IN THE CONVO:
Welcome to a raw conversation filled with hard truths, big love, and lots of name-dropping!
Imagine turning a childhood knack for fundraising into orchestrating grand occasions that capture the heart of celebrations. That's the story of Keith Willard who now leads Keith Willard Events, crafting memorable moments for clients of all budgets - but known for his high-profile clients and sophisticated design style. Keith openly shares the twists of fate and the lessons learned in creating events that resonate long after the last toast is made.
If you thrive on juicy conversations within the wedding industry - you're in for a treat. We're name-dropping, sharing some crazy stories, and having mutual ah-ha moments along the way. I hope you enjoy this convo as much as I did!
CONNECT WITH KEITH:
🌐Keith Willard Events
📸 @keithwillard | @keithwillardevents
🎙️Behind the Veil
CONNECT WITH CARIN:
Hey CEO! Join us over at our new membership the Success Cellar 🍾 - exclusively for growth-minded wedding pros just like you!
🌟Write a review, share, and tag @celebrationpros for your first month free!
📸 - @celebrationpros
🌐 - www.carinhunt.com
IN THE CONVO:
Welcome to a raw conversation filled with hard truths, big love, and lots of name-dropping!
Imagine turning a childhood knack for fundraising into orchestrating grand occasions that capture the heart of celebrations. That's the story of Keith Willard who now leads Keith Willard Events, crafting memorable moments for clients of all budgets - but known for his high-profile clients and sophisticated design style. Keith openly shares the twists of fate and the lessons learned in creating events that resonate long after the last toast is made.
If you thrive on juicy conversations within the wedding industry - you're in for a treat. We're name-dropping, sharing some crazy stories, and having mutual ah-ha moments along the way. I hope you enjoy this convo as much as I did!
CONNECT WITH KEITH:
🌐Keith Willard Events
📸 @keithwillard | @keithwillardevents
🎙️Behind the Veil
CONNECT WITH CARIN:
Hey CEO! Join us over at our new membership the Success Cellar 🍾 - exclusively for growth-minded wedding pros just like you!
🌟Write a review, share, and tag @celebrationpros for your first month free!
📸 - @celebrationpros
🌐 - www.carinhunt.com
Hello everyone and welcome back. Today is going to be a really fun journey of a conversation. I have Keith Willard with us. He is the president of Keith Willard Events. He is also a South Florida resident, so I'm so excited to have him here because I get to actually meet him. Eventually we're both in the WIPA chapter and I know sooner rather than later we're going to get to connect. So, keith, thank you so much for being on today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. I'm so excited because it's so nice to be able to talk to somebody else that's in the biz about, like, the realities of being in the biz, and so I'm excited. So thank you so much for for thinking of me.
Speaker 1:Oh, and reality does hit us hard in this space.
Speaker 1:It does, it does, it does Well to tell you a little bit about Keith. He is the president of Keith Willard Events, based in Broward County here in South Florida. He's known for working from conception to completion. He works in social business nonprofits, but his passion is really in the wedding business. He's worked with high profile clients, but also with every type of budget, and he has a focus for giving the couple or the client an experience that they can smile on. For years and right now, his current passion is to learn and to give back, and I am again just thrilled to have you here and Keith, we love an origin story. I probably say that at the beginning of every podcast, because we learned so much from you know the journey that all of us have taken to get to where we're at. So if you could give us a snippet of who you are, how you've gotten to where you're at, we would love to hear it.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I'll give you the Cliff Notes version, because obviously I'm a little older than you are, so I've had probably a longer story and a few more twists and turns than the average human being, and I even hate to say this, but when I was six years old, oh God, that's horrible, but it's true. Actually, when I was six years old, there used to be this thing called the Jerry Lewis Telethon, and if you're probably over the age of 40, you'll remember it. If you're under the age of 40, yeah, you may have some hazy, hazy questions about it. Anyway, one of the things that they did is that they would send out these little milk cartons that people would put little you know pennies and stuff in right To raise money for the Jerry Lewis telethon.
Speaker 2:And, of course, being the kid that I am, I thought, well, how do I get? Because it is a lot of work walking to person to person, everywhere else how do I get people to come to me? And the best way to do that was to throw a little yard party at my house, six years old. Okay, they're in a little yard party, so that way people would come and the entry to the little yard party was a penny. It was awesome and I raised a lot. I felt like I raised a lot of money. It probably seemed like a lot of money to a six-year-old. But you know, looking back at it, I feel bad for my mom because I feel like she's the one that actually really donated all the money.
Speaker 1:You know, you know.
Speaker 2:And so my passion for events actually grew from that point. And then, as obviously you grow up, you get part of like the Kiwanis Club, the Traditions Club in college, and you go on to do those things. And then one of the weird interesting things is that after college I had the opportunity and this was such a weird moment in my life because I hadn't thought about events specifically, like my brain hadn't gotten to oh wow, there's somebody, there's a profession out there that actually does events and I got the opportunity to either be a flight attendant yay, southwest Airlines, go, go, go or an executive director of not-for-profit. I mean, you couldn't have gotten more opposite in those choices. And the not-for-profit was a health and wellness clinic for people with HIV and breast cancer, and so you couldn't have gotten any closer to my heart, because my life has always been in the in kind of the nonprofit world and now, being a person in business, that's sometimes a little scary. But I decided that I was going to take on the challenge of being the executive director of this little not-for-profit called Amino Size. Right, and it didn't get any at the time. It didn't get any grant funds or any of that thing. So what can you do in order to get people to give you money and bring them to you.
Speaker 2:Well, I look back to the Jerry Lewis telethon days, all the way back to six years old and I started creating parties. And I started creating parties that everybody wanted to go to experiences like you know, and in locations that nobody else had ever thought about doing and it was hugely successful, hugely successful, so successful that I had this gentleman that he owned this company called Feature Presentations in Dallas, huge event planning company that was all over the world, russell Holloway. I'll never forget him. He was my mentor and he took me into that business and he showed me what it took in order to become a planner for events. And we traveled all over the world, all over the country, all over the world. It was amazing. It was hard work. Hold on, was it hard work? You know, that's when you really learn. You know 16 hour, 18 hours, sometimes you're up for 48 hours.
Speaker 2:And then I was working with him for a couple of years and then I decided to go into business for myself and because of my association with Russell, literally one of my first clients was Mark Cuban and I did Mark Cuban's 40th birthday at his backyard. I know I'm like in my 20s.
