Show notes:

What does it really take to build a wedding business that lasts for more than 30 years?

In this episode, I’m delighted to welcome Kevin Dennis back onto the podcast. Kevin was actually a guest back in 2024 and since then, this podcast has become award-winning, so it felt like the perfect time to invite him back for another conversation. Kevin is the founder of Fantasy Sound Event Services, Wedding IQ and host of the Mind Your Wedding Business podcast. With more than three decades in the wedding industry, he’s seen huge changes in how couples plan their weddings, how businesses market themselves and how technology is shaping the future of our industry. We dive into what it really takes to stay relevant over the long term, why relationships and networking still matter more than ever and how to embrace new technology without losing the human side of your business.

Fantasy Sounds Event Services 

Wedding IQ

Mind Your Wedding Business podcast

Time stamps:

00:29 – Setting Boundaries for Better Work-Life Balance

08:01 – The Journey of a Wedding Professional

18:38 – Networking in the Wedding Industry

28:28 – Embracing Technology in the Wedding Industry

34:23 – Exploring CRM Systems and AI Tools

52:38 – The Impact of AI on Technology Integration

53:01 – The Impact of AI on Podcast Pitches

Transcript:

Kevin
00:00:00.160 – 00:00:29.550
That it’s okay to be guarded with your time and it’s okay to have the boundaries with your clients because, you know, like, I only do client meetings on certain days and I only do, you know, like Tuesdays is an internal day. We only do internal meetings and all that kind of stuff.

Like we’ve really kind of set boundaries on how we operate and it’s become like such a stress relief to have like this, a routine. And I find that I’m a little bit more relaxed and I spend more time with my family.

Becca
00:00:29.710 – 00:01:38.850
I’m Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, strategist, speaker and author.

Over the last decade, I’ve combined my love of marketing with my knowledge of the wedding industry to help thousands of wedding pros and venues just like you learn new skills, strategize, get re energized and grow their businesses. Because after all, that’s how you stay top of your game. Whether you’re brand new into this industry or been here forever, I want to help.

So grab a cup of tea. Tea or a cocktail, sit back and enjoy a brand new episode of my award winning podcast, Wedding Pros who are Ready to Grow.

Let’s get going with today’s episode. Today I’m chatting with Kevin Dennis, founder of Fantasy Sound Event Services, Wedding IQ and host of the Mind you’d Wedding Business podcast.

With over 30 years in the wedding industry and having sat on many wedding industry boards across the US he has seen the industry shift hugely over the last three decades and he knows the importance of keeping up and staying relevant. He was first a guest on this very podcast back in May 2024. So I’m delighted to have him back here again. Kevin, welcome back to the podcast.

Kevin
00:01:39.090 – 00:01:40.370
Thank you for having me back.

Becca
00:01:40.850 – 00:01:49.730
It’s an absolute pleasure. I love to have returning guests. And did you know, Kevin, since the last time you were on the podcast? This podcast is now award winning.

Kevin
00:01:50.050 – 00:01:54.610
Ooh, I love that. I love that. You could just point to the award. That’s very.

Becca
00:01:55.330 – 00:02:11.590
It’s right there for people watching visually, people listening to this podcast know I love to mention it because it won the best business podcast at the British Podcast Awards, which is an achievement that I’m so proud of and I’m still clinging onto while I am still the champion before someone else around.

Kevin
00:02:11.590 – 00:02:13.150
I was going to say you should as long as you can.

Becca
00:02:13.790 – 00:02:32.970
Absolutely. Now, some people may have heard you on a previous episode, you were last of the podcast. As I said, back in May 2024, episode 111.

So if anyone wants to Go back and listen. They can. But if anyone hasn’t heard of you before, didn’t listen to that episode.

Can you give us a brief history how you got to the point where you are today?

Kevin
00:02:33.210 – 00:03:57.330
Sure. I started my company back in 1989, a long time ago. So I’m old, so hence what we’re gonna talk about today.

But I started out as a DJ many years ago and I’m pretty brutally honest about this. I was a nerd and DJs got the chicks. And I was the way to meet girls when I was 19 years old was being the DJ. So that’s how I became a DJ.

But it was about when I turned about 22, when I was like, man, I can actually really make a business out of of this. And then that’s when I started taking it seriously.

And then in 95 is when I decided, you know what, I’m done working for other people and I’m jumping full in. And then so 95 is when I have jumped in and I’ve been doing it full time ever since. So our company’s evolved over the years from a dj.

So we do a lot of drapery, chandeliers, decor, so we do a lot on the design side. We have a team of coordinators in house coordinators.

And then we also of course have photo booths, because what DJ company shouldn’t have photo booths? So that’s where we are. I also, you mentioned we have Mind your Wedding business podcast, which I’m crawling up.

We’re at 70 something episodes right now, so we’re not as cool as Becca yet, but we’re trying to get there. But. And then I also am the host with my, one of my co workers. We host, now that I’m engaged, how do we get married?

Which is for B2C, so helping couples get married.

Becca
00:03:57.330 – 00:04:10.510
So you’re doubling up on the podcast. What made you start the podcast? Because last time you were on, you hadn’t had your own podcast.

So just give people an insight about the world of podcasting. What made you start it? What do you love about it? What do you not love about it?

Kevin
00:04:10.830 – 00:05:34.850
Okay, I started it because I was done being a WIPA president and on the board. So I was on the national board for 11 or 12 years. It was a long time. And so I had the honor of being a two time president.

So I was president for four years. So I got to really like travel.

I got to see all the growth of wipa, but I also got to like travel to all the local chapters and I was like continuing getting education by going to all these different chapter meetings and hearing from all these great speakers.

And then in Covid hit, and then when Covid hit, I had nothing to do here in California because we were so locked down and we couldn’t do events and all that kind of great stuff.

And so one of the things I did during that time is I hosted the webinars for WIPA and I hosted over 60 of them in the year of 2020 and just kept having people come on and we talked about all kinds of, you know, how are we going to get out of this? And all kinds of different things.

I interviewed, even interviewed David Tutera, like randomly just put an email out and said, hey, would you like to be on a webinar for wipa? And he said yes. And it was great.

So doing that and you know, and kind of being done with my WIPA life was the reason I was like, as I was doing this, I kept telling Megan Ely, who we both know, I was like, you know, I think I’m going to do a podcast someday because I’m going to miss this, you know, talking to people.

Becca
00:05:34.930 – 00:05:51.970
So yeah, it’s absolutely my highlight of doing the podcast is just having great conversations with great people and calling at work. And I always say to my guests, just imagine we’re just having a cup of coffee together and that’s how I feel like this podcast goes.

But it’s not always easy. So tell us some of the challenges you find with podcasting.

Kevin
00:05:52.610 – 00:07:07.020
I’ll be honest with you. Some of the guests, so people don’t read.

So if you read and you should wear headphones and you should do, there’s lots of things that you should do by being a guest. Being a quiet room, you know, so.

And not like being a room with a window open to where we can hear the, you know, sirens go by as the, because you live in a busy city, that’s happened. Or another challenge is the, you know, the, you know, you bring me on because you have something to talk about.

And when they answer with yes, uh huh, oh sure, that’s a good idea, you know, like, you know, expand or you know, like stretch, you know, like tell me more and you’re having to like full teeth to get information out of the guests. That’s always a challenge as well. But I think sometimes too it’s just having time, you know, like trying to set away time to record the episodes.

I feel like though we’re in like company, we’ve gotten a good rhythm like it. We learned a lot over the years, like, I was hiring someone to edit it, and now we actually edit them in house, you know.

