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EP. 123 - Selling isn't Sleazy...You're Just Selfish - Terrica
99 Plays1 year ago
Happy Woo Wednesdays!
Terrica is my favorite speak in the wedding industry so of course I am thrilled to have her on Get a Heck yes. Her fave Heck Yes tip: Confirm and Affirm -- Speak the clients language and talk like they're already hers.
Hot Topic : Selling isn't Sleazy...You're Just Selfish.
- Don't chase, don't convince. Selling is about sharing.
- Learning the anatomy of your services will make you a sales rockstar.
- Your prescription pad to the pain points
Bio: A Speaker of the Year nominee for the National Association of Catering and Events ONE award and a popular educator for The Knot and Wedding Wire, she launched her new wedding industry education system, Wedding Hustle University, and Wedding Pro Workshop, to provide niche and nuanced education that help wedding professionals implement and build their businesses quickly and efficiently.
Connect with Terrica
https://www.instagram.com/introducingterrica
Connect with Carissa Woo
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Transcript
Introduction to Terica and the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Happy Woo Wednesdays. I have Terica in the Get A Heck Yes House. Literally, this is one of my favorite conversations. She's a wedding planner and now business coach, speaker of the year, my favorite speaker for wedding professionals, the best energy. And we talk all about sales. She really breaks it down for us. And I don't know, it just makes you feel like you want to sell to the world and it's not sleazy and it's so authentic and so easy to understand.
00:00:29
Speaker
She is a breath of fresh air, and I'm so happy to have her on this podcast. You are going to love her. If you guys are loving this podcast, please leave me a review or subscribe. Take five seconds out of your time. It's going to help push this podcast up so we get more amazing interviews like Tarika, and I really appreciate it, y'all. Enjoy this episode.
00:00:56
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,
00:01:24
Speaker
Time packs 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! Hey everyone! Welcome back to Gay Heck Yes with me, your girl, Carissa Woo.
Terica's Career Journey and Inspirations
00:01:52
Speaker
I have Terica in the house!
00:01:54
Speaker
You are my inspiration. She is speaker of the year, nominee of the National Association of Catering and Events. I don't know what to say. I could go on and on. I'll say your bio later. But everyone hands down for Terica. She's in the house and she's on my podcast. I'm so thrilled. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for asking me. I adore you. And I'm so happy we get a chance to chat.
00:02:21
Speaker
Oh, thank you. And this is Christmas week. I see a tree. You see my tree. Behind you. One of my trees. Yeah. You see one of my trees. This is the one for the cat. So if the cat climbs this one, I'm totally fine with it. But yeah.
00:02:38
Speaker
How many treats do you have? We just have two. We just have two. Well, it'll probably be three because I looked at this one and I'm like, that's still not tall enough. And my kids are like, together, mom, come on, it's wrap it up, wrap it up. So yeah, it'll be three this time. I love it. Well, tell me what your plans are for your Christmas week and a little bit about you and who you are. Oh, wow. Okay. Well, I'll answer in that order. My plans for Christmas week.
00:03:06
Speaker
are to completely pass out, to stay in my bathtub as much as possible, love up on my kids and my family and my friends, because I am typically never home and always traveling. I own a wedding planning company I have for the past 18, it'll be 19 years next month. Wow.
00:03:31
Speaker
It was seven years ago this year that I just started six years, six years, six years ago, next year that I started speaking. And it's been a huge, huge transformation for my life because then I started speaking and then I started coaching and I started creating educational products and everything. So it has been and I love it. Yeah, I saw you. I heard you speak.
00:03:59
Speaker
at the WIPA Renaissance Newport. It was about how to be like the ultimate hustler. Oh my God, you like rock my socks off. It was insane. I was like, you came out like with shoot, shoot, bado. And I was like, I come back.
00:04:22
Speaker
Because you know what, it's so funny because they were like, oh, we need you to do a mic test. And I'm like, well, guys, I need you to understand anytime I do a mic test when I come down for soundcheck, I rap all of the time. It does not matter. It's either. Oh my God. And so they were like, you know what, you should do that as your intro. And I'm like.
00:04:39
Speaker
All right. Oh, that's funny. And now that's just my thing. Now I come into like music all of the time, just come in dancing all of the time. It's always a great. Oh, my God. Yeah, our girl Jasmine from Quatorque, she was like, as soon as I met her, she was like, you have to meet her. And I just loved your speaking. How did you so you're a wedding planner? And then what?
00:05:05
Speaker
How did you become a speaker? What sparked that? I want to become a speaker. I got to give two shout outs with this one. I became a speaker because I started an online networking group many, many moons ago, pre-Instagram, pre-Facebook. So that's how few, how experienced I am. I might not say how old I am, how experienced I am.
