Show notes:
Are you embracing TikTok as a wedding business? Today I am chatting with Ruth Melton, The Wedding and Event Director of Elms Barn. We chat about her experience of working with us over the summer as she took our TikTok Pro course and how it’s impacted her venue for the better. We also discuss shifts she is seeing in the wedding industry and how you can make it on to her recommended suppliers list!
Want to join the next round of TikTok Pro this November? The sign up is now open:
Find out more about TikTok Pro
Find Elms Barn on TikTok or Instagram
Timestamps:
00:00 – Facing the Uncertainty of July
04:09 – The Journey to Wedding Management
09:48 – Shifts in the Wedding Industry
19:15 – Transitioning to TikTok Strategies
25:28 – Understanding TikTok: Lessons from the Training
32:33 – Transitioning Content Strategies
43:51 – Navigating the TikTok Experience: Insights and Surprises
55:33 – Maintaining TikTok Presence Without Burnout
Transcript:
Ruth
00:00:00.160 – 00:00:27.520
Yeah, it’s a bit scary because I look at it and I go, oh, I’ve got a weird space in July. Why the hell do I have a Saturday in July available? That’s. That’s scary. That’s not good. But I know it’s going to get filled.
I just don’t know quite when that couple’s going to walk through the door. And they might have already walked through the door. That’s the other thing I’ve been seeing is people have got major decision delay.
They have so much information at their fingertips that they can almost research themselves into a point of standstill.
Becca
00:00:29.250 – 00:01:18.100
I’m Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger, and you’re listening to the Wedding Pros who Are Ready to Grow podcast. I’m here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, then you’re in the right place. Let’s get going with today’s episode. Today I’m joined by Ruth Melton, the wedding and event director at Elms Barn, a stunning venue in Norfolk.
Ruth is deeply passionate about the industry and she’s always committed to learning and changing to keep her venue at the top of their game. This summer, Ruth took part in TikTok Pro, my TikTok training program, and she’s been a TikTok convert ever since.
I cannot wait to share her story with you. Ruth, welcome to the podcast.
Ruth
00:01:18.180 – 00:01:20.020
Great. Should be here. Thank you for having me.
Becca
00:01:20.180 – 00:01:48.000
Thank you so much for coming. Now you’re so TikTok famous. I’m very privileged to have you on the call. Joking, but it is.
I’m really looking forward to having this conversation with you about TikTok and we’ll get there in a moment. But before then, I want to find out a little bit more about you.
So first of all, I wanted to just find out about you and your role in the venue because I speak to all sorts of venue people on the podcast and everyone has a very different role to play. So explain to us what you do at Elms Barn.
Ruth
00:01:48.000 – 00:03:02.880
So basically you are looking at behind the scenes at Elms Barn.
It’s me and a chef and then we’ve got a few grounds people and kind of people that do more of the heavy lifting because I am not a heavy lifting person. But in terms of behind the scenes, I do everything from SEO website changes. All of the behind the scenes marketing.
I respond to every inquiry, talk to every couple as they come through, do the viewings and then help them plan their dream wedding. We do everything completely bespoke and we’re a three day exclusive wedding venue.
So couples will get the Friday, Saturday, Sunday or the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday completely to themselves for their wedding. So we help them kind of build a full three day experience.
And yeah, and then I run about 50% of the weddings and I’ve got a fabulous front of house coordinator called Sarah who runs the other 50% for me. So I’m not continuously running around like an absolute mad person because my diary gets so busy so quickly it just goes a bit nuts.
But yeah, and I’m loving the role. I got scouted for this role while I was doing another job and as soon as I came round I. I was like, yeah, this is it.
As soon as I saw the Chiavari chairs, that’s what I knew. I was like, yeah, I’m sold, I’m in.
Becca
00:03:04.160 – 00:03:18.400
So you truly are wearing all of the hats because you are the full marketing and sales department as well as being there on the day for many, many weddings and events. And what does a typical year look like at Elms Barn? What number of weddings are we seeing coming through the door?
Ruth
00:03:18.400 – 00:03:50.250
So when I joined we were doing about 25 to 30, maybe 35 in a year. And then this year we are on 47 and then next year we’re just creeping past that 35 mark.
So I’m hoping it’s going to be another 50 year because we only do the Wednesdays and the Saturdays. Obviously there’s only a finite amount of Saturdays within that. So, yeah, there’s only, only a few that I can kind of do.
So I think 50 is kind of our maximum, but I’m comfy around that 40 mark.
Becca
00:03:50.250 – 00:04:08.860
Wow.
So, yeah, you’re really nearly at capacity because if you’re only doing one wedding every weekend, that doesn’t give you many more than 50 weekends in a year, plus your midweek as well. So it seems like it’s super busy. I can see that you absolutely love what you do.
When was it that you knew that you wanted to work in weddings and events?
Ruth
00:04:09.020 – 00:05:36.920
So I actually did a degree in events management. So I started that in 2016 at UWTSD, shout out to Swansea and I went in and I went, there’s absolutely no way I’m going to do weddings.
That is so boring. That is so basic.
I’m going to do massive corporate events in London and I’m going to be this high flying amazing person that does all these great things. I was also working at Marriott at the time as like a food and beverage assistant, just on the bar and all of that sort of thing.
And they came to me on a Saturday and when one of our, one of our supervisors is ill and we’ve overbooked ourselves, we’ve got three weddings today. You’re doing events management, here’s the paperwork, off you go. And I went, I’m in my first year of events management.
You have given me two hours notice and if I can’t do it, I’ve just ruined somebody’s wedding. Did it?
Maybe not the best that it could be, but it was done and they got married and they had their food and everything was all okay and I got addicted to it and I just kind of went, okay, well this is me now, this is what I want to do with my life. And I’m going to, I’m going to fully run with weddings.
There’s something quite very addictive about being part of the biggest day of somebody’s life and making them feel how they should be feeling on their wedding day. And I feel like it’s my responsibility to give all of my couples the best possible experience.
And yeah, so it all started because someone was sick in a Marriott and I got thrown paperwork.
Becca
00:05:36.920 – 00:05:54.100
Sometimes that’s the best way. We just get thrown in at the deep end and then have to sink or swim. And in this case you swam and you haven’t looked back.
You mentioned you got scouted for your current job. So presumably then you didn’t just go from university straight into Elms Barn. There was a bit of a period in between.
So did you work at different venues?
Ruth
00:05:54.100 – 00:07:37.340
Yeah, so I was at the Marriott for two and a bit years.
Then as I was finishing my master’s in business administration, I was also working at a museum in Wales and we did events for sort of 200 people as a minimum.
And that was like radioing each other through the galleries, trying to stop people from climbing on vintage airplanes and cars and all sorts of stuff. There was one event where I was standing next to a person stood on a table and they swan dived over my head to be caught by someone else.
And I just went, I think I need some security training. Went and did that. And then I moved to a boutique hotel in Wales, did all of their weddings and events there.
That’s where I met my partner, he was a chef there. We then had our daughter who turned three on Monday, moved back home to Norfolk, this is where I grew up.
And when my daughter was about six to eight months sold, I started working in a restaurant as a business development manager.
So basically I programmed all of their computer systems, I sorted out their reservation systems for the rooms, I did all their SEO, sorted out their website and went, I hate it so much. I miss my couples. I know I’m okay at what I’m doing now, but I miss weddings and being involved in that.
