Episode 25: A Look Back at 10 Years of Julian Leaver Events

Episode Summary

Ten years of Julian Leaver Events feels like a milestone worth pausing for, friends. In this episode, I’m looking back at the growth of the business alongside my own journey in sobriety, and the small steps that brought us here. I’m sharing my gratitude for the clients, vendor partners, family, and team who have been part of it all. We’ll talk about making mistakes, learning to accept help, and the quiet moments at weddings that remind me why this work is so special. Thank you for being part of this journey with me.

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julianleaver.com | @julianleaver

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Full Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Mind Over Matrimony. And as you can see, we're in a whole new studio where we have better lighting. And that's thanks to our friends at TMS. I hope that your summers are chugging along and that you're actually getting to maybe take a little break before the fall season jumps back into action. But I know here we've talked a lot about the Julian Leaver Events 10 year anniversary and it's coming and it's coming and it's coming. It's here, friends. And it's been 10 years of doing this business, which is wild. It feels like it's been one year some days and it feels like it's been 100 years in other days. But 10 years it is. And it also coincides with my 10 year anniversary of sobriety. Those two things are never really too far apart from each other. They're definitely intertwined.

I always say that starting this business was not a sober decision because I started this business before I got sober. And then I got sober basically 30 days later and realized that was definitely going to need to be a component of making sure that this business was a success. And today I'd really just like to reflect back on what 10 years means, what 10 years looks like, what it looks like in the rear view mirror a little bit and the growth of this business and its evolution. I feel very lucky that out of the gate in this business it was a destination wedding business. The first wedding in Julian Leaver Events was a destination in Cabo with a family that I'm still very close to and still do events for, which is insane and amazing. And it's grown to be something that I really never could have imagined.

The thing I think about doing this in tandem with my sobriety has been this very interesting, just this very interesting step-by-step process as opposed to, okay, this is where I really wanna go and I'm just only looking at that goal and that's the end goal. It's been more looking down in the beginning, right? Like looking down and looking at what were the little steps that I'm taking and where is this going to go? And it's a risk, right, to start a business and to put yourself out there and to put your own name on it is also a scary thing because you're also putting your reputation on the line and you are really putting trust in the people that work for you and that represent you in different arenas. And so in the beginning, there wasn't really a goal. It was just, I wanna do this. I know that I really like this industry.

I know that I've done a lot of different jobs in this industry, but this is the one that's always called me back. It's the one where I could use my left and my right brain every single day where I wasn't put in a box in terms of only selling the same venue again and trying to reinvent the wheel. And it let me be in the driver's seat of where I wanted to go, which has been a wild ride and it's taken some twists and some turns but it's taken me places that I never really would have imagined. And for that, I'm so grateful. I think we gotta start out by just saying how grateful I am to the people who trust me every single day to help them execute these incredible milestone events. And the fact that we've gotten to connect over all these years and I've gotten to watch you get married. I've gotten to watch you have children.

I've gotten to celebrate your parents' anniversaries and your anniversaries and birthdays and just be a part of your lives for the last 10 years has been really magical and this business wouldn't exist without all of you. And then in the same token, I've been in the same seat with vendor partners for 10 years, 20 years, almost 30 years now and we've all grown up together and we've gotten to play together. We've gotten to grow together. We've gotten to make mistakes together. We've gotten to figure out how to do all of this together in an industry that's changing all the time and keeps pushing barriers. And so I'm so grateful to you, all the vendor partners who really have taken the time to invest in me, in my business, but also in the people that we serve all together. It's really, it's been an honor.

And then also just to my family, I think. That's the people who believe in me the most to say every day, you can do this and your dream is valid and that's a really special thing. So very special, thank you to them because none of this would be possible without them. And specifically my husband, Francisco, who we like to call the sauce. Most of you know him. You've gotten to work with him. You know what a life and a light that he brings to things and it's so special that I get to do this with you on the weekends and I wouldn't do it any other way. And so I'm so thankful that he's gotten to be a part of this really from the beginning, which is pretty wild. And 10 years is just a long time. It's a lot of weddings, it's a lot of places. It's a lot of plane rides, friends, it's a lot of hotels. But it's been such a cool journey.

