Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 194 - Building Relationships as Your Business Superpower
1.2k Plays1 year ago
Relationships and content are key when it comes to running a successful business and if you've listened to this podcast, it's something you've heard us say many times before. In today's episode, we're discussing the relationship side of that equation.
Megan Gillikin of The Planner's Vault, joins me to discuss how you can make building relationships your business's superpower. We discuss the importance of building relationships, and how it turned around her business, the impact relationships can have on business, and practical tips for building strong relationships.
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check ‘em out at https://daveyandkrista.com/building-relationships-business-superpower-btb-194/ And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts.
Recommended
Transcript
The Power of Authenticity and Curiosity
00:00:05
Speaker
If I could have someone here just one major takeaway, it's shift your focus from showing up and sharing heavily about your business and put the emphasis on showing up with curiosity, being authentically who you are so that you attract people that are going to see you, are going to love your business, are going to get behind wanting to refer you.
00:00:31
Speaker
and just be willing to learn from others and receive feedback along the way.
The Role of Relationships in Business Success
00:00:37
Speaker
Welcome to the Brands at Book Show, where we help creative service-based businesses build their brands and find more clients. I'm your host, Davy Jones.
00:00:46
Speaker
Relationships and content are key when it comes to running a successful business. And if you listen to this podcast, it's something you've heard us say many times before. In today's episode, we're discussing the relationship side of that equation. Megan Gilligan of The Planner's Vault joins me to discuss how you can make building relationships your business's superpower. We discuss the importance of building relationships and how it turned around her business, the impact relationships can have on business, and practical tips for building strong relationships.
00:01:16
Speaker
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes, including links to a few freebies from Megan that you'll definitely want to check out.
Episode Introduction and Listener Engagement
00:01:23
Speaker
Just head on over to DavianChrista.com to grab those. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts. Now onto the episode.
00:01:38
Speaker
Here we are.
Common Entrepreneurial Missteps
00:01:39
Speaker
Well, thanks for joining me on the podcast. Really excited for this topic. I think one of my favorite topics and a topic where I'm like, this is such an important thing that I think people almost just don't believe. You know what I'm saying? Like just kind of a oversight. You know, everybody wants kind of the shiny marketing tactic, but I think that this topic and we're talking about relationships today just so integral to business.
00:02:00
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree, Davey. I think relationships are underutilized across the board for entrepreneurs. And it's something that seems so simple, but I see it done in a way that is not intentional and is all over the place and is confusing more times than I can count.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Well, before we get into all of that, maybe you could just take a minute and tell us a little bit about your
Megan Gilligan's Journey in Hospitality and Entrepreneurship
00:02:26
Speaker
background. You know, it may be how you got started with your business in the planner's vault, but then also I guess when relationships became important. Yeah, I love this question.
00:02:34
Speaker
So, I've been in the hospitality industry for about 17 years. I started with Marriott out of college and kind of worked my way through different positions there. The love of hospitality and building relationships with people definitely started in that part of where I began in the industry.
00:02:53
Speaker
back in and i'll give you the quick version here but back in two thousand ten i went on what i thought was a job interview with a local event planner in my market and came out with this opportunity to take over her business purchase her existing planning business her book of clients that you have coming up.
00:03:11
Speaker
It was one of those crazy moments of decision. I had been married three weeks at the time. I was not in the headspace to become an entrepreneur, but my husband, we'd been married not a long time. But he was like, no, this is what you're meant to do. Let's take the sleep of faith. We'll take out a small business loan. We're going to figure this out. And so we did. I became an owner of an existing wedding planning company back in 2010. I had it for
00:03:40
Speaker
12 years and built it to something that I was really proud of. And then I sold it to someone on my team last summer in 2022. And during that time, towards the end of my time as a planner, I started building a brand through podcasting and coaching and speaking. And that is now what I do full-time is I help wedding pros help them build their business, charge appropriately, have a great client experience and not go through burnout and overwhelm in the process.
Resources for Wedding Planners
00:04:10
Speaker
Awesome. What kind of resources can someone find over at the planner's vault if they were to make their way over there? Yeah, all sorts of things. So we have a lot of, we have a digital template shop with all sorts of things there, but my core focus is a membership for wedding planners where we provide monthly content and webinars, templates, all the things to help them not drown in the process of building a successful and profitable business.
00:04:36
Speaker
Awesome, and I know just the topic of relationships is one that's important to you. My guess is that it became important certainly over the last 12 years or that 12 years you were running your business. So I'm interested, I guess when did it become so apparent that relationships were sort of key to building a successful business?
Rebuilding Business Relationships
00:04:55
Speaker
So I glossed over this when I told you about taking over an existing business, but as the new owner of an existing wedding plane to business, I started to go out and introduce myself to vendors in my market venues, which were going to be my biggest referral source and say, Hey, I'm Megan. I'm the new owner would love to get to know you would love to work here. And
00:05:18
Speaker
Many times i started to hear horror stories about that particular vendors experience with my business before i was a part of it so many stories of like hey you were once on our preferred list but sorry you're not best of luck gotta get back to my day.
