0:00

From ring to revenue is a place for all like-minded creatives to come together

0:03

and learn all aspects of a wedding business

0:05

I am your host Phil Beabout and with me

0:07

is my ride-or-die Brittany We are wedding filmmakers in New England

0:11

and love chatting about all things wedding business related

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We talk about not just the creative sides

0:17

of our industry, but the business sides as well

0:19

Brittany has a background in business marketing and in a previous life

0:23

I led large-scale teams at nuclear power

0:25

plants with multi-million dollar budget We love bringing on guests that are more

0:29

knowledgeable than us who can bring different insights to the table

0:32

Sit back, grab a pen and get ready to take some notes

0:36

You might want to brace yourself too because we have some real raw candid

0:40

conversations with no filters Welcome to from ring to revenue the

0:44

wedding entrepreneur Academy. Let's get after it

0:47

Hey everyone and welcome to from ring to revenue

0:50

I am your host Phil Beabout with my beautiful wife and co-host Brittany

0:53

We are so excited to introduce our next

0:55

guest Randy Michelle Randy is the founder and CEO of Mary a

0:59

collaborative software company that

1:01

bridges the gap between event professionals through immersive

1:04

3d technology hands-on design tools and

1:07

integrated workflows Named an industry disruptor by Authority

1:11

magazine Randy's commitment to innovation

1:13

has led Mary to become one of the fastest growing

1:16

platforms in the event industry We have a great episode for you today all

1:21

about tech tools that can transform your client experience. So

1:24

let's get after it Randy We are so excited to have you on. How are

1:28

you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you for having me. No, yeah

1:32

We're stoked. I think it's gonna be a hilarious conversation. This is something

1:34

that's a completely different outside of our like the norm

1:38

So I'm pretty excited to see To chat about be merry

1:42

whole event tech world Yeah

1:46

Let's uh, so let's start at the beginning. How did you find yourself in

1:50

the wedding industry? How'd you how'd that get going?

1:53

Yeah, it's pretty unconventional I started my career in e-commerce

2:00

Kind of assumed I would be in any commerce forever cuz I

2:03

actually I do love it I kind of geek out over that but in 2018

2:06

I was planning my wedding and

2:09

Really struggled to visualize what it was

2:12

ultimately gonna look like You know when my vendors were asking me

2:15

questions about the linens and the florals and the lighting

2:18

I was like, I don't know And so I kind of cobbled a quote-unquote

2:24

rendering together in PowerPoint And the idea kind of hit me on the head

2:29

where I said, you know, there's all this 3d visualization

2:32

technology for interior designers

2:35

But that doesn't really exist for event planning

2:38

Which arguably is more important because

2:40

you got one chance to get it, right? There's no return policy

2:44

So try before you buy should be pretty important

2:46

So it was really that experience of me

2:49

planning my wedding and seeing some technology that existed in other

2:53

Industries through my e-commerce background that led me here

2:58

No, yeah, that's really cool. Where did you when you did e-commerce where uh,

3:03

We're what was it? Like were you like Amazon?

3:06

Close so I'm started at my career at

3:09

Macy's comm so not close But in 2015 I moved over to jet.com. I

3:16

don't know if you're like the purple boxes. Yep

3:18

Yep. Yep. I remember jet. Yeah, so jet was

3:22

kind of a byproduct of

3:25

Our founder had sold his previous company

3:27

to Amazon and had an idea to kind of

3:29

continue disrupting the e-commerce space and then

3:33

Jet was eventually sold to Walmart. So

3:37

I'm sure that either be bought by Amazon Yeah, it's gonna get I'm sure I'm sure

3:42

that was a nice payout You know, we all thought it on paper

3:46

would it would have been bigger than it was but

3:49

You know the people who are more

3:53

important than I was had a very nice payday Speaking of that there was this thing

3:58

that just went viral for a chair an

4:02

office chair manufacturer and

4:05

She was like on a zoom call with all of her employees

4:08

Telling them literally to like get out of pity city

4:11

Yes Because they asked about like if they

4:14

were gonna receive their bonuses this year like they were just curious

4:17

They were gonna get it and she like went on this tirade for a minute and then you

4:21

find out she got a six million dollar

4:23

bonus and she has like a 21 million

4:26

dollar salary and then she said that no

4:28

other employee was getting bonuses like just

4:31

You're like man. Like I I hope that

4:34

there's a mass exodus Yeah

4:37

Yeah, not at all not at all

4:43

And they're a big company to they have like 11,000

4:45

employees. It's not like a tiny Anyways, I was thinking when you were

4:49

talking about e-commerce. I just popped into my head. So yeah,

4:52

that went quite viral It was like over the

4:54

weekend or last week. Yeah. Yeah No, no

4:59

That's some brand damage right there. Yeah

5:02

So why don't you you decided to start doing the three-year-old?

5:06

I did to start doing the 3d modeling

5:08

which instantly reminds me of AutoCAD as

5:11

soon as you start talking about that Like all I think about is AutoCAD which

5:14

for those of you that don't know you need like a master's in

5:17

engineering to even operate AutoCAD

5:20

It's it's a wild software

5:23

So how how did you evolve into

5:28

Like where where you're at? Like how did how did this start to progress? Yeah

5:32

That's not it that's not a tiny thing why

5:35

I was in all of our listeners is so tired

5:37

from me saying the same shit over And over again, but uh, I was in nuclear.

5:41

So we did we used AutoCAD

5:43

I didn't use I had a PE underneath me who

5:46

would use AutoCAD. Yeah, that was that was his job

5:49

Yeah, but I mean it's funny you say that because

5:52

What I say all the time is kind of like what canva did for Photoshop

5:56

We're doing for AutoCAD but specific to

5:59

the events industry that makes perfect sense Yeah, that makes perfect sense hard to

6:03

learn how to I mean if that is what you do in your job

6:07

24-7 sure you can learn how to use AutoCAD or Photoshop, right?