Speaker 2:I think of all that you know all that. And so I started working basically around the clock and within a couple of years, I realized that I had not been home probably for more than four weekends total out of the year. I was burned out, I crashed. I was like this I can't live like this, right. So I kind of went through like a midlife crisis when, you know, maybe this is not my world. You know, my mental health was just in a really, really bad place at that point and I decided that I needed to make a huge change, and so I decided to move to Florida. You know, that was 22 years ago and I was lucky because my mom had a vacation house in Key Largo.
Speaker 1:So where you are right. I love all these shout outs to mom. Can we just like oh, my mom's, the best are you kidding my mom's the best.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know she's got her own story of of immigrating from Germanyany and then getting her engineering degree, then her law degree like she's incredible, yeah. So so here I am in the keys for six months. I'm totally bored. I have no idea what to do. I'm this, you know person that go, go, go, go go.
Speaker 2:So I decided to move to to fort lauderdale and I did what everybody else does in the early 30s, not knowing their way. I started working at a restaurant waiting tables, loved it, oh my God, I loved it. There was literally no responsibilities. You made money every day. I got to socialize, I got to be the person that I wanted to be, show off all my quirks and what have you Did? Great.
Speaker 2:And then the Halloween came, and it's the point that changed my life forever, because they already knew that I had done an events in the past. You know it comes up in conversations and stuff. So the owner said, would you do our Halloween event, like to decorate everything? And of course, I went above and beyond and it was outlandish, over the top, crazy. I mean, we had people coming in, it got featured in the newspaper, like it was. It was a big deal and so they wanted me then to take over events as a manager. So that's what I did.
Speaker 2:Again, year later realized that I was burnt out, wrong industry For some reason. It just didn't feel right. So I went out on the job hunt, quit done, and then I was doing and still volunteering and stuff on the side. So I was volunteering to run this event called Stars of the Rainbow. If you can't guess, it was for the local GLBT community, lgbtq community, and they'd always done this like crappy little fundraiser in the back and that's not how my brain works. So you know I had Jodi Watley come in. I got her. She did it for free. She happened to live in the area, dual screens, the whole bit, and we did it at the Hyatt Regency, pier 66. And the director of cateringott, schaefer, loved everything and he said have you ever?
Speaker 1:thought about working for a hotel. I'm like not once, never, never, no never right, never crossed my mind.
Speaker 2:He's like I think you'd be really good at it and so I said you know what I'm? I'm adventurous, I'll try. And then started as an entry-level catering manager doing social events, weddings, and all of a sudden, everything lined up like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. It was that moment when you went crap, wasted all this time getting to a point that I'm like, oh, this is what I was meant to do. Oh, my God, I was meant to do this. Well, obviously, I quickly rose the ranks because I was very passionate about it, like it was everything, and ended up being the director of catering for Ritz-Carlton in Bell Harbor Love that hotel still. And they decided that they were going to outsource their food and beverage, which was a stupid decision. They reverted, by the way, they brought it back in the house, I'm sure Right.
Speaker 2:But I admit that once again, I was out there going, ok, what do I do with myself? Well, I had already owned an events company, so I decided it was time to own, start up my events company, but this time with a focus in social and weddings. And so that's where Keith Willard Events was born. And the reason it's named Keith Willard Events is because I thought about Blue Elephant. I thought about, like, purple Monkey, I mean, I had all these other cutesy little names in me.
Speaker 2:But the problem is is that I had known people for so long. I mean, I was already in my late thirties early, yeah, late thirties, like mid thirt 30s, late 30s and I wanted people to be able to find me on the internet and the best way to do that is name recognition, right? So that's why I just keep. It wasn't because I really love myself or any of that crap, I just it. For me, it seemed to be logical and uh, and that was eight years ago and and it's been crazy, amazing. I mean like I feel like I finally came into my own. So sorry that took so long, but you know.
Speaker 1:Not at all. That's why we're here. We are here, I know, but you're talking to an old guy.
Speaker 2:I'm sure your listeners are like oh snooze, Holy crap, that was a long story, oh my God.
Speaker 1:So that's why I'm there. The reason we ask that question is because, like I sit here, I feel like a lot of times these podcast episodes, I'm so selfish because I'm like, oh, I have so much to relate to, right, but that just means our listeners who are in the same industry, who have gone through the things that we've gone through can relate to.
Speaker 2:I'll expand on the story another time, but I started at seven years old, so we're we have more to talk about next time we chat, oh, we're sick.
Speaker 1:You know there's so many. You know parallels, and if there's, if it's just you and I sitting here and we have a hundred listeners, I mean imagine who else is like oh?
Speaker 1:my gosh. I told like that's happened. Or I thought of a company who did the same thing, where they outsource their catering and they came back and like there's so many things that we've been through and to know that someone's story is similar to ours or has a connection brings us all so much closer together and it helps us to be able to trust each other, to lean on in the industry so thank you. Thank you for sharing like you know.
Speaker 2:The thing is that I got out of that and about my own history when I look back, is that there were moments that it felt like the end of the world, like it really did. I thought what am I gonna do? Cold sweats, the staying up overnight how am I gonna pay my bills? The whole bit like staying up overnight, how am I going to pay my bills? The whole bit Like. And now, looking back, those were literally glitches in my life, in my timeline, and they always led to something better.
Speaker 2:First, I fully believe that life pushes you in the direction that you're supposed to go and sometimes we resist, sometimes we're like, nope, we'll go this way, we'll go this way, but at some point it's going to push you back where you're supposed to go. And it's those moments that feel like death, oh my God. You're like oh, what am I going to do? But if you persevere and if you open your heart and really go, okay, what are you trying to tell me? All of a sudden, opportunities start showing up. I mean, to me it's a little unbelievable. I used to be that person that used to be like yeah, yeah, yeah, bull bs. And the moment I started like pausing and kind of listening to the universe, and, if you can tell, it's very difficult for me to pause, uh. But you know, I paused and and I started realizing that, yeah, okay, I, I get it, I get it.
Speaker 1:So here I am yeah, I love it, I love it we're gonna get into today. We're gonna be talking about the wedding market as it is we're gonna be talking about what it means to be a wedding vendor, a wedding business owner, right now, and we're going to be talking a little bit about some go-to tips too, like on the wedding day, in what we're doing.
Speaker 1:So let's kick it off because right now our like what we know about weddings the landscape has evolved. It feels like it's evolved quite quickly because of a lot of buzzwords that we've been hearing. Yeah, gen Z, yeah, so you know we're looking at. I've noticed trends are really eclectic, really funky. We have a whole new generation of players. What's catching your eye is like the red flag or we should really be careful about. You know, xyz, what, what's coming to mind for you on the, on the thought of we should be cautious around well, okay.
