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Plan a Better Wedding (or Party): with Marcy Blum & Jess Levin Conroy (Carats + Cake) · QUESTION EVERYTHING

0:04
Speaker 1: Big things happen when you're pretty, pretty bold, pretty clever,
0:08
Speaker 1: pretty strong. I'm Danielle Robe, and each week my guests
0:12
Speaker 1: and I have conversations that put a new spin on
0:15
Speaker 1: pretty this is pretty smart. Weddings, birthdays, graduations, these big
0:23
Speaker 1: life moments are caused for celebration and oftentimes parties. But
0:28
Speaker 1: how many of these celebrations have you been to and thought.
0:31
Speaker 2: Why exactly am I here? Or this is kind of
0:35
Speaker 2: well boring?
0:37
Speaker 1: And how many weddings or events have you been to
0:39
Speaker 1: that you would describe as unforgettable or life changing. I've
0:44
Speaker 1: always thought there must be a better way to gather.
0:47
Speaker 1: How do we create meaning in these moments, and ultimately,
0:51
Speaker 1: how do we throw a better wedding, a better party?
0:55
Speaker 1: So I picked up a book by Priya Parker. It's
0:57
Speaker 1: called The Art of Gathering, and in it writes, here's
1:01
Speaker 1: a great paradox for gathering. There are so many good
1:03
Speaker 1: reasons for coming together that often we don't know precisely
1:07
Speaker 1: why we are doing so this book, in her work,
1:10
Speaker 1: is helping to remake the how of coming together, but.
1:14
Speaker 2: More importantly, the why.
1:16
Speaker 1: The why is what makes the most meaningful moments of
1:19
Speaker 1: our lives. So today, I'm speaking with two people who
1:23
Speaker 1: have changed the way others celebrate, especially when it comes
1:28
Speaker 1: to weddings. First, I'm speaking with Marcy Blum. She's an
1:32
Speaker 1: internationally sought after event planner and entertaining expert with thirty
1:36
Speaker 1: years of experience. There's a reason so many celebrities ring
1:40
Speaker 1: her phone when they're looking to celebrate. And secondly, we'll
1:43
Speaker 1: hear from Jess Levin Conroy, the founder of Carrots and Cake,
1:47
Speaker 1: a startup that has completely disrupted and revolutionized the wedding industry. So,
1:53
Speaker 1: without further ado, Marcy Blum. Marcy crafts events with Santa
2:00
Speaker 1: the humor, innovation, and style, with attention to detail and
2:04
Speaker 1: flair for the unimaginable. Marcie creates events that stimulate the
2:08
Speaker 1: senses and awe guests while creating a seamless and enjoyable
2:12
Speaker 1: experience for clients. A graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute
2:16
Speaker 1: of America, Marcy's able to blend the tenets of theater, cuisine, decor,
2:21
Speaker 1: and atmosphere into every event she creates. Establishing herself as
2:26
Speaker 1: an eventiste for her combination of artistry and practicality, Marcy
2:31
Speaker 1: not only has been named a top Planner in the
2:33
Speaker 1: World by Vogue, Anne Harper's Bazaar. She's also been featured
2:36
Speaker 1: in countless publications like The New York Times and Vanity Fair.
2:40
Speaker 1: She's appeared on TV shows like Oprah, The Today Show,
2:43
Speaker 1: Good Morning America, and Rachel Ray. Marcy Knows how to Party, Marci,
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Speaker 1: you are an event professional, and before we into everything,
3:02
Speaker 1: I want to know the best party that you've ever
3:04
Speaker 1: been to?
3:04
Speaker 3: Oh, the best party I've ever been to. Wow, it's
3:09
Speaker 3: hard to remember the ones I've been to. Right. It's
3:11
Speaker 3: funny because we're working on a wedding now that is
3:14
Speaker 3: Studio fifty four themed, believe it or not, and I
3:18
Speaker 3: keep flashing back to all my nights at Studio fifty
3:23
Speaker 3: four a million years ago when I was twelve.
3:26
Speaker 2: I love that you were cool enough to go.
3:28
Speaker 3: Yes, I was well interesting. My former husband and still
3:32
Speaker 3: dear friend and I had restaurants in New York and
3:34
Speaker 3: I worked for him at the time before we were together,
3:36
Speaker 3: and the publicist for our restaurants was the publicist for
3:39
Speaker 3: Studio fifty four, and our restaurants were six blocks away,
3:43
Speaker 3: so she had me on the permanent list, and everybody
3:45
Speaker 3: would stop and say, how is that girl getting in here.
3:48
Speaker 4: I'd be like, excuse me, excuse me.
3:50
Speaker 3: So I went almost every night after work. It was
3:52
Speaker 3: great fun. So that was a great party, you know
3:56
Speaker 3: all the time. But probably the best party I've ever
4:00
Speaker 3: into as one that I threw way before I was
4:03
Speaker 3: in this business. When I was able to take over
4:06
Speaker 3: one of the restaurants I was working in for someone.
4:09
Speaker 3: They let me have it for New Year's Eve, and
4:11
Speaker 3: I invited everyone in the world I knew from all
4:15
Speaker 3: over the place, and we had you know, in those
4:18
Speaker 3: I was probably I don't know, twenty four to twenty five,
4:21
Speaker 3: and we had a very eclectic group where we had
4:24
Speaker 3: all my New York friends, plus tons of people from
4:26
Speaker 3: California were new friends, and people came from Europe and
4:30
Speaker 3: all over the place. Nobody had any to do New
4:31
Speaker 3: Year's Eve, so we everyone showed up at this restaurant
4:34
Speaker 3: where we basically had a big empty restaurant to ourselves
4:37
Speaker 3: and came pretty close to trashing it, which you know,
4:40
Speaker 3: that was probably the best party I've ever been to
4:42
Speaker 3: as a guest.
4:43
Speaker 2: Yes, I love that you mentioned that, because it has
4:46
Speaker 2: nothing to.
4:46
Speaker 1: Do with decor with a DJ. It was all about
4:49
Speaker 1: the people, all about.
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Speaker 3: The people exactly, and which is a lot of my
4:55
Speaker 3: sort of modus operendi for the way I plan events.
4:59
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously it should be beautiful, and we're very
5:02
Speaker 3: into you know, food and wine, my company, myself, everyone
5:07
Speaker 3: works with me. But really it's it's so much of
5:09
Speaker 3: it is, you know, the alchemy of people.
5:13
Speaker 1: Really, I want to dive deeper into that because I
5:16
Speaker 1: am I'm thirty one, and so I'm in like prime
5:20
Speaker 1: wedding time. A lot of my friends are getting married
5:23
Speaker 1: and they all listen to this podcast. So I just
5:26
Speaker 1: want to say, I'm sorry, but a lot of these
5:28
Speaker 1: weddings are so boring.
5:30
Speaker 3: You know. I say, if you walk into a room
5:32
Speaker 3: and I don't care how much money you spent, and
5:35
Speaker 3: you know, you spent a zillion dollars on decorps and
5:38
Speaker 3: it's gorgeous, and you walk in and that's all that happens.
5:41
Speaker 3: I said. It's like you know, taking Brad Pitter, Angelina
5:44
Speaker 3: Julie home and they just lie there. It's really it's
5:48
Speaker 3: one note and that's it. And at any event, not
5:51
Speaker 3: just a wedding, because we do all sorts of events
5:53
Speaker 3: should have a beginning and then climb a little and
5:56
Speaker 3: then climb a little and then you know, get to
5:58
Speaker 3: the apex and then sort of wind down. But just
6:01
Speaker 3: this putting all the money in the decorps or the
6:06
Speaker 3: venue or one thing, it's not People are bored out
6:09
Speaker 3: their minds. That's why people dread getting a wedding invitation, like, oh, please,
6:13
Speaker 3: don't make me have to go to this again. You know,
6:15
Speaker 3: nobody wants to sit at a table with the same
6:17
Speaker 3: person for six hours. It's dreadful. And we try, and
6:21
Speaker 3: I'm not the only one. Many of my colleagues and
6:23
Speaker 3: I try. We really try to do something about that.
6:27
Speaker 1: So when you say you do something about it, how
6:30
Speaker 1: do you create a sense of meaning at these parties?
6:33
Speaker 1: Because one of the things I've recognized you mentioned flow,
6:36
Speaker 1: which I think is super important. The other thing I've
6:38
Speaker 1: recognized is that the best weddings I've been to create
6:42
Speaker 1: a sense of community at some point.
