Aja and Alexa of Duet on Building an Events Company and Making High-Pressure Days Look Effortless

Aja and Alexa are the co-founders of Duet, an event planning company. We talk about how they each came up in different corners of the hospitality and corporate events world before ending up at the same company and eventually deciding to build something together. They get into what it was like starting the business at 23 and 26 with no real credibility yet, why they put their heads down and had no work-life balance in the early years, and how that foundation is what made everything after it possible. We also get into how they stay calm on event days when things go sideways, why over communicating with clients is the most underrated part of the job, and what it means to be only as good as your last event. 00:00 — Intro04:25 — How Lani Knows Both of Them and How They Found Each Other06:08 — Aja's Path From a Gym at 17 to Corporate Events07:05 — How Aja and Alexa Met at Platters and What They Saw in Each Other17:34 — How They Started Working Together and What They Thought It Would Be20:38 — We're Only as Good as Our Last Event22:02 — The School Carnival Story and What It Feels Like to Trust Your Planner25:32 — What Each Partner Brings and Why It Works30:00 — Managing a Team and Setting Expectations on Event Days33:53 — Overcommunicate Everything or It Becomes Disaster34:14 — Toronto Venues: Hot or Not40:05 — Smash or Pass: Wedding and Event Trends51:12 — Dream Venues Around the World