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00:00:01
Navigating Wedding Submissions as a Planner
36 Plays5 months ago
I am excited to share an interview with Meghan Ely of OFD Consulting. She shares fantastic tips for submitting weddings to publications and online websites.
You can learn more submission tips on Meghan's guest blog HERE
You can also contact Meghan by visiting the OFD Consulting Website
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you a wedding planner just starting your business or have you been in the industry for just a few years? Do you want to build a profitable and enjoyable planning business that you're excited about every day? If the answer is yes, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the business of wedding planning podcast.
Amber's Background and Mission
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm your host, Amber Peterson. I was a wedding planner for 10 years, a marketing strategist for service-based businesses, and now the owner of Planner's Lounge. I know what it's like to work so hard as a planner but not see the growth and profit you dream of. I also know that while you can be the most talented planner in your market, if you don't have the business foundation, it will be hard to continue growing.
00:00:45
Speaker
I have seen so many talented planners burn out because they become frustrated with things unrelated to wedding planning, like finances, marketing, team growth, and operations. This is where the Business of Wedding Planning podcast and Planners Lounge come in. Our mission is to help you learn what it takes to build the business of your dreams with simple digital product solutions, educational content, and the support of our free community, the Very Important Planners Lounge, or VIP Lounge for short. I understand what it's like to work in this unique industry while having a lot on your plate. During my time as a planner, I had three daughters, bought and moved to two new homes, and launched two other businesses. I am excited to combine my education, industry experience, and passion to help you reach your business goals.
00:01:40
Speaker
Hi, friends. Welcome back to the Business of Wedding Planning podcast.
Guest Introduction: Megan Ely
00:01:44
Speaker
Today, I'm sharing an interview with someone that I followed when I was planning weddings, and I'm so excited to bring her knowledge to you. Today, I am talking to Megan Ely, owner of OFD Consulting. She is a certified wedding industry professional who combines in the trenches event experience with a love of wedding PR to empower her clients to take their businesses to new heights. She is a wedding pro-education expert and is regularly honored by the Public Relations Society of America. Meghan is a past national president of WIPA and a member of the National Society of Black Wedding and Event Professionals Allied Council.
00:02:25
Speaker
Aventex named her one of the wedding pros to watch in 2023, and Nace honored her as speaker of the year. Today we're going to be talking about how to navigate wedding submissions as a planner if you're submitting to magazines, things like that. And so I really hope that you get a lot from this interview. I'm so excited to share with you and enjoy. All right, welcome, Megan, to the Business of Wedding Planning podcast. I'm so excited to have you here. I'm hugely excited. Thank you. i When I was a planner, I remember seeing you speak at Wedding MBA and your knowledge of public relations was so helpful to my business, so I'm really excited to have you here talking to the planner's lounge community.
00:03:10
Speaker
Thank you. I appreciate you coming to my talk. The wedding MBA has a million great speakers, so that especially is a high compliment. Thank
Megan's Journey into Wedding PR
00:03:16
Speaker
you. First, I just want to ask you what has been your kind of road through the wedding industry? Sure, so my road is kind of this like, you know how they say, when they say the road doesn't look straight until you look behind, it like in the rear view, and that's what it was. You know, how far but do you go back, right? Do I go back to my career test in high school that told me I'd be great at PR? And then me being a rule follower said, maybe yeah that's what I'm gonna do. i finally I eventually figured out what it meant, and I agreed with said assessment. I went to school all for public relations, but while I was there, there was there was just a pull to the wedding industry, and you know, this is gonna sound very cliche,
00:03:52
Speaker
But, you know, I remember I was driving to the grocery store. It was actually funny that there's just no, like, huge moment I was getting groceries. And that to myself, you know, the wedding industry seems like a fun place to be. People seem pretty darn happy. Like, maybe I need to hang my hat there for a little bit. So I kind of made that decision arbitrarily my sophomore, junior year that maybe I'm also keeping an eye on that. And I started buying all the magazines, all the things. And made a decision Actually, a lot of my school projects were were wedding-based. like Truly, my original I was going to name it One Fine Day, which now is shortened to OFD, but like that's all tied to all those years ago. and so When I got out of school, I took a year and did a year of service with AmeriCorps, which was a great great opportunity. But in the meantime, I worked part-time at a local... I moved to Virginia from New England
00:04:38
Speaker
and worked at a property. I worked at historic property, and as I tell people, I'd never call myself a planner to the respect you be respectful of the planners of the world. But I worked in venues I was very hands-on, and it was a million hours a week on top of a full-time commitment to AmeriCorps, but I loved it. I mean, sweaty, stressful, all but I like loved it. you know at this like granular level. And so i I was in the industry on the venue side for seven-ish years, made my way up to a five-star property and worked their hotel 24 hours a day. It felt like over there. air And I knew I was always going to go back to combining my formal training of PR with the wedding industry. And it was a matter of when I was going to do it and to save you a lot of time. And the glass of wine that I usually need to tell this story is I had accepted a director of catering position at a well-known brand here locally after I left the hotel.
