January 20, 2025 • 40 mins
In this exciting episode of Wedding Empires, we’re joined by the incredible Meghan Ely, owner of OFD Consulting and one of the most influential voices in the wedding industry. Meghan combines her in-the-trenches event experience with her PR expertise to help wedding professionals get the recognition they deserve. With accolades from the Public Relations Society of America and Eventex, Meghan has a proven track record of elevating brands through media exposure. Her clients have been featured in prestigious outlets like The Knot, Martha Stewart Weddings, Brides, Architectural Digest, and Style Me Pretty.
During our conversation, Meghan shares actionable tips and strategies for wedding pros looking to break into top-tier publications and grow their businesses. Whether you’re a planner, photographer, florist, or another wedding vendor, you’ll learn:
- How to craft compelling pitches that editors can’t resist.
- The must-have elements of a successful submission.
- How to build and maintain strong relationships with editors and media outlets.
- The secret to standing out in a crowded and competitive market.
- Ways to leverage your media features to attract more clients and grow your brand.
As a WeddingPro educator and an experienced speaker at major conferences, Meghan has a unique ability to make PR approachable and achievable for everyone. Tune in for a deep dive into the world of wedding publicity and learn how to take your business to new heights by sharing your story with the world.
The Wedding AcademyThe Wedding Academy is an industry certification body & recognised globally.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
🚀 THE ONLY PLACE TO WATCH OUR VIDEO INTERVIEWS BEFORE THEY DROP!
🎥 Want behind-the-scenes access to our guest interviews before they go live on the podcast? Want to actually be there for some of the live recordings? Then you NEED to be inside our Facebook group—the VIP lounge for 7,000+ wedding pros just like you.
💬 Rub shoulders with Jac & Ben
❓ Ask YOUR questions before we hit record
🎉 Network, learn, and grow alongside industry leaders
📢 Join discussions that don’t make it to air
👉 Join the community now: facebook.com/groups/weddingempirespodcast
👰♀️ This is where the real conversation happens. Don’t just listen—experience it.
📲 LET’S STAY CONNECTED
🌐 Website & Courses: www.weddingacademyglobal.com
📸 Instagram: @weddingacademylive
🎶 TikTok: @weddingacademylive
📺 YouTube: Wedding Academy TV
👍 Facebook: Wedding Academy Global
🎓 READY TO BUILD YOUR WEDDING EMPIRE?
Join thousands of ambitious creatives leveling up inside WeddingAcademyGlobal.com. Whether you'...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Wedding Empires everyone.
Today, ben and I will be joinedby the wonderful Megan Elly,
who is the owner of OFDConsulting and she's an absolute
, true powerhouse in publicrelations and marketing for the
wedding industry.
Specifically, megan is a verysought-after speaker, a wedding
(00:21):
pro-educator, and she's beenfeatured in major publications
like the New York Times, forbesand the Knot.
With her unique ability toblend PR strategies and deep
industry knowledge, she's helpedcountless wedding professionals
elevate their brands andconnect with their dream clients
.
Megan, I've been dying to getyou on here.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm so excited.
We've known each other for awhile, haven't we?
We?
I was thinking about that I was.
It was such a pleasure to beasked to come.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm so glad to be here yes, and we've had a few of
your clients too, haven't we?
I was thinking who's thatmemorable, who's that guy that
we like, ben Jordan?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Jordan yes, wonderful though it's a cast of
characters, but they're all soamazing and just wonderful.
But no, I'm thrilled to be here.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I'm very glad that you did that full intro, jack,
because as usual here, I am justmaking you look good, yeah so
Ben Ben likely hasn't even readthe run sheet.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
It's okay, we can have fun with this.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
We can have real fun.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Ben's just gotten off a plane from Japan.
Ben's only just back in thecountry a very short time, so
Ben's read nothing, ben knowsnothing, and it's just normal,
really, isn't it Jack?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So why don't we just start from the beginning?
