We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Valenzuela recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jessica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

I graduated from college and majored in accounting. After being an accountant for a few years I realized this isn’t something that makes me happy. I remember dreaming of becoming a wedding planner and never pursued it because I was told I needed to go to college and get a degree to get a high paid job. Yes, being an accountant was a well paid job. However, I wasn’t happy. I decided to take a leap of faith and quit my job with no backup plan to learn and be a wedding planner. I then got to work for my mentor David Tutera and learn about weddings that soon lead me to officially open up my business. Probably wasn’t the best time since a few months later the pandemic struck. However, 3 years later I am happy to took the chance because I wouldn’t have to wonder the “what ifs” had I stayed in accounting.

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 have always dreamed about becoming a wedding planner. It looked like such a fun job from all the wedding TV shows I had seen but my family told me to look into better options such as going to college and pursuing a career that would create more security and be paid well. That is exactly what I did where I learned after college I wasn’t that secure and happy. I went into accounting and felt that my job wasn’t my calling and wanted to pursue something else that I felt would make me happy. That’s when I decided to dive into learning about weddings and events, which soon turned into this love of being able to be apart of someone’s special day. I went to a bunch of educational seminars and met idol David Tutera, a celebrity wedding planner and host of the wedding TV show I watched as a kid. This then turned into me working for him and learning about the industry that soon made me create my own business.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I created a YouTube channel a few years back predicting videos were going to be huge and if I could just provide some information to future engaged couples and help them learn how to plan their wedding, perhaps more would know who I am. Then, tiktok and Instagram reels got bigger and it’s all anyone shares now. I try to make videos that would help people understand how to plan a wedding day and understand it’s not always easy and there are some factors to consider. Hopefully, more people can see my videos and want to hire me as a wedding planner or purchase my ebook where I share exactly how they can plan their own wedding day. There are some videos that only get a few hundred views and there are some that go up to a million. The key to building that presence is to be consistent with posting.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

Besides providing a service, I have also tapped into providing digital products future engaged couples can purchase if they want to plan their own wedding. I have an ebook called “The Perfect Wedding Blueprint” where I teach couples what they should prep for and give to their vendors in order to make the process smoother.

I would say the pro is that there is accessibility to gain knowledge from professionals and have this as an evergreen business and the con is learning where to market it at and actually gaining those buyers to purchase.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.notjessaplanner.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notjessaplanner
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notjessaplanner
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/notjessaplanner
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@notjessaplanner

Image Credits
Trynh Photo