00:05:28
Speaker
And the goal was to save. I negotiated a great, great salary and was to stay there a couple of years, save up and go out on my own as a publicist. You and I both know plans have a way of changing. And right in the middle of it was the 2009 recession. Just bought a house with my fiance now husband, spoiler alert, about to pay for a wedding. we need to start this earlier because this job was not going to be a fit for me long-term. That is a very polite way of putting the circumstances I found myself in. So I started OFD and I've been doing it 15 years. and For the first first year, I did a little bit of moonlighting, still working. I worked for some planners. I was a great go-to for day up. like I'm a good rule follower, so I did that. I did some moonlighting at a local venue as well. So that's that's like the shortest version of the story and and that's where I am today.
00:06:15
Speaker
Very cool. Yeah, I always think it's interesting to hear how people got where they were going through this. because yeah i I mean, I was one of the people that was like, I planned my wedding and I was like, I think that would be fun. And then I was like, but that's not a real job. So I better go to like grad school and all of that. And then after I had my first daughter, I was like, I don't want to work in corporate marketing. And yeah, it's like, I'm going to do this. And actually started my business in 2009. But yeah, look at us. Right? there Why don't we just do it while the world has no money? Like, why don't we just do it in the middle of the biggest recession of our lifetime? Let's do it.
00:06:50
Speaker
and Right. Yeah.
Mastering Wedding Submissions
00:06:52
Speaker
Let's jump in. So we're going to be talking about submitting weddings for public relations. And as I said, my background is in integrated marketing communications, but public relations was always felt a little like tricky to me because I was when I was a player, I was like, what do they want? I don't know if I'm doing this right. And if I got selected, I was like, that was magic. Like how did but but It feels good, doesn't it? Yeah, but I never quite knew what was the secret sauce. I'm so excited to have you here talking about what goes into a wedding submission. Oh, let's just get start. Let me ask you, can you just explain what a wedding submission involves and why is this so important? Because I know a lot of... Sure, professionals that don't do it.
00:07:33
Speaker
i and They don't, and I understand. it Listen, I know there's a great responsibility coming here saying, yeah, you should do this. So in the middle of you know the time this recording, it's busy season for a lot of people, but every season's busy in its different way as well. So let's create a baseline. like Let's just start with what is a submission to start, to your point. A submission is when you've got a great wedding. A wedding's already taken place typically in the last year. It's gorgeous. It's well shot. exclamation point with that rate. You've got a couple ready and willing to go ahead and work with you on that. And the way it works from there is that you will have this great event and you want to submit it to a blog or publication one at a time until it lands on the right spot. And then it gets featured. And typically a feature, you can either be in a magazine, so you open up like the knot print, right? And you see these gorgeous events. You could go online, you can go to Green Wedding. She's telling me pretty Martha Stewart. And you see this gorgeous event, lots of photos, great right up with a couple.