We could go so many different ways with this and is it about the crazy things that have happened? Is it about the sweet things that have happened? Is it about the challenges that we've overcome? I don't know. I really just think mostly it's about doing things one day at a time and taking a look at that day and figuring out exactly what needs to happen that day and then doing them. And then building those days and stringing them along and then eventually get to one year and you're like, okay, this is a miracle. I'm still sober and I'm still a wedding planner. And you just keep going. But it's been really cool to be able to take the things that I've learned about myself in my journey in sobriety and move them over here to be useful to other people.

And for example, one day at a time, like I say this all the time, it's one day at a time, it's not my saying, right? Like it's 100% a saying that I found in sobriety. And it's just helped me and be able to compartmentalize and make sure that I could keep moving forward doing what it is that I love to do and not worry about the noise. I think here, we've been talking a lot on all of the episodes about staying focused on what matters to you and drowning out the noise of other people who might have their opinions or might think that things should be done a certain way or they just have opinions.

And those opinions are valid 100% in some cases, but in a lot of cases, you just have to figure out what is your end goal and then start marching towards it and not worrying about the noise and not worrying about the chatter and really just marching towards that end goal and just enjoying the process. I think probably for the first five years, it was a slog, right? It was me, it was just me. And it was a series of interns and assistants and people helping and me just getting it done and doing the work and working the crazy hours and all the time, basically just working all the time. After about five years, it changed, right? And then help came. Thank God, finally, I was able to accept help and accept that I couldn't do everything all myself. And then that's just evolved. That team structure has evolved.

It's allowed this business to grow and to flourish and to do new things and to create a environment that's ripe for creativity and really aligning and moving forward. And I have just the best team in the whole world right now. Honestly, I couldn't be more thankful for the people that I'm having the chance to work with on a daily basis. And for those five of you, Elissa and Grace and Kate and Julie, it's been just such an honor and I cannot believe that we're at this stage. It's pretty unbelievable. And that you're here with me in this 10th year. And this 10th year has been so cool. We've gotten to do so many amazing things. It's been wild. But the biggest gift, really, honestly, that you all have given me this year is for the first time in 10 years, I took a vacation that wasn't related to work, you all.

And it's because of the four of you that actually was able to take place. And because you're so in tune with exactly what everyone needs and what the clients need and what the vendors need and you understand the mission. And that's to serve, right? It's to come at everything with a servant's heart and all four of you do that in such an incredible way. I'm so thankful and so grateful for you. And God, this episode is gonna be all about crying today. It's gonna be about this new studio and crying, okay? At least we look better. There's better lighting in here. So it's fine. My tears will just be in high def right here in your homes. But I am so thankful for the four of you and for the work that you've put in and for the growth that you've all experienced.

And it's just a joy to watch you figure out and learn and try things on and see if they work. Someone asked me at a dinner a couple of weeks ago, the question was what are the things that you are tolerating in your business right now? And my answer to those was I am tolerating a year of mistakes. And mistakes for me are not mistakes that can't be overcome. They're not mistakes that happen at an event. They're little tiny mistakes. They're little tiny things where we're all learning. And so it is the year of learning. And in 10 years, if I wasn't still learning, I shouldn't be doing this job. And that's the beauty of, I think, again, the sobriety and the business in combination this year and for the last 10 years really is it's about, it's been about breaking myself down and then building myself back up.

And the only way to do that, and the only way to do that with a business, and the only way to do that growing in your career is to make mistakes and to learn from them and to never repeat them again. And there are so many to name. We're not gonna name them all today, but there are. And that's okay. And every business has mistakes. Every person has mistakes that they learn from. And that's how you become a better person. But I think ultimately you take those and you shift them into this place of gratitude, right? You shift them into this place where you are, where you internalize it, where you can work through it, where you know that you've learned as much as you can from it, and then you move forward. And it's been so fun. This last, we had a wedding, I guess, a week ago. And it was like the last wedding for the spring.

