Bri Gehrman

I attribute my success to my perseverance and persistence. I am not one to take no lightly - I don't take no as an answer unless it is a very understood no. I always go in the direction of, okay, how do I make this work? If it's something that isn't a final no, or maybe I can see that there is a workaround, I push a little bit farther just to see what we can actually do, instead of just being given the first answer and having everything be shut down after that. If I've exhausted all different avenues, then obviously I'll go that route, but I just don't give up very easily. I'm very persistent. It's always about how do I make this work, and what do I need to do to pivot, or be more aligned, or get a workaround that both sides are comfortable with. That perseverance and persistence is probably where my success comes from, because I always push to see what's actually possible.

The best advice I've received, which I heard growing up, is never give up, and it's not what you know, it's who you know. I've always gone off of that - I can learn what I don't know. What I don't know, I can learn. But it's the who you know that can get you to meet somebody else, or give you a window into an opportunity that you might not have been able to see if you didn't know that person. Or being able to meet somebody that you wouldn't have been able to meet without knowing somebody or some event or something to move you forward. So I kind of live off of that - continue learning, never give up, and it's not what you know, it's who you know to move you forward.

My advice is that you need consistency and perseverance. It's not an easy field. You have to be ready to hear the word no and be okay with it. It doesn't mean anything for you personally - people say no for so many reasons. You need to be able to move past that and look at it through different lenses to see how it could be different, what could be different, or shift your viewpoint of who or how or what you're going after. The key if you're going into this field, or really any field, is making sure you know who you are and what you're worth, and aligning your business and your job responsibilities off of that, so you don't have a soul-sucking feeling when you go to work or when you do your job.

The biggest challenge for us right now is being seen as only a wedding provider, not a full event provider. We're trying to overcome being seen as just a wedding planning company and establish ourselves as the event and logistics planning company that we are. We can look at any sort of event and make sure that it is stress-free for the client, that it's efficient and flowing, and the planning is being met in the stages. We pride ourselves on the guest and client experience, so that they can enjoy their event like a guest. The biggest opportunity I'm seeing is that there are so many amazing women that have businesses - they might be running them more on the solo entrepreneur side, or maybe they have a very small team, or they just have a team that's very focused on what their tasks and responsibilities are, so they don't necessarily have extra bandwidth to add something to their employees' or freelancers' plates. That's where I come into play - my business can take that off of the plates of those businesses, but still run them kind of as a clone of the business. We are an added arm or an added leg to the business, so we come in and match what they want their brand and their business voice to be for that event, and then we execute it from there. We're aligning with empowering and uplifting women and their businesses, and pushing everybody forward, making sure that events can run and be impactful and powerful.

Trust and honesty are probably right up there as my most important values. I'm not one to sugarcoat a lot of things - I'm more of a blunt personality. Being trustful and honest is at very high-end standards for me. If I have employees or freelancers, I expect them to come to me with anything, regardless if it's good or bad news, and then we can work through it together and figure out outcomes or workarounds. That's a big one - you can't really run a business and have a successful team if you're not trusting them, and they're not trusting you. Same thing in personal life. I'm very nice and friendly with everybody I meet, but I don't let a lot of people into that inner bubble. I have a very close, intimate network of friends. Once you have my trust, you have it, but if it's broken, then that's one of those things where it's very hard for me to give it back in the same way. Trust and honesty is probably one of the biggest things that I value most in my professional and personal life.