Her Story
About Paula
I have been working in the events industry for around 5-6 years, and what makes my story unique is that I'm an immigrant originally from Colombia. I've worked in the events industry from different perspectives - more behind the scenes with meeting planner roles, and more sales-oriented in consultant and event solutions consultant roles. It's been a little bit of different departments, but everything focused on the event area and hospitality. I just love it because it's a very active, accelerated industry. Currently, I work with FedEx Office at two big hotels in the Washington, D.C. area - the JW Marriott and the Washington Hilton. Basically, I'm a sales consultant for everything people need for their event, whether that's signage, branding, shipping materials, merchandising, any swag, or even vendor management and speaker management. Anything I can help with to make sure that their event reaches their goals. I recently finished my MBA, which was a big accomplishment, focused in leadership and management. I'm trying to get into a more leadership position, working together with people, bringing their best out of a team, and just guiding them towards succeeding.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Paula
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think it's probably commitment - just being committed to always doing your best. When you're dealing with so many customers and every single event, you get to see a different industry, a different perspective, to interact with so many people. It can be in the medical field, in marketing, in so many areas. So I think it's just commitment and being committed to always doing your best, and listening to what they are trying to do, what they are trying to get out of each event. But also, obviously, trying your best to just exceed their expectations and putting in that extra mile, that commitment to do the best you can all the time, even when you're tired and when it's challenging.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think it's more about resilience. Like I said, I'm an immigrant, so some things are just harder for us - obviously, English language, cultural differences, relationship building. So I would say one thing is just being very, very resilient and having discipline, because this field specifically is very active, very fast-paced. The discipline to be very, very organized and have everything distributed is critical, because it can be chaos. I think that would be probably the biggest one - just having discipline and being very, very organized, and obviously, not getting discouraged by miscommunications or mistakes that you can make along the way, because obviously with events, so many things can go wrong. So I would say probably not being too hard on yourself, but at the same time, having the discipline to build a strong foundation in strategic planning and organization that can make the process a lot more smoother.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think it's honesty. Honesty is just a big, big, big one for me. Like, even when sometimes I really don't know what I'm doing, I'm very honest - like, honestly, I don't get what you're trying to say, or I don't understand. I just like to communicate very straightforward, saying things very clearly. I would also say discipline and commitment - just being aware that there's always something to learn. You should never feel very comfortable and feel like you already have a lot of experience, because so many other people can teach you so many other things. So I would say having that open perspective to learning from everyone, not just when you're in a leadership position. I just believe that you can learn from everyone.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · Maryland
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.