00:05:28
Speaker
And we had a message board. And so a member of the message board, Dr. Katasha Butler, decided that she was going to host a conference for everyone there because we had hundreds of members. And she's like, you should come and speak. She's like, sure, you know, fine, I'll speak.
00:05:45
Speaker
But then after, I also hired Sasha Sousa as my business coach. And I was like, Sasha, I want to work at this particular venue. This is all I want. And she's like, your stuff is really great. I don't think that you need to push trying to work at this venue. I think you really need to start speaking. And I was like, girl, that's not what I came here for. I am trying to work at this venue. And she said something to me, Carissa, that has changed my entire life. She said, you're thinking too small.
00:06:15
Speaker
And I was like, wow, okay. So she put my name in with cater source to speak. They had never heard of me. You know, they just went off of Sasha's recommendation. And I was so nervous because I did not hear anything. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I don't know if they're going to pick me. It's already past time. You know, what if I'm not good, whatever, whatever. And, um,
00:06:38
Speaker
what's so fascinating and just the way that life and love works. That year, CaterSource was in Louisiana, which is where my dad is from. And the day my dad was very sick, he was very ill, and we were very excited about me being able to go to Louisiana to speak and see Louisiana for the first time. But I told him, I haven't heard anything. I don't know what's going to happen. He said, don't worry about it. It'll happen. And I'm like, I don't know.
00:07:05
Speaker
The day my dad passed, I got the email from Kater source that they picked me and I was going to come. So I felt like that was the last gift from my dad before he left. And that is why Kater source has such, such a huge spot in my heart. So yeah, that's how I got started speaking. Oh, oh, I go Carissa and I tell me about proposals.
00:07:32
Speaker
teaching everything about how I do my proposals, the fire alarm goes off mid talk. And I'm like, no, this cannot happen to me. Oh my God. I'm a new girl. You know, no, nobody moved. There was people up against the wall sitting on the floors. All the seats were filled. They were just eating it up. And I was like, well, cool. If we're dying, let's make it worth it. You know what I mean? Wow.
00:07:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's how I got started speaking. Oh, that's such a crazy story. What were you like as a kid and what was the biggest lesson your dad taught you? Oh my gosh. I don't know what I was like as a kid. That's something you probably, that's my mom. She'd probably say you're the same way you were now, right? Like this huge diva that was just ridiculous. I'm quite sure. And my sister and I are both named after my father. My father had no boys, so we're both named after our dad.
00:08:28
Speaker
She took the more academic route and I was like, hey, let's go wrestle. Let's go.
00:08:34
Speaker
Let's go watch football. And I'm not a tomboy at all, but I just absolutely enjoyed it. So having that experience with my dad was amazing. My dad taught me so many wonderful lessons and I impart them into a lot of my talks. I impart them into the way that I interact with my students and my clients. So literally my dad is the gift that keeps on giving for sure. Wow. That's really cool.
00:09:09
Speaker
So how has like the speaking in the last seven years like
00:09:15
Speaker
the coaching, change your life, change your business, and what kind of message you spread out to the world now?
Impact of Speaking and Coaching
00:09:22
Speaker
It's funny. When I got started with my wedding planning business, I am the wedding planner that never had a wedding. When I was married, I had eloped, and so I didn't know what it was like to have the big wedding. I had just always entertained, I'd always planned, always been great at logistics.
00:09:39
Speaker
So I was doing something that I had never really had before. And that certainly translated over to when I moved into coaching. My goal was to be who I needed when I got started. So that is how I approach every client experience when I'm coaching someone, how I approach every attendee.
00:09:56
Speaker
experience when I'm writing a class and when I'm getting up there to talk. It's really important to me that people feel seen, that they feel acknowledged, that they feel celebrated at every interaction when they work with me. Whether it's online, on social, it's working with me as a coach, or even when they come to see me speak, I really want them to feel like they found their person and that they've got all the great information that they need.
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah, funny that you say that like I when I became a coach I just wrote like my pillars by myself and I put posted on my blog and then you know after higher coaches like mentors thousands of thousands of dollars This potential student like I gave her all my stuff and she's like I actually want like what's on your blog post Wow Like what I said from my heart and it's like you remember like who you were like when you first started and what you know
00:10:54
Speaker
you know, what you needed. So that's a really good mindset shift and something we all could remember if you want to become a coach. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, there's enough fluff out there. So you know, just be be real with people and be who you needed because chances are somebody else needs it too. Yes. What was what do you think the biggest struggle right now in like the wedding industry is or what's like the biggest pain point struggle or maybe
Overcoming Scarcity Mentality
00:11:22
Speaker
flaw in the wedding industry. Wow. You know, we go in waves, right?
