Own Your Business

You hear a lot about ideal clients from educators and experts, us included. We don’t have the market cornered on the information, but we certainly feel we add a nuanced and sophisticated approach to the concept. On this podcast, you’ve heard about buyer types and psychological motivations, which isn’t discussed much by others. We feel it’s important to do deep research on who your favorite couples are, what they believe, how they behave, and what emotional and social desires they hold deep down but don’t know how to express. When you know how to speak directly to what matters most to ideal couples, they become clients. You charge more for your services. You enjoy the experience of serving them, rather than dreading their wedding date. Over the years, I’ve steered our company upstream to help get more ideal couples for our clients. I started as a business coach, but for wedding pros to reach their goals they needed to convert more sales. To get more inquiries, Katy, my wife and business partner, started writing conversion copy for the websites of my coaching clients. We eventually expanded to additional pages like custom proposals and built a team of 10 to handle all the projects. Now we’re going even further upstream by integrating branding and website design into our in-house services. But like sales and copywriting, we’re not scratching the surface with approach. Oh no, we’re diving deep into the user experience and merging it with our work on buyer psychology and communication preferences. Today, I’m bringing Katy on to discuss the process of creating different designs for different buyer types based on how they prefer to process information on websites. Enjoy the discussion. Especially if you’re not getting enough inquiries, or inquiries from the right kinds of couples.

Fashion expert Julian Leaver and host discuss the importance of dressing professionally for weddings to blend in and maintain brand value. They cover tips for wedding pros on attire, grooming, and avoiding fashion no-nos to project a polished image and build client trust.

The podcast discusses the importance of balancing automation with personalization in client workflows, particularly in the wedding industry. The guest, Sara Kinkaid, VP of Operations at Aisle Planner, provides insights on leveraging CRM systems effectively. Emphasizing the need for a personalized client experience, the episode explores strategies for enhancing customer engagement through customized workflows and automated emails.

Trust isn’t given, it’s earned. And if you’re not focused on making deposits with potential clients, you better start now. Sure, marketing and sales requires you to do lots of different things well. Showcase a solid portfolio. Connect with the couples who inquire. Lead the discovery call to uncover emotional and social desires. Deliver a compelling custom proposal.  But at the root of all these things is trust. People on your website and in your inbox want to know you’re going to deliver the goods. That’s why they care about your portfolio. They want to know you’ve delivered the things they want for their own wedding to others before. That’s why they want to connect with you. They want to know you’re likable, and a good listener, and an authority in what you do. That’s why they want to feel empathy from you. They want to know you’re get them and have helped others with what they’re looking for. It all comes down to trust. Will you do what you say you’ll do when you say you’ll do it. The problem is too many wedding pros aren’t paying enough attention to building trust. And as you’ll hear in a story about how I lost trust with a willing buyer, it’s not easy to recover once you’ve bankrupted the trust account. Let’s get the story started, and then I’ll share my top 10 ways to build trust in the sales process.

Friction in the buyer’s journey grinds away on deal momentum slowly and silently. I’ve looked at hundreds of sales processes over the years, and I can tell you it’s usually not one big, dramatic reason why people ghost you.  When a deal dies, it’s more like death by a thousand paper cuts. One nick and it’s not that bad. Two, you can keep things going. But after a while the little things start to mount up and create real problems. The challenge is most people are creating friction in the buyer’s journey, but have no idea when and where and how. Today, I bring in Katy Taylor Jacobson to help break down where wedding pros are creating friction unknowingly on their websites and in the sales process. We’ll give you a list of approaches to avoid, so you can stop slowing down deal momentum and get more bookings on your calendar.

People buy from people, not businesses. Especially in the wedding industry where couples can work closely together with vendors for over a year. So why are you making it hard for couples to connect with you on your website? And to be clear, I’m not talking about putting up a photo of you with a blurb that reads like a dating profile or resume. Today, I bring on Katy Taylor Jacobson to share what mistakes she sees on About pages - and what to do instead, so you can attract more ideal clients to your inbox. Because, well, don’t we all want that right now?

Zoom is one of those artifacts from the pandemic that’s not going away. People got used to talking with each other remotely with this app, and the behavior stuck. Here’s the thing: I’m okay with it. In fact, I kinda like it. When done well, Zoom allows us to connect in a richer, more helpful way than phone calls do. It can also add to your swag by boosting the brand of your business in the same way a nice office does - or did. But it can also hurt your chances of booking new clients if your Zoom skills are subpar.  The bad news is most people I chat with on Zoom offer a below average Zoom experience. That’s the #1 reason I’m doing this episode. I feel obligated to help, because it’s gotten worse over the years. The good news is all the terrible Zoomers out there mean it’s easier to stand out, to be effective, and to build trust with potential buyers. So listen up for my Top 14 Zoom no-nos - and what to do instead.

Today I chat with top photographer, Joseph Rogero Mills, a client I first met back in 2023. I remember getting the inquiry and looking him up online. By all accounts, he was very successful: - Lots of IG followers - Published plenty of times - Brides Top Photographer - Stunning portfolio - Gorgeous website I was curious why he reached out. When I did the discovery call to find out, I was even more confused. He was knowledgeable, articulate, friendly, and believed in his company, abilities and product.  So what was up? Why did he need my help? As we’ll talk about in the conversation, it was a minor tweak or two at critical points in the sales process. That was all. A little acupuncture needle at the right pressure point to change the entire buying experience. You see, Joseph knows what he does well. How he helps his clients. Why those that book him absolutely adore their images. He has more conviction about what he calls his “ethos” than most wedding pros I know. And that’s led to his success. I simply helped him translate it differently to different couples when they inquired. Listen in on our conversation to hear more about Joseph’s journey as a business owner, which has proven to be an intense experience of self-reflection and personal discovery. 

Couples are overwhelmed by all the noise in today’s wedding marketplace. It’s crowded. It’s loud. It all sounds and looks the same to the untrained buyer simply hoping to book vendors for a pretty, fun celebration with family and friends. So how do you compete in this situation? How do you fill your calendar? With the right kinds of couples? Who pay higher prices you deserve for your amazing work? That’s exactly what I’m talking about today with Katy Taylor Jacobson, my wife and our Head Copywriter, who’s spent more than 50,000 hours - yes, that’s correct - thinking about and practicing how to get wedding couples to buy services from her, her team, or clients she’s guiding the way for. When you live and breathe wedding sales and marketing over a quarter century you learn a thing or two about how to stand out, and that’s what we’ll explore in today’s conversation. Get your notepad out, and enjoy the discussion!

The podcast discusses the lingering effects of the pandemic on the wedding industry, causing couples to delay decisions. Stories of friends dealing with wedding venue deposits and turning vacations into celebrations. Exploring post-pandemic ripple effects on businesses and the challenges faced by couples when planning weddings in uncertain times.