Planning For Success With Maria Dueñas

Planning for Success Interview with Maria Dueñas

Candice Bar: Maria, first things first. Who are you?

Maria Dueñas: I am Maria Dueñas, owner of Deelish Events. We are a full event planning and design company. We've been in the industry for about 15 years and have had our business for about 8 years. We are renowned for being that one stop shop, where our clients can come and get all of their event planning problems solved with us!

CB: What does being an entrepreneur mean to you?

MD: Being an entrepreneur means having the courage to step out. Prior to starting our business, I was working my nine to five job, as well as working for other people. This is fine if you're happy and you know you're feeling that that's where you belong, and the place for you. But for me, it got to the point where I felt like I could offer more. I had more to offer, but I would never be able to have the opportunities that I have now, working for someone else. It just felt like I had to take a leap of faith, believe in myself and just go for it. Being an entrepreneur for me means that you have challenging moments. I feel like those happen more often than not. You're always putting yourself in uncomfortable positions. It can be scary, but it could also be rewarding. The scary part is, as in my case, if I don't book any events, I don't eat pretty much, right? So, it's definitely challenging, but that's also what motivates me. Everyday I need to show up and do the best that I can because, now I don't have someone reminding me, or telling me “We’re checking in,” “where are you with this project,” or anything like that. It just means freedom. Freedom to a certain degree, because now a lot of the time, people think when you start your own business you get to do whatever you want. The answer for me is: no, you don't get to do whatever you want. Yes, you get to structure your business however you feel may work for you. In my case, I structured it now where I have two kids and they still come first. I also have my business to run, but I am able to modify it as we go pretty much. That's where the flexibility does come in. Obviously, when it comes to how much you make, then yes, that's also up to you too. It just depends how much value you bring to the table; that's how much you are going to be able to charge. When you work for someone else, well, there's always a dollar amount attached to you and then there's a cap and that's it, that's as far as you're going to go. So, to me it's a mix of a lot of things, but most importantly for me, is just being able to really do what I personally enjoy, and getting paid to do so; while delivering amazing service.

CB: What I heard from that was freedom and flexibility.

MD: Yes, freedom and flexibility absolutely.

CB: You know, being a female entrepreneur, how important is it to make your own money?

MD: It's very important in my opinion, especially being raised by a single mother. Thankfully, you know I can now say that - I mean, my dad has always been in my life - but, my mom has always been the breadwinner. My mom has always instilled in us that you want to get married for the right reasons. It's awesome if it works out, and if you get to have the choice of not having to work because your partner makes enough money. However, there's nothing like being able to provide for yourself! That's something that my mom always said because again, it doesn't always have to end in a bad situation. What if your partner gets sick and they can no longer provide what they were providing before? That has always been in the back of my head. In my opinion, just being able to say, ‘I can get this’ because you can afford it, or you have worked for it, is incredible. Not because you have the opportunity to rely on your partner to get it, but because you have the power to do so. It's just one of those things where you also bring your own value to your marriage. Using myself as an example; I never want it to seem that my husband has to feel 100% responsible, or he has to pick up two or three jobs, because we can't make ends meet. To me, as a woman,and as a mother; it is very important for my kids to know that mom also works and mom also can provide. It's just like I said, I think it goes back to being raised by my mom, who always had to work multiple jobs to figure it out on her own. As she said to me before, “You're you. Never wait on anyone. Married or not, it doesn't matter. You figure it out.”

CB: How do you spoil yourself, or in other words, how do you take care of yourself? Like “me” time?

MD: That is a good question and I don't know that I have the exact answer, where you could say, “Oh my goodness, how amazing Maria!” Truth be told, after I became a mom, which is where I am now, there isn’t exactly much me time. Again, because I do work from home, and I take care of the kids most of the time. For me, when everyone goes to sleep, I kid you not; I make sure that my surrounding area is nicely cleaned and put together as I just sit. I just sit and just enjoy the peacefulness, and the quietness at the end of a very long day. To me, that means more. Don't get me wrong, I will go and just say, “OK, I'm out. Don't call me for the next couple of hours unless it's an emergency.” But to me, I find it rewarding just to say, “You know what? Today was a good day and I'm sitting at home. My kids are asleep, they are good. Everything's good.” Just still time. Just to sit down and not do anything even if it's 10, 15, 20 minutes before I get back to work, or call it a day. Peace and quiet. To me that's everything right now.