Speaker 2:So there's two pieces to this. First is that I just spoke at the not wedding uh expo uppo up in Palm Beach like yesterday.
Speaker 1:Yes, I missed it.
Speaker 2:It was so good I was supposed to be there, but yeah we'll get into that later, but keep going but yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was up there and I was talking and they asked me to talk to the group about being upfront about your pricing right, having it listed on your website at least a starting price at least a starting price and because I know a lot of us in the industry are a little hesitant about that, but that's a whole different subject. One of the interesting things that came out of that was obviously and if you don't aren't aware of it, you should get this it is the not 2024 weddings report and basically what they've done, done and, of course, the knot is everywhere and they have millions and millions of subscribers and they have taken all that data and they have created reports that break it down to you know, down to city type, person, age range, all those things and a couple of things that really came out of it is that Gen Zers God bless them, but Gen Zers have met less on dating apps than the previous generation by half, which is shocking. They are much more into the face-to-face. They love the face-to-face, even though we all assume they just look down at their screens, but come to find out they like that personal interaction, so Zoom calls and in-person meetings are really important to them Obviously, getting back to somebody really quick.
Speaker 2:Experiences are everything Huge, yeah, huge, huge, like, right. So it used to be like oh, the seven course dinner. And I want people to like, blow like. When they walk in the ballroom, their mind blows up oh, this is the best thing I've ever seen, it's most beautiful, and they're they've gone away from that. They want people to have an experience that they've never had before and to walk away feeling not only like wow, did I just have the best time of my life? But also full of love and gratitude, which is really surprising because us, as older people, do not see that in their day-to-day activities, and so you know, it was really great to see that.
Speaker 2:Now, as us that do the wedding industry and have been part of it, I will say that Gen Zers tend to move on quicker, so it's more important than ever to like get back to them as quickly as possible, because you know they use technology in their favor, which means they're reaching out to you, but they're probably reaching out to six other people with the exact same email that you got Right. So it's important that you immediately interject your personality and what makes you different in that very first email. Interject your personality and what makes you different in that very first email. The second piece is don't write anything that is larger than your phone screen. So if your intro is one full page on your computer, if you try to look at it on your phone, you're scrolling. Gen Zers, do not scroll. They don't like to scroll. So if they're looking at your email online on their phone, you got to get it all in that one thing and that's really hard to do right, there's some classes out there.
Speaker 2:My husband is actually the director of education for the Broward Center for Performing Arts and he does this class where he tells people to write a whole paragraph and then they say he goes okay, now our whole page. And then he goes okay, now take that page and fit all of it into a paragraph. So then you go through that and he goes okay, now take that paragraph and fit it all into four sentences. Great, they do that. Okay, Take those four sentences and squeeze it all into two sentences. And that's basically what you have to do with your responses for Gen Zers. So the biggest red flag is that they move on really quick.
Speaker 2:You got to be on them and then, when you do, you got to be like, even though they weren't personal when they reached out, you got to be personal when you reach back because that's what they're looking for, they want to, they, they want to connect with somebody, they want the emotional connection and that somebody that's going to give them the experiences and the joy and the fun and all the things that they want for their guests. Did that answer at least a couple questions? No, no it absolutely did.
Speaker 1:I think you know what I take away from that is we're dealing with a generation and I think the oldest of them technically is like 26. And people think that that's like a hard line and I'm like it doesn't mean 27 year olds are a completely different person, it's. It's a gray area. Up to what I've heard is the age of 30. So they really are very relevant in our industry, right?
Speaker 2:now, and a hundred percent, a hundred percent there.
Speaker 1:they're very tech savvy. They're very tech savvy, they're very tech efficient. So sometimes they come off as curt or short.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But we have to remember that once they're booked with us, that's when we're, or when, once we have like a phone call with them, that's when the mutual experience happens. But if they're first reaching out, that experience isn't for you, that experience is for them, and so we have to bring we've got to bring our A game. So if they're reaching out and they're like hey, are you available? You need to come back with the magic. Yes.
Speaker 2:So you know, well, this is what they do, is they reach out with a cold hand because they're busy lives, and so they reach out to a bunch of people and guess what they're doing? They're saving their energies for the people that are important in their life. You are not important in their life yet, so right, it's a big. Yet Once you do, you will have them, they will love you, they will. You will have long conversations with them, like they will pour out the heart and soul, and as planners we're used to that. But we're used to a different kind of beginning. You know a little bit softer start, but they're hard and fast and then, once you've made it into their group group, their click. It's a whole different experience, whole different experience. So you can't you can't judge the book by its cover.
Speaker 1:Whoa, there's dating there you go right, so you really you really can't in this world, in this experience and to as something on the idea of our wedding landscape. I'm just curious. I'm kind of shifting topics just a tad into trends is there anything that you're loving right now or that you're hating right now? I just feel like I respect your vision and I'm curious what your perspective on that is.
Speaker 2:Trends. Well, I really hate Pantone. I hate the whole idea of Pantone. I really I mean the whole thing. Oh, I mean peach fuzz or fuzzy, something like. Who the hell comes up with this?
Speaker 1:this stuff. I mean last time.
Speaker 2:I want to be in that room where they're all sitting around and be like what'd you wearing today?
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:I'm wearing plum. Okay, plum is the color of the year.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's like what, where are you getting this? And then, if they're getting it because they're seeing it in a lot of places, well, that's not. I don't want to use that color because it's being used in a lot of places. My clients want something unique and I know one year it was like yellow and gray and we all pay attention to it. We all do. We can't help ourselves. You know, it's like watching a train wreck. We're like, oh, how bad is it going to be this year? So, yeah, I don't like looking at Pantones or any of those types of things. You know, when it comes to trends, I think it's the personal experience that people are really looking for and you know, we as event pros have to be more creative than in South Florida.
