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Episode 229 - Increasing Bookings in a Shifting Industry
566 Plays4 months ago
Today's guest is my neighbor and friend, farmer and wedding venue owner, Buddy Powers.
Buddy and his wife Jill own a regenerative farm and wedding venue here in Lexington, Virginia. You may remember Buddy from episode 16 where he shared his experience starting the wedding venue and offered tips on how others can do the same.
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check ’em out at https://daveyandkrista.com/increasing-bookings-shifting-industry-btb-229. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts.
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Transcript
Introduction to The Brands That Book Show
00:00:00
Speaker
So we got really clear on what makes Big Spring unique for folks that are booking an event with us. You're listening to The Brands That Book Show, a podcast for creative entrepreneurs who want practical tips and strategies to build engaging brands and craft high converting websites. We're your hosts, Davey and Krista, co-founders of a brand and website design agency specializing in visual brand design and show it websites. You're listening to The Brands That Book Show.
Guest Introduction: Buddy Powers
00:00:31
Speaker
Today's guest is my neighbor and friend, farmer and wedding venue owner Buddy Powers. Buddy and his wife Jill own a regenerative farm and wedding venue here in Lexington, Virginia. And you may remember Buddy from way back in episode 16, where he shared his experience starting the wedding venue and offered tips on how others can do the same.
Turning a Wedding Venue Business Around
00:00:49
Speaker
Buddy is back on the podcast sharing about how he was able to turn business around for the wedding venue after a tough booking season. Buddy and Jill have been able to drive more venue visits this year and increase the number of bookings through implementing a few changes. And the best part of these changes is that they are all practical and could work for any business, especially those in the wedding industry. And after listening to this episode, be sure to check out Buddy's podcast, The Baker and the Farmer, that he co-hosts with another past guest of the Rancid Book podcast, Baker Daniel Scheer. And if you're ever in Lexington, Virginia, be sure to inquire about the lodging that Buddy is building on the farm here. It would make for a great getaway here in the mountains of Virginia.
00:01:30
Speaker
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check them out at davianchrista.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts. Now, onto the episode. Well, buddy, welcome back to the podcast. I'm really excited about this conversation. We had a great conversation mid run a few weeks ago. And I was like, we need to get you back on the podcast to chat about this. So it's good to be back, man. And it's, I think kind of fun and ironic that we're doing it virtually.
00:02:03
Speaker
because it just made sense with our schedules, but we literally live like a half a mile from each other, but here we are
Big Spring Farm: Regenerative Farming & Weddings
00:02:09
Speaker
nonetheless. Krista was asking me like two minutes ago. She was like, so he's coming over, right? And I'm like, you know, that would make sense. That would make sense. I had the same conversation with Jill. She was like, you have the podcast in like five minutes. Shouldn't you be over there? I was like, I'm just doing a premiere. It's so much easier. It is. We're back to back calls today. So yeah, so that it works out. But for people listening to the podcast, maybe for the first time, or they didn't listen to the episode that you joined us for, maybe you could give us a brief introduction to you know what you do and the farm as well.
Post-2020 Wedding Industry Trends
00:02:42
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So my wife and I own Big Spring Farm, which is a working livestock farm where we follow all regenerative livestock practices, which if you can Google it, but basically just means we don't use chemicals, we don't use antibiotics, we mimic nature. To raise our animals so we grass feed our beef. We don't feed genetically modified feed aka no Roundup free feed to our chickens and pigs and things like that when we raise them So that's one facet of big spring. We're also a wedding venue and event venue so we host weddings here on the property and then we also have overnight accommodations and on farm that are Airbnb's essentially. An old farmhouse we restored, cottages that we're building. and yeah We used to be wedding photographers for 11 years and I also used to farm full-time for several years during that shooting time as well. and That has led to where we are today with farm, the wedding venue, the lodging. and Then we also have some great neighbors in Davy and Krista here at the farm. They're at one end and we're at the other essentially.
00:03:48
Speaker
yeah All that, I feel like our lives shouldn't be that long to have done all of those things.
Camaraderie Among Wedding Vendors Post-Pandemic
00:03:55
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Like as you listed things, I'm like, wow. Yeah. And that's how we met was in the wedding industry. Jill and Christa as wedding photographers, so both speaking at a conference. um And now we're running partners and live next door to each other. But you know even in the last few years, watching the venue evolve has been really cool. But I think you know just as interesting and encouraging, it's been watching sort of the, you know I guess, roller coaster over the last few years of running a business in the wedding industry and some of the pivots that you've made that have led to, I think, a really great year for you all.
