April 29, 2025 • 40 mins
In this inspiring episode, host Nikisha King sits down with Heidi Thompson, founder of Evolve Your Wedding Business, to talk about building a profitable, flexible business that doesn’t sacrifice your sanity.
Heidi shares why most wedding pros are doing marketing the hard way — and exactly how to simplify it.
You’ll learn the secret to standing out in a saturated market, why clear messaging trumps trendy branding, and how to turn your business into the go-to solution your clients are searching for.
This is about more than marketing. It’s about designing a business that aligns with your life.
3 Action Steps from This Episode:
- Get Clear on Your Ideal Client — Using Real Data
Don’t guess. Ask your best clients the right questions to uncover what actually made them hire you. Heidi shares the exact strategy and you can grab her done-for-you client research questions here:
👉 Download Heidi’s Freebie - Fix Your Website’s First Impression
If someone can’t tell what you do and who it’s for in 5 seconds or less, they’re gone. Use your homepage to say exactly what you do, for whom, and why you’re the obvious choice. - Simplify Your Marketing Plan
Pick 1–3 channels, focus your message around your ideal client’s biggest pain points, and repeat it. The magic isn’t in doing more — it’s in being strategic and consistent.
Learn More from Heidi Thompson
Want to ditch the chaos and start booking more aligned clients with ease? Follow Heidi and dive deeper into her trainings:
- 💻 Website + Podcast: evolveyourweddingbusiness.com
- 📸 Instagram: @evolveyourweddingbusiness
- 📘 Facebook: Evolve Your Wedding Business
- 💼 LinkedIn: Heidi Thompson
Want to attract aligned clients with less hustle and more heart?
Follow @nkbizguru on Instagram and get access to Nikisha’s 5-Star SCALE™ Framework at her More Profit, Less Chaos masterclass.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Leading Her Way with your host and
business guru, Nakesha King.
This podcast is the ultimatedestination for women, creative
entrepreneurs, who want to breakfree from burnout.
If you are overwhelmed byclient demands and feel like
you're doing this all alone, you, my friend, are in the right
(00:23):
place alone.
You, my friend, are in theright place Now.
Let's dive in for steps to takeback your time and simplify
your workflow.
All right, Nikesha, take itaway.
Nikisha King (00:36):
Hello, gorgeous, how is everyone today?
I'm so happy you can be with uson Leading Her Way podcast.
Today we have one of our mostesteemed and special guests,
heidi Thompson, who's the ownerof Evolve, your wedding business
, and I am happy to have herhere with me Now.
Heidi and I have done a coupleof seminars and summits together
(00:59):
and I would love for you, heidi, to introduce yourself to our
community.
Tell them about what you do andhow you transform your clients'
lives.
Heidi Thompson (01:10):
Well, thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be here with you, and I work with all sorts of
different wedding professionals,so everyone from dressmakers to
photographers, to venue owners,planners, live wedding painters
you name it.
I help them make theirmarketing easier, book more of
(01:34):
the weddings that they reallywant to be working on, and build
a business that gives themfreedom and flexibility.
That is a very important partof the equation to me, because,
look, if you're booking all theweddings in the world and you're
working 80 hours a weekend, youdon't have any time to enjoy
the fruits of your labor.
(01:54):
Then what's the point?
So those are really my bigareas of focus within the
wedding industry, and I workwith the most amazing, creative
people.
It never ceases to amaze mewhat these people can just put
together like it's nothing.
(02:15):
And, yeah, I help them on thebusiness and marketing side.
Nikisha King (02:24):
So good and so true.
As a creative professionalmyself for 16 years and working
with them, I just love the factthat they are so amazing and
creative, always evolving,always changing, and they have
the space for that, which iswhat makes them really special.
I will love to rewind and getto know your story of how you
(02:47):
came to, who you came to be thisbusiness you've built, and I
want to know what was the bold,rebellious moment when you said
screw the norm, I'm buildingthis instead.
What pushed you to create,evolve your Wedding Business and
what did you really want todisrupt in the wedding industry?
Heidi Thompson (03:06):
That's a wonderful question.
I love that.
So I got started.
I kind of stumbled my way intothe wedding industry from when I
was in college, working withsome nonprofits helping run
their events, and I worked as aplanner for a while.
I realized that the thing Iactually really liked about
(03:32):
those nonprofit events was thechallenge of getting people
there, getting people to care,getting people involved with the
organization.
It wasn't so much the planningside of things.
So, while I did enjoy theplanning, I realized that I was
missing that side that I really,really loved and I realized
that side is marketing andmarketing.
(04:09):
I worked for Cambridgeuniversity, I worked for a bed
company, I worked for anetworking association, I worked
for a social media company, afecal transplant clinic, like
you name it.
But I noticed still keeping tabson the wedding industry, that
there was this shift happeningand this was around 2012, 2011,
(04:29):
2012.
And this is when the shiftstarted to happen, where you
know, blogs like rock and roll,bride off Pete bride started to
really really take off andpeople were very much into
having a much more personalizedwedding.
And where I was living at thetime, in the UK, nobody was
(04:52):
reflecting this like the weddingshows, the wedding media.
It was still very likeCinderella-y.
And so I saw the opportunity tostart a wedding show that
brought together these couplesthat wanted something really
unique, really different, reallycreative and some of the most
creative people I've ever met inmy life who can put these
(05:16):
things together.
And then I found myself spendinga bunch of time helping these
wedding professionals who wereexhibiting at my events make the
most of it Like how do theymake sure they get clients from
it?
And that's when it just kind oflike slapped me in the head
that not everybody's justinterested in marketing.
(05:37):
Not everybody just, you know,reads marketing books and
studies these things.
And so I saw this goldenopportunity to bring these two
worlds together of marketing,which I find so fascinating it's
so psychology rooted and thewedding industry, where I see
these brilliant, creativeprofessionals struggling to
(06:03):
market, to grow, and I was ableto bring those two pieces
together in that moment and formEvolve your Wedding Business.
Nikisha King (06:12):
So good, so good.
And it takes special people tonotice that marketing part, the
part that you realize, oh, theydon't get it.
That's a big part of it.
And when I say it takes special, everyone who's an entrepreneur
is not built that way,especially in the creative world
.
The creative world is not aboutbusiness owners looking for
(06:35):
marketing sales systems.
They are not technical, they'renot analytical, they're not in
that mindset.
But for some reason you lovethat and that brings you joy.
And the fact that it broughtyou joy is when you were putting
these shows together or theseexhibits, you were able to see
it and then pour into them.
(06:55):
So now they can actually walkaway from your exhibit with
actual clients to help them growtheir business.
I love that.
It's what the world is made ofpeople having skills and using
their skills to help otherpeople rise in their journey.
That is all it's about.
So the fact that you have Evolvein your name and Evolve is part
(07:19):
of my HER acronym we're both onthe same page in how we help
people in our community, thecommunity we love and we
appreciate.
Now your mission isn't justabout business.
It feels like a movement.
And in feeling like a movement,I want to know what deeper
beliefs drives you to keepshowing up for wedding
(07:41):
professionals, especially whenthe grind gets real, especially
now, in a moment in time wherethere's a lot more people saying
, because of our situationsfinancially recessions but what
drives you to keep showing upand helping them in these times
of needs?
Heidi Thompson (08:00):
I think the underlying thing, other than
wanting to to help people, islike I see the way that my
people are struggling and I knowthat they're actually doing it
the hard way and that doing itthe easy way is the way you get
(08:20):
results, doing it in a way thatthey don't necessarily perceive
as the easy way, but it is theeasier, more strategic way to
approach your marketing iswhat's going to give them
results.