00:11:31
Speaker
We've dealt with the pandemic. We've dealt with the issues of brutality and racism and diversity and inclusion within our industry. We've dealt with the housing market. We've dealt with recessions. So it always comes in waves. And we have these moments where we're super supportive of each other. And then we go deep into those valleys where it seems like we're either pitting each other against one another or
00:11:56
Speaker
We're just trying to one up each other, that crab in the barrel thing. And I think that that really happens when many of us work from a scarcity mindset as opposed to an abundance mindset, because we're like, Oh my God, I got to get this job and you can't get it. I have to have it. Or I want them to pick me, you know, whether it's a client or a vendor to work with me. And when we operate out of that lack mentality, out of that fear mentality, it causes us to make some really
00:12:21
Speaker
bad decisions and to act, you know, to have very poor behavior because we feel like we're bad. So I would say that's probably one of our biggest pain points. We don't operate by the golden rule a lot of the times and we get so
00:12:36
Speaker
caught up in what's not happening, that we kind of lose sight of what is happening and who is going to prepare for us. We bite at that one thing that's going to come once, that one job that's just going to come once versus the community that could feed us every single weekend with referrals or with support or with education.
00:12:55
Speaker
I'm not even going to say, oh my God, Carissa, it's the engagement gap or it's social media. No, sometimes we are the demons. Sometimes we are the villains. And I think that the more that we look inward and the more that we check ourselves, the more that we do the work on ourselves and not just our businesses, but literally the person behind the business, it will make our industry so much better. Oh, that was so well said.
00:13:20
Speaker
when I'm like kind of wanting the deal so bad, even for a wedding photography, I just start like yapping. And then I stopped like listening. And then when I don't care about it, I just start listening. And then the conversation is like really good. And it goes on for like 3040 minutes and like,
00:13:36
Speaker
It's just so much better. So how can someone, I mean, this is the perfect time. I'll probably post like, you know, first week of January, but what, how can we get into this abundant mindset and like, not this lack of mindset? Like, do we need a fricking part-time job? You know, like, so we don't care if they book or not, like, what do we do? You know what? You do. You need a full-time job of believing in yourself. You need a full-time job in saying,
00:14:03
Speaker
I'm dope as hell. And it does not matter what this one has or what this one doesn't have. I'm good. And what's for me is always going to be for me. I don't have to compete. I only have to compete with myself. I only have to get better. The more education that we have, the more interactions we have, the more networking we have, the, you know what?
00:14:23
Speaker
more times that we experience great customer service, it makes us better entrepreneurs and service providers. So the more that we do that, the more we can operate from an abundance mindset where, you know what, I'm going to get what I'm going to get. You know what it is, whether it's handed to me or I got to grab it, right? Shout out to 50 cent for that line. But
00:14:42
Speaker
I'm going to have it. I don't have to take it from somebody else. I don't have to undercut somebody else. I don't have to talk bad about somebody else because I believe in me so much. I know that I'm dope, right? So I think that that's really a good thing. And when you feel like that, it makes it so much easier for you
00:14:58
Speaker
to tell people why you're dope, right? To share and to sell and to, you know, really put yourself out there. You don't have to talk bad about somebody else. You don't have to discount. You don't have to do these things. You're literally just talking about what makes you doubt.
00:15:16
Speaker
Oh, I love that. I think a little tip for me that I've learned is just kind of getting off social media. Like, I really like content. But when I start scrolling, that's when I start like comparing. And I know it's very easy or thinking you're doing something wrong. So I think this year, like, you know, 2024, I really want to like just focus on myself. And I did that in my for my personal Instagram account, I really went through and I just purged
00:15:45
Speaker
so many different accounts, anything that made me feel bad, anything that made me say, Oh my God, I need to lose five more pounds, or Oh my God, I need to go get this one, or I need to go wear this, or you know, even meme accounts that just set the occasional funny thing, but also set some things that kind of made me feel some type of way. I just did a purge. I don't need it. You know what I mean? So I have to my own algorithm both socially and mentally. And I think that's something that we all need to do.
00:16:10
Speaker
Wow, that's so good. Tell me the 50 cent quote one more time. Oh, he says, if I want it, I'm going to have it regardless if it's handed to me or I got to grab it. Oh, yes, that is so true. You have to go for what you want in life. Nobody is giving you anything. Nobody. I don't care if your talent has been bestowed upon you, if it's natural, if it's something that you had to work for. Nobody's giving you anything. That's why one of my most
00:16:39
Speaker
popular educational products, it's called Hustle Sold Separately. And that's what they say, you know, the dream is free, but the hustle is sold separately. I can sell you the dream about you having an amazing wedding business about you being a wonderful entrepreneur and whatever your field is, but you have to work for it. And I think that that's something that we all need to keep in mind. Yeah.
