Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / Should your wedding business be on TikTok with Meagan Culkin
Transcript
- 0:00Meagan: In TikTok, it's kind of like you reach who you reach, and if that connects
- 0:04with you, then great, give us a follow.
- 0:06And if not, may the force be with you.
- 0:08And so I think that there's a little bit of freedom in that to
- 0:11allow your personality to shine through a little bit better.
- 0:14And now three years later, it's, it's allowed us to make better relationships
- 0:18with our couples because especially when they find us on TikTok, they
- 0:23feel like they know who they're getting into bed with, if you will.
- 0:29Becca: I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert,
- 0:32speaker and blogger, and you're listening to the Wedding Pros
- 0:34Who Are Ready to Grow podcast.
- 0:37I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
- 0:40examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
- 0:44If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
- 0:48and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you
- 0:51love, then you're in the right place.
- 0:53Let's get going with today's episode.
- 0:56Today, I'm chatting with Meagan Colkin, owner of Magnolia Collective,
- 1:00a wedding planning and design company, which is now in its 13th year.
- 1:04When not designing event spaces, Megan spends her time helping other
- 1:07wedding business owners by teaching them how to use TikTok, something I
- 1:11wish I understood a whole lot more.
- 1:13Megan and I recently taught on a wedding pro panel together, and I
- 1:16wanted to take the opportunity to.
- 1:17Find out a little more from her and share it with all of you.
- 1:21So Megan, welcome to the podcast.
- 1:23Meagan: Thank you for having me.
- 1:24I'm super excited to be here.
- 1:26Becca: It's such a pleasure.
- 1:28It was fun.
- 1:29We did a panel together and it was a really fun time and there was
- 1:32quite a few of us on the panel.
- 1:33So we only got kind of a few sentences each.
- 1:36So I'm really excited that I'm going to get to dive a whole lot deeper
- 1:40with you during today's episode.
- 1:42Meagan: Definitely.
- 1:44Send me all your questions.
- 1:45I'm here for you.
- 1:46Becca: Okay, well, before we get into the world of TikTok, which I know
- 1:50is what we're going to be talking about in depth today, I'd like to
- 1:53find out where people have come from.
- 1:55So I mentioned in the intro that you're in your 13th year of your
- 1:59wedding business, which is incredible.
- 2:00Congratulations.
- 2:01I love it when people have been in business a long time,
- 2:04it shows that it can happen.
- 2:06You know, we don't have to just have a wedding business for one
- 2:08year and then forget about it.
- 2:10So how did you end up in the wedding industry in the first place?
- 2:14Meagan: Sure.
- 2:14So I came at it a bit of a glutton for punishment.
- 2:18So I'm third generation.
- 2:21Business owner in our family, but my dad is a chef.
- 2:26And then on my mom's side, my cousin's family is 30 years in
- 2:32the floral industry in New York.
- 2:34So I grew up in weddings.
- 2:37My and my dad's mother actually was a wedding dress designer,
- 2:42and so weddings and catering and events were kind of all I knew.
- 2:48And I loved them, but was also wary of them and was very much thought that
- 2:57I would always have a nine to five.
- 2:58I would always, you know, like I would never work weekends and holidays
- 3:03and do all the things that they did.
- 3:05And I.
- 3:07Got into college and was like, my brain doesn't work this way.
- 3:11I, I don't know how to do anything else.
- 3:13Right.
- 3:13And so very quickly I, I pivoted and, and started, I started in the catering world.
- 3:21I opened an online bakery and I did.
- 3:26catering and moved into restaurant management and country clubs,
- 3:31social clubs, things of that nature.
- 3:34And then before I went full time in my business, I was working on college
- 3:41campuses, doing student activities there, which really helped me.
- 3:46More than I realized it at the time because to be in your early 20s and
- 3:51to be given an event for 1800 students and then to turn around and have
- 3:58someone's wedding that's 150 people.
- 4:01Yes, it's their most, most important day, but It's small potatoes, right?
- 4:05It's like, yeah, it's fine.
- 4:07You're going to be fine.
- 4:08It's really okay.