Make it really easy for you,ben Megan, how did you get into
PR.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So we'll start from the very beginning.
Believe it or not, I was inhigh school and a test told me
I'd be good at it.
That is an actual true storywhere I thought and I'm a bit of
a rule follower so I thought,well, I mean, who am I to ask
you know and judge that?
Just I should go for it.
But no, that's how I gotintroduced to it and over time,
(02:10):
when I started really studyingwhat I could go to school for,
go to college for, it really hitme that that could be the right
fit for me.
So I went to college.
I went to university for publicrelations.
I loved it.
I had notable internships atsome larger publication.
I worked at Nike, the world'sheadquarters.
I got a lot of great experience.
But I always had a bit of a pullto the wedding industry.
There's something about.
I mean we can blame thosewatching today.
They make it look fun.
I felt like it looked fun.
It could be a happy place to be.
(02:30):
So I made the decision to kindof veer off a little bit and
jump into the world of events,which I did, and so I split my
time between the two for a longtime, but always knew I would
return back to my PR roots,which is what I really did in
2000 when I started OFD.
The idea was let's start a PRagency, one of the first
globally to really service thewedding industry.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Great.
Why do you think that, as awedding professional, getting
published is such a game changer?
Why does it need to happen?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
There's a few different reasons.
I mean, what's interesting isit's not going away 15 years.
My answer does evolve over time.
We are facing this big shift inaudiences right now, right,
these couples coming inuniversally.
They're being known asGeneration Z, and so the answer
is a little bit different than afew years ago.
But here's the thing.
A few different things.
One is social proof that's thebiggest thing right now is the
(03:23):
couples these days in that 25 to35, they want to know that
everyone thinks you're greatbecause you can think you're
great.
You can showcase your beautifulportfolio.
That's wonderful.
A beautiful grid on Instagram.
All of that is important.
But there's a magic to otherpeople saying you're great, so
to be able to showcase thatyou're being quoted in the
publications and that theseeditors are saying yes to your
beautiful weddings and havingthem stand out.
(03:45):
There's something to be saidfor that.
But if I could be a bit of anerd for a second, you know from
the SEO standpoint, which isnot my area of expertise by any
means but you know there'salways those great backlinks
back, so you get featured, youget links back.
I mean, I've seen it with.
I've seen transformations withpeople's Google rankings because
of press.
And then, finally, you knowwhat we hear across the board.
Statistically, yes, couples willfind you through Google, so
(04:08):
this works well together.
But also the power of referrals.
I think we can all agree thisis a people industry and we for
business to each other.
And so imagine you have thisgorgeous wedding with a couple
and then, six months later, youcan tell them well, you're in
the latest issue of Bridal Guide.
You send them an issue likeyou're top of mind again.
Imagine you're a photographerand you submit, get things
published, and it keeps theplanner happy and the venues
(04:30):
happy, so it really weaves intoother promotional strategies as
well.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I love that.
Yeah, so what would be thefirst thing that a wedding pro
should do if they're thinking Iwant to get published?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah Well, I'm going to give you kind of, I'm going
to give you a boring answer, butit's a very truthful answer,
right?
Because everyone, when theythink of PR, maybe they'll be
inspired today and they're likethat's it, I'm going to go out
and be in everything.
And you really got to stop andask yourself, because I doubt
anybody has unlimited time andmoney.
I mean, if they do haveunlimited time and money, I'm
always like come find me andwe'll, we'll figure out what to
(05:02):
do with that, you know, but withit, but because of that, we
really have to ask ourselveswhat has to happen for this to
be a success.
Why do I want to do publicity?
Why do I want to, if I'm goingto be representing myself, which
I encourage people to considerdoing?
You know, to start is the firstthing you do is why do I want
to do this?
Am I trying to like, do I needto boost my Google rankings?
Do I, am I looking to increase,of course, my referral base and
(05:25):
things like that?
Do I need to build my socialproof or am I doing it for ego,
which, if that's the answer,that's the honest answer, right?