00:16:59
Speaker
Oh, I love that. Okay, one more question before hot topic. But we all love you all of all of the wedding professionals just love you. We love your vulnerability. We love your confidence, enthusiasm, energy, and also your vulnerability, you know, talking about your long hair wigs, your Botox, all the things that I die laughing just reading it. But in your words, like, what's like your best get a heck yes technique, your it could be anything sales or not sales.
00:17:29
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.
00:17:45
Speaker
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.
00:18:09
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.
00:18:31
Speaker
tell us how you're feeling like I want to just know a little bit more about your thoughts. Yeah, beautiful and you're 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. Krista, thank you. Oh my gosh, my biggest heck yes. Um, so
00:18:57
Speaker
For sales, I always say it's confirm and affirm. When you're talking to a client, you want to make sure that you're speaking their language and you talk to them like they're already yours. The biggest heck yes for me is to talk to myself, like how I talk to my students, like how I talk to my clients, like how I talk to the attendees that come.
00:19:20
Speaker
We all suffer from imposter syndrome. I talked about that at the talk you came to see. But I have to remember, it's not fake. I might be having a bad day. I'm not having a bad life. I might have messed up a moment. I haven't messed up my entire life. I haven't messed up my entire business. So I really have learned to show myself grace.
00:19:42
Speaker
And there's absolutely no way I'm going to be harder on myself than, you know, I wouldn't allow my student to talk to my themselves like that. I wouldn't allow my children to talk to themselves like that. And if I am the source of education, of love and support for so many other people, I have to actually live by what I'm telling people. So.
00:20:03
Speaker
Ah, it's so crazy. It's crazy that you said that because today I posted something about like what's your most outlandish goal, but then I recorded for tomorrow and it's something I'm going to let go and it's talking bad about myself to other people. Because yeah, I'm really good about that because people are like, Oh, Chris, are you doing so well? Like it's all smoke and mirrors or like, you know, just very like mean about myself. So I'm like, I'm gonna try to give that up next year.
00:20:27
Speaker
Good for you. Like, yeah, you know what? I am so good. I'm dope as hell, right? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for listening. Yes. Thank you for listening. Appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. I love it.
00:20:43
Speaker
confident and cocky. I don't want anybody to understand that at all. Because, you know, a lot of people are like, Oh, she's so cocky. No, I'm just one, I'm not gonna let you talk to me any type of way. And two, I know what I bring to the damn table. You know what I mean? I'm not afraid to walk away if I don't like what's being served. So when people compliment me, I'm like, Oh, wow, thank you. That means a lot. And it does always mean a lot. But yeah, I'm glad that you're going to stop doing that because you are dope.
00:21:09
Speaker
You're great. Thank you. I don't think I've said dope like 50,000 times on the podcast already. You can see that's like my word. I'm a dope girl. Okay, let's get into it. You kind of alluded to it, confirm and affirm, but what is your hot topic and why is it so near and dear to your heart? Oh my gosh. It's that selling is not sleazy.
00:21:36
Speaker
You just got to be selfish. And I know that sounds so crazy, but when you think about it, people come to us in this industry for our translation of things, for our interpretation of things.
Redefining the Art of Selling
00:21:49
Speaker
So we are at the center of it, even if we are providing of service and we want to be of service, not a servant. That's a whole nother talk for another day, because some of y'all need some boundaries. And yeah. Yeah, I heard your talk at the wedding retreat.
00:22:04
Speaker
I feel like, you know, you really have to own who you are. You have to talk about that. You have to
00:22:13
Speaker
You really have to get into who it is that you're talking to. And I always say that business, especially the sales and the wooing stage for lack of a better term. Well, it's an amazing term. But it's like dating, right? You don't want to chase anybody and you don't want to convince anyone. You don't want to have to chase someone to date you. You don't want anybody to have to convince
00:22:35
Speaker
them that they should date you. Same thing. You don't want to chase a client. You don't want to have to convince a client to have to work with you because once you do it, you'll have to continue to do that. So that's why we're not going there. If anybody is going to be for you, whether it's a client, whether it's a romantic partner, whether it's a friendship,
00:22:54
Speaker
You'll never have to chase them. You'll never have to convince them they will just be, and they will be happy in your presence. So selling isn't about chasing. It's not about convincing. It's literally about sharing. And when I put it like that, people are like, well, wait a minute. Hold on. Tell me more. Because I have so many people that say, I hate selling. Oh, it makes me feel so close. And I'm like, why? I have this woman say this to me at a workshop for Wedding Pro. We were at CORE.
