Fallon Carter, Owner + Principal Planner, Fallon Carter Weddings + Events

Hi, Fallon! You own a weddings and events business. Can you share more on what that looks like?

I’m an event planner, specializing in destination events. I coordinate weddings and other social events. I like to consider my work as creating experiences that people never realized they could have. 

How would you describe the path that brought you to the events space? 

I was fresh out of college, and I had a finance job at an aerospace company. A friend of mine got married in Paris, and when I attended as a guest, she needed my help actually pulling it off. I jumped in, and I ended up helping to pull off this incredible wedding. I realized, wow -- I’m good at this! In particular, I realized that I’m good at managing chaos. So it occurred to me then that being an event planner may be an opportunity for me. Originally, I wanted to go into policy and then law school and change the world. But I recognized weddings as an easier opportunity to create impact for people, because you don’t have to manipulate Congress. (laughs) And it has worked out, and now it’s been over ten years. 

And in that ten years, was there a particular moment when you realized you had really hit your stride?  

Yes! I managed an event for a major corporate client that required us to work with 1,200 guests. On the day-of as the guests are arriving, the fire department shows up asking for a permit the client hadn’t secured. They were threatening to shut us down. I was absolutely panicked. So I turned on the charm, and sweet-talked one of the firemen and managed to get us off the hook. I got all of these beautiful people into the party and the client nor the guests ever knew anything happened! Moments like that just make you feel like you could do anything. Even just living in New York City, and keeping the lights on, being able to live alone in my amazing apartment. I feel like, wow, look what I have created for myself. 

What part of your job feels most fun?

Aside from the international travel and just being able to visit crazy, gorgeous places? (laughs) Honestly, I think my favorite thing is to take a client’s idea and crank it up a thousand notches. Being able to say, “That’s a good idea, but what if we spun it around and did this other thing?” They’re always so blown away. 

You create really incredible events. Can you share a bit more about your approach? How do you pull it off?  

The first thing I do when organizing an event is set up my timeline. I get the day organized and ask the client what they think. One thing I always ask is “What’s the surprise and what’s the delight for your guest?” This is something they don’t often think about that can take their event to the next level, creating the optimal guest experience. I always try to think from their perspective. When they walk into the venue, what do they smell? What do they taste? What do they see? It should be like theatre. It should be a multi-sensory experience. 

How have you evolved as an entrepreneur?

It’s not for everyone but it’s so exciting. If you can figure out how to manage your business and hone it, it can be fruitful. I can’t say I want to still plan weddings when I’m 70 years old. I get excited about multiple, different ideas. As I get more comfortable in my current position, I find myself seeking ways to be more uncomfortable. I want to learn how to try new and different things. So I am now trying to keep an eye out for other opportunities where I can take the knowledge I’ve learned from building this business -- since I now know that I can build a business -- and build other businesses. 

What makes you uniquely suited to do what you do? 

My feathers don’t ruffle easily. I’m fairly calm -- I have a good temperament. I’m not overly emotional, which is key when I’m coordinating weddings where everyone is extremely emotional. (laughs) I’m also decisive. I like puzzles and math so coordinating an event with 20 different vendors and different call times and bringing things in and loading things up and figuring out the best way to do what we need to do with the time we have -- yeah, I love it. 

And, I also like production. For every event, I’m creating a guest experience. So when I am thinking about the timeline, I’m zeroing in on potential places where there may be dead time. Then I’m thinking, Okay, people are finishing dinner, they’re looking for something to do. How we can get the guests up and dancing? 

How is the industry for Black women? 

There are tons of Black women doing weddings, but there aren’t many doing luxury -- weddings that are well over $100,000. A lot of people are getting more open-minded now, too, and I find that a lot of people are actually intrigued by a Black woman doing luxury events. It almost attracts clients, and I honestly don’t feel invisible or overlooked at all. They see the work I’ve produced, the publications I’ve been featured in, and realize that I’m someone they want to work with. 

