Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / Automation, tech and entrepreneurship with Cherie Yang

Transcript

Automation, tech and entrepreneurship with Cherie Yang · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

0:00
Cherie: I think as an entrepreneur particularly as an early stage
0:02
entrepreneur, you do need to be involved in, in these things.
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You know, there's only so much that you can outsource at the early stages
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because ultimately it's your vision and you need to see it come to life.
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And no one is a better guardian of the vision than, than yourself.
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Becca: I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business, marketing
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expert, speaker, and blogger.
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And you're listening to the wedding pros who are ready to grow podcast.
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I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
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examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
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If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
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and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you
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love, then you're in the right place.
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Let's get going with today's episode.
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Today, I'm chatting with Cherie Young, CEO and founder of Visualist,
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an online software designed to connect client design and admin work.
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I first met Sherry and her team at a drinks party in Vegas, when they
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were introduced to me as the only other people from London in the room.
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Since then, it's been great to get to know them and the platform
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as well, much, much better.
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And we even had the opportunity to co host a networking brunch earlier in the year.
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Now it's time for you all to get to know her too.
1:18
Cherie, welcome to the podcast.
1:20
Cherie: Thank you so much, Becca.
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It's so lovely to be here and thank you for the introduction.
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I remember fondly that first meeting in Las Vegas at the Museum of Southeast,
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so that was a really nice memory.
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Becca: Yeah, it was a great night, and we'd been in Vegas a few days,
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and we'd been at Wedding MBA a few days, and we hadn't met anyone
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else who'd come over from England.
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So when they said, there's some other people from England in the room, we were
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very excited and it was great to connect.
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Cherie: Indeed, indeed.
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Thank you for having me on this podcast.
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And I'm really excited to share more about myself, about Visualized and maybe talk
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a little bit about Vegas 2024 as well.
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Becca: Yeah, absolutely.
2:00
Okay.
2:00
So let's go right back then, because I like to find out people's foundation
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stories and how they got to where they are now, because we all know
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that things don't happen overnight.
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So take me back, take me through your career.
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What was the foundation that has kind of led you to this point now?
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Cherie: Wow.
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So take you back.
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Okay, let's see.
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So let me start with the now and then I'll retrace my steps so you can kind of
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see how I've come to where I am today.
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So I am currently the founder and CEO of Visualist, which is an all in
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one connected platforms for creative pros to work and then scale better.
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We want to help connect your client design and admin workflows and I came to this.
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Really out of my personal pain points.
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So I was planning my own wedding.
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I was also redesigning my own home.
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And in that process, I encountered many challenges when it came
3:01
to optimizing my workflow.
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And I thought that, okay, I was an amateur and maybe professionals were
3:08
doing it differently and they had.
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Some secret systems that they were using or tools that they were using that really
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made their work a lot more efficient, but I dug deeper and I realized there wasn't
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one thing that really could be that all in one platform to not just help me do
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things well, but do things in a connected way in the way that my brain would work
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combining that left and right brains.
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So I ended up.
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Going down that rabbit hole and thinking about creating systems that
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could work, creating tools that were really connected to the creative
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professional's mind and strength.
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And that's how I ended up founding Visualist now about four years ago.
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And I think when I mentioned left brain and right brain, that really
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Connects to what you would say.
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I foundational career because I actually started my career as
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a very left brain professional.
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I was a corporate lawyer.
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I worked in New York and London doing things that are completely
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different to what I'm doing now.
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So being a lawyer by training, I was all about organization.
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I was all about administrative work and efficiency.
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And I think Whilst I was doing that, I was also itching for a
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little bit of creativity in my life.
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So I was just doing design classes for fun when I was a
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lawyer, this was a long time ago.
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So I've always had that left brain side to me and that right
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brain side of creativity, design.
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So when I left law, I actually, Took a very short break and then went
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into something completely different.
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I started doing product and brand strategy primarily for fashion and consumer luxury
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brands like Hermes and Chanel, LVMH.
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And in that role, I was really thinking about brand strategy, brand
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positioning, and did a lot of work on user research, consumer research,
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understanding what makes people tick.
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So all of these things.
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My law career and that strategy create a strategy career combined to lead
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me to entrepreneurship and business.
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Because today what I'm doing is very much a blend of both worlds.
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And I like to think that the people that we're serving
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wedding pros, interior designers, customers, sellers, they are also.
