GET TO KNOW YOUR WEDDING PRO®
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTIONS - PART 8

*Please forgive any spelling or typographical errors. Episodes listed in the order they were recorded.

(Brianna Parks, Brianna Parks Photography)

Well here we are, back here again. Another episode, get to Know Your Wedding Pro. We have Brianna Parks here today, part down in California, and then part up in Washington, elopement photographer here. Kind of a unique, I like that kind of spreading our web here. We do a little Oregon. We do a little Spokane, but you specialize both in California and in the Pacific Northwest. So that would be good. Brianna, why don't you introduce yourself? Who are you? Hi, my name is Brianna. I am an elopement photographer. I actually am based in Redd, California, which is up north. But like Reid said, I specialize in both Washington and Northern California, just kind of the whole Pacific Northwest in general. But those are kind of my two areas of expertise I really love. Olympic National Park and Redwood National Park are kind of my two hotspots that I absolutely love and adore, and I've been doing this for about six years and just absolutely love every aspect of it. And you said, so then when you're not in California, you're kind of more up in the Port Angeles area? Yeah, correct. So I usually spend the summers in the Port Angeles area just because it is so popular up there in the summer times. I mean, Washington and the summer is just unbeatable. It's absolutely gorgeous. We get a lot of that. I deal with my other stuff a lot of online, and you get a lot of this hate of Seattle and oh, it's so rainy and I mean, I'm sitting outside here today, but yeah, I mean we really do. If you tough it out for the eight, nine months, you really do get it pans out here in the summertime. Do you feel that way? Yeah, oh for sure. And I don't even mind the rain. I think it's more so just the overcast, not being able to see the sun for days at a time where I'm just like, oh, I don't know if I could stay here in the winters for the very long. I think I need the sun a little bit. So in terms of shooting between California and Washington, I assume different scenery, kind of different vibe in that way. How do you kind of meld it to, or do you see similarities in both kind of locations? At least from my perspective, I think the Olympic is different than Northern California, but maybe it's not. Yeah, that's a good question. I would say, I mean the similarities in terms of Olympic and the Redwoods specifically are pretty similar. The climate is pretty similar, pretty overcast in both areas. I would say the biggest challenge with Olympic is probably just the midday sun. If you're at a place like Hurricane Ridge where you're kind of at a higher elevation, you have the sun. But I love both places for different reasons. I think Olympic is so incredibly diverse and you can kind of see everything that Pacific Northwest is known for in that specific park. And then I love the Redwoods because it's so remote and not really a big hotspot for elopement, surprisingly. So I love when couples are willing to go off the beaten path. I mean, you have to kind of travel a lot to get to the redwoods. So couples that are down to go to the redwoods are some of my favorite couples. So just go with the flow and chill, I guess. That's interesting. Obviously I do videography and for a while I really thought that was going to take off the elopement, and there's some here that do tremendous, and I was really to kind ease into that for a while and ended up letting it go to those more experts. But just in terms of, has that always been your specialty? Is that something you've leaned into? How do you feel where you want to brand yourself as kind an a little bit photographer? Yeah, so I actually started shooting big weddings. I did a few portrait sessions. I just didn't really like it. And someone on Facebook found me and just asked me to photograph their wedding. So I did it. I think I made $300. I thought I was raking in the dough, but I did that for about two years before I finally discovered elopements and I decided to fully make the switch in 2020, which was actually the perfect year to do so. It was right before the pandemic happened and everything shut down. So I feel like it was kind of a blessing in disguise for my business because I switched right at the right moment. So I started photographing elopements in 2020, and then I just kind of stuck with it. I love elopements. I've never gone back to big weddings or shooting anything else. And I think in 2020 we saw a ton of photographers and videographers get into the elopement space because all of their big weddings were canceled. So what else are you going to do? And I think we're seeing a lot of them start to taper off now. But like I said, we'll never go back to big weddings. I love the whole elopement niche and it's everything that I love. Just my personality fits perfectly in with my work and it's just perfect. I don't know what other words to use. Well, I think I like it a lot and I feel like it's some more intimate with the couple. You just deal with that and you're not dealing with the 18 family members standing, okay, we're trying to get photos. Can I get myself a okay, now you're going to get the photos. We don't want to deal with that. But it's interesting because yeah, like I said, and we did a wedding planning podcast all during Covid talking about different Covid restrictions and all that different stuff and the tiny wedding that was going to be the big thing or the micro wedding I think is what they called it. And at least in my world. And the same with corporate, I think it was a lot of like, oh, it's all going to be remote. And then the second you could do a big conference again with a thousand people, it's like we're doing that. And the second you felt like you could do big weddings again, I feel like I went back to that, but it's good to I, and obviously elopements existed before Covid, but it's good to see that exist still. It felt like, like I said, as soon as people could, a lot of the people wanted that they could still go back and do the big ones. So it's good that the other, I guess line has continued in that way. And it was kind of a blessing too because I think a lot of couples didn't really know eloping was an option or they thought, I don't know, they couldn't get married, they had to wait a few years. And so I think when Covid happened, a lot of couples were able to see, okay, we have options now. We don't have to just choose the big wedding. We don't just have to choose to have an elopement. And so I think Covid really allowed couples options and it allowed the market to kind of explode in a way in of weddings. And I think nowadays too, I see a lot of couples mixing. So I have a lot of couples that will come elope and then they'll go home and do a big open house reception style with their friends and family. So they're kind of getting the best of both worlds, which I think is so brilliant. I wish that was around when I was getting married. Yeah, I think Covid right, definitely kind of opened up to, okay, you don't necessarily have to do all these a hundred things for your wedding to be a wedding. You can kind of pick and choose. It's so weird. And even the elopement thing, the whole like, oh, you're going to go elope in Vegas. I dunno, it's always seems like it's kind had this weird, even my brother's wedding planning right now, and my mom's like, well, I dunno, I think they might have a small wedding. I'm like, that's kind of a normal thing now. It's not. And even my wife and I, we had a hundred people, but it wasn't like we had this big 300 person affair, but it's becoming more of that standard then I think even with people working and realizing if I'm ever going to be able to afford a house, if I'm ever going to be able to do this, maybe I don't want to buy fish filet for 200 guests already. Maybe I want to go. Do you find that as well? Obviously there's the lifestyle choice in the like, okay, we want the really style beautiful photos out, whatever, but obviously it's like we're trying to save money in some of these ways as well. Yeah, I would say honestly, a majority of my couples are trying to save money or they want to spend their money on a different kind of experience where like you said, I mean couples who have a big wedding tend to want to spend a ton of money on the decorations and the food and the music and all of these things that are kind of there to help entertain the guests versus couples who want to elope, tend to invest their money in experiences that are kind of centered around them and their day. And a lot of my couples too combine their honeymoon and their elopement in one. So I get a ton of couples coming from the east coast that have never been to the Pacific Northwest before. So they come out here, they elope, and then they do a two week long road trip just to see everything the Pacific Northwest has to offer. That way they're not spending money on a hundred plate dinners for a person and they're actually doing it to go out to dinner them two or go see a national park that they've always wanted to see. So Yeah, I remember when one of my wife's friends got married and I was doing video, I just started getting into wedding stuff enough where I could say that I did it. And yeah, while they didn't have a videographer and she's like, yeah, we really needed those chairs, I guess at the time. And I couldn't tell you what those chairs looked like, but I knew that they were really expensive and when we were planning, that's what I wanted. And then now two, three years later, it's like, why the heck did we do all that? Is there a type? Obviously there's a lot of, we're hiking in the mountains, we're doing the sunrise. I've done a couple of those. Okay, we're go out, right? We're a buck early in the morning. But is that the only people that do it or obviously there are certain non adventurous types or how do you view all that? Oh yeah. There are so many couples. There are super adventurous couples who want to do backpacking and helicopter tours and the whole nine yards. And then there are other couples who are wanting to invite friends and family, but they don't want to hike. They're not super adventurous. They kind of just want to go see what the Pacific Northwest is without having to hike up a mountain. So in that case, we just go to drive up accessible locations. I mean, that's what I love about this whole niche is you can really make it as personalized as you want, where you can do as much hiking as you want or you can do no hiking. So it's really up to the couple and what they prefer and their personalities. Do you find, and you were talking before with some hotspot locations to go to that you have to fight, there are other people there. Are you good at finding another? I never, because again, I don't, this really is outside of my norm of, I do the pretty standard bar and wedding whatever, but are you having to continually find new locations? Are you fighting with other people going to be there? Yeah, that's a good question. So I am very hands-on in the process in terms of helping my couples. So I always make them location list with locations I think they would love, I use a ton of different questionnaires to get to know them and what they're envisioning for a ceremony location. I always like to provide them with 50% locations that are those more popular spots you might see online if you look up things to do in Olympic National Park versus the other 50% of the locations I suggest are very much hidden gem offbeat path locations. I kind of tend to steer clear from locations that I know I'm going to find 110 other photographers at Gold Creek Pond is a really big one, kind of in the Seattle area, and then artist point up by Mount Baker super popular. So if couples really want to go there, I just kind of let them know beforehand, Hey, there's probably going to be other couples up there. There's going to be a lot of people. So I just like to prepare them as much as possible. But I do try to find locations where you're not going to find a ton of people Is there. And obviously with every wedding, and I'm asking dumb questions, but this I think at least fills out the conversation more, but you run a venue, right? Okay. No, there's the parameters here. I mean you have to have them a prize of now we're going to be out. We might not always be able to control all this or the lighting or if it's going to be overcast or the rain. What kind of prep do they go into knowing just, Hey, it is TBD until we get out there, what it's going to look like? Oh yeah. So the very first initial call when I get on a call with them to meet them, I prep them for everything. So I let them know we're in the Pacific Northwest, the weather here is not super stable all of the time, so we might run into whether we usually plan the actual elopement day to be during a good season, but if it's not, we have options. I always like to say bring clear umbrellas or different props, like a blanket that you can use that looks good in pictures. But yeah, I always just try to let them know. I also send them example galleries too of elopements that I have shot in the rain. And I think when couples kind of see, oh look, the light was even the whole entire day and the colors are really pretty, it makes them excited and be, well, I kind of hope it rains on my wedding day. And I think too, couples who elope, they kind of know we're going to be outdoors. They just kind of know, okay, I can't wear heels. I need to wear dresses that aren't going to get caught on everything or something that I don't mind getting dirty in. So yeah, I think preparation is just key. Let them know beforehand so they don't show up and they're not surprised the day of. Well, and it's funny because you say that, right? And okay, well make sure you dress, but we will even get that. I remember we had a wedding and they were not the happiest the couples, but it was private land. They were on a beach and it was just like, oh my God, the sand is everywhere I do. It's like, you're getting married on the beach here. This is what we do. But that's good. Even as much prep you even get no matter what wedding, like, oh, I want my dress to get dirty or whatever. We're living in the world today, we're trying to get through and do this. And I still get that to this day sometimes where I'll get on the phone with a couple and they'll be like, okay, well how do I keep my clothes from looking nice all day when we're going to a beach in March? You can't, I mean, there are ways to kind of mitigate it, but I think if you're trying to keep everything clean, maybe an outdoor moment isn't the right kind of wedding for you to have, let's maybe explore other options to see how we can make this work. Have you had to, I guess, talk about maybe a little of your branding in terms of what you've had to do to cater to that, to cater? And then I want to separately talk about being able to look in Seattle and California, but just in general, your brand and just targeting that specific clientele or niche. What have you done specifically? Yeah, so I think if you go on my website and just read through my copy, it's very much telling couples that they can have this once in a lifetime experience. Like I said, I do kind of target couples a lot that are coming from the east coast and that have never seen the Pacific Northwest before. And so I'm really trying to attract couples that are maybe on the fence of whether or not they want to elope, but they kind of see my images and are just like, this is what I want. This is the feeling I want on my wedding day. I want to feel like a super tiny person in this big massive landscape. So I really kind of focus that with my copy. And then just my colors too. I tend to gravitate towards earthy colors that kind of symbolize being outdoors, hiking, earth, mountains, all of that fun stuff. Do you find the stress level when's just when's let get that back here when it's just you, the couple kind of being able to do all that? I lived through that when we did and we a lot were just streaming the wedding or a little ceremony or we were doing whatever. And a lot of couples, this was about as much as I could handle if we had had to do a full scale wedding that might've been two. Do you find the stress level you're able to mitigate that and it ends up being better too? Oh yeah. And even after the big day, couples are always that. So I mean, I had no stress that was such an enjoyable experience. And even I just shot my brother's wedding a few weeks ago and he had a bigger wedding, so it was kind of like I was thrown out of my element a little bit and it was so different. I mean, even just the stress level of having just a few family members there, it was completely different versus an elopement where there are barely any guests. So it was a complete night and day shift. But a lot of couples just, I think at the beginning when you start planning, and this goes for big weddings and elopements, but you're kind of like, where do I start? How do I begin? And there's a little bit of stress there, but when the actual day comes and it's over with, I mean couples are just like, that was so enjoyable. I loved it. I had no stress. Well, congrats on your brother. Yeah, that's funny. Like I said, yeah, they're planning my brother and I guess future and it is so weird and people want different, we finally, they're looking at venues and all this stuff, and I think they want to ask me but not offend me, maybe not what I do or not what we did when we got married, I don't care. But it is funny, just even that how different, and they're looking at places really, Annie wants to get married there. That's great. It's just totally different than what you would expect, but it is funny. So congrats on that. But yeah, kind of go into the different element of what he wants versus maybe what you did or what you do. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I don't know, I think big weddings are so fun for certain couples and there's so much you can do. I think mean even because of Covid too. I mean you see venues that just completely skyrocket their prices, and so it's a whole different world can't, it's so hard to break down the differences because I think they're so drastically different from each other. It talk about that. I still want to do the Washington California thing, but in terms of money saving to do the elopement and God bless and I have lots of friends that own venues and run venues and have managed venues and all that, but being able to save 7, 8, 9, 10,000 on a venue rental alone, let alone everything else, and okay, we're feeding the hundred people. Okay, we got to get all these shares. And so talk about just the cost savings of that and just I guess when you do the elopement, are they getting hair and makeup with someone? I know we have hair and makeup people that kind of do that elopement stuff. So what kinds of things do they have to handle when they're doing the elopements? So I think most of my couples will do hair and makeup, florals, and then, I mean, that's kind of it, unless I wanted to do a full on experience. So sometimes couples in Alaska will do helicopter tours. I think a lot of couples are now hiring a private chef or a catering company to come in and do a private dinner with their friends and family to end the night off. But I mean, couples really only spend, I would say 10 to $15,000 on an elopement versus you can $10,000 on a venue easily. So it's like you save a ton of money eloping, and what's great is you can make it as affordable or as expensive as you want. Whereas I think with big weddings you can kind of do the same thing. I mean, the venue to me is the meat and potatoes of a wedding. And so if you can't find a cheap venue that you like, you're kind of stuck investing a ton of money into your venue. Venue. No, and I would say that I think venue, and it's really windy here, sorry, venue rentals have really gotten out of control. And the point where even by the time you rent that maybe you don't have a videographer, maybe the floral isn't up to the budget because you end up cutting a lot of things because of that. I think almost in the hindsight then the weddings there maybe don't look as expensive when all the money went to the venue and then we have no money left over to kind of fill that space or decorate that. And obviously there's beautiful venues where you don't need to do a lot of that, but I'll see photos come back or photographers I'll talk to where it's like, yeah, it was me in the venue. And then the friends were catering the friend dj, they did this, they did that. It just doesn't look like what they thought because so much 50% of the budget was tied into just walking in the door. And that's honestly what happened with me and my husband's wedding is we spent so much money on our venue. My husband really wanted a videographer, but we just couldn't afford it. And I look back and it's just like, honestly, probably my biggest regret of my wedding is not hiring a videographer because they're just, I mean, they tell a story so differently than a photographer does, and it's so much more to me, emotional and heartfelt and it's just a different experience. And so I think anytime couples ask me, what was your biggest regret of your wedding? It's just like, I didn't hire a videographer because we spent all of our money towards our venue. So go to achiever venue, get married outside and get married in a national park and a national forest. There are options. Even if you want to have a larger wedding, national forests are great. If you have 75 people, you can even have more than 75 people. You have options. You know what I mean? So in terms then of doing the, you said you go up to Alaska, the Washington, California. Are you targeting more elopement people seeking the West coast? Are you seeking more targeted for different locations work? How do you kind of manage that? Yeah. Well, like I said before, I love working with couples from the east coast, so I kind of try to target them as much as possible. Basically my biggest client, I ideal client, I don't like using that word, but are couples that have never been to the Pacific Northwest before. So I market specifically for Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. Those are the only places I shoot. I used to photograph all over the us. I did some international work and I mean, there's no place more beautiful than the Pacific Northwest in my opinion. I absolutely love it here. So I really try to market to couples who want to experience this beautiful area of the earth In of then I guess reactions when they get the photos, when you send it back, I'm sure you hear from them and family and stuff. There's got to be kind of an exciting reaction just because like you said, it is so unique here compared to if you're living out in somewhere, you've never been out this way. And especially seeing them the day of seeing their reaction to visiting someplace the whole rainforest for the first time is just, it is my favorite part of the job seeing their reaction to this place the first time, because I think it makes me appreciate it a little bit more, just so used to going there all the time, but just seeing their reaction and them so happy and just on top of the world is unforgettable. It's priceless. You talk about helicopter rides and things like that. What's maybe a standout unique experience that you've gotten to do? Oh, That's a good one. So I photographed this elopement in Iceland, and we did an off-roading tour, and then we went and hiked into these ice caves. It was like a private glacier ice caves tour in Iceland, and it was just unreal. It was so amazing. I can't even describe how cool and unique that experience was. And we went to a ton of different waterfalls around the island and just really got to see everything Iceland is known for. It was incredible. Amazing. Do you find your couples endurance wise to be able to do some of that stuff? Have couples even it's golden hour here, and they're like, I'm a little tired. Are they able to fight through all that and get all the things they need to, or I guess you're able to pace it more up to kind of their speed, but there is still that like, okay, we're done with. Are they kind of all in, they have to be all in on it, right? Yeah, they're usually pretty all in. And like I said, it does depend on the couple too. So I have a lot of couples that are super just chill and laid back and they're just like, we want a timeline, but we kind of just want to go with the flow. I literally just shot an elopement last week in Olympic, and we were planning on going to two locations, but we ended up going to four because they were just like, okay, I'm kind of done here. Let's go. Can we go somewhere else? Yeah, of course. So it's really up to the couple and what they want to do. So in terms of photography, how'd you get into all this? Was it something you went to school or? We always grew up with a camera. My head, you get involved in photography, So I was actually really into video first in middle school and high school, my siblings and I would just film everything and stitch together all of these videos and do TV series basically. And I ended up going to college. I really wanted to become a doctor, so I was majoring in pre-med. I worked in a hospital beforehand and got my medical assisting license, and I was in college, and I was just so burnt out. I just was not enjoying science very much. I was like, okay, I don't think I want to do this, so I need to find a creative outlet because I mean, it was just day in, day out at the library studying all day long, and I felt like I completely lost myself. And so I ended up switching my major to sociology, fell in love, absolutely loved it. And I was on YouTube one day just trying to find different hobbies to do, and I came across this video of a photographer who's taking portraits, and I was like, this looks really fun. I kind of want to try this. So I asked my husband if we could go to Target, and we had just gotten married. We were so young. I got married at 19. He was 20. We had no money, completely broke, and we went to Target. We spent all of the Target gift cards we got from our wedding on a starter, DSLRs, a little Cannon, T six I, and I just started photographing portraits, and then I would just advertise $25 shoots on Facebook. And then someone reached out to me and asked if I would shoot their wedding for $300, and I did it, and it just kind of snowballed from there. What a great story. So funny. Do you feel like your husband feel like that was probably money well spent at that point, right? Oh, hundred percent. Yeah. And I don't know why he said yes. If it was him asking me, I probably would've been like, absolutely not. We have no money. But he had a lot of faith in me. Well, I remember because I was working and we were out on, we weren't married yet, but we were out for Valentine's Day and we were at a winery out in Woodville. It was talking with them and he was like, yeah, I own the winery. I have my own. I come in when I want to. I leave when I want to. I do this. And I was like, that's a really good, but my wife took the same kind of leave of faith in that way, and I'm like, I think I'm going to quit this job that I've done and went to school for and have whatever at that point, eight years in, I think I'm going to start this new thing. But no, that's good. I mean, that's what the supporting and spouse or whatever it's supposed to do, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's very unique story. And I think everything, I mean, everything always works out. I look back at the times where I'm just like, I don't know how we're going to make it through. We're in school, we're desperate, and everything works out In terms of the brand building kind of business, that side of it. I know, and we have had all sorts of, I do florals, but I can't do my taxes. All sorts of different, all creatives and everyone's kind of different strengths in terms of learning that side of things. How did you figure that out? Oh gosh. Trial and error. Honestly, YouTube was my best friend for figuring out taxes and all of that fun stuff, and I honestly loved the backend of the business so much. I love being a business owner. I honestly love taxes and emails and all of the boring stuff that a lot of other business owners don't love. So for me, I feel like it was just very easy. I think marketing was my, I mean, I didn't know how to market myself. Marketing was so hard for me. I think even today, it can still be one of my low points in terms of running a business. But I think everything else, like I said, just very trial and error, asking for help. I would do a lot of mentor sessions with photographers to just kind of pick their brain and see, okay, how do I do this? How do I pay my taxes? What is your business filed as X, Y, Z? Well, I think it's also because it's a lot of self, it's just kind of your, you can do whatever you want, but also you can do whatever you want. We've been on, and I paid God awful money to wedding wire than not, and all that stuff I just always have. And finally I'm like, well, I think I'm going to, we don't do as many weddings. We do a lot more corporate. I'm like, well, I, and I talk with my wife about it, but there's no thing you pull up where you're like, what am I supposed to do? Right. It's kind of you learn or figure out this is what I want, and then if it's the wrong decision, you might not figure out it's the wrong decision for a year from now, and then you look back and you're like that. So it is hard. It's a lot of that. But yeah, I find that where it's the freedom of being able to do whatever you want, but then also you can do whatever you want so there's no kind checks and balances there. Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. That is the perfect way I would describe it too. Yeah, I mean, it was a lot of it, and I'm like, God, I called them. I pulled up. I'm spending so much money on this, and I'm like, I guess I kind knew that. But then in the back of your head, and then you're like, God, you look at your bank statements like, this is crazy. So anyway, we're making wholesale changes here in best made videos as well, but it's interesting that way because we kind of start rounding down the conversation here. I guess in terms of, I always ask Wedding day, we've kind of gone through this in terms of the elopements and kind of that, but what do you want in terms of your couples coming in for their wedding day experience to kind of feel like with you? Yeah, so I really want them to have, it sounds so cheesy, but this once in a lifetime adventure. I don't know if you've ever been on top of a mountain during sunrise and you just have this epiphany where you're just like, no. He's like, no, absolutely not. Or you're just at a place where you're just like, I feel so small. This is what life is about. I feel like I'm alive. I feel like I'm living. I really want couples to experience that on their wedding day, to be like, okay, this is a memory I'm never going to forget. I feel like I have lived my life today. I would be so happy if I die tomorrow because I feel like my life has been so full. That's how I want couples to feel. That's good. That's good. Get married and then die the next day. That's great. Kidding. What do you want, I guess, anything else I haven't asked you that you want people to know about you, about what you do or how you operate? Anything else I haven't touched on? I don't think so. I think you covered everything. Hey, we did a pretty good job here. So I pulled up your website before. Where would you have people check out here and the socials and everything else for them to go through? So you can find my website@briannaparksphoto.com, and then I'm on all social media platforms at Brianna Parks Photography. Well, this has been good. Like I said, always good to meet different, we'll get rid. I always kind of there talk through myself here, so I do all that. But great to meet another photographer. Good whole variety of different vendors and stuff on here, but certainly good for that. Elopements kind of expanding out for all of that. Brianna, I really appreciate it. If you're a vendor looking to get on here, and I always post with it, but best Made videos.com/podcast guest is a great way to get involved in that. The wind is shaking the table here, as I'm sure my mic is cutting out. But Brianna, it's great to meet you. I appreciate you spending some time today. Yes, thank you so much for having me. This was awesome. Awesome. Thanks guys. We'll see you next time. I'll play the outro music here.

Corey Boehler, Bridge City Parking LLC

Well, here we are back again, another episode to get to know your Wedding Pro. A long time in the making here in the side of Destroy My Microphone. We have Corey Bowler here out of Oregon. We do a lot of Seattle. We do some Spokane, but kind of all the Pacific Northwest here. Good to know your wedding pro. Corey with Bridge City Parking. Corey, how are you doing, sir? I'm excellent. Thank you very much. Awesome. So first off, just I always kind of elevator pitch. What are you guys, what do you do? What are you all about? Yeah, so we are an event valet and parking management company. Not only do we specialize in events, but we also do long-term contracts as well. We've had contracts with hotels, boutique furniture stores, restaurants and the like. But really it started with the idea of how can we make special events better? Started in 2012, kind of born out of desperation. I had been over 10 years in parking management and the company I worked for just decided to file for bankruptcy and they said, Hey, you're no longer going to accept a paycheck. So I said, well, if that's the case, I better try to figure it out on my own. And so that's what I did with the help of business partner. We set out and formed Bridge City parking and steadily increased our sales and business every year. It's just been phenomenal. We made it through the, oh was it the 2010, 2012 recession? We made it through the pandemic. So I really attribute that to the team that I've built and the structure that really lays the foundation of my core values. Well, I like that and I like how, because we get a lot of different stories on here and people starting their own business or deciding to do that. Yours, it was out in the associate was, well here, you're not going to have an option. Did that really light a fire under your butt, so to speak? I had toyed around with the idea of branching on my own for a while, but it really hadn't kicked off. It's a little bit scary going out on your own. You don't have that safety net underneath you, but I had been in the industry for so long, I knew operations like the back of my hand. There were still a few things that I needed to dial in, but I figured I would go with what I know and learn as it went. And 2024 we're still alive and kicking. I don't think it's a surprise to say here, event parking and event, all this stuff, not really the sexiest thing in the world. How do you view your role? We get all sorts of creatives on and we've had accountants on here and jewelry makers and jewelry, all sorts of different stuff. How do you view your role in the wedding and event industry? Yeah, so my approach really goes back to the time where I started my career in hospitality right out of college, got my degree, didn't know what I wanted to do, but I figured I wanted to get into some type of management and I kind of fell into hospitality. So I spent about four years managing hotels, and then when I made the transition to parking, I found that a lot of those skill sets related and transferred into a different field. People come in, they stay a brief period of time and then they leave. But the key takeaway is that experience, and I really wanted to set up my company as a customer service company that parks cars. And so when I talk to clients and when I explain what I do, a lot of them may have experienced using parking before and some of them may not. But what I want to educate them is I'm there for their benefit. I want to make sure that whatever event they have, that they have, all the options are laid out. I give them recommendations and this goes with any new venues that might come up, but I give them a free consultation and just help them troubleshoot so that they can in turn give their clients the best possible experience. And that's really what I'm aiming for is how can I make my company be part of someone's experience, whether it's a wedding, celebration of life, whatever. That's really my goal is how can I do it in an affordable way, hopefully, but also what are the options laid out for them? And a lot of that depends on the venue, whether it's commercial, private, what we have to work with. And I really try to explain to them how we can achieve this and make their guests feel like they're walking into something special. Because truth be told, we will be the first people they see when they arrive and generally the last people they interact with when they leave. So it's very important for us to set that goal and set the bar high enough so that they really deem us as part of the system or better. I like that. I like that. Now talk about the necessity to have this because we have to deal with this and obviously I'll come down to Portland and Oregon and do some weddings. We primarily work in Seattle, but just the need to be able to have and be able to park and logistics, all these kinds of different cars and people. What is the need? Talk about in the demos that you serve down there and just the venues, whatever that necessitates your need to have this service. So whenever anybody calls me, and this can be for people in the Seattle market, people down here first and foremost, whenever they approach me or any parking company, it's really good to ask a lot of the questions, are we insured? Yes. What information do you need so that you can formulate a proposal that's easily legible that I can read and understand and is it open to adjustments? Some people are afraid that, oh, there's a proposal, it's kind of set in stone. I always try to let people know that you know what? This is a format based on the information you've given me. If that information changes or if maybe something didn't quite click right or some new information comes up, we can change that. We just want to make sure that the end result translates into a good experience for your guests so that you don't have to worry about parking, you don't have to worry, oh, are the people getting blocked in? Are the guests being attended to, that's why they hire professionals. You talking about wanting to have the high level of hospitality and service, I guess, how does that dictate when you're looking for men and women, boys, girls, whoever to work for the company because it's got to be kind of a high standard, then you're looking for your employees. So I know a lot of companies, parking companies in general will look for someone with either a background in parking or some type of driving experience. That's great. I do look for that as well, but I'd rather find somebody with a strong customer service background, hospitality, restaurants that sort of catering that sort of background because as long as they have that they have a good clean driving record, they can figure out how to park a car from A to B. We can train them on the finer things like how to drive a Tesla, how to drive a rivian, how to drive this exotic car. Those things we can teach them, but it's much harder to teach them about the customer service, which really is a soft skill, something that someone should have and it comes to them naturally. I really don't want to have somebody on the team who struggles with that or is constantly slipping in the customer service end because that's the part that people will focus on most In terms of where you guys work, like you said, venues, private residences, things like that as well. Yeah, so whenever somebody contacts me, I always ask them, is this a commercial venue or private residence? And if it's been a commercial venue, most of the time I've already worked there, which is great. If not, I'll automatically want to do a site visit just because it's something that I know I'll probably come up with. Again, private residents are a little bit different. Generally I try to do a side visit as well, but they are a little bit trickier just because every commercial or every a private venue, house, apartment, condo, whatever, is going to have its own unique set of challenges. And that's where I really feel like my style shines because I ask the questions, I'd have the experience to know the pitfalls and I can recommend certain directions versus let's just go ahead and do it and then come up short because that's the last thing I want to do is set up the expectation and fail. And it's not something that's a comfortable conversation to have. Absolutely. Well, no, I was coming home, I had a gig the other day and I was coming home and you could tell that there was some sort of large event at a house and Seattle and it's all these windy streets and stuff. I could tell just driving by, okay, they had people kind of facilitating and getting the car because you couldn't imagine having a hundred people trying to show up and get all these, have everyone trying to do this stuff on their own. And that made me think about it as well, knowing this was coming up. I'm like, oh, they must've had to hire someone to help facilitate that because otherwise it just would've been a nightmare I couldn't imagine. And the neighbors and complaints and everything else, Maybe without knowing more about it, I couldn't tell you. It could have been a situation where most of the guests have been there before, so they kind of already know the plan. Sometimes it's just a matter of having some parking directors out, just guiding people in and showing them where they can or cannot park those. We always do, and it's always fun to just interact with people in that regards. A lot of times I'll have people ask me about valet and then talking to them about their event. They may just need a couple of parking directors or they may need shuttle service in lieu of valet just because the scope of the work just does not lend itself to a valet service. And it's been more often than not that that's been the case. And it's not that I'm trying to not get their business, I want to win their trust. I want to win their confidence that I know what I'm talking about. I've done this before and I can foresee the pitfalls and the challenges that a valley service might have versus something else. So it's fair to say that you guys can up or downsize depending on the need and offer those various services in between? Absolutely. That's why I ask a lot of the questions, how late is it going to go? What are the neighbors interactions going to be like? And there's going to be a myriad of questions that will play into the event and what we'll need. One of the things that I try to steer away from is the ballpark quotes I give that cringe like, Ooh, a ballpark really? Because that's pretty vague, and once you give a number out there, then people are locked into that number. So I really just try to get that nailed down as much as possible. It's tough. I get that too. And someone will call and they're like, Hey, we got a thing, or I need this edited. It's like whatever you tell 'em in that moment, that is the price. It's going to be forever. And like you said, scope could change. It could be a totally different thing, but it's like, well, no, that's what you told me on the phone. You're like, ah, yeah, that's why I'm always like, let's sit down. Let's get a consult. Let's get an email thing. Yeah, that phone, that knee jerk phone, whatever, they'll hold you to that. That's more sacred than any contractor written in anything. Right? Well, exactly. And if the parameters begin changing dramatically throughout the conversation, then they'll lose the confidence in you like, oh, does he know what he's talking about? Does he getting it? Does he understand? And you really want to try to nail it right out of the gate. So if I'm someone playing in an event, if I'm, let's say I'm a couple, and what are some things that I should know, information that I need to bring to you to help facilitate that process. I want to get into more about you and getting into this field of work, but I want to make sure we touch on this. What should I know? What do you need to know? What things should I have written down if I'm trying to get this going? Absolutely. And this goes for any parking company, whether it's local in Seattle or me down here. But one of the first things that really, really want to know is what's the date? I've had some people just, oh, it could be this day. It could be that day. Well, I'm a business. I need to lock this in. We're coming into the busy season. I need to know date and times. If you give me a time parameter of say four to eight, okay, great. That gives me a time of, is that the time you expect guests to arrive or is that the time that you expect cars to arrive? Those are two different things. Cars could mean if it's a wedding and your ceremony is at four o'clock, well, there's always going to be early birds. There's always going to be people that arrive early and we want you to capture those so that we're not scrambling to catch up when we do arrive. Likewise, the end time I have after some trial and error put in a clause that allows us to add on additional cost. If our contractual time, it becomes extended. And that's just a safety net for myself and my crew. I try to take care of my crew as much as possible. So dates, times, and how many people. And a lot of times I'll also ask what type of event? Is it a wedding? Is it a corporate event? Generally tell me how many people per car we should expect. If it's a social event, generally it'll be two people per car roughly. If it's more of a corporate event, lawyers coming in for a VIP round table, it'll generally be one person per car. And then we talk about rideshare car, pooling, that sort of thing, and we try to count for that, but sometimes it doesn't always work out. Those generally the basics. And from there, I can ask the questions like, well, where are we going to upstage the vehicles? Is it going to be from an on street situation? Are they going to be off the street? Do we have to reserve on street parking from the city? But those are the questions that are very specific to that event. But generally the dates, the times, how many people, those are the first three questions. But yeah, most competent parking companies that have been around should ask the questions that will allow them to get a proposal right out the gate and answer 99% of the questions that will come up. So in terms of you getting into this, I know you said you were working for another company and all that. How'd you get involved in all this to beginning? What did you want to study or go to school for? What was your background? I have had a couple of anecdotes about that, but if I had known in college, what I ended up is what I'm going to end up doing. I probably wouldn't have bothered going through all four years, but I am glad I did. So as I mentioned, I started in hospitality and after about four years, I really got burnt out. It was a time where a lot of hotels were being bought out by their larger corporations. I wanted do something different. So I threw my resume out and I got an interview with the parking company that at the time had the contract for the Portland International Airport. So I interviewed, eventually got the job, and then after the 90 day review, I had a sit down with my boss at the time, and we had, he kind of let me in on the inside joke. He said, when we were interviewing you, Corey, it was between you and another gentleman. And during the last round of interviews, the other candidate leaned forward and said, by the way, I should let you know before you do the background check. I just got a prison for killing my stepfather. So the running joke was, it was down between me and a Nick's murderer. Oh my God. Oh my God. Yeah. Slid that one under the belt. But yeah, I just fell in love with it, as strange as it sounds. I mean who thinks about parking, but I really found that my personality fit the skill sets that I could bring to the table fit, and I really just embraced it. After a year in Portland, I was transferred and promoted to a contract in Sacramento, did that for about four years, came back, tried to do something else, just didn't stick. So I came back into parking and I've been here ever since. So it's been a great ride. In terms of the, I mean now it's been a long time of you owning your own business and running it, but what are some challenges? Because part of this podcast too is just education for everyone about running. We have new vendors, all vendors, I would imagine logistics of the employees dealing with all of that stuff, maybe one of the most challenging parts. What would you say is the biggest learning curve that you encountered coming in to do this yourself? My strength coming into it was operations. I really new operations back forth blindfold, up and down. The hardest part for me was grasping the owner aspect. As an owner operator, we're wearing many hats, but shifting into that owner aspect of do I have all the right certification? Do I have the right type of insurance? Am I filing the right taxes, everything under the sun that you want to protect yourself as a small business, that was a bit of a learning curve. I really had to spend a good year or two fine tuning the process. I managed to find myself a really great accountant who helped guide me, but really it was just finding online resources, figuring out how I can navigate the sea of bureaucracy. But after once that settled and once everything kind of got familiar, then I really doubled down on the operations. And one of the key elements that I focused on, even from the very beginning was take care of my staff. I know for some people who's just a one man crew, that's great, they can take care of themselves. But for a lot of people, they have a staff, small or large. And I've found that through my management experience in working for other companies, that you develop a team, they understand how you work, they understand what the expectation is, it becomes so much easier not only for retention, but it becomes so much easier to have that high level of expectation that you expect. And so now, because a bit of a control freak, and I try to attend every single event that I book, but quite often, end of the month is an example. I've got three events, four events happening all at the same time, and one of the larger events takes me out to bend, which means there are other events I have to bring on my supervising staff for. And they're great. They've been with me for a long time and I really want to make sure that they have that expectation, which they do. But at the end of the day, I touch base with them, they give me reports and I take care of them either with food, money, whatever it takes. And speaking of, it's a huge incentive that I found to, especially when we do long events, to feed them hot days, have a cooler full of water and Gatorade, have snacks on board, make sure that their needs are met. Those little things go a long way and they've really reflected that in very low turnover. We haven't had a single claim since I've started, which is a phenomenal for this industry. But as much as I'd like to say, oh yeah, it's me, it's the training, it's the people. It's really just taking care of those people in return. They will take care of you. Well, I guess first off, do you find, you talked a little bit about your control, which I co-signed as well here. Is it hard to hand off that responsibility right now? And I've gotten rid of all my teams. I'm a one man, I just couldn't deal with all that stuff. Is it hard to hand that off and be able to put at trust in other people? At first, it was one person that I have that's been with me almost from day one. He has another full-time job that he does, but he's also a leader in his industry, which is another hospitality industry. So given the background that he has, and given the fact that he's been with me for such a long time, he's proven himself and I have 99.9% confidence that he will do a great job and knock it out of the park every single time. For people that are newer that I'm trying to develop, it's a little bit different, a little more handholding, a little bit more confidence building. So those are the ones that I usually give the smaller events to or the ones that have a lower impact. So if they stay with me for some time and I give them more responsibility, I have no doubt that they're going to shine as well. So yes, it's nerve wracking, but at the same time, I need to learn to let go and breathe and allow other people to grow and develop because that's the only way I can grow and develop. We were just filming a conference here a couple of weeks ago and they had a keynote and it was talking a lot about attracting younger people to the workforce just with the millennials and kind of all that stuff. And then also building culture and retaining employees. And this is not even related to, but just kind of brought up in our conversation here, it seems like you were able to really foster that and build, like you said, keep retention and keep employees. What do you attribute that to? Because it seems like it was important enough for all these people to come have a keynote where these people were talking about it, and it feels like you have a good handle on that. So I'm just curious, do you notice that nowadays trying to get new employees or retain or how does that kind work? It seems like you got a good handle. Yeah, so it's a multi-pronged approach. I don't really subscribe to the notion of, oh, this generation's lazy, or that generation doesn't know what's going on. There are a lot of diamonds in the rough and more so there are people that really want to prove themselves, and I'm speaking from my own little bubble here, but first and foremost, because I'm there and I set the example, I have low tolerance, no tolerance really for goof offs, for people that think they can get away with something, it's just not tolerated. And everybody on my team knows that, and everybody reports to me and keeps everybody else in line. But by and large, I want to have fun. I don't want a job where I get there and I really dread doing it. And that's part of, I think what tracks a lot of people young and old to what do is because when we do an event, I lay out the framework and they follow it. And then when there's downtime, I spend that time getting to know them. We chit chat about what's going on in their life and make sure that we have each other's back and support. And then there's also a chance for us to talk about the cars that we drive and some cars that are trickier than others or what have you, or the event that we have. And again, a lot of events that we have, there's food provided by the client, so that's a huge motivat as well. But it's really just the culture that I foster. And if I'm having fun, I want to make sure that they're having fun. And I always make it known that if it's not working out for them or if they've got something going on that's not preventing them to have the time to do what it is I'm asking them, there's no harm in just saying, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and just pass on future events. It's been great, but I'm going to go ahead and move into correction. And that's fine by me. More just I want them to succeed in their own personal endeavors as well. So it's just making sure that people are happy, making sure that people are doing their job, and having just as high level of expectation as I can possibly have on people that without sacrificing the joy of driving fancy cars and meeting people and having good time with each other, that's really the basis of what I think what makes our successful. Before I let you go here, any kind of funny stories about exotic cars or parking or anything? Hopefully nothing too bad. I'm just curious. Any sort of funny anecdotes on that side, and if not, that's okay too. Oh man. I'm sure you get a good variety of cool things now you get to get behind the wheel of, and people get to get right. It's got to be exciting. It is kind of funny, and this will probably go with anybody in the parking industry. I've done some events where someone will pull up in a very low mid range price car and they give me the eyeball and they're really leery about the valet, and I'm like, we've got a Bentley out back. This thing costs more than my house. I don't think we're going to damage your car. But it's really funny because I always try to tell people, look, you can usually tell who the truly wealthy people are versus the wannabes. And a lot of it comes down to attitude, not the car they drive, but it's the attitude. And we treat everybody with respect and kindness and every car we treat like they're gold. But I had one event where a guy pulled up in a brand new, I mean, this thing was easily six, seven figures, and he handed me the fob and slipped me a 20 and said, keep it close. And so I into it, moved it ahead six feet and parked it, Things like that. We tried to take a little extra careful, but it was just more, I want to keep an eye on it. We weren't in the greatest neighborhood and I just wanted to make sure that nobody was tampering with it. But by and large, we have fun. We do drive a lot of exotic cars. We drive everyday cars as well, but every car we get behind the wheel. We're taking our time, we're doing everything right and told them, I said, tell my crew, I'd rather spend an extra minute, two minutes parking a car safely than spending 20 minutes filling out paperwork and explaining to that customer, something happened to your car. That's never a good conversation. Fortunately, knock on wood, I won't have to. So yeah. Oh, Corey, this isn't fun. Anything else you want to make sure I got your website up here and bridge city parking.com. Anything else you want to make sure we touch on today before we get you out of here? No. I just make sure that anybody who even isn't sure about whether or not their event is going to require parking, don't be afraid to call around and ask because the professionals, at least professionals that I work with, won't try to sell you their business. They'll tell you if you do need it or not, or what kind of a business you need and ask you the right questions. It's really the goal that I have is to make sure that, hey, if you have an event that you really don't need parking, I'll give you some pointers on how to make it successful on your own. If not, we'll certainly give you an idea of how we can approach that and try to keep you within the budget. Well, Corey back and forth here with our schedules, but I appreciate it. We finally got this locked down, Corey, with Bridge City parking down in Oregon. Check 'em out. Appreciate it. If you are interested in coming on the podcast as a wedding vendor, like I said, all over the Pacific Northwest, best made videos.com/podcast guest. It's a nice easy questionnaire. Corey, I appreciate it. Good luck here in the busy season and I'm sure we'll talk soon. Thank you, Reed. Thank you for your time.