It's been a wild spring. It's been a hell of a ride. And what was fun about that is that we have people that worked that wedding that have been with me for nine years. And then we have people that have worked with me and been with me for only six months. And that is, and a range all in between, right? And that's pretty amazing. It's been such an honor to get to work with people side by side for such a long time and have them believe in this business and the direction that we're going and how we're helping people. I think that the other thing about looking back at 10 years is just, it's a string of moments, right? It's moments where Francisco and I are looking across the dance floor at each other during a father-daughter dance or mother-son dance. And we just make eye contact.

And it's like, oh, there's just something about that moment that's really so special that I get to share that with him every single wedding. Or really when a mother and a daughter are putting on their dress, right? On the bride's dress. And they're in the room and we're all in the room and it's just this little special little moment. And I think that's the thing about weddings that keeps me coming back again and again is all of these little moments that they touch your heart or they scare the fuck out of you, right? Because some of the moments maybe we're going to drown today, right? Are like things that could happen. But we're gonna drown and it's gonna be okay because I'm like with my loved ones. So it's gonna be okay.

But it's these little things and it is a succession of memories and really great stories and really just cool moments in people's lives that you get to show up for. And if all of the cards are right and the universe is aligned, you get to be really present in those moments. And there's something really special about that, about getting to be really present for someone else that then rewards you to be present for yourself. You can watch someone through your own lens as they get very close and they get very quiet and the space gets very quiet and they have these little moments. It's the moments in between that are the most special part of this job. And those are the moments that only a few people get to see. The wedding planner gets to see them.

Usually maybe photo and video are sometimes present for those little moments, but they're so special and it's wild. It's a wild ride to be able to be entrusted with that kind of power in a way to be able to witness those kinds of moments. It's pretty incredible. And that's the thing that maybe we don't talk about enough to be honest in this business is we really are here to facilitate those moments. Yeah, there's the big grand moments, right? And we've talked a lot about fireworks and fireplaces and to me, the money is on fireplaces because that's where it's at. It's just in this moment in whatever is happening in front of you and being as present as you possibly can to be able to facilitate that moment, do what is necessary to ensure that moment has the privacy that it needs and then move on to the next big thing. And that's cool.

It's this cool succession of these, the back and the forth and the back and the forth of that and to be able to be a witness to that is pretty amazing. I think the thing about this that's amazing is that really we are, we're the curator of people's memories and that's such a heavy thing. That is like, that's why I don't have any hair, you all. It's because it is a stressful place to sit. It is an interesting intersection to, in one sense, a wedding is like an enterprise deployment of resources and in another sense, and at the same time, a wedding is this curation and little, almost like little memory box basically of things that you're gonna carry with you into the future.

And so marrying those two things together is really, it's a challenge and it's what keeps me coming back though because that's the part that after doing this now, I think like 25 years I've been in this space and 10 years of doing it in my own business, what's cool is that each weekend is different. Each weekend has a different cast of characters. Each weekend has a different experience. Each weekend has a totally different set of new core memories that are being made for new people. There's not many jobs that you could have in the world where you get that kind of legacy making opportunity. Again, in adding up the numbers of all of this, just guesstimating, I would say probably in the first five years, I did around 12 to 15 events the first five years, like each year.

And then really in the last five years, it's been more like 25 events, core events a year. So that's around 185 kind of core events and then with auxiliary events, rehearsal dinners, welcome parties, brunches, pool parties, all the things, it's actually probably around, like right around a little over 550 events total in the last 10 years, which is actually why I have no hair. It's so special. It's special to make it 10 years. It's special to make it 10 years just as a small business, really frankly, with the ups and the downs and the COVID of it all. And so I'm so thankful to you have supported me and to those of you who are listening now and are just joining this community, welcome. Here's to another 10 years.

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