00:04:27
Speaker
and some really exciting things coming up. And so that's what we're talking about today. Some of those changes in the wedding industry that you've noticed and some of the adjustments that you've made as a result. And I think for people listening, if you're in the wedding industry, I think there's going to be a lot of really great relevant practical. Tips being shared but even if you're not in the wedding industry, I think you know like I am I think Observing you all it's just been encouraging and gets the wheels turning on You know how you can make pivots and adjustments based on you know, what's going on in your industry So I'm excited to dive in to a lot of that with you. Well, thanks for saying all that That's encouraging to me and it's always good to have some wind in the sails. So, thank you
00:05:08
Speaker
Well, how about we start with maybe just some changes that you've seen in the wedding industry, maybe since 2020, you know, because I think obviously with the pandemic, a lot of a lot of change. Oh yeah, that thing. yeah But I think since then too, there's just been a lot of adjustments or a lot of changes in that environment. So maybe like since 2020, what have you noticed different about the wedding industry? Yeah, I would say from 2020 to today, the industry in general has changed a lot. I think mostly for the better in my estimation of things. There's definitely been pain and hardship amongst the better that has come. But I would say like generally speaking, I noticed that the couples that we work with are looking for a even less formal wedding experience.
00:06:00
Speaker
I think the reality became during 2020 that you sort of just figured out how to have your wedding amidst all the stuff that was going on. At least that's what a lot of people did. And I think that the generation that is getting married now is just even more interested in something that's more laid back. And I guess to use a often used word, just something that's like more unique versus something that is very much a quote venue that feels very structured and, you know, like a country club or ah a vineyard. I think people are looking for stuff even more now that's just a little more different and can cater to their interests for their wedding day. Yeah. Do you feel like this generational thing, like a Gen Z, you know, millennial, tail end millennial thing?
00:06:43
Speaker
I think so. you know I think it definitely started with millennials. I think even more so now with Gen Z. it's When I say laid back, it doesn't mean not really nice or not even like fancy, but like the garden party vibe is seems to be what Gen Z is looking for right now. It might be like black tie and super formal dress and a plated dinner or whatever, but it's going to be the most relaxed setting you could possibly have, which fortunately for us, caters very well to what we do here at the farm. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I would say too, like vendors wise, I think that's, you know, the couples who were getting married during the pandemic were trying to and then got married thereafter.
00:07:27
Speaker
There was their struggles that I think has driven change. And then I think there were all the vendors. you know We lost some massive vendors, even in our area. You may have heard of this company, Davey Festive Fair. They were a huge rental company. So they did like chairs, tables, linens, flatware. They had like offices in New York, in Charlottesville, in Charleston, and they closed down their Charlottesville location just as a sort of way to circle the wagons after COVID. and rebuild, at least from my understanding. So anyway, we lost some people, which was sad in the industry locally. But I think what that did was kind of galvanize the people that made it through. And there's a real great camaraderie I experience now more than ever amongst wedding vendors that we're like looking to help each other out however we can on an event day,
Challenges and Opportunities in Business
00:08:13
Speaker
which is great. Yeah, yeah. So what has business looked like really since 2020?
00:08:18
Speaker
So kind of a mixed bag. I mean, 2020 in some ways was an easy year because everything was shut down. It just sort of made sense. You know, there wasn't as much tension. 2021 for a lot of reasons was almost a harder year because you got into a grayer area where there were people that wanted to have their weddings again and restrictions being lifted. And then there were also still restrictions and still people that weren't sure about having their wedding even if restrictions were listed. So just as a venue in that space, I was having conversations with folks I never thought I would have about you know the laws of how many people can gather and
00:08:58
Speaker
you know, what the venue can allow and all this stuff that was really tough. But I will say people were still getting married in droves. 2022 was, might've heard the phrase like revenge travel. I feel like 2022 was like the revenge wedding here where people were like, if you had a wedding, everyone was coming. You invited 150 people, 155 were coming. Like, how did we have this? So that was pretty cool and it was definitely a huge year because you also had all these people that didn't get married in that 2020-2021 range that kicked it farther down the road that eventually got married in 2022. So that was a big year and it kind of just was like, okay, we made it.
00:09:38
Speaker
This is going to be awesome. And then for us in 2023, we started to see a downturn in inquiries in bookings across the board. And I think some of that was because of things outside of our control, like the fact that people weren't meeting back in 2020 to start that trajectory of a relationship that would lead to a wedding in 2023. That's just you know a global pandemic side effect that has nothing to do with something I can control. right There are lots of things like that i should say there are things also that. We can control that we started noticing and i guess we'll get into more of that kind of stuff but what that led to to just sum up the industry for us in twenty twenty three was some really hard months one month in particular where we look at is like now is like.
