Booked Solid Is Not a Badge of Honor

In this industry, we walk around saying it all the time, networking events, whenever we're chatting amongst ourselves, "Oh, my gosh, I am so busy.

I'm booked solid.

I have so many events." Well, I used to say it too, especially after COVID, when we were all scrambling just to find customers again.

Being booked felt truly safe.

That was our definition of safety.

But being exhausted is not a business model, and being busy is not the same thing as growing a company.

Here's the thing.

You can say, "I'm booked," all you want, but when you look at the statistics, you see how much money event professionals are actually making, and you can't hide from that.

73% of independent planners earn under six figures.

The single most common income range is roughly 50 to $59,000 a year.

And I talk to planners all the time.

I straight up just ask, "Well, how much are you making?" And I share how much I'm making.

And then I follow up with, "How hard is it to sustain the revenue you want with the events you actually have to execute to get there?" And 90% of event professionals say they've experienced burnout at some point in their careers.

And the sad part is almost half have considered leaving the industry altogether.

So we can all agree, we're booked, we're exhausted, and most of us are still capped.

Because being better at execution, all that means is that you can do more of what you're already doing.

It doesn't mean that you're getting to the next level.

Now, I know what a lot of us have tried.

A lot of us have tried to fix this by adding something to, like, your name to make it a little bit more fancy.

You can call yourself an event designer.

You can call yourself an event producer.

You can say you now produce brand activations and experiences instead of just plan events.

There are so many different ways that we try to differentiarate, differentiate ourselves as event [chuckles] planners so we can make more money.

And trust me, I know, because I spent probably the last decade trying to do exactly this.

How do I make more money? How do I differentiate myself? But a new title, it doesn't change what the client is paying you for.