6:10

But when it's 5% of your job, you're not

6:13

gonna invest all the time to learn the

6:15

technicalities of it So we wanted to build something super

6:18

user friendly that gives you the power of 3d visualization

6:21

Without the pain of having to learn how to use AutoCAD

6:25

And so where we started

6:28

Was really on the venue side because we

6:30

said, okay, how can we create, you know,

6:33

3d models of venues in a scalable way?

6:36

Because it's it's a pretty human intensive process to create a 3d model

6:41

He's a long time And you need floor

6:44

plans and reference photos So, you know on the business side of

6:48

married, you know a question that I had

6:50

for myself and for the team was like Kind of scale right? How do we create

6:54

every venue under the Sun in 3d, you know profitably?

6:59

So we started really focused on like the

7:01

physical location side of things to make

7:03

sure we can nail that and

7:06

Then we married that no pun intended

7:08

with the inventory side of things of you

7:11

know creating 3d models of Chairs and tables and

7:15

chandeliers and China and flatware

7:17

So we have these two catalogs that live

7:19

in tandem of the spaces and the inventory

7:23

We have 3d artists literally around the

7:26

world who create these models for us and

7:28

then it just gets integrated into our platform So let's say hypothetically I'm a

7:34

designer I can go into be merry

7:36

Mm-hmm. I can pull up a venue that I'm

7:39

gonna work at and then I can start to set down

7:42

The elements so arbors whoopas chairs

7:47

like I can just start to like map everything

7:49

Yep, and then just have be able to show

7:51

my client. Hey, here's a you know

7:55

3d rendering of what your ceremony or

7:57

reception space is gonna look like Exactly if you ever played the sims

8:01

pretty sick like kind of feels like you're playing the Sims

8:05

Like you have your you know house and then you're just dragging and dropping,

8:08

you know the pieces within it I think the the fun

8:11

part is we've built tools

8:14

That are specific to the type of like

8:16

item that you're designing So for example when you're trying to show

8:19

your client what their table is gonna look like It's not just you know, it's a 60 inch

8:23

round table with chairs around it. It's

8:26

what does the linen look like on top of it?

8:29

Are we having chargers and China? Are we

8:31

having only you know a charger?

8:34

What is the flat we're gonna look like are we mixing and

8:36

matching different glassware? Is there gonna be like a tall centerpiece

8:39

in the middle or a long garland? so we have all these tools that we've

8:42

built that allow you to like mix and match these things and

8:45

toggle things on and off to see like Exactly what that table shape is gonna

8:49

look like and then contrast that with

8:52

like if I'm designing a tent You know, is it a sailcloth tent a frame

8:56

tent a pole tent? What size is it?

8:58

There's thousands of sizes and are you gonna do walls or draping or liners? So

9:04

again going back to like Building something that felt more

9:07

user-friendly than having to create

9:09

individual, you know 3d models of drapes

9:14

You can just kind of toggle things on and

9:16

off depending on the type of item you're designing right now

9:20

that's really awesome, especially from a

9:23

consumer standpoint like you said this all stemmed from

9:27

your wanting to visualize and I can relate

9:31

completely because I'm a very visual

9:33

person like I'm a horrible Illustrator I couldn't draw it if I tried

9:38

But such a huge like gap in the market

9:42

for people for someone like you to step

9:45

right in and just who's qualified to

9:47

create such things to create this visual for

9:51

even the client experience

9:55

It's funny because I feel like Clearly we shared the same like brain

9:59

type, but like we say we're visual but we

10:01

lack the ability to visualize things Yeah, right. I'm just missing that part

10:06

of my brain. Like if it is not in front of me or someone

10:09

Didn't draw it for me. I can't comprehend

10:11

like it just doesn't compute. Yeah, then

10:13

once it's there. I'm like, yes, I get it. Mm-hmm. Yep

10:18

Yeah, I know that's that's that's that's pretty rad that's actually a pretty cool

10:23

What um, well, let's let's talk about

10:25

that here in a little bit because I'm about to go down a

10:27

rabbit hole of questions Why you want to talk about today's

10:33

consumer can we chat about that for a minute? Sure. So

10:36

What what do you think?

10:40

What do you think is starting it because we're noticing a generational shift we're

10:44

starting to go from Millennials to Jen. I think it's Gen X

10:47

Gen Z Gen Z Gen Z. Yeah Gen X. I think

10:50

was before me and then I'm a millennial, right?

10:54

I don't know. Yeah, I don't know the sound they make. I'm just saying I'm a millennial

10:58

So I did see a really funny meme though

11:02

that was talking about Millennials and they were like have you

11:05

guys ever met anybody in their 40s he's like, do you know that there was

11:08

a time that they would just Let them roam the streets and nobody knew

11:12

where they were at all day long and they would drink water out of random houses

11:16

hoses and I was like, oh my god that was literally my childhood

11:19

Like you would just roll up on somebody's

11:21

house turn their spicot on and drink from it and just go back to what you were doing

11:24

Oh my god, sad side note today you get

11:29

blasted for doing that shit Yeah, wait to take

11:33

that down a dark corner It's all over the news right now

11:38

Yeah, it's horrible. Yeah, it is. No

11:41

neighbor. No neighborly love. There's no

11:44

neighborly shit anymore That's not even chivalry. That's oh

11:50

My gosh man, thanks Brit I

11:54

Just I had to you can't do that anymore.

11:58

You can't roll up on someone's hose and just take a drink

12:02

Well, I mean and you wouldn't want to do it because there's so much lead in the

12:05

water nowadays. Like you probably lose a tooth

12:07

Anyways, let's talk about Gen Z

12:12

I feel like the meme these days is like Gen Z is unhinged

12:14

That's what you know, I see in here all

12:20

the time and I've spent a lot of time

12:22

like unpacking what that means because I

12:24

actually think it's fascinating how different generations just

12:27

behave so differently and Quite frankly when you look at it, it's

12:32

because of the technology or lack thereof

12:34

that we've been brought up on. Mm-hmm

12:37

And so when you look at What Gen Z expects today? I would

12:40

Summarize it for you know, the listeners

12:47

of this is like they expect tech-enabled service, you know

12:51

Like it is not enough for them to

12:55

Book you for your expertise They need it to be easy fast

13:00

And pretty much painless They do not know life without technology.

