Andrea Eppolito | Celebrating Life, Luxury, & Above All Else Love

The DJ Collective Official Interview

Episode Summary

The DJ Collective Official Interview: Short In November 2021 I was the closing keynote speaker at the DJ Collective in Scottsdale, Arizona. Prior to taking the stage, I was interviewed by DJ and Host Sean Patrick to discuss lifestyle design and the way in which I manage my business and my life.

Episode Notes

The DJ Collective Official Interview:  Short

In November 2021 I was the closing keynote speaker at the DJ Collective in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Prior to taking the stage, I was interviewed by DJ and Host Sean Patrick to discuss lifestyle design and the way in which I manage my business and my life.  

 

MY SERVICES

Luxury Wedding Planning | Coaching | Consulting: 

https://www.andreaeppolito.com

Online Education: 

https://courses.andreaeppolito.com/
 

Are you a Wedding Professional? 

My book, Redefining Your Wedding Business can help you learn how to redefine your own business, and possibly even your own market. 

https://shop.andreaeppolito.com/books

Thinking of Starting Your Own Wedding Planning Business? 

The Business Blueprint for Wedding Planners is a four-hour “crash course” that I designed to help you start your very own Wedding Planning Business.  It is also used by many Wedding Planners as a “check-up” to ensure that their businesses have maximized their potential and become profitable as quickly as possible.   

https://shop.andreaeppolito.com/bbwp

Do you have a Wedding Planning Business already and feel “stuck”? 

I created the Wedding Planner Master Class because my business was once there.  I was busy, but I wasn’t doing the business I wanted.  The Wedding Planner Master Class is a ten-module series designed to help you breakthrough and transform the business you want into the business you WANT! 

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YOUTUBE TIPS

*Grow Your Wedding Planning Business*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_66F9DDLtg

*Three Tips to Starting Your Own Wedding Planning Business*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EaFGc-dOxs

*Wedding Planner Masterclass Review*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WnUZVlcyNo

*How to Attract High-End Clients to Your Wedding Business*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WnUZVlcyNo

*How to Survive a Recession & Come Out Stronger*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrk1r9oxxrw

*Should You Expand Your Wedding Planning Business*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXAy6vzHkyk

*Top 10 Apps Your Wedding Business Needs*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0oQarH2BE0