And when I got the phone call from an agency, basically saying, we’ve got this venue that’s really interested in speaking to you. When can you get down there? And I was like, today, now, Let me go, let me see. And two meetings later, Andrew was like, yeah, the job is yours.
When can you start?
So that was kind of how I ended up back in Norfolk after going to Wales and kind of a big roller coaster of lots of different venues and lots of different types of venues as well.
Becca
00:07:37.660 – 00:07:53.450
And having children always changes everything. That’s often the reason for people moving and changing careers.
But you’ve also mentioned that you are wearing all the hats you’re at all of these weddings. How are you juggling that side of things, both work and having a child?
Ruth
00:07:53.850 – 00:09:23.170
So I don’t think I delegate my time as well as I potentially could. I definitely need to get better at calendar blocking, which is something that I’m trying to do a little bit more.
But I’ll often reply to emails at kind of midnight, two o’ clock in the morning because that’s when I have my quiet headspace. I’m definitely a night owl. It just works better for me. I do at the bottom of my emails. Caveat. I reply at a convenient time for me.
You do not need to reply at a time that is inconvenient for you.
Like just being like, I’m not replying at 2am because I expect a response at 2am and then, yeah, I try and keep Monday as like my admin, sort out all my emails, sort out the inbox, do all the linen and the bar and all of those little bits and pieces and then a bit of content planning as well. And then it just is whatever email comes in, I just deal with one thing at a time. I feel like I scatter myself a little bit, but I do.
It all makes sense in my own head. Whether my diary makes sense to anyone else is a completely separate matter, but it all makes sense to me and so I just kind of run with it.
And because my daughter’s so young, I can get away with working at the Weekends, a lot more. So my Saturday and my Sunday are often very, very busy.
And then I try and take days off in the week with her, so she still gets two days of my time, but it’s just not a Saturday and a Sunday because I can cram my diaries, all the viewings on a Sunday, and I often have, like, seven viewings back to back. And by the end of it, I’m like, oh, my God, I really hope I’ve told people the right stuff, because I’m just. I’m out. I’m done. Yeah.
Becca
00:09:23.170 – 00:10:11.730
And don’t beat yourself up about it. Right. Because none of us have it. Right. The balance is never. There is no such thing as a perfect balance. And anyone listening to this will know.
I just think it’s interesting to hear different perspectives about how people do juggle it. And actually, quite often for people in the wedding industry, Saturday and Sunday isn’t the weekend.
You know, a weekend can be whatever days you want it to be. As long as you’ve got some days off and you’re not working seven days a week and burning yourself into the ground, it absolutely doesn’t matter.
Now, you’ve worked in venues for the last few years, and I’ve been talking a lot on this podcast, a lot in my stage talks about how I think couples are changing, how we’re seeing shifts in the wedding industry. You’re right there talking to people on a weekly, monthly, daily basis. What have you seen over the last sort of four or five years?
What shifts are you seeing when it comes to the couples that are coming to work with you?
Ruth
00:10:11.730 – 00:11:25.090
So first, I think they’re getting older, which is interesting because a lot of people say, oh, they’re getting younger. I don’t know how to talk to the young couples.
I’ve noticed that from where I started, I was working with kind of mid to late 20s couples, and now I’m working with kind of mid-30s couples, which is. Doesn’t feel like a big jump, but there is a very distinct difference in where they’re at in their life stages and in their life planning.
So I think the average age of a couple getting married now is 34. And five years ago, that was 28. So there is a difference in that age demographic.
I also think there’s quite a big difference in the way people are planning now. So before COVID it was very much you plan your wedding with 12 to 18 months. That is the timeline. Why are we deviating from that now?
It’s either two years plus. I’ve just taken two bookings for 2028, which seems insane, or six to nine months, maybe less. I actually took a booking last year and we.
The first time she sat down with me was five weeks before her wedding day. So it’s definitely. It’s either really long or actually very condensed. And just let’s get this done.
I want to get married and I don’t want to wait about for it.
Becca
00:11:25.170 – 00:12:07.550
Yeah, I think that’s the thing as well. It’s not even that the time is changed in that we can say it’s now this length of time.
I think the point that you make that actually everyone just isn’t working to that timeline anymore, they were all just making up their own timelines, is what throws us off in the industry because we’re like. But people used to always do the same kind of thing and we’re seeing such a change in behavior in the way people are working.
And that short booking window is quite terrifying, I think, for a lot of industry people, because where they’ve had that comfort of knowing, you know, I go into a year and all my bookings are already in the diary all of a sudden, actually, we’re going into a year with space. And yes, we know that space will fill up, but it definitely doesn’t make us feel as comfortable as it once did.
Ruth
00:12:07.630 – 00:13:45.090
Yeah, it’s a bit scary because I look at it and I go, oh, I’ve got a weird space in July. Why the hell do I have a Saturday in July available? That’s. That’s scary. That’s not good. But I know it’s going to get filled.
I just don’t know quite when that couple’s going to walk through the door. And they might have already walked through the door. That’s the other thing I’ve been seeing is people have got major decision delay.
They have so much information at their fingertips that they can almost research themselves into a point of standstill. And so I’ve got someone that I’m currently working with who’s just asked me to draw up a contract for them for 2028.
They first found me at a wedding show in February this year, came to view me again in March, and then came to view again in July and are only now starting to think about their 2028 date. So it does take an awful long time for people to commit. Now it’s either straight away, we viewed. We love it. Let’s have the deposit or months.
There doesn’t seem to be that nice, kind of, oh, it’s been a week. I’ve Kind of decided that that’s what I want to do. Now it’s either an instant or it will take ages.
And you just never know if that lead is actually a no. So my follow up process has gone from two emails to 12 emails.
Because if I keep having those touch points with them and keep going or do you remember me, I still think about you and all this sort of stuff, then I never know, someone might come through and go, oh yeah, here’s the deposit. Now I’ve decided I’m ready and I could be going, my God, I saw you in January. So you just.
It’s really hard to kind of work out what’s a no and what’s ghosting at the moment, which is, which is a struggle.
Becca
00:13:45.650 – 00:14:00.460
I always say it’s not a no until it’s a no because it could be a just not yet. And I’m ready in a few months for sure. I have a follow up question for you. Now you said that you’re following up with People up to 12 emails.
Are you doing that all manually? Are you using any kind of system?
Ruth
00:14:00.540 – 00:16:08.320
Thank God, I’m not doing that manually anymore.
So I went to the Guides for Brides conference last year, which is where I met you for the first time and I got your book and I still am only halfway through it, sorry.
But I also met Eamon from Brightbiz and everything he was saying I was like, oh my God, this would change my world to have something like that as a CRM system. And I went to the owner with it and a little bit hesitant of too much automation taking out the personality.
So I had to be very gentle with how that was presented and approached. But when we finally got to a point where the owner was happy with it, we moved forward with Bright Biz.
And now quite a lot of those follow ups are automated, but in a way that is personal. So I put people into lots of separate categories.
So people are getting stuff about winter, about summer, about different periods of the garden, inspiration, photos. So not everything is text based. So I, I’m a numbers person. I’m a numbers girl.
So I like playing with the psychology of it and like trying to get people over the line in lots of different ways. That’s, that’s where my degree and my complete nerdiness about sales and numbers comes in.
I like to just try and play with every aspect and I’m always listening to podcasts and doing webinars and all sorts of things.