00:08:26
Speaker
as well as of course a list of vendors, which is going to go through all of the wedding day team too. So that answers like what a submission is, typically submitted by planners, photographers, big venues, florists, designers, but not, you don't usually see people outside of those kind of industries. But your question, why? And again, I want to reiterate, i I can't stress off, I know how busy people are. Some of you worked in the business and I, We just, um you know, the time this recording was finished, there was a holiday weekend. I thought, oh, I remember those days. I remember those three to five weddings kind of holiday weekends. But the fact of the matter is, ah real weddings serve a few purposes for people. First of all, it does increase brand awareness. I mean, just like with advertising in a way, you're reaching out to your intended audience at these channels. Like, my people are destination couples. Ergo, I submit submit and get featured at Destination I Do. I'm getting in front of, like, people are seeing my work.
00:09:19
Speaker
Splendid Insights, which is a fabulous resource. It talks a lot about customer acquisition and in their you know yearly statistics, a report comes out. And one of the ways, I mean, there are many, but one of the ways you've got Google ah vendor referrals, client referrals, but also features. So people see those features, they say, oh, it's a gorgeous venue. That's that, oh, who is the planner for this? The beautiful photography. So you get that side of it. But as I mentioned, Google is part of it. And let me be the first to say, I am not an SEO expert, but I can say that one of the ways that websites will go up in Google is through backlinks. So people who are, they get linked elsewhere. So when you get featured on ruffled and you get a link to your site, that helps in part. So it is an SEO strategy for a lot of people. In fact, a lot of SEO companies send their clients to me to help build their backlinks too.
00:10:06
Speaker
But there's also something you said for referrals. You and I both know that referrals are a huge part of the business, right? So if you are a planner and you want to stay on the good side of the venue and the couples and the things, imagine you've got a well-executed event, which unto itself should be celebrated, but imagine and three, four, five months later you're like, and also we got in brides, you know, we got in rock and roll bride or whatever that looks like. So It helps cement those relationships that could lead to referrals. And then finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't share, there's a social proof to it too. PR is when someone else says you're great. And there's so much value to that, especially as we experience this generational shift towards Gen Z, which I'm sure you and I are both probably already tired of talking about, but Gen Z, they are beginning to dominate
00:10:48
Speaker
the purchasing power you know of of the wedding industry. And the fact is, they want to see not only testimonials, the as seen in, they want to know that outside of you saying you're great, that other people, there's some great buzz as well. That makes a lot of sense. And I think it's it definitely is one of those things where undertaking it can feel a little like, oh, this is a lot, but there are so many places for it. That's what I learned when I was doing it. I was like, you don't have to, yeah if you look to get like brides or the knot or whatever, it's like there are so many niche blogs and things out there that you can reach out to that are, it it doesn't have to be a million dollar wedding that you planned. It can be something Absolutely. That's the number one thing. People always always say, oh, well, it wasn't a huge budget. I'm like, listen, I've seen huge budget weddings, weddings that would have paid off my mortgage, my car, all these things. And it's beautiful for them, but it's indoor, all white palette, lots of florals, gorgeous, but it's something I've seen many times before. Show me a wedding.
00:11:49
Speaker
that is mid-range with lots of personalized details. And in you're right, there's just a lot you can do with that. And I'm a huge proponent. I love the national stuff. My heart also belongs with local and niche as well. I mean, a I talk about destination weddings, right? That will be your exact audience when you start focusing on the places that actually focus on destination couples. you know There's value to that. Absolutely. So can you share a little bit about what do editors typically look for when they're getting all these submissions on their desk? Sure. Well, you know, again, and so I know I'm not an editor, but we work with them a lot. So I feel like I can at least share what has been shared with me as well. So a few things.