00:05:37
Speaker
There's one story where I didn't even make it up the elevator. The doors hadn't even closed on the elevator before the venue coordinator at that venue was like, listen, I know you came here. I know you're busy. I'm busy. But there's no way that we're ever going to be able to refer you based on an experience that the owner had with.
00:05:52
Speaker
the previous owner of your business. This may not be worth your time nor mine. That's where I had that moment of, oh my goodness, what have I done? I left my full-time job with a paycheck. I'm the owner of a business that from the outside looked shiny and great. But now that I've got my hands in it, it's a disaster. It all tied back to burned bridges and relationships that were completely charred.
00:06:21
Speaker
And so I had to make a choice at that point. It was either abandon ship, go back and get my job or figure out how to lean into the power of what I knew my skillset was, which is building relationships. So I started to approach the way that I was putting myself out there, the questions that I was asking, the way that I was trying to build these relationships or rebuild the relationships. That to me is when it became apparent of how powerful relationships can be.
00:06:51
Speaker
when done wrong and also when done right.
Support from Family in Entrepreneurship
00:06:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's amazing. So in doing that, did you ever think like, oh, I'm going to have to change my business name or anything like that? Yes, 100%. I think I was stubborn, honestly, because part of what we purchased was the website, the branding, all of the things. And she had recently redone all of that. So in my mind, I was like, this is a cost that I just don't want to go back and spend again. And so I just doubled down on
00:07:22
Speaker
the relationship side of things versus going and changing the business name. But for sure, I mean, that was something that came up so many times. There were many, many nights that I laid in bed, you know, my husband and I were newlyweds. We didn't have kids at this point. We now have three children as you and I are recording this. But there were many times where I was questioning everything about the choice to jump into entrepreneurship. And this was in my mid 20s.
00:07:46
Speaker
what was your husband's reaction to all of this? I mean, it's so interesting as well. I mean, three weeks into a marriage, you know, it's still starting things out, right? And on the one hand, it's, I mean, really awesome that he was like, Hey, that he could speak in your life and be like, Hey, this is what you're meant to do. Right. And, you know, obviously looking back, right, it worked out. But in that time period where, I mean, like, was there any like, what did you get me into?
00:08:09
Speaker
Yeah, it was me looking at him like, why did you talk me into this? Like this is a mess. Like this is a lot. I did not sign up for this. And he, you know, to this day, 13 years married, he still is that unwavering belief in me that I will figure it out. And I think that we all need that person in our life, whether it is a business partner, a spouse, a friend, a parent, a coach, whatever it is, he was that person to me. And I, I do think very often about,
00:08:39
Speaker
had I not had that confidence from him, I very well could have been in a headspace at that time where I decided the business ownership was not for me. Yeah. So were you able to repair any of those relationships with those venues and vendor coordinators who are like, nah, this is never going to happen?
00:08:58
Speaker
Yes, yes, great question. So after, I don't know, five to six of those venue encounters where I was quick, it was quickly made apparent that that relationship had
A New Approach to Building Business Relationships
00:09:10
Speaker
gone bad. I started to shift gears in how I approached reaching out to venues and then going back to the ones and I approached it from this standpoint. It was of
00:09:21
Speaker
really building relationships with curiosity. So instead of going in, like I see most entrepreneurs and creatives across the board doing and saying, Hey, here's my business. Here's what I do. Here's, here's how we can work together and just spraying all of that information on and out into the world.
00:09:39
Speaker
I shifted it and went with the approach of, hey, here's what I am understanding of what you do. Can you tell me a little bit more about how you work with other professionals? Are there ways that what I do that you have seen done really, really well by other? And I'm going to use the filter of my profession from a planner, but this can be adjusted completely if you're listening to this and you do something different. So I would say,
00:10:05
Speaker
You know, hey, I know you work with planners and some of them are great and some of them are not so great. Can you tell me what planners are doing that are making your life easier right now? And then also, are there things that planners are doing that you wish they wouldn't do? Like if you could ask them to change one thing.
00:10:22
Speaker
what would it be? And then I would ask them about their clients. So I would say, you know, what type of clients are you looking to attract right now? Are there like holes in your business that you're trying to put a focus on later this year? And I didn't try to solve those problems. So I wasn't waiting to hear something and pounce on it and say, Oh, great, I have a service for that. Like I could do that. It was really
00:10:47
Speaker
finding out a little bit more about that person and coming from a place of curiosity instead of, I can't wait to tell you what I do, how I can serve you and how we should work together more.
00:10:57
Speaker
I really like that perspective of approaching it with a sense of curiosity and not this attempt to get anything out of the relationship right, you know, right off the bat, right? You have to form a relationship first. I guess maybe that's maybe a good place to go is just what other common mistakes do you see entrepreneurs make as they maybe try to build relationships or network in their industry?