So, asking yourself what has tohappen and really leverage your
strengths Like what's mostappropriate for me.
If you're a planner,photographer, venue I would say,
designers, florists as well,then real wedding submissions
might make sense.
If you don't fall in thosecategories, maybe you're a DJ,
(05:46):
hair and makeup then you wouldconsider getting quoted as well.
So what do I have there?
And then the big thing is whatkind of resources do I have?
And I don't mean money, I'm notsaying you have to pay someone
but what sort of resources fromthe idea of timing and bandwidth
and team to be able to help youwith that as well?
So it's some pretty bigquestions you should.
(06:10):
Anytime you're jumping into anysort of promotion, new
strategies, you have to askyourself those things for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
That's what I would do first, ben, do you submit
yours to publications?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Not normally.
No, it's something that I havebeen going to do for so long.
There's quite a few blogs andquite a few sort of websites out
there that that I should dothat too, but no, it's I'm.
I kind of find that I I get abit sort of lazy and then having
to go through and fill out allthe submission criteria and it's
just for me it's kind of likeit's all too hard so but I, with
(06:40):
that said, it's, some casesit's a lot, some cases it's not,
but it's.
I do recognize the fact thatit's something, as a
photographer and potentially asa videographer and stuff as well
, that we need to be doing toget published.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, it's very difficult when all the
publications have differentprocesses, isn't it?
You know?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
It used to be.
There was this brief, magicaltime where Two Bright Lights had
a huge part of like so manydifferent blogs and publications
and they still do havedefinitely a bunch of them.
But then the knot took over andit looks a little bit different
now, but it used to be like somany that you could just do it
once and get it out the door andthat was beautiful.
That's probably been why we'restill in business, because
everyone's like, if I have toformat that vendor list one more
(07:20):
time, I'm like I get it, like Iget it when it comes to that
and I wouldn't say I wouldactually push back and say I
wouldn't see.
This laziness is just whenpeople they either come to me or
they're just looking to trainon their own.
It's just the middle of thebusy season when you've done all
the weddings and the editingand like who who wants to have
to revisit it with a differenteye.
So I know it's a lot to ask ofpeople as well, but I do feel
(07:41):
strongly the importance ofsocial proof.
But I totally get.
It's like me with my accounting.
It's like I know I have to doit but I end up outsourcing it
because I just don't.
At the end of the day, I don'twant to add it to my plate.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Megan, you're making me feel a lot better for not
doing it, but you shouldn't, soI know it's something that we
all need to do.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
No, no, no, no, absolutely.
But I do recognize with thewedding pros too.
I mean, I was in weddings foryears and it's like the idea of
adding anything, anything elseas well.
The good news is there'ssmaller transformations people
can make to like build layers tothe bigger stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So that's that's hopefully what I'm encouraging
people today yeah even if it'sas simple as I know with darling
, don't panic.
We just had a spreadsheet whereit had the direct link to the
submission page and whatnot.
So yeah, I mean even just thatsimple starting point to sort of
go okay.
I suppose that leads me to mynext question, though how do you
choose which publications areworthwhile doing this for?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So it goes a couple of different ways.
It starts internally with thosebigger questions and it kind of
lands on well, if I'm here,point A in my business, I'm
trying to get to point B,wherever that is.
What are the media outlets thatare going to support that?
I want to be better known onthe destination side.
So maybe it's destination I do,I want to attract the North
American markets and maybe it'sstyle, made pretty or, you know,
(08:58):
I want to do more broad andwhat does that look like?
So you kind of start there,right, and then you have to do
and you have to pair it withthose, of course, answers like
SEO.
You're going to look at itdifferently than you are the
clout, right.
Those are very different things.
But really, what guides thefinal selection, at least when
we're working with our clientsas well?
It's going to be the photographystyle and it's going to be the
(09:18):
aesthetics of the wedding,because we could all want to be
in Martha Stewart Weddings,which, by the way, has not
published a wedding since lastAugust 19th, by the way.