6:44
Speaker 2: How do you create pretty smart.
6:46
Speaker 3: I get it, that's knowing it. You're absolutely right. I'll
6:49
Speaker 3: tell you so, almost every wedding we do now, even
6:54
Speaker 3: if it's not a quote unquote destination wedding, has a
6:58
Speaker 3: very large welcome part other than just a rehearsal dinner
7:02
Speaker 3: and again this is not about spending a fortune. I
7:04
Speaker 3: don't care if it's cocktails and or dirfs or champagne
7:09
Speaker 3: and dessert. You really want people to make new friends
7:13
Speaker 3: the night before if you could possibly manage it and
7:17
Speaker 3: create this communal convivial feeling from the get go, so
7:21
Speaker 3: that by the time you get to the wedding, after
7:25
Speaker 3: the ceremony, people are you know, are introducing their their
7:28
Speaker 3: spouse or partner whatever. Oh I met this person last
7:31
Speaker 3: night at the bar and they were talking about tequila,
7:34
Speaker 3: and I thought you'd be interested. You know, at least
7:36
Speaker 3: you're you're opening up the group to people they didn't
7:40
Speaker 3: know before. And the seating is extremely important as well.
7:46
Speaker 3: I can't say for a seat at dinner how often
7:48
Speaker 3: you know, we work with extraordinary people who are world
7:52
Speaker 3: class diplomats, politicians, whatever, and they really know the secret
7:57
Speaker 3: of things that a lot of us, who are you know,
8:00
Speaker 3: average citizens, don't understand how important it is to seat
8:04
Speaker 3: people and how important the specifics of you know, it's
8:08
Speaker 3: not just okay, put my family at this table, his
8:11
Speaker 3: family that table, babba. No, it's it's there is a
8:14
Speaker 3: magic involved in it that's so important and you should
8:17
Speaker 3: start months before, because that is the thing that is
8:20
Speaker 3: the secret sauce.
8:21
Speaker 2: Really, how do you think about seating?
8:24
Speaker 1: Like, do you you want to place people with some
8:27
Speaker 1: people they know and some that they don't.
8:28
Speaker 3: Know, definitely, but or people that you think they might
8:31
Speaker 3: enjoy to meet or mix it up at the rehearsal
8:35
Speaker 3: dinner or the welcome party whatever, and then put the
8:38
Speaker 3: do the traditional seating the night of the wedding.
8:42
Speaker 2: Oh that's a good idea.
8:43
Speaker 1: You know, I've noticed that nothing kills the apex of
8:46
Speaker 1: a party like a long speech.
8:49
Speaker 2: You're shaking your head.
8:50
Speaker 3: I'm laughing because I mean, this is and now it's documented,
8:54
Speaker 3: even though you know I've signed non disclosure, but it
8:56
Speaker 3: was all over Instagram. I will tell you that at
8:59
Speaker 3: Kevin love Katebox recent wedding, I was backstage doing something
9:04
Speaker 3: and a lot of NBA players and they were all
9:07
Speaker 3: toasting and I was backstage and I heard it was devolving.
9:10
Speaker 3: I could really hear like, oh my god, people like
9:12
Speaker 3: this is And I just and as I as I
9:14
Speaker 3: said to my everyone works with me and to you know,
9:18
Speaker 3: my clients, and I was like, I never would have
9:20
Speaker 3: had the nerves to do this twenty years ago. But
9:21
Speaker 3: now I just walked them. I got on my tippy
9:23
Speaker 3: toes and I pulled the mics from both those guys,
9:26
Speaker 3: and Kevin went MVP over the weekend because I knew
9:30
Speaker 3: I could just see and you see Lebron and everybody applauding.
9:33
Speaker 3: They were like, good for you. I tell people, you know,
9:36
Speaker 3: even if we don't pull the mics, don't do more
9:39
Speaker 3: than three minutes. Nobody cares, Nobody wants an inside joke.
9:42
Speaker 3: If you need to do that, do it a rehearsal dinner. Yes,
9:45
Speaker 3: have the toast all night long and leave everybody else alone.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So when you sit down with a new client
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Speaker 1: and you're trying to garner from them what they're really
9:53
Speaker 1: looking for, what questions do you ask them?
9:56
Speaker 2: How do you garner the vibe that they're looking for.
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Speaker 3: I mean, there's bunch of questions that we sort of
10:02
Speaker 3: all ask, which is, what are your favorite foods? What
10:04
Speaker 3: are your favorite restaurants? But now I've sort of started
10:07
Speaker 3: asking people what weddings have they been to that they
10:09
Speaker 3: didn't like, dislike being there, and what didn't you like
10:13
Speaker 3: about it? And that gives me a lot of information
10:17
Speaker 3: as to what they don't want or they may not
10:20
Speaker 3: even realize what they didn't like about it. Some people
10:23
Speaker 3: just hate weddings, so even the word wedding, they you know,
10:27
Speaker 3: people most often because we specialize in doing things that
10:31
Speaker 3: are a little different. Yeah, people most often come to
10:34
Speaker 3: me and say, you know, we have to have this thing,
10:37
Speaker 3: but I don't want it to smack of being a wedding.
10:39
Speaker 3: How can we have a great party with a ceremony attached,
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Speaker 3: but not a wedding? And that's what gives me joy
10:46
Speaker 3: in my business because really, although obviously you know, I'm
10:50
Speaker 3: an event and wedding planner, we try to do things
10:53
Speaker 3: that aren't would not be in the classic weddings textbook.
10:57
Speaker 2: Can you share a few of those things with us?
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Speaker 3: As I said, the wedding coming up that we're doing,
11:01
Speaker 3: which is a total you know, it'll be a formal,
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Speaker 3: beautiful ceremony and then it's going to be an absolute
11:08
Speaker 3: crazy studio fifty four wonderful wedding with a couple of
11:12
Speaker 3: restaurant kiosks, and there'll be a food fair slash club.
11:16
Speaker 3: We did a wedding on the Amalfi Coast that had,
11:20
Speaker 3: you know, a white party that had sirens on the rocks,
11:24
Speaker 3: you know, women in white on the rocks when the
11:26
Speaker 3: boats pulled up for the guests. And then we had
11:29
Speaker 3: you know, we had someone it was it was a
11:31
Speaker 3: white party. We had white truffles, and we had someone
11:33
Speaker 3: dressed as Monsieur truff who was shaving white truffles all
11:37
Speaker 3: over the place.
11:38
Speaker 2: So what I'm hearing you say, which I've never thought of.
11:41
Speaker 1: Really, I think about it more for bar and about Mitzvahs,
11:44
Speaker 1: is that it's nice to have a theme for the
11:46
Speaker 1: most question.
11:47
Speaker 3: I like a hook. And sometimes people say, sort of snottily,
11:51
Speaker 3: what it's like a bar about Mitzvah? But the truth
11:54
Speaker 3: of the matter is, if you go to a bar
11:55
Speaker 3: about Mitzvah, you find most of the adults they are
11:58
Speaker 3: trying to sneak into the kids room because they're so
12:01
Speaker 3: bloody bored at their seated table where they don't get
12:03
Speaker 3: to do anything, and everybody wants you know, they're all
12:06
Speaker 3: looking for the pigs and blankets.
12:08
Speaker 2: Ye, that's true. Everyone loves fingerfood.
12:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, so why not give them some fun. You know,
12:12
Speaker 3: I've had terrot readers at weddings. People are inappropriate. That's nonsense.
12:17
Speaker 3: Like what is appropriate or inappropriate is very subjective. I
12:21
Speaker 3: mean is the trick of the matter, and what we
12:24
Speaker 3: try to attain is elegance and beauty and magic and
12:31
Speaker 3: yet still a ton of fun. And it depends on
12:34
Speaker 3: each client. You know, some people are edgier than others,
12:38
Speaker 3: and are some people's parents or you know, we have
12:41
Speaker 3: to come up with a compromise for like what's going
12:43
Speaker 3: to make their parents happy if the parents are paying
12:45
Speaker 3: the bill. We're working on a wonderful wedding now that's
12:48
Speaker 3: going to be in Florida. That is really going to
12:50
Speaker 3: be you know, it's on a large property and people
12:53
Speaker 3: are going to be roaming around rather than a cocktail hour.
12:56
Speaker 3: I'm planning on having like mixologists in the tree and
13:01
Speaker 3: building all sorts of maybe building a treehouse. I haven't decided.
