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Episode Description:

Before Beth starts to share her tips and tricks to make life a little more efficient and get your time back, this episode gives you a little insight into the Type-A+ Reality that is her work and life. She gives a quick overview of her path to becoming an award-winning event planner, and growing obsession with organization and efficient systems.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Podcast:

The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram

Host:

Beth Lawrence LinkedIn

Beth Lawrence & Company Instagram

Beth will be back each week, delivering bite-sized tips (10 minute episodes or less) on how to optimize your life and work.

Episode Transcript can be found below:

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for listening. Before I start to share my tips, I wanted to share a little more about my background and expand upon the Type A+ reality that is my life and my career. For the basics, Hi, I'm Beth Lawrence CMP, which stands for certified meeting professional. I received my CMP certification from the Convention Industry Council in 2015, but I really became an event planner organically.

In fact, my parents would say I was born with it. They tell the story now that, from the time I could talk, or at least when I was about five years old, I would wake up at 6:40am in the morning. and just talk and ask them questions. God help them. I was always looking ahead at what was next, anticipating the plans we were making, who we were seeing, where we were going, and most importantly, as a kid, what we were going to be eating when we got there. Even in the middle of one activity, I was anticipating what's next and always taking control of the playtime activities.

From kindergarten through 12th grade, I went to Catholic school. In this environment of structure, goals and rules, you would think I would excel. But, as a creative young child, I struggled with the rules until I realized that the way to win the game was to follow instructions exactly, and to try my hardest to be the best at everything that I could. As a result, I earned very good grades. And besides being a talkative kid in class, I was pretty favored by my teacher. And then in high school, that was where I really thrived.

I found community with fellow honor students, and I'm still very close friends with all of them to this day. {Hey ladies!}; This was where I learned the beauty of note cards, planners, agendas, recopied notebooks, managing an incredibly challenging workload and trips to office supply stores. College was the largest transformation for me in terms of my career path and what I wanted to do with my life.

You know, I'd always been great at school and I always enjoyed, and excelled in extracurricular activities like performing in the school musical, being a part of the dance team and writing for the literary magazine. After enrolling as an English major, however, I went through quite a few crises of faith and finally declared an individualized concentration in event planning, which combined international business, corporate communications, and many of the elements that I loved to prepare me for the workforce.

Event planning truly is where I found my passion. It merges my creative side with the rigidity of my Type A Plus approach to work. And I've used my organizational skills, detail oriented mindset and big picture thinking to create in person, hybrid, and virtual experiences for clients the last 15 plus years, and I started my own company in 2018.

A little bit about what makes me unique as an event planner, and that is my background. I've worked in the hospitality industry since I could obtain a work permit and I fell in love with it. In fact, I even met my husband through the hospitality industry. When it came time to find my first career placement out of college, the market crash of 2008, placed a giant roadblock between me and my goals.

However, I was undeterred, and I worked several side jobs, and sent out about 30 resumes per day for three and a half months; with a dwindling savings and lots of lunch meat, and ramen, I was thrilled when Dave and busters offered me the job of special events coordinator. In this role, I supported event sales for two locations in Philadelphia, and really started to scratch my networking itch and get my name out there.

It was the connections I made and the lessons that I learned in that role that would help to catapult me forward. Even during uncertain times, after that, I worked for a high end caterer, an event venue in Philadelphia, served as the event and marketing manager for a very high end restaurant and eventually found my way into the world of startups with my work at Snap Kitchen.

I learned so much from each of these roles, as well as all my volunteer roles. And I would not have had the confidence to start my business almost five years ago, without those experiences. As far as my personal life is concerned, I live in a cute little town called Collingswood, New Jersey with my husband, John, and my Boxador diesel.

I love live music, especially Dave Matthews band shows and concerts; being outside in nature; camping; cooking; dancing; yoga; running; cannabis.; I love all forms of plant medicine.; I love traveling, reading, learning, and I love pop culture. Ever since I saw clueless as a young girl, all the way up to the Bravo-lebrities of today, I cannot get enough of pop culture.

I'm a millennial and I've been open about the experiences I've had as a millennial in the workplace, and especially one who felt very "prepared" for the real world and graduated into a world that looked very different than the one I prepared for. I'm very open about my struggles with anxiety. In fact, one of the reasons I named this podcast “Type A Plus” is because the anxiety is always there and always has been there, just lurking in the back of my mind.

Similarly, I struggle openly with imposter syndrome and love to connect with other like-minded entrepreneurs and help people get over these roadblocks to achieve their goals. I'm really, really excited to bring you this podcast and to show you how I apply the techniques I've learned as an event planner to daily life and little ways I make every day more efficient and give myself and my clients more.

I'm also working on some new and exciting offerings in my business and opening up a community as well. So stay tuned. I'd love to connect with you. Find me on LinkedIn, Beth Lawrence CMP, and on instagram@bethlawrence.co. And of course follow @thetypeapluspodcast on Instagram.

I'll put the links in the show notes. Thank you so much again for listening. I can't wait to connect and I'll see you next on the type a plus podcast.