#034 The Importance of Social Proof in the Wedding Industry: Meghan Ely's Guide to Public Relations

Unlocking Wedding Industry Secrets with PR Expert Megan Ely

In this special episode of the Bright Growth Podcast, host Melissa welcomes Meghan Ely, a wedding industry PR veteran with over 15 years of experience. They discuss the significance of social proof, the importance of continually improving one's craft, and the various ways wedding professionals can stand out in a saturated market. Megan shares valuable insights on leveraging podcasts, writing, and other media to showcase expertise.

She also delves into her OFD Collective, a platform designed to help wedding professionals get published. Their conversation is packed with practical advice for anyone looking to elevate their presence in the wedding industry.

00:00 Welcome to the Bright Growth Podcast
00:08 Introducing Megan Ely: Wedding PR Expert
00:52 Reconnecting Over Two Bright Lights
01:57 Megan Ely's Journey into Wedding PR
08:52 The Importance of Social Proof in the Wedding Industry
15:49 Strategies for Getting Published and Standing Out
21:27 Starting Out in the Wedding Industry
22:43 Showcasing Your Expertise
23:34 The Importance of Social Proof
27:07 Lifelong Learning and Innovation
31:42 Client and Vendor Relationships
33:24 The OFD Collective
39:38 Final Tips and Contact Information

Mentions:
Meghan Ely, OFD Consulting
Manda Weaver, Photographer, Flat Lay Specialist
Alan Berg, Wedding Consultant

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Transcript

Hello everyone. And welcome back to the bright growth podcast. I'm your host, Melissa. And today we have a very special episode for you. Joining us is Megan Ely, a renowned figure in the wedding industry with 15 plus years of wedding PR experience. I've had the pleasure of knowing of her for many years, and now I finally get to chat with her.

I can't wait for you to hear her insights on the wedding industry. So without further ado, let's dive into the conversation. 

Welcome to Bright the podcast for wedding creatives that want to earn more and have a life and business that they love. Hi, I'm your host and money mentor, Melissa. I make understanding money in your business easy. Each episode we'll be talking about finance, growth, mindset and real strategies for your creative business.

Are you ready? Let's get started.

So welcome, Megan. Thank you so much for being here. I didn't realize that I actually had attended one of your Two Bright Lights webinars back in 2019. So I haven't met you. Isn't that crazy? I haven't met you in person, but I've seen you and I knew who you were and I'm just excited to actually quote you.

Well, for the step back in time Two Bright Lights. I remember I was aiming for that webinar for years and they finally let me come on. I think I've been using it since they. started. So I'm so glad we're reconnecting. Absolutely. And I think that it kind of exactly was like this, this distant memory. I'm like, Oh my God, when two bright lights came out, it was a game changer.

And it was just something that was like a breath of fresh air. For me, it changed again, not to go too far in another direction, but when they finally, cause they opened it up, it was photographers only. But when they opened it up to anyone, I remember going and saying, I'll, I'll literally pay whatever it just so I can use this really great streamlines, shout out to bright lights for bringing us back together and wonderful.

So here we are, here we are, here we are all these years later. So please, can you familiarize my audience with who you are and what you did? Absolutely. So I'm Megan Ealy. I'm the owner of OFD Consulting. So we are wedding publicists. I've been doing this 15 years and prior to that I was actually in weddings working in venues but my background is, is in PR and we get people published.

We help them find their voice, um, and share their voice with other people. So what's funny about myself. story is, and this is a true story, is that I got my career in PR because one of those high school career tests told me I'd be good at it, and I don't know if I'm just like the supreme rule follower and thought, well, that's, that's it, I'm going to be in PR, but I did take one early on in high school.

school and you kind of tested the waters and people would ask me what I was going to go to school for later. I'd say PR, but not really didn't quite know what was, what that was, but once I got a better handle on it and realize media relations, it made sense to me. It was something that I've always had a deep appreciation and interest.

I used to, in the media, I used to make magazines as a kid, like people magazines at a construction paper. I just, I loved it. I get to tell someone from people one time too, that I didn't say it was a full circle moment, but, um, but yeah, no, I went to school for PR. I loved every second of my, training and in subsequent internships, but I had a bit of a pull to the wedding industry.

Just, uh, I know this sounds very, um, maybe even to say basic because a lot of people say this, but it just seemed like an exciting, glamorous and happy place to be. And so I did it. Yeah, I did a bit of it. It wasn't really the glamour as much as the happy. And so I did a bit of a zigzag and after school, I accepted a position with a local venue and I loved it.

It was one of these things where My, my first office ever was a hallway. I worked every night, every weekend, like only hours that a 23 year old can muster, you know, I was working multiple jobs at the time. And I just knew I wanted to be here. Um, but over the years, it became evident that as much as I enjoyed the execution of events, that I was still tugged to PR.