There are definitely clients who will think you don’t know what you’re doing or who won’t trust your vision at first. I’ll go into an event and someone will “mansplain” as though I haven’t been doing this for 11 years. Or they will be looking for the person in charge and walk right past me. I’m not concerned. If anything it feels like an opportunity to show them what I can do. I also try, whenever I can, to bring another brown or Black person into the space and create an opportunity for one of us. Even someone younger, to show them the ropes. 

When you think about your career trajectory, what advice do you think you’d share with a young black woman starting out? 

I think as Black women in professional spaces, sometimes we have to be so many people within the span of a millisecond. Do your best at being your best and learning who you are. My real success came when I found a space where I could be me in every way. You can be anything on the planet you want to be, but focus on being you -- fully you -- first. Love yourself fully. People will always try to tell you that they know who you are, and what you do. But I promise you won’t care as much if you know yourself deeply.  

When you think about your future, what excites you most? 

One thing that has been on my mind a while is being part of Detroit’s revitalization. I know I want to own a hotel that speaks to the Great Migration and the work done by the minority community to build up the city. I’d love to be a part of recreating Black Bottom. Hospitality is my heart and I  want to step into that passion to help impact a historically important space for Black people. I have a couple of apps I want to work on, too. I’d love to get into philanthropy. 

Weddings have been great and have taught me about different kinds of systems, and how to manage through those systems. I have a lot of confidence after building this business and it has given me more ideas and better tools to execute on those ideas. I’ve learned more, I have more resources, and I have so many ideas of other things I want to do now.

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Maya Pittman, Psychotherapist & Wellness Entrepreneur

Hi, Maya! Let’s jump right in: what do you do? 

I am a therapist, plainly. Officially, I’m a Nationally Certified Counselor, and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) who serves as a staff psychotherapist at a university. I also own my own practice where I do consulting and conduct sessions as a virtual therapist. At the university I also do mental health outreach and intercultural coordination to ensure underrepresented populations are getting the help they need. That’s a major passion point. 

Can you describe how you got into mental health?

I was always interested in psychology. I took a course with a Black woman in high school, and I was hooked. I took that interest with me into undergrad at UNC, and in my junior year I was still heavily interested in psych, but I didn’t like the research component. I wanted contact with people, which led me to community counseling, and the world of counseling and therapy. I really believe that direct contact is so important, and that’s really what allows you to get people to where they want to be. 

What makes mental health an appealing space for you personally? 

It’s interesting. When you are growing and developing you start to get familiar with yourself, and accepting of who you are. I’ve always been a listener. I have an interest in people, and it’s a privilege when you get the opportunity to know someone’s “story”. We have all these books walking around, in people, and we only see the cover. Opening them up is so interesting to me. 

Also, losing my mother when I was 16 years old was a major transition. It turns your life upside down, in terms of processing, and there’s a physical toll. That was really a catalyst for me to realize that therapy is something people need. So all of those things make this space appealing to me, but  this is also who I am, and so it makes what I do all the more purposeful. 

Can you share a little more about that -- the importance of finding purpose? 

Purpose is the driving force. As a Black woman, we’ve all had that feeling of rolling up to the office thinking, I can’t do this today. Purpose provides that consistency where, regardless of what those other people are saying or doing in the office that day, I’m still going to get in there and do what I need to do for those I serve. Especially in mental health, because the people I’m serving are going to need what I have to offer -- that nourishment, that medicine --  to keep them going. Purpose makes it all worthwhile. There are the inevitable days where you feel misunderstood. There are the unintentional microaggressions and stressors Black women have to deal with in addition to their jobs. Purpose is what overshadows all of that. It’s the internal motivation that keeps me going. 

Are there any thoughts that you feel are taking up a lot of your mental space right now? Things that might be driving your priorities?

Lately, I have been fighting for my time. It’s two-fold. There’s the professional side and the personal side. Anyone who is in a helping profession knows that there’s so much energy given to holding those spaces for others. For example, if I feel sick or I feel like I need a “mental health day” my first thought is “These people need me.” For me to not go in, that’s a terrible inconvenience for someone who has been waiting two weeks to explore this fragile thing they’ve had bouncing around in their mind. 