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Trying to find a system that can balance both that very right brain, creative
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side of things, and also that left brain business management admin side of things.
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And that's why for visualized, it's so important that we are catering
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to the holistic workflow and not just one aspect, which might be.
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Designs and color palettes and mood boards or another aspect, which might
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be all about invoicing and proposals.
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We truly believe that to be efficient in your processes, you have to have that
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seamless connection between all sides of your brain and all sides of your business.
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Becca: I think it's really fascinating to talk about the whole right side
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of the brain, left side of the brain, because I think actually that a lot
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of wedding professionals would fall into that category because they've
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got the entrepreneurship side of them, but they're also very creative people.
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And I'm sure you found when you were doing your research as I
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found that a lot of these systems are designed for one or the other.
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So there's a lot of really ugly platforms out there that will help
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you with your invoicing and your workflow, but they're not pretty.
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And then there's All these pretty platforms out there that aren't
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actually particularly efficient.
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So was that what you found in your research?
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Cherie: Absolutely.
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I think we found that things were either one end of the spectrum or the other.
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There wasn't anything that connected all sides of the spectrum.
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And we found that To your point earlier about saying wedding pros are really
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that epitome of Lapin and right brain.
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I fully agree with that.
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Internally, we like to say that wedding pros are like the CXO, the
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chief operations officer, the chief experience officer, the chief design
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officer, the chief executive officer, and the chief financial officer.
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So you know it, you're really as a wedding pro.
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Covering so many aspects of the project, and you're also a chief people
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officer, which is that very important bit that I think so many platforms
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miss that client communication bit.
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How do you elevate the level of service you are providing to your clients?
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Because at the end of the day, it's a service based business,
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and it's it's about people.
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Becca: Yeah, absolutely.
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Now, I always find it really interesting when I talk to tech founders, because
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you always say I had this idea one day.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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And now I've got this platform, but we all know that it's
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not quite as simple as that.
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And to me, starting a tech business is just a whole nother level of business.
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So how did you go practically from, I've got this idea to
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actually seeing it come to life?
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Cherie: Wow.
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Yes.
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So.
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Firstly, I am not a developer, so, you know, the odds are stacked against me,
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but I think if I were to think back on how that idea came to life, it really
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stemmed from understanding the customer.
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So the first thing I did when I had this idea was I put out a survey
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and tried to get as many creative professions as possible to understand.
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to respond to the survey so that I could better understand where
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the pain points truly were.
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I talked to as many people as I could, literally just cold messaging people on
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LinkedIn, messaging people that I knew and asking, do you know anyone who is
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Wedding pro who is an interior designer.
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I would like to speak to them about this idea that I have.
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And then from there, it's really about building what we call the
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MVP, the minimum viable product.
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Although I think in our case, what we were really aiming for
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was Slightly more than an MVP.
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It's a minimum lovable product.
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And I think that is critical because we are operating in a space full of a stats.
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These are not people who just want something that works at a minimally viable
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level, but something that also looks good, given that we want to position this
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list as a platform that allows you to.
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Enhance your brand and Hans, your client satisfaction.
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So it needs to look good.
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It needs to feel good and it needs to be, it needs to really elevate
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that client experience and that, that business experience as you are using a
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platform, whether you're a wedding pro or whether you're wedding pros clients.
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So it was a lot of learning.
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It was a lot of learning, new tools, learning, new methodologies,
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learning about development, getting into the weeds of.
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How does something work?
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How, you know, I had to learn about things like react and Python.
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I'm not a coder.
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I'm still not a coder today, but as a founder, you have to really
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immerse yourself in all aspects of the business so that you can.
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Make good decisions and you understand why you are having to make these
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decisions about choosing a particular library or a particular method of
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building the software, for instance, so I guess coming back to your point.
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It was research.
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It was.
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Designing and building the minimum lovable product, it then went into
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the hands of people to use it.
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And it's an extremely iterative process of build, test,
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iterate, build, test, iterate.
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Sometimes you tear apart what you built because it's not working the
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way it should, or because People have come back with feedback saying,
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actually, you should do this.
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This, this, or maybe think about extending the feature this way instead.
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So we're still a work in progress.
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There's never, I don't think there's ever going to be a point where I say
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vicious is done, vicious is complete.
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Because.
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What we want to do is help our customers to scale their businesses.