13:05

They don't write it. They didn't grow up on their bicycles

13:09

Roaming around streets like they yeah on

13:12

their phones and getting things delivered

13:14

same day or next day And with that comes just really really

13:20

high expectations, you know

13:22

Like we see it with them working on our

13:24

platform all the time And they love it because it gives them

13:29

that sense of you know

13:31

self control like I can plan this and see

13:34

it because what happens on Mary is like the venue or the planner can invite the

13:38

Their client to the platform you can like work on it collaboratively

13:42

So they love that because they also want this like unique

13:46

sense of self and you know designing an

13:49

event that feels true and unique to what they

13:51

want but They have no

13:54

patience for anything that feels like

13:58

there's too much friction within a process at all

14:03

Just on a side note because you had mentioned that

14:08

The consumer directly can collaborate with their

14:12

planner do you guys have the option for

14:17

direct to consumer like we're like a

14:20

bride could come directly to you or is it more of like a

14:24

subscription with a planner type of

14:28

model So we are focused on

14:31

the event professionals But if we call them event hosts, okay

14:36

If an event host does happen to find us

14:39

they can create one event for free

14:41

Oh, I mean it does happen. We don't market towards them

14:44

intentionally, but they find us But that's not who we're like focused on

14:49

as as our core customer gotcha

14:51

I

14:54

Know that there are those brides that are

14:56

like I'm gonna do it and the moms and the

14:59

moms are like we're gonna do this but

15:02

Just uh, and I'm sure that

15:05

that there's a market for it But I agree that it's probably not like

15:08

huge if they stumble upon you and really

15:11

you know, it's also it's hard enough

15:14

To build software that's really

15:17

user-friendly. It's a whole nother hurdle to build software

15:21

That's specific to an industry that your

15:23

end consumer is not educated with it

15:26

Yeah, right. And so I don't

15:28

want the job of having to teach Consumers about how to

15:32

plan an event. Yeah, right You know, I'd rather build technology for

15:37

people who have that institutional knowledge already gotcha

15:41

So

15:46

I keep wanting to say Gen X. I don't

15:48

know. I think it's because I grew up hearing about Gen X like that was

15:53

Probably but I feel like they're like the forgotten generation

15:56

is what everyone calls Yes. Yeah. No, I think you're yeah, I

16:01

think I think they are referred to as the forgotten generation.

16:03

You're absolutely right. Yeah Yeah, who are these people where are they

16:10

today they should do a VH once Man

16:17

so what when when we're talking about Gen

16:21

Z and them wanting things like

16:24

instant gratification and just like

16:26

responsiveness etc, etc, like how do you think

16:30

Vendors should be market like what what tools I guess

16:34

Would you recommend that vendors be using

16:37

to give it that like speed and intensity? Yeah

16:41

So I think there's been like a proliferation of tools and technology

16:46

Across every industry, but definitely in

16:48

this industry and it's like scaring people a little bit

16:50

So I'll just give my like public service announcement of like it's less about the

16:54

tool and more about how you adopt it Within your workflow

16:59

So whichever tool is going to make it

17:02

easier for you to do whatever you're

17:04

trying to do whether to your point That's respond faster or you know

17:08

automate some of your responses is what you should do now

17:11

I think the most important thing is Is to be where Gen Z is or be where your

17:17

customer is and so

17:20

that means not phone calls And kind of shorter more casual response

17:27

times via text or email

17:31

And just making sure that they are kind

17:34

of in the know and know

17:36

what to expect is coming next So for example, it's not about

17:40

Great you booked me you signed a

17:43

contract. I'll talk to you in six months, right?

17:47

They want to know like what it what can I

17:49

expect? What are the milestones? That were working towards over the next

17:54

nine months and that was frustrating for me

17:56

By the way as a consumer was that like

17:59

dead zone where nobody wanted to talk to

18:01

me because you were all busy Planning the events that were happening

18:04

the next weekend rightfully so but I was like, okay

18:07

but like I feel like you know, I should be doing something what am I doing and

18:13

When we do use a research now all the

18:15

time all that people want to understand is like

18:17

What are those milestones and what do I

18:19

need to do by what date and even if that

18:21

means I'm not doing anything for the next Two months. I don't care because I know

18:24

that that's the expectation gotcha. They want a roadmap

18:28

Yep That's a good point having a roadmap.

18:32

That's a really good point I'm writing that down

18:37

just because we as a

18:41

Videography company I get that like we do

18:44

have a lot of dead space Some of our clients have booked us out

18:47

like two years in advance, which we don't normally do but if

18:52

if it's an option will do it

18:56

so there's a lot of dead space and

18:59

Often like we'll just shoot a hey happy

19:03

holidays or whatever just to make I mean half the time

19:07

These people are investing a large sum of

19:09

money and they don't want to know that

19:12

you've gone under or hey, it's crickets

19:14

I don't know if you guys are still around like and are you still alive? Yeah

19:19

So like for us, it's there have there are

19:23

kind of like awkward silences But at the same time we we do

19:27

try to make it known like hey

19:29

We're gonna be reaching out to you a month before the wedding to get a little

19:32

bit more information make sure that fine, you know, the

19:35

timeline has been finalized but it I

19:38

guess is reassurance for them to just have

19:42

something It also just saves you time in the end

19:45

because we and someone doesn't hear from you They start stirring and then they email

