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Alumna Spotlight: Rebecca Scheuer Breaks Free, Plans Events on her Own

By Alyssa England, Intern

TAMPA (February 14, 2020) -- Armed with a master’s degree in marketing and several years of networking, gaining experience, attending countless meetings and conferences, Rebecca Scheuer has found her own path.

Scheuer began her journey toward independence when she was a full-time graduate student at USF, and a former classmate recommended her for her first “big-girl” job.

“If he hadn’t e-introduced me and forwarded along my résumé,” Scheuer said, “I don’t think I would have ever been considered for the interview in the sea of applicants.” 

Even though she had extensive interviewing experience, acing this interview was be no simple task. Still, she felt as though she had polished her responses. She had familiarized herself and was comfortable with interviewing in the corporate world.

“I am grateful for that period of time when I was constantly going on interviews,” she said, “because each interview became easier and easier and I became more and more confident with my answers.”

Scheuer started out as a temporary consultant at Kforce, while two of her teammates were preparing to take maternity leave. She worked hard, learned a lot and proved to her leader that she was an asset to the team. Eventually, after several contract extensions, Scheuer’s temporary position turned into a full-time role.

But her journey had just begun: “Once I was in, I knew I had to keep improving, since I was still the greenest member on the team.”

In addition to her new duties, Scheuer participated in work-sponsored volunteer activities to meet fellow colleagues across the company. She took a Dale Carnegie business course and continued her education at USF, where she focused on improving her Excel skills, a requirement of her new job. Through these outside-of-work activities, she built a solid support system, learned from trusted mentors and created relationships that turned into lasting friendships.

Scheuer continued her career at Kforce on an event-planning team, beginning as a coordinator and then blossoming into an event specialist. Her team managed the firm-wide recognition programs, which included many of the corporate events she grew to love. She was on the path to her dream job.

Events ranged from small Tampa-wide events, large nationwide annual training events, leadership conferences, team building sessions, volunteer events, appreciation days, summits, and much more. Scheuer’s favorite part of the job was getting to plan the most sought-after recognition reward: the annual incentive trip.

From 2014 to 2017, Scheuer and her team worked hard throughout the year planning ultimate incentive trips to incredible destinations for the firm’s top performers. The trips, including recent destinations such as Kauai, Los Cabos and the Bahamas, often took up to two years go coordinate. After doing this for seven years, Scheuer realized that event planning is what she wanted to do the rest of her life and she was ready to forge a path on her own.

“I loved creating, planning, and managing the events from start to finish and seeing the team’s hard work come to fruition,” Scheuer said. “Leaving a company and incredible colleagues after that long is such a difficult and heart-breaking decision, but I knew what I wanted for the rest of my life, so I had to start somewhere.

“I wanted the freedom to build my own client relationships and work with a variety of companies,” she said. “I wanted to travel more. I wanted to build a network of trusted partners. I wanted the flexibility to work remotely 100 percent of the time. But mainly, I wanted the feeling of building something of my own, where my success was dependent on me.”

Today, Scheuer is the woman behind her own Becca Lynn Events. She also now works as a national account executive at G. Brodrick and Associates, an Atlanta firm that focuses on providing incentive trips and professional conferences. She helps develop and prepare incentive trips, conferences, meetings and destination marketing services. She admits, though, she could not have done it alone.

“I have an incredible mentor who encouraged me to begin my own company,” she said. “I was referred to a trusted accountant, who helped guide me through the process of starting the business and answer all of my first-time-business-owner tax, finance and expense questions. I’m still learning so much every day and it is a lot harder than I thought it would be, but I absolutely made the right decision.”

Above all, Scheuer is passionate about staying connected to her community and university. She serves as an active board member on the USF Muma College of Business Alumni Advisory Board and serves as a member of Meeting Professionals International.

What her mentor taught her, and what has stuck to this day is this: “Try to meet as many people as possible. Attend networking events, even if it is super awkward. Exchange cards and follow-up the next day. Build mutually beneficial and genuine relationships. And stay in touch.”