We're Elevate

What started as a side hustle for two creative, driven sisters has now become one of the Midwest’s premier event planning and design firms. At Elevate, we find pure, unbridled joy in celebrating all aspects of life - big moments, small gatherings and anything in between.

Planner U: Recap of our Signature Course, The Prosperous Planner

It’s honestly still quite difficult to wrap our heads around it: just over four months ago, we announced the launch of a our signature course, The Prosperous Planner! Since our announcement at the end of January, we have since completed our initial beta round of the course, worked through it with our initial cohort of students, and are now in the evaluation and improvement phase.

It has truly been a whirlwind; a project that has been on our minds and near to our hearts for many, many years now. We are SO proud to have completed this initial launch. Thank you, a million times over, to our initial round of students for trusting us to share with you all that we have learned over our past 7 years in business, and taking those tools with you as you continue to grow your own planning businesses. We can’t wait to see you soar!

While the beta launch can now be considered “complete,” looking back on this project, there is also so, so much we have learned and ways we have grown even throughout this singular process (launching and creating a course is serious work, guys)! So, as a way to celebrate the completion of our first round of The Prosperous Planner (or, as we lovingly call her around here, TPP) we figured we’d share a little bit more about what went into this project, and what you readers can expect going forward!

Why Launch a Course?

Quite honestly, we created this course for ourselves. For the year one, two, even three versions of our new business owner selves, who knew very little about how to even plan a seamless and beautiful event, much less running a successful event planning business. You see, knowing what we know now, we simply want other event planners to know that your dream business doesn’t have to involve years of trial and error, guesswork, and making mistakes over and over again, wondering why you aren’t growing!! We firmly believe (in the Midwest wedding market especially), that the veils of secrecy and gatekeeping trends between vendors need to be abolished, so we took it upon ourselves to lay it ALL out there in one safe place and strong community – hence our desire to create a course specifically for other wedding planners looking to prepare, build and scale their own businesses! A rising tide lifts all boats, right??

What is in this Course?

Okay, truth bomb moment: when we beta launched the course, it wasn’t actually even built yet! We had a really beefy outline of alllll of the education we wanted to share, but the course itself was really in more of a conceptualization stage – not actually laid out or in presentation mode yet. (So, thanks once again to the initial cohort of students for trusting us to deliver the knowledge even before it was laid out, as well as sharing your thoughts on improvement – it truly means the world to us.)

However, NOW that we have a full-fledged course all built and ready for our next round of eager students, we can confidently present the complete outline! You ready?!

Module One: Establishing External Business Foundations
  • Lesson 01: Convey Your Worth
  • Lesson 02: Represent Your Style
  • Lesson 03: Get Social
  • Lesson 04: Add that Final Polish
Module Two: Defining and Targeting Your Audience
  • Lesson 01: Consider Your Ideal Client
  • Lesson 02: Extend the Promise to Your Clients Through Your Work
  • Lesson 03: Establish Solid Pricing
Module Three: Building Your Business and Stellar Team
  • Lesson 01: Set Your Business up for Success
  • Lesson 02: Recruit and Manage an Incredible Team
Module Four: Creating and Utilizing Systems and Strategies
  • Lesson 01: Streamline Your Workflow through Automations
  • Lesson 02: Set up Systems, SOPs and Checklists
Module Five: Building, Nurturing and Maintaining Your Network
  • Lesson 01: Nurture Your Networks
  • Lesson 02: Prepare for Strategic Marketing and Growth

Guys, it’s a beefy, all-encompassing course! And quite honestly, we built it to be just that. We wanted to create an intensive, “tough love” workbook for up-and-coming planning companies of all experience levels and sizes. Trust us, we know first hand that every business journey is different (especially in the wedding industry!), but as experienced planners and business owners, we also understand that the tools, concepts and general practices are also somewhat universal and applicable across all styles and business types. So, we took it upon ourselves to eliminate the guesswork for our peers, and package all of that goodness up into one digestible-yet-comprehensive format!

We also wholeheartedly believe in the wonderful power of community, so while there is SO much knowledge to be had within this course, what also comes with it is an impactful, year-round community of like-minded planners (including us!) who are seeking the exact same growth and elevation in their own businesses that we have been striving for since year one. This piece alone is also something we truly wish we could have subscribed to way back when – it would have saved us years of frustration and guesswork.

So, What’s Next?

Are we bad online marketers if we aren’t using this blog post to tease a new launch or sell a brand new offering? Maybe.

The truth is, we are honestly just SO excited that this course is now real, tangible, and ready for more consumption, that we just wanted to remind you of its glorious existence! Additionally, come THIS FALL, the course will be ready once again for all you busy, beautiful planners to download and digest this knowledge and join a like-minded community ready to go all in on themselves and their businesses! If you are interested in this (or know someone who might be), be sure to join the waitlist to be the absolute FIRST to know about the official launch of The Prosperous Planner: coming November 2022!