00:11:19
Speaker
Yes, great question.
The Pitfalls of Self-Promotion
00:11:21
Speaker
So that kind of makes me think of my one of my all time like top three favorite quotes when I think about how I would recommend someone approach building their business. And the quote is by Mary K. Ash. And she says, pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around their neck that says,
00:11:43
Speaker
make me feel important. Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life. And I love that quote because one of the biggest issues that I see right now in small businesses and entrepreneurs is that we are in a time that is very loud
00:12:01
Speaker
and very saturated and very noisy. And everyone is out there on every single platform trying to tell you about them, what they do. And I think what I would encourage you to do to stand out from the crowd, and it seems counterintuitive because you're like, but if I'm not out there like talking constantly about what I do, then how are people going to know? But the reality is the key to success is to make
00:12:26
Speaker
Every single interaction that you get to have with other humans, make them feel important, make them feel valued, make it about getting to know them instead of about making sure they know about you. And that is not what I commonly see done from a creative business owner and educator standpoint.
00:12:47
Speaker
How do you see some of those things actually play out? You know, like, specifically, like what you should not be doing. Yeah, exactly. Like what you shouldn't be doing. Yes. Oh, don't even get me started message. You know, I'm like, Hey, what can I get out of you? You know, right now. Okay. Well, so, I mean, I would see most often that I think people's intentions are good in spreading the word of their business. But the approach is like the actual things that they're doing are all wrong. If you are,
00:13:17
Speaker
currently going to another business owners contact form on their website and you are filling it out to let them know about you as a business owner.
The Importance of Personalization in Outreach
00:13:27
Speaker
This is a big no in my book this is if you imagine if you take for a moment and put yourself in that business owner shoes whatever it is they do.
00:13:37
Speaker
And they receive a new inquiry and they're like, Oh, this is going to be a new client. This is going to be great. You know, they get excited every time that ding comes through and they see the subject line, new inquiry, and they click it. And all of a sudden it is you, you know, talking about your business and how they should refer you. Their thought is not, Oh, I can't wait to get back to this person and build a relationship with them. It's typically an eye roll and a delete. And so then that's a waste of both your time and their time.
00:14:06
Speaker
And I'll give you an interesting example for me. So I have a podcast that I've had for five years for wedding professionals. It's always been for wedding professionals. The number of podcast submissions I get per week from companies or PR reps or virtual assistants that are submitting someone to come on my podcast that say, like, we really think that couples are going to love to listen to this particular episode.
00:14:33
Speaker
It's a matter of doing your research and putting the effort and intention into who you're reaching out to and how you're building those relationships.
00:14:44
Speaker
Yeah, do you see that too? Yeah, we see that. And honestly, it's just at this point, I just delete them. I do too, because I don't have the time or energy to respond to all of them. Yeah, exactly. And especially a lot of people who use services reach out on your behalf. And unless you are president of the United States or some other celebrity type where maybe that makes sense, usually I'm just going to delete. And because they follow all the same template too.
00:15:10
Speaker
You know, you can kind of tell once you read your first 50, you know, you figure out, okay, they might, you know, at best say something about a previous episode. Oh, I love that. You know, absolutely. You did with so-and-so here's somebody I'm pitching you. Here are the three or four topics that they'd be willing to talk about. And then, you know, of course, at worst, I've gotten the ones where it's obviously a template because they forget to fill in the things like first name and you know, it'll say insert podcast name here.
00:15:34
Speaker
You know, that's the worst. That's what I was going to say. That's the other thing I see is like a copy and paste that it's clear that they have sent over and over again. And this used to happen to me as a wedding planner too, where people would reach out and they would send like mass emails to all of the planners in my market instead of like personalizing each email sent out. So these are all some of the big misses. And I, like I said at the beginning, I know the intention is good.
00:16:04
Speaker
but the actions that are taking are truly, they're setting up for not getting a response. And then they're also just putting a poor taste in someone's mouth related to your business and your brand. Yeah, yeah, 100%.
