Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Anderson.
Hi Amber, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I graduated college just as the Great Recession was starting to unfold. At the time, I was a personal trainer but as clientele for that dried up, I took the nearest desk job at Deloitte and Touche. Having no business in an accounting firm, I kept my head down and survived seven rounds of layoffs while working my way over to the event desk as a means of not having to sit all day. From there, I met my husband and moved to Austin, transferring with Deloitte. Eventually, one thing led to another and I found myself helping a family friend as he opened a new wedding and event venue. He encouraged me to start my own brand as a wedding planner, so I did and spent ten years building that company before selling it and focusing solely on consulting. I now own Refine for Wedding Planners, which is special to me because I’m a product of Refine. My mentor and coach raised me through the Refine program and then later sold it to me. I’ve been running Refine for nearly four years now and have been able to double the audience and 8x the revenue, all while serving wedding pros and their clients along the way! It’s been a dream (I didn’t know I had) come true!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being a small business owner comes with really dark days, but despite my darkest days, I know I will never go back to corporate America. While in the hospital giving birth to my second child, one of my lead planners resigned to care for a family emergency. She was my maternity plan! After having the baby, I had severe postpartum depression and four years of health issues. The baby had colic and that whole first year just felt like a twilight zone. No one in our home was happy or thriving, it was an intense level of stress and darkness that was very damaging to all of us. Yet, my husband and I both had companies to keep afloat. Surviving that year, and reflecting on the lessons we learned through the continued journey, has ultimately been the greatest gift of my life because it showed me that I can truly do anything. I’ve experienced a lot of textbook trauma in my life, but even still, that was the hardest. Moms can do anything! From there on out in life, when hard times have come my way, I’ve relied on what I’ve learned, and feel confident I now have the skills to lean in and navigate hard things.
We’ve been impressed with Refine for Wedding Planners, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Refine for Wedding Planners is the largest online community of it’s kind for Wedding Planners. Through templates, a course, retreats, podcast, CRM and more, I help planners with their systems and workflows, building their confidence, so they can work less and make more.
I’m most proud of our ability to tackle hard and controversial topics, as this is where growth is truly found and is what most sets us apart. I’m known for saying what others are often thinking but not willing to say. And in that, we are able to identify real things that need real work. Though, I have a knack for incorporating tact and grace into my frank and no fluff style.
My mission in the wedding industry has always been to alleviate pain points for couples through their engagement. Serving wedding planners allows me to do this on a greater scale. What I’ve learned is that watching planners grow is equally as rewarding. Each time a planner reaches out and tells me about the hours they got back in their day to be a mom or volunteer at the animal shelter… or how they increased their prices or were able to resolve a client conflict and get a bad review removed, I just light up! It’s become my WHY. To change the lives of a really overworked and underpaid category of professionals is why I do what I do. I’m helping them work less and make more while simultaneously making strides in how society views planners. We are not J-Lo from the movie Wedding Planner, falling in love with grooms, and we are certainly more than headsets and clipboards. Our job is not cute. It is not glamorous. It’s actually ranked as one of the hardest jobs in America, among first responders and above C-Suites, and it’s time we be taken seriously.
If you had to, what characteristics of yours would you give the most credit to your success? I don’t remember the original question, but it reads funny in the interview. Credit to what?
Tenacity. I do not take no for an answer. If I want something, I make it happen. That, paired with my willingness to delegate and let go of control have been paramount to my success. The sooner a person realizes they cannot do all the things and that it takes money to make money, the better off they’ll be. Of course, investing that money in the right people and the right tools makes a difference. But you make zero of the shots you don’t take. I have discovered that my two biggest strengths are problem-solving and acting as visionary. So I’ve built a team that will take my wild hair ideass, keep me organized and bring them to life!
I also think being a thought leader in general has made a difference. My willingness to talk about uncomfortable things is seen as refreshing, and people want to be part of that. It’s not for everyone. I know it both attracts and detracts. But it has attracted the audience that I am best at serving, allowing me to just be myself, which obviously takes less energy.
Contact Info:
- Email: amber@refineforweddingplanners.com
- Website: refineforweddingplanners.com
- Instagram: @refineforweddingplanners
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/REFINEforWeddingPlanners
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-117793642-934551726
Image Credits:
Anastasia Strate Photography, The Emerics, Julie Shuford Photography
