So, How’d I Get Here?

Jan 1

I got my start in events 11 years ago.

Picture this, I’m a high school senior in Santa Fe, New Mexico and a friend says her dad needs help with the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta and asks me if I’m down. So I say: sure, why not? I didn’t know it then, and I wouldn’t for a while, but that was the beginning of something special. I helped set up and tear down tents, refresh wine buckets, tidy up trash, and support the catering tables. It doesn’t sound very glamorous, but I loved it.

In college at the University of Oregon (Sko Ducks!) I got a job supervising the Intramural Sporting Events program and managing the 280,000 sq ft. campus gym. I hired and led staff, set up and broke down events, coordinated rentals, and managed tournaments for basketball, volleyball, football, soccer—honestly, name a sport and I’ve probably coordinated a tournament or two. I loved this job. It was an absolute blast. Working in athletics has the best energy, and I felt like I was exactly where I belonged.

At this point in my life, I was focused on doing what made me happy and I didn’t really care to think about what society wanted me to do or where I was “supposed” to be at in life.

After college, shit got kinda real. I needed a “real” job and that mindset of “what should I be doing” started to set in. So, In October 2019, I got a job in Portland, Oregon, in Operations at the busiest Apple retail store in the PNW. It was my first and only job not in the events or hospitality industry, but, it paid well, had good benefits, and was a respectable well known company. On paper it looked good. The hustle and pressure to succeed were no joke—I left with a nervous system of steel. If you’ve worked retail, you know what I mean.

But, I didn’t love it.

My schedule was insane, and I was burnt out 24/7. It was the kind of mental exhaustion where you have to decompress in your car in total silence on the way home. Yeah, not good.

In Dec 2021, the opportunity to move to New York City fell in my lap.

I was immediately stoked. For the NYC job hunt I was hell bent on doing something I actually liked and would enjoy doing. My mind immediately went to events. It took some time and a few tears, and brief moment where I thought I was gonna be laid off, but I landed a job as a Corporate Event Coordinator at the prestigious (and super fucking cool) trading firm, Jane Street Capital.

By the fall of 2025, I had coordinated hundreds of corporate and social events and sharpened my skills in high-standard, full-service event planning. I managed events ranging from 15 to 500+ attendees, with formats like sales & networking socials, poker tournaments, conferences, multi-day recruiting programs, and social events. I thrived in the hustle and bustle, and excelled under quick (constant) feedback, the pressure to succeed, and being surrounded by the best-of-the-best in the industry. That experience permanently shaped my extremely high expectations, standards for success, and ability to juggle multiple large-scale events at once. The best part was, I loved that job.

And then, I quit…

When I quit my job in NYC to move back to Colorado, I thought long and hard about what I wanted for myself and what I wanted my future to look like. Full-time in-house corporate event planning didn’t make the cut. Honestly, it wasn’t even close. Like most corporate jobs, my job at JS also had its drawbacks. I felt a lack of creative freedom, and I just didn’t feel good about the “why” and the purpose behind the events I was planning. That job just didn’t feel like “me”, I felt like I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t. And I always felt like I was waiting my turn - like I had all the untapped potential that I was dying to let out but just wasn’t being given the opportunity. But even still, I was terrified to quit. I was beyond scared that I was no longer going to fulfill that societal expectation of where I “should” be at in life anymore. Like think about it, I had a job with great pay, great benefits, and it was in the financial district of NYC for gods sake. AND it was a cool ass place. I got free meals every day, first class facilities, they even gave me tickets to the US Open… FOR FREE. It was a dream job. I was going to be taking a big risk. But, I did it anyway.

I decided I was done sitting at a desk, working inside the four walls of a corporate office, just to make big companies even bigger.

I had always dreamt of working for myself and planning events that had more meaning, a deeper emotional impact on my clients, more creative freedom, and the opportunity to feel like I was really living, ya know?

So, I started Mina Event Agency

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated to start from scratch and run this business myself. I’m learning to let go, put myself out there and not give af about what other people might think, and just do my thing. And honestly, it’s getting easier the more I do it. Like, what can anyone say thats really that bad anyways. I’m working hard to better myself and build a literal business. The hardest thing anyone talking shit has done recently is probably decide what flavor gum they want to buy or if they should go to Chipotle or Chick-fil-a for lunch. Since going public and sharing Mina with the world, I have gotten so much support from a lot of people I didn’t expect or hadn’t spoken to since high school. Its honestly made me feel a lot closer and more connected to my community than I thought was possible.

Plus, I figured if those big shots in NYC trusted me, I can trust myself and my experience to run this business and plan some really special, events for my community.

I guess the moral of the story is this.

I believe in living authentically and to not let the pressures of society determine how I should or shouldn’t do anything, and, I want to feel good about how I interact with the world and other humans. I run Mina the same way. Weddings and Special Events should be personal, unique, authentic, and centered around happiness, bringing people together, and having a good ass time.

My heart is full, and I’m absolutely stoked knowing I’m following my dream and doing what makes me happy - fostering human connection, focusing on the love, and having so much fun doing it.

Victoria Heath