Event planner Rachel Senner makes business personal by promoting her work and herself at the same time – through lifestyle photography. The result, an experience that looks like so much fun her followers can’t wait to work with her.
Vendors at a pop-up shop party seem to sprout overnight, like mushrooms. 🍄 It looks so simple. Name the date, find a place, then invite a bunch of shops to set up tables, tents and displays.
But when it’s the first event you’ve ever planned, and you have to convince those vendors that it will be worth their time to come?
As Rachel Senner remembers her first pop-up shop party, it was less fungi-like ease, and more like giving birth: “Hundreds of phone calls, elbow grease, blood, sweat, tears and prayers. I was ready to quit.”
Rachel had just opened the proverbial shutters of her event planning business, Senner of Attention, and took on the pop-up shop party with the help of friend and photographer Meghan of Chicka Artistica Photography.
“We found a venue (The Chase Center on the Riverfront) and immediately got to work. I created a logo on Canva (which, by the way, I use Canva for pretty much all the graphic designs I do for events; that website saved my life!) for the Pop-up Shop Party, which served as the face of our project. As we gained vendors we would post their logos with the event logo to gain momentum for the event.”
Like Rachel you can create your own event logo in Canva using templates like Script Blue, Peach Circle or the Snow Pink Flower Floral.
The event not only kicked off a partnership that would help build Rachel’s business grow, but it was also a landmark moment – it’s how she got her first 100 attendees.Rachel says, “I heard a lot of ‘No’ before I ever heard a ‘Yes’. Business owners are smart. They want a great return on investment, and to trust what seemed like a couple of newbie kids with their money and time took a big leap of faith.
When those vendors started showing up and setting up their products, and thanking us for allowing them to be there, I felt like I could do anything.
Those first vendors will always have a special place in my heart. They were the start of something really big.”
In this article, Rachel breaks down how she uses social media (and print media) to grow her business, why promoting yourself is key to promoting event planning, and her unique approach to event design.
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