Celebration Pro Podcast
Celebration Pro Podcast
Book More Weddings with Heidi Thompson
Unlock the secrets to booking more weddings as we sit down with Heidi Thompson, the mastermind behind Evolve Your Wedding Business and the Bookmore Wedding Summit. In this episode, Heidi shares her wisdom on addressing common challenges like lead generation and booking issues, and how to transform your wedding business into a magnet for your ideal clients.
Don't miss this chance to connect with Heidi and 30 other expert wedding educators - it's time to elevate your wedding business! Join us for the virtual Book More Weddings Summit from August 19th through the 23rd - an event that promises continuous professional growth.
Grab your FREE ticket to the Book More Weddings Summit here!
DM Heidi @evolveyourweddingbusiness
Connect with Carin @celebrationpros
Hello Wedding Pros and welcome back to the Celebration Pro Podcast, karen Hunt here. We've had a couple weeks of quiet time in my corner and I'm excited to bounce back into being your podcast host and in your ears with the amazing Heidi Thompson. She is the founder of Evolve your Wedding Business. Am I saying that right? Evolve your Wedding Business yes, and the Bookmore Wedding Summit. So hopefully you are all starting to see in your inboxes on the feed how you can. Am I saying that right? Evolve your wedding business yes, and the Bookmore Wedding Summit. So hopefully you are all starting to see in your inboxes on the feed how you can sign up. But we're going to give you a little bit more of a deep dive, insight, sneak peek on what it's all about and why you should join. So, heidi, thank you so much for jumping on and talking to our listeners about this amazing opportunity.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited about this summit. I'm excited to have you involved as one of our amazing speakers, and it's going to be a ton of fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm so honored to be I'm always honored to be a part of anything you do. I think that the not just the speakers you bring in, but the well-rounded topics that you cover and staying so relevant, Just having that person, that go-to person in the industry, is so important that we appreciate you. So the very first question I have for you is why should our listeners attend the Bookmore Wedding Summit?
Speaker 2:Great question.
Speaker 2:So Bookmore Wedding Summit is a free five-day online conference so you can join from anywhere, you don't have to get dressed, and you can learn from over 30 speakers who are all speaking on topics really related to issues that I know wedding pros are having right now.
Speaker 2:Things like I don't have enough leads, or these leads are ghosting me, or I'm not getting enough bookings, or they're taking forever to book, and I'm, you know, losing them when they're just kind of like dangling out there. There are a lot of people facing these issues right now and if we are going to have fewer leads, we're going to need to make better use of them. And, of course, you know we're covering some things around getting more leads, but let's make full use of the leads that are coming through and turn more of them into booked weddings. And if that sounds like something you want to do, this is definitely an event you want to attend because it is just entirely focused on helping you book more weddings with the people that you really want to be working with. Yes, even when things are slow, there are still a lot of things we can do.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I know one of the things that I love most about your message that you often give is how you can find the right clients so that you're not just booking anyone and everyone because you're desperate for business, but you're understanding how to attract and qualify the leads that will best benefit and serve your business and that mutual relationship between business and client.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really important to me that people understand that you get to choose who you work with.
Speaker 2:You get to choose who you attract and who you build a business around, and that that is not actually something that is limiting either, because what happens is it makes you the go-to person, it makes you that first person that comes to mind when someone asks someone for a referral, it makes you so visible to your specific ideal clients and they see you in a different category.
Speaker 2:And I think that's one of the most important things I've seen this year and I've been talking a lot about this year is putting yourself into your own category, because if you're trying to compete in this huge category of wedding planner or wedding photographer or wedding venue, there are so many people competing in that category and it's really easy to get lost in the shuffle. So if you position yourself, as you know, the perfect photographer or the perfect planner for couples who want to have an adventurous, outdoorsy wedding, all of a sudden you know the other 10 tabs of planners they have open are like yeah, I don't, I don't really want to work with them. I really want to work with this specific person. So I think that is more important now than ever. Plus, it just makes your marketing so much easier. I think a lot of people don't realize that.