13:04
Speaker 2: Yet, but that's so far.
13:06
Speaker 3: You know, engage and amuse people and then we will
13:09
Speaker 3: have the sit down dinner in a different way.
13:13
Speaker 1: So in America, I think weddings tend to be a
13:16
Speaker 1: larger party. Have you and you obviously planned some of
13:20
Speaker 1: the largest ones. I would say, have you seen anybody
13:24
Speaker 1: do it differently that you've actually liked?
13:26
Speaker 2: Like, have you seen smaller versions?
13:28
Speaker 3: You know, I've done lots and lots over the years
13:31
Speaker 3: where fifty people or twenty five people. And that's another
13:35
Speaker 3: challenge because if you want a band or you want dancing,
13:39
Speaker 3: that is definitely too smaller group people.
13:42
Speaker 2: It's not going to work, okay.
13:43
Speaker 3: So what we try to do is very elaborate wine
13:46
Speaker 3: and food tasting dinners that have some to it. You know,
13:51
Speaker 3: have the samoier come out, engage in crowds with wine
13:54
Speaker 3: and food and have the chef come out, or you know,
13:57
Speaker 3: have several chefs and the place settings and things that
14:00
Speaker 3: you can do at a smaller dinner where it would
14:03
Speaker 3: be so astronomically expensive to do for three hundred people.
14:07
Speaker 1: What is one thing that you think people over emphasize
14:11
Speaker 1: at a party that doesn't matter as much.
14:13
Speaker 3: I can tell you what the under emphasize.
14:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, please, what are you thinking to mpermise service?
14:19
Speaker 3: I mean, if I you know, let's say there's no
14:21
Speaker 3: magic pot of money and I don't care who it is.
14:23
Speaker 3: There's always a budget. So if you have one pot
14:26
Speaker 3: and you put three quarters of it into decor and
14:31
Speaker 3: it comes meaning that you can't have as many weight staff,
14:35
Speaker 3: I would never do that. I will always err in
14:38
Speaker 3: the side of having more ways to have because I
14:40
Speaker 3: think that's what people remember, you know, they didn't wear
14:45
Speaker 3: looking around for drink, that someone was there when you
14:48
Speaker 3: got up and refluffed your napkin and put it down,
14:51
Speaker 3: you know, things like that, those are the things that
14:52
Speaker 3: people remember. When I got married, all I cared about
14:55
Speaker 3: was the food in the wine, right we had potted
14:58
Speaker 3: plants and beautiful table claws. S are extraordinary food and ridiculous wines.
15:04
Speaker 2: So what did you do for your wedding?
15:06
Speaker 3: I went to culinary institute. Yeah, so I had a
15:09
Speaker 3: lot of my friends chefs, and we all cooked and
15:11
Speaker 3: made like this ridiculous and it was the first station
15:14
Speaker 3: buffet in those days. You know, we had like eight
15:18
Speaker 3: different stations of one was charcuterie and comfie and all
15:22
Speaker 3: these like really ridiculous esoteric foods and tons of good
15:25
Speaker 3: champagne and tons of good wine. And that was basically it.
15:31
Speaker 1: How did you go from CIA to event planner? What
15:36
Speaker 1: was that journey?
15:37
Speaker 3: I was working in restaurants. First. I worked as a chef,
15:39
Speaker 3: and I was not great. I'm a really I'm a
15:43
Speaker 3: good cook, but I certainly I have a lot of friends,
15:46
Speaker 3: dear friends who are chefs. I mean Jeffers a Carry
15:48
Speaker 3: and Bobby Flay, all those people, and I've been lucky
15:50
Speaker 3: enough to have dinner with them. Those are chefs. I
15:52
Speaker 3: was never in that, even with another thirty years of training.
15:56
Speaker 3: But I was a good cook and so as I
15:59
Speaker 3: did not like being a chef, and I wasn't great
16:02
Speaker 3: at it, And then I was a sous chef. I
16:04
Speaker 3: was all different kinds of things. And when I was
16:06
Speaker 3: working restaurants and I was teaching cooking at the time,
16:09
Speaker 3: and people started asking me, could you do events outside
16:12
Speaker 3: of where you're working, you know, would you help because
16:15
Speaker 3: I was a banquet manager at that point, could you
16:17
Speaker 3: help us plan things? And I know it sounds ridiculous
16:21
Speaker 3: to imagine now, but it was, you know, a pretty
16:26
Speaker 3: nascent industry. I mean now, if you walk into a
16:28
Speaker 3: room like say, I'm a party planner, I'm a party planner.
16:31
Speaker 3: I'm a party planner. But then like, no, like what
16:34
Speaker 3: is that like? It wasn't even a business. So it
16:37
Speaker 3: just evolved that way.
16:39
Speaker 2: And you really love it, I can tell I do.
16:43
Speaker 3: When the clients are nice and fun and collaborative. I
16:49
Speaker 3: love it because it exercises a lot of the muscles
16:54
Speaker 3: that I like, you know, so every year it's something else.
16:57
Speaker 3: I mean, now I'm working on an event and I'm
17:01
Speaker 3: trying to get a lot of really high tech. It's
17:03
Speaker 3: a birthday party, and it's for someone who's very technologically oriented,
17:09
Speaker 3: and I'm trying to get a lot of very sexy
17:11
Speaker 3: and innovative lighting techniques above and beyond video projection. So
17:16
Speaker 3: you know, I spent yesterday trying to understand what these
17:19
Speaker 3: people were talking about. And it's not a you know,
17:21
Speaker 3: it's not if you're an accountant, maybe you learn new
17:25
Speaker 3: tax laws every year, but it's all almost said. I
17:28
Speaker 3: mean every day, I'm like Jesus, like, you know, because
17:31
Speaker 3: we outfit everyone who works my.
17:33
Speaker 1: Party, right, Like, if someone wants a butterfly thing, you
17:37
Speaker 1: have to go become an expert in that.
17:39
Speaker 3: But that's exactly right because you don't want to fake
17:42
Speaker 3: it or phone it in.
17:44
Speaker 2: I've never thought about that, You're right.
17:46
Speaker 3: I mean, because there's always going to be you know
17:49
Speaker 3: what I say to my team always, if you know,
17:52
Speaker 3: they'll say, well, we can't find that. I was like,
17:54
Speaker 3: if you can't find it, that's fine, I tell you
17:56
Speaker 3: right now. When I say it constantly, if the client
17:59
Speaker 3: finds it, you're dead, right. I was like, if you
18:02
Speaker 3: tell me that it's not findable, I believe you. But
18:07
Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you if someone else finds it,
18:09
Speaker 3: you're in trouble. So that and that's how we do it,
18:12
Speaker 3: you know everything. We don't say no unless we are
18:15
Speaker 3: a million percent sure that no one else is going
18:17
Speaker 3: to get a yes.
18:18
Speaker 1: Right, that's all. I like that motto. I try and
18:21
Speaker 1: do that in my life too, right.
18:23
Speaker 3: I mean, it's the only thing you could do. It's
18:24
Speaker 3: not because the worst thing for me is to get
18:26
Speaker 3: someone to call me and say, well, we found it.
18:28
Speaker 3: You know, my heart sinks. It's not an ego thing.
18:30
Speaker 3: It's more like, well, that was my job. I feel
18:33
Speaker 3: bad that I didn't do it.
18:37
Speaker 1: Part of my life's purpose is to help share women's stories.
18:42
Speaker 1: Did you know that researchers estimate women's stories make up
18:45
Speaker 1: zero point five percent of recorded history.
18:48
Speaker 2: I'm trying to change that. It's one of the reasons
18:51
Speaker 2: I created Pretty Smart. Each week I dig into the hearts,
18:56
Speaker 2: souls and stories of.
18:58
Speaker 1: People who put a new spin on pretty When we
19:01
Speaker 1: let someone's story in, it changes what we think of
19:04
Speaker 1: them and what we think of ourselves, Our stories have power,
19:09
Speaker 1: and Squarespace is a toolkit for storytellers.
19:12
Speaker 2: It's a visual extension of this podcast.
19:15
Speaker 1: The platform allows you to create a custom podcast website
19:18
Speaker 1: with a unique design in a short period of time.
