Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
How to use PR to get a HECK YES from your dream clients - Meghan Ely
83 Plays3 years ago
Calling all wedding pros that want to elevate your brand and business. This episode is all about how to use PR to get a HECK Yes from your dream clients.
OFD Consulting owner, Meghan Ely, CWIP (Certified Wedding Industry Professional), combines in-the-trenches event experience with a love of wedding PR to empower her clients to take their businesses to new heights. Her team’s publicity efforts are regularly honored by the Public Relations Society of America, and most recently, Meghan was named the 2020-21 NACE Speaker of the Year.
A long-time industry speaker and writer, she is a WeddingPro educator with The Knot + WeddingWire, as well as a regular contributor to Wedding Planner Magazine, Catersource and SpecialEvents.com.
A longtime supporter of industry associations, Meghan currently serves as the 2021 International President for WIPA.
1) PR is aligned with customer acquisition in a few ways- it can attract discerning couples who will be impressed with the third party credibility. It can also be used as a top of funnel strategy to bring in new clients.
2) PR is tied directly into social proof, which plays a big role in how today's couples (especially Gen Z) relies on social proof to say yes to the right wedding pro.
3) PR can seem overwhelming but the fact is, you yourself are the best person to start representing yourself because you know you best. Now, if someone wants to look into hiring someone, I"m happy to walk listeners through what to look for.
Connect with Meghan
https://weddingindustryspeakers.com/speaker/meghan-ely/
https://www.instagram.com/ofdconsulting/
If you want to be a professional speaker in the wedding industry, take this course
https://weddingindustryspeakers.com/register/the-course/
Connect with Carissa
Coaching IG: @carissawoo
Photography IG: @carissawoophotography
Download a free guide on how to become a lead generating machine HERE
Watch my free 20 lead generation masterclass https://carissa-woo.mykajabi.com/registration-page...
Thank you to our sponsors Photobooth Supply. Buy the Photo Booth
Recommended
Transcript
Carissa's Career Shift to Coaching
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to Get a Heck Yes with me, Carissa. Hope you had a great Christmas and holiday. Did you hear my big announcement on social media? I'm going full time coaching. What does that mean? I'm not taking any more weddings so I could be fully committed to the success of my students. It's been an amazing 12 years and I'm so thankful to photograph over 300 weddings.
00:00:24
Speaker
So right now I have a free 20 minute masterclass all about lead generation. You have to check it out if you want to be fully booked for 2022. I've been getting great feedback on it. The link is in the bio.
Introduction to Megan Ellie and PR for Business Success
00:00:37
Speaker
So today I have a star guest, Megan Ellie. She runs a powerhouse PR agency for wedding pros called OFD Collective. She won speaker of the year by nays. Wow. Today we chat about how to use PR to get a heck yes from your dream clients. Enjoy.
00:00:58
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,
00:01:26
Speaker
Time hacks 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!
Megan Ellie's Professional Journey in PR
00:01:49
Speaker
Alright guys, it's Carissa here as you know and I have Megan Ely here and I'm so excited to have her. She has quite the resume. She owns a PR agency exclusively for wedding professionals called OFD Consulting. She's the current president for WIPA.
00:02:06
Speaker
Weddings International Professional Association. That's a tongue twister. And she is a founder of Wedding Industry Speakers. And I'm hoping to get on that team one day. That's my aspiration in life. And Megan is an amazing speaker. I've just been listening to you all morning. And you're actually named 2020 and 2021 NACE Speaker of the Year. Holy cow.
00:02:29
Speaker
And your superpower is that you planned over like a thousand events before you started your own PR firm. So we're going to get to know all about that. And today we're going to chat all things PR.
00:02:41
Speaker
public relations related. So welcome, Megan. Oh my gosh, I'm like, can you come to me come with me to conferences and introduce me because I'm reading all about you and it was really hard to sum you up in like a couple minutes. Yeah, you're definitely like the biggest person on my podcast so far. So I'm super excited.
00:03:06
Speaker
Thank you for having me. I love the concept of your topic, so I'm thrilled. I love the concept of the podcast, so I'm thrilled to be here. Yeah. Okay. Speaking of that, I'm starting this new thing now where the first question I ask all my interviewees is, what's your biggest sales technique? How do you get that? Heck yes, from your dream clients.
00:03:27
Speaker
when I was in venues and I would showcase these beautiful spaces, right? I mean, that's a good selling point right there. But I would also really want to make sure I showcase my expertise without being too showy about it. And so I would make sure in our, back in the venue days, 90-minute tours that I would respond to all their questions, but I would try and answer all their questions before they had them, if that makes sense. It's a good, like, active listening versus working that expertise in.
00:03:56
Speaker
when I moved over to PR and selling to B2B, I mean, I found that the strategy of, again, active listening, what is it that they're looking for and researching them ahead of time, but really being able to demonstrate kind of that authority and expertise by hopefully answering most of their questions before they have them. So that's kind of been something that stuck with me for many years.