Standing Out Through Intentional Efforts
00:16:18
Speaker
You know, I'd say for Till Agency, which is the advertising agency that I run, one of the things that we started to do is send audits to people, you know, just kind of over their marketing efforts. And, you know, I mean, we're pretty clear about,
00:16:31
Speaker
the hope that it creates some sort of conversation, but we don't make any pitch in the email or anything like that. And it's so interesting. We get a lot of responses and a lot of people just, you know, even if they're not interested in what we've done for them, right? Just the responses we get are typically along the lines of, you know, I get so many
00:16:49
Speaker
like bad emails like this a day. Thank you for putting some effort into this, right? And so it's one of those things too where I feel like if you just go about it the right way, you're gonna stand out. I mean, I think the same is true of podcast pitches. Like when I get a, I guess, not to over-sentimalize it, but like from the heart pitch from some entrepreneur,
00:17:10
Speaker
I will at least take the time to read it and respond, you know, even if it's not, you know, a yes, right? So I think that kind of stuff can just go a long way, especially today. I mean, to your point earlier where there is just so much noise these days. It's so noisy. And I think in a digital age, even more so, it's, you just stand out when you are intentional and authentic and it is not a copy and paste. And Davey, I just wanted to point out like what you said you're doing with
00:17:37
Speaker
the marketing agency, that's something that I talk about a lot, is you are making an intentional effort to deposit coins in that relationship bank. And what I see more people doing is they're attempting to make a withdrawal before they have put money into the relationship bank. And when I say money, I don't mean actual money. I mean an act
00:18:00
Speaker
of you going out of your way to do something for someone else or to show them that like your care is there to get to know them. And so providing like a quick audit and saying, Hey, here's what I saw. Hopefully this is helpful and you know, have a great day and you're not doing a hard pitch at that point. That to me is a coin in the relationship bank. And all of a sudden I'm like, Ooh, who is this person? This is different. Like this stands out to me.
00:18:27
Speaker
I've just been so blown away at the responses because I guess the contrast with a lot of the other emails that they receive on a daily basis. So what are some other mistakes that you see creatives make or should we sort of transition to talking about your tips for building relationships and building up that account balance before trying to make withdrawals?
00:18:48
Speaker
Yes, I love that. Well, I think we touched on the big ones here of filling out contact forms, copying and pasting, going very generic, leading
Building Key Relationships
00:18:57
Speaker
with it being about you instead of acknowledging any work or research that you've done on that other creative that you're reaching out to. So I'd love to share some
00:19:08
Speaker
tips for building those relationships in where we are right now that I think truly stand out. And I will talk about these tips and building relationships until I stop receiving terrible pitches for all of the ways that people want to work with my business. So this is, this is something that I feel like I'm going to be doing for quite some time. But let me tell you one of the best, this is one of those, I hope your listeners hear this and they're like, Oh, this is something that I can take action on.
00:19:37
Speaker
and I will see the momentum from it pretty quickly. So what I would recommend is that you sit down right now where you are and start thinking about the businesses and creatives that you may want to start to get your foot in the door. Or maybe it's podcasts that you want to
00:19:55
Speaker
pitch yourself on at a later date. So make this list. And I call this like a top 30 list. So look at it from a few different angles, a few different areas of business and creatives that you want to get to know. Maybe it is copywriters. Maybe it is, you know, building a relationship with brand designers like you all and really like think about that strategically and make that list. Then put that list on your phone. Make sure at a bare minimum, you're following all of these accounts on social.
00:20:25
Speaker
and make a plan. It can be just 10 minutes a day, 10 minutes a day that you set a timer on your phone and you go through and you engage with these accounts and engaging with these accounts could look like liking their post, commenting on their post, responding to their stories. I love a good
00:20:46
Speaker
voice memo because it shows that like you're a real human. So if I were to, you know, Davey reach out to you all and say like, Hey, I just listened to your latest podcast. It was so great. Thank you so much for that. I love when you said XYZ and I send that to you as a quick voice memo that just creates a human to human connection. Maybe I listened to your podcast. I'm like, Oh, I'm going to share this. So I share the episode. I tag you and these are all like tiny, easy,
00:21:14
Speaker
coins into the relationship bank. And I haven't asked you to come on your podcast. I haven't said, Hey, can you start referring me as a whatever business owner? I've just put an effort on building a relationship with you. I normally recommend that you take this strategy for a two to three week period of time with your top 30 list that you've made. And then
00:21:39
Speaker
Once you've put these coins in, then it's okay to reach out to these other business owners and say, hey, I have loved listening to your podcast or I've loved following your work. And I would love to get to know you a little bit more and see how I might be able to add value to your business. Would you be willing to hop on a 20-minute
00:22:02
Speaker
virtual coffee chat. And a virtual coffee chat link is my most used favorite link on my online calendar because it's 20 minutes, it's short, it's sweet, and it is intentionally to get to know that other person more. So that's the call to action at the end of that building relationship time.
00:22:23
Speaker
A few things that stuck out to me, I guess, in what you were saying, the first one, the voice memo. And I think that, I think, is such key advice because it is, I mean, we get DMs all the time, but whenever we get videos, like somebody just recording themselves, you know, I mean, that sticks out in a way that, you know,
00:22:41
Speaker
other messages don't, right? So I really like that. I also think it just personalizes people a little bit more. I mean, it just takes that much. It really, I mean, at the end of the day, not that much more effort, but, you know, proportionally, how it's received is, you know, in a typically a way that's maybe a little bit more, I don't know, valued than just receiving like a text DM. Do you feel like Instagram is typically, you know, where you're building that relationship with people?