So at the time of this, it wasbeen a very long time since
they've published anything, butwe could want to be a Martha
Stewart wedding in better times.
But if the aesthetics of thewedding which are the final
choice of the couple, even if wedo have impact influence over
it, if it doesn't match up, thenthat's not what's going to
(09:40):
guide you.
You know, I just had thisreally thoughtful conversation
with these really, really,really talented planners we work
with and they definitely havemore of a timeless aesthetic and
it's it's perfect in theirregion.
People love using them, but itdoesn't catch the eye of the
editors as much.
So we can sit here till we'reblue in the face and say these
are the publications I want, butthe aesthetic of the wedding
and the photography style doesguide the final decision there.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
So, megan, can you have you got any advice, then,
for someone that doesn'tpotentially have a photography
style that is conducive to allof these editors and all of
these publications going oh?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Sure, I would say it's not usually a yes or no, I
would say it's more of a.
Is it limiting?
You know what I mean.
If someone chooses a prettydark and moody that look that
was popular for and some peoplestill do, and is quite well
loved amongst the couples whowant it, that's just going to
limit them to places likeJunebug weddings or Storyboard
(10:37):
weddings and things like that.
So I think it's more of alimitation than like yes or no
altogether.
But to answer your question moreat length is if you have
someone whose photography styleis unapologetically what it is
and they love it and it's theirart and the couples love it,
then that route of PR is notgoing to be the way to go.
Instead, I would absolutelyadvise them.
Of course, they're going tolean into other marketing, such
(10:58):
as Instagram and all this, but Iwould advise them if PR is
something they really want andthey want the clout of the as
seen in, then they need to gothe route of being quoted, to
look to the places where thearticles are.
Maybe bridescom is not theright fit for them from an
aesthetic standpoint.
Well, right now, unfortunately,their weddings editor was laid
off literally a couple of daysago.
(11:20):
So that looks.
I know there's a lot going onin the last week, in particular
in the new year, but then tolook to the articles to see
where you can be quoted as well,so that's a great question.
But I don't want anyone tothink, oh, my photography style
doesn't work at all.
It's like, well, it just willbe limited to certain
publications Sure, and visualsare key.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
So I guess I've been faced with this problem where
I've got, you know, 300 photosfrom the wedding.
How do I know which ones tochoose and upload?
Is there a strategy?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
There is so much of a strategy to the point where I
thought I had the right strategy.
And then I brought in more of ateam and Megan Acosta, who is a
wonderful part of our team, shekind of re-imagined it, and
then I asked her to train me inthis, even though I'd been doing
it for a decade.
And so, yes, so when it comesto the images, first of all, you
could have 300.
You could also have 3000.
If you've got this amazing, youknow, south Asian wedding, it
(12:10):
just depends on what, what it is.
And so first you go and youfinalize, looking at the photos,
and say, well, whatpublications are going to make
the most sense for me, kind ofin what order?
One at a time, thailand, or theright fit.
And you've got to look to theirrules first, because the
question would be well, how manydo I pull?
And it's like, well, how manydo they want?
Because if somebody says ahundred, they mean a hundred,
they don't mean 105.
They don't mean 96.
(12:30):
They mean a hundred.
And so you go through and justsee, okay, thematically, what do
I need to pull From there,bearing in mind that for the
majority of the time, you'regoing to have some of the couple
.
But people newer in thisprocess always think you need to
pull more of the couple andthat's not necessarily the case.
And so what you're going to dois start really, you're going to
(12:52):
cull it down and then curate itbased on, really the story of
the couple Chronologically istypically how we do it.
We normally start with, likeflat lays so if someone has
really extraordinary flat laysand then of course the getting
ready and you have one for onecouple and then the other
partner and you kind ofalternate from there and then
you go chronologically throughthe day, being especially heavy
on, you know, anything from thereception.
(13:14):
You can capture all the up closeand different angles of the
cake and and so and so forth,and then you bring it down to
the end.