And so there’s lots of different things we’ve learned over the years. But I think the biggest challenge is just, unfortunately, some people come on and they don’t talk.

Becca
00:07:07.020 – 00:08:03.380
So that is a bit of a problem for a podcast.

But it’s interesting because if people are listening to this, quite a lot of people say to me, when I worked them once, I’d love to be a guest on more podcasts. I’d love to be on more podcasts. And I always say to them, you absolutely can, but please buy a microphone.

If you want to be a guest on a podcast and you want to start doing this, get the equipment, get some stuff going, because a good podcast guest will have a decent microphone and they don’t have to be that expensive. And you know what it’s like. We’re always looking for new, interesting guests. We’re happy to hear from different people.

But, yeah, please have the equipment. We wouldn’t show up, I don’t know, to a sports game without the right equipment.

So we shouldn’t set up to a podcast recording without the right equipment, right? Enough about podcasting. Now, you said you have been in this industry over 30 years, which is incredible.

I want you to be honest, though, over that 30 years, have you ever felt like just walking away, just going to get a job in top? Or have you always loved what you did?

Kevin
00:08:03.380 – 00:10:09.450
I’ve always loved what I do. I would be honest with you, Covid, was the time that I was like, maybe I’m done, you know, like, because we.

We did our last events the weekend, you know, before the world shut down on March 17, which, you know, St. Patrick’s Day. It’s hard to not forget when we.

That’s when we shut down here in the US and so that last weekend, you know, we were doing stuff, and then we didn’t do another event until Valentine’s Day the following year.

So we went almost a whole year with no events, and we kept getting like, this little carrot, oh, we’re going to open up or we’re going to allow this to happen.

But what was driving us nuts is, like, the restaurants in our downtown were having, like, they allowed them to do outdoor dining, and then they allowed them to have bands. And I’m like, I go through downtown, you know, just walking with the dogs or whatever, and I’m like, this is a full on.

This is worse than what we would do for a wedding right now. You know, like, so it was very frustrating.

And that was probably the one time that I was like, you know, drop the mic, I’m out of here, I’m done kind of thing. But it was. I’ll be honest with you, it was the community of people, you know, like, talking.

Like I mentioned, I did all those webinars and just talking to everyone. I was. That year, I was still the president of wipa.

It was my last year being president, and it was just, you know, just hearing whatever other people were going through and just, I don’t know, it kind of kept the hopes alive and all that. And then we got all excited to actually do, like. Like in the month. We did two event, three events in.

In February, and we thought we were a big deal, you know, and then it went from a few in March to a lot more in April to, like, all of a sudden, May started feeling normal, you know, and then, you know, it was normal. Like, we were allowed to have weddings without dancing, which is weird, you know, and people were allowed to stand up and dance at their table.

It was the weirdest thing. But I. I look back at that time, like. Like, you know, I don’t know. Hopefully we never go through that again in our lifetime. But it just.

It was such a weird time. We, you know, we probably should have been journaling and taking notes so we could have probably wrote a good book about all that stuff.

Becca
00:10:09.450 – 00:10:58.550
So, yeah, it’s so true.

And I always think that any wedding business that survived that time and stayed in business after it deserved a medal because that was a tough time for our industry. Like, people had no work. You know, it was so, so difficult.

And you’re right, that was definitely a time that I think a lot of people felt like giving up, but actually, a lot of people suck at it. A lot of people found ways through it, and we learn a huge amount from it. And I think it’s normal. Over 30 years.

There’s got to be times for all of us when we feel like throwing the towel in. I speak to my members sometimes, and they say, sometimes I just wake up in the morning and think, I just wish I had a job at the supermarket today.

And then five minutes later, they say, actually, I don’t think I would want a job. I like my freedom too much. But we all have those moments. It’s totally normal.

And I think we need to help people understand that it’s normal to think that sometimes.

Kevin
00:10:58.550 – 00:11:43.960
Yeah, I know. I think it’s way normal to be thinking that. Especially like. Like right now we’re in the middle of our busiest week of the entire year so far.

And it’s just like, you know, you need to have those little wins. Like, all right, I’m looking ahead. Like, all right, come, you know, Monday, we can relax a little bit because the going backwards.

The last three Mondays we’ve had multiple weddings on, you know, so it just. Here in California, I keep joking that we’re becoming more and more like Las Vegas. We get. We get weddings every day of the week.

Like today we’re recording this episode on a Wednesday. We actually have two weddings today. And it just.

Yeah, and we’re, you know, I’m 45 minutes east of San Francisco in a little wine country, but all of a sudden we have weddings every day of the week. So it just. It is weird.

Becca
00:11:43.960 – 00:12:10.220
Yeah, it is. And that’s definitely happening here in the UK as well.

We’re seeing more and more people getting married in the weekdays, I think, because venues are getting smart with it. They’re giving them better pricing. People can’t aff to get married at the weekend or the weekends are busy.

And so, yeah, increasingly we’re having people get married on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, basically any day, which I think is a good thing for our industry because it opens it up, it gives us more opportunities, but it is exhausting when you’re working.

Kevin
00:12:10.619 – 00:12:25.380
The one day I do think that people are not too keen on is Tuesday for some reason, because we’ve only done one wedding so far this year on a Tuesday. But everyone’s more jazzed about the Thursdays, the Mondays and even occasional Wednesday. But yeah, I’m like, what is it about Tuesday?

Becca
00:12:26.100 – 00:12:43.660
No one wants to get married on a Tuesday. So 30 years in the wedding industry, an absolutely huge achievement. You must have seen a lot of change in that time.

So give me some of the highlights, some of the things that you’ve seen shift massively in our industry over the last three decades.

Kevin
00:12:43.660 – 00:14:35.380
Oh, God. Where do we begin? Well, I mean, just even like equipment wise that we use now, you know, like from going from. I started out at.

On vinyl as records, you know, back in the day, and now it’s like, you know, we have laptops, you know, 70,000 songs. You no longer have to dig through a crate of records. And you would.

One of your jobs as a dj, you would pull out the songs and be like, you try to be like five, six songs ahead, you know, like. So you’re constantly flagging stuff and doing stuff. So I would say, like, equipment has changed.

But I also think our clientele has Changed, you know, like as far as the way they.

People like weddings are becoming more and more non traditional, you know, so gone are the days that, you know, and I’m from the Bay Area, so we have a lot of cultures and a lot of religions and there’s a lot of blending of different cultures and religions at weddings. So therefore, you know, like I just did a Jewish. He was Jewish, he was Chinese.

So we did the signing of the ketubah out in front of everyone as well as the tea ceremony out in front of everyone, all the guests. So the Chinese side could see the sign in the ketubah, the Jewish side could see the tea ceremony.

You know, it was just like that, like all that kind of stuff. You know, it’s becoming more and more acceptable to not do all the traditions at weddings. I think that’s changing.

But even like business wise, it’s just, you know, from people DMing us through Instagram now and just, you know, communication, you know, wanting to communicate through text message rather than email. So we had to go through and get a whole text messaging platform so we can communicate with clients.

You know, just staying up with all the, you know, because, you know, everyone says this is, you know, you continue to get older but your clients stay the same age, you know, kind of thing. So you how looking at that next generation and how are we going to connect and relate with them to where they trust us to do their work?

Becca
00:14:35.380 – 00:14:59.160
Yeah, and there has been so much change and I think particularly in the last five years, even two years with the rise of AI and technology, like the change is crazy.

But you know, you’ve seen it, you’ve been in the industry a long time, that trends come and go, things that we should be doing in marketing come and go. How do you make decisions on what to chase and what to just kind of ignore like it’s a shiny object.

