Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Danica Leporte. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Danica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

You know, I used to define success as something you achieved. If you were at the top of your class you had a successful high school run. As a high school grad, I bought the suit, went to for the business degree, and stived for the corporate job. Being successful was representative of the things you acquired, the knowledge you shared, and the places you’ve been. In order to be successful (as defined above) it also meant I had to be constantly learning, continuously growing, and always moving. Hitting the next level meant success. Until it didn’t.

As a newly married, corporate manager the anticipated next level was motherhood. Successful parenting to me meant sacrificing corporate success for the success of my children. So I went from 10 years working M-F 8-6 to full-stop motherhood. Success as a stay-at-home mom was inevitably the same; gain the knowledge, conquer the problems, and create children that met the standard. I created mom groups, built relationships for my kids, and attended all the educational classes. Success still meant leveling up. Until it didn’t.

Raising children re-defined success for me. Some days success looked like piles of laundry, dirty dishes from days ago, cluttered floors, and moments of laughter. Often success looked like a whole lot of mess and the joyful moments you found despite of it. The bible mentions JOY over 400 times and finding those moments in the mess has redefined success for me. Prov 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine. Psalm 30:5 Joy comes in the morning. Romans 12:22 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Success is being in the mess and finding reasons to still keep going, even enjoying the mess. Success is being able to take a break and go for a walk even though your checklist is not finished. Success is understanding that life happens in seasons and what is working well today may not be what is needed for tomorrow.

I own my own company now. The skills I acquired in Corporate America are still applicable. I continue to expand my industry knowledge, grow in business acumen, and adapt to the constantly changing trends. I could worry about the number of clients each weekend or the profit margin I’m retaining and measure those things as success. I could be constantly moving. Instead, I choose to see the business in seasons that regularly change. I choose to manage my time so that I can find minutes (or maybe days) of JOY. Whether that joy looks like taking a short vacation and reading a good book or building an event and organizing inventory. Success is still finding joy in the chaos, taking time to appreciate the seasons, and continuing to grow in personal and professional knowledge.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a glamping professional. Glamping is the act of unplugging and unwinding with the added luxury of fairy lights and decorations = glamorous camping. Under the Stars KC delivers slumber parties, luxury picnics, and glamping experiences in the Kansas City area. We strive to make your important occasion something to remember by transforming your space into a custom experience. Whether you’re a bride-to-be with a unique picnic for your bridal shower or a 7-year-old girl who wants to be a mermaid, we bring luxury items to help you celebrate. Our teepee rentals are designed to add the wow factor and create lasting memories for any celebration.

We offer several different glamping experiences. Choose to sleep out under the stars in our canvas bell tents, or cozy up in our dome that can be set up for a movie night. Our most popular rentals are 5 ft teepees with mattresses that can be set up in your basement or in front of your TV. Whether you’re a Chief’s fan or like to belt out the latest “Love Story” we have over 15 themes to choose from.
We custom-built our luxury picnic tables. They are 6-foot white-wood farm tables. We can diversify the height of the tables by adding legs for kids, adult picnics, or even chair height for regular seating. Each table can fit 6 adults or 8 kids, and the picnic style comes with comfy pillow seating. Each picnic also comes with a 7ft lace teepee that we stylize and match to the picnic décor. This creates beautiful backdrops for those photo ops and is a comfy spot to lounge.

We can service a family that wants to throw an amazing celebration or a corporate company that wants to offer something unique. One thing that makes us unique is we can service a client with 2 kids or a company with 80 employees. Just let us know how we can help you celebrate!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Showing up! As both a new Kansas City resident and business owner I had A LOT of ground to cover in my first year. The market was small for the glamping industry (i.e. very few competitors) and that worked to my advantage. I just started showing up at every event and networking group I could find to educate the market about our presence and the uniqueness of my business. I love attending a networking event full of realtors, corporate companies, and bankers and showing up with something they’ve never seen. I usually get the look “Huh? you do what?” As that first year progressed I was able to filter out the groups that fed into my target market and those that were just not the right fit. I went to coffee or lunch multiple times a week with business owners I wanted to get to know more. I offered support at events to show off our attention to detail when planning an event. As a luxury event rental business I had to show the community what I had to offer so I said yes to photo shoots in the wedding industry and even collaborated with vendors to create our own style. Those photos are what you’ll see on our website and marketing today. The relationships I created during my first year have continued to inform the market and build our reputation as a company that shows up.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I am no expert but I built a pretty good following and am proud of my engagement. We have over 1,500 followers on Instagram and although our Facebook following is less we get a decent amount of website traffic from our time there.

The first step to building social media was collaboration. I intentionally connected with other businesses in the event industry and collaborated in giveaways, photo shoots, and vendor promotions.

Giveaways – find like-minded business owners* who service your market
Offer a package that has a high retail value (We created birthday experiences)
Make sure part of the giveaway asks subscribers to like each vendor page (but limit the number of vendors – no one wants to have to subscribe to 20 vendors to win. We kept it around 5-8)
Hire a photographer to take photos of the event (to use later in posts)
Give more entries for tagging friends
*Be choosy about the vendors you work with. They should have a good following of your target group.

Another type of Giveaway that drives followers encourages clients to tag you in a photo in order to win an item. We do these types of giveaways when we are at community events. Potential clients are encouraged to take a photo with our display. We then ask them to follow us on social media and tag us in the photo they choose to post. For every tag we get they are entered to win a sleepover.

Photoshoots – this is another opportunity to build vendor relationships
Come up with a theme, a date, and a photographer
Invite vendors who will enhance your service
Create something unique
Take LOTS of photos
Use those photos in your marketing and posts.
Photoshoots may not have a direct uptake of social media followers but it will create attractive branding

Vendor promotions
Interacting on social media with your preferred vendors creates algorithm success in the industry. We join groups like Wedding Vendors and KC Moms groups to help promote us and other vendors we work with. If a Facebook member is looking to host a birthday we interact with them and also offer other vendor suggestions to fit their need. Sometimes a Facebook member is only looking for a florist. We would offer suggestions of vendors we have worked with and trust to those inquiries and then show a photo from when we may have collaborated with that vendor. This has allowed us to see more requests for event services within our Facebook page as well as helped us keep connections with vendors we love. We are able to link our website and that drives traffic.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.underthestarskc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/underthestarskc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/underthestarskc
• Other: Google Reviews – https://g.page/r/CSHhR1WuAOjhEB0/review

Image Credits
Jenny Jolley Photography Espys Photos Adelynnreese Photography Copper Tree Photo