00:23:07
Speaker
I think so. I mean, I think you have to figure out where your clients or your peers are hanging out that you want to build relationships with. But for me, Instagram is where I spend the most time. That's where the other industry professionals that I would want to build relationships with, that's where they are as well.
00:23:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. I also feel like, well, I guess I'm just more familiar with Instagram than something like TikTok or whatever. I know, me too, baby, me too. I have an account, but I haven't posted anything. So, you know, baby stepping it, I don't know. Krista does all of our TikTok stuff. So yeah, not there yet. Just one more thing right now.
00:23:46
Speaker
Yeah, I also appreciate that the ask where coffee chat comes after, you know, you started to build that relationship a little bit. You know, I think that's another thing where it's like, you know, and again, I understand where people are coming from wanting to meet and chat, you know, especially when there's not, you know, maybe that opportunity doesn't exist in person, right?
00:24:05
Speaker
At the same time, it is or can be sort of a time suck. Also, if you've never talked to somebody before and you've never interacted with them, you might think, okay, well, what does this person want? What are they looking to get out of this conversation? And so I think by building that relationship upfront, it makes it more likely that you feel, I think the walls come down a little bit for that conversation.
00:24:27
Speaker
For sure. And I can think back to this when I had my planning business.
Virtual Coffee Chats for Relationship Building
00:24:32
Speaker
There was a hair and makeup artist that moved from New York down to North Carolina where I live. And I knew of her before I met her in person because her business name kept showing up
00:24:45
Speaker
on Instagram, liking my things like responding to stories and not not with the intention of her name being seen by others on our posts, but truly like she was engaging with me in the DMS just supporting. I saw a little bit of her personality and then I showed up at an in-person networking event. This was maybe two or three months after
00:25:06
Speaker
And she walked up and she was like, Hey, I'm Nina with wedded kiss. And in that moment I was like, Oh my gosh, I know exactly who you are. Like we've been following each other and engaging on Instagram. And Nina now is the number one hair and makeup artist that my former planning business refers for clients. She's who I use for all of my brand shoots. Anytime I'm speaking on stage, she's just my go-to. If any other speaker is coming into town and they say like, who do you
00:25:33
Speaker
recommend for hair and makeup. She's that person. And it was all because she was intentional and strategic in truly building a relationship before she sought to be in our universe of referrals.
00:25:46
Speaker
Yeah, maybe we could talk a little bit about, you know, how that relationship develops as well. You know, so you get to the coffee chat or you meet that person in real life. Like where do you take the conversation from there? And even like, I guess for people wondering, okay, so I filed this person for two to three weeks and I feel like maybe I can bake and ask.
00:26:06
Speaker
I guess what's within the acceptable asks there, right? Like the coffee chat makes a lot of sense because it's, again, you are asking for something, you're asking for somebody's time, but you're not asking anything like monetary from them. They're not signing any contracts with you, stuff like that.
00:26:22
Speaker
where do you take the conversation from there? Because I imagine if you show up at that coffee chat, you again make it all about you, or you start saying, Hey, I would love to get referrals from you, then all of a sudden, you know, it kind of becomes feels uncomfortable. Yeah, that's why this Yeah, it's not, it's not about that at all. And I love that you asked that question. It is not about you in the coffee chat either. It is about getting to know that other person. So asking, you know, hey, so when did you start your business? And how are things going? And
00:26:51
Speaker
you know, with your clients right now, what are you seeing? Are you looking for a certain type of client? What do you love most about the industry? And then what's something that like you wish that would be done differently? And I think you're just being curious, you're asking questions. And I actually have a download that I'll share with your audience that includes like a full list of questions that you can ask on this particular coffee chat.
00:27:17
Speaker
But you're using that so that you get to know this other person and then you can think a little bit more strategically from there of ways that you can. Create a relationship that is mutually beneficial from there so maybe.
00:27:33
Speaker
you have a coffee chat with them and you're like, you know what? I would love to have you come on my podcast and interview you. Or maybe you say, you know what? I started this series where I am doing a blog once a week and I'm highlighting other industry professionals that I think are doing really cool things. And I would love to feature you on my blog. Or maybe you say like, hey, I'm going to start doing something where I do a live interview on Instagram or whatever platform you want it to be.
00:28:03
Speaker
Would you be interested in coming on there so I could ask you these five questions and just kind of add value to other business owners out there? So I think these are creative ways to take that coffee chat and move it to the next level. But not every coffee chat is going to be great. I guess that's something we should acknowledge. You might have a coffee chat where you engage with them on social media for two to three weeks. You reach out, you get the coffee chat, and you get on the call and you realize
00:28:32
Speaker
Maybe this person isn't someone that I can see much of a relationship past this call and that's okay too like we're not out there trying to be best friends with every single human ever that we hop on a call with but that's why I like to keep it to.