00:10:27
Speaker
a great defining moment in the business in that we had zero dollars in revenue for the first time in 10 years. But we still had all of our expenses, all of our team maintenance, all of the things you can think of. So recovering just from that one month was difficult. And the changes we made after that month make that month such a gift. It was so good to have. And I see it totally as an inflection point for the business. you know I want to stop and talk about that, and I want to jump into some of the adjustments that you've made as a result of you know these last few years and that month and last year in particular. But one question that's just come to mind is you've committed to some projects which require a little bit of capital, right? you know like I'm thinking about the cottages that you're building in particular, and I think yeah you're going to probably get into that a little bit more. But I guess what I want to ask is not so much about the cottages per se, but
00:11:24
Speaker
just about the decision to maybe double down on some of these projects would have been just as easy to, you know, circle the wagons and say, we got to cut things, you know, I guess what it looked like making decisions after that month. And, you know, really, I think there's two ways to go, right? There's the circle the wagons and maybe make decisions out of fear and then maybe look at, okay, what do we really need to do to maybe get to where we want to go? Yeah, that's a great question and a great point. I think like any entrepreneur, wedding industry or wherever, you're going to have this kind of season. If it's not a month of zero income, I hope it's not, but it's going to be something. The storms will come. So yeah, I mean, I think pain.
00:12:06
Speaker
that kind of struggle can be a precursor for growth if you let it and if you choose to respond in fear and circle the wagons and the sky's falling sell everything you know this is it then that's exactly the outcome you will get and yeah there's also another way that i'll start by saying jill and i definitely felt had days where we felt like wow is this it are we not gonna make it There's always that doubt. I think there, if you're an entrepreneur, I think there's a healthy level of that and there's an unhealthy level of that. Cause even in good seasons, it's kind of like a healthy fear of God. Like one, if they know God, they fear him or they have zero fear. They must not know him. So it's kind of like that in healthy seasons too. Like there should be a little bit of a healthy fear of things failing. But anyway, Jill and I stumbled on this mantra that we would say to each other when one or the other would get down during the season of
00:12:58
Speaker
the business slowing so tremendously and you know one of us would get going on our complaint and the mantra was just simply one word we'd say hey jill like i'd be on this whole thing and she'll be like hey babe good this is good this is an opportunity if we could choose to just freak out, or we can look at, okay, good. Now we know what not to do. Good. Now we know we can try this new thing. Good. You can just go down the line. And the I think we got that from this guy, Jaco Willink, who I know you know, Davey, that he tells that story about when he was in the SEALs. like His guys under him would come to him with a bunch of problems and be like, we know what you're going to say, but we got to tell you about these problems.
00:13:39
Speaker
And he's like, yeah, good. Because they're all opportunities if you'll let them be. So yeah, does that speak to, I guess, kind of what you're getting at? Oh, 100%. You know, and I think it really resonates with something I've been learning over the last few years as well, which is I think there's a gift in every situation. And, you know, that changes your mindset when you're thinking about that. And when all of a sudden you're forcing yourself to look at a situation and find the gifts in it. you know That can be really powerful. And I think to your earlier point, it's like, yeah, I mean, we could say the sky is falling and woe is me and whatnot. And you're basically setting yourself up for a guaranteed outcome. you know yeah But I think when you look at the gift, there's always growth that follows that at the very least. But you're setting yourself up for better outcomes. you know And those better outcomes or those hopeful outcomes might not come to pass, you know but you're setting yourself up for the potential of better outcomes. So I love that.
00:14:31
Speaker
You know, and I think also, I mean, that's great, you know, just kind of as a husband and wife working together. I think it's encouraging to hear you all encourage each other in that way. Oh, yeah, we needed each other for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know that I would have made it through without Jill, honestly speaking, that to me. And I know there were times when she would get in that spiral that You downward spiral and I was able to speak into her life and say, Hey, this is good. This is an opportunity. We're going to make it. We still have lots of options. Let's think through how we could do this differently. And yeah, here we are today. And, and it's, I don't want to act like we've arrived, but we are in a really fun, really, I feel like booming place where lots is happening. Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:13
Speaker
Well, I want to talk about some of these adjustments you make because this is really I think the part of our conversation on one of our runs, where I was like, this needs to be put in podcast form, this needs to be put out there.
Identifying Unique Business Offerings
00:15:23
Speaker
So I know you put together a list of some practical lessons and some adjustments that you've made. So I'll let you just start with, you know, wherever you want to. Okay. Yeah. The first thing that we did, it's really basic. So it's kind of like anything that's just deeply true. It's like kind of like, duh, but it was powerful to lean into something that was simply true as a starting point in this season. So we got really clear on what makes Big Spring unique for folks that are booking an event with us.
