We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Vanessa Loney, CMP a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Vanessa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

When I first started out, I gave myself 6 months to land my first client or I had to get a job. I had no idea where to start, so I tried methods that seemed to work for others. I cold called and emailed my ideal clients and pitched my services. I knew after 2 weeks of rejections that that was NOT for me! It didn’t feel like I was being my authentic self, and I’m sure they could tell. Next, I thought I could create video content that would attract the ideal client TO me. I had a pretty cool opportunity to attend the NFL draft that year and recorded so much content, and I just knew this would be my big break. I looked at all that footage and felt extremely overwhelmed, because I also needed to edit it all! I quickly decided that becoming a video content creator was also NOT for me.

Finally, I had to really ask myself, what feels “right” to you? I come from a background of Accounting and I tend to be analytical in my decision making. I needed to find a way that made sense and allowed me to use my analytical mindset. I researched other ways event planners get hired and discovered the RFP (request for proposals) process. I searched “event rfps” via LinkedIn and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) had an open opportunity! They had a document that outlined everything they needed from an event planner, the deadlines and the dates; and in return, I needed to tell them all the ways I would address those needs. It was exactly what I looking for.

I created my response and addressed everything they requested. I finally felt like it was a fit. I waited for weeks and heard nothing as the deadline passed. I looked again, and they re-posted the opportunity with a new deadline. Instead of feel defeated, I took a new approach. I remembered that when I would apply for a regular job, you had to use keywords to get passed the automated portal. I went back and made sure to use all the keywords from the RFP throughout my proposal. I re-submitted and heard back the next day! I was hired within a few days and finally had my first official client, which was the United Nations!

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’ve been planning corporate events for that last 14 years, but started Blue Ribbon Events 7 years ago. I always like to say everyone in this industry has an events “journey” and I’m no different. While obtaining my degree in Accounting, I had a work-study job at the performing arts center on campus. In the 3 years I was there, I worked my way up from front desk to House Manager, managing a staff of 50. We had events ranging from large concerts with celebrities to launch parties for businesses. Once I graduated, I worked in my field of accounting at a large fortune 500 firm, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that events was my passion.

After 2 years at the accounting firm, I ended up at non-profit where I had a unique role of performing accounting tasks and planning charitable events; it was the best of both worlds. I planned large events like festivals and building renovations that won awards each year. This sparked the desire to start my own business. Before making the plunge to a full-time entrepreneur, I traveled the world for 1 year with a travel group and planned events internationally, like a flash mob marriage proposal in Thailand, a corporate retreat in Aruba and evening receptions.

Upon my return to the US, I focused full-time on my Business, with my first official client being the United Nations Volunteers (UNV). After that, so many doors opened and they have continued to stay open, even through the pandemic. Because of my travels, I learned how to plan events remotely with a remote team. So once everything shut down, pivoting to a virtual, fully remote team was flawless as we were doing this pre-pandemic. In fact, the pandemic has allowed us more clients than before because we were constantly having to explain that my team physically didn’t need to be in the same geographic location to plan an event, Now, corporate leadership understands the remote work model and rely on our expertise to execute their events!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I always tell people that LinkedIn has become my bread and butter. I have been very intentional on who I connect with and have as my network. The RFP opportunities that I respond come directly from my network’s posts. When I search, I do so through the “posts” filter, which takes into account all my connections and my network’s connections. There are at least 3-4 RFPs that we see come through each month via LinkedIn.

Any advice for managing a team?

My team has always been fully remote, which comes with its own set of challenges. That, along with hiring only freelancers has also been challenging. My advice is to not only meet as a team, but also have those 1 on 1 touchpoints. I used to manage as a “task based” leader, meaning I would send an email each week of all tasks I needed done and just ask for status updates. It took the relationship building aspect out of the work. I had to ask myself why are freelancers going to choose my company over the next? What I was looking for was loyalty and that wasn’t going to happen via email only. I needed to focus on relationship building, even if it was just for a specific project, and the 1 on 1s assist with that. I’ve found that the team meetings truly help with team morale because it’s a time for all of us to hear about the projects we’re working on and share best practices.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blueribbon-events.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessaloney/

Image Credits
Avonné Photography Wise Owl Multimedia