19:21
Speaker 1: Just start with a free template. There are next level
19:24
Speaker 1: layouts that you can customize with fonts, logos, and widgets
19:27
Speaker 1: that update automatically. Then you can host a podcast on it,
19:31
Speaker 1: integrate with all third party podcast platforms such as Spotify
19:34
Speaker 1: and Apple Podcasts. I even embed and share interview clips
19:38
Speaker 1: from pretty Smart on the site. And if you want
19:41
Speaker 1: to add your portfolio, a blog, or sell your products,
19:44
Speaker 1: you can do it all in one place. Anyone who
19:47
Speaker 1: has ever written a story knows that the hardest part
19:50
Speaker 1: is deciding where to start. So whether you're telling your
19:53
Speaker 1: own story, a brand story, or your communities story, get
19:57
Speaker 1: started with Squarespace. So years ago, I worked at a
20:05
Speaker 1: digital media outlet and I had a friend Tracy, who
20:08
Speaker 1: was a comedian, and she got engaged and she came
20:11
Speaker 1: in and I said, congratulations, are you having a wedding?
20:14
Speaker 2: When is it? And she was like, are you kidding?
20:17
Speaker 2: So everyone can secretly talk about how I picked the.
20:20
Speaker 1: Wrong napkins no, I'm not having a wedding spot on exactly.
20:24
Speaker 2: I was laughing.
20:25
Speaker 1: But I've never forgotten that, because I do think we're
20:28
Speaker 1: all kind of snobby.
20:29
Speaker 2: When we attend these events.
20:31
Speaker 3: You're either in awe of the hosts. You're thinking they're
20:35
Speaker 3: much richer than you are, they are much more chenk,
20:38
Speaker 3: much more elegant than you are, so you're copying everything,
20:42
Speaker 3: or you're like, why did my friend who doesn't have
20:43
Speaker 3: all this money spend more money than he or she have?
20:47
Speaker 3: And on top of it, what's wrong with the Napkins?
20:49
Speaker 3: You know, we're either I mean, we're not a particularly
20:51
Speaker 3: as you may have seen for sure the last couple
20:53
Speaker 3: of years, particularly gracious race.
20:56
Speaker 1: That's really funny. There's this book The Art of Gathering
20:59
Speaker 1: by Prio. I love the way she looks at gatherings
21:02
Speaker 1: and trying to create meaning. So there's this one part
21:05
Speaker 1: of her book that I found particularly funny, and I
21:07
Speaker 1: don't know what it says about me that it resonated,
21:09
Speaker 1: but she says that there's such thing as a chill host,
21:13
Speaker 1: and that it's actually very selfish disguised as kindness because
21:17
Speaker 1: a chill host, she says, chill is a miserable attitude
21:20
Speaker 1: when it comes to hosting gatherings, meaning people can sit
21:24
Speaker 1: anywhere where anything, there's no real.
21:26
Speaker 3: Instruction really spot on. Yep, so you agree, I do agree.
21:30
Speaker 3: So I agree that you know, people come to my
21:31
Speaker 3: house and everyone always makes fun of me because I
21:34
Speaker 3: am in the kitchen in the weeds. Always I am
21:38
Speaker 3: there like there's a roast comes flying out, and then
21:40
Speaker 3: like an hour later there'll be crabcakes and everyone's like,
21:43
Speaker 3: come out of the kitchen, and I'm always you know what,
21:46
Speaker 3: this is the day. I used to do it every
21:47
Speaker 3: New Year's Day. It's my gift to you people. So
21:50
Speaker 3: I'm doing I'm totally fine back here. Don't worry about me,
21:53
Speaker 3: you know, go hang out, talk to Destin, you know
21:55
Speaker 3: my boyfriend, hang out in the garden, drink whatever you want.
21:58
Speaker 3: I am doing this for you and I'm perfectly happy
22:02
Speaker 3: back here. So I'm sorry, see me another night. But
22:06
Speaker 3: this is what I do on this day, and I
22:08
Speaker 3: don't know how to do it any other way.
22:10
Speaker 1: So in that same book, like she gives an example
22:13
Speaker 1: about sending out an invitation, and this mom sent out
22:16
Speaker 1: an invitation and she wanted the gathering to be about
22:19
Speaker 1: friendship and not about motherhood. So on the invite it
22:22
Speaker 1: said if you mentioned your child, you have to take
22:24
Speaker 1: a shot.
22:25
Speaker 3: No. I think what a great idea.
22:27
Speaker 1: That it's wonderful, right, I think it's wonderful, and it
22:30
Speaker 1: made me also think that there is a fun, comedic
22:35
Speaker 1: way to be instructive at a party, because I never
22:38
Speaker 1: want to be the host.
22:39
Speaker 2: That's like telling people what to do.
22:41
Speaker 3: No, but you're right, but that you're absolutely right. It
22:43
Speaker 3: is comedic and it sets the tone. Right. I always
22:47
Speaker 3: say to people, if you're having a beach wedding, let's
22:51
Speaker 3: not do a six ply engraved invitation. It short circuits
22:58
Speaker 3: people's thinking. They don't get it. You know, they're gonna
23:01
Speaker 3: either show up in a tuxia. They're not gonna know
23:03
Speaker 3: what to do. You have to set the tone, even
23:05
Speaker 3: if it's subliminal and subtle, but you have to set
23:08
Speaker 3: the tone for them. And to your point that imitation, right,
23:11
Speaker 3: take a shot everything you're like, Okay, this is not
23:13
Speaker 3: a mommy's party. This is a fun party. You know.
23:16
Speaker 3: We did a wonderful party for one of my favorite clients.
23:19
Speaker 3: I love this couple so much. It was a baby shower,
23:23
Speaker 3: but she did not want a baby shower. She's gorgeous, hip,
23:28
Speaker 3: wonderful human, as is her husband. So we did Christmas
23:33
Speaker 3: this crazy Christmas tent that it looked like, you know,
23:36
Speaker 3: National Lampoon Christmas, like insane with things hanging from the
23:40
Speaker 3: ceilings and elves running around. And that was the baby shower.
23:44
Speaker 3: So it was the Christmas baby. So the only nod
23:47
Speaker 3: to that was we had blue baby bottles in the
23:49
Speaker 3: Christmas tree and like a couple of like little funny things.
23:52
Speaker 3: But you would not have known it was a baby shower.
23:56
Speaker 2: I love when people put a twist on things.
23:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was just great.
24:00
Speaker 1: I always do a little rapid fire. So, okay, I
24:03
Speaker 1: have some fun ones for you. What piece of wedding
24:07
Speaker 1: etiquette is completely outdated?
24:09
Speaker 3: Serving the women first?
24:12
Speaker 2: That's interesting.
24:14
Speaker 1: Okay, what's a piece of wedding etiquette that is not outdated?
24:17
Speaker 3: The cutting the cake moment? I guess you know any
24:22
Speaker 3: way you want to So next week, I mean for
24:24
Speaker 3: this club wedding, we're having a parade of Fudgi the
24:28
Speaker 3: whale cakes from Carvel as the wedding cake.
24:32
Speaker 2: That's fine.
24:33
Speaker 3: A whole bunch of people with like whale hats coming out.
24:36
Speaker 3: You know, and that's the so it doesn't have to
24:38
Speaker 3: be a traditional moment. But people like to see the
24:42
Speaker 3: couple cut the cake. I don't know why, but that's
24:44
Speaker 3: one of those things they expect.
24:46
Speaker 2: It is cute. There's something unifying about it.
24:49
Speaker 3: And no matter one of the most outrageous weddings where
24:51
Speaker 3: we've done, you know, circus acts, whatever people are is like,
24:54
Speaker 3: what's the cake cutting it? It's just one of those things.
24:57
Speaker 3: Can't seem to get rid of.
24:58
Speaker 2: Speaking of cake? What is a drink? That's an unexpected
25:01
Speaker 2: crowd pleaser.
25:02
Speaker 3: Shots I'm always like, and you see people who you
25:05
Speaker 3: would never expect, like if this dance for slow, get
25:08
Speaker 3: out the shots.
25:10
Speaker 2: It's true. The best wedding I went to had a
25:13
Speaker 2: ton of shots.
25:14
Speaker 3: That's what it is. Can't help it.
25:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, a small gesture or favor at a party you've
25:19
Speaker 1: attended that you'll never forget.
25:20
Speaker 3: I believe that party favors should be edible for the
25:24
Speaker 3: most part, unless it's something really like is either should
25:30
Speaker 3: be really kitchy. We did a wedding in Saint Bort's
25:33
Speaker 3: and the couple's Golden Retrievers are like their kids, and
25:38
Speaker 3: so everything we had, like the bar at Nikky Beach
25:40
Speaker 3: like branded the the Golden Retrievers and the party party
25:44
Speaker 3: favor was air fresheners to hang in your car with
25:47
Speaker 3: the Golden Retrievers on it and the monogram, which I
25:50
Speaker 3: thought was I love that. I thought that was hysterical.
