Lisanne — Finding Passion in Events Planning (Sprout Rockstar of the Month)

Lisanne is a Marketing Communications Officer at Sprout Solutions. This month she shares with us her experiences finding herself in her career in events.

 

Moving to Manila

“I grew up in Baguio and only moved to Manila when I was 16 years old for college at Ateneo de Manila University.

It wasn’t so difficult to adjust because Manila has always been my second home. I would be here every holiday and a lot of my relatives live here. When I started school I moved into a dorm and I was lucky enough that we were like a family: everyone in the dorm including the guards, secretaries, and other students were all really close it was like a big sleepover every day.

The hardest thing to adjust to was the weather. It was so hot my cheeks were always so red and got a tan!”

 

Love for Events

“When I was a kid I wanted to be a doctor. Even until high school, I was so sure I wanted to take that route but then after watching my cousin who went into med school, I realized the lifestyle wasn’t for me.

Then I did a semester of environmental science when I was a freshman in college, which I found also not to be a good fit for me so considered all the things I was good at and interested in, and it led me to communications. I shifted into BS communication technology management— which was basically my school’s version of marketing.

Ironically enough, I used to be a shy kid. I couldn’t even talk to family members I couldn’t recognize. But people saw my potential when I did speak out so I decided to keep practicing in front of a mirror first. Then slowly, I involved myself in more projects and progressively more comfortable in front of a crowd. I even tried hosting and enjoyed it a lot.

I thought I’d end up in a PR firm because it was in college my love for events grew and I knew that’s what I wanted to be doing afterwards. I joined a lot of organizations— 7 throughout my 4 years— and I planned a lot of events for each.

I love bringing plans to life, particularly executing them and seeing ideas materialize piece by piece. I also love the bond that I form with the people I work with for the events. You go through a lot of hardships. You’ll often reminisce and ask each other, “Remember when we didn’t sleep for 24 hours just to plan that one event?”

 

The Challenge with Losing a Mom

“It was almost finals week of my first semester of senior year. I was hosting a big event and my mom had called me that afternoon because I had borrowed money from her for one of my events and she was asking for it back. I told her I’d call her back later.

Right after the event, I got a call saying that they had rushed my mom to the hospital. I wasn’t aware of how critical the situation was until I got to the hospital and the doctor told me that she had suffered a cardiac arrest and to expect the worst. The next day, she passed away at noon.

My siblings live abroad and have their own families and I never met my dad so it was really just my mom and I. I was 19 when my she passed away, and it was at that moment I realized I had been plunged into adulthood because I now had the responsibilities of taking care of myself.

I was scared and never felt so abandoned in my entire life— of course, I had my friends and family, but it’s not the same as having an immediate family. I was at the transitional stage from college to the “real world” and I didn’t have my mom to guide me.

It was finals week when my mom passed away, so I had many responsibilities to return to after her cremation. Waking up was hard knowing that I didn’t have my mom anymore, but I knew all she wanted was for me to graduate, so that’s what pushed me through my last semester.

I thought I wanted to work right after graduation, but my brother planned a trip for me so I took a few months off to grieve and realign with myself. At first, it was hard to not have anything to do. When my friends were getting jobs I would get pressured but I really did need to take the time. It turned out for the best because I needed to be surrounded by family again.”

 

Getting the First Job

“After my 6-month break, I got a random call for a position that I didn’t even apply for. I didn’t know what Sprout was and I had done little research with what they did but when you’re job hunting you just take every opportunity that comes to you.

Apparently, my manager then had found me through Kalibrr and it just so happened that one of his team members knew me from college and had confirmed that I was a good fit. I went to the interview and I was hired on the spot. I knew from there that I was going to be in good hands.

I started as an HR tech consultant (sales position). It was scary because I had no idea about tech, HR and payroll and no background in sales. I actually avoided sales jobs when I was job hunting and turned down many offers.

But because I trusted the people I was working with, I gave it a chance. They were very patient with us while we were learning the industry and product. I ended up doing well for the first half of the year but I struggled in the latter part. I knew I wasn’t hitting my numbers in sales and that lead me to question whether I should stay in Sprout or not. But though I wasn’t hitting my quota management wanted me to stay with Sprout so we decided that I could try marketing because my skillset matched what they needed. I also worked closely to the marketing team throughout my sales experience having been there go-to sales representative for events. I had grown close to marketing as well.

So now I handle events, press releases, and help the customer success, product, and sales teams wherever they need me. And that’s where I found my place in Sprout.”

 

Plans for the future

“Some things I’ve been toying around in my head is wedding planning, events styling, or interior design.

Lately the last two years, I’ve been into interior design because I love styling events. I watch a lot of HDTV and read a lot of articles in my spare time, so these plans aren’t too far off from what I do now.”

 

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source https://sprout.ph/blog/lisanne-sproutrockstar/