00:23:20
Speaker
And she was like, I really hate selling. And I'm like, so how do you make your money? And she's like, well, you know, I don't sometimes because I just, I like, I get intimidated and I get discounts or whatever. And I'm like, are you sure? You know, have you ever done any sales courses or anything? And she says, no, I just really hate selling. And I'm like, oh, okay.
00:23:40
Speaker
I didn't push it. So I changed the subject and I said, well, anybody watching anything good? You know what? I'm traveling a lot. I want to download something for the flight on our way home. And she's like, oh my God, you would absolutely love this show. It's on this network. You're the character.
00:23:57
Speaker
that looks just like you. She reminds me of you. She talks just like you. And at this episode, they did this and they did this and I'm not going to give it away, but you would absolutely love this. And it comes on here, here, here. And I just stared at her and she was like, you tricked me, didn't you? And I said, yes, I did.
00:24:14
Speaker
She's like, I just sold you the show. And I was like, absolutely. So when you think about it, whenever we hear about a great show online, we hop on Facebook, we hop in our stories and we tell people about it. Whenever we find a great sale, we find a great product, we hop online and we tell everybody about it. We're sharing. We don't feel like we're selling for Netflix, right? We don't feel like we're selling for Amazon when we do that. So why should we be any different?
00:24:38
Speaker
When you believe in your product, when you know what you have is so great and it could fit someone's needs, it could be the medicine to their pain point, don't sell them. Share it. Share why it's great. Share why they would enjoy it. Share why it would be beneficial. So that's why I always say, you know, it's never about selling, it's honestly just about sharing.
00:24:58
Speaker
And in order to do that, you really have to know the anatomy of what your services are. And that's pretty much the features and benefits of your service. You have to know what it is your client can do with it and what it is that you're going to do.
00:25:16
Speaker
So when you know those things, that helps you break it down to say, you know what, I have this and this is why it's going to be so good for you. It absolutely gives you the opportunity to break out your prescription pad and be the medicine to your client's pain points. So you really have to be selfish. It is selfish. It's learning your love language, learning how you communicate, learning about what's great about your service so that you can talk to someone and you can pinpoint why they need it and what they need.
00:25:47
Speaker
Oh, Terika, that was good. I love, you know, I love visuals. So I'm thinking of literally like a medicine and all the pain points that like, you know, brides have like, I'm not a model, I hate posing, you know, I never done this before. And literally breaking it up with like your personal stories to kind of explain why you need this medicine. So I love your visuals. Absolutely. Okay, so okay, so
00:26:17
Speaker
I'm always trying to learn on this podcast and I'm learning so much. So I'm thinking, you know, when that lady was talking to maybe about that show, which I want to know the show because I like, you know, she was selling it to you. I'm not even gonna lie to you. I don't even remember. I don't even watch reality TV. I was honestly trying to get her to see that she was really a great salesperson. So I don't even
00:26:38
Speaker
I will watch Game of Thrones over and over again on repeat. You could tell me about this great new show. I'm like, cool. I'm going to go watch Game of Thrones. I'll see y'all later. Awesome. Yeah. So it's just like sharing maybe like something great that happened to you at a last wedding, maybe how you stayed the day, maybe how you got a compliment. And it's so easy, but maybe it's like more near and dear to your heart. So you can kind of share it.
00:27:03
Speaker
what you love most about the wedding or maybe you love first look because all the emotions running and just talking from your heart. I think that's something that is really easy to do and it's not sleazy, it's easy and it's dope. It's so easy and then it helps them connect to you because then it's like, I feel like I know you as a person now, you know what I mean? We got rid of all the jargon, we got rid of numbers, we're communicating on the same plane.
00:27:32
Speaker
So I totally agree with you.
00:27:35
Speaker
Let's dive a little bit deeper in the learning, the anatomy of your services. So yes, the medicine, the prescriptions of the features, the benefits. What's like a good exercise someone could do today to kind of think about their features and the benefits of what they do? Oh, absolutely. So I always say take your largest collection that you offer and break it down. You want to write a line down the center of your page and one side is going to be
00:28:03
Speaker
What's included? What's included is typically the features, right? So you'll put features on one side and the benefits on one side. So let's say you offer an engagement shoot with your collection. That's a feature of your collection, right? Well, what's the benefit of it? Well, you get to work with me and see my style. You'll see how we'll be on, you know, the wedding day. You'll get some great photos that you can share ahead of time. It'll get you prepared. And in the mindset of being in front of the camera, there's so many different benefits.