But then, on the personal side, it’s like this is my time. Amethyst Counseling was birthed out of this vision of committing to purpose work while having complete freedom of my own world. Freedom that makes prioritization of self non-negotiable, and congruent with my value for my time and the people in my life. There are so many moments where I just think, man, I love what I do. But what I do is not my entire life and I have to be reminded when I get to the end of my day and I am finishing up with my clients, I have to make sure I have something left to give to the people I love and care about. I want to be in complete ownership of my life’s time and modeling that for the people I’m working with, and it’s been a struggle. It’s been a lot of relearning. I’m taking that day by day. 

You mentioned Amethyst Counseling. What is it? 

Amethyst Counseling is a one-stop shop for the various services of counseling. This includes individual therapy through virtual counseling, supervision for new counseling professionals, and more. I connect with all of my clients through telehealth. I did that for a reason -- just anticipating where the world is going. And I would have friends move somewhere and like clockwork, I would get a call from them asking, “Do you know a therapist here?” It would pain me to say no. In North Carolina, before you can be fully licensed, you have to have 3,000 hours of direct supervision. I want to get into that -- supervising young therapists just getting started. I’m also interested in blogging and podcasting. I have so many thoughts that I’d like to get out of my head and share. 

How is it going so far?

I’m feeling my way there. I have mentors but there’s a quote I always have in my head: “Nobody is going to save you.” You can have all the conversations you want with mentors but you have to get up and do the work. I have to be extra graceful in terms of just doing, and not having a method to the madness. My plan right now is to just make sure I’m doing something every single day. I think it’s important to have enough self-compassion to recognize that all your stuff doesn’t have to be together tomorrow. And so I’m figuring it out and trusting the process. There’s a lot I want to do, and I kept thinking “Why don’t I have the freedom to do these things?” I’m realizing if you want that freedom, you have to go all in to make your life what you want it to be. 

You brought up having a mentor. How important is mentorship in developing a career?

Mentorship is everything -- being a mentee and being a mentor. Let’s not reinvent the wheel. Other people have done what you want to do, so you just have to ask “How can they help me?” I have a mentor, Dr. Kamala Uzzell. When I graduated from college, I found her and I was like, this is it, this is what I want to do. So I sent her a message on LinkedIn, and didn’t hear back. After my first year at George Washington in graduate school, I sent her another message. Again, I didn’t hear back. I graduated and got my certification and I’m like, OK, now she has to respond. So I tried again, and I didn’t hear back. 

Six months later, I get a message from Dr. Uzzell. She said, “I’ve received a lot of messages, and I’ve just kept seeing this name popping up.” Right when she wrote me, I was relocating to Georgia to go home because I hadn’t found a job. It was scary -- I had never not had a next step. And the way the universe lines up… Dr. Uzzell offered me my first counseling job at a psychology resource center based in Durham. So I was in Georgia for two weeks before I turned around and moved up to North Carolina. 

When I moved to Durham, Dr. Uzzell just opened up so many opportunities for guidance and support. And it’s not as though we talk all the time. We don’t even talk every few months. But she’s knows me and she knew me as a baby counselor. I was assigned to a location out in Goldsboro, and it was a smaller office and I was mostly on my own there. But she was outside the door when I had my first counseling session with a client. 

I feel fortunate that I’ve worked under Black women. And it’s nice to know that I can go to someone when I have a problem I can’t solve. I mentor young women who work under me, but also you don’t have to know someone personally to provide mentorship. As Black women, especially, we have to step out and make these connections whether or not we have existing relationships with the people we’re reaching out to. Ask yourself “Where do I want to be?” And if you see someone doing that thing, go get them. 

I’ve noticed that with Amethyst, a whole new set of mentorship is moving toward me. I’m finding people who are business owners, entrepreneurs. Two days ago, I reached out to someone who follows Amethyst on Instagram, and they wanted to connect to learn more about what I do. 

Do you have any advice for Black women seeking to be in this space?