25:52
Speaker 2: At least it is hysteric.
25:53
Speaker 3: But if it's not something like that, then it should be.
25:56
Speaker 3: I mean, for this family, this Greek family from Boston,
25:59
Speaker 3: we beautiful wood boxes of bah la bah something about that.
26:04
Speaker 3: I mean nothing. You know, nobody wants a split a champagne.
26:06
Speaker 3: Nobody wants another candle unless you're a candle maker. You know,
26:10
Speaker 3: it should be something that is really evocative of who
26:14
Speaker 3: they are and edible.
26:17
Speaker 2: What is the biggest waste of money on the wedding budget?
26:19
Speaker 3: What is the biggest waste of money?
26:22
Speaker 2: I learned today it's not the fish fork.
26:24
Speaker 3: Not the definitely do not get rid of the fish fork.
26:28
Speaker 3: What is the biggest waste of money? Well, no, but
26:31
Speaker 3: I'm not. There are definitely wasted money. But I'm trying
26:35
Speaker 3: to think. It's so hard.
26:36
Speaker 2: It's a hard question because everybody's different, right.
26:39
Speaker 3: I Mean, we did a wedding a couple of years
26:41
Speaker 3: ago for someone ridiculously rich. And often when we're working
26:46
Speaker 3: with either very famous people are very rich people, there's
26:48
Speaker 3: there's so many assistance in between that you can't even
26:52
Speaker 3: get to the client. And for me, it's very difficult
26:56
Speaker 3: because my stock in trade is what we're doing, you know,
27:01
Speaker 3: chatting with people, and I, you know, love people, and
27:05
Speaker 3: I feel like I can sort of channel them if
27:07
Speaker 3: I get a sense of who they are. But this
27:09
Speaker 3: was one of those situations, and they must have spent
27:12
Speaker 3: it's a wedding upstate. They sent a black car for
27:16
Speaker 3: every guest, so it's probably like three hundred thousand dollars
27:20
Speaker 3: in black cars, which not only was absurd, but in
27:26
Speaker 3: this place upstate, you could see from like where I'm
27:29
Speaker 3: sitting now in Brooklyn, you could see the car line
27:32
Speaker 3: going like four miles away because you can't park, you can't,
27:36
Speaker 3: they couldn't. It took like hours, and I was and
27:39
Speaker 3: I said to the assistant multiple times, this is ridiculous.
27:43
Speaker 3: We do these lovely you know sprinters. They hold twelve people.
27:47
Speaker 3: No one is going to be offended. You know, even
27:48
Speaker 3: Hillary Clinton, if she's coming, you know, would get in
27:51
Speaker 3: a sprinter with other Hillary Clinton esque people.
27:54
Speaker 1: Okay, So what is a book that has changed your life?
27:57
Speaker 1: For a book that you think everybody should read in.
27:59
Speaker 3: My younger years, I would probably say a Tony Robbins book.
28:04
Speaker 3: One of Tony Robbins's books, which I found extremely helpful,
28:08
Speaker 3: his self mastery for someone who was, you know, insecure
28:13
Speaker 3: and anxious, and I found he very very, very wise.
28:18
Speaker 3: You know some of the early feminist books, which are
28:20
Speaker 3: you know, maybe a little bit anachronistic now, but like
28:23
Speaker 3: The Women's Room by Maryland French, you know one of those,
28:27
Speaker 3: or Fear of Flying by Erica John. You know it
28:29
Speaker 3: was a lot of women your age don't even know
28:32
Speaker 3: about those books. So there's this whole anti feminist movement
28:36
Speaker 3: now from people who are feminists and don't realize it.
28:40
Speaker 1: Okay, pretty smart card deck fifty two questions. Okay, you
28:44
Speaker 1: tell me when to stop stop. Oh, this is a
28:49
Speaker 1: good one. What's something you wish people could see about
28:52
Speaker 1: you that they don't see at first glance?
28:55
Speaker 3: How vulnerable I am?
28:56
Speaker 2: Wow, that's really nice. My last question, the smartest decision
29:02
Speaker 2: you've ever made.
29:03
Speaker 3: Going into my own business, and that was really I
29:06
Speaker 3: have to give credit where credit was due. That really
29:09
Speaker 3: was a Tony Robbins. You know I was miserable. You know,
29:12
Speaker 3: Tony always says humans do things for two reasons, either
29:16
Speaker 3: pursue pleasure or to get you know, go far from pain.
29:21
Speaker 3: And I was so miserable on my job that I
29:23
Speaker 3: was like, it couldn't be any worse, so I'll start
29:25
Speaker 3: this business. And the truth is I would have been
29:29
Speaker 3: an extremely miserable person at my age if I hadn't
29:32
Speaker 3: had the guts to do it. And it was scary.
29:34
Speaker 3: You know, it's scary every day.
29:35
Speaker 2: But you know, thank you for sharing that. Are you
29:42
Speaker 2: doing it all at your company?
29:44
Speaker 1: Just Works makes it easier for you to start, run
29:46
Speaker 1: and grow a business. Let me tell you just howess
29:49
Speaker 1: Works can help your business. We all know that great
29:52
Speaker 1: people are at the heart of every business, and just
29:54
Speaker 1: Works can help you attract and retain top talent In
29:57
Speaker 1: a competitive market, the cost of turn and over is
30:00
Speaker 1: extremely high. It's estimated that losing an employee can cost
30:03
Speaker 1: a company one and a half to two times the
30:05
Speaker 1: employee's salary. Just Works platform gives you access to rich
30:09
Speaker 1: benefits usually only available to large corporations, plus a range
30:14
Speaker 1: of health, fitness and financial perks.
30:16
Speaker 2: Because you and your team deserve them too.
30:19
Speaker 1: Just Works makes it simple to hire and manage remote
30:21
Speaker 1: employees across all fifty states with help when you need it.
30:25
Speaker 1: With twenty four to seven expert support for you and
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Speaker 1: your employees, access to certified HR consultants who can provide
30:31
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30:38
Speaker 1: know exactly what you're paying for run your business with confidence.
30:42
Speaker 1: Take a look at just works transparent pricing by visiting
30:45
Speaker 1: justworks dot com slash pricing. That's just works dot com
30:48
Speaker 1: slash pricing for details. And now we're going to hear
30:54
Speaker 1: from Jess Conrad, the founder of Carrots and Cake, a
30:57
Speaker 1: startup that's seeking to revolutionize the wedding and indosay street,
31:00
Speaker 1: connecting couples with vendors.
31:03
Speaker 2: Let me put it this way.
31:04
Speaker 1: The average couple spends thirty three thousand dollars on their wedding,
31:07
Speaker 1: and the wedding industry generates sixty billion dollars a year.
31:12
Speaker 1: It's fueled by small businesses looking to help you create memories.
31:16
Speaker 1: Jess has over a decade of experience in the wedding
31:18
Speaker 1: business and her company works with more than twenty five
31:21
Speaker 1: thousand vendors and businesses.
31:24
Speaker 2: She's transforming how we gather.
31:28
Speaker 3: You are an.
31:29
Speaker 1: Event professional, and so I am dying to know what
31:32
Speaker 1: the best party is that you've ever been to.
31:35
Speaker 4: I don't know if I could pick the best because
31:37
Speaker 4: I've had the opportunity, just because of this space, to
31:39
Speaker 4: have so many incredible experiences. But the event that turned
31:45
Speaker 4: me on to this industry where it was the first
31:48
Speaker 4: time I sat back and I was like, oh wow,
31:52
Speaker 4: there is an entire ecosystem of businesses and there's such
31:57
Speaker 4: opportunity inside this space was one of my closest friends.
32:03
Speaker 4: Her older sister got married while we were in college,
32:07
Speaker 4: and Colin Cowie did her sister's weddings. Now I know
32:11
Speaker 4: him and I've gotten to do things with him, but
32:13
Speaker 4: at the time, that was my first experience inside this
32:17
Speaker 4: incredible world, and that was really my first taste. So
32:20
Speaker 4: I would say that that event sticks out in my
32:23
Speaker 4: mind because that was my first experience. Now I've had
32:26
Speaker 4: the opportunity to be at so many different events that
32:29
Speaker 4: it would really be hard to pick just one.
