Melissa Ervin

I attribute my success to really keeping the customer in mind and not departing from my values. One of my core values is customer experience, so making sure that every single thing I do every day is really keeping the customer in mind, the client in mind - that has really driven a lot of my success. I'm very much in the camp that as long as you have the work ethic, as long as you fit in well with your team, as long as you are kind, as long as you have a great personality, a job can be taught. That's how I've approached my career - I've never really shied away from anything. Obviously things can be scary, and new things can be scary, but I think that's where I thrive, in the unknown, and really having the confidence in myself to be able to do something. Once I found what I was passionate about, it came a little bit more naturally to me. It's about taking the chances and really experiencing and diving head-on into anything that came my way.

The best career advice I've received is twofold. First, just make sure that you're continuing to believe in yourself and knowing that you can do whatever is handed to you. Really just be your own cheerleader. Obviously, I struggle with that - I think a lot of people struggle with that now and then - but really just continue to be a cheerleader for yourself and recognize that you are in the position that you're in because you're a hard worker and you're good at your profession and you're good at your job. Just continue to remind yourself of that. And then the second piece is just always be kind. I think as long as you're kind, a lot of good things will come your way.

I would say just really put yourself out there. It's a very emotionally and physically taxing environment to be in, but it's incredibly rewarding. Working with different clients to bring strategy and vision to life is one of my passions. Again, it's about your work ethic and just being driven to really put yourself out there and make sure that you're elevating yourself for opportunities, and knowing in your heart of hearts that you can do it, no matter what anybody says. If you're really passionate about it, you can do anything you put your mind to.

The biggest challenges in our field right now are budgets. Everybody's got a very tight budget, and it's very hard to put on a really meaningful and valuable event when you don't have a lot of money. We've seen since COVID - before COVID it was all in person, during COVID it was virtual, and now post-COVID we went back into a hybrid of virtual and in-person. Recently, we've seen a huge push to go back to in-person, but the budgets are like half of what they used to be. So it's been really tough to go back to the level and the elevated event branding we're used to, putting on events at the level we're used to with a fraction of the budget. Another huge challenge is just trying to get clients to think a little bit differently about the way that they execute events. With COVID happening and everybody going into this virtual, work-from-home environment, attention spans are a lot shorter than we've seen in previous years. Gone are the days where you can have a 4-hour general session, then go right into breakouts, then go right to dinner - people are just exhausted. So we're trying to get clients to think about their agendas a little bit differently, trying to build in time for mental health, trying to build in time for folks to go and recollect themselves and take a break so that they have the brain space to actually absorb the information that you're throwing at them and that you want them to take home with them. That's definitely something we're really focused on right now.

Connection is one of my number one values - connection over everything. Trustworthiness is incredibly important to me. I value kindness deeply. I believe in continuing to build relationships and really keeping the human piece of life at the forefront, even in your position, in your role. It's about recognizing that everyone is human and everyone is carrying weight, and it all comes back to just being kind.