Kevin
00:14:59.960 – 00:16:05.130
It’s hard, I’ll be honest with you, because you’ll get, you know, like right now everyone’s coming at us with hanging drapery installations. They can’t. They want crazy swoopies and just, you know, elaborate installations until they find out how much it costs.

And then, you know, and then they, oh, they change your mind. So just, you know, trying to find that trend that’s going to be sustainable, that’s going to make you money is not an easy thing to do.

So a lot of it is trial and fire. I’m going to be honest with you.

And if we, you like, for us, if we buy a chandelier or we buy A piece of equipment that just doesn’t, it’s not selling. You got to learn to let go.

Like, you know, so we purge our warehouse and we purge, you know, we look at, you know, we use a really good software, inventory management software, and it’ll tell us how many times a piece of equipment or, or a service item or whatever has gone out in that year.

So if we look back and go, this is not working, or can we look at it and revamp it, Is there a way to tweak it and maybe make it more appealing to the couples? You know, just, I kept trying to find a way and if not, let’s let it go. Like, let’s move on.

Becca
00:16:05.210 – 00:16:47.240
You know, I think that’s, that’s a really important piece because I know that a lot of people in this industry are hoarders. We end up keeping everything and actually things are no longer in trend.

And not only do we hoard the equipment, one of my biggest bugbears is we continue to hoard the terrible old fashioned images on our website. So we forget to update them and we go and look at the website.

I do website reviews for people and I say, I haven’t seen that trend at a wedding in at least a decade. Why are we still putting it on our website? And they say, but I just really liked that wedding 15 years ago. We need to let it go, everyone.

We can enjoy it, but we can let it go. Nothing dates like old wedding pictures, even my wedding pictures from 15 years ago. I look at them and I think, wow, I made some choices.

Kevin
00:16:47.240 – 00:17:02.480
Well, okay, same. I got married 17 years ago and we decided brown tuxedos were a cool thing and we did brown tuxedos. And then looking back, I’m like, I’m an idiot.

I should have never done like, what was I thinking? And anyway, but in the time I thought I was cool.

Becca
00:17:02.480 – 00:17:24.420
So yeah, absolutely. Now a lot of businesses don’t last the distance. I mean, both of us will have seen businesses come and go.

I think a lot of businesses kind of tend to be around three, four, five years and then they disappear or they change direction. They do different things. What do you think separates the businesses that last from those ones that kind of come and go?

Kevin
00:17:24.420 – 00:18:26.030
I think you got to continue to reinvent yourself. So, you know, like for us it was looking at, you know, for like we have only been doing the lighting, drapery, chandeliers now for 15 years.

And you know, so we reinvented ourselves 15 years ago. And part of it was out of a need. The venues in Our area. So we’re 45 minutes east of San Francisco, and that’s without traffic.

So with that said, the San Francisco vendors don’t want to come out and work in our little wine country because sometimes it’ll take them two, two and a half hours to get out here, you know, so they don’t want to work out here. So a lot of it was the vendors are going, the venues were coming to us and saying, hey, have you thought about doing this? Can you look in?

Would you be open to like, maybe adding this? You know, and that’s how we’ve, like, continue to grow, by listening to the folks we work with. And it’s, it all comes back to those relationships.

If you have, you know, great relationships with these venues, they’re going to come, you’re going to be their go to person for, for everything, you know.

Becca
00:18:26.190 – 00:18:45.630
Yeah, absolutely. So if someone’s listening to this, maybe they’re brand new into the wedding industry, maybe they’re in their first year of business.

What would you tell them to prioritize so that they can stay in business for the next 20 years? Is there certain things that you think either never fade that are still important? You mentioned venue relationships. I’m sure that’s one of them.

Kevin
00:18:45.710 – 00:20:24.510
I was going to say the biggest thing is you got to start with developing relationships in your first year.

So attending different networking events, you know, going out and meeting people wherever and anywhere you can, you know, like, if you are a planner, go, you know, offer to help other planners, you know, so you can get experience. You can do that with photographers. I’ve seen other florists help other floor.

I mean, it can go all around, but it just gets you experience, you know, like, that’s the biggest thing I think that goes through is like, you know, we’ve been through the war, you know, something I always, I always say, you want to go, you want to have a good group of people, you know, wedding vendors with you when it goes, you want, you want to go to war with them, you know, and there’s, there’s a bunch of, you know, photographers and florists and different. I would never want to go to war with, you know, just, just in my experience with them over the years.

So you, you know, having those relationships and knowing who you can trust and, you know, weddings are not perfect. Things happen and, and some of it is completely out of our control. So who’s going to be able to rise to the occasion?

Who’s going to be able to, you know, get in there and get dirty Like, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve helped move chairs because, you know, the, the catering staff, so they were putting out a fire over here and the X needed to get done and it was during cocktail hour.

And let me, you know, get in there and help those little, little something as little as that is going to cement a relationship with a, you know, with another vendor because, you know, I’ve helped photographers move, you know, their bags or, you know, just help wherever you can if you’re not, you know, if you’re standing around picking your nose, you know, help out.

Becca
00:20:25.310 – 00:20:49.950
Absolutely. And I think often that is neglected is looked over, especially when people start out, they think, I gotta get a really shiny social media account.

I need a shiny website. Well, yes, you do.

But actually getting out and meeting as many people as you possibly can in this industry is definitely the fastest way to grow and I think continues to be important. I mean, 30 years in, are you still getting out there and meeting people? Does networking still play a part?

Kevin
00:20:50.180 – 00:21:45.720
They. Oh, 100%, yeah, we’re still out there, we’re still getting involved.

And then I get frustrated when we don’t, when we get busy, we’re not out there because I’m like, we’re missing the opportunity to meet, you know, someone new, you know. You know, I’m like, we got, you know, like, if we miss a couple meetings in a row because of, you know, we’re busy.

We have our open, like, like WIPA in our area is planning their next open house. You know, WIPA is big in the states here, but they’re having their next, you know, meeting locally on the day that we’re doing an open house.

So I’m like, ah, you know, how do we send one per, you know, like can and somebody, you know, because we’re represented, you know, like, trying to figure all that out. I think it’s really important.

And even for us, we started a little networking group called the Tri Valley Wedding Professionals, which our little valley out here is called the Tri Valley. And so because a lot of our folks don’t go to the city, they don’t want to go network.

So we, you know, we actually created our own opportunity to network as well.

Becca
00:21:45.720 – 00:22:06.840
I love that. And actually that’s something I also encourage people to do because often people say to me, well, there’s nothing in my area.

I say, well, start it then. Why don’t you put something on in your area? It doesn’t have to be super complicated.

Even if it’s just, you know, get a few People together for coffee in a coffee shop. Like, put the meeting place out there, get people together. It’s got to start somewhere.

If there’s nothing in your area, don’t moan about it, start it well.

Kevin
00:22:06.840 – 00:24:00.550
And it’s kind of. That’s how we. It happened for us. Everyone was complaining about, yeah, I go to San Francisco to the, you know, association meetings, but there’s.

I don’t want to work in the city, or I’m not meeting anyone from here. And then that’s when we got the idea. Like you said, you just gotta start it. And we started small. You know, we just would get together and network.

And now we have speakers and education and, you know, I was telling you before, we just had Renee Dallow, you know, at our last meeting.

And, you know, so people are now are like, we become the must, you know, must attend, you know, type of events because, you know, and venues are like, hey, can we host you next year?

We already have venues pushed out all the way till 2027 that are wanting to host us, you know, so we’ve really built something really, that’s strong and vibrant and that what people want. But it all started out, I’ll be honest with you, with me, begging, hey, would you please host us a little networking event?

