With over 15 years experience in personal assistance, talent management, public relations, and event planning for big names like the CBC, David Cronenberg, Rachel McAdams, George Stroumboulopoulos, and Toronto Fashion Week, Carolyn Rohaly is an expert on all the details that go into managing talent and pulling off extraordinary events. She’s now using her wealth of information to pair assistants with businesses, executives, and talent that will benefit from their personal skills at LUXXE Assistant Agency, which she recently co-founded with Coral Osborne.
Tell us a bit about yourself. What should people know?
I’m a professional multi-tasker with experience in film, television, radio, event planning and production, fashion, brand management, PR, writing, design, web development, urban planning, architecture, and international development. My latest project? Co-founding LUXXE Assistant Agency with Coral Osborne.
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What are the biggest challenges and best rewards about what you do?
Biggest Challenges
• Finding time to do everything!
• Dealing with finances.
• Hustling. I love connecting people, but can sometimes be shy when it comes to hawking my own business with follow-up phone calls.
Best Rewards
• Placing people with jobs and clients with perfect assistants. It’s a thrill!
• Pride in ownership.
• Seeing our ideas become reality.
What are three things you can’t live without?
1. Support from friends, family, and my business-wife, Coral.
2. My iPhone.
3. My bike.
Finish this sentence: I love Toronto because…
…it’s the center of the universe! Really, it is! I grew up in Calgary, where everyone said, “Toronto is so snobby; Torontonians think they’re the center of the universe.” When I moved here 12 years ago, I discovered that’s true! There’s always something to do and every neighbourhood has its own unique identity. You can go on a mini-vacation every weekend, just by visiting a different neighbourhood!
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What’s your favourite restaurant and why?
LEE. It’s because of Susur’s Signature Singaporean-style Slaw. It’s amazing.
What’s one of your favourite go-to designers/brands or accessories lines and why do you sport their fashions?
I pretty much only wear dresses, so it’s obvious I go to Doll Factory by Damzels! I met the store owners, Kelly Freeman and Rory Lindo, the first month I was in Toronto when I was working backstage at fashion week. We’ve been friends ever since and it’s got a lot to do with their dresses. They have superpowers: You can walk in the store and say, “I’m going to such-and-such event tonight and have 15 minutes to find the perfect dress!” And they find it for you. They know what looks good on any gal. I love them.
What products are always your beauty bag?
I always have a MAC lipstick or gloss of some sort (usually “Date Night” Dazzleglass), MAC powder, and blotting papers. Rollerball perfume is a must (Flowerbomb for a sophisticated floral mood and Pink Sugar for when I feel like a teenager). And I always have a tiny bottle of drugstore hairspray for a little bit of oomph before heading into an event or meeting.
What style trends are you obsessed with right now?
None! My tastes are kind of never in style, never out of style.
What’s your favourite spa or service?
Body Blitz! I figure that’s what Roman baths must have been like.
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Let’s get social for a mo’. How can people stay up-to-date with your busy life?
Twitter at both @LuxxeAgency and @GigiLaFaux, Facebook, blog, and luxxe.ca.
