Today we’d like to introduce you to Kat Minks.
Hi Kat, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I began in the event and wedding industry really by chance. I always loved style, especially when it came to weddings and events from a very very young age and when thinking about what I wanted to do when I got out of high school I always knew it would be something in events and fashion. I was the 9-year old that begged her mom to buy the $10 wedding and vogue books/ magazines with supermodels on the covers. I could not wait to break out and be different. Consistently setting the bar higher for myself and talking about big dreams that many thought were completely outrageous and unattainable. I ended up moving to Los Angeles to follow those dreams and ending up being a make up artist and stylist for television, film, and private events, such as weddings.
One day when working with a wedding planner she asked me if I wanted to help out on an event and it was history. My very first event was set atop a Malibu cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean at a dreamy multi-million dollar mansion. Not only did the change in career fulfill fantasies of a midwestern small town girl vicariously through the clients I was working with, I gathered the tools to build my own business in events, style and design that would later set me in a different playing field than the rest.
Starting your business in a town where the goal of many of the clients is to outdo the party they attended last week is a fast track to the university of “don’t screw this up” for sure! So I had to learn relatively quickly not just how to source amazingness and unique but be able to give top notch service to clients and what that meant. Something that I’m not so sure people even get the full scope of today. By that I mean do you know many people that would hand address 300 FedEx slips and envelopes with custom tree bark invitations rolled into cigar tubes shipped from overseas? Well, I had to do that because it was the type of standard level of service I wanted my clients to know. No matter who they are or their budget.
Even when it came time to have my own wedding at the time I think having theatrics. Going big or going home and thinking bigger than the rest was the second pillar I wanted to instill in who I was as an entrepreneur.
I spent 10 years in Los Angeles planning and styling clients and although my time there was a wonderful learning and fulfilling experience when an unexpected heartbreak occurred it forced me to rethink who I was and how my experiences could help others in a bigger way. Yes providing exceptional service and grand ideas to event and styling clients at that point was a service to others but what about everyone else who couldn’t spend six figures on their events?
Having spent six figures on my first wedding that included a fire dancer arrangement to a live harpist, an opera singer on a trapeze, actors in costume, a sword swallower, a cake on a fashion runway and thousands of dollars in flowers (and is still viewable on television in syndication – look up TLC wild weddings) I knew how amazing that is. But that serves as a model for 1% of what events around the country are. And it wasn’t mirroring what I knew either. I grew up very modestly/ poor in fact. I knew the value of a dollar. I’m glad I got the opportunity to experience extravagance but in the back of my mind I wanted to show people I had this, and I want to show everyone ways they could have the look and feel of it without spending over six figures to get it.
So when I moved back to Minnesota to start a new I delved into areas of events that I really hadn’t before to add to the styling and events experience I already had to get my footing in what really was a whole new world since I’d lived there last.
I styled in couture bridal fashion for a bit and moved onto hospitality where I managed a catering department and venue and later became director of sales for a catering company. I even in the process found new love and managed to have a gorgeous wedding for the fraction of a six figures that looked like a million! The hospitality world is fast, exciting, and not so conducive to starting a family. So after my kids were born I took that knowledge and first hand “high end on a budget” experience and built a solid foundation to what is Kat Minks Design/ Adore Productions LLC today. I even began publishing a magazine about having unique and accessible styles and celebrations promoting my lifestyle brand (Adore).
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
With having to restart my business in a completely different state after being 5 years in, I learned a lot but most importantly I learned that life unfolds the way it’s supposed to even in hardship. Had I not gone through what I have (best and worst) I would not have so much knowledge to share with my clients or the world now in what I publish.
There’s also a piece of my story I never expected and is still shocking to me. How much even the most vocally inclusive people (especially women) in and outside of the industry are “anti-grace” for motherhood and being an entrepreneurial mother. In today’s society especially, we need to have grace and acceptance that family life has changed with inflation and the pandemic causing women to juggle and put family on a more even playing field in the game of life. Offices are no longer and in many cases, it’s take “your kids to work day” a lot of days. Does that mean you can’t pursue your dreams? Absolutely Not! Mothers working to build their own businesses are working day and night creating ideas and plans as well as taking care of their family. Why do we have to choose one ? Even today when poeple protest inclusivity for all areas of life, ambitious mothers are getting pushed into a corner and being to told their gifts are irrelevant once they chose be a mom. I think that’s hard for people that don’t yet have families to understand or even realize the hurdles entrepreneurial moms face right now. Being forced to be their kids teachers because schools go distance learning every time a new strain of the virus shows up on top of taking care of a home and making a dream come true. Women are having children older but that doesn’t mean dreams, self fulfillment, and career need to be pushed aside once you do.
In working closely with building up other small businesses in sharing what I know about marketing and building a business I hope that I have a hand in showing other mothers who are entrepreneurial that “you can have it all” on your own terms. Redefine what your “all” really means and to drown out when someone feels the need to rain on what you’ve worked hard to be or build. It’s really hard but you can do it. If you’re honest with your ideal clients and yourself. I truly feel that you attract the exact clients you are meant to have at that moment.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an event designer, stylist, and consultant. Utilizing my Professional background in styling and events I create blueprints for clients to follow in a perfect event or to project and/or market an image.
From concept to creating the florals, styling the clients head to toe I found it important to offer an encompassing list of services that relate to the overall look and flow of an event and all of the facets to it. When there are too many cooks in the kitchen, everyone’s ideas get misinterpreted or misheard. Often you see events with a lot of moving pieces and the design can be so off. When one company serves as the “project manager” and is the hub for how the food should look on the plate, how the napkin is folded, how the guests should be dressed and the color of the flowers or how they flow out of the beautiful tall glass vessel they are placed in, things become balanced and less disjointed. That culminates into a “wow factor”.
I love bringing the wow factor accessibly. I focus on small local businesses to bring in unique design elements. Hand made local papers, locally poured candles, locally grown florals when possible. By accessibly I mean let’s create something unique, tasteful and beautiful utilizing what you have or maybe even from the modern or versatile rental and decor collection I’ve curated to make the look you need happen .
In addition and as a way to give back to the small business community through a free women business owner networking group (Entrepreneurial Vision Collective), I now consult with the event and creative businesses or even venues to help them develop design, a wonderful blueprint, flow, and customer service experience for their guests.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
One of my favorite memories as a child was flipping through the bridal and fashion magazines I’d beg my stepmother to buy me. I’d cut out the designs and make them into a book of my own. Like taking the best of each of them to create the perfect personalized story I could flip through and dream out of each time I looked at it.
Years ago I found one of the books I’d made and found it to be like a vision board I didn’t even know I was making at the time.
Funny how that small memory accelerated my dreams to be a reality when I self-published my own publication Adore Magazine. A celebration and lifestyle publication.
Contact Info:
- Email: minks.katherine@gmail.com
- Website: www.katminks.com
- Instagram: @katminks
- Facebook: www.Facebook.com/katminksdesign
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/KatherineMinksAdoreProductions
- Other: www.adoremagonline.com
Image Credits
Donae Cotton Photography
Mariah Mac Photography
Jenifer Trautmann
Gratitude Photography
Troy Kivel
Brooke Fleetwood