Speaker 2:That has a video confessional like setup, basically meaning you walk into like a video of a booth right and a booth, you touch the screen, your recording camera comes on, a question from the couple, from from the couple pops up and the guests have a chance to answer it, and then it also gives you another 10, 15, 20 seconds to then say a personal note to the couple. Now you can opt out of the question, but it's all the same kind of technology of touching the screen, sitting back. What have you? It's the recording piece, right? I actually ended up getting a company from Las Vegas that happens to have an outlet here, thank God, because the shipping costs would have been extraordinary, but people loved it.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, you know, they, they, they see reality TV on TV all the time. And so the idea of having kind of a reality TV, kind of confessional, and like we did it, with the couches, like like the whole, like big brother, you know, couch confessional with the bright colors and the little, like big brother, you know, couch professional, with the bright colors and the little neon sign, all of it, we did all of it. And so it was an experience that the guests got to have being able to do that. And then, not only did they get to do that, then the couple had this really great video of their friends talking about how much they love them, like hello, you know, and nobody was shoving a microphone in their face, he didn't have a friends talking about how much they love them, Like hello, yeah, and nobody was shoving a microphone in their face, he didn't have a cameraman following people around and making people talk, which used to be the old thing.
Speaker 1:Do you want to say something to the couple?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. And then you're like okay, how do I say this? Oh my God, this gave people a chance to think about what they wanted to say and then say it in private. So there were a lot more heartwarming, very personal stories that came out of that, versus having to do it in public. So I really hope that becomes a trend.
Speaker 2:I'm seeing more of it, like for a wedding that I'm doing on April 20th, and they did 420 for a specific reason. So if any of you are out there, you know, on April 20th and they did 420 for a specific reason. So if any of you are out there, you know. But they want to be able to really involve all of their friends and family from all over the world and obviously we got much better about this during COVID, you know, with things like this, like Zoom. But they want, like we're going to do a big 60-inch screen. So we're doing the, we're going set up the ceremony.
Speaker 2:I keep saying we, as royally, I'm gonna be setting up the ceremony in a v and then the middle of the v will have a big 60 inch tv so while they're actually getting married, they're gonna be able to watch the reaction of the people watching from out of town, that have seen them on zoom right, bringing that two-way experience not just even locally but from from great distances. And then we're going to convert that to a interaction area for people, because a lot of the people at the party will know a lot of people that are watching from online. So you know, connectivity, I think, is going to be a big, big, big thing. That, um, that, even more so than we, we've been seeing figuring out how to have that two-way conversation like we're having, but on a much larger scale.
Speaker 1:I'm excited for the future, If there's a lot. I've seen other people doing some really interesting things that are very just very unique, unique and like. I'll go to networking events and they'll be they'll have their time to show it off and you're like what? So, uh, yeah, there's, there's a lot of very cool things. I love the video confessional. I think that is genius, and then the videographer can then take it right, yeah, implement it. Implement it into their video. And then like cue the tears, we're ready to go. I love that.
Speaker 2:Well, and another red flag for people that are in the business. I know that AI right now and chat, gpt and all of these things are big, but it's going to be a blip. Everybody's going to be into it and everything's going to be about AI and what it can do, and everything's going to be about AI and what it can do. And then it'll be so overwhelming, so much that people are going to go back to this back and forth, us talking back and forth. So technology has its place, but don't assume that it's going to change our industry, because our industry is always about that interpersonal connection, meeting people face toface and being able to be a human being with another human being.
Speaker 1:Yes, I couldn't agree more. I think AI is going to unless you're like into large tech, which is not our industry, it's going to fall into the conveniences of our life that we're not going to notice it anymore. Kind of like when you can change. You put the timer on your coffee machine, Like that's how it's going to feel. And it's no longer going to be this big cumbersome thing.
Speaker 2:And it's going to be like a microwave. We all use microwaves.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly Like just put an alarm on your phone, right?
Speaker 2:You don't even think about the technology behind it. It's just the microwave. Well, of course it's a microwave, so there's going to be virtual assistants out there that are just our virtual assistants, like we're going to be like. Well, of course, I'm asking my virtual assistant like why? Would that's that's, it's just a normality, right yep, so you know, don't get too caught off by the, the pretty lights and the glitter you know, because I love a bright light, I will follow a bright, bright light.
Speaker 2:But the basics will never go away. They just don't. And customer service. I think for vendors out there, customer service is more important than ever. You making people feel good at all times. People feel good at all times. I tell this story. So I tell this story that that a bottle of water saved a wedding right, bottle of water saved the wedding. And people are like how does a bottle of water save the wedding? So it was in the morning we had a huge wedding party, probably 32 ladies in the wedding party.
Speaker 2:So, 18, 19 of them were bridesmaids. And then we had grandmothers and stepmothers and have you, and there was one particular stepmother that nobody was really talking to. She was new to the family, right and a little younger than the previous wife, so of course there was some some tension in the room right and you could just see her.
Speaker 2:I could feel her like boiling up, like you know, looking around and getting past the point of sadness and depression, but getting starting to get to the angry piece. And so what happens when somebody gets angry? They make an outburst, there are arguments, there are fights, things get bad. So I grabbed a bottle of water and I walked over to her and I said hey, I just want to introduce yourself. I'm Keith. I'm the wedding planner we met briefly earlier. I saw you over here. I thought I'd bring you a bottle of water. Is there anything else that I can bring for you? Or if you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask me because I'm here for you.
Speaker 2:And her whole demeanor changed Calm, breathe, what have you? And then I then went to additional step and then said come on, let's get you in a makeup chair, brought her over to a makeup chair and then start making small conversation with another bridesmaid and said oh, have you met Hannah? Oh, no, I haven't met Hannah. Well, she's new, you know, she just married. Oh, my God. And then, all of a sudden, she was there, and so what could have been a very dramatic, sad, angry moment got turned around very quickly by just grabbing a bottle of water and walking over and saying, hey, I thought you, you know, just noticed you and thought you know I should bring you a bottle of water or something and introduce myself she felt seen she felt seen exactly, and the worst thing you can do to me is to somebody is make them feel like they're non-existent.
Speaker 2:So I love that. Saved by a bottle of water. I love that. I mean, I love that. I love being able to say that, because it kind of sums up everything that we, as professionals in this business, are supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1:You have to have empathy, you have to be able to read the room. Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Right, you know, and and it is easy for us to get angry because we've been doing this, you know, been in the business for a long time and get jaded. You cannot. I mean, we get to do, we get to be involved with the best memory that this couple is going to have for most of their life? Right, they're going to have, because there's marriage, there's births, there's holidays and there's death, right? So you take out death and you got babies I mean babies and you got weddings. There you go. Those are the two big things that people look forward to, and then you can throw in graduation and some other things on top of it, but the two big mom markers in people's lives are weddings and babies.
Speaker 1:It's like that's what you invest the most money in.
Speaker 2:Right Hello.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like how amazing is that that we get to do that?
Speaker 1:We're a part of that.