00:12:27
Speaker
yeah Bear in mind, they're always looking for highly stylized, highly personalized, fresh and inspiring details. These guys are, as you can imagine, the publications need traffic to be successful. I mean, that's tied to advertising. It's tied to a lot of things. In order to do that, they need weddings that have not been seen elsewhere. They want exclusive content and they want something different. And that's easier said than done sometimes because you've got the couples who are fabulous. And if you think about it, they get engaged. It's a year before they get married. What are they doing? They're looking at Instagram. They get Pinterest of things that already happen. So by the time they come up, it's like you're really looking at a pretty common aesthetic. Like whatever they're showing me, it's like, oh, I've seen this so many times in the last year and you want to be mindful of that.
00:13:11
Speaker
So they're looking for different, and doesn't notice I didn't say luxe every time, it's different. They want well shot. um If you've got a photographer who is like, well, I'm primarily a natural light photographer, we've heard that before, and they do this gorgeous ceremony, and then they go into a ballroom and you're like, oh, I don't think they've ever shot indoors before. like that's That's a problem. you want clean photography. Like if you've got someone who does really heavy, moody, that's like good that's a look and it's a beautiful look, but that doesn't always resonate on editorial. So they're looking for that highly star-out stylized, well-shot, very personalized um wedding. you know They want to hear from the couple. They want to hear what pulled everything together for this cohesive look. And you know one of the things in my membership we were just chatting about too is these guys are looking for flat lays, which I will tell you,
00:13:59
Speaker
They have to be well shot. Oftentimes, the planner is getting involved to help with the material and the things, grabbing the paper suites and all of that. But that's what they're looking for. They want the full shebang. if you Well, they want the whole story. And then they have to add the unsexy detail. They want you to follow the rules. so They want you to follow the rules. Members of the media, no matter who they work for, they could be a solopreneur blogger with a cool blog they're doing themselves. You'd be someone who works for the major publications. They are always on deadline. They are always inundated, lots of emails, all the things. They need you to follow the rules. So if you are being asked to send in 100 photos, you send in 100. Notice I didn't say 99 and notice I didn't say 101 or 100ish. They want a certain, you know, they are looking for a certain size. You'll be mindful of that. They want all the permissions taken care of as well.
00:14:47
Speaker
And, you know, they want to know that when they've asked for all the things you've provided it, you haven't been scammed on the vendor, the vendor list, and that the couple's willing, ready and willing to work with you. So, you know, you always want to go back to the submission pages just to make sure that you've got your your ducks, your proverbial ducks in a row. That makes sense. So you don't want them to have to do any work. You want, it's like, being there it's all here, here you go. yeah and They've got their work, you don't they don't want to do your work. you know they it They don't want something to publish and then the hair hair and makeup will reach out and say, I wasn't listed. like They don't want to have to deal with that because there's an informal contract here that says, you give me everything I need. So yeah, just following those rules,
Navigating Rejections and Editorial Strategy
00:15:30
Speaker
that's a big part of it. I kind of joke that I was almost meant for this role because I'm so type A. you know ah i like I love rules and I love following them and this is the job for me.
00:15:39
Speaker
Yeah. You mentioned telling the story of the day. What's the best way to go about that? Like, is it just making sure you have, like, images that cover the whole thing? Like, what is the best way? Because I know that as a planner, it's like we're not totally in control, obviously, of what the photographers make a picture of. So I would have weddings that in my head as we're planning them. I'm like, this will make a good submission. So is it working with the photographer to be like, this is what I'm thinking. And how do we do that? How do we create the story? That's a fantastic question. So you're looking at a couple of different things here. And so first and foremost, in order to tell the story, it's going to be the write up and it's going to be the photo. So I'm going to touch upon the write up just for a moment because this is an easy one. You want to interview the couple. You want to interview the couple for a couple of reasons. One, it's for the story. You know, what were your, tell me about your colors, why you chose them, any special details of the day. Now, as a planner, you usually know most of them, but you'd be surprised sometimes about some of the things going on.