(Kayley Hoddick, Hoddick Photography)

Well here we are back a little bit of a blast from the past here. Worked with Kayley many years ago, back when Dorothy was coming to help me with weddings we were down at was the n Embassy Suites, one of them down in Portland. New Year's Eve wedding was a lot of fun. And then we've stayed in contacts. I know you've been nice and trying to send me wedding contacts and stuff over the years. We have Kaylee Hoick here with Hoddick Photography. How are you? I'm great. I'm so excited to do this. It's been on my sort of long to-do list for a very long time and I've had some other friends do it, so I'm very excited to finally pull the trigger and be a part of it. Yeah, we're getting back on this. We're rolling through, rolling through. I think I have four or five six of these in the last couple of weeks, so it's good. And it's trying to do this in April versus middle of July or whatever. It's always easy. So I'll pull it up your website here. We'll get into more about you and everything, but just I always ask people what is your elevator pitch or what is ock photography all about? Yeah, so I'm Kaylee. I've been in business since 2008, full-time for photography. So I think that is a little unique, just having a lot of experience, but I really try to create images with my couples, not just take them. So that's something I think also a little different that I do. And I really value the connection with my couples because everybody is so different and not everybody wants the same sort of images. So one thing unique is I offer a completely free engagement session before they even book. So it's kind of crazy and a lot of my colleagues think I'm nuts. I've been doing it for 15 years and it's sort of the best marketing I could ever do. And also I really also want to make sure that I love my couples as well, so it's sort of a great tryout for both of us to see if it's a good fit together before we're locked into a contract or anything like that. Well, I actually like that idea a lot. I mean to me, I always feel like I'm on the back end. I'm always on the lesser end, not getting to get that time ahead of time with the couples, whether however you do the engagement session. But then I always show up and they've already got all these inside jokes and everything and I'm like, ah. So I like that. I think that that's good. And I totally agree because one of the things that I think is undervalued is the relationship between the photographer and couple people look at the photos, but it's such a personality thing as well. Totally. I don't require it. I just really encourage it and I feel myself that I do a better job on the weddings that I have a deeper relationship because so many things are different and your stories are different and how can I possibly capture that authentically if I don't know anything about you? Yeah, so I think just knowing what's important to couples, knowing their story, knowing their family dynamics, all of that can be really beneficial. Doesn't mean I can't do it without it, but I just feel that I excel further when I know what's important to them because ultimately I have my own style, but ultimately I'm working for someone else. And often just kind of knowing those nuances about people's past can really be helpful. And also I use the engagement session as sort of a feedback opportunity for couples. I encourage them, tell me what you don't like so that I can then not do that on your wedding day. And everybody is so different artist objective. And some people love silly candid where they're goofing and laughing and other couples hate that and they want more refined imagery. So again, everybody's different. And so sort of doing that free photo shoot is a really amazing opportunity also to see if I want to work with them. I only typically take on max 25 wedding couples a year, so I want to really make sure that those couples connect with me as well. Yeah, it's funny. I think it's good getting that feedback and it can be poses people feel more comfortable with or if they don't, right, maybe say, oh, I don't like, it was funny, we had the wedding, I think it was two weeks ago. I was just like, oh, whisper in her ear, kind of make her laugh. And she's like, you actually really don't like this. But I'm like, well, you look very nice. But I think it's good to get that. I remember on our wedding day and our photographer was great and we had great images, but we did a whole set. We were at a place that we didn't like aesthetically and it wasn't what, we would never say anything and we're just kind of rolling through it. But afterwards Dorothy and I were both like, yeah, we're never going to use any of those. But so it's good. It's good to kind of set those ahead of time of what they're looking for and what they like and don't like. Yeah, I had last year I had a couple who really just loved portraits, just traditional looking at the camera portraits. And I absolutely do that. I really pride myself on having a variety of imagery wide closeups, different emotions throughout the day, but some people just know what they love and that's what they want. And I'm typically not going to do a hundred posts looking at the camera photos. So for that couple, that was very important to them. So then I knew going into their wedding to focus and highlight more on those sorts of images. So it can be really helpful. I also think it's amazing because I think a lot of couples don't always consider that photography or the service you're getting isn't the be all end all of your experience. It's like you could have the best $10,000 photographer, but if they get a flat tire on the way to your wedding, it doesn't matter how good of a photographer they are because they're not going to be there. So I really pride myself on educating my couples and also showing them that experience they book because you don't know is somebody going to respond to your emails in time? Do they answer the phone? Are they on time? What do they wear? What's their mood when they arrive on set sort of. And so I think often that's a part of the service industry that couples often don't think about or negate. And I just know I've never been married, but I can't imagine trying to hire all these people and not really know anything about them. You have to give somebody $2,000 and you have no idea what they're going to show up wearing. I mean, maybe you meet them at a consult, but other than that you really don't know besides reviews or something. No, it's wild. With videography, we don't always book tremendously far outright like a photographer. We're planning, but we have ours where we go into next year. I'm like, yeah, I can't imagine. Here's the money. See 18 months and you're okay. It's just a huge, and I always thank us. I was still a very new wedding vendor, but at least having done it a couple seasons and having enough people that I kind of knew, okay, I know a photographer personally, I know a planner personally, I know our photo booth, all of these things to be able to do it because I don't know. And I really tell couples that I even today, I don't know how you trust that. And it is a huge leap of faith. Totally. And you can look at reviews, but ultimately that isn't your experience. And so I think all of that is so important. Sort of the behind the scenes, are they a professional, do they have insurance, do they have a backup plan? So I really try to, number one, educate but also just be super prepared. And I'm very open that I tell people I have had 15 years of mistakes more. You know what I mean? Not saying I make a mistake for 15 years straight, but I have had a lot of time to hone in my business practices to ensure or prepare so that I won't make those mistakes again in the future. And I think that that is being a professional. So I really like to kind of give that preview experience to people. It's a totally free session now. I'm currently offering 45 minutes at a location of their choice within reason in the Portland area. I also do it in Salem because I advertise down there. And so I am trying to start advertising more in Seattle and I'd be open to maybe going up there for a date or whatever and offering that for people up there. But I just think it's great to see what is it like actually, how quick are the images returned? How is the editing? There's just so much more to it that people don't realize and they can't get that experience just from a website necessarily. And I do have, I'd say maybe one out of 30 people don't end up booking me, and I'm often really thankful and I'll even turn down rarely, but once in a while I turn down people and just say, I don't think we're a good fit. And that's sort of my main goal is just educating people. Even if I'm not their best choice, I want to help them find that for them. Yeah, I think that there's a weird, I think the whole ghosting has gotten a lot more prevalent here in the last few years with inquiries. Not like, no, I mean people, your vendors are professional and if you want to go with someone else or it's not a great fit, it's absolutely okay to let you know. And it's the same, you go back and forth. I had a consult, they were super excited. We met. It was very clear that the mother was looking for kind of different just than what I did, and that was great. They wanted something that was super long form and I'm like, you can talk about anything, but that's not, I want you to be happy. And it's like, well, it's not the right fit for that. Having done this for so long is a testament, I think, to just kind of you and the work and everything you put in. What do you attribute that to? Because I feel like I've been in this a long time and you're eclipsing even me. So what do you attribute to just the longevity of your business? Oh, that's a really great question. Loaded question. I felt really thankful because I've read stats that the average business doesn't last three years or something like that. I don't know weddings specifically. I do come from, my mom's whole side of the family are artists. So I do feel very thankful that I was sort of grown up in an environment where participating in art wasn't encouraged and I wasn't really shunned from that. But I think just tenacity and hard work and just sort of being like, I don't want another job, so I'm going to figure out how to make this work. And I definitely, I did take a corporate job was the first time. So I started my business in 2008 right out of college, and I did take a corporate full-time job for two years during Covid that sort of fell in my lap. I did not seek it out. I was referred to it and it was a photography job, but it was for an HVAC company, so it was kind of cool. It was doing 360 photography. So I seen that online where if you have a shoe you can move the screen and see all around it. And so I was doing that for AC units and fan belts and motors and batteries and weird stuff. But I think that also sort of was a good reality check of, I could do something else, but I'm really passionate about weddings. And during those two years, I still had at least 10 weddings both of those years, if not 15. So I was still doing my business, but it just wasn't. And I think that was sort of the kick in the pants I needed to be like, no, this is what I'm really passionate about and I am so thankful to be working for myself in so many ways. It's definitely very difficult, but I guess I don't know why I've lasted so long. I think just great education, tenacity, commitment to continuing education and being a good person. I guess That's good. Well, no, but also it's also that wake up call like, oh, I really like working for myself. I don't mean that's the whole adage, you'd rather work 80 hours a week for yourself than 40 hours for someone else. And feeling like you have that control of that. And like you said, choice of clients and choice of events and things like that. I mean, there's a lot of intangibility that go into running your own business and being able to make your schedule. I will say I was really excited to be able to clock out, and that was sort of the one thing that I was like, this is going to be awesome. But the problem was is that I still had my business, so I wasn't really clocking out. I was clocking out to another job. But I'll say that was maybe the one nice thing was to leave it all. And I think a lot of people don't recognize that about being self-employed is that you constantly have things on your shoulder, whether it's a specific job to finish or just marketing or insurance or taxes, bookkeeping. There's just all, I'm never done ever. You talked about growing up in art and all of that. Were you always interested in photography? I'm almost curious how did people wind up with a camera in their hands? Yeah, so like I said, my mom is predominantly a fiber artist. She was a costume designer and her mother was a ceramicist and comes from a long line of that. So I was really encouraged, but my father's side of the family are not artists at all. So that was really interesting to see that dynamic. But through schooling, I was always dancing. I played the flute growing up and I did start photography in high school. Most people, I was on newspaper and yearbook doing black and white imagery, and that was really great. I don't think at that time that I thought it would turn into this, but when I graduated and started looking at colleges, I was looking for schools that had flute dance and photo, so that was kind of challenging. But I found a really great school called Pitzer College in California. It's part of this consortium of schools called the Claremont Colleges. And it was just a great place because I got to explore all of those things and I actually was hired as the darkroom TA before I even got into the school. So I guess I must've been passionate about it because I had enough gumption to go tourist college in another state and interview for a job at the same time. So I was for four years the dark room lab manager and basically a teaching assistant for that. And that was great. And I think definitely college made me realize this is what I want to do. My thesis was in a photo project, and I will say though that I got a ton of fine art education, so got a lot of composition color, balance tone, that kind of formalities, which I think a lot of people are missing these days being self-taught. Not to say you can't be a great self-taught person, but I think having those fundamentals were really great. And then trying to make this story short, right out of college, I really just wanted to stay in California, if I'm honest, not move back to Portland, which is where I'm from. Originally I found I think on Craigslist, a job with a company called Lauren Studios. They still exist and they did high school and college graduation, yearbook photos, but specifically cap and gown for all the uc schools. So I actually had a great education there my first year out of school where I would photograph 50 people a day. And so that was great because I learned how to be quick and efficient. I learned how to deal with so many different personalities, all kinds of people, all kinds of needs, and kind of see how a professional studio works. But looking back on it, I was only paid $10 an hour, which is crazy. This was in 2008, and one of my coworkers was doing weddings on the weekends. She sort of said to me casually, oh, I'm shooting a wedding for $200 on Saturday. I was at that time, I was like, oh my gosh, $200. That seemed amazing to me. It was over double what I was getting paid. So I went and tried out and I'd only been to one wedding my whole life, so I really had no idea what I was getting into. But the guy really liked me and I basically shot two or three weddings with him and kind of tried out for free. And then he hired me. So I still did the school photography. I would go to uc, Berkeley and stay there for a month and just shoot 50 to a hundred cap and gown photos all day, eight hours every day for a month. And so then I was doing weddings every Saturday and after maybe four or five months, the owner of that company, it was called Cantina Light Pictures, his name was Sam, and he was like, I think you're really chatty and outgoing. Do you want to try sales? And it never even had occurred to me. And so I was just like, sure. And I decided to quit the school photography job and I went for a cantina, light pictures full time. I was on commission solely, which I think is illegal being 22. I was just excited. I was eating it all up. And so I worked with him and I did sales and my first year I booked 65 weddings, which is just crazy to think about. And I would shoot them if I was available or we had a team of five photographers that I could relay them to if I wasn't available. And then unfortunately, that business went out of business within a year and a half of me being there. That's probably Because of illegal sales practice. But it was also something shocking because I was like, here's this man, Sam spi, he taught me a lot. I will say that, shout out to Sam if you're listening. I mean he taught me how to shoot OC camera flash, how to just approach a wedding, how to do a bridal show. I do think I got a great education just being kind of in the thick of it, but not having it be on my risk, if that makes sense. It was someone else's business, but at the end he basically fired everybody but me and him and actually offered to sell me the business. And it was kind of traumatic because I had all these clients that I had booked that I knew weren't going to get fulfilled because he was going out of business. And so I sort of felt like it was my responsibility even though it was not my whatever. So that ultimately ended and I sort of was like, I can do this myself and I can do it better. I can kind of make all the changes that I saw that were lacking here. But I also knew that I was scared that if this person that had booked 80 weddings in a year couldn't do it, why would I be able to? So my mom being an educator found actually a photo school in Massachusetts. It's called Hallmark Institute of Photography. It has sadly closed and it's my favorite thing ever, and I wish it still existed because I would probably teach there if I could, but it was a really unique program where it was just 10 months, eight hours a day with a hundred students. So it was hard to get into and it was very, very focused. I had always wanted to go to the Academy of Art or something like that when I was younger and my parents really wanted me to go to a liberal arts school to get the full education. So I sort of think it's funny I did that, but then five years later I left. But the Hallmark School was great. I had professors one Gregory, he has photographed 80 time magazine covers. He's photographed presidents, just Oprah, all of these things. And I was working one-on-one with him every day for 10 months, and I totally geeked out. I was in the front row raising my hand all the time. We had tons of guest speakers. I got to, what was really great about it is that they focused on creating a business, which I haven't seen in any other photo schools that I've looked at. So we had lawyers look at our contracts, we had graphic artists help out with our logos, just so many things. And we also did every aspect of photography from food photography to I got to go do an internship briefly with the guy who does all the cores advertising for Coors Brewery in Colorado, and I got to go hang out with him. And then I saw wedding photographers that I got to go spend the day with and see what they do. And then we even had a plain aerial class where we got up in a plane and learned how they make maps and things like that. So it was just really great because it exposed me to all the different aspects that I could aim for photography, and that's why I also love weddings because they kind of encompass all of that. I'm a still alive photographer. I'm a photojournalist, I'm a poser, I'm a portrait, I'm family, I'm kids, I'm everything literally. But so that education was really amazing and I finished valedictorian actually, and I didn't even know until graduation when they gave me my award and it was awesome, but I just geeked out and just had such a great time. So I really highly encourage education. I'm still a big force for that. Even I went this year to WPPI as a big photo conference in Vegas that they have every year for wedding and portrait photographers. So I really try to continue that myself. Even if it's not formal school, I think you can still be really educated otherwise. But after that long, I know this is a big tangent, you're Good. After that, in 2012 is when I graduated from that program and I decided, Hey, I'm going to just go back to weddings. I actually got an interview with Apple after that for their advertising and I decided not to do it, which looking back, I'm like, why didn't I do that? I just decided I want to be closer to my family. And so I came back to Portland and kind of rebranded my business in Portland and now do about 20, 25 weddings a year. And that's definitely my specialty, but I do other things as well, for sure. Well, it's interesting and it's funny that you talk about being the valedictorian. You finally found what your passion is, right? And I remember I couldn't stand school and then the second I'm like, oh, then I was in the broadcasting studio all the time and you couldn't get me because that's kind of the point of education in college or however you go about that sort of education is finding what you're really passionate about. But I also totally agree with you of working in even just me interning in another production company in college and seeing, okay, what do I, what do I not like? They had their studio set up, you'd go in clock in and clock out every day, and I hated that. I felt like you were still going to work where it is something about working from home, you don't feel like right, and I understand the worklife separation and all that, but I've always, this is how I thrive. Versus like, okay, well now I'm going to go commute in and do that. Sit around all day waiting, tinkering and setting stuff up. So it is good you're able to see the things that you enjoy and the things you don't. And especially I think also in your case, that responsibility of booking and seeing how all that came, how all of that could come tumbling down with that company and having all these weddings booked, you're certainly going to carry that in now of having the integrity and everything in your own business. Even through all that misfortune, you gain a lot of positive knowledge and traits you want to incorporate that way. Totally. I still use part of his contract today, which cracks me up and he absolutely taught me a lot, but also seeing just someone so successful that could fall down, but he was also doing a lot of shady stuff. He was paying for previous albums with new bookings, that kind of thing. And so it was a great lesson to sort of learn on someone else's risk because I definitely no hate on him overall. I learned so much from him, but I definitely also learned what not to do for sure. And that's why I love that school is because it really, my undergrad, I have a bachelor's in fine art and I learned nothing about being a business. And this photo school was so amazing because, and that's why my mom really kind of honed in on it for me was because Brooks and the Art Institute, maybe the art institute a little bit, but Brooks at that time was not, and I think Brooks closed, but they were not talking at all about how to run a business, how to make money and how to do all of that. Well, and also even just kind of the practical things. I know we have an art school here in Seattle, but even when I was in news and we'd have these people that went to these highfalutin whatevers and they'd come in and they would know all the theory and everything, but nothing like, okay, that's great, but you are going to get called out at one in the morning to go shoot a motorcycle accident and pitch black. Your theory kind of goes out the window. I remember literally the first night, which was totally, I don't know how smart that was, but my first day, this was back in whenever it was 2010, my first night here, go take a camera home like, okay, I've never done, and then one in the morning here, there's a failed motorcycle. But anyway, but the point is learning that stuff on site or learning it in school, some of these art schools and stuff, it just doesn't translate that way. You can do everything in the book, but then when you're on site of the wedding and you have 10 minutes to do a lay flag, get the details ready before you got to go get the bride dress, it doesn't matter. You can have 10,000 hours worth of theory, but you need to be able to do it. Absolutely. And same kind of with online learning. I feel like it's one thing to have a critique in person with a super famous, technically trained photographer and have him give feedback rather than just taking or watching a YouTube. That's two different things too, but I recognize that not everybody has those privileges and I think you can still be a great photographer. I just think for me, that formal education really helped hone my skills and kind of catapult me into what I'm doing today for Sure. Or if you are self-taught, I think interning with someone, working alongside someone, but to get, just to see, because you see this all the time with DJs, it could be any kind of vendor type, but how to present yourself, how to show up, how to do all this stuff. And not everyone knows that if you've never been to a wedding or you've never worked out or you've never been to a corporate, I remember now I have my carts and I have all my equipment and everything and I'm like, I think when I started out I just would hand carry stuff in. I'm sure just looking like a madman, wandering around the streets of Seattle. It's helpful going through these processes with somebody, even if you're, because like I said, you said not everyone can afford or have the opportunities to go do all that stuff, but learning with someone, even if it's just shadowing for a little bit, I think is super valuable. Totally. And I feel like there's also lesser ways to do it. I definitely, I know when I moved back to Portland in 2012, I worked with four different photographers for free just to second shoe for them just to get an idea. I'd already shot 200 weddings probably at that time, but still just to be ingrained in a new environment maybe things were different here. And I think always it's valuable to learn from other people. And that's also what I want to make sure is clear that I don't think just going to school and you're done. I think it's a constant thing, which is why I still participate in continuing education. Like the WPPI conference, I learned so much there, and that was just at the beginning of the month or even things creative live, there's a little shout out for that I've had a lot of luck with, and those courses are free when they air or $99. So I think there's just a lot of opportunities these days that there necessarily weren't 15 years ago with being self-taught online For sure. And even I haven't done it a couple of years, the wedding MBA down in Vegas, I know WPPI is there as well that the idea of running it like a business, and I see this so much, especially videographers, I think are the worst in this way of like, oh, this is my art and this is my craft, and we've always given away the raw footage or added it onto packages and I've always whatever you want and as long as my portfolio is what you're looking for, obviously I'm not going to do something outside of my run. But you get these weird and it's like, no, go learn how to run your, we are a service business. We're not necessarily an art business. And I think that that's a delineation as well that at least in my experience, a lot of videographers have a hard time with. Totally. And I definitely recognize that I have my own preferences for art. I really love drama and creative and dark lighting or dramatic lighting, and not all of my clients love that. Ideally my clients do love that, but not always. And so I do definitely recognize that I'm not ultimately here to photograph your wedding For me, it's you. So I can alter, and that also goes back to that free engagement session is learning what do these people, what is their artistic lens and what inspires them and what do they want on their wall? Not everybody likes that dramatic photo back here, and there really isn't a right or wrong either. I don't even know what year this was in the business, but it was very freeing for me feeling like I wasn't shooting for my portfolio anymore. I was just able to shoot for the couple I had had enough my stuff and referrals and connections and everything that it really freed me just going into every wedding, whatever they need, whatever they want. I have no in my head I need to do these 1800 things that I, it's whatever they need to get that captured. But that was freeing, not feeling like I was having to, I have to make sure I get all this stuff so I can book another year off of that. That's super awesome. I definitely don't feel that pressure, but I do feel sad sometimes if I have a really beautiful wedding and I don't get enough time or what I want. But I think it is definitely a balance always with dealing with your couples needs and whatever, or even what they told you before the wedding versus the day of. I watched some of your other podcasts and you talked a lot about that fine line of pushing them to go out at sunset or recognizing that they're done. And so I usually push twice as kind of my rule, Hey, I think you might appreciate this in a year when you look back on it. And I say that twice and if they're not having it, I feel like I'm pretty good at reading the room and letting it go then It's such a tough balance and I always defer to the photographer, but yeah, you're like, don't, or it's like, man, I'm really hot here. I'm really like, we had a wedding a couple, and I told the photographer, I said, you were right in doing this because her feet were, it is one of those, we have our shore feet here, we're at the end of the ceremony, but I'm like, yo, this is this time of year. It was in March, so you don't have sunset until nine o'clock. I go, you were absolutely right pushing that for those last five because we needed to get those Stanley photos, otherwise they're not. There is a limit there of sometimes you do need to be mom and dad and say, no, we are going to buck through this versus do you need those extra 17 portrait shots or whatever. It's a top balance. Totally. And I think a lot of that goes back to that communication with that couple and sort of curating their experience too. So I really kind of pride myself as well on being really communicative. I do though have couples that, like you said, they book me 18 months out and I maybe talk to them one time, and that's fine. If that's who you are, that's great, and I can still show up and do my best there. But I definitely feel and can recognize that the couples who I know more intimately, I feel like I just do a better job serving them. I mean, it makes sense if I know your needs that I can therefore provide for them better. And so I am really thorough with planning. I usually have a kind of pre-wet consult even four months out or something because a lot of times that call provides information or ideas to the couple that they never even thought about. And so often I do unfortunately see that I'd say a majority of my clients do not have day of or regular planners. And I sort of become that, and I've had planners tell me to stop saying that, but I kind of feel like I become the planner and that is semi selfish, but also not because I want to make sure that we have enough time to get what they need, but it also allows me to make sure that, but I know I had a wedding on Saturday and we were two hours behind and we missed the whole first look, didn't even do it. And so that's okay, and I can definitely spring into action and make that happen and do things really quickly after if necessary. But I think it's still great to have a plan and also just know, hey, I know that this was important to that bride, so I'm going to push her later in the evening because I know that was important to her. So I might ask her twice rather than once, even though she's tired or whatever, because I just know she said that was important. Well, and also I think not all day of coordinators are equal. I think that the wedding that we just had, this person officiated the wedding and was the planner, but it was really just, I have your wedding because they weren't the officiant, but they were officiating, but they were like, okay, we we're going to get you through the actual wedding ceremony. And that's all I'm really concerned about. The venue is doing tables and chairs and all that stuff, but it's like, no, because then we're running around and you need the plan. They're like, okay, you need to get in your dress now. You need to get all this because we're running and the guys are getting ready and the girls are getting ready and the guys are setting up and you need someone. And so I do think sometimes couples are like, oh, I have a day of coordinator. That's a day. It's like, no, because there's varying levels there that obviously planning all the way up, but you need someone that's taking that agency versus, well, I'm just going to be downstairs whenever the ceremony is deciding to start. That is not the same. And I'm definitely a go getter. I've seen some people on your podcast today, they're more fly on the wall. I definitely like to say I'm enhanced. Photojournalism is sort of the word I say because I think a lot of couples from blogs or whatever think they want a photojournalist or a documentary photographer, but they don't realize a true photojournalist if you had spinach in your teeth is not supposed to tell you, does not move a trash can from behind your background, doesn't put you in better light, doesn't fluff your dress. A true photojournalist does not touch anything in the image. And I think people don't know that or don't correctly understand the term. And so I say, I'm enhanced, so I will make sure your background looks great. You're in the best lighting or I'm bringing the lighting, your hair is nice, you look good. But then I like to stand back and capture an authentic connection or interaction. So that's kind of how I do it is I put you in the best situation and then I step back and then I'm the photojournalist. But I also really, I do pose a lot of photographers. I do, but I try not to make it very stiff or anything. And I always tell people, yeah, I'm like, you're not like you can move, you be fluid with it. And I try to give action. So it's not always this one is, or I'm backwards. This one is pretty posy, but it's not always like that. I might say whisper something naughty in his ear or whatever. I want a connection, I want that interaction with them or I often bring up their past, tell me about your first kiss, but look at your partner when you're telling me. And that always creates such great movement and emotion. So I definitely do pose, but I like to still have capture that authenticity. And again, it's like how can I do that if I don't know that couple or what's important to them? And also with the timeline stuff, it's like some people, their aunt might be someone they saw one time a year their whole life, whereas other people are like, my aunt is like my mother, so it's like I can't make those decisions. So I try to just educate my couples and say, this is what I would do or this is what I've seen typically, but do you have a unique situation or is there something more important? Some people are like, they're having dry weddings and no dancing, and then other people is the dance floor is their main priority. So it's just everybody's different for sure. Speaking of that, I like that enhanced photo journalism. But going back to doing the cabin gown shots, having to cycle through that many people and having that quick attention to detail I think is something that, but that's a trained ability that you have going through that and you're able to look and say, okay, I can't spend an hour looking at this, but I need to be able to be ready to go here, make sure everything's in place. Yeah, it always cracks me up sort of when there's a, what is it called when they're like an uncle photographer? Oh yeah, yeah. Huh. There's another name Uncle Tom. It's not Uncle Tom. Yeah, uncle Bob or something. I rarely have an Uncle Bob, but sometimes I have an uncle bridesmaid Bob, which is fine. But it's just funny to me sometimes when people are like, I think you need to do a photo here. And they're not always seeing is the light, is the background, is the girl on her favorite side of her face is her dress. There's just so many other things to it too. So I always think that's funny, but I usually just do what they want and then I'll do it my way too. Or they're sitting there looking at their cell phone that's auto exposing and they're like, how come this can't look good? And you're like, because my camera I can control. I can control the exposure and all that. Anything else you want to make sure we touch on here before we get out? I'll throw up your website again here. It's really fun catching up. I have two other things. Another cool thing that I offer that kind of helps I think with those guest photos is I actually bring custom business cards, just my business card, but I'll have the couple's engagement photo if I do their engagement on it, and I'll have their wedding website link that I create of their gallery. And so I pass that out to everyone. And a lot of photographers for some reason don't allow guests to access those images, but for me, I'm like, I want to be paid for my expertise in my time on the front, and then I want people to share the images. That's my goal. I love it when I see random people sharing them. So that couples seem to get really excited about, and it also makes it easy. They don't have to share it with anyone. Everyone has their own access and can download for free. And I do also, I am really planning on, I will photograph anywhere, so let that be known. I've photographed in 10 states for weddings, but I do really want to formally expand to Seattle. And that's something I'm kind of working on for 2025. I'm going to be there in September on the third and fourth. And I am interested in having, I have one couple right now that lives up there that is getting married in Portland, and so they sort of started this and I went to a lot of concerts last summer in Seattle, so I was just up there a lot. And they have the bridal show that you participated in, and I participate in that in Portland. And so I just saw that they have one up there. So if any couples listening or that or want to refer to, want to do a free photo shoot, a couples shoot on September 3rd or fourth, please reach out to me and they can see all the images. I'm probably going to give maybe five for free and if they want to pay a little bit more for the rest of 'em, awesome. But anybody married or not married, so it's fine if they're already married. And if anybody has a wedding dress, that would be super awesome too. But I'm also open to just engagement, couple photos to just expand my portfolio up there. I definitely have tons of portfolio images, but not in Seattle, so that would be cool. Well, we'll build it out. And then Hoick photography everywhere where they have people go. Yep, it's hot photography. The website's just hot.com, so it's super easy. Well, Kayla, it's been so great catching up. We need to get a wedding together again here because Andrea and Gus still know them and they've had babies now and everything else, and I think she's a real estate agent, so it's exciting. I appreciate it. If you're interested in coming on the podcast, best made videos.com/podcast guest and I will play the music and get out of here. I appreciate it. Awesome. Thanks so much, Reid. I really appreciate it. Thanks.