Speaker 2:Oh, I just uh. You know you gotta love this too. You have to love what you do. If you don't love what you do in this industry, get the hell out. Seriously you're just taking up space for the rest of us. Please just get out, because you're bringing the whole team down well, this is a great segue into the next question.
Speaker 1:So a lot of us, especially the people that are listening in right now, they're looking to up-level the way that they show up online, the way that they show up in person, their reputation.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And I feel like a lot of us can talk the talk right, we can say and promise all these things, but then they sign and it's like, oh gosh, you know, everything's not as dreamy as I made it sound. So you had brought up the topic of the cost of quality and so how can we make sure that we're actually serving our clients and kind of following through on those promises? Yeah, and making sure that we have their best interests in mind.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, the first thing is to remember that you are not the answer to everybody. As much as we would love to believe that we can pull off any wedding anywhere anytime, that's just not true. Off any wedding anywhere anytime, that's just not true. You know, you got to learn what your strengths and your weaknesses are and lean into those so that way you know exactly who your client is. You got to figure out who your client is first before you can then start attracting them and taking on. When you take a job on that's too big for you or you go oh God, what did I get myself into? There is going to be a moment that you decide that it's either worth the stress for the dollar bills that you have got, or is it worth spending more money on your side in order to alleviate that issue and still have a great review and a great response. I learned long ago don't ever side on the dollar, never side on the dollar, because that will affect your reputation dramatically. If you feel like this wedding and I'm going to talk about it from a planner's perspective, because I'm not a photographer or DJ or any of those things, and when I work with those vendors, I do not assume that I'm a photographer, dj or anybody else's role. I am a planner, I am logistics. I let the professionals speak for themselves. Don't like to get involved in that communication between the two. So the bride speaks to the photographer, not the bride speaks to me, and then I speak to the photographer. That's crazy. The photographer not the bride speaks to me and then I speak to the photographer. That's crazy. Anyway, there's going to be a point that, like when I look at a wedding and I think I need to hire two extra people, well, I've already got two people on and you know they've already paid me. Nope, I need two extra people, because the worst thing I can do is have a client write a review that says he was really great up until the wedding day and then he seems super flustered and things felt disconnected. Oh, stab me in the heart. I mean that would kill me to put that kind of effort and information and time into something to already have it. So, if you don't know it, find somebody that does and pay them right, because it'll help you in the long run it really will and then listen while they do it, watch while they do it and learn while you do it so that way you can then become that person later in life.
Speaker 2:It's a growing experience. We never stop growing. We never stop learning. You know, sometimes you got to suck it up. This is business. This isn never stopped learning. You know, sometimes you got you got to suck it up. This is business. This isn't your ego. You got to take the ego out of it and go okay, what is the best thing for for the client? You know it doesn't. It doesn't always have to be you. And then the other thing is so how do you get your reputation out there? How do you get the word out there to the mass market? The easiest thing to do is public relations, pr, and everybody goes. Well, yeah, it's great.
Speaker 2:I want to be the person on TV that people call, or I want to be the person that shows up in the articles. Well, let me help you out here. There is a company, there's a website or a system called HARO. Help a reporter out H-A-R-O. If you are not part of HARO, you need to today.
Speaker 2:Seriously and yes, it takes a little reading because not all of the things are going to, but basically what it is is a system for all these reporters to put questions out there to find experts like you, right? So that way you can scroll through and they're there and they'll say, hey, looking for somebody that's been in a plane accident, let's see for somebody, right. And then all of a sudden it'll say, looking for somebody that is understands outdoor weddings. Well, I understand outdoor weddings. So I'm going to reply to that reporter and I'm going to. You know, talk about myself, talk about what I've done, talk about the outdoor weddings that I've done, and they're going to reach out.
Speaker 2:And more often than not they're going to reach out because, guess what? Reporters have a deadline and they need more than ever to have snippets and, oh my God, nothing better. So make sure that whatever you write can be copy and pasted, right? So make a point in your article so that they can copy and paste it, because they're going to write a little bit and then they're going to copy and paste something from what you wrote. Put it in there, because it saves them time and the more you do that, the more reporters start learning you. I mean, that's how I got into the new york times three different times during covid amazing was because of harrow help a reporter, the, the second option right.
Speaker 2:The second part here is to get with a pr agency and I know pr agencies sound really scary. But Megan Ely with OFD Consulting, Do you know Megan? Oh, I love Megan.
Speaker 1:I'm obsessed with Megan.
Speaker 2:I am too, and her cats. I cannot get enough of her and her cats Anyway. But Megan with OFD Consulting has multiple levels of membership and the lowest cost one is, like I don't know, $160 or $130. And basically what she does is she comes through all that help a reporter out stuff and boils it down to the questions that relate directly to you and she sends out probably I don't know an email a day. I mean. Karen you're part of it, right, so email a day that says you know, have a deadline.
Speaker 2:I mean Karen, you're part of it, right? So email that says you know have a deadline for this reporter for this question, respond by Tuesday at two o'clock. I mean I the the amount of articles that I have been in are probably in high hundreds at this point.
Speaker 1:Everything you see on my website, as featured in from when I started in the education space, is because of Megan, is because of OFD Consulting.
Speaker 2:I'm just telling you, if you're just starting out and money is tight, but you have time, go to HARO, help a reporter out. If you've been in the business a little bit and now you're like feeling a little bit more comfortable and ready to branch out, go to Megan Ely, start at the basic membership so that you can start seeing what some of the things go happen. And then you know, see, and when you start appearing in articles, especially like bridescom and Martha Stewart weddings, and you know all of those things, you're going to start seeing the value of that. And then you're like, well, now I want to be the speaker at these conferences. She also has a program for those, and so you know she's basically my favorite kind of moment, like favorite reserve, not reserve resource, my favorite resource when it comes to pr, because pr is everything it is everything and, honestly, you could post all you want on instagram, social media, facebook, all those things.
Speaker 2:There is nothing like getting a, a quote from brides, you know, or or an article in the new york times, because everybody has seen it. And now guess what I can put on my website as seen in New York Times.
Speaker 1:Right, so I was featured or quoted on todaycom.
Speaker 2:I love that I posted that.
Speaker 1:I posted that and everyone said oh my gosh, you were on today. They're like freaking out. And it feels so good. But not only that it boosts your SEO. It lives on forever right. Social media is a blip and it's building your credibility, just so much.
Speaker 2:Oh, a hundred percent because now you're associated with these really big names.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean, that's the thing is that you got to get yourself associated with these really big names.