And, you know, maybe can we do a cat cash bar? You like.

I was trying to figure out ways to how to put these on for free, and then I realized that, no, at some point we had to start charging for them and, you know, paying people to do their job and all that kind of stuff as well. But again, you know, you’d start, like you said, the coffee, you know, get together with a group of photographers. Planner, it could be whatever.

And network. Because especially if you’re like a photographer, most photographers can only do one wedding a day.

Therefore, you need a group of people that you can refer. Same with planners. A lot of planners don’t have multiple planners on their staff.

So developing that friend or group that you can refer out to, and even some of the. We’re a little bit of a bigger company, but we still need people that we need to refer to.

I actually walked before I went and grabbed a drink of water before this. And I heard one of my staff recommending one of our competitors, you know, that’s a friend.

As I was walking in, I’m like, oh, what are we missing out on? I was kind of like, what are we missing out on?

Becca
00:24:00.710 – 00:24:29.690
Yeah, it’s so, so important. So important. I want to get personal with you for a minute because I Also want to, I want to help you reflect on your last 30 years.

And we talked about evolution. We’ve talked about how your business has changed, but I think as people, we also change.

So I wondered whether you think your personal definition of success has changed over the last three decades or whether it’s always been the same, whether your priorities, your success, your drivers have become different.

Kevin
00:24:29.930 – 00:26:06.800
Oh, it’s for sure changed. When I first started my business, I wanted to DJ everything and anything because I wanted to be the one that was there.

So if someone would come to me and goes, XY DJ company will do it for 250 bucks, I’m like, like, I’ll do it for, you know, like, I was doing everything in anything to just to be visible and be out there, you know, and that, that obviously is not my priority now. So it’s like, you know, so I, I, I’m not willing to do everything and anything to kill myself like I did back in the day.

I think the success for me right now is about having time to do the things I like with my family. Having time. I am a little league coach. I coached Little league baseball for 18 years, and I’ve coached through all three of my kids.

And I’m on my last one right now, and I probably have one, maybe two years left of coaching. But it’s just like, you have to have a good support group around you, but also making it a priority to, like, you know, family time to travel.

Like, as a family, we love to travel. We love, like, we have Disneyland annual passes.

So we, you know, it’s funny, I just took my daughter to school today, and she’s like, when are we going to Disneyland?

You know, we’re a little spoiled here because, you know, they go like, we go like four, sometimes five times in a year, you know, but it’s just, you know, like, that kind of stuff is my success having being able to, like, being able to spend time with my family, travel. And that’s what I love.

Becca
00:26:06.880 – 00:26:28.060
Yeah. And Kevin, you’re speaking my language. Because my definition of success is more trips to Disney World. Absolutely. Every time.

But I’m not gonna let my children listen to this episode because they are gonna be very jealous of your four or five trips a year, because I’m telling them once every two years for us to fly to Florida is a lot, but they would be to go.

Kevin
00:26:28.060 – 00:26:32.100
I mean, how long does it take you to get to Disney? It’s like, what, a five, six hour flight, right?

Becca
00:26:32.100 – 00:26:34.340
Eight hours. Eight hours. Eight hours on a plane.

Kevin
00:26:34.660 – 00:27:25.400
Yeah. You Know how long it takes us? 55 Minutes. And we’re there on the airplane. So it’s a little different.

But like, we will do, like, we literally will go down there and come back in 48 hours. Like sometimes just to like, because we, we love, like they’ll have the Oogie Boogie Halloween party or like my wife and I went down.

But we always try to go once without the kids and it pisses them off. But we really love. And it’s. It’s Disneyland without kids is such a great experience because you can do what you want when you want.

You can go drink, you know, like we day drank at over a Californ Adventure and sat there and watched everyone, like deal with their kids and celebrate the fact that we didn’t have our kids. And it was great. We had a great time. But we. Yeah, you gotta have your fun, enjoy your wins.

Becca
00:27:25.480 – 00:27:48.500
Absolutely do. And Kevin, I’m going to let you into another secret right here, right now on this podcast.

We were just speaking before we recorded about how I’m coming out to Florida to speak in Florida in August, and I am absolutely booking myself an individual day ticket to Magic Kingdom where I’m going to do a one day on my own Disney trip just to see what it’s like, like to be a Disney adult without any children. And I know I’m gonna love it.

Kevin
00:27:48.820 – 00:28:09.220
It’s. It. I have. Yeah, I actually did that one time, but I did it with two staff members of ours.

Like, we were down there and the conference, we kind of like decided that we didn’t like the last day of speakers. And so we were like, we were like, yeah, let’s all. And we did Magic Kingdom literally for the day. So you gotta get in, get out and go. Go have fun.

Becca
00:28:09.380 – 00:28:09.820
That’s.

Kevin
00:28:09.820 – 00:28:12.320
You’ve been to Epcot though, right? Have you been to Epcot?

Becca
00:28:12.320 – 00:29:07.780
I’ve been to all of the parks. I love them all. But Magic Kingdom, if I’m only going to do one day, I think it’s going to have to be Magic Kingdom.

I’m flying in early especially to do it. So that is speaking my language. And I know lots of people listening to this podcast as well. Their definition of success is also more trips to Disney.

Now, before we go down a total Disney rabbit hole, I want to talk about technology because I think one of the biggest shifts I said earlier in the last few years, let alone the last 30 years, is the technology shifts for all kinds of wedding business.

I think actually it’s one of the things people find the Scariest sometimes, especially if they’ve been in business a long time and they don’t feel like they are keeping up or they say, yeah, the young people understand the technology, but I don’t understand it. But I know that you are embracing technology. I know that you’re all for evolving and using technology.

So number one, I want you to tell people why they shouldn’t be scared of technology.

Kevin
00:29:08.260 – 00:30:48.200
Well, because you gotta learn. I mean, you gotta learn, you gotta learn. I mean, you gotta be where your clients are.

And if their clients are using in technology and they’re going to be planning their wedding with technology, you got to learn to be there with them, you know, because some of these crazy photos we get are from Chat GPT, like from the venue. They’ll, they’ll, and they’ll throw it in there and it’ll be from Claude or chat GPT, whatever.

And you know, so you got to learn to be where they are, if that makes sense, and meet them where they are. I think that’s part of it. So you got it. I don’t know, it’s just, it’s, it is scary though. Sometimes I’m like, I don’t want to do this.

Another thing that we have to learn or you know, some, you know, I get a little older and curmudgeon every once in a while about this stuff, but it’s, you know, you have to continue to adapt. And I always, I always say, someone told me a long time ago, it’s adapt or die.

And I really think the people that are resistant to something as simple as online meetings or, you know, something as simple as having like a scheduler, you know, like, you know, that, you know, just where, you know, make it easy. How can you make the process of working with you as easy as you can for your clients?

You know, where it’s having like a portal where, where documents are kept or, you know, whatever, you know, the way they communicate with you, you know, getting a text, you know, platform, because, you know, like our phone, like we get maybe 15, 20 phone calls a week now because everything is through email or through text, you know. Yeah, it blows your mind because we used to get anywhere from 50 to 100 phone calls a day back in the day, you know what I’m saying?

So it just like all that’s been replaced.

Becca
00:30:48.200 – 00:31:33.170
Yeah, the method of communication has changed, I think, particularly in our industry where we’re having to find new clients and work with new people. And as you said, we’re all getting older and the clients are staying the same age or getting younger, however you want to look at it.

And actually they are coming into it fresh. They expect us to meet them where they’re at. They’re living in a consumer culture that is full of technology.

