Kathy Romero on Certainty, Alignment, and Building a Premium Event Planning Brand

Host Michael Coombs interviews global event planner and brand strategist Kathy Romero following her surprise talk at Toronto’s client appreciation party, The Interlude. Romero explains that reaching high-profile work required complete self-trust, strong boundaries, and projecting certainty because clients “hire a presence,” not just a planner. She emphasizes leaving fear by choosing yourself, vetting client alignment through experience, and building a clear, evolving vision rooted in the life and lifestyle you want rather than comparison or volume. Romero discusses recurring doubts, grief-driven overcompensation, burnout, and recovering through certainty. She defends a lean three-person team and fewer, higher-value clients, warning that scaling for status can trap businesses in overhead and ego. She outlines raising prices as a positioning signal, guiding clients away from trends, maintaining expert authority, handling vendor pushback through documented recommendations, fostering abundance-minded collaboration, and selling transferable skills when switching event niches.

00:00 Interlude Event Setup
00:47 Meet Kathy Romero
01:19 Becoming Certain
03:22 Leaving Fear Behind
05:30 Client Alignment Mindset
06:16 Vision And Foundation
09:18 Lifestyle First Business
10:35 Grief And Boundaries
13:11 Burnout And Certainty
15:19 Small Team Big Value
18:32 Status Ego Trap
20:57 Raising Prices Upmarket
25:26 Charge What You’re Worth
26:31 When to Raise Rates
27:59 Pricing With Integrity
28:48 Positioning Your Brand
29:52 Trends vs Timeless Taste
32:19 Stop Being a Yes Man
34:57 Handling Bad Vendor Picks
38:17 Confrontation and Accountability
38:51 Referrals Ego and Scarcity
43:11 Find Your People
46:40 Pivot Without a Portfolio
49:29 Closing Thanks and Subscribe

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Michael Coombs

Kathy Romero