THE BUSINESS DIARIES | Pink Palm Events

“Be careful who you share your dreams with. So many dreams are crushed because they’re shared with the wrong people, who have a fixed mindset. Typically – it’s people who love you the most that support you the least. But it’s not their dream, so why are you sharing it and expecting them to get it? There’s a whole world of other business owners out there who get it, so come find us! Build up a business owner network and it’ll change your life…”

Happy Friday folks! ⚡️It’s a pleasure to welcome Ashleigh, Founder of Pink Palm Events to The Business Diaries today. And if the above quote doesn’t make you want to keep scrolling to discover her story, I don’t know what will…

How long have you been running your business for? How was your business born?

Pink Palms was born in 2017 when we lived in LA – I adored the creativity and inspiration out there, and knew I needed to do something more creative with my life! I had done interior design training a few years before and loved it, but thought that the career itself wasn’t for me, so I had been waiting for an idea to strike on how I could repurpose those skills. One day, it hit me that events is the answer.

What did you want to do for a career? Was this something you’d always intended on doing?

I remember really clearly I had no clue what I wanted to do, but knew I enjoyed being around people. I trained as a nurse, after running an after school club teaching kids French during my A levels and quickly realising teaching wasn’t for me! I loved my time in nursing, mostly because I learned so much about people. I met people from countries I’d never even heard of, and met people that I would never have come across in any other walk of life. I’m so grateful for those life experiences. Nursing ultimately wasn’t a career for life for me, I cared too much so burnt out. Once I was pregnant I knew I needed something I had more control over, so setting up my own business was the answer. 

What is one thing you know now that you would have told yourself when you first launched your business?

The sooner you get a coach the sooner you’ll get where you want to be! There’s some incredibly weird human traits that both tie into why having a business coach is invaluable – one, that we’ll do more for others than we’ll do for ourselves, and two, that you just can’t problem solve or see a clear way forward by yourself. You need an external viewpoint to help diagnose the problem & solve it with you. 

What has been one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a business owner, and how have you overcome it?

The irony of needing more control and becoming a business owner to ‘work when I want’ then setting up a business that was controlling me. I’m now working towards getting a blend that works for us as a family through changing the processes, hiring a team, and removing myself as an integral cog in the business is the next step! I’m super envious of people setting up businesses in the last year, and being really intentional with how they are setting up from the beginning. Having to stop and analyse your processes to change them can feel a lot like breaking a bad habit! 

Tell me an invaluable lesson you have learnt as a business owner?

That you are your business’ bottleneck. If there’s a problem in the business, chances are you are the cause of it. It can be from anything such as deciding not to outsource when you really should, to your revenues not being as high as they should because you’re playing it small. Self development has become a non-negotiable for me. I constantly read, listen and watch anything of self development to broaden my horizons and deepen my knowledge as a business owner. It’s helped me adapt my interpretation of when things don’t go to plan – and that I learn more in those scenarios than when things go really well.

Being self-employed can be a struggle! How do you stay motivated? Do you have any productivity tips?

I’m lucky that in general, I’m a pretty motivated person. I learnt early in my nursing career what challenges are and how they feel, and I know how to push myself past it because I wasn’t given a choice – I think that’s really helped me, that I saw work as a constant challenge to overcome and not shy away from. Because that’s what running your own business is, no matter what level you are at there’s always challenges – it’s just that what the challenges are change. I do love a routine as well, I listen to Tony Robbins Priming every morning, and frequently recommend it to my mentoring clients and my couples in the run up to their wedding. I run my whole schedule around doing similar tasks all together and find it makes me so much more productive. For example, all my mentoring clients are booked in on a Tuesday, and I will schedule new consultation calls on a Wednesday so if I have quotes or proposals to create, they all get done together. 

Is there anyone (within the industry, celebrity, friend or family member) who inspires you and what you do for a living? 

Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx as a business inspiration for sure! I honestly have too many - one is a friend Hayley who owns Lucky Pineapple, another is my friend Hannah who is a sales coach. I’m grateful I’ve created a really wonderful network of female founders.

Name me your go-to podcast, audio book or song that you listen to while working?

I just absolutely adore Conversations of Inspiration by Holly Tucker and my favourite episode is probably with the founder of Innocent. I also love the Tony Robbins podcast and the interview with Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx is just incredible. I’ve listened to it at least 10 times and take something different away each time! I don’t listen whilst I’m working though, it reduces my productivity. I listen whilst I’m driving, cooking or cleaning, which I find unlocks a lot more creative juices. I have a Pink Palms wedding playlist on Spotify that I listen to for a Friday night kitchen disco!

I’m all about supporting small businesses. How can your followers / customers / clients support your biz?

I think one thing we don’t do enough is join the dots and connect people – if you listen to the podcast episode with the founder of Innocent, you’ll see what I mean! Look at each small business you love, and see who they are collaborating with and who their clients are – and if you think you know someone who’d love them, then introduce them! So if you follow us on Instagram @pinkpalmsevents, please recommend us to your friends or family you think will love our work or introduce us to brands you work for or have connections to – small businesses really appreciate it!

What’s one thing you dislike about being a business owner?

The never switching off! I haven’t taken a 2 week holiday where my brain properly switched off since May 2018 and it could really do with one now! Any less than 2 weeks is restful, but it’s not enough for a business owners brain to properly switch off.

What’s one thing you love about being a business owner?

Everything! Why would you ever work for anyone else when you just can’t possibly love it as much as working for yourself?!

What is a common myth about your business / field of expertise?

That because you like to use colour, you are ‘alternative’. The wedding industry really needs to update this outdated view on use of colour in weddings and preferring white – we are in 2021, stop trying to shove colour loving people towards alternative weddings!

If your business could be remembered for one thing, what would it be?

Creativity and inspiration (I realise that’s two, but I can’t choose!)

What’s something your followers / customers / clients wouldn’t know about you?’

I absolutely adore football and I’m a massive Liverpool fan – I don’t tend to share this much on social because it probably won’t be appreciated by my audience! We have football on in our house at least 4 nights a week and my favourite time of the week is watching Match of the Day in bed on a Saturday night!

What is one piece of advice you’d give to someone starting their own business?

Be careful who you share your dreams with. So many dreams are crushed because they’re shared with the wrong people, who have a fixed mindset. Typically – it’s people who love you the most that support you the least. But it’s not their dream, so why are you sharing it and expecting them to get it? There’s a whole world of other business owners out there who get it, so come find us! Build up a business owner network and it’ll change your life.

What do you have in store for your business? Is there anything exciting around the corner?

Yes! I’m planning and hosting my first panel talk (in real life – HOW exciting!) next month, called Creative Conversations. We have an incredible panel lined up – all ready to share their stories of navigating their businesses in the last 18 months but then their 2022 plans. It’ll be the ultimate inspirational & motivational event!

Describe being a business owner in three words. (E.G Rewarding, freedom, challenging)

Growth, pride, fulfilling