Insider to Insider: Brenda Swann, Owner of Swann Soirées

Brenda Swann is really good at planning events.  And, I know why.  She knows who she is and she knows her customer and she knows her business.  She does not try to be all things to all people.  And, as a result she is having incredible success in her San Diego-based business, Swann Soirées.  She knows that focusing on the specific needs of a specific customer with her specific talents will bring her the business she needs to be sustainable.  I am super impressed!

Brenda Swann
Swann Soirées
San Diego, CA
www.swannsoirees.com
Established 2007

Why did you start your business?

I don’t have a definitive reason why I started Swann Soirées exactly…  I had labored through college so that I could be that corporate fiend who would have eternal wealth & happiness working nine to five with paid holidays and Christmas bonuses. I had a spectacular corporate job before recognizing that SS was my passion. It started with helping friends with their weddings because I “did events” as part of my “day job” responsibilities. I was the occasional hobbyist gladly giving weekends to do something fun and creative. Looking back, I laugh because I had no clue what I was doing playing Wedding Coordinator, I am pretty sure that I was “that” wedding coordinator that annoyed the living lights out of the pros… nonchalant about the team and completely unaware of the big picture. For me it was all about the bride (who most often was my good friend) and about how the world needed to come to her feet…geez, I am so embarrassed to admit it all. BUT, I do remember the high I felt at the end of the night every time… I loved being a part of something so happy and substantial. It was exhilarating! There’s something about being behind the scenes orchestrating moments in time that really makes my clock tick.

I still remember every single moment that created what would become my business, it was gradual and all as a response to the last experience at a wedding I had completed. Every deliberate decision made towards building SS came from an accidental occurrence… sometimes I joke that I created SS out of crisis management and then found myself operating a business. I continue to operate my business because it makes me happy. Plain and simple.

What book do you recommend to new business owners?

Built to Last by Jim Collins. This book is still my inspiration. I learned that you don’t have to have a great idea, per-se, to start a company. However, you do have to have solid core values and a guiding ideology. You have to remain consistent by always challenging yourself, evolving, and accepting that there isn’t some brilliant master blue-print for success. It encourages you to set ambitious goals and believe in yourself. It’s an easy read, it doesn’t make you feel like you should have gone to business school to understand it.

My second recommendation isn’t a book but rather an article, The Brand Called You, by Tom Peters, published in Fast Company Magazine. It is a master plan on how to build YOU as a brand and why you must invest in what Peters calls “Me Inc.” When I re-read it now it’s message is so obvious, yet it is genius, and re-reading it keeps me in check.  I don’t think people understand the power of being your own brand, where that can lead you, and how being solid & strong individual makes you that much better of a team player (and the first kid picked for the team!)

Lastly, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni. Nobody gets anywhere alone. In our industry, it is imperative that we function as a team even though most of us vendors are completely independent of each other… While we are all separate businesses, with different goals, methods and priorities, at the end of the day, we are all trying to achieve the same goal, to make our mutual clients happy! I found that the strategies in this book are applicable widely… from recognizing where you fit, to how to be a mentor to your staff and leader to your vendors.

Do you have any cool goal-setting tips to share with us?

I am not sure if this is a goal-setting tip as much as just encouragement, but I say Aim high, super high… always! What do you want? Where do you want to be with your business, your life, your inbox?? Alright, then go get it… The worst thing that can ever happen to you is that you don’t reach a certain goal, but en-route to the perceived failure, you crossed paths with not only new experiences, but new methodology, people, learned your own limits (or pushed them), the take-away from a “failed attempt” at goal reaching is always so much more valuable than the goal itself. I’ve always felt that if you set teeny tiny goals, they are going to be easy to achieve and you aren’t going to get as far… while it may not work for everyone to jump-in head first, I highly encourage it… heck, do it naked in the shallow end, you’ll be surprised how often you will glide right in and how fearless you will feel after you have “brushed death.”

What do you find to be the biggest challenge as a business owner?

One of my mentors once told me; “You don’t build your own business for money or fame, but rather for the sense of accomplishment and validation.” Which is why we take things so personally when we receive any kind of feedback that doesn’t resemble praise on how awesome we are. That alone can kill us! It is natural to get caught up in a tunnel vision of we do no (or little) wrong, make no (or little) mistakes, or worse, that who we are as individuals doesn’t affect our business or practices.  We have an excuse for everything!

Our biggest challenge as business owners is the inability to accept brutal honesty and feedback without crying, becoming defensive, and ultimately, undermining our own ability to grow (heck half the time we can’t admit that we cry or get defensive). While it’s totally natural & expected to be protective of our babies (our businesses) and our egos, the bottom line is that there will always be someone bigger, better, faster, smarter, more experienced, funnier, prettier, insert adjective here, than ourselves… once we accept that, we are able to focus on our super high goals so that we can be that “-er.” But alas, easier said than done…

If you were starting your business all over again, what would you have done differently?

Absolutely nothing. I would not be where and who I am today if I changed a thing.

Thanks Brenda!

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