Speaker 1:It really does and that's, I think that's where you and I really align is having that very specific brand message and understanding not even just who your client is, but you understanding who your business is and where you want it to go, and pairing that with the referral power, like that's where the magic happens yeah, we all have people that when someone is like, oh, I'm really looking for xyz person, there is that immediate person that comes to mind.
Speaker 2:You're like, oh, you have to work with this. I don't accountant, you have to go to this massage therapist like they're so good. But if you don't have that like kind of hook in someone's brain as like I'm the person who does X thing, if it's too vague, it, you're not as referable as you could be.
Speaker 1:Being here in the Florida Keys we'll get back to the summit in a minute. We have to chit chat on this. So, being here in the Florida Keys, there is a woman shout out to Barbara she is the key lime pie lady. That's who she's known as, and so when we talk about who makes the best key lime pie, we're like, oh my gosh, it's the key lime pie lady. Or we want to have key lime pies as a dessert station, we want a piece of key Largo the Florida keys in our menu, and it's always goes back to all the key lime pie lady. And so that's just an example of what Heidi's talking about here and being that go-to person for that very specific thing.
Speaker 2:I love that. Yeah, be the something lady for somebody love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, be the something lady for somebody right, and let's see so.
Speaker 1:I have a curiosity, because I hosted a summit once upon a time and I after hosting and I was like man, this is like a virtual wedding show, but for vendors, like it was kind of this new perspective. There's so many moving parts to it and I would say it was even more cumbersome than the in-person shows that I have thrown in different ways. And so my question for you is a little bit a little more personal and I kind of be asking for my own personal reasons but what is your favorite behind the scenes part of being the host of this amazing event?
Speaker 2:It's probably when I'm doing research on going back to being known for something who in the industry is great at what things and who don't I know yet that is a really fun part for me of like, okay, I really want to find someone that can talk about I don't know chatbots who is that person in our industry?
Speaker 2:and like digging and being able to find someone and connecting the dots yeah yeah, connecting the dots in that way, that is really fun for me and just like seeing the puzzle pieces come together and see the gaps of like okay, I don't really have anybody talking about this, I need to find somebody to talk about this, it's. It's a really fun puzzle for me to put together every time because I know a lot of awesome people in our industry and I love them and they're fantastic. Most people in our industry are just wonderful people, but I don't want to fall into the trap of always having the exact same people on the exact same topics over and over again, so it gets repetitive. I always want to try to bring in new faces, new people from new places, so I really like the research aspect. I can just like sit in my little corner and get nerdy.
Speaker 1:And I bet that you're able to like, if it doesn't fit this time. Now you have this whole like Rolodex of great, like the networking you do is incredible. That's the best part of all of it is getting connected with everyone. So one thing I wanted to ask you because I don't know this, uh is how long have you been doing wedding education and then what inspired you from that to create the summit?
Speaker 2:Oh okay. So once upon a time worked as a planner, um, realized that wasn't for me. Uh, I had worked in marketing for several years, kind of fell into that through actually working fundraising events for nonprofits and realizing I really liked getting people to care, to show up and to donate. So I'm going about my business in my marketing world, still kind of keeping a pulse on the event in wedding world and I was living in the UK I saw a gap in the market in about 2010-2011 where the market was taking a massive left turn into like rock and roll bride, offbeat bride, I'm going to do what I want to do sort of weddings, and nobody was reacting to it, like everything in the wedding media, and wedding shows were still like big, white, fluffy, cinderella type weddings.
Speaker 2:So I put a wedding show together to bring together couples with the vendors who were doing something different and creative and not your typical traditional wedding. And then I found myself spending a lot of time coaching those exhibitors and how to get a good ROI on it. That's when I kind of realized, yeah, not everybody's just into marketing, as it turns out. So in 2012, I started this business to kind of merge those worlds of marketing experience and tons of different industries and just loving the psychology behind it really, and seeing that some of the most creative people I'd ever met were not making enough money and they could be if they had a better understanding of the marketing and business side right, I couldn't agree more, and I didn't know that you had kind of started.
Speaker 2:So that was so. I worked as an assistant just before I moved to the UK, when I was still living in Detroit. That would have been 2008.