I will say that we use AdobeBridge, which is free at least
here in the States.
It's free and it allows you toput it in a particular order so
you can really tell a story ofthe day and highlight the
details you want.
But typically we're tellingpeople you know you are not
(13:36):
going to have a ton ofhorizontal, you're going to pull
more vertical, you're going tohave a ton of black and white,
even if you, I love black andwhite, but they just don't want
a ton of those and you're reallygoing to want to narrow it down
to the most impactful photos ofthe day that tell the story of
the couple.
It really, you know, it showsoff the details and it shows off
different angles of the thingsthat you really want to
highlight.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I like that.
I feel like almost that shouldbe applied to portfolio pages on
like planners websites.
Do you think as well?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
There's some similarity there too, and I
would say that you know wealways want to put out there
what we want to attract, and soif someone really and I want to
encourage them this you knowwe've known over the years some
very talented, you know,photographers who are very
focused on telling the story ofthe couple and the details are
secondary, and I respect that,and so I want to make sure that
you know their portfolio andtheir site should reflect their
philosophy in that style,whereas when you're submitting
(14:27):
it to blogs and publications, wehave to lean into what the
editors are looking for, whichis more the detail.
So I think that would be theonly main difference, but I do
agree with you, there's somesimilarities there yeah,
interesting that's.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
That's one of the things that I noticed as well
with a lot of publications.
As a photographer, I'm verymuch there for the couple and
their story and I found thatwith a lot of publications and a
lot of my friends have sort ofsaid the same thing that the
publications wanted us to bealmost product photographers so
that they could have all thedetails and that sort of stuff,
and it's wet for photographersthat don't normally do a lot of
(15:02):
that.
We now maybe need to startshooting specifically for blogs
and and publications as well.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Now no, I agree, it's something that and people are
surprised about this, about me,because my start was in weddings
you're going to find a verywell, I'm very pro vendor.
That pardon us, but I'm alsopro couple.
So I always tell people listen,at the end of the day you shoot
for the couple and you make thedecisions on the rest of it.
You're not taking away fromwhat the couple wants.
I will contend that as more andmore couples consume the media
and these real wedding features,they are in some markets the
(15:31):
expectations getting higher thatthose details are being
captured, which I do think iskind of it's permeating the
scene a little bit more.
You know, we have some peoplewhere they have some of the most
and again to your point, theproduct feeling, these just
really dazzling flat lays like alevel that's just way up here.
But when couples see thatthat's their expectation,
they're going to see it.
So I think it's going to beinteresting to see how the
(15:52):
consumption of this media leadsto the expectations of the
couples.
But yeah, it's not.
You know the submissions aren'tfor everybody.
You know, sometimes I workedwith some great people who you
know the relationship didn'twork out.
I mean it ended in a couple.
But it didn't work out becausethey would do these gorgeous
like very high-end, but likeelopements where there's just
not enough details and theeditors aren't going to want
(16:13):
those, unfortunately.
But you do shoot based on thecouple's preference, number one
and I would always agree withthat.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And when it comes to a great pitch, how much of it is
about the story, the story ofthe couple and, I guess, the
story of the day.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I would say, if I was going to put a percentage on it
, which I will it'll probably beabout 15% most of the time.
Now there's going to be rareexception when you have a high
profile couple that's well knownin their own circles, well
known enough to be able topeople.
Yeah, that that's going toaccelerate, right, that's going
to look a little bit higher, buttypically, as a whole, what we
find is that what it's going tocome down to are the details of
(16:52):
the day and how it was shot soyou could have a couple.
And I've had people come to ussay, oh my gosh, this is amazing
.
It's siblings that got married,which is a cool story, but it's
not enough.
Well, depending on we've seen afew of those and it's not
enough with the double weddingif it can't bring it to the
finish line with theextraordinary details.
What we have to remember,ultimately, is that the media
has to make money In order forthem to say they have to be a
(17:14):
sustainable business.
