calendar year. Very cool. And then ah you had mentioned when we were communicating, do you have a workbook coming? is that I sound also that with post COVID and moving into whatever the economy is trying to do right now, just trying to be proactive and see where I can meet clients where they're at. So a wedding is a luxury regardless of your budget. It's a luxury. You can go to the JP, sign a piece of paper for a hundred bucks and call it good.
00:19:25
Speaker
even if your budget's 20K or 200,000, it's a luxury. So wanting to find places where I can meet clients who are interested in working with us but may not be the right budget fit. So I wanted to create a planning workbook that helps different people walk through the order of operation of what vendors are important and what order you should.
00:19:46
Speaker
book them in, what kind of price ranges could be for those vendors. um One thing I did like to add was vendor questions when you're interviewing people to be hired. What should you ask your photographer? What should you ask your florist? Those kinds of things, because that's what we would be on the call for to kind of go in and get those nitty gritty answers. And then a budget templates. They can fill in their budget and do their actuals and their projected. Same with seating assignments. So giving templates and suggestions. There's room for mood board.
00:20:14
Speaker
space and then there's a couple pages at the end for journaling and writing notes. So it's a great download off the website and hopefully it's a good tool for folks that would still like to work with our company and get tips and tricks that maybe we aren't quite the right budget fit and that's okay. I love that. I feel like there's so many, like you said at the beginning, there's so many weddings and even if you don't have the budget to have a planner, which is definitely a luxury,
00:20:40
Speaker
There's so much knowledge that is helpful. And so if you can get that in some form, it's just going to make the planning process smoother. So I love that you're doing that.
Connect with Lonnie Online
00:20:48
Speaker
Yeah. Can you share where can our listeners find you online to connect with you? Yes. ah So I'm addicted to TikTok. but So I'm always on. It's just at LP creative events for TikTok and Same for Instagram, at LP Creative Events ah website, www.lpcreativeevents.com. And ah through email as well, happy to connect with anybody if you have any questions. um My website is going through a little bit of a spruce, so I'm excited to launch that here in a few weeks.
00:21:18
Speaker
Cool. And I do want to, this is a question we did not talk about, but you mentioned that you're involved in WIPA. If someone was interested in getting involved in that, how would they go about that? Wonderful. So they can absolutely just straight up email myself and I can connect them with their membership director. um You can also find the chapter closest to you. We have 22 chapters across the United States. So maybe not every state has one, but maybe there's a state that's close by that does have a chapter.
00:21:42
Speaker
You can reach out to their board and membership director as well and say that you're interested in maybe becoming a member. There are tons of events that happen every year that are non-member and member capable to attend. So you can attend an event, see what it's like, and if you like it, turn into a membership. um We've got a great webinar education portal once you become a member. So lots of great speakers, lots of great topics that will be at your fingertips. And just like I've Then to Nashville, you can come to any other WIPA chapter and say hey and and go see what other events are like. WIPA's main focus is education. We really pride ourselves on the association providing high quality education for upleveling your career and really making your business go to the next level. And at least in Colorado, we believe firmly in collaboration over competition. And I feel like in the WIPA chapters at large, that's the same idea. We're there to help one another and network with one another and connect each of the right folks
00:22:37
Speaker
So if you're looking to, you know, expand your network, get to know a different town, different city demographic with a might just write be right up your alley. And we are dropping a gosh, don't quote me on these dates, but I think mid August we're doing a membership drive. So you get a little bit of a deal on membership if you join during our membership drives, which we hold quarterly.
00:22:56
Speaker
Very cool. I am such a big fan of any kind of group, networking group. I think that that is for me and for most wedding planners, I know that is how their businesses really grew was the connections they made. It's not the social media posts. It's not your blog. Those things are important, but it's the connections you make with other people. So I am all for people finding a group to join.
00:23:18
Speaker
And it's just such a joy to go to an event that I didn't have to plan. Like, I don't know what to do with myself. I'm like, can I take your glass? I'm going to put this in the trash for you. Like, sit on your hands. Don't do anything. Just have a nice time. Most of the sponsors are you know local vendors, and so they're there to show you their newest and best and brightest. So it's kind of fun to kind of check out what ah new offerings people are having ah to be available so then you know what you can offer your clients. And again, that collaboration over competition, it's like, oh, you definitely need to meet this person or they were just there. You should talk to them about that. so it's ah It's more of a party atmosphere and like a good communication atmosphere and less like shelling out business cars and just kind of doing the traditional networking thing. The relationships you build through WIPA events um are super genuine and um they've just, they've lasted for me for a long time. And I can see that across the nation too that people are having a good time hanging out and get to to meet everyone um in the chapters. Amazing. All right. Well, I'm going to link to the WIPA site in the show notes here as well. So you'll can check that out.
00:24:17
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining me. I really love talking about building a team and I think it's such an important step in having a ah planning business that lasts so you don't burn out, you can grow, you can be more profitable. So I really appreciate your time joining me on the podcast. And yeah, as I'll link to everything we talked about in the show notes. So if you're listening, you can find that all there and Yeah, thank you so much, Lonnie. Thanks for having me. It was a pleasure and I look forward to connecting with everyone. Feel free to reach out. Thank you.