00:16:33
Speaker
So get that and create a write-up based on that. Something short, couple paragraphs, short but sweet, story of the couple, so and so forth. You also want to complement it with the images themselves. And so within the parameters that are given to you by the editor, 100 photos, 20 photos, 150 photos, whatever, you do want to pull from all aspects of the day, being able to tell this chronological story. Now you may start with four to five photos at the top. They're just really killer and catches their eye. It just depends on the outlet. But then from there, you're telling the story of the day. you knowll We use Adobe Bridge, which is free. and allows us to put the photos in a very particular order in a kind of clean and efficient way. But yes, you work with what you have, but to your point, it doesn't hurt to connect with the photographer. Typically, the photographer will almost always, 99% of the time, own the copyright. So you've got to make sure they're on board anyways, right? Just like you want to interview the couple to make sure they're on board, right? Double check with them. But with the photographer in particular, you I always suggest, listen, get with them a couple of weeks ahead of time.
00:17:31
Speaker
get with them and say, hey, my fake name is Amy and Scott. Based on a real Amy and Scott, who now know that's the name I use. But anyways, you get Amy and Scott's wedding coming up, really looking forward to this. Listen, I think this could be a really good fit for publication potentially, and then that's where you start by saying, is this something you'd like to collaborate on? Do you already have an idea? Because that's the number, you didn't ask me this one, I want to share it. No one wants to take planners to make if they just assume the role and take over. And I'm like, no, ma'am, sir. It does not work like that. So you reach out to them, make sure everyone's cool beings with it. And then from there, let them know, say, listen, you get some really cool stuff day of, I just wanted to alert you to a few of the extra special details. you know Ask them if they plan to do flat lays, things like that. So get with them ahead of time, couple weeks out.
00:18:20
Speaker
Please be mindful of the time of year. You and I have both trudged along through busy wedding seasons. Reaching out to someone three days before Memorial Day weekend is not a good look for anybody. So give them some time. Know that they're always going to be focused on the wedding that's coming up that weekend. But you know just reach out and be like, hey, can we talk about this? I want to give you a heads up of of some stuff coming down the pipeline that could be a fit. That makes sense. And then when you're kind of storyboarding this out in your brain of like submissions, are there any specific moments from the wedding that are like, this is a must include, everybody wants to see this?
00:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's less about the moments, more about the details. Are there milestone moments? Yes. The kiss at the end, which by the way, side note, something we should talk about how, I mean, I've gone through so many galleries in my life that when they announce them, I swear one of them will always pump their fist up in the air. So I'm like, let's talk about that. yeah But it's them walking up the aisle, down the aisle, handful from the ceremony. Just a few portrait of the couple, not a ton. People are always surprised how little you want to get that as well. And in the milestone moments, you they're cutting the cake, toast, like, yeah, you want those. But really, it's more about the details. The must-haves are going to be the reception details. Like, you've got to get a photographer in there before everyone musses and fusses it all up and and make sure that you mean you get it, that coverage of you know the place and settings and the in the beautiful everything. And then I would also say,
00:19:43
Speaker
as submissions are getting increasingly more competitive, which they are, it's going to be the flat lay as well. Like I just had a really great chat with Manda Weaver, who's a wonderful photographer, brilliant at flat lays. And we talked about like that is becoming more and more necessity. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. I feel like that sort of can be backwards in our brains. Cause it's like, Oh, it's the couple. It's about the couple. And it's like, well, but not everyone, it's not like this is being submitted to their family album. like Exactly. The album, not the same as the submission. It's editorial.
00:20:15
Speaker
It's the details, the things that are going to be pinned for the majority, the things that are going to be on Instagram and with the links and all, like that people are going to click to, it's always going to be the details. It's rarely the couple very much. And and you do want the couple in there. I mean, they're required and some part of it, but people photos date. pretty quickly. And you're tipping out with the couples are wearing, but like the wedding party, you don't have family photos because it just, the clothes will date it very quickly. Okay. So we touched a little bit on like following the rules and making sure we're getting the details. Are there any other like pitfalls that people make mistakes on when they're submitting? Sure. Let me count the ways. I'll keep it minimal. But first and foremost, not getting the proper permissions. And by that, I mean get with your lawyer. Make sure you have something in in your contract that the couple says yes to. um Making sure you got permission from the photographer if you're not the photographer. That's again why we always interview the couple because it's like a secondary follow up to make sure they're easy to work with. They're going to respond so and so forth because it is necessary 98% of the time that you have to have their involvement. So there's that.
