We recently connected with Richandra Nickerson-Ukpong and have shared our conversation below.

Richandra, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?

I know the value of internships because my career started with one. My own career started all because of an internship opportunity that I got from my college’s work placement office at University of Houston. I would not be who I am today if I had not taken that internship back in 2006. Thanks to this opportunity, I later went on to manage training, internship, and leadership development programs at some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. Without that internship, I may have never got a taste of corporate training, events, project management, HR, or any of the skills that I use today as one of the top event planners in the city. I am so grateful for the success that I have created and will continue to build. So of course, I was compelled to create an intern program in my own company.

Today, the Fervent Designs Intern Program is one of my passion projects. I am honored to partner with colleges and universities to return the favor. The program allows me to share my expertise with others who have a hunger to learn about how to plan events and run a successful business whether it is event industry or not. I am happy to report that we reinstated our intern program in spring 2022, after a long hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In this formal program, our interns obtain college credit while gaining hands on experience on wedding and event planning, marketing, and small business management. Even though I am busy, as the CEO of the company, I mentor the interns myself (along with other leaders on the team). At Fervent Designs, we allow the interns the opportunity to work hands-on and get an up close and personal look behind the scenes at real events via shadowing and on the job training. Interns are also able to experience our client and vendor meetings and see how we get ready for their events. They see everything from consultations to clean up. Our interns say that this learning is priceless! I promise, they keep me hip and young, so we are teaching each other. Fervent Designs is a learning-centered organization, so we invite the interns to apply their own skills to contribute to the company and use their time to help grow the company and themselves. Once the internship program is over, those who successfully completed the program are invited to join the team, so most continue to work with the company for years. The internship program has been the biggest game-changer for my company to date.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Since I was a child, I have always been the one to plan my family’s events, including bridal showers, baby showers, graduation parties, and other fun celebrations. When I was in college, I obtained an internship at an oil and gas company and was responsible for create global training programs. In that role, I also got to manage many events for the company. I was always an event planner in my personal and work life. But, the Eureka moment came from when I started to plan my wedding, or should I say weddings- a traditional Nigerian ceremony and the American one. As a planner, I thought that it would be easy. Boy was I wrong!!! When reviewing proposals, I got sticker-shock. I had a difficult time trying to obtain my vision within my budget (which was not small might I add). I thought that vendors were overcharging. That is when I decided that I would DIY to save my coins. I spent the next year planning and designing almost everything for both of my weddings. Of course, the Project Manager in me needed order and I really wanted to enjoy my big day, so I hired a very close friend of mine to be my wedding coordinator for the American wedding. Well, after my wedding, my coordinator planted the seed in my head by telling me that I would make a great wedding planner.

Eventually, people started hiring me to plan their events. Because I was still working a 9 to 5, I would do corporate events during the week and fly back home to plan social events on the weekends. After many FERVENT prayers and much contemplation, I finally decided to make a big jump.
After 10 years, I took a leap of faith and left corporate (and gave up a 6-figure salary) to run my event planning business, Fervent Designs, full time.

People, designs, and events are my passion. My customers are like my family. Fervent Designs allows me to use my talents and expertise to create memorable events that have a lasting impact on people’s lives. This is my why, my mission. At Fervent Designs, our motto is “We’re passionate about personalizing your party!” Each member of our team shares this passion for unique designs coupled with excellence, professionalism, and personalization. We work together to make each event a success. Each celebration receives an abundance of intense professional care, thought, and effort. Every detail is tailored to the client’s needs, theme, and taste. And, we always strive to stay within budget. Whatever we do, we do it FERVENTLY!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Bring a creative means getting paid to do what you love and are good at. Wedding and event planning combines critical and creative thinking as well as communication and time management skills. It is a perfect marriage of all of the skills that I learned and perfected throughout my corporate career. While planning my own two weddings, I had to think outside of the box to come up with an approach to complete various wedding planning and event design tasks myself. I was able to save money while having the beautiful, customized results that wanted. And afterwards, I saw that I was onto something. I learned that I loved weddings so much more than corporate events. Weddings and social events give me a creative outlet. Planning allows me to think uniquely on how to turn my clients’ hopes into something real. The ability to partner with so many amazing people while telling my clients’ stories is awesome. Then, on the event day, seeing the clients happy, smiling, dancing, enjoying themselves brings so much joy. This is unlike any other job. It is so much fun that sometimes I forget that I’m working.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

For years, we did not have a website or email address, so we got our first clients from word of mouth (or in-person at events). Even though we have a website, social media, awards, and a presence in so many places, ten years later, we still get majority of our business from referrals (word of mouth, client referrals, vendor referrals, and in-person at events). This proves that your work speaks for itself. Also, networking matters. It is a blessing to have repeat clientele and to be the event planner for several other event professionals. Our other big source of clients is from bridal tradeshows and venue open houses. We know that God sends all of our clients and are grateful for each and every opportunity to serve.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ferventdesigns.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ferventdesigns/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FerventDesigns/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/15090598

Image Credits
JF Studioz Adventures Photos JF Studioz Swift Photography Harland Visions Aduaro Photography Gabe Rene Photo