00:15:56
Speaker
Steve Jobs has this line that you have to know what you're selling. And it's interesting when you know the context of what he's talking about, because he's talking about selling you know an iPod or whatever back in the day. like It's pretty straightforward. You're selling an iPod. But for us, like you're selling an event venue. like How could you not know what you're selling? But you got to get really clear on What it is about the event venue that people are buying and it's not just a place to have events and so we realized for us a lot of it is our story and what makes the experience at Big Spring unique like the fact that it is really a working farm the fact that we Have an authentic old barn. That's at least 150 years old and
00:16:39
Speaker
The fact that you meet with me, the owner, the first time you come to see the property, unlike pretty much every other venue where you're just meeting with an employee that doesn't have the same skin in the game that I do. So yeah, we started to lean into all those things, really identify them and say, okay, now that we know what they are, how do we maximize those things to make what we're doing stand out in the marketplace. Yeah. So yeah, kind of basic, but I think really important, whether you're a photographer, whatever business you're in, like you're not just a photographer, you're not just taking pictures, think about what it is about you and the product you're creating that is truly unique to you and lead into it.
00:17:19
Speaker
I think it's one of those things that regardless of where you are in business as well, you know, like this is one of those things that you need to revisit every once in a while. The example that comes to mind is when Chris and I were wedding photographers and we're moving up in terms of how much we charged per wedding. and When you know we thought, oh yeah, we want to get in this luxury market and we want to charge you know thousands upon thousands of dollars for a wedding. But yeah in not getting clear, you know we got into this luxury market where people are very uptight, you know kind of snooty for lack of a better way to put it. right And we realized very very quickly, like that's not the luxury market that we wanted to be in. right We wanted people yeah who
00:17:59
Speaker
you know, cared enough to pay for something they really valued, but also cared more about the moments of the day, you know, those images with family members, you know, and loved ones, right? And, you know, it took some trial and error to get to that place, you know, but it also took intentional reflecting on those things as well. So I do think it's one of those things that's often overlooked as well. Like we just think, oh yeah, we kind of know yeah who we're selling to. Yeah, we know our avatar, we know what our product is, And it's like, well, keep asking yourself, do you? And I think your story is a perfect example of that. Yeah. It's like, take that intuition and actually write it down. And I'm always surprised, you know? That's why I love journaling, just in general, I guess. but
00:18:41
Speaker
Yeah, yes. So that leads to kind of my second thing, which is kind of how did we identify what made us unique, because you can kind of be in an echo chamber, even if you have a team, you know, of people, you kind of all are so entrenched in what you do and what you provide that sometimes it can be sort of tricky. So I found the best way to learn what made us unique again was to listen to our clients and to listen to our leads. and Obviously, listening means we're asking them questions. That was like one of the most valuable things. We have some stuff like automated questionnaires that go out after a site visit to the farm for a couple that's looking for a venue to kind of just get feedback from their visit.
00:19:23
Speaker
Same thing before and after weddings. So same thing after booking with us, there's questionnaires. And those are all really valuable, easy stuff people can set up on the back end of websites, and things like that. But I also think just in person, whenever I got a chance, every site visit to me is a chance to learn about the market. Every time you hop on a sales call, you know, it's a chance to learn what are people actually looking for. So I think that helped me identify, oh, you're looking for a place that has more options that's not so stiff feeling. Okay, that's great news because Big Spring is really great for that kind of feel.
00:19:58
Speaker
you know It helped me identify and pull that out as part of our story to tell. Yeah, that's awesome. Also just taking advantage of like that discovery call process. like Anybody can do that. you know If you're getting people on the phone or like you meeting with people in person, like thinking about the ways that you can maximize like market research without it sounding like market research. you know It's like, fill out this. you know Yeah, like the two-minute survey after you get off the phone with Verizon or AT&T, it's like, would you stay on for this two-minute survey? It's like, you don't want to feel like that. I never do those. But yeah, me neither,
Financial Strategy and Strategic Risks
00:20:28
Speaker
right? But it sounds like one of the things that you guys did really well was just thinking through how you can make the most of that interaction.
00:20:35
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. The next thing I wrote down, this is again, just sort of formulaic. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that this was not something I had as much of a pulse on as I needed to, but we've taken over the really the last year and more we've been getting. really clear on where every dollar is going and asking, is this worth it? And I've found like in business, it can be just like in your personal life where you can start adding plugins and subscriptions and before you know it, like you're using half of them. Any other half are costing you $1,000 a month and you're like, wait, when's the last time this added value to
00:21:12
Speaker
the day to day of my work or help this you know so what we need to sell so that was a really helpful thing to look at and honestly for me it took having a good account that would help with that as i'm not naturally gifted in. you know, going into our books and strategizing. So anyway, again, I think it goes back to like, it's sort of tempting when things start to slow down in business to just circle the wagons and think like, oh, everything's really bad. It was actually really helpful for me to get a closer pulse on the numbers and realize, wait, it's not as bad as I kind of thought it was. This feels worse than it is because of my expectations. But once I got clear on where every dollar is going, it opened up more possibilities.