And I felt after a lot of observation that I could combine those two. So in 2009, I opened up OFD and it was one of the first wedding PR agencies. It's still one of the only ones out there. And so it was such a humble beginning, you know, I mean, a career test told me I should do it. And then after time I said, well, maybe I should actually do this.

Good for you. What a great story. And I love when two things can intersect so perfectly like that. You get to stay in the industry you love. And use your natural abilities. That's fantastic. I feel so lucky. Absolutely. Okay. So there's this quote on your website. I think it's from, I'm going to look at my notes, Garter Girl.

I can't remember her actual real first name, but Garter Girl. Julie. Okay, fantastic. I love the quote. She said, my biggest problem before joining OFD was that I didn't know what my problems were. I just love this because I think none of us know what we don't know. And I think her saying it that way, just really, you know, It's almost like permission to be like, okay, where do I start?

Like, well, it's hard. You don't, you know, it's one of those things. And I'm glad I could be that to her and others. I myself, I remember going, I was like eight months pregnant at the time. And I went to a business coach because I enjoyed what I was doing, but I could see some holes in it, but no one's going to tell the eight month pregnant girl, like, Oh no.

So no, I went to a business coach. It was like. No, you're a house of cards. We need to update these structures. And I was like, thank you. Someone had to tell me and, and on our side, we love being that outside person, even though we're filled with empathy, of course, and, and, and hopefully the right expertise.

But yeah, we are going to look at things and say, well, you know, especially when people say, well, they want to share their voice and I could talk about anything. And I'm like, that's not like, you don't want that. You actually don't want to be the be all catch all, you know? So we're happy to be that kind of sounding board for people.

That's great because then you can show them what they can't see. And I think we all can benefit from that, whether, um, regardless of what your niche is, anyone who can kind of take a fresh look at what you're doing. I would say the light bulb goes off later when it's your own company. Like, I find, I have, I'm sure you feel the same.

I have to bring in outside people to really look at this and say, okay, this is how I see it, but I obviously have very huge bias here. So hopefully we can help.

Well, I'm just curious because I think we've, so we've been in the photography, wedding photography business for over 20 years. It was a natural progression for us to understand that we needed to, um, as it became fresh and we used to do We're submitting and we could clearly see, we could easily see how that was affecting our business.

I mean, it was like, of course, we're going to submit weddings. This is leading people to our doorstep that we never would have gotten in front of. But now here we are all these years later, someone's beginning. Like, what is, what is their first step? Like, what do you recommend to, and I get, sometimes I think photographers have it easy too.

So I don't even know, like if it was a florist and they want to submit. Absolutely. Where do we go? You know, I think you've got to have a hard conversation with yourself to start, which is, I know it doesn't sound fun, but okay, I'm thinking about publicity. I'm thinking about being out there and putting myself out there.

What has to happen for that to be a success? First of all, because you and I, I'm sure can both agree, um, that the fact is none of us have an unlimited amount of time, money, resources, like we can't just jump on everything that seems glamorous and exciting or whatever. And so you have to ask yourself from a business standpoint, if I'm at A, which is where you are today, maybe not the first time, It could be your 20th year in business, M.

A. D., trying to get to B. Is this something that's going to support that? Like what does that mean? And so really having a hard conversation with yourself and pushing on the why. Well, I'd like to be published in where, but why? Because a lot of people will say Vogue, Martha Stewart, Brides, and that's amazing.

Those are all amazing publications, but it's not always the most realistic based on portfolio, you know, uh, whether the couple's Famous or not, or the publishing schedule of the publications. You know, at the time of this recording, Martha Stewart Weddings hasn't published a wedding in months. So like that may not be a realistic goal right now, depending on where they're at.

And so really just having that hard conversation anytime you wanna introduce some sort of strategy to, you know, any sort of marketing pr, what have you. And then I. And then you ask yourself how, right? So it's like the why, the what, and then the how, because you're right. Photographers, of course, and I would also say planners and venues, maybe florists, they benefit the most from having their weddings featured.

As you said, like you can see the needle moved when you do that. But, um, our friends in music, entertainment, hair and makeup, they won't benefit as much, unfortunately. Right. And so. For those guys, they have to may say, well, maybe submitting a wedding doesn't make the most sense, but I could be on podcasts, which is a bit of a meta moment for you and I, but being in a podcast, right, they could get quoted, use their voice to be quoted and share their expertise and publication.

So, yeah, I think it starts with, Hard conversation, asking yourself why, like, why am I really, am I doing this because my competitors are all being featured or is there an actual business reason for this? And then the last is the how, like, where am I going to go first to tackle this? What makes the most sense for me?

So knowing how saturated, I mean, the wedding industry has been oversaturated since the dawn of time. I'm sure it's the first wedding ever happened, but now it seems even more so, or at least to me it does. I hear from the clients that I coach, that I mentor. The number one question that we get asked, how do I book more clients?

