Virtual Wedding Consulting, Client Portals & Social Media During Slow Season | Wedding Q&A

Hi, and welcome to Union Podcast. My name is Jamie Wolfer, and I'm a wedding planner who absolutely loves to share how I got started and scaled my business to above 6 figures in this amazing and occasionally extremely competitive industry. In this podcast, I share the tech, tactics, mindset, and mistakes that got me to where I am today. No gatekeeping, no cloak and dagger, just full disclosure and a little humor along the way. So whether you're a planner or a solopreneur, my goal is for you to be a better business person than I ever could have been and support you on this journey. Let's dive into this week's episode. Today's episode is one of my favorite things in the entire world, and that is a live Q&A from one of our Union Mastermind calls.

I know you're gonna love it.

Take a listen.

Um, you said, I'm thinking about shifting more towards virtual services and planning so I can be more remote and move away from in-person events. Mom life is crazy. Hubby's work schedule is too, all over the place. Biggest tips, advice, or must-dos? Okay, uh, the shift to Online is hard. It's hard without a steady flow of eyeballs, which usually for some means some sort of social media, some something, because most people have a hard time going from the idea of having a wedding planner to switching over to a virtual person unless they already know this person virtually. I've seen a couple people try to make this work kind of in reverse, like try to do the virtual consultations and see a little bit of difficulty getting traction, as opposed to having an online presence and then going ahead and making that switch. So, and I also know with kids, sometimes the idea of making content sounds like the dumbest idea in the world because someone is always making noise, like always laughing, screaming, crying, playing the drums on Tupperware. Something is always noise in the background. Like right now my kids are watching a movie in the room directly behind me because they know mom's on a call, but at least it's not booming loud. So I think finding a way to develop a sort of network Hmm. Because I want you to be referred by other vendors, because I think if you're like, oh yeah, I do virtual consultations, um, even though I do virtual consultations, like even before I had social media, I would still get virtually online with people. I would still do Zoom or Google Meet or whatever and give them a consultation there. They didn't see it that way. So try to figure out— it's the phrasing. It's the phrasing of how you present this to people that I think will be the strongest impact on what this looks like for you. Um, so terms like wedding consultant. Yeah, I help people plan their weddings and get them set up to have a successful wedding day without having the need to be there. So I help them manage their budget. I help them manage their design. Um, and then have plenty of suggestions for day of coordinators, and I pass off a neat little packet to the coordinator. Should they need them day of, etc.? That's kind of how I would work on the phrasing. How can you move towards consulting? What does that look like? Can you partner with anyone that does only day-of coordination? As we know, as we've talked about in this mastermind before, we kind of get a little bit of a bristly reaction sometimes from other planners when we try to do more communal-style planning. So you'd have to find the right person for that.

But yeah.

Phrasing. Um, I wouldn't lead with virtual consultation. Just say I'm a wedding consultant and then happen to schedule things online. Um, as opposed to an online wedding planner or an online wedding consultant, because sometimes you'll kind of run into resistance with that. The biggest issue will be getting people, getting an audience to you, getting a steady flow of leads. So is that Zola? Is that Facebook groups? Is that, you know, do you offer free 30-minute consultations anytime someone needs help? As a means of like giving them a sample of what you do and then saying, hey, if you want to do this again, I do it in 30 or 60 minute increments. I'm happy to get you on the calendar whenever. And it's all à la carte. You don't have to buy a package. You can just, you know, if you, if you hit a stress point, you need to chat through something, you can just call me and I'd be happy to be here for you. So other people, other planners you can lean on, other vendors, you know, venues. And if you can get a couple of venues to send people your way, that would be clutch. Um, because they know that once they get a client that's gone through you, that client's going to be more set up for success than someone who's just kind of out there just figuring it out on their own. Um, and then specific language, wedding consultant, maybe avoid using heavy virtual language, um, at least on website intake forms, et cetera. And then just happen to have your meetings online. How's that sound?

I'm only mildly embarrassed to admit that in the beginning I printed out every single piece of paper, every single contract. I took handwritten notes and created a binder for every single one of my wedding planning clients. Now, in theory, that sounds really cool, and I thought I would look really cool showing up to these meetings with these binders that are full of all of these contracts with handwritten notes. But let me tell you, the chaos that ensued when I tried to stay organized on my own and got over 5 events at a time It was a nightmare. Enter HoneyBook. I am telling you guys, HoneyBook was literally exactly how my brain was processing wedding planning, but just in digital form. It's so easy to go in there and make any sort of customizations that you want, from adjusting your contracts to adjusting your packages, maintaining conversations back and forth that not only pop up in the app on the website, but also in your inbox as well. It's a great way to stay organized. So get out of the paper and get onto the digital. Head to wolferandco.com/hb and And use code UNION at checkout to get the best deal. We interrupt this podcast because there is something extremely special that I want to share with you guys. Uh, I don't know about you, but for the last who knows how many years, I have been using a Frankensteined, Googled, copied and pasted contract. And while that is extremely embarrassing to admit to all of our listeners, I know that there are people out there who feel the same as I do. And there were a couple things that kept me from actually getting an attorney drafted contract. Actually, no, there was one thing. It was so expensive and it seemed so out of reach. That's when I learned about Legally Set. You see, Kunbi with Legally Set has created industry-specific contracts for people like you and me working in the wedding industry. They're easy to customize, they're drafted by an actual attorney and not Googled. Can you imagine that? And last but not least, they are so extremely affordable. So if you were like me and maybe using a less than contract, it's time to step up your game. You have no more excuses. Head on over to theunionpodcast.com/legallyset to check them out. Use code UNION for 20% off your contracts.