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So we're constantly thinking, what are ways that you can as a wedding
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pro be more productive, and that's what we need to build for you.
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Or what are the ways in which the industry is growing?
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Because that is where wedding pros will be going to next.
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So what are the tools they need to enter into this new business, given that's where
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the industry hit winter driving them.
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So I would tell them to driving that.
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So it's, it's a, it's a constant work in progress and it would never
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be done, but I think that's part of the delight and challenge of.
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Becca: An entrepreneur's work is never done.
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We're always changing.
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We're always evolving.
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I think there's something fascinating in what you said.
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And when you shared your story, there was a part in there that I talk quite
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a lot about, that I want to talk to you a little bit deeper about, which
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is that you explained that you're not a coder, but you did spend some
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time understanding the systems.
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And as Wedding Pros, we have to understand everything.
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We have to understand all these social media platforms, websites.
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And sometimes we outsource this stuff, but don't really understand it ourselves.
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And that can get us into problems.
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So why do you think it was important for you to have a base level of understanding?
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Cherie: Great question.
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I think the importance comes from being able to make decisions
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quickly and also optimally.
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And you can't make decisions without understanding the considerations that
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need to be factored into these decisions.
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So to give you an example, when we're thinking about building a particular
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feature, I need to understand what is the work involved in the back end and what
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is the work involved in the front end.
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And I also need to understand if we build it this way, how does it affect things
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that we might want to build in the future?
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If we wanted to add on another feature, does that mean that we can simply build
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on top of how we're going to build it now?
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Or do we have to tear it apart because we're not future approved?
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So then I have to make a decision on, okay, so do we go with decision A or
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decision B based on what I understand to be true at this point in time?
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So I think for me to make that decision, it's Important for me to understand.
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It's almost like running a cost benefit analysis in your head and
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also a future proofing analysis.
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but you know, I don't make these decisions in isolation as well.
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I have a team now, I have really good engineers now.
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And so it also means that I need to be able to have these discussions with the
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experts and I need to be able to speak their language or at least understand
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their language in order to have a productive discussion that said, I see
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that Decisions decision making is a big part of my day to day, but I'm always
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thinking about what do I know now that leads me to making such a decision and in
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the future, if I see that what I thought to be true is no longer true, I'm also
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very cognizant that I need to be able to adapt my decision or change my decision
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because the underlying assumptions and factors no longer hold true.
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So I think.
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It's about awareness.
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I think that's the ultimate thing.
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You know, learning about different systems, learning about different domains.
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It's about building confidence in myself to make decisions.
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It's also a when is of what I think I know so that I can be just that bit more agile
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and flexible as things change or as the company grows and it all boils down to.
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I think being open minded and also I think as an entrepreneur particularly
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as an early stage entrepreneur, you do need to be involved in, in these
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things, you know, there's only so much that you can outsource at the early
15:02
stages because ultimately it's your vision and you need to see it onto
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live and no one is a better guardian of the vision than, than, than yourself.
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Becca: Yeah, I love that.
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And it's, it's so true.
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Knowledge is power.
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And even if we're planning on sharing our workload with other people, that
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we need to upskill ourselves to have a basic understanding of what they're
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doing so we can make great decisions.
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That's really helpful.
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Now we've talked a lot about you founding Visualist.
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I'd love to just have a little bit more information about what
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the platform actually does.
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So if I'm a wedding planner, a wedding florist, a wedding designer, what,
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what does Visualist actually do?
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How's it going to assist me in my business day to day?
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Cherie: Absolutely.
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The main value proposition of this list is that it is an all in one
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platform for you to connect your client design and admin workflows.
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And I like to rule of three, so I like to split things into three
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and think about things in buckets.
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And obviously, all of these.
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Workflows, the client workflows, design workflows They're all interconnected.
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So what we want to do is make it easier for you to manage your
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clients whilst you're sharing design work with them whilst you are
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sending in proposals and invoices.
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So that is that connection between the client design admin workflows.
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We want to also give you a better space to create.
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A shared portal with your clients so that they can be involved in the project.
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So in this list, you can create a hub, your client hub for
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each project that you're doing.
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So, for instance, if you're planning a wedding in Lake Como
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in summer 2025, you can create a hub called Lake Como summer 2025.
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You invite your clients and this is going to be the central space in which
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you share all information relating to the wedding with your clients.
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You can share your concept ideas, you can share your meeting notes,
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you can share the stationary designs.