00:21:20
Speaker
So the permissions is a big thing. I would also say people don't understand there's such thing as exclusivity and you can't take a submission and toss it like a ball into a crowd and say just whoever gets it or like a bouquet, right? You can't do that. You have to you had to go one at a time, most of the time until you've landed on the right spot because if you don't send it to poor places and see who goes first. So that's going to be the other pitfall that they do. And the last one, and I've already talked about this, but I feel so strongly about it. I hope you don't mind repeating me repeating it as following the rules. going back and looking at the submission guidelines, making sure, you know, some of them are pay to play, advertisers only. Some of them say no black and white or primarily I want vertical versus horizontal, like making sure that you follow those rules early and often will put you in good favor.
00:22:05
Speaker
That makes sense. I always thought of it as like applying for a job when they're like, make sure you include this and you don't when you apply for a job. It's like, okay, well, apparently attention to detail is not your thing. A hundred percent. And they don't want to work with you if you're going to be someone who doesn't pay attention to those things. in And I was going to say actually one last thing too, if you don't mind is one of the problems too is not pairing the wedding with the rape publication. Where you want to send it because you want to be there is not the same as where you want to send it because the content matches. so And there are people who come and they I love this wedding I want to send at Martha Stewart weddings, but it's extremely dark and moody. And it's like, oh, that doesn't, that's not going to work. Or you know what I mean? Like, so just if you're doing it on your own, which I'm totally here to empower people to do, I would say just make sure you've really looked through.
00:22:49
Speaker
and are aware of the current content that they're covering. Because if you don't understand what they want, sending something in is just no not a good thing. It's a red flag to the editors, you know? Yeah, I could see that if I was on the other side as an editor and you're getting things that it's like, this doesn't match up at all. It would feel like, are they just sending this to everyone, just hoping to get a 100%. It's like, how many people do I talk to where they're like, I really want to be in Vogue. No, let's not say Vogue. Let's say Harper's Bazaar. I really want to be in Harper's Bazaar. And I'm like, they don't feature weddings. Like, what did they, they stopped doing that. Like how, when's the last time you looked at it? Or someone will say Vogue and I'll say, when's the last time you actually like read Vogue weddings because they primarily feature
00:23:32
Speaker
celebrity or celebrity adjacent. like there or Or it's really tied to a house of fashion sort of situation. If you are sending in things on your own, you don't want to gain the reputation among editors that you're just sending things in willy nilly, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That absolutely makes sense. Okay, so my last question for you, rejection, like that, yes, Nam. I'm submitting these, you follow all the rules, you're thinking like, this is great, i this is a beautiful wedding, it's my best wedding ever, and then you don't get picked. How do you handle that and keep moving forward to keep submitting and
00:24:09
Speaker
Well, this is a good point for me to tell you. I get more rejections than yeses. I think like, let's not start with that at the beginning of the podcast, but let me just say PR is knowing when something's a fit and also understanding not everything's going to be a fit. The fact is, you know, editors are going to turn things down for a number of reasons that you can't control. You may have the, I had this gorgeous wedding and I'm not even going to say where it went. And I was like, this is, this is an, I'm nailing it. Like this is without a shadow of a doubt. And I didn't get picked up. And I'm like, serious? what like I thought I was more common about this than almost anything. and So what I tell people is yeah understand first and foremost why you probably got rejected in there if they don't give you feedback. It could be things like, you know hey, i ah we can't do this, it's great, but we already have enough for this season. This is too seasonal or the timing doesn't work. It could be that they have three from that same vineyard they're featuring or have featured and so on and so forth.