19:50

you some one-off email And then you have to get back to them as

19:54

opposed to if it's just part of your you know

19:57

Automated kind of timeline of events that

19:59

lead up to an event you're in control and

20:01

you're not having to play defense You know responding to additional emails

20:05

that you don't want to be We're still here we haven't gone bankrupt

20:12

Yeah Yeah, that's how I view Instagram. It's

20:15

like people know that I'm still alive because I posted on

20:18

Instagram. Yeah, we're still here We are I'm in the the next

20:22

phase which is so stereotypical I started a wedding planning company and

20:26

now I'm about to have a baby But there's some similarities between you

20:31

know, my husband and I both work a lot and so a priority for

20:34

us was hiring a nanny because I'm not really

20:37

taking extended parental leave and

20:40

I always check in because there's no

20:42

contract. Yeah, right. Well,

20:45

like are you gonna show up? Yeah Me the force you with you

20:50

You know, yeah, and you want to make sure

20:52

that people are gonna you know, live up

20:54

to their word and do what they're supposed to be

20:58

Yeah, it's been one of the greatest

21:01

challenges of our existence as

21:03

videographers and parents Yeah, especially because we

21:06

don't have any family out here So it's really hard because there's

21:10

nobody like that. We can't just like you're gonna go to

21:12

grandma and grandpa's. Yeah Yeah, we're lucky we do have family here

21:17

so we'll be we'll be leaning on gram and grandpa

21:19

So, what do you think is the best way to

21:25

communicate to the youngins like what do

21:27

you think I know you mentioned email and

21:30

Text but let's say that you have someone

21:35

who reaches out to you, right? So you have somebody reaches out to you

21:38

on through like honey book or tov a or something

21:40

You Shoot them an email back. Like what do

21:44

you think should be in that response? I mean should it be short and sweet?

21:47

I mean because like right now I'm thinking I'm using us as an example as

21:51

I'm talking because ours we have like two

21:53

Like solid paragraphs that kind of

21:56

outline some things and then there's a call to action etc

21:59

Etc. I mean, what do you think are some best practices when you're

22:02

doing that initial contact?

22:05

I'll directly answer your question in a second but it's really funny that you bring this

22:09

up because I was just talking to a group of

22:13

consumers about their experience with

22:15

their wedding planners and one of the pain points that

22:19

came up in this session was This is very specific, but they said I

22:23

feel like when I send

22:26

an email with questions I get two out of

22:29

three answered every time And there was just a

22:33

frustration around like I guess the

22:37

Comprehensiveness or like thoroughness of replies which is you know, what gets back

22:41

to your question around what is the best way to communicate?

22:44

And so again, I'll start by saying it depends on what you're

22:47

trying to communicate So let's start farthest up the funnel of

22:51

someone is inquiring About booking you from

22:54

your website or whatever That's a response that should be

22:58

automated so that they get immediate You know reaction from you

23:03

I think what I've seen people react and

23:06

respond best to is then a follow-up kind of survey

23:09

So that you can get to know them a little bit better. You can pre-qualify them

23:13

So, you know, thanks for reaching out

23:17

You know looks like this could be a good fit

23:20

Please respond to these questions and

23:22

then within that survey you guys should

23:24

have them schedule an intro call with you

23:29

So that they are taking that next step

23:31

To like get you on the phone unless you

23:33

don't want that to be part of your process if you want to book someone

23:35

Without ever talking to them by all means

23:39

But if you need to talk to them first

23:42

Then why not put the onus on them to send

23:45

you a bit of information to be three to five questions

23:47

It's nothing crazy, right? Like what dates are you interested in and you know

23:51

estimated budget. What's important to you things like that

23:54

And then great book a call with us

23:59

After that once you've kind of had that

24:02

phone call of you know, is this gonna be a good fit maybe not

24:06

If it's a good fit then within 24 hours,

24:10

they want a contract in front of them

24:13

which again, hopefully that's

24:16

Automated because you kind of use a template

24:19

So you can send that back to

24:21

them. So in terms of the how It's kind of like you have a form so you

24:26

can respond with another form Then get them to book a call with you

24:29

have that call and then immediately flip them back and email

24:32

When I say text I more so mean that post

24:35

booking once you have a relationship with them

24:38

They want it like listen, no one can be

24:40

available sir. Hi, it's 24 7. That's an outrageous expectation, but

24:44

Yeah You know, they just want to know hey, I

24:48

have this quick question You know, let me just

24:50

respond on text and you know We even a married we use different

24:54

platforms like we use something called message media where

24:57

It's in my inbox but it goes to someone's phone because we

25:01

found that our response rate and our open

25:03

rate when we send it to someone through a Text message is like literally. Yes

25:08

Yeah, so I'm like, okay be where they are

25:11

Yeah, I don't want to be on my phone all day talking to 500 customers

25:15

So it goes to my inbox, but it goes to their phone

25:18

And so that's also a question that you

25:21

can ask them, you know in that survey of like well

25:23

How do you want me to reach out to you? Do you want you know this to live via

25:27

text or do you want it to be? in like an author

25:30

Yeah, you know, it's really it's really interesting that you mentioned that

25:33

because by the time this errors our

25:36

course from ring to revenue will be out and

25:39

For those of you that have signed up and you're listening

25:41

The reason why you get so many text messages is because there's a higher

25:46

response rate to the text messages And once they're in the course, it's

25:49

easier for me to automate text messages out

25:52

Than it is for me to send emails because

25:55

people will respond to the text messages Yes, that's it. I never thought about

25:59

applying that to our couples

26:02

Now I just need to figure out a way to automate text messages the

26:05

couple and we will be right back

26:08

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We didn't and now back to the show

27:39

well, I also think that it's funny that I mean

27:42

most planners and

27:45

event industry people would probably agree that

27:49

while the bulk of your

27:52

inquiries will be for say gen x

27:55

there's or millennial we get a a wide variety of

28:01

ages And you know just hearing and talking to

28:04

you about this a couple of brides specifically kind of jumped out where

28:09

I've sent emails to this one bride, but she has phil's

28:14

Phone number and any time and every time

28:17

we hear from her is from text. Yes text. Yeah, isn't like

28:21

It's not it's neither here nor there

28:24

however, we communicate is fine um, and then there are others that are

28:28

just strictly email but it's funny that you

28:32

You mentioned this because I think that it's important that it's not a

28:36

one-size-fits-all like you have to like

28:38

Customize it to your client. Yeah, it

28:42

almost makes me think that we should have a drop-down question of

28:44

select your age bracket Yeah So we know how to talk

28:49

Preferred means of communication, right? Yeah, also by the way, that's actually a