So it's like it's partly thislet me make this easy for you,
let me make your life easier,because you are like on the
(08:41):
struggle bus right now and Iwant to get you off of it.
You are like on the strugglebus right now and I want to get
you off of it.
The other side is, I have avery firm belief that,
especially in the weddingindustry, in the event space,
there's this idea that, likeit's this hustle culture right,
it's.
You know, work as hard as youneed to just hustle more, do
(09:05):
more, and people wind up workingthese just crazy, crazy hours,
and that's unacceptable to me.
I don't think that's okay.
I think it's ridiculous thatit's become the norm and,
furthermore, you see, you knowwhen you actually look at what
(09:26):
you're doing, not all of thattime is productive, not all of
that time is going towardssomething that's making a
difference, and I love beingable to strip away all of the
extra stuff people are doing andreally simplify things for them
in their business, becausepeople just spiral, you know,
(09:47):
they just spin out because theydon't really know what to do,
and I know that you know thereare some things they can do to
help with that.
And if I can just get them to dothat, not only will the
business be better off becausetheir marketing will work better
, but they'll also have a lotmore time and they don't have to
(10:10):
fall into this trap of you know, if I just work 20 more hours a
week, I can make this work,because that is just a one way
ticket to burnout and resentmentone-way ticket to burnout and
resentment, and I hate seeingcreative professionals go down
(10:32):
that path because it does notend well.
You wind up hating yourself,hating your business, hating
your work, hating your clients,and it's just not necessary.
And I think that's theunderlying thing for me is like,
guys, we don't have to do this,we don't have to do it this way
.
We can do things a differentway and have your business,
perform better and also you getto have a life, and I don't
(10:56):
think those things have to bemutually exclusive.
It's not like you have tochoose one or the other, and
that really fires me up when Isee people just like no, I'll
just work harder, I'll just workmore hours, cause it's like I
know that's not going to workand I know you're going to wind
up just in this exhausted,resentful mentality.
Nikisha King (11:19):
Right, Let me ask you this you mentioned before
that you see people doing it thehard way, and then there's an
easy way For our audience.
Help them understand what thatmeans.
Heidi Thompson (11:33):
What do you consider the hard way?
The way I see marketing is.
The hard way is random,sporadic, trying to do
everything, trying to beeverywhere.
The easy way, which requires alittle bit of forethought, but
not a ton, is making thedecisions of okay, this is who
(11:54):
I'm trying to attract.
This is what they need to hearfrom me.
This is how I'm going to standout to them.
These are the few places Iusually really push my clients
to go.
With three or fewer marketingchannels I'm going to show up
and here is exactly what I'mgoing to do on each of them.
So I know I wake up on a randomTuesday and being like, oh, I
(12:17):
don't have a booking.
I need to.
I don't know.
I guess I'll spend the nextthree hours making Instagram
content.
That may or may not work, andit's just this cycle of throwing
spaghetti at the wall andnothing ever gets easier,
(12:39):
whereas if you come at it from astrategy, a plan, your
marketing gets perpetuallyeasier because you learn what
works and what doesn't work, andthen you can just do more of
what works and less of whatdoesn't work.
Nikisha King (12:55):
Right Now, the best part about this someone
who's listening is like yeah,easy said, then done Okay is
like, yeah, easy said, then doneOkay.
Now the reason I say that isthink about it.
The hard way is not having adefined goal market, not a
defined person, not an idealclient avatar, most value client
(13:16):
, however you want to phrase it.
And it's interesting becausewhen we start in our journey,
when I even started and peopletold me the niche, I was like
what and why and who?
Right, because I'm hungry, Iwant to make money, I have to
prove myself financially to someimaginary idea that I'm not.
(13:37):
It's like the thing that I useto say I'm doing good, I'm not
doing good.
And someone listening to thisjust now had that thought.
Like I can't do that.
Because in their mind, whenthey're speaking to everyone,
they're figuring they're goingto get more sales, but they see
it's not working.
Because right now, why they'relistening to us is because
they're struggling.
They're on the struggle bus,the same struggle bus you just
(14:00):
mentioned, and deep down theyknow they should.
But, heidi, they're scared.
I get it.
They're scared, heidi.
So how do we help them?
Heidi Thompson (14:12):
look at this in a way that it's not scary look
at this in a way that it's notscary, so something it's.
It's totally illogical.
I get it Like we all go throughthis at some point in our
business and then on the otherside of it it's like, oh yeah, I
get it, but it doesn't make anysense.
But the way I talk about it isyou need to be the go-to person
for somebody.
You can't just compete in thecategory of wedding stationery
(14:38):
or wedding planner or venue,because it's too big and nobody
stands out.
There's this huge issue in thewedding industry that I will not
shut up about and I've beentalking about for a few years
now, where I could quiteliterally copy and paste text
(15:01):
images from one planner's,photographer's, dj's website to
another and nobody would notice.
I don't even think the businessowner would notice, and that's
a huge problem because you havethese people doing research.
They have 20 tabs open of 20possibilities and none of them
(15:22):
are giving them a compellingreason to choose them.
So by I don't even like tothink of it as niching.
It's just like what do you wantto be the go-to person for?
What is the problem you want tosolve and who do you want to
solve it for?
Because when you positionyourself.
As you know, we help X kind ofpeople with Y kind of thing.
(15:45):
It immediately lets themcategorize you and that's what
we want to do.
When we're looking for things,when we're looking for solutions
to problems, we're looking forsomething that's going to fit
and it's going to fit for us.
So if you know you're lookingfor a wedding planner and every
(16:06):
single website's like we'regoing to help you have your
dream wedding and it's going tobe stress-free and it's going to
be you know this amazing dayand it's going to be.
You know this amazing day andthen you land on one that's like
we help untraditional couplescreate amazing destination
weddings and not have to use anyof the wedding traditions
(16:28):
they're not comfortable with.
If that's you, you are going tostop in your tracks and I think
we logically think if we canjust get in front of more people
, if we can appeal to morepeople, then we have higher
chance of them booking us.
But the problem is we'regetting in front of them and
(16:50):
they're not seeing why you know,they're not seeing how you're
different, they're not seeingwhy they should book you over
someone else.
It's like an example I give alot to take it out of the
wedding industry is.
You know, you could be anItalian restaurant, or you could
be a restaurant that has alittle bit of everything.
(17:13):
Well, when someone wantsItalian food, where are they
going to go?
They're going to think of thatItalian restaurant, or you could
be a bakery, or you could bethe best bagels in the city that
also maybe makes other bakedgoods.
But when someone wants bagels,they're going to trek across the
city to go to the best bagelsin the city bakery, because
(17:36):
you've positioned yourself asthe go-to for someone else and
then you put yourself in yourown category, so they're not
comparing you to everybody else.
You create, like this, applesto oranges comparison.
That is so cool because itmeans you don't have to compete
with the hundreds or thousandsof people in your market that
(17:58):
also do what you do, becauseyou're selling something
different.
You're not selling photography,you're selling the exact
solution to the problem.
Nikisha King (18:08):
Right, right, the problem.
That's where it all boils downto.
That's where it all boils downto and I say it that way because
even what you just said aboutselling a lot of people don't
like selling.
They feel like it's sleazy, andthey have a lot of stories
right Based on what they see carsalesmen being forceful, right,
(18:29):
and a lot of creativeentrepreneurs, and I don't say a
lot, but a good percentage ofus are female and we're not used
to that.
And the most interesting part is, you're not selling anything.
I tell people all the time youhave a skill.