00:21:54
Speaker
Yeah, and speaking of more possibilities, I mean, maybe also allowed you, you know, as you talked about your fourth point here, taking more strategic risks as well. Yeah, exactly. so My friend Daniel and I have this podcast called The Baker and the Farmer. i just The story perfectly illustrates this. and We interviewed the CFO for Estes Trucking because our podcast is all about brick and mortar businesses and Estes Trucking is the largest privately held motor carrier in North America, been owned by the same family for four generations and the same family still runs the actual company, which is pretty cool.
00:22:28
Speaker
yeah but yeah you have to know when to take strategic risks and once you know where every dollar is going you can be more wise with those decisions so estes trucking in nineteen eighty was a pretty big best business the story is so amazing in nineteen eighty they the. Federal government deregulated the trucking industry which basically meant all the sudden there could be competition amongst other you know freight carriers that never was there because it all used to be based on government contracts for certain regions and you just got paid a guaranteed amount. All of a sudden they took all that off the board and it was like,
00:23:04
Speaker
Yeah, the customer can just get whoever can provide the best deal. And Steve, the CFO of Estes, who we were interviewing, told us that of the top 50 companies in the US, the top 30% fell off, like like wow went bankrupt and were gone. So that's a huge opportunity, right? And which is kind of what I'm getting at. So they were able to, Estes at the time was handing the business from the founder to the next generation who happened to have just gotten a master's in accounting, who was the perfect man to know, where's every dollar going?
00:23:38
Speaker
how can we actually get the most competitive rates without going out of business? And they survived and now are a billion dollar company. Anyway, that story, it's cool because it's this we're talking about a huge billion dollar company with you know tens of thousands of employees, but it's still just as true for like my little business or anyone's small business today that you need to know where the dollars are going so that you can take strategic risk because when a market is suppressed that it can be scary, but that's also where opportunity lies.
Investing in Farm Lodging
00:24:11
Speaker
And if you know where to lean in, then you know you can see major upsides.
00:24:15
Speaker
so One way that we're doing that is we're adding more lodging to the property, which is something we wanted to do for years. And we've thought through basically every version we we feel is ah logistically possible for adding lodging at the property. And after 2023 realized, hey, there's no perfect way to do this. Let's pull the trigger on what we think is the best option right now and provide something that our clients have been asking for for for years, which is more lodging on property for an event.
00:24:49
Speaker
So we're building these cottages on the farm that are gonna be on the edge of a big field that will still actively farm. So it'll still have some cattle in it from time to time and fill fill that authentic vibe that we're going for. But they're gonna be these beautiful structures that'll blend in with the landscape and that'll have insane views, much like your house, Davey, actually. They have insane views from their front porches looking at the gorgeous mountains we get to live in. So yeah, I'm stoked about that. And for sure, it's a big capital expenditure and a big risk. but I feel very confident about it. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's one of those things where again, thinking about exactly what it is that you're selling, you know, in the market that you want to reach, then also getting that feedback from people. And this is something that people have been asking for. And you know, what's interesting, we don't have to go, you know, down this trail as much, but you have a couple Airbnb, you know, lodging type properties kind of in the area around, and those seem to do pretty well. And I and i imagine that's like also builds confidence because it's sort of like a good test that
00:25:49
Speaker
you know, the lodging that's going to be on property will also perform. Yeah, it's proved itself out. We've had our short term rentals that are existing that do really well. Yeah, and honestly, I think what kept us what held us back from building more lodging sooner was fear. And we had to have that month in 2023, where we were pushed close to a limit where it was like, wow, we're going to have to address our fear of failure here. And once we were able to process it, we could leave from that month and start making all these changes that.
Improving Client Communication
00:26:22
Speaker
have led to lots of great dynamic things. yeah Yeah. Well, one of the updates that you have to make and and one I think that is most interesting to me is how you communicate with clients. you know Because in the midst of, I think, addressing the sphere and making some of these larger investments, you did have to get bookings back on track. you know So I'd love to hear a little bit more about what like your sales process has looked like and some of the adjustments that you made there you know, to get to this place where, you know, maybe the cottage is still big investment, you know, but you're booking clients as well. Yeah, there's there's really two things I would say that have been big, significant changes. The one is sort of like the short, that's the most like
00:27:06
Speaker
communicating with you know Gen Z today, if I have a hack for that, then this is the closest I can get. But it's moving to texting with my leads over emailing with them. Most of our just lead system was based on emailing us through our website. ah We took a little bit of phone calls. A lot of people don't. it's usually after they've booked that we're on the phone with people so in terms of leads and converting them into customers we used to rely heavily on email and now we've moved over to texting so every time we get an inquiry i reach out over text and say hey i saw you scheduled a site visit at the farm this is buddy.