28:52

good idea for means communications Yeah, but it might differ from the bride

28:57

the groom or like their mom or parents

28:59

like and they're the maybe the ones paying right, right

29:03

There's that element too. But you know, I think

29:07

It's so interesting really like the data It's interesting that you're seeing the

29:10

same thing of response rate and open rate in text versus email

29:14

It was so clear to us like yeah, this is

29:16

how people prefer to communicate for our product at least

29:20

um and

29:23

When we first started testing Uh text message it was because I

29:27

personally as a consumer not that we make

29:29

all of our decisions I marry based on what I personally like

29:31

but love when I have

29:34

like a customer service Experience through text message and I

29:37

don't have to talk to someone on the phone I hate having to talk

29:41

to anybody on the phone Yes, i'm the same way phil's not i'm not

29:46

yeah, no and it's it's it's definitely an age thing

29:49

I had somebody call me yesterday and I

29:51

literally told him while I was driving I was like I can appreciate the phone

29:54

call instead of just a text message Yeah, the irony is my my best friend he's

30:02

a year older than I am and uh

30:05

He's the exact opposite. He texts texts

30:07

texts and like i'll call him and he just won't answer and then he'll text me back

30:10

And i'm like dude, just pick up your fucking phone No, but it's also like

30:16

in a completely different kind of like validating way

30:21

troubleshooting like I called uh

30:24

Verizon and they just they're like, hey

30:27

i'm gonna tap into your phone use your camera show me the problem

30:30

We'll have a tech guy out, you know

30:33

But it just feels so much more like time. Um efficient

30:38

Hey, this is my problem. This is like see

30:42

for yourself essentially and get it figured out

30:46

so I mean Different but the same

30:49

Well, because also with phone calls either you're making an assumption that

30:52

the person on the other end of the call happens to be available

30:54

When you're available, right? Um two they're not available. So you

30:59

assumed wrong and now you're playing phone tag and it's just

31:02

inefficient for everyone um

31:04

So instead just yeah Text me and i'll get

31:08

back to you again, right? You're throwing it out there

31:13

Catch it when you can. Yeah Yeah

31:16

Yeah, you know brit we should we should reach out to honey book to their support

31:20

team and just ask them like do they have a plan?

31:23

Because right now we can automate emails and that kind of stuff

31:26

But you can't automate a text message and

31:28

in the software that I use for my course,

31:30

you can automate text messages So if a crm had the ability

31:35

to automate a text message You'd be able to do this stuff in tandem.

31:39

You could just because that's one thing that I love about automations is

31:44

You know, even if it's a payment reminder, it's one less

31:47

thing that I have to think about A few days before someone's

31:50

payments do let me go email But it also kind of takes away this like

31:55

nagging feeling that you have that you're like, hey i'm

31:59

Reaching out to you to remind you like if

32:02

it's automated it kind of like your hands free kind of it feels like

32:06

Oh, someone else is taking care of it. Someone else has to be the bad guy

32:10

That's actually interesting like from our perspective

32:13

Right, like it does having to send those

32:15

naggy emails like never feels good. No

32:19

So let them let the machine do it. Yeah

32:21

Well, especially for like phil and I have

32:24

two different approaches too. I don't like to be the annoying one

32:28

I don't like I have this association with

32:31

these things as being annoying When it's literally like you hear from

32:35

some of our clients. Thank you so much for like sending the reminder

32:38

But for me like sending out an email. Hey

32:41

the podcast is tomorrow. Hey, this is that like it feels

32:45

Like a bit intrusive and annoying to me,

32:47

but um, it's a gender dynamic thing by the way

32:51

Just so you know, it's like very normal. That's like a male

32:54

versus female mentality Really I thought it was just because I

32:56

watch good fellows too many times No women, uh tend to feel

33:01

like we're being annoying Uh, even when we're

33:03

not yeah, yep makes sense

33:06

So very normal dynamic Thank you, we need to

33:12

consult you for more therapeutic We did a team off site,

33:16

uh monday and tuesday and

33:19

Where'd you guys go? Did you go somewhere fun or it was an on site off site?

33:23

So it was in new york, which is where uh,

33:25

like half the team is based Um, so the other half of the team flew in

33:29

we're just that or we work most of the time and then we did some like fun

33:32

dinner activities, but It's so important in this like remote

33:36

world to yeah pull everyone together

33:38

every once in a while Yeah, see somebody's face like actually

33:41

see a face. Yeah, I mean it just

33:45

Bringing new hires onto a team, right?

33:48

Establishing the foundation of trust

33:52

remotely with your co-workers is so hard

33:56

And literally spending five hours in a room with someone

33:59

Gets you there You just have to you learn about people's

34:03

personalities and why like sometimes over

34:06

instant message like people sound curt

34:09

But that's just how they talk, you know

34:11

Yeah, yeah, they forgot to put a comma somewhere and it just completely changes

34:15

the tone of the inference Yeah, and like I can see sometimes new

34:19

people are like, oh, whoa, and i'm like, I promise you that's not

34:21

how this person meant it Like that's just like how they

34:23

communicate right? But anyway, so this

34:26

topic came up because we were talking about

34:28

How can we act faster and move faster?