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You can invite a stationery designer into the hub as well to collaborate
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and how we do that is by making collaboration contextual and seamless.
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So one of my favorite features that I've been talking about a lot is the feature
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that we call the sticky notes feature.
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Creative professionals workflow, wedding pros workflow is highly visual.
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So this is really built from that perspective of how do we enable
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collaboration to be visual fast?
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You're using pictures to communicate.
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You're using color palettes to communicate mood boards.
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So all of these are things that you can create and you
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can share easily in business.
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So when I share a picture with my client, if I'm a wedding pro, I can not only
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share the picture, but also drop sticky notes, which are literally look, you
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know, they, they look like post it notes.
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I can put a post it note, a sticky note on the picture and ask my
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client, How do you feel about the shade of pink, or how do you feel
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about the lighting installation here?
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How do you feel about these types of flowers at the reception?
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So, it reduces the back and forth in emails, DMs, WhatsApps, iMessages,
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and it keeps everything in one place.
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It's good for the client because they know where to look.
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It's visual, so they know exactly what you're referring to, and it's good for
18:22
the professional because, again, it centralizes all of the information in
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one space, it makes it easy to manage multiple projects at once, and it also
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becomes a system of record, which then makes organization a lot easier, so
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you've got not just your visuals in there.
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You move boards and color palettes.
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You can also put in your invoices, your proposals, everything all in one space.
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It gives you peace of mind.
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It gives your client peace of mind.
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We're always looking to how can we help the creative
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professional to save time as well.
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And, you know, there's a phrase that we use, which is focused on
19:01
the business, not the business.
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So we're also developing tools based on AI that can help you with generating
19:09
proposals quickly, generating summaries quickly, generating reminders, because
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it's always helpful if there's a whisper in your ear that says, Oh, don't
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use the orange flowers, the client.
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Doesn't doesn't like orange.
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For instance, that's just a very quick example off the top of my head, but we
19:27
feel that, you know, AI is a big, big thing that people are talking a lot about.
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Now, AI has always been a consideration and visualize, but we are thinking
19:36
about it from the perspective of how can AI be an assistant to you so
19:41
it's not replacing you as a creative.
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But it's about doing the things that you hate.
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It's about doing the things that are mundane and repetitive.
19:49
Things like pulling together task lists, or pulling together summaries from a
19:54
client questionnaire that the client has filled in, or sending reminder emails, or
20:00
sending reminders to clients about tasks that they need to do, or simply combing
20:07
through all of the correspondence That has happened within divisionist client hub and
20:12
generating status reports about what is outstanding what you're awaiting client
20:18
feedback on and I think particularly for wedding pros, many of whom work as.
20:24
Solar printers or micro businesses.
20:27
This is where technology and AI in particular can be truly helpful
20:32
because you are not spending your time, your precious time on very low value
20:39
administrative work that you're The client might not necessarily see, but you're
20:45
now diverting that time that will spend on that memoir to higher value things
20:50
like generating truly one of a kind designs or interacting with clients to
20:56
maintain the client relationship and give that personalized and bespoke service.
21:00
So our mission with visualized is really to help you save time by automating
21:07
things that can be automated so that.
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As a wedding pro, you can scale more efficiently.
21:13
Becca: Amazing.
21:13
Such a great synopsis.
21:14
I mean, with all of these platforms, I always say you really need to go
21:17
and log in and have a look at them to really get a feel for how they work.
21:21
So at the end, you're going to share a promo code so that people can have
21:24
a go and use the free trial as well.
21:26
And I'll make sure I share that information in the show notes.
21:29
Now you've talked about how helpful this platform is for us as wedding pros, but
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why do you think it's important that we integrate technology for today's couple?
21:38
So the people actually getting married.
21:40
Cherie: I think that the simple answer is that people today want convenience.
21:43
People are time poor.
21:45
People live on their phones.
21:47
And the, as a wedding pro, their service that you're
21:52
providing is highly personalized.
21:56
It is also highly personal.
21:58
The, you know, you're helping a couple plan their wedding.
22:02
So you want to make this personal.
22:04
Experience as delightful and a seamless for them as possible and
22:07
also as stress free as possible.
22:09
And I think truly the way to do that is by integrating technology
22:13
because technology works on the go.
22:18
It works, you know, business in particular.
22:20
It's all about being where the client is.
