We recently connected with Jess Cutler and have shared our conversation below.

Jess, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I was an A+, first in her class, never-missed-school kind of student from kindergarten to college. I feel like school does an incredible job at creating incredible employees. In turn, I was an incredible employee. Every job that led up to me owning my own business was an opportunity for me to work hard and do exactly what I was told, and of course a little extra – cause I’m also an overachiever and (recovering) perfectionist.

So, it wasn’t until I was strongly nudged into starting my own event planning company that I realized getting an “A” was going to be harder than I imagined. No one was there to “promote” me, no one was to approve my requests for days off, and no one was there to tell me how things needed to get done. To some, that may seem wonderful. For me, it was overwhelming.

Whereas, I used to just have to worry about planning the events, I now had to think about marketing, accounting, IT, HR, admin, and everything else ON TOP of planning the events. The perfectionist in me wanted to turn right back around and start putting my resume back out to every event planning company, hotel, or venue in the area. I saw no way to get this job as “owner” done correctly, let alone, perfectly; so I wasn’t even sure I wanted to try.

However, over the course of my career, I have fallen in love with creating the rhythm and routine in my day. I have been able to build the structure I thrive in while honoring the harmony that must be found to live a fulfilling life outside of the office. Building a team has been difficult, but creating a culture where everyone is expected to grow and work independently has allowed me to share the load of all the different tasks on the table and empower others to do the same. Growing the business and watching it bloom has made this process even more beautiful.

I wake up everyday feeling grateful that I have been called to serve others through my event planning and coaching business. The idea of going back to a place where I would need to fit my big dreams into someone else’s schedule and structure seems as (oppositely) foreign to me as when I started.

Now, don’t get me wrong, are there some days I would LOVE to go back to the time where I could show up – do one thing and if they asked me do more, speak the words, “that’s not my job?” Maybe for a minute, just to remember what it felt like. But, the mastery and magic found in owning a business far outweighs the mediocrity I felt when working a job.

Jess, 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?

I love Lists, Organization, Details, Color-Coded Calendars, Systems, and Bubble Baths!
But more than that, I love that I am able to share these gifts, along with my passion for event planning, through a life-long career in the event service industry. Even after Covid forced my business to shutdown and I debated giving it up, the career that once defined me, became the calling that realigned me.

I am a multi-passionate entrepreneur, owning multiple business babies I call the |N| Crowd:

ENVENTS inspires event experiences from the first sigh to the final smile. We serve as a corporate event planning company and certified destination management company (DMC). We travel nationally and offer every event service from logistics, coordination, special event and program design and event management. We are known for our custom approach to special event designs and high level of customer service.

ENFORMS inspires event expertise through online courses, one-on-one coaching to individuals, and consulting for businesses.

ENSPIRES inspires courageous conversations through business coaching, keynote speaking, and team training. I am proud to be a Maxwell Leadership Certified Professional and use his core curriculum to help individuals and teams level-up their leadership skills.

I also offer a podcast – JessMCutler ENSPIRES – as a way to encourage, enlighten and inspire others to shift their career into a calling.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I started my business with my computer on my couch. Luckily, in an event planning business, clients are simply buying themselves time – by buying your time. Now, don’t get me wrong, my time comes with a highly specialized skill set to organize, analyze, and strategize the largest events down to the pens on the tables. So, making profit in the beginning was based on how many minutes I could spare in the day. Even if groups required that I purchase rentals or pay deposits, I only did this once the clients had paid me. So, by managing my time (my inventory) effectively I was able to save enough to slowly build the team and multiply the time available.

In any business, if you’re not managing your time – someone else will. MAKE SURE TO MANAGE YOUR TIME FIRST!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The first 5 years of business were beyond tough. Planning an event was challenging enough, but add accounting, marketing, technology, human resources, administrative and ownership tasks to the day-to-day “to-dos” and it was a whole new level of hard.

I tried to be everything to everyone at every moment. And although ENVENTS continued to be a successful and sought after event planning company, my personal lack of boundaries and bitterness began creeping into every crevice of the business, poisoning my heart, my home, and my love of the hospitality industry.

But luckily, covid changed all that.

Watching everything I worked for disappear in a matter of a few emails forced me to question my career entirely. Desperate pleas from friends and colleagues couldn’t remove me from the isolation and lack of identity that came from being an event planner with no events to plan.

By realizing my identity does not come from a career, but rather from Christ, I learned how to lead my business with boundaries. I no longer view planning events as a casual career, but as a calling with a higher purpose. Every day I step into the office I work to deliver mastery over mediocrity, progress over perfection, and a heart of service out of love over fear.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jessmcutler.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessmcutler.enspires/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JessMCutler.ENSPIRES/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessmcutler/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JessMCutlerENSPIRES
• Other: www.envents.com FB + IG: https://www.facebook.com/enventplanner/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ENVENTS www.enforms.co FB + IG: https://www.facebook.com/JessMCutler.ENFORMS/

Image Credits
Carl Kerridge Photography