And also, you know, how do I stand out in a saturated market? People feel like they're drowning and. The, the sea of competitors, whether that's in their, their local, their local industry or nationwide. So for, for those that feel that they're drowning in a sea of competitors Yeah. How do they recognize?

Because I feel sometimes people don't know, uh, back to the quote from a few minutes ago that they don't know what they don't know. So. Sure. Because I don't know that this is an option for me and I'm drowning and not, there's so many competitors in my niche. What would you recommend to somebody that you know, back to first step or what they should do?

Absolutely. And I agree with you. I have to first say that I, yes, it's always going to be too many people. There just are, you know, as someone who I recognize there's about six of who does what I do. So maybe not my little area of the world, but the rest of the world. And that's, that's what Showing no signs of slowing down.

It's a low barrier for entry for entering the wedding industry. Um, we, it's our fault for, our fault for making it look so fun and cool and all the things. You know, you don't see everyone running in droves. To into accounting because Instagram makes it seem sexy, you know, shout out to my accountants I could not be here without you But but I would say what helps you stand out and to answer that is to really look at today's Consumer which that 25 to 35.

I mean don't be wrong people get married at all different ages. So I want to be clear I'm clear on that, but there is a highly concentrated amount in that mid twenties to, you know, mid thirties or so. And we're seeing that shift, that Gen Z shift, which I can't believe I'm here for another gen. My gray hair indicates I'm here for yet another generational shift here.

And what they're looking for to stand out, to answer your question is going to be social proof. It's this generation wants to see that everybody else says you're great. The end. Like it's, it's because yes, I would say, and I'm. Let me be clear that this is not, this part's not my area of expertise. I would say, you know, I would love to see people continue their craft and continue to be better at what they do instead of getting bogged down by the business.

And that's how some people stand out. And I could go into that a little bit more, but I'm, as someone who's not a photographer or planner, I want to be careful where I stand. step on that. But you can tell the people who evolve and work harder and differently on their, you know, on their design and style.

But I would say for the masses here, if you're looking to stand out from them, it's going to be that social proof. It's everyone saying you're great. And that comes in layers. It means different things that could be, um, awards. Absolutely. There are people, you know, we may not know exactly what the award means, but they see an award and they see that other people are honoring them.

It's going to be the as seen in on your homepage, maybe not a full press page. It just depends on it, but you know, as seen in brides as seen in whatever that is to you as well, it's going to be also those testimonials, like fresh testimonials, not ones from five years ago, but from current folks as well.

Um, For those who dip into corporate too, I just as a recommendation, bear with me, but for those who also, because I'm sure we have a lot of listeners who also do that, you know, the logos of, of course, um, the, the corporate big names that they've worked with, but it's also the associations you belong to the leadership roles, just having showcasing.

That the people around you have given two thumbs up, uh, makes a huge difference. It's why when you go to Amazon, there are a thousand reviews for socks, you know, like one pair of socks, right? You know, one of this, one of that is because of all those reviews and that's where society is heading. So I would say social proof.

Absolutely. I mean, I'm sure no matter what part of my life, whether I'm going on a trip and I want to book a hotel, I mean, I think sometimes what happens is people don't reverse the role. They don't think of themselves as the, what the consumer sees when they view your website or they, they see a thousand wedding photographers and Phoenix, for example, and what helps you stand out is obviously exactly what you just described.

It's the same as a hotel and, you know, that's featured on Instagram or, or whatever. Like when you see people's reviews and I go to Airbnb and I'm going to book something, I'm going to. Scour those reviews. I need, I need proof that I'm going to make the right decision. Never mind if it's the most important day of my life.

I can't even begin to tell you, I go on stage and I have a whole talk just on social proof. And I can point to all the things I'm wearing down to the lipstick of how they all have social proof. Like the boots, the lipstick, the dress, it's all there. All because someone else told me it was good. Even there's a pizza place on the corner and they have 4.

1 stars. And I said to my husband, I'm like, I don't really want to go there because over here it's like 4. 8. And it's like, if I'm going to invest my time going out to eat, I want to make sure I'm going to get food. So imagine I'm getting married and this vendor is one of the most important components. Of course, I'm going to make sure that they're social proof.

Yes, a hundred percent. And, and, and again, I don't want people to feel like they have to have weddings published. I don't want the hair and makeup people, the transportation to panic, but you could share your voice through quotes and so on and so forth. And, and then there is a legitimacy that when someone's talking about how to plan a wedding in France, how to do this, how to do that, that, you know, you're being seen as that expert.

People love that. But, you know, social proof is the missing link though, for so many. And I think, Again, I'm going to talk about the clients I work with and what they're struggling with. And I just don't think that they can see that it's almost like they're competing against like vendors. And unfortunately, because everyone looks exactly the same, I can't even imagine how hard it is for a potential couple to weed through like, you know, all these choices.