Yes -- two things. At the university where I work, we had a safety and security meeting at the end of last year, which was my fifth year. A young lady came up to me and said, “I remember you were my counselor when I was in middle school.” She told me that I’d helped her so much. I thought about how inadequate I felt when I was her counselor. Speaking to this young woman was a reminder that wherever you are is where you’re supposed to be, and trusting the process is critical. 

Also, as women and especially as Black women, we give so much of ourselves to people. So prioritizing yourself is that much more difficult. Figure out your commitment to yourself before helping others. It is so easy to get consumed with the lives of others and what you’re doing for them that you fall down the rungs in your own life. Remember: I’m at the top of my list at all times.

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Jessica Lynch, Social Impact Entrepreneur

Hi, Jessica! So let’s start with what you’re up to now. What do you do? 

I work as a partner at Generation Titans, a social impact company I co-founded with my two partners about two years ago. We have two areas  of work. The first is more like traditional consulting. We work with corporations, investors, and large campaigns, to help them engage with communities of color more responsibly and in a way that is authentic and not extractive. The other piece is building a pilot platform to provide resources for entrepreneurs of color in specific geographies or who work in a specific industry. 

Can you go a little more into what you mean by extractive, within the context of your work?  

I think a lot of times, right now, we’re at a place where brands recognize that activism and working with people of color is cool or the “in” thing. It’s extractive because often brands will use the image of someone or a community they represent, and those brands are rewarded with increased profit. But are brands listening to that community? Are they making investments in that community? So we try to help brands who say they have a purpose, to do it in a real way that’s authentic and that puts resources behind their words so it’s not just ads and commercials. 

I love that. So how did you get to this point in your career?  

I was passionate about education policy, and worked for two years as a college advisor in Greensboro, North Carolina. The juniors and seniors I worked with needed better opportunities to access and attend college, but you also start to realize how interconnected college access is with so many other issues in communities. Economic mobility isn’t isolated to just education. Going to college won’t solve everything because there’s still systemic racism, misogyny, and on and on. I used to think that if people just go to college, that was the answer to their problems. But I realized I needed to do work addressing barriers to entry, and at a large scale. It was hard to figure out what that meant for my career because it’s not as though you can just find that in a job posting. So I started doing social impact work through traditional consulting, but I wasn’t passionate about it. I went to the Obama Foundation and I really loved my experience there. Then I just wanted to start something on my own, and ended up working with colleagues from the Obama Foundation to start Generation Titans. 

In a way, a lot of your work at Generation Titans focuses on building networks. Can you share a bit more about the unique nature of networking as a professional of color?

I think that as a Black woman, and as an introvert, it’s been a learning curve for me personally (laughs). I’m not the type of person that likes to go to all the happy hours, talking to everyone in the room. But, I know I can connect one-on-one and I do well when I can be real with people. So I usually try to make a deeper connection with one or two people. I’ve given that advice to other people, too -- if your style of networking isn’t true to who you are, it’s going to seem forced. I learned the hard way, trying to perform the way I thought networking is meant to be. 

I go to a lot of conferences. I know some people take more of a “whatever happens, happens” approach. I will typically do research before attending an event or panel. I’ll try to identify people I want to connect with, and panels and sessions that I’m excited about. I also rely on the network of amazing Black women I have had the opportunity to go to school with, to work with, and I will try to keep them updated on what I’m doing. It’s also important to understand that who you reach out to for help doesn’t have to be someone at your job or in your industry. That has been a real process, too -- just asking for help, being honest about where I’m at, and sharing how I want to collaborate with other people.

Describe your day-to-day.

It ranges. Sometimes it’s building out a project plan. Sometimes it’s more conceptual, where I spend time thinking about what being our startup strategy looks like for us. Sometimes it’s dealing with our budget, and other day-to-day aspects of managing business operations. On the consulting side, it looks more like sales, and building relationships -- just trying to get in the door and talk to people. On the entrepreneurship side, we talk to entrepreneurs and learn what their specific needs are, and trying to come up with unique solutions where we aren’t redundant and can distinguish ourselves. We might work with a client or a partner, or have a brainstorm, or go through Quickbooks to analyze the budget. It varies day to day and so many things happen each day. 