00:04:20
Speaker
Yeah, and I guess you only could do that unless you have a ton of experience. So you know what people ask common questions and correct. That's awesome. So we were a wedding planner.
00:04:32
Speaker
That's a great question. So I was out of respect to the wonderful wedding planners of the world. I would never call myself a planner per se, but I worked in venues. So I worked in, primarily I was at a five star, five diamond property. And when I was there, I would do the onsite coordination. So we would still have a lot of great planners, but I tended to call myself an event court, like a venue coordinator or maybe a catering sales manager is a good way to put it.
00:04:59
Speaker
Okay, cool. And then where are you located, Megan? You can find me right now at Richmond, Virginia. I mean, usually I'm here there and everywhere, but home is Richmond, Virginia. Okay, cool. Yeah, it's so interesting. This podcast is I can meet people all over the world. So I'm so glad that we connected and you're like connecting me to the whole speakers, international, your company will talk about that.
00:05:23
Speaker
a little bit later. But yeah, I'm so excited. This question is kind of fun for me, but what is your biggest accomplishment in business? Oh gosh. I'm super proud of a lot of the things that my team and I have accomplished over the last 12 years. And I know this is fresh on my mind, fresh in memory as well, but I would say being honored as the most recent NACE speaker of the year truly meant a lot to me. And I think
00:05:49
Speaker
It wasn't just because, of course, it's a group that I've been with for as long as I've been in business and among my peers, people I respect. It was a great number of people. Really, I was up against some amazing speakers, all of them friends, but being honored for all the speaking I did in 2020, which when the pandemic hit, I basically went around virtually, spoke to thousands of event pros about basically how to not hire me. No one had any revenue because of the pandemic.
00:06:19
Speaker
Don't hire me. Let me tell you how to do it yourself. And to see so many people have publicity wins to really, as I told everyone during that time, no one is going to come and rescue from this. You have to rescue yourself and to give them the tools and then to have my peers honor that. I know I'll look back on that evening as one of my fondest memories and biggest accomplishments.
00:06:39
Speaker
Wow. I mean, that's so generous of you to say, Oh, hey, guys, don't hire me. Like, but these are all the tools that you could do yourself. That's very generous of you. Well, I was happy to do it. I mean, this is an industry that has given two decades almost to me at this point. I mean, it was it was a no brainer. So it was really truly an honor.
00:06:58
Speaker
That's so cool. Did you speak to the people on Zoom or Facebook or Instagram? Oh, my stars. All of the things. Yes. It was primarily Zoom, of course, everyone's favorite program during it. What happened is March 13th hit, of course, the pandemic closed down the country. I got off a plane from Katersource, TSC, in Las Vegas.
00:07:20
Speaker
and immediately put this this together, you know, this how to get how to basically do PR during crisis, which is something I do know how to do. And so I put it together and I started reaching out to pretty much everybody. So it was mainly webinars. It was a lot of after hours. It was in between virtual school, which was no joke. And yeah, I do a lot of my Instagram lives as well, but it was a ton of like live streaming all the time.
00:07:48
Speaker
That's awesome. Yeah, I just listened to, I was on your website and your Instagram and you're a really good storyteller. Oh, thank you. I think we all have to figure out what we're getting at with speaking as you learn as you're speaking as well. And storytelling and pulling in anecdotes seems to be a great way for people to retain information.
Public Speaking and Transition to PR Firm
00:08:05
Speaker
So that helps.
00:08:06
Speaker
Yes, yes, you're amazing. So we were talking a little bit before we started recording about like your background of working at venues, but I'm going to go back to that in a second. But I wanted to ask you first because I told you like my parents are in Toastmasters and their presidents. I grew up with that since I was a kid. But how did you start like speaking at events?
00:08:25
Speaker
Well, speaking was kind of an interesting thing. You and I have a similar background. My dad's not in Toastmasters, but my dad did some speaking and training for work as I was a young kid that was very impressionable. And I remember winning most talkative for grammar school and also for high school.
00:08:43
Speaker
And I thought, oh, I could like talk for a living. This is amazing. And so long, long story short, I guess when you're 22, you feel more brash. And I pitched myself as basically almost a child in the end, like I was brand new. I was, there was a local Richmond Bridal Association, Mad Props to Susan Benson. That was her name at the time. And she allowed me to be
00:09:04
Speaker
a speaker 18 years ago on Generation Y. Because I just, I was fresh off working for Nike World Headquarters and I'd learned so much. So I brought it to like 70 people in the wedding industry locally in Richmond. I was so nervous, but I got the bug after that. And so I sat on panels mainly for years. And then when I started OFD, I realized, you know, to advertise yourself in front of your peers versus engaged couples, it's a very different thing. And so speaking was a great way to change the conversation from
00:09:35
Speaker
Megan who was in receptions to Megan who is a wedding PR expert. So that's how I humble beginnings for sure. Oh my God. I love that. That's so awesome that you just started speaking. I think you're going to help me a lot with PR like in my company, but you sent me like a little loom and I was like, Oh yeah, Megan does talk a lot.
