Bethany Gustafson

I attribute my success to determination, independence, and a willingness to take a different path from those around me. Coming from a family of educators, I recognized early on the financial limitations of that career path and made a conscious decision to pursue something different, even when it meant taking risks. I’ve never relied on being the most polished or naturally gifted, but instead on consistent hard work, ownership of my choices, and the drive to build something of my own. I believe success is shaped by how you handle the small things, and that your character is ultimately defined by what you do when no one is watching.

The best career advice I’ve ever received is that how you do anything is how you do everything. It reinforced for me that consistency and care in the smallest tasks ultimately shape your larger reputation and outcomes. I first truly understood this one night while closing a bar in my early twenties, exhausted and cutting lemons, when I considered stopping short—but realized that finishing well wasn’t about the lemons, it was about who I choose to be. Since then, I’ve carried that mindset into everything I do, from planning small events to large-scale productions, and from one-on-one meetings to executive priorities. I hold myself to the same standard in every situation, because I believe what you consistently put into your work is what ultimately comes back to you.

Your voice is just as important as everyone else's, and I mean that in a full 360 sense. Your voice is no less important than any person who's in that room, or at that event, or having this conversation, whether you have come in with zero experience or 30 years of experience. But on the other hand, your voice is also not more important than anybody else's either. You have a real responsibility to listen and absorb and ask questions, and you must use that intelligently, because it can seem bright and shiny to have these lights on you and have this attention. Typically, people in events are very bubbly and extroverted, and it's easy to drink the Kool-Aid of how great you are, but you're a dime a dozen and you can be replaced, so make yourself irreplaceable. The only way you do that is by listening and then taking chances - calculated chances, don't be reckless. You have to be able to risk saying the thing, asking the question, learning something new about something you thought you already knew. I genuinely believe that curiosity is the most important skill, because I do think it's a skill, that anyone can have in events.

A real challenge in my field is that a lot of people tend to think of corporate events or events in general as just party planning or being a wedding planner. While wedding planners are certainly part of the event industry, that's not the only thing. I wish more of my job involved parties - that would be a lot more fun than the vast majority of the events I plan. It's really about getting credibility that this is an actual revenue lever for companies, and when you do it strategically rather than just showing up and hoping everything works out, it makes a real difference. Hope is not a strategy - it's important to have, but it's not a strategy. The opportunity is adding validity to this, particularly for such a woman-dominated industry, and not just for C-suites to know that, but also for the planners and anybody in my industry to believe that too. Sometimes I see women in my field who just show up and exhibit or slap their logo on something and call it a day, but there's a way to tell this story differently to really make this something that drives brand perception and buying strategies for your audience. Another opportunity is showing how you can use event planning skills strategically to make money for your business, and how you can take these life skills and apply them outside of work. People in events are excellent executors who learn how to negotiate, project manage, manage massive budgets, and tell the story of what you do and how that impacts the business beyond just clear ROI, which is incredibly difficult to do with events.