And that's why what you're doing, what you specialize in is so important because it helps them. The cream rise to the top. Well, and may I add, I should have said this before too. The thing is here's, here's the beauty of being able to share your voice and the social proof and the publicity of it. You can't fake it.

You know, it comes with experience. You can't, you have to have a gorgeous wedding, a thoughtful wedding to get published. You have to know how to answer the questions. To actually answer the questions, anybody with the right budget can come into the industry with beautiful website. Um, you know, I would say Instagram takes some time to curate, but you, there are people who could do a million styled shoots and a lot, and they could do enough that it might be hard to decide.

I have a very strong emphasis on the question of how to distinguish, but social proof says, hey, you have to know what you're talking about. You have to have the experience. You have to have award winning work to actually count and that's what I love about that because that's when the cream really starts to I would, serious, I would liken it to also the people with the experience who improve their craft.

It's like those things have to be done at a higher level and that's how the cream does rise to the top. OK. So, let's say that you are somebody who. Doesn't have this amazing wedding to, to, to feature, doesn't have this amazing wedding to send, to send in for, to submit. What are other areas where you can shine?

Like, or, or what do you recommend? No, that's a great question because I think there are people who get frustrated thinking that's the only way. And I'll be the first to tell you, wedding publicity is very particular. I try to have to, when I talk to other publicists in the world about it, I always have to explain I said, no, no, let me explain this like we, we only have a few different ways to be published in this wedding space.

Otherwise it turns out rhetorical. So to your point, I will touch upon styled shoots for a moment and just say, yes, that is an actual way. I will say it is less of a way than in years past. I remember I'm dating myself 2008, 2009, 2010, you started seeing those styled shoots coming out and it was this novel idea, but now a lot of people do that.

So I would say with. Styled shoots, fewer publications are accepting them, especially print. You don't see many of them in print at this point. And there's rare exception with that. But I would say styled shoots are like, I would say publicity is secondary there. If anything, styled shoots are going to be all about the, you know, the relationship with the vendors, having new content, having content that stands out, thinking beyond what the couples want.

So that's, that's one way to do it. But I, what excites me about your. Question, Melissa, here is that there's just such a huge opening for wedding pros to share their expertise either through the written word or through spoken. So, first and foremost, podcasts, which I know is fun to talk about. We're on pie.

There are all sorts of great podcasts. I felt so lucky to run into you. I found you on Instagram and started listening and there's some really great, you know, great ones out there, B2C and B2B. And so what I told people. Yeah, if you're a talker, if you enjoy talking as much as I do, you know, you go to these podcasts, you listen to them, right?

You make sure that they have a, they have guests regularly. That's what I did with yours is I made sure I give it a listen. I made sure that it was, it was a format where they brought people in. And then from there, um, What I did was, you know, you look for a submission form or an email and you pitch yourself and think to yourself, after you've reviewed, after you've looked at the variety of topics this person has covered, what can you lend to that conversation?

It's a pretty low barrier of entry. I mean, it is work, right? You and I both know, especially the podcast, it's a ton of work, but as a guest, there's some prep, but really it's a great way to get started.

So that's, that's one I would encourage people to do. But the other is, and it's a little bit more extensive, right? But it's being quoted. I mean, and I want to do a quick shout out to our, our poor videographers, our filmmakers of the world, who their videos are almost never shown in real wedding features like that.

If I could change that, I would. It's so true. I've had some really amazing conversations with people about this. Anytime I'm speaking in a Videographer raises their hand. I'm like, I already know. You're, you don't even have to ask your question. I, I shall answer it for you. So, but the good news is there are so many openings for articles now, uh, I'm gonna take you back for a second.

Not that anybody wants to go backwards to 2020, but with the pandemic in the first 60 days, I did a hundred. articles. I felt like I had it. I was at that level of tiredness. It's like I had a newborn. I was, I fell asleep in the shower at one time right before I had to do a call with CNN. I was so tired because it was just like, but, but it was because couples were craving information.

What do I do? How do I change my wedding date? Do I have my, you know, all of that. We were working around the clock. It was, it was, It was a wild time to be doing publicity for for the industry anyways Um, and so after we got through all of that, the fact is there are still things that come up. There's inflation There's destination weddings continue to be a big boom, which is exciting.

You know, there's price changes and You know just the day to day of like weddings are messy. They can be beautiful, but the behind the scenes is messy There's family dynamics There's always new colors, of course, coming out to core trends. And so to answer your question at length is if someone wants to get published and maybe podcasts are one way to go, but the other is seeking out publications where someone can share their expertise.

There's just so many openings. We're working on the time that's recording, it's a Tuesday and we're working on five articles this week already. I mean, there's, there's plenty out there. You just have to find it. And it's nice when you can repurpose. Well, I'm going to speak specifically to podcasts. I can turn this into a blog post.