00:09:57
Speaker
I know in quickly so I try to where's the balance there so it's I'm a work in progress but I bet you all your clients will love you for that because you give so much information and you're such a straight shooter
00:10:12
Speaker
That's so cool. OK, so take me back now to working in events at venues. Tell me a little bit about that and how you started OFD consulting. Yeah, so I loved doing events. I wish I could say I was creative. I genuinely give all the credit to the people who truly were the creatives, but I was really organized and I like the sales aspect of it and I enjoyed doing it for a bunch of years as you kindly introduced me. But I did about 1000 events and that's not just wedding, that's holiday parties.
00:10:42
Speaker
you know, weekday events, things like that. And so that kind of fed my type A personality. But my background is actually in public relations. I went to school for it. I had internships that did work in it. And so as much as I had an immense amount of satisfaction for a well executed event, at the end of the day, PR was always going to fill my cup more. It just was I have this lifelong love of the media. Growing up, I was a little nerdy nerd who would make my own magazines like out of construction paper. So I just always had a
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah, a deep fascination with the media and media relations. And so very long story short, I left the hotel. I mentioned that I was at a five-star property. I left there in great terms, moved on to what was going to be a really big director of catering position. And the plan was to stay there for a couple of years.
00:11:27
Speaker
take advantage of the pay increase and then go out on my own as a publicist. But as you and I know, plans have a way of changing and it was the middle of the recession. And I worked for someone who I'm just going to politely say was not the right fit, asking over a glass of wine someday. I'll give you the full story. But for our audience today, it just wasn't a fit. I did it.
00:11:49
Speaker
Yeah, I left in the middle of the recession and decided to start out with the support of my fiancé now, longtime husband. Yeah, well now, I mean, he's been my husband for a long time, but at the time, fiancé. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it gave me the support to go ahead and start OFD. And so I was very fortunate. There were very few of us in the industry doing it and went off from there.
00:12:13
Speaker
Wow, we have really parallel stories. Because, well, first, when you said recession, I was thinking pandemic, I was like, Wait a second, that was just a year ago. But yeah, recession was 2009. And I was working for advertising firm, and they were not nice too. So I got out and
00:12:31
Speaker
fell into wedding photography. So me and you are like homies like that. Yeah, it's fun to kind of see the parallels so we can look at each other's lives and say, Oh, well, that's how that turned out. And maybe it'll be heading in that right direction for me as well. Yeah, that's so cool. So
00:12:46
Speaker
One question I like to ask is, what has been the biggest struggle in developing your PR agency?
Balancing Business and Parenting Challenges
00:12:54
Speaker
And how did you overcome it? Oh, gosh, I've got it. I'm just gonna say it. I'm gonna say being a parent man, that was a challenge and balancing the two. And I think about I almost forget about it, because I'm so fortunate that the being a parent and working from home and all these things have worked out.
00:13:12
Speaker
But if I look back at the hardest challenges, I mean, truly academically from a work standpoint, it was having a young one go to daycare and get sick all the time. And suddenly, and I'm appointment based in this other place. And then it's the pandemic shutting down school for 18 months. And suddenly, Travis, that's my husband, and I work from home. And suddenly, I'm sitting next to my kid five days a week. He has what's called an IEP. It's an individual education plan. He has ADHD.
00:13:42
Speaker
So suddenly, I'm working in like eight minute increments around the clock forever and ever, you know what I mean? And so I would say that sort of balance, I've almost forgotten. It's been at the time of this recording, it's been a short amount of time, you know, since the school started again. But I've almost blocked it out because it was such a challenge. So I would say that that was just a very humbling experience.
00:14:06
Speaker
So you definitely understand when my kid was coming down right now, right? Trying to get my attention. Yes, absolutely. You're going to find I am very flexible with kiddos and animals. So as a result, I think we, I mean, you, you tell me your thoughts. Now I'm interviewing you, but wouldn't you say during the pandemic, we had to all give each other a lot more grace about the situation we were in, you know?
00:14:30
Speaker
Yes, totally. It's so hard. It's so hard, but we are like superwoman and we do do it all weekend That's that's where caffeine comes in right? Yes. Yes. I'm drinking some right now Yeah, so I wanted to tell the listeners a little bit more about your OFD consulting and
00:14:50
Speaker
PR firm before we get into our hot topic just because I'm familiar with it because I've been familiarizing myself with you for about three weeks now, but just tell the listeners because you are freaking amazing and you represent like the best people in the industry. So I know you have two companies, but you could kind of walk us through. Yeah, absolutely. So things evolve like everything, anyone with a small business. And so what we do as like the umbrellas is of course, wedding PR publicity. And so we do it a couple different ways. One is,
00:15:20
Speaker
through Wedding Industry Speakers, which you reference. That is a collection, a real great cohesive group of wedding thought leaders, people who service the industry in one way or another. They could be tech experts. They could be consultants. They could be still B2B and B2C, just authors, things like that. And so we work on getting them placed online, podcasts speaking. You can find them over at weddingindustriespeakers.com, which you reference. That was something we
00:15:46
Speaker
launched as kind of an ancillary site in 2019. We also, I would say the other half of our work is through what's called the OFDI Collective. Long story short, those are for the people who want to get published in that B2C realm. So let's say you've got someone, I want to be published in Martha Stewart weddings. I want to be quoted in brides.com. That's where people go to hang their hat there. So we do real wedding submissions. We have a fabulous full-time person.