22:23
So how as a wedding pro, can you deliver an experience that
22:28
is tailored to the client?
22:30
And The big part of it is being accessible to the client as well.
22:38
So with a client hub in business, for instance, the clients
22:43
can access it at any time.
22:45
They can leave their questions and comments at any time.
22:48
And it's all.
22:50
Integrated in one space.
22:51
It's it's, you know, they know where to go to when they have questions.
22:55
They know where to go to when they want to check on something
22:58
that was discussed before.
23:00
And I think so.
23:01
That's the convenience factor.
23:02
And then the other thing as well is it's productivity as a wedding pro.
23:07
You are juggling multiple projects at once and the great thing about technology
23:14
is that it works wherever you work.
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So it means that you are able to have one space that contains all of your
23:25
active projects, all of your past projects, and technology that is smart
23:30
will also start learning about you and how you work and give you that tailored
23:37
experience is that it's learned.
23:41
Based on your previous interactions with the tool.
23:44
That is where technology is going.
23:47
It's, it's about personalized technology.
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And I think with technology, it's about me.
23:55
It's about having tools that work the way you work tools that
24:00
work the way your mind works.
24:02
And I think that's why many existing tools that don't cater to.
24:07
The creative's mind and the creator's workflow, they, they only get the job
24:12
half done because they still create a lot of, they still require the
24:18
creator of the user to do a lot of legwork, a lot of the heavy lifting.
24:22
And what we want to create is technology that is intuitive
24:26
to the creative professional.
24:28
And that means working from a very visual space, working from
24:32
a space that is client does.
24:34
And.
24:36
Ultimately, it's, it's about saving time and it's about being able to take back
24:41
time to, to do the things that you love and, you know, pen and paper is great.
24:45
I personally still do a lot of brainstorming on pen and paper,
24:49
for instance, but the way that we are building technology today and
24:53
the way that we are building tools today, it's all about automation.
24:57
It's all about, how do you save time on repeatable processes so that you can.
25:05
Get back to time that you socially need to then provide that highly bespoke
25:11
service to your clients, to the, to the wedding couple that you're working with,
25:17
and ultimately achieve that greater, greater level of client satisfaction.
25:23
Becca: Yeah.
25:23
And we're also time poor, both us as wedding pros and the couples themselves.
25:27
So anything that saves time and, and leads to convenience.
25:31
Is definitely a good thing.
25:33
Now I want to just shift the conversation slightly back to Las Vegas because as I
25:37
mentioned I met you and your team there for the first time and I think you did
25:42
some amazing pieces of marketing and I want to get into this now because
25:45
for those that haven't been to Wedding MBA there is a huge exhibition hall
25:49
which you had a stand as part of.
25:51
I think something like 200 exhibitors.
25:53
So to stand out from the crowd is difficult when there's so many people.
25:56
And I think this is a similar experience when wedding pros go to
26:00
a wedding show and they're amongst all the other vendors and they're
26:03
trying to stand out from the crowd.
26:04
But I believe what you did as a team at Visualist really worked.
26:09
It really stood out.
26:10
And I think there's a lot of learnings people can take from what you did.
26:12
And from my perspective as a marketer, I loved watching what you were doing.
26:16
So if you could talk me through some of the things that you did
26:18
to stand out as part of that, Exhibition and what your thought
26:22
process were behind those decisions.
26:24
Cherie: Absolutely.
26:24
Firstly, thank you so much for those kind words.
26:27
It was definitely a team effort.
26:29
Charlotte from our team in particular was a big, big part
26:34
of all of the things that we did.
26:36
So we're based in London, right?
26:39
And going to Las Vegas is a huge undertaking for us, not just in terms
26:44
of time, but also in terms of cost.
26:46
So planning for a wedding MBA was A big part of our regular marketing meetings
26:54
and we were really thinking how can we do things that will help us to stand
26:59
out that and you know, help us really appear everywhere appear bigger than
27:04
we are because we're still a tiny team and we're still a very young company
27:09
and there are many other software tools out there and we want to come across
27:14
as not just any other software tool.
27:16
So one of the things that we did.
27:19
Was at our booth we had a manicurist or a nail station So we we hired a nail
27:28
a nail technician to come to our booth and set up a manicure station where
27:32
we were giving away free manicures and What that meant was that people
27:37
would come to the booth They would sit and wait for the session to start.
