We kicked off our Mentor POV blog series last week, hearing some insights from Becky Navarro @ Pearl Events Austin.
This week we’re carrying on the series to help you guys become the best at mentoring your interns. We’re finding out what insider secrets these great mentors use when training their interns, so you can use them too!
We’ve spoken to another pro wedding planner, India Rhodes, head of the Dallas, Texas office of Wilkinson Rhodes so she can divulge her top tips for intern training…
What is your name and your company?
India Rhodes of Wilkinson Rhodes
How did you first get involved in the wedding/events industry?
I grew up in the industry. I remember putting together invitations and floral arrangements in high school, and helped with production on a movie premiere at 18. My degree in theatre also prepared me for all of our in-house production on events.
What do you think are the most important skills you need as a mentor for wedding interns?
Patience is definitely key as interns are just starting to learn the correct terminology and production process.
On average, how many interns do you work with every semester?
We normally have one to two interns every semester.
What tasks do you typically delegate to your interns?
We try to include our interns in as many meetings as possible including initial consultations, design sessions, production meetings, and post-cons in order for them to understand what it takes to create an event from start to finish. As we are a turn key company, we have interns help with everything from office paperwork and scheduling to actual production such as processing flowers and decor installations. We believe it is important for them to appreciate the work that goes into the different aspects of an event.
What’s your very best life hack tip you’ve learned along the way as a wedding planner and/or manager of the Wilkinson Rhodes Dallas office?
When I first started in the event industry, I felt incredibly young and inexperienced. I had an incredible upbringing and fantastic mentors who really taught me a lot, but I wasn’t as assertive as I needed to be due to my youth. One of my mentors told me,
“When you’re ripe, you’re rotting, and when you’re green, you’re growing.”
Since then, I consistently try to learn and push my personal envelope. I take on different types of projects that I’ve had less experience with, mentor others looking to be in the industry, make mistakes, and I grow — which is the most important thing.