00:16:08
Speaker
Who does it? We have full-time staff for that. And then we also offer peer leads. So if I have national writers who come to me and say, hey Megan, I need help on this wedding photography article for National Outlet, well then we will go ahead and coordinate those efforts and send it out to our members. So yeah, a couple different ways we work.
00:16:27
Speaker
Yeah, so that's kind of your secret sauce for that company because it's different from like just getting published yourself or submitting in two bright lights like you guys have the connections, right? Yeah, correct. And in a lot of times, I'll give you a quick example. We worked with a writer recently who needed eight
00:16:43
Speaker
to eight plus sources for this national one on like food trends. And I'm pretty sure I'm 99% sure we were the main source for that with our relationship and that kind of trust. And so we take that with a great responsibility that we have to reach into our collective here and find the right people. And so we're very fortunate. I mean, I value as much as I value my client relationships, I equally value the media relationships as well.
00:17:09
Speaker
Oh, I love that. And that's what years of years of years of connections, connections and relationship. And I think really just if I may say just having a real discipline to meeting deadlines and giving them what they need. I mean, just like with events, right? I mean, yeah, we'll get referrals because of their good work. Yes. Okay. This is kind of a dumb question. But I'm just asking because I think I've always been my PR person like my own, but I never really know knew what it was until I watched scandal.
00:17:36
Speaker
you know, Kerry Washington was it's handled. There's a problem like she had to just make, you know, the president look good. And that was kind of her job. And that's kind of what I correlate it to. But what exactly is PR? No, okay, first of all, not a dumb question at all. That's something that people ask all the time. It's when you have a message that you're trying to get out and it could be I am the leading SoCal wedding photographer, whatever that is.
Understanding PR's Role in Business
00:18:03
Speaker
You're gonna get out to an intended audience. That's typically gonna be engaged couples. That's going to be people in a position to refer business to, venues, planners. And PR is when you utilize the media, is that channel to connect the message into the audience. So I think people confuse that with advertising. And in the sense of PR is when you're being quoted, real wedding features. There's no money being exchanged between you and the media. Advertising, also the same sort of like using that channel,
00:18:32
Speaker
you are paying for a specific time, a specific message at the end of the day. With this, there's no exchange. Somebody once said, I really need to find the credit for this. Advertising is when I say I'm great. PR is when somebody else says I'm great. And I've always loved that saying, I need to find the person. We'll put that in the show notes. I need to find the right person to credit that. That's not a Megane Lee original. Totally. But it's all about social proof, just like you said. Absolutely.
00:18:59
Speaker
That's cool. Okay, so this is kind of alluding us into our hot topic. And you kind of discussed our hot topic before we started recording, but it goes great with your company and my podcast. So what is our hot topic today? Today, we're going to talk a lot about our little bit, at least about how PR gets you to that. Heck, yes, how it helps play that supporting role.
00:19:21
Speaker
Yes, this is perfect for my podcast because I really have to, I just kind of started this podcast, but I've been talking about a whole different, a lot of things, but I got, I really honed in on like that title of the podcast, my niche, how to get the heck yes. That's what attracted me to the podcast. I thought, well, people don't always think that peer plays that supporting role of sales. And I was so glad to talk with you. Ooh. Okay. So take us away with tip number one.
00:19:46
Speaker
Hey guys, you all know me. I'm Carissa Wu and I'm a coach for wedding photographers. I've also been a wedding photographer for over a decade so I've been through it all. I was a shy, awkward girl and I've come so far. I'm now beyond passionate about helping wedding photographers not struggle how I did for so many years.
00:20:06
Speaker
It was six years into my business, and I was so tired of being ghosted, nickel-undimed, and hearing the dreaded words, we went a different direction. I also knew I needed to find a way to not rely on referrals or paying $350 a month for the knot to get my leads. I didn't want to have anxiety about when my next payday was going to come, and I wanted to scale my business. Fast forward to now, I created my very own stack system to help wedding photographers get constant leads
00:20:34
Speaker
and master the dreaded sales call and get a heck yes in 24 hours or less and charge more than $4K or $5K or $6K. No more waiting around guys, this is our livelihood, our artistry and our passion and we deserve to be respected, valued and paid for what we are worth. I've helped so many wedding photographers.
00:20:53
Speaker
Watch my 20 minute masterclass all about lead generation and closing the sale. The link is in the bio. You don't want to miss out on the wedding boom and you don't want to miss out on booking your calendar for 2022. It's engagement season guys, so you don't want to miss this.
00:21:09
Speaker
See you guys soon.