27:43
And during that time, we have a bit of an opportunity to talk to
27:48
them about fish list, to show them the platform on iPads, et cetera.
27:51
The reason that we wanted to do that was because we had been to a couple
27:55
of trade shows before, And we knew from our personal experience that
28:00
it gets Very tiring walking around and it's, it's very overwhelming.
28:06
So what we wanted to create was a space amidst Las Vegas convention center that
28:12
people would walk by and feel relaxed and not like they're a part of this hectic
28:19
maze of booths and I think the design of the booth as well, we, we didn't want
28:24
it to feel too techie even though we're a tech company, we wanted it to feel
28:29
more like A mini spa, like a tiny, tiny corner of, of the exhibition hall that
28:35
got relaxed, you know, so we had, we had white rugs, we had bamboo chairs just to
28:41
create a very soft calming setting where people could come in and rest their feet
28:45
and we can talk to them in that process.
28:48
Another thing that we did also was we, we gave out, or we, we
28:54
displayed and exhibited a lot of, what do you call them, enamel pins.
28:57
We do like to have Fun things and make fun things at vicious every now and then.
29:02
So we had enamel pins.
29:03
We had some bags, lots of fun stickers as well.
29:07
Stickers are as something that are really common and popular in the
29:11
tech world, but not so much in, in the wedding, in a wedding pro world.
29:14
So I think we, we, we were a bit different in that sense.
29:17
Cause we're giving out stickers that just had really funny.
29:20
Catchphrases, one of them was a graphic illustration of a teacup because we're
29:25
from England and it says here for the tea.
29:27
And then another one said in mind, a drama, another one said that there were
29:31
a lot of Vegas themed ones as well.
29:33
So we're giving out stickers.
29:34
I think the thought was, how do we attract people to our booth?
29:39
If they were just walking by and what is, you know, what was a low five thing that
29:45
we could do to be able to grab someone who is walking by and say, would you like
29:50
a sticker or would you like a manicure?
29:52
So it was really thinking about things from the perspective of if I
29:57
am, if I am an attendee at wedding MBA, what would stop me in my tracks?
30:02
And then last but not least, the thing that probably was the biggest impact
30:07
was the event that we met you at, Becca.
30:10
So we attended the Monday night mixer, which was hosted by
30:16
Renee Dallow and Amber Anderson.
30:18
And that was probably the best decision that we did because this was
30:23
The mixer that was pre wedding MBA.
30:26
So it was the night before wedding MBA.
30:27
And it just allowed us to be in a room with so many wedding
30:32
pros who we wouldn't have had a chance to connect with otherwise.
30:36
And we got to meet them the day before wedding MBA.
30:39
So we could then tell them, Oh, come to our booth at Wedding MBA tomorrow.
30:43
And, you know, you can see more of the platform, more of Vigilist.
30:46
And what we did at the Monday night mixer, we, we gave this Vigilist tote bag, which
30:51
Becca, I know you have and you love.
30:53
And in this tote bag, were a few things.
30:57
We created what we call the Las Vegas survival kit, because It's Vegas.
31:02
It's Wedding MBA.
31:03
It's hectic.
31:04
It is insane.
31:05
It is a lot of fun, but you also need self care.
31:08
So we put in things like liquid IV.
31:10
We had, I think, a face mask.
31:13
We had some energy bars, I think.
31:17
So the whole idea was this is a kit that you could take with you and relax.
31:22
After you've had your film of Vegas and in that, we also, we also had some vicious
31:28
match or printed flyers that talked about what vicious is again, the whole idea
31:33
was, how do we bring people to our booth?
31:35
Because you're, as you said, over 200 exhibits is, and, you
31:38
know, we had to do something that would make people remember us by.
31:42
And so that Monday night mixer was, was our first attempt.
31:45
And yeah, I, I think it for, for our first, first go at wedding MBA, I
31:51
think we were very proud of the, the booth set up and, and our experience
31:56
in general, but this year we have also taken on board a lot of learning.
32:00
So I, and we're experimenting with a few different things, so I'm excited to.
32:05
See these things come to fruition and check back in six months.
32:10
Becca: I can't wait to come and see what you guys have got planned this
32:12
year, because I think there's a huge amount of learnings that my listeners
32:16
could get from all of those amazing things that you did at Wembley NBA in
32:19
terms of standing out from a crowd, in terms of getting your name out there, in
32:23
terms of showing that you, or at least having the perception that you're a
32:26
bigger company than you actually were.