34:32

um and one of the things was like a lot of the

34:34

The women on the team feel like they

34:37

don't want to bring things to other people because we feel annoying

34:41

So yeah, this is fresh on my mind

34:44

Yeah, no, I I I can relate

34:47

because I feel it I get it

34:51

Yeah, when I worked for uh Southern California Edison

34:54

The team like the leadership aspect that

34:57

kind of stuff was a huge thing for us and we had a

35:01

eight week off site

35:04

at the dana point yacht club

35:07

Where we we were off site for two months

35:10

going through like extensive leadership training

35:13

But it was also team building because

35:15

every department had to send two

35:19

supervisors or managers So then you became friends

35:24

With those people in the other departments whether it was emergency

35:27

planning rp, you know ops

35:30

Uh, so you had a point of contact at

35:33

that, you know, you were like, oh, you know, I'll just get a hold of clerk

35:36

Like that's you know what I mean? Like it was yeah

35:39

No, it was actually it was really genius. They they spent a lot of money on it

35:43

because there's there was you know There's 3 000

35:45

employees just at our facility So they got budgets at Edison

35:49

Yeah, I mean we you know It was and then we went we spent a week

35:55

at a private like resort

35:58

Doing like the fufu team building stuff

36:00

where you were trust falling and then we did like the high ropes

36:03

course and that kind of stuff Have you guys seen the video of the woman

36:06

who was doing the trust fall? Like I felt you feel so bad for this

36:09

person the other way. Oh, no, she fell backwards

36:12

But nobody like nobody was ready Like she like did the guy was still like

36:16

explaining everything like he was like

36:19

going through like explaining To the people who were supposed to catch

36:22

her like what was going on and she just fell back

36:25

And then that I mean she just like I mean she fell like she

36:29

trusted into the concrete Yeah, no, like it's just yeah, so but the

36:39

exercise before it began No, it's uh, but yeah those like there

36:47

it's like doing those little off-site things

36:49

Those are really important. Like those are really important for yeah, you know

36:53

building those relationships and So I can definitely make friends with

36:58

your co-workers or resume Yeah, really. Yeah

37:02

You know and when I when I think back to

37:04

times in my career when I was happiest It's because I was friends with the

37:08

people I worked with and it was fun. Yeah

37:10

You know, it's like finding balance in

37:13

the workplace even just like subtle

37:17

Things that you have in a tough day reach

37:19

out. Hey, let's go for a quick walk or

37:21

yeah, and that's that's the problem with our industry

37:24

Because you know my co-worker quote

37:27

unquote my part-time Third-time employee is uh is two floors

37:33

above me and it's one

37:35

of those things to where When you're in this industry like as a

37:38

photographer videographer a planner

37:41

You know most of the time you don't have a lot of employees that are around you

37:46

To to have that kind of relationship so

37:49

it gets it can get kind of brutal and lonely. Yeah

37:53

yeah, I think um I think one thing that is really special

37:56

about this industry though is like the vendor friendships and relationships

38:01

so even though you don't have like a team

38:03

under you or around you you Effectively do by this like extension of

38:08

yeah, the jurors and you know, everyone

38:11

else that you work with But it's not the same as being in an

38:14

office for sure. I agree. Right and I

38:16

think that there's so many benefits of like

38:20

being either a you know small business owner if it's you and

38:23

just another person or Even a you know big company employee

38:26

working from home. I love working from home I don't ever see myself going into an

38:30

office five days a week ever again But for all the reasons we just mentioned

38:33

there's also a lot of like pain that comes with it. Yeah

38:37

Yeah Yeah, so let's let's

38:41

kind of let's shift back. Um

38:44

What what do you think are some like must-have tools

38:48

for people to have for a

38:52

like a really say generally

38:55

generationally focused client experience

38:58

So if I if I was if I was trying to communicate to to gen z because I mean

39:03

By and large like those are the people that are starting to get

39:06

married now, you know what I mean? Like that's kind of our target demographic

39:10

unless somebody's getting married for the second time but

39:13

um Like what what what?

39:16

Anyways, I just drug that question out. You know, I asked

39:19

So I break it down Between kind of like

39:23

pre-booking and post-booking

39:26

So pre-booking I feel like we we've talked about and and you have a good

39:29

sense of with honeybook or other crms, right? There's

39:33

very established platforms out there that

39:36

help you go from you know, lead

39:39

Or inquiry to lead to like contract

39:41

signing in a very automated

39:43

way, which would you agree? Yeah. Yeah, I feel like that's kind of

39:47

like that's been tapped into Every everyone's kind of good there. I

39:50

hope yeah, uh post-booking

39:54

is the What nine to twelve to eighteen month

39:58

client experience of the full aspect of working people

40:02

So that's where I started with like

40:04

giving someone a roadmap now

40:08

Some people that I talked to choose to do

40:10

this in a totally manual way in a google doc or a google sheet

40:14

And if that works for you great You're probably missing out on

40:18

opportunities to automate things and things like that, but that would be like

40:21

the most rudimentary version by month

40:24

What can your client expect from you or

40:27

what are you expecting from them? A roadmap a project

40:31

plan some people use asana

40:33

Trello air table. Those are kind of like

40:35

generic tools that aren't built for this industry

40:38

But they work and then there are some industry specific ones that exist as well

40:44

And Then what I like to think about is okay

40:47

That roadmap has now effectively become a

40:50

series of milestones, right? So in this month we're going to finalize

40:53

for you guys, you know, your shot list or

40:55

whatever and in this month we're going to finalize

40:59

Your invitations whatever. Yeah What specific tools do you need?

41:05

Tools or templates let's say do you need

41:07

for each of those milestones and then you can link out to them. So

41:11

I don't know if you guys use anything for like a shot list, but there could be a

41:15

pretty basic form, you know Here are the types of shots. We typically

41:19

like to get you have any ideas for like who should be included, you know

41:23

Where you would want it to be in the venue, etc for something

41:26

like finalizing your invitations that's where like guest list

41:29

management tools come in so Again, I personally don't like to focus

41:34

on what specific tool does

41:37

randy think is the best tool?

41:39

I think that what every event pro needs to focus on is what parts of my business?

41:44

Uh need to be tech enabled and how do I

41:47

kind of get those on a milestone by milestone basis?