We all have to be a sustainablebusiness and it's going to be
likes and engagements and visitsto their site and the right
story that pulls at theheartstrings.
On occasion can make sense, butreally they want the
extraordinary details, and Idon't mean lux all the time, I
just mean different.
I mean oh wow, I haven't seenthat before.
So I would say most of the timethe story, the couple, is about
(17:35):
15%.
Really, I think it goes higherif you start thinking about
because right now it's all aboutthe thoughtful crafting of the
details, the personalization,when the story ties in that way,
that's when it has more of aweight to it.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah, All right do's and don'ts.
For those of us who arelistening, who are going to give
it a crack.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
How much time do we have on that?
No, let's start with that.
Okay, the don'ts.
Okay, we'll start with thedon'ts.
No, we'll start with a coupleof positives.
Let's do the do's First andforemost.
Do your, do your research, doyour research.
The biggest mistake I guesswe're going into a don't already
by mistake, but the biggestmistake people make is they take
a wedding and they throw it outto a bunch of places
arbitrarily to see what's goingto be a right fit.
(18:19):
What you do want to do is youwant to research, you want to be
clear on the publication whattheir guidelines are, because a
lot of them are popping up andnow only allowing for
advertisers, right.
So you want to be mindful of,like knowing that ahead of time.
You want to pay attention totheir rules, understand all that
going in, but you do want topay attention.
Also, I always say, if you'vegot like five places, you want
to be featured, like a littlebit of a longer term goal,
(18:41):
follow them and get to knowtheir content, understand, like,
pay attention and take it allin.
But what you don't want to do,like I said, is just to start
throwing things out arbitrarily,because that's where you want
to see yourself being, becausethe biggest mistake you can make
is keep sending the wrongweddings to an editor over and
over again because they will.
I can't speak on their behalf,but there's a good, strong
assumption they're going todisregard you over time.
It's like this person doesn'teven take the time to understand
(19:03):
Cause it was like, well,there's no harm in trying, and
I'm like.
I disagree with that.
I think you can get one pass,but I think that after a while
you can't keep doing that.
Do make sure that you have allthe permissions in place.
If you are not the photographerbecause we all know the
photographer primarily owns thecopyright and that's globally, I
mean, I think in most placesthat's the case you have to make
sure if you're not thephotographer, you have their
(19:24):
express permission, but you alsohave the couple's permission.
Now, here in the States, what Iwould tell people is you get
with your lawyer and make sureyour contract says that.
Of course, that varies countryto country, but you want to make
sure the couple's on board andeven if they sign something we
all know we sign things and thenforget what we sign so running
it by again to make sure thatyou've got their permission and
that they're willing to workwith you.
Because you do to your point,jack, about the telling their
(19:48):
story.
You're going to have to pullthem in at some point and
interview them and it or even ifthe editor interviews them as
well, like you need to make sureyou go ahead and do that.
So do make sure you do that.
Do make sure you're as accurateas humanly possible.
We don't want to guess onvendors at all, because the last
thing you want to do is get itto the finish line.
It is featured, and then youfind out there's a bunch of
errors with the vendor list andthen people are unhappy and then
you throw off the editor, whohas a job to do and they don't
(20:10):
have time to keep going back andfixing mistakes as well.
So accuracy is going to be keywhen it comes to that.
And then, at the end of the day, we do want to follow the rules
of communication.
We don't want to hound people.
We don't want to.
You know you submit to an editorand they said it'll take eight
to 10 weeks and then, at theseven week mark, we're asking
about the wedding, like we justwant to ask that each of them I
(20:31):
mean to the point we were makingbefore.
There are a lot of differentrules, but we have to follow the
rules accordingly to get it outthe door.
So those are some of thebiggest things.
Let me do one more.
Let me one for the road.
Also, make sure, do make surethat you're the only one
submitting of your group,because how many times have I I
mean, oh, my goodness, over theyears, where you get all the
permissions?
I'm going to tease myphotographers for just a second.