00:27:48
Speaker
Over a big spring i'm looking forward to meeting with you guys on june six if you have any questions between now and then please feel free to text me at this number and or sometimes i end it with a little bit more i have a couple different versions of some experimenting with one i end with. Do you have any questions I can help with before your visit? I like that one. And sometimes I think ending with the question usually wins as the best option. And I have a few different versions of that, but ending with that question encourages them to text back, hey buddy, thanks for texting. And I've gotten...
00:28:20
Speaker
I've gotten so much traction. We've had couples that book over text message before in advance of their site visit kind of thing. And if you had told me that that was going to be a great way to interact with couples a year ago, I would have been like, ah, nah, man. It can't be yeah be a good idea. Sure enough it's really great and frankly for me i actually really enjoy it text messages quick it's fun it's easy i've got all my links lined up that i'll send them i know there i've started researching different apps baby maybe you have some recommendations for dealing with.
00:28:54
Speaker
doing lots of business things over text, because you don't want to do things like forget to text somebody back, which is easy to do when I get lots of text period, personal and otherwise, and especially now that we're taking business texts over there. And then also having templates. I'm just using notes on my on my phone right now, you know, the notepad on my iPhone right now. So if you have an app, let me know. I've been researching a few options. Yeah, most of the apps that come to mind are like mass texting apps, you know, they're all geared towards that. Yeah, and they have you usually use a number that's not connected to your personal number. And there's, you know, obviously upside to doing some of those things. But I think one of the things that makes this so powerful is that, you know, I think there it is a change in maybe, maybe it's a Gen Z thing, maybe it's just I think a change kind of across the board where people are craving more connection.
00:29:43
Speaker
you know with whatever it is that they're doing. And to your earlier point, like booking a wedding wedding venue that has some sort of significance and isn't this cookie cutter you know machine that's churning out four weddings in a weekend and maybe multiple day. And so to a certain extent, not surprising, like you, I mean, maybe that's not something I would have guessed, but also on the other hand, not surprising that people are take to that way of communicating. And I think you see that across the board too, even with social media apps where like DMs are how people communicate. You know, one of the things that we've kind of coached our team on over the last year, especially, is like, I used to very much be like direct people to email, partly because of organization, you know, it's like to your point, maybe sometimes hard to remember to answer here and there.
00:30:28
Speaker
But now it's just a matter of where people are having a conversation and how many conversations can we start there. And to our team, it's like, if people are DMing us, that's great. DM them back, have a full on conversation there, share our pricing there, share our process there, because that's where people are. So I think this is such a practical piece of advice that people could implement today in their businesses. Such an easy win. And I'm sure there's apps out there. You don't have to spend tons of money on it. You can spend basically just pick up your phone. Yeah. And I love what you've done too, is you've templatized it, you know, just with the notes app on your phone. You know, I think the hardest part is just making sure that nothing falls through the cracks there, you know? And so I could see why an app could be helpful, but you know, it costs nothing to do what, I mean, just your phone bill that you already pay for yeah otherwise, you know? And I will say people are more forgiving about
00:31:17
Speaker
Like if you don't answer an email within 24 hours and our admin Emma is on maternity leave right now, so I've had a couple of these. I mean, people were gracious with me and it's, I'm kind of inundated right now, but it's, they're much less forgiving. Like 24 hours is basically the standard. And if you haven't responded in a day, it's like, was it a holiday? You know, was it a Sunday? But texts, people get it. Like sometimes you miss the texts. So when that's genuinely happened for me, cause I'm pretty. pretty tight with texts right now. But when I've just generally missed one and someone follow, it's interesting. They'll follow up with me. Hey, just in case you miss this text and I can be like, Hey, thanks so much for following up. I missed your response and just jump right in with them. People are really generous about it because it's, people get it is text message. So anyway, I think it's a really great way. That's relational. That's again, to the point of like where the kind of events people want to have, it's more relational, more laid back.
00:32:09
Speaker
and more authentic, you're actually texting with me, the owner. And that's something to your point, Davey, that I think like for your whole team to be interacting with a real person or a lead to be interacting with a real person on the other end that really cares over a DM or a text is is way more endearing and I think can help lead to a sale versus this cold email, you know, meeting with somebody that doesn't really care. Ultimately, you know, that it doesn't communicate those kind of things when you're personal and intentional over these like text message and other forms. I never thought I'd be converting leads over.