What are the pros and cons of what you do? 

Well, it’s kind of a pro and a con but you’re the boss. You can say here’s what we’re trying to build, and you have to build buy-in with with people outside your team on the idea. But that’s also scary because if an idea doesn’t work, it’s on you. I’m a planner and want to know what is happening in three months, six months, nine months out. In a startup, you’re constantly changing and evolving as you learn more. That’s been hard. Not knowing what happens in 12 months. In a traditional nine-to-five, you have the comfort of knowing how you’ll grow, you have an idea of where your role is going to take you. But as a startup, it’s really rewarding when you have wins because you saw it through from start to finish. It was just an idea and you made it happen and now it’s real. 

Is tech making space for people of color? 

We talk about this constantly. And not just for ourselves because we’re trying to be a part of this space, but also because of the entrepreneurs we work with who are finding their footing in tech, in and outside of Silicon Valley, in venture capital. There’s a lot of bias. It’s well-documented. There is so much signaling. People will ask, what school did you go to? Because so many companies are new, there’s no way to tell whether a founder or a company is going to be great, so people use these markers like, who have you worked for? But those are not proven methods for figuring out who or what is worthy of investment or who will be a great founder.  

Outside of the Bay Area, we are seeing the tech communities in places like Atlanta and Philly saying “We can build our own tables. We don’t have to try and fit in at yours.” I get excited about that shift, and building wealth for our community as a collective. Instead of someone looking at you to figure out how you fit into their checklist of what is desirable, I think there is a new  community that is saying “Let’s figure out how we can raise capital together and we can all get to the next level.”

It’s been hard, though. Social capital and networks are so important. Who you know is such a big thing in this space, and access to those rooms. Even just access to information. I didn’t grow up knowing a lot about coding or tech as a space, or even angel investing. So you have to do a lot to figure out where the opportunities are. It’s also worth figuring out what’s free. You can take a class at the General Assembly or enroll in a coding bootcamp, but it’s thousands of dollars. There are lots of resources at the grassroots level focused on allowing people in and helping them navigate this space. 

What is a moment or some words of inspiration that you consistently return to? 

There is one moment I remember from when I first started working in consulting. I was really excited to have the job, and I had a little imposter syndrome. The first year, I would always want to prove my value for being there, so I would be the first to volunteer to take notes during meetings. I don’t know what I was trying to prove. But there was this woman whose project I was working on. I had worked under her for six months and she was a mentor. One day she said to me, “You’re present but you’re passive. If you want to be more than the note taker, you need to claim space in the room.” I think of that today when trying to find my utility in a room. And so I would advise young black women to use their voices. Our voice is productive and powerful, and we bring so much to the spaces we are in. That is our value -- not taking notes, not getting coffee, but being present and bring our perspectives to spaces

What makes you uniquely suited to do what you do? 

I’m someone who likes to connect the dots, and it happens pretty naturally. I’ll talk to someone and think, “Oh, this person needs to meet this other person.” It’s useful at work. And I like solving problems -- how to organize my day, what the team needs to do, what I need to do -- to get things done. When things go left or something unexpected happens, it gives me so much energy and motivation because I’m like, “I never want to experience that again!” (laughs) And, also, I think just having a lot of work experiences. I’ve worked in consulting, at a nonprofit, and now at a startup, so I’m able to pull from that diverse skill set. 

What are you excited about for the future?

Right now, I’m in the early stages of a startup. But in the next year or two, if we do the things we want to do, we will have centered entrepreneurs of color and demonstrated their value. That will be awesome for us. They’re running amazing businesses. I want to have my friends support them, and see my friends buying those products. I see how that vision could be real, even though it’s going to take some time. I will feel good about what we’ve done when other people see entrepreneurship as something they can do, and to realize that they don’t have to be in Silicon Valley. They don’t have to fit some specific profile. They can be themselves. 

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