Meet Courtney West

We recently connected with Courtney West and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Courtney, 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?

Developing my confidence and self-esteem has been quite the journey. From the very beginning my mother would jokingly call me the ugly duckling of the family and that has kind of stuck with me. We all know what the ugly duckling turns into…the beautiful swan. I don’t think she meant it to be mean to me, but in a strange way it has been like a driving force on my butterfly journey. When I was a child I was very quiet, shy and didn’t want to stand out. I was picked on a lot in school and by my siblings. I wish I could say that “bullying” stops with childhood, but it doesn’t. My entire life I’ve been building up a thick skin, but underneath it all I’m still very human and sensitive. Confidence comes from within, some of us are born with it, but some of us have to acquire it. In this stage in life I feel that I am my most confident self. I’ve been through trials and tribulations, and I feel confident in who I am, what I have experienced and what I hope to achieve. Channeling that confidence has been met with challenges, but I have found that surrounding myself with people that are positive, motivated and inspire me helps keep me confident in myself. I see what my mentors achieve, and it fills me up with positivity and motivation to keep reaching higher and to not be afraid to dig deeper, and what I have found and learned from these mentors is that you have to really get to know yourself and love yourself to be confident. So, basically confidence and self-esteem go hand in hand. You can’t get self-esteem from anyone or anything, it comes from within. The more I look within myself and pour positivity and love into myself the more confident I become in who I am and the decisions that I make. When you look in the mirror you have to love what you see. Pouring into myself helps me to be a better person and business owner working with clients and staff to bring events to life.

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?

My name is Courtney, but I am better known as the Peachy Keen Lady. I am a wedding guru. I do wedding planning, design, florals, drapery, officiating and DJ services. I love what I do and that I get to wear many hats and all of these stylish hats vibe with weddings. I offer packages that bundle all of these services together for people, mix and match packages if all of the services are not needed and a la cart options for those just looking to fill in the gaps. I’ve been doing weddings for 17 years and started out working family weddings at our family wedding venue is Buford Georgia at the very beginning of my career. I started Peachy Keen when I was pregnant with my daughter and this fall she is starting High School, so its been a very exciting adventure to say the least. I started out as a young 23 year old wedding planner and have grown and evolved into so much more. Like a butterfly I love to embrace change, growth, new ideas, transformations and just seeing ideas grow and evolve until they are born into life. We have very exciting things going on with Peachy Keen so stay tuned.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Quality number one would be being open to learn and that you are always a student. The ability to learn and evolve is essential because the world is always changing and that applies to weddings too. How we plan, prepare and execute them is always changing with new designs, new products, coming up with better ways to build things etc. Always be learning and never be afraid to learn or try something new because you never know where it could lead you.

Quality number two is to get to know yourself and what you want for your overall vision for your business. Don’t compare yourself to other people, they have different lives, goals, etc You have to find out who you are and what your vision is for your future so that you can work towards it. You will love what you do more and be able to perform better for your clients being your most authentic self and most important attract the right clients for you and your brand.

Quality number three don’t give up be resilient. Even if you have to start from scratch all over again, even after you fail one, two, three or four times, don’t give up. If you want to succeed you have to stay in the race.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

Trusted friends and my life coach mentor Sara Shaikh – The Modern Love Photography (stay tuned she is starting an academy). I wear a lot of hats and juggle an insane schedule and just like everyone my life has its ups and downs especially over the past 4 years. Working with a life coach and completely changed my life for the better. I’ve always been a resilient person, but some blocks and issues require a professional. I highly recommend life coaches, yoga, meditation, etc. Find balance, stay grounded when you can, make space for yourself (working on this), pour back into yourself, take time off, love yourself more so that you can love what you are doing in this world. This experience has changed me entirely and I am so grateful for the opportunity.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Hellen Co Photos, Lunalee Photography, Boheme Winter Photography, Leah and Mark Photography

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