00:32:46
Speaker
Yeah, and the interesting thing, or what would be interesting is to find out how many people are are more likely to follow up with you via text, right? Like yeah versus email. Because email is one of those things where it's like, I mean, just I'm thinking about my every day dealing with businesses. You know, Kristen might be like, hey, have you followed with that person? And if if the conversation's happening on email, it's like, oh yeah, I have to remember to do that when I'm back at my computer or whatever, right? right I mean, I can email from my phone. I don't prefer usually. But text, it's like, Oh, have you followed up with so and so? And it's like, if it's a text message thing, it's like, oh, oh, I got my phone on me and I'll, I'll text that person right away. You know? Yeah. So that'd be interesting as well. See a breakdown there. Something else that you said that I think is worth noting is like experimenting with how you respond to people as well. You know, I think like asking the question and
00:33:34
Speaker
you know when you When you say something like, hey, if you have any questions, let me now you know. like There's no burden to respond to that, right? But if you're like, hey, do you have any questions for me? like I asked you a question. I assume that you're going to answer yes or no. And it might be no, but you've at least you know gotten somebody to respond and say, no, I don't have any at this you know at this time, right right? And I think just that engagement can
Importance of a Competitive Website
00:33:55
Speaker
be meaningful. and We have this whole blog post on following up with people and some tips and tricks for that. I'll be sure to link those in the show notes, but you had mentioned something else, practical. Yeah. The other big thing that we changed that was really thanks to you and Krista was we rebuilt our website, redesigned new logo, all the things, because
00:34:17
Speaker
Well, kind of to go back, when we first started the venue 10 years ago, one of the easiest ways we stood out was by having a great website. Like I said before, like something that's true and works, it's basic and it's true the whole time. So 10 years ago, what worked about launching our venue was most venues at that time had terrible websites and it was really easy to stand out. We just had like a simple Squarespace website with great pictures, yada, yada. Fast forward 10 years, everybody's got great websites now. and you know In our market, Big Spring as a venue is competing against like Pippin Hill Vineyards that Lynn Easton built, who's a world famous wedding planner, Dave Matthews Winery, you know the musician, Donald Trump's thousand acre vineyard. you know People that have
00:35:04
Speaker
big beautiful places and frankly way bigger budgets to spend on marketing and all this stuff. So for us, our website is essential. Well, once you get people there, we need to be able to tell our story in a compelling way because frankly, Big Spring and our property does easily compete with those places once you know what we can offer. And the website and changing it, rebranding, restructuring where the information was, was essential. We constantly get comments. I get comments faceto face to face, compliments I should say, face to face all the time. Oh my gosh, your website was so great. I'll do site visits with couples and I can tell they've already crawled through and know everything about the venue because they loved going through the website.
00:35:47
Speaker
so everything about our story it's it's really. Essential for us in a market that is frankly really competitive now that wasn't ten years ago. Chris is going to be thrilled to hear all of that for sure. Oh, dude, yeah. And it is such an important point, you know especially for venues. you know It's like you said, every venue had a terrible website 10 years ago. And so to have a good one, it really did stand out. And I imagine for a wedding venue in particular, it's not like booking a photographer where you see the primary you know you see their primary work through a screen, maybe, unless you're walking into a studio and holding prints or something like that.
00:36:25
Speaker
a venue, like you're going to have to make a decision like, do I want to drive out there and walk through it yeah or not? you know And I know you have a lot of local weddings as well, people who are graduating from who have graduated from W and L or one of the colleges around here, but there's probably also people who are you know live an hour, or two hours, you know longer than that away. And so they're putting their list of venues that they have to, that they want to go visit and they can't visit all of them. So having a website that really shows off, tells your story, shows off how beautiful it is around here. I can see that being really important. Yeah. Oh, it's huge. I think in terms of all the changes we made, if we had made all the changes and not changed the website, I don't know where we'd be. The key was making all the changes along with sort of like the foundation of having the solid website, because we can reference everything back to
00:37:17
Speaker
that beautiful, informative, and enticing site that when you get on it, it makes you want to come visit the farm. It makes you think like, whoa, this place is different. And it communicates all the stuff that we like informationally want to communicate in short form. So that like, one of my favorite things to hear is when we do that first in-person site visit of the property, people will say like, wow, I've gone to see other venues and I've been like disappointed from the website to the in person because it doesn't line up as well. And I think this is actually a compliment to the website for our website. When couples say it's even better in person, which means they loved it so much on the website that they wanted to come visit. And it's even better in person, which is like, that's awesome because our website is really good.
Encouragement Through Business Challenges
00:38:04
Speaker
So it it really helps set up the whole, the whole trajectory of
00:38:09
Speaker
telling our story, connecting with the couple, being affirmed by this beautiful sight, coming in person, and then it's really easy to then book from there. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's awesome to hear. You know, I want to respect your time, and I know we got to wrap up here. One of the questions that I wrote down that I think You know, especially with the wedding climate right now, I know there are a lot of people struggling with getting bookings and running their business. I think there's a lot of people who are trying to get started, you know, that are looking for advice on how to pick things up, maybe to go full time. But I know there's a lot of wedding professionals that they've been doing it successfully for years. And this year just feels different. It feels harder. You know, it feels more challenging or whatever. Do you have any encouragement that you would share for those listeners?