So I, I am really trying to absorb all of the information that can potentially Come at me just because if you stand still then you’re going to suffer in the long run. And I think as a venue we’re doing fairly well in comparison to what other people in the industry are doing.
It’s always difficult to know with venues because they tend to be very. I keep myself to myself and I don’t talk to anybody and why would I give you my numbers and my secrets?
But I chat to photographers and DJs and they all know what’s going on in the venues anyway. So I find out regardless of whether a venue wants to tell me or not.
And it’s just about chatting with people in the industry and kind of getting, getting a lay of the land.
And I think in comparison to others in the area, because we keep on top of the learning and keep pushing forward with everything, we are slightly ahead of the curve on that one.
Becca
00:16:08.320 – 00:17:15.430
Yeah, well, as you said, your numbers are, you’re getting close to capacity as it is, so there’s actually not much further you can go. So I would say that’s a good sign, success.
But again, that doesn’t mean we sit back on our laurels because as we know in the industry we’re constantly having to find the next customer, the next customer, the next customer. We don’t get the repeat business and so we do have to keep striving forward. And I’m so thankful you’re not sending all 12 of those emails yourself.
I’m a big fan of bright biz. I love Eamon and the team. It’s a wonderful system.
So if anyone is listening to this and thinking, oh my goodness, I still send 12 follow up emails and I do it all myself.
Please don’t chat to Ruth, chat to me and we’ll tell you all about how you can automate it and make your life better, so much better, whilst also keeping that personalized touch.
Now, Rhys, before we move on to talk about TikTok, there’s one other thing that I have to ask you about because I’m speaking to someone from a venue and whenever I do that, there’s one question people always want to know, which is how they get on a recommended supplier list. And I love to find out because everyone’s venue does it very differently. But give me your top tip at Elms Barn.
How do you put your supplier list together? What’s your secret?
Ruth
00:17:15.510 – 00:18:36.320
Art. So what a supplier needs to do to get on my list. Come and do a wedding with us. Be amazing to my team and the couple. And don’t wear jeans.
That’s it, it’s literally as simple as that. So long as you are a lovely person and you create nice work and you’re not wearing jeans, for the love of God. I hate it when vendors do that.
Even if you’re behind the camera. It just does my head in. That’s it. That’s all I need you to do.
Because I don’t want people to be paying me to put them on a recommended supplier list if they’re not the quality that I actually want to recommend. And my recommended supplier list is one A4 sheet of paper. The text is quite small because there’s quite a lot of people on it.
But at the bottom I do say, look, if you’re looking for something specific, let me know. Because I try and match vendors with couples even in that first viewing stage based on the couple’s vibe.
So I quite often handwrite recommendations on the recommended list because the couple have mentioned, oh, I wanted a sweet cart or I wanted an ice cream van or we wanted alpacas at our wedding. I’m not going to put on my normal list because it’s not something that everybody wants, but we’ve had an eight foot animatronic T. Rex here before.
It’s like, that’s not going to go on the main recommended list. But if someone mentions it, I’ve got a person for it. It’s.
I just have this massive network in my head and it’s literally as easy as doing a good job and being a nice person for me.
Becca
00:18:36.320 – 00:18:37.440
And not wearing jeans.
Ruth
00:18:37.600 – 00:18:38.520
And not wearing jeans.
Becca
00:18:38.520 – 00:19:54.500
I think it’s interesting to hear because everyone has a different system. It’s interesting. I think there’s.
So again, like you said, people don’t like to talk about it, but actually it’s just helpful to hear from the people who are making the list.
And as I often say, the list is one thing, the physical piece of paper, but as you just illustrated so beautifully, really it’s about the relationship you have with the person who’s talking to those couples and getting to know them because they’ll know whether or not you’re a good fit. Regardless of whether you’re on a piece of paper.
If you’ve got something that’s the perfect fit for that couple and you’ve got a relationship with them, why wouldn’t you put their name forward? Of course you would. So. And they’ve worked at your venue before. So I think it’s helpful to hear. Right, let’s move on to the main event then.
We are going to talk all things TikTok Now, I’ve been talking about Tick Tock quite a lot over the last year because all the data has been coming out showing us that couples are using it. But still, so many wedding pros, many wedding venues are absolutely terrified of it. Sometimes it feels like a bit of an alien place to be.
I definitely put myself in that category. Tick Tock is not the place that I love to hang out the most as a, you know, as a personal thing outside of business.
So before you started taking it seriously in your business, would you describe yourself personally as a TikTok user, or would you fall into my category of not really sure.
Ruth
00:19:54.580 – 00:21:34.200
So I would describe myself as a zillennial, which is somewhere in between Gen Z and a millennial. So I was born in 1998, so I do fall into the Gen Z category. Just however, Instagram is my safe place. I love Instagram.
It’s just where I spend most of my time.
And before starting the course, I use TikTok kind of for like, musical theatre stuff and all of, like, I just like keeping up to date on that side of things. But I wasn’t avidly using it daily. It wasn’t something that was in my routine.
Weirdly, it’s now become the place I hang out more than Instagram because of the process that we’ve kind of gone through.
And I think it was you that said on a podcast ages ago about getting TikTok, and I actually, as I was listening to that podcast, downloaded it for elmsba, which was September 2024. So that was the first time I was like, I need to take this seriously. Get on board and sort yourself out.
So I’ve had TikTok since September 2024, but I didn’t really jump on it until doing the course with you and Simona, just because I didn’t know what I was doing and I was using it like Instagram. And they’re not remotely similar. They’re not the same thing. And people, they’re completely different. Yeah.
And I haven’t quite appreciated how different they are, but they’re literally designed in two completely separate ways. Instagram is social media and TikTok is a search engine. Instagram is for inspirational stuff and TikTok is for educational stuff.
And so I really needed to reset to where my mind was going because all I was posting on TikTok was the reels I was posting on Instagram, and they do not work in the same way. So if that’s what you’re doing, you.
Becca
00:21:34.200 – 00:23:25.150
Need to rethink if that’s what you’re doing. You need to listen to the rest of this conversation because I’m in a similar boat to you, Ruth.
I was very much teaching that people needed to use TikTok whilst also being slightly scared of it myself, not feeling particularly comfortable.
And for those that haven’t listened to, you know, the last few months here on the podcast, they may not know that before the summer, I hired Simona into my business as my own personal content creator because I realized I need to do something about this. I had this realization at the school careers fair when a small child asked me why I was so proud of Instagram and why I didn’t have TikTok.
And it really made me wake up and think, yeah, I actually need to. I can’t keep telling people to be on TikTok. I need to do it myself. So, long story short, I hired Simona. She was incredible.
She knew exactly how TikTok works. She was very successful herself.
And so she then started creating me content gave me more of a presence, which made people start to ask, well, Becca, clearly you know about TikTok. I was like, well, not particularly. But Simona, on the other hand, really knows about TikTok. She’s working for me. So me and Simona sat down.
She’d never taught a course before in her life, ever. And I said to her, I think you should run a training program for me all about how to use TikTok. You’re amazing at it. You’ve taught me so much.
I think you could teach other people. So she reluctantly agreed and I think she did an amazing job. And we launched TikTok Pro.
So it was a four week program where there was four live sessions with Simona and she was teaching each week.
And then what we did was for anyone who wanted to see stay on for an extra three months, we offered a small package where people could stay on for the extra support with Simona over the three months. So you obviously joined Ruth for that debut program. You were there for Simona’s first ever training session and I believe she did a pretty good job.