You can take clips. You can use it on YouTube. Like, you get three for one, basically. It's not four for one. And with quotes, that's going to show up. Multiple places. So many places. And that's what we do. We teach our, our, our members that is if they share at length, you know, they get interviewed and there's like six questions and they go way into it.

And typically maybe only three or four sentences are actually used. That's life. Like that's it. But they can repurpose the rest of it. The stuff that wasn't featured. They can repurpose that and go ahead and put it out there, uh, blogs, uh, carousel on Instagram. I mean, work smarter, not harder, right? I'm sure you do that all the time with the podcast, like you said, so it can be done, but there's just plenty of barriers for entry.

As long as you have the expertise, you can do it. So when people don't have, obviously photographers have the photos, a florist or a musician could have. You know, the proof from photographer shared gallery. I love this question. Planners share their galleries. Hopefully, we have the good fortune of almost always working with the planner.

So it was great. Like, I mean, the planner wanted to submit. So it was for us, it was like, turn over the photos and off and running. So it worked so easily for us that, um, you know, after a few years and with, Submissions and um, you know wedding blogs being so popular. We don't really have to do much but I never thought about what everyone else has to do in the sense that If i'm if i'm new or I don't have a stack of photos to share.

Yeah, I am an expert I do know how to make a beautiful flower arrangement or I can now especially with tiktok and And instagram and people are demoing like maybe showing you your arrangement like right in real time There's so many avenues I think for people to show their expertise even if they're They're, they're newer to the field or newer to their niche.

Yes. And I'm so glad you bring this up. I love this question and you know, the words are going to fail me a little bit for a moment because when I speak on something similar about this, I do quote Benjamin Franklin and of course now when I need the quote a hundred percent, I won't land on it cause I don't have it right in front of me.

But it's something like you have to do great or, or write something great. Like you have to be able to do that with the expertise because to your point with photographers and players alike, having the photos mean you have literal proof, not social, it's the proof. It's like, here's what I can do. Here's the design, here's the photography and all that.

So if you're someone who's going in the direction of, I want to share my voice, share my expertise, podcasts, what have you. to your point, you have to be able to showcase that expertise. So the question is like, how do you do it? And I'm going to take you back to my own humble beginnings here. When I first got started with OFD in my small, I'm in the central Virginia area, Richmond, Virginia.

And I was at some pretty like predominantly well known venues. And so I was known as kind of like this venue girl, right. And, and people back when people went to the banks more often, I would get recognized in banks around people say, how do I know you? And I'm like, well, you went. You probably went to an event at Maimon or the Jefferson, because I, and they're like, yes.

And so how do you change the conversation and showcase your expertise when you're, you're, that's just not prevalent. So you have to, again, show it or write it, or these days show it on video as well. And so it, it's a matter of, if you want to pitch yourself as an expert, you have to demonstrate you've been an expert.

So that's going to mean. Blogging, that's going to mean showcasing your expertise on Instagram, which I understand. I'm not an Instagram expert. I know the grid though has to be gorgeous, but there are ways to showcase your expertise that if you say you are one of the leading LGBTQ planners in your region, well, hopefully your portfolio also demonstrates that in addition to you sharing your expertise.

South Asian weddings, Jewish weddings, whatever that is, destination weddings. Like I don't tell me your destination expert, but then everything you do is based in Wisconsin, which is gorgeous. Shout out to Milwaukee, which is actually very fun, fun town. Great. She's and, but like I need to be able to see it.

And so asking yourself what's a content plan, whether you're writing it. Whether you're going on reels, uh, at the time of this recording, we still are with TikTok. I can't promise that this will always, I'm in deep mourning already. like, oh my God, all my life hack are going away. Fingers crossed . I know. No fingers crossed.

But, but showcasing video, um, YouTube to your point of, you know, having, whether you are, uh, doing a podcast or you're going and sharing your expertise, but you have, it has to be. Very relevantly people have to see that I tell you people all the time. Listen, perhaps you don't work with me and that's fine You're working with the publicist you represent yourself.

Just know if you're on the first page of Google for what you do you are, you know Whatever, you know insert location photographer planner hair makeup If the media finds you, they are going to go on your site and want to make sure you're legit and that they need to see that you are what you say you are.

Exactly, where the social proof comes back in, you have that beautiful, you know, line of, you know, where you've been featured. And for those who are panicking, saying, well, I don't have the social proof yet. I think the big takeaway, the homework we're giving your listeners, even though they didn't ask for it.

for it is show it, show us how you're an expert. That's, that's what we need. Exactly. Now that's such, such a succinct way of saying it. Perfect. It's so true. And exactly. Not everyone can have the as featured in, you know, X, Y, and Z publication, but not yet built up to that by doing other things. Like you said, really strong.

blog articles about things that they specialize in. I just don't want anyone to think, Oh, well, I'm out because I don't have any social career. It's like, it's a building block. Go consider awards, you know, things like that. There are things you can do. Absolutely. And I heard you say on one of your recent podcast appearances.

with Allenberg, which was fantastic. He's a longtime friend. So that was fun to do. It's so informative. And of course I love podcasts. So then I go down the rabbit hole. Well, and he's informative every second of his life. If you run into him, you have dinner with him. He's always informing. Like he's got so much information to give.

