Your Story Blog Series: Christina Taylor

Armed with over 20 years of experience in the industry, Christina Taylor is the President and Owner of TaylorMade Experience (TME), a full-service consultancy that specializes in event management, business management, fundraising, and more.

Christina started her career in the hospitality sector at Marriott International where she served as the Event Manager, Sales Manager for over three years. Christina shares, “I began my career in hospitality with Marriott International, which was a wonderful training ground for the work that I do now and a really fun environment to learn and grow. I honed my attention to detail and customer service skills, while becoming a more polished professional, overall. Because of my work ethic and outgoing personality, I took the lead on a lot of projects and was promoted to a management position quickly.”

From there, her career in events and business took off. Christina worked a variety of roles from being the Sales & Marketing Director at Michael Jordan’s Restaurant to the Director of Private Events at City Club of Washington. Her wide breadth of experience prepared her for the future challenges of running her own business.

“When I started TME as a “solopreneur”, my main challenge was managing my time and balancing my client work with my goals for growing the business. Initially I took any and all work that came my way, which wasn’t always a wise decision. My calendar would quickly fill up, and I would end up working round-the-clock – and without support, because I couldn’t afford at that point to hire any staff. Looking back, if I could change one thing it would be to have chosen a niche business area to focus on and said “no” more often,” Christina says.

After overworking herself in the pursuit of getting her business off the ground, Christina began to realize how to better manage her time, “In addition to learning how to say “no”, I got better at prioritizing my time and got creative with finding ways to bring in affordable staffing. That gave me the opportunity to do more high-level planning and business development, which eventually lead to hiring my first team member.”

With her team expanding, Christina was able to focus on building long-term relationships with her clients, which she believes is one of the greatest successes of her career so far, “Being able to maintain client relationships for so many years has been an incredible win. And growing the organization organically each year, both in terms of headcount and revenue, feels very rewarding.”

Christina also learned that sometimes, a relationship with a client isn’t a good fit. “The most challenging situation I have faced is letting a client go. I grew up in a professional environment where I was taught and believed that the customer was always right. After working tirelessly to try to deliver on unrealistic expectations, which were well outside the scope of service we had agreed upon, the decision was made for me. I learned that one of my staff members was being mistreated by the same client, so I had no choice but to sever the relationship. It was a very hard decision, but it taught me that there would be times where a client wouldn’t be the right fit for TME.”

Despite these challenges, Christina and her team are flourishing, “What I find most exciting about my career is working with organizations that are doing amazing work around the globe. And though we specialize in a particular kind of work, as a consultant, our day-to-day is never routine. We have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients in different environments, which keeps things ever changing and interesting. Building a great team is also rewarding. Over the years I have been lucky to see a lot of growth, which is built around solid staff members. And to see the engagement between those team members and our clients makes me very proud.”