Really? What was it that you thought made you think, yeah, I’m going to do that. I’m going to join this training took.
It took you to trust the process and trust us that we were going to know what we were talking about.
Ruth
00:23:25.150 – 00:25:07.160
I think it’s just because I tried on TikTok and failed miserably and I just couldn’t see why and I couldn’t understand it. And then the more I was reading with Things like the wedding industry report that Guys for Brides does and all of that.
And the more I read, the more TikTok coming up. And I was like, if I sit on this now, I’m going to missed it. It’s going to be gone and I’m going to play catch up. And I hate playing catch up.
It’s one of, like, if I take two days off my email inbox, I hate it because I want to be on top of everything.
This is my way in to your little world, in your bubble and making sure that I know what’s going on in this world of TikTok that I am failing miserably at currently. And I know Simona hadn’t done training courses before, but she was brilliant. She was so good.
And all the stuff she did on the PowerPoints and the Canva presentations, I was like, oh, you’re my kind of girl. I know exactly what you’re saying. To me, it was all in normal person terms. There was no talking about GEO and SEO too much.
There was no complicated TikTok language that I wasn’t going to understand. It was all in normal person English and just designed for people that actually had no idea what was going on.
And she asked in the very first training course, how are we feeling on editing? How are we feeling on all of this sort of stuff? And I just put a comment going, pretend I’ve never used my phone before.
And I think that kind of set the level of where we were all feeling. Because there was so much information on week one, I think everyone left feeling a little bit like, oh, my God, I’ve made a massive mistake.
I’m not going to have enough time for this. And then we came back week two and I was like, actually, no, I’ve got this.
I get what you’re saying, I’ve got it, I’ve done the homework, I’m ready to go. Give me more, give me all the information. And she was so good and I.
Becca
00:25:07.160 – 00:25:46.450
Loved how she did it because she basically was like, I’m going to give you loads of information and then I want you to do nothing with it until we come back for week two, which for us as entrepreneurs who want to be doing all of the time, is really hard.
But actually, she was so right, because if people had dived in and done it without doing the groundwork that she was talking about, I don’t think people would have seen the same success as they did. So now, having been through the program and we’ll talk about the results shortly, but in Terms of learnings.
You said when you went into it, you didn’t really understand the platform. What would you say are some of the key learnings you’ve taken away?
And that if someone was to say to you now, like, explain TikTok to me, what would you say to them?
Ruth
00:25:46.770 – 00:27:21.140
So I would say, don’t think of it like Instagram, because it’s not. You want to be choosing your content pillars. One of those should definitely be educational.
All of my posts that have done the best have been the educational ones. And you’re not talking to thousands and thousands of people. You are talking not even to a couple. You are talking to one singular bride or groom.
And as soon as you make that switch of I’m talking to a giant audience to I’m FaceTiming one person, the content flows so much better, and the results are so much better from what I’m doing when I feel like I’m talking to a singular person, rather than when it sounds like I’m talking to a massive audience. Because when you’re sat on your own on your phone, you don’t want to be, hey, guys, how are we doing? It’s like, no, I’m not.
I’m not the 200 people that are watching this video. I am one person, and I want you to help me with the problem that I’m having right now. So, yeah, creating that.
That one person in my head of who I’m trying to reach was this kind of pivotal. And that was something we did week one.
And so doing the homework and creating my ideal client, which I know is something that is talked about a lot outside of TikTok, but when you’re thinking about it inside, you want to think about their hobbies. You want to think about where they’re hanging out, their priorities, what their wedding looks like in terms of vibe and feeling and color.
And you can really build an imaginary wedding for this one person in your head. And then every time you open your camera, you’re like, right, I’m speaking to Hetty, or whoever it is today.
And this is what I want to tell her, because she needs this information.
Becca
00:27:21.460 – 00:29:21.400
Yeah, you’re so right. And it’s interesting. One of the things I’ve seen, again, through watching some of you on the program, is how much you can talk to a niche on TikTok.
So one of the other students, Caroline, who’s been there as well, she works with Gothic Brides specifically, and making amazing gothic wedding dresses, and she’s always struggled with having such a niche audience. And again, Simona said to her, stop being so broad. Just talk to that one bride who wants a gothic wedding dress. And she’s really found her people on.
On TikTok.
When you go and look at her content, you look at the people commenting underneath it, they are all exactly the people she’s wanted to be speaking to and wanted to find and hasn’t been able to on other platforms. And yet by zeroing in and stopping trying to be for everyone and just talk to that one person, she’s seeing some really great results.
So it absolutely works. But it feels scary to do that sometimes it feels like you need to talk to everyone because you don’t want to put people off.
But actually, you’re so right. That picture of someone watching the TikTok, they are just themselves on their own. It does feel like you’re just being spoken to directly.
And so we need to come to people with that tone.
Now, one of the things I found really interesting watching you as a sort of like semi outsider, because obviously Simona was leading on the course, but I was there watching, was how much of an action taker you are and how you do take things seriously and you don’t. If you’re gonna do it, you’re gonna go all in. And I absolutely love that because I’m that person as well.
I’m like, if I’m gonna do something, I’m gonna do it properly.
And I really remember, I can’t remember if it was week three or week four, but one week of the program, Simona basically put up some examples of, right, if you want to do well on Tick Tock, this is what you need to do. And she put like the extreme example that would work the best.
And then the example she thought most people would do, and the extreme example was basically, you need to start posting three times every day for the next month and then see what happens. And everyone on that course went, oh, my goodness me, that’s ridiculous. I can’t do that much. Except you who went, challenge accepted.
So talk to me about that.
Ruth
00:29:22.760 – 00:31:14.520
That was foolish. No.
So it was really good for me to go in at that level because I just think at that point I didn’t really know what kind of content was going to land for me. And that was more of the point. It wasn’t a case of you need to make three videos every single day from now until the end of time.
It was, you need to make three videos a day from now until a couple of weeks time, because then that gives you all of this data that you can then Plan the rest of your TikTok journey from. And so I just went, right, I’m going to put out everything, every kind of content.
I’m going to do carousels, which I thought to begin with were a bit of a waste of time. And then one of them went nuts and I was like, oh, hello, these are actually easier than making a video. And I’ve been sleeping on that.
So I now need to focus on doing some carousels as well. I did trending sounds, I did face to camera, I did B roll.
There was literally so much random nonsense that it looked like I was doing, but behind the scenes I was getting all these numbers come in. And now I won’t do so much B roll stuff because actually people want to see face to camera.
I’ll do more carousels with the tips rather than speaking them or as well as speaking them because they’re more likely to get saved as a carousel because you don’t need to listen to a minute long video. You can just go, right, I want to go to picture three. And that’s the tip I want to have.
So it was working out which ones are savable content, which ones are likable content, which ones get me loads of views, but actually no interactions, and working out which ones worked best for me in this kind of very messy world that I was trying to desperately understand.
And so going that hard that early was really beneficial to me because it just gave me a really good starting point of data that I can then look at and go, right, what now? What do I need to focus on? And I know exactly what it is.
I’m not just plucking things out of the air because I can see the numbers in front of me and I can go, I know that works because there’s the numbers that prove that works. So yeah, it’s all about the data.