That's really amazing andeveryone cannot do what you do.
Hence the reason telling themspecifically what you do like
(18:51):
you said, untraditional wedding,like if you're that planner and
someone's looking for you andwhen they come into your world,
you're inviting them to thesolution.
You are saying I have thissolution, I'm really good at it
and I can help you, and if Ihelp you, it's going to look
like this when we're done.
(19:11):
And if you take that basis andjust use it for your messaging,
your website copy, that isexactly what you're trying to do
.
Not even trying doing.
I don't believe in trying, sothat is amazing when you just
said, that last part problem isstick out to me, because I'm
like that's it.
No one's buying from us becausethey just want to buy from us
(19:36):
and they don't have a problem tobe solved.
And that's exactly what you'resaying.
I love this.
I love your belief in doing iteasy and I love that you show up
to help people understand whatis easy, because when I started
my company, I did it hard.
Heidi Thompson (19:56):
We all do, we all do.
It's the default.
Nikisha King (20:07):
It is.
It is so the default and Idon't know first and foremost, I
never know if I'm going tochange it.
I don't know if I ever go backand be like I would change it if
I had the opportunity, becauseI don't know if I did, I might
want it shorter.
I might not want it to be 10years.
I would have loved it to befive years of chaos.
So I think that is so good andI just truly hope people hear
this more and hear you and whatyou're offering and what you're
(20:28):
giving, because this is exactlywhat they need.
Now, in regards to yourbusiness model, I would love to
learn what is it Like?
How have you structured yourcompany and how does it allow to
grow without burning out andstill delivering real
transformation for your venue?
Because this is part of theMake Money series.
People don't realize businessmodels are a thing, so we'll
(20:52):
love to learn more about yoursand how it helped you grow.
Heidi Thompson (20:58):
Yeah.
So I definitely went into thisbusiness after running in-person
events and realizing, okay, ifI want more flexibility, I'm
going to have to build some sortof business that isn't location
dependent.
So that was a big component ofit for me, especially because I
(21:19):
was living in the UK at the timeand then I've since moved back
to the US.
Nothing happened in my businessbecause it's set up to where it
doesn't matter.
Everything I do is flexible.
I can do it from anywhere inthe world.
So that was a really bigpriority of mine going in and I
(21:50):
have done some like traditionalcoaching.
But the model I've reallylanded in is a membership
structure where I have my mainoffer is my membership the
Wedding Business Collective andit's where I bring together all
of my education, all of mycourses and also the coaching,
the support component, because Iwas finding that coaching
(22:10):
clients needed the education,education clients needed the
coaching.
They really just kind of neededto live together in one place.
So I run that membership.
It is very it doesn't requireme to show up live a ton.
We have live sessions, you know, during the month, but you know
(22:35):
it's not like I'm having toshow up live every single day.
So it does afford me a lot offlexibility in my time, which I
absolutely love.
And because I have thatpriority of flexibility, it also
comes through in the membership.
So I've been able to work withpeople from around the world
(22:57):
because we're not always meeting, you know, face to face at the
same time to where I would beexcluding half the planet
because of time zones.
So having it be more of anonline platform has really made
it possible to have it as timezone agnostic as possible for
(23:19):
people.
And then, on top of themembership, I run two summits
per year and those are week longconference events, fully online
.
And again, it allows for a lotof flexibility.
It allows for a lot of freedombecause, yes, there's a lot that
(23:40):
has to get done to put thosetogether, but I'm not tied super
specifically to like a date andtime.
You know, if I want to work onit at 11 PM, like I can, that's
fine and that is a priority ofmine.
And how I like to work is tohave that level of flexibility
(24:02):
and how I use my time and when Iset up time for work versus
time off, because I don't knowwhat it is, but if I get too
strict about that, I will rebelagainst myself.
I will be like I don't want totake today off or I don't want
to work today.
I have to give myself a littlebit of flexibility, a little bit
(24:25):
of wiggle room to be like, yeah, today's my Saturday and then
I'm going to move this stuff tothis day because that's just how
it works for me in my brain.
Nikisha King (24:36):
Got it, got it and so good to share, because
people I know there's a goodamount of creatives out there
that if they work on a Saturdaythere's sometimes there's guilt,
yeah, if they don't work on aSaturday sometimes there's guilt
If they don't work on aSaturday.
sometimes there's guilt and I'mtalking about people who might
not be planners doing an eventand for planners doing an event
(24:59):
on the weekends, maybe theirMonday is their Saturday and as
we are entrepreneurs, we get todecide that, but there shouldn't
be guilt with it.
You know what I mean.
If you're in the middle of theweek and it's like Thursday and
that's your Saturday, guess what?
There are people in the worldwho go to nine to five and
Thursdays are their Saturdays.
(25:19):
It's okay and it's notsomething about feeling guilty
because you're not working andeveryone else is.
So that was a really clear andlike that's so good to share
because we always, asentrepreneurs, make something
bigger than it is.
Heidi Thompson (25:33):
Oh my God, yeah, you have to turn it into this
whole ordeal, or it's like notpart of entrepreneurship, right?
Nikisha King (25:40):
Yes, that's where the hustle culture, that's where
everything comes from, andsometimes we just got to learn
that if someone says somethingsometimes it's not for us.
We just got to learn that ifsomeone says something sometimes
it's not for us.
But if you find your people whoget you and you're in that
community and they help you seeand understand it, then you have
to understand that might workfor you and they help you see
(26:01):
why it works for you to learnhow to accept it.
Because it's all in the mind,it's all the story that we keep
telling ourselves asentrepreneurs.
So thank you for sharing that.
I appreciate it, especiallyyour business model and I think
for you when I hear you speakabout it, one of your values is
having time to travel, to locateand still being able to show up
(26:22):
.
So you've built a business inthat model that supports you.
So your business doesn't.
That supports you.
So your business doesn't drainyou, burn you out, but it
uplifts you.
It helps you to be who you areand support you where you are at
.
Heidi Thompson (26:55):
Yeah, and that I mean just from working, you
know, corporate jobs, fromworking a business that required
a lot from me, in a certainplace, at a certain time, I just
felt myself being like I wantto do that, so I'm just not.
Nikisha King (27:01):
I'm going to ask you a question Do you have any
corporate job experience thatyou lasted a short period of
time because you knew that itwas all hell and it's not
aligned with you at all?
Do you have any of thosemoments?
Heidi Thompson (27:14):
I have multiple.
I definitely.
I've been fired a few timesbecause I'm just like this.
Nikisha King (27:25):
Sometimes, when people get fired, I don't think
it's like they're not sure howto do it.
I think sometimes they're justlike I'm done with this.
Heidi Thompson (27:31):
Yeah, like this is dumb, I'm not doing it.
No, there was a company Iworked with that like because it
was really weird, we wereworking really closely with Sony
and because of that, like theKorean work culture started to
bleed in and I was like, uh-uh,no, I am not working these
(27:54):
ridiculous hours, I'm not doingthis.
Like, this is not going tohappen, especially because it's
like it's just so much of it isjust like and I think the thing
that always bothered me was likethis really doesn't need to get
done.
And it's the thing that comesthrough in my business of like
we, you don't need to do that,there's a better way to do this.
(28:16):
And that's the thing thatalways irritated me in corporate
is like, why are we spendingall of this time on this thing?
That like does not matter, itchanges nothing.
Nikisha King (28:29):
Got.
You See, everyone, it all stemsfrom somewhere your habits, the
way you want to grow yourbusiness it all stems from
somewhere.
And I always tell people I'malways curious where does it
come from?