00:21:27
Speaker
How do I connect to them and what's going to impress them? Like we all go after it. A lot of people want to do the morning TV shows locally, but then I'm like, yeah, but do you have an engaged couple at 9am in the morning as a Gen Z or watching the morning shows? No, like ask your clients, wait, what media they're consuming. Don't assume because you yourself typically are not an engaged couple to do that.
00:21:49
Speaker
You also want to figure out what's going to impress them because listen, they you might get quoted in rights.com Martha Stewart bridal guide the not right doesn't mean someone's going to click on your name and Then they're going to immediately hire you but if you can lick if you know that's going to impress them right then you go ahead and put that on your site as CNN show them your press and Figure out who's that audience? How are they going to find you in the media and also what's going to impress them overall? So that's tip number one
00:22:19
Speaker
Okay, so I'm just gonna stop you there for a sec because I use these interviews as like coaching for myself So how would you know my target market is photographers I'm a coach for wedding photographers, you know, how would I impress them? Um for you personally, you'd want to go on other photography podcasts look at photography media such as like rangefinder right rangefinder Yes articles is there something that makes sense over there?
00:22:50
Speaker
speaking conferences, things like that. Like that's going to be kind of where they consume is going to be. And you have to ask yourself as a photographer, when you were, you know, a photographer, where are you consuming the media? And is that still kind of relevant? You know? Yeah, it's hard to like look back like 10 years ago. Isn't that so funny? Sure. No, it's true. And also associations too, I would say are there groups that makes that even if they're formal, informal, so and so forth.
00:23:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's very good tips for me because for me like as photographers I feel like you could you know have the knots you could have wedding wire you can have all the publications. Martha Stewart photographers. So for photographers, if you're trying to get in front of engaged
00:23:34
Speaker
Couples, it's going to be what is the local, regional, and state. So California wedding day is awesome. That makes perfect sense for where you're located. But then also brides.com, The Knot, Wedding Wire, Bridal Guide, Martha Stewart Weddings. If you can get in with a Vogue or Harper's Bazaar and that makes sense for your audience, putting that time in. There's also a lot of lifestyle places too, like Refinery29.
00:23:57
Speaker
or apartment therapy that have wedding and events sections. Oh, I didn't know that. Uh-huh. Yeah, we work with one of the apartment therapy writers a lot. And so Southern Living, I was just emailing back and forth with someone who writes for House Beautiful, which maybe not for photographers, but for planners, other creatives who, you know, want to be a part of that lifestyle scene.
00:24:19
Speaker
Okay, cool. Yeah, I had no idea. I love refinery. But I didn't know I could, you know, help my students use that. That's so cool. Absolutely. Okay, so what would be tip number two, public relations to help get that heck? Yes.
00:24:35
Speaker
So number two is going to surprise people is it's, then you have to do a heck of a lot of listening. It's not that different from, I mean, I'm not a sales guru, but I will say a lot of people say, of course sales, a lot of it is about listening. Well, PR is a lot about listening. So once you've kind of dug in and thought about your audience and where you want to put yourself, then it's a matter of really narrowing down the writers in a position to cover you and be a part of those kind of goals of working together.
00:25:03
Speaker
and start just reading all of what they're covering. And I think one of the biggest mistakes to see people make as they get towards that great press portfolio is they just want to blast themselves out everywhere. But I'm like, you know what? I would rather you find two great writers, two great wedding event industry writers who write for certain lifestyle publications.
00:25:26
Speaker
who you follow their work and you take time to actually read what they write. And then think to yourself, what are they covering? What's their beat? Which is their area of expertise. And how can I lend myself to that conversation and then thoughtfully pitch yourself to them? So I would much rather have someone in a six month period. Okay. I'd rather them write six, well researched writers. They've taken the time to get to know versus blast out 40 or 50 writers. I almost, I can almost guarantee you'll have better success, quality over quantity.
00:25:56
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't really even know there was writers specifically for the wedding industry. Absolutely. It's called their beats. Every writer, every journalist has certain areas, health and wellness, pets, interior design, but a lot of people, one of their beats, usually someone will have multiple ones. It will be weddings. Oh, okay. I love that. With the OFD membership, is that something that you guys coach? I know you talked a lot about your office hours.
00:26:23
Speaker
Yes, office hours are a huge part of that because people will come to us because they want to do real wedding submissions. They want us to do the heavy lifting and connect them to publicity opportunities. But there are people come to us all the time and say, hey, listen, I need some coaching on pitching to this conference. I need pitching on this podcast or even just like I want to do some local pitching. How do I do that? And so people can sign up. We do two to three hours a week.
00:26:48
Speaker
And people sign up for these 15 minute increments and we get together and we help them with their goals. Yeah, I'm super excited. I'm going to join. Yay. He literally said yes on your Heck Yes podcast. I feel like a huge win. Oh my God. That is so funny because you answered all my questions before I even asked.