Becca
00:31:14.840 – 00:32:33.520
And I think that’s the concept that a lot of people misunderstand, especially when it comes to marketing because they see, oh, you’re going to post three times a day, every day, which is a lot, but it isn’t forever. And it’s not saying I’m going to always do that. It is the idea of data capturing.
And she did it for me and it was incredible when we first started working together because she went, right, we’re going to post three videos a day every day. I’m going to edit them and do them all for you. And I was like, really?
At that point, I’d been posting maybe like once every other day or, you know, so it was A huge jump in terms of me and being visible. And so it felt really scary. And I wasn’t even putting the work in to edit the stuff. She was doing that for me.
But actually when she explained, when she came back a month later and suddenly she had all of this information for me and she went, right, they don’t like this. They like this. This works really well on Instagram. These work really well on TikTok. So we’re going to split that up.
The podcast only going to go on TikTok. This is it. And I was like, wow, we got a lot of data.
And we wouldn’t have had that data, having not gone hard for a month and done all of that, different kinds of content. And so you really understood that. You ran with it and you did it and you got the data to back it up, which was fantastic.
But how did you actually manage it? Because, you know, it was summer, which is not necessarily the best time to make three videos or three TikToks every day. So how were you managing it?
Or was it just on the fly? Or were you planning it? Were you batching it? What were you doing?
Ruth
00:32:33.520 – 00:34:54.360
So at the start, I did a lot of ad hoc random nonsense that I just kind of put up as I recorded it and edited it and just posted it. Then I switched to batching. And so I batched a load of contents.
There’s a load of me in a pink and white dress, which I probably should have brought a different one, but I just happened to have a free day because a meeting canceled on me. And I was like, right, this is my day and I’m going to just batch so much content. It’s gorgeous and sunny and I can get in the gardens and explore.
And then I started doing some more planning with it and making sure that I had all the B roll and putting it all together. And that’s kind of shifted now to be more ad hoc again.
So I need to batch up a little bit more for when it gets busy again mid October, because it goes nuts in mid October. But I like doing that. I’ve had an idea or I’ve chatted to someone and they’ve said something.
I’m going to record a video and maybe post it tomorrow when I’ve had time to edit it.
I know that wasn’t the point of what Simona was saying with all the batching and everything, and I loved doing the batching, but it was finding a full day of my time to do do. It wasn’t always appropriate for me because it is Just me. And it is just me recording as well.
So I don’t have someone to follow me round and do all these other bits. So I’ve got to set up the tripod and then move it and then change it.
And so doing the ad hoc things is quite good for me at the moment, just because I can go really quick. And the one I’m loving right now is doing my sat at my desk.
I’m doing some tips to the phone, but starting off with a really close shot of my face because then people scroll through TikTok and go, why the hell is she so close to the camera? I’ll listen to her. But that’s what’s kind of working for me right now, which is such a random thing to have discovered that works.
I forgot to do an intro for one of my videos and I suddenly just thought, oh yeah, I’ll just whatever and wave my camera about really close to my face and see what happens. And it went nuts. And I was like, oh well, there you go, I’ll do that more then. So you just have to play with it and see what happens.
But I found that posting late in the evening is often better for me.
But obviously with your content you post quite early on in the day because all the wedding pros are logging on at 9 o’ clock and or 8 o’ clock and seeing all your stuff. Whereas I find that couples that are searching for their wedding venue are often doing it after work.
So if I post between kind of eight, nine o’ clock, while they’re on the sofa, or even just before midnight and then it’s there as they’re doom scrolling in the evening, it, it kind of reaches them better.
Becca
00:34:54.360 – 00:36:06.900
So yeah, and I think that’s why it’s been a really exciting journey for me over the last six months as well.
Because obviously the businesses that I work with and my business are actually two very different things and so doing content and I knew that I was seeing traction, I knew I could get results doing it with Simona on like for me, business to business, although it’s very niche and it’s actually hard because there’s less people owning a wedding business on TikTok than there are getting married on TikTok. So I never plan to go viral.
But then working all of you over the course of TikTok Pro and Simone are putting those same things into place, but with a couple centric mindset has been fantastic because it’s proved, yeah, it doesn’t just work for me because it’s business to business. Actually, there is a method here and it will work.
And whether that’s having your face close to the camera or, you know, doing all of the crazy things that she suggests, like wobbling the camera, this stuff does work. You just have to put the time and effort in. So it’s been a fascinating journey for me to watch.
People are probably listening and thinking, I just don’t have time to do this, you know, on average now. And you may or may not be able to give numbers.
You know, if you were to look at a month, like how much of your time do you think you are needing to put into TikTok?
Ruth
00:36:06.900 – 00:37:59.570
I reckon if I could batch it all together and lump it all in one day, I could probably get it all filmed and edited and lined up to post within maybe two days, three days. And the way I’m doing it right now, it maybe takes me.
In fact, I know it takes me less than five minutes to film a video because I just set the camera up, I talk. If I get it wrong, I start again and I just cut that down and then maybe 20 minutes to edit it, maximum. I can do it in between meetings.
It’s not something that I need to focus too heavily on now, which is quite nice. So it maybe takes me half an hour to do one of those face to camera ones. It will take me maybe 10 minutes to do a carousel, if that.
But because I’m on TikTok quite a lot now, I’m saving a lot of content and kind of just pitching other people’s ideas and making them different and twisting them up because nothing that you do is going to be completely original. So why stress yourself out over making it completely original? And I think the same goes for wedding couples. No wedding is entirely original.
The original bit is the couple getting married and the love story. The favours are never going to be exactly unique or the dress is never going to be something that’s never been seen before in this world.
So I don’t think there’s too much pressure on being totally unique in the content you’re producing. So long as it’s useful to someone, I think that’s okay. And it’s not about going viral. I don’t care whether I go viral or not.
I care whether the people that are watching my video are the right people and they definitely are. So that’s, that’s more of a. More of a benefit. If you get a video that’s got 200 views and you go, oh, that was a bit of a flop.
Imagine talking to 200 people in a room, I’d feel pretty important if 200 people were stood in front of me listening to what I have to say.
So even if you’re in that 200 jail, which you see a lot at the moment on TikTok, that’s not a bad thing if those 200 people are actually interested in what you have to say.
Becca
00:37:59.570 – 00:38:37.530
Yeah, 100. And that’s something I’ve also seen myself, because quite often my videos maybe get 200, 300 views. They don’t reach those people.
We said that I’m talking to a niche, but actually, when you realize, oh, well, I’m posting two, three times a day, all of a sudden that’s 600 views, and actually over a month, that ends up being quite a substantial amount of views and people hearing about what we do.
But some of your videos have done particularly well, Ruth, and I would say some of them have gone viral, at least in a way that the wedding industry would see it as viral. They’ve broken out of that 200 views.
Do you remember your first viral video when it went from a couple of hundred views to more like thousands of views? And what happened?
Ruth
00:38:37.610 – 00:40:25.900
So I had one that was about how to politely say, no kids at a wedding. And that was the first one that kind of jumped above the 500 mark. And I was like, whoa, Hello. That’s the first carousel I posted. That’s the.
The first thing that I’ve written. And that was me throwing it together in literally five minutes on the sofa while I was watching MasterChef.
That was me not paying attention and just chucking it up.
And as soon as I woke up the next morning, I had thought thousands of notifications on my phone, and people were arguing in the comments, and people had sent it to each other, and I was like, I was not expecting that. I was ready for it to sit at 500 and just be happy there. And I still get notifications going, someone saved this. This post.