I always appreciate that. I'm always learning. That's awesome. And I know I'm, I'm paraphrasing here, but. You said something like, same old, same old is not going to attract, you need to be inspired to be different. And I think you were talking about submitting for publications as we were just discussing.

But I believe that quote is really very indicative of exactly why people aren't standing out. That there's a lot of sameness in the industry and yes, there's a lot of outliers for sure, but there's so much to weed through for these potential clients. But we already touched on it, but no, it's true. And yeah, the social proof works on this, but, but I also want to expand on what I said.

I was kind of touching upon it and I want to say this. I'm going to tiptoe in this very humbly because I know this is not my, I am not an artist in the sense of like, I, I, I'm not, I don't have that part of the brain, but I have a deep respect, but you know, some of our most successful members are the ones who really, first of all, they are lifelong students.

They could be wildly successful photographers, but they're always going to continue to get better and be better and learn. Now you have to remember, we're all learning from the same people. So you have to ask yourself, like, how Like, where can I, maybe I learned from these guys because they're amazing. A lot of people do, but be mindful.

Other people are learning from them too, but you know, it's like, I'm going to give you a great example of someone who we we've worked with. And she's just incredible. Amanda Weaver, who is this lovely human being, but also photographer here in the U S and her flat lays are. I, there are, I cannot put into words how gorgeous they are, like you see Flatlace and then you see her work and, and what's incredible is we actually, so we, we brought her in and we interviewed her and, and, you know, hired her and said, we want to interview you so people can learn about Flatlace truly and the art behind it and how she's always chasing down kind of the next Like what's that next move?

What is it looking like? And so, and so forth. That's how you stand out. It's like, she's always going, even though she's at the top of her game, that's not enough for her. And, and I say that as an outside observer and it's great to see kind of where she's taking flat lace. And of course her work in general, but then you look at, it's so fun to watch, like the planners and designers who really go out to continue to improve upon that style and to pull from outside observers.

I think you can agree. Oh, absolutely. It's just, yeah, we're, we're constantly pulling from the same thing. We're pulling from the same thing. Every time I show up at a wedding, I'm like, where did they have this and hopefully it's outside of the industry. Cause it's great to look at the, and say, look at this person's work and all, but to actually go out there and pull from art and architecture and fashion and things outside of us, that constant learning, those are the people who really.

can stand out. They do not follow the trends, which is funny because I do speak on trends once a year, but they don't really don't follow in that direction. They've it's been there, done that. And so I think that yes, social proof, which I know we've talked about a lot is a great way to stand out. But I think this is a good point in our conversation to encourage people to continue to be lifelong learners and really diversify where learn from the industry.

Learn from great people in the industry, but also don't be afraid to go out there and learn other, you know, it's always great when you see a designer who takes a sketching class. I love that. Like, I love that they're, they're really, I don't know. It's very artistic. I think it's very impressive for photographers.

Like if we walk through a museum and you look at the use of lighting, you know, from 500 years ago, like things that you can learn composition and it's just, you know, Something, as you said, we're, I definitely love to learn, but I can see plenty of people, well, you know, I'm 55 years old and we're still wedding photographers and we're still relevant.

And I see a lot of my contemporaries that are, you know, have just, you know, well, some people choose to step away and that's their, their choice, but others that have just kind of left behind because they didn't evolve and they didn't keep learning. And they chose, you know, to, to let that happen, unfortunately, that it's unfortunate that it happened.

Absolutely. And it's through their art, but it's also through how they do business. I mean, not to deviate too far, but it's okay. Now I'm taking, forgive me. I'm going way back for a second. I'll never forget when I am, we're talking like mid two thousands here in central Virginia. So I'm sure it varied, but the great debate of photographers giving away digital images, like it was.

It's just, I mean, if you ask me one of the turning points of the industry, I would say there's very little that compares to that time period of the discussions of that and the people who did and the people who didn't. And a lot of the ones who didn't, or I remember one gentleman I met who was like, well, I'm just going to give them the raw images and then they'll, but then they couldn't even open it, you know?

And it's like, yeah, So, okay. Okay. That's I guess that's one way to really anger people. But, but, but continuing to improve upon that client experience, the surprise and delight elements, the technology it's, and it's not about age and longevity. It's about willingness to continue to surprise and delight. I love that expression.

That's fantastic. And I think when things get stale or you're not, Valuing your clients. I mean, we try to operate from like a client centric perspective, you know, I mean, it's not about our product. It's about our, it's about our client. It's not what we do. It's, you know, it's about who we're serving. Um, but I definitely think that a lot of times people get away from, you know, that, that it's about them, not you.