(20:52):
I mean, I represent a lot ofplanners and we'll talk to the
photographer and we have theirpermission and they know what
the plan is and they say, okay,great, yep, you've got my
permission.
I mean, I did just submit thisone to the not, but you've got
my permission to send it out.
And it's like that's not how itworks, like I wish I had known
this, you know, weeks ago whenwe were talking about this.
So, making sure that thecouple's not submitting if
(21:12):
you're the photographer, thatthe planner didn't jump the gun
by mistake on that as well.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So, so, those are just a few.
I mean, we could spend hoursdoing this, but I'll leave it at
that.
And what if they?
You don't hear back or, evenworse, they reject?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
you.
You know what I almost think.
Not hearing back is worse.
Is that terrible of me?
Like I would rather have aclean yes or no at the end of
the day, because I know thatthey've taken time to review it.
So if someone says no, let mestart with that one, is it?
First of all, I, hopefullysomeone has a media plan, so
it's not just it has to go here,and if I don't get it, that's
(21:47):
the end, because because youknow, press is as much as
getting nos as it is gettingyeses, and so you want to make
sure that you go ahead and dothat.
And so if, if it's a no, youthank them accordingly and you,
you know, better luck next time,kind of thing, and then you
move on to the next outlet.
The end you do let, if there'sanyone you need to let know,
like maybe you were workingalongside the planner and you
(22:07):
want to update them or whateverlet them know, and then you move
on.
Now, if you don't hear anything, this is where it gets more
complicated.
I feel very strongly aboutclosing the loop on this.
So if you submit it and then youdon't hear back from them, and
it's been the time typicallywhat we'll do is, let's say it
takes eight to 10 weeks.
So at the 11 week mark, if wehaven't heard anything, and
(22:28):
because sometimes they'll say ifyou don't hear back in 10 weeks
, it's not a done deal, you know, but let's say they don't say
that Then you follow up once yougive it about a week hey, just
checking in, I know it's beenalmost three months and I know
it's been past our time.
I just wanted, before I moveforward with submitting
elsewhere, if you don't hearanything in a week, then you go
ahead and respectfully withdrawit and say Amy's my fake name,
(22:48):
so so just bear with me.
But I'll say hey, amy, and Ihope you're well just following
up one more time on this.
We haven't heard back, we'regoing to assume this has passed.
We'd like to respectfullywithdraw the wedding and look
forward to trying again down theroad.
And I say that from theexperience of submitting not
hearing back.
Months pass, we send itelsewhere and then the first
publication goes surprise,you've been featured.
(23:09):
It's like what is happening, soyou always want to close the
loop, and I would always ratherget a no, just because I know
that the editor hopefully lookedat it.
It's tough sometimes when youare sending something out and
you just don't know if it'sgoing to be looked at or not.
You know, hopefully they allare, though I know I know how
hard the editors work.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Something I found too was I would.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I would go and submit and then months later I'd just
look up the couple by name andI'd find that someone else had
submitted and it was publishedsomewhere that I didn't even
know about you know which waslike thank you very much, I'll
have that, and you've got to becareful with that, because it's
great when that happens, but butit wouldn't if it was published
in two places, because theeditors can get pretty upset,
(23:56):
understandably, because theyexpect most of the time,
exclusivity is first, rights ofpublication, so you want to be
mindful of that.
I'm going to give you guys afree tidbit.
Here is there is this globallyit could be used.
It's called Talkwalker Alerts.
It's T-A-L-K and then Walker,like walking W-A-L-K-E-R, and so
it's free.
And so, jack, what you could dois you plug it in and you put
(24:16):
in your name and quotation marks, like the name of your company,
and so that when you pop uponline, maybe with a happy
surprise, it will send you analert.
It's like Google alerts, butit's a little bit better and
it's also free.
So I'm going to just tell youyeah, it's really great yeah.
Yeah, it just comes in a littlebit handy.
Plus, the thing is I mean theeditors sometimes they'll give
you a publication date, butsometimes it's not what ends up
(24:38):
being.
