Student Spotlight – Leah Williams, CWEP Graduate
by Lovegevity | Jun 26 | Blog, Careers/Job, Internships, Student Spotlight | 0 comments
Our team had a chance to sit down with WEDTECH Academy Award Winner, Leah Williams. Leah is a CWEP graduate and the founder of Leah T. Williams Events and is a lover of all things beautiful. Her positivity, keen eye, attention to detail and knack for perfection is what her clients love about her. She brings the art of creativity and personalization to every event making her the best at what she does, by striving to make every individual event one to remember.
– Thank you so much for joining us today. I just wanted to say congratulations on your nomination for the White Tag Academy Award.
– Thank you!
– Yeah, so I’m just gonna get to know you a little better and have your students, or prospective students, get to know you a little better as well. Give us a little background of your journey and how you got started in the industry.
– Okay, so how I got started in the industry was about mid 2016. I was working in education, like so many others I just wanted more. I was yearning to do something different, I was going through my second Masters and my job wasn’t fulfilling. I’d always liked planning and party planning and helping friends with events. And I decided, I saw a little ad on Facebook about Lovegevity, and I decided to take the the course. And I said, “This will be easy enough, it’s 12 weeks, “I could do this course and maybe I’ll so some “event planning on the side.”
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- Well, that 12 week course opened my eyes to this phenomenal industry of weddings and events. And I grew from being a planner to now doing planning in floral design, and working with so many of the people that I admire in the industry. And Lovegevity has been just an enormous part of my journey. Going from taking the 12 week course to making connections with a lot of my peers that were in class but also making connections with my instructor and other instructors.
- I took the course in New York. Within New York, as well as outside of New York, I met people in Texas, people in L.A., and going to the internships have also been just instrumental in my career. Because it’s given me a platform to actually see what the possibilities are for me, working with other people. It shows me where I aspire to be.
– Yeah, and I see that you graduated Lehman College?
– I’m sorry?
– Which college did you graduate from?
– Which one did I go to? I can’t even remember, it was in Queens, I can’t remember.
– And I do see that there are a couple internships that you’ve done. Tell us a little bit more about your experience with those internships? So I see you did the Beasley floral design?
– Yes.
– Internships, give us a little more about them.
– So, the first internship I did was with David Tutera with Your Wedding Experiences. I believe I did two of those internships, those were great. David’s one of the best in the business. And I was excited to actually do that internship because it gave me a behind-the-scenes look at exactly how a workshop takes place, or live event takes place. The second internship that I did, it really was a spring board to my floral business now. Me doing the floral design internship with Beasley Vasquez was so instrumental to my business. Because I don’t believe, without that internship I do not believe I would be where I am today. Beasley has become a mentor to me, my shift has gone from planning, predominantly, to floral design. And to this day, she’s someone that I can lean on. I wouldn’t be where I am today without that internship. I know that that was the trajectory of my career that made a turn.
– Yeah, that’s so good to hear. And that you have such a great mentor that you can look up to and that helps you so much with your business. Who are your role models, I know you mentioned Beasley, and I know you love her, but who are your role models and why?
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– So Beasley, yes, definitely one of my role models. It’s so weird, let me see. So a lot of my role models come from inside of Lovegevity. This is not a Lovegevity campaign, but it really has. Abeki Carter, being one of the first instructors that I encountered. She has been instrumental in helping me navigate the events world. Never took a class with Jacqueline Vazquez, but we’ve connected on so many levels. She’s given me a lot of the confidence that I need. Cho has just.. Seeing what she created with Lovegevity has been an inspiration to me in wanting to build a community. I have a workshop I do called Luxury Blooms Experience. And it’s really fashioned after a lot of the things that Cho has implemented into Lovegevity. Just the community
- Building aspects of it and really genuinely wanting to help people. I made a great connection when I did an internship with David Tutera in New York at the Tribeca Rooftop. He brought along his former assistants, Lumi Carlo, she has become a mentor now. I admire her so much, being a black woman in the industry. There are certain things that we go through that are different from other women. Women, in general, have a hard time. But I believe that being different ethnicities will also have a difficult time navigating through this industry. I took a class with Kevin Lee, through Lovegevity, and he gave his experience with being an Asian man and being a, I’m so sorry, I lost my train of thought. But just being someone who’s not from this country, being an immigrant, so to speak, and coming here and just honing his craft, he’s been super inspirational to me. And all of that has been through, the common denominator has been Lovegevity, absolutely for me.
– And we have such a diverse network so it makes it so much easier. I feel like, you are alumni are making a change for us. So it’s pretty great.
– Thank you.
– Are there any future goals that you would like to share with us?
– Future goals? I want to make my platform bigger, to help people who are, you know, inexperienced like I was a few years ago. I want to be able to help them, that’s what the Luxury Blooms Experience is all about. It’s showing them that, you know, you guys can do it. I was in a total different field two years ago. I would have never imagined that I would be actually. Hello? Oh sorry. Actually doing some of the things that I’m doing now but with the right coaching and the right support I was able to move forward and just trust myself enough. So, I’ve had accountability partners along the way, and I’ve had people hold me to task along the way, and I want to really be that for someone else. My biggest next step, and biggest goal for 2020, is to do things internationally. That’s one of the things I would really love to do, be it a wedding, or event, or take my workshop abroad. That’s really something that I’m working on and that’s a goal for me to really just go out and do something internationally, and get out of my comfort zone, and step away from just the US market.
– Yeah well, that is a huge step, and I can’t wait to see where you go from here. That’s amazing!
– Thank you, thank you.
– Those are about all the questions that I have for you. It was such a pleasure meeting you.
– Pleasure meeting you too.
– And I’m so excited for your future.
– Thank you, thank you, I appreciate it so much.