00:28:30
Speaker
So just break down your collection no matter what it is that you offer, right down to your amenities that you offer. If you use any softwares that you share with your clients, if you offer them,
00:28:39
Speaker
any concessions or any deals that you have with any partnerships, add those two and figure out what they can do with them. Why is it something that they want? What are they going to be able to, you know, how was it going to make them better? How was it going to make their wedding better? How was it going to make them a better host or help their guests be better guests or enjoy it? And when you look at it this way, you're like, wow.
00:29:02
Speaker
I'm on to something here. I've got something amazing on my hands. And it's gonna be something that people want because ultimately, and I love that quote by Maya Angelou who says, you know, people may forget what you said, they may forget what you've done, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. When you think about how your clients want to feel after they interact with you, after they've had their wedding, after they had any type of session with you, that's where you focus on and you circle right back and you say, okay, well, how do I get them there?
00:29:32
Speaker
your features are going to be the vehicle to get them to that destination of that feeling. And that's something that you definitely want to take note of. So yeah, I would say break down your largest collection, your largest service into your features and benefits. And that will help you so much when you're talking about your sales and why you're different from other service providers, what makes you stand out, not only for the competition, but also pricing too.
00:30:00
Speaker
Wow, that was really good. Dude, I think that kind of like will completely change people's perspective on everything because it's so simple. And it's literally like a formula. It's like this engagement session is not just an engagement session. This is like your first shoe like professional shoe as a couple. This is like your first like heirloom book of your whole entire legacy that's going to be passed down to your future grandkids. This is like
00:30:30
Speaker
the start of your relationship and you looking your best ever. Like it just goes on and on and like, would you charge $400 for that? Hell no. Like that's worth $1,500. It's worth so much more. And that's how you get people to understand the value. The value is never in the features. Hate to say it. The features are great. The value is always in the benefit because when I see what it's going to do for me, when I see what it's going to do,
00:30:58
Speaker
For my partner, my kids, my parents, my family, and my friends. I want to be able to provide that, right? And if you can't communicate the value, you're done. You're done. Because now what's going to happen is you are going to be compared line for line, dollar sign to dollar sign to your competition. And I say it all the time. Price is only an issue in the absence of value.
00:31:20
Speaker
So when your clients do not see the value in your service, it's immediately going to be, well, this costs too much. Or, well, this person offers this, why can't it be this amount? They have to see the value. They have to be like, well, hell yeah, I would pay.
00:31:36
Speaker
double that, you know, for whatever it is just for, you know, point A alone. So that's why it's so very important not to just focus on the bullet points. We're not selling bullet points to people. We're selling transformations. We're selling feelings. We're selling, you know, end results. We're selling dreams. We're selling visions. And if you don't have a hold of that and you can't communicate that, you're stuck in a dollar sign zone, baby.
00:31:59
Speaker
thing. It is like wedding industry wedding photography planning. It's like a purse like it could be free could be 30k you know it could be 50k can be 4k it's like all over the board and like
00:32:11
Speaker
Why? What does it make you feel? What is that value? What do you have to offer? Why are you different? Tell us a little bit about that story because I love it so much. The end of your speech about the Pepsi straw. Oh, the Coke straw. The Coke straw, yeah.
00:32:32
Speaker
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00:32:57
Speaker
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00:33:27
Speaker
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Differentiation in a Crowded Market
00:33:52
Speaker
I always, you know, talk to people who say, you know, I am, I'm this in the industry and I, there's so many others, right? That's so oversaturated. I would say, maybe, but I don't believe you. And they're like, no, look, literally go on the knot, go on Google and you'll see it's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, no, I don't see it. And they're like, are you blind? Do you not see that it's 30 of us here? And I'm like, well, I'll tell you what.
00:34:22
Speaker
Let's look, and what I typically do is when I do this in a coaching session, I will pull up a Google map right off the interstate. And I'm like, oh, look, there's a McDonald's, there's a Wendy's, there's a Burger King, there's a Taco Bell. All of them sell some sort of soft drink, right? Some of them sell Coke, some of them sell Pepsi, majority of them will sell Coke.
00:34:41
Speaker
But McDonald's does their Coke differently, the way that they bring it in, the temperature that they keep their water in order to serve it. And the one thing that I absolutely love is that they had a specially designed straw for their sodas so that you would get more carbonation, you would get more flavor, it would hit your taste buds. They have elevated
00:35:02
Speaker
how they serve and preserve Coke. So it doesn't matter who else is selling Coke or it doesn't matter if there's a Burger King and Arby's and whomever. Y'all know Coke, McDonald's Coke and McDonald's Sprite will literally put hair on your chest. And it's because of the way it's literally like crack. I mean, you could buy one Friday and on Saturday that sucker is still carbonated.