00:25:03
Speaker
You know, a lot of them, there's just so many different reasons. So it's remembering this is a business transaction and taking the emotion out of it, being realistic. I think a lot of people come to us because we often we provide metrics one or two times a year of how often things are being published to say, Well, Martha Stewart last year at the time of this recording had three or four full months where they had no wedding features. like that That's not a lot of opportunity there. so Remembering that what's realistic, it is a business transaction transaction. You are allowed to be unhappy and upset about it.
00:25:36
Speaker
But for a very small amount of time, calm down. Like you've already been paid for the wedding. It was a gorgeous wedding. The couple's happy. This is icing on the wedding cake, literally. Like literally. So one is take the emotion out to the best of your ability. Give yourself time to be unhappy, but move on from it. Always have backup places ready to go. You might have a reach place, and then you've got backup places. And then from there, you've just got to keep submitting until you land on the right spot. And it's a learning thing as you go. But I think the biggest thing is just to consider the learning curve. know that sometimes you'll get feedback. There's going to be something a little more obvious when it comes to that and you'll be better for the next time. You'll be a little bit more knowledgeable as well. I would say just be mindful of how much you share with a couple as well because you don't want to tell them every time it's let's he get rejected three times before it lands on something. You don't want to like keep telling just great news. We're over at Bridal Guide, you know, but let them know from there. ah
00:26:31
Speaker
Yeah, I do feel like where it as a business owner like taking our emotion out of it It's a little harder for the couple to take if you're like we were rejected. It's like that was my wedding like I don't want to know That's the worst so like you never like that's the thing is I say when it comes to couples and You want to be you want to be as like vague as possible without upsetting them and say oh we'd like to say yeah We'd love to consider submitting like like we'd like to consider and we'll see and you know It's a bit of a long shot if we get it. It's great if we don't it's okay, too It's still a great day You know what I mean? You keep it very general because you know you want to end things on a really positive note with them never go into it I always say be be wary of the couple that
00:27:11
Speaker
That's all they're prioritizing, too, because I try not to touch those with a 10-foot pole. So, no, thank you. OK, so I actually have one more question for you. Just because we have a lot of like brand new planners or people who are really early in their career in here, and I know when I was planning, and there were people who they would they would do like styled shoots and submit those. Is that still something that people should think about doing, or is it really like real weddings is the way to go? That's a great question. I got to tell you, you ask any one of my team members, we're all going to come up with vastly different opinions. We all feel very strongly in different ways about it, but I'm going to do my best to be very like mid, mid ah middle of the road here with this. The fact is style shoots have been around for 15, 16, 17 years in a sense of the editorial strategy. And what I tell people is this, these days, fewer and fewer blogs are featuring regularly styled shoots. it's It's far more competitive than it was two, five, 10, 15 years ago, the end. And in be mindful of that.
00:28:11
Speaker
If you want to get a group together for Salchute, I would say PR should not be your number one goal. It should be like number four on your list of goals. If you're doing it, you're doing it for content. You're doing it for vendor relationships. You're doing it um to be able to showcase what it is that you can do above and beyond, you know, to really show off those things. in And then, editorially, it's going to be next. Is it a good idea? It can be if you're realistic about it. If you are the person running running the show and you want to send it out, you know that you are going to be limited with how much you can share it beforehand. So you need to prioritize it. Have an idea of where you want to send it, but deeply, intimately get involved with these edit like editorial like content, like go to their sites, look up how often they're doing styled shoots, inspiration shoots, what they're covering and the biggest thing you have to do. And this is so like, I can't stress this enough.
00:29:02
Speaker
you have to go above and beyond what's popular right now. You have to look beyond the trends to get considered at this point. Like I have worked years ago with people who, when Ombre came around in about 2011, we had someone who did an Ombre shoot before. it was it was on the It was a little bit in the fashion houses, but that was like on the runways, that was it. And so that went everywhere and it did really well. But someone may come to us and say, oh, I have this Frida Kahlo themed. And you're just like, that's been everywhere. like you be Be realistic about what you're doing. Really, I'm going to encourage people if they're really going to hoade hone in on the aesthetic and design, like really use your noodle on this one and and use your creativity, the creative muscles that you can flex and do something different, really different. Yeah, that makes sense. I feel like yeah even five years ago, it was ah styled shoots were like, okay, this is fun. Let's do this. and Now, I feel like it's either love them or hate them. I don't love them. It's absolutely harder.