- 4:09So everything became relative to me in terms of crisis management very quickly.
- 4:16And as I was working on college campus, I just started cultivating this team of
- 4:23Students who were also going to school for hospitality and, you know, like
- 4:29they would get out into the world and be like, well, maybe I'm working a 9 to
- 4:345 and I wanted to work weddings on the weekends or I wanted to do something else.
- 4:40And so we just started building this team.
- 4:43Kind of along the way of people that had this love for the industry, but maybe they
- 4:50weren't really ready to do it full time.
- 4:53And that's really what the business has grown into now.
- 4:56So I have a team of 14 and of those 14.
- 5:02I believe nine of them have been with me for at least eight years.
- 5:07So whether they were a student or a sorority sister or we planned their
- 5:14wedding and then they circled back or, you know, like they just kind of became
- 5:18part of welcomed into the fold and brought their own strength to, to the team.
- 5:25So it's been, it's been enjoyable for sure.
- 5:28Becca: I absolutely love that.
- 5:29There's two things that really stand out to me from your story.
- 5:31The first one is around your parents and your family being in
- 5:35weddings and being business owners.
- 5:37Because so often I speak to people who are self employed and
- 5:40they have self employed parents.
- 5:42It's definitely a thing that we often become, you know, the sum
- 5:46of the people that, that made us.
- 5:48I always laugh when I tell my story because as a child, I used to laugh at
- 5:52my dad because he did loads of networking and he was always like helping businesses.
- 5:55And then one day I woke up in my thirties and realized I'd become my dad.
- 5:59Like we all do it, but I definitely think it gives you a headstart when
- 6:03you've got self employed parents because you've grown up and you've seen that
- 6:06different way of living and doing life that other people haven't seen.
- 6:09The other thing that really stood out to me, which I, Always love is how
- 6:13much you learn from doing another job.
- 6:15And I think so often I speak to wedding pros and maybe they're part time in
- 6:19the wedding business and part time in something else and they're frustrated.
- 6:22And I'm always saying, yeah, but we can learn so much.
- 6:25And when you look back on your journey and you see.
- 6:28All of the stuff you learned from those days on student campus, the connections
- 6:32that you made, it's just incredible.
- 6:34So for anyone listening and feeling that frustration right now that
- 6:37you're not quite where you want to be, like take in every moment, absorb
- 6:41everything, make every connection.
- 6:42Cause I guarantee there are things that you're learning from your business right
- 6:46now that you're learning in your job.
- 6:49So you got full time into weddings and you've got all of
- 6:53these these great team members.
- 6:55How have you seen the industry change across those years?
- 6:59Meagan: Well, you know, 13 years we've hit in North, or in the U.
- 7:05S.
- 7:05we've had the recession, which hit us pretty hard, 2008, and then obviously the
- 7:11pandemic, which hit us everywhere, right?
- 7:14We also have, I'm in North, we have two teams, one in North
- 7:17Carolina and one in Virginia.
- 7:19We're on the coast primarily, so we also have hurricanes, which
- 7:24are very prevalent every year.
- 7:27It is not a scenario where it's like sometimes you get it and sometimes
- 7:31you don't fall wedding season.
- 7:33You always have them.
- 7:35And so it's this very interesting skill set really that you have to hone of not
- 7:43only are you making these rain plans, but are you learning how to work with vendors
- 7:48who could potentially move up an entire wedding 24 hours Earlier, if a storm is
- 7:54coming or, you know, like a catering team that was supposed to be full service and
- 8:01move to a drop off caterer and, you know, just all of these things that again, in,
- 8:08in that moment are that, Oh shit scenario.
- 8:11Right.
- 8:11Like, but they make you so much stronger.
- 8:16on the back end.
- 8:17You know, they prepare you, they set you up for success for that next time.
- 8:23One of the things that I, it was not a natural disaster.
- 8:27It was just a thing that happens.
- 8:29But in 2020, we had our first bride that Had to reschedule her
- 8:35wedding and she got pregnant in the interim and she was going to be very
- 8:39pregnant at the time of the wedding.
- 8:43And they were like, well, here it is.