Speaker 1:So for everyone listening in, like Heidi knows like this is why I asked the question, because I know it goes far back and it's rooted. She has been watching the industry change and oh how it's changed since then, right, it you know and it I mean oh, how it's changed in just the last five years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so when you're looking for that go-to person again who's going to understand one why the market is shifting, what the most relevant action to take is in your marketing, like you're, you've got her right now in your ears and just another reason to join at you know the summit and see what else and what other people she's brought together to help you through. And I'm seeing a lot of I say well-known names because I've, you know, I've been a part of OFD consulting. I see Megan Ely. She is our queen of PR. I've been at conferences with Sarah Dunn. She's helped a lot of my clients with SEO, and so I'm seeing some of these names that I see often and they're so wonderful and I wish I could name and list out all of the amazing speakers you have. But my question here is are there any repeat speakers or some of those big names that you've seen? A really, really amazing topics and feedback from your, from your guests at the summit.
Speaker 2:That is a really good question. Let me look here. So I do. I like to bring speakers back. I try not to repeat them like back to back constantly or back to back on the same topic. I try to bring people back on different topics. Bethel Nathan, I've known for years, is always a fantastic educator. Is always a fantastic educator. She's speaking about attracting, nurturing, booking and servicing your ideal couples for consistent business success, so that, like full customer lifetime, I love she's always such a good resource for that.
Speaker 2:Let's see who else do we have here that I've had back Um. Let's see who else do we have here that I've had back Um. We have you, of course, talking about sales strategy, because in the past you've talked about, you know, referrals and that's what I mean. Like, when I want to have people back, I want to have them talking about different things. Like Bondi is my go-to email person to talk about email marketing and I've had her talk about it in the past, but this time around she is talking about it specifically through the lens of you know what's going on right now and how you can use email to accelerate that period that many of us are seeing, where it's like taking a really long time in the consideration and research phase for a lot of people, but email can do wonders for nurturing people and actually moving them toward a sale, and that's definitely something most people in our industry are taking advantage of for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the whole email marketing game. They're like wait what, oh oh, you can do?
Speaker 1:And then that oh, okay, it's like I have so many, especially here in the Florida Keys, and I I say this with so much love that we're, that we're educated up to a certain point, because the continued education you would have to either invest a lot of time online to get the quality education or this is a great way to do it right is to join the summit, or they would have to travel quite a ways. We're on little islands on the very tip of Florida to get to any in-person conferences and have some of those important conversations. We don't have a lot of those important conversations with each other and I'm not sure where I'm going with this. You said something about it, but, man, I lost my thought. But anyways, it's.
Speaker 1:It's exciting for them to have an opportunity to, for little small towns like this to have an opportunity presented with information. There was somewhere else I was going with that, but that's okay. And then my other question here when it comes to the speakers is we talked about finding those gems. You've done a lot of research and finding those people who can really bring some new information to the forefront of our industry. Are there any topics that you are really excited about that we have for this summit that maybe we haven't seen in the past about that.
Speaker 2:We have this for this summit that maybe we haven't seen in the past. Whitney and Daniela are speaking about how to consistently show up in the newsfeed and stories of your ideal clients, even when you're too busy, and they're talking about ads from a unique perspective, because a lot of times we think about ads in terms of, okay, I'm gonna just run this ad, get this lead and then hopefully convert them. This is much more of a nurture strategy, a lot like the email marketing example that I haven't seen talked about much, especially in our industry, seen talked about much, especially in our industry, where I mean, it's not going to replace everything in your social media, but it can get you in front of the people who are the hottest leads on a regular basis for a very low cost. And you know that's just kind of happening in the background and I think that is a really exciting topic.
Speaker 2:In particular, we don't talk much about nurturing in our industry, and I think that's where things like email marketing and this kind of ad strategy really come in, because it's great when we can just hang out and do stuff and then you know a lead comes through. But there's so much research and consideration in this industry and it's just getting longer. So we have to do something in order to make sure that we are keeping up with those people and getting in front of them and nurturing them so that they do eventually become customers. Another topic that really flows through a lot of different presentations is standing out, and it's because this is a problem I've noticed over the past year. We got away with a lot during the, you know, huge period of demand, where you know we didn't have to be great at our marketing in order to get leads and bookings at our marketing in order to get leads and bookings, but that has really come to an end.