00:28:47
Speaker
20 minutes to be honest because I do coffee chats even with people that are local in my area where they'll say, hey, can we meet up? Can I buy you a cup of coffee? And I love a good cup of coffee, but that's 30 minutes of me driving to a coffee shop. It's an hour of me sitting there. It's 30 minutes of me getting back. It's another 15 to 20 minutes to get myself oriented back into my schedule. And we're all busy. We all have a lot of things going on in our world. And I think
00:29:15
Speaker
A virtual coffee chat is a really great place to start and that relationship potentially could be something that has many, many components to it down the line and it could involve in-person time together or attending a conference or speaking at their event or referring each other clients moving forward, but it might not be that and you just kind of start with that coffee chat and go from there.
00:29:39
Speaker
Yeah. And I think the amount of times too, maybe I've had a conversation with somebody and you know, nothing really comes of it, but a year, even two years later, and all of a sudden that person pops back up and you remember you've had that conversation. And so, you know, it's again, like the door still open there.
00:29:54
Speaker
But I think it is such an important point. And I think the analogy to just friendships as well is important, right? Like everybody you meet, you're not going to just hit it off with, right? And there's not going to be this deep relationship. Again, really like the coffee chat idea online, even for local people as well, you know, because to your point, it takes a lot of time in the day, just, you know, it's a big lift, especially with kids.
00:30:16
Speaker
coordinating schedules to go and do that. And so it is a nice step up in the relationship. You're still getting face-to-face time, but there's very clearly defined boundaries. It's like, hey, once 20 minutes is up, nobody's going to be offended once, hey, I got to get to my next thing.
00:30:32
Speaker
Can I add something to that real quick? Yeah, absolutely. That virtual coffee chat, that 20 minutes, that is also honestly how I started to build the coaching side of my business back in 2018, 2019, because I would have other planners in my market reach out and say, hey, can I pick your brain over how you built your business? And I would send them a link to that virtual coffee chat
00:30:58
Speaker
And at that time, the goal was not to build a second business, but it just came from those quick conversations and hearing pain points and hearing the same thing over and over again. So you just never know the power of what can come from a conversation. And I think anyone can devote 20 minutes a few times a week to building the base of people that they know and the conversations that may come from it. You just never know what might lead
00:31:27
Speaker
Yeah, I do think it's like sort of a magical time period. I mean, so I do something similar with SEO calls, you know, I mean, like to your point about building the coaching side of your business. And I know that wasn't the intention, but even with SEO, there's a lot of people like basically I want to talk to everybody that I work with prior to working with them for a number of reasons, but with SEO, especially like I'll give people the specific things that I think they should be doing, you know, and I'll just kind of lay it all out there. If I were you, this is what I would do. And this is why, you know,
00:31:56
Speaker
And nine times out of 10, people want you to implement that for you. You know what I'm saying? So it's not like you've given away too much or whatnot, right? And so I think it, you know, again, if you just go into it with the idea like, hey, I'm just going to add value and you know, usually things work out. And for those people who decide afterwards, like they're going to go implement on their own. That's great. You know, or for another reason, you know, maybe it's just not a good fit, but you figured that out in that 20 minutes prior to moving forward. I love that.
00:32:21
Speaker
There's something else I wanted to say about that entire process too. What you were talking about in terms of ways that you could keep the relationship moving forward, again, all of those things, they cost nothing to feature somebody on your blog, to do some sort of Instagram, I don't know, live together where you're asking them questions. And again, you're putting the focus on them.
00:32:41
Speaker
And I think one of the things that I found in building relationships, I try to go out of my way to introduce people. So if I'm talking to somebody and I know they might benefit from a connection, I'll try to make that email introduction. You're a connector, yeah. We were talking about this. I think this is gonna be really interesting for the both of you. You should at least chat. And what I found is that I never asked for them to introduce me to somebody, but I've just found it way more likely that my friends will also introduce me to people who they would think,
00:33:10
Speaker
I might benefit from having a conversation with. And to your point, yeah, not every conversation turns out. And I've had some where I'm like, okay, well, don't know why we did that. But I'd say like, this is just, I think one of the most important things we've done as a business to continue growing our business.
00:33:29
Speaker
Yeah, I would say with 100% certainty that the things that took my below ground planning business, because that's what it felt like it was. By the time it was mine, it felt like I was in a hole and I had to climb out of it and then build on top of that. But the number one way that I did that was relationships.
Elevating Business through Professional Relationships
00:33:55
Speaker
And yes, it was going and being curious, but then
00:33:59
Speaker
It was once I started to build the business and I stopped hearing as much about the previous owner, my focus was always on, yes, I want to take care of my clients. So in my case, it was couples that were getting married. Yes, I want to take care of them.