And I look at the photo and I’m like, oh, it’s the how to say no kids at a wedding again. That’s great. And then a couple of months later, I was like, oh, put another carousel up. That seemed to do quite well.
And I did how to engage your guests during the speeches. And I’d very purposefully picked a photo of a bride that wouldn’t be one that you’d print and put on your wall. She’s quite animated.
It’s quite an intense expression. But I picked that as the starting image because I was like, that’s like the Imperfect but slightly shocking look of a wedding.
And she’s like cheering on the best man speech because he’s made a rude joke and it’s all of that sort of thing. And that went nuts. And I checked and that post has now got 403,000 views, 17,000 likes, 12,000 saves and 2113 shares.
And that one post got me 205 followers. And I was never expecting any post I made to do that. And so that was kind of. Kind of mad.
Becca
00:40:26.630 – 00:41:52.450
Yeah, that is a mad moment.
And if we’d have said to you when you first came in that first session and went, this is going to happen to you on TikTok in a month’s time, you probably would never have believed myself or Simona saying that. And it has been crazy to watch how some of your posts have gone like that.
But what’s also interesting, and I think, like, I’d encourage anyone listening to this who’s interested, go and look at Ruth’s TikTok.
I will put it in the notes because obviously you can see all the numbers and still some of your posts are 200, 300, 500, a thousand, and then suddenly 50,000, 400. You know, it’s all over the shop and it is hard to work out what on earth works, what on earth doesn’t.
But actually, when you realize that the numbers in some ways are irrelevant as long as you’re talking to the right people, whether that’s a thousand of the right people or 10 of the right people, actually, it doesn’t matter. Yes, it feels good to know that people like it.
But I did a bit of research into your TikTok myself because I thought, let’s have a look at the posts that you have done that have done really well. I’m sure you’ve done this too. But just to share with people what’s done well. So you mentioned your one with kids that reached 50,000 people.
Well, that was a carousel. You did one about what bridesmaids should do, which was also a carousel that reached 35,000 people.
And then your speeches carousel, which is definitely your biggest one, 403,000. Then you had one where you talked about wedding budgets, which reached 23,000 people.
Now, what I like about this one is it’s just you sat in your car, literally just faced the camera.
Ruth
00:41:52.980 – 00:42:04.220
That is me nap trapped in the car after swimming, because my daughter’s behind me, so I’m angled at a really weird angle because I don’t want to get her in the background. So that’s just because I’M nap trapped in the car. And I was like, I’m bored, I’ll make a TikTok.
Becca
00:42:04.220 – 00:42:46.420
And that one did really well. And also one in your office about last dances and thinking about your last dance song that’s reached 65,000 people.
And again, that is literally just you sat in your office.
There’s only one that’s done really well that was super edited, which is your boring things to ask the venue, which is actually pinned to the top of your page that that’s reached 20,000 people, although I think it’s particularly venue specific.
But actually the encouragement I want to make to people listening to this is that all of those videos that have done really well weren’t ones that involved loads of complicated editing techniques, loads of filming. They were literally just either photo carousels with words over the top or you just grabbing a phone and talking to camera.
And yet it’s the information that you’re sharing that’s made them go wild.
Ruth
00:42:46.760 – 00:43:40.740
And there’s one on there that I was so desperate for it to do well and it hasn’t. And that was the Harry Potter like Transformation one where I jump into the book and then suddenly we’ve got 200 floating candles in the barn.
I knew that install was going in and I was like, I’ve got to make something about this because it’s just awesome. And it got 600 views, 35 likes and two saves on TikTok. But because it’s an inspirational post, I chucked it on Instagram.
I wouldn’t have made it if I didn’t have TikTok. But because I’d already made it, I might as well put it on Instagram. And it’s got 6,500 views, 188 likes and 32 reposts.
So because I made it for TikTok and I chucked it on Instagram, it worked better over there. So it’s not necessarily if they flopped on TikTok, they weren’t worth bothering with.
If it’s not quite the right content for TikTok, well, put it on Instagram. But I wouldn’t have made it if I wasn’t in the mindset of doing stuff for TikTok.
Becca
00:43:40.740 – 00:44:00.400
And also I find when you think something’s going to do really well, it often doesn’t. And when you throw something together really quick that you don’t think is going to do very well, it does. It’s the mystery of the platform.
Now, one thing people are worried about when it comes to TikTok is the negative Sides of things, the hate, the negative comments. Have you experienced much of that or not really?
Ruth
00:44:00.400 – 00:45:11.400
There’s a little bit of it. On the one where I did about no kids, there was quite a lot of people in the comments going, kids, make a wedding.
How dare you say there shouldn’t be kids at a wedding? And I’m like, kids, make your wedding. Invite them. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying if you.
You don’t want to invite kids to your wedding, here are some polite ways to say it. So it’s trying to jump off of that.
I did have to delete some comments because I’d made a post about, if you’re a guest at a wedding and it’s the week of, don’t text the couple because you probably already got all the information that you want an answer to the question of. And I had someone going, what if I need more towels? What if I’m allergic to chi? And I’m just like, oh, you just. This isn’t helpful.
I’m just going to delete the comments because it’s not. Not. It’s not comments that are saying things that I can respond to in a constructive way. It’s not having a conversation.
It’s just being a troll for the sake of being a troll. So I just deleted them. And nothing’s personal. If someone doesn’t like me, why don’t watch?
Like, I don’t really care whether people like me or don’t like me at this point, because if you don’t want to watch me, I’m not forcing you to. So I’m pretty happy for people to block me if they want to because they don’t want to see my face anymore. That’s completely fair.
Becca
00:45:11.560 – 00:48:22.710
Yeah, absolutely. And it works both ways, right? We can block other people. I’ve heard a few people leave comments.
Sometimes Simona gets them before me, and then I don’t ever know that they exist. But, you know, it happens and we just block and delete and move on.
But ultimately, I think the good things that come out of it from a business perspective kind of counteract that. Now, I don’t want to dwell too much more on stats, because sometimes we can get caught up in stats and they can be a bit of a vanity statistic.
And what we really want to know is that it’s making a difference to the business. But just one last thing on stats, because we did a thing at the end of the course which just.
Just finished yesterday, actually, as we’re recording this, where we asked People to just share, like, where have you, where have you seen growth? Can you show us your results from before you did this and your results from after?
So, and I think it was particularly a confidence thing for Simona, having never taught anything like this before. She’s like, has this actually made an impact to people?
And lots of great responses, but yours just, again, blew it out of the water just to give people some context. So you shared the eight months that you’d been on TikTok before you did the course, and then you shared the time that you’d been on the course.
So from the eight months before you took it, what I’ve written down here is you had 9941 views on your videos, which isn’t a bad number, and actually people would be quite happy with that. But now, in the three and a half months since you started the course, so from June to September, 713,000 views.
So a lot more people now have seen your venue for sure. And you in the process, before you took it, you had eight shares on your post.
And I think one of the things that Simone really talks about a lot actually was the importance of all the other things, not just the likes. So the saves, the shares, you know, all the different ways of interacting. So you had 8 shares. As of the last time you posted, you had 3,926 shares.
And I love a share statistic, actually, because it means that your information is so helpful to someone, they want to share it with someone else and therefore the numbers then are immeasurable about who else has seen that. You had 11 comments before, now you’ve got 686 comments. So again, engagement massively up, you had 181 likes, now you have 28,000 likes.