Joe Matt, Lovecraft Events

Well here we are back. We're really rolling through these. Get to know your wedding pros now. I appreciate it. I think we had a little hiatus here and now back in the action. I have another one today with a photographer. We have Joe Matt here at Lovecraft Events. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing good. Having a pretty busy week. It's keeping me on my toes, so trying to enjoy the ride. So where are you? Just for everyone listening, where are you based out of? So I'm based out of Shoreline. I dunno, I guess for folks that aren't around, say North Seattle, but just across one 40 shift man up here in good old Shoreline, Washington. That's good. And I got the page up here. We'll pull up here in a minute. I always kind of ask, just start out and we'll get into more of your background and how you got into everything. Elevator pitch, just kind of what do you do, what are you all about? What's Lovecraft events? We are mobile entertainment company, man. So we run the whole gamut. Mobile DJs, sound lighting, photo booths, effects, mc, we throw parties, we throw awesome parties for your special day. It's kind of our thing. And yeah, just bring the party right to you, whether it's private, corporate wedding, like underground, backyard, whatever we do parties, man, I like that. I like that. And transitioning more unwillingly it seems to corporate. I really enjoy weddings. Where do you kind of find your main niche? I mean it is great to tackle a lot of that stuff, but what do you like to do personally? Personally? Throw me into a warehouse at two o'clock in the morning with a bunch of sweaty kids listening to chunky Chicago, Latin, funky, lean on it. It'll hold you up house music, but I don't get paid for that very well. But I think as far as the business goes, right now, the thing that we do the most is weddings. Especially right now it's the busy season, but I've only been really doing Lovecraft events for the last few years, so we're still trying to find our footing and I think that there's a debate that probably goes either way for being able to work with clients that you can do repeatable events with versus with weddings, it's really kind of a one and you're done. You may get a recommendation, you may get a referral from it, but you're not going to do their wedding again next year. So yeah, I guess if that makes sense. We're trying to kind of move more towards more repeatable stuff and not have good relationships with people. But like I said, we're still pretty early in the game. So what kind of got you guys involved in all this? I mean, how did you, what's kind of your background? Yeah, so I guess I'd say, well, I've been DJing since I got out of high school, so way back at the turn of the century, just to date myself real quick, I've been DJing forever, so music's always been a part of my life. I like making music. I played in bands when I was young and I've always been DJing. So no matter what I've done throughout my life, it's always been a constant. There was a point when I was in my twenties where I really pretty much made my living off of traveling around and really in the underground scene, but throwing parties back in the nineties and into the early two thousands. But then as I got older and kind of became more of an adult and decided I wanted to be a dad, I went into sales. So my background's really, I guess sales. I've ran big box stores, I've ran a hot tub company right before the pandemic I was in car sales, believe it or not. So I ran a business development center for a performance Kia and I worked at CarPros for many, many years. And then when the pandemic happened, I guess it was just that realization of how fast stuff can just get taken away from you. I worked at a pretty stable place, but when you don't have anybody to sell to, obviously business is business. So when all that went down, I just started kind of thinking, Hey man, I think it would be cool to pursue this music thing on a performance on I a professional level just to be able to do performances in music. And I've always sold stuff, so I was like, why not be able to sell me? And so that's when the idea came about and it was like, Hey, let's try to do a company. Well, I like that. And it's interesting because I find, and we get all sorts of different creative types on here, but there's people that are like, could be the greatest florist in the world, but can't run a business or can't do, I can't do taxes accounting at all. You can't market. So having that sales background and then going into this I feel like has to help you at least give you a leg up in that regard. I mean there's so many facets of running the business that you need to take into account, but at least one of those, maybe you have the boxes checked. Yeah, yeah. I think I probably actually underestimated how much, just having a grasp of a fairly complex CRM, multiple of them over the years working at a couple of different dealerships and like I said, running a business development center, which wasn't huge, but I think at some point had a team of five or six people and our name of the game was responding to leads, talking to people very fast, very fast, get to 'em in 15 minutes or two other dealerships got to 'em fast. And so when I transitioned over to this, I was just like, wow. So the CRMs in general are a lot less complex already. Having an understanding of automations and just how the sales process works in general gave me, I think a leg up because there wasn't much of a learning curve there. But yeah, I mean I guess you're right, that makes a lot of sense. But there's still in other aspects a lot of things I didn't know In terms of what are you looking to do? I used to have a couple teams and I scale back. The pandemic kind of scared me out of all of that. I'm kind of the one man shop now. Are you trying to go larger book a lot of events in teams or are you more of just like a solo go out and take care of things? I'm small right now. I work with, I've worked with a few different DJs over the last couple of years. I'd say I had people on payroll last year and now I'm going back to independent contracting for the moment. Just tried some things out, some things worked, some things didn't. But ideally the long-term idea where I'd like to be in the next couple years. I don't know if you, well, just as far as planning goes, if there's a book called The Four Disciplines of Execution. So they talk about wildly important goals. And so my wigs, my wildly important goals over the next couple of years are really definitely to build a team. I would like to be more of like a CEO type of management position in my job and be able to run the DJs instead of running around and being the DJs. I'm still fairly decent shape. I can run around and do my things, but my time is not going to last forever. And as I get closer to 50 and away from 40, I think that inevitably my body's going to not be happy. I'm pulling 18 inch subs and lighting rigs and trusses out of fans. So I want to get to the point where I can run a small team. That'll be the ultimate goal. Just really sit back 10,000 foot view and be able to manage things. And again, it's like what you're saying, Reid, because I do kind of understand how that backend stuff works. I am comfortable doing books and sales processes and automations and I'm comfortable speaking to people. So I think I can best benefit Lovecraft events by being that face that's on the ground and going to talking to new people and gaining new connections and tying that back into producing more business. So at some point, but not yet, not now, and I'm still trying to learn everything well enough so I can make that team happen. And I would tell you that honestly Reid, that is probably the most challenging thing that I've experienced so far. Team building is a skill all in itself and there's not a lot of, I don't know, you really kind of got to just jump into it and do it. If you're fortunate enough to have somebody around you that's skilled at it or knows how to do it and wants to even take the time to educate you on what that looks like, you're very, very fortunate. But I think a lot of us, that's probably what ends up happening is they cap out. You get to your 40, 45 events you can do a year and then you're like, how can I do more? And you try to bring people in myriad to different ways and have moderate to whatever degrees of success. And that's where a lot of people stop. You end up getting kind of burnt out. You don't have the team around you to make things easier. So that is definitely the challenge right now is creating onboarding processes. Before I was like, oh, I'll just talk to other DJs that are experienced, which is great, they are and they know how to do it, but experienced subcontractors come along with a lot of opinions and they don't want to show up early and they don't want to go to wedding shows and do stuff for free, even if it's getting them bookings and stuff, they just want to kind of show up, do their thing and get out of there. So realizing that over the last year or two makes me want to have more structure for the people that I am working with and hopefully be working with in the future. And I think that building a strong onboarding process and training program is going to be paramount to being successful, bringing people up from the ground up and creating loyalty. So people want to stick with you for a couple years without just bouncing and having to do it all over again. Well, it's hard. You find people and it is, once you get them to the level where they're good enough that where you feel comfortable, then it's like, well now I want to go do my own thing or I want to go do that. And I totally know what you were talking about where even just in more of creative fields like ours, bringing in someone to work and go the 99 other events you do a year, you can do exactly what you want to do, but when you're working for me, we have to do it this way. And really having that balance. And I've had that trouble in the past where it's like, this is how we film and it might not be the most exciting or you might not think that this is the most thought provoking way to do whatever, but while we're doing events, this is what the clients want. And then when you go out and you can go run around and crawl on the ground and go upside down and do all this other stuff, but when you're with me and it is that balance, and I had people over the years where you finally just had to say, this isn't going to work because I'm not asking you to do anything outside of the scope of anything. The client has a certain expectations here we need to hit. Absolutely. Yeah. And it is, I personally am, I don't know, a type personality more OCD. I don't have to walk into the room four times and turn the light switch on, but if you let me sit at a desk with a bunch of stuff on it long enough, I'll start arranging them in very neat ways. And I like things to feel a certain way and I thrive with structure. I find most people kind of do that I jive well with and most of my anxiety and stress stem from gray area and ambiguity. So I feel like if you can create a nice system, it's easy for people to be able to follow and duplicate and replicate and create a specific outcome that's repeatable, that's certainly important. And what you're saying when people come in and want to do things a different way or maybe they don't really pay attention to the rules or want to put a cable back a certain way or put things or tear things down in a certain order, it can be frustrating. Well, it's hard because I go in and work with clients because it all scales down from who's paying who, right? You go in and work with a client and they want it a certain way and then I'm paying, it's the scale of responsibility down there and you're like, yeah, man, if you're out and wanting to make art films, you can go do whatever you want. But when we're trying to go do this right now, we need to do it. I'm curious in terms of the events you do being the dj, I try to, when I sell myself, it's like I try to be really low impact during the wedding day. Try to just be a part of it. Let the photographers do. Is it the onboarding with the client, them coming in? Is it the day of experience? Is it your communication? What do you try to sell and differentiate you for the experience that the clients are going to have? Passion and I'd say attention to detail, which I think certainly a lot of people have out there. I tell folks all the time, first and foremost, the two things that are most important to me, and I usually tell people this within the first 30 seconds of talking to 'em on our Zoom consults is I want to, can you say the S word on the podcast? Is that right? No, I just say I want to do cool stuff with people and have fun with them. So that's really it. And I usually tell 'em if me saying the word stuff is offensive to you, Yeah, I get that Probably not the right couple because genuinely I, I've talked to folks before and there's a myriad of different focuses that people have for their big day. I've had people talk to me before and be like, Hey, we have all our vendors done. You're the last one that we're wrapping up. The DJ is the last one. I honestly love Those calls, love those calls. I heard that you're pretty good DJ from blah, blah, blah, and we just want to book the B package and be done with it. We just care about the pictures that day or the videography. We care about the images and the aesthetics. The music's really a background thing. We don't really care what you play as long as you don't suck. And depending on how things are going, sometimes I might be like that we're not a good fit for you because I want to be working with people where the party is the main part of the focus. Most of the time that's what we get. There's certainly exceptions. I hate it when people make wide generalizations and say everything's like this or everything's like that. But in general, if somebody just wants to have a playlist, I would just advise them, you don't need to buy me. I'm somebody that's going to be more than that. So here's another person that could just do that for you. If you just need to have somebody to do background music, that's no problem. But I certainly respect and understand that for some people it's just all about getting these awesome pictures. And that's the big thing. Some folks, I think it's whatever, they got friends coming in from Greenland and Australia across the pond and it's all about just the fellowship and the communion between families. People haven't seen each other in 10 years and the music's really just not the focus of what it is they want to do. But like I said, we really want to do cool stuff with people and have fun. So that's your niche shift, throwing one of the best parties that you can have in creating this awesome memory through people getting together and reflecting energy on the dance floor as your thing. That's really what we are trying to do. But like I said, at the same time, I'm not trying to say that I'll immediately say no to somebody that's not aiming for that, but that's generally, we want to understand what people are trying to accomplish on their big day and make sure that we align with it and that we can execute whatever it is they're trying to accomplish at a very high level and hopefully even make it better. So understanding people's body cues and just being mindful because I'm sure that some people are very experienced with planning or have a really good idea and they know what they really want. Some people have no idea what it is that they want. So just being able to get on and have somebody that you can listen to effectively understanding their kind of nonverbal cues and verbal cues to make sure that you're going to be the right thing for them is what I think is most important. Because at the end of the day, whether our involvement is a high level or really we're way back in the cut either is acceptable. We just want to be able to make sure that whatever it is they want, that we're able to execute it. And I guess furthermore, there's a lot of good DJs in Seattle, Reed, there's so many good DJs. Straight up. We are blessed. I've lived in San Francisco, I've been in la, I lived in Brooklyn for a while. I went to school out there for audio engineering and even in Manhattan, which is just, it's fricking New York, right? Amazing. But there's a sound that Seattle has. We're really, really, really blessed with the talent pool that we have out here. And every place that I've gone to other cities, I could maybe sometimes I'd go to a place or a club and I'd find that sound of home for an hour or two, but never consistently all night long. And I found myself longing like, man, I don't want to be, I wish I could go back home and just hear this all night. So there's good DJs around here and my long story long, but what's also important and what I try to tell my clients is you can throw a rock and hit a good DJ around here like a fine dj. But it's super important that you have a professional that understands how to execute the entire day, the entire timeline from the beginning of the day before you even do first look with Reid, your dj. Your mc is the face of the first thing people see when they come up. They're controlling the playlist, they're scanning the mics for frequencies. They're telling people what's going to happen if you lose a button on your dress and dad has to go to the bathroom or whatever, we're the ones that are going to go, I know we're supposed to start at 4 45 guys, but hey, we're pushing back to 5 0 5. Everything's cool. That's the dude that's going to set the tone. And so many folks are not aware of that. They just dunno. They're like, what's my day? My button's broke. I'll fix it. And it's like, yeah, but it's 82 degrees outside and there's no umbrellas. Your grandma's sitting out there in the sun, dude, let's let her know she's got 20 minutes to go grab lemonade. You need to have a professional that understands and is in touch with what's happening all day long, all through the timeline. Not just that somebody that can throw down on the ones and twos because they're the face, they're the guy with the suit and on the mic and they represent how the day's going to go. So I always let folks know, it's like buying a car like what? I used to do a hot tub. It's great if you can find the best hot tub. This hot tub is amazing, but what happens if you need service? Call the company and say, Hey, I got a problem, a hot tub. How soon can you get service? If they're like five weeks, you're like five weeks. Why I can't not have my hot tub for five weeks. Maybe that's not the hot tub for you, man. It's a great hot tub, but if it breaks and you can't fix it for a month and a half, dude, maybe you want to check another service out. You know what I'm saying? So same thing with your DJs. Don't be scared to ask 'em what a grand entrance looks like. Don't be scared to ask 'em what happens if their speakers fail. Don't be scared to ask 'em what happens if we need to take a left at Albuquerque, because that's where you're going to find out who's going to be able to make sure that they're executing what your vision is at a high level and hopefully able to work with amazing RY with all of the other vendors to make sure that they're not bothering you. I try to think of myself as an extension of all the other vendors depending on whatever the moment is. So in the beginning, read, I'm an extension of you, you're videographer, you're the photographer, I've got my assistant in your pocket. Are we on time? Give me the 15 minute warning when we're going to break it down before we start. Are you ready? Are you in position to capture your moment, paying you a lot to do your thing? I'm an extension of Reed, and then when we switch over before dinner, we're the extension of the caterer. Are they ready to go? Do we want to make an announcement and tell people to come to the buffet when the schaffers aren't even full yet? You have to have a professional beyond DJing that knows how to execute at a high level all day long. Well, I think it's hard because I deal with it also as a videographer. I think people in their head, they think, okay, wedding planner, I got to have a good relationship with them. I got to know what's going on. And then photographer, right? I'm going to be with them. It's like I'm also with them all day. And as a dj, like you said, you're also the face of really the face of the bridal family. However, right? Everyone coming in, you're that kind of extension of this is I'm the one that's kind of parlay, parlaying the wishes of the couple and what they want going on and hey, we're going to dance now. We're going to do this. And so I think it's totally undervalued, the appearance, demeanor, personality of DJs when it comes to people and what they want in their day. I do think a lot of the people think like, oh yeah, they're just going to be behind the stamp playing the music. It's like, but also you need someone to be guiding everyone through that. Otherwise it's the plan. They're trying to do whatever the venue people. Then there's no designated person of the authoritative voice of this is how we're kind of rolling through everything. I totally get that. Yeah. I mean, most of the time I use app, A lot of mobile D is called bi, and it's this little digital app that's got a timeline and ask you all the aggregate of everything that I need to know from you between when we first meet and when you walk down the aisle. All the questions that I have. And one of the questions on there is just who has the power to make executive decisions on day of flat out? Put their name right here if you're not them. No good. And to be quite frank, really after the first year of doing a few shows without day of coordinators and without planners and realizing that by default the mc DJ becomes that person, whether you like it or not, I had a couple that was, I don't know how they got to it, but they had this champagne pourer where all the champagne glasses were stacked up and they were supposed to pour it and this cascade down, come to find out they don't drink. I don't even know how that ended up happening. They weren't alcohol drinking people. They did not know how to open a bottle of champagne. And so here's the moment I announce it. They're looking at me, the guests are looking at them, and I'm like, I didn't do this. Then y'all got this. Somebody came in, I don't even know who the company is that set it up, who's the person that's supposed to help you? And they're like, we don't know how to open the bottle. I'm like, oh, cool. Let me score off, pop the cork off. And then she's got white wine, he's got some other kind of champagne. They're mixed into different champagnes into the glasses. I'm like, who's going to drink this? But same party went to do cake cutting utensils. Were gone Straight up as always. Always We're out in the middle on a beach somewhere, where are you going to get a knife? You know what I mean? Who's that guy who makes that decision? And then they're coming up and asking you, I'm like, Hey bro, I'm a dj bro. I don't carry a spare. I got lots of spare cables. Velcros, no knives, man, I can't cut that cake. And that's the kind of thing, you just want to be able to make sure that, again, that you're using empathy and compassion for people that don't have a lot of understanding, but also at the same time, making sure that you are being the professional and the authority to let them know that, hey, these are the things that can happen. And really projecting that value. Because for us, if there's no planner read, if there's no day of coordinator, we'll handle that day of task for you. But there's a fee for it. You know what I mean? We charge for it depending on the size of your event, and it's so much less significant than what a planner starts at. But because we end up doing it now, after that first season, I've added that to the a la carte menu. Now there's day of coordination and it's like, wow, this is how much it costs. Wow, no problem. And then also to let them know that us, along with whoever you designate as a decision maker, we are in charge of how things run. So there's not any gray area and ambiguity, which is where that anxiety lies, bro. You know what I mean? We just want to execute at a high level because a lot of times folks don't realize why something doesn't work or why something feels off. But in the end, we could easily be the person that takes the fall for that or the blame for that because they're like, well, you weren't even helping us. It's like, well, I didn't know we're supposed to help you. I thought we were just doing lights and sound, not planning. You know what I mean? Well, it's hard, and we've talked about this a lot. I mean this for years back now in this podcast, but the wedding's the kind of thing where in its conclusion, it is a successful wedding. I mean, unless the venue blows up or whatever, Hey, that was a successful, but there's various degrees of success throughout the day and having 20 minutes of dead time because the DJ had to move the speaker from the happy hour and then had to go reset up and the reception. Or we just had the wedding, was it two weeks ago? And it was like a DIY kind of thing, but they're playing music in the corner. You can't hear it. Couples for the vows, I mean, I have everything up there. I'm fine. It doesn't affect me, but everyone there, and it's a small wedding, you can't hear. So there's all these different things that can go wrong, but hey, they still had successful wedding that still worked out. But people don't realize that having the true professionals in there doing that elevating that gets rid of a lot of those things. So like you said, you feel like something's awry here. I'm not quite sure what's going on. Yeah, yeah. It's just a feeling. That's it. But yeah, so again, I guess I'd say most of the time I just try to find people that I feel like have a cool concept that they want to execute. I feel like we can have fun together. I mean, it doesn't always have to be, but it certainly doesn't hurt. I really truly want to try to work with people where I think that we're enjoying each other so we can have fun. And then just understanding what their vision is so we can execute at a high level. I've done a million walkthroughs. I can tell you from experience, I worked at an event place for a long time before I was a mobile dj, and I've seen a ton of different vendors come to do their walkthroughs. I know how planners feel about a lot of mobile DJs, and some of them, they're not that impressed. So when you show up sometimes and you feel like you're a thorn in their side, you're like, Hey, I just want to check and make sure there's multiple circuits. Tell me where the fuse box is. I want to see where the load-in is. Can I get the wifi password? I'll be in and out of your hair in five minutes, please. I could arrange to come down during the rehearsal. And even if you do, you're standing around for an hour just to do something really quick. But sometimes you'll walk up and depending on what that planner has going on that day, which may be something super busy, they're just not that happy to see you. And because walking 50 feet ahead of you while you're trying to do stuff, and it's like, okay, here. But it's like, you know what I'm saying? I want to work with people. I can have fun with Reid. I've had people where I walked in before and they're like, what's going on, dude? Hey man. I said, what do you do? Just genuinely interested it and starting to already forge the relationship to have good RY on the day of the event when you meet somebody and their body language is off-putting, not that it's personal or anything, but that's the kind of stuff that with a little bit of patience and active listening and mindfulness, you can kind of sniff out in the beginning I think if you pay attention and you can try to steer yourself away from some potential disasters. But I try to shine bright man and show interest, genuine interest in people. And like I said, not take it personal, but sometimes just being the mobile dj, you get lumped into a stereotype and people don't understand exactly what it is that you do and it's reflected in the way that they treat you sometimes. I'm curious, you said that you used to play a lot of music travel around. What kind of stuff do you play? What kind of music and what were you, I want to hear more about That. Yeah, I've always dabbled in music since I was a kid. I got a little keyboard when I was young, and so I started messing around with that and just started figuring out the piano a little bit. I didn't ever have official piano lessons other when I went to Shoreline Community College and there was theory and stuff and that, but I never got piano lessons when I was a kid, but I messed around, figured out some things, and then that translated into guitar, and I started playing the guitar a lot when I was a kid and as a teenager and into high school. And I played the drums for a while. And so when I came out of high school, it turned into DJing. I went to one of my first big parties and was like, oh my gosh, what is that guy doing? What does that board do? I've got to know what it is. And started DJing. So as soon as I started DJing back in the nineties, I have a big version of this, the old school NPC 2000, Excel, this is the one now, but I got my hands on a 2000 Excel and a bunch of hardware and just making beats. You break beats, fricking hip hop, like house music, all kinds of stuff. Really that next level thing. I think a lot of DJs, when they get burned out after playing for a long time, they're like, what keeps it fresh is having your own stuff or having the capacity to remix things that already exists. A small edit in a song can make a huge difference read. I think any really DJ that's worth their, any DJ that's solid out there gets off on playing something that people say is played out or playing something that people think is not touchable and being able to play it and get that big reaction, that's a skill. You know what I mean? When you're like, yeah, this is played out, but I'm doing it so differently and I'm making it so fresh that I can still do it. That's fun. And a small edit or a big one. But being able to take a song and just maybe shortening something or adding something to it, a buildup, a transition, a riser, just a whatever, just to make it be like, everybody's like, oh, I know this song. And then they're like, Ooh, what's that? That's different. That's super exciting. So I think that that kind of compelled me to be into more. I moved to San Francisco in 2007 and actually kind of took a small hiatus from DJing for a while and met some new people and got kind of a new circle of friends and moved away from my hometown Seattle for a minute, and that lasted for a couple of years. I still djd a little bit down there, but it wasn't a big focus. And then I ended up moving to New York with this awesome girl, Kelly that I was dating for a career opportunity that she was following. So I got to live in New York for a little bit and I went to Dub spot there, which back then was a school that specialized in Ableton Live, and they had a bunch of, I dunno, prominent producers and DJs and musicians that were there. And so that's where I got my hands really first officially trained in how to use live, and it was a fantastic experience, dude. I was like, this is so awesome. So really got into production a lot there and was putting stuff out for a little bit. But back then, and even really now to this day, I don't think I really understood how to monetize it very well. So it was a hard thing because it's very time consuming and it's something that takes a lot of energy out of your life. And so it was hard for me to do and it wasn't like helping pay the bills, but I still do it from time to time and I still for the same reasons. It's fun to be able to play your own stuff, dude, you can blow a dance floor up with somebody else's music. That's cool. That's what DJs do all the time. But there's a definite tingle and hair raising kind of feeling that you get when it's your track, dude, and that is pretty addictive, man. That's super duper fun. So yeah, I mean, all kinds of stuff really though I can play with synths, I make rhythms, I can produce full tracks, but it's not something again right now with the small business that I'm getting a lot of time to focus on. But that's good, but, and you can mess be in at weddings and stuff and you get a chance to play, and I think it's still, you're able to kind of scratch that itch a little bit and like you said, that be able to make money doing things. Then you have the time on the side eventually to pursue a little bit more of that creative stuff. Heck yeah, dude, I'm the real. Yeah, for sure. We talked about couples you like to work with fun couples, couples that appreciate, talked about process through that. Anything else you wanted make sure we touch on today? It's been fun hearing your background. Yeah, man, I don't know. As far as what I want to touch on, anybody that's out there listening to us sits in the Seattle area. I'm new. This last few years has been humbling. Like we were talking about just before we started putting on the web developer cap, the producing event cap, other than what I do, stepping outside of it right now, I'm doing a mock wedding on April 7th at Imperial Lake Union, it's called. They said Yes, and after the wedding show, I was like, I think it would be fantastic to do a show that is different than a wedding expo. I know I think people have had this idea before, but I haven't really talked to anybody around here that's actually done it. So we we're producing a wedding and we're inviting people that are interested in wedding services to come experience vendors do what they do. It's very different than walking up to, I was at the Seattle Wedding Show this year. It was a great show. I had a 10 by 10 booth there. I, there's 18 other DJs there this year. It's hard. It's hard. You still have a commodity. That's it. We all know what we're signing up for, but you're packing in on Thursday or Friday. You're there all day, you're all over the weekend, and maybe you get a couple bookings out of it. Like I said, this year we actually did really well, so no complaints there, but it's very hard to, you've got your monitors set up and your little pitch that you're doing, and there's thousands of people walking in and out. It's hard to explain why I'm different than this guy that's two booths down for me or three booths down for me. They said yes. The concept is that people get to come and actually experience a wedding, so we're going to have a cocktail hour during the cocktail hour. You can lounge with the vendors beforehand. Jenny Gigi, I know you've done a podcast with her. She's going to be doing a little one-on-one photo shoot with all the people that come in, get a few minutes to talk to them, specifically one-on-one. Each one of the vendors is also exclusive, so it's small, it's intimate, but the idea is hopefully this is repeatable, but networking with the people that can do cool stuff and have fun, I want to get together with those people and do more stuff like this so a client can come in and go, oh, wow, this is how cocktail hour works. We've got Kelly Rose music that's going to be doing live music instead of your typical cocktail hour playlist. There's all kinds of cool technology that can play your playlist, well can even mix it together now. But having Kelly Rose on stage, able to interact and make eye contact with people, be able to do custom songwriting for your day, and she taps out rhythms on her guitar records, harmonies and rifts through her loop pedal, and then is doing a live performance. It's such a elevated experience versus a playlist, but that's hard to explain to somebody in words. Reid, having somebody come in and be like, whoa, this is it. We got our drinks or this thing's happening. It's easy to go, wow, I can picture this. This is what my wedding could be like. Then we're going to do a grand entrance and instead of a wedding party, obviously not really one happening. We're going to introduce all of the vendors to great fanfare just like you would do for a normal grand entrance, except for now I'm getting to say something about Reed Photography. I'm getting to say something about Imperial Lake Union, Jenny Gigi, like Kelly Rose, whatnot. So have them come in and do that so they can experience the grand entrance. Then we're going to sit down and give everybody a plated meal. And then during the plated meal, we're actually going to do a ceremony. So we've got this awesome actress, Adrian that's going to be wearing a customized dress from LaBelle Lane, bridal Suite, and I don't know if you've had David or Austin from Orion Entertainment on their podcast, if you haven't seen, I know David very well. David's awesome, and he's one of the, I mean, I don't think he knows this, but really kind of a mentor to me. I've watched those guys since I got in the game and watched their website develop and watched them do stuff from afar. There's not a lot of people that I look up to in the city, but I really, really look up to those guys. Austin's been nice enough, actually, I need to call him today. We lost our suit sponsor. We're trying to figure that out, but he's going to be the actor for the groom. So we're going to do a mock ceremony. The marriage mate, Brooke, is going to be doing the officiating. So people get to experience a wedding and there's going to be a poetry reading that gets done, but you get to experience the wedding, and then when we're done, we're going to do toasts. All of the vendors are going to get a couple minutes on the mic to talk to everybody and not hold the room's attention for a minute. Then a short dance party and then a giveaway at the end. So basically all the vendors are, they have gift certificates for their services. We're giving them all away to one lucky winners as a grand prize. And that's, sorry, my long story, long read. I want to work with people. I want to shine light on people. That's what I want people to know. If you work with Joe, Joe, Matt is really, really passionate about what he's doing right now. Not one of the guys that's been doing this for 15 years and is burned out. I'm trying to go up. I want to do more than just be a mobile dj. I want to kind of step into that production realm. I want to network with people. It's what I'm really good at. I love talking to people. I love hearing about their experiences. I love understanding them and then connecting people together so we can do something cool and great and better than what you experienced. If there's one thing I could say that I want people to view me as a dj, I'm not the best DJ at all. I'm pretty damn good, but I'm not the best. I've been doing it for a long time. I can rock a party, but legitimately, I just want to create an experience When you come out and see me. If you were to come out and see me play where you're like, that was better than what I normally see on the regular weekend, I don't want you to be like, oh, that's just like every DJ I see. When you see me. My goal is for you to be like, Ooh, that was different. That was nice. I like that. And that's the kind of stuff I want to do with people. So for anybody that might be out there watching this or hearing this, no, that I exist and I want to work with you and I want to do cool stuff with you, and if you're looking to do something cool with somebody, I'm that guy. So hit me up. I want to meet more people because I'm like I said, a fledgling and this fledgling new thing that I've got going on right now, Reid, every day I meet somebody, I'm like, oh my God, you know them. You know them. And they're like, yeah, of course. When I was talking to David about a rental company for my show, he was like, why don't you just call blah blah, blah at court? And I was like, because I don't know, blah, blah, blah. At court. He was like, alright, got you. And I was just like, I mean, I know you do, but I'm still new guy. I'm running around going into bridal shops, going into bakeries, introducing myself, going, here's my flyer, and this is my idea. Do you want to get on board with this? And hearing no, no, no, over and over and over until I got some yeses. So yeah, that's the thing is I'm out here and I want to work with cool, like-minded people read. That's what I'd say I want people to know about me. Well, perfect. And I do also know blah, blah, blah over at course. So that's good. I'm glad that you're getting them involved in this. Where would you have people check out, I got your website@peerlovecraftevents.com. Anything else you want to plug in terms of where people can see anything you have going on? That's all of our socials, man. So IgE, TikTok, Facebook, it's all@lovecraftevents.com. I did get a DBA for Lovecraft booth, so we're going to try to be doing its own website, its own entity to grow photo booths. I, I've got a couple of them now and I've got somebody new. It's scrolled, Dawn, that's going to be my operations person there. So there'll be lovecraft booths pretty darn soon too. And like I said, if we can get this, they said yes off the ground and make it repeatable. Hopefully by the time we get to August or October we can do another one. So my goal is for the end of 2024 to have Lovecraft events, Lovecraft booths, and kind of they said yes as their own separate entities as my fingerprint on the industry. And I was actually talking with David. He's going to have me, I want to butcher this, but I'm going to, I think be part of, or the new communications director for Eylea here in Seattle. Perfect. So they're going to have me doing some kind of social media stuff for them. I think. I don't want to butcher it again where we just kind talked about it last week, but I know he's been wearing a lot of hats and it's going to be something that I can come along I think, and kind of take some of the weight off his shoulders and do that. So hopefully that'll get me some exposure to the industry. Obviously those Eylea events are super pertinent to just being around other folks that are like-minded and doing cool stuff. Well, awesome. Well, David's a good one. I can vouch for him and yeah, I know the girl's over at Imperial, so that'll be fun. We did their venue video back, was that two Januarys ago? So yeah, I'm well versed over there. It's a good spot. Good luck with that. I like the idea of that as well. We've talked about trying to sell yourself is not a commodity and kind of get all that stuff. Joe, I appreciate it. If you are interested in coming on the podcast, best made videos.com/podcast guests and all the links are on there. We'll see you next time. Appreciate It, Redman. Be easy, bro. Take easy.

Darren Hart, Darren Hart Photography

Well here we are back again. Another get to Know Your Weather Pro podcast. We have Darren Hart here today. Always excited to be in another photo video person do audio video stuff as well. Good. And then obviously he works with I Rainier as well, so a fellow baseball fan. We have an opening day here coming up. Excited for that. My Kraken have just completely fallen off, so now I really need something to get into here. Darin, how are you doing sir? I'm doing great. It's nice to meet you Reed. I'm feeling the same, cracking, falling off, but I'm excited for the baseball season to start. It's a busy time of year for me, but I'm glad to be here. Yeah, so what's your elevator pitch? What do you do? I know your hands are in kind of a lot of stuff and we can get into specifics here, but what's your elevator pitch? So I used to be the DJ with the Rainier, but there's several of us. They started putting me on cameras as well that keep me around and I fell in love with it. I took photography in school as well, so they kind of trusted me on these cameras and I fell in love with doing the camera work and a couple of the guys there do weddings and events. One of them's a DJ but he also has a photo booth and he said, Hey, you should do these wedding events with me. And so we started doing that together and that's how I got into this stuff and I fell in love with it because just like the Rainier, I like being a part of events that are a lot bigger than me and just being a piece of something that's special, that's more important than I am. That's good. I like that. Yeah, people always ask me too like, oh, do you want to do more corporate? I'm like, I really like the couples and engaging with all of that stuff and being a part of that. So I'll pull up your site here. We'll get into your background and stuff, but what do you like to specialize in? What do you like to do? I know you said weddings and things like that. Yeah, I love doing weddings. I just fell in love with working with couples. This couple right here, Mason and Rachel actually perfect example of a couple that just made me kind of fall in love with doing these weddings and it actually started with engagement photo shoots and that's what made it special at first and then I did my first wedding and it was chaotic in a good way in the ways that a wedding is and can be and I actually love that and I thrive in that environment being coming from a live broadcast background where things are changing constantly. I kind of fit right into that and I feel like I got lucky with some of the couples super early on. I know a lot of people probably say that to butter up their couples, but I feel like I got really lucky with some of the people early on and got some really good photo shoots in. I did some free engagement photo shoots to start out, which I'd recommend to any photographer getting started. Just put yourself out there, do a couple styled photo shoots even if you're not choosing the style, but there's plenty of couples that can't afford the engagement part of their photo shoot that are willing to do a styled shoot that really got me off the ground. It's hard starting out and I remember back, I mean it's been years ago now, but it's hard to sell what you don't have or sell. You're like, okay, well I have this but can you visualize that or whatever. So getting your hands in there. So how did you get started in all this? I know you said you're from the Bay Area, we're talking off, you're in Tacoma now, get car area, but kind walk us through your journey of how you got here. So growing up in the Bay Area, I was really into photography and I was one of those kids that I always wanted to buy a camera with the leftover money that I had and my dad was like, maybe you should save your money. And eventually I was just like, you know what, I'm getting a camera. I just did it anyways, made him mad, but now I'm working on cameras at a stadium, so it kind of worked out well. I moved up to the Bay Area or up to Washington in the Seattle Tacoma area just because I love it up here. It's beautiful. I know California can be photogenic, but it got crazy down there with all the fires and all the stuff going on and I wanted to be close to my family. Moved up here, continued taking photos for an Instagram page for Gig Harbor Washington and that's kind of why the Rainier decided, all right, we'll trust him with a camera. We know he knows his way around a camera a little bit and I couldn't believe they're like, we're going to put him on this beautiful broadcast camera. I was a little timid at first just working with that expensive equipment you're not used to working with, but it really got me the skills and knowledge that I needed to jump into wedding photography. That can be a really fast-paced environment, but I moved up here to be with family. It ended up turning into a photography journey, just wanting to take pictures of everything up here, Mount Rainier and being close to the Narrows Bridge and just beautiful views everywhere and I've been doing it ever since. I've spent the last now four years doing the same thing and absolutely loving it. What was it like kind of breaking in up here, kind of entering the market? I know that we have a lot of this and we network with a lot of different people that've been doing this forever, been doing this a couple years and just sort that for you, what was your experience kind of breaking this, especially the South sound there and the wedding network? Just community involvement. It was actually that Gig Harbor Instagram page that I was mentioning. Getting involved with that and really getting involved with the community and volunteering my time at first, taking pictures for local businesses that didn't otherwise have the means and digital marketing to put out there and this page at first was all volunteer work. It still is, it's still a donation based page. There's no monetization from it outside of that, but it was just getting involved in the community. It did so much meeting people and doing right by people in the community and getting involved in that way. I actually met some great wedding photographers in the process. There's some great ones in the area in the gig harbor area and I'm sure maybe you'd love to chat with. I would love to chat with you. I might be able to send a couple of your way. That's good. Yeah, hopefully. Maybe we know already in terms of kind of couples things you're looking for, what do you look for? What's your target couple that you want to photograph? It's so diverse up here that as much as I want to pin myself to one type of couple, you end up with a little bit of everything and you have to be prepared for it. I do like couples that know what they want. There's a certain level of direction with poses and whatnot, but I'm definitely the candid documentary style with maybe 30% thrown in posed stuff and I love to have a second photographer with me, especially someone with a little bit of leadership values where then I can direct them on what I need to do couples wise. Like I said, I feel like I've gotten so lucky with the couples that I've had that I don't have a particular style of couple that I necessarily as long as they're comfortable, but that's part of my job is to make 'em comfortable as long as they can laugh and have a good time. Those are the couples that I like. If they can laugh and have a good time and be lighthearted, then that's who I want to work with for the most part. Yeah. Do you, because we always talk about this and people hiring in their vendors and especially photo video and not necessarily realizing we're going to be here all day together, the personalities and everything really need to match. Do you feel like coming into situations like that and getting couples comfortable and familiar with your process, do you feel like you excel at that or how do you go through that during the day? Well, the earlier in the process that we can get together, I find the better. I have one guy that I'm meeting with later today that we're going all the way through starting with his proposal. I won't say too much about that just by the off chance that his soon to be wife watches, great couple we're going all the way through the proposal process. I love doing that. That's something that I didn't jump until halfway through, but couples that get stuff done early and take care of it that the longer that we have the plan, the better. I love the planning process with couples and getting to know their family and all the little things that are important to 'em. That's probably the best part of the job to be honest. It's hard, it's a hard balance, especially as wedding vendors and doing the actual photography or video or for a forest or whatever, such a small percentage kind of what you do throughout the day anyway or throughout the week, but you find that I guess I'm kind of on that similar train now. I've gotten rid of a lot of my seconds and it's mostly just me and got rid of the other teams over the years and being able to have more of that personalized connection I guess going back and forth and getting that text from the couple like, oh hey, did you get our check? What's going on? And just feeling like you're really a part of their journey throughout I think is really exciting. Yeah, it is. That's why I'm really excited for a few of these proposal ones. They're really exciting to me because you go all the way through the process with 'em, it not only feels good, but by the time the wedding comes up you feel so much closer and more connected to the family and the couple that are involved having been there through the process. So I do always appreciate wedding photographers that throw the engagement photo shoot kind into their package as a standard like, Hey, this is something I want to do with almost all of my couples. If they really don't want an engagement shoot, we'll figure something out. But I like the idea of having an engagement shoot in there because getting to know the couples early is really nice. Things you learned through the process of starting a photography company and building that out, lessons maybe that you've learned that you would like to impart on other people that are getting ready to delve into this. Yeah, it's really to one, put yourself out there. I think a lot of people have imposter syndrome where they think they're not good enough to charge for a wedding or to put themselves out there in that way and part of what a lot of photographers, I got this advice early on from someone because I had someone experience with me and I was lucky to have that was that it at the end of the day is a luxury item. Photography at a wedding, you are providing a relative luxury service. A lot of people will try to take their own photos at their weddings because iPhones are so nice these days and all of that. You do have to a certain extent promote yourself as that type of business because that's what people are looking for if they're looking for a wedding photographer and to get past that imposter syndrome effect where it's like one first step. Obviously work on your skills and work on your camera work and understanding how all the camera settings work, that's obviously the first thing, but after that is to get past that, I'm not good enough. I'm seeing that a lot recently especially I've seen it a lot. It's interesting. I had a wedding last week here and it was a lot of DIY, right? I mean this was a nice venue, right? A lot of DIY, but they spent money on a videographer and then obviously on a photographer and what struck me was just how, and I know this is one of my friends, but just how kind of elevated that was the experience for the day because you have a couple profess, it's amazing how even if you have a wedding that maybe isn't some big $80,000 planned and we were spending two years doing all this, but just even just a smaller medium sized wedding with a high class photographer and there can elevate how all of that looks right? And even just paying attention to things in the background and kind of all that stuff opposing and using flatter and light just really struck me. I think you could have brought in a bunch of different photo video teams and it would've been maybe looked a little different that hey, let's spend money here. If we're saving money on maybe the catering and the desserts or whatever, let's spend money here and at least have that be one of our more expensive items, but then that's going to come out looking a lot better. Yeah. Well, and part of what a photographer has to decide is do you want to deal with couples that are prioritizing photography? You can price yourself into that market if you want, but that's up to you. But there are couples that really prioritize photography and that elopements are becoming more and more popular these days. A lot of photographers are becoming ordained and making it one package deal and doing elopements and they're going out there with a ordained photographer and a couple family members and that's about it. My best friend just got married and that's exactly what they did. That's interesting. I'm 50 50 on the elopements. I really thought coming out of Covid, I thought that that was going to be a lot more leaned into and we had so many of these, okay, and we were doing streams and we were doing ceremonies and then receptions later or elopements or all this stuff and I really thought, oh, this is going to be the new normal. And we were doing a wedding podcast at the time talking about wedding planning and micro weddings and kind of all that stuff. And then at least in my experience, and please feel free share yours, but it seemed like the second we could do big weddings again, it was like that's what we're doing, what we're done with the elopements. But that's good. I'm glad to see that the elopements are still taking place. Well, I'm seeing them grow maybe in my friend base, but I was actually interested to hear your perspective on that and other photographer's perspective on that because I've seen a lot on the internet about elopements, but my personal experience is that that's not where the work is necessarily coming and it's not as frequent, but I do have a lot of friends that are doing it. I have seen it a lot on the Facebook groups, people looking for elopement photographers, but it's not most of the work I'm doing that's For sure. It's right. I think there's some diverse, I know that super niche in that really high-end elopements and I think that's right, but I was just surprised we did so many in odd shape sizes and everything through 2020 and 2021 and two. I remember even last year, I think it was one of the last weddings we had of the season and it was a family wedding barn wedding. It was at their property, but I'm sitting there on the dance floor and there's all these people, I'm like, this is crazy how two years ago this would've been so a faux pa or not, it's just totally normal again. But it felt like, I guess it speaks to kind of the human condition of wanting to celebrate and be together. It was like the second we can do that everyone, because people were wondering, is that ever going to happen again? Are people going to feel normal? Well, and that's who we are as a species. We like to get into our groups and be with our people and weddings are definitely a good way to do that. I think people, I think about elopements a lot or a small wedding. I see it so much. We want to have a small wedding and they just start thinking of all the people that they really want to have at their wedding and it starts piling up and that's maybe the more common scenario for me friends that I'm doing an elopement where we have a photographer and our parents and maybe one or two friends and they end up having 50 people there. In terms of the photography stuff are, I know you said saving money, picking up a camera that way, but how did you come into doing this professionally? So in community college, which I did before I went to University of Washington, I chose to take photography on the side. I was taking audio and communications, but I chose to take photography and I was like, man, I'm enjoying this the most. And even I was doing it a lot on my off time, so mostly self-taught up until the point where I got to Cheney Stadium and the Tacoma Rainier because that built the knowledge. You have 20 people around you on a broadcast staff that also went to school for it that are more educated on camera work than you and learning from the people around you is probably the most valuable skill you can have in almost any trade or any trade. And I chose to do that. I was like, I just want to be a fly on the wall as much as possible and learn as much as possible from the people around me. Once I got into the stadium and working with all those camera operators and all that, some of the guys coming from the NFL and a lot of the guys that work for the Kraken and they're going to be exhausted going into baseball season, I'm just going to be excited and ready. I do a lot of booking and weddings and digital marketing on the off season, whereas they're still doing sports for the most part. I'll tell you the live sport thing is nothing to joke about. When I went to Gonzaga and we got to do the women's basketball games and it's between the load and setup and everything else, and I think we did some baseball games and stuff through as well for Gonzaga, but it's a lot of work. I mean long days and a good, I think it's a really kind of death by fire kind of thing where you come in there and you really got to figure out there's not a lot of room for error or mistake in that world. No, there's not and sometimes there's not a ton of planning. Right now we're sitting in a position where last year we broke the all time attendance record for the minor leagues and this next year, so the season starts what home opener is in eight days and we haven't all been together to plan the skits and shows yet. I'm sure most of it's put together and then I get about 25, 30% creative freedom and then the rest is written skits that we all kind of put in on pitch in on over time. But it is a really hectic part of the year for, there's not a lot of prep in sport sometimes you just don't have the time and it's live production stuff and that's just how it goes. You always end up with less time than you expect I think. And then translating that though to do weddings and everything else, I think that just being able to work on the fly that has to be able, you feel uncomfortable walking into a lot of various situations at that point And that's one thing to prepare for weddings and it's a good thing to second shoot a wedding first just to find out if it's for you or not. I mean everyone says the same thing. My friends when I mentioned wedding photography, they're like, oh, you deal with Bridezillas. I'm, I mean, sometimes yes and sometimes no, but it is the one day that they have, I mean that is the person that you're catering towards. That's a lot of cases. The person that you're their day, you want to make 'em happy. But live sports definitely prepared me for that because what was the thing that my coworker had said to me, he's like, well, if you can follow Ichi Row in the dark, there's not a lot of brides that are faster than Ichi Row. So you can, he would show up for spring training and stuff and off season stuff to throw pitches and be running up and down the sideline and that's exciting to watch. But yeah, there's not a lot of brides that are faster than et row is what he had said and I was like, oh, that's fun. Okay, I'll try this. I like that. Yeah, if you can follow Israel, that's funny. I think that, yeah, good testing ground like I got this, I can get you coming down the aisle. No problem. I got TRO on the sidelines, so That's funny. And I use that line to this day in some of my consultation meetings and whatnot just because I thought it was hilarious and I, I've been using it with other people that I've tried to encourage to move forward with wedding photography. I have other coworkers that have joined the team recently that, oh, that's what you do. Maybe I should try that. And I mean I encourage people to, it is a large market, it's saturated. There's a lot of photographers and you have to put yourself out there. I think looking at real estate agents and how they promote themselves is a really good, those are the people that I was working with on the off season a lot before wedding photography and the way they promote themselves as a human being instead of this is my service, think no, they're promoting themselves as a person. This is who I am. This is why you want me to be part of your journey and what you're doing. And that's big for weddings because you want couples to be comfortable with you being with their family on the most special day that they have. It's interesting. Yeah, you're talking about the whole bridezilla thing and you always get that question from people that kind of aren't in the industry. Oh yeah. And I don't know. Yeah, same with you. And I know you said that you've been really lucky with the couples that you've had. I don't know if it's the way I operate or just the costs we are, how we present, but yeah, I never really get that. I always get a lot of couples just really genuinely excited for a long time. I had one of the main videos on our site had a retainer joke about 30 seconds into the video and I thought, well, this is a good testing ground. If you can find the humor in the retainer joke in the wedding video that we're probably on the similar vibe versus kind of getting whatever about that. Well, and that's why it's important to also know what you want as a business too. Okay to tell a couple that you don't provide the thing that they're looking for. If it's something that you really don't want to do, I would highly suggest choosing not to do it and choosing not to promote yourself is someone that does it. You're just going to frustrate yourself and end up working with the couples that you don't want to work with. And I know I said that my preference of couples is pretty broad, but I mean the statement of if they're willing to laugh and have fun with it, and that's probably the couple for me, It's hard. I had a consult, I guess it was a couple weeks ago now, and it seemed generally seemed really excited and everything and it made very clear to me kind during the console and it was one of the wedding people, and then it was one of the parents was on the call and it was made abundantly clear to me, this probably isn't the right fit or this probably isn't what I'm not what they're looking for. And it's really hard in that way to be like, well, it's almost is everybody better for me just to say I probably don't think this is the right fit or maybe I just won't follow up, is to try to like, Hey, did you make a decision yet? Kind of let that go. So trained in this world of like, you got to go after everything and don't say no and take everything. You're like, no, I'm actually doing a disservice to me. And then also probably to them and their day, the last thing you want is then you're coming out afterward and someone's upset about it. I certainly don't take anyone's money wanting to make them upset with what the product they get. Exactly. Well, and I think it's a challenge for people early on because they really want that gig and especially as it gets more and more competitive, it becomes harder and harder to say no to any couple and gig offerer and especially early on when it's intimidating, but I think it's probably going to be one of the biggest, it's a self-control challenge early on almost. You have to be willing to look for the couples that are right for you, and that's why I actually do recommend styled shoots with a few people and do a couple ones cheap with couples that you really enjoy to find out what those things are that you enjoy. I mean, it's important to know where you actually want to go with your business, if you can put yourself in the market of Bridezillas if you want to. Well, it is what you saw kind a little bit in that way what you put out. You were talking about standing out as a photographer, marketing kind of that way, and I know you do digital marketing as well. At least for me it's always been video and some people don't want that and some people do want that, but at least it's not as saturated as photography in terms of how do I stand out? It is one 10th of this, what people do. So, and I know you said putting yourself out there, being confident, but how do you stand out and what is your advice that way? I don't know. I've talked with lots of photographers who are friends over the years and I say, I have no idea how I would do if I was in that situation. Standing out is absolutely the hardest part, right? I mean with so many people, you can find gigs with reputable places. I mean, you don't necessarily have to pin yourself to wedding photography. I do the sports photography and just the fact that I do work the baseball season with the Rainers helps me, and I felt fortunate at the start. It did help me get gigs here and there, but just doing right by people and having the good recommendations, doing what you enjoy doing and not forcing yourself to do what you don't want to do. I like your advice to approaching it more like a real estate person and promoting the individual, not necessarily the service. I mean I think that that's a good, you said your point. Yeah, I actually, I did forget to mention that your comment of videography, that is an important thing in standing out. Even if you're not doing it with a big expensive Sony broadcasting $25,000 camera, you can use your phone or whatever brand of camera that you're using to make engaging content on the internet, you're going to have to be on social media and making, I highly recommend the reels and all of those things. Engaging with that community, searching the hashtags that are actually involved with what you're doing and finding the people that you're trying to reach through social media. That is huge now, but the digital marketing end of it and offering even learning how to use those platforms so that you can offer couples, Hey, here's a 62nd even short of your wedding. That's really cool. I mean couples love that kind of stuff and it doesn't take a lot of a ton of work as far as this editing stuff goes to do that kind of stuff. I offer a free, really well edited short plus a minute and 22nd video, pretty standard with any of my larger packages, and that's a big standout. I've seen other plenty of other photographers and videographers do the same thing, but it does help and it goes a long way. It's just so hard. It's one of those, and I get to the point where it is almost like you're doing your vegetables at that point, eating. You're like, okay, okay, I got a blog here. Okay, I got post on Instagram. Okay, I got to post on TikTok. I mean to me, I get to the point I'm like, I've had it with all of it. What's your advice to stay motivated with all that stuff and making sure that you do your due diligence in that way, Avoiding running yourself too thin because that's really, really easy to do with all the different platforms. Choose a couple that you understand and that you're really good at and lean hard into 'em. For me, that would be Instagram that is closer to my generation. Not quite, still a little bit older than that, but it's closer than TikTok. I just recently started leaning into TikTok, but that's actually on the sports end. I still don't do TikTok much for the wedding photography stuff, although I would recommend it, but this is again the thing, running yourself too thin. It's just something that I'm choosing not to do right now because I'd be running myself too thin on do the Instagram. Couples love to see that, especially for photography because it's basically a photo collage you basically have, that's what Instagram is. The one-to-one aspect ratio is can be annoying, especially since that's the first way people see your photo when they look at your profile. But yeah, leaning heavily into social media, not running yourself too thin on it. It can get overwhelming with Twitter and TikTok and Instagram and Facebook. Facebook groups are great to get involved with the community. Joining your local Facebook groups, you don't even need to have the biggest Instagram following in the world. Just stay consistent on it and use the hashtags and develop the SEO and all that stuff. Make sure you're using the terms that you want to use to draw in the audience that you want to draw in. But It is hard. It is, like you said, rather than kind of ragged in that way. I think as long as I look like I'm alive still and in business on all these different things, I think that's also like don't do it for six months and then drop off for four years. You got to do at least a little bit. Yeah, scheduling. Scheduling so that you don't run yourself too thin. I struggled with it big time and early on and eventually it was just like, you know what? I'm putting a whiteboard right over here. It was more important for me to have the things written down that I knew I had to do tomorrow than it was for today. At least I knew with all the crazy amount of things that you could potentially do a post on this platform, reach out to this couple and all sorts of things. I'm like, okay, I need to know that these things are for tomorrow and I can take them out of my brain for today and do the things today that need to get done. Yeah, it's scheduling for social media, which there are programs for scheduling social media and I'd use one if I were any wedding photography because a wedding photographer media person, because you get busy and scheduling your social media stuff can take that load off big time. That's interesting. Anything else you want to make sure we touch on here? Anything else you want to make sure that we touch on our conversation? If we had a bunch of wedding photographers in here, I'd ask a hundred questions. What is your main source? What do you do? Because you're podcasting, you're running a show, you're doing sports stuff, you're doing wedding stuff. How'd you get into it? I'm sure people of your show have heard that already too, but Okay. No, I think this is a good platform just in terms of just at least networking and at the minimum, I think it's hard. I think nowadays, even in the Pacific Northwest even, we could try to do stuff down to Oregon and Spokane and stuff as well. I think it's hard to get to know other people and I think even when you're working together at weddings, I don't think you get the same level of familiarity of having a conversation. You're mostly doing BS in and shooting the breeze and kind of doing all that stuff. So I think that this is a good way to do that and then obviously to have people have things to be able to share and kind of free content that way. I think it's important. I don't like networking just for networking sake. I go to some of the networking groups and stuff mostly as a videographer so I can, I'll produce the video for it out of that. I think this, well, it is hard to sit there and kind of BS for half an hour and then move on. I like the idea that we can do this and then have something kind of talking about who we are and we do while also getting to know each other I think is a better use of time. So that's always been my thought process behind that. I completely agree. My University of Washington courses turned, it was during Covid and got turned to a remote course and they ended up leaving it that way. They actually were able to bring in guests from just all over the world to bring in on video sessions for three hours. They had a guy, I can't believe I'm blanking out on his name, but he was the head of Motown records. Barry White was skinny. They could not get those kinds of people and make those kinds of connections and relationships when it was an in-person course where they showed up in person all at the same time. They had students there and then everyone left completely different environment, but they started doing their video stuff and it was just like, okay, now I'm meeting tons of people from all over the country with different perspectives and podcasts are getting bigger and bigger as the days go by for good reason, for exactly the reasons you just mentioned. I think even Giant NFL Stars, Shannon Sharpe are like, no, I'm doing the podcast now. I get to actually have these conversations with people and you sit down for a few minutes before we start recording while you're setting up the tech stuff and all that and get to have conversations and not necessarily put a huge time limit on it and you can edit post a little bit. But yeah, I agree with you. It helps develop those relationships. I think it's cool that you're doing it. It was interesting that Shannon, I think it was last week or the week before he was talking about his, because it's like I think the world's biggest sports podcast right now and his interview with Cat Williams paid him more than any single year he ever had played in the NFL, which is pretty remarkable to think about. No, I mean I think Covid was rough and obviously the Zoom vacation of it all, but I agree with you and the idea, and it's the same with this podcast and where I do my football one, I can have the commissioner of the CFL call in and do the show and you would never be able to coordinate and do something like that or travel up or do all this stuff. And just being able to have even just TV shows and you look at the Pat McAfee and we can have anybody call at any time and just to be a part of it where we were flying people to the show before, having to do it in person. I think just the normalization of that I think is really exciting. And I agree. It's totally opened up the world in that way, And that was weird because one of the things that helped me with wedding photography the most was my background early on working in retail and just working with people. It helped a lot and just dealing with those scenarios, but it's so much so that I'm almost forgetting the point that I was about to make working a retail gig and oh, watching the tech change through Covid Tech made it more readily available for people to do this kind of thing because it became a necessity in companies like Zoom and even Google and all the audio companies I was working heavily in audio at the time started just mass developing as much as they could geared towards podcasts and everything. It helped a lot. I think it was one of the few good things that came out of covid, but it definitely made it possible to do things like this. Well, no, I think it made it just really approachable to get into it too. And then I know that YouTube's always kind of been that way of like, well, if you have a phone or you have a device, you can go live or you can publish a video, you can do all that. But I think there's a lot of podcasts now, but it is interesting in that you got to see the ones that keep going and do it that way. But like I said, at the end of the day, I think just the experiment of growing the Pacific Northwest wedding vendor thing, I mean this certainly isn't done for impressions or revenue. I mean this is more done for the networking of it all, but I think it's fun. I've got to meet a lot of people that I would never have worked with or that I get to work with people that I've met on here. It's interesting in that way. It's just another, it's a more unique way I think than going to just a wedding network USA events or whatever. It absolutely is. And actually one last piece of, and I haven't been in it crazy long, I'm still taking lots of advice. So any wedding photographers have advice for me, send it. My wife please, I'll take it, is to actually have some kind of audio set up. Reed, you actually, from an audio perspective, you have a great setup, nicely done, sounds wonderful and I appreciate that, but it's really important and you'd be surprised how long it goes, how far it goes with couples when you do a virtual meeting with 'em, when you have really good sound and sometimes not always. I'll set up my nice camera for that just to present as well as I possibly can, but taking the actual consultation process seriously and having maybe work on the setup for that a little bit. Well, it's hard when you're like, here I'm going to be doing photo video for your day here. Look at my out of focus camera and all this. Yes, it's all about the presentation in that way and I don't always draft or look maybe how it should be to be, but I do also want you to feel like you kind of know who you're getting as well as what you're getting in that process. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. A lot of times for a consultation, I'll block out a couple hours before handed. If you put the effort into it, you can set up my camera on the tripod over there. I actually probably would've done the same thing today had I not been coming from the stadium and it not being the week before opening day, which we in this or at least at my work call. Well, okay, I'll let you choose whether or not you keep this, but we call it hell week just because it's just everything's up in the air. It's chaos. It's the busiest week of the year, but that's what would've happened for today. I was like, you put the effort into the consultation call. It's really important. Well, Darren, this has been fun getting to know and kind of connecting in this way. If people want to check out your work, where would you have them go? I would have them go to send avl.com, so he added up there. Oh, there you go. Look at that. That's the one. So a lot of times these days I have some of my other folks from the Tacoma Rainier, we have other DJs and camera operators. I'll have them offer DJ services because a couple of those guys, our whole staff there is amazing as far as all that stuff goes. And they're amazing to even let us work with each other and use their staff for this kind of stuff on the off season. But I got a guy that's a great DJ that comes out for the send audio stuff and I went to University of Washington for audio, so I always keep an eye on that myself. And that's one of the things that I try to do at weddings even as a photographer, is develop a good relationship with the DJ there because he's going to do other events. But you can find me@sendavl.com. You can either do DJ audio stuff, but my main thing nowadays is photography because I absolutely love it. And so on the homepage there, you can either click on the photography link or the audio link, whatever you're looking for or we'll package the two. That's good. Yeah, you would be amazed at how often the photographers get curmudgeonly with the DJs at weddings. I always think that's interesting because I'm always friendly because I'm like, Hey, can I get a backup feed or can we do this or how are you doing ghosts or whatever. But it's always the photographer and they're just like, oh, hey. I'm like, if it is weird, it's weird. Philadelphia DJ is Man, I feel like I'm in such a weird position having done so much of both and starting with the audio because audio is so niche and one thing, photographer, please be patient with your DJs though. Audio is a very niche, niche thing. If they have something that you don't quite understand, it's hard. Just like you have things that they might not understand, they have things that you might not understand and it's tough. It's funny being on both ends of it. Yeah, it's interesting because there's always that way and I'll see posts of even photo people complaining about videographers or whatever and it's like, well, maybe you did stuff that got in their way too and they're not running on here posting about it. And everybody works both ways here and I try to communicate, yes, communicated. If I'm in one shot of 5,000 frames that you take during the day, I think we'll be okay. I think that'll work out. And you're going to be probably going to be in one. I mean if they're, yeah, especially for the videographers get used to and good at working with videographers, be good to the other vendors just like you are the couples. It seems like a standard, and it's probably redundant on these kinds of podcasts to say make friends with other vendors, but I don't know if people take that part of it seriously enough because it important. No, I just remember, I think it was the third wedding I'd ever done and I show up and I'm telling the photographer, Hey, brand new here. If I am in your way at all, just scream at me. I'm just trying to figure all this stuff out and we're outside the hotel, we're doing photos for an hour, they're walking around, whatever and he comes over. He is like, you said you weren't going to get in the way. I said, he goes in this one shot here. I can see your elbow in the corner. But I'm like, brother, we've been out here for an hour. If I'm in one corner of one shot, I think I'm doing alright here. I think That's pretty solid. I was going to say I've gotten worse than an elbow in a corner. I think. So a little off topic, we did have a player at the stadium that had a habit of standing in front of the cameras on purpose. Don't do that kinds of stuff. Don't do that. Don't do that. I won't name the player. I might get in trouble for that one. He's going to come at me in a text message like, Hey bud, I'm going to change my walkup song every day this year now. Well Darren, I appreciate it. Good to meet. I like the reviews. We'll have to get down there, like I said, do a wedding industry. We had, I enjoy the Rain Rainier at least just from tracking the Mariners and we lived through the mike for of it all last year and that was very exciting. So lots of things that way. I'm sure we could talk more baseball off here. I appreciate it. Website, everything else. Thank you so much. I'll play the outro music and we'll get out of here. Thanks, man. Absolutely.