I know it's part you, butthere's experiences we may have
in our past that we're like nope, I am not building a business
(28:50):
that's going to look like that.
I'm not going to do this.
So good, so good.
I love getting to know Heidi.
By the way, my audience I'mlike me and Heidi have worked
together, but we've never hadthis in-depth relationship where
we had these conversations, soI'm happy it unfolds here and
then we get to know her together.
Now, in regards to working withyour clients, I would love to
(29:14):
know how do you guide them inmaking money that's aligned and
sustainable and doesn't makethem feel like they're selling
their soul?
Heidi Thompson (29:23):
Oh, that's good.
So the way we put theirmarketing plans together is to
position them as kind of like a,you know, a conveniently placed
bottle of ibuprofen when youhave a headache, so that when
someone who has this problemfinds you, they're like oh my
(29:47):
God, this is exactly what I needyou.
They're like oh my God, this isexactly what I need.
And it goes from a selling sortof relationship to a no, this
is what I want.
Like you have the thing that Iwant, please.
Like I'm so engaged, tell meall about it.
How, how does it work?
How do we work together?
Like what, what?
What are the packages?
(30:08):
What is the process?
And it shifts into in some ways, you know, customer led,
because it's desire led.
You know it's them getting thething that they want.
I'm not saying you should, like, you know, be hands off and let
them run the process, becausethey're coming to you, because
you're a professional and youhave a process and you have a
(30:29):
way of working.
But when you position yourselfas like that painkiller, you're
like yeah, give it to me, thisis exactly what I want, right?
And then you know when we?
I think price transparency isimportant in most markets, in
(30:50):
some of the higher end luxuryit's a little bit different, but
I would say most markets.
I like to see people give somesort of ballpark, some sort of
indication of what is this goingto cost, so that when they get
to that conversation they're notdropping what feels like a bomb
(31:12):
on them because the expectationis already set.
They wouldn't have gone intothis conversation if they
weren't okay with what you'vealready put forward.
So we also work on making surethat you are qualifying them a
little bit better, to make surethat not only do they really
really want to work with you,but that they have an
(31:33):
expectation of what this isgoing to cost.
Because if you don't set thatexpectation, they're going to
set their own expectation andyou have no idea what they're
setting that off of.
And then that can feel reallybad for them, because they're
going into it thinking it's a$2,000 purchase and now it's a
(31:54):
$10,000 purchase.
Now they may be able to affordthe $10,000 purchase, but
there's something weird thathappens when our expectations
don't align with reality.
That just makes usuncomfortable and it's like, oh
okay, well, that's not what Ithought it was going to be, even
if you have the money.
It's like just this disconnectthat happens and we feel like
(32:19):
we've kind of had the rug pulledfrom under us.
So I know nobody wants to givetheir clients that kind of
experience.
So I'm a big fan of at leastgiving some sort of indication
whether that's a range, anexample, a starting price and
there's pros and cons for all ofthem, just so that by the time
(32:43):
you get to that conversation of,okay, this is what it's going
to look like, this is how we'regoing to work together, they're
like 90% of the way there.
So I really like to see so muchof that selling happen from
your marketing materials, fromyour website, from what they're
seeing in that journey andconvincing themselves, really
(33:07):
selling themselves on.
Nikisha King (33:08):
No, this is the perfect fit for me so true, so
true, and it and, like you said,it differs because I know I was
in the higher end and if we putout numbers on, people would
usually opt out because theydon't understand the value of
why it's there and they wouldcompare us to the other
stationers they may see.
However, I believe if you're inan average space, it's always
(33:32):
also about just your copy, likeyou mentioned.
Heidi Thompson (33:37):
Yeah, you can't just throw out a number, it has
to be in context.
Yeah, like why is it and likeoh okay, after reading the
service page, this feels like agreat friend.
Nikisha King (33:48):
Like it matches.
Just like how you said theexpectation.
If they could understand howyou're transforming the
experience for them, how you'resolving that pain point you're
the painkiller how you're doingthat and then you tell them that
number, they'll get it.
And people sometimes getconfused with telling people
(34:09):
their value and transformationcompared to the features.
So, what we're trying.
We're not saying list all yourfeatures, the hours, the color
schemes, not all of those things.
I used to do it.
I'm going to raise my hand, I'mgoing to let you guys know I am
one of those people.
I used to do it, but there wereopportunities where I was in
coaching containers andcommunities where I learned that
(34:32):
wasn't speaking to my idealclient.
So it makes complete sense Now.
We spoke about a lot and I wantto be able to kind of filter
down and I will love for you toshare for our wedding pros, like
they might feeling stuck,unsure what we shared today.
(34:54):
Then that little spark went off, which I love.
But do you have three simplesteps that they can take that
will help them start gettingclear on their messaging or
their ideal client, so they canstart speaking about the value
rather than the features?
Heidi Thompson (35:15):
Yeah.
So the first thing and the way Ilike to talk about an ideal
client is not as like this papercutout of a person, I like to
base it on an actual human being.
So I'll give you the downloadthat I use with my clients for
asking your best clientsspecific questions to get the
(35:39):
messaging that you need, becauseyour messaging, as much as we
feel like it should, cannot comeentirely from your own head,
because you are too disconnectedfrom the position that your
customer is in, where they'reprobably interacting with the
(36:00):
wedding industry for the veryfirst time.
They don't know what any ofthis stuff means.
It has been a long time sinceyou've been in that position, so
we need to get into, okay, whatdo they actually care about?
What's really driving them?
And then, once you have that, Iwould say number two, after
(36:20):
asking them these questions,which I'll give you the download
to put it in show notes is tomake sure that, without needing
to scroll on your homepage,someone can tell exactly what
you do and who you do it for.
So take that messaging that yougot from talking to people why
(36:44):
they said they hired you insteadof someone else, of someone
else, and if you are thephotographer for camera shy
couples who want bright, fun,bold wedding images, it should
literally say that on the top ofyour website.
(37:04):
You need to call that out,because you get five seconds or
less when someone loads yourwebsite to decide either this is
for me, and I'm going tocontinue reading, or this isn't
for me and I'm going to clickaway.
That decision happens fast, sowe need to serve it up to people
really, really quickly that,hey, this is what we're all
(37:25):
about here.
If you're part of this, ifyou're in the club, cool, this
is going to be something for you.
If you're part of this, ifyou're in the club, cool, you
know this is going to besomething for you.
If you're not, that's fine too,Because, look, if you want to
be a client magnet, it has towork both ways.
You have to attract and repel,and you're going to attract more
people by being really, reallyclear about why they should work
(37:50):
with you instead of someoneelse.
So those two things.
And then filter all of yourmarketing through that, and what
I mean by that is when you'rethinking about what to post on
social media.
Does it address the problemthat you're trying to solve?
I think that's a great questionto ask yourself, and it's not
just something random.
Nikisha King (38:11):
So true, so good.
Heidi, I so appreciate you.
Thank you for showing up forour community today, leading her
way our listeners and sharing awealth of knowledge how to make
things easy, simple steps toget going, and this aligns
perfectly.
And, yes, I'll put yourinformation in a show notes so
(38:32):
our guests or our listeners candefinitely grab that, and I know
that I have a workshop comingup about your ideal client
avatar, so I'm excited to sharethat and speak to them more
about it in my community.
So I thank you so much in everysingle way.
I appreciate you.
Heidi Thompson (38:52):
Thank you so much for having me.
It was such a greatconversation.
Nikisha King (38:56):
Yes, and before you go, so they can audit like
hear you, where can they findyou?