Sometimes they surprise youwith it earlier, and so it's
nice to have that in case.
It's also great when you'redoing articles, because a lot of
times those writers have noidea when something goes live.
So that's, that's my freeadvice, extra free advice for
tonight.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Awesome.
Now, when it comes toeditorials, I guess how
different is the process ifyou're you know as opposed to
submitting a real wedding if youwant to submit an editorial.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
So editorials or or style sheets I know they go by
both of them.
The thing about those is thisyou know, in 2009, when those
really took off, everybody wasdoing them and they were
everywhere.
But these days it's you know,the editors.
They're it's far morecompetitive.
The editors almost always leantowards actual weddings, like,
if you've got a great weddingand a great style shoot, the
wedding's always going to winout.
It just is it has a morecomplete look at the day, and so
(25:29):
the style shoots are.
What I tell people is this ifyou're doing a style shoot first
, you've got to get in themindset that there has to be
other goals other than beingpublished because of the level
of competitiveness, because youreally have to think way beyond.
I mean, I know this because youdo.
You really do do someextraordinary ones.
So you understand but noteverybody's at your level of
what we've seen before.
(25:50):
And so to think really farahead and ask yourself are there
other things that can happenfor the shoot that will make
this a win?
For me it's like theserelationships and the content
and all this stuff.
So once you get kind of pastthat, you are still going to
curate the gallery in the bestof your ability and storytelling
way, knowing that you're notgoing to have the whole day what
you're going to do is, insteadof interviewing a couple of
(26:10):
course it's going to be the kindof lead of the shoot the
designer, the planner, maybe thephotographer as well and
they're going to share theinspiration where they drew it
from, any challenges, the colors, things like that and so the
story is going to look more of ahow I made this versus how we
got married, and so that's howit's going to look different.
I think the biggest thing isgoing to be the media selection.
Most print is not going toaccept a styled shoot.
(26:31):
There's exceptions to that, butwith online, you just have
fewer choices these days, so youwant to be very judicious when
you're trying to pick outlets tomake sure it's the right fit.
I would also say, too, thebiggest difference with managing
is when you're doing a wedding,you kind of let the couple in
later in the process, butobviously, when you're doing a
style shoot, these vendors allknow from the very beginning.
(26:52):
Imagine a lot of weddings getfeatured.
You don't even know you'regoing to be published and it's
like a happy surprise.
But with style shoots you havelike 15 vendors jumping on you
being like where is it?
What's going on?
So that's a harder.
I think there's a lot ofpressure with a styled shoot
that you have to put it in thefront, you got to get it out the
door, you've got to keep peopleposted.
So I think it's I'm not tellingpeople not to do it and I'm
(27:13):
saying it's a lot of work forwhat the return could
potentially be.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I don't know if you guys can hear this, but my
pomeranian is under the desk andhe's snoring, so he's not
interested.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Oh, did I bore him.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I'm sorry he's having a good old snore.
Um, any tips on how to reachand find and reach the right
person?
Like get hold of these editorsand get in the right inbox.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Absolutely so.
The biggest thing is andforgive me because this is a
very like low, key answer, butit's actually the right answer
Someone who's like a rulefollower I think this is why it
works for me so well is theywant to be reached the way they
asked you to reach out to them.
So that's something that, like,I'll give you.
Until recently, with brides,for example, which they accepted
weddings all over the globethey have a submission sheet.
They want you to send it in thesubmission form unless it's
(28:02):
high profile and there was anemail the end, unless you.
I always say listen.
If you regularly went out forcocktails or whatever these guys
and you knew them very well andthey're open to a different way
, then do it.
But we follow the rules becausethey are having to streamline,
because the submissions havegotten.
There's just so many out there,there's so many people
submitting, and so what I say isthis if you're looking at a
(28:28):
particular outlet that you haveinterest in, you are going to
follow their rules, but it doesnot hurt to go ahead and follow
them on social.
Follow the editors on socialