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Episode 157 - maximalism - Kristin Banta
47 Plays8 days ago
Happy Woo Wednesdays.
Today I have the famous Kristin Banta in the HECK YES house. She is all about maximalism.
She runs a production and design house creative agency.
I met her at a WIPA and Nace event in Palm Springs and she was keynote speaker.
You may recognize her because she had her own show on Bravo. Kristen is famous in the wedding industry!
She is known for provocative memorable integrative storytelling, all about the experience for her guests.
Go to her instagram and then website to check out her unprecedented before and afters. She transforms a space like no other. https://www.kristinbanta.com/
https://www.instagram.com/kristinbantaevents
Congrats Kristin on being named event designer of the year at the prestigious gala award!
Connect with Carissa Woo
https://instagram.com/carissawoo
Heckyesmedia.co
Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Happy Will Wednesdays! Wedding pros if you need a new brand, IG makeover, proven IG system and sales process, and more leads and bookings, to go to heckyes.vip and watch my demo training.
00:00:14
Speaker
Wow, I knew Kristin Banta was a big deal because she was a keynote speaker at the most luxurious Wippa event in Palm Springs and she crushed it. But I didn't know she had her very own show on Bravo. I'm binge watching it on YouTube right now and she is so cool.
00:00:35
Speaker
And it was very hard to get this interview with her. And we also had some technical difficulties trying to get her on Wi-Fi because she is out of town. So unfortunately, in the interview, it goes in and out a couple times. I didn't want to stop her from talking because we were flowing so well. So that's just a little FYI letting you know that her voice goes out just a few times. But you will still be blown away by her story about pushing the envelope and how you can too.
00:01:04
Speaker
Think outside the box and stay to the end about how to encourage your clients to do the same. Enjoy.
00:01:15
Speaker
Welcome to Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. I'm your host, Carissa, and I've been a Los Angeles wedding photographer for over a decade. I've traveled the world, built my team, and seen it all. I now coach wedding photographers hit 10K a month and build a thriving business. In this podcast, we are going to deep dive into how top wedding creatives get that heck yes from their dream clients. We are not holding back on the struggles of the business and how to push through the noise. Some healthy hustle, mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story,
00:01:44
Speaker
time-packed because I'm a mom of two, a little bit of woo-woo, and most importantly, self-love and confidence are just a few of the many things we will talk about. I want to give you a genuine thank you for following along my journey. I hope to inspire you every Woo Wednesday so that you say heck yes to listening to this podcast. See you guys soon!
00:02:07
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back to Get a Heck Yes with me, your girl, Carissa Wu. I have a very special guest today. Her name is Kristin Banta. She's all about maximalism. She runs a production and design house creative agency, and she is known for her provocative, memorable, integrative storytelling, all about the experience for her guests. Go to her Instagram right now and then go check out her website and see her unprecedented before and afters to transform She transforms a space like no other. And congrats, Kristin, on being named Event Designer of the Year at the prestigious Gallo Awards. Welcome, Kristin! So much. It's so nice to see you. Yes, it's so nice to see you. I heard you speak at the WIPA Palm Springs event with Naze. And you blew the crowd away. It was the most magical event. so And I got to sit next to you. So it was so nice. Nice surprise.
00:03:01
Speaker
I love being a part of it. it's it was It was a great group and and always a really fun opportunity to meet different people and have new engaging conversations. It was wonderful. Yes, it was so nice, so magical. Tell ah the HECS audience briefly a little bit about you and who you are in a nutshell.
00:03:21
Speaker
Yeah, in a nutshell, I've owned this business for 23 years. We're a boutique firm that's located in Los Angeles. We work internationally. ah our Our work has taken us everywhere from from Europe to Asia, from from Korea to South America. We've had some pretty interesting adventures and we are at our at our heart, we're a design firm that produces experiential events.
00:03:48
Speaker
um We do some weddings, we do a lot of corporate. we Basically, the work that we take on are events that are designing something a little different and that are usually looking for design to be the puppeteering factor of how that event takes place. And that's that's what we do.
00:04:09
Speaker
I love it. I love it. Okay, now we're going to go to back it up rewind to your childhood. Tell us like what you're like as a kid, anything about growing up where you're where you're born and just use it as a kids way back in time. Yeah, well, I was actually born in Indianapolis. I have been in Los Angeles since I was 12. But I wasn't born here. And I went
00:04:36
Speaker
I wore kilts every day and and then ended up moving with my mom when I was 12 and moved to the beach. And it was just kind of a wild transition from from being this sort of kilt-wearing prep school kid to, you know, going to a beachside school in Belmont Shore. it was It was a wild transition. I remember I would always wear like pencil skirts and everyone else would do like OP t-shirts and shorts. I was like,
00:05:05
Speaker
As usual, always kind of walking to my own beat a little bit, which has always served me. I mean, I think that um I think that it can be challenging to look at things from a different way, particularly when we're growing up and we we are worried about standing out, standing out the wrong ways. But I think, you know, having that different perspective and looking at things a little bit differently has always served me. And as a kid, that was that was certainly um applicable to growing up in my point of view. I was always a little bit different than the other kids and in that way of of my
00:05:46
Speaker
my way of observing things and kind of in taking information. Wow. Yeah. Walk me through like a little bit more like go at your first year of school, like in Belmont Shores coming from Indianapolis. What was it like? And like, what was ah the culture shock or like the shock of everything? And how did you adapt? Yeah, well,
00:06:11
Speaker
when When Ralph Macchio moves from New Jersey to you know the the beach, um if you've ever seen that movie, but you know it it is such a different point of view when you're growing up in the Midwest. And even though I was young when I moved, it it is radically different to being in a very sort of beach community where you know i I went from from hanging out at sort of a very kind of,
00:06:38
Speaker
East Coast looking school, um you know, what you picture if you were looking at like old stone buildings and all that to literally hanging out drinking like, you know, coolers under the pier by the beach I mean it was just a wild transition but I think, you know, when you when you make such a life transition like that, especially as a kid, you you kind of you know try to to just look at what everyone else is doing and try and mirror that so that you're not standing out too much and people don't think like, what's this what's this kid and from from the Midwest? you know she's She's kind of weird and different. So I think you try and disappear naturally a little bit, but um you know that that only serves anyone for so long and and disappearing is is not not the right approach.
00:07:26
Speaker
But it's about confidence, doesn't it? Yeah, I love that. Okay, let's get into that a little bit. So um you try to blend in, you try to disappear, walk me through like the high school years of just maybe like, standing out and like coming into yourself.
00:07:44
Speaker
not My favorite time in life, I, I ended up going kind of back and forth between Belmont Shore, Long Beach, And Indianapolis, because of my parents' divorce, I went back and forth. So I would do summers there and then I would come back here for the school year. And the good thing about that is that it made me really adaptable. The challenging thing about that is that it never felt like I was completely rooted in one place or the other. um It did force me to go out of my my comfort zone and to learn how to befriend people that
00:08:20
Speaker
were vastly different from what I related to from both sides. You know, when I went back to to Indianapolis, people didn't really relate to me because I've been growing up in an environment that was completely foreign to them. So I think that adaptability was one of the biggest takeaways of ah kind of what that looked like for me growing up. I didn't actually finish high school. I tested out and I went to college a little early. I went to Pepperdine for my undergraduate.
00:08:46
Speaker
Oh, nice. Yeah. So I ended up staying by the beach for for many years. and um And I still visit Indianapolis. My dad's still there. So I still feel like I have a little thumbprint in the Midwest, but ah LA has basically been been my home for most of my life.
00:09:04
Speaker
Yeah, Pepperdine was always like rated like most beautiful campus in Malibu. So it's very pretty. Yeah, very, very pretty. um Okay, so walk me through Pepperdine, the era of your life. Like, what were you like? What were you into? What were you all about? You know,
00:09:24
Speaker
Going to school at Pepperdine was interesting because I was actually a theater arts major. And I had worked as an actor for many years growing up. My mom was an actor. And so I started in school because I was i was given you know some grants to to do the theater arts program there. But by the time I graduated, I had a very firm conviction that I did not want to be in front of the camera. I didn't want to be on stage.
00:09:51
Speaker
I wanted to be creating the spaces and the environments behind the scenes. um That background seemed kind of arbitrary in terms of what I do now. um But really, it it makes perfect sense because I studied everything behind behind the scenes. I studied scenic carpentry. I studied lighting design. I studied stage management.
00:10:15
Speaker
All those things are very much effective in how I approach my daily life now. But at the time when I graduated, I didn't really know what I was going to do. I just knew that I didn't want to be on stage. I didn't want to be you know in an actor that was in front of the camera and yet I didn't really know what I was going to do with that experience I had at Pepperdine.
00:10:37
Speaker
But somehow I started doing some local events in fashion and some local events for for nonprofit and that kind of started to give me an idea of of what was possible, even though I didn't jump into events for. Interesting I am.
00:10:53
Speaker
oops, a little freezing, but my dad was, a well, they still still are my parents are actors and actresses. um And I think they wanted me to be a child star. So I was in all the plays and we i had to audition for all the commercials, but I hated it. I remember just being like, in the King and I play like, and I had to be there for like four hours for it to do like 10 minutes on stage, but and playing solitaire the whole time with um and speed with friends. So I was like, I'm not gonna do this, but my sister was all about the plays, but it's it's pretty interesting, right? Yeah, no, it's I think it's a good background, but you know it's it's ah it's something that that is maybe not a lifestyle that everyone wants. And I certainly found a better fit for me um that I never would have anticipated, never never would have imagined I'd end up here.
00:11:45
Speaker
Yeah, let's get into it very shortly. So tell me like ah some of your first jobs out of college and then you could kind of transition to how you started your amazing, amazing business.
00:11:59
Speaker
Pardon this short interruption, but guess what? I have a new program. It's for all wedding professionals. It's called The Triple Threat. We redo your brand messaging, the homepage of your website. Part two is we do all your marketing. we create a beautiful brochure so you could start getting on Prefer venue vendor list and we do all your sales so we actually make you a sales presentation leading your client to the heck yes so you get paid. I have a free 20 minute demo training. It's only 20 minutes. Go to my Instagram at Carissa Woo.
00:12:39
Speaker
and DM me the word DEMO. I will send it right over. It's how to get 10 to 15 quality leads in your inbox per month. Enjoy, guys. Krista Wu is a LA-based wedding photographer who's actually turning business coach. She helped me grow and change, and I'm so proud to call you coach.
00:13:02
Speaker
tell us how you're feeling. Like, I want to just know a little bit more about your thoughts. It's beautiful and you're awesome. It's beautiful. I'm speechless. I just like the fact that it feels like myself. like i can I feel myself when I see this. Oh, man. Well, you got me pumped and excited for this. Carissa, thank you.
00:13:22
Speaker
I ended up here because I did a little bit of everything. um When I graduated, I i worked for a fashion designer. I was um i created um retail stores. like retail design and and you know window displays. I did that. i worked you know so I worked for a catering company. I did a little bit of everything between you know learning how to make floral arrangements to working as a host for you know a very sort of well-known restaurant and celebrity chef. you know I had all these different experiences
00:14:10
Speaker
carved me into somebody that had a keen understanding just to at least a conversational degree. you know I always talk about how in our world, you have to be able to speak all the languages. um you You have to know about your vendor's jobs so that you can communicate with them and have a respect and a knowledge of what they do with how it relates to what to what you do.
00:14:39
Speaker
And that that training was exactly what I needed to do that. you know It's not that we have to be fluent in those languages, but we do need to be conversational. And those experiences tailored um the the the role that I now play and in my ability to do it. So when I kind of put all this experience together in a world where my parents are like, do you want to pick a job? like How about maybe you commit to one thing? Yeah, yeah.
00:15:08
Speaker
you know, it it seemed to kind of slowly make sense, like, oh, okay, this is where we can, you know, put all these puzzle pieces together, and it actually finally creates a picture. Yeah, I love the Steve Jobs um commencement speak speech for Stanford, but he's always like, you can't connect the dots looking forward, but oh, really back. um But all these little things in your life, um it shapes you to,
00:15:33
Speaker
being able to being able to make like this whole experiential um event for different clients at different locations in different parts of the world. So that's amazing. Okay, let's get into it. Let's get into how you started your business and what were the early early years like, the challenges, um the good, the bad, the ugly. um Tell me about it. Yeah, absolutely. so i I knew nothing about weddings and I actually opened this business targeting weddings that were that had a less traditional spin. I felt that looking at the wedding space, which I knew nothing about, I just studied kind of the marketplace.
00:16:13
Speaker
And I determined that there was there was a voice that, in my opinion, I felt was missing a little bit. You know you had all the traditional weddings and it was you know big for the sake of being big and everything was you know white or or you know blush. And I felt that there was a need and a desire to have something that reflected non-traditional, that reflected you know more hard-hitting, couture, risk-taking,
00:16:43
Speaker
to approach the events world in ah in a way that was very art forward and that could create something that was really reflective of the host. And not all of us are are just you know, white and blush. That's my client. Yeah. um And I think that that was really the impetus for me to to want to contribute something into the wedding space. So I learned everything that I could about weddings and I knew nothing about weddings. I read everda everyone's books. I can tell you rare
00:17:25
Speaker
which may be some of which have have long since passed because I studied every nuance of ah weddings to understand processional and traditions and all the things so that I could speak that language, but add my own unique spin to that. And I knew that you know some some clients would relate to what I did and others would not. But I think that the overarching idea that I had going into this space was like, it's okay. there's there's there's Each of us can represent different clients in different niches within this industry. If we all do the same thing, then
00:18:05
Speaker
you know, what is what is the point? We lose all the color of of what makes this industry interesting and all the potential of what it can be. We all have somebody that we are speaking to within the marketplace and trying to determine who your audience is is one of the biggest things that result in each of our success, in my opinion. We have to know who our audience is. We have to know what our own point of view is in order to develop a successful company.
00:18:33
Speaker
so I started weddings and then later I would kind of go back to what I knew, which was a little bit more high design corporate and you know working for fashion brands and the studios and, you know, um but entertainment companies. But that was my first foray into the events industry. Wow. Okay. I'm going to ask you a question. I'm curious to know, and I think the audience is curious to know, um how did you get those like first three, five, 10 weddings? Because I feel like what you do is transformation. So with that,
00:19:11
Speaker
is a big budget. So how did you maybe like tap into that market? Or did you like grow into it? um Just give our audience like some encouragement of like, to do it, you know, just get out there like aim for the top, you know. ah You know, there There are wonderful things that come with working on the luxury side of the events industry. There's some some wonderful things because obviously with budget, we we have the at least the opportunity if we can be creative enough to use that budget well. we There's so many possibilities of what we can do because we have the budget to support it, which is wonderful. But it's not all about big budget. There are incredible things that we can do
00:20:00
Speaker
we just have to design thoughtfully. you know So it's not all about having the biggest budget. It for me is about um it's about thoughtful design. It's about getting to the root of who we're designing for. you know So I don't want anyone to think, well, that's that's the only way that I can create and do something incredible is if i have if I can somehow find my way into the luxury market space and to have a big budget because you know, there are some in our industry that only work with lower budgets, and they crush it that game, you know, that talent to knowing how to stretch a dollar and how to make it impactful. And of course,
00:20:44
Speaker
not every budget that I work on is stratospheric. We really try to take on weddings and events that are appropriate stylistically and from a creative standpoint for clients that really want what it is that we do. you know So when we talk about reaching, I think it's important to think about reaching not just in terms of reaching for the biggest budgets, but it's really about reaching for the greatest alignment creatively with the clients that suit our unique skill set and our talents. And that I think for me is the greatest um sort of
00:21:27
Speaker
backbone of the success that my company's had is finding that alignment. um Because that's what allows all of us to shine, right? um In terms of pursuing big budgets, I think that that pursuit has to be rooted in understanding the luxury marketplace. And many times I think that those that have the money to spend are looking for something um unique and specific and trying to work with those clients means that one has to really be a good listener and to hear what it is they want, but then to push beyond what they want to show them what they.
00:22:15
Speaker
Wow, well said, Kristin. Okay, let's, I'm glad that you mentioned all that and alignment. Let's get into Hot Topic. What is your Hot Topic and why is it so near and dear to your heart? Hot Topic, um I wouldn't even know where to go with that. i mean My Hot Topic is, is you know, is is really about pushing the ah envelope, you know, I think that's been the the hot topic that I would always bring to the table is encouraging people to to try in for a lack of a better because it's been so used, but to think outside of the boxes that we create for ourselves and the industry, you know, it it the way it feels as though it's created for us because there's there is no box.
00:23:02
Speaker
And that to me is is always gonna be a hot topic, is figuring out what that looks like for each of us. Okay, then I love that hot topic. So let me ask you this, and then we'll kind of just banter more about this hot topic. But what was maybe like your favorite, the most, I don't know, just your best wedding that you want to share with us today? That was out of the box, which is pushing the envelope.
00:23:29
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:25:06
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:25:52
Speaker
And yeah, they are going to get your finances in order so you can continue to scale and succeed. Back to the show. Honestly, one of the most influential weddings that I've ever done is many years ago. I want to say this was probably you know maybe 12 or 13 years ago. um I had a client that came to me that said we have
00:26:20
Speaker
And I turned it down. I said, you know, I don't think that I'm the right fit for this. um And they said, but we have an angel devil theme. And I said, well, again, I'm going to stop you there. I don't really, I don't really do themes when it comes to weddings, especially I think that you are the theme. So again, I don't know that this is the best fit for us, but you know, I wish you well, good luck with this. And, and you know, I'll be thinking about you.
00:26:48
Speaker
And they came back and I said, well, we have to have you. We saw your show on Bravo and we, we have to work with you. Um, what would it take? And I said, well, if the numbers aren't there, but again, creatively, I don't, I don't know if I'm, I'm a fit. Tell me about this theme. I have to know why angel devil. yeah The one groom said, um, when I met my husband to be, I was was in a really low place and was really dark and he kind of brought me into the light. He he brought me to this ethereal place that I didn't know that I could be in.
00:27:25
Speaker
And I was like, oh, okay, now I'm interested. That's really lovely. Okay, you kind of have. Yeah, so I was like, really what we're talking about, if we can dig a little deeper, let's forget about theme. And and because I don't want to dumb that down, that's that's a really lofty thing to say, that's beautiful. This is more about man's,
00:27:48
Speaker
ah metaphorically, man's essential.
00:27:54
Speaker
Let's run with that. Sure. um You know, I can't do it for less than X, but um but let let's give this a shot. So we endeavored um still an ambitious budget that would double and triple and quadruple. But again, it wasn't about the numbers. What was interesting is that this is a client that basically said, we sign off on what you do. You do us. Tell tell our story.
00:28:23
Speaker
And so this became this really interesting design project where I designed for the ceremony, one half of the ceremony on one side of the aisle was heaven and the other side was hell. And each of them had angels that welcomed them into the gates of heaven or hell.
00:28:43
Speaker
that were in these couture costumes that we made for them, each of which was holding something different. One was holding these balls of white cotton candy that was on the heaven side, and the other side was the hell side, and they were holding the angels were holding smoldering cocktails with their big black angel wings. And they invited guests to pick a side.
00:29:04
Speaker
would you like to come to heaven or would you like to go to hell? And it was really fun because this was the beginning of what would be a journey for these guests throughout seven different areas, each of which was building from heaven and from hell into heaven. And families were
00:29:28
Speaker
ah oh It was read really interesting and really fun to see how people when given the opportunity played with it and had fun and signed off on being taken on this journey. And so we took them through Dante's Inferno, through Tolkien's Middle Earth, through Homer's The Odyssey, leaning on literary works to give it a backbone. And we had so much fun. I mean, we even had, we had angels walking up golden ladders and and feeding people from an edible cotton candy cloud above down below. um you know We had creatures that fed people grapes during dinner. We had so much fun with it. wow We had a room that was just floor to ceiling desserts and all white. It was just a really great adventure. And with everything that we pitched,
00:30:18
Speaker
they loved it. And they just were like, they were the people that just said yes. And that was the most extraordinary thing. Did the budget help? It did, of course. But what helped was that we had a client that was willing to just go down the rabbit hole with us and it was wonderful.
00:30:36
Speaker
That is insane. You have to maybe send me the blog link. like I'll text you after this because I'm dying to see it. Yeah, it's on our website. You can you can go check it out. it's It is one of those galleries that we will never lose. it's There's actually a video on the gallery that can kind of walk you through it. And it's though it's many years ago now, it's still to your to your answer your question.
00:31:03
Speaker
that really showed me what was possible from an experiential standpoint based upon watching how guests related to the content and how people liked to play. And that influenced me going forward in perpetuity. That was one of the most impactful weddings that I've done, one of the most impactful events I've done.
00:31:24
Speaker
Oh, okay. That is so cool. I want to know some of the struggles of this hot topic of pushing the envelope because people are very scared, you know, they want to do blush in white. And, you know, even I talked to florist that's been in the game for many, many years, and they say like, people want the same thing. They want the circle flowers. How do you either find clients in the beginning? that trust your vision when you maybe don't have that many weddings under your belt? Or how do you maybe go about encouraging them to make this story and their wedding um a wedding outside of the box? Yeah, I mean,
00:32:07
Speaker
It takes confidence to push, but if you want to do something different, you have to have the confidence to put yourself out there and to say, okay, I've got it. i I know that this is what you think you want, but what if just just suspend that vision for a second. What if we did this? If you're listening enough, it doesn't mean that you're going completely off
00:32:37
Speaker
we to try and understand. Okay, so you're, you are maybe coming to the table with this idea, heaven and hell, you know, um angel devil, whatever it is. um Ask the questions. Why? Why are you coming to me with this wildflower concept? What does it mean to you? How did it come about? How did you choose this? Why do you want this circle for your ceremony altar? Can I instead pitch you? I had that once. It was the the circle altar and I was like, I'm not going to do that. um
00:33:11
Speaker
But I'm hearing you, what it sounds like you want is you want you want something different. You do, but you don't know how to articulate it because you're you're looking at all these wedding pages and you're like, well, I don't know. This is different than a traditional square arch. I'll have that. It's like, okay, so I'm hearing you. You will want something different, but i can't I can't look at another circle arch. um What if instead we did, what if we did a prism?
00:33:41
Speaker
what if we did um What if we did a triangle and you know it was a three-dimensional triangle? Allow yourself to suspend what is being fed to you to try and understand where where it's come from. Because then you you can let your creativity go. And if you have the confidence so and and willingness to be shut down, we willingness to hear
00:34:11
Speaker
At least I put it out there. At least now we're having a conversation. um At least we can leave from these pages that that maybe the client is poured through, particularly with weddings.
00:34:21
Speaker
of all of the wedding magazines where they're picking from the examples there, my challenge to our clients is forget about what you've seen in the past. I don't want to see another wedding image. Don't even bring it to me as an example. Bring me the things that you're passionate about. Tell me what you're into. Tell me how you met.
00:34:42
Speaker
um That for me is how we develop something interesting and that's how you get outside of the box. Wow, that I'm glad I asked that because that was a really good answer. um You're an excellent communicator and just listening to what they're saying and then being able to I don't know, I just like transform or evolve what they're saying into something more elevated and something more of them and something more about them. um So I just love that. Tell me a little bit about like your Bravo um feature segment that you kind of talked about a little bit, or you mentioned.