You know, my daughter is nine and she came home from school yesterday and said, said, mummy, I’ve been learning about AI prompts at school. Can we do some practice ones? And I’m like, wow, okay. This is the next generation coming through at school. They’re learning about AI prompts.

So no wonder couples are going to be using AI. I mean, if she’s learning that at nine years old, it’s terrifying to think when she gets married what technology is going to look like.

Kevin
00:31:33.250 – 00:31:47.820
I can only, I mean it’s going to be throwing the goggles on and they’re going to be able to walk visually into a room. You know, like, I can only imagine what it’s going to be. I mean, it’s probably not.

What they’re going to be doing is probably not even been thought about yet. You know, that’s the best, crazy, crazy part of the whole thing.

Becca
00:31:47.980 – 00:31:59.420
So I love recommendations on this podcast. I love to get practical.

So I’d love to hear some of the tech, some of the apps that you’re using in your business or apps that you think people should be looking at in their wedding businesses.

Kevin
00:31:59.420 – 00:32:52.190
Well, I, you got to have some basic stuff. You got to have like a note taking app.

So whether you’re using, you know, Apple notes, Evernote, OneNote, any of the, you know, you gotta have somewhere to drop. I am a huge. We went paperless several, several years ago and I am a huge Remarkable. I don’t know if you’ve heard of a Remarkable.

I am like, I joke if Apple buys any, creates anything, I pretty much buy it. I bought the stupid goggles and that they sit on a shelf in my. Maybe once a month I’ll bring them out and update them or do I never use those things?

It was a waste, the biggest waste of money. But that’s how die hard I am for Apple. And so, and I’m pretty much that way with remarkable now.

Like I, I eat, breathe and sleep everything like through Remarkable. That’s a big one. Something that we just started. Have you heard of Brick?

Becca
00:32:52.190 – 00:32:53.470
No. Tell me about Brick.

Kevin
00:32:53.950 – 00:34:09.480
So a lot of us struggle. A lot of us in the wedding industry have ADHD and we are addicted to our phones.

Well, Brick will lock you out of your phone and so you tell it what apps you want it to not work, during what time and the only way to make it work is you go tap a little brick and then, and then you can unbrick it and get into whatever you need to do. But so that is for like focusing and you’re working. I highly. But it’s so.

It’s a little appy, but a little also you got to have a little bit of hardware with it as well. So that’s another one I’m loving. There’s one I’ve been using for years, which I am still probably.

I’ve probably been using this app for at least 12 years. It’s called Foxit PDF and it’s reinvented itself so many different times.

But I take all the documents, create one PDF for them for the wedding, throw it in there. And so now it’s on everything. I own my iPad, it’s everywhere. So now I no longer have a clipboard with paper. So again, we went paperless.

And so now, and the greatest thing is I could write on this. I can change things and do things on there, there. And that’s when I love that app, you know.

Becca
00:34:09.480 – 00:34:10.400
What was that one called?

Kevin
00:34:11.760 – 00:34:13.200
Foxit PDF.

Becca
00:34:13.760 – 00:34:15.840
Fox as in F O X.

Kevin
00:34:16.320 – 00:34:17.920
Yes, that is right.

Becca
00:34:18.320 – 00:34:26.960
Right. I’m gonna make a note of that. Everyone listening, make a note of these apps because all of them are super helpful. What about CRM system?

Do you use a CRM system in your business?

Kevin
00:34:27.360 – 00:35:25.730
We do. So we. So we resisted a CRM system for a long time because we use a software called Flex Rental Solutions, which is our INV software.

And it has like, I’m going to tell you, like the stupidest CRM connected to it. So we were like, oh, we’re fine, we’re fine. And then we finally, last year switched to having Dubsado. So we do Dubsado. So I.

And I’m from interviewing people on there, you know, there’s Honeybook, there’s 17 hats. There’s all kinds of different things out there.

It really seems like in the wedding industry right now, Dubsado and Honeybook are kind of the two that people are really are going for that are not wedding branded, you know, because there’s other ones out there that are like made for planners or maybe made for photographers or florists, even have their own, you know, so. But. But people that are going for more of it. And I just interviewed someone on the podcast and they were a huge Dubsado fans.

Really, really love Dubsado.

Becca
00:35:25.730 – 00:36:00.980
I love CRM systems. It’s one of the things that I tell all my clients to start paying attention to. Especially if they’re doing a decent number of weddings.

I always say, if you’re doing, you know, know, 10 weddings or less a year, you probably don’t need it. If you’re starting to do more than that, then absolutely. Why would you not use the system? The system will do stuff for you.

And I think one of the biggest minefields is picking the system. Right. I think that’s one of the hardest things people struggle with.

But I always say, well, write down the process, write down what you want it to do, and then basically interview all these different systems. So ask AI who can do what and get your answers for you.

Kevin
00:36:01.060 – 00:37:08.170
Well, in that, and most of them you can get free trials to kind of try them out and just to see what you like and kind of poke around at it. But I will say we hired someone to help us with set up our dubsado.

And I, I know it’s not cheap to do that, but I highly recommend hiring a professional to help you come in. And because they know so much more about dubsado. And the girl that we ended up using to help us, she came with so many ideas.

Have you guys thought about this? And having your workflow do X, Y and Z, you know, and she just, it was mind blowing. The.

The different things that we can do and that you can do, like from, you know, just even upselling, helping your clients, giving them little educational tidbits, just keeping yourself top of mind. Because a lot of times people will get booked in the wedding process, but then don’t contact the couple for another six to nine months.

So having little drips along the way where you’re giving them a little, hey, here’s your worksheet. Hey. Our next meeting will be in two to three months. I look forward to seeing you.

If you have any questions, you know, just little drips along the way that just help out and you top of mind and make it look like they haven’t given you a bunch of money and you’ve gone away.

Becca
00:37:08.650 – 00:37:42.770
Yeah, absolutely. And I think the fact that it’s doing it automatically without you even realizing is, is one of my favorite things.

And also what I say to clients when they come to me for CRM help is actually, it means you’re giving everyone a consistent service because you’re not. Sometimes we have one client and we seem to be sending them reminders and talking to them all the time.

And then other clients, because they’re not bothering us, we don’t talk to them at all.

Whereas actually, at least if you’ve got kind of a workflow that, you know, everyone’s going to at least get some of the check ins and you’re doing your clients a disservice if you’re just ignoring them and then they panic and then they get difficult.

Kevin
00:37:43.090 – 00:38:18.730
I never thought about it that way, but until I was doing that podcast episode and something that was really interesting to me was that, you know, just like think about, like this week for us is crazy busy, but I would have a system behind us that, you know, that that is doing its thing and still communicating with clients and still touch base, you know, again, again, where if someone would reach out to us this Saturday.

We have nine events on Saturday, you know, so it’s just like no one’s going to get a contact, but if someone sends an inquiry, hey, we’ll be back to you. Like, it’s going to get a response and it’s going to show you care. And there’s a lot to that, you know.

Becca
00:38:18.969 – 00:38:25.450
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. What about appointment setting then? You mentioned that earlier. Do you do that through your CRM? Do you use a separate app for that?

Kevin
00:38:25.850 – 00:39:33.780
I use acuity. I’m a big acuity person. Megan Ely, which is a big joke that she’s my sister. My. So I would say my sister uses calendly. So those are. I love acuity.

I’ve been with it forever. I’m very, so Becca, I’m very loyal.

Like I told you, like, so if, if I have an app and I, I will stick it out until it just flat out doesn’t work anymore. I was a huge Evernote person and I had a massive breakup with Evernote, you know, a long time ago because they just, they got greedy.

They like, they triple their costs for the app in a year and the services weren’t as good. So I finally said, you know what?