00:34:15
Speaker
but the professional team that I could work with time and time again, the photographers, the venues, the musicians, the videographers, all of those different pros. My goal was let me also make sure that taking care of them
00:34:34
Speaker
and making sure that their life was made easier by me being a part of the process or a member of my team being part of the process, that was focused on relationships too. So it was just showing up and being proud of who we were as business owners that elevated the status of the planning business, allowed me to bring on team members, allowed us to increase our pricing, and eventually allowed me to sell the brand
00:35:01
Speaker
because of how it was recognized in our industry.
00:35:05
Speaker
Yeah, and that's it. I mean, you bring up an interesting point too, and one of the things that we've been talking about are, you know, maybe you're starting from scratch, or maybe you're trying to have a conversation with somebody who you have no relationship with and no mutual connections, maybe to ask for an introduction. But, you know, those other vendors that you are going to work with, and so when you bought this book, you know, of potential work, right, or work that was going to be filled that year, you know, each of those people that you work with, that's a relationship too.
00:35:32
Speaker
So maybe you could speak to a little bit how you networked, you know, kind of at maybe events with other vendors to continue building this relationship. So they potentially led to more work.
00:35:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I love that you asked that because a light bulb went off in my head. And for those of your listeners that have, they're not, maybe they're in that like they're building, they're not seeking out as many new relationships, but they want to build upon the business that they have right now. I would say this, I think one of the most underutilized ways to build your business and
The Value of Feedback in Business Relationships
00:36:08
Speaker
build those intentional relationships when you have success already is making sure that you're constantly asking for feedback. Feedback is very different than asking for reviews or social proof from clients that you've worked with. Again, I'll filter this through the wedding planner brain, but again, use it as you can in your business.
00:36:31
Speaker
After each event that we completed, one of the ways that we showed up for other wedding professionals and made sure that our brand was still really strong is we would send an email to our wedding professional team. Each team member that we worked with
00:36:49
Speaker
And these were not people that had hired us. These were people that we had referred them and we had brought them into the mix. But I would reach out to the DJ company and say, Hey, we loved working with you this weekend. We'd love to hear if there's any feedback of things that we can do moving forward that will improve the way you show up on the wedding day or anything that just as we're continuing to level up our business that you want to share with us. And I'm open to hearing your feedback.
00:37:19
Speaker
And i also did this as i brought on team members cuz i started to not be at every single event so in that case i might reach out and say hey i know you got to work with gina on my team this weekend would love to hear how your experience was the good and anything that you know you might want me to hear that.
00:37:36
Speaker
could help us show up better for a future event. So I created that space. I opened that door for feedback. And I think your listeners can take just that nugget as well and make sure that they're not just out there like, Hey, we'd love for you to write a review. Hey, we'd love for you to write a testimonial and instead open that door to hearing the ways that you can improve the relationships that you have with other professionals.
00:38:00
Speaker
What are some ways that you've seen maybe your business improve, especially around your relationships, when doing things like that? Yeah, I think asking for feedback can be a little scary, you know, because you are opening yourself up to criticism as well. It's true. So I guess how would you encourage people to do that, you know, just kind of based on how it's impacted your business.
00:38:20
Speaker
Well, I would honor what you said about the fact that it can be scary to send that email. But more times than not, I think what happens is if another professional doesn't have a great experience with your company, they are just going to decide that they don't want to work with you anymore. And they may share that feedback with someone else instead of sharing it with you. I can think of two examples, one where I received the feedback and one where I wish I had been asked
00:38:50
Speaker
to share the feedback. I received the feedback from a photographer on one of our event teams where they were like, hey, when you're including the timeline information, I wish that you would filter it so that we have a timeline that is specific to us because it feels like we're getting
00:39:08
Speaker
18 pages of information and we really don't need all of that information. And that was really great for us to hear because I was like, oh, I thought everyone wanted all of it. But then we started asking with each event like, hey, we're going to send the master timeline, but we're also going to pull one out just for the band and just for the photographer. We're going to filter it out and it'll make it easier for you to see the things that you need. So that allowed us to make other professionals lives easier.
00:39:32
Speaker
And then on the reverse side, I worked with a photographer that showed up completely unprofessionally dressed for an event. It was at a five-star hotel and property where we all should have had a level of standard of dress, and they showed up in an attire that I didn't think was professional.
00:39:50
Speaker
And this was, you know, earlier on in my career, and that was one of those moments for me of like, Oh, this needs to be part of my punch list of things that I'm asking as a planner. But I didn't share that feedback. I just looked at it and was like, I don't know, like, I'm not going to refer that person anymore. And that's where had that photographer reached out and said, Hey, love to working with you would love to work with your team more anything I can do or that you want to share with me.
00:40:16
Speaker
I absolutely would have written back and said, it was great working with you as well. I love that you showed up early. You did such a great job with like capturing all of the formals so quickly. One note is that attire wise, like what you were wearing on the wedding day, I don't think was completely in line with what the attire should have been for everyone that was working behind the scenes. So those are those things, the feedback.