Speaker 2:Now the downside of that, and the red flag of this, is that we have some people that are coming into the industry that are very savvy about this and they may not have the experience to be able to pull off the kind of clientele that is going to be coming to them because they are associated with Today New York times, because they wrote a really great article, or you know they, they did a Google search and then wrote this really great article back to them, but not based on experience, but based on what they read, because the person doing the reporting doesn't know that they don't.
Speaker 2:They assume that this is, this is an expert, and so the problem is that we run into the issue that you know, newbies, the whole, like I did, my sister's wedding thought process comes out. Well, imagine that my sister I planned my sister's wedding when we all know she didn't also, for some reason, randomly got it got quoted in New York times today show, you know, you know Martha Stewart living, so now she's able to put those three things on her website, which then brings people to her because she has credibility but no work experience.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:They don't know, she doesn't have work experience. So then you know, she becomes even more dangerous at that point. Or he becomes more dangerous, or they become more dangerous because of that, or they become more dangerous because of that, you know, because they can really screw it up.
Speaker 1:I would venture to say that if somebody isn't a true professional in this industry and they do that to gain credibility exposure whatever they're looking for yeah. When you go to that website. Even if the website's beautiful, as soon as you reach out to them, the response time is going to lag. The information they give you is going to be have holes in it. It's going to be really apparent at some point in the process that they don't know what they're talking about.
Speaker 2:Well, that's it. People are listening. The problem is is that couples don't know what they don't know, Right?
Speaker 1:How many times right, how many times have?
Speaker 2:you gotten a couple that already has a preconceived idea of what things cost and what the experience is going to be, and you're like, okay, guys, we're going to have to have a little re-education session. And that's I do that I have a re-education session because I'm like, okay, the average cost of a wedding in the United States is not $30,000 in Miami. I said the average cost of a wedding in the United States in Missouri, minnesota, oklahoma, right, nebraska, plus California and New York, is 30,000, because a wedding in Nebraska could cost nine. I said so, everything's average.
Speaker 2:And then, if you want, right, and then if you want, if you want an average wedding, you will pay an average price. Do you want an average wedding or do you want a spectacular wedding?
Speaker 1:Ooh, I love that. Do you want an average wedding or do you want a spectacular?
Speaker 2:wedding. Ooh, I love that Right.
Speaker 1:You want an average wedding. Oh, that was, that was.
Speaker 2:Alan Berg, baby, I'm quoting Alan Berg from there. Yeah, and that, no, no, the little name. Let me pick that name up. Yeah, Alan Berg. If you haven't, if you haven't listened to him or his podcast, you need to go check it out, allenberg.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, brilliant salesperson.
Speaker 2:Brilliant, you need to have him on this. He would yeah, he will be okay, because I had him on my podcast and he was brilliant. Holy crap, and did you have get megan on the here too?
Speaker 1:uh, megan's, megan's, but she was on, so the story with megan. I'll just do this real quick yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Megan spams my email and I hope she listens to this because she'll be cracking up, but she, uh, she spams my email. I have no idea who she is. I've never heard of OFD consulting. Like I am just trying to make a name for myself and I get like eight emails from my podcast uh form on my website and I was like somebody found my form like amazing, and and then I realized that it's her, and then her client, her client, her client, and I'm like this feels weird, like why aren't these people?
Speaker 1:yeah doing it for you know. And then I'm like oh well, I guess they've hired somebody to do it, so that's smart. Like I need to talk to this person and see what this is about, because I'm not about to have eight people on my podcast that are like I don't know. So I talked to her within like 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:I'm like sign me up I mean, I want to be a part of the agency. She is gold I love her I love her. When I started doing my, started doing my podcast, uh, I don't know, do you mind if I mention it? Ah, yeah, okay. So, uh, when I started my podcast, called behind the veil uh five years ago.
Speaker 2:She was the very I think she was either the first or my second interview. Like I, she was like right there, I mean we started it during covid, so it was started off like this, very much like this, and then you know, you know we we've opted over the over the years just because it's for me it's easier, because it just takes a lot of time to do this, as you know.
Speaker 2:And so yeah, but you know the lovely thing about doing what we get to do not only do we get to be in part of people's amazing, amazing journey as couples, we also then get to talk to other amazing pros and and I just, I just love, I just love our industry. I mean, I just love our industry. All the good, all the bad, all the moles, you know all of it, I love it. I went off topic there.
Speaker 1:This is one of the best conversations happened here, because the majority of us didn't feel like we belonged or couldn't find ourselves until we found the wedding industry. And then you stepped in like your story and it was like arms wide open come on in. How you know, for the most part and there are some competitive people out there, but this is mostly, I would say, majority is a collaborative effort and raising a hundred percent. And like all the love.
Speaker 2:There's so much business out there, there's no reason for us to get all petty and spiteful with each other. You know, honestly and, guys, if you're listening to this, that million dollar wedding out there, that $2 million wedding, that's not reality. That is not reality. I need the newbies to get that out of their head. That is not the real world.
Speaker 1:It's not the goal.
Speaker 2:No, your real world is to be able to pay your bills, and you pay your bills by by working with people that have $70,000 budgets, $80,000 budgets, $200,000 budgets, $300,000 budgets. Right, it's a range. It's a range and there's going to be a way to, and if you're creative enough and have a good enough network, you're going to be able to help that client that has a 70,000 or $80,000 budget have the best wedding of their life. And guess who's going to give you the best reviews and sing your name from the hilltops? That couple that really felt like they weren't going to be able to do anything with their budget.
Speaker 1:This is where the word luxury, I say, is like the word success. So overused the word luxury is like the word success, because everybody has their own perception of it of what luxury is a hundred thousand dollars if I have seventy thousand dollars and I want to have my wedding. I feel like I'm luxury because that amount of money to me is a lot of money, a hundred percent right. So that's relative to me is a lot of money.
Speaker 2:Oh, a hundred percent Right.
Speaker 1:So that's relative to me, where if Trump's daughter is going to have a wedding, like you know, that's Trump change. So when it comes to the word luxury, the person that has that $70,000 wedding and you pull it off they felt like it was their million dollar wedding. So that's the goal, that's the goal.
Speaker 2:So I'll give you a, I'll give you a little like cause. I told you at the beginning, as I named dropped at the beginning, I did, you know, one of my first events with Mark Cuban's 40th and he is one of the most brilliant people and it's not like we're buds. I haven't talked to him since. Right, I get to see him on start tank like everybody else.
