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

Jackie, appreciate you joining us today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

Who could have possibly thought that a virus would take out the entire world? One day we were all just minding our own business, going to large events, 300 person weddings, concerts, festivals & conventions and then all of a sudden, we wouldn’t see that many people in one space again for nearly 2 years. At the time, I was working as an Event Manager & Catering Supervisor for a company that was really successful and all of a sudden I watched our events cancel one by one and the next thing I know, the doors closed permanently and I would never set foot in that space again.

I’ve never been good at sitting still, I suppose haha. So during lockdown of course I took the opportunity to read, learn & educate myself on starting a small business. I knew I needed a foundation & something to kick it all off so I started making charcuteries & grazing boxes for pick-up & delivery. Everyone at the time was SUPER supportive of each other and with the help of my friends and people on social media, I made a huge amount of money doing this. I was blown away. I used that money and reinvested it – and that’s when my first business, Elevated Grazing & Events began. Over time I was doing small family events, private chef gigs, micro-weddings & I kept going until it got bigger and bigger and here we are, 3 years later and we are back!

Large events began to start appearing probably mid 2021. At this time I was contracting weddings, baby showers, social events, concerts & music festivals. I loved catering and had at one point a great staff & vision of moving forward into a catering business but the need for event planners & producers was stronger and I knew that’s where I needed to pour my focus as of right now. Last month I decided to rebrand my business as; The Social Event Planner.

Jackie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

If I could sum up myself & my life into one word it would definitely be: Work.

I have been working since I was 14 years old. I was raised to be incredibly self sufficient and I loved every bit of the independence I gained from this. I started out in the culinary world and at one point I thought I wanted to be a chef! I moved into FOH close to college doing everything from food running, serving, bartending, management & more!

My side hobby was music & I started DJing professionally when I was 20 years old! I started throwing dance parties & taking over clubs on slow nights to gain popularity and eventually became the primary resident DJ for some of the most popular nightclubs in my hometown. I even toured a bit to different cities (Chicago, Miami, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Myrtle Beach) and was featured in magazines & on the radio.

I used to laugh at myself because I felt like Clark Kent. I really did live 2 different lives. I was in college dreading my life every day trying to finish an associate’s degree in marketing, mixing cocktails and serving fine dining food by day and at night I was DJing at the club till 4AM. It blows my mind how much energy I had in my 20’s.

Over the years and as I grew, I moved out of the hospitality and music industry & with all of the skillsets I had learned from both, I moved into events & production. I built the foundation for my career all on experience and hard work.

I think the biggest thing that I get from people is compliments on my personality. I’ve always been such a social butterfly! I love engaging with people and showing everyone a good time. This is why I chose the name – The Social Event Planner – for my business.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’ve experienced a tremendous amount of loss over the years. From my mother passing from cancer when I was 23, to my bet friend of 16 years just right before the pandemic. Grieving is a process & everyone does it differently. I found my way was to put my energy into myself and my work. I call it “turning your pain into your power”

I also think one thing people don’t realize about entrepreneurs is, at the end of the day we still have to do the work. If I have a wedding booked that I have been working on for 6 months and on that wedding day, someone I care about dies. There is no taking the day off for me. The show must go on.

Life is super precious and I have taken all of that loss and used it to remind myself every day to do what I love and live my life how I want to. Those people would want me to believe in myself and keep going. Everything I do is to make them proud.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

My parents are indigenous & moved us to Louisville, Ky when I was really young. I didn’t grow up having much family there & really had to find my own place in the world & learn from my peers and friends surrounding me. Louisville is very much a small city with midwestern vibes & mindsets. The reality there is, you graduate high school, goto college to pick out a career and get a degree, meet a husband, get married & have children. It’s all about family, religion, tradition, the man. Everyone knows each other & being different just makes you stand out and feel judged.

I was conditioned to believe that women couldn’t be in a place of power. And no one would ever take me seriously if I told them I was queer. And being a queer woman of color, meant I was basically at the bottom of the food chain, so my chances of ever doing anything with my life was much lower, so I had to work that much harder.

I didn’t see this for how real it was until I moved away. As I believe it is an issue everywhere, women of color in fact have so many disadvantages in this world and we have to work a thousand times harder than the white man to even be taken the slightest bit serious.

I live in my power now and even though sometimes the imposter syndrome sneaks in, I know now what I am capable of. Once I began to really believe this and see this, is when everything fell into place for me. We are capable of so much more without even realizing it. And you are able to be whoever you want to be and live your life however you chose and that doest not make you and better or less than any other human on this earth.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thesocialeventplanner.com
• Instagram: thesocaleventplanner or jackiejackieo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiejackieo/

Image Credits
@nrodriguezphoto @armandosilvaphoto