- 8:45And so when we were working through this wedding, we then had to work
- 8:50through the timeline, things that we typically don't do things like.
- 8:54When she's going to have to pump and when, you know, she's going to have to,
- 9:00like the baby is going to have to eat.
- 9:03And when, you know, just all of these things that are not normative
- 9:06things, after we did that wedding, we booked three other brides that had.
- 9:13A baby within the calendar year of getting married because I told that
- 9:18story and they were like, we have not even begun to think about this yet.
- 9:24It's not even remotely on our radar that we're going to be pumping.
- 9:28We're just thinking that we're not going to be pregnant anymore
- 9:31and that's going to be fantastic.
- 9:32Right.
- 9:34But it made us better.
- 9:35You know, like that moment of, we're going to have to move this around and
- 9:39we're going to have to change allowed us to better prepare for the future couples.
- 9:46Becca: That's such a good story.
- 9:47Absolutely love that.
- 9:48And you're so right.
- 9:48And in the wedding and events industry, we have to be so adaptable.
- 9:52I mean, here in the UK, hurricanes, thankfully, are not a thing, but we
- 9:56all have these things that happen and we're just not sure what's
- 9:59going to be around the next corner.
- 10:00Now, obviously for us in the wedding industry, in more
- 10:02recent years, that was COVID.
- 10:04We had to shut down.
- 10:05And I believe if I'm right, that was when you personally started
- 10:08to explore the world of TikTok.
- 10:10Meagan: Yes.
- 10:11So we had In March of 2020 was when weddings pretty much
- 10:17got grounded for us here.
- 10:19And, you know, we were just.
- 10:22It was no fly zone.
- 10:23Nothing was happening.
- 10:24Right.
- 10:25And all of these brides started going on Tik TOK and they had
- 10:33been consuming as vendors.
- 10:36We were not there, right?
- 10:39We, we were on other platforms potentially, but
- 10:43that was not on our radar.
- 10:45Potentially we were watching Tik TOKs, but we were not creating.
- 10:49And what I was noticing was they were.
- 10:53There was almost this mob mentality, right?
- 10:56Of as couples by us were saying, well, My venue has canceled on me and then
- 11:03someone in the comments would say, Oh, well, you should just threaten to sue them
- 11:09or you should just pick up and move and do your wedding in your backyard or you
- 11:14should tell them you have, you know, and they were kind of banning together and
- 11:20saying, I'm getting married at this venue.
- 11:22So if we all do this, Then, you know, like strength in numbers and
- 11:27it was getting scary really fast.
- 11:29And so I was like, and I had a background in venue management.
- 11:34I had, you know, like a background in venue consulting.
- 11:38And so I was just kind of inserting myself into their comments
- 11:43originally to just be like, hi.
- 11:45So, you know, we're working on a lot of.
- 11:49different coalitions and trying to talk to senators to get a lot
- 11:53of these different bills passed.
- 11:56And, you know, there's really just no, there's no rules right now.
- 12:01Like we're in this gray area, right?
- 12:03Where we're not a restaurant, we're not a private public event space.
- 12:08We're not.
- 12:09And so they're not trying to just take your money.
- 12:12They're not trying to do any of these things.
- 12:15And so then I.
- 12:17Took it one step further and started creating videos just sitting on my couch.
- 12:21Like we obviously didn't have any weddings that we could showcase,
- 12:27but just to try and explain it and then like respond to their videos.
- 12:33And it started to kind of, you know, tamp down the hurt a little bit.
- 12:39And then as more people started to be able to have weddings where you could have.
- 12:4612 people or something like that, then I was able to use it to say, this is
- 12:52what it means to safely gather, right?
- 12:54Like this is what it looks like in a ballroom that has
- 12:58a capacity of 150 people.
- 13:01Yes, you can still have 40 people and it looked beautiful, right?
- 13:07So it was really showing using it as an opportunity to teach them.
- 13:12And now obviously flash forward, we are doing weddings every weekend.
- 13:16So we have the, the portfolio more so, but once from my perspective,
- 13:24kind of once I had like cold, some of the herd, even if it was just
- 13:28like five brides at a time, right?