00:29:59
Speaker
It is. There's only so many hours of the day and I can see people who have done them and they're still getting published and they do a really great job and I see the benefits of it. right Maybe you're working with a new venue and you get referrals and all this, but there is such a cost of time and material And it's so hard to get them
The Role of a Publicist and Conclusion
00:30:17
Speaker
published. i There's so many ways to get in front of couples. I'm surprised we don't spend more time networking, optimizing our sites, getting published with the work we're actually doing. You know what I mean? I'm not a huge fan, but I can also see people leveraging them successfully still.
00:30:31
Speaker
OK, so we have talked about so much. And I know for me, when I was submitting, it got overwhelming. So can you talk a little bit about how people can work with you and what you have coming up in OSD that maybe we weren't for people who are like, I don't want to do this or I need to go. Thanks. This all sounds wonderful and terrible. So the effect of the matter is we are always happy to work with people. I always tell folks, you know, if you're looking for a wedding publicist, there are very few of us, like let's be there's like five or six of us. And anywhere doing you want to find Like go research, go see. My biggest thing is if you're going to do it, you want to take a look at what the investment is. You want to really take a look at their latest media features. I always say the media is changing constantly. So you want to make sure that your goals are in alignment with what they've done in the last six to 12 months. I think like that's why we really pride ourselves on our press pages being the most updated among anybody. We want people to see what we've done immediately. So you just want to kind of match with that. So look at your options. Who do you vibe with? So and so forth. The biggest thing is with any sort of outsourcing,
00:31:31
Speaker
You want to make sure you can it make sense. There's an ah ROI like I'm like for me I don't do my accounting because i I do math I guess but I spent most of my life not wanting to do math and I can take those hours and put it into business development like I can I can do there's better use of my time if I can pay someone else to do my payroll and accounting blah blah. Same for PR for people. If they can take that time and it's better used elsewhere, and it could be something they do, personal lobbies, it could be a little more R and&R, but it could also be business development, then consider it. And they just want to make sure you're vibing with the right person you for us. We do it through a membership called OFT Collective. So that's one way we do it, is people want to work with us. ah But we're also very strict. We don't work with couples. There are certain parameters we're looking for, so and so forth. um We also have a course coming up I'm very excited about where
00:32:18
Speaker
you know The course in particular is for those who feel empowered to move forward on their own and said, you know what? I mean, I have like eight, I want to send out the share with the publicist, but I can set aside some time, I can train myself, I can train my team, and that's who we're trying to reach with that as well. There's a few different ways to work with us and the good news is there are opportunities out there. My biggest thing is to make sure I've empowered your listeners, of course, to really move forward and on their own, find the right fit for for them. Amazing. So they can, and where can people find you online if they want to learn you more about you or your business or these upcoming stuff? Yeah. That kind of thing. OFTConsulting.com is the best way. Like that's the hub. Find me there. OFTConsulting and Instagram. Don't find me at TikTok because all I'm doing is watching cat videos. Like I'm not really being substantial over there. So like, don't need to find me over there. But the OFTConsulting.com is a great place to start.
00:33:13
Speaker
Okay, great. And we'll link that in the show notes. And this has been amazing. I i mean, I stopped planning in 2019, but I remember going through this process and it's just, and like you said, things change so fast in just marketing and PR and everything. So it's great to have someone to go to as a resource. So thank you so much for having me. Of course, thank you so much. And like I said, everything will be linked in the show notes. So if you want to find Megan, go visit oftconsulting.com. And I hope that this was helpful for all of our listeners. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Megan.