00:27:15
Speaker
full circle okay so take us away with tip number three you have to flaunt it like you do all this work you submit real weddings you get quoted in things you you take the time to do this and people are afraid to brag and listen i get it like i get it we're here working behind the scenes doing these beautiful events i get that but
00:27:37
Speaker
you will not get the value of the social proof, the discerning couples coming to your site if you don't take the time to strategically put it out there. And so that, that means a few things. If you have a press page, make sure, and typically once you have three or more press page, once you have three or more press pickups that you're particularly proud of that are more current in the last year, set up a press page, let them see it.
00:28:00
Speaker
For the bigger named big ticket items as seen in consider putting that on the home page if it works with the aesthetic and the branding of the site, right? Update your bio your Instagram bio as seen in da da da da da that's what you want to do You know when I said I'll be on I mean totally candid when I saw an uptick in some publicist a few years ago. I
00:28:22
Speaker
I went back and did an audit of my social proof so that people understood that because I can't compete on experience, but can I compete on price? I don't even know. But I made sure that it was very clear the capabilities of my team and I.
00:28:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I've been doing research about you like all morning and all last night and you're pretty easy to understand. I hope so. I mean, we do not like I mean, I got to tell you, our press page is it's updated every quarter. Oh, wow. We have a link that's live that takes you to exactly what was picked up this week so that
00:29:01
Speaker
You know, I think if anyone out there is looking for a publicist, you have to make sure that your goals are in alignment with their relationship. So why hide it, you know? Yes. I mean, I'm really good at bragging about myself. Well, then perfect. You'll love it. But here's the thing is, if the goal is to get a heck yes from your clients, it's about making sure you've created as part of your brand, this sort of authority and social proof. And you can't assume they're just going to see it on a blog post strategically have a little bit of permanence to it.
00:29:30
Speaker
and highlight in your bios, your social media, you know, it makes sure that you really leverage that. So absolutely. I love it. Okay, so I'm going to recap.
Enhancing Credibility Through Press Coverage
00:29:40
Speaker
So number one PR tips to getting that heck yes is figure out your audience. That's like
00:29:47
Speaker
the best tip you could ever give. If you're talking to everyone, you're talking to no one, we all know that. And then number two, you have to be an active listener. So, you know, actually reach out to the writers and like read what they're writing and see like what their beat is, what their vibe is. And when you're pitching and you guys OFD could help, but pitching a way where it's helpful for them and it really aligns well with their writing and their publication.
00:30:16
Speaker
And number three, you gotta flaunt it. Press only lives as long as you let it. So people have to remember that.
00:30:27
Speaker
Yes. Okay. So any tips about PR before we go into our rapid fire questions or anything you want to add? I would say knowing your audience, if I may have one quick tip for people, I get that a lot of folks are in the middle of what's called and like their wedding boom right now, an event that like things are very crazy. And I would tell people, listen, real wedding statistically still send about 30% a couple say they, they find you through real wedding features. So I would tell people prioritize the low hanging fruit. If you're creative out there,
00:30:55
Speaker
Planner photographer venue florist designer prioritize that over almost anything else right now Okay, cool. And I'm not gonna go into rapid fire questions yet But before I forget what is because it relates to this but what is the freebie that you're giving us today? Yeah, absolutely. So I would say what we've got and I'm particularly proud of this guide It's the five things to do
00:31:19
Speaker
and the next hour to get press and some of it's like quick and easy stuff you know it's like signing up for open gallery and showing them what Haro is and all those things and I am not kidding like this took forever to develop
00:31:34
Speaker
Wait, what did you say? Like before you went, you said like open table or open gallery. And what it is is you can go ahead and submit images. So let's say you're someone who's like, listen, I get real weddings. I don't have time for this. And I can't convince you, right? I can't convince you about streamline. Can you convince you to join the collective? That's fine. Open gallery, you can. And it's very photography friendly. So planner could do it and get your permission. They add all these photos out there. You tag them accordingly. Much easier process. And then editors will review and fold them.
00:32:04
Speaker
And if you don't have time to do the full couple hours to do a real wedding submission, you can do it that way. And it's still some low hanging fruit for people.
00:32:13
Speaker
Wow, Megan, you're like blowing my mind right now. I'm happy to help. I told you I didn't know what PR was. Well, here we go. Hopefully this is out. 12 years of a wedding photography experience and don't know what PR is. OK, so we're going to go into the fun part, the rapid fire questions. So these are just kind of rapid fire and fun. But Megan, what is your favorite thing to talk about in speaking?