32:28
And I agree with you.
32:29
I think the The Monday Night Mixer was a great call for you guys, because what
32:33
you did is you put yourselves in a room of influence, so at that mixer there
32:37
were attendees, but there were also a lot of educators in that room, there
32:40
were a lot of influencers in that room.
32:41
By giving out those bags, which then everyone was carrying around, by giving
32:46
them all of the Visualist merch, You know, you kind of, you set yourselves apart
32:50
before the exhibition had really even kicked off and I think that was really
32:54
smart and I talk a lot with my pros about being in rooms of influence, working
32:58
out the rooms that you're in, talking to the right people and I think that's
33:02
what you did really well at Wedding MBA.
33:04
Cherie: Thank you so much Becca, it means a lot coming from you.
33:07
Becca: Yeah, you did.
33:08
You did an amazing job.
33:09
Everyone was talking about visualists all week.
33:11
I loved my visualist merch.
33:13
I've got my visualist bag.
33:14
I've got my socks.
33:15
I've got my pins and I use them all.
33:18
And, you know, again, I talked to my pros about simple things
33:20
like creating pens because pens are something that stays forever.
33:24
This, this merchandise doesn't have to be a huge cost.
33:27
You can buy things that are not.
33:29
super expensive.
33:30
Not everyone can afford all the tote bags, but actually just a pen that
33:33
people then carry around with them.
33:34
I've still got pens.
33:35
I've got Allenberg's pen on my desk right in front of me right now.
33:39
You know, and I've had it since I met him about three years ago.
33:41
This stuff stays with us.
33:42
So I think you guys did a great job and I cannot wait to see
33:46
what you have planned this year.
33:47
So we are all going back to Vegas this year.
33:50
I'm going to speaking, which I'm thrilled about.
33:52
You guys are going to be having your, your exhibition stand,
33:55
which I'm also excited to see.
33:57
I'm trying to get more of my UK friends to come out to Wedding MBA.
34:00
I've got five UK people coming so far.
34:03
If people are listening and thinking about it, what would you say to them?
34:06
Why should they come?
34:07
Cherie: I think it's the learning and networking opportunity.
34:10
There is nothing like it.
34:12
Wedding MBA in the UK or anywhere else in the world.
34:16
I, I personally wish I had more time to go around to different talks because
34:22
there were so many amazing speakers and I can't wait for your talk this year, Becca.
34:26
And I think it's almost like you, you could have a year's full of learning
34:31
packed into three days because there were just so many different
34:34
speakers on different topics ranging from social media to finances to.
34:40
PR to even, you know, the design aspect itself of wedding planning.
34:45
And I think it's about opening your eyes and it's about being, being curious
34:52
to what else other people are doing.
34:55
There is, I think as, as an entrepreneur in particular, and as wedding crows who
34:59
are often working in, you know, Very small teams, I think it's so important
35:05
to Expose yourself to what other people are doing, not just within the region,
35:11
but internationally, and it's not about following trends, but it's about
35:15
keeping an ear your eyes and years out there on the ground and seeing are
35:19
there better ways that I can do things.
35:22
I think ultimately as an entrepreneur is all self improvement and
35:25
self reflection is really key.
35:27
And I think having a change of scenery, being in Vegas, what's there not to love?
35:32
Becca: Yeah, absolutely.
35:33
And it's not always the easiest solution.
35:35
I mean, for you guys, it's not easy to go to the other side of the
35:38
world and exhibit your business and take all of that stuff with you.
35:41
But actually, sometimes if you want to grow and evolve, you've got to
35:44
put yourself in the bigger spaces.
35:45
Cherie: Yeah, for sure.
35:47
Becca: I can't wait.
35:48
I'm very excited to go back to Vegas.
35:50
I'm very excited to meet up with you guys in Vegas.
35:52
And I'm sure between us, we'll plan some fun things while we're there as well.
35:56
Sherry, it's been such a pleasure chatting to you, finding out more about visualists,
35:59
finding out more about your story.
36:01
I always end the podcast with the same question.
36:04
So I'm going to pose that to you now, which is this, what's one
36:06
thing you personally wish you'd known sooner in your business?
36:09
Cherie: So the one thing that.
36:12
I wish I had known and I had done sooner is, I think, creating my immunity of
36:21
people that I could lean into for support.
