Anna Holowinski - Owner of Penderview Event Planning

Speaker 1: 0:31

My name is Anna Holowinski and my business is Penderview Events and I serve corporate event planning and day of wedding coordination clients specifically Wonderful and where are you located at?

Speaker 2: 0:42

I'm in. Fairfax Virginia. Okay, great, and what services do you guys offer as far as event planning and wedding planning?

Speaker 1: 0:52

Yeah, so I don't actually do wedding planning, I just do the coordination. So it's for the people who need someone to run the show the day of their wedding. That's what I do. So I have three meetings that go before that and then also the coordination for the actual day of. So I don't actually do the wedding planning, so I'm not planning the day, but I'm coordinating it and running the show and then I do corporate event planning. So I love not planning the day, but I'm coordinating it and running the show and then I do corporate event planning. So I love to work with smaller businesses that are in need of private events and conferences, corporate meetings, stuff like that. So I also have a long-term contract with a coffee house in Arlington and I do their event management and event coordination as well. So or planning some of the events that they do and then also manage those events too.

Speaker 2: 1:41

Wonderful. How did you get into this business?

Speaker 1: 1:45

Oh, that's such a good question. So I've always wanted to do some sort of entrepreneurial work. It runs in the family, and that's why I have this book here today. I just wanted to be able to dive into that at some point too, just to explain just the backstory to the business. But yeah, in 2021, I want to say halfway through the year I was very much not enjoying my current job. I was a first grade teacher and taught before and through COVID and COVID was so hard we all know right.

Speaker 1: 2:17

And you know, there was very much like a great recession in a lot of ways to through COVID, a lot of people started questioning what am I doing in life, why, why am I doing this specific job? And I was very much a part of that as well. So anyways, yeah, I got into business by quitting teaching. It was the catalyst for getting into business. How long were you a teacher? For About five years, and prior to that I actually my undergrad degree is in systems engineering, so I was a systems engineer for a little while before I went back to school to get my master's in elementary education. So, yeah, I've done a lot of different things in my 20s, but now in my early 30s and love being a business owner.

Speaker 2: 2:59

Wonderful, yeah. Is there skills from teaching that have helped you in your event planning business?

Speaker 1: 3:06

For sure. I mean organization is the first thing that comes to mind. I'm also incredibly detail oriented and I love working with kids. Obviously, that's not something I do as much with weddings or even private events, but, yes, very much. So. I think a lot of teachers actually end up going into event planning, which I've noticed in being in this business for a couple years now, which is interesting.

Speaker 2: 3:31

I think we all share something in common that is interesting. Yeah, it must be that detail-oriented mindset and being a go-getter too.

Speaker 1: 3:40

Like, I think, a lot of teachers, we don't get enough credit as teachers for being trailblazers, for being the go-getters, the initiators, the leaders. I mean we're leaders of our classrooms in a lot of ways. But yeah, that's something that definitely I've seen overlap in.

Speaker 2: 3:57

Wonderful. What are you doing these days as far as marketing, to promote your business?

Speaker 1: 4:02

I'm on social media. I'm very active on social media. I have an email list as well, so I send out email campaigns every now and then, and a lot of it is word of mouth, like I'm really just speaking about my story about Penderview events and this business, why I'm in business and just growing in confidence in that too. I mean, the more I talk about what I do, the more real it becomes.

Speaker 2: 4:24

And so that's naturally what's happening, so you started this in 2021.

Speaker 1: 4:29

Yep, it's been. It's been something I've really wanted to do for a while, but COVID obviously wrecked my plans with anything related to events, Right?

Speaker 2: 4:38

Um so yes, yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:40

So it's been about three years. But, um, and I'm pinching myself, I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe it's been three years.

Speaker 1: 4:47

Um and you're here and it's yeah, and it's going well and, yes, I'm incredibly thankful, I'm, I'm blessed, honestly, that I'm in in this business and pursuing a dream and actually being an entrepreneur is one of the best things that's ever happened to me, because I get to call the shots for my life, I get to live life on my terms in the ways that I see fit, and I now have a team of six women who work with me Great yeah who all help with event management. So, for the corporate events, the private events, with the coffee house and with day of coordination, I have those women who help me. So, again, like it's a blessing, it's something I'm just like oh my gosh, I'm doing this, it's happening, we're doing it.

Speaker 2: 5:31

Tell me a little bit more about your DIY coordination.

Speaker 1: 5:34

Tell me a little bit more about your DIY coordination. Yeah, so I do the day of wedding coordination for couples who don't need the wedding planning support but just want to have someone to run the show the day of. I also with that. I've noticed a lot of these couples still need support with planning, even though I don't want to be a wedding planner and I'm not a wedding planner support with planning even though I don't want to be a wedding planner and I'm not a wedding planner. I've found that a lot of them could use more resources and, honestly, just a way of synchronizing all the information they need for wedding planning for it to go well.