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Episode Transcription

welcome back djc it's so funny every

time we start these we're having this

great time and i feel like we're just

welcoming in the people to the

conversation to the family and this one

is going to be a great one i'm here with

andrea now you're going to be on our

main stage in tomorrow you're talking

about redefine and design

tell me a little bit about what that

means and what you're going to be

hitting on so one of the things that i

think is very common in our industry

entrepreneurs small business owners and

creatives in general we are drawn to

starting our own businesses because we

want to have agency and ownership over

our businesses our time our schedule and

we spend all of this effort

building a business and then at the end

we kind of live off what's left over our

our families get

the rest of us and not the best of us we

don't take great decisions

we don't always get but we don't have

time for ourselves we don't have time to

do the things that we love to do and if

you are

wildly creative if you are really

successful if you are

doing the thing that you love and you're

a workaholic in your type a like all of

these people are

you start to see that your business

really encroaches on your life

and when i got to that point i just said

i

i didn't want this i want to make a good

like i i love money and i need it and i

want to make a really good living but it

was so much more important to me that i

had a bigger life and so we switched it

and i sat down and i said let me design

the life that i want

how much time do i want to be able to

spend with my kids what's important in

terms of the relationship i have with my

husband and with my friends with myself

what do i want my days to look like and

feel like and i designed that and then i

built a business and retrofit the

business to support the life

and it's an ongoing evolution it's a

project that you know you're constantly

checking in and saying like how you're

doing but it's it's a really worthwhile

exercise to be able

to have this yeah okay so this is

something that i love this idea it's

fascinating to me and i wish i was

better at it so i'm just gonna pick your

brain a little sure okay so i think

what's great about those of us in the

event space is we don't have a typical

nine to five

most people i go to work monday through

friday nine to five and i have to

basically build my life around my work

that's not us we can choose to take jobs

we can choose to not take jobs and we

actually have the opportunity to design

it the way you're talking about it can

you give me a little insight on what

some of those pieces are in your design

is it things like i'm definitely going

on vacation in july is it i want to have

this type of date night

with my husband this many times a year

is it soccer with my kit what are like

the main pieces that are non-negotiables

maybe for you that you put in your

calendar and then work the rest around

so for me what i did was i i think there

are so many things that we all have to

do

i start with anchoring my days

and so generally speaking monday through

friday my kids have to be taken to

school between 7 30 and 7 45. where are

you based out of las vegas

so that's the drop-off that doesn't

change

they have to get picked up at around 3

30. right so that doesn't change so i

time block my life and it sounds crazy

and it sounds overly structured but it

really gives me the freedom in the

platform to do all the things that i

want to do so from 7 45

to 3 30

that those parameters those parentheses

that gives me my window that's where i

build my business yeah and so i can do

whatever it is in those hours that i

want to do so maybe that's taping a

youtube or filming a podcast it could be

you know creating and sketching or

drawing it could be emails it could be

admin but i block that time out this way

i know i have really deep focused work

for a set period of time right

being a good parent is something that

means something different to everybody

and family life

the the value that you place on that is

different for everybody for me it's

dinner

like family dinner happens in my house

five nights a week and that means that i

cook and i try to engage my kids in that

if i can my daughter likes to chop right

now

my son likes to hang out and you know

and like snack while i do it

but that 45 minutes of cooking

30 minutes of eating

and then like 30 minutes of cleanup

that's two and a half hours yeah

the average family spends less than 30

minutes a day together

and so if i

could triple that or quadruple that and

not be like looking at my phone and

checking emails and doing something else

even if they are watching tv even if you

know we're watching cobra kai and we're

talking and we're laughing

it's family time that is built in yeah

and then when they go to bed

i i can do other things so i have i

brain dump everything that i need to do

yeah and i write it down and then i

think to myself like if this doesn't get

done am i really gonna care is it gonna

is it gonna be impactful in terms of

making me happy making me money and if

the answer is no then i take it off and

then i just block out all the things

that i need to do right or that i want

to do and i leave some flexibility to

move them around but as long as

and i think it's the same for people who

are number ones number twos wherever

they are

if your home life is chaotic

it really does bleed into your work

and so making sure that i have stability

and comfort and really deep connections

with my family

gives me the foundation to do the kind

of work that i want to do because in my

head i know i've taken care of that

right and so that gives me freedom and

latitude to move in other places i love

that so much i can talk about here first

the cooking with your kids is amazing i

have kids as well i have a kid and i'm

married and uh cooking can be a chore if

it's i'm the one who cooks and they're

doing something else and then we eat and

maybe it's in front of the tv maybe it's

like it's a chore but if you can

incorporate the people you love into

those things not only are you getting

that special time that you want but

you're actually still parenting and

teaching life skills like chopping or

snacking while other people work which

is another lifestyle that is my son's

vibe right now yes but i mean it's often

my vibe i was raised in a very

traditional italian house

i did

my grandmother lived with us until she

died

my mother my grandmother owned the

kitchen that was their domain

i i moved out at 23

not knowing how to run a dishwasher

never having done a load of laundry

because when i said like oh i really

want to learn my grandmother was like

all like ah

take me god i have nothing to live for

you

if you don't need me so i i literally

got married and moved out of the house

and i didn't i flooded the first house

we lived in because i went to run the

dishwasher and i didn't know that you

couldn't use hand soap oh my goodness so

i was like bubbles everywhere flooded

the entire first floor

and i remember thinking like

i have zero like life skills

in terms of how to be like without my

grandmother i'm not quite sure how to

live through the day because i've never