Where is the best place thatthey can find you?
Heidi Thompson (39:03):
Yeah, my website is evolveyourweddingbusinesscom
.
You'll also find my podcastthere, and the best place to
find me on social media isInstagram, where I'm Evolve your
Wedding Business as well.
Nikisha King (39:16):
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, listeners, forshowing up today.
We appreciate and value yourtime, so make sure you go on a
show notes, grab that wonderfulgift Heidi has for you, and if
you have any questions for her,you know where to find her on IG
and I'll speak to you guys nextweek.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Thank you for joining us today on Leading Her Way.
We loved having you with us.
Remember each action you take,no matter how small, adds up to
big results.
If today's episode fired you up, hit subscribe for more
insights and visit our resourcehub, which is linked to the show
notes.
There you'll find tools tostreamline, organize and grow
(39:57):
your business.
Keep moving forward and we'llbe right here to cheer you on
next week.
Welcome to Leading Her Way with your host and
business guru, Nakesha King.
This podcast is the ultimatedestination for women, creative
entrepreneurs, who want to breakfree from burnout.
If you are overwhelmed byclient demands and feel like
you're doing this all alone, you, my friend, are in the right
(00:23):
place alone.
You, my friend, are in theright place Now.
Let's dive in for steps to takeback your time and simplify
your workflow.
All right, Nikesha, take itaway.
Nikisha King (00:36):
Hello, gorgeous, how is everyone today?
I'm so happy you can be with uson Leading Her Way podcast.
Today we have one of our mostesteemed and special guests,
heidi Thompson, who's the ownerof Evolve, your wedding business
, and I am happy to have herhere with me Now.
Heidi and I have done a coupleof seminars and summits together
(00:59):
and I would love for you, heidi, to introduce yourself to our
community.
Tell them about what you do andhow you transform your clients'
lives.
Heidi Thompson (01:10):
Well, thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be here with you, and I work with all sorts of
different wedding professionals,so everyone from dressmakers to
photographers, to venue owners,planners, live wedding painters
you name it.
I help them make theirmarketing easier, book more of
(01:34):
the weddings that they reallywant to be working on, and build
a business that gives themfreedom and flexibility.
That is a very important partof the equation to me, because,
look, if you're booking all theweddings in the world and you're
working 80 hours a weekend, youdon't have any time to enjoy
the fruits of your labor.
(01:54):
Then what's the point?
So those are really my bigareas of focus within the
wedding industry, and I workwith the most amazing, creative
people.
It never ceases to amaze mewhat these people can just put
together like it's nothing.
(02:15):
And, yeah, I help them on thebusiness and marketing side.
Nikisha King (02:24):
So good and so true.
As a creative professionalmyself for 16 years and working
with them, I just love the factthat they are so amazing and
creative, always evolving,always changing, and they have
the space for that, which iswhat makes them really special.
I will love to rewind and getto know your story of how you
(02:47):
came to, who you came to be thisbusiness you've built, and I
want to know what was the bold,rebellious moment when you said
screw the norm, I'm buildingthis instead.
What pushed you to create,evolve your Wedding Business and
what did you really want todisrupt in the wedding industry?
Heidi Thompson (03:06):
That's a wonderful question.
I love that.
So I got started.
I kind of stumbled my way intothe wedding industry from when I
was in college, working withsome nonprofits helping run
their events, and I worked as aplanner for a while.
I realized that the thing Iactually really liked about
(03:32):
those nonprofit events was thechallenge of getting people
there, getting people to care,getting people involved with the
organization.
It wasn't so much the planningside of things.
So, while I did enjoy theplanning, I realized that I was
missing that side that I really,really loved and I realized
that side is marketing andmarketing.
(04:09):
I worked for Cambridgeuniversity, I worked for a bed
company, I worked for anetworking association, I worked
for a social media company, afecal transplant clinic, like
you name it.
But I noticed still keeping tabson the wedding industry, that
there was this shift happeningand this was around 2012, 2011,
(04:29):
2012.
And this is when the shiftstarted to happen, where you
know, blogs like rock and roll,bride off Pete bride started to
really really take off andpeople were very much into
having a much more personalizedwedding.
And where I was living at thetime, in the UK, nobody was
(04:52):
reflecting this like the weddingshows, the wedding media.
It was still very likeCinderella-y.
And so I saw the opportunity tostart a wedding show that
brought together these couplesthat wanted something really
unique, really different, reallycreative and some of the most
creative people I've ever met inmy life who can put these
(05:16):
things together.
And then I found myself spendinga bunch of time helping these
wedding professionals who wereexhibiting at my events make the
most of it Like how do theymake sure they get clients from
it?
And that's when it just kind oflike slapped me in the head
that not everybody's justinterested in marketing.
(05:37):
Not everybody just, you know,reads marketing books and
studies these things.
And so I saw this goldenopportunity to bring these two
worlds together of marketing,which I find so fascinating it's
so psychology rooted and thewedding industry, where I see
these brilliant, creativeprofessionals struggling to
(06:03):
market, to grow, and I was ableto bring those two pieces
together in that moment and formEvolve your Wedding Business.
Nikisha King (06:12):
So good, so good.
And it takes special people tonotice that marketing part, the
part that you realize, oh, theydon't get it.
That's a big part of it.
And when I say it takes special, everyone who's an entrepreneur
is not built that way,especially in the creative world
.
The creative world is not aboutbusiness owners looking for
(06:35):
marketing sales systems.
They are not technical, they'renot analytical, they're not in
that mindset.
But for some reason you lovethat and that brings you joy.
And the fact that it broughtyou joy is when you were putting
these shows together or theseexhibits, you were able to see
it and then pour into them.
(06:55):
So now they can actually walkaway from your exhibit with
actual clients to help them growtheir business.
I love that.
It's what the world is made ofpeople having skills and using
their skills to help otherpeople rise in their journey.
That is all it's about.
So the fact that you have Evolvein your name and Evolve is part
(07:19):
of my HER acronym we're both onthe same page in how we help
people in our community, thecommunity we love and we
appreciate.
Now your mission isn't justabout business.
It feels like a movement.
And in feeling like a movement,I want to know what deeper
beliefs drives you to keepshowing up for wedding
(07:41):
professionals, especially whenthe grind gets real, especially
now, in a moment in time wherethere's a lot more people saying
, because of our situationsfinancially recessions but what
drives you to keep showing upand helping them in these times
of needs?
Heidi Thompson (08:00):
I think the underlying thing, other than
wanting to to help people, islike I see the way that my
people are struggling and I knowthat they're actually doing it
the hard way and that doing itthe easy way is the way you get
(08:20):
results, doing it in a way thatthey don't necessarily perceive
as the easy way, but it is theeasier, more strategic way to
approach your marketing iswhat's going to give them
results.
So it's like it's partly thislet me make this easy for you,
let me make your life easier,because you are like on the
(08:41):
struggle bus right now and Iwant to get you off of it.
You are like on the strugglebus right now and I want to get
you off of it.
The other side is, I have avery firm belief that,
especially in the weddingindustry, in the event space,
there's this idea that, likeit's this hustle culture right,
it's.
You know, work as hard as youneed to just hustle more, do
(09:05):
more, and people wind up workingthese just crazy, crazy hours,
and that's unacceptable to me.
I don't think that's okay.
I think it's ridiculous thatit's become the norm and,
furthermore, you see, you knowwhen you actually look at what
(09:26):
you're doing, not all of thattime is productive, not all of
that time is going towardssomething that's making a
difference, and I love beingable to strip away all of the
extra stuff people are doing andreally simplify things for them
in their business, becausepeople just spiral, you know,
(09:47):
they just spin out because theydon't really know what to do,
and I know that you know thereare some things they can do to
help with that.