And the interesting stat for me as well is that before you had 60 profile views, so over eight months, 60 people had come to your profile, whereas in the last three months, 3,573 people had come to your profile.
And why I find that interesting as well, as we move on to talk about the business results is actually, that’s great because that’s people who are not just interested in what you’ve said, but are genuinely interested in who you are seeing more of your content or potentially looking for a venue.
So before we talk about the results, I just need to say, Ruth, you’re incredible for taking everything you learn, really rolling with it in a busy season, throwing yourself into it where many people wouldn’t, but you’ve absolutely reaped the reward because you can see it there in front of you that it’s worked, people have enjoyed your content, people are finding it helpful, people are saving it.
Now tell me about the business results because I know that there, I know it’s early days, we’ve only been doing this for a few months, but there have been some direct results that you can go back to your owner and say, see, I told you that it was worth doing social media, so talk to us about that.
Ruth
00:48:22.790 – 00:49:25.280
So I think it’s important to say that when I look at results coming through to the website, it’s Organic social as a whole.
So it’s, it’s TikTok, it’s Instagram, it’s Facebook and I think there has been a slight halo effect on Instagram and Facebook because my engagement on both of those platforms without changing anything that I do over there has gone up just because I do Tick Tock.
So I think that there is a halo effect on all of the social media platforms and it’s not because I post stuff that I post on Tick Tock onto Instagram. I very rarely do that because I like to keep them separate.
I kind of think of TikTok as I’m speaking to Gen Z and I look at Instagram and Facebook as if I’m speaking to millennials. That’s how I try and split it in my mind. But there has been a wider effect on all of the social media.
The click through rates in August versus July are up 8% purely from social media, which is really good. Organic social click through rates are up 73%.
Becca
00:49:25.520 – 00:49:26.800
Wow, that’s really high.
Ruth
00:49:26.800 – 00:50:46.330
So they’re up 8% as a total and 73% just from social media, which is incredible. But what has also happened is the session duration on the website is up to four minutes and three seconds from three and a half minutes last month.
So although the click through rate from social media has gone up quite significantly, it’s also up the session duration, which is really interesting because you would think that if you’re in this mode of scrolling, if you go off platform, you’re going straight back on, you’re not going to spend a lot of time outside of the platform that you started on.
And to actually get people to spend almost five minutes away from social media on the website is a much bigger deal than I think it sounds in numbers terms. But yeah, it’s like getting people out of the scroll is so difficult. So for it to have made that bigger difference is kind of incredible.
And Organic Social is now our fourth highest director of traffic behind Google Paid ads. Organic Google and direct traffic that’s just typing in the website link. So it’s overtaken all of the directories.
So it’s above hitched, it’s above Bride book, it’s above Guide for Brides.
So all of those ones that we pay money to stay on have now been overtaken by me putting in my time but no extra money, messing about on social media, basically.
Becca
00:50:46.410 – 00:51:05.290
I like how you call it messing about.
There was definitely some strategy behind it, but I know what you’re saying because it’s not highly polished content you’re just putting together, you’re coming up with ideas.
You’ve also had some people who’ve said to you now that they found you on TikTok when they’ve come for viewings and I believe at least one of those is now booked. So tell me about that.
Ruth
00:51:05.450 – 00:52:42.030
So we’ve had five or six people say that they found us directly on TikTok and another about five or six people go, I found you on X, Y, Z, but I’ve researched you on TikTok and but I’ve seen your stuff on TikTok and in probably about 60 of the viewings I do now they go, oh, but what about that install that we saw on Tick Tock? What about this that we saw on TikTok? And I was like, you didn’t even mention that before. I didn’t realize that you’d seen it.
And I even get my couples that are already booked message me going, you keep popping up on my for you page and I love the tips and it’s great. So it’s not just benefiting, getting new people. It’s actually my booked couples are seeing that I am active and I am doing stuff.
So I’m not just leaving them to one side, I’m engaging them as well, which is really great. I’ve now had two bookings from TikTok, both for 2028 and one is no, one for 28, one for 2027.
And one of them is an absolutely fabulous couple that ticks all of my boxes for what the perfect couple looks like. They’re doing a cheese board as their canapes, like a deconstructed cheese board.
They want to do a four course menu with wine pairing, they want to do an imperative sorbet dessert. They want to have like mega mixes in the evening and different eras of music.
And I’m just like, this is everything that I could pray for from a couple and they’re really going to use the full three day experience. And the reason that they found me was because they saw me do a video on TikTok.
And so I would not have got them if I hadn’t started this process, which is kind of insane.
Becca
00:52:42.030 – 00:53:14.700
It is absolutely insane.
And actually when you look at it in monetary terms, without going into detail, even those two bookings alone, if you look at the value of those bookings versus the very low value really that you paid for the course to learn how to do it, and then the time you’ve put in, wow, what an incredible return on investment. And I think, Ruth, maybe you should put in an expense receipt because I didn’t realize you paid for it yourself.
Now you need to go back to the owner with your expense receipt and say, look, I paid for this course out of my own money, but look at how much, how much revenue has been generated for you off the back of it.
Ruth
00:53:14.780 – 00:53:27.580
I’ll go on some, on some other courses and put those off as expenses and go, oh yeah, I can validate my trip to London now because I can spend an extra night in a hotel and go see a show before coming to the, to the live event.
Becca
00:53:27.900 – 00:54:00.420
Yeah, absolutely. I’m down for that too. That sounds amazing.
I think one of the other interesting things which will be, will be interesting as you go through time is whether actually when your couples turn up to a viewing having watched you on Tick Tock, if they feel like they know you, because that happens to me a lot with my social media presence and being on podcasts, people meet me and it feel, they feel like they already know me actually. That’s interesting. In a, in a customer to business relationship, if your couples have been watching your videos and then it’s you giving the tour.
Have you had any feedback on that yet? Do people come warmer because they know who you are because they’ve been watching you?
Ruth
00:54:00.810 – 00:55:16.410
Yeah. So that one that booked for 28, they basically left and went, if it’s not here, you’re coming to the wedding.
And I was like, okay, I, I feel good now because I, we connected on a very personal level and that’s where I always like to start viewings anyway. I always start with what their story is and how it could fit within the venue.
And if they say things that I connect to, I always jump in with a personal story. So it’s.
I don’t like business to be very cold and corporate because if I wanted to, wanted it to be cold and corporate, I could go and do a 9 to 5 office job that would probably give me more free time. I want it to be personal and I’m giving someone the best day of their lives. I want to be excited about that.
If I’m not just as invested as the cup, oh gosh. If I’m not just as invested as the couple about their wedding day, then what is the point? Like, I. I’m here every single wedding.
Unless there is something major that means I can’t be here even if I’m not running it because I’ve spent so long with them. I feel like it’s my baby as well and I need to see it all the way through and be excited about the moment with them because it’s.
Yeah, it’s just my favorite thing to see everything that we’ve been planning finally all come together and go, oh my God, look at this vision that we’ve been putting together for over two years now. This is so great.
Becca
00:55:16.490 – 00:55:43.660
I love that and I love that you have that relationship with your couples and that that’s now going to start before they’ve even met you by watching you on TikTok, and then continue as they watch you through their wedding planning journey as well as all of the stuff you’re doing with them face to face. How are you maintaining now, just as we kind of bring this episode to a close?