CB: I understand. You mentioned you are married; you are a mother of 2 and you're running a business. How do you balance this? MD: There is no balance in my opinion, because even when you try to balance everything; if it's not one thing, it's another. You just take every day accordingly. I could have my day perfectly planned out, and then one of my boys may not be having it that day. That means I have to drop what I'm doing, cater to them, and then kind of try to get back on track. I guess for me it's being able to build the patience that I didn't have before. To not get frustrated easily, or take it out on my kids, and things like that. I'm huge on that. I always try my very best to separate business and caring for my kids, but under the same roof it can be give or take.. A lot of it is just understanding that there's things that will fall apart, and that they are out of your control. You have to take that knowledge and you have to pick up where you left off; not be so hard on yourself at the end of the day. We’re all trying to survive here, no matter what. It doesn't matter if you have more money; you still have big problems, and if you don't, well, you're at least trying to figure it out.

CB: If you don’t have money, you still have bigger problems.

MD: Yes, that is true, you have bigger problems. We all have issues; we all have situations. For me, it's just trying to not make something bigger than what it is. If you have a situation, figure it out, but don't dwell on it. Just figure it out if you can; if you can't then move on, it is what it is. That's kind of how I've been able to have that, you know, “balance.” To be in a space where [the problem isn’t] going to consume me, if I can't take care of it at the moment. We’ll get to it when we get to it, and that's it.

CB: Good answers. As an entrepreneur, how would you describe your, “faith in the unseen.” There's a lot of vision, there's a lot of creativity. How do you go to the next level, next steps, even if you can't see what the next steps are?

MD: For me I would have to say, is that you have to keep thinking, “What else is there?” For example, we are a full event planning and design company. So that means we offer a lot of in-house services whether you hire us to plan your event or not, we have Ala carte services. However, I'm always thinking what else can we be offering? What are the companies that we look up to? How are they operating? What are they doing? Sometimes it comes down to your finances. Are you able to get to the next step, or do we still need to work, do we need to up our inventory? Our team, how well are they trained? It's just a lot of things. Even though at times for me it feels like I haven’t advanced or added another service; it's been three months, and we are still offering the same things. That doesn't mean that I'm not planning ahead or thinking where we would like to be one day. I would love to have my own event space. That's a dream of mine that I am thinking that's something that I'm working towards. You won't be able to see that now, but that's something that I would love to have. It's just being patient and understanding what your purpose is. Why are you in business, what is your mission, and what are you trying to accomplish at the end of the day? For me, it's just understanding that there are bigger and better companies, but we are on target for what we want to do, and for what my dreams are. From what I've been seeing lately in these last couple of years, is that nothing is set in stone and just because we aren't where we want to be today, doesn't mean we won't get there.

CB: Absolutely. How do you as an entrepreneur keep yourself motivated, especially on the days that are very trying and very challenging?

MD: Well, I always want to make sure that I remember why I started. I can't tell you how many times I was like, “Okay, I’m done. I give up and we're not going anywhere.” We have those days where we feel sorry for ourselves. But then, thankfully, I am very good at talking myself out of these situations. These small talks that I have in my head are almost convincing, “Yeah, you should just probably give up and try to figure it out somewhere else.” and then I’m just like, “No, Maria!” So, it's a lot of me talking to myself. Me versus me, if that makes any sense. “Yeah, Maria you suck.” or like “You didn't get that piece of business,” and then it's like you start to believe that. I’m like, “No, wait a minute,” and then I just start feeding myself positive comments. You know, I have a lot of online mentors that I turn to. As soon as I even find myself doubting myself even for a minute, I pause. I have to close whatever I'm doing, take a few minutes, collect my thoughts, and then I start playing these positive videos in the background. People that come from nothing, that are obviously in places where I'd like to be one day and I'm like, “No, that's what I need to be listening to.” This is part of the struggle. Struggling is going to be part of your success, just like failing is going to be part of your success. So, it's not believing what your head tells you sometimes, because we're living in times where everything you see on social media is perfect. What a lot of people fail to include is the other side of the story.

CB: Absolutely. No one is showing the terrible or dull parts.

MD: Exactly! No one is showing this. I include myself in that, but the difference is, I like to focus on the good part. I like to focus on what I do have. On what I have accomplished, but I always like to highlight it hasn't been easy. We didn't get here overnight. I mean, we've been in business for eight years and survived a pandemic, where I almost thought I'm going to have to close the doors. I never had to though! Here you have multi million-dollar companies that suffered, that had to close the doors. It's just one of those things. You just have to keep going; you do things for the right reason. Life; somehow, some way is going to connect you to the right people that are going to help you and take you to the next level. Don't get discouraged because it can definitely be hard at times, especially if it's just you and only you, you know. You believe whatever you do.