Yeah, good job. Janelli said, hi, I just booked a wedding.

Yay!

Yeah, you did. Sorry, sorry. Do I need a client portal? My dev corner gave me one and I didn't really use it. And I— okay. Does my reaction tell you anything? They're not necessary. Um, I find that those who enjoy the portal tend to be a little bit more on the Type A side of things, which is great, fantastic. Um, but they like the organization, they like the feeling of being immersed in wedding planning, um, apps and books and etc. So it— I mean, they're cutie patooties, but I don't think a client portal is necessarily important. For you as a planner to do your job. I don't think that's the case. I think it provides a client experience that is unparalleled, where if you are working through a portal, it feels more professional because everything's well branded, everything's clean. It's not like, oh, here's a Google Doc, go look at this over here. And then there's this over here and everything feels a little bit more chaotic. So, uh, this is my second time mentioning HoneyBook. Not even sponsored or nothing. Seriously, we've been working with them since I started this business. Um, it's, uh, it keeps everything in one place and you start with templates.

That's what—

that is the big kicker for me is that I didn't have to invent everything because I get stuck in the copy. I get stuck in the, well, how do I write this email? What's the phrasing I should use for this? Well, how do I set up this package? Well, where should I put these numbers? Well, does this look right aesthetically? Like if you give me a blank Canva document, I'm almost more Crippled than if you gave me at least an outline. So that's why I specifically like an option like HoneyBook. I know a lot of people love iO Planner. I know there's a couple of other ones floating out there. There's like 2 or 3 new ones within the last 6 to 12 months that I haven't even had a chance to try out yet. But is it necessary? No. Will it, um, make you eventually a better and more organized planner? Yes. So with this one client, you got time. You got time. got plenty of time. This will be the client that you learn a lot from, a lot, especially those of us that have, you know, had one and just kind of— we feel a little bit like a pinball in the machine, just kind of bouncing around a little bit. Eventually, yes, eventually it will make you look polished. Eventually it'll help you keep everything in one place. But for now, I think you're okay. When your business isn't busy with events, what and how often should you post on social media to keep your presence out there. This is my favorite case study for this is there is, let me see if I can pull him up because I feel like I talk about him a lot. Max is a wedding photographer that charges anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000 to $12,000 for photography per wedding. Max has no photos on Instagram. At all whatsoever, and he has almost 13,000 followers. So I use him as my like just FYI. Here's a perfect example: He never posts anything on Instagram at all. He takes on ten clients a year and then closes his books, and he's got nothing. I do think actually I don't remember last time I clicked on his website. What he does is he does marketing specifically on Facebook. He does Facebook ads, and that's how he gets people in the door. It is absolutely not necessary, and Max is the perfect case study for this. It is not necessary to post on social media at all. Now, y'all know me. I am a social media fiend. I do like it. It's the best method for me in a lot of ways to Communicate and get things across. That's my personality. That's how I like to handle things. And that's what has worked for us. Max, Max is like, I don't, I don't want to dance. Okay, I'm going to make a course. I'm going to teach people how to do this. And then I'm also going to just advertise to my ideal client. And he's got it honed and locked in on Facebook. So that's what he does. He spends his time. Tinkering with Facebook ads, and then that's it. So he doesn't have to put his makeup on. I don't think he wears any, but if he did, he doesn't have to. He doesn't have to go dance on stories. He doesn't have to build an audience. So as that is our baseline, as that is our foundation, we've got that. If you want to, you could just run ads instead. You could put money behind it and not put your face behind it. For me personally, I do like having a more active presence, obviously, because we already draw people in from YouTube. So we kind of have to go with the flow of where our leads are coming from. If you just want to be the little Dutch boy and put your finger in the dam and make sure you're just completing the task once a week, genuinely, you want someone to look at your Instagram and not wonder if you're still functioning, if you still have a business. 2 weeks, maybe once a month if you're like, I've got nothing right now. And what I'm talking about is I'm talking about a feed post. Not stories, nothing like that. Just like it could be a static image post or a reel if you're feeling fancy or you find an audio that makes you feel inspired. It doesn't have to be a social media game. I do have a section in this course obviously dedicated to social media because that's how I did it. And I do see the power of it, but we've had enough practice and enough people go through this course to go, no, I don't want to do that. That's not happening. So this is a game of time versus money. You either spend the time or you spend the money. So you spend the time networking, going to venues and doing tours and shaking hands and kissing babies, or you spend the time on social media. You spend the time somewhere or you spend the money on ads. Now ads are still going to take time, right? We're still going to have to go through and tinker and figure a few things out, right? But At least it's less dancing. And we're throwing money at it. So I would still suggest, kind of regardless— while Max is a very, very clever man, and obviously he's an excellent case study, he is definitely not the norm. I still encourage having something, some sort of presence, ideally if you are in a real dry spell, every other week.

Okay.

But I still think that it's a Uh, not necessary to maybe post as often as someone who's much more active on social media.

That's all we have for this week's episode, guys. If you enjoyed it, do me a favor, screenshot that episode and share it on socials. Tag me in it. I would love to see Wolfer and Co on Instagram. Let me know if you're enjoying it. You can also let me know if you didn't enjoy it, but I'm probably not going to reshare that one. I hope you guys enjoy this week's episode, and we'll see you in the next one.