00:38:55
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. First of all, I feel for them. I mean, it's a hard, scary place when your business isn't doing what you want it to do and it's not meeting expectations. And I think it's, you know, we all want to have this like, this feeling of we're in control, we're crushing it in business, you know, everything's comfortable. And there's nothing wrong with that. That is a good thing to desire. But I have a friend who's a pastor and he says, my closest friends, pray for me that I would meet suffering because they know that it will refine my character. And that's a weird concept. Like if you really love somebody to ask for suffering for them, but I would say take a beat. I feel you. It can suck when businesses down, but know that this actually could be the greatest opportunity your business has ever had. And I think of, you know, this story is from another podcast we recorded with this turkey farmer, Paul Kelly. He's a turkey farmer in England.
00:39:54
Speaker
And in 1980, he's the second generation of this turkey farm in England. They had a pretty good business, but through the seventies, industrialization was coming on. Prices were getting lower and lower and lower that people were going to pay for turkeys. And by 1980, their farm business was bankrupt. And I asked him in this interview, did you guys ever think about selling the farm? you know Their property is only like a half hour from England. It's probably really valuable. They could have kind of cashed in and said, let's just go do something else.
Paul Kelly's Story: Overcoming Adversity
00:40:26
Speaker
And the cool thing I think about an entrepreneur is that
00:40:30
Speaker
They have to be willing to fight sometimes. And Paul Kelly said, no, we never thought about selling. What we actually did was we went around and bought this rare heritage breed of turkey that was like the last real quote, old school style English turkey in existence. They bought all the breed stock. They basically doubled down with the last bit of money they had. and restarted their whole business and now today they take up like 30% of the market share for christmas turkeys which is the big thing there because they don't have thanksgiving but anyway i love that story because it's so motivating to me to remember like it's not actually the worst thing if you're up against the ropes it could be the biggest opportunity that you've ever had
00:41:13
Speaker
To be more successful than you could ever have expected and i don't wanna say again that like a year later we've arrived with things a big spring but. We have seen a complete turnaround in bookings i mean this first quarter was the biggest first quarter we've had. we're cruising right now. it just It's been really, really awesome. And we have all these fun new projects on the horizon that I think are just going to continue to grow what we offer and improve the whole experience to increase booking. So yeah, I think for anybody that's in that position, hold fast, maybe review some of those five things I mentioned, see which ones resonate for you, start trying stuff, and look at it as an opportunity, not the end.
00:41:52
Speaker
Yeah. And we're going to link to that episode about the turkey farmer because I think that's just the most fascinating interview. I mean, and just the amount he charges for these turkeys as well. Yeah. yeah I mean, it's just hundreds of dollars and it talks about like knowing your audience and knowing what you're selling, you know? So I think there's a lot of lessons of millions in business.
Practical Changes for Business Growth
00:42:10
Speaker
Like yeah they're, it's insane. Yeah, I love that. But I also, again, I think one of the things that makes this interview so interesting is that like, this is not, oh, your struggles from 10 years ago, you know, you had that $0 month, and, you know, here we are 10 years later, and it's like this distant memory. It's like,
00:42:28
Speaker
No, I think in many ways that memory is very palpable, you know, like it is, oh yeah it's within the last year. And so I hope that's encouraging for people as well. And, you know, also it wasn't just like, Oh, we we didn't change anything. And it's just like the market picked back up. It's like, no, like we made some of these very practical changes. You know, one of them I think is very simple people can implement today, which is texting or working on how they message and communicate with potential clients.
Connecting with Buddy Powers
00:42:54
Speaker
So Yeah, totally. Thank you so much for your time. Where can people follow along? Well, the podcast is called The Baker and the Farmer. You can check out Big Spring at BigSpringVA a dot.com. Lovely website. Thanks to Davey and Krista. Yeah, I'd love to connect with you. bit If you have questions about farming, about wedding venue stuff, about buying land and having some of your best friends and family move in across the road,
00:43:20
Speaker
then shoot me an email. My email's buddy at bigspringda.com, or you can find it on the website. But yeah, Dave, I really appreciate sitting down with you. It's always a pleasure to chat. I can't wait to see what the next long run will produce in podcast content. I know. Last time we were running, I was like, ah, maybe we should just bring our lavalier mics on our runs. We need to be in much better shape before we do that. I know. I know. Go David Goggin style, but without being as fit. so Yeah, but running like 10 miles, maybe. Yeah. yeah Well, thanks, bud. I appreciate it. Yeah, man. It's been great sitting with you. I love you, dude. We'll talk soon.
00:43:57
Speaker
thanks for tuning in to the braa bookshel if you enjoyed this episode please consider subscribing leaving a review on apple podcasts and sharing this episode with others for show notes and other resources head on over to daveingrista dot