And if I can just get them to dothat, not only will the
business be better off becausetheir marketing will work better
, but they'll also have a lotmore time and they don't have to
(10:10):
fall into this trap of you know, if I just work 20 more hours a
week, I can make this work,because that is just a one way
ticket to burnout and resentmentone-way ticket to burnout and
resentment, and I hate seeingcreative professionals go down
(10:32):
that path because it does notend well.
You wind up hating yourself,hating your business, hating
your work, hating your clients,and it's just not necessary.
And I think that's theunderlying thing for me is like,
guys, we don't have to do this,we don't have to do it this way
.
We can do things a differentway and have your business,
perform better and also you getto have a life, and I don't
(10:56):
think those things have to bemutually exclusive.
It's not like you have tochoose one or the other, and
that really fires me up when Isee people just like no, I'll
just work harder, I'll just workmore hours, cause it's like I
know that's not going to workand I know you're going to wind
up just in this exhausted,resentful mentality.
Nikisha King (11:19):
Right, Let me ask you this you mentioned before
that you see people doing it thehard way, and then there's an
easy way For our audience.
Help them understand what thatmeans.
Heidi Thompson (11:33):
What do you consider the hard way?
The way I see marketing is.
The hard way is random,sporadic, trying to do
everything, trying to beeverywhere.
The easy way, which requires alittle bit of forethought, but
not a ton, is making thedecisions of okay, this is who
(11:54):
I'm trying to attract.
This is what they need to hearfrom me.
This is how I'm going to standout to them.
These are the few places Iusually really push my clients
to go.
With three or fewer marketingchannels I'm going to show up
and here is exactly what I'mgoing to do on each of them.
So I know I wake up on a randomTuesday and being like, oh, I
(12:17):
don't have a booking.
I need to.
I don't know.
I guess I'll spend the nextthree hours making Instagram
content.
That may or may not work, andit's just this cycle of throwing
spaghetti at the wall andnothing ever gets easier,
(12:39):
whereas if you come at it from astrategy, a plan, your
marketing gets perpetuallyeasier because you learn what
works and what doesn't work, andthen you can just do more of
what works and less of whatdoesn't work.
Nikisha King (12:55):
Right Now, the best part about this someone
who's listening is like yeah,easy said, then done Okay is
like, yeah, easy said, then doneOkay.
Now the reason I say that isthink about it.
The hard way is not having adefined goal market, not a
defined person, not an idealclient avatar, most value client
(13:16):
, however you want to phrase it.
And it's interesting becausewhen we start in our journey,
when I even started and peopletold me the niche, I was like
what and why and who?
Right, because I'm hungry, Iwant to make money, I have to
prove myself financially to someimaginary idea that I'm not.
(13:37):
It's like the thing that I useto say I'm doing good, I'm not
doing good.
And someone listening to thisjust now had that thought.
Like I can't do that.
Because in their mind, whenthey're speaking to everyone,
they're figuring they're goingto get more sales, but they see
it's not working.
Because right now, why they'relistening to us is because
they're struggling.
They're on the struggle bus,the same struggle bus you just
(14:00):
mentioned, and deep down theyknow they should.
But, heidi, they're scared.
I get it.
They're scared, heidi.
So how do we help them?
Heidi Thompson (14:12):
look at this in a way that it's not scary look
at this in a way that it's notscary, so something it's.
It's totally illogical.
I get it Like we all go throughthis at some point in our
business and then on the otherside of it it's like, oh yeah, I
get it, but it doesn't make anysense.
But the way I talk about it isyou need to be the go-to person
for somebody.
You can't just compete in thecategory of wedding stationery
(14:38):
or wedding planner or venue,because it's too big and nobody
stands out.
There's this huge issue in thewedding industry that I will not
shut up about and I've beentalking about for a few years
now, where I could quiteliterally copy and paste text
(15:01):
images from one planner's,photographer's, dj's website to
another and nobody would notice.
I don't even think the businessowner would notice, and that's
a huge problem because you havethese people doing research.
They have 20 tabs open of 20possibilities and none of them
(15:22):
are giving them a compellingreason to choose them.
So by I don't even like tothink of it as niching.
It's just like what do you wantto be the go-to person for?
What is the problem you want tosolve and who do you want to
solve it for?
Because when you positionyourself.
As you know, we help X kind ofpeople with Y kind of thing.
(15:45):
It immediately lets themcategorize you and that's what
we want to do.
When we're looking for things,when we're looking for solutions
to problems, we're looking forsomething that's going to fit
and it's going to fit for us.
So if you know you're lookingfor a wedding planner and every
(16:06):
single website's like we'regoing to help you have your
dream wedding and it's going tobe stress-free and it's going to
be you know this amazing dayand it's going to be.
You know this amazing day andthen you land on one that's like
we help untraditional couplescreate amazing destination
weddings and not have to use anyof the wedding traditions
(16:28):
they're not comfortable with.
If that's you, you are going tostop in your tracks and I think
we logically think if we canjust get in front of more people
, if we can appeal to morepeople, then we have higher
chance of them booking us.
But the problem is we'regetting in front of them and
(16:50):
they're not seeing why you know,they're not seeing how you're
different, they're not seeingwhy they should book you over
someone else.
It's like an example I give alot to take it out of the
wedding industry is.
You know, you could be anItalian restaurant, or you could
be a restaurant that has alittle bit of everything.
(17:13):
Well, when someone wantsItalian food, where are they
going to go?
They're going to think of thatItalian restaurant, or you could
be a bakery, or you could bethe best bagels in the city that
also maybe makes other bakedgoods.
But when someone wants bagels,they're going to trek across the
city to go to the best bagelsin the city bakery, because
(17:36):
you've positioned yourself asthe go-to for someone else and
then you put yourself in yourown category, so they're not
comparing you to everybody else.
You create, like this, applesto oranges comparison.
That is so cool because itmeans you don't have to compete
with the hundreds or thousandsof people in your market that
(17:58):
also do what you do, becauseyou're selling something
different.
You're not selling photography,you're selling the exact
solution to the problem.
Nikisha King (18:08):
Right, right, the problem.
That's where it all boils downto.
That's where it all boils downto and I say it that way because
even what you just said aboutselling a lot of people don't
like selling.
They feel like it's sleazy, andthey have a lot of stories
right Based on what they see carsalesmen being forceful, right,
(18:29):
and a lot of creativeentrepreneurs, and I don't say a
lot, but a good percentage ofus are female and we're not used
to that.
And the most interesting part is, you're not selling anything.
I tell people all the time youhave a skill.
That's really amazing andeveryone cannot do what you do.
Hence the reason telling themspecifically what you do like
(18:51):
you said, untraditional wedding,like if you're that planner and
someone's looking for you andwhen they come into your world,
you're inviting them to thesolution.
You are saying I have thissolution, I'm really good at it
and I can help you, and if Ihelp you, it's going to look
like this when we're done.
(19:11):
And if you take that basis andjust use it for your messaging,
your website copy, that isexactly what you're trying to do
.
Not even trying doing.
I don't believe in trying, sothat is amazing when you just
said, that last part problem isstick out to me, because I'm
like that's it.
No one's buying from us becausethey just want to buy from us
(19:36):
and they don't have a problem tobe solved.
And that's exactly what you'resaying.
I love this.
I love your belief in doing iteasy and I love that you show up
to help people understand whatis easy, because when I started
my company, I did it hard.