Speaker 2:You know, I was just a vendor at that point, um, but while we were planning it, he, he because it ended up being a backyard barbecue, that and so he had, he just bought the team at the time and and he just bought this brand new house and it was like 20 000 square feet, very, all like wow. And and so he at one point said I said, well, well, you know, when we're talking about budgets, like where do you want to stay within, when we're talking about this event, and he's like if we can keep it under like 400,000, that'd be great.
Speaker 1:For a backyard barbecue, right.
Speaker 2:I mean we ended up having John Mellencamp come and sing and like the whole thing and I had like a heart attack internally. Of course you don't show that in front of the client. You're like okay, of course I left there screaming in my car.
Speaker 1:You know my stick shift old car going what I just booked, a four hundred thousand dollars. You're like, you're like driving to the right exactly.
Speaker 2:I'm like. I'm like freaking out, so I I called my own, my I called russell holloway, the guy that got helped me get started in this business and stuff, and I was, like you know, screaming over the because I wanted to, to tell him, like you know, what you did was good, like you know, and I said but I'm right, right.
Speaker 2:And I said but I'm really blown away by this. One hundred thousand dollar for, uh, a barbecue. I said I just can't wrap my head around paying this kind of money for a barbecue. It's a barbecue. And russell says, okay, first of all, take a deep breath. Second of all, he goes. It's all about comparisons. He goes, he's worth billions, right? 60, 70, 80 billion. So if you take a fraction of his, like a measurement of his how much money he has, and then talk about the 400,000, wouldn't that be kind of the same ratio as if, talking to somebody that makes $100,000 a year but wants to spend 400 or $500 on their barbecue, it's the exact same ratio, right? So just because somebody has billions of dollars, well yeah, their mind sees 400,000 as the same as somebody that makes a hundred thousand and only wants to spend 400. It is exactly the same like thought process that's interesting.
Speaker 1:So that's probably more of what should be shared and it could get. I mean, there could be a mathematic equation behind it where it's like, if you're making this much money yeah this is what the average cost of a wedding would be for you.
Speaker 2:I'm tapping my nose On the nose.
Speaker 1:Not $30,000 for everybody, because for a lot of people that's a lot of money, and for a lot of people that's not enough for the wedding they want Right.
Speaker 2:So it is always going to be based on what they currently make. It is always going to be based on what they currently make. If somebody makes a million dollars a year, or $2 million a year, they understand that their wedding is going to be like 250,000. They get it. They understand that they can, that they can, for some, somehow make that feel fine and them Right, right. But if somebody only makes a hundred thousand or even, let's say, $70,000 a year trying to throw a wedding that's $50,000 or $60,000, their brain thinks that's a year's salary that I'm spending for eight hours. Well, five hours they can't make it.
Speaker 1:The math's not mathing Right Exactly.
Speaker 2:So you have to understand that that we all look at it from a different point of view. We all have to take into account what is their current lifestyle, what is their current income? Does this make sense for them? And then guide them to the vendors that make sense for them. So there are some photographers that are $1,200. And there are some photographers that are $1,200, and there's some photographers that are $10,000. I'm not gonna present a $10,000 photographer to a couple that is trying to keep their wedding at $60,000. I'm just not gonna do that. Why would I make them feel bad? It's like taking the bride into a beautiful room of wedding dresses, showing her a whole line and not filtering out like where her budget is.
Speaker 1:But you can't have any of these, but you can't have any of these.
Speaker 2:So now you've made her feel bad because she feels like she can't afford her dream, afford her dream. But if you turn that around and then you only bring the dresses that you know she can afford comfortably, she'll find a dress in there that she loves and she will feel like a princess a million bucks. It will be a completely different experience. And us as vendors, it is our responsibility to make sure that our couples get that experience. And I don't take that crap lightly, and nobody else should either. It pisses me off when I hear people joke about it. Oh, I mean, it pisses me off Like oh, you know I have this like cheap ride and you know I took her to my regular florist and you know she had fit.
Speaker 1:And to her like this is the most fabulous thing ever, because that's like going to a florist in general is probably a luxury to her.
Speaker 2:Exactly, don't make fun of other people's experiences. Oh my God, right, it's there's. I nobody has the right to make somebody else feel bad. You just don't who I just got. Sorry, let me get off my set, sorry, I mean I just, oh, it just drives me crazy. And you know, and this happens a lot with newbies, and that's the other thing is that when you're, when you're talking to new people that are new into the industry, they haven't gotten to that point and to understand that, and I tell them, I said, look, there's going to be a point that somebody does make you feel bad and you're gonna get a big eye opening about what it's like. And I want you to think about this particular moment when that happens, because it will, because it does to everybody, everybody, right, so?
Speaker 1:but this is a big industry, but it's a small industry, and we have talked to it. It is, and we have talked about so many. I mean this is probably the most real conversation that we've had on the podcast. So thank you so much. I've loved it. I mean we could keep going for the sake of our listeners time We'll do a part two, don't you worry.
Speaker 2:Yes, let's do a part two, don't you worry yes, let's do a part two.
Speaker 1:We should. We should because there's there was more we were going to chat about, but I, I, just I thank you for being so candid and being so vulnerable. And there's so many things that came up again, same thing, where it's just like, yeah, I saw that happen or I experienced this myself, or whatever that is, and I, I, this is a very important conversation, especially with all of these statistics that have recently come out to really understand what they mean, so that, moving forward, you know how to translate that to your couples and be the person who can educate them.
Speaker 1:So, keith, thank you for that. I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 2:And just as a last minute thing, this year is weird If you're a vendor out there. It's weird right now. This is not following our normal year pattern.
Speaker 1:So it's not you, it's the industry.
Speaker 2:So just take heart in that, because I've gotten calls from everybody. It's a weird year.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to do some quick bonus, q and a. We'll go through these quickly.
Speaker 2:One of them.
Speaker 1:You're going to hate, but we're going to do it anyway.
Speaker 2:I was like dang I asked the wrong question.
Speaker 1:Okay, the first one, safe. What is the last thing you bought for your business?
Speaker 2:Oh God, when is the last thing I bought from a business? It's it was either um uplights or business cards. I think it was uplights because I bought them about the same time. I need to get business cards.
Speaker 1:I was doing the digital thing, but not everyone loves it oh, I got.
Speaker 2:I bought uplights because I got really tired of people skipping the uplight thing because it was too expensive. You know that's 45 or 55 an uplight and you can was too expensive. You know that's $45 or $55 an uplight and you can buy them online for that, for cheaper than that, and I just think lighting is so important that I won't let my clients go without it. I don't tell them that by the way it's always a surprise. You know, the DJ needs to have an opportunity to make money too, so you know.