CB: You just cannot stop.

MD: No, you should not stop. I always say, even if you take a break, or even if you have to redirect your business. If it's no longer a necessity, you move on to something else, but don't give up. That's what I always say, you don't give up no matter what. You hear it all the time, and it's so true. Yes, take a break, take a few days off. Or even if you have to regroup yourself, and it's a little bit longer and come back stronger, but don't give up.

CB: You mentioned mentors earlier, and I want you to talk about that. How important do you feel it is to have a business mentor and why?

MD: It's a must. I think even if you don't own a business, you should have a mentor regardless. We could only take ourselves so far because of how we were brought up, the conditions we were brought up in. Whatever your life was prior to where you are today; you're limiting yourself. If there's people that you look up too; they have the mentality that I'm open to learning new things and looking at things in a different way. This is all because of the way they come across, or the way they approach certain situations. It just helps you become more aware of what you don't know. The opportunity that could be there for you; if you are open to help from other people, could benefit you in every aspect of your life. I personally feel having a mentor is a must, because only great things can come out of it. The nice thing about the mentors that I like to follow or that I look up to, are people that literally started from nothing. It doesn't matter what it is or what business they're doing. It was all because of the way they process things, the way they think they were. Open to change. They were open to criticism and allowed other people to say. “Hey! Listen! There could be a different way for you to do this, and if you’re open to that, your business could grow much more.”

CB: That is an excellent answer. Do you recall a moment in your business where you were particularly proud of yourself?

MD: Yes, and actually recently! I've just been having those moments more often than not, which is so very rewarding. Even if it's a small victory, as it may seem, it doesn't have to be small. No, it just means what we were able to accomplish or provide for someone else. I'll give you a really quick example. This just happened last week. Our services were referred to a big production company, and obviously I was very flattered because I was like, “Oh, how exciting, we're going to work with this company.” Then fast forward, I got on the phone with my contact and it was a big production that they needed. Their event was 40 hours away in a different state. Then I was like, “Okay; just think; wait.” We had previous commitments, so I called my team and they are like there's no way we will be able to get our hands on everything and be in a different state in 48 hours. I got on the phone and I started reaching out to other planners in that state directly, that I’ve never worked with. After calling many companies; the last person that took my call said, “You know what? I am going to be able to help you. Let's move quickly. Let's get this.” I connected everyone together, and they were able to solve a problem for this contact that was looking for this specific service. They made it work, and now this production company wants to bring me on board for bigger events! Events that I personally would not be able to get into, if it was not for someone that is already there. I take a lot of pride in the customer service that I do provide, and even if it means I'm not going to benefit directly from it. Regardless, I'm still going to give it my 100% before I can turn a business down. I'm always looking to help connect and just say “You know what I can help you, but you know, ‘XYZ’ over here is going to be able to take care of it for you!”

CB: Amazing. Absolutely, amazing! What do you feel is your biggest asset in running a successful business?

MD: For me, personally, it is definitely being resourceful. That is exactly how we are known. I've been very blessed, and as I mentioned we've been in business for eight years. The majority of our business is from word of mouth; referrals. I would say like 95% of business has been word of mouth and referrals, and that's because we cater to every single one of our clients, and build relationships with them. I always think if Instagram were to crash tomorrow, I thankfully would still be in business because of my clients that have been with us for years.

CB: Excellent answer. What, in the 8 years you've been in business, has been your favorite event to plan and put together? MD: Oh my gosh!

CB: It’s like who’s your favorite child?

MD: Yeah! You know what? I'm going to have to say. It was my boy’s birthday. I mean, every event that we do plan, no matter how big or how small it is, we literally pour our hearts into it. They're all very special, and I make sure that we deliver that message. But, in this case, I'm just going to have to say it was my boy’s birthday party. The reason why it was the most memorable is because we are always celebrating everyone else’s kids. That is something that I'm always bending over backwards for, for all of our clients. That's what we're here for, right? It's exciting; it's the best. It's like over the top, right? So when it came time to plan my son’s birthday, there was no way that he’s not going to experience what every other little kid experiences when they hire us. I was able to accomplish that, and more. The expression on his face, on my 3-year-old, the excitement was everything! He couldn't stop talking about that party for days!. So, to me that has been the most rewarding event that I've had the honor of planning and also because I never thought I'd be able to have children. So having said that, that's been the highlight of my career.