00:35:19
Speaker
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00:35:44
Speaker
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00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah, I had pitched during um sort of ah a downturn in the industry. I had pitched a show to a number of different production companies because again, I wanted to, not because I wanted to be on TV, I wanted to try and grow the business. And it was a time when I was like, okay, we have limited resources to try and figure out how we can grow.
00:37:00
Speaker
I don't know, you know, I feel like in the televised wedding space for so many years, it was all of the cliches. It was, you know, this wedding is, you know, millions of dollars and it's just money was spent there.
00:37:15
Speaker
But not necessarily, you know, the soul, I mean, you can spend money for all day long, but it doesn't necessarily mean there's a soul in the spectacle. So it's like, that doesn't do anything for me. And then there was the opposite end, which is like, okay, here's a wedding that they did for $5. And it totally sucked the soul out of the spectacle now standpoint, because it's like, that's not the goal. um We're losing the point here, or it was a show about brooms and how a groom was planning the wedding and how, you know, what a crazy, terrible thing that's going to be where it's like, okay, that's also not appropriate, you know? ah And women can both come to the table creatively. So i none of those were resonating with me. And I thought, what, you know, what can we do to infuse this televised wedding space with with a different way of thinking about things?
00:38:03
Speaker
And something that you know I am obviously particularly passionate about. So I pitched a show about you know the idea of of doing a follow along of a less traditional wedding, an approach that was more couture with clients that wanted to look at things more art forward.
00:38:21
Speaker
and to look at what that process could be. And it was a little a little project that went very, very well and Bravo bought it and and we had a great adventure. It served its purpose at the time and and and allowed me to be ah creative a creative navigator within something that I'm passionate about because i I didn't want to just be on a show. I wanted to pitch an idea.
00:38:49
Speaker
And from there, I had the opportunity to do a number of other shows after that, that um I could creatively be a part of their creation from start to finish. And that ranged from the style network to the sci-fi network. I had some great adventures. So all of which were really. are i have to I have to check that out. I didn't even know. So I'm speaking to a TV star like, wow. But you know but more than anything, it was so much about wanting to provide a different point of view than um a desire to be on TV. you know And I think that that is what made that a good experience. And and it served its purpose. you know It brought a flood of new clients through our doors that said, this resonated with me. We want something different. We trust your vision. Tell us how to tell our story. And that was a tremendous byproduct.
00:39:45
Speaker
Whoa, that gave me chills. And that could be another hot topic, another episode, like how to pitch yourself to a network. But that is so cool. How do you Kristen?
00:39:56
Speaker
draw inspiration. I know it's like through your clients, but um do you do you have some sort of like creative a process that you go through? Are you like always looking for the new things? And like, how do you feel about like trends? And um you're the expert on trends and like speak on that a little bit.
00:40:16
Speaker
Yeah, you know I think it is really valuable to constantly be digging to find things that all of us are particularly passionate about because it's not about fitting the client into those, but it's about constantly remaining awake to different ideas and how those can be implemented into you know what we're doing, whether that's a particular type of um wall finishing, whether it's a type of um interior paint, whether it's a texture, um you know, if we're talking about trends we have to be talking about looking beyond them. We can't just let it resonate with trends because otherwise our work is going to be dated and quite frankly it's going to be um
00:41:04
Speaker
it's it's going to lose the relevance of who we're designing for because everyone's doing it. So you know if we're looking at designing for trends where the plan is coming to us with an interest in a specific trend, we need to think about how to dial that up. you know it's It's like my example with the the this you know the circular circular ceremony art. What is the next variation on that?
00:41:30
Speaker
um you know So that is always interesting to me. When we start working with our clients, again, I try to move them beyond. I don't want any other events in the images that I will ask them to present me with. I like to see images of their favorite art exhibits, their Uber home. If they could design you know their perfect home, what would that look like? um Places they've traveled.