Heidi Thompson (19:56):
We all do, we all do.
It's the default.
Nikisha King (20:07):
It is.
It is so the default and Idon't know first and foremost, I
never know if I'm going tochange it.
I don't know if I ever go backand be like I would change it if
I had the opportunity, becauseI don't know if I did, I might
want it shorter.
I might not want it to be 10years.
I would have loved it to befive years of chaos.
So I think that is so good andI just truly hope people hear
this more and hear you and whatyou're offering and what you're
(20:28):
giving, because this is exactlywhat they need.
Now, in regards to yourbusiness model, I would love to
learn what is it Like?
How have you structured yourcompany and how does it allow to
grow without burning out andstill delivering real
transformation for your venue?
Because this is part of theMake Money series.
People don't realize businessmodels are a thing, so we'll
(20:52):
love to learn more about yoursand how it helped you grow.
Heidi Thompson (20:58):
Yeah.
So I definitely went into thisbusiness after running in-person
events and realizing, okay, ifI want more flexibility, I'm
going to have to build some sortof business that isn't location
dependent.
So that was a big component ofit for me, especially because I
(21:19):
was living in the UK at the timeand then I've since moved back
to the US.
Nothing happened in my businessbecause it's set up to where it
doesn't matter.
Everything I do is flexible.
I can do it from anywhere inthe world.
So that was a really bigpriority of mine going in and I
(21:50):
have done some like traditionalcoaching.
But the model I've reallylanded in is a membership
structure where I have my mainoffer is my membership the
Wedding Business Collective andit's where I bring together all
of my education, all of mycourses and also the coaching,
the support component, because Iwas finding that coaching
(22:10):
clients needed the education,education clients needed the
coaching.
They really just kind of neededto live together in one place.
So I run that membership.
It is very it doesn't requireme to show up live a ton.
We have live sessions, you know, during the month, but you know
(22:35):
it's not like I'm having toshow up live every single day.
So it does afford me a lot offlexibility in my time, which I
absolutely love.
And because I have thatpriority of flexibility, it also
comes through in the membership.
So I've been able to work withpeople from around the world
(22:57):
because we're not always meeting, you know, face to face at the
same time to where I would beexcluding half the planet
because of time zones.
So having it be more of anonline platform has really made
it possible to have it as timezone agnostic as possible for
(23:19):
people.
And then, on top of themembership, I run two summits
per year and those are week longconference events, fully online
.
And again, it allows for a lotof flexibility.
It allows for a lot of freedombecause, yes, there's a lot that
(23:40):
has to get done to put thosetogether, but I'm not tied super
specifically to like a date andtime.
You know, if I want to work onit at 11 PM, like I can, that's
fine and that is a priority ofmine.
And how I like to work is tohave that level of flexibility
(24:02):
and how I use my time and when Iset up time for work versus
time off, because I don't knowwhat it is, but if I get too
strict about that, I will rebelagainst myself.
I will be like I don't want totake today off or I don't want
to work today.
I have to give myself a littlebit of flexibility, a little bit
(24:25):
of wiggle room to be like, yeah, today's my Saturday and then
I'm going to move this stuff tothis day because that's just how
it works for me in my brain.
Nikisha King (24:36):
Got it, got it and so good to share, because
people I know there's a goodamount of creatives out there
that if they work on a Saturdaythere's sometimes there's guilt,
yeah, if they don't work on aSaturday sometimes there's guilt
If they don't work on aSaturday.
sometimes there's guilt and I'mtalking about people who might
not be planners doing an eventand for planners doing an event
(24:59):
on the weekends, maybe theirMonday is their Saturday and as
we are entrepreneurs, we get todecide that, but there shouldn't
be guilt with it.
You know what I mean.
If you're in the middle of theweek and it's like Thursday and
that's your Saturday, guess what?
There are people in the worldwho go to nine to five and
Thursdays are their Saturdays.
(25:19):
It's okay and it's notsomething about feeling guilty
because you're not working andeveryone else is.
So that was a really clear andlike that's so good to share
because we always, asentrepreneurs, make something
bigger than it is.
Heidi Thompson (25:33):
Oh my God, yeah, you have to turn it into this
whole ordeal, or it's like notpart of entrepreneurship, right?
Nikisha King (25:40):
Yes, that's where the hustle culture, that's where
everything comes from, andsometimes we just got to learn
that if someone says somethingsometimes it's not for us.
We just got to learn that ifsomeone says something sometimes
it's not for us.
But if you find your people whoget you and you're in that
community and they help you seeand understand it, then you have
to understand that might workfor you and they help you see
(26:01):
why it works for you to learnhow to accept it.
Because it's all in the mind,it's all the story that we keep
telling ourselves asentrepreneurs.
So thank you for sharing that.
I appreciate it, especiallyyour business model and I think
for you when I hear you speakabout it, one of your values is
having time to travel, to locateand still being able to show up
(26:22):
.
So you've built a business inthat model that supports you.
So your business doesn't.
That supports you.
So your business doesn't drainyou, burn you out, but it
uplifts you.
It helps you to be who you areand support you where you are at
.
Heidi Thompson (26:55):
Yeah, and that I mean just from working, you
know, corporate jobs, fromworking a business that required
a lot from me, in a certainplace, at a certain time, I just
felt myself being like I wantto do that, so I'm just not.
Nikisha King (27:01):
I'm going to ask you a question Do you have any
corporate job experience thatyou lasted a short period of
time because you knew that itwas all hell and it's not
aligned with you at all?
Do you have any of thosemoments?
Heidi Thompson (27:14):
I have multiple.
I definitely.
I've been fired a few timesbecause I'm just like this.
Nikisha King (27:25):
Sometimes, when people get fired, I don't think
it's like they're not sure howto do it.
I think sometimes they're justlike I'm done with this.
Heidi Thompson (27:31):
Yeah, like this is dumb, I'm not doing it.
No, there was a company Iworked with that like because it
was really weird, we wereworking really closely with Sony
and because of that, like theKorean work culture started to
bleed in and I was like, uh-uh,no, I am not working these
(27:54):
ridiculous hours, I'm not doingthis.
Like, this is not going tohappen, especially because it's
like it's just so much of it isjust like and I think the thing
that always bothered me was likethis really doesn't need to get
done.
And it's the thing that comesthrough in my business of like
we, you don't need to do that,there's a better way to do this.
(28:16):
And that's the thing thatalways irritated me in corporate
is like, why are we spendingall of this time on this thing?
That like does not matter, itchanges nothing.
Nikisha King (28:29):
Got.
You See, everyone, it all stemsfrom somewhere your habits, the
way you want to grow yourbusiness it all stems from
somewhere.
And I always tell people I'malways curious where does it
come from?
I know it's part you, butthere's experiences we may have
in our past that we're like nope, I am not building a business
(28:50):
that's going to look like that.
I'm not going to do this.
So good, so good.
I love getting to know Heidi.
By the way, my audience I'mlike me and Heidi have worked
together, but we've never hadthis in-depth relationship where
we had these conversations, soI'm happy it unfolds here and
then we get to know her together.
Now, in regards to working withyour clients, I would love to
(29:14):
know how do you guide them inmaking money that's aligned and
sustainable and doesn't makethem feel like they're selling
their soul?
Heidi Thompson (29:23):
Oh, that's good.
So the way we put theirmarketing plans together is to
position them as kind of like a,you know, a conveniently placed
bottle of ibuprofen when youhave a headache, so that when
someone who has this problemfinds you, they're like oh my
(29:47):
God, this is exactly what I needyou.
They're like oh my God, this isexactly what I need.