I’m going to take everything I do and took it to, of all things, Apple Notes and it works just as good, if not better. And it’s free. It’s part of my app. I. With that said, I’m very loyal. So I’m going to stick with an app as long as I can.

I’m not out there chasing the new shiny tool. There’s people that’ll do that.

And I think you get burnt out really quickly on technology if you’re constantly, always chasing the next shiny, shiny thing.

Becca
00:39:33.780 – 00:40:04.600
Yeah, very true.

Although one thing I would recommend people do actually is kind of a tech amnesty every year is because often what we find is that these tech businesses are evolving and sometimes we end up paying for two pieces of software. And then we realize that one of them now has the feature that the other one was doing.

And now we’re paying for two things when we could actually pay for one thing.

So I do recommend, yeah, we don’t change all the time, but I recommend people do review their systems like once a year and go, what are all the things I’m paying for? And actually can other things do those things within the one thing I’m paying for already?

Kevin
00:40:04.840 – 00:40:41.690
I called Sanitize. So it’s kind of funny. So I always tell everyone you need to sanitize your phone at least two. I’m a little bit more aggressive.

I think you need to do it two or three times a year because a lot of it too is you have these apps on, whether it’s on your desktop, on your iPad, or, you know, your, you know, smartphone, Android or, or Apple. You know, it’s. It’s constantly updating in the background and doing things and, you know, so get, get go through. And I don’t use this anymore.

You know, stop paying for it and delete it. You don’t even need it on your device anymore. So I, I’m a big, I’m a big believer. I call it Sanitize. Get out there and clean it up.

Becca
00:40:41.690 – 00:40:56.780
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, what about AI tools?

Because that’s obviously the talk of the moment and I’m finding it interesting to talk to people about what, if any of the AI tools they’re using, whether they’ve changed AI tools. So, yeah, what are you using in the way of AI AI?

Kevin
00:40:56.940 – 00:43:33.140
So I. Well, Grammarly, I’ve been using forever. I’ll be honest with you.

I’ve had that around and it continues to evolve and continues to get like, I have it now. It’s on all my devices. Like when I first got it, it was just I would have to take what I was going to do, put it in a little.

The software, it would update it for me and then, you know, and then recopy and paste it and bring it back in. Now it’s in every, every, you know, from web browsers to email platforms to even on my iPhone to even text messaging.

The other day I was like saying something. It goes, it like suggesting and prompting me to be smarter than what I really am. To be honest with you. Helping me through it.

So that, I mean, I, I swear by Grammarly. I, I was English. I use English as my first language, but I always joke that English is not my first language because I was never good at English.

In, in school. So I, I failed freshman English and as a sophomore, I had to take sophomore and freshman English the same year.

Part of it was I was, you know, silly and didn’t do my work. But the other part was I just, it doesn’t interest me. It’s not a big thing. I’m not into it. So Grammarly helps me sound like a normal human being.

So, you know, and from there it seems like the whole world is abandoned in Chat GPT and going to Claude. So. And Claude is continuing to get, you know, from. I mean, there’s. It’s limitless.

It’s crazy what you can do, you know, out there, but then even heavier zapier so integrating. So there’s a couple different apps that you can make your apps talk to each other and do different things.

So that I think having something I’m all about, will it save me time or money? So I’m willing to spend money if it’s going to save me time. And that’s how you look at it because a lot of people look at these apps.

Oh, you know, like that Fox at PDF I was telling you about.

Like, I, I would be happy to pay for that app because I use it all the time, but I’ve never got to the threshold of it where I’ve ever needed to pay for it, you know, but I’m a big bull, you know, like, and I use Todoist a lot. And we still use it as like our project management tool internally. You know, there’s Basecamp, there’s all kinds of other ones you can use.

But, you know, so having, you know, paying for things, you know, like you, if you’re going to do Claude, you’re going to do ChatGPT, you’re going to use any of these other ones, Gemini or whoever it is, pay for it because you’re gonna. It unlocks so much more and it’s.

So for the 20 bucks or whatever it is a month, you’re gonna get so much time back that you can’t even, it doesn’t even equate. Does that make sense?

Becca
00:43:33.220 – 00:44:14.400
No, it makes perfect sense.

I think sometimes we’re resistant to paying for things, but actually at £15amonth, if it’s saving you more than an hour or less than an hour, depending on your hourly rate, probably even half an hour, then you’ve absolutely paid yourself back because you can do more with that time.

I think the Chat GPT interesting, I’ve been saying for the last three months, I heard it said that they think that ChatGPT is going to be like MySpace to Facebook. So everyone went on MySpace. It was the biggest thing. It was the first social media. And then everyone jumped ship and went to Facebook.

And that’s basically what’s happening right now in AI. Everyone’s jumping shit from ChatGPT and going to Claude first in the States is where it’s at right now.

Kevin
00:44:14.560 – 00:44:24.220
Well, and in the States, a little bit of it is because they got a little political. I think ChatGPT did. And so they’re backing a president that’s not very well liked. And so I think that’s half of it as well.

Becca
00:44:24.940 – 00:45:11.600
Yeah. And actually I think that the ethics are better just all round when it comes to Claude.

I’ve done a lot of looking into the sustainability, the ethics of it. And yeah, right now Claude’s where it’s at. I think it will continue to change as the tools continue to change.

And I think what’s interesting as well is definitely the integration phase, which for anyone that’s a bit more advanced with the technology may want to start thinking about is how do all these things integrate and talk to each other. So now I have Claude, which is attached to my notion.

Notion is now is has all of these notes and the Claude can interact with it, it interacts with my diary, it does me a daily PA briefing, it tells me what I’ve got coming up, it looks at my objectives, it tells me what to do. And so suddenly all this technology that we’ve already been using can now start to speak to each other.

Kevin
00:45:11.600 – 00:45:27.780
And that’s. And that’s a big deal. The more, the sooner it speaks to each other, the better. So that’s, you know, I don’t know.

That’s like, I like Apple having everything. Like, for me, I’m Apple. And so like it all just like speaks to each other and work seamlessly behind the scenes.

Becca
00:45:27.780 – 00:45:51.780
Yeah, so true. Do you want to know? My biggest tech success recently was changing to a MacBook.

So now I could just airdrop things from my phone to my MacBook rather than having to send them to myself via email or WhatsApp or Facebook messenger. I’m like, why did I not do this sooner? Why was I clinging on to my desktop computer?

Why I should have just switched to Mac so it all talks to each other and makes other sense.

Kevin
00:45:51.940 – 00:46:09.110
So I mean, I was gonna say even. Even, like family wise. Like, even. Cause we are on the family plan.

And it just like, it’s so, you know, like if I drop an appointment in on my calendar, it shows up on everyone on My kid’s phone, my wife’s phone, it just. It just. You gotta make it work.

Becca
00:46:09.510 – 00:46:10.510
Yeah, absolutely.

Kevin
00:46:10.510 – 00:46:38.740
And one more quick one, I was gonna say an oldie but a goodie for AI that I still think has a lot of value is Canva. Canva has a lot of.

They’re really investing in a lot of AI features right now, which is great for your social media creative, creating posts and doing, like, helping you with stories and different things.

There’s a lot of stuff that Canva’s doing right now and it seems like as a company, even though they’ve been around forever, they’re continuing to evolve and do some good stuff right now.

Becca
00:46:38.900 – 00:47:07.040
Yes. And Canva’s a great one.

And actually there may be people listening that don’t use Canva, because I met someone the other day in business who said they’d never heard of Canva and I could not believe it. I was like, your life is about to change for the better because you are going to see Canva.