Speaker 2:And now, if you are not clearly standing out to the person you want to work with, if you're just kind of, I can do anything for anybody, it's going to boil down to being compared on price, which no one wants.
Speaker 2:So we have several topics, whether it's related to standing out in your brand, standing out in your marketing, standing out in your copywriting, really making sure that you are making yourself the go, you're making yourself the key line pilot for somebody, because it's super important, I think, more now than ever. And another that I think is really interesting is Terza Caffey, who works with venue owners, is speaking about practical tips to basically get on venue owners good sides and get and stay on a preferred vendor list, and I'm really looking forward to everyone getting that kind of insider's perspective, because we hear a lot of like oh, do this, try this. But it's usually coming from you know, other photographers, other planners of what's work. This is coming from venue owners of like someone did this, I loved it, someone did this, I hated it, do this. Not that it's going to be a gold mine of strategies for you to follow.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love all of that. I think it's all very relevant and I and what is interesting to me is sometimes we will see the speakers are doing what you're saying. They're finding that specialty Right. So they might be talking about email marketing, which has been around forever, but even us, as speakers, are finding that specialty that's relevant right now. And and all of this is such good information to help everyone move forward here. Do you remember last year, the last time around, what was the most watched speech or topic, like what was the hottest topic at the last summit, and do you think that there's going to be a shift this time around, or is there a pattern that you've seen over the years?
Speaker 2:Yeah, typically people are very curious about networking and I think it's largely because for most of us not you, you're great at it, but for most of us it's awkward, it's like weird do not get me wrong it's weird, we don't like people tell you to network and then you're like okay, but like, how do I do that?
Speaker 2:it's like, if someone's like just exercise, like okay, but what specifically am I supposed to be doing? You know, I think that is going to be quite a popular one. Um, anything where we talk about overarching trends which I think is really interesting or generational topics is always really popular. And Adriana McDermott is talking about Gen Z marketing strategies and I know she's been deep in the trenches of, like Reddit and Facebook groups and really like I don't know where she finds the time to put together such curated information and presentations.
Speaker 1:That, adriana, she just she's got it down yeah.
Speaker 2:So she is like undercover and all of these places like gathering information for us about what are people actually saying? What are people actually saying? What are people actually doing, what are they complaining about? What are they struggling with? So I think that's going to be a very popular presentation, because I think anytime there's a generational shift, people get nervous because they don't know how they're supposed to be adjusting. So I think that will definitely be one of our top ones. As with Nina's presentation about chat GPT for wedding pros, I think a lot of people have heard about these AI tools but they don't really know how to use them. But they know they can save them time. So I think that is going to be a very popular one because she breaks it down into okay, here's how you can actually use this and not just like blanket, like just use AI. You know that's not helpful.
Speaker 1:Oh, and I've seen, um, and I've even gone through some presentations where it's so heavy on the history of a tech school and why you should, and it's like the first 30 minutes of this and then it's like 10 minutes of this is how you use it.
Speaker 1:So I love that someone like Nina comes in and they're like okay, I have all the information, I'm going to dilute it so that you, as a creative, can understand and apply it to your business right now. And those are some of the best presentations. Then we can relate and you know when it feels like these presentations are being taught to you, for you, it is so wonderful. And you know, like I said, I know a lot of these presenters. I've met a lot of them in person, even at conferences, and they really are a fabulous group of people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're all so knowledgeable. Like every time I run this summit, I learn so much from the speakers, and I refer back to presentations where I'm like I know so-and-so had something really interesting to say about this. I need to go back and learn it for myself, because I don't know everything there is to know. You know about building a business. I'm just as much learning from other people as everyone else.
Speaker 1:I mean, we come into this as creatives, whether we can bake a cake or create a beautiful meal for a large group of people, or we're really good at putting all the details together.
Speaker 1:Whatever, wherever you're at in the industry, whatever your talent is, it didn't, it didn't come with a business degree, right, and so you have as a listener here in the event industry, you have essentially this conference right this virtual online conference where a you're going to get to meet all kinds of vendors from across the country, which is really cool, because when you start leaning into what's going on across the country, like eyes wide open, like all of a sudden, yeah, and the world like.
