Most growing agencies chase scale. Kaitlyn Maxted, President and Co-Founder of Garnish, spent years competing against larger organizations before realizing her agency's smaller size wasn't a limitation at all. It was the whole advantage.

Here's how eighteen years of running a third-party meetings and events company shaped that realization, and what other planners can take from it.

Built Out of a Refusal to Compromise

Garnish exists because Maxted and her co-founder didn't want to accept what came with getting bigger. They started the agency 18 years ago on a strong belief: producing exceptional events requires the flexibility to make quick decisions, the autonomy to do what needs to be done, and an unwavering commitment to exceeding client expectations.

The catalyst was watching the agency they worked for get acquired by a larger organization. They worried that added corporate layers and structure would make it harder to maintain the level of service and event quality they were known for. Rather than compromise on what they believed in, they built Garnish specifically to protect that standard.

Pro tip: if you're evaluating whether to join a larger organization or stay independent, ask specifically what layers of approval would sit between you and a client decision. That answer often matters more than the resources a bigger structure promises.

The Turning Point: Realizing Smaller Was the Strategy

Maxted names the biggest turning point in Garnish's growth as a mindset shift, the moment the team stopped thinking small and recognized what actually set them apart. As a smaller agency, Garnish is always competing against larger organizations, but the team came to realize their size isn't a limitation. It's the advantage.

Personalized service, quick decision-making, and deep client relationships are genuinely harder for larger agencies to replicate at scale. That clarity changed everything. Instead of trying to compete on scale, Garnish leaned fully into what it already did best. The result is a business built almost entirely on referrals and repeat clients, which Maxted considers the truest measure of what the agency has built.

Pro tip: stop measuring your agency against larger competitors on their terms. Identify the two or three things you can do specifically because you're small, and make those the center of your pitch instead of an apology for your size.

The Hiring Mistake That Reshaped the Team

Maxted's most instructive mistake didn't happen in Garnish's early days. It happened more recently, in the aftermath of the pandemic. Rebuilding the team quickly while managing limited bandwidth led to real missteps in hiring.

The biggest takeaway was learning the cost of rushing. Filling a position quickly can cost far more down the line than taking the time to find the right person. Today, Garnish invests more time upfront in hiring, trusts its instincts, and isn't afraid to extend a search if the right fit hasn't appeared yet.

Pro tip: if you're hiring under pressure, build in a deliberate pause before extending an offer, even just 24 hours. Rushed hiring decisions made under bandwidth pressure are exactly the ones most likely to need correcting later.

National Sales Office Relationships as Accountability

Garnish's relationships with national sales offices, particularly on the hotel side, have proven invaluable in an environment of short-term booking requests and rapidly shifting availability. Those connections provide an added layer of accountability that a cold transaction never would.

When timelines are tight and options are limited, having trusted contacts who know the business and are genuinely invested in finding the right solution makes a real difference. It's a relationship-driven safety net that shows up precisely when speed matters most.

Pro tip: build relationships with national sales contacts before you're under a tight deadline. The trust that gets you a fast, honest answer during a crunch is built during the slow months, not the busy ones.

Transparency From the First Conversation

Maxted and the Garnish team treat transparency as the core of every first client conversation. The team is upfront about bandwidth and costs from the start, and will not take on a project it cannot staff correctly. Clients deserve an honest picture of what's realistic, not just what sounds appealing in the moment.

Equally important is taking time to understand a client's actual support needs. The goal is identifying the right level of support for each specific client and reliably delivering on it, rather than offering a one-size-fits-all package.

Pro tip: if you don't have the bandwidth to properly staff a project, say so upfront rather than stretching thin to win the business. A declined project preserves a relationship. An understaffed one usually damages it.

Hospitality-First Attendee Experience

Garnish believes great attendee experiences start with a hospitality-first mindset. For most clients, the team manages the pre-event registration process, which means Garnish is often an attendee's very first point of contact with the event. That responsibility gets taken seriously: prompt, informative responses to help desk questions, and pre-event communications crafted to be strategic and clear so attendees arrive prepared and excited.

Maxted pushes back gently on the industry's current obsession with the word "experiential." Larger budgets can certainly fund impressive buildouts and wow-factor moments, but thoughtful, intentional hospitality is powerful in its own right. Careful attention to every touchpoint of the attendee journey, from arrival to departure, can leave a lasting impression without needing a massive production budget.

Pro tip: before investing in a flashy experiential element, audit your registration and pre-event communications first. A confusing arrival experience undoes a beautiful production faster than a modest production undoes a smooth one.

Staying Calm When the Unexpected Shows Up

Garnish's approach to emergencies starts with staying calm and focusing on solutions, because in live events, the unexpected is inevitable. The first priority is always assessing the situation quickly and getting creative with problem-solving.

That mindset starts long before event day. Throughout planning, the team anticipates potential challenges and develops contingencies in advance wherever possible. When something truly unexpected does arise anyway, experience and a collaborative team environment let everyone focus on finding solutions rather than assigning blame.

Pro tip: build contingency planning into your process as a standing agenda item during planning meetings, not a separate task that only happens if someone remembers. Anticipated problems are dramatically easier to solve than surprised ones.

Growing Through Referrals, Not Marketing Spend

Maxted is candid that Garnish grows primarily through referrals and repeat business, which makes maintaining customer relationships and exceeding expectations a genuine business necessity rather than a nice-to-have. The team invests in truly understanding client goals, their internal teams, and what success actually looks like for each one.

That dedication, paired with well-executed events, is what Maxted credits with keeping clients coming back and confident enough to refer Garnish to others. It's a growth engine built on trust rather than acquisition spend.

Pro tip: track what percentage of your new business comes from referrals versus outbound efforts. If referrals already drive most of your growth, invest more deliberately in the relationships producing them rather than diverting energy into unproven acquisition channels.

About Hopskip

Hopskip is a sourcing platform that connects event planners directly with hotels and DMOs through streamlined RFP management, cutting the back-and-forth out of finding the right venue under tight timelines.

Planners on Hopskip save 30+ hours per RFP, get cleaner proposals faster, and have all the information they need to make confident venue decisions. The best part? It's free to start for planners. Book a demo today to get started.

Sources

• General industry commentary on experiential marketing trends versus traditional hospitality-focused event design
• Industry reporting on post-pandemic hiring challenges in the events and hospitality sector