Bold
We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elissa Onda. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elissa below.
Elissa, we are so happy that our community is going to have a chance to learn more about you, your story and hopefully even take in some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Let’s start with self-care – what do you do for self-care and has it had any impact on your effectiveness?
I believe there are two types of self-care; person self-care and business self-care. Making Business self-care a priority has saved me and helped my company grow exponentially. In the beginning of Sweet Dream Sleepovers I was doing it all : washing the bedding, disinfecting, prepping the slumber parties, answering the emails, invoicing, marketing, bookkeeping, delivering and setting up all the parties on top of being a wife and mother running a household. Everyday I was in the weeds, always playing catch up trying not to let a ball drop and I was burning out quickly. When you are treading water personally or professionally, you are in survival mode, not able to slow down take a breath and think clearly. I could feel the water rising above my head and at that moment I knew “doing it all” was not serving me. I began to outsource all the laundry with saved hours of time and slowly but surely I began to hire on more and more staff to prep and set up the parties on their own. Of course in the beginning it was hard to trust other people with “my baby” and certainly difficult to part with the funds required. But that has come back to me ten fold. The only way to grow is to trust the processes you have set up let go of control,
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I own Sweet Dream Sleepovers which is Atlanta’s premier Slumber Party Rental Company. We rent both outdoor and indoor tents. Our Signature Sleepover transforms the slumber party experience into a night to remember. Each child enjoys their own private teepee with all the trimmings with themes designed for girls and boys of all ages. Our Gorgeous Outdoor Glamping lets you spend the night under the stars in our expansive sweet dreams tent. A fully Instagram worthy event, this luxurious outdoor stay is what lasting memories are made of. Enjoy a dinner or high tea you’ll never forget with our Pretty Picnic and Dreamy Tea Party experiences. With our Outdoor Marvelous Movie Night the stars aren’t just on the screen. Just sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy your favorite flick under the night sky. Speaking of stars, we are most excited about expanding into film production and prop rentals. We have successfully worked with ABC, MTV and VH1 and now offer custom designed glamping and camping film props
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I am going to share just one because I find it to be the most impactful on my life and my business. The most successfully people I know jump into action sloppily. Which is counterintuitive to how we are brought up in the education system, which tells us, the only way to learn is by memorize facts. There are people that get stuck in that mindset of wanting to absorb all the information and learn more before making a single step. This will, a lot of times will prevent you from moving at all. You will always do better if you are learning by doing not learning by learning. You are going to hit a road block, a snag, a problem if you keep trying to learn your way into success.
This is why I always say “YES” and figure out the rest later. When ABC called us to do a full set design which we have never done before. I could have overthought it, pored myself into set design books, thought of the million things that could have gone wrong or I could just say YES.
The big lesson is, sometimes you just need to cross your fingers and… jump.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
YES! We are always looking to promote and collaborate with small event based businesses. We would love to partner with event planners, photographers, florists, charcuterie artists and event rental companies