00:32:39
Speaker
Oh, I was gonna say, favorite thing to talk about is cats. But favorite thing to talk about in speaking, like they do said in speaking, I was like, oh, she means professionally. I would say, I'm giving people quick wins on how to start getting published. That's one of my favorite topics. Okay, yeah, quick wins. Okay, next question is,
00:32:59
Speaker
I mean, you could talk about the cat thing. Tell me about your hobbies. What do you like to do when you're not working? Oh my gosh. I didn't even think I had hobbies until recently. And my husband's like, you have hobbies? And I actually love, okay, this is so dorky. Well, yes, I love my cats, but I have a deep appreciation for
00:33:18
Speaker
Roy the royal family Great Britain all the way and all in what have you and used to be a fascination with like the 80s and real thing But it's really grown and I've done a lot of reading all the way through Queen Victoria on and so I've always thought that was very Interesting all of that was in one day. I'll get myself to actually get to London to do that. I enjoyed reading and
00:33:37
Speaker
I actually love cooking. I'm a big banker. Like I just can't, like I, we just went apple picking over the weekend. I made six things in one day, just crazy apple. My whole family's sick of apples now, but I, I find that cooking and baking relaxes me. So it ends of course spending time with my family. We, we like water sport, like we will canoeing and white water rafting, things like that.
00:33:59
Speaker
Oh, I love it. Yeah, you have an eight-year-old son, you said, right? Yes, so we keep him busy. So he's also my hobby. Yeah, our kids have to be our hobby. Yeah, you get that, girl. Okay, this is kind of a funny question, but do you have any embarrassing moments for speaking in the basement? Like today or ever, because I'm like all the time, all the time.
00:34:19
Speaker
Oh my God, embarrassing, like so specifically to speaking. Oh my gosh. I mean, there have been snafus along the way that are, I don't, I don't get easily embarrassed because I just, it's your one life and things are going to happen along the way. You know, actually I will say this. I've never talked about this before, but I would say one of the times I was probably truly embarrassed. It was my first speaking engagement.
00:34:46
Speaker
And I went on stage and if you can imagine, we're talking 2003. So Gen Y millennials, that was barely talked about. So I went on stage and talked about this next generation and I'm obviously very young and all this. And we took questions after and this old curmudgeon stands up, this guy stands, I don't even know who it was. And he just crapped all over the presentation and that was kind of embarrassing. Like it was more embarrassing for him because he looks
00:35:11
Speaker
Stupid but but you know cuz he was rude not because he didn't have a point but he went on and on About well, then none of this is gonna cut and I didn't really know how to handle that because one It was my first week engagement ever to I graduated college like four months before I do anything and now I've got this
00:35:31
Speaker
You know, but in it, and I've learned over the years as a result of how to manage a crowd better now. And I actually don't do a lot of Q and A's. If someone wants to give me some 60 minutes, I'm going to, I'll talk the whole time. Like I don't, yeah. Yeah. We can talk questions, but I've learned how to manage audiences better since.
00:35:48
Speaker
So did he just kind of raise his hand and he just started talking shit? Yeah, he did. I like never talked about this before, but totally he didn't. Well, no, no, yeah, he's totally talking shit about me. And I'm like standing right there. And of course, like everybody, because it's such a family came to my rescue, but that was embarrassing. But I think it teaches you as a speaker, how to manage the audience and like when a Q&A makes sense and when it doesn't and how you shut it down and things like that. It was just a weird
00:36:14
Speaker
weird thing. Like if you don't if you have trolls, that means you made it. Yeah, I guess I don't know my first time on stage but like everyone's entitled to have an opinion into dissent. Like I would never say someone couldn't but I think it was such an allowed in rude way that it kind of grew off the vibe of the talk.
00:36:33
Speaker
I hate that guy. Okay, so I want to give you a little breather and then ask you the last question. But can you ask me a question? Ask you a question. If you could speak anywhere, where would you want to speak? Like what's your what would be like, Oh my gosh, I would love to be asked.
00:36:53
Speaker
Well, you told me on our last call about the Evolve workshops in Palm Springs. So I actually attended that last year and I loved it. So I would love to be a speaker there.
00:37:05
Speaker
Oh, I love that. Yeah, it's always nice to have kind of those ones that you've got your eye on, you know, it's very satisfying when you get to land on that, you know? Yeah, it was this one girl, I forgot her name. But I think she was from like, Midwest. And she was so nervous. And everyone felt so bad for her. But she was like, sweating and like stumbling. But even though she was so scared and like, fumbling, like I really she really inspired me. It's interesting.
00:37:32
Speaker
Absolutely. There's content versus delivery and you hope people nail both, but they don't always. And if you can get something from someone, even if they're nervous, like I still consider that a success. Yeah, like just seeing her like get herself out there and knowing that you have to start from like, you know, from the beginning and be nervous and the next time she's gonna kill it. So that was very inspiring to me. And then so how do I get to speak at evolve?
00:38:01
Speaker
I think the bigger question is like, how do I get to speak at X, which is it could be involved, it could be engaged, it could be wedding in BA, whatever. The first thing I tell people, it's great to attend to get a feel for it and to support it. And it goes in attendee and see,
00:38:14
Speaker
What's working? What doesn't? Who are the type of people they have hired? And then from there, it's very similar to the other PR strategy. It's a lot of listening and paying attention. So from there, this is going to be the least sexy part of it, but it's getting organized for the next call for speakers. So asking when it comes out, signing up for their emails. And here's the secret. This is the secret sauce and it's the most boring secret sauce known to me.
