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

Selena , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

The most important thing I learned from any employer is to always have a backup plan and be prepared for anything in many ways. My experience working for someone not only taught me that to do the job well, being prepared was not only a skill but was also a requirement not everyone could full fill. My ability to keep up gave me confidence to trust myself to be able to do things on my own and for myself. Had I not had that experience I might not be able to perform at the skill level or the speed I do now due to the high volume of numbers I dealt during my time there. As in life, however, everyone is replaceable, and businesses do fail so you always need to be prepared that things can go wrong in any business.

The biggest lesson I learned as an owner is “not all business is good business.” You do not have to take a shot at every potential customer. Most hospitality businesses, when they first start out, try to accommodate their customers’ needs/request, and run specials in hopes of bringing in more business, so of course we tried this too. This is not necessary for all businesses and sometimes doing this devalues your business instead of increasing its perceived value. Against our better judgement we ran a special and for months after the discounted special was done and over with, we continued to get unrealistic requests, our value was questioned and challenged daily, and the frustration was never ending. We put ourselves in a “cheap” category. We are far from that but had intentions on making things economical during a financially straining time, but people did not see our value. As soon as we increased our requirements and stood firm on our prices those clients started to fall off and customers who aligned with us stuck around. The lesson from this one is, you are not for every client and every client is not for you. People who understand and respect the value you bring to the table and are willing to pay for it.

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

We are an event planning and service provider who specialize in experience-based events, Trending and Design. “We create the experience, so you can enjoy the experience.” Your events are just as important to us as they are to you. So many times, we notice people are too busy working on their events that do not actually get to enjoy them. We want to change that! In this economy why spend it if you cannot enjoy it? We want it to be our job to manage all the moving parts of your event so that you can kick back and enjoy the time with your family and friends. One thing aside from our great service is our amazing band of talented and reliable servicers willing to help us produce your event. You do not have to call around, we have people, and their prices are the best for what they do. Connecting with us means you have a top tier full-service event plan/coordination option where all you are required to do is pay and show up.
Welcome to our family. We cannot wait to celebrate you!

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

Knowing that all the demanding work leading up to our client’s event was worth it. Having a satisfied customer is always a great reward but when they like you enough to tell a friend is when you know for sure. Having the freedom to work from anywhere and having a different office daily makes things exciting. Having a choice in choosing which jobs I take allows me to actively show up for my children as well. In my experience with having a 9-5 you do not always get to enjoy those things at your leisure.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

You do not have to do everything yourself just because you know how to do it. I have always had a theory as a leader to “never ask anyone to do anything you are not willing to yourself.” While it is great to know all your company’s positions in case you must jump in, it is not a great way to lead your business. Realistically just because I know how to do something does not mean I am any good at it. Which is why you contract vendors who are great at what they do instead. By doing that you save yourself time, stress, and physical effort.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.trendinganddesign.https:/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trendinganddesign/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/selena-desinat-aa1338230/

Image Credits
Kristen Carrera Darrell Joseph Juliana Parrish Marc Desinat