Speaker 1: 6:06

So I actually created a resource called the DIY Wedding Planning Playbook. It's something that I have been marketing more. I'm actually starting to do some advertising for, too Um, and I'm very excited about that, but it's basically a resource that um is a course in some ways. It's short videos, but lots of resources and tools, attachments, that kind of thing. Um to help people with the wedding planning process and is this a package that you, that you sell to, to your potential brides and clients yeah, so people who book me for day of coordination.

Speaker 1: 6:36

it's naturally something I bring up with them, but also just for any DIY bride, anyone else who's trying to plan their wedding themselves. So it comes with a very extensive questionnaire that you and your partner fill out. There's a wedding checklist that's very thorough, goes through the entire planning process of what you need, starting from 12 to 18 months out till the week after the wedding.

Speaker 2: 7:02

There's everything that you could possibly imagine needing with that. So, yeah, we had someone day of, and I know how helpful it was just to have someone coordinate the photographer and the DJ, and so we could just sit back and relax and enjoy the day.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Right, yeah, and I will say, like, with that it's, it's an honor to be in that position, and also, I wear tennis shoes. For sure I have to be. You know, I'm on my feet for 10, 12 hours and running around, and I honestly really thrive in that kind of environment, and I think that's why teachers do so well in event management too is because we like controlled chaos, we like being in fast-paced environments, and so, yes, there's a lot of overlap in that too. It's just funny how my story has all worked out to where I am today.

Speaker 2: 7:47

Life has a funny way of that happening right, yeah, I never would have imagined. Tell me a little bit more about your inspiration. When you started the company, you said you had a story about your grandfather.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Yeah, so that's what I have here today is a book of his life stories, and this is it's called a collection of life stories. It's something that I wrote with him, but the reason I brought this is so that you can see a picture of him. My opa that's German for grandfather, opa, and opa was an amazing man. He passed away in October of 2022. He helped me, thank you, thank you. He was an amazing man. He was 93 years old and he helped me purchase my first home on Penderview Terrace, hence the name of my business Penderview, yeah, and the whole logo for Penderview events. It's a home, and then there's a eucalyptus leaf in there too, which represents and green. I mean, I love green because I think about that as a part of my business too.

Speaker 1: 8:45

But, opa, you know, he helped me purchase this home. It was essentially my inheritance in a lot of ways from him, and his life was predicated on extreme generosity, forgiveness and, yeah, he was just such an amazing man. He lived through World War II. He was a refugee in Germany during the war. He remembers Hitler coming to power like escaped East Germany, came to America and created a life for himself and his family here. It's amazing. Yeah, he started the first OBGYN practice in Manassas, Virginia, so over 60 years ago he started a business, right Like he started a medical practice, and in this book there's a story where he says I asked him what one of his greatest accomplishments was in life and he said delivering over 5,000 babies, and the oldest child or person that he delivered before he passed away. He said this was like 65 years old so, and he stopped practicing medicine when I was born.

Speaker 2: 9:43

But Well, it sounds like he left you with an amazing legacy.

Speaker 1: 9:46

Yes, and honestly, penderview Events is predicated on his life, his legacy and the reason. There's so many reasons I'm in business, but one of them is to create wealth for myself and for future generations to come. Generational wealth A hundred percent, yeah, because I want to be able to leave a legacy greater than myself and for future generations to come. Generational wealth A hundred percent, yeah, because I want to be able to leave a legacy greater than myself and leave wealth and also a story for my children and grandchildren and their children to live up to and to live into and from.

Speaker 2: 10:14

So, absolutely, I would say you should leave this world a little bit better than you found it, right yeah?

Speaker 1: 10:19

absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And for someone like my opah to have gone through such adversity I the stories that he's told me of just living through a war, through World War II, right, and everything that that entailed to then being a man who lived with such generosity and a mantra of forgiveness, like you know, just thinking about everything that he had to go through and the person that he ended up becoming and the legacy that he's left, it's just it's amazing. Outstanding, thank you.

Speaker 2: 10:52

Yeah, did you have a verse that you wanted to share from?

Speaker 1: 10:56

your book, yeah, so I wrote this book with him before he passed away. He was able to read it a couple months before that happened. So there's a story in here, though, that, well, this is about his greatest achievement in life and it talks about delivering 5,000 babies. But one of my favorite things in here is that he says let me put it this way, I helped 5,000 women to deliver their babies. He was all about empowering us to, not just as women I mean definitely as women but also for the girls in the family. As women, I mean definitely as women, but also for the girls in the family. But, yeah, it's just amazing that he was such a servant hearted man who really helped and loved empowering other people. So that was one story. There was actually one more. Can I share?

Speaker 2: 11:43

Yes, absolutely Okay.