00:38:39
Speaker
Paying attention and when that call for speaker comes out using all of that time appropriately Go back and say what was the schedule last year historically? Who do they bring in? What can I offer that is? complementary to them but different enough Yeah, it's like me. I can't pitch myself on real wedding submissions
00:39:02
Speaker
to a conference that generally has like the editors of the knot in wedding, where they're there, who are people I know well, and I can't, they're going to get it every time. I mean, I know that. So what can I lend to the conversation is a little bit different. So you got to do that for evolve. It's like, who are the speakers? Do they do the same speakers every year? Do they tend to mix it up? And what are the topics that could be a little bit different? And then don't be afraid. And by you, I mean, you and really anybody don't be afraid to bring in resources to help like leverage
00:39:32
Speaker
your strengths, but also fill in for the weaknesses. So I have a lot of people who aren't great writers. That's why you're not a great writer. Hire a writer to write your topics, not just like the paragraph and takeaways, and really just pay attention and put your best foot forward. Winning that award, which awards and speaking are very similar, it was 4,000 words I had. That took forever to put together in the highlight and do.
00:39:56
Speaker
and all that. So you've got to put that same time into it. Okay, that's really good advice, really good advice. And I'm working with GT, you know, our friend friend CC for my
00:40:07
Speaker
my little Ted's book, whatever you call it. Okay, so I usually ask this question, like the three month, you know, coaching magic wand, if you have a magic wand, like where would you see your month, your business in three months, but you're so evolved already. And like, you're the visionary in our industry. So I want to just ask you, like, where do you see yourself in, like three to five years? Like, Oh, that's a good word. Yeah.
00:40:31
Speaker
So, you know, I feel like I'm very humbled to life during and as we hopefully head out of the pandemic, right? I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm sure you feel that way, your listeners. And so it gave me a better idea of where I want to go because as an owner, you can be the visionary, you can be the manager, you can be the leader, you can be the worker.
00:40:49
Speaker
and I have a better handle on like what I enjoy doing most about the job and now you know be heading towards 13 years of doing this is just wild to me you get to be a little more selective about it as long as you're smart about what works and so in three to five years I really want what I don't want okay this is crazy I'm not looking for wedding industry speakers to like triple the number of people I'm really not I'm looking
00:41:09
Speaker
on honing in on that set number of what I've got. And people come and go, that happens. But continue to have this workable group of really great speakers that I can travel around with and say, this is our brand, partner, continue to see these great partnerships with these awesome conferences along the way.
00:41:28
Speaker
And then I would love on the OFD collective side, I really want to get to a point with the collective where it's continued to scale because we've got room to grow. And I want journalists to look like, yes, I want to see it as a
Vision for the Future of PR Business
00:41:41
Speaker
great solution. But I want the journalists to look at this and say, this is where I go to get what I need.
00:41:45
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm also grateful because you mentioned, so with WIPA at that point, I'll be almost coming off of immediate past president at that point. So then my side goal is to be able to take all these endless association meetings. I would like to be able to take them on my Peloton so I can do two things at once.
00:42:04
Speaker
That is a goal of mine and three. I want to be less needed so that I can be the listener and say I built a strong base here and now these guys are it's time to pass the baton. So that that's also a goal of mine in three years. That's that's that's a dream, right? Really the dream.
00:42:24
Speaker
Oh, you could do it. That's so awesome. So today I've really enjoyed this conversation. Tell us where the listeners can find you and how to get on the OFD Collective membership. Absolutely. Just find me over at OFDConsulting.com. You can find me at Instagram, OFDConsulting.
00:42:42
Speaker
And it'll lead you everywhere else. I mean, OFD Collective is where the wedding PR membership is, and I love to talk to people about that. And then they can also find me for anybody on the speaker and wedding industry speakers is where we hang our hat to. Cool, cool. And then lasting words from you for any wedding pros just struggling out there, like just trying to get the foot in the door or just start making money. Absolutely. You're so wise, so take it away.
00:43:08
Speaker
I would say you have to start small and celebrate the small wins because, you know, I sit here. I'm actually, which you can't see right now, but I'm sitting, you know, I've got this feature that was this local magazine, Richmond bride. And in December they did this multiple page. Just, it was, it was amazing just about me and like the vision for the wedding industry in the future. It was such an honor.
00:43:29
Speaker
for a magazine I've been reading for 20 years. That did not start out at the gate. This is me doing this 13 years. It started with an email to one writer to pitch myself as a brand new small business owner. And it took 12 years to get to that point. And I'm not saying wait 12 years for things to come back around, but I think we have to celebrate the small wins along the way and know that those are stepping stones to whatever the next things are for you.
00:43:54
Speaker
Yes, I love that celebrate the small wins. And I'm going to celebrate just talking to you today. So I have some wine ready for me at five o'clock. Well, it's fine here. So I guess I can I can go to go me. No, I enjoy this as well. You're always so thoughtful. Oh, thank you, Megan. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. You're so welcome.
00:44:18
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.