MaSanda LaRa Gadd, Parkview Seattle

Well, this is exciting here. Got another venue scheduled, lined up here on the Get to Know Your Wedding podcast. We have Massand over at Parkview Event Space, which I think we connected at the wedding show and then I came over, saw South Lake Union. Right. I go there for cracking games here on the weekly. Anyway, good location, Ms. Sandra, why don't you say hi, how are you doing? Hey, I'm doing great. It's great to be here. It's good. So unique space downtown, a lot of history to it. Everything. Why don't you, first and foremost, what is it that you guys have? Give us a little background and then we can dive into your involvement and all the specialties, but what's your elevator pitch for the venue? Well, let's see. We are in the heart of South Lake Union and we have an amazing rooftop terrace, which has a roof on it. I did all this research on rooftops and half of them in Seattle didn't have a roof and I'm thinking what they know we're from Washington, so we have a rooftop terrace and so we have a lot of birthday parties, baby showers, retirement parties, and then what you're looking at here is the main performance hall or the sanctuary and so there's weddings and concerts and educational events. So that's pretty much our space. It's cool and it's cool. A lot of different uses a large space. You have parking available, I know you guys do corporate as well as weddings. The rooftop stands out, the location, is that kind what you view as the crown jewel, the Parkview event space? Oh totally. We're right across the street from Denny Park and apparently 40 parking places, free parking places is a big hit and most people that are planning an event, can you move that to the top of the list premium. And what I was also really struck by was just I guess how nice everything was there just in terms of upstairs, the main kind of where you would hold the ceremony or you could have you a presentation or whatever. I thought a really nice clean, airy wide windows off to the side with kind of a view there. In terms of things, when clients come and they tour or they book the space, what stands out to them besides obviously the parking spots? Well first of all, they don't realize we're there and so we're revealing ourself in South Lake Union and they love the modern architecture, the lighting, the light and bright. It's just a lovely modern new building, so pretty lovely. So in terms of your involvement with all of this, first off, how did you get involved in all of this? Give us a little bit about your background. You want the back backstory Or I want the back. This is the get to know your Wedding Pro. So we need the whole backstory here. I worked here 20 years ago. We share space with Seattle Unity, which is a church. I was the business manager and 20 years later they called me and said, Hey, we have this brand new building and we need to set up a event space that people can come and do all their events, so would you be interested in that? And I'm a systems person. I love setting up systems and I thought, yeah, I'll do that. So here I am setting up all the systems and marketing and venue and I just like people. I mean I just love watching the first birthday parties and the baby showers and the bride's getting ready and it's just lovely. And then we had Citizen University come and use our entire building and just the innovation and the brainstorming and it was just community happening in South Lake Union. So that's really what we want to be is a center that people can come and use for whatever purpose. What struck me as well, touring and especially in terms of the view from where you can have the ceremony space and then obviously the rooftop feels very Seattle. If I had people coming in from out of town, we have a lot of weddings and events people that way really feels like this is what we want you to envision at SCL. Right by South Lake Union, you can see the Space Needle. Do you get a lot of that feedback as well? Yes. On the rooftop we have the patio and it has the view of the Space Needle, so that's a great photography thing for folks that are doing their weddings up there, the picture you have there is the patio and people turned it into a dance floor, but people also put food out there because we have a roof and enclosed walls, it's a year round patio, so that makes it really nice. Yeah, the functionality of it also cool walking through knowing that you could maybe you could rent the whole building, you could rent certain areas of it. Talk about that just in terms of the flexibility of being able to customize it for the event that you need. Well, we have a Jewish community coming in and they're going to be up here in the rooftop, but they also needed youth and family, so we also have a youth and family area that they can put the kids downstairs and they can have their meeting upstairs. So it has a lot of flexibility, but then we took the youth and family room, we turned it into a breakout room for Citizen University, so whatever people want to turn it into is we're very flexible that way. You say in terms of the background working there before the history of the space, talk about when you walked me through in previously with the Seattle Unity with I guess the long lineage kind of history there of the architecture. It's a really unique space. Can you talk through that of just some of the little intricacies that way? Yeah, the original building was built in 1957 and it went long ways Lee and then when they sold the parking lot next door, Waverly was built and then that enabled us to go up. So we're a three story building now instead of going down the block. And then we also sold another portion to low-income housing next door to Waverly and then we went into construction in 2020 and right at the pandemic and perfect time to build a building and then opened in October of 22. So we're brand, brand new. What has been some of the feedback you've been getting now that you've been able to, you did the wedding show, you were doing these tours and stuff, obviously having bookings before, but what kind of feedback are you getting? What are the things that people really like? What I noticed on a tour this week was we were in the sanctuary or the main performance hall and it's so quiet. I mean we are, and it was just quiet for them, so they thought whatever ceremony that they're doing, it's uninterrupted and it's a quiet sacred space for their wedding and that was really cool. What's nice too about the main sanctuary space I think is it can be dressed up obviously here, more of a wedding but also could very much be dressed for a corporate or kind of another feeling that way. I think it's a very universal space that way where I think sometimes we do these, I don't want to throw anything, but I'll do a lot of hotel weddings and events and stuff. This feels like we're at, we're in the ballroom. It could be kind of whatever venue where this has the style, you're able to look outside, you're able to kind of view outside, you can have your ceremony with the windows behind or you can have it off to the side. Do you find that the clients enjoy that? Just kind of the versatility of that and how you can dress it up or down. And we've had educational events where we took out all the chairs that you see in the main performance hall and we put in 60 inch round tables for a workshop. We've also had a political forum for the folks in downtown Seattle. So it just really depends on what people's needs are and we're very flexible to be able to change it into whatever they want. And obviously here I'm just showing the photo. If you're watching not listening and you have Denny Park right there, you can go take photos. I like that you could go, excuse me, right down to that main park right by South Union as well. We do that a lot for photos and being able to get kind of the water and the space needle, things like that. Very close proximity to all of that, which is nice. Like I said, I know we do a lot of weddings where we go there anyway, so this is great to have the venue there nearby because to me doing it in that area, you want to make sure that you get those and I think that that's great. You can do full bridal party, but having the woods here, the park right next door I think is a selling point as well, while still being downtown for that urban view, They go over to Denny Park for the first look photos. There's also a labyrinth over there and it's a great little park now there's kids and it's a dog run and so it gives you a little bit of nature in the center of South Lake Union. So when clients come to work with you, you kind of walk 'em through all of this, what kind of experience do you want them to have in terms of dealing with you? Dealing with the venue? I want them to be able to walk in the door. A lot of 'em are very nervous about their event and they're trying to get it in on time and set it up and go and I just want them to walk in the door and know that we've thought of every detail that it's set up just the way they want, that it goes off without a hitch. All the technology works, then they have a great event and then it's cleaned up and out the door and onto the next so that they just have a wonderful time and we do get that kind of feedback as their guests are leaving. Wow, this is such a beautiful building. This was so nice, especially for parties up in the rooftop. The people have just really talked about how lovely. Well it's so interesting. I mean I travel so much now, not large up to Snohomish or Tacoma or kind of out to the moon. It's nice to have some more Seattle to be a Seattle wedding videographer whenever, but to be able to have weddings actually in Seattle and especially not that the downtown venues aren't great either, but sometimes the little pioneer square area is a little, feels a little. You can get in and off the freeway there. I don't know. There's the benefits to having it be urban Southlake Uni without necessarily down at Pioneer Square if you go upset. And there's folks because we have of course a big contingent of Amazon and all the other bigger Bill and Melinda and UDub medicine and they're starting to discover us now. Wow. Didn't know you were here. We could have our board retreat over here. How cool is that? Yeah, just right across the street. Yeah, they may not live in downtown but they work down there and they're walking by, so that's pretty cool. So more about you and your background getting involved. You said you're a systems person. How does that help obviously maintain and manage everything that we have here at the space? Well, there's a lot of plates that are spinning and I'm a detailed person, so I want to be a calming person, like the calming force when you walk in the door that all your needs are going to be met. So I'm ahead of them before they walk in the door to have it all ready to go so that they can seamlessly just move in there and have their event. So that's really my gift is calm and have fun. Do you enjoy, I was talking, I know we have talked as well about corporate verse weddings and I had another chat yesterday with a photographer and what do you like to do? Weddings, corporate. I'm like, I like weddings. I like being involved in that, having the couples there and living through and having me to feel like I'm a part of their day. And then in the history of them and their family and stuff. Do you enjoy that and seeing the love and being a part of those and talk about just the emotions you get from being involved in that. Well, I enjoy the corporate events because that's being of service in our community. But I have to say Reid, my favorite is the first birthday parties when they bring in the 20 little kids that I can't take pictures of because they're too young, but they have such, oh it's so cute, a overload. So that's probably my favorites when I see them come in. But I also enjoy being like somebody wanted a boardroom for a board retreat because they just want to get out of their own building for a minute and to be able to, or the South Lake Union Community Council needed meeting space for some of the initiatives they're doing in South Lake Union, that's kind of cool to contribute to that and provide a space so they can gather. In terms of also of just, I was thinking just we were talking about events and some logistical things, elevator, which is huge for load in loadout, kind of things like that. You talked a little bit about food and everything. I know when I toured seeing the kitchen and I'll get the photos pulled up here of that and just what you guys were able to do for the upstairs and being able to host things as well up there. Well, apparently, which I'm kind of new to this world, most caterers are setting up in a corner and we have a full commercial kitchen so when they walk into our kitchen they're like, oh my gosh, this is fantastic. This picture you see here, it has the hot stations in the area for cold drinks, but there's also stove, an oven, refrigerator, freezer, warming ovens, and then dishwasher if people need to do the dishes. But it's all set up to just rock and roll through their event, Which is great kind of no matter what kind of event you're doing that way, like you said, doing a lot of bar mitzvahs, things like that, doing a lot of birthdays. I don't know, it really just feels like coming out of everything with 2020 and everything we lived through, it just feels like there's a lot more just things happening again and maybe it always was and we weren't appreciating it, but certainly now kind of the communion of people I think is exciting just to, for whatever it is. And I know we had events this week filming and just getting people together, kind of networking again I think is exciting in that way. And I think that when people come to tour the building to book it for a party or a corporate event, I'm saying you're lucky to be able to get the space because once we become known, I'm going to be a full calendar. So I'm just really grateful for the people that are coming now and it's going to be even busier and I'm grateful for that. Did you enjoy doing the show and kind of meeting that way? And I am assuming more networking throughout that. Have you enjoyed your experience with that as kind of a newer venue coming in? You mean at the Seattle Wedding Show? Yeah. Oh yeah. That was good. I'm an introvert, so for me to come and talk to you was like, oh good, I can walk up and talk to Reed about his work as opposed to walking in a room with people I don't know, which I didn't know anybody there. But yeah, the wedding show was amazing. Yeah, that was really cool. But yeah, I enjoyed that part of it very much and I'm finding now that the more I go to networking events, it's like, oh, there's again or somebody else I've met already so it's getting easier. Well, and I was looking through getting the website and everything up here, looking through preferred vendor lists, seeing a lot of photographers. I like seeing a lot of vendors I like. So you're certainly making good connections that way as well. I will co-sign a lot of those you have on there. Oh nice. Yeah, exciting to see it that way. But no, I mean it's a good group that way just in terms of at least with the wedding shows and things, everyone's there for one purpose. We can talk with the couples or whatever, but I don't know. Feels to me, I've always felt welcomed by the Seattle wedding community kind of as a whole. Do you feel that way? We see a lot in Facebook message groups and stuff like, oh, the east coast is hard or this is to kind of break in to be a member of that. Did you find a pretty easy enough kind of getting in and making yourself friendly in that way? I think I'm just waiting in the water now. I don't know the wedding community as well as I could and that's why I went to the Seattle wedding shows to see what kind of vendors are out there and still building those relationships. But I need to do, get more into the wedding scene and find those folks that want to come to our venue. Other things when you tour that you want people to know about the venue, things maybe that they ask a lot, that frequently ask questions, things, anything else you want to make sure we touch on In terms of the space itself? Our sweet spot is up at the rooftop and in the main performance hall and yet we've had a couple of citizen university and another architectural firm coming in to do our company party. They took over the whole building, so our capacity was much bigger than just the main performance hall in the rooftop. And when it was fun to see how Citizen University used the building, I mean we have a quiet room downstairs and they use that as a quiet room and the staff, we have a small conference room and they use that and it was just really cool to see them utilize the entire space. So I'm always careful to say this is our capacity, but then what's your project and how can we expand it throughout the whole building because the spring party is going to be like 400 people. Okay. I was going to say sorry to jump on there. So yeah, what's in average, like you said you can expand up wave full, but what is that sweet spot in terms of whether it's a wedding or another event? The rooftop is like one 50 and then the main performance hall, if it's theater is 220. So I mean it's a good, it is a high capacity venue I guess in that way and kind of in the middle of Seattle, which is not always common. And then I wanted to make sure we pointed out as well, nice getting ready spots for both guys and girls or whoever, multiple bridal parties, good light, we kind of toured that as well. And anything else you wanted to point out that way in terms of niceties of anything else you have easy for the, whoever's getting ready in the main kind sanctuary area can kind come out and large space would be good to stereotypically kind of like the bridal getting ready room. Anything else you wanted to point out that way? Yeah, our bridal ready room doubles as our meditation room doubles as our breakout room. So the meditation halls this beautiful skylight area that just is beautiful as a bridal ready room. And then we have a green room behind the main performance hall for the grooms and the groomsmen that works out really well for them to get ready too. The last wedding we had, there was some hilarious pictures of the grooms having a great time in the green room waiting for the wedding to start. And then we're kind of all faiths too. We had a Bahai wedding, which was a totally different flavor than a traditional wedding. So we just respect all paths and how they want to create their special day. So here's the one getting ready space. What I liked about both was the option for natural light in either, it's really hard sometimes, and again not to throw any venues under the bus, but you go in some and it's like, okay, here's the closet where the guys are getting ready or whatever good to have that way I'm like, okay, let's go outside here. I know you failed all this time, time and money to have this space. We're going to go outside here, but it nice that way you can see the city views that way. And then even this downstairs area right near the, what would you call that? This Is the quiet room. I was sitting at the front desk one day and this woman walked in, she goes, do you have a quiet room? I can sit down for a few minutes. I said, well, yes we do. And she went in there, came in this room and sat down for about 30 minutes and she came out and said thank you. And then she left. I thought, well I'm glad we created that room. As a matter of fact, we do in fact have a quiet room. But no, I mean, like I said, kind scrolling through the photos here. The other thing I wanted to point out about the meditation room, the bridal suite, so great huge large area. Obviously super high ceilings where it's up, I don't even know what you call that, but into the rafters, kind of whatever. But so often you got 5, 6, 7 girls and you're getting ready and you got hair and makeup or whatever and you're like, okay, let me, we have no space in here. I love this plenty of area, dump all your stuff, get in there, kind of move in and out, kind of how that goes. It is amazing. People show up and you open your luggage, it just explodes everywhere. And we bring in a floor length mirror and a makeup mirror or whatever else they need a rack to hang all their dresses and stuff. So it really becomes a bridle ready room. So Anything else, like I said, we want to make sure we touch on here before we get out. We taught location everything, capacity. Any other kind of things I'm forgetting to ask you about? We wanted to make sure we get in here. I think you covered it all because we have the capacity to offer a lot of variety from personal celebrations to corporate events, to weddings to memorials. We did a number of memorials last year, so we're a very multifaceted venue and able to offer a lot. And I would say, and I've actually had a bunch of memorials lately, which is weird. It kind of comes in bunches at least in terms of my coverage of all that stuff. But even having that a nice quiet space with the kitchen and everything there, even if you're not utilizing the full capacity of we need an industrial kitchen doing all of that, I think it's hard. I think people, if you're not going through maybe a home or they're trying to figure it out as well, but it is overwhelming. I think having this space like you guys where you can walk through, okay, you only need these kinds of spaces and we can make that work. You could hold that outside on the rooftop. If it was a small group you could have it. I think that proves as well. I think that would be another good use for it. Lots of good uses for the space. In the main sanctuary performance area, we have built-in livestream and an audio booth. So if it's a large, for example in a memorial, they can livestream so their family can be present for the ceremony. But then we've had smaller, to your point, smaller memorials upstairs in the rooftop where they just want to gather as a group and be able to share stories and they didn't care about live streaming. And then there's surround sound up there with a monitor, so if they want to do a slideshow, but they could do that down here in the main performance hall as well. And then some groups have their food out in the lobby here, some do their ceremony in the main performance hall and then they go up to the rooftop for the reception. So it just depends on what you want, what you need. And then finally here, kind of rounding that, like you talked about, having this retractable roof I think is really nice. Making the 365 space up there. Obviously you could bring in heaters or whatever you need that way, but it's a really nice space. Always the worst thing is, okay, we're running this and then it's Seattle and okay we can't use it or I mean this is no district. We've had rental companies on here before. Some of the tents aren't always okay. It's kind of in a white bubble there. It is nice here to have that and have that option. Have it be kind of versatile that way as well. Yeah, we had another group that just, they draped off part of the main performance hall, so then they created a reception. So they didn't want to use the whole thing, but they wanted to use part of the sanctuary. So it's whatever they want. Anything else you wanted, make sure, we'll kind of touch base here and get out of here, but anything else you wanted to make sure we touched on? Well for those that are event planners or people that want to come and check out the space, our next open house is on May 9th, so that's up and coming. Then people can come and tour the building themselves, Come and check it out. Yeah, like I said, great spot, easy to get to right off I five or right off the tunnel there with 99. But I do appreciate coming on today. I guess trying to kind of ramp up my preferred vendor list here, moving in, that's like, that's my 2024 goal. Working through it recording more of these podcasts. If people wanted to get ahold of you, where would you have them go? They would go to events@parkviewseattle.com and then, Yep, we got it. Like I said, you're very super responsive at taking people around, doing all of that stuff. So nice to meet you. Thanks for coming on. If you're a vendor interested in coming on sharing your story, I know I have a photo booth coming up. I know I have another, I think a hair and makeup artist coming up as well. Best made videos.com/podcast guest and that's a nice easy questionnaire you can fill out that way. I appreciate it. We will see you next time. We'll play the out your music here. Thanks so much. Bye Reid.

