Meet Erin Thompson

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erin Thompson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Erin , we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
For me, developing confidence and self-esteem has been lifelong work. I turned 43 this year, and I still get imposter syndrome at times. I think the key is recognizing what you bring to the table and knowing you have unique talents and perspectives that set you apart from others. For example, there are plenty of people that create vision boards in my industry these days, but I think what sets me apart is my taste, point of view, and the way I interpret things. I also aim to stay away from trends and pick timeless images.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I started my career working in advertising studios for clients such as Acura, Apple, Patrón, Pepsi, Visa, and Whole Foods Market. My advertising background is in layout design, typography, styling, and handcrafting installation pieces.

I’ve always loved to design anything and everything. In my early 20s, I started creating flower arrangements and bouquets for my friends’ weddings, which quickly turned into an obsession with all things wedding related.

Before I knew it, I was helping friends design their entire events, taking engagement photos, designing invitations, and so on. At the time, I wasn’t confident enough to start my own business, so I continued to help friends for fun. I’m divorce now, but when I got married years later, I planned my own wedding. During the process, I used in-depth vision boards to help me edit my ideas and explain them to vendors. Vision boards for weddings weren’t as prevalent then as they are now, and my vendors were thrilled to have them. That’s when I realized how helpful they could be for all types of wedding professionals.

Aepret vision boards are created for wedding and event planners, as well as their vendors. Understanding my clients’ aesthetics allows me to truly reflect their talents through my graphic work. This highly collaborative process starts with a consultation where we discuss their preferences, the finer details of the project, from tonality to location, and their design vision. Afterward, I will develop a collection of images that reflects diligent research and the curation of stylistic inspiration that aligns with their vision in an original way. Imagery, furniture pulls, color stories, cultural references, and more can be pulled for each event/project. We then refine the vision boards together.
These boards can include anything, such as event needs, renderings of invitation suites, and individual branded elements, like crests and stamps, as well as Photoshopped spaces for production, furniture/rental pulls, florals, floor plans, and so on. With an acute attention to detail, I revel in the opportunity to hunt for a location, culture, vendor, product, pattern, or decor for my clients, often sourcing those hard-to-find treasures that make an event truly spectacular.

Lastly, I’d say I’m most proud of being a lesbian in a wedding world that’s mostly hetero. I love seeing the LGBTQIA+ community represented in my field. When creating boards, it is important to me to show diversity and represent all people. Although it’s getting better, weddings are still mostly represented by straight, white couples.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I don’t think these qualities will work for everyone, but this is what worked for me.

1. I was willing to work for small amounts of money in the beginning to gain experience. For me, it started with persuading friends to give me small flower budgets. I worked for free for a long time, but I was doing what I loved and learning skills that eventually got me where I wanted to be. Believe in yourself and you will be amazed at the doors that open up for you.

2. Although I never enjoyed it, I gained a lot of knowledge working at ad agencies, and I believe that knowledge put me in a good position for what I do now.

3. After I had good knowledge of what I wanted to do, I gave up my cushy job and went after my dream.

If you know what you want to do, get out there and do it. Start with whatever resources you can. Reach out to people, ask for internships, start a social media account. Fake it till you make it. I truly believe people that are earlier in their journey have an upper hand for so many reasons. They are moldable, they are the most up to date in current trends, they have the most current education. They are also not jaded by the world and hopefully still believe that anything is possible. Start now and believe in yourself. You’ll be surprised at the opportunities that come up. I recommend “You Are a Badass” by Jen Sincero and “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert for creatives who need a push to go after their dreams.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
Lisa Vorce and her business partner (and sister) Gina have been the most influential people in my career to date. I still pinch myself that I get to work with and be mentored by them. Lisa is the creative part of the team, and she has been such a positive influence in my life. She has helped me refine my taste and influences so many of my creative choices. They have given me so many incredible opportunities and believed in me to a point that it completely transformed my work ethic and who I am today. I started working for them in 2017, and I started my business, Aepret, because of the confidence I gained in the process.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Jose Villa, Valorie Darling, Roey Yohai Studios, Norman & Blake
Photos courtesy of Lisa Vorce Co.

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