32:31
Speaker 2: He's like a well known event planner.
32:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, Colin is. He is an incredibly well known event planner.
32:38
Speaker 4: It really was. You know, I was actually in the
32:40
Speaker 4: middle of business school and I had no intention of
32:45
Speaker 4: starting my own company. And the same friend whose sister's
32:49
Speaker 4: wedding I told you about was the first time I experienced,
32:52
Speaker 4: you know, one of these just sort of magical events,
32:55
Speaker 4: if you will. She then got married right before I
32:58
Speaker 4: started business school. And again it was just this moment
33:00
Speaker 4: where all of a sudden I realized that there was
33:03
Speaker 4: all this opportunity inside this industry. But what was the
33:07
Speaker 4: most interesting thing about it is that at the time,
33:09
Speaker 4: and this was, you know, two thousand and twelve, just
33:12
Speaker 4: to date myself, when I started Carrots and Cake, when
33:14
Speaker 4: I first started really thinking about what it could be,
33:17
Speaker 4: everyone was so focused on the end consumer and the
33:21
Speaker 4: couples celebrating every single year, where when you take a
33:25
Speaker 4: step back, the foundation of this industry are the professionals
33:29
Speaker 4: who serve it year over year, and it's the businesses.
33:31
Speaker 4: It's everyone from the photographer and the florists and the
33:34
Speaker 4: event planner down to the property in the hotel where
33:37
Speaker 4: you're actually celebrating. And I thought there was this opportunity
33:41
Speaker 4: to build a brand that might look like it was
33:45
Speaker 4: consumer first, but really was so focused on empowering the
33:48
Speaker 4: businesses and building a place that you know, would celebrate
33:52
Speaker 4: their work as much as you know, the couples who
33:55
Speaker 4: were celebrating.
33:56
Speaker 1: That is really an interesting way to think about things
34:00
Speaker 1: because a lot of people that listen to this podcast
34:02
Speaker 1: have big ideas and want to start companies, and to
34:06
Speaker 1: take a an industry that's so established and view it
34:10
Speaker 1: from a different, different angle is fascinating.
34:14
Speaker 4: Right, you know, if you were in it from that
34:16
Speaker 4: that it's a natural to look at, you know, the
34:19
Speaker 4: consumers and people celebrating every single year, but it's also
34:22
Speaker 4: the slash year aspect one. Yeah, and it's what gets
34:26
Speaker 4: a lot of attention. But you have half a million
34:29
Speaker 4: local businesses inside this industry that you know, there's one
34:33
Speaker 4: hundred billion dollars is spent in the US alone every
34:35
Speaker 4: single year, yet so much of the focus has always
34:39
Speaker 4: been on the end consumer, and so I think that
34:43
Speaker 4: there's something for us. It was, you know, build this
34:45
Speaker 4: community and then really learn what this community needs. Come
34:49
Speaker 4: and be business first, but then take the time to
34:53
Speaker 4: learn and really become friends with the businesses inside the
34:57
Speaker 4: space before you then start building for them. And that
34:59
Speaker 4: was a lot of our philosophy with carrots.
35:01
Speaker 1: So with Carrots and cake for people who haven't heard
35:04
Speaker 1: of it, what is carrots and cake?
35:06
Speaker 4: So Carrots and Cake now is the revenue optimization engine
35:10
Speaker 4: for the event industry focused primarily on venues. What we
35:14
Speaker 4: do is we're building a better way for venues, which
35:17
Speaker 4: is the largest vend inside the space. About sixty to
35:20
Speaker 4: eighty percent of that one hundred billion dollars every single
35:22
Speaker 4: year is touched by venues and caterers inside the industry,
35:27
Speaker 4: and so we're building a better way for them to
35:31
Speaker 4: run their businesses when it comes to how they invoice clients,
35:34
Speaker 4: how they attract them, and how they manage that revenue stream.
35:37
Speaker 4: That's what our full software stack does for them. And
35:39
Speaker 4: it started with you know, Carrots and Cake the community
35:42
Speaker 4: and grew into where we are today because we knew
35:44
Speaker 4: when we started the business, and we knew even more
35:46
Speaker 4: as we learned that we could continue to do more,
35:49
Speaker 4: you know, and in twenty nineteen it was a real
35:50
Speaker 4: turning point for us. Luckily it was before twenty twenty,
35:54
Speaker 4: but twenty nineteen we knew that, you know, we had
35:57
Speaker 4: worked with these brands, we'd started to work with venues.
36:00
Speaker 4: It started to help them think about new ways to
36:04
Speaker 4: do business and better stronger if you will. But we
36:07
Speaker 4: knew we could do more. And the reality is it's
36:09
Speaker 4: easy to look at this industry and think that the
36:12
Speaker 4: single biggest challenge is planning in event, But the single
36:15
Speaker 4: biggest challenge is actually paying for an event. And it's
36:17
Speaker 4: a pain point that uniquely sits in the middle for
36:20
Speaker 4: both those celebrating, but also for the businesses inside the industry.
36:24
Speaker 4: You know, one of the biggest pain points is how
36:26
Speaker 4: you collect payment, how you invoice, how you're actually able
36:30
Speaker 4: to protect and empower and grow your revenue stream.
36:34
Speaker 1: So I was reading articles about Carrots and Cake and
36:37
Speaker 1: it seems like it's considered a disruptor in the wedding business.
36:42
Speaker 1: Some of the articles go as far as to say
36:44
Speaker 1: you have transformed the events industry, which is a pretty
36:47
Speaker 1: powerful statement. Do you remember the first time you had
36:51
Speaker 1: a vision of doing this differently?
36:53
Speaker 4: It was actually probably my second year of business school.
36:56
Speaker 4: I would get up and I would work every morning
36:58
Speaker 4: on the idea of here it's cakems essentially the business
37:01
Speaker 4: plan of what I thought it could be. And that
37:04
Speaker 4: was where when you really started to break down you know,
37:07
Speaker 4: you would hear from like the investor side and like
37:09
Speaker 4: putting on you know, of my past experience having worked
37:12
Speaker 4: in a hybrid VC family office, you know, I always
37:14
Speaker 4: looked at things from like, well, where's the money? How
37:17
Speaker 4: are you going to make them? Like, you know, where's
37:18
Speaker 4: the opportunity? Right, and when you broke it down and
37:21
Speaker 4: you started today, I went and talked to some investors
37:24
Speaker 4: and everyone's response about the industry was interesting, is that
37:27
Speaker 4: they were concerned about, you know, you have to chase
37:30
Speaker 4: the new consumer every single year and there's all this money,
37:33
Speaker 4: but then like your cost for acquisition of a new
37:36
Speaker 4: consumer every single year is so challenging, right, And that
37:39
Speaker 4: was the reason that you know, there had been people
37:41
Speaker 4: who had tried but never able really been able to
37:44
Speaker 4: extrapulate like the real opportunity, the real value inside the space.
37:47
Speaker 4: And that was when I would always say to them, well,
37:49
Speaker 4: but what about the businesses. If you built something for
37:52
Speaker 4: the businesses and there's half a million of them, they're
37:56
Speaker 4: they're your repeat customer, right, So instead of going to
37:59
Speaker 4: the consumer and trying to discan aimediate the consumer, if
38:02
Speaker 4: you touch the businesses, you know they're touching one hundred
38:05
Speaker 4: billion dollars every single year, and you're not going to
38:07
Speaker 4: touch all of them obviously, but then you don't have
38:10
Speaker 4: the same issue. And for me it was it was
38:12
Speaker 4: through those conversations that I knew that we were we
38:15
Speaker 4: were onto something, you know, that we could really build
38:18
Speaker 4: a brand that would touch these businesses.
38:21
Speaker 1: So when you say transforming how they invoice is yep,
38:26
Speaker 1: it's software are you because I saw on the website
38:29
Speaker 1: you're matching you know, people who are planning weddings with
38:32
Speaker 1: the venues.
38:33
Speaker 2: So there's there's a few aspects.
38:35
Speaker 4: What we do with carrots and cake is for the
38:40
Speaker 4: properties and inside hospitality really we think that one of the
38:44
Speaker 4: biggest opportunities when you think about hospitality is event driven revenue.