Grace Macleod, Couples Counselor

Well, we are back here again. A long time friend of the podcast here, grace and MacLeod has been on both on our Get to Know Your Wedding Pro. And then I was looking up what we titled when we were doing the Best Made Weddings Planning podcast, which all those are still available over on the website, but during Covid and all of that, we were doing a lot more wedding planning and I think it was called Wedding Planning Wellbeing. So we have Grace back here again. We're working through new episodes of Get To Know Your Wedding Pro, dealing with Facebook issues right now, posting them, but we're getting them in. This is a good reintroduction to grace and then a new course that you have going on in terms of the yoga, pre-wet counseling and all that stuff. So first off, grace, how are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm enjoying. We had a wonderful year this year, had some fantastic couples that I got to help get married and now it's in our quieter time and I love networking. I love us all helping each other get to know what services we have to provide. So I always come back to you, Reid, because I call you my fairy godfather, and so thank you for this opportunity. I'm an officiant and I help couples not only get married but stay married and I also am a personal growth coach, so I work with individuals as well. Yeah, I think this is a good time of year. I was thinking about this, getting everything ready to come on here. This is my least favorite time of year. The season's winding down. We're not quite to wedding show season yet. I'm waiting for Dorothy to get off for winter break. It is kind of a weird time, at least when we're recording this, so it's good to feel like we're doing some things like this. You have exciting things going on, but yeah, you're officiating. We've had obviously the pleasure of working together half a dozen times now. I'm trying to remember here over the last few years. Talk about just that and your unique style to that and then we'll segue into the counseling and everything else you do. Okay, so everybody has their own flavor of how they officiate, and mine is because I'm a relationship person, I want to build a relationship with the couples that work with me. So it's early on in their journey to getting to marry. They can get to me the better. And I also do very custom design ceremonies, so I get to know them really in depth. It's pretty high touch process because many couples, they've never gotten married before or they've been to other people's weddings and they'll often say, we don't want that. It's like, great, that's a good place to start, but then they don't know what they can have. So it's a lot of educating them about how do you stay true to yourself as a couple. You've got a lot of input coming from family and planners and other people's expectations. So I like to be their ally and their advocate for having a ceremony that they really want. So that involves what kind of language? Do you have a spiritual orientation? Are you more religious or none of the above? That's really important and all the different wonderful elements of a ceremony because the ceremony is actually to help you cross the threshold from the end of your single life into the beginning of your married life and it's meant to mean something. You're going to say these vows and they're supposed to be commitments for life, so I want you to be as prepared and in it, I involve the couples in designing it with me and participating so that when you're up there and you're saying your vows, you're in it and you love it. It feels just like you. So that then later afterwards if things hit some bumps or it's challenging or you lose your way, you're like, remember that day we did that thing and we set all of that and we had tears in our eyes and our families were all there. It's like an anchor for them actually. It's not just the gateway to the party. For me, it's an actual ritual and it can be as fun and lighthearted or deep and meaningful as you like. So that's my approach. Well, and I like the, you've mentioned a high touch point. I like that. I feel like if I am and we went through the root of having kind of a family member do it and there's pros and cons to, I deal with that as well with videography and okay, we're going to do whatever, but if I'm going to make the decision to hire an officiant, I like knowing that I'm getting someone that's going to really take the time, right? I do think that some people look at that and they're like, okay, I'm paying this money. I could get my sister to go up there and say something. And so I think it's like you said, that high touch point and helping build that with a couple that really helps justify that extra cost and effort that they're going to do in hiring and efficient. And not only that, it's supposed to reflect them, it's supposed to be their ceremony. So family friend, they know you, but they may not know the actual dynamics of all the different layers of the ceremony and why we do it that way and how it builds all of that professional stuff. I've been doing ceremonies and also been a retreat leader in a personal growth workshop leader, so it's in my bones to hold space. The other thing that I'd always love to mention that's a real signature thing of mine is that I start every ceremony once they've arrived and it's all exciting and welcome, welcome, and they're getting married and everybody's all happy. Then we do something called a moment of presence in a church wedding. This would be the, they call it many different things, but the invocation or the opening prayers, most people don't want that, but is a moment to just stop time. There's been hair and makeup, there's been photos, there's been people arriving, there's been traveling, there's all sorts of stuff and nerves and it's a lot to be up there. So we just take a couple of minutes and we take a couple of breaths and the couple get to even close their eyes and land in their body and calm their minds and open their hearts. And I involve the whole community and everybody does it together. And you can literally feel the quality of the vibe just settling. And then if you're outdoors, you can hear the birds and the breeze and the sunlight, and we take all that in and it's so moving. It becomes like this little holy moment is what I call it, and you can feel it happening in the room and the couples sigh and they get safe and it just changes everything. And I get more feedback. The couples are like, well, this is weird. This sounds like a yoga class. We've never done this before. Our family's going to take this weird. And I said, please, just me. I know it's good. And it always works. It's never not worked. And I get more feedback. People come up to me, they grab my hands and they said, you just did a meditation in a wedding ceremony I've never experienced. I was fantastic. I actually got to get, I wasn't even there and I even had tears in my eyes. And so that's my thing because that's what I want for your marriage. I want you to know how to stay present with yourself and each other. It's everything. You can fake marriage or you can be present for it. So that's why I do that. And then we go on and do all the different layers and I pronounce them and they kiss and off they go and we get their license signed. It's good. That's perfect. So that's good. Yeah, and I think that that does a good job of, I don't know, I think hiring officiant is so personality based as well in terms of who do we get along with? And I think that you do a really good job of portraying this is who I am and this is what I want to help you guys do. I just think that's important as well. I think a lot of the times people view hiring efficient is more kind of like, well, it's kind of generic. I I'm hiring someone that they're going to do this. And I think you're a good example of taking the time, doing the research and everything gets you someone that fits in well. And many officiants, they do a lot of volume. Their rates are lower so that it's more accessible to a lot of people and they do a big volume. So their ceremonies are very scripted. They're already designed and then the name of the couple goes in and maybe a couple of points about who they are, and they read it off their page. I just can't. So I designed it with them. They get to see it, they get to edit it, they get to say, no, not that yes, that don't forget about mom and whoever's over there. And then when I'm up there, of course I have it to follow, but by then I know them well enough that I can say a lot of it, and I relate rate to them and I relate to their guests and I call them out and involve them and make sure they're participating. So it's very alive and it's very authentic, and that's just who I am. And it makes it more satisfying for everybody. Well, that's good. So then we've talked, and like I said, you were on before talking the wedding planning, wellbeing, getting to know, figuring a lot of these things out as you're going through the wedding process. So talk through your counseling and then now specifically what we have new and we'll start segueing into that. Yeah, so the interesting thing about if you get married and you're pretty young, it seems, I don't know if this is a correlation, but the younger and the newer your relationship is, the more when I say, Hey kids, hey guys, have you considered doing some pre-marriage counseling? Oh, no, no, we're good. We're good. We got it. We got it. And I believe them. I believe they're in that beautiful bubble where everything is just lovely. And so I'm like, well, bless you. Good for you. The couples that have been together longer, or it's a second marriage, they're like, yeah, we could use some of that because we love each other. We're a pretty good team at doing life together, but we've noticed that we've got these places where we just don't know how to navigate it. We don't have the skillset. So most people think of counseling, whether it's personal counseling or marriage counseling, is that there's something wrong. And that's just so not my approach. I was trained in psychology and all of that stuff, and then I went into the personal development world where it's like life is about growing and none of us learned when we were growing up. How do you be a human being and how do you be authentic and how do you get connected to who you are and what's all going on? So my approach is more about self-development and it's body mind. It's like the presence moment. It's breath based. It's how do you pay attention to yourself? How do you get to know yourself? And then how do you bring all that to another person who's doing the exact same thing and keep staying connected? So it's a personal growth and a relationship growth orientation rather than you guys have got problems and you need fixing. So that's the first thing I want everybody to know. And so in my opinion, we all could benefit from that. We're all here to grow. We all have an essential self, and we're here to develop that and bring our gifts to the world. So why not? We invest in all other ways of learning. We learn for our careers, we learn for our hobbies. Why don't we go to school for our relationships? It seems like a no-brainer to me. So I've always done counseling and couples and just we go with whatever they want. And what I discovered is I was teaching, I was educating a lot, so I came up with this course. So I don't know if you want to pause for a moment there or if you want me to just to dive in. No, I want to talk a little bit because we've talked about this before and I think on the wedding planning, there's such a stigma like you said, of, well, this needs fixing or this needs help. In terms of the people reaching out, going through courses with you ahead of time, or even just taking on their own counseling, is it how much more challenging, I guess is it to maybe figure out those things or work through those things years down the line than it is to identify things on the onset before you're going down that path of marriage and everything? Well, always. It doesn't matter what it's, it's so much easier to do preventative work, whether it's your health or your learning curve for your career to prevent something from wearing down or breaking and investing in it there rather than trying to fix it. There's no question that that's the easier path. The motivation has to come from a different place. Usually the fixing route is because something's painful, and that's a great motivator. So I work with a lot of people who have gotten to their pain point. We can't connect anymore. We're not being intimate anymore. We go on dates and we don't even talk to each other anymore or we're yelling at our kids. We just don't have anything in common anymore. So I've worked there and I still will. I had a couple come to me. It was a wife and she'd been working with me for about five years and it just kept coming up. The marriage, the marriage, the marriage. I said, well bring him. And she's like, are you kidding? This is a high flying executive. He thinks he's a hotshot. He's got everything handled and he's brilliant in every field and we can't connect and the kids are mad at him. I said, we'll, invite him. He was like, no, no, no, no, no. She finally had the courage, this is at the back end because you asked me. She finally got the courage and she said, you either pick up the phone and you call Grace, or I'm out the door and my bags are already packed. I mean, and you've got 48 hours. And he phoned me and he said, I have no clue how to enter this world. The only reason I'm doing this is because I don't want to lose my marriage. And he came in and bless his heart, he said, I need to learn to land the airplane. He said, I'm so up here buzzing in my world, I don't even know how to get centered. And they did about three years of work with me, and it changed their whole marriage and he healed with his sons. So it is possible to do it at the late stage. Yeah, it's true. There's a lot more on the line too when you got kids and all this stuff And you've been in a marriage for 30 years. And so it was some heavy lifting, but they were both willing. And it takes some humbleness to realize you don't know everything. So the easier way, and the couples that come to me more now because I'm offering the weddings, I think we're a little more aware now. I think we're a lot more aware younger, the whole idea of self health and wellbeing and mental wellbeing and emotional intelligence, that's just so much more in our field of awareness. So the couples that come now tend to be, they're pretty dialed in, they're attentive, they know, and they really value this thing called marriage, and they get that being healthy individuals and a healthy couple will really impact their kids because most of them want to have kids. So some things turn the light on for them that they want to take care of their relationship and that they've already discovered. It doesn't always, it's not always puppies and rainbows. So those are the people that tend to find me. What's starting to happen is when people interview me for officiating, I always bring it up, Hey, have you considered this? I just had a couple yesterday, and they're like, never even thought about it. It just never crossed our mind. And when I mentioned this, it's like, why wouldn't you want to invest in this and why wouldn't you want to go to school for this? They signed up. People just need to sometimes understand the why behind do it. And that's why I wanted to do this, is I wanted educate, whether it's couples or vendors that are working with them, why would I want to do this? And then we talked kind of off before hitting record. It's always like, what is the direction of this podcast? What's the audience? And I do think this is people that want to get to know their vendors more vendors, the learning, like what we do WPA or something. Hey, I'm sharing. This is what I do with other vendors. I think this is a great forum for that as well. People know, okay, it's grace, but if I am a photographer and we're just trying to, I'm brainstorming with a couple about other things they want to look through or whatever kind of vendor type you are. So it's good to know the myriad of different things that you offer. And so now we can go, I have your website up here. We can scroll down. And so what is the new 12 week session that you are working through here? Let me just mention about the vendors for just a second. Yeah, yep. Many of you have a much bigger relationship with the couples than I get to have, especially the planners and sometimes photographers and videographers. Sometimes you travel with them through life. And inevitably when we talked about this in the wedding wellbeing, one that if you're planning a wedding, it's a microcosm of making decisions for your marriage. You've got budgeting, you've got family dynamics, you've got one couple. And they were fighting over whether she was going to buy bathrobes for her bridesmaids, and he said, it's not the budget. And they were having a fight about it. So there's plenty in planning a wedding. So vendors, if you're listening to this and you do have that kind of relationship of trust with your couples and you see that they're having a hard time getting onto the same page about decisions or it's just stressful for them, it's a perfect opportunity to say, Hey, have you ever considered getting some support for this period, for the planning or afterwards? And we have this great resource in our community, and this is all about growing your love. It's not about fixing you. Even if they just had that little bit of language, I think it would move it into something wonderful to offer as a resource rather than, Ooh, sorry, I'm poking at your problems. So I just wanted to put that little plug in there For No, no, I think that's good. And it is, this was, I mean, going on four years ago probably when I had Ray Van Winkle on when he was talking about his officiating, and I thought it was so interesting. I think we had talked about this on the wedding wellbeing that just the act of planning the wedding is more of the journey, I think for the couple than even the wedding itself. Like you said, managing different religions and different politics and family dynamics. And I want, we don't have the money for this, or what is a luxury that we want to spend, or how big of the wedding, my consults aren't nearly as in depth as I would say, obviously photographer and even dj. And I mean, we talk through things, but I can even tell when we're talking on some of these things like, oh, well, what did we want to do there? Well, they're kind of going back and I'm like, okay, you get a glimmer of that. So yeah, I do think, like you said, that's a good point of if you wanted to, again, I'm a big fan of having additional resources, and so whatever you want to call this, whether it's counseling or just kind of a listening aid to work through some things, having as many resources as you can. I think non family related, let me go talk to my mother, your mother. I think getting kind of that third party I think is very beneficial to working through some of these things. And I just realized everybody has vendor lists, preferred vendor lists, the venues do, the planners do. It's like, why not have marriage education? And I might even start calling it that. It's just occurring to me as we're talking. Go get educated about how to have a fantastic marriage. And so, oh, education, that's a little easier to stomach than counseling. So that's the plea to vendors to consider this a resource that you can help guide your couples to, and they'll choose it. I mean, there's always a free consult and they can check it out and they can even have an initial session where they can taste it because it's very experiential. It's not just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I intervene and help you talk nicer. It's very, very experiential. So let's talk about what it is. Is that where you want to go? Yeah, I think that should be good. Here, let's get this up. So this is based, as I said, on 30, 40 years of being in the personal growth field and the growth concept that we are all human beings and in fact our inner world, our thoughts, our feelings, our beliefs, our trauma, our energy field, our vitality. That's what guides us. And we all have whatever you want to call it, inner compass, an inner guiding light that's trying to help us be the person that we were born to be, to be our best version of ourself and to feel fulfilled. Interestingly enough, self expression, being authentic to who we are is essential to our wellbeing. And the other one is to feel gotten by somebody else, to feel like you've really been seen, you've been honored, you've been validated, you've been accepted, and you've received some form of love. So, and connection with others where it's so authentic and so met that there's some feeling of I feel loved. So those are primary needs in human beings. So my work is about helping people. How do I get those two things? How do I stay on course and be the person that I know fulfills me? And that's mostly an inside job. So the course starts with the two individuals learning fundamental basic things like how do I get centered? How do I get present? How do I get from out there in here to down in my body to get the mind to calm down, breathe, feel the sensations in my body and land the airplane? So that's just the core building block because if you're not present, you can't feel yourself and you can't connect to anybody else. The first session, usually the couple, they sit beside each other on the couch, and we just do that together. And people are very coachable, even people that have never experienced that before, it's pretty easy to say, do you feel safe enough to sit, hold hands if you want, close your eyes and I'm just going to guide you and taking some breaths, and we're going to just drop the anchor down and guide you and down into the body. And they do. And again, it's like in the moment of presence in the ceremony, you can feel it happening in the session and you can see the shoulders go down and the jaw relax, and you can almost feel the mind calming down. And then they sit there and then I say, okay, feel what that feels like. That's called being present. And then take a moment to see if you can tune into your partner and see if you can get a read on what's happening with them. And then they open their eyes and they kind of look over and they feel a little shy. They feel like they just did something kind of private with each other. It's like, well, we're not used to just sitting and being quiet with each other, but they do it. And they kind of, oh, okay. Hi, you're still there? All right. And they describe what they went through, and it's beautiful. It's always wonderful. It took me a moment or I didn't realize how distracted I was, but this feels fantastic. I feel peaceful. And then I said, now tell me what you noticed in your partner. And they nail it. They're like, oh, he was way up in his head and he was buzzy, and it was uncomfortable to sit beside 'em. And she was all worried that I wasn't going to like this session, and she was afraid I was going to bail. And we know each other really well. It's called our intuition and our energetic read of each other. And they're both like, what? You got all that? What you got all that? So that's the stuff that the course is meant to access that we can get there, we can know ourselves, and we can tune into each other and then we can help each other. So the first three or four sessions is all about that. More body mind practices. There's something called a body scan. Then there's something about, it's just called co-listing, learning to listen. We don't know how to listen the minute someone goes, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, and then we just want to dive in there. So I insist that they do a whole session around, get centered, get down there, and then you get one or two minutes and you just share your experience. And your partner's job is to see if you can stay present and extend your support and listen not just with your ears but with your heart. And so the person goes, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever they say, and the listener is like, oh God, I felt distracted. And I started thinking about work, and then I had to pull myself back a million times. And I say, how was that to get to totally have your turn and could you feel your partner? And they always say, I could feel when they were listening, and I could feel when they went away. And it's the same thing. We're tracking at a level that we don't even talk about, and it felt so good. And this one husband, he had his turn and she had her turn, and then he's like, what? We're not going to talk about the problems. We're not going to discuss it for five hours. It's like, we don't have to dig into that. It's like, Nope, you did your job. That's all you needed to do. So we take all the stuff that we don't know how to do well, and we'd slow it down. Like we're in the gym and we do our two pound weights and our five pound weights and our 10 pound, and we build these building blocks. And then once we do all of that, then I teach them, and this is my core practice that I've had for 34 years. I teach them how do I get unstuck? How do I take myself from being triggered, reactive, hurt, angry, whatever, and ride that in a reactionary state through breathing and being present and feeling what it is and bring myself, it's called state shifting, like gearing shift, gearing in the car to a place of resolution. Because if we're always looking to our partner, it's like, well, you upset me and you're the problem and you should get fixed, or I need to tell you my whole process and you have to listen. It's too much. We're asking our partner to be our therapist, and if you can take yourself from reactive state down to presence and calm and more connected, it's very, very empowering. So I ask them each to do a session of that on their own, and then they come back and they do it together. So it's a lot of that inner, how do I navigate my own inner reality, my inner reaction, and be present for my partner. That's only stage one. And there's three stages. So do you want me to pause for a moment? Yeah, I have a couple questions here. In terms of just the communications nowadays, whether in a couple could just be friends, could be family, I mean, do you feel like there is a lack of open communication now? Just the way society operates in 2023 and just kind of like everyone's, so no one really talks to anyone. There's a lot of talking at people, I guess, if that makes sense, whether you're getting married or not. It's pretty much always been that way. I think the problem is that with the internet and the constant overload of information, we are filled up. We're just overwhelmed. And the soundbite is that. So the quality of our attention and our ability to go from multitasking and spread out all over the place to just, this is why I spend so much time on this. We need to collect ourselves, turn off the outer world and discover what a relief it is just to come here and get connected to ourself. So yes, Reid, we're building up those core abilities again to, I can't say it enough, be present to ourself, be grounded, be centered, be breathing, all cohesive inside, and to do that for, and what I notice as a so-called therapist, it takes care of at least 50%, if not 70% of this feeling of we're disconnected, we're at conflict with each other. Because when two people get present, it's very safe and it's very pleasant to be around. It's very calming. And then the heart's open. It's like, oh, there you are. Oh, there you are. I thought we had to rag that thing out for a couple of hours. Well, we will get to it, but mostly we want to get reconnected. So yes, it is chronic, but it's not that different. I've been doing for a long time and people are mostly trained to be up here and out there, and the journey down and in is just, it's the coming home to ourselves. And the cool thing is everybody can do it. And I've taught this to people in every situation in life, and it happens pretty easily. The main thing is getting them to invest in practicing. So that's the third part of the program. So should we go to, Yeah, so that was the first part here, going through, so 12 weeks. So is it four, four and four? Is that how it goes? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. So know how to get present. We know how to be centered. We know how to just sit with each other and feel how safe that feels. We even know how to listen without interrupting and why listening is so challenging and how to be a supportive presence. And we even know how to maybe at least a taste of it, how to resolve our own reactionary thing so we feel safe and confident. Then we're into now we need to learn how to communicate and dialogue with each other. And usually what happens is couples want to talk about the content. It's like, well, I want the big house. Well, I don't want the big house because I don't want to pay a mortgage for 50 years. I want a small house so we can have money and retire and go travel in the world. They're both valid. You can talk about it until the cows come home and you won't necessarily get anywhere. There's a beautiful process that I learned. It's called conscious dialogue, and it's that same thing where one person gets a turn to be the speaker, and then this time you're not only going to be the listener, but you're going to provide a very, very specific set of responses that help the speaker go down further. It's not usually the content, it means something and it's stuck to something, either something of high value or something that hurts. So this responder, you go, I want the big house. And oh, the very first thing is is that you paraphrase back, did I get your content? Oh, so you want the big house because you've always wanted a big house and you dreamed of having a big house, and it really matters. It's like that's your dream, right? Did I get your content? Yes, you heard me, or no, you didn't hear the part about it has to have a pool. Did you hear that part? Oh, it has to have a pool. Got it. Sometimes we don't even get the content because we're so in our own thing. And so check one, check mark. Okay, got the content. This next thing is mindbogglingly powerful, and very few people do it. It's called validation. Oh, I get that. That's how it is for you. You really, really want the big house with the pool. Yes. And you're giving back the person their thing. And it's the same as if a little kid comes and says, mommy, there's monsters under the bed. And you go, no, no, no, no, honey, there's no monsters. It's like, oh, for you there's monsters. Yes, because we all have our own version of reality that's going on. So validate it's not yours, you'll have your turn. Everything about this course is we divide it up and we slow it down because we're mostly cutting each other off, and you get your turn and we're going to get you all the way through and I'll have my turn later. And that takes skill and that just plain old takes practice to have enough commitment to get somewhere new that you're willing to do it differently. So, so you want the big house, and that's really important to you. And I get that that's how it is for you. Often people will cry. I'm using a pretty silly example, but it's like, you really want me to call you if I'm going to be late for dinner. Yes, I really do. Even though I've always come home, even though I've never not come home, you still really want me to call. Yes, I really do. And it's like, I get that. That's how it is for you. And then the third one is empathy, third care. Third step in the dialogue is empathy. Yes, you got my content. Yes, you get that. That how it is for me. Oh, wow. So this is a childhood dream for you, isn't it? And it's like your whole heart is in this, isn't it? And you feel really, really like it's, it would be just amazing for you if you could finally have this, it would make you so happy. And you are trying to get inside their heart and feel what it feels like for them. And you may think Big house is nothing, or Why do I have to call you? It's nothing. And you're getting down to what do they feel or what do you feel on their behalf? Wow, you're my honey. You're my love. And you're all stressed out about this, and you're afraid that you're not going to get this. That must feel awful to you. Yes. It feels awful to me. And when you can get to the feeling level, you're getting close, and then they often start to cry, and then we're in the heart. And then the last is, so honey, tell me what's really down there. What's the deep Y underneath all of this? Why does it really matter? Because then it'll be somebody, it'll mean that I'm really a person that I have value if I get to live in that big house because we were so poor and everybody laughed at us and I got teased, and if I have the big house, then I'll finally be somebody and they're crying and they're shaking, and they got down to it. It's like, holy, I have shivers just saying it. And it's a made up story or the call. It's like, you really need me to call you. Yes, yes. Why honey? Why? Because I love you and I'm terrified you're going to die. Whoa. Really? It's quite often something that deep, and if you don't get down there, you can't take care of that thing. So go ahead. Oh, no. And you just don't know. I mean, you don't know until you ask, until you find out, Even though this is your life partner, and even though you've been married to them for 20 years, you may know it in your head, but for two of you to go down into that very vulnerable, very deeply intimate soul space together, that's where the intimacy is. So then it's like, oh, wow, this is your wound and one of your core identity needs. So then there's, thank you for sharing with me. How can I help you? And it's tricky at this point. It's like, well, you need to fix it. It's like, no, no, no, no. That's not what I mean. How can I help you heal that so it's not driving you so much? Well, maybe I need to go talk to somebody and get over feeling like a poor kid. And maybe that's not your job. So maybe I need a little therapy right now. Great. What if I could also remind you, I see you, I love you. You're brilliant. You're a beautiful human being. I chose you as my partner. What if I can offer you some affirmation and bring you up to your adult place so you're not operating from there? I would be so great. I would love that. And maybe you could appreciate me more and tell me how wonderful I am and I could get over this. And the big house becomes, well, maybe we have a big house or maybe we don't, but I'm not working out my core need to feel like a good person anymore. And you're my ally in that. So quite often men, it's like, I don't know how to help you. What do you want me to do? How do I fix it? Love me down there. Love me in the core essence of who I am. Get me see me, appreciate me, validate me, and I'll flower. So my work is getting it down to that place where we're really talking, what will help me flourish, what will help me grow? What will help me heal and what will help me open my heart? And you're going to get the benefit of that if I'm happy and feeling great. We're not even going to be arguing about house. We're going to be making love. That's why I want this. That's all for that person. Then you get your turn. The skillful part is how do you provide a loving response that helps grow your partner? It could be, well, let's divide up our budget and we'll put some of the money into the mortgage, and I want to put some of the money into the retirement plan. That's transactional. That's powerful. That's really good life planning. It's not going to take care of what's going on down in the deep place. That's what that course, that's the, and by the way, in 12 weeks, this is a taste of each of these things. You're not possibly going to learn all of this so that you can use it in 12 weeks. But I'm trying to take people through what I've found to be the essential building blocks for what helps a marriage be sustained over the long haul. And then you can come back and customize the next level if you want to. So that's called couple dialogue. In terms of remote in person, how is this the logistic? Both whatever people, I mean, I work out of my home couples come here. We even do retreats, like date retreats or weekend retreats. I've been doing those forever. They stay at a bed breakfast nearby, and we work during the day together. But most of it is on video at this point. I work with people all over, not just here in Washington. So go ahead. Oh no, go for it. And then when each person gets a turn and then you're over here and it's like, well, I don't want to work forever. I want to retire. And that's really matters to me. You go through the exact same thing. Oh, so that really matters to you. I get that. That's how it is for you. And I can feel that. It's like you don't love work because your work isn't your passion. You want to go adventure. You've always been in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get me, get me. What's all that about? And then you get down freedom. I feel like a caged animal. I can't handle it. Okay, honey, well then how can we help you enjoy your work while you're doing it? And how can we have many vacations where we don't have to save up for retirement? And how about if I be your ally? So when I see you looking like a caged animal, I come over and say, Hey, let's go for coffee. Or let's go walk around the block for a little bit. And you realize that investing in your partner's wellbeing and deep growth, it's so satisfying. And then you adore that person, you can't help it. They're your champion. In terms of, and we talked kind of off the top, not all of this is things are falling apart where you need to men, this is a lot of pre kind going into a lot of this. If I'm with my partner, what questions or how do we know if this, because obviously the answer is like this is right for anybody that wants to be involved. But what questions, if you're thinking of these things or you're asking just to kind of round out the conversation, these are things, this is definitely something you want to look into. What should I be pre-registering myself in my mind? Well, they're kind of the examples that I gave. It's like if you've got things that you're trying to decide on life goals or even another couple, a very popular thing is about love languages. I want to be held and cuddled. You want to fix the fridge for me? And it's like, how do you navigate that? So usually by the time marriage is coming along, people these days, they're actually live-in couples. They're actually partners. So they've been practicing for a while. And there's things like that. It's like, how do we dance together? How do you feel loved? How do I feel loved? So those kind of love patternings. What are our more practical life partner challenges? Where do we work together well, where do we not? Sometimes it's family dynamics, sometimes it's raising kids. So there could be a life issue where you can feel things are a little rough and we don't know how to change it. We've been batting the ball around a number of times and we're not getting anywhere. Usually that means you're not getting deep enough and you don't have the skillset. And many people do strategic counseling, so they do goal setting and they talk through problems and they do problem resolution, and that's great. All that stuff's really useful. So the second level, is your spark still there? Are you still having fun? Do you still love this person? Do you want to hang out with them? Do you feel like it's a joy to be together or are you starting to just be roommates or less so if you can feel yourself drift or is life just calling you and you're so intense that it's like, Jesus, we haven't had a date night for a really long time, or we're not being a hundred percent honest with each other, or we're talking, but you're not home. I can tell you're kind of, yeah, honey, YYY. We're not really. So it's about layers of connection. So even couples that say, Hey, our life is good, we're great partners. We do it a lot. Well, is it fulfilling? Is it really satisfying? Are you enjoying it? Is it what you hoped it would be? And it can always grow and it can always be vitalized. The other analogy I give is that it's a living dynamic and you keep changing and your partnership keeps changing. If you're not watering it and feeding it, it's going to wilt. And because life gets so busy, what are you doing? And that's the third part of the course. So should we talk about that for a minute? Absolutely. So just what I just said, what practices and what structure have you put in place to make sure that you find each other on a daily basis? What's your sweet spot? Is it when you wake up in the morning, can you take five minutes to just lay in bed together, hold hands, and do the centering exercise and then roll over and be in each other's hearts for a few moments and build each other up for the day? Is that it? Or is it when you get home from work, is it not realistic every day? Is there a day of the week, Sunday your day? So if you can get something weekly, monthly, and yearly that you design as your marriage wellbeing practice. So I know couples that they do not only a date night for fun, but they do a marriage check-in date once a month. It's like, no, we're not going to a movie. No, we're not going out socially. We're sitting down whatever we want, dinner, candles, whatever. And it's like, how are we doing? How are you? What do you need? What do I need? What's the quality of our connection? And it just makes me want to cry. It's like, well, why wouldn't you want to do that all the time? It's the most precious thing. Not everybody gets this in life and to say, it's ours. It's our first baby. Let's find out how are we doing? And if we don't know how to take care of it, let's go get some help. So build those in. So you're getting feedback and you're finding each other. And then the connection practices, which are the beginning of the course. Are we doing those? Do I even know what your deepest heart's desire is at this stage? We've been married for 20 years. Do I even know what matters to you? Maybe you raised our kids or we raised our kids and we're dealing with empty nest. Do we even know what we want now? Do we even know how to connect as partners anymore? So at each stage there's different needs. And then the last one, which is actually the first one, if you're starting out and you haven't gotten married yet doing a vision experience for your marriage, and most people, it's like they have the goal piece, but a vision is more a feeling level and a how beautiful could it be and what qualities do we want to experience? And when we're old and dying and saying goodbye to each other, what do we want to have experienced? And it's usually kind of blue sky and it's like, how wonderful could it be? And then we bring it down. And if you have a roadmap, if you've built it, if you've painted the picture of what we want our marriage to be, it's so much easier to manifest that than to go back and fix it later. So visioning and then that turns into whatever you call it, a roadmap. Yearly, five years, 10 years. Because life doesn't always work according to those plans. You can build them, but more often it's about us creating the quality as we go. And that's the piece. How are we going to take care of this thing and how are we going to manifest our dream for our marriage? Well, I love it. I think that that's good, good, good feedback experience thus far that you're working all this out. But in terms of just as we round out the conversation here, just in terms of feeling good about everything as we push this out, The people that are going through it, it's just so wonderful. I mean, in every example, one couple did the course before they got married, and two of the big issues was where they were going to live and when they were going to have kids, and he was desperate to move back out here to the west, and her family was having a hard time in the east and they had to just keep working. Are we going to feel stuck because family obligations or are we going to hold on to our right to build our life and trust that our families will bless it? And it was a big deal and it had to do with, well, but I feel like I owe them as a child and they're elderly. And it's like, yeah, but us. And he was like the champion for that. And they broke it open and they figured out how to create it. And now they're moving here and they're having a baby and their families are on board. So that's a big deal to go from, well, we're just going to sacrifice what we want out of family obligations right at the get go before they were married. And then other couples, like I said, one couple's kind of into this growth stuff and the other one doesn't have a clue. Those are really satisfying because when it starts to work, the person, they need to learn a new language and learn all these new skills. It works. It just as soon as they get in and start practicing, they get the benefit and the feedback right away. So it is working. I've been doing it for a while. I just haven't put it into this platform before. Yeah, and as I said, people can come, they can do a discovery call for no fee to just talk about how would this work for us? What would you do with us? And then do one session and taste it. And then they can sign on either in two chunks. They can do six weeks. Some couples do the six weeks before marriage and their wedding and the rest after. But I'm appealing to couples at every stage, pre-marriage, marriage, five years in, 10 years in 20 years in, it works for everybody. Well, grace, it's been good to connect again here and excited. Like I said, probably Rebecca came on and they have their new mastermind course. They're working on this. So I think that's great as well, utilizing this platform not only for new vendors and new things like that, but also returning vendors that have new adventures that they're setting out on. So I appreciate it. Like I said, I'll link the other episodes that we did the Wedding Planning wellbeing and then the original Get to Know Your Wedding Pro. But Grace, I really appreciate it. Anything else before we get out of here? It just occurred to me, I just wanted to mention that it isn't required that both partners come. I've had quite often one's interested and the other one's not on board yet. It's so powerful when you get into the whole Ritchy dynamic can just stay centered and breathing and do that whole paraphrasing, validating, empathize. You can change the dynamic all on your own. So don't wait. This happens a lot. It is like one's in and one's not ready. Come anyway. We'll go through the whole thing and you'll become the Obiwan Kenobi of your relationship. I like that. Well, grace, thank you so much again, appreciate grace.com. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again here, coming up at one of the events. But certainly appreciate your time today. Thank you, Reid. You're great. I appreciate the broadcast. Take Care. Awesome. Thank you so much. Alright, bye-Bye.

Melissa & Courtney, Brix On Main

Well here we are excited. I was just chatting with these ladies back at the WPA event over at Alderbrook here a couple weeks ago. We have Courtney and Maggie here with Brix On Main. How are you guys doing? Great. How about you? It's good. Always. We're getting back on the horn here. We're getting more of these. We just have, we're backing them back on with the Trim Mastermind and now we're talking wedding venues here, which I think is great not only to kind of spotlight the venue, but I think obviously to get kind of a look inside the people behind the venue. So first off, bricks on Main. What's kind of the elevator pitch? What do we have going on? Do you want to stand? Okay, so we're a year-round venue in Buckley. We are right at the start of historic Main Street, so it's a very cute downtown, very quiet, safe area. We're right across from a nice little park. The venue itself is kind of a modern industrial but also has a little rustic twist to it. We have our brick wall right behind us here, used to be the exterior of the building. So the brick itself is from 1892, has a ton of character. We have huge arched windows, so lots of natural light and then polished concrete floor. It's a nice neutral blank slate. Very classy can fit any theme. We include decor and setup, so we make it really easy for our clients to quickly plan events even though we just opened essentially in July. We've already had five weddings here because we really can help our clients throw things together really quickly and in a really special, meaningful way. So what's kind of been the reaction I want to get into you guys as well here, and I'll put up the website, URL and all that stuff. What's been the reaction? You said the newer opening, what's it been like and the couples coming in and I'm assuming the town and everyone else, what's been the reaction? So we have just been completely overwhelmed with absolute support. The space has really been appealing. I think it's a lot of things. The size is kind of right in that sweet spot where it's not too small, but it's not so big that it's intimidating for people that want to have other types of events. So things like baby showers, rehearsal dinners has been a big one for us and it's a very welcoming space. The downtown has just completely taken us in with open arms because Buckley has a huge push right now to revitalize the downtown. There's a whole Buckley downtown association that's working really closely with the Buckley Chamber of Commerce. So we've been just right off the bat, super busy as of today, which I say as of today because we're still getting people contacting us, wanting to squeeze in December events. But as of right now, with the only being half a year, we're at 56 events for 2023, which is pretty amazing and it's just been completely just so positive and really fun and just lots of opportunity to collaborate in this space, which is also really exciting to us In terms of the location of that being downtown, I have to imagine that works out well too for doing photos and other things kind of around and that you can utilize the venue and it looks like the downtown is awesome as well for kind of doing that stuff as we show the gallery here. Yeah, definitely. We've gotten a lot of feedback that, especially for weddings, that the couples that are coming to us love that there's a beautiful indoor space. They don't have to worry about weather. Even in the summer, you never know when it's going to be blazing hot and we have air conditioning so it's super comfortable for their guests. But then like you said, they can pop outside, they can go. There's so many great photo ops outdoors as well, whether it's at the park or even just the main street itself. All the buildings have a lot of history to them. There's even across the street from us, the feed store that if they want that barn look for some photos, there's some old railroad tracks. So yeah, there's just a lot of versatility there and it's pretty cool to know that if guests arrive early and need something to do, we can send them down to the coffee shop, to the pub next door to the bistro. So even our friends at the end of the street have an ice cream shop and if there's kids here that get bored, parents love that. It's like, okay, we can go to the ice cream shop or we can bring the ice cream here. They now have a mobile cart. So that's another thing that's been really exciting for us. We've been able to also support other businesses on Main Street and help them grow now that they have the need to go outside of their walls to do larger events like the ice cream shop or our friends that have the bistro, they have the opportunity now to branch out into some catering. So that part's really great too because it benefits everybody. Maggie, and I've known Courtney I think longer than you, just in terms of our past into the various wedding groups, how did you get involved in all this and what's your background? Well, I am Courtney's best friend. We've known each other for about 25 years and we always knew we wanted to have a business together. We just didn't know what that was going to look like. And I'm super creative and have a background in customer service and stuff like that, but my husband is in the military, so even though this is home for us, we were gone for a little over seven years and so we were just sort of counting down to me being able to move back and just join her in the industry. I definitely very passionate about the creative side of everything. And then obviously Courtney, I know background in terms of the wedding industry and coming together, I guess being able to work with your best friend here and kind of be able to put this together, what's that been like? It's been really wonderful. We feel very blessed, very fortunate. Just the timing of everything worked out really well and we have always been very much like a yin yang kind of friendship. We have similar interests, but our personalities are different and our strengths, we have complimenting values and commitment, but then Maggie, she's so great at all the creative things and when we get really busy, I end up gravitating towards logistics and then she gravitates towards the creative side. So with the two of us, everything gets accomplished and we also just balance each other out really well. We can give each other honest feedback without conflict. So it's been really, really great. It has been, yeah. Yeah. There isn't competition between us in our strengths. We are not intimidated by each other being good at things. We just roll with it. Yeah, I love that. Well, and what I like in terms of doing these venue things and I don't know, to me always people don't think about it. And I get that with the videography as well. The people focus, okay, we need a photographer that we're going to get along with and not realizing that I'm going to be there. And I think it's the same with the venue where people, okay, this is where we want to get married or this is the aesthetic or they have availability and don't necessarily know how much back and forth they're going to have with the venue managers. I mean, talk through that and the relationship that you guys build in terms of the couples, a long timeline in terms of selecting your venue all the way through getting married. Yeah, well we really have attracted couples that that hands-on approach. We do provide a lot of support along the way, so we meet with them at least twice to talk about their vision, their decor. We still encourage them to hire a dedicated day of coordinator for the day of, but we do provide some planning assistance to them along the way. And we've gotten a lot of great feedback, even other types of events. So for example, we just had a celebration of life and the woman who just lost her husband just kept thinking as of she wasn't expecting to receive so much support and she didn't realize how much she actually needed that. So it really works for us and it helps us to, we feel like the more we get to know our clients, the better support we can provide for them, the less that they need to bring in and worry about. They're less stressed, we're less stressed, and we can make sure that it's unique each time. And we love incorporating personal decor, personal touches, but we also have found that the more that we can take on it just provides a better experience for our space here and just for how we do things here, it works great and we're genuinely honored to help people with these really important things. Not even just weddings. I mean that's why we're a celebration space because we really do believe that everything, there's not enough celebrations. We need to celebrate everything. And so we really want people to have a seamless party in whatever it is. And people, there's so much DIY and people think that they can handle it and then it gets down to the wire and they really can't and we don't want them to have any more stress. And so with our experience, we really do encourage them to allow us to do things for them to helping with the setup and assembly of different items and tear down obviously, and just all of the recommendations for vendors and all of that stuff just so that they don't end up, it doesn't end up flopping for them, so they only have good feelings about it. That's all we want, and we really want them to be able to enjoy the day too. And that's a huge reason why we include what we do. So we include a lot, but we also give them a lot of options so they can choose their own caterer, they can choose their own music, dj, live music, their own florist, their own photographers. So we don't control those aspects, but we give them recommendations and nine times out of 10 they want recommendations In terms of the demographic looking, are you getting a lot of Southern because Buckley people, whereas it's a little bit out, but it's not far right. It's one of those, for me, it's the same difference of going up to Snohomish to cover stuff up there. So are you guys finding a lot of south sound couples? Are you trying to promote what is your vision, at least short term, and obviously that'll expand here as we move forward. Yeah, it's been definitely a little bit of both. Very early on because we started this process in April, did a remodel opened end of June. So in those first bookings we were getting were definitely people that were driving by, walking by hearing about us. But then as time has gone on, we're getting calls from a lot of couples in Seattle, people are willing to travel and it seems like really the appeal for those couples that are coming from farther away, it's that they want the more industrial look, but they also want it in a safe area where guests can freely walk around. They don't have to worry so much about parking. Parking. All the parking here is free and there's a lot of it. There are even lodging options that are within walking distance. So we really are, we've actually been pleasantly surprised with how quickly we're getting a lot of leads from farther out even. Let's see, probably the farthest was San. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. In terms of rates here, and I kind have that pulled up. Do you want to talk through that and how you guys compare and what you're trying to do that way? Yes, sure. Go ahead. Yeah, so we have a few different packages for wedding related events. So we start with an elopement package that's real short and simple, $1,500 ranging up to the 10 hour rental, up to 80 guests is 5,500. So in between there we also have a reception only option, and that's something we've already done where different religions that maybe only need a spot for reception, there aren't a lot of options for that. Or we have a couple coming up in 2024 that they eloped somewhere tropical and they're coming here just for the party. And then I would say our micro wedding package, which is a six hour rental, that one's been really popular right away because that's for about 30 to 40 people, really manageable for them to have a short planning period and that six hours is super comfortable for the small group if they just want ceremony dinner in a short reception. And then beyond that, we also have hourly rates for other types of celebrations. So those just start depending on how many guests and what their plans are, two to $300 an hour and we just build those packages out based on if they need us to help them with. Maggie does balloon art, so she does balloon garland's, balloon arches. A lot of the parties will add on things like that. We also have a digital photo booth they can add on, or if they need us to hire their bartender for them, we give them a lot of options in those hourly packages, and so there's a lot of flexibility with those. What I like too, and I was looking through here of the shoot you had here and the different aspects of the space. To me what's cool, at least in terms of what I do visually is I really like the brick and that look of that, whether the industrial kind, whatever you want to call it, but having clean, getting ready rooms incredibly, I can't tell you how important that is in terms of having some light in there that way because that's the thing is you get a lot of brick and then everything's very dark and it's all monochromatically when it comes to video and not being able to manipulate the light as much. What I also struck me was the actual look of the building itself and there was this stunning photo here in terms of the front. What is, I guess maybe, and I think you touched on this at the beginning, but kind of the history of the building really a remarkable look. I think that's a pretty cool shot. Yeah. Do you want to talk about that? Sure. Okay. So on this particular lot, there's been several buildings over the last over a hundred years, and so the building we're in right now was built in 98 to be an Italian restaurant on this nice sort of triangle kind of lot. The Italian restaurant didn't last very long, it was just three years, surprisingly. And so when they sold it in 2001, they sold it to some folks who are going to just open a natural health clinic. So they ended up partitioning. So originally it was an open space because it was a restaurant, but then yeah, they partitioned it into different clinical rooms. They put just regular carpet on the floor, drop ceiling. It's really crazy to actually look back and know. So basically when you look from the outside there, all of those windows were each different rooms, so that was, well it, that's really the history of the building, and so we just saw so much potential when it became available for us to work on and we just saw it and we kept being told through the process we might run into something funky and we just didn't. We just didn't. Yeah, it really was more of just uncovering every time we would when the ceiling came out, wow, there's wood beams under there, you can't even see them. They've been hiding and the brick wall was preserved really nicely because it had been really just covered up by that reception area for a couple decades and because when we walked in, I mean there was a lot of not so appealing aspects, but we immediately just fell in love with the brick, the big windows and the character. It's a really cool building. It's not symmetrical, which actually is really nice as far as layouts for events. We have a lot of options of how to set it up. It doesn't have to be the exact same every time, and it's been fun for us too. There's a lot of people that live around here that have always been in Buckley, so even before that period in the nineties when this part was built, there were so many different things over the years that this particular corner was. So it's been fun too to hear all the different histories of stories of all the shenanigans over the years. There were a lot of memories and people when we were doing our renovation, people were so curious and so we just had so many people constantly visiting and telling us their stories and we went to the historical society to ask about anything about the history of the lot and all of those things too. So we just, yeah, No, I love it. I think it's got a ton of character. We're just going through here and I do agree with you guys where you were talking about the non-symmetrical kind of floor plan there, and I think it could add easy ways to kind split up. We're kind of partition and okay, we have these activities. I've been on a string of a lot of bat mitzvahs lately and we have a lot of different stations of things we're doing, and I think that could work around with that. I was also seeing in terms of it looks like there's a park across the street for outdoor ceremonies. Is that accurate? Yes. So it's a city park and for things like photos, it's just available. People can pop over there and do that, but we do have the option to reserve it a couple months out, so if there's a client that really wants to get married outside, we can reserve that park and set up a ceremony and it has beautiful trees, has a cute little gazebo right across the street, so super convenient. All of our couples have definitely gone out to take pictures there and they are really magical because just looking at it, it's a very simple park, but when you're in it, trees are really mature, it's well maintained, the light comes through those trees so beautifully. It feels like a really special space. It looks really cool. Well, and I love that as well because I like the idea that, okay, it's there if we want to use it, we can do photos there, but I also like that you can do, if we know we want to do the ceremony there to be able to kind of reserve that out. I've always had that of like, oh, we're going to do it here. You're like, okay, well have you done the proper, are we going to be running into the Boy Scout troop walking through here? But I also like that to contrast that because I do think of some of the buildings that they're all industrial. You do get that similar look all the time, and I love this year of having a completely different look literally across the street that you don't have to go. I know some of the other venues in Tacoma and some of the other historic buildings I'm thinking of, we've had to go elsewhere right across town or it's had to schedule a separate thing, and so to know that you guys can do it there I think is pretty cool. Yeah, it's pretty great. There's also a couple of businesses here downtown that we've talked to about in the future if we say we had a larger wedding in the summer that they want to do everything inside, but we have some creative ideas for that cocktail hour that people could walk across and do cocktail hour at a different location while we do the flip and come back. So that's pretty cool too. We haven't done it yet, but we have a couple different options for that to get really creative for people that want that experience of guests being able to experience a couple different places. Before we opened, we were really brainstorming all of the different scenarios for events and we had actually expected the fact that we were on only an indoor venue to be actually a negative for us, but it's not. It turns out that there's this kind of space and like she said, 56 events in six months and that's probably not all we're going to do. There's been a major need for the size, the style, the location, all of those types of things. And so we definitely, it's exciting to have those ideas that we've already come up with and eventually someone will want them. So it's good that we've already gone through the process of thinking about that and talking to the other businesses and stuff, but man, people have just been, no, I'm here for this. Yeah, definitely. We've had that experience for weddings especially they know already when they walk in the door that they're booking like, Nope, this is exactly what we want. We want this, so we want your location, want your space. And so it's been really nice and we've also already had several people that are coming back for additional events. We recently had a baby shower that when she walked in for her tour, just fell in love with it so much that she's like, I'm getting married here. So they ended up doing a surprise wedding at the baby shower and then they're coming back next month for their company holiday party, so they're like, we're just going to do all of our events here. Alright, so we love that too. It's not like a one time you come here once and then you'll never be back. It really is a space that you can make your own and use it in different ways, celebrate different occasions here over time. I love that idea. You're talking about kind of opening up the main street, kind of downtown there. It's almost kind of like a walking reception in that way. I know one of our good family friends did that down in Oakland and they got married around the lake and they got married at the one and they had a map to people, okay, well now go down here and you're going to do cocktail hour. And like you said, being able to utilize and do that flip, but have people be able to explore that. I think especially if you're getting people from out of town or people that don't normally go south and experiencing Buckley in that way. To me it's nice. A lot of these industrial venues are a little more isolated and like you had said earlier, I think Melissa, there may be in parts of town that you don't want to explore or be around. And so it's nice knowing that it's kind of a safe, quiet area that way that you can go explore and do other things If you're there early, like you said, you try to beat traffic or otherwise exploring and doing other things of the wedding set up that way. I think that's pretty cool. Yeah, that's pretty great. The businesses have definitely gotten business from us, especially the pub next door open until 2:00 AM so people are not done Your party. We had a 10 year reunion that you really didn't want to leave. They did not. We're like, guys, we're sorry, just go to door, just down. They're ready for you. Yeah. Talk about some of the creativity in terms of having this be your guys' kind of space to explore. And I know you talked about some of the ideas you've had, but just the freedom to be able to work that way and to be able to, you have a vision you can kind of see it through. It's been amazing. When we had talked about before our dreams of what we wanted, we went through all the different options and we knew well, and that plays into too also when we were doing our renovation, finding the things that we thought might be roadblocks for us with the renovation and they ended up not being, I mean, for example, we always talked about the fact that we really liked polished concrete floors for the ease of cleaning the versatility. I mean just the look. And so when we pulled up the carpet and we saw that it was down there that it was just the foundation of the building, we were so excited. So we were able to go with that. Yeah, let's see. Yeah, the beams, like she said, I mean when we took off the, because it was a drop ceiling you'd see in a normal medical clinic, when we took that down, we saw that it just needed just some new HVAC to make it look more streamlined. It was incredible. And so all of these little decisions actually were really big for us because we didn't have to run them by other people. We could really just talk about what we wanted, even down to just us going to the hardware store to look at paint, we got to actually look at it and make a decision and that felt really good. We've been able to just bounce it off. And of course we take other people's suggestions and opinions as well because we want it to fit a lot of different people. But we also know that we do have a good vision and we are talented in this department and people do like our style. We've gotten that feedback for sure multiple times. Yeah. And then the other thing that's kind of cool about us, I will say is that we don't really force things. We really like things to fall into place, and so we were really thoughtful when it came to the things we were going to buy for decor and for tables and chairs and all of those things because obviously we didn't want to waste money, probably number one, we didn't want to waste money. We have only this much storage. We had to really think about it. So we put a lot of thought into it to really determine what we were going for so that we could have a lot of versatility in everything that we had. So yeah. Courtney, what's been the biggest learning process here now having this all be on your guys' shoulders and coming in here? Any good lessons you've learned thus far? I will say for me it well, so Maggie and I joked, like we said, best friends. We both turned 40 at the end of last year and we're like, we're going to make our forties our best year ever. And we really followed through and it's been really amazing to know, okay, we really can do this. We have the experience, we know what we're passionate about, we know our strengths. And just having the opportunity to finally use all of those years of experience and knowledge and make it our own has been, it's been really, really, I don't even have a word for it, freeing, very fulfilling and just empowering. Empowering. And I have always been a person who relationships are everything to me. And so having all these relationships that I have built in the wedding industry over the last almost seven years now, we've just on our own, been able to attract the type of people that are all about collaborating the community over competition. That's really who we are. We really strongly believe in that. So being able to have our business that's our own that we can really support the things that we want to support and really truly be a part of the community has just been so fulfilling. It's been so cool. And we've really people who have just that same philosophy down here on Main Street, like the younger business owners, younger, the 40-year-old business owners down here who feel the same way, who really just want an awesome place for people to live their lives. There's lots of new young families in Buckley, which is really, really cool. I mean, the new construction is definitely coming out this way, but there's also the historical downtown, which lots of people are, it's families or people who've lived here forever too. It's kind of a really nice combination, but just being able to, like she said before, being able to support the businesses by having people be able to come cater from just two doors down or bring their ice cream cart down and really know their mission is the same as ours. It's just been surreal actually. Yeah, surreal is a good word too. It's kind of surreal because everything really did fall into place. We are really lucky. Not to say there haven't been any challenges, but really it's gone very smoothly and been nothing but a rewarding experience. It's just like an experience and trust your instincts for sure. The other part, we didn't really talk about our families. We both have three kids and they love coming here because this summer, I mean it was fully into remodel mode, so many things to do, and then it went straight from that to just nonstop events. But they're really proud of it too. So both of our middle kids are the ones that are like, we're going to run the place someday. They like to come help us clean up, and they get excited to hear our oldest get excited to hear about what the themes are. The little ones are like, are there cupcakes? I know, but that's been really cool too. Just have our families be a part of it. Both of our husbands have definitely gotten the honey do list to support some others, but that's great too because then they fill up, they're a part of it as well, and it is close to home for us so that we're here a lot, but at least we are always just a few minutes away. Our families can pop in and bring us food if they want or come help out. So that's been really cool too. Yeah. Yeah, my husband. Yeah, It's good. Anything else you want to make sure we touch on? Obviously we've had the website and stuff up and shown that. Anything else you want to make sure we get out here? Well, actually, yes. So we have another phase of our business that is just, well, I would say starting it's been in the works, but we're officially at the point where we can talk about it because this building used to be a restaurant. There's also a commercial kitchen here. So we've been working very hard to get new equipment, get everything approved, which we just got approval as of Monday from the health department that now we have a commissary kitchen here. So again, we're going to be very thoughtful about how we use that, and we're super excited to just see what's to come there. We've already been in talks with some local business owners who are just at point where they're ready to expand and they need a commissary kitchen in order to move to that next level. So again, so much collaboration that's going to come from that and just possibilities that we're going to try not to control that too much, just let it evolve and just be real thoughtful about which businesses we're partnering with. But that will be really exciting too. That opens up a lot of possibilities for community events and things like that. The ability to have some people that are using the kitchen to sell their products or to cater a community event or things like that over time will be really fun. Yeah. Well that's exciting. It's good to hear. Like I said, if I could speak collaboration over the years here with all the wedding networking groups and stuff, I'm glad to see you guys kind of get this going. It looks great. Brick's on Maine buckley.com, right, and people check it out and give you guys a holler. Courtney, Melissa, I really appreciate it. Anything else today? No, we're just excited to come visit us. We had a really great vendor night right before we opened that was very well attended and a lot of great feedback. So we're planning some things for next year to have our vendor community come out and enjoy the space too. Yep. Awesome. Well, we'll look forward to it. This has been another episode of Get To Know Your Wedding Pro. I have my little banner you can go to best made videos best made with you videos.com or best made videos.com/podcast if you want to be a member on here. I got all my new fancy graphics on here. You check all that out. Appreciate you guys. Thanks again. We'll see you next time. Thanks, Reid. Bye.