- 13:32Like I knew that even if I didn't have weddings right now in the same way that.
- 13:38We were still posting pretty photos on Instagram, you know, I could pull old
- 13:44videos or photos off of my camera roll and post it to use an example of like,
- 13:53here's the time where we had an intimate wedding at a larger venue and look at
- 13:58how this worked or, you know, and just kind of like, in my mind, I'll Nobody
- 14:05was really showing up, so it didn't really matter, you know what I mean?
- 14:09Like, I was like, if my mom watches this, then who cares, you know?
- 14:14And she was like, great job, I liked your video today.
- 14:17I'm like, cool, great, thanks.
- 14:19And ironically, the first video that ever, that went like super viral for us, I was
- 14:24doing like a, a craft, just like a random.
- 14:29You know, non wedding related thing, but people started coming back and
- 14:37kind of the domino effect is like, you know, if they come back, it doesn't
- 14:41really matter what they showed up for.
- 14:44It just matters that they stay, you know?
- 14:47So if they liked it and they engaged in the content and they ask a question and
- 14:53they know you're going to answer it.
- 14:56You, I mean, how many accounts do you follow because you're
- 14:58like, Oh, that's a cute video of a dog, or that's a great recipe.
- 15:03And then you end up going down a rabbit hole of all of their content.
- 15:07And then you're like, Oh, I didn't even realize that they also produce, you
- 15:13know, five different types of content.
- 15:15This is just one of those things, right?
- 15:17And so it was very much this kind of.
- 15:22Opportunity to just create, you know, it wasn't, I look at Instagram and I
- 15:29still kind of look at Instagram where you have this grid where you're like.
- 15:34Okay, well I posted a picture of a cake today and so I guess tomorrow I
- 15:38should post a picture of a couple and I haven't posted a diverse couple but
- 15:43that's in our, our mission statement so we should really show diversity
- 15:47and I'm like, that is so obnoxious.
- 15:49Like nothing against Instagram, we should always use Instagram, but like there's
- 15:54something more kind of freeing about that's not the reality of our jobs.
- 15:59Right.
- 15:59Like, and if couples think that that's the reality of our jobs, they
- 16:05always have us at an arm's length.
- 16:07And I think that that was such a problem with COVID was there
- 16:11was no personalization, right?
- 16:14Like they didn't think of any of us as human beings.
- 16:18They thought of us as a transaction.
- 16:21And so they didn't see, in my case, they didn't see their wedding planner as.
- 16:27Also, you know, like posting a funny video of their dog or making dinner
- 16:33for their step kids or, you know, doing any of those things because
- 16:37those were never going to be on my instagram because it messed up the grid.
- 16:41Right.
- 16:41Like, so that was all about, like, I'm here to, to reach a wedding client.
- 16:49I'm going to reach that target market in tik tok.
- 16:53It's kind of like you reach who you reach.
- 16:56And if that connects with you, then great.
- 16:58Give us a follow.
- 16:59And if not, whatever, go may the force be with you, you know?
- 17:04And so I think that there's a little bit of freedom in that.
- 17:07To allow your personality to shine through a little bit better.
- 17:11And now three years later, it's, it's allowed us to make better relationships
- 17:15with our couples because especially when they find us on TikTok, they feel
- 17:20like they know who they're getting into bed with, if you will, right?
- 17:25They know that I'm kind of sassy.
- 17:27They know that I don't want, my client is not their mom.
- 17:32And so if their mom wants to plan their wedding, it's not going to
- 17:37be with me because like, that's going to be with someone else.
- 17:41But I have an opportunity when I'm not face to face on a consultation
- 17:47to have that conversation.
- 17:49You know, there's just this opportunity to put it out into the
- 17:52world and say, this is what I like.
- 17:54This is what I don't like.
- 17:56This is our ideal.
- 17:57This is, you know, like these couples that we love to work with.
- 18:02This is what these weddings look like.
- 18:04This is what that ideal budget looks like.
- 18:06And if you really want this kind of experience, this is the reality.
- 18:12And we can put that out in the universe and then see who
- 18:17actually gravitates to that.