00:35:27
Speaker
that they preserve and they serve their drink. So I always tell people, you know, what's your straw? How are you going to deliver what you feel like somebody else has already done? What do you feel like a million other people are doing? How are you going to serve and preserve your work? So it doesn't matter, you know, who else is doing it? How can you do it differently? How can you elevate the experience? And when you think about that, now the sky is the limit, right? It doesn't matter how many of
00:35:54
Speaker
XYZ, there are photographers, planners, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers are out there. Nobody can do it like you. And so yeah, that's pretty much the premise behind it. Oh, I like how you said it this time. You said it a little differently. I love that. I had the McDonald's coat yesterday. Yeah.
00:36:14
Speaker
that damn straw. You know, when when people come to that talk, and they, you know, we get to the end of that, I get tagged in so many pictures after that so many stories of people like drinking their McDonald's Coke or whatever. They're like, I got my straw. I love that. I love that. I yeah, I was texting like two of my friends after I was like, what's your straw? I would say my straw is like how I make people feel. Yeah.
00:36:44
Speaker
just letting people let their guard down. And what would you say your straw is? I would say mine is about the same. Again, I just really want to be authentic. That's my straw. And that's something that I've always said, too, is that I am fully aware that when I get up on stage, I look a little bit different from everybody else.
00:37:09
Speaker
Kardashian shaped girl running up there on stage talking that you know what I mean? I speak differently. I look differently than everybody else and
00:37:20
Speaker
That's actually a love letter to my audience, to my followers, to my family, to my friends. You know what I mean? That I'm getting up there and I'm being authentic. That I want everybody to be able to see themselves in me, to relate to me, and to feel like they don't have to be perfect to get up there and talk. You know, everyone is brilliant. Everybody has their straw. They have their gift. And I think that when we allow people to be real,
00:37:46
Speaker
it opens up so much light into all of our lives. So I hope that that's my straw for people that I allow them to be their real selves so that they can continue to offer their gift to the world. Oh, I think that's so true about you. Everyone says that about you. I think that's like the best part of being in business if you could just like be yourself.
00:38:10
Speaker
Absolutely. And you know what? For so long, Carissa, I wasn't. I have had three different names for my business. There were times where I did not tell my age because I felt like I was too young. I didn't have my headshot on my site because I didn't want people to see that I was in the Deep South and they were hiring this young black girl. I didn't think that I would get hired. So there have been so many times where I wasn't me.
00:38:33
Speaker
And that affected my business where I was working with people that I didn't want to work with. I was being hired by clients I didn't want to work with. I wasn't charging my worth because I was always thinking about who I was supposed to be as opposed to who I really was. Wow.
00:38:49
Speaker
Now you're you. Good luck. Go to therapy and get well soon. Yeah. Okay, so this is amazing. One last question and then we'll go into rapid fire questions. But you said so much but so much amazing stuff but speak to someone struggling right now to get leads as a wedding professional and scared and they're going into that scarcity mode for the new year and
00:39:18
Speaker
They're like, what should I
Strategies for Finding Ideal Clients
00:39:19
Speaker
do? What is one or two things you could say that you do today or this week? Yeah. You know what? Figure out what people, first of all, figure out who it is that you really want to work with, right? And this goes right back to that authenticity thing. Figure out who you are, figure out what you do, and figure out who you want to be somebody to. That's not a Dr. Seuss line. That's literally something from one of my courses, even though it is.
00:39:42
Speaker
But it's so true, you know what I mean? When you know what you are, then you know what you're good at, right? And then you know who that's going to be perfect for. You know, Vida Dante said, you know, you could be the juiciest peach in the world, and there's still going to be people out there who don't like peaches. You have to talk to the people who like peaches. If you are talking to people who like strawberries, of course, you're going to think you're doing something wrong, or your, you know, your business isn't great, but you're talking to the wrong people.
00:40:10
Speaker
So really figure out who your ideal client is and then figure out what are their pain points? What is it that they wanna know? And then begin to create really great valuable content, whether it's on social, whether it is a really great lead magnet, whether it's something that you can offer in your follow-up process, where you can offer what I like to call wedding sugar.
00:40:34
Speaker
to people, something that's going to make them a little bit better, something that's going to make them smarter. No strings attached at all. And when you have that, you get that quick popcorn information grab. That's how you can get a lot of leads that can come in. So whether it's a checklist, it's a spreadsheet, it's a calculator, it's whatever, just know what it is that people really want from you. And also make sure that these people exist in your market, right? Because I think that everyone's like, oh, I want to do luxury. I want to do this. I'm like, ooh.