Alicia, Rebecca, & Quynh - Tri-Mastermind

Well here we are back a long time getting back on the horn here, doing the Get to Know Your Wedding for a podcast here. Rebecca reached out a couple of weeks ago, said We have a new exciting kind of endeavor here of course they're going to be working on. And so I thought good to get back into this, start doing a lot more of these prerecorded here during the slow season. I'm Reid, obviously we'll go around. I should change my, I have my display name here for my other podcast. But anyway. Rebecca, how are you doing? Why don't you say hi? I'm doing great. Good to see you again, Reed. Thank you for having us. So Rebecca, why don't we go around, give a little bit about who you are and then we'll go around the horn and give everyone's introductions. Excellent. So for those of you that are a regular listener to Reed's podcast, I think this is my sixth visit on your podcast. Nice. I've been on quite a bit, so I might be a familiar face and voice to you. But I'm Rebecca Grant. I'm the owner of New Creations Wedding Planning and also Twin Willow Gardens wedding venue, both based in the greater Seattle area. And Quinn, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about who you are? Hi, I'm Quinn Wynn of Pink Posey. I'm actually a paper artist, so I do paper decor for weddings and events. A lot of commercial brands and things like that approach me to create small realistic flowers to over the top larger than life props for backgrounds, wedding events, museums, things like that. I'm also in the process of writing a book and I also have my own podcast called Paper Talk. So if you are a creative and want to learn more about the business side and the creative side of doing just art in general for weddings and events, come listen to us on Paper talk. I like that. Good name. I like that good. Brandy and Alicia, how are you? And give us a little background. Hi there. Thanks for having me too. My name is Alicia Sweetie and I own Flirty Flus, which is a blog for the floral industry and I have a design studio here in Snohomish called Flus Creative, where I teach floral design classes. I have been a floral designer for over 20 years now and specialized in weddings this whole time. Awesome. Well we'll get rid of the names here this week and see everyone's face a little bit more. So Rebecca, just because I have the most obviously familiarity with you, kind of walk me through this and then we'll get everything else. I have the website here as well. Try mastermind.com and we'll just kind of throw it up on here from time to time to kind of showcase what's going on. But I'm excited about this. I've been reading through it this morning kind of getting ready for the recording and so on that you let me know what we have going on. Yeah, absolutely. So my passion is very much educating our up and comer wedding planners and wedding professionals in the Seattle area. Being a wedding planner myself for coming up on 20 years now, it is really important to me as I'm seeing up and comers come in and wondering who they're getting trained by. I'm not seeing really them coming on with any company. They're just kind of starting their own company and that's great, but there's a lot of things that they can really learn from other professionals that have been in the industry for a really long time. So having been longtime friends with both Quinn and Alicia, we got to talking about the need for really being able to train some of the up and comers in both Washington as well as the entire nation about different best practices, how to grow a sustainable business that's not going to burn you out, that you're going to have longevity in and making sure that you're actually making money to. I think that's a big trap that a lot of up and comers get stuck into is they price themselves super low just because they want to gain that experiencing and get people to book them, but then they realize, oh my gosh, I'm working so hard for no money and then they're out in a couple years or they just get so burnt out of it that they're like, I'm done, I don't want to do this anymore. So the three of us got to talking about our different disciplines and how they're all associated within the greater wedding and event industry as a whole, but somewhat connected. And we realized through the three of us that we do have over 60 years of experience underneath our belts. And so being passionate about educating newer people that do have established businesses but are looking how to elevate and how to sustain that through the coming years was very much a passion of all three of us. With that, we combine powers and here we have mastermind that we're launching in January. Quinn. Is this more, because obviously you guys are all renowned in the Pacific Northwest, is this supposed to be more nationwide or how are you viewing the demographics of who you want to check this out? Yeah, our demographic is very wide. I actually have my own students and I have built a business course for my creatives and they're pretty much all around the world. When I first did my first masterclass, actually Alicia and Rebecca came in to teach at my masterclass. We had people from Australia, Korea, UK come in and it was really amazing just to see the need for education. And with my particular industry, it is relatively younger than wedding planning or floral design, but it's definitely a huge trend that's going to stay and that's the question that we always ask in our creative industry is like paper flowers still a thing and as I see it, I'm getting more and more jobs and it's really interesting now that I have built my career on this and network within my group and my people have grown in their skills and knowledge and capability, I'm able to pan out these other jobs that I can't take or even hire them to actually help me build these larger than scale projects. So it's been really amazing that I can hire people from Oklahoma, New York and have it sent to Seattle, Washington and have it built out and bring down to California. That's the width of the capacity that we're able to do and I think a lot of people when they start in the creative part, and the interesting part on my background is not only am I a creative as an artist, I actually started in the wedding part as a caterer, which I had a business for six or seven years and I think caterers have not been talked enough. They do need this business part. Yes, a lot of people refer them, but if you don't build that networking or the business part, I think, I mean food people, food costs is so narrow and so tight. That's some of the knowledge that I can actually bring to the table and talk about costs. And that's one thing that we really want to talk in each of the industry in the wedding component, DJs, photographers, it's all about your margin and we want to really have a frank discussion about this. So this isn't just like I want to be a wedding planner, is this applicable if I'm videographer, I'm trying to figure out if I'm trying to jumpstart Alicia, is that kind of what you're going for? Is that any role in the wedding industry this is going to help fulfill Yes, any role in the wedding industry, the photographers, the caterers, the cake bakers, all the different little facets that go into building a wedding because if we haven't done it ourselves, we've been very close friends with other people in the industry in those parts too. So we can definitely speak to everybody. And this is about, so all three of us, we have all definitely taught, I teach floral design, that's a great skill. What we're going to work on is the business side, and so that is going to be applicable to all the parts of the wedding industry. Well, and Rebecca, we were just talking before we recorded that you guys are heading to the wedding MBA and I've done that twice before and I remember it's so different kind of, okay, I want to take photos or I want to do video, or I like baking cakes. And then, okay, now we're doing this as a business and it's almost like how deep do you want to go in that, right? I think there's lots, and I wouldn't even say that I'm a great business person, but there's various scales of all that. So is this, I guess if someone approaches, you guys signs up for this, how basic or how depth, what is the width that this is going to be able to cover? Absolutely. One of our biggest goals is to be incredibly transparent with our experience directly on how we have built a business and really how we price ourselves accordingly. I know when I've given the opportunity to talk with people, especially with the inflation that we've experienced, 2022 to 2023, if you have not raised your pricing by minimum 8%, you're losing money, right? Because inflation has gone up eight to 9%. So even if you raise just to keep up with inflation, let's say 8%, you're breaking even of what you were making last year. So we need to keep up with the trends of the economy to be able to make a lifestyle and the living that we want to make, people don't have any problems still going to Starbucks every day and paying that 40 cents more for a cup of coffee. So why is we as creative professionals, why are we discounting ourselves and going, no, it's going to be too much when literally everything else has gone up around us and if we don't keep up, that's money out of our pocket. And that is also taking away from paying my mortgage and paying for vacation and paying for groceries and the different pieces that we of course have going on in our lives as well. So I personally think that talking about finances is super important. I don't know why it's such a taboo subject in any industry. You don't go into an IT position asking your colleague how much they make, but I think that we as solopreneurs have the obligation to talk with other people about this is what we should be charging within this range. Otherwise, one, you're discounting your industry as an entirety and two, you're going to burn yourself out and not have anything to show for it financially. I think that nobody is in the wedding or event industry because they're there to be a millionaire. We're here because we love it, we're passionate about it. Yes, there's opportunity to make a wonderful income out of it. However, you do have to be incredibly passionate about it because it's not a job for the faint of heart. Not at all. Weekends and evenings are all taken up. Yes, exactly. Well, and it's also, you talk about pricing and going into Starbucks, it's always amazes me and it's not every client, but it always feels like they try to do a little bit more negotiation. Okay, so this is your pricing or what can you do? You never go into McDonald's and is that really the price of a Big Mac? Can we talk through this? What if we don't get pickles on that? Are we able to work through Quinn? So I look at this both ways of we want to protect the industry and we want to make sure that there's an integrity to pricing and there's kind of a base level for that. To me it's also like we're trying to protect the clients that are hiring these individuals, right? Because you do get people like, I'm going to be a wedding planner, I'm going to book 30 weddings for $800 a piece and then I'm going to flake out and then they're screwed. Is that part of it too is kind of protecting the integrity of that. We go first to Quinn and then Alicia. Yeah, so definitely we're going to be talking about contracts. We want to talk about how do you go hiring vendors, how do you go hiring other pieces that you need to fit for the wedding parts and how about your team bringing extra people on staff coordinators and things like that. We wanted to be very frank about that conversation and talk about the legality of hiring people and the photos. I think photos and videos are so important nowadays because social media is such a big part of growing your business. We're going to bring in experts and I think that's the really important part. And the thing is we are actually going to bring in the students or our restaurants for the mastermind and really find out what are your needs? It's not going to be like this week we're going to talk about legal. This week we're going to talk about accounting. We really want to talk to each and every single member and talk about what do you need from us? How can we help you? What are you brainstorming and how can we be your bounce board to say, that's a great idea, oh, I did that. Or things that hurdles that you need to overcome. So then Alicia, is it not just you, are you going to be bringing in additional experts in to help fulfill that need as well? Yes. We're having two meetings per month, and so one of the meetings it will be within our group and we'll have a hot seat and everybody speaks, but the other meeting each month Will Be a different professional coming in and it might be a lawyer, the bookkeeper, the accountant. We have quite a bit lined up, so we are going to be bringing in professionals who can help with some of those more detailed questions. And then Rebecca, we'll get to steps of, okay, what does it actually look like to go through this? But because we obviously do WPA Seattle and I think they'll bring a keynote, they'll talk through, okay, yeah, I really need to do Instagram reels, but then there's no, you kind of leave and you're like, oh, that's there. Follow through with that. And how is that going to go in terms of I guess holding people accountable to the things they should be working on? Yeah, that's a wonderful question because having been president for Wipa Seattle over the past two years, I am very, very passionate about education and really helping to elevate our industry as a whole. With that, you are speaking to a broad group of people per wpa, Seattle quarterly meeting, we have on average between a hundred to 50 attendees, so the speaker that we bring in has to speak on the most common denominator. You can't really get into the trenches of each individual need, and that's one of the things that we're really excited about with being a focused mastermind group and having it be a very intimate group where you are learning directly from us as your instructors. You're also learning from your fellow peers that might have addressed the concern or issue that you're currently having, but in addition to that, be able to have one-on-one time directly with the guest speakers that we're bringing in that are experts in their field, such accounting such as CPA, such as a VA for social media, all the parts of us being a business owner, I feel like sometimes, especially when you're new, and I was certainly guilty of that, you try and take on everything and you'll soon quickly realize you're not good at everything and nor should you be not one person is amazing at literally every aspect of running a business. And so I think that that was one of the biggest pieces that I finally got through my head was like, it is so worth it to pay somebody that is so much better at this than I am to be able to take that off my plate. They can get it done in so much more of a timely manner. And yes, it's money out of my pocket, but the return on investment is so huge because one, I get my time back and two, I can actually focus on my client needs versus trying to be doing my taxes and my bookkeeping and do my social media posts and do my design boards. I have not touched my social media besides Instagram stories in over three years, and I don't think anybody actually realizes that, but it is so great to be able to have somebody that can take that off my plate, that can speak in my voice, showing that I'm active and a participant of our community and being able to just know that's handled, that piece of my business is taken care of. Same thing with taxes, same thing with bookkeeping. It's really, really important to have those professionals, especially if you want to scale your business, and especially if you do want to branch out in additional businesses. I know when I ended up purchasing our venue a few years ago, then having two incomes that were fully off of being self-employed was really important to have a great tax strategist by our side and also somebody that can do our books for sure. Yeah, I remember when the first year I'm like, let me sit down and do these taxes, and then you're like, I have no idea. And also I think in terms of it's things that you don't even know. I know we have an insurance guy that helps with home and all that stuff, but does all the business stuff and even when I'm talking about bringing in subcontractors and it's like, okay, well you need to make sure that they do this. Have you thought about that? There's all these things. I'm like, oh, I was just going to have Joe go shoot it. It's like, oh no, you got to make sure you're kind of thinking through all that. Quinn, are you surprised in that way? Just kind of when people coming into this industry, like Rebecca said, no one is an expert on all these things, just how many different things there is to manage. I really push that when you first start out as a business owner, do know every single component that runs your business, know it so well that when you do hire somebody, they better be doing it better than you and you should recognize if they're doing it wrong. I think that is a really critical and piece that people should understand when they start. It's know what you're doing and then be able to tell the person that you hire is like, I'm not seeing the results and why am I hiring you? Because I can do it better than you. You need to find someone else. These are frank conversations that we want to have with our group members and to be able to be very frank in saying, I think you could do this a little bit better, or have you thought about doing this versus what you're doing right now? Well, and there's such a level of, I go in, I do this nine to five and I go home and I can leave that work at the office or whatever. And I know that I think Rebecca and people are better. There's certain boundaries being set others or sending emails at midnight or whatever, but it is that balance. But the self-employed life is not for everyone. For Alicia, how do you, you know what I'm saying? You have these people come in, well, I want to do that. You don't realize the backend that goes into that to be able to do a wedding for X thousands of dollars and be able to move on. There's many, many, many hours and experience and everything that kind of goes into that maybe you're not doing in the nine to five when you're just punching in. I think a really big concern is burnout. I think a lot of people jump in, it looks so shiny and pretty, right? It's weddings, it's happy and they don't realize how many hours it's really going to take. You just said every evening, every weekend. And I tried it just like probably everybody the first year I'm like, I can do my own bookkeeping, no problem. Oh yeah, I did that one year and I hired a bookkeeper because what do I not want to do? The other thing, as soon as I hired employees, I hired the Paychex company who every two weeks took care of paychecks and all of the legal paperwork. So it's things like that where I think it's so easy to jump in this business but not know all the different parts of it. And then next thing you know, people last two years and burnout will set in. So Rebecca, so we're getting into this here, trim mastermind.com, what does this look like? What does the process look like if I'm someone interested in this? Yeah, absolutely. So we do have an application process, so we do ask that if you are interested to visit, try mastermind.com and then right there you'll see click to apply our trim mastermind. And that is where it's a pretty detailed questionnaire. You are going to spend some time on it because we do want to be sure that everyone that is taking this course is invested in it. So once we've received your application with the responses to the questions that we ask, we review it as a team and then we decide, yes, we're excited to have you as part of this course or probably not right now, but check back again with us possibly next year and let us know. And then once we've accepted your application, there'll be a little bit of a gap, really about a month now officially launch this in January. January. So it is a six month commitment. It's going to run January through June, 2024 and it's going to run every other Tuesday. We will be meeting virtually via Zoom to be able to cater to people all across the country. And then with that, we also will be having one in in-person session where it's going to be in early April in the Snohomish area, and that is where you can actually meet all of your colleagues that you've been taking this course with. So that's the process of getting started. We are looking for applicants currently that are excited about scaling up their business, learning from experts, learning from people who have been there before you and that you can learn from. We want people that are excited to bring in great questions and be able to just be candid and frank about what they're struggling with, what they're succeeding at and what we can best assist them with. So Quinn, we talked a little bit and Rebecca had talked hiring out certain things. There's always the cost of doing business, and if you have someone and they're, okay, well I got to pay for this or paying to go to the wedding MBA in terms of the value that you're getting from this, obviously it's a time commitment. It's a money commitment, but what do you feel like you want people to be able to get back on top of what they're putting in financially and Well, I also want to state that with the experience of the three of us as mentors for this group, every person that is joining our tribe mastermind is bringing their experience. And the thing is, over my career as learning as an entrepreneur is I've learned so much by learning through other people, and you can shorten your learning gap so much by talking to someone that's already gone through their problem so you don't have to go and struggle through the same mistakes or other mistakes. Overcoming those particular huddles are so important in growing and scaling your business. I think when people get into the business where they're like four or five years, they kind of get stagnant. They're like, how do I jump up from this particular income to the next level? And having the three of us, I mean with over 60 years of entrepreneur experience, millions of dollars of income that all three of us has pulled in, we've probably gone through multiple problems and succeeded in so many different ways. I mean, Alicia and I'm in the process of writing a book, she's already published a book we've all taught internationally, and it's just been really interesting to have the various different students, the various different clients, various different situation. It really fathoms to better than an MBA, to be honest, I have an MBA and to know that the cost that you have to go through to MBA now $60,000, $40,000, this is a penny drop of what you're going to be learning. And the thing is all three of us are committed to being frank, very honest and very sharing of all the experience, and we want everyone to succeed. This is the reason why we're putting together this mastermind. We're at the point in our career that we want to share and see people grow and shine in their own right. Well, and I, I dunno the wedding industry and I guess any small business, but it's weird like we're networking, but we're also kind of competitive, but we also kind want to learn from each other. But we also, and like I said before, I've never viewed myself as some expert, whatever of anything, but you would do it. I've been self-employed now for almost a decade. You got to be something must be working out at least a little bit here. And so you go to the WPA or you go to nace, you go to these things and I'm sure wherever you are in the country, you all have your own little things, but I don't want to talk about this kind of stuff when I'm, we're hanging out, we're having a glass of wine and maybe we're watching a keynote. But to me I like this as a lot more focused in terms of like, okay, we're sitting in, we're putting in work here and maybe I guess a more vulnerable position to want to learn from others and ask questions. Alicia, is that kind of how you're feeling? To me, this is like, okay, we're going to drop the walls and kind of figure out what we can learn from each other here and maybe what you're vulnerable with and get some help with that. We haven't said this word yet, but I think for the three of us, we like the challenge. That's how we've all kept going in this business for over 20 years, and we've seen the ebbs and flows of business and what we need to do to keep interested and everything. So doing the mastermind group together, we're challenging ourselves and each other and we all thrive off a good challenge. So I think a lot of it is we want to help others. Well, we definitely want to help others. We want to help them grow and succeed and we're all for them giving us a little challenge too. So kind of a different thought on that. No, Rebecca, I guess going through all the different steps of everything, do you feel like you've gotten to this point now, and I know we kind of introed off the top, but being part of Wipa and being part of these things and owning the venue and do it, finally settling on this as kind of the medium that you wanted to go with, I guess talk to me about getting to that point now. Yeah, So over the last couple of years, well, I'll back up even from There. So I've been a wedding planner for 20 years now, and ever since I got into the wedding Industry, my What's next Was owning a venue. And now That we have that, now that that's A well-oiled Machine, it's pretty much operating itself. And Now I'm Looking at the what's next. And one of My biggest Pieces That has been a priority to Me is education And really dropping those walls and assisting other vendors regardless of what category you're in. I did a speak for NACE on how to be a vendor's vendor about how to collaborate, how to make sure that on a wedding day we're all working, firing on all cylinders and collaborating with each other. So it's been really a passion project for me to just get out there and help educate and bring in the new generation that is coming behind me. We're now the old ladies of the wedding industry, so how can we help support those younger 20 somethings that were where we once were and really get them educated and bring them up so they can have a sustainable wedding over the next 20 years. And so with that, I actually looked into speaking quite a bit. I've been very lucky to have been a keynote speaker for Wedding Network Seattle on Asian and Pacific Islander Wedding Customs. I've been speaking for NACE on also Asian Pacific Islander wedding customs, talking about how to be a vendor's vendor. I have been several keynote speakers for larger organizations through MPI and whatnot, so that has definitely been on my radar, but I also realized that they don't pay, and in effort to have it be a more focused group where I can really get into the trenches with people and get into the nitty gritty, we realized very quickly that we needed to have this more focused intimate group. We will be having applicants sign ANDA to make sure that everything in that group does stay confidential. We do want people to be able to feel free to open and share and that it's not going to be shared publicly. And so with this focus one, we can make sure that we're bringing in a little bit of paycheck for our work, of course, and the speakers that we're going to be bringing in. But two, it'll be a lot more of a focused intentional teaching and education for those new people that want to learn from people that have been around for a long time and that are very successful in the fields that we all represent. Quinn, do you feel like there is, Rebecca was saying kind of this new generation, I feel like that was kind of with Covid and stuff as well, everyone wanted to get, oh, I can go take photos now, or I got laid off, or there's been a lot of like, oh, we do video also. There's been all these different kinds of things going on, but is there a different mindset of people coming in that, like you said, we set at the top wanting to set people up, and I also always want to protect that client of not every vendor is created equal. And I think it was my brother-in-Law is a lawyer, and we were talking about this and he said, you assume every dentist is the best dentist in the world, but there's always some dentist that was the last in his or her class, and we're all still kind of in the same industry here. So are you seeing a different kind of mindset of vendors coming in now than it was maybe when you guys all got in? We all got into the industry. I'm seeing a trend of people that have been in careers in tech and they're finding this creative need to switch gears and they're already experienced on their own right with the path that they were going, but now they really want to satisfy the need for them inside themselves. The creative part, and it's interesting, it's not the younger people, but the middle age people or the older generation people that are about to retire, they're like, I still have juice inside me that I still want to work. But the thing is they haven't been a business owner. They haven't done their own taxes in the B and o taxes, all the different things, putting your license with its date. I'm talking to creatives where they haven't even registered their business and been filing it under their social security number. A big no. If you are a business owner or running a business and you are filing under your own social security number, please stop and go and register your business because there's a lot of liability to that. And if you get sued and you do something wrong, they could go after your house, your own bank account. I mean, there's a lot of experience in talking about this. Luckily, I've always been on the right path and I have an MBA in business, and that's something that you learn right off the bat, but people that are in tech or other parts of the industry, they don't know about this. And this is where we want to educate you and make sure everyone's on the right foot. And we want to be very proactive and say, you know what? I've been watching you on Instagram. Can I share you some tips? I mean, we're not going to be very in your face, you need to do this or that, but we want to advise you and saying the law's this, you might want to redirect the path that you're going. So that's the things that we want to talk about in this group. Well, shit, like I said, I like that, that there's a little bit more of accountability that we're going through this. It's not a one-off and I'm the worst that way. I go the wedding MB, I'm like, oh, that's a good idea. And then it's on my notepad somewhere for the next three years. So do you feel like this forum is going to help, I guess accountability is the right word, kind of help people follow through that way? Yeah, so actually I'm going to jump in real quick. We're going to be doing hot seats, and that's one the really important thing about the bi weekly meetings that we're having is you're going to be in the hot seat where you can actually ask the group a question, you can share a problem and have the whole group be a bounce board because you don't know who has gone through that experience. And if they know the answer or know the right person that you need to help in your project, they're there to help you. And I think as a mastermind group, the whole group is all trying to help each other. I think that's the important thing. As you go to all these network meetings, you're busy about networking and trying to give business cards, this is what I do. You don't really get to know the nitty gritty of that person to really become a friend and a cog link that you would trust to say, I know a video guy. He's amazing. And you can refer 'em right off the bat because you trust them and you know that because your namesake in the wedding business is very important for clients, for other business vendors and having this group and know the quality that you're bringing in and what they're bringing out is a huge win. Well, that's always my, I go back and I like doing it and filming and obviously kind of being a part of the community, but yeah, it's sort of like, okay, here's my business card. Please refer me over anyone that you've known the last 10 years of your life. I'm always like, there's a fine there line, Alicia, any follow-up thoughts on that? And then we'll maybe do a final go home here of anything else you want to talk about Licia? Any thoughts? I am thinking how you mentioned the wedding NBA, which I've gone to all of those huge events over the years and I'm so in love with them. When I'm there, I'm all got my notepad out, I'm writing all this stuff, but it's so much information at one time and I get back and then the day to day grind gets in the way, and then three years later I find that notebook and went, oh, I couldn't do all that. So what I do, and I do like, don't get me wrong, I love all those big events, but what we're doing here is helping people. Every two weeks you get together, you check in with each other. Having that accountability is going to make all the difference, especially if you're with a group of people who are moving and working on the same stuff. It's just going to be very encouraging and kind of just smaller steps to get it all done. Rebecca, I guess we talked about the application process and all that stuff. Is there a minimum number of weddings or a minimum number of experience or how do I know, is this right for me versus I'm excited to learn more? Sure. So We are looking for established professionals, and what we mean by established Is just people That have been in business for A year or more. We're not looking For the people that are looking to switch careers that are like, this would be brand new information To them. We want you to come In already having your business set, having clients On the table, but really looking For the what's next and what can I be Doing Better in my job and how can I make this easier for me? What tools are available to me in terms of apps and resources that are Open? Let's Share the name Of our CPAs. Let's share the Name of Our virtual assistants. Let's really get You going So you don't have To do the research on your own. Quinn, kind of final thoughts from you final sell. Anything else here before we get out? So the commitment for this particular mastermind is for six months, and the payment is $500 a month. That includes the two monthly meetings plus the in-person that we're going to be having at Rebecca venue. So if you're curious about her venue, this is a great opportunity to come and see. And the best part is to meet all of us in person because when you do meet somebody, face-to-face and give them a big hug, that's where the friendship really cements. Lucy, any other final thoughts from you? Just a reminder to everybody, if you're reading all this and you think you want to do it, but you're not sure, reach out to one of us. So we are all very friendly. We want to help people. We'll answer your questions, so just reach out and we'll talk you through it. Rebecca and Fama, go home, Steph from you. Absolutely. So we will be doing more Instagram lives. If you missed our one yesterday, you can join us again at 9:00 AM on November 14th. It'll be on all three of our channels so you can watch that and learn more information. If you do have any questions as Alicia mentioned, feel free to reach out to us, any one of us directly, or you can go to our try mastermind.com website and fill out a submission form and we'll look forward to having you soon. Well, that's exciting. I always get excited kind of going through and things like this and trying to, I get motivated and then I get distracted. So we'll be focused here. Do all that. I'm excited to jumpstart this again, to get to know your Wedding pro. If you are a vendor and interested in coming on, you can go to best made wedding videos.com/podcast guest or best made videos.com/podcast guest trying to do these more. I have another one coming up with a new venue down in Buckley, so getting through that. But if you're a vendor, curious, wanting to share your story and all of that. Anything else from you guys before we get out of here? I appreciate you having us on again. Thanks so much, Reid. Thank you. Thank you so much. Perfect. Thank you guys so much. Let's see if this outro here works as well as the intro. Thanks.