41:51

Um and give my clients the tools

41:53

processes and templates They need to get that done

41:57

And I I say tools processing templates because not everything needs to be

42:00

automated, right? Like I think sometimes we also like

42:04

overwhelm ourselves where we're like every single thing needs to be automated

42:07

and that's the expectation No

42:10

People just want to be able to click through a link that says, you know

42:13

This is due to me in two weeks and here's

42:15

the document that I need you to fill out if it's something straightforward, right?

42:18

Or if it isn't something straightforward like creating a 3d design

42:22

Which you can't really do in, you know a google doc

42:26

Um, that's where linking them to a tool

42:29

Uh makes sense Can you imagine trying to make a 3d model

42:33

inside of like the what do they call google sheets i've seen it all

42:41

I've seen it all So what can you can you give us some

42:47

success stories from mary that uh folks

42:50

have used to like transform their client experience

42:52

Yeah, oh, there's so many. Um, this is my

42:55

favorite part of my job So You know, I think I said this in the

42:59

beginning but we work with venues rental companies and planners and

43:03

designers. So we have like three customer segments if you will

43:08

On the planner side what I hear all the time is just

43:12

Mary makes me look so good

43:15

Yeah And it goes back to the entire 45 minute

43:18

conversation which said around, you know, you're not

43:22

Trying to explain this like amorphous and abstract

43:25

Vision to your client and like cobbling it together in a word document. You're

43:29

showing them this like interactive 3d model makes them

43:32

So from one perspective we've heard from

43:35

planners that they're able to

43:37

charge more for their services Because they now offer

43:41

like 3d rendering as a service So maybe they have kind of like a

43:44

baseline quarter week coordination service

43:47

Or like a full service that includes 3d

43:50

rendering and they can charge more for that because now they have access to mary

43:53

Which is really awesome. Yeah, some people say they're able to

43:56

attract more luxury clients And that's something that they've been

43:58

trying to do. Yeah, the presentation value is through the roof. Yeah, exactly

44:03

and then Um, we did a whole case

44:05

study with our venues. Um

44:09

They save I think they're able to create

44:11

floor plans 83 faster Using mary than previously

44:18

Yeah, and how are they doing it previously a combination of

44:23

microsoft word And paper sometimes or like a competitive

44:27

platform like a 2d diagramming tool that

44:30

existed before us. Okay, um

44:33

and so obviously for

44:36

Everyone time is money Um, and so just helping them

44:41

Do things faster especially things post

44:43

sales so that they could focus on the pre-sale and just generate more revenue

44:47

Is our goal with our venue clients and

44:49

then just helping our planner clients look amazing

44:53

Um, which also helps them by the way sell their vision which helps them sell more

44:57

rentals and decor which helps our rental companies

44:59

So there's this whole flywheel that happens by just leveraging the visual

45:03

tech we've created to sell better

45:08

No, that's pretty rad. Yeah, I remember When I would do presentations to like the

45:12

board and that kind of stuff for security projects

45:15

having that Like an interactive 3d like give you an

45:19

example. We were installing these things got hard in defensive positions

45:22

So there's these big bulletproof boxes that sit up real tall in these towers

45:27

and Being able to like take a mouse

45:30

And just drag it or like use like a smart

45:32

board to just put my finger on the mouse and then like turn

45:35

The drawing and be like this is where a bullet is going to impact

45:38

This is why we need this like this, you

45:40

know, like being able to do like that that definitely

45:44

That helps a lot when it comes to

45:47

It's a sell on something. So that's that's pretty rad

45:51

Um one one thing that I always like to ask is is there one question that you

45:55

wish that we asked that we didn't?

45:58

Oh gosh I wish you asked me this

46:01

question before the podcast Um one question

46:09

I guess one thing, you know

46:13

building technology

46:16

Whether it's hardware or software. Obviously, i'm only

46:19

familiar with software is hard

46:23

Um, and sometimes I think um

46:27

There are really high expectations, especially in this industry of what

46:30

technology can do and people want

46:34

Mary or other platforms to do

46:37

everything day one and so I always just like to like give

46:41

people a little like peek behind the curtain of like how software development

46:44

happens and works because What it isn't is you have an idea and you

46:50

go sit in a room with some engineers And you build 100 of it and then you

46:54

launch it and then you stop working on it

46:57

Like that's not how software development works Anymore, that's how it used to work

47:01

um now what you do is you have this idea And you sit down with your engineers. My

47:06

co-founder is my chief technology officer and he says, okay

47:09

If we want to do all these things randy with the resources that we

47:12

have, right? This will take us

47:15

Five years and like okay.

47:17

What's the six month version? You know and you kind of slowly back it

47:23

down and and slim it down

47:25

to something that you can Just get out the door in

47:28

six months and you're making um

47:32

Intentional decisions around yes, it's

47:34

not going to do these things day one

47:36

But we're going to you know release it doing these things

47:39

And then we're immediately going to build this and then this and then this and then

47:43

this and you're building into the vision So, you know what it doesn't do and you

47:48

know what you need to get to But you have to get something out the

47:52

door to one start testing your hypotheses

47:54

It's like were we correct in thinking that these were the

47:57

things that mattered the most Or is there this thing that we weren't

48:00

planning for building two years that everybody's asking for?

48:03

And then two you need to get something out the door because you need to start making money

48:07

To you know fund the operations and continuing to build so

48:11

I just always like I like to build

48:13

empathy between you know like the customer and the

48:17

I feel like people forget there's human beings behind the technology that they

48:21

use right of how we go about

48:23

building things and That we're always improving it and and

48:27

building new features based on the feedback we get

48:31

I think that's really important I think that's really important for the

48:33

users too to see is that you're Listening to what they're saying and then

48:37

you're incorporating what they're saying like that was Yeah, even though it might

48:41

not be as timely or quick as

48:44

they wanted to be You know what I also say is um

48:49

like imagine if a client came to you And said wait, you only do videography

48:54

like I need you to do my catering too and

48:56

be my officiant and you might Just like well, that's not what we do

49:01

Yeah Like it's sometimes similar with tech of

49:04

like we have chosen to

49:06

build a you know design product

49:09

We are not a bookings platform. We are

49:12

not a this or that we can't do all of those things

49:16

Um, and so when I give that analogy a lot

49:18

of times people are like, yeah, that makes sense You know, like we're not everything. So

49:22

why do we expect our technology to do everything?