So, yeah, if anyone is listening and hasn’t been on Canva for a while, looked at Canva for a while, or never even heard of it, absolute game changer for great graphic design in your business and makes life so much easier. What did any of us do without Canva? I don’t know.

Kevin
00:47:07.360 – 00:47:29.220
I have no idea, to be honest. Well, no, it just makes the graphic artists.

Because it used to be so difficult to get anything made or printed and now, even for weddings, we can create cool little signs in minutes. Before we’d have to send it off and have it made. It was a whole process and now it’s just, like, done. Check it off the list.

Becca
00:47:29.300 – 00:47:36.100
So you’ve given me loads of tools. Could you narrow it down? What is the one piece of tech in your business that your business couldn’t survive without?

Kevin
00:47:36.660 – 00:48:26.020
I’ll be honest with you, it’s us, it’s the flex rental solutions. And the reason being is our inventory. Like, you know, like when our salespeople are out selling, they need to know, do we have.

If we have 15 of an item, how many do we have available that day? So, I mean, for us, it’s the inventory management software. We could not live without that. I don’t. We’ve been on it now maybe like 10 to 12 years.

And we used to do it all with Excel, Excel spreadsheets, believe it or not. And I. And still this day, it blows my mind that we have, like, how do we. Like, how do we not mess up and not have enough of something for a wedding?

Because now our software alerts us, hey, idiot, you booked too many of these. You know, you either need to buy or substitute or, you know, like, we would not survive as a company without that stuff. Software.

Becca
00:48:26.020 – 00:48:47.260
And it’s made your life so much easier, but yet I guarantee there are people listening to this podcast right now that are still doing it from an Excel spreadsheet. And so again, I would encourage you, there is better ways out there, there’s easier ways out there.

It’s probably not as expensive as you think it’s going to be. And once you get over that hurdle of starting to use it, it will save you so much time and cause you less problems and headaches.

Kevin
00:48:47.260 – 00:49:16.490
Yeah. And then we, I mean, it costs us, I think we’re about almost 350amonth that we pay for that software, which it seems like a big chunk of change.

Change the amount of time, you know, like I can immediately jump in here and go to August, you know, of 2027, and look at how many inquiries we have and what, you know, how many pieces of equipment is people are requesting that day. And it just, you have to have that kind of. You got to have the right tools if you’re going to be in business and do it the right way.

Becca
00:49:16.810 – 00:49:30.870
So how do you decide on technology? Where are you finding this technology from? Is it recommendations from friends? Is it that you go out there and technology?

Is it podcast interviews like this one? Where do you hear about things? Where do you pick up your information?

Kevin
00:49:31.350 – 00:50:50.120
I’m going to be like, before it was going to conferences, just like following like techie, you know, like stuff on Apple News, like just following tech as much as I could. And now it’s like talking to other wedding pros. Even like when I’m out networking, like, I’ll be like, hey, what kind of tech are you using now?

What’s going on? You know, like just. And that’s just. It’s a simple question to ask that spurs a big old long conversation and most of the time a big answer.

If you ask someone that’s maybe a little older, you might get, ah, nothing, you know, but like ask someone a little younger and like, what are you doing? Or what? You know, what. Have you seen clients come at you with new tech? You know, what are they using? What’s going on? Just ask.

Because that’s, I think, getting the, Having the people that do it with the boots on the ground. And that’s where you get a lot out of that, I think, to be honest with you.

But yeah, now it’s you know, like conferences, you know, podcasting, asking, you know, hosts. I mean, the guests, like, what, what have they been doing? Or how, how do you use that?

Or, you know, all that kind of stuff and just, and then get experimental, you know, look out there, you know, ask good old Claude. Hey, what, what are the, you know, I’m, I’m a wedding business and this is what I do. What, what kind of tech should I be using?

I did that recently, so it was just curious.

Becca
00:50:50.200 – 00:51:16.910
Yeah, and it will often get you a good answer.

I was talking recently on this podcast about when I did my WED Pros live conference, and I was looking for a piece of technology that would give me a guest list that people could then interact with and see who else was going to be at the conference. So I started asking Claude about what technology I should use, how much it would cost me.

And then basically Claude turned around and said, I’ll just build it for you for free. And I was like, great, thank you very much. I will.

Kevin
00:51:16.910 – 00:51:18.030
Oh my gosh.

Becca
00:51:18.510 – 00:51:44.640
And it worked. Yeah, it took me 10 minutes.

I put, it said, just put in an Excel spreadsheet of all the people that are coming and we’ll create you something in your brand colors. And it did. I put it on my website and everyone could interact with it.

So, yeah, ask the technology about other technology and ask your peers and friends as well if you’ve got a problem in your business. I think often technology, you need to know what the problem is you’re trying to solve, and then you can find the technology to solve it.

There’s no point just going after something without knowing what you’re trying to fix.

Kevin
00:51:44.640 – 00:52:11.080
To be honest with you, when I would speak on technology at conferences, I would always say, ask Google. You know exactly what you said, ask. But now it’s, I always say ask your AI because they’re going to give you a much thorough, better answer.

And I never like that you’re the first person that ever said they built it for you.

That’s absolutely mind blowing because that, yeah, think about, you were probably willing to spend money, like big money to get this to work, and it cost you this much money. You know, like that’s the best part.

Becca
00:52:11.080 – 00:52:58.340
Yeah, exactly. And I love it because it was unbiased and it just told me it would, it would build it for me.

Whereas if I’d have gone to any of those companies, they just said, no, no, no, you need to pay me X amount of money in order to do that. And, you know, I appreciate that. There’s some things that where the company will do it better.

But in this instance, it fixed it for me now on the train of AI, because at the moment I’m in a bit of a love hate relationship with AI and I think we definitely need to be embracing it as an industry. But there are some things about it that I’m absolutely hating and are overhyped. So I’m going to give you some examples.

Number one, posters made with AI. I don’t know about you, but everywhere I look at the moment on Facebook or Instagram, people are making posters with AI. But they all look the same.

Like they’re a kind of a different variation. But it’s so obvious, like the design.

Kevin
00:52:58.980 – 00:52:59.460
Yes.

Becca
00:52:59.460 – 00:53:27.720
So the same. So that’s driving me crazy. The second thing is podcast pitches.

People pitching to be on my podcast and all of their emails sound the same because they’ve clearly been written with AI and they all say, hi, Becca. I recently listened to episode 129 with Kevin Dennis and he said this and it really resonated with me. Please can I be on your podcast?

Except they all say the same thing. So do you think it’s overhyped or do you think we should be embracing it?

Kevin
00:53:28.600 – 00:55:17.660
No, I think we have to embrace it.

I’m gonna be honest with you because go back to the example where it saved you time and money, but also you gotta be smart with it and you can’t take everything it does for.

For you and runs, run with it, you know, because you got to remember these, they’re like glorified hospitality workers, these AI, you know, because they’re there to please you, right? And so they’re going to feed you all the things you want to hear that make you feel good, right?

So you got to learn to, you know, like, tell it not, you know, give me five constructive, you know, answers or, you know, like, you got to kind of set parameters. Don’t tell me everything I want to hear, you know, like, you know, you gotta. There’s a God who.

I saw something recently online and it’s slipping in my mind right now, but it was basically everything you have to feed your AI to tell it so it won’t feed you a bunch of bullshit. You know, you just have to really, you know, like. Because it really will. So, I mean, but I really think we have to embrace it.

Just from the time saving feature to. To all of our clients. I can’t tell you how many photos we receive that are. I want to do this.

And some of it is so unrealistic what they Want, you know, and so you have to pick it up. I don’t. Like, at first I was like, how the hell did someone do, you know, Like, I was like, well, how did that happen? There’s no way this happened.