Sarah Anne - Sarah Anne Photography

Well, I'm excited. Today we are ramping up and continuing to get to know your Wedding Pro podcast series. We have Sarah Ann today, photographer extraordinaire. I see you everywhere posting. How are you doing today? I'm doing pretty good. I can't say that the weather in Seattle's doing pretty good, but I am. It is horrendous. Our last couple may weddings, I feel so bad for the couples because it's been really bad. It's been really rough weather. It is extremely rough. And you're just like, I'm sorry, Seattle. I know we have this reputation we're trying to uphold of being a rainy city, but you got to give us a break. So you're located in Black Diamond, obviously you work all over the place. I guess first and foremost, I always like to ask photographers kind describe your style. How do you look at the way that you photograph the world? What a great question. So I really look at my style as a mix of editorial meets documentary. So I think it's really valuable to a client to understand that they're not going to be thrown to the wolves and they don't know how to pose, and I'm just going to be like, ah, figure it out. So I like the editorial aspect of helping people pose, but always in a very gentle demeanor. So it's never like I want you to put your eyelashes here and your elbow here and your waist here. It's just like, Hey, I want you guys to go be with each other. I go for a little walk. And so then basically the most editorial parts of the day are mostly when it comes to the portraits, but then everything else is very documentary. I love being a fly on the wall and just watching all the little stories that happen around the couple. I think those are probably the most valuable memories for them. So I really take a lot of pride in looking and documenting those. Well, it's hard and I never know that, right? As a videographer, we're kind always trailing right in the background. It's always tough line of how much direction do you give versus how much do you want them just to be able to live their day. It is a hard line to walk there. Oh, I completely agree. And I think couples just want to feel a little bit of comfort and held in the sense of, I know my photographer knows what they're doing, but they're also not going to leave me stranded. So if you sense this moment happening of they're like, I don't know what to do with my hands, like a Talladega Nights moment. It's really nice when you can gently step in to help those things. I went to a conference one time called All You Witness, where they were teaching basically a very pure documentary style, almost photojournalism. And I find that in the wedding industry, or at least for my clients that I have and that I love working with that is just unattainable. There is no way to be so out of it that you're completely touching the wedding day. People look to you for your expertise, that's why they hired you because they want to look a certain way and you're the person that has to meet them in the middle, make it them, but also make it beautiful. It's hard because very few times in my life I ever gone out and done photo of any kind. Generally I'm just snapping one or two to do stuff from my website and then I'm always like, oh, that looks weird. That hand is weird. Or there's a booger in the nose, or I don't know. There's always something that I'm not because you really have to have that fine attention to detail. I just think video is a lot more forgiving that way. Photo, it really has to be perfect coming in. I mean, obviously you can tweak stuff in Photoshop, but it is a lot harder. I don't envy you guys. Yeah, because if you think about it, if we're having a couple walk towards us, you're getting the whole thing so people understand that people walk natural people, but if my camera frame is off by a second and there's hair in front of a face that doesn't look good as a still frame. But that movement looks gorgeous in video and I think that's definitely why people need to be masters of their own craft because those are two completely different ways of documenting. Well, I percent. Yeah, totally. Yeah, the hair's flowing. They're kind of meandering a lot. So how did you get involved in photography? Is this something you grew up with a camera in your hand, or how did we start this journey? So I was one of those people in high school where you have to have an art credit and I was like, oh, well, photo looks cool. And my dad had an old 35 millimeter, so I ended up just taking it because I needed the art credit. And also my older sister is an extremely talented artist when it comes to graphic design and drawing and painting, and I knew I didn't have that natural talent, so I was like, okay, I can't make something, but I can take something. And so I fell in love with it from day one. I was absolutely horrible at it. I can show you the old portfolio to prove it, and I just stuck with it all through high school. And I got to my senior year and I told my parents I want to be a photographer. And they were like, go get a real job. So I ended up going to college for business and ended up hating it. But because I had done Running Start as a high school student, I had two years of tuition leftover after I graduated from UDub. So then I went back to art school and I actually went through the Seattle Central Commercial Program, which was incredible. And in that program you have to have an internship as part of your graduation requirements, and I ended up interning at a wedding studio and that's how I got introduced to weddings. So going through it, that film kind of degree, you got the arts school degree, do you find that that helps you now? I know there's a lot of people self-taught video, everything else, and having gone through that commercial and everything, does that help you in how you look at everything? Yeah, because I think what happens is when people are self-taught learning based off of people who have filters and have a style and have this thing and they're not really learning the fundamentals of how a camera works, how light works, how editing works, how color science works, and so having that formal training, especially in terms of a commercial side, really helped my editorial eye when it comes to the way I look at my photos, because I'm thinking of it as a commercial or very graphically, A lot of people are drawn to very editorialized images because they have that graphic element and not a lot of people know what it is that they're loving. It's hard for them to put their finger on it. But when you come from a commercial studio background, it's really easy to just have that vocabulary and those tools in your belt to understand what you're looking at and therefore be able to replicate it. So I am also an Enneagram type one perfectionist. So for me, schooling is super important. I feel like I have to have all the tools and then all the rules and then I can know how to break them, if that makes sense. It's hard, it's a weird balance. I felt like I learned some stuff in school. I went to broadcast and I didn't. Some stuff you got to be out in the field for. But I think that, like you said, knowing why we do the things that we do, I think it's really helpful. So it's always a fine balance. I'm just always curious, especially with photography because there's so many just naturally gifted people, it's like, did you just pick that up? Did you have to study that to get that eye for being able to view things the way you do? Yeah, and I think for me it started with a really pure curiosity of wanting to learn this art form and not being good at it and then putting in the work and the due diligence to then become the artist that I am. Because I feel like for me, as in my own brain, if I have all of the understanding, then I'm able to make it my own. But I hate fumbling in the dark. That's not the way that I love to learn. But yeah, I agree with you to your point of some things you just learn in the field, and I think that's true of any schooling you do, any job you have, you're going to learn 90% of it on the job. And I think having the solid schooling behind me made me better at weddings in particular because weddings are an ever-changing environment. It is so inconsistent what you're doing throughout the day that you have to have this really solid knowledge base to be able to jump around and to make it look consistent. I totally agree. And it's hard where in the wedding industry we're dealing with some people that do a lot of weddings a year, some people that do on the weekends. Sometimes it is hard because it is one of those you can't learn on the fly. You really need to be able to get in there. We had a wedding a couple weeks ago and I had to live stream it and the internet wasn't working and they had all these connection issues. And I told Dorothy after I go, if I had had 30 less seconds in the day, I wouldn't have been able to get that going. And it was because of that knowledge that I have and you being able to repetition and being able to where it's not even practice anymore, it just kind of comes naturally to you to be able to walk in and kind of deal with all those, like you said, ever-changing circumstances. And I think that practice is, obviously practice doesn't lead to perfection, but practice leads to progress. And so the more experience you have under your belt, the better you're able to cope with the insanity that is a wedding day. I think of our industry from the outside and I'm like, I would never choose that again. I love it now because I've just been in it and I find the joy in it, but looking at it from the outside, you're like, oh, that's very stressful because of how many variables we're dealing with on a daily basis. Yeah, totally. There have been those 32nd moments where a DJ calls something out and you're not in the room and you're grabbing camera and you're adjusting settings based off your knowledge of what does a dance floor need and oh, it's wild. So talk to me about your typical client. Who do you like to work with for wedding days? I would say my typical client is someone who all very cliche photographers say is someone who values art, someone who values the photography experience, but also that gives you that trust to be able to create what you're going to create for them because ultimately they've looked at your work, they like what you do, and so they need to a little bit not have us hold their hand through it. But I would say my clients in particular are very laid back people. They like pretty things and they just like to have a good time. I think people who are more interested in what a wedding day is actually about, which is their union, and then all of the people in their circles that got them to this point and celebrating with them, that is what I look for the most in my couples is what do you truly value? And of course I want them to value me, but it's as long as they value what's actually happening that day. That speaks a lot to me when people are like, I just really want this one photo for my Instagram. And I'm like, I'm not your photographer, so sorry honey. Well also sometimes you get 'em where they have 8,700 items on their shot list of these are the things that we want from our wedding. We have a wedding coming up with a photographer shared that with me and it's like, wow. I mean a lot of this stuff's natural you would get anyway, but you're just like, wow, this is really, and I don't know if that's good or bad that they're thinking that far through it. I think that you need to have the trust that you're going to be able to capture the things that you need without bride, with maid of honor bride with second maid of honor brides with Mother, I think we have some of these kind of locked down anyway. Exactly. And what's really funny is you were talking about this on one of your last episodes where you were talking about why don't give out the raw files. And I think the group of photographers you had on that episode really shed some light on this and it's about trust and it's about making sure people just, it's their first rodeo, they're one and only and they don't realize we've done this hundreds of times. So we know to look for those things. And so I usually chalk it up to just nerves. They're just nervous and they just want to make sure you're getting the things that are valued valuable to them. So one of the ways that I actually kind of negate that overshare of a shot list is they get a wedding questionnaire about six weeks before their wedding and I ask them to list out things that are outside of the norm. I'm going to get you with your mom and your dad and your sister and every single bridesmaid and all that stuff. Tell me about the people who aren't that you wouldn't normally think of. Do you have an auntie who was a second mom to you who's super important, or is your niece the light of your life? Those are the things that I really want to pick up on more so because everything else like you said is very standard. We got this, this is part of the package deal we got you covered, but tell me about the unique things about your story. It was interesting. I was just training one of our new videographers. He's done video for years, just hasn't done a lot of weddings. And he was like, the questions he was asking me during the day, I'm like, oh yeah, you don't know. Normal people don't know all this stuff. He's like, well, so what's next or what's going on? And it's just like you said, we've been through this a lot and it's kind of walking the heads. I appreciate when the couples, like you said, trust our expertise in that way. It is really hard when you have the know it all groom or bride or whoever and you're like, I got this. I might have done this a couple more times than you. Or you have the very well-intended maid of honor who already had her wedding and had her experience and is trying to control every single thing. I have definite horror stories about that, but ultimately for me, I never look at that person as the antagonist to my story of the day. It's more of like, okay, how can I gain this person's trust? Because once, whoever it is who's being over controlling, once they trust me, the rest of the day is going to go really smoothly. And a lot of the times that's just me answering their questions, being like, Hey, this is what I think. This is my expertise, blah, blah, blah. And nine times out of 10, that person's going to be like, oh, you actually did hire someone who's awesome. Let's just let her do her thing. Well, and honestly I think that young females kind of get shot on a little bit when it comes to wedding table. It's like, well, what do you really know? Or how long have you really been doing this? I'm like, when you have been doing this for many, many years and I've done a lot of weddings, that always kind of an annoys me too, is I just think that they kind of look at me like, okay, let him go do his thing. And I think there's a higher level sometimes with some of the vendor types and then some of the people that fill those roles that I just don't think it's always fair either. Oh yeah. There's definitely sexism in our industry. So it's like I have a really great friend who's a DJ and I love it when we get to do weddings together. It's just fun banter. For me, it's like our industry is really unique because we get to straight up refer our friends, and then we get to work with our friends for a day. But every time we work together, because we're so chatty and very casual with each other, people assume that he's my husband and B owns our businesses. And I'm like, no, not at all. Thank you so much. And so I think for what's ironic though is that people, I think it's changing, but I think that it is a typical stereotype to look to men to lead. However, I will say that through several friends who are male wedding photographers, it is harder for them to get booked because women are much more comfortable with a female perspective, especially because when she's putting on the dress, you're there for intimate moments. Women have a natural nurturing about them and our personalities and the way that we work with our couples, I think women tend to be a lot more reassuring to our couples. We give them encouragement behind the camera, we make sure that we're talking to mom and we're making sure sister feels good, and we have this very motherly presence on a wedding day. And I don't think that's true of every single person, but I think of women in general, and I think that's why women tend to get booked more. But it is ironic because sometimes they don't always trust us, and it's a really weird dichotomy on a wedding day, And this would be a good conversation for the best made weddings podcast, sexism in the wedding industry. I think that would be fascinating to kind of do it a deep dive. Yeah, I do far better at wedding shows when Dorothy's there with me, even though Dorothy has nothing to do with my business at all, right? She's a teacher, but when she's there, it helps. And it is, like you said, with the women leading, I can't think of a single husband, wife team that I know of any kind photography or vendor wise where it's not the woman that's doing the majority of everything. And it's kind of the husband that's along most of the husband wife teams I know it's the woman that's doing most of the legwork, Which I think is so funny. And you know what? I was just in Italy with friends and we were hearing stories about witchcraft and all the witch trials and stuff like that. And one of the reasons why women were deemed to be witches was because they would do all the math and the accounting for men. But then somehow that translated into they knew too much and it must be witchcraft. And I just think it's like, oh, it's just so funny because women do have this ability to, men have a beautiful gift of compartmentalizing. They can literally shut their brain off to this thing and this thing and just focus on this thing. And women, I feel like all the compartments are open. We're just this big jumbled mess, but we can also keep track of that. And I think it's also very true on a wedding day. So yeah, I think that would be a great discussion to have on your other podcast about sexism in the wedding industry because it's definitely there. It is interesting. My brother can completely have a meltdown blow up with you and then two minutes later it's like, okay, so let's move on. It's very shut, shut that brick wall or whatever, barn door and we're moving on. And Dorothy, if I say anything that could linger for a week, it's always omnipresent. So yes. And so just the way that men and women naturally cope with things also impacts the way that we cope with a wedding day. So it's like something could happen in the early part of a wedding day and if I feel like I've messed something up, that thought carries with me the rest of the day. But for men, they're like, oh, well move on. Here we go. And so it's like I envy that about you guys, but I think it's also for women being able to keep track of those things in an emotional way, it also can be very useful. So I don't think necessarily that men are bad at their job or they should have more of what we have, but I think that if you could find a mix between the female and male energy on a wedding day, I think that's kind of where the beauty lies With all things in this world. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. The idea, I get into a lot of debates online with my football podcasts about things. I'm like, I think the truth is always somewhere in between what you are saying and the other person is saying, you finish up. I have a question. Oh no, I was going to say, yeah, exactly. It's the middle ground. Things are not black and white, it's not binary. It's like there is so much gray in this world, you just got to get comfortable with it. I like it. So since we're talking about the wedding day, what does that look like? If someone's working with you, how do you uniquely approach anyone's wedding day and photograph it? I don't know if it's necessarily unique, but I like to come in super duper prepared. So again, I have that wedding questionnaire and it just allows me to focus on what is really important to the couple that day. And then I always arrive super early, introduce myself to all the key players. I definitely introduce myself to every vendor because again, teamwork makes the dream work. So if they know who I am and we can have a good relationship for the wedding day, both of our jobs are made easier. I think what's really unique about what I can do on a wedding day is schedules running behind do not intimidate me. I have the ability to get what I want, get in and out and get on with it. And I don't necessarily think a lot of photographers have that skillset. It's definitely they come in with this expectation of how much time they're going to have to do each thing. And again, typically that comes with a lot of newer photographers. They don't know how to get all of their key shots in a way that not only doesn't eat up a lot of time, you can work within the time constraints, but also makes the couple feel very comfortable and very confident that you got the shot. I think that's probably one of my little superpowers that I have and I'm really proud of it. And I think that just comes from my background as being on dance team because working in a group of 55 girls where we're a squad and we're having to do all these things, you learn to think very quickly. And I've just always had that skillset and I think it's really served me in the way that I serve my clients. It's really hard. We had a wedding in late last year and running really behind and there was transit and so traffic and we were getting to the reception and we had to go and the photographer just couldn't move at a faster pace. It is like, well, no, I need to get this and I need to get this and we have to go here. And it's hard because like you said, you have this idea, the dream, okay, we're going to have half hour to do portraits and we're going to have 45 minutes to do family and all this stuff. You have to be able to adapt that way. It's really hard. I'm just sitting there watching. I have nothing. I'm just filming what's happening. So it'd be nice to be able to go back upstairs, but I just don't think that's in the cards right now. It got really heated between the DJ and the catering and the photographer. It was a really interesting dynamic. They just couldn't also, all men just couldn't kind of get their stuff together. And I think ultimately when it comes down to that, a lot of it, I mean, we're artists, so literally the thing that we are working on and delivering is art. It is subjective and it also has a lot of ego in it because it's part of us, right? As artists, our work is part of us. So then when you get to the point where someone is saying, you can't have the time that you need to do your thing, it feels like an attack. And so ultimately, I think again, that workshop that I went to that basically preached documentary style and just being totally leaving your ego at the door, that has also served me in what is best for the couple, what is going to be the best experience for their guests, for them? The last thing I ever want is for someone to come back and be like, yeah, you really messed that up for me. Or I really didn't like spending that amount of time at Sunset Photos, even though the light was great, I wanted to be with my people. So I think you also have to develop definitely a cognitive awareness of your impact on a wedding day because ultimately, in my opinion, I don't want to be remembered on a wedding day. I want their photos to be remembered on a wedding day. Of course, I want to leave a great impression that they refer me and it's great, but in 20 years, if they don't remember that Sarah Ann took their photos, but they remember that feeling that they had when they walked down the island, it's captured perfectly in an image I gave them. That's all I need. That's the dream. It's really hard. And that would be my advice too, is for couples, you need to vocalize that on your day. It is sometimes you're done or you don't want to do it. And like you said, I mean we could take photos for hours. That's kind why we're there. But it's hard navigating that. And like I said, I would always recommend that they kind of let us know because otherwise we just keep going. You're just kind of powering through. And if people need a break, I mean, I know some photographers, I'm sure you do kind of do those check-ins, right? How are you feeling? But you do need to vocalize that because it is, you'll remember those feelings for a long time. Like you said, when you look at your photos, they'll remember that if they were feeling stressed or they were feeling tired. And I remember hearing this insane story where this photographer took his couple out for their engagement shoot and it was six hours long. I'm like, who the hell can shoot for six hours for an engagement session? At some point you're done. And so again, just like you said, it's being aware of the emotional energy around your couple. And I think having a high emotional intelligence IQ or whatever they call it, just being sensitive to those things is critical in our industry because we are a service-based industry that is on one of the highest stress level days of a couple's entire life besides getting married, buying a house is probably the second most stressful thing that will ever happen to them in terms of outside of having kids. And so yeah, they might have the most glorious golden hour photo, but if they remember that you took way too long and they missed something with their family members, that is the memory that will be forever attached to that photo, not the photo itself Is the same thing pushing through. If you have family photos, if people aren't ready, you're stressed. That stuff carries with you. And I think that people, photographers don't realize that sometimes the stress is attached to those memories And you just have to be kind. You have to kill 'em with kindness. You're not going to get faster. It's like you get further with honey than you do vinegar. So if you're just sweet and you are on top of it, you know what you need. You know how to do it, and you lead with a gentle but firm hand best results you're ever going to get. And I think that at family, the family photo part of a wedding day, that is where I excel because I know exactly how to do what I want to do. There is a recipe to the madness. And I can't tell you the number of people who come up to me after the family photos and they're like, you are amazing. That was so fast. I've never had it done like that. And now we get to go relax. And I'm like, yeah, because when you have experience, you can provide an even better experience to your next client. Outside of the wedding day, things that you do to help, I guess market reach out a lot of word of mouth, how do you attract your clients? I would say there's definitely a balance of the hype game and then just showing up authentically. So I take a lot of pride in delivering a huge mega preview the next day after a wedding, or at least within 48 hours because people are just coming off the high of their wedding day. So it's like if you can deliver all these photos that they then get to share posts send, that just hypes you up even more because they're like, holy cats, I got all these images so quickly. And a lot of times their friends will be really jealous because the number of brides friends who've been like, oh my gosh, I had to wait six months to see even a single photo for my wedding, and you just gave them 150. That's wild. So I think it's playing the hype game. It's just showing up authentically, especially on Instagram. Instagram is its own monster, but if you can harness the power of it, that is just very genuine to who you are as a person. Your clients feel like they know you, they trust you, they like you, they want to do business with you and they refer you. So I think ultimately marketing just comes down to being authentic. And then also having really kick ass SEO on your website. Do you feel like you excel at that? Yes, I do think I do. I don't think I'm the best at it, but I mean I typically rank between page one and page two of Seattle Wedding Photographer. And again, I have fully booked calendars for the next two seasons. And that's not because I'm a shitty person and I'm scamming people. I show up with authenticity, I deliver a great product, and you can learn a couple of tips and tricks on how to do SEO that gets you to the right pages so people can see you. Definitely. When it comes to marketing, I don't believe in paying for the knot.com or for Wedding Wire. I think that if that is your client in terms of you are a high volume photographer at a low price point, I think those are actually great platforms for you. If you are a boutique high-end vendor, I don't think you're going to find your clients there because typically those clients are always word of mouth. So it's showing up doing a great job. Instagram, SEO, that's kind of what I do. I have a love hate with Wedding Wire and The Knot, I've just been on there for so long. I mean, I think Wedding Wire was the first thing I ever did, was it nine years ago? And I have a hard time kind leafing that nest egg. I mean, it's hard. They really wrap you in there. It makes you feel like you can't escape. And I think that I used to get all the phone calls from them like, Hey, do you want to come back? I definitely apprehensive with them for six months when I first started in the industry because I didn't know any better. But the problem is, especially when you look at the Seattle market for us on the Knot, there are eight to nine pages of paid people on there. So I know that the placement rotates every two hours, but it's like that is rolling dice. You have no idea where you're going to land when someone is at the point of choosing a photographer. So for me, it's like why would I pay money to have a Russian roulette of someone seeing me or not when I can do a targeted ad on Google where someone is searching for the exact thing that I want to do or work with, then I'm right there and it's the perfect little matchmaking moment as compared to the not where you could never line up with your right person. And it's just like it's a luck of the draw. Yeah, I feel like I'm canceling my contract after we get off this. I'm kidding. Moving forward, like you said, booked here, successful healthy business, we've all survived of the pandemic. So next goals, what are you looking forward to accomplishing in the future? So I think moving forward, I really want to give back to the wedding industry that kind of built me. And so I think that what's happening is photographers, we have, I would say the longevity of a typical wedding photographer is between five and 15 years, and that's as someone who's super dedicated. But every year we're getting this fresh wave of people who come in and that younger generation is very good at social media, they're very good at Instagram, they're very good at shooting, but they're not really good at the business side. And I think that the number of people that I've talked to who their finances are a mess, they don't have ACRM system, they don't have real contracts, and that's fumbling them up. In being a super successful wedding photographer, I've actually built a business course for wedding photographers so that they can learn that side that compliments their client experience and compliments their photography. I'm really strong at that part of my business and I really love it and I love teaching and I love helping people. So I'm really looking forward to stepping into more of the education side of our industry over the next couple of years. And the full launch for my course is in the fall. I did a beta launch here in the spring, so I have my first little round of students, which is really fun. And then it'll be the full fledged deal in the fall. Well, that's exciting because like you said, and especially not that video too, but I think a lot of the people just think, oh, I just going to pick up a camera and go, right? And obviously there's all the skill that goes into doing the photography, we can get into that for hours, but then it is running a business knowing how to do all that stuff. Weddings, it's not going out and shooting dog portraits for your friend or doing family photos for your aunt or whatever. I mean, there's so much more pressure involved in the money and families and like you said, having all those contracts and everything in place I think is really important. Like you said, if everyone has that going when they're kind of entering the business. And I don't think, here's the thing is I don't think it's uncommon for people to start with the camera and be like, let's just see if this works. And then you find yourself successful and then you're like, oh crap. I never set up any of the important things. And so the course that I've made is kind of dedicated to the people who are one to two years into their business and they're in that like, oh shit moment. I don't have systems and I'm overwhelmed and I'm now failing my clients. They're not getting what they need from me, even though in the most earnest way, I'm trying to do my best possible. So it's the simple things that people don't think about that really make the ultimate difference in a client experience and then therefore building your business, you're going to get more and more client referrals from that. So you said you're soft beta launch and then that's coming out in the fall is not the plan. Yeah, the soft beta launch has already happened, which is awesome. It happened just before I left for Italy at the end of April. And then the full mega launch, I think it's going to be around the November December time because typically, at least in Washington market, that's when we're headed into our off season. And a lot of people do that revamping during the winter months before we kick back off for next year. So what this beta launch is allowing me to do is really get my hands and feet into other people. That sounded really weird. What I mean is getting my toes wet in teaching people and understanding like, okay, where were my blind spots? What are things that people are actually also needing? But I will say what's crazy is when I sat down to do it, this took me two years to build this because once you sit down and you actually look at everything you do as a business owner, it is overwhelming. You were like, how do I organize this? How do I teach someone in a way that makes sense? How do I do it so people understand that no, you really have to go in order and this is why and how you group things together. It was the most intense thing I've ever done. Well, no, because it is, and it's all secondhand to you now, and it's like you have all your chicken scratch all over the walls and you're like, how do I verbalize this for someone else that's walking in and trying to replicate at least some of the kind of procedures I have going on? So it's hard. Yeah, it's extremely hard. And it's also like, okay, how do you decipher your chicken scratch and then does your chicken scratch even make sense? So part of building a course is also taking your own course because you're like, okay, I need to practice what I preach, and maybe I needed to refine a couple of things while I was like, oh yeah, I know I should be doing this and I'm going to teach other people to do it. Why am I not doing it? If you were to sit down and try to write out everything that you do in a single day or a single week or single season for your clients, it is absolutely wild. And the fact that we do it alone, a lot of people don't have a team, they don't have multiple departments. They are the person and they are the only person. So then it's like another thing that I wanted to teach people is how do you manage that in a way that's not going to drive you insane? Well, that's good. Well, I think that that is a good idea. I think that let me know when this comes out, will help promote it. I think that that is a good, like you said, giving back, imparting your knowledge on other people. And I am serious. I think we need to do a sexism in the wedding industry episode of the Best Made Weddings podcast. We'll have you on for that. I'll start brainstorming working out of that here soon. Oh, I would absolutely love to do it. And you know what, I think it'd be really interesting to, I would love to hear the male's perspective of does it affect them in the sense of like, oh, someone thought I was in charge of her but I wasn't and I felt really bad, or I love it that I'm always in charge. I would love to hear just a really great conversation between men and women about how that affects our jobs, because I don't think that sexism is only against females. I think it can also go against males and having that space where both sides can talk about the struggles we have around that will I think lead to better solutions for moving forward in our industry. Well, this has been good. I'm glad we could do this today. Step one, step two, we'll bring you back for that. We'll have more in-depth episodes. Is there, and if people want to find more about you, all your work, everything else that you have going on, where would you have them check out? I would love for you guys to check out Sarah Ann photo.com, that's Sarah with an H and with an e photo.com. And then on Instagram, I'm Sarah Ann under photo. I'm sure you can just get it off of the Instagram off of Read's feed, so it should be totally fine. But yeah, just Sarah Ann, Well, I really appreciate this. Like I said, getting more of these, get to know your wedding pros. We're ramping this back up, so thank you so much. If you're like Sarah, you want to come on the podcast, you can go to the best me of videos.com/podcast guest. It's a nice easy questionnaire to get you in. And this has been Get To Know You Wedding Pro. Thanks for listening.

Irene Jones - IJ Photo

Well, welcome back to the show. We have another episode of get to know your wedding pro. We were kind of using Irene today. Irene Jones with IJ photo. Kind of a redox we're re kind of starting. I've been a little lazy the last couple of months with sourcing, you get to know your wedding pro vendors. Irene has a new studio to show off. Bless Irene, and I are just always game for a chat. So we're going to go through this today. Talk with Irene, get to know Irene Jones. We're going to see her studio. How does that sound? Irene? That sounds excellent. Read. At first off, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. How about yourself? We're good. I was telling every, before we got on a lot of my energies that goes into sourcing our football guests. For my other, my non work related podcasts. And so I rely a lot on get to know your wedding pro vendors. If you're interested in coming on sharing your story, you can go to the best minute videos.com/podcasts guests. I've really been relying on that the last few months, people to kind of reach out and schedule, and I'm realizing I need to be more proactive with reaching out again. So we are, we are starting today. It's I think it was four years. I started this, like this week. I got a reminder about it. So. Ah, that's kind of a nice anniversary. Yeah, it is. And we're celebrating together. So people that, if anyone in this role doesn't know who Irene Jones are, what is your little elevator pitch? Who are you? Yeah. So I'm Irene Jones. I own IJ. Photo. I am. I'm a wedding and portrait photographer. I've been shooting professionally for over 20 plus years. And I really love storytelling, photo journalism. To the life vivid color and just authentic people in authentic, real love. Also sponsored this yellow wedding show. Right. Yeah. I read them. I spend a lot of it. It's good. Do you, for someone that's been doing this for so long, right in the Northwest, you know, Just be in established, right? Cause a lot of the vendors we get, you know, we doing it two or three years, whoever. I mean big broad takeaways. I mean, what do you, when you look back and all your time that you've spent and all the couples and the business and everything, I mean, w what strikes you the most? You know, what strikes me really is that people who. Honestly care about one another and a family that care about one another tend to have the best weddings. So if you're just doing it to put on a show because you have to, like that shows up, people can see it. And I get better photos out of people that just want to have a great time. And really love their partner and are just excited to be there. Yeah. I remember we had Ray van Winkle on years ago and he said, it's almost not even the wedding. It's the planning of the wedding and kind of the couple figuring out the family stuff and the religion stuff and the money stuff and all that kind of stuff. It's even more important than the actual day span. It's kind of all that shared experience going into it. Absolutely. And I think a weddings are really good time capsule of who you are and who you surround yourself with. If your wedding day comes off like w as a. Event that everyone has a great time. And we really look back at that as a wonderful memory. You might be doing something right. That's good. So you are married. Lots of kids. Anything else we should know about you personally. Because we want to dive into business stuff, but who is Irene outside of IJ? Photo. Outside of work. I'm a hobbyist, a baker, a. Reader. I love reading. I love audio books. Because then I can do it while working. So I feel like I'm cheating. And I am a mom of four kids. My oldest is 17 and my youngest is seven. So I'm a busy lady, but there's always time for a chat with you. Read. That's good. Yeah. But also, and, you know, do a lot of weddings. We always were together kind of all over the Pacific Northwest. To me, it doesn't seem like there's anywhere that you stray away from. It seems like your. I guess a local favorite in a lot of different spots. Where do you like to photograph? I love photographing in spaces that have high ceilings. Like, that's my number one thing I walk in and I'm like, oh, I can like this space. It's going to be awesome. But generally I do love all venues. I do love all kinds of things. There isn't one particular type of when you ven wedding venue or wedding, that I'm really like, oh, that's my style. I really just am more interested in the people and the relationships. But I do travel all over the country and outside the country, not so much in the last couple of years, but I do love heading down to Mexico. I love Canada whenever I can. And I'm still looking at getting to Italy or Iceland. Those are on my bucket list. Well, and one thing that's always, cause obviously I work with a lot of different photographers in love, all of, you know, we have good relationships with a lot, but you, you know, besides being personable, right. And being able to kind of get along, you have a technical skill with, with lighting and stuff. Right. But I don't even really understand sometimes with video just cause we, you know, I don't go in and set up, you know, all these different lights and stuff, but you know, I think certain couples. You know, natural light, right. It is a skill and people. And if it's outside and anyone can kind of make stuff work in that kind of overcast day outside, but being able to do a lot of the inside weddings that we've done together, right? Like the Rainier club. Even that club at Snoqualmie, you know, kind of the indoor reception, it takes a different skill that I just don't know if every photographer is always equipped to do. Oh, well, that's, that's a great compliment. I've worked really hard to be able to light any space and work with the natural light when, when necessary and then augment as necessary. I have a very distinct vision of how I want the day to look, and I want people to be able to see the. Emotion in the image and not necessarily the stuff that's distracting. And being able to bring in a little bit of augmented lighting really helps me do that. So I can get in there and tell a story in. Instead of necessarily just capture what happens to be the scene. And a lot of times people tell me, they think my work is natural light because they can't tell the difference between what I've done and what was there. But then they see the photos side by side and like, oh, that's, that's totally different. That's what I was imagining in my head. So my job is really to make that imaginary vision show up in reality. Whether it's hard, especially when you, a lot of moving around. A lot of we're kind of wrangling the bridal party. We're wrangling the families. But, you know, I mean, we've shy and I've even remember sending over videos that I had shot of the photos that you had or whatever. And I'm like, it doesn't even look like the same space in a good way. You know, it looks like. Maybe more like you remember it more than, you know, Cause video, we are limited sometimes in like, you are kind of capturing as everything occurs, where photo you can elevate it. Like you said, it doesn't come across. Being like abnormal, it comes across more as you remember that. Absolutely. Yeah, because I think our brains are really good at remembering the best things and we don't always remember the ugly. But it exists everywhere, even in the best spaces. There's dark corners. There's things that just aren't flattering and our job, you and me is to make the best of every scenario. So you live right up lake Stevens. Yeah. Is that, so you've just, you've got your new studio, right? So you were, you know, obviously. You know, that's kind of the dream ride as a photographer, have your own, Sudi be able to work out of it. What was the thought process behind kind of establishing that and going that route? Well, you know, I've actually had a studio twice before, but just circumstances have made things change. Like my first studio was just this tiny little hole in the wall here in Everett. And I grew out of it within a couple of years. My second space. Ended up being bought by a developer and turn it into condos. So when that got taken over, I was a little bit homeless for awhile. And this space opened up and like I said, it's, it's just been amazing and you're totally right. It's the dream like to have a space where you can work indoor and outdoor. In Washington, we have such fickle weather that it's really nice to be able to bring a client, a backup option with everything. So, what does having the studio space, what has that allowed you to be able to kind of either add back into your inventory of services or be able to kind of help make it easier to provide those services? Yeah. So I tried to be a photographer for people's lifetime and not just. Just for their event. So I love starting with an engagement session and a lot of times people are getting engaged in the dark winter months. So the studio makes that really plausible to get those engagement photos out quickly. It also helps, like I said, with bad weather. The studio is also great for when they have other life events. So post wedding, a lot of people decide to have children. And so the studio is a great place for a new mama to get a pregnancy and maternity shoot done. It's also great for newborns as well as families. Time and time again. And I've been in the business long enough that I've got clients that have been coming to me for now two decades. And it's really great for me to be able to see those families grow and change over time. It's one of the things that I kind of limit most about the video side of it is not, you just, you don't have as many times when you need to hire a videographer where, like you said, even if it's back to school photos or Christmas photos, or, Hey, we want to do a spring thing or someone. Excuse me, you know, lost a tooth. You want to document all these things where I don't know if that's the thing. But, you know, with video, it's kind of like the wedding. Then maybe the sister gets married, but I do. NV that you get to kind of live with your clients over time. Cause I don't often get to kind of repeat running into people again. Right. Unless you're like in a grocery store and it's awkward. Well, it is always hard because I feel like I know them way more than they know me. Cause I was like, I've stared at your face for many hours. And they're like, okay. I knew you for eight hours, three years ago. I was like, yeah, but you've been on my website since then. Exactly. I also bring my client's post wedding into the studio to show them their photos. So you can see my projector backup here in the corner. I always do a slide show for everybody. So they get to relive all the photos. We go through their album design and talk about like how to use the images to. I think it's a huge shame for someone to spend all the time and energy of creating beautiful photos. And then just to leave them on a hard drive or just on social media. So I'm always encouraging people to put them in an album, put them on the wall, make sure that they're really something that you enjoy every day. I liked that I liked the reveal is that. I mean, talk me through kind of, what is that like from your side, being able to bring them in and kind of show off the photos for them after it's done. Oh, it's really handy for me to know if I did a good job. A lot of times people are sitting on the couch crying, which is a little awkward, but like a good awkward, you know, because I'm want them to feel those emotions. I want them to feel like when they've seen their 20 minute slide show that they've been through their entire day again. It's also. Good way to know. If you did a good job, but also like smooths over maybe. Maybe if you didn't do a good job. They kind of get lost in the moment, right? Like, you know, that's where I, my, my key early on in my career was I would try to get them their video on their honeymoon. Cause it was like, you. It's all gravy about pointing them. By the time you get back here. What was lower. What did we like about that is kind of all. All fades away. But it has to be a cool experience for you and the clients to be able to kind of live through that together. Absolutely. Yeah, I've got popcorn here in the studio, so we, you know, we chill. We have a bite. It's fun. So, how did you get into, and I know we kind of rehash this on the, on the original, get to know your wedding pro that you were on many years ago, but how did you kind of enter the world of wedding photography? You know, I don't even remember what I said then. And I always give people multiple different reasons. So let's see if this one matches. I've always loved events. I've always loved people and getting to know people and telling stories. I wanted to be a photo journalist. And after really looking into what that was like and kind of the lifestyle I moved towards weddings. Cause I felt like it was going to be. Longterm just better fit for me. Why did you feel that way? I didn't like the fashion industry. I tried it and there was a little bit of cocaine involved on my part, other people's. And I just like a little different, I'm not that. That's not my crowd. And then I tried like, I was watching the industry for photo journalism and especially print journalism, not really going very far. And I mean, I was graduating from college in 1999, so that was right on the Eve of when. Press and journalism was really changing. And I just saw that as, not necessarily the pass forward. So you decided on weddings, how did you kind of deal? Was it a jump in headfirst? I mean, how did you kind of enter that world then? My very first wedding, a friend suggested that I photograph for her sister. And her sister. And her partner. I have no idea if they're still together. It was a green card wedding. So very well. A lot of Ben and I got kind of hooked. It was fun to feel the energy and the excitement and watch the people hugging one another and laughing. And I just, I got addicted to it real quick. It's interesting. Cause I, you know, I was in kind of that video journalism world, right. And transition into. Where the entity was kind of the same. I was just talking to someone. I must have been at our wedding over the weekend. I was talking to someone about that, like feeling that energy, right. Where when I was in news, it was always a very negative, like, we don't want you around. Right. You're always there when something bad is happening. And to, like you said, be able to feel that energy and joy and like, The people are celebrate you, be in there and kind of capturing everything. It was a really nice feeling that I hadn't really gotten a lot of in the last eight years of my career before that point, you know, Oh, for sure. There's definitely a wedding high that comes along with this industry. And I always go home and tell my husband, oh my gosh, they were so cute. And they were still in love and the cake was delicious and give them all the details. I, you still get that to this day. Oh, yeah. Because, you know, I mean, it's a long, I mean, I, sometimes I come home, I'm a little tired, but that's good. I mean, you've been doing it a long time, but to be able to still kind of get that high and that buzz off of it. Yeah, I take more ibuprofen now than I used to, but that's the real difference. How do you keep things fresh now having done it, you know, obviously. We have a little bit of rinse and repeat, right. I think that that helps. I like having that aspect as in, I'm not walking into surprises, right. That kind of like knowing what's going on. And then I can experiment kind of within that framework, but how do you keep things fresh? For you and all your weddings. Oh, that's a great question. I always try to challenge myself to do something different. So I'll tell myself at the beginning of the day today, I'm going to take X shot that I've that's on their list, but I'm going to do it in three different ways than I did last time. So that way I always come out with something that surprises me as well as them. And I always am looking for new angles and new ways to kind of tell the story, because there's always a different perspective that you can shoot from. Are you finding. You know, weddings happening now, a couples now. Same different than maybe it was 10 years ago or, you know, whenever you enter them, like, as things kind of shifted over time. I think that definitely there's trends and the things that couples are anticipating do change. I mean, like when I first started the black and white with like a pop of color was really big and I'm so glad that that's not a trend anymore, because that was God awful. But there's definitely trends now that are pretty gross. And I get asked about that regularly and I just tell clients like, Hey, this is what my style is. This is how I can really create something for you. If you like what you see on the website, that's what I can give you. Is it hard? Do you find challenges, marketing nowadays? So many photographers, right? So many different vendors. I mean, I have this to a video, like how do you stand there, stand out and kind of make your mark for the clients to book you. You know, I love the wedding show. The wedding shows a great marketing piece for me. I love being able to talk to people face to face, and that's such a great way for couples that are coming through to really get a good opportunity to see the vendor and see kind of their style at the same time. This sounds horrible. I feel like to say, but I don't do a lot of marketing at this point. I I'm out in Seattle bride. I'm at the wedding show. And I advertise on Google and on Facebook. And generally the clients are coming to me and they're saying, Hey, we love your style. We love everything on your website. Where do I sign? So it's gotten a little bit easier. I'm not convincing people as much, but I feel like it's a lot of, it's just doing a good job of telling people on my website and in other forms, this is what you can expect from me. That's the hardest thing for, I think transitioning from like old w when you're a new vendor starting out and then trying to transition to a seasoned vendor, is that like, You just do the best you can. If they don't want a book or it doesn't work out, like it's just not the right fit. I remember I used to like use Lynette every single like, oh, Hey, we're going in a different direction. You've got, you know, like, what did I do? But now, I mean, it really does feel that way. You know, you have conversations and like, maybe I'll have an inquiry or we'll have a meeting and you don't follow up as frequently because you, maybe you feel like that wasn't the right fit. Right. That particular meeting. I mean, how have you kind of grown in that way over your career? I call it the Ron Swanson style marketing. Like you. You feel like it. And you can have it. If you don't like it, you don't need it, but I'm with you. I don't lament those other people. I do point them in directions of others. Like say someone says they really love the dark and moody style. I'm like, oh, I know a perfect photographer for you. And I send them to somebody who's got that style. I really don't think that there's going to be ever a shortage of people that want to get married. I mean, as we saw when we couldn't shoot in. In 2020, like it just created a backlog. People are going to always fall up. People are always gonna want to be together. And so I'm just hanging out, being me. And if we. Get along in the great. That is the weirdest, I mean, cause I know you were on a bunch of the podcasts. We did, you know, kind of wedding planning and stuff here when. No one could work or whatever. And it really did feel like, okay, maybe we as an industry are going to change where people are going to want something different or we're going to do the scale down, micro WEDI, whatever. And obviously people are going to elope, whatever, but it really did seem like the second you could have a 200 person wedding. Again, we just wanted to do that. Right. And you know what? I'm totally okay with that. I really missed the big weddings and all the people. Is it nice to, I. Because I do feel like the last couple I've done. We're kind of finally getting back to just, I mean, you still have sanitizer like sitting on the table, but for the most part, it feels like it's a little bit more back to normal. Yeah. I feel like if you just. Snipped out a couple years and nothing's really different. It's very often. I have. We're we're going back and trying to block some of the weddings now that we're kind of in the dark times. And I'm like, well, It was weird. It's really weird. Yeah, it doesn't really feel like you can just go from. Yeah, January, 2020 to now. And this now that we didn't skip a beat. Right. And you know what that's that shows the resilience of the industry, the resilience of love and the resilience of people that they're going to always want to be together. They're going to always want to really connect with others in. No virus can really take that away from us. I hear a lot from photographers. Right. You know, it's my work, right. Obviously you want your work to sell, but obviously it's, it's like your relationships to ride that you build with the client. Talk about you, that, like you said, you love to meet people at the wedding shows, get to know them. Right. Having done so many weddings, you can give people advice, whatever. How does that work for you with the client kind of a client and you relationship in that way? Oh, I love listening and I love asking people questions. I kind of wish right now that I was on the opposite side and I was asking you the question. It's fun to hear what people have to say, because nobody ever answers anything the exact same way you would think. After 22 years that I would get the same answers from all my clients and everybody always surprises me. And I love the surprise of that. And generally just trying to find a way to get inside the brain. So a lot of times I'll do walkthroughs, even when I know a venue well with a client, because I want to try to see it through their eyes and understand what they love about the space, because I want them to really resonate with their images and feel like I told their story from their perspective and not necessarily my own. It's hard. I deal with that a lot with videography where a lot of, I think a lot of the videography companies run it a little bit more like an art form than they do a business. Right. Where they. I, you said they want to tell it their way or kind of interpreted their way. Right. And it's weird. I I've always like you tried to have that opposite, like, well, how do you guys want it told right. What to you guys want it focused on? But it's weird. I see a lot of comments like that and like videography, Facebook groups of like, well, they wanted me to do it this way, this and that. So crazy. You know, because I have the RNs and it's like, yeah, but it's also, it's like a service industry, right? I mean, we're educated and. Experience to go in, but ultimately they're still the ones kind of paying for it. It's a weird dynamic that way. Well, it's a commission. You have. You can definitely be an artist, but you have to understand that when Vermeer was painting for a client, he painted what the client wanted. When Vermeer was painting for himself, he painted the girl with the Pearl earring. And that's a master work, right. So you have to know what your audience is and you have to adapt to your audience. So did you end up doing, I can't remember any schooling for wedding. Yeah, photography going into it. Was it all learning on, on, you know, on the case, on the field? I mean, how did that work out? I went to the artist studio in Seattle and got a degree in commercial photography. And every couple of years, I go back and do training classes with master photographers. Do you feel like that having that experience and that having kind of gone through that? Better equipped you to be able to go into the kind of knowing what you were doing in the field. I'll absolutely. I learned that it was a business. First of all, instead of an art form, it was an arts that you sold. And I think that really put me on a good footing to make money and to be able to be profitable. I always see these photographers who are like couple of years in and they're super burnt out and they're struggling or they're not charging enough. And so I don't know. How to really run their business and then they have this great work, but they can't get anywhere with it. And that's sad. We do live in a capitalist world and we should probably adapt accordingly. Well, and it's, it's just a lot. I mean, I, even our wedding on Saturday, you long day and travel. It's just a lot of work goes into other may. If you do the math of. How many pennies per hour you get by the time you consult and do all that. I mean, it, it's not, it's weird because it's such a price tag on it that people see, but they don't see yet AC eight hours on the wedding day or 12 hours on the wedding day, but they don't see the 87 hours of everything else that goes into it. Oh, yeah. And I try to be really visible actually with my clients and tell them about that. So during my consultation, we talk about, okay, here's the schedule of when you're going to get your photos hears. When the sneak peak is going to happen. And here's what I'm doing in the interms. They have an idea. Of what the process is because I understand they don't know. And I feel like everybody is better off when we're educated. Is this hard, like even the ones that are they, we have, I had to do a stream for it. And there was just a lot of issues with it like that. Internet and the people that were doing the audio. It was just a lot of, and I'm like, I was like, you know, me, me even two or three years ago, like, I don't think I could have figured out how to troubleshoot all this right. Going into it. Right. And so you really are paying for not only the work that you're doing right. But those years in like you, and you're 20 years in, in going to the art Institute and all the hundreds of weddings and all of that rolled into it. And I just don't. It's hard to verbalize that sometimes maybe you do a better job in your consult. You've just made me think. I need to raise my prices. Read. But you, you know, your, your, your price for kind of high end, right? I mean, you, you get a premium, I would say you get a premium experience, right. With your packages. Yeah. Yeah. The value is important to me. So I do charge more than say, like a photographer. Who's just starting out. But I'm definitely not charging like the highest end out there. And my goal is to work with normal people and I want normal people to be able to afford me, but also feel like they got a great value. That's the thing. I mean, people never don't realize that like yeah, if you charge super high, it's almost, if it's you'd be charged too less or too much because the people that don't pay anything want the most, and then if you're charging these. Photographers charged on like eight, 10 grand. I see online. And I'm like, I don't want to deal with that either, because that is a lot of pressure though. Like, You know, you can't have anything go wrong at all. It's it's you gotta be right in the middle there, right? Yeah. Well, and I just did the math. Like where's most people they're in the middle and I feel like if I want to get good quality clients that are authentic, real people, that I'm going to have to go to the metal. You talked a lot about, you know, Other photographers in, you know, maybe it's not charging enough for, you know, you've been doing this and being able to look around, I mean, What are some common mistakes? You see, you see people getting burnt out. I mean, anything else you see other photographers, maybe listening to this advice that they could take. Oh, yeah. Know your numbers know how much your cost of living is and know how much you got to make. If you were working a regular nine to five, how much would you be making a week? You should be making the same amount as an entrepreneur. And a lot of people get scared and they think, well, I can't charge that. No, one's going to pay that. Well, you don't have to have them pay it all upfront. A lot of times people think that they need to throw like this all-inclusive package. I'll a lot of my clients will purchase albums later and they'll start with one of my lower packages and then they'll purchase some wall art and they'll purchase an album. And honestly their price tag ends up being the bigger package, but they're allowed to do it in increments. There's ways to make it work and make your bottom line without starving yourself and also doing a disservice to your industry. And as you do your photos, right? You use. You provide them and then you upcharge for the year, not like an in-person. Are you IPS? Are you, you deliver, and then you have the additional upsells. Yeah. So we do this. Reveal at the sales meeting at the same time. So I do all in-person sales for my clients on the sessions, as well as on their weddings. And so do you, I mean, obviously you feel like that's a successful way to do that cause right. There's different ways you can run right. Run itself. I mean, I don't exist in that world, so maybe educate me and others about kind of the difference there. Yeah. So the idea of an in-person sales consultation is that after your event, you're going to sit down with me. We're going to talk about, and I'm going to help educate you on what to do with your photos. Because every time I ask a client, what do you want to do with these? The answer is. I don't know, they they've never thought about it. So my job is to really help them understand that they should be putting wall art up on their house because they, they honestly want it most times or putting an album together. If they're not crazy about hanging photos of themselves on the wall. And that doing that. You need to make sure that they're high quality products, because these things in particular, you want to last a lifetime. If you go to a big box store and get like a Costco canvas or whatever, it's going to last for maybe five years before, it'll start to fade. And then you're going to, you're going to put a couple hundred dollars into that even at Costco. And then it's going to discolor and you're going to see it yellow or brown or the colors fade completely. And it's not going to look like what you remember it looking like because time and age and sunlight all work against. Things and destroy them slowly, but professional labs that only work through professional photographers provide. 100 Year archival papers or acid free materials or UV protectants on the tops of all of these things, so that they're guaranteed to last a lifetime. Remind me that to tell you where Dorothy. Oh, yeah, no, no, no. Don't tell me. But not then we're not really the way he went. I mean more just like the cell phones, but. I know you mean like we'll get back some of those and I'm just like, this is even like this doesn't even look in the same world as what the photo was. Right. Well, and that's another big thing is a lot of the big box stores don't do any amount of color correcting. So you'll see your photo on the monitor and then you'll see your print. You're like these don't match. They look completely different. I'm going to make sure that what you see in your digital files look exactly the same as what your print looks like. And if it doesn't match, I replace it. Boy, you said it's one of those things where people want it. They just don't. It's what you just kinda gotta be pushed to do it. Like even hanging up the art in our house that we have is. Yeah, once you get it up here. We love it. And it feels so homey in here, but it's not something that you're sitting there every night. Like, man, we really got to, we got to get on this, you know? Oh, yeah. You made me think of when we brought our oldest son home from the hospital, we had this really s****y couch. And it was doing its job because we were sitting on it. We didn't care. The second we brought that baby into the house. We thought we can't put this kid on this couch. There comes a point in your life when you start understanding what quality is about and why you buy things that are quality. And a lot of times that happens for people after they married and settled down. What I would be curious to hear, and you were on our great, I think do's and don'ts of wedding toast episode or whatever, the best meal. Why these podcasts, but some. Some favorite memories from wedding and something that really made you how, you know, in recent memory, something that you live through. A funny story. Oh, that's good. There's a lot of them. Couple of weekends ago. It didn't make me laugh. It made me cry. This dad had an adopted daughter. And then they had adopted her at birth and he got together with the DJ and he recorded in a sound studio or something, this little monologue for her. Cause he knew he couldn't get through it in person. And he was saying how, when he was holding her in the hospital after birth mom had given him the baby for the first time. He's saying this little song to her and he repeated the song that he saying. And he said. But I figured we couldn't dance to that for three minutes. So I thought let's dance to this instead. And then the music came on and it was the song that he used to sing to her every night when she was a little girl and I am just balling. Behind the camera because it was so beautiful and so sentimental, and you could really feel the love of this dad for this daughter in that moment. When you've talked about that before on here, that once you've had kids and kind of imagining yourself being in those situations, when they get married, it, it adds a different level of connection. I mean to any client, but when you're at weddings, It is weird once you, like, when I, after I got married, I couldn't get through the first couple of hours that people had, you know, at the weddings that I shot after. I mean, you really do feel in that moment. Oh, absolutely. Because you've been there. You remember what it was like when you and Dorothy got married? And I think like, yeah, I think I want to stay with this person. This is good. But talk about that though, with you and, and kind of with your family and feeling that connection. Cause I kinda took the thunder from this story when I was asking the question. I, I constantly, re-imagine what it's going to be. Like when my kids get married, I have four of them. And honestly, my oldest son has never been really into dating. He's going on his first date, this next weekend. It's super cute. And I cannot, I can't wait to see who they bring home and who these people are that are going to love them the way that I love them. And weddings really do look different from the side of a parent. And you don't know. You get there, but it's a great place. Yeah, you have, I mean, we, we don't have kids here, but during these scissors, you know, a little two nieces and nephew, and it's interesting how they kind of find their way in the world and see them grow. And you're like, I never would've thought that like when it was this little. Peanut, whatever. Now they're, they're going to school at seven. It's interesting to see how the world kind of shapes them and they grow on. It's really cool. Yeah, it is really cool. I want you to be able to give us a tour here of your studio for the, for the YouTube. You know, viewers, not the audio listeners before we get out of here. Do you want to show off your studio? I, you have your wonderful canvas behind you. Is that one of the ones that hangs at the wedding show? Yeah. I can start by showing you this. Let me flip the camera around so you can see. Well, Irene is going to give us a virtual tour. Her of her. We're going to see how this works out this first time. This can go bad, but let's try it obviously. Let me see if I can put my camera. I don't know if I can flip my camera. All right, we're going to try it this way. So, yeah. This is the, my huge four foot by nine foot print. It's a wood print that I show up at the wedding show. And then like, this is my space. When my clients come to view their photos. So there's the big screen. And the clients just hang out over here on the couch. And we watch a little movie. Talk about all the fun things behind me here. We've got my frame wall. So these are all 28 different options. It's a frames. And then over here, you can see. This is one of the shooting stations that I've got some get this flower wall that I made. It looks really cute for little girls. And like Valentine's was really fun to shoot on that. And then this space that I'm walking into June. Now, this is the actual studio. So we've got some lovely, natural light. That's my bed set in the back. And then over here, we've got the big gray wall that I use for a lot of family portraits. And then it was that my corner full of. My lighting gear. It's a fun space. It's not gigantic, but it's perfect for what I'm looking for, because it allows me at least five different spots that I can set up for clients to give them all sorts of different looks. And where are you going? Where's it located now? I'm off of baker avenue on Everett, right by the PUD. Well, it looks great. Like I said, the key to that, it's so hard with the studios because you're really kind of locked into this space. Very versatile, right? Where you have the brick air. And you have the gray wall and you were able to set up the bathroom. I mean, that's nice. Cause that's my always thing, even with. I would have no use for it with, with my little video step, but it's like, you're kind of locked into whatever the look is. It does seem like it's a very versatile space talk through. I know we mentioned some of the things that you do, but you know, baby shoots and everything, like all the kind of stuff that you can do there. Yeah, I do engage on shoots here, families. I do a maternity as well. So just about any age, any milestone that's important. I love doing kids. Back to do a milestone package where you can get like birth through the first year. Oh, that's exciting. Is that. So Ty talk me through that. That's something cool. Yeah, so like a newborn stage and then four months, eight months in a year. So you get a mini session. Basically for each of those. So you don't have to stress out about, oh my gosh, is my kid going to make it to an hour? Cause they're not, they're gonna make it through about 20 minutes, but it gives you a really fun. Collection of photos. And at a year we do a cake smash and I even make the cake because I love baking. That's the all-inclusive that start to finish thing. And obviously we were talking before we recorded, you had just taken photos of one of your children. I mean, you. Just very good at being a mother, working with all of the ages of kids and everything else, right. From. From, you know, little kids to older, just not everyone is equipped to that. I work with a lot of like, you know, young men and women photographers. They maybe would not be as equipped to work with children of all ages in that way. Oh, yeah, I've always loved kids. I joke that I like them better than their parents. Well, it's small doses is always the key for that. Right. I'm sure you liked me a lot more than Dorothy does some days. Cause it's small. Anything else we want to get through on this. I I'm glad we got to see your studio kind of walk through the, get to know your wedding pro process. Talk to a little bit about what you do, you know, why you do it. Anything else you want to share with us today? I. Wish I had something else smart to say rain, but I feel like we covered it all. It's good. It's exciting. But this is kind of an example of a get to know your wedding pro, like I said, we even talk a little bit, how you guys into the business. Talk a little bit about your, you know, your home life, personal life, stuff like that. I think it's so interesting. You could have 15 different photographers or videographers and every single person's career path gets them to a different way that they're going to look at things. Unlike anyone else I'm very different than a lot of the other videographers. Irene has a totally different skill set than other photographers. And I think this is an interesting. Good way to kind of showcase that this a little bit longer form podcast. So. Yeah. Excellent. I love that you do this. I think it's a really valuable resource. What we're going to get back on, though on. On the horse with this one, if people want to learn more about you, what you do see size of your photography, where would you have them go? Visit. [Unknown] photo.net. And check out the studio. You have all the information with the studio on there as well. Absolutely. Awesome. Well, I ran, it's always great to connect. I really appreciate it. If you're like Irene and you want to come on a future episode of the podcast, you can go to the best made videos.com/podcastguest