Speaking of surprise and delight, I'm, I'm glad we went in this direction for a moment because I know we're talking a lot about how to stand out, right? And I do agree it's social proof. I do agree that it's. going to be continuing your art, but I mean, I'd be remiss if I didn't take a moment to say it's also about those client experiences and the relationships.

And may I also say the vendor relationships as well? I am, you know, today, tomorrow, so at the time of this recording, I am doing a full hour talk on social, excuse me, on surprise and delight. And it's still so relevant. It's actually my number one talk. I've been doing it for eight years. It's continued to evolve, of course.

But I see that we put it in our own. Um, you know, we put it into our own company. We, we definitely noodle on it all the time, talking and brainstorming with people too. But finding different ways, even if we are more connected electronically than anything these days, people love that. I can't stress enough.

I, I just yesterday I was having a bunch of office hours. And two of my clients, this is right after the new year, right? Two of my clients during our call, hold up these really, they're kind of silly, these dorky trophies that we sent them. We send super to use like every year we honor on six. They're not suspecting it.

We honor certain clients who've just gone above and beyond to use the collective in a way that's very meaningful. So they all end up with these like plastic trophies and they love them. Like they just hold them up to the camera. So it just goes to show that people like to be seen. Surprise. They like to be, um, you know, to know that someone's thinking about them.

So I appreciate you going in this direction because I think you and I both can agree we're in the business of relationships at the end of the day, you know? Absolutely. That's fundamentally fundamental. Right at the center. A hundred percent. Yeah. So you just mentioned your collective. Can you give us a little bit more information on that?

Oh, absolutely. That's about 80 percent of the work that we do these days. It's so funny. Like in talking to other publicists, I have to explain what we're doing. They're like, wait a minute, like repeat this for me, because it is a very different model. So about eight and a half years ago, I, we've been doing PR for, like I said, 15 years, but 18, eight years ago, We finally said, I was trying to solve a bunch of things at once.

Like I, I, I really just was this observer of the industry and I noticed that we, you know, submissions, if you did one or two a year with us, it was not the same as someone doing it all the time with us. You know, the, the ROI is just not there if you're not consistent with it. And then I also, I educate as I've mentioned a couple times here, but I'd love to get into the nitty gritty.

Like it's one thing to go 45 minutes on. You know, something general, but I want an hour to talk about, just to talk about vendor credits. Like, I really want to get into the nitty gritty. I feel really, I think Clubhouse brought that out in me during the time that Clubhouse was popular for five minutes. I know, it's like, I came and went through it.

I loved you so much, I loved you so much. But also what happened was, I was, we were really scaling our relationships with writers. Like, we're working with editors and writers and all sorts of folks. And so, Um, on our side, we said, you know what, as we get more editorial opportunities, I think we need to build out a membership where we, I have a place where I can educate, where we can get into the nitty gritty, where we can have office hours, so people can come for these individual appointments instead of these huge large scale retainers.

They just. Want me when they want me, but it's in bits and pieces here, but impactful, um, but then in, in to do submissions more regularly, but then these leads like we should be dropping these leads into this like nice group of people and say, well, who can jump in on that? Yeah, so that's what it became. It took a year.

It's called OFD collective. It took a year to assemble. It sounded like adventures. It took a year to assemble and we had 50 beta testers from all over people who didn't know me to tell me the business, just like, just like we're talking about our full circle. Well, it's funny because some of them became paying members are still with us eight years later, seven years later.

And so people sign up for a variety of different levels and you know, it could be education in the leads and office hours or the people who want submissions. We have a very dedicated speaker track as well for people who are interested in being, you know, putting themselves out there more. speakers. And so it's really been a joy because it's so fun to see the impact it has when people get published.

But I also desperately love working with the media, like I love working, I'm friends with a lot of my writers. And so to be, it feels like such a cool job to be able to not only see people get published and get so excited when they're in the New York Times, but it's also great to work with the New York Times writer who's my friend and be able to help them on an article.

So it's a very cool job. We've got a small but mighty team that oversees it and, and it's a lot of fun. And then is there an application process, or is it open to It is open. Um, I will say that we, what we'll do is, because there's never a guarantee, like, we're very careful with the editorial leads that, you know, we have to be able to, when people, people have to be open to the feedback and so and so forth.

And we'll know pretty quickly if they don't have the expertise, but luckily everyone's really great about signing up and knowing, like, we try to educate where the level is of where it makes sense. sense for them to jump in. But, um, typically people want to sit down with me first. So we have a real candid conversation about their work.

Sometimes if they're submitting to us, we like to look at a wedding or two, sometimes ahead of time to give them our honest thoughts on where we think it could be, because I think the relationship needs to start from a very transparent place. Um, but right now, no, it's open and we're certainly excited to take on more.