And it goes from a selling sortof relationship to a no, this
is what I want.
Like you have the thing that Iwant, please.
Like I'm so engaged, tell meall about it.
How, how does it work?
How do we work together?
Like what, what?
What are the packages?
(30:08):
What is the process?
And it shifts into in some ways, you know, customer led,
because it's desire led.
You know it's them getting thething that they want.
I'm not saying you should, like, you know, be hands off and let
them run the process, becausethey're coming to you, because
you're a professional and youhave a process and you have a
(30:29):
way of working.
But when you position yourselfas like that painkiller, you're
like yeah, give it to me, thisis exactly what I want, right?
And then you know when we?
I think price transparency isimportant in most markets, in
(30:50):
some of the higher end luxuryit's a little bit different, but
I would say most markets.
I like to see people give somesort of ballpark, some sort of
indication of what is this goingto cost, so that when they get
to that conversation they're notdropping what feels like a bomb
(31:12):
on them because the expectationis already set.
They wouldn't have gone intothis conversation if they
weren't okay with what you'vealready put forward.
So we also work on making surethat you are qualifying them a
little bit better, to make surethat not only do they really
really want to work with you,but that they have an
(31:33):
expectation of what this isgoing to cost.
Because if you don't set thatexpectation, they're going to
set their own expectation andyou have no idea what they're
setting that off of.
And then that can feel reallybad for them, because they're
going into it thinking it's a$2,000 purchase and now it's a
(31:54):
$10,000 purchase.
Now they may be able to affordthe $10,000 purchase, but
there's something weird thathappens when our expectations
don't align with reality.
That just makes usuncomfortable and it's like, oh
okay, well, that's not what Ithought it was going to be, even
if you have the money.
It's like just this disconnectthat happens and we feel like
(32:19):
we've kind of had the rug pulledfrom under us.
So I know nobody wants to givetheir clients that kind of
experience.
So I'm a big fan of at leastgiving some sort of indication
whether that's a range, anexample, a starting price and
there's pros and cons for all ofthem, just so that by the time
(32:43):
you get to that conversation of,okay, this is what it's going
to look like, this is how we'regoing to work together, they're
like 90% of the way there.
So I really like to see so muchof that selling happen from
your marketing materials, fromyour website, from what they're
seeing in that journey andconvincing themselves, really
(33:07):
selling themselves on.
Nikisha King (33:08):
No, this is the perfect fit for me so true, so
true, and it and, like you said,it differs because I know I was
in the higher end and if we putout numbers on, people would
usually opt out because theydon't understand the value of
why it's there and they wouldcompare us to the other
stationers they may see.
However, I believe if you're inan average space, it's always
(33:32):
also about just your copy, likeyou mentioned.
Heidi Thompson (33:37):
Yeah, you can't just throw out a number, it has
to be in context.
Yeah, like why is it and likeoh okay, after reading the
service page, this feels like agreat friend.
Nikisha King (33:48):
Like it matches.
Just like how you said theexpectation.
If they could understand howyou're transforming the
experience for them, how you'resolving that pain point you're
the painkiller how you're doingthat and then you tell them that
number, they'll get it.
And people sometimes getconfused with telling people
(34:09):
their value and transformationcompared to the features.
So, what we're trying.
We're not saying list all yourfeatures, the hours, the color
schemes, not all of those things.
I used to do it.
I'm going to raise my hand, I'mgoing to let you guys know I am
one of those people.
I used to do it, but there wereopportunities where I was in
coaching containers andcommunities where I learned that
(34:32):
wasn't speaking to my idealclient.
So it makes complete sense Now.
We spoke about a lot and I wantto be able to kind of filter
down and I will love for you toshare for our wedding pros, like
they might feeling stuck,unsure what we shared today.
(34:54):
Then that little spark went off, which I love.
But do you have three simplesteps that they can take that
will help them start gettingclear on their messaging or
their ideal client, so they canstart speaking about the value
rather than the features?
Heidi Thompson (35:15):
Yeah.
So the first thing and the way Ilike to talk about an ideal
client is not as like this papercutout of a person, I like to
base it on an actual human being.
So I'll give you the downloadthat I use with my clients for
asking your best clientsspecific questions to get the
(35:39):
messaging that you need, becauseyour messaging, as much as we
feel like it should, cannot comeentirely from your own head,
because you are too disconnectedfrom the position that your
customer is in, where they'reprobably interacting with the
(36:00):
wedding industry for the veryfirst time.
They don't know what any ofthis stuff means.
It has been a long time sinceyou've been in that position, so
we need to get into, okay, whatdo they actually care about?
What's really driving them?
And then, once you have that, Iwould say number two, after
(36:20):
asking them these questions,which I'll give you the download
to put it in show notes is tomake sure that, without needing
to scroll on your homepage,someone can tell exactly what
you do and who you do it for.
So take that messaging that yougot from talking to people why
(36:44):
they said they hired you insteadof someone else, of someone
else, and if you are thephotographer for camera shy
couples who want bright, fun,bold wedding images, it should
literally say that on the top ofyour website.
(37:04):
You need to call that out,because you get five seconds or
less when someone loads yourwebsite to decide either this is
for me, and I'm going tocontinue reading, or this isn't
for me and I'm going to clickaway.
That decision happens fast, sowe need to serve it up to people
really, really quickly that,hey, this is what we're all
(37:25):
about here.
If you're part of this, ifyou're in the club, cool, this
is going to be something for you.
If you're part of this, ifyou're in the club, cool, you
know this is going to besomething for you.
If you're not, that's fine too,Because, look, if you want to
be a client magnet, it has towork both ways.
You have to attract and repel,and you're going to attract more
people by being really, reallyclear about why they should work
(37:50):
with you instead of someoneelse.
So those two things.
And then filter all of yourmarketing through that, and what
I mean by that is when you'rethinking about what to post on
social media.
Does it address the problemthat you're trying to solve?
I think that's a great questionto ask yourself, and it's not
just something random.
Nikisha King (38:11):
So true, so good.
Heidi, I so appreciate you.
Thank you for showing up forour community today, leading her
way our listeners and sharing awealth of knowledge how to make
things easy, simple steps toget going, and this aligns
perfectly.
And, yes, I'll put yourinformation in a show notes so
(38:32):
our guests or our listeners candefinitely grab that, and I know
that I have a workshop comingup about your ideal client
avatar, so I'm excited to sharethat and speak to them more
about it in my community.
So I thank you so much in everysingle way.
I appreciate you.
Heidi Thompson (38:52):
Thank you so much for having me.
It was such a greatconversation.
Nikisha King (38:56):
Yes, and before you go, so they can audit like
hear you, where can they findyou?
Where is the best place thatthey can find you?
Heidi Thompson (39:03):
Yeah, my website is evolveyourweddingbusinesscom
.
You'll also find my podcastthere, and the best place to
find me on social media isInstagram, where I'm Evolve your
Wedding Business as well.
Nikisha King (39:16):
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, listeners, forshowing up today.
We appreciate and value yourtime, so make sure you go on a
show notes, grab that wonderfulgift Heidi has for you, and if
you have any questions for her,you know where to find her on IG
and I'll speak to you guys nextweek.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Thank you for joining us today on Leading Her Way.
We loved having you with us.
Remember each action you take,no matter how small, adds up to
big results.
If today's episode fired you up, hit subscribe for more
insights and visit our resourcehub, which is linked to the show
notes.
There you'll find tools tostreamline, organize and grow
(39:57):
your business.
Keep moving forward and we'llbe right here to cheer you on
next week.
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