Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christine Floersch. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Christine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?
Learn to Pivot. I was starting Executive Accomplice, which pre-covid, encompassed both private concierge services and premier concierge-style event planning. I decided I wanted to stop making other people money with my ideas and persuaded my backbone and shaking knees in my boots to take the leap in starting my own business.
I made the leap and it was going so well that I was able to go 100-percent self-employed for the last several years before the pandemic. It was going so well that my 2020 business projections were looking to be through the roof with new clients, contracts and large scale events lined up.
Then Covid hit and the stay-at-home orders started rolling out, limiting both gatherings and personal contact. I received word that the hotels I had lined up could no longer accommodate the 1,570 international and national guests I had coming in for a client who had hired me to plan their annual company conference. And a wedding I’d been planning for months with an out-of-state couple who were going to throw a big party in Minneapolis for all their friends and family was downsized to a Zoom ceremony.
So when I was asked by FoodService News in November of 2022, what the path back would be in 2021? My answer was, “I don’t see a path back. How can we go back?”
But my answer isn’t pessimistic. Here is my quote and the rest of the excerpt taken taken from that interview: Full interview in on my website www.ExecutiveAccomplice.com under “Meet Your Accomplice” tab. And scroll down to “Media Mentions”.
https://www.foodservicenews.net/article-archive/pandemic-forces-event-planner-to-capitalize-on-her- skillset/article_424d351c-4fce-11eb-88f4-57d41f393c9e.html
Pandemic Forces Event Planner To Capitalize on Her Skillset Jan 5, 2021
“To understand what ‘getting back to before’ actually means, would mean that we essentially throw away all that we have learned, experienced, developed, overcome, fought through, lost, conquered, surrendered and mourned over the last nine months,”
“I chose to dissect my expertise in event planning and chop up those skill sets,” she continued. “I maneuvered into consulting for other entrepreneurial startups by utilizing my self-taught experience in building my own brands and consulting on execution logistics for anything from a post-Covid come-back to launching new ideas in a post-Covid world. Networking has always been my strength, but now I was doing it 10-fold.”
She also started a podcast called “Executive Accomplice: Life Edition” to tell the stories of everyday people doing extraordinary things. “It became a beacon of inspiration for me to witness that we are all very much hurting, scared and mad, each in our own ways, and I witnessed the gritty resolve of a community devoted to sticking together and seeing this through with the foundations still intact for each and every one of us if we wanted to be a part of the solution too.” (Her podcast can be found on RadioPublic, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Breaker.)
In addition, Floersch started designing a children’s/preteen line of clothing and accessories called “What’s Your Super-Power?!” And is in the process of developing and launching a line of “hearty, raw material, handcrafted, old-school throwback-style culinary tools for everyday use in everyday homes as an homage to my grandfathers who were hunters and farmers and were part of the generation that were the rst true pioneers of ‘Farm to Table’ way before that was hip.”
She’s also continuing her role on the board of Serving Those Serving, a 501c3 that offers an employee assistance program for counseling and therapy. “You really want the secret to nding your path back? You have to be able to handle the hard truths and face reality and surrender to all that you have no control over,” Floersch said.
Her advice: “To follow the path back, just look for the bread crumbs you left yourself your whole life, never knowing that you were going to lose your way through no fault of your own. Mourn, grieve, get mentally strong, get your gusto back and your re back….and then pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back out there creating the life you deserve to live in.”
The podcast and the clothing line both were put on hold since that interview happened because I expanded my business consulting side after realizing that I was getting daily inquiries on how I started my own business from scratch with very little capital and developed it without any idea to how to even begin when I first started.
I had to self teach my self every process, Writing proper business plans, every legality, every accounting and licensing, insurance, registering with the state, setting up business accounts from vendors to payroll to developing contracts and agreements catered to my particular business.
People may not intuitively think it…but there is a REMARKABLY similar construction as to what makes for an excellent business consultant and as to what makes for a brilliant event planner. So Executive Accomplice is now both.
Now I was getting consulting fees in helping other entrepreneurs develop their business plans and ideas and helping them execute their ideas. So, the Executive Accomplice Business Consulting side of the company was born and developed beautifully while the event planning and hospitality industry was just brutally suffering in Minnesota.
And then the riots happened that burned down a remarkable amount of Minneapolis establishments and then subsequently the city alarmingly chose to vote to defund the police in Minneapolis.
My Minneapolis business was decimated by the covid lockdowns and forced hospitality industry continued closures by the governor, to the city being burned down during the 3 weeks+ of riots…..and any business in hospitality especially who survived all that, suddenly couldn’t make it one minute more because they had gone a year or more at that point not making a single penny and PPP loans were being shelled out to big box business who were exploiting loopholes in the legislation to qualify as a “small business”.
The lottery system meant you could qualify for all these loans and grants, but if your number isn’t picked, the funds ran out and you got nothing to survive, so MANY business were lost “post” covid lockdowns and riots. The ones that did stay, especially in Minneapolis ended up losing their business too after the violence in Minneapolis went up 400% almost overnight because, remember, now we ALSO no longer had an active police force patrolling the streets.
My event planning business as I knew it was not likely going to come back for a very long time. And if and when it did, it was forever going to look totally different and I knew it.
I still am a event planner but long gone are a lot of large ticket conferences and big spenders, especially when no one feels safe in Minneapolis after dark.
I’ve regained momentum in bringing that business to safe suburbs and also opening my event planning services to focus more on smaller events, weddings, birthday parties, retirement, graduation, garden parties – You name it! Now I do everything! But my pivot to business consulting has grown so much, If it hasn’t yet, it will take over leading the growth projections of both businesses by Q2-Q3 2024. Certainly by Q1 2025. www.ExecutiveAccomplice.com
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Christine Floersch is the Founder and CEO of Executive Accomplice, the ace in your back pocket, with over 25 years of hospitality, executive, and personal lifestyle management experience. From business strategy to logistics and execution she has done it all inside the hospitality and event planning industries.
Through her extensive network, we deliver polished events and exceptional services. Including unique brainstorming and execution strategies for event and business experiences to meet every budget.
Our goal is to always exceed your expectations by providing you with more creative freedom, market leverage, or simply the gift of enjoying more of your valuable free time.
And the best part is – No one has to know the secret behind your success.
The Executive Accomplice mission is to help you implement and develop polished events and business ideas that inspire joy.
We know anything you imagine is possible, and are open to working with any size budget. We are agile, capable of adjusting for unexpected and last-minute changes. As your back pocket, we bring the tenacity and boots on the ground, can-do attitude, that is needed to blossom seedling ideas into reality.
Our detailed website will answer all the details and answer most of the questions of what we offer and can solve is www.ExecutiveAccomplice.com – There is a Contact Us form on there if there is something you want more information about or have further questions on and need to contact me!
Christine also serves on the Advisory Board for The Women in Leadership Program at Minnesota State – Mankato. As well as on the Board of Directors for her HOA.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
You can take any snippet you want from my first story and apply what suits the publication needs/goals here. ******
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Reputation. Word of Mouth. I hardly do any advertising, I am almost 80% retained by past clients and the rest are largely a majority of recommendations and referrals by that potential new client’s friends, family or business colleagues who pointed them in my direction.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ExecutiveAccomplice.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/executiveaccomplice/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExecutiveAccomplice/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-floersch-22638616/
Image Credits
Myself