Lauren Allee - PNW Weddings LLC

We have Lauren Allee here of Pacific Northwest weddings, LLC. How are you doing? I'm doing really well. Thank you. So, this is exciting. Not only because I like to meet new vendors outside of Washington. But you also kind of have a unique. I guess vendor type, right? Wedding directory online, you know, platform that way. So I'm excited to talk through everything at first off. How, how is your week going? We're recording on the Friday. We're trying to get out of here alive. Oh man. It's fun. Single parenthood, baseball season, wedding magazine just launched this week. Lots of planning. So. Keeping my head above the water. That's good. You guys are digital online, but obviously, so anyone can access it via your base down outside of the Portland. Right? So where where's whole base. Homebase is around Tigered Oregon. The Southwest suburbs. That's where my family and I have settled and love it. So what is Pacific Northwest sweaty weather we have going on here? Yeah. Pacific Northwest weddings is a digital magazine and website dedicated to. Try to change the perception and culture of what is a wedding and talk about things that. Normal like big publications, try to shy away from. So we talk a lot about money management and we talk about things that are sometimes taboo, but. These are real conversations that need to happen, especially when choosing your vendors because weddings, as you know, are not inexpensive. And getting to know your vendors and getting to know who you're spending your time and money with becomes more and more important as you go along, which. It's kind of fun. Well, it's so hard with the weddings in general. Cause people go in so blinded, right? They have no idea what anything costs. They think it's going to be, you know, $8,000. It's 80,000. I mean, not really, but you don't like it. And it is the weirdest thing where. I don't know, you're told, right? Like you can have the wedding of your dreams, anything you want, you know, this is your day, but then ultimately there are financial limits and restrictions. So a lot of the, I mean, it's, you can't have everything if you want it. Yeah, and that's kind of why this all started. So my background. Is a little different, I don't come from publishing at all. I am actually in my real, my big girl job as I call it. I'm an operations director for a single home. Family builder here in Portland. So I'm a numbers and marketing and management kind of lady. I've been obsessed with weddings my entire life. I was in the vital industry. About, oh my gosh. 25 years ago, 20 years ago in Indiana with a bridal shop. And then I ended up getting me engaged. Right around when the pandemic started. And I consider myself a fairly intelligent human being. So I came into it and I'm like, okay, well, I got, sorry. My dog is having like a. I'm so sick. Sorry. Well, normally never made or like, she'll get a nightmare, but she was like full on Halle. And I was like, what? In here. I didn't know. So. Sorry about that. I hate to interrupt people in there. So we'll start back. You got to gauge right around the time of the pandemic. If you wouldn't mind picking it up from there. We already got engaged right around the time the pandemic started and I consider myself. A fairly intelligent human being. I'm very well-versed in money management and things like that. But I didn't have the context out here. Didn't quite know where to start. It was all very overwhelming. And I started looking for resources on like, how do you even start pricing out a photographer? What does this mean? And having a lot of these questions and I'm kind of a seeker. It became more and more fascinating as. The planning process went on. Just to talk with these vendors and find out so much more about how they dedicate their lives and what all goes into like sure. You see the big price tag. Wedding photographer. Two three grand for a day's worth of work, but it's really not. It's months of digital editing and there's prep and everything that goes along with it. And so I started doing some market research and saw that there were some. Like Oregon bride and Seattle bride. And there were these companies putting out physical magazines, but there was no regional resource that I could find that really. What's coming at it from a different point of view. Like it's not necessarily a profit generating thing. I don't anticipate making a profit until probably a year, three, four, as we develop what we're building. But really about the curiosity side is okay. Well, I want to know more, how do we get going? And so that's kind of where it all came from. And I'm like, what can I do this? I love the graphic design part. I miss. That part of my life. And found a great team and started going the engagement and workout. But my God. Business I did. And it's. So much joy and fulfillment former life. So that's good. Well, I'm sorry to hear about, yeah. The engagement. Happy to hear about. But it's well, I, cause I really understand when you're talking where you're coming from, I am involved in email I'm on wedding wire and the nod. And obviously we know, see how the bride and the, I think there's Pacific coast weddings in Portland with. I don't know of any. And not that it's a bad thing, but I don't know of any that aren't super profit driven. Like that is what they're, I mean, even see all a bride, like if you don't pay to be on their directory, you know, you are not featured in things. You're not either. They have like, there. Best of Seattle. Like you are not in that. If you do not pay for it, where, you know, trying to look at it from the other side of just being the helpful resource, I guess that it's not bad to be profit driven. It does create a, you know, a conflict there sometimes when you're trying to give resources out. It can get very difficult and there is a reason things are profit driven. I've been a part of Chicago bride before, and I got to see that side of it. But again, The entire wedding industry was completely thrown off kilter. And so, especially as we're building and trying to figure out what we're doing and where we want to spend our time and effort, because it is a passion project. I have a full-time job. I do have two wonderful. Women that help build this into what it's becoming. But really not limiting it to the people that are paying thousands of dollars. We're talking like $200 for the year to be in the directory. And then we send prompts. As we're building our content. For quotes. And if they want to, if they have anything to say about the subject, Reach out. Like, we want to hear from you. We want to hear what you have going on. And we're just trying to do our best to build that community and that trust and go from that point on. Two. We have this resource that. Couples can actually come and ask them us. A question and we have this. Amazing resource to say, Hey, we have these couples and I've heard time after time. They want to know more about why does it take. Three months today. Wedding photography. Photos back like these kinds of things and kind of demystifying the whole process. And that's the entire, every little part of a wedding, everything that goes together for these celebrations. Sometimes can seem a shock if you don't know what all goes into them. And the people that are living this day in and day out every weekend is somebody's biggest day. They have a lot of information and a lot of perspective that needs to be heard. Well, it's so challenging because everyone does it different, you know, everyone's price and everyone's workflow and never went to like, so try to even get market. Like, what is the average of this stuff? Why do I need to be looking? It's it's really hard. Cause like I have videographers that say, if you get your wedding in less than a year, I'm doing a good job, you know, following your. You know your wedding date and you're like, okay, well, is that, is that normal? Like, I don't know. Yeah. If I'm a brighter groom or, you know, someone trying to plan the way, I don't know where that, where I fit in that. And knowing how to have those conversations with the people that you're giving your money to. A lot of people are afraid to ask questions. That's not me. I want to know why and when and how, and it helps them as long as we can have these meaningful conversations. Without like, seeming like, oh, I don't want to sound like I'm ignorant. I'm like, There's no wrong questions, especially when you're talking. About something so near and dear to your heart. And being able to represent. All different types of vendors. All different types of like, there's a lot of different people that are at the beginning of their business, in the middle of their business. They're scaling. Or even they've been doing it for 30 years and they're just looking for the right kind of client because there is a right kind of client and there's a right kind of wedding vendor for. The claim themselves. There's so many options out there. Trying to figure out who to trust and who is going to click with you is. I mean, you can't as a wedding vendor, you can't do all weddings and that's just not feasible. Just like. You want to just make sure you have that right fit. Well, and I think it's interesting too, how. I always try you as the videographer. Right. You know, establishing those relationships. I think people look at their photographer. Right. Okay. I really got to know my photographer or like my, maybe my planner. Right. I really got to get to know them, but a lot of these other vendors, right. Well, maybe it's not as personality driven, right? Like, do I care if I know the venue out there? Do I care if I know the forest? We're ultimately, you really do have these long-term relationships with all these people. Especially now with COVID like we've had people on the books for, you know, two and a half years. Right. And. This is. This is like a really, really long relationship that maybe, you know, a couple of years ago you booked some wine, six months out. Okay. We move on. We're now we're living with these people and people are planning a lot further out. So you're trusting these people with your money and your day a lot further out than you were even a couple of years ago, right? And weddings have changed the pandemic for the first time. And I would say a hundred years. The idea of a wedding and what these celebrations mean and what they look like. On a. A higher level has shifted a little. It made us reevaluate. What do we really want? How are we going to be authentic to ourselves? Do we really want. Everybody I've ever met and their friends to come or do I want to be on a beach with my fiance and two good friends. And just supporting that and. Celebrating those types. I mean, it's, I. I know some of my best friends that are just. I want everybody to come to a giant party and we're going to have just this huge blowout. And then I know a few minor, like I'm going to go climb up to the top of the mountain and just enjoy it there and being happy and unapologetic. Four. Celebrating every type of wedding and we really work on representation. Our language being as inclusive as humanly possible. I like to have plus-size and other types of couples and from. Every single lock, just because I want to normalize love and celebrating that and being as authentic as humanly possible. It's just as important if you spend. $500 On your wedding, or if you just don't even count anymore. EV each wedding is special and really making sure those are shown in. Normalized, I guess. Oh, it's hard. It's hard being inclusive. I think people. As progressive as the Pacific Northwest is, I think people are still vendors struggle with that. Having the right language, even in, in like your contracts in your questionnaires and things like. Yeah. Bride name here, group named here. Like those things matter, you know, and like, as he is, as much as I hate to have, like, I think I have person a and B here, cause I know you want to have like, well who's Bersin. But it's hard. Like you. It's a very hard conversation and I'm from the Midwest. Let's be honest. The Pacific Northwest is a million light years ahead. And I. Constantly just. On a daily basis. I'm just trying, I have to retrain my brain and these are conversations that will happen for the next, I mean, Next couple of generations. I think it's going to constantly keep progressing forward. Even marriage license. They now have person a and B, but it's very much like person a isn't even asked if they're going to change their name. It's so there's little strides and this is not something that ever changed overnight. But. Being aware and just. Checking yourself. We don't say bridal anymore. What bridal shows. It's all wedding shows and that's really hard because for myself, It's never said as something that's like, oh, I'm excluding this. It's like, no, literally my brain. Only has so much bandwidth and that's how I've been saying it for years, but every now and. Then I start to say it and then I'm like, wait, Okay, hold on. Backtrack. We're having a wedding show on May 22nd. Would you like to join us? That kind of thing. So just being aware and constantly self-checking and self-regulating and. Having as we put out content. Having at least three or four different people go through it as we're doing it and getting opinions and ideas and okay. Is there something overlooked because. What happens? I yes. As a Washington commanders fan, I will tell you that no one has ever was ever stock in any calling anything, a certain name and not being able to adjust. I can tell you that that's never happened before. So before we get too deep into this, so you guys are a digital online wedding magazine. So walk me through kind of, what is the process? The product is service kind of, what does this look like? We put out a quarterly magazine right now. It's myself, where we start. We start the whole process with what what's the overall theme of this going to be? Starts about six months from lunch. I know my communications director would love for me to start sooner and go a lot faster. But it's a little bit. Fun when you're juggling a lot of things in 10 years when I talk to you and it's all a streamlined process, and that's the only thing I'm doing. It's a little bit. So we started thinking about, okay, what is this? What overall theme do we want to talk about this? A month, we launched our sustainability issue. So the overall idea is. No matter what choices people are making, whether you want a green wedding or just wanting to know your options, or if you want to start thinking with more of a sustainable mindset. What is out there who's doing, what, what are the little tiny things you can do that make actually a fairly significant. And just knowing that. Nobody's judging you for whatever you do, but these, these are the options. So we started by looking at different. Wedding pros that we know and wedding pros that we don't and say, Hey, here are the article titles. Here's a list of questions and things we'd like to cover. And so I send out a prompt. To my wedding pros that are in my directory and some that are outside of it. If I know that they're really focused on this topic. And they, they send us what they're thinking. What they're doing. And so that kind of builds. The formation of these articles. And then we go from there. So I'm a, I'm not a writer, as you can tell. I write, like I speak, it's pretty, pretty intense. I like bullet points. I like getting down to the nitty gritty and Carolyn Pruitt is an amazing communications director. She helps. Clarify the Boyce. So you'll see her. She. She's in a lot of my by-lines because she helps put that. Forward as well as Beverly Luke is actually my social media director. She keeps me relevant. It's that the way to say that. She is absolutely wonderful. And she's constantly reaching out to people. And they're just a great team because whenever they see me getting a little overwhelmed, They tend to focus me and pull me back into the right direction, which is great. But yeah, we build article. At sea obsessions, we find things that are based out of the Pacific Northwest. And get their products that they're offering. We focused very much locally. We also have a conversation starters section in this magazine because we've been going to the wedding shows. And we're meeting these amazing people who are doing crazy things like. Llamas wedding mamas. First off, lost my mind when I saw that. And just why and how, and. How did you even start thinking about this? How, what does this look like in the wedding? And. You'd be amazed at this conversation. So you can actually start when a group of people that haven't been together for two years. Might not know each other and they see Lama dressed up. And a top hat and a bow tie and you can't help, but just. Seriously, did you see. The llama. So it's very organic. How about that? That's 10. These things come together. There's technical aspects. And of course I like digital editors. I love. Working with new technology and trying to figure out. What all we can be. I found some great resources with flip snack. They offer. Flippable catalogs and magazines that you can actually embed video into. So when talks is something that's coming up in the next, I would say six to nine months. I think. Ted talks for weddings. Kind of topic. A topic that a wedding pro is very passionate about. That people might have some mystery around. They're going to be explaining. From their perspective, how that works. We are launching that at that wedding show on May 22nd. And we're starting this whole pilot program. And seeing how it goes. So, what kind of feedback are you getting from? I guess, twofold. I want to hear what. What are the vendors like about being either as prompted, you know, be involved in this, giving their insights. Because I think that's important to you. Right? I think vendors like to be able to feel like I'm able to impart my knowledge or my whatever. And then obviously, what are you getting from the couples that are partaking in this. So from the vendor perspective, everybody is. Especially this year, time, poor. They, they don't have time to sit there and write and blog and things like that. So when we try to make it as easy as humanly possible, when you sign up for the directory. I actually review all the social media and a website and I build a draft of the listing before they don't have to fill out any forms other than basically telling me what. Areas they're in to the code it for the directory. So really getting an outside perspective. So. The whole point is trying to save everybody as much time as possible because nobody has extra time, especially as we're getting ready to go into the busiest season that the Pacific Northwest and anywhere has seen. In the last 30 years, I think that's what they were saying, which is insane. From a couple standpoint. Especially when we're talking about budget and as I'm talking to people at wedding shows, Being able to see couples like them. And a magazine. In prints. Is something that I'm getting a lot of positive feedback. The. Everybody I've called on the quality of the digital magazine and the content. It's very impressed and they can't believe we put it together with three people. And I'd love it to be more eventually, but. We take a lot of pride in the time that goes into pulling together. The content. And there's this, you said you didn't have a PR background, so it's a self-taught. I mean, how did you come about failing? So digital. I have an education from the art Institute in Chicago. It's all around merchandising. It's also taught. I have a. It's my decompression time working in graphic design. I've been doing it for years for small businesses, especially, especially growing businesses. I find that I love working with people that are just as passionate about what they're doing as I am, especially when it's things that they love to do. And it's something they're taking a chance on. They just want somebody to take a chance on them as well. So I tend to partner up with those people. Logo design, things like that. I mean, I've always run businesses. So I've always had to do everything. And when you have your own business, it's like you're cleaning the toilets. You're doing all the glamorous. And up to your meeting people's shows, but you're also doing all your own marketing. And it's been just self-taught over the last. I would say 20 years. But yeah, I started taking up. I have LD design studio. I've been doing that for about 10 of those years, just turning up the small businesses, but for the magazine. I've made catalogs in the past, things like that, but never at this scale. So it's a fun challenge. It definitely keeps me up at night sometimes because I'm a perfectionist. And I have a very particular eye when it comes to design. The website is constant. It's in constant progress. There's always something new. I'm trying to, trying to figure out. What do I want it to look like? And how do we, we have so many articles that aren't up yet. So I'm actively seeking out other people that would love to learn the backend or my 14 year old son is trying to learn how to code right now. And he's like, mom. Can I help. Sure. But. We're going to find somebody else to. But no, it's, it's just something that's been self-taught and a drive. And my, and I've always had a wonderful family to help support. Like me just taking time to do the things I love and this. Is definitely the, a penny of all. The entire last 30 years of life. But that's exciting. I think it's, I always idea of giving someone in approachable, right. Do you find, is that a goal, right? When you're giving the information out, having it be in an approachable kind of digestible way for the clients. Yes, a hundred percent. People. Are scared of things. They don't know how to do. And they put things off when it's something. I'm very. Very adamant that I'm very good at. Like four things. What were the things? Those are four things. I'm very good at. And the other stuff. I'm okay with not being. Amazing. I outsource or I find people that that is their thing. I I'm a part of a group called the mob nation. It is a group of mother owned business entrepreneurs. And we get together two times a week and we talk about things like this. It's like, no, I, this is my passion. I love graphic design. I love this part. If I can do this a hundred percent of my time. My life would be. I mean so much. Less stressful. And so we all come together and kind of think about, okay, well, if you do this. Can I can do this and then we can do this. And everybody. Raises up. Everybody has more fulfillment. Everybody has more joy. For the business side. I'm a marketing girl. Like I love that if anybody wants to sit there and chat about graphic design and digital design and marketing and. SCO and all that fun stuff. I can do it forever. But to other people. That's maybe not their thing. So it's a little scary for them. I know we got this. I've got your back. It was interesting to it. That is like, if you're good in certain things like. Then when you find people like that are so not good at that, right. You're like, how are you? Like, you know, We talk about this all the time on the show, right? You could be the greatest force in the world and not that how to put together a website or not be able to do your web stuff or not be able to do your accounting. But sometimes when you see JAG, oh, that's really big. They're really bad. So they really don't know. And be okay with that. But I think it's all about coming to the realization that. Okay, this is a pain point in my business. I hate writing blogs, but I know. Four. Getting conversion on websites. I need to have some content. Google's not going to rank me very high. If I do not have content. And being aware of that. Of course, that's a fun one to explain to my people in the directory. This is how you get more views. This is how you generate buzz. We offer that service for you. We will help you build this content. But sometimes it just seems so scary. And being aware of that. And being okay with that and knowing that you need to reach out to somebody else, if you don't have the budget for it. Find a friend who loves doing. Like just being aware of your. Your strengths and your weaknesses. I am the first one, two a day. I am the worst at organized. Organization. I actually have to have somebody come in and clean. Deep clean my house. Cause otherwise I don't even know what year it is. Half the time, month, anything I'm just day to day. I get into design and. My family has to come up and be like, you haven't eaten in 17 hours. Like. You need to turn off the computer and walk away. Oh, okay. Yeah. So time management, not so good, especially when I'm doing something I love. So I'm looking at on here. I'm looking through the directory here. So. Obviously right. You have the client facing digital, you know why the magazine, but then you also have the directory, right? So if your vendors. So if you're, if you're listening, if you're a vendor wanting to be involved in this. You know, you have a nice page here, you know that your website, all the kinds of stuff you want. I like the, you do the license and insured, right? I'm involved with a lot of online wedding groups that this'll be shared in also that, you know, you're not allowed to be in, unless you're licensed and insured, you know, something that's overlooked a lot. Right. There's a very good reason for that. To be licensed and insured. And if they're not, that is. The first warning flag. That they might not have thought about the business the way they should have, or they're not as serious about it because. There's a lot of people getting into the industry. That might not necessarily think of it as a business, but more of a hobby. And that can be dangerous when you have people canceling. And I'm seeing that a lot in the wedding groups, sadly, that. My lane. Something or other canceled last minute, and I'm scrambling to find somebody. Like you need to vet. Don't go just off of price. You need to vet your vendors. And we start that process by asking if they're licensed and insured and verifying that. And then ask me how many years they've been in business. And I get a pretty good sense as we're doing the marketing overview to build the listings of what their page looks like, what information they have, and if they're missing something important, I'm the first one to point out like. Here are my suggestions. Like here's how you can help. Convert the people, because the hardest part is getting them to even know you're alive. And then going from there, it's like, okay, have you build that reputation? To make them want to trust you. Well, I guess. The license. Sure thing. Yeah. I think people, oh, whatever, like you said, it's talks about their level of focus on their business. Right? The commitment of care and that, you know, it's so easy to do that right. To get a business license and to get it. I get snotty. Oh, the challenging thing. Well, you know, like we were talking before, when you're booking these weddings, you know, I have weddings end of 2023 and it's like these couple of like, you know, they're, they're trusting you to be alive, be there and be. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I just don't think people get. I just, literally, before we hopped on here, saw someone, a photographer was looking for a videographer. Glassmere that canceled tomorrow $800 budget. It's like, I couldn't imagine why that person ever would have. Not follow through and been there. Like it's probably because you weren't paying them enough. That they felt worthwhile that they wanted to stick around and honor that day, you know? Yep. So if people want to be involved in this. So if you're a business, you got a P a w dash. Why the.com/list your business. Pricey and anything with that? How's that work? Let me just change our pricing. So we have two different levels. There's a base level and a collaborator. At both levels, you all get the prompts when we're sending out per content. So the base level is, I believe it's 199 for the year. It's for a whole year of listing. Constant contact with me, access, things like that. It literally helps fund. Making this possible each issue as we produce it and the technology behind it. Sadly cost money. I've been finding it on my pocket. I know it's not going to be profitable for a very long time. Okay. But we're making it work. The collaborator level I believe is at. 600 And it's for the year and you can break it out into monthly payments. And that is basically where you get a lot of social media. I'm sharing. You get a lot more. The listing is actually a lot more developed. So w. It's basically like your own landing page. For your business. We have feeds to your social media. We also have sidebars for people who help. Contribute to writing. So that's at all levels. If you're contributing content. We're adding your sidebar to your listing. All the articles that you're involved in are going to be at the bottom so everybody can link through and see now. Oh, yes. Sam starts, a venture has written for Pacific worthless weddings. Four different times. Here's all the contact information. And really working on those back links in the marketing channels. Yeah. And I'm looking at here with a Alison mayor. May. Yeah. Alison Ashley she's on the show. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. You, you make what you can with it, right? Hers is very well built out. Right? Lots of content. I mean, obviously if you're someone that's not submitting this, you know, you're, you're able to kind of choose your own, but, you know, I mean, for two other bucks for the year, I think. If you're in an email, if you're in a position to market and why the wire and stuff, I mean, I paid $200 a month and why the wire. I think, I, I think I pay the same and the not I'm pretty sure I I've. You know, so if you don't have 200 bucks for a flyer for the year, the kind of, at least try out one of these, I think it's a good fit, you know? Being able to have something where you can point your couples to as well. I think it's cool to have, like here's where you can find more information about me. I just think existing outside of your, on the website is very important, right? That's why. I hate Yelp, but I'm on Yelp, right? Like, We are better business bureau accredited, just because I used to do a lot of work for that. But also I think like, just when you're able to see people that you're hiring to name other places and just their own website, I think it's incredibly helpful to, to establish that trust. And we also offer badges of say, as featured in Pacific Northwest weddings. Magazine. Things like that. We're very affordable in the industry. I know I I'm. Admittedly, this is something I have. Another thing I'm not great at is the sales pitch. I believe that a wonderful product sells itself. And that's why this is a building year. Next year is a building year as well. But making sure we can maintain a. Affordable budget so that we have a large breadth of people to pull from the knowledge base. We offer featured articles. So people can tell their story. They can talk with our writers and. Put together. Four or five page spread on them. And really focus on that. Yeah, it's a business. I think a lot of people would say, I would love to run this as a nonprofit. That is an option later. Right now. Definitely not a nonprofit, but it's not profitable. But it's a starting business. That's just kind of how it goes. But the sentiment behind it is you're trusting us with your brand. And we're trusting our brand with you. It's all about a collaboration. It's a conversation. And getting your story out there and we're thrilled to do it. And every time we meet somebody new. It's exciting for us. And we're the first people to promote that if you have an event coming up. If you put in our hashtag. Are people in our directory? No. We check that daily. We're constantly. Pushing out content and sharing things from other people so that there's more eyes on. You're doing. Even a, was it black Swan events is on here that. She was on the show forever ago. That was like a oh G four years ago, guests. And incredible human being. So I noticed that her website, when I went to go look, cause I was putting some quotes in the magazine for her. Her website was down. I'm like Gabrielle. I are you still in business? Like I know she, they just opened AmaTerra by the way, in Portland, that's a beautiful winery. She had a huge hand in getting that thing off the ground and it's absolutely gorgeous. The event space is beautiful. And she's like, no, I'm still in business. Okay. So she was able, we're constantly checking in on our events. Because. They're amazing. And she is a wonderful human being who puts on these. Incredible events. So, yeah. Well, this is going to. I think you are a good front person for this I've they get, obviously it's coming from a place of, of care and passion that way. I think realistic in terms of like, you know, whether we hope to accomplish here. Anything else you want to make sure that we touched on that I didn't ask about, you know, any features, anything for couples or vendors. I just want to make sure we get everything here that we possibly could. For couples, we have a newsletter that if you sign up for the newsletter, we do giveaways and weekly, like just inspiration, kind of motivation, planning. A wedding is stressful. And even if you're planning. Back there, buddy. You get to that 30 day point and it's just, it's, there's a lot of stress and anxiety and a lot of interpersonal things that go on. So you're going to get some Monday motivation. You're going to get some. Just feel good things in your mailbox. From people that honestly care about. But your mental health and what you're doing. I'm going to launch a coffee chat soon. We were joking. And one of the. Wedding groups on Facebook, which was where a lot of things are happening. So if you're planning a wedding or if your wedding vendor hopped into these groups, because that's kind of like the church basement right now, of everything going on, every fasting. Talking what's going on. People are reaching out. Like I have no family around. I want to talk to other people in my same situation. Like, you know what, we're going to start doing coffee chats. We're going to sit there. In my pajamas. And we're going to talk about wedding planning. And how you're doing and just let people events and, or talk through problems or talk about contracts. Reading through your contracts, making sure everything's going on. Just a very informal kind of conversation. And the last thing I want to talk about is May 22nd. We're doing our first event. I have a personal. And I have personal anxiety around wedding shows in general. There's a lot of people. I am an introvert. I work behind a computer and I love design. And I lived with observed. This wedding show. Maddie from Prindle mountain. And Ashley has helped. They're both helping me up. Pull together. What we're calling a boutique wedding show. There's no boots. It's all set up on the newly renovated Pearlman. [Unknown] it's the most gorgeous than venue I've ever seen. It overlooks the Columbia river Gorge. We're going to have been yet set up so you can see what different kind of wedding styles look like out there. Ann Marie from Myrtle creative co is coming up and she's going to offer. Free many engagement shoots. On the overlook for couples that they can sign up when they buy their tickets through Eventbrite. And there's just a lot of different wedding pros. And I come up, show up. Show off what they do and you can meet them. You can have a meaningful conversation. You're not limited by 75 people coming up behind you and kind of interrupting. That's just going to be a fine. Day on the overlook. From one to five on May 22nd. There's tickets on event bright. If it says you have to pay $5, go to our website. We have a link. It's free com. Reserve your tickets. And I'll be there. I don't. I am very shy, but I love talking about weddings. If you start telling me about your wedding. I'm your best friend and I'll be your biggest cheerleader. Well, this is great. I really appreciate you taking the time to come on. This is great. Like I said, that. A lot of good ideas here. I think it's a good resource in the Pacific Northwest. If people we've mentioned the website a couple of times, if they want to follow you, you have the website follow you on social. Where would they check out? So Instagram is P and w underscore web w E D. Facebook is. Bleep PMW weddings magazine. And Twitter is. PNW weddings. They're all different. You know, when you have a generic name, like. It's very hard to. Nail NAB that one, but everything's on our website. All the links are there. And we'd be thrilled to have you join the conversation because we've talked a lot. And it's pnw-weddings.com. That's correct. Perfect. Well, thank you so much again, I really appreciate it. If you're like Lauren and you want to come on a future episode of the podcast, you can go to best meet videos.com/podcast guests. So nice easy questionnaire to get you in the system.