We recently connected with Essence Gleason and have shared our conversation below.
Essence, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?
One can only hope they will have a positive impact on other lives. Being only 25 years old, I have not thought so deep into what I want my legacy to be. A legacy is defined as the richness of the individual’s life, including what that person accomplished and the impact he or she had on people and places. I want clients to think about Essenciaevents and remember how happy and easy we made their special day. I want them to look back at pictures and to see how beautiful and well-put-together everything was.
Even though currently I am a small business, I don’t plan for it to stay that way. I want to continue to expand and grow, my 5-year plan is to expand and have multiple team members assisting with various events, such as weddings, of course with my guidance. I want to help other future event planners who are just starting their journey by providing them with consultations and allowing them to essentially intern for EssenciaEvents.
I don’t just want to impact my clients’ lives, I want to impact the entire industry, by providing guidance to other event planners, while they expand their knowledge for something we both love. In other words, no gatekeeping here. I want my company to grow so big that when I leave, I have something for my children. So they can carry on what I started and essentially the generations to follow would do as well. I want to be the one to change everything for future generations in my family. To start a business doing something I love, that will allow me to give myself and my children something to carry on when I am gone. I guess at 25 years old I do have hope for my legacy. Thank you for that question, it has expanded my mind.
Essence, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Hello everyone, my name is Essence Gleason, I’m a 25-year-old Latina woman and I am the creator of Essenciaevents. We are a small event business located in Southern California, specifically, Los Angeles County & Orange County. Essenciaevents specializes in luxury picnics, tablescapes, dinner parties, and florals.
In 2020, when the pandemic began, I was finishing up the last year of my bachelor’s program. I studied Hospitality management, with an emphasis on event planning at The Collins College of Hospitality. When I graduated, there weren’t many events taking place. I had to think outside the box to be able to get some experience utilizing my degree. During this time there was a big shift taking place for outdoor events, the new rave appeared to be picnic dates. Due to the COVID pandemic, we were seeing an increase in outdoor activists, which included elaborate picnics. Via social media, I saw several couples and groups of friends trying to make the most of such a confusing time in history. I made the decision that I wanted to give people another option. What would be the option, the ability to enjoy luxury picnics, while still keeping in mind our safety. Giving people the option to have someone come present a beautiful and intimate experience, without having to do the work themselves.
What started as a simple picnic for two at a local park has evolved into so much more. As time went on, the parties continued to grow. I would have a picnic for two, one day, and then an elaborate bridal party for twenty people on a beach the following day. Now a year later, I am presenting parties of 80 -100 guests with the most impeccable table scapes, which help with setting the mood of an event. It hasn’t been easy and it took a few months to turn a profit, however, I won’t change it for the world. This experience has encouraged me to keep pushing so that I do reach my goals. Taking a risk is always scary and if I didn’t have my friends and family to lean on when first launching my business, I don’t believe I would have accomplished as much as I have in such a short time. I have received an immense amount of support throughout my journey. My family is very important to me and has always supported my choices. In this experience, from the very start, I have had constant support. Something as simple as sharing Essenciaevents on social media outlets to lend me extra hands when I need it.
For those of you who do know, the name of my company name stems from my name, Essence, Spanish translation. It was important to me to add a hint of my culture and also my family to the name. Growing up my grandmothers would call me Essencia, I always thought it was so beautiful and feminine, therefore Essencia holds a special place in my heart. When I was trying to figure out the name of my company I didn’t want to limit myself. At the time all I was offering were picnics for parties of 2 people. However, I knew this was just a gateway to what I wanted to do in the future. I wanted to have an event company that does it all: weddings, quinceañeras, birthdays, etc. The Party Planner Dream, if you will. So when determining the name I wanted the name to be universal, and not limited to one type of service. After days of going back and forth with different name options, I decided that Essenciaevents was a perfect fit.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson that I had to unlearn is that many will have you believe that relying on other people is a weakness. However, once you start a business you will soon realize that having people to rely on can be one of your company’s biggest strengths. I put a big emphasis on how supportive my family has been through this journey. I know that I am extremely lucky to have an amazing group of people, who always want me to succeed. From my immediate family members to extended family members, I have been very blessed and continue to be. My family encourages me and pushes me to get out of my comfort zone and to always continue expanding and evolving. They make it possible for me to experiment which promotes growth for my company.
However, their support doesn’t only come from them hiring me, but also I’m the form of help or guidance. I am confident that every one of my family members is always just a phone call away. Even if it’s just for a second opinion on a design I’m working on or assisting with setup for my larger events. All these things have helped me push forward because I am not alone in this journey. These are my people, and they never want to see me fail. Having people there for you when you need help is not a weakness, being able to have someone to call is my biggest strength
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Growing your clientele can be tricky, right away you want to have a constant flow of new customers coming your way. As much as we can dream about this, this is not the reality. The reality is, that it takes a lot of work to build up your clientele. When you first launch a business most of your clients will be friends and family. Which to me, is an extremely positive thing. Working with friends and family allowed me to tap deeper into my creativity, and allowed room for growth as I learned from mistakes made during that learning period. Working with family allowed me to practice my customer service skills along with dealing with and resolving conflict. As previously mentioned, coming from a Hispanic family, and as many know Hispanic families have the reputation of being relatively large. My family is no exception, we are huge. I’m really lucky to have so many family members because right away I had the opportunity to practice and master my skills just through their support and events. My family has been very proactive in promoting my business via social media outlets and by word of mouth.
However, to branch out from people you know to establish new clients, social media is your most valuable tool. Everything is done on social media in today’s day and age. From Facebook to Instagram to TikTok, everyone is constantly staying connected through social media. Being a business owner comes hand-in-hand with being a content creator. You need to post about your business for people to know about your business.
Through trial and error I have found that when you’re constantly posting content on your social media, that is when you can grow your client list the fastest. Currently, on Instagram the strongest tool is Reels. My biggest tip is to be constantly recording content for future reels and TikTok videos. Making short videos and adding trending sounds can put your video and page out there for future clients to see. Consistently, posting content will also boost your page via the algorithm.
My mother also runs a business all through social media and her biggest advice is to remember to always open your business every day, if you don’t post no one knows your business is open. Being a constant account followers see every day when they need your business they will think about you first. As young women in the business, many will doubt us and not take us seriously but we need to show, through our work esthetic and drive, that their opinions only fuel us to do even better.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://essenciayazminevents.squarespace.com/home
- Instagram: @essenciayazminevents
- Facebook: @EssenceGleason