To begin, Kelsey shares her background and also the brand for Downey Street Events. Kelsey was drawing wedding dresses at a young age and used the best china for holidays with her family. Her parents were entrepreneurs and she always had a desire to own a business, but wasn’t seeing opportunities for that. She was involved in an HR leadership program where she planned events for the company. This reignited her passion for events and she also helped her best friend plan her wedding at the time. She reached out to people, shadowed and then sent a cold email to Downey Street. She started working with them on the side, then dropped HR and pursued wedding planning with them. They felt she was a good fit for the company and after 13-14 years, Kelsey started taking on more business tasks and responsibilities while they took a step back. Over time, they decided they were ready to move on to something different and started a new business together while Kelsey happily took on Downey Street Events. 

Next, Kelsey discusses how thankful she is for the reputation and the company they built. She has the flexibility to take risks or make changes, but she is targeting the same audience while also putting her own spin on the aesthetic. She is trying to attract a specific type of client and she did hire a new team with two main planners that collaborate and work with her. Both planners are amazing, have their own clients and execute their own events. Kelsey also hired a stylist and they have many of the same people on the team that work on the day of the events to execute on site. The pros for taking over Downey Street Events is that she didn’t have to start a business from scratch and the level and caliber of the weddings is very high. She also loved that they didn’t name the business after themselves. Kelsey says you need to assess the overall health of a business and be very informed on debt or any liabilities before you take over the business. Downey Street Events works with the clients from the very beginning to the end including the planning, production and design for all the events. Kelsey evaluates workloads and burnout, and intentionally takes pauses to manage the work. 

In addition, Kelsey also talks about how the business is now and the major skills she brought with her into wedding planning from the corporate world. Downey Street Events has wonderful events and clients, but there is a different tone in the clients and cadence of how and when they’re booking. They see more hesitancy when booking and the expectations are changing, and what clients are hoping for is different. There is a comparison game with weddings on social media, but the company must evolve in order to be sustainable. Kelsey shares that they are working with another company to build their presence on Tik Tok. She says many skills she has learned from the corporate world have been helpful for wedding planning including professionalism and differentiating herself with her background in HR. She also shares a book called “Profit First” that is the idea that a percentage of all your shares goes directly to profit before taking out expenses, which can return a profit to reinvest for the business, for yourself or your family. You can build whatever buckets you like, but she has four: income account, profit account, operating expenses and taxes. First, you project all of your sales for the year using historical data, projections, etc. and then once per quarter, you create a budget that outcomes and estimates all of your expenses. Then, you take that amount and divide by estimated sales to get a percentage. Whatever is leftover is your profit and the goal is to continue to look at operating expenses and figure out how to bring that number down to increase profit. Lastly, Kelsey shares about the bridal styling service that is an add on and works with the planner for an overall seamless process with an appropriate timeline. 

Timestamps:

0:30 – Introduction of today’s guest, Kelsey Connely.

0:47 – Kelsey shares about her background and brand. 

3:20 – What is it about this industry that draws you in? 

4:18 – How did you circle back to events once you started a career in HR? 

6:40 – What was the initial thought process behind the email? 

8:32 – How did that process go to take over the company?

10:10 – Have you made changes or are things the same? 

11:22 – Have you kept the same team? 

13:12 – What were the pros and cons for taking over Downey Street?

15:57 – Wedding and corporate world. 

19:01 – How are things for the business now? 

26:37 – What skill sets from HR and the corporate world do you use today to inform your business? 

29:48 – What practical skills did you bring from HR that helped your business? 

37:20 – Kelsey shares a new offering that was recently brought into the business. 

40:03 – How did you structure that and how many clients use the service? 

42:32 – Thanks to Kelsey for joining us today.

Bio:

Kelsey has always gravitated toward grandeur and beauty, a lover of all things design and fashion.  Though her path toward wedding and event planning was not traditional or straightforward, Kelsey honed in on her business skills before diving into her true passion.  Originally from Pennsylvania, Kelsey attended Mercyhurst University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources. She went on to pursue her Masters at the University of South Carolina, which helped her continue to build her robust business repertoire. Directly following graduate school, Kelsey was hired into General Electric’s premier HR Leadership Program which led her to the Bay Area. There she supported some of GE’s top executives and hundreds of employees across the nation. She traveled globally and had the opportunity to design events through work and around the world.

Kelsey’s enthusiasm for wedding and event planning ultimately drove her to leave Corporate America and join Downey Street to pursue her dreams. She has not looked back since and now owns the company, planning and designing Downey Street’s largest and most intricate events. Kelsey uses her business background and keen understanding of people, along with her inventiveness and strong eye, to create events that are beautiful and perfectly planned. Kelsey takes great pride in her fearlessness and ability to get things done in a resourceful way.

As Creative Director and Principal Planner & Designer, Kelsey leads the creative process for all events at Downey Street Events in addition to taking on a full set of clients each season. In this role, Kelsey channels her passion for travel and great design to create unique experiences for each client. Kelsey’s designs tend to be fashion forward, texturally inspired, and purpose-driven.

Learn more about Downey Street Events and on Instagram at Downey Street and “Profit First” book.