And then I’m like, this is AI and then I started getting hit to it eventually.

You know, I was easily fooled the first couple times, but, you know, but we had this beautiful lawn area, and they wanted a chandelier suspended over the center of the nath floor. Well, there’s nothing. There’s no rigging structures, nothing around.

And I’m like, the only way to do is a big crane, is drop this chandelier, and it’s way off in the distance anyway.

Becca
00:55:17.820 – 00:55:59.620
Yeah. And that’s one of the problems with it, isn’t it? The unrealistic expectations.

People see stuff and they either don’t realize it’s made with AI or they’re trying to achieve the impossible.

And I think for us as being business owners, as wedding business owners, we need to, yes, embrace it, but we also need to work out when to use it and when not to use it. And I think there’s times when I want to see personality. So if you’re pitching to be on my podcast, I want you and your personality to shine through.

I don’t want the robot.

But if you’re doing my daily PA Briefing and telling me what to do today, well, that’s a great use case for AI Because I don’t need personality from that. I just need someone to tell me what to do.

And I think now we’re entering an interview era where we need to work out when to use it and when not to use it.

Kevin
00:55:59.700 – 00:56:41.670
Yeah, I really. Yeah.

And, you know, that’s good, good, good advice I think, that you just gave right there, because I. I started to get the same thing where the pitch where they’re using the exact number and said who the guest was and what they like. And now that you said that, I’ve gotten about four or five of them in the last couple weeks, and it’s. Yeah, you’re right.

It’s all pitched through AI so you got to look, learn to. Well, and that’s it. Make it. Learn your voice, too. And, you know, like, I’m sassy.

So I want you to be a little sassy when you speak or, you know, and you’re like, hey, great, that’s good. But now let’s. Let’s make it friendlier. Let’s turn, you know, like, don’t just take what they give you and Run with it.

You know, there’s ways to tweak some of this stuff, too, to make it more sound like you. So.

Becca
00:56:41.830 – 00:57:38.390
Yeah, and also, I think, like, I’m all for people not losing their confidence.

I worry sometimes that, you know, when people are doing things that are outside their comfort zone, like pitching to a podcast, which I know many people listening to this will want to do, I think don’t lose your confidence and feel like you’ve got to give that job to someone else, because actually, you are worthy of being on my podcast if you’ve got something to say.

But you’re much more likely to stand out from the crowd by just being authentically you, because as soon as it looks like AI to me, I’m just like, delete, delete, delete, delete. Because you’re not showing me who you are. You’re not giving me any value.

So I worry as well that maybe people are losing confidence in themselves and thinking, I don’t have the confidence. I can’t write this as well as AI. AI, but actually, there’s some things that you can do better than AI.

Yes, there’s some things that AI can do better than you. But, you know, as people, there’s some things that. That we can do better.

And I. Yeah, we don’t want to lose ourselves to the platform, to the technology.

Kevin
00:57:38.710 – 00:58:14.420
No, I agree with you on that. It’s just. It’s so true. You got to be. That’s why clients hire us, is because they want. They. They like the.

It’s about the company, maybe the brand, but it’s more the people. And they hire you because of who. Who works for you, who they meet that just. You know, it’s funny. I was.

We were setting up a wedding last weekend, and the bride goes, oh, my God, there’s Nolan. And she goes, I met him at the open house. And she went over and, like, started talking to him. And I’m like, look at you.

You got a little fan over there, buddy. I was giving him a bad time, but I was just, you know, but that’s. That’s what it’s about. It’s about connecting with people.

People want to do business with people they like.

Becca
00:58:14.660 – 00:58:53.000
Yeah. Which is great because that takes us full circle. Kevin, to what you said earlier on in the episode about longevity in business.

And yes, we want to embrace these trends.

Yes, we want to find ways to save time, but ultimately, if we want to still be here in 10, 20, 30 years time, then networking, connections, relationships is the way to do it. Kevin, It’s Been such a joy to have you on the podcast.

Now, I always end my podcast with the same question, which I did ask you way back when you were back on the podcast before. So I’m going to see whether or not you give a similar answer or if things have evolved. But the question is this.

What’s one thing you personally wish you’d known sooner in your own business?

Kevin
00:58:53.160 – 00:59:56.140
All right. I’ve never felt so much pressure until right now, I’m going to be honest with you.

But I bet you it’s going to be different because I thought about this when I got the email from you about the last question.

And it’s about time and being guarded with your time in your business because I it just for some reason right now, it’s about spending time with the kids, having like, you know, like I was telling you earlier, I would take home work and do work at night and different things like that.

It’s just I am very guarded with my time now and just that it’s okay to be guarded with your time and it’s okay to have the boundaries with your clients because, you know, like, I only do client meetings on certain days and I only do, you know, like, Tuesdays is an internal day. We only do internal meetings and all that kind of stuff.

Like, we’ve really kind of set boundaries on how we operate and it’s because become like such a stress relief to have like this routine. And I find that I’m a little bit more relaxed and I spend more time with my family.

Becca
00:59:56.460 – 00:59:59.100
I love that. So important. Do you want to know what you said last time?

Kevin
00:59:59.100 – 01:00:02.380
Yes, I’m dying to know because you wouldn’t tell me earlier. You were so mean to me.

Becca
01:00:03.100 – 01:00:58.630
What you said last time, which actually I think still resonated throughout this episode, was not to be afraid of change. That’s what you said last time, not to be afraid of change. So I think, Kevin, you’re still living that, that truth. You’re not afraid of change.

And I love the timepiece because that’s been big for me in the last couple of years is not only being valuing my time, but also when I’m giving other people that time being more present because it’s so easy to be distracted. It’s so easy to pick up our phone. And actually being present and not on our phones is actually the best way we can spend our time.

Kevin, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you so much for being a guest on the podcast again.

I’m going to make sure I put links to as many of those pieces of technology in the show notes as I possibly but if anyone’s listening and they heard something and I’ve forgotten to put it in there, reach out to myself or to Kevin and we’ll send you a link. Kevin, if people want to find out more about you about your podcast, where are the best places for them to find you?

Kevin
01:00:59.030 – 01:01:33.880
It’s pretty simple. It’s FSES events for fantasy sound event services, WeddingIQ for wedding IQ and then mind your wedding business.

And then now that I’m Engaged is our Instagram handle for that podcast. So you can reach out there our website FantasySound.com WeddingIQ. I’m really easy Kevin@FantasySound Kevin WeddingIQ.com for email.

You reach out and send me an email and pitch me about the what was it, 129give me the generic podcast pitch.

Becca
01:01:34.199 – 01:01:48.780
Do not pitch Kevin or me with an AI generated podcast. And if you are going to be on either of our podcasts, what do you need to do? Buy yourself a microphone and we’d love to have you on Kevin.

It’s been fun. I hope to see you somewhere soon. Possibly. No, Florida.

Kevin
01:01:48.780 – 01:01:51.420
I will see you in Florida. I’m looking forward to it.

Becca
01:01:51.500 – 01:01:52.540
Thank you for being here.

Kevin
01:01:53.020 – 01:01:53.500
Bye.

Becca
01:01:53.900 – 01:02:21.090
Love that episode with Kevin. Always great to chat with him.

And what I loved about that is how much we can learn from his three decades in business about how things have changed, how he’s evolved, but how some things stay absolutely the same and the value that he puts on relationships and networking. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode.

As I said before, if there’s anything that you missed that we talked about and you can’t find the link the in in the show notes, reach out to one of us and we’ll try and send it over to you. I’ll see you all next time.