Because I’m assuming you’re not still doing three posts every single day like you did at the beginning. How are you moving forward? How are you maintaining your TikTok presence without just burning out?
Ruth
00:55:43.740 – 00:57:58.140
So I’m trying to do a post a day and it doesn’t always work. So there are some days where I haven’t done a post for kind of two, three days and I go, oh, TikTok’s not gonna like me.
I’ll just post something to make sure I’m still on the radar. But I want to reassure people that if you don’t post every day, I promise you’re not going to get majorly punished for it.
Because some of my biggest videos came off the back of me going on a two day hiatus from it because I just felt like I had no ideas, I had nothing to say.
But what I’m doing now is I’ve got a notes app on my phone and anytime someone asks me something and I think, oh, more people would like the answer to that, I’ll make a TikTok about that. Or I see something fun at a wedding, I take a video of it and then I can do a voiceover. So there’s a lot of prepping in advance of them.
So I do have a lot of content that I need to post coming up, but it’s just finding the time to edit it. But I’m aiming for once a day. If I can manage that, I’ll be very happy.
Moving into the winter season and obviously when it gets a little bit quieter, our last wedding is on the 6th of December and then we don’t have another wedding until the start of March.
So I’ve got a little bit of time that I can do a bit more intense TikTok stuff around the engagement season and around all the hundreds of viewings and emails and things that come in. But yeah, it’s not a case of if one day you have to answer all the inquiries that come in and you just don’t have time for TikTok, that’s okay.
That’s like it’s meant to be fun at the end of the day and if you’re not having fun anymore, then. And what’s the point? It’s meant to be a fun platform and an enjoyable space to be in.
So, yeah, it’s just about making sure that things are all still enjoyable for you. I also spend quite a lot of time on TikTok, just watching stuff and reposting stuff and saving.
And I think quite a lot of people that create content forget that if you don’t engage with anybody else, why are they going to engage with you? So I will spend a lot of my time commenting on people’s posts that feel relevant or reposting them if they’re in our venue from photographers.
And so I feel like I’ve created quite a nice, friendly space for vendors and actually being active on TikTok, even if you haven’t posted something that day is just as important.
Becca
00:57:58.540 – 00:58:33.670
Yeah, I love that. And I will be watching. I’ll be watching you.
You pop up in my for you page all of the time, which again, I love because people say that to me all the time. They’re like, beckle, every time I go on TikTok, I see your face.
Well, the story for me is every time I go on TikTok I see Ruth’s face and I love it because I know it means that you’re doing some great stuff.
And even sometimes their videos from a couple of days ago or ones that I’ve missed and they still come up in my feed and I’m like, yes, Ruth, come on, keep it going. Now, me and Simone are looking at rerunning TikTok Pro, probably in November.
If there are people listening to this who are considering it, Ruth, what would you say to them? Why should they consider being part of it.
Ruth
00:58:33.670 – 00:59:39.730
If you’re thinking about it. It’s like when people say, I’m thinking about doing a dress change.
If it’s something that’s mind, just do it because you already know you want to do it. That’s why you’re thinking about it. And it was so worth it. It literally. It literally is up to my views over 7,000%. That’s a silly.
That’s a silly statistic. That’s not a normal stat. And it’s just from me spending three months with you and Simona, absorbing all of the content.
And if you can’t action things straight away, that’s okay.
There’s some people that did the course at the same time as me that have only just started actioning things and they’re all popping up on my for you page and then. And I can see it all happening for them.
So just because you go into it in November and you think, oh, I’m really busy in November, you might have an amazing December and be able to jump on all of those engagements over Christmas. You do not want to be missing the Christmas engagement season because you thought, I’ll leave it until next year.
You’ve got the perfect timing to really make a big difference for 26 and 27. Just do it. If you’re considering it, you already know that you want to do it.
Becca
00:59:39.730 – 01:00:13.350
Yeah, you’re so right. And also, we can’t do well on these platforms if we don’t understand the platform.
And I always say that that’s why I hired Simona in the first place, because I might be the UK’s leading wedding industry marketing expert, but if TikTok feels too young for me, then my job is to find the person who knows what they’re doing to help me with it, to make me better at it. And as business owners, we need to do exactly the same. It’s been fantastic watching your journey.
Thank you so much for sharing everything and being so open and honest with me today.
Now, I always end my podcast the same question, so I’m going to pose that to you now, which is what’s one thing you personally wish you’d known sooner?
Ruth
01:00:13.350 – 01:01:02.080
In business, I think personally, it’s don’t take things personally. So I have had a few couples recently that have given me some grievances and I just have to remember that it’s not personal, it’s not about me.
Weddings are stressful and they need someone to take things out on and often that is me. And that’s okay. It’s Not a personal thing. And it goes with TikTok as well.
I get a few comments that are just like, I think this advice is bad, or don’t listen to this person or this person doesn’t know what they’re talking about. I’m like, okay, so if you don’t want to listen to me, that’s completely fine, but I’m not going to take it personally.
I’m not going to stop what I’m doing. I like where I am as a person, so it really doesn’t matter what everybody else thinks of me. I’m.
I’m happy where I am and I’m not going to change for anybody. So, yeah, just don’t take things personally if they’re not meant personally.
Becca
01:01:02.160 – 01:01:20.040
Absolutely. Such a healthy attitude. Easier said than done sometimes, and something we have to keep reminding ourselves of. But so, so true.
Ruth, it’s been a pleasure.
If people want to find out more about you, about the venue, about your TikTok journey, where are the best places to find you, other than Tick Tock, which of course I will put the link in the show notes.
Ruth
01:01:20.040 – 01:01:39.360
So obviously chat to me on Tick Tock. I’m also still very much an Instagram girl, so if you want to chat on Instagram, that’s absolutely fine.
And I’ve got a LinkedIn as well that I need to get better at, but I’m, I’m always over there. Or just drop me an email. It might get a little lost in the emails because I get hundreds. But yeah, more direct is going to be Instagram or TikTok.
Becca
01:01:39.360 – 01:02:04.040
Fantastic. I’ll put all of that in the show notes. Ruth, do keep in touch with myself and Simona as well over the next six months.
If you see interesting data, if you get interesting results, share it with us because we’d love to follow your journey because I do believe we’re right at the. The start of more and more and more couples being on TikTok. And so I think it’s interesting for us to see the data that you’re seeing as well.
So please do share that with us and thank you so much for being here. It’s been a pleasure.
Ruth
01:02:04.040 – 01:02:07.040
Thank you so much for having me. This has been bucket list ticked off.
Becca
01:02:07.360 – 01:02:51.820
What a fantastic conversation with Ruth.
I really admire the way that she came to learn and not only learn, but actually put it into action, went for it and she’s reaped the reward and seen the results. If you’ve been thinking about doing TikTok, as Ruth said, stop thinking about it and just do it and if myself and Sukh Mona can help you with that.
Take a look in the show notes. I’ll put all the links in there to the next round of TikTok Pro, which is going to be coming in November.
Or if it all feels completely overwhelming and you just don’t have the time and you want to do what I do. Or maybe hire Simona as your content creator.
I’ll put the information about that in the notes as well and she can come and film with you, edit for you and send it to you ready to post. I hope that this has inspired you. If you’ve got questions, reach out to me and do go and check out Ruth on TikTok. I’ll see you next time.
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