done anything myself and i don't want a

handicap

i think that my my family did it from

such a place of love but i don't want to

handicap my kids i would like them to

have a sense of

of understanding and and basic chopping

yes so yeah just the basics yeah you

know it's funny i heard it from guy

fieri who's you know food network fame

all that kind of stuff he's like my

biggest ass for parents is get your kids

cooking because it's fun it's important

it's a life skill all that kind of stuff

so i think it's cool that it's the

double whammy of special family time and

life skills also i know what it's like

to um i may have put dish soap in the

dishwasher as well so i know what it's

saying

to live in life with no skills trying to

sop that up for days trying to explain

to someone like truly i'm not

really an idiot i just didn't know

right

and it doesn't say not for use in

dishwasher it says dish soap yeah i was

like those are dishes this is soap and

this is going to wash it it's going to

right

why are they making soap like this can

somebody tell us yeah why are you still

doing that so confusing

we can handle that at another time we'll

tackle the soap issue yeah okay so um

you kind of you lay it out day by day

you're telling me weekly i do it day by

day but i do it for the week okay do you

ever go further than that do you ever

look at your whole month or your whole

year or it's it's the system you use

that works is a whole day whole week and

that's kind of where it is it is

primarily

weekly on a general scale but the

reality is is that when i'm in season

for my business or when i have a month

like this where

i've been on the road from november 1st

and i am on the road until the 19th

for something like that we do sit down

and we do the entire month and we do the

calendar yeah so my husband and i have a

how you doing check-in

like once a week just a 15-minute

state of the union how are we how are

the kids how are the house what's coming

up and then once a month we'll sit down

and say like what's coming in the next

six to eight weeks that's really big

that we have to plan for because he owns

a hospitality consulting business as

well which we actually own the business

together and so we're always

moving around each other and trying to

accommodate

the the business needs and the human

needs of four very different human

beings that all happen to live

in the same place

and whose success is wholly dependent on

the success of the other three people

yeah if i'm a squirrel and i can't get

anything done then my kids get to school

late if they're in school late then

their grades suffer if they're great

stuff or my husband gets mad like domino

effect it is it's a really big cycle and

i think that there has been

previously this push that like this is

your work

and this is your life

when i think what a lot has

has come up to the surface and what

really a lot of i think we learned

during covid is

who you are as a business and who you

are as a person are the same and if how

you do

anything is how you do everything

then

you have to apply the same principles to

your to your life and your business oh

my goodness i'm so excited to hear you i

can't wait i'm super excited just from

talking to you i feel those uh nervous

excited vibrations me too no pressure

thanks for having me but i'm going to be

just staring at you the whole time let's

not make it weird i can't do anything

other than that

tell everybody at home where can they

find you on the socials i am everywhere

at andrea eppelito awesome thank you

thank you thank you thank you guys for

watching we'll be back with more

interviews soon

[Music]welcome back djc it's so funny every

time we start these we're having this

great time and i feel like we're just

welcoming in the people to the

conversation to the family and this one

is going to be a great one i'm here with

andrea now you're going to be on our

main stage in tomorrow you're talking

about redefine and design

tell me a little bit about what that

means and what you're going to be

hitting on so one of the things that i

think is very common in our industry

entrepreneurs small business owners and

creatives in general we are drawn to

starting our own businesses because we

want to have agency and ownership over

our businesses our time our schedule and

we spend all of this effort

building a business and then at the end

we kind of live off what's left over our

our families get

the rest of us and not the best of us we

don't take great decisions

we don't always get but we don't have

time for ourselves we don't have time to

do the things that we love to do and if

you are

wildly creative if you are really

successful if you are

doing the thing that you love and you're

a workaholic in your type a like all of

these people are

you start to see that your business

really encroaches on your life

and when i got to that point i just said

i

i didn't want this i want to make a good

like i i love money and i need it and i

want to make a really good living but it

was so much more important to me that i

had a bigger life and so we switched it

and i sat down and i said let me design

the life that i want

how much time do i want to be able to

spend with my kids what's important in

terms of the relationship i have with my

husband and with my friends with myself

what do i want my days to look like and

feel like and i designed that and then i

built a business and retrofit the

business to support the life

and it's an ongoing evolution it's a

project that you know you're constantly

checking in and saying like how you're

doing but it's it's a really worthwhile

exercise to be able

to have this yeah okay so this is

something that i love this idea it's

fascinating to me and i wish i was

better at it so i'm just gonna pick your

brain a little sure okay so i think

what's great about those of us in the

event space is we don't have a typical

nine to five

most people i go to work monday through

friday nine to five and i have to

basically build my life around my work

that's not us we can choose to take jobs

we can choose to not take jobs and we

actually have the opportunity to design

it the way you're talking about it can

you give me a little insight on what

some of those pieces are in your design

is it things like i'm definitely going

on vacation in july is it i want to have

this type of date night

with my husband this many times a year

is it soccer with my kit what are like

the main pieces that are non-negotiables

maybe for you that you put in your

calendar and then work the rest around

so for me what i did was i i think there

are so many things that we all have to

do

i start with anchoring my days

and so generally speaking monday through

friday my kids have to be taken to

school between 7 30 and 7 45. where are

you based out of las vegas

so that's the drop-off that doesn't

change

they have to get picked up at around 3

30. right so that doesn't change so i

time block my life and it sounds crazy

and it sounds overly structured but it

really gives me the freedom in the

platform to do all the things that i

want to do so from 7 45

to 3 30

that those parameters those parentheses

that gives me my window that's where i

build my business yeah and so i can do