00:40:39
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, a little sidebar on client experience in general, right? I mean, isn't it interesting that, you know, something so small, and not to say that that's small, because I think the way somebody appears for work is not necessarily a small thing, but it's unrelated to what you think of the outcome, you know? I mean, if this photographer crushed it in every other way, right? It's such a bummer, right? Just for something like that.
00:41:00
Speaker
to kind of hold them back. But it's important, too, because, you know, like you also have your business to represent. And so if you can also get great photos from somebody who you know is going to show up and, you know, act professionally, of course, you're going to refer that person over the person who did it. And so had that person been open to that feedback or made themselves open to that feedback, you know, and they also did everything else excellently, you know, like it would have probably led to more work from you.
00:41:25
Speaker
Yeah, just like being able to share that, they could have written back and been like, oh my gosh, thank you so much for sharing this. It honestly didn't cross my mind, but now as I'm reflecting back on it, I can absolutely see why that was important. And I'm going to file that away for future events. And that would have 100%. I would have been totally inclined to refer them more moving forward. Or they spilled coffee all over themselves on the drive there.
00:41:50
Speaker
Yeah. Maybe they could have said that like, Hey, I started out in a suit and then I ended up spilling something. So I put on what I had and that that's where like, it's the power of just conversation.
00:42:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, one of the things that I guess why I wanted to mention that is one of the things that it just reminds me of one of the things we talk about with our team often is how much, you know, communication and some of these things that are along the periphery impact the experience. So we have an opportunity to impact the experience in a way that's not even related to the results, you know, and we've on the advertising agency side of things.
00:42:24
Speaker
We occasionally don't get great results. You know, it happens once in a while. And so as we communicate that to clients, though, you know, we've had situations where the way in which we're able to communicate that with clients and step into that with them, right, makes it so that they understand, hey, we're all on the same team and, you know, we're working together. And that's just is what it is. But we've also gotten really good results for people. And maybe the communication just wasn't
00:42:44
Speaker
you know, where ought to be, right? And so it doesn't matter that we got good results, right? The experience wasn't there. So it's one of those little things, you know, I think it's so interesting how those things come together and how much control we have over the experience, even put the results aside, you know? So it's true. Anyways, quite a bit of a sidebar.
00:43:02
Speaker
I agree with you 100%. It takes me back to that quote that I mentioned. It's like if you can make someone feel important in your client experience or in your relationships with your peers, that to me is what leads to that success in building your business.
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
Curiosity and Authenticity in Building Connections
00:43:21
Speaker
Is there anything else you feel like we should chat about today? Any other tips? I mean, I could talk about relationships for hours, but I want to be respectful of your listeners. So I think we've really hit on the highlights. I think if I could have someone here just one major takeaway, it's
00:43:37
Speaker
Shift your focus from showing up and sharing heavily about your business and put the emphasis on showing up with curiosity, being authentically who you are so that you attract people that are going to see you, are going to love your business, are going to get behind wanting to refer you, and just be willing to learn from others and receive feedback along the way.
00:44:03
Speaker
Yeah, that's great. And I think also realizing that it is like any other relationship where it's going to take a little bit of time and some of these various touch points that you talked about to come together. So it might not happen overnight. It might not even happen in that two to week, three week timeframe. But especially if you've put together a list and I love that just the intentionality of actually putting together and sitting down and figure out who you want to work with.
00:44:25
Speaker
But if you put together that list and you think those are important people to get to know, then I think it's worth it to spend six months potentially having to engage with that person maybe before you even get something that resembles a coffee chat, right? Yes, yes, yes. And I would love, as I mentioned, if your listeners would benefit, what I'd love to share actually is an outreach email that can be sent.
00:44:50
Speaker
list of ways to add value in those relationships. So you can look through that list and say like, Oh, this one feels really good. This is something I could do. And those are those coins really, like those are the coins that you're putting into that relationship bank. And then you get on that virtual coffee chat and questions to ask on that.
00:45:09
Speaker
Well, we'll make sure that all of those are in the show notes so people know where to find those. I think especially that list of questions asked during the coffee chat, I think anybody who's an introvert is probably thinking, okay, I need that. I also, you know, it's a little nerve wracking sometimes going into a conversation with somebody you don't know with thinking like, oh, what am I gonna ask? So that will take hopefully a lot of the fear and anxiety out around that. So we'll make sure that those are in the show notes. And if anybody has any questions or wants to connect with you, where should they do so?
00:45:37
Speaker
Yes. So they can find me on Instagram. My podcast is at weddings for real there, or they can find me on Instagram as well for the planners membership, which is at planners full. Awesome. Well, Megan, thank you so much for your time and expertise. You know, I love chatting relationships and I think there's just so much good advice in this. Same. Thanks so much for having me on, Davey.
00:46:03
Speaker
Thanks for tuning into the Brands That Book Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving a review in iTunes. For show notes and other resources, head on over to dvandchrista.com.