00:41:02
Speaker
Maybe when you're in a town of population, I don't think that's going to work. So know who your people are, know if they actually exist in your market, and find a way that you can serve them for free. You want to give them a little taste so that they, in exchange for your taste, they're giving you their information.
00:41:23
Speaker
So once you know that too, begin to really cultivate relationships. I did not say transactions because a lot of people feel like networking and getting referrals are transactions. No, begin to cultivate relationships. So start talking to your venues, start talking to your photographers, your planners, your caterers.
00:41:43
Speaker
your florists really curate those relationships because these people will have the people that you want to work with as well. So it's two parts, you know, it's working, well, really three, working on yourself, working on your clients and working on your relationships. So don't get, you know, don't get dismayed, don't get disgruntled at all. Put your nose down to the grindstone and really do the work of finding out who exists in your market and how you can serve them and who is serving them so that you can pair up with them.
00:42:13
Speaker
Wow. That was like a five minute Ted talk. Sorry. That was amazing. Dude. That's like success in a nutshell. Um, that was amazing. Okay. So rapid fire questions. Favorite your mama for best mom time hack. Oh, that's mom.
00:42:38
Speaker
Girl, I don't know. It feels like I've been winging it. I don't know if I have any moms. I don't know if you have any cats. I feel like they've all survived at this point. So whatever I've been doing has been working for sure. You know what? I would have to say as a mompreneur,
00:42:56
Speaker
Incorporate your kids in your business. You want them to see that your job is not something that's necessarily taking you away from them, but show them why it's so important. You can instill a really great appreciation for becoming an entrepreneur. Just work ethic overall when they see how hard you're working, but why you're working hard. I can remember I wanted to take my kids on a vacation and I set my goal.
00:43:19
Speaker
to sell X amount of courses so that I could do that. And they were like literally counting down with me. They're like, mom, did you, did you do this? So it was really good to incorporate them as opposed to saying, Oh no, mommy can't, you know, I've got a call or I've got to go here. They, they were able to attach it to an end goal and to see why it was so important. Oh, that's really cool. I love that. A selfish question for me. One speaking tip to become a better,
00:43:46
Speaker
Better speaker, get more speaking gigs. Be real. That's it. You already know the answer to that. Be real, be real. There are so many other people out there selling cotton candy and fluff and ooh, look at me. Look at this wedding. Not one person cares about that. Everybody who is putting a butt in a seat wants to know that one, they can see themselves in you. They can trust you. And two, that you're going to somehow change their lives and their businesses. So be real. Wow. That's a good one.
00:44:11
Speaker
And last one, your most outlandish. Well, nothing's outlandish for you, but your biggest, biggest, biggest goal for 2024. Oh, I don't know if I can say, because I think it's about to happen and I want it to be a surprise. Okay. You don't have to say it. Okay. How about last one, your
00:44:40
Speaker
Maybe you're the most effective marketing tip you learned last year or this year. You know what, hands down, I have to shout out Laurel Lane who has taught me everything I know about Facebook ads. Like having the ability to like really capitalize on the pixel and using my own content for ads to take control of that and not have to rely on
00:45:06
Speaker
you know, the feast or famine of leads coming in, or, you know, being seen on an online listing that has been a game changer for me. For sure. Oh, it changed my life too. Yeah. Okay, so you have a freebie for everyone. And just tell everyone where to find you and where to work with you. Yeah, absolutely. So I've got the freebie, which is the how much do your clients actually cost calculator when people and that's my big thing too. I am adamant about
00:45:36
Speaker
you know, us and the industry and our colleagues being paid our worth. And sometimes we just come up with these arbitrary prices, either because we think that that's what we should make, or that's what so and so is charging. And we have no idea what goes into it. So I came up with this calculator to, you know, really help us have a great starting point that, you know, this is what it takes for us to serve our clients, our pricing should be
00:46:00
Speaker
way more than that. Uh, so that's, that's my freebie. And, um, I guess you can find me online. I'm always cutting up on Instagram at introducing Tarika. A lot of my educational products and memberships are at hustlequarters.com. And those who are interested in me, um, speaking or coming in as an MC or hosting a workshop, you can find me online at tarikainc.com.
00:46:30
Speaker
Oh, thank you so much for bringing your knowledge, your realness, your sugar, your smile. And happy new year. And I will be seeing you and watching you, you know, speak and it was such a treat to have you on my podcast. Thank you for having me, Chris. I really, really appreciate it. This was awesome. Thank you.
00:46:54
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!