49:25

That's a really good point Well, let's chat about mary. What um

49:30

What's coming up? What do you guys got going on?

49:32

Oh gosh, so many things. Um

49:37

So when we first launched we were really focused on

49:41

You know, how do people envision their

49:43

rentals in their space? And as time has evolved going back to

49:49

like the concept of a roadmap and whatnot

49:51

We've layered on more kind of like production and lighting features

49:55

So we have some really cool lighting features coming out

49:57

Which i'm very excited about because so

49:59

you guys know that makes a huge difference in the design of an event

50:04

I'll ask you a question real quick with that. Are you using like unreal engine?

50:09

Do the lighting use unity? Yeah, okay

50:12

Um, but you know very similar

50:17

Um, i'm a video game guy. So yeah, I mean

50:20

it's it's literally built as a video game Uh, so, you know like real-time lighting

50:24

options with up lights and color washes and things like that will be super cool

50:28

We also have this I mean, I don't even

50:31

want to call it a feature because it's like a whole other product that we're building that

50:35

Effectively allows you to not only design

50:38

your event, but we kind of have like a shopping cart view

50:41

And then you'll be able to send your rental orders into different rental

50:45

companies to streamline that over the process. So

50:49

Um, that's very manual today, you know

50:52

Um, so that's coming out soon depending

50:54

on when this airs it might already be out. Yeah

50:57

Um, which has always been part of our

50:59

vision goes back to my e-commerce roots, right? I said, hey

51:03

Why can't I place an order for the things

51:06

that i'm putting in my design? Yeah Yeah, it's like hospitals

51:10

It's like how is it that it takes like nine months for you

51:13

to get a hospital bill? But I can go to a hotel and get a bill 12

51:17

minutes after I cracked open a little bottle of liquor

51:20

in the refrigerator Automatically charge your card. Yeah

51:26

It's one of the more interesting things about this industry like going back to

51:30

the the gen z consumer who expects

51:33

Um pretty much instant gratification or

51:35

not your gratification just instant everything. Um

51:39

There's no concept of like click to buy

51:42

in this industry. It doesn't exist Yeah, right like you have to talk to

51:46

people you have to sign a contract

51:48

There's payment and like there isn't an add to cart buy

51:52

And for good reason, yeah

51:55

But there are ways to get closer to that

51:58

than I think we are today Yeah, there's a lot of food for thought

52:03

for us especially because I do

52:06

Think that people like when they reach

52:09

out and they want prices We don't normally like to

52:11

just throw prices at people We have to it almost feels like a

52:14

justification for our price But it almost feels

52:18

like that's what they want And if if you give it to them, they make

52:22

a decision right then and there Maybe need to get on a call. Maybe not. I

52:26

don't know. Yeah, but I think I don't know I don't know. So again me

52:29

being an elderly gentleman Like I I don't feel comfortable

52:35

Booking somebody that I haven't spoken with just because like I i'm

52:40

Vetting them as much as they're vetting me

52:42

totally so Which is what I mean

52:45

You guys probably know this there's been so many companies out there that have

52:48

tried to build marketplaces for events

52:51

Where you just have, you know a listing and you book it but they've never worked

52:57

Because it's just not how this industry operates on on both sides. Yeah, yeah

53:02

Like it sounds really nice in theory Yeah, but it's just this industry is so

53:07

unique from that perspective You're buying a product and a service in

53:10

in one and an experience. Yeah

53:14

Yeah What uh, are you speaking anywhere

53:17

anytime soon? Are you going to be? Normally, I would be but oh, yeah

53:22

Uh, I think i'll be back

53:29

speaking in like september probably

53:32

Um, but i've kind of held

53:34

off for the next. Yeah, yeah We can get there. I keep

53:39

thinking that I hear my daughter Is there anything else that you wanted to

53:45

add this has been a really fun hour

53:47

Yeah, hopefully this is a little

53:49

different for you guys Uh, but yeah, it's been fun. I love tech

53:52

stuff. So I could talk I could talk about technology. I'm a person

53:55

that you knew on real so You talk about yeah

54:00

I could have talked about chat gpt all day, too

54:03

so Yeah, then the new trend

54:06

taken the world by storm My husband just kind

54:10

of started digging his His feet into chat gpt this weekend. He's

54:14

kind of late to the party And he's like blown away. Yeah

54:18

Yeah, when when when we're done when when

54:20

we get off here as the things uploading

54:22

i'll give i'll give you some tips to give them

54:25

Um because I use it all the time. I use it almost every day

54:28

He's so funny about it. He's like write a press release for blah blah blah

54:33

He's like, this is the craziest thing i've ever seen i'm like, where have you been for the past?

54:37

Well randy, thank you so much for coming

54:42

on today, uh, this was a really cool.

54:44

This is a really cool interesting conversation this has been I I

54:48

I can appreciate the level of work that

54:51

has probably went into the design

54:53

engineering to get something like this off the ground

54:55

So yeah the labor of love Yeah, I can imagine

55:00

Everybody you need to make sure that you keep up with randy on

55:02

instagram at mary. That's m-e-r-r-i

55:06

You can check out her website Uh at be mary

55:09

Meri.com or request for her to speak at

55:12

your next speaking engagement as long as it's after september

55:17

As always all of the links will be in the description of the episode

55:20

Make sure to like and subscribe to our youtube channel

55:22

Don't forget to join our facebook group and we have two openings

55:26

left in our mentoring schedule So don't hesitate to reach out. You know,

55:30

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