- 18:19Becca: It's interesting to me that you say that TikTok is a freeing place to
- 18:23be because I think there's a lot of fear around the platform for a lot of
- 18:27people in the wedding industry, a lot of vendors who don't want to go on to
- 18:32TikTok for the opposite reason because they're scared because they're not sure
- 18:36that it is this free place because they don't know what to do or why should.
- 18:41They'd be on there and they don't feel comfortable in it.
- 18:44So just give us a little sales pitch right now because we have loads of
- 18:47marketing platforms that we can be on.
- 18:50Why is someone going to want to get uncomfortable and try TikTok?
- 18:53Why should they be paying attention to it in the wedding industry?
- 18:56Meagan: So the one thing that I'll say is when I first saw TikTok, my first thought
- 19:01was TikTok, TikTok is not for my business because I'm not going to learn a dance.
- 19:08I'm not going to do a trending dance.
- 19:09I'm not, my client is not going to be looking for their wedding planner
- 19:14to do a trending dance on TikTok.
- 19:16That's all I saw at face value, right?
- 19:19However, when I started to look at it as in the, In the line of thinking
- 19:26that when I'm on a wedding, you know, capturing a wedding day,
- 19:31I'm already, I have my phone out.
- 19:34I'm taking photos and videos of the first look, the couple cutting the
- 19:40cake, you know, before and afters of the ballroom behind the scenes of
- 19:46the groomsmen coursing around, right?
- 19:49Like.
- 19:50All those moments I'm already capturing those things that a lot
- 19:55of times the bride doesn't see.
- 19:57You know, because she's doing 500 other things and I am creating
- 20:04that content without ever being like, okay guys, get together.
- 20:09And I want you to film this transition, you know, like we're
- 20:14not doing any of that, right?
- 20:15I'm just simply a passerby or, you know, like an observer,
- 20:21a silent observer of the day
- 20:26Then I'm going to put some music to it and throw a description over the
- 20:31top, you know, sometimes that looks like the photographer taking pictures
- 20:36with a couple at a first look.
- 20:38And I'm explaining like by doing this, they freed up 30 minutes in
- 20:43their cocktail hour and they'll be able to join their cocktail hour.
- 20:47And they won't have to go table to table and greet their guests, you know,
- 20:52like where it's just like five to eight seconds of a video and you can have like
- 20:58one of those teaching moments, right?
- 21:01Like, I had this conversation with a station or friend of mine the
- 21:05other day, and she was talking about getting photo galleries back.
- 21:10And she said, I hate when I hate when I get a gallery back and the only detail
- 21:17images of my design suite have the shoes next to it, because often this
- 21:22bride has broken in these shoes and.
- 21:26There's dirty shoes next to this design suite that costs, you
- 21:30know, 800 or whatever to make.
- 21:34And so she's like, I never, I never use those images.
- 21:39And I end up never posting the photographer's photos.
- 21:44I end up hiring a photographer once a year to go back and take pictures of samples.
- 21:50So it looks like I only work with one photographer a year when I could have been
- 21:54working with all of these photographers.
- 21:57And I was like, you know, photographers don't know that if they, you know,
- 22:04like that's just a, that's a thing that you, you do in a detailed photo, right?
- 22:12You do the rings and then you throw the shoes in there and you throw
- 22:15a flower and you call it a day.
- 22:17Right?
- 22:18Like, but if Teresa had a tiktok and she had taken a video of her invitation suite
- 22:28and it was like a do this, not this.
- 22:32And then photographers saw that that's such a quick and easy thing that then
- 22:38opens the, you know, Pandora's box, if you will, of the opportunity for all
- 22:44the more exposure for her to be sharing the work of, of all of those artists.
- 22:50Becca: So when it comes to making these videos, you make it sound very
- 22:53easy, but I know that people listening will be, again, panicking about this
- 22:56and thinking, yikes so complicated.
- 22:59Like, how well polished would you say your videos are?
- 23:02How quick are you throwing them together?
- 23:03Are you building them in the TikTok app?
- 23:05Meagan: Yeah, so I...
- 23:07Never edit anything on the wedding day, unless I'm in that moment, like,
- 23:15again, a planner that I'm sitting in that hour of dancing where it's just
- 23:19all the DJ, you know, I'm always just sitting, I'm, I capture, capture,
- 23:24capture 90 percent of what I'm doing, I'm editing in the TikTok app.
- 23:29And it's really very basic if I am using let me pull it up right now if
- 23:36I am using like gallery images just from a photographer's gallery that they
- 23:43were to share and I wanted to do just a slide show I use the called in shot.
- 23:53And it looks like, I'll send it to you so we can put it in the show notes.
- 23:57It almost looks like it's the Instagram logo, but that's a really easy way
- 24:02to just drop a bunch of images in and then you can like edit them
- 24:07all at one time to the same size.
- 24:11So you don't have to click on every single image and, you
- 24:14know, change the length of time.
- 24:17So there's a couple of things like that.
- 24:19I have one file that I'll also send you.
- 24:23That's a very quick and easy.
- 24:24Like these are the apps that I use that make it super easy.
- 24:28So I'll send that to you for everybody listening as well, just to make it
- 24:33as easy as possible, but really the.
- 24:36Like people are not looking for the high resolution, like most everybody
- 24:42is editing in app, you know, like the.
- 24:45teeny boppers who have 500 million followers and are doing all
- 24:51of the dance videos and stuff.
- 24:53It's, the app is created and honestly promoted for you to be editing in app.
- 25:02So like the whole, it's almost like they, they're more likely to push out
- 25:09your video if you are utilizing the features that are, that are already there.
- 25:16So, you can kind of cut yourself some slack as far as that goes.
- 25:20Becca: Now what about the people who are thinking, I don't want to go
- 25:23onto an app and just get crickets.
- 25:25Like, it's a new app, I don't have a following, I'm going to go over there,
- 25:28I'm going to make these videos, and then who on earth is ever going to find them?
- 25:31Like, have you got any tips on, number one, how to get over that,
- 25:35and number two, how to actually get people to find your videos?
- 25:37Meagan: Yeah.
- 25:38So two things.
- 25:40One, video content is king these days on all platforms.
- 25:46So, you know, whether you are comfortable on Instagram and are getting comfortable
- 25:53with reels or are, you know, just trying to figure out ways to approach
- 26:01TikTok where maybe it's a tutorial that you're hypnotized, Just coming at it
- 26:07from an educational standpoint, you know, I come, I come from an educational
- 26:11standpoint, but I also come from like a, this is the work that we're showcasing.
- 26:16There is a venue, however, in North Carolina, she is brilliant because
- 26:21she has used her entire tiktok as essentially her FAQ page for.
- 26:27Any and every question she ever gets for the venue, she makes a tiktok
- 26:33and then when her parent, when parents, couples, anybody asks that
- 26:37question, she's like, great question.
- 26:39Here's a link to that.
- 26:40And she embeds it in an email.
- 26:42She'll link it on her website and she sends them right back to her tiktok that
- 26:46she's like, if you have more questions.
- 26:48Here you go, because she's done the job.
- 26:51She's done the work already, right?
- 26:53Like the work has been done once.
- 26:55She's not going to do it again.
- 26:57The other thing is like, I don't spend any time in reels, but I know
- 27:01that people like if I post on just rough numbers here, I have, we have
- 27:09over 7, 000 followers on Instagram.
- 27:12We get like 25 likes a day on a photo.
- 27:16It's trash.
- 27:17Like the engagement is absolutely terrible.
- 27:21If I post a reel, we get like 2, 500 views and like 300 likes.
- 27:30So it's pretty obvious that we need to be posting more video content, but I
- 27:35just take TikToks that I've already made.
- 27:39And post them onto Instagram.
- 27:41I'm not creating completely new content.
- 27:45I've already created it once and I'm just sharing it onto the other
- 27:49platform because now it's given me, it, it's just performs better.
- 27:56So I'm just doing the work once and showing up twice.
- 28:00Becca: So that's okay for us to be doing that, to share the same thing.
- 28:02And how are you doing that?
- 28:03Are you editing it in an outside app, and then uploading it to
- 28:07TikTok and Instagram separately so that you don't have the logos?
- 28:10Or how are you working that?
- 28:11Meagan: I just, yep, so one of the apps that I use, which will
- 28:15also be on that same PDF, is...
- 28:18Called I believe it's called safe tick and it removes the watermark.
- 28:23So when you go, yep, it's safe text.
- 28:27So when you copy the link from your tiktok and you bring it into safe tick,
- 28:33then you save it to your camera roll.
- 28:36You upload it as a real on Instagram and it took that.
- 28:40That TikTok watermark out and all of the music and stuff is all still
- 28:44there, so you do not have to find it and realign it or anything.
- 28:48It's already still.
- 28:48It's already done.
- 28:50It's just removing the watermark
- 28:51Becca: and so presumably does that work the other way around.
- 28:54So if people have got some content on reels, they can go ahead and
- 28:56open a TikTok and they've already got content to put on there.
- 28:59Absolutely love that.
- 29:00That's great.
- 29:00Golden.
- 29:01We definitely need a copy of this resource.
- 29:03I'll be putting it in the show notes for sure.
- 29:05So let's just talk then as we draw this conversation to a close about
- 29:09conversion, because ultimately we want to do our marketing to get more sales.
- 29:14And if we are going to go on TikTok, Reels, Instagram, any of
- 29:16these things, they take our time.
- 29:18So.
- 29:19How would you say it works from a conversion standpoint?
- 29:22Do you see conversion from people finding you on TikTok?
- 29:25Do they come over to another platform?
- 29:26Do they reach out directly?
- 29:27How's that working?
- 29:28Meagan: Absolutely.
- 29:29So last year alone, we had seven couples who booked us that came
- 29:36from either Instagram or TikTok, which would have, which would have
- 29:42equated to about 28, 000 in revenue.
- 29:46Comparatively, we paid for about 12, we, we spent about 12 in paid advertising.
- 29:55We made.
- 29:57Exactly.
- 29:58Like we broke even on what we booked from those people.
- 30:03So TikTok and Instagram are free.
- 30:06So it was, it was time, but it was 100 percent profit.
- 30:11And it's not, that's not to say that we're not spending time
- 30:15engaging with all of the couples.
- 30:18Making sure our sites are monitored, making sure our storefronts are monitored,
- 30:23you know, like we're still spending all of that time on these paid sites
- 30:30and so instead, we've been pulling back on a lot of these paid sites and now
- 30:37we're going to be doing for next year.
- 30:39Is taking a lot of that money and going into like TikTok ads and
- 30:44Instagram ads and Google ads, because even just a fraction of that spend
- 30:52will only increase that revenue.
- 30:54Becca: That's fascinating.
- 30:55It's really.
- 30:56important for us to hear those numbers and to hear that you are
- 30:59getting that return on investment because yes, our time is worthwhile.
- 31:02So therefore it's worth something we need to make sure we're getting
- 31:05some business off of the back of it.
- 31:07Now, the great thing about TikTok is that people can go and find your account
- 31:10and they can go through and they can see which kind of content is doing the best
- 31:15because the numbers show for everyone.
- 31:17Is that right?
- 31:18Meagan: Yes, absolutely.
- 31:19So, you know, there's definitely.
- 31:23What's really fascinating is if you were to look at a lineup of 10 different
- 31:29wedding planners all across the country, all across the world, they're all
- 31:34going to perform very differently.
- 31:35And the things that.
- 31:38I show up and speak about might perform very differently than,
- 31:45you know, another planner.
- 31:47So you do have to find out what works for you at the end of the day.
- 31:52But I think it's so fascinating and really very freeing to be able
- 31:58to engage and follow and interact with all of these people and to
- 32:05start conversations with everyone.
- 32:07To be able to say like, You know, Oh, I see that this is working for you, or I see
- 32:13that this is not working for you, or even in the sense where people are complaining
- 32:19in more of like a anonymous way, like about a client every once in a while
- 32:25where you're like, Oh, you're not alone.
- 32:27This is happening in Scotland too, or this is happening in Colorado as well.
- 32:33Right.
- 32:33Where it's just like.
- 32:35Yeah.
- 32:35Okay.
- 32:36They're crazy everywhere.
- 32:37Got it.
- 32:38You know, like, and there's, there's some camaraderie there too.
- 32:43And where occasionally, you know, you'll just end up having
- 32:46a little sidebar conversation with people and making friends.
- 32:50Just that again, I just don't really think that I see on Instagram in
- 32:56the same way when you're just, Posting beautiful images, right?
- 32:59Where you're like, wow, beautiful work, but you're not
- 33:03transparent in the same way.
- 33:04Becca: So your personality can shine through more on the TikTok app.
- 33:09We could talk about this for ages.
- 33:10There are so many more questions that we could discuss, but we need
- 33:14to bring this conversation Take care.
- 33:15to a close.
- 33:16Now, before I find out more about where people can find you, I always
- 33:20end my conversations with the same question and it's this, what's one
- 33:24thing you personally wish you'd known sooner in your own wedding business?
- 33:28Meagan: I would, I feel like this is a question that, or an answer that
- 33:33people who are over that like 10 year mark would give a lot, but it's that
- 33:39you're not each other's competition.
- 33:41You know, that it's just that there really is enough to go around.
- 33:46And if there is those that pick you are, are the right ones and the clients,
- 33:54and sometimes the clients that pick you are still not the right ones.
- 33:57Right.
- 33:58Like, but you are not for everyone and that needs to be okay.
- 34:02And so just really being able to hone in on what works for you and.
- 34:07One thing, if the pandemic has taught us anything, if the
- 34:12economy teaches us of anything, is that this job is so difficult.
- 34:17And it's too difficult to make it more difficult on ourselves.
- 34:22You know, we, the beauty of owning a business is you're supposed to
- 34:26be able to do what you love, right?
- 34:28You're supposed to be able to choose your clients and choose who you work with and
- 34:33choose who you surround yourself with.
- 34:35And so it does not have to be a scenario where you, where you work at every
- 34:40venue and you work with every client.
- 34:43And, you know, like some of them, you just have to let them go.
- 34:47And it has to be okay.
- 34:48Becca: Yeah, a hundred percent community over competition.
- 34:51Every single time there's plenty of work to go around.
- 34:54You couldn't possibly service every wedding.
- 34:56So it's always good to be reminded of that.
- 34:59Megan is been such a pleasure chatting all things.
- 35:02tiktok with you.
- 35:03Just share with everyone.
- 35:04If they want more help from you.
- 35:06on TikTok, or if they want to find your TikTok account, where's
- 35:10the best places for them to go?
- 35:11Absolutely.
- 35:12Meagan: My TikTok is magnolia.
- 35:14collective.
- 35:16And I, if you're not on TikTok yet, and you're still hanging out on
- 35:20Instagram, we're over there too.
- 35:22We're magnolia.
- 35:23collective LLC.
- 35:25I offer TikTok coaching.
- 35:27We offer wedding coaching, business coaching.
- 35:32If you're not on TikTok at all and just need to chat.
- 35:35Feel free to reach out.
- 35:36I will send you those resources for anybody who's listening today and
- 35:41we'd love to help however we can.
- 35:42Becca: Fabulous.
- 35:43I will make sure that I put all of those links in the show notes.
- 35:46Maybe I need some TikTok coaching because I went on TikTok and then quickly ran
- 35:50away and haven't been on it since.
- 35:51So maybe that's something that I need to do as well to get myself back on TikTok.
- 35:56It's been so great chatting Megan.
- 35:57Thank you so much for your time and I'll make sure I share all
- 36:00of those links in the show notes.
- 36:02I'll see you soon.
- 36:05I absolutely love that conversation with Megan.
- 36:08Isn't she awesome?
- 36:08I just wish I could get as excited about TikTok as she did.
- 36:12I think it's definitely something that we need to keep exploring
- 36:15and keep pushing ourselves to do.
- 36:16So if you do nothing else after listening to today's episode, go look up her
- 36:20TikTok, go and see what she's doing, go get inspired, and think about how you
- 36:24could do something similar yourselves.
- 36:26I'll see you next time.