Speaker 1: 11:45

This is your time to share, oh yay and, honestly, it's just speaks to his legacy that, like, I want to share about him. You know, one of the things that I was gonna ask is what was life like in the 60s? Or that's what I wanted to talk about from something that I wrote with him. Was that it? No, that that wasn't actually, but, um, let me see if I can find it. It was basically, um, I asked him what was life like when he was in his thirties? What were you like when you were 30? I'm not 30 years old, but I used to be, and um, probably not too long ago.

Speaker 1: 12:26

That's right. Yeah, so, um, I was born in 1992, so I guess people can do the math if they want to. But I asked him what were you like when you were 30? And this is so fun. He says what were you like as a person at age 30? Yeah, I was determined to do well, I was optimistic, I was happy and I was looking forward to all the new possibilities coming up shortly Family, end of education, children, marriage and going out and starting my life, which I love. I just love that Because I'm in my 30s, I'm starting my life. When I think about it in that way again, he's just such an inspiration.

Speaker 2: 13:03

You guys were obviously very close right, and do you have siblings that he has inspired as well in different ways?

Speaker 1: 13:09

Yes, very much so my sister, my older sister and my younger brother. I also have two cousins, and so a very small family. It's just my mom and my uncle, his children and then us, my siblings and my cousins. But yes, my sister's actually in medicine, just like him. My brother is getting a biomedical engineering degree. He's in college. He's like 13 years younger than my sister or me, and a little bit younger than my sister. So a lot of medical professions. One of my cousins is a software developer and another one is getting her PhD in clinical psychology. Wow, so smart cookies in the family, for sure. And he's always given to everything for us, and especially our education. Like he said, one of the things that no one can take away from you is your education. That's very true. So yeah, he always loved to give into that for us.

Speaker 2: 14:07

Oh gosh, I could only hope that we all leave a legacy like he has for you guys. It's a beautiful story, thank you. That's really what this business is about. What would you say, your favorite part of what you do? That's such a good question. Um, what gives you the most? What fills your bucket the most?

Speaker 1: 14:30

Honestly, it sounds cheesy, but serving people, like getting to help people, understanding that that is my why in business with Penderview events Um, I get to help people. I mean, I think that's one of the greatest joys of life, anyways is being able to do stuff that is, yeah, able to benefit and serve other people, yeah. So, and honestly, another thing too I love pouring into other women and empowering other women in business, and I have six women on my team, like I said, and a couple of them are entrepreneurs themselves, so being able to pour into and invest in their business ideas and them just as people. We actually have a team meeting coming up where I'm paying for their coffee and we're doing a brainstorming session and we're going to talk about business and life and their hopes and dreams and just put it all out on the table.

Speaker 1: 15:24

Yes, exactly, and one of the things that I love to it's just a side note, but it made me think of this is affirmations. I love to affirm what is true of myself, and even things that I don't necessarily think are true yet, but I want them to become reality. I'm like, I am going to believe this, I'm going to pursue this, I'm going to dream big and having women on my team who have a similar mindset like it's just, oh, it's such a game changer.

Speaker 2: 15:47

So, speaking of dreaming big, where do you see your business going? What do you see in the future for your business?

Speaker 1: 15:52

Totally so. One of the women on my team her name is Kim and Kim is an aerospace engineer, so she's like super smart, she's super smart, she's amazing and she is such a believer in pen review events Like it's brought me to tears sometimes just thinking about how much she loves what I do and what this business is about what we do and I think. And she loves weddings. She was actually one of our brides that we did day of coordination for and she did such a good job planning her wedding. I was like do you want to join the team?

Speaker 2: 16:26

So long story short we speak the same language.

Speaker 1: 16:28

Yes, we do right, but long story short. I would love for Kim to take over the coordination wedding coordination side of the business and lead that so where I can focus more on private events, corporate event management and then also the DIY wedding planning playbook. I'm really hoping to scale that. Online E-commerce and like knowledge-based businesses is just I don't want to say it's the future, but like it's very successful for people to be able to scale digital products online, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 17:00

So, that's something that I'm definitely moving towards. Wonderful, yeah, um. Are there any last as of my last question?

Speaker 2: 17:03

So that's something that I'm definitely moving towards. Wonderful, yeah, are there any last as my last?

Speaker 1: 17:13

question is there any last parting words that you would like to leave us with today? The mantra for Penderview Events is quality, authentic, kind. So everything that I do is around quality, like I want the events that I plan to be high quality, excellent events, authentic. So I'm really. I'm an authentic, very genuine person. I can see that, thank you, and I want the events that I plan and the events that I support and manage to have that same sort of authenticity. And then kind. I mean my opal was an incredibly kind man and kindness is one of the most amazing virtues and something that I love. Like I love being kind, yeah, and so having a business that's predicated on all of those things and joy that's my favorite word is joy. It's one of my core values for the business. Yeah, I'm just. I'm also very thankful for being here today. It was a joy to be able to speak with you about my business.

Speaker 2: 18:04

Thank you for coming in. It was a joy to have you. Thank you, you're welcome.