We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephanie Le. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stephanie below.
Hi Stephanie, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I developed my resilience after years of being in uncomfortable situations. Although I don’t speak about it often, being a child of immigrant parents forced me to grow up quickly. At a young age, I was tasked with navigating life for my family, while figuring out what I needed to do next. There is no handbook to your life. It was a lot of trial and error. There was also a fear of being left behind. However, instead of letting the uncertainties dictate my life, I decided to make moves that would help shape my future. As I entered young adulthood, I quickly learned that life is full of failures and accomplishments. But it is your outlook that will determine what you’ll do next.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a full-time wedding planner and coordinator on the island of O’ahu, Hawai’i. I have had the pleasure of planning and coordinating weddings over the last 9 years where I’ve worked and partnered with amazing venues, couples, vendors, and colleagues in the industry. Over time, I have developed a personalized approach to wedding planning where we strive to plan and coordinate events with intention and open communication. This requires intentionally building relationships with a prospective client before establishing myself as their planner. I am not for everyone, but that’s the beauty of wedding planning. Each client is unique in their needs and every planner brings a different set of skills. It’s all about finding the right fit and I am always honored to be a part of a couple’s love story.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
If I had to sum it up to 3 key attributes that shaped my journey, it would be the following: be persistent, be honest, and be kind. As a relatively “new” wedding planner and coordinator, being persistent is key to making an impact on others. In a field where it is both highly competitive and highly collaborative, you need to be persistent to make a name for yourself that will not be forgotten. Also taking into consideration the role that I play as a planner, I need to be firm and assertive in order to execute the vision of the client.
You’ll also need to be honest with yourself and with others. When working with clients, it can be easy to over promise and under deliver to “sell your business”. Being honest will help shape a path that you as an individual and business can be true to. Be honest with your skills and capabilities. It’s okay to strive and work towards more, but again, be honest with yourself to avoid burnout and setting yourself up for failure. We all want to succeed, but we need to set ourselves up for success.
Lastly, be kind to yourself and to others. Again, in this highly collaborative field, as a planner, it is my goal to build a team that will execute the needs of the client. Being kind to your colleagues will go a long way. But remember to be kind to yourself. You are your best when you treat yourself well.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
I believe it’s better to be more well-rounded. A person will always have strengths and weaknesses as no one is perfect. However, you can improve your weaknesses, so they don’t become an end-all to your skill set. Your weaknesses may never become a strength, and that’s okay. By identifying your weaknesses, you make plans to protect yourself and prevent your weaknesses from becoming your downfall. For example, I am not particularly good at social media. However, I’ve learned that social media is key and crucial to staying relevant. Although I’ll probably never become a social media influencer, I can be aware of what social media brings to the table for my small business. At this time, I’m exploring options to outsource social media networking to a third-party vendor who can help re-establish my social media presence. Although I am not the one behind the screen creating my social media presence, I am delegating it to someone else who can help my business improve.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.esselleweddings.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/esselleweddings
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/esselleweddings/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/esselle-weddings-and-events-honolulu
Image Credits
Jason Deng Photo, https://www.jasondeng.net/
