Zandalee Van Nieuwenhuizen

My motivation honestly comes from immigrating to the United States when I was 7 with my parents from South Africa. I'm the only child, and it's just the three of us. Seeing them work as hard as they did, essentially starting their careers and lives over in their 30s to create a better life for our family and things that they really believed in, there was a lot of sacrifice involved with that. We left our family behind there, and there was a lot of proving our worth, whether that was right, wrong, or indifferent. That's been my motivation - making sure that I make them proud, making sure that I make myself proud, and that I just live as honestly and true to myself as I can. I really credit a lot of my success to always being willing to try things and not being so pigeonholed into a specific lane or corner where I have to say I don't know how to do that or I couldn't possibly. It's always having that knack for figuring things out, problem solving, and solution finding.

The best career advice I've ever received is to be interested, to learn as much as possible, and to ask questions. There's really no dumb question to ask, especially when you're learning, so stay curious. If I had to sum it up neatly, it's to stay curious and to always apply yourself. I think what I really credit a lot of my success to has just been being willing to try things and not being so pigeonholed into either a specific lane or a corner that I have to say I don't know how to do that or I couldn't possibly. It's just always having that knack for figuring things out, problem solving, and solution finding. The more you know, the more you know, so that's always kind of my motto, and that's what I love to do.

In general with marketing, the moment the economy starts to see some challenges or tank, marketing tends to be one of the first things that companies look towards cutting or getting rid of or scaling back on. But the good companies, or the brave companies, they really lean into it, because if you scale back and consumers are still out there looking for things, it's just not really going to be beneficial for you in the long run. I've seen a lot of companies scale back completely, and then the economy rebounds, and all of a sudden you're behind the eight ball trying to catch up to companies that just remained consistent or leaned in during tougher times. Right now, I can say that I'm very fortunate to be part of a company that has doubled down on and is leaning into marketing, regardless of what is happening out here with the economy. Being in the micro-wedding space is really beneficial too, because we've seen a broader trend since the pandemic where people are really leaning into less production and just more intentionality with the people that they love. Weddings are up to 50 people, so you still get to celebrate with your nearest and dearest, but it's not this massive production, and it really lends itself to more challenging economic times.

I think open-mindedness is really important, and it lends itself to that curiosity as well - not assuming anything, really not assuming anything. I think being gracious and open-minded and having conversations and learning as much as you can are my big values. Humility is a huge one. I really don't think that anyone ever has all the answers to anything. I think we can always learn from those around us, and every person you meet is someone new that you can get to know and learn from, and I think that that is huge. So, for sure, honesty, humility, and just this willingness to learn.