whatever it is in those hours that i

want to do so maybe that's taping a

youtube or filming a podcast it could be

you know creating and sketching or

drawing it could be emails it could be

admin but i block that time out this way

i know i have really deep focused work

for a set period of time right

being a good parent is something that

means something different to everybody

and family life

the the value that you place on that is

different for everybody for me it's

dinner

like family dinner happens in my house

five nights a week and that means that i

cook and i try to engage my kids in that

if i can my daughter likes to chop right

now

my son likes to hang out and you know

and like snack while i do it

but that 45 minutes of cooking

30 minutes of eating

and then like 30 minutes of cleanup

that's two and a half hours yeah

the average family spends less than 30

minutes a day together

and so if i

could triple that or quadruple that and

not be like looking at my phone and

checking emails and doing something else

even if they are watching tv even if you

know we're watching cobra kai and we're

talking and we're laughing

it's family time that is built in yeah

and then when they go to bed

i i can do other things so i have i

brain dump everything that i need to do

yeah and i write it down and then i

think to myself like if this doesn't get

done am i really gonna care is it gonna

is it gonna be impactful in terms of

making me happy making me money and if

the answer is no then i take it off and

then i just block out all the things

that i need to do right or that i want

to do and i leave some flexibility to

move them around but as long as

and i think it's the same for people who

are number ones number twos wherever

they are

if your home life is chaotic

it really does bleed into your work

and so making sure that i have stability

and comfort and really deep connections

with my family

gives me the foundation to do the kind

of work that i want to do because in my

head i know i've taken care of that

right and so that gives me freedom and

latitude to move in other places i love

that so much i can talk about here first

the cooking with your kids is amazing i

have kids as well i have a kid and i'm

married and uh cooking can be a chore if

it's i'm the one who cooks and they're

doing something else and then we eat and

maybe it's in front of the tv maybe it's

like it's a chore but if you can

incorporate the people you love into

those things not only are you getting

that special time that you want but

you're actually still parenting and

teaching life skills like chopping or

snacking while other people work which

is another lifestyle that is my son's

vibe right now yes but i mean it's often

my vibe i was raised in a very

traditional italian house

i did

my grandmother lived with us until she

died

my mother my grandmother owned the

kitchen that was their domain

i i moved out at 23

not knowing how to run a dishwasher

never having done a load of laundry

because when i said like oh i really

want to learn my grandmother was like

all like ah

take me god i have nothing to live for

you

if you don't need me so i i literally

got married and moved out of the house

and i didn't i flooded the first house

we lived in because i went to run the

dishwasher and i didn't know that you

couldn't use hand soap oh my goodness so

i was like bubbles everywhere flooded

the entire first floor

and i remember thinking like

i have zero like life skills

in terms of how to be like without my

grandmother i'm not quite sure how to

live through the day because i've never

done anything myself and i don't want a

handicap

i think that my my family did it from

such a place of love but i don't want to

handicap my kids i would like them to

have a sense of

of understanding and and basic chopping

yes so yeah just the basics yeah you

know it's funny i heard it from guy

fieri who's you know food network fame

all that kind of stuff he's like my

biggest ass for parents is get your kids

cooking because it's fun it's important

it's a life skill all that kind of stuff

so i think it's cool that it's the

double whammy of special family time and

life skills also i know what it's like

to um i may have put dish soap in the

dishwasher as well so i know what it's

saying

to live in life with no skills trying to

sop that up for days trying to explain

to someone like truly i'm not

really an idiot i just didn't know

right

and it doesn't say not for use in

dishwasher it says dish soap yeah i was

like those are dishes this is soap and

this is going to wash it it's going to

right

why are they making soap like this can

somebody tell us yeah why are you still

doing that so confusing

we can handle that at another time we'll

tackle the soap issue yeah okay so um

you kind of you lay it out day by day

you're telling me weekly i do it day by

day but i do it for the week okay do you

ever go further than that do you ever

look at your whole month or your whole

year or it's it's the system you use

that works is a whole day whole week and

that's kind of where it is it is

primarily

weekly on a general scale but the

reality is is that when i'm in season

for my business or when i have a month

like this where

i've been on the road from november 1st

and i am on the road until the 19th

for something like that we do sit down

and we do the entire month and we do the

calendar yeah so my husband and i have a

how you doing check-in

like once a week just a 15-minute

state of the union how are we how are

the kids how are the house what's coming

up and then once a month we'll sit down

and say like what's coming in the next

six to eight weeks that's really big

that we have to plan for because he owns

a hospitality consulting business as

well which we actually own the business

together and so we're always

moving around each other and trying to

accommodate

the the business needs and the human

needs of four very different human

beings that all happen to live

in the same place

and whose success is wholly dependent on

the success of the other three people

yeah if i'm a squirrel and i can't get

anything done then my kids get to school

late if they're in school late then

their grades suffer if they're great

stuff or my husband gets mad like domino

effect it is it's a really big cycle and

i think that there has been

previously this push that like this is

your work

and this is your life

when i think what a lot has

has come up to the surface and what

really a lot of i think we learned

during covid is

who you are as a business and who you

are as a person are the same and if how

you do

anything is how you do everything

then

you have to apply the same principles to

your to your life and your business oh

my goodness i'm so excited to hear you i

can't wait i'm super excited just from

talking to you i feel those uh nervous

excited vibrations me too no pressure

thanks for having me but i'm going to be

just staring at you the whole time let's

not make it weird i can't do anything

other than that

tell everybody at home where can they

find you on the socials i am everywhere

at andrea eppelito awesome thank you

thank you thank you thank you guys for

watching we'll be back with more

interviews soon

[Music]