Speaker 2:we have lots of attendees from other countries and it's really interesting to see oh, here's what's working here, here's what's not working here. Here's how I'm going to apply this differently, because everyone's market is different.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, and sometimes it's surprising the similarities between you know here and maybe something that's happening over in Europe or whatever that looks like, and you're going to be getting so many different topics when you get to choose what's applied to your business right now. And, if I'm not mistaken, if you upgrade and I'll let you expand on this, but if you upgrade to that, it's the all-access pass correct. You have a lifetime access to the summit, Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we have two upgrade options. We have the all-access pass, which is lifetime access to all the presentations and transcripts. Have the VIP power pack, which is all of that, plus a bunch of VIP events happening throughout the event and after, and over $2,900 worth of bonuses contributed by the speakers to help you go. Take action on this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have. You get the first steps right in the, in the presentation, and then you get the next step, followed with a lot of cool and when. What I really love and this is me being a planner at heart is that you can take a summit like this and you can say right now is maybe, maybe it's your slow season that's how it is in Florida, it's so darn hot down here but maybe right now we're leaning into marketing and streamlining our business and then we're going to shift that what we're leaning into in the next quarter. And you now have all this information in front of you that you can actually allot to different parts of the year to consume. You don't have to consume it all in that four or five days. You can really break it up when you upgrade and not have to feel so overwhelmed to do all of it right now, and I love that that option is provided by you.
Speaker 2:I absolutely do that with things that I purchase as well. Like sometimes there's something happening and I'm like, okay, I need this. I know I need this. I don't have time right now. This just happened. It was like, okay, I'm putting together a summit, I do not have time for this right now, but I'm going to buy this and then it's on my calendar for later in September to go take action on it. Like it doesn't have to happen right now. And I think sometimes we put too much on our own plate and don't realize the power of taking action on one thing. Like one small shift that you make can make a huge difference in your business.
Speaker 1:It really can. So don't be the person who says, oh, I missed the summit, or I can't do it this year because of the dates, or whatever that is, if this is important to you learning from the best in the industry. Go ahead and upgrade and have that tool, invest in your professional growth, because you are the CEO of your business.
Speaker 1:You are the reason why it thrives, why it does well or why it doesn't do well. We don't want you in that scenario and if not, if you can make all five days, go ahead, get that free ticket and lean in. And, heidi, thank you again so much for creating an incredible educational platform for all of us who know don't have access to. There's not a degree in wedding business that I have found yet. I mean, I have a degree in event management, but it didn't teach the business side of things, and to be able to combine that, I think, is so powerful. So thank you. And where can our listeners learn more about the summit? I'll definitely drop a link for that free ticket as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I would suggest, go through Karen's link so that she is the one that sent you and we can give her credit for that, because she is contributing her time and her presentation and we want to honor that. So be sure to use her link and when you go to that you will be able to grab your free ticket. Right after you grab your free ticket, you'll have an opportunity to grab either of the upgrades for the lowest price available or not. You don't have to take them, but they are available to you and it will give you the option and you can decide from there. Okay, is it better for me if I upgrade? Is it better for me if I just stick with the free ticket? And if you change your mind later you can upgrade later. It's just not gonna be at that early bird price and I know I always like getting the best deal, so I like to grab it early on.
Speaker 1:Smart business sense. And for those of you listening in who just love all of Heidi's insights and obviously are the go-to person, how can we get in touch with you personally?
Speaker 2:So basically everything I do is over at evolveyourweddingbusinesscom, but feel free to shoot me a DM directly on Instagram. That's probably my most active place, so you can DM me. I'm evolveyourweddingbusiness. I'd love to hear from you, I'd love to hear what presentations you're looking forward to, and I just like nerding out about marketing, so let's talk. I might hop in your DMs.
Speaker 1:Well, again, we are so grateful for you and I'll make sure all of the links and contact info are in the show notes and I cannot wait. Can you say the dates just one more time for our listeners.
Speaker 2:Yep. It's August 19th through the 23rd.
Speaker 1:We will see all of you there. Thank you, Heidi.
Speaker 2:Thank you.