Planning for the Unexpected
Photo Credit: Gavin Fernandes @photaugraf
She has spent the last 15 years planning other people’s important life events, but Daniela Caputo never planned for her own life to turn out this way.
The 55-year-old dynamic, empathetic founder and CEO of DC Montreal Event Planner has survived breast cancer, and the pain and suffering of not being able to have children. She’s seen plenty of ups and downs in life, and persevered through them all with determination and a sense of humour.
Daniela spent the first half of her life as an assistant in the corporate world when she was laid off just before her 40th birthday. She wasn’t sure what she would do next.
She felt lost, alone, confused…. and determined that she would make something good come out of her layoff. That’s when fate stepped in.
Daniela accidentally showed up for a seminar about being your own boss after she misread an ad in the newspaper. She thought she was going to hear about jobs working for someone else, turns out the seminar was about how to run your own business. “I never, ever wanted to be an entrepreneur,” Daniela shares. “But it was an epiphany or something, it just felt right.”
“I had no idea what kind of business I wanted to run, but the woman at the course said: if you have no idea what you want to do, just reflect on our life up until now and see if anything keeps popping up.”
Daniela saw a pattern in her own life - planning. She was the one who always planned the corporate Christmas parties, the family gatherings, the big events in life. So she decided to start a business to help people plan parties.
“I didn’t even know event planning was a thing. And in those early years people kept telling me that’s not a job, it’s a hobby.”
“But I started to hustle, networking with women’s associations and the chamber of commerce and I got hooked on the creation of my baby.”
“I’m not going to lie, the early years were horrible, I remember sitting in traffic in my car after a networking event crying my eyes out and saying to the universe, ok if this is not what I’m supposed to be doing, let me know. But no matter how hard it got, I just couldn’t let it go, I believed in it so strongly, I did everything I could to survive and keep the dream going. It took 5-6 years to take off and be earning properly.”
Today Daniela’s company is the go-to event planner for some of Montreal’s top technology, bio tech and investment firms. She also helps plan incentive trips for sales teams, a sideline of her main business that has taken her around the world, from the towers of Dubai, to bungee jumping in New Zealand. And more recently, she started giving back, by teaching event planning at Lasalle College, a program that didn’t exist before she came along and was open to sharing her knowledge.
“That gives me the greatest joy,” she shares. “Because I know how hard it is.”
“I know how lost you can feel when you’re starting out, and if I can make that part easier for even one person then I am going to do it.”
“I was before my time in this industry, but now, with my teaching, I’m growing the next generation and giving the industry credibility.”
This year Daniela was inducted into the Hall of Fame Event Industry, created by the Canadian Meetings and Events Expo, as the 2020 industry mentor. It’s an honour she never expected to receive in an industry she never even knew existed 15 years ago.
“It’s as if life took me by the hand and said - you’re doing this.”
Her best advice if you’re facing a dramatic change in your own life:
“The best thing to do is to take a step back and get that anger, and frustration, and ugly stuff out of your system, and then you can start thinking about what to do next.”
“With time, and age, and openness you can achieve anything.”
You can reach Daniela through her website: montrealeventplanner.ca