We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Diane Nguyen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Diane, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been passionate about creating things for myself, my friends and family. I love watching people be surprised with something beautiful that they’ve never seen before, the look on their face when they realize what they are looking at. Looking back now I cant believe all that has changed since then. From making signs in high school to now making elevated signage for weddings and events – I can’t believe that I have a business.

If it was not for my husband (then boyfriend) encouraging me to put my work out there and see if I could make a business of it, we would not be where we are today. Fun fact: he helped come up with our Simply By Diane name.

That was 5 years ago and here we are now evolving and being part of some beautiful events and milestones.

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?

I love all things wedding and event related! Growing up, I loved creating and organizing thoughtful gifts for family and friends.

While working as a practice administrator for a medical office is fulfilling, Simply has allowed me to combine my passion for helping others and bringing their visions to life through our designs.

Over the years, I’ve grown the Simply brand with the help of my dear friend and assistant, Katrina. By bringing forth fresh design ideas and working with other vendors, we are able to help elevate any event we are part of. From signage to stationery, we aim to create designs that allow for everything to seamlessly flow together.

Our goal is to bring our clients visions to life, curate an experience that they can share with their guests during these special events, and bring the smiles!

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Simply has been very blessed with amazing clients. It is truly heartwarming to be part of so many milestones in our couples’ lives. From engagement to weddings to celebrating them welcoming a little one into their journey; these are truly full circle moments. We pride ourselves in truly wanting the best for our clients and delivering quality service each time. Our couples are more than just a dollar sign to us and we love knowing more about THEM and their story. The more we know the more we are able to help bring their visions to life.

We have been in those shoes before where we are the customer and we know what it feels like when people do not care to go the extra mile for us. Putting ourselves in our clients shoes allows us to operate in a way where we want to have the clients feel heard and cared for.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I think a tough lesson we all have to learn along our entrepreneurial journeys is that not all business is good business. That sometimes what we say “yes” to can affect us more than what we say “no” to. When starting out, I was fixated on getting my name out there that I essentially agreed to 99% of the things I was asked to do – even if it didnt really pertain to what my “specialty” was. But, as time went on I learned what values I held and what I offered.

The reason why saying “yes” to something could affect us is that if there is a client who doesn’t trust us from the beginning proceeds to go with us as a vendor…we risk disappointing them. With disappointment comes negative feelings and we would rather not let anyone down despite how much effort we put forth into their project. Sometimes we are not the best fit for every client and that is okay, because there is someone out there for everyone and it is only fair that our clients get the best vendor possible to that they could celebrate their special moments the way they deserve to.

Saying “no” doesn’t have to be hasty and it allows us to set boundaries and enforce our business standards. It’s okay to not do every single event that comes our way and it’ll set us up for our ideal clients to come!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.simplybydiane.co
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/simplydiane