36:25
And I'm very fortunate I have that now, but I think being an entrepreneur
36:29
is a very lonely job and the only other people who understand what
36:33
it's like to be an entrepreneur.
36:35
Would be other entrepreneurs themselves.
36:37
So particularly for wedding pros, many of whom are solopreneurs, you know, I think
36:41
it's so important to surround yourself with people who are going through what
36:46
you are going through and who can provide.
36:51
Support who can provide advice, who can provide empathy.
36:55
I think it is, I know it is tough because technically wedding pros are in
37:00
competition with one another, but truly I believe that collaboration can still
37:04
happen within friendly competition.
37:07
And for me, I, I think I'm a first time founder.
37:11
So, you know, I was making a lot of mistakes along the
37:13
way as well, and mistakes are fine, but I think I could have.
37:18
Mistakes are fine because you grow from them.
37:20
I have to covet that if you grow from them, but I think I would have Benefited
37:25
a lot from having this early Almost like support group of other founders
37:32
who you know, I could you know Easily message when I have this burning question
37:36
about, Oh, how do I do SEO or what?
37:38
What task management system should I use?
37:40
It's almost like it's the power of many, right?
37:43
It's leaning into the power of many.
37:45
And I'm very thankful.
37:46
I have that now, particularly other female founders, female first time founders.
37:51
For instance, I have a friend and we have a standing calendar.
37:55
Event which is which I call dinner therapy and in that we meet for dinner
38:00
like every three weeks and we just talk we just talk about our businesses about
38:06
our personal lives about what it's like to be a founder about the, you know,
38:12
the wins and also the challenges and we celebrate and we commiserate together.
38:18
But I think having a strong community around you of fellow.
38:23
Entrepreneurs and, you know, like minded people is, is really something
38:28
that nourishes your mental health.
38:30
I don't want to get too Google about that right now, but I, you know, honestly,
38:34
I think mental health is something that entrepreneurs need to be very mindful of.
38:40
And I think A great vitamin or yeah, a great vitamin or like solution to
38:46
that is, is having a community of people who you can call on any time.
38:50
Becca: I totally agree with you.
38:52
And actually, I think maybe I need to organize myself some more therapy dinners.
38:55
I love that idea of just going and meeting up with someone and just talking
38:59
it all out whilst also having nice food.
39:02
So I think maybe that's something I need to implement into my own business as well.
39:07
It's been such a pleasure chatting to you.
39:08
As I mentioned earlier, really, Visualist needs to be seen to be understood.
39:12
So I believe you've put together a super special offer for my listeners.
39:16
So tell us more about that.
39:18
Cherie: Yes, please go to our website, which is visualistapp.
39:22
com and sign up to Visualist with the code Becca, B E C C A, and you will
39:29
get a one month free trial and also 300 of credit, which To be used towards
39:34
creating your client hubs and also other special features within Vicious.
39:38
So we'll leave the details in the show notes and also
39:42
please follow us on Instagram.
39:44
We're at vicious underscore app.
39:45
That's the best way to learn about new features and see the new features.
39:50
If you like to have a look before signing up and we're also always very happy to
39:55
jump into calls with wedding pros and.
39:58
Other creative professionals to see through how to set up this list to
40:02
make it work for you And your clients.
40:05
Thank you so much Becca It's been such a pleasure being on this podcast and
40:10
testing for you I feel like we're just having a conversation over brunch.
40:13
So this has been lovely
40:15
Becca: It's amazing.
40:15
Thank you so much.
40:16
Thank you for putting together that special offer as well.
40:18
And if you're listening to this, just know that Sherry and
40:21
the team are so approachable.
40:22
They're so lovely.
40:23
So if you want to try out the platform, if you've got questions, if you've got ideas
40:26
for features, reach out and chat to them.
40:28
I'm sure there'll be open to a conversation.
40:30
Sherry, I hope to see you very soon.
40:32
Cherie: Indeed.
40:33
I'm sure I'll see you soon.
40:34
And let's chat more about Vegas.
40:37
Becca: Yeah, absolutely.
40:39
I love that conversation with Sherry.
40:41
Isn't it fantastic to hear about the future platforms where we're
40:44
going with technology and all of these amazing tools that can help
40:47
us in our wedding businesses.
40:48
I recommend that you go and check Visualist out, use that code.
40:51
I've put all of the details in the show notes and I'll see you next time.