This is our busier time of year. So we always sit down. scale our operations in anticipation that, you know, because that's because everyone's not working. I'm going to say not working. My season is the opposite. It's wild to me. So it's like, it's November through March is tremendously busy for us. Like we just had, um, I'll give you a number here.

So we, we, we are such metrics people. We track every single thing coming in last week alone, even though there were. You know, terrible weather, terrible wildfire, a lot of things happening in the U. S. Oh, we work with people from all over, but, but there were a lot of things going on. We even had a water crisis here in Richmond, so there's a lot going on.

Um, we had the same amount of people send in weddings for us to review as the entire month of August. It was like, we're ready for it. We, we knew, we have the historical data that tells us it's coming. The deluge is coming, especially if the holidays are light. But yeah, once we hit the wedding season, what we're always telling people is, you know, you're better off spreading this out for your own good.

Cause if we're getting this many, so too are the editors. Right. Exactly. So we try to, we try to empower people with education on how to work it into your workflow throughout the year. But yeah, so my season's opposite, but it kind of works out while everybody's running around in June with weddings. My kids out of school.

So I have a little bit more flexibility. So I, I feel lucky, but December, January, February are maddeningly busy when people start, we do have an automated onboarding, but if someone is jumping into the submission tier, they actually do a one on one with, I call it the other Megan in my life. We all, I didn't mean for us all to have the same name, but we do, but Megan and Kosta, she will do an onboarding with them.

Cause we kind of, uh, I always say, Um, but I say, it's like the equipment. So they'l robot and then they'll su our review and based on g aesthetic, what, you know of filters that we have i We'll make media recommendations that go out. And from there with the media recommendations, once we land on a plan that everyone feels comfortable with, we will take things off their hands and get moving with it.

And in the meantime, they'll, you know, everyone gets emails about, I try not to over email, but we do send emails out about upcoming education, you know, for interview, we just did a Q and a with the bridal guide editor in chief. So it's like, Why don't you come to that? Get a feel for the print side of things.

Um, and then of course, we're always sending out, we do about 20, 25 PR leads, those editorial opportunities a month. And so while we're keeping busy on the submission side, they can be jumping in and sharing their expertise as they see fit. Wow. I love that. I mean, that's just such a gift. Once they're in it, they love it.

Like, and I really love that. I I'm honored. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise. Is there one, like one tip you can think of that anyone who's listening could benefit from? Absolutely. I would say the easiest thing you can do, and this is 45 seconds of your time. So hopefully people will just go do this and just say, okay, I've done one thing today for my business and moving forward is sometimes we don't know what we don't know in terms of.

Where we're being featured, there are plenty of times. And you actually alluded to this earlier where a planner may want to submit your wedding. And, and listen, um, sometimes folks aren't great about communicating. Oh, we've been featured. And hopefully they are, but not everybody is, uh, writers are just so busy bogged down.

They don't always know when something goes live. Right. And so what you could do is sign up for something called talk Walker alerts. It's free. It's talk T a L K Walker, like W a L K E R. Talkwalker alerts, it's free. It's 45 seconds, just Google it. And it's a better version of Google alerts, basically. And so what it does is it will usually, I would say, set up a query for your name in quotation marks, maybe your company name in quotation marks.

And so what happens is if your name pops up on the world wide web, you can be one of the first to see it. And it just helps you see what's already out there. Because I think there are a lot of people out there who don't realize they've already been featured, that it just wasn't communicated to them. And that's a great place to start when they start to do a bit of an audit of their social proof and where they need to go.

Wow, that's fantastic. Thank you. I learned something new. Yeah, that's an easy one to know. You've got homework after this. Because it has happened like you don't know. And not everyone, like you said, is a great communicator and gets it. the word out and then like, Oh, you were featured and you're like, Oh, really?

Yeah. I had no idea. I mean, if we didn't have it, there are things that surprised the heck out of me all the time. I was like, Oh, that's cool. You know, everyone do that. Take the 45 seconds.

I so appreciate you taking the time today. And it's been absolutely wonderful. And I feel like I've known you forever. You're such an easygoing. Oh, A wonderful person to chat with. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time. Thank you for having me. So how can people, what is the best way for people to get in touch with you or find out more?

So, OFD, OFDconsulting. com is sort of the hub for everything, but you can always find me at Instagram at OFDconsulting. Um, I always, I used to joke, don't, I mean, I'm at TikTok, but I'm really there for the cat video. So like, don't, don't expect a lot over there. Like, but now I don't even know if it's going to be there much longer.

I know. Let's stick to the easy stuff. I'm going to put the link to all of my stuff and just find me over there. Oh, excellent. Well, so much. And I'm sure everyone just learned a ton. And I really, really, really appreciate you taking the time. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. Thank you. 

That interview was so much fun. Megan is such a resource in the wedding industry, and I am so privileged to have had her as a guest. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation till next time, everyone.

Thank you so much for joining us.

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