Speaker 1:But Well, now they know oh yeah, that's okay, that's all right, that's okay, um, okay. And then, of course, this question if you could choose next year's Pantone color, what would it be?
Speaker 2:or how would you choose it? How would you? Go about choosing it, since I would hope that Pantone would go out of business and never choose another color again. But if I was gonna think about the, the color of the year, I would think that I think way too much of myself to be able to choose a color for everybody in the united states. That's what I would think. I mean, come on, really one color for everybody in the united states.
Speaker 1:It's like what is your favorite color for you and for no one else?
Speaker 2:I I like forest green because it it's growth and joy and you know I just love a forest green. I also really love like a ocean blue, ocean green blue. I think that's really joyous. You know what I would do for paint if you're picking the color of the year. I'd put all the colors into a big thing and I would do a bingo and I would just like whatever ball comes out first, that would be the color that's the one.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's how they do it.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, exactly, I like forest green though it's very timeless. Yeah, I love it for a screen, but just not on walls, because that was so my 80s, oh forest green wall, that was such a bad idea anyway well, in one year from today, um, maybe post WIPA event, when we're sitting across from each other and chatting it up and popping a bottle in your honor.
Speaker 1:What would we be celebrating?
Speaker 2:life like we'd be celebrating the fact that we get to sit here and pop a bottle. I mean, because a am I that I get to see this for free, or see this because it was part of a networking event? I mean there are people out there in this country that will never get to experience some of the stuff that we get to. I mean it's just mind blowing to me that I get to have this life. You know, and that may not always be a planner. I may be, you know, a chef, I may be something else, but I've enjoyed this immensely. I've enjoyed this conversation, I've enjoyed my life, I've enjoyed the people around it.
Speaker 2:I'm, I'm. I just I'm always I'm a grateful person and it I wasn't always a grateful person. I used to be a selfish person for a long time. So I'm just putting opening up my heart a little bit. So you know, I would, and I was a closed in business, money focus, and I, by the way, guys, I do not have a lot of money, I can tell you right now I'm looking at July and August, thinking what the hell am I going to do? So you know, this is actually coming from a real place, but at some point I had to like, oh, I get one chance at this. And if I am constantly going to be focused on like paying the rent and, and you know, getting every single dollar out of people and that was my hotel days I'm glad I don't do that anymore because that's kind of the way the hotel world works and I get it. They have, and god bless every catering sales manager and room block manager out there.
Speaker 1:We love you, because we know how difficult that job is.
Speaker 2:You know that is a really really hard job, and so I'm just really really lucky that we get to do that. So that's what we would pop a bottle to Like. Look at us, baby, look what we get to do. How fun is this.
Speaker 1:So if you're listening in and you've been listening in for a while you've heard this question asked to everybody and, like more often than not, it is attached to a goal and what heath is telling you is that you don't have to get to. You don't have to achieve a goal to pop the bottle.
Speaker 2:You can pop the bottle just because you're you want to pop a bottle because it's Thursday.
Speaker 1:How cool is that.
Speaker 2:We get to pop a bottle because it's Monday. You know what I had a crappy day today. You know what I'm going to end it with? Popping a bottle Screw this day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, got to have some kind of win. We're doing it right now, I love it.
Speaker 2:It's like just enjoy what you got, because there are a lot of people out there that don't, and if you're only looking at what other people have, you're not appreciation appreciating the things that you already have, and that includes the people in your life.
Speaker 1:Ooh, I have to say this before we close out. Um, Jasmine star is a huge mentor. Like I'm obsessed with her. Like I told her, if I could sit in a room and listen to her talk about enchiladas I would. So she had said people think of jealousy and envy as a negative thing, but if you think about it, it's just telling you what you want in life. So if you see somebody else that has something, ask yourself why you're feeling that way. Is that something that you aspire to be or to do or to have?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And then figure out the steps to get that yourself. It doesn't have to be a negative energy, it can just be added to your aspirations. And I was like Ooh, flip the script. I loved it, I loved it.
Speaker 2:I love that and I think the biggest thing we dropped so many names in this. I know, right, I feel I feel a little bad about a little of the name dropping thing, but I will say, I will say this is I think that the biggest major, most major mistake that everybody makes in this world is that they don't ask, they don't ask the question, they don't talk to people. You know if. If you want to know how somebody else got to where they are, ask them.
Speaker 1:Ask them.
Speaker 2:And if you want somebody to buy your business or buy your services, ask them. The worst they can say is no, and there are 8 billion people on this planet. I guarantee you there's going to be a yes out there. So, you know, take a moment.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. Well, keith, thank you so so much.
Speaker 2:Where can our guests find you, and if you have anything coming up that you want to share, feel free uh, yeah, so, um, they can reach me basically on my website, which is keithwillard eventscom, um, on linkedin, which is keith willard one I think it so weird, I don't know why I did Keith Willard one On Instagram at Keith Willard, at Facebook, at Keith Willard, you know any of those and then my email is keith at keithwillardeventscom. I try to make it as super simple as possible. And then the thing that I'm really looking forward to is that I actually have Tom Chalicek I always get his last name wrong From the Knot. He's coming on my podcast Behind the Veil in a couple of weeks to talk about this wedding survey that everybody's freaking out about. And then on April 30th, I've got Esther from the Knot Worldwide, who is their publisher, not a publisher editor at large, so she takes care of all the editing for their print and for their online, and so we're going to find out how you can get published on the knot.
Speaker 1:Ooh juicy stuff. I love it.
Speaker 2:All the good stuff. So, yeah, so that's this month, and then after, I think, may, we're going to take a little break over the summer, as Karen knows, because she is a fabulous host. Oh my god, you have been such a fabulous host, um thank you that, yes, and and, by the way, I I love your podcast. I absolutely love your podcast. I mean, this is the way it's supposed to be done. So, yeah, I'm really really super impressed with you.
Speaker 1:I love when we can have conversations like this because I send the questions, so Keith got a list of questions this morning before we started, which is actually very short notice on my end. Usually I send it earlier, but for those of you listening, they do get questions, but I like it when we go off script and start talking about the experiences and all of that, because that's what makes it real, yep. Well, keith, thank you for being real today and thank you for being here with us.
Speaker 2:Thank you for being you. I just had the best time. And thank you for, like, moving to the bedroom. I know that was hard.
Speaker 1:Oh man, yeah, here we go See it's, it's all scrappy. We do it all scrappy. I'll see you again soon, and I wish you the best.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you, thank you.