00:41:56
Speaker
Things that interest them, culinary. and you know This is not just the visual arts, this is the culinary arts. It's it's the um art of cocktails and interesting bites. This is a about trying to encourage them to think in the sphere of all five senses and how do we how do we create an experience for guests that is reflective of their story that harnesses all five senses. yeah know So if if we're thinking in those way in that way, we can we can push be beyond the trends, but it has to be really getting to the heart of who we're designing for.
00:42:31
Speaker
Ah, that's so good. and That's so good. I feel like I'm learning so much. This is like a TED talk for me. Lots of tip for rapid fire questions. I know like you've done so much. You know, people found you on TV. They want this amazing production. You have all the experience before and afters, but do you have some sort of like best heck yes sales technique that you could share with audience?
00:43:00
Speaker
It's an interesting question because I think that how we sell to our audience is going to be different for each of us. you know For me, it's about um finding the right clients that are looking for something that is tailored to them, but that goes beyond um sort of what they're seeing every day. And those clients are looking for us. So my job is then to comfort them by saying,
00:43:28
Speaker
you've come to the right place. this This is what we do. And if you're looking for something that is unique to you, you're in the right place because we're gonna look at you as a completely unique entity and we're gonna design outside of trends, we're gonna design for you.
00:43:45
Speaker
And that messaging is is a really important one for our clients because if they're going to pay top dollar, you have to justify a top dollar by making sure that they're getting the value that that represents.
00:44:00
Speaker
So when you're thinking about how we sell, we have to think about who we're selling to and then what it is that each of us can bring to the marketplace that is different and unique. That is um sort of the the the cornerstone of oh why we are of value and why we can command the price tag we're asking for.
00:44:27
Speaker
Oh, good job. All right, rapid fire questions. These are shorter answers. um What are the trends right now? 2024? What are the trends? um You know, it's, it's hard to say, um because we are, we're seeing so many, so many things that are kind of fluctuating from last year to this year.
00:44:52
Speaker
And I think that you you know right now we're seeing a lot of use of mixed patterns and um you know harnessing different styles together while making sure that it doesn't look like a hodgepodge. There's a very careful balance to mixing different patterns in this way um without it just looking crazy. you know There always needs to be balance, but that's that's something that we'll continue to see trending for sure. um you know we've We've come out of a lot of things and the next thing is to see, you know again, where things are going. We've come out ah of use of
00:45:30
Speaker
disco balls and mirrors we've done about as much as as we're about done with that. But the question is, okay, you know if a client is, if that's something that's resonating with them, where are we taking that trend? And so you know for this next year, we will start to see more of a use of Chrome that is you know a a jump from what we've seen with reflectives into Chrome. Chrome will also be sort of the next metallic that we're using That takes the place of what we've seen. We've seen a lot of gold. We saw a lot of rose gold before that. And this is going to be kind of where we start to go back to when we're thinking about the use of a talus. Yeah, so those are a couple. Good to know. Good to know. There's so many that are coming down the pipeline that are going to be very interesting. Very interesting. What do you do outside of work for fun?
00:46:27
Speaker
I love to travel. um I love visiting wine country. I am a a big wine fan and love to um to visit vineyards and to experience different flavors and and um to to go to different places and to see different aesthetics. That to me is incredibly inspiring. um I do love museums.
00:46:51
Speaker
you know, there's there's something always inspiring about seeing how other artists are able to tell their story within the visual arts that that they live within. And that's always interesting to me. I don't get to go nearly enough, but it's always something that I like to do. Okay. I love this conversation, Kristin. Tell everyone where to find you, how to work with you, and then any last words from Kristin Banta. ah You know, it's easy. If you know my name, you can find our website. It's KristinBanta.com.
00:47:21
Speaker
With an I. with i yeah And any last words for the wedding pros out there? Just make sure always to have a point of view and to not be afraid to come to the table with that point of view. ah Thank you, Kristin. Thank you so much for having me. It's really nice chatting with you.
00:47:47
Speaker
Thanks for joining me this week on Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. Make sure to follow, subscribe, leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. Take a screenshot and post to IG. Tag me. Also, don't forget to download my free guide on how to become a lead generating machine. See you next time, wedding pros!