38:48
Speaker 4: And when you look at event driven revenue, especially inside venues,
38:52
Speaker 4: which is where we focus today, it's usually only about
38:55
Speaker 4: ten to fifteen percent of their overall revenue stream. So
38:58
Speaker 4: it's natural that it wouldn't be a focus or would
39:00
Speaker 4: be overlooked as a result. Though the majority of that
39:04
Speaker 4: business is done without a purpose built system to help
39:09
Speaker 4: them manage that revenue, right, So a lot of the
39:11
Speaker 4: venues that we start working with, they are sending PDFs
39:15
Speaker 4: for contracts, they're sending paper invoices, they're asking for checks.
39:21
Speaker 4: You know, we have venues that we worked with that
39:23
Speaker 4: before US had no single point of digital payment collection,
39:26
Speaker 4: and so that's what we've started with. We've started with
39:29
Speaker 4: this custom built invoicing tool that allows venues for the
39:32
Speaker 4: first time to collect digital payment in a branded environment
39:37
Speaker 4: that also then gives them access to additional financial products
39:40
Speaker 4: that there in consumers might want.
39:45
Speaker 1: Okay, on the topic of dating, we all know someone
39:49
Speaker 1: who has met their person on Match, and if you
39:51
Speaker 1: haven't met yours yet, consider this. Match believes the most
39:55
Speaker 1: important relationship is with yourself. Match's latest study of over
39:59
Speaker 1: five one thousand US singles says there's a new triple
40:02
Speaker 1: threat on the dating horizon therapy, self care.
40:06
Speaker 2: And emotional maturity.
40:08
Speaker 1: Uh. How amazing is that finding? Can we say that again? Therapy,
40:12
Speaker 1: self care, and emotional maturity. It seems like people who
40:16
Speaker 1: sign up for Match are whole bringing their full selves
40:18
Speaker 1: to the table. You know, when I talk to successful couples,
40:21
Speaker 1: they often say it's all about knowing yourself first and
40:25
Speaker 1: matching with people who know themselves too. That's where the
40:28
Speaker 1: magic is, and that's where match comes in. They believe
40:32
Speaker 1: that in a world where you can choose to do
40:33
Speaker 1: anything or be with anybody, choose you first and the
40:37
Speaker 1: rest will fall into place, because the best relationships show
40:41
Speaker 1: up when we show.
40:42
Speaker 2: Up for ourselves first.
40:44
Speaker 1: There's never been a better time to try match download
40:47
Speaker 1: the match app.
40:48
Speaker 2: Today.
40:51
Speaker 1: I saw an article come out that you raised ten
40:54
Speaker 1: point six million in a series A funding, which is
40:58
Speaker 1: really exciting. I all of my friends that are entrepreneurs,
41:01
Speaker 1: that our women talk about the difficulties of raising money.
41:05
Speaker 1: Some of them say like it takes a year of
41:06
Speaker 1: their life away. Can you tell me about your experience,
41:10
Speaker 1: How did you feel?
41:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, raising money is one of the hardest, most rewarding
41:17
Speaker 4: things that you do as an entrepreneur. We've raised almost
41:20
Speaker 4: thirty million over the last eighteen months, so it's been
41:22
Speaker 4: like it feels like we've been fundraising. I think the
41:25
Speaker 4: thing is with fundraising is that you you hear a
41:29
Speaker 4: lot of nos and you just have to, you know,
41:33
Speaker 4: be okay with that. I have the stories that you've
41:36
Speaker 4: probably heard from so many other entrepreneurs, especially female entrepreneurs,
41:40
Speaker 4: where you're pitching close to one hundred people and you're
41:43
Speaker 4: having conversations, but what happens at the end as you
41:48
Speaker 4: start to realize you know, in the beginning you're like, oh,
41:50
Speaker 4: that investor would have make been great, or therefoirm would
41:52
Speaker 4: have been great. What you realize is the more conversations
41:55
Speaker 4: you have, the more knows you have. But the nos
41:57
Speaker 4: in the beginning make you stronger so that you get
42:01
Speaker 4: yeses at the end. So like the conviction and the
42:04
Speaker 4: idea and the holes and what haven't you thought about
42:07
Speaker 4: and what's not clear on your story ultimately gets you
42:10
Speaker 4: to investors that believe in what you're doing right. And
42:14
Speaker 4: so it's kind of like all those nos get you
42:16
Speaker 4: to a yes. That being said, if you ask my husband,
42:20
Speaker 4: you ask you know, the closest people inside this company.
42:24
Speaker 4: I take every one of those noes personally. But what
42:26
Speaker 4: I heard recently and I think is so true, is
42:30
Speaker 4: that you know it's a no right now. It's not
42:32
Speaker 4: a no forever. It's just a know at that moment
42:34
Speaker 4: in time. I think the advice that someone gave me
42:37
Speaker 4: when we raised this last round, which was so helpful,
42:40
Speaker 4: is that it's easy to like build a list of
42:45
Speaker 4: who you want to invest in things that I got
42:47
Speaker 4: to go talk to those people first. But the reality
42:50
Speaker 4: is you need to go talk to not those people first.
42:52
Speaker 4: You need to go talk to people and start to
42:54
Speaker 4: pressure test your story with friendlies and people that are
42:58
Speaker 4: going to be kind and how they deliver the feedback
43:02
Speaker 4: and no matter how painful it is, but you know,
43:03
Speaker 4: they help you poke holes, they help you find you know,
43:07
Speaker 4: what's the weakness in your story, what are people going
43:10
Speaker 4: to respond to? And then from there talk to more
43:14
Speaker 4: people that might be interested. But don't pitch your dream
43:17
Speaker 4: investor first because you won't have had the opportunity to
43:22
Speaker 4: learn about how to tell your story. And part of
43:25
Speaker 4: it at that is also just timing right. You hit
43:28
Speaker 4: an investor with the right time, with the right story,
43:30
Speaker 4: with the right opportunity, and it works.
43:34
Speaker 1: Talk to me about the role of storytelling in raising money.
43:38
Speaker 4: It is one of the most powerful tools. A lot
43:42
Speaker 4: of investors talk about sort of the narrative of what
43:44
Speaker 4: you're building or the story and how you articulate that story.
43:49
Speaker 4: It's super powerful, just like with anything in life, you know,
43:53
Speaker 4: honing what your story is. And I think the thing
43:56
Speaker 4: for founders is that story starts to evolve right like
44:00
Speaker 4: the story is about your journey, but it's a constant evolution.
44:04
Speaker 4: The other thing that's so hard is that everyone you
44:07
Speaker 4: talk to can give you different feedback, and so as
44:10
Speaker 4: an entrepreneur, that sort of like gut of listening to
44:15
Speaker 4: what you actually believe otherwise and like I found myself here,
44:19
Speaker 4: you know, and that recently is that you didn't start
44:22
Speaker 4: telling a story that's inauthentic to you because you think
44:25
Speaker 4: that's what people want to hear. But the reality is
44:28
Speaker 4: is if you don't stay true to your own narrative,
44:30
Speaker 4: it's not going to resonate with anybody else.
44:33
Speaker 1: So I was surprised researching for this interview that the
44:36
Speaker 1: average couple spends thirty three thousand dollars on their wedding.
44:40
Speaker 1: You mentioned this, it's a sixty billion dollar industry a year,
44:44
Speaker 1: which is wild, and it's fueled by these small businesses
44:47
Speaker 1: that you're helping. When you look at the finances, I've
44:51
Speaker 1: heard you talk about hitting costs. When you look at
44:54
Speaker 1: a wedding rundown, what do you think is the biggest
44:56
Speaker 1: waste of money?
44:57
Speaker 4: So I think the biggest money is when you spend
45:01
Speaker 4: on something that is not important to you, but you
45:05
Speaker 4: do it because you think it's what you're supposed to do,
45:08
Speaker 4: whether you do it for the photographs but not for
45:10
Speaker 4: the experience of your guests, or whether you know you
45:12
Speaker 4: do something because someone else is telling you that's what
45:16
Speaker 4: you should do. I think ultimately that's where people end
45:19
Speaker 4: up wasting money, right where they spend too much on
45:22
Speaker 4: decor and don't worry enough about the experience of their guests,
45:25
Speaker 4: or they spend too much on something that matters to
45:29
Speaker 4: another stakeholder in the event. Because the average wedding has
45:32
Speaker 4: about six different people, you know, financially contributing, which can
45:35
Speaker 4: be challenging. Yeah, so then you have a lot of
45:37
Speaker 4: different emotions and.
45:39
Speaker 2: A lot and a lot of cooks in the kitchen expecting.
45:41
Speaker 4: You to do things, and that I mean, that's when
45:43
Speaker 4: people talk about how stressful planning a wedding can be
45:47
Speaker 4: because you have high financial spends and you have a
45:51
Speaker 4: lot of different decision makers who have buy in on
45:54
Speaker 4: that spend.
45:55
Speaker 1: It's also, most of the time the very first time
45:58
Speaker 1: that a couple is really talking about money in a
46:02
Speaker 1: large way.
46:03
Speaker 4: One hundred percent, and it's the beginning, if you think
46:05
Speaker 4: about it, it's the beginning of this new financial family unit. Right.
46:09
Speaker 4: So for the first like You've got a couple who
46:12
Speaker 4: is always you know, probably independent, and then their parents
46:14
Speaker 4: were involved in their life, supporting or what have you.
46:18
Speaker 4: And then now you've got this couple, and then you've
46:20
Speaker 4: got the parents that then have to come together on
46:22
Speaker 4: top of that couple, and they all have to align
46:25
Speaker 4: on spending more money than anyone's ever spent in their
46:31
Speaker 4: entire life on a day.
46:33
Speaker 2: Are less people doing that nowadays?
46:35
Speaker 4: Interestingly enough? No, because what's happened And that's one of
46:39
Speaker 4: the things that is I would say special about where
46:43
Speaker 4: we are in this moment in time is that, you know,
46:45
Speaker 4: the last couple of years have taught and people have
46:47
Speaker 4: taught people how important moments are. And being able to
46:50
Speaker 4: celebrate and gather and be together, Okay, I do with
46:55
Speaker 4: some rapid fire before the end. So a small gesture
46:59
Speaker 4: or favorite party that you've attended that you'll never forget. Oh,
47:02
Speaker 4: a friend did handwritten notes, but in like calligraphy for
47:06
Speaker 4: every guest too. It was almost like a keepsake that
47:10
Speaker 4: was like a I love you. Yeah. Really special, you know,
47:13
Speaker 4: and something that I think is pretty accessible regardless of
47:16
Speaker 4: what a budget is. I actually borrowed it from my
47:18
Speaker 4: own wedding and did the same thing for our wedding party.
47:21
Speaker 2: A food or drink that's an unexpected crowd pleaser.
47:24
Speaker 4: Anything sweet, I have a big sweet tooth. I think
47:26
Speaker 4: anything sweet is just people love.
47:29
Speaker 1: One wedding No no, should we say that? You see
47:32
Speaker 1: often I.
47:34
Speaker 4: Would say, like the biggest wedding, No no is as
47:36
Speaker 4: much as it's about you, it's also about the guests,
47:39
Speaker 4: and it's about the people celebrating with you. So just
47:42
Speaker 4: make sure you think about with the experience.
47:44
Speaker 2: That's a great one. Okay.
47:45
Speaker 1: A book that you've read that you feel like changed
47:48
Speaker 1: your life and everybody should read.
47:50
Speaker 4: When my son was born, somebody gave us this book
47:52
Speaker 4: called What You Do with an Idea? And it might
47:55
Speaker 4: have been the hormones, but I fully broke down crying
47:57
Speaker 4: reading it. And it's a children's book but and it's
47:59
Speaker 4: super or everybody should read it. But it talks about
48:02
Speaker 4: the entrepreneur entrepreneurial journey, if you will, but from like
48:05
Speaker 4: a child's eyes, and it really for me summed up
48:08
Speaker 4: my journey in that the child has this idea, people
48:12
Speaker 4: tell him it's the terrible idea. He then like ignores it.
48:16
Speaker 4: He then is unhappy, then has his idea, learns how
48:20
Speaker 4: to foster it, and doesn't realize that it doesn't matter
48:22
Speaker 4: what anybody else says. It's like he values the idea.
48:25
Speaker 4: It's a really beautiful book. It's super short, but it really,
48:29
Speaker 4: like for me, crystallizes what this journey's been and continues
48:31
Speaker 4: to be.
48:32
Speaker 2: I haven't heard about it.
48:33
Speaker 1: I love a story of resilience, So I will send
48:36
Speaker 1: that shaing that what's been your hardest day as an entrepreneur?
48:40
Speaker 4: This is probably what everybody says. But the low's like
48:43
Speaker 4: the peaks in the valleys that sometimes can happen within seconds.
48:48
Speaker 4: I think that that's the hardest thing, you know. And
48:51
Speaker 4: when I first started the business, it was like a
48:54
Speaker 4: roller coaster. But I think it's also as crazy that sounds.
48:58
Speaker 4: The best part about this journey is that like you
49:00
Speaker 4: can have the highest highs and the lowest lows, and
49:04
Speaker 4: you know, what you realize is that no matter how
49:06
Speaker 4: low it is, it's always going to get high, and
49:08
Speaker 4: sometimes like the farther along you get, it becomes less
49:11
Speaker 4: of a less of a roller coaster at certain points,
49:14
Speaker 4: or maybe you just get better at dealing with it.
49:16
Speaker 1: I think maybe it's that you have the experience in
49:20
Speaker 1: knowing that they don't stick around like there will be
49:23
Speaker 1: another high.
49:24
Speaker 2: You're not in the low forever.
49:26
Speaker 4: I've never doubted what this company can be and what
49:29
Speaker 4: I believe this company can be, And it's one of
49:33
Speaker 4: the things that I you know, I pinch myself about
49:35
Speaker 4: every single day to get to be here now building
49:39
Speaker 4: something with this team. Yeah, during those first eight years, yeah,
49:43
Speaker 4: there was moments where I mean we were living like
49:45
Speaker 4: week to week cash flow to cash floats. There were
49:47
Speaker 4: some very tricky moments in time, and I think that that's,
49:50
Speaker 4: you know, it's part of what shaped me as a founder.
49:52
Speaker 4: It's part of what shaped this business and how we
49:54
Speaker 4: think about things. But yeah, it was never just like, oh,
49:57
Speaker 4: this is always going to work, you know, there was
49:59
Speaker 4: there were definitely some very very dark moments and some
50:02
Speaker 4: very dark corners of some very dark we works. You know,
50:05
Speaker 4: at moments in time.
50:06
Speaker 2: I so appreciate you sharing that.
50:09
Speaker 1: I started a card deck of questions that I sent you. Wait,
50:12
Speaker 1: you have it, Okay, So usually I pick one, but
50:14
Speaker 1: you have it in front of you, So will you
50:15
Speaker 1: pick one up?
50:16
Speaker 4: Scroll through your Instagram? Which photo represents the true you?
50:19
Speaker 2: And why no one's ever picked that one on the pod.
50:22
Speaker 4: Okay, probably this one, which is the straw like just
50:27
Speaker 4: balancing at all, which is like, you know, the epitome
50:31
Speaker 4: of the entrepreneurial journey, where I think my son is
50:34
Speaker 4: like six months. In that photo, I've got, you know,
50:37
Speaker 4: two devices, as you can see, probably not pictured somewhere
50:41
Speaker 4: is someone else on the tab.
50:42
Speaker 3: Like it's just.
50:43
Speaker 4: That that's it where it's like, your life is this
50:46
Speaker 4: messy journey and sometimes you know, there's probably split up
50:49
Speaker 4: on my shirt. I think in this photo, I probably
50:51
Speaker 4: haven't washed my hair and like you know, five days
50:53
Speaker 4: type of deal. It's like, you know, but you're just
50:55
Speaker 4: you're making it work.
50:56
Speaker 2: It's beautiful. Okay.
50:57
Speaker 1: I ask everybody this question. It's the first thing that
51:00
Speaker 1: comes to your mind. What is the smartest decision you've
51:02
Speaker 1: ever made?
51:03
Speaker 4: Building a life in New York City? Probably I'm building
51:06
Speaker 4: this business in New York City. I think that the energy,
51:09
Speaker 4: the talent, the access to entrepreneurs, the startup ecosystem, the
51:14
Speaker 4: event industry here, like everything here, I think has been
51:18
Speaker 4: an incredible decision for us as a business and for
51:21
Speaker 4: me personally.
51:22
Speaker 2: That city vibrates.
51:23
Speaker 4: I know, it really does, it really does. Couldn't live
51:27
Speaker 4: anywhere else.
51:33
Speaker 1: I want to thank the people that make the show possible.
51:36
Speaker 1: Colleen O'Neil, Jill Salama, Karrie O'Keefe and Phil speed Tech. Okay,
51:41
Speaker 1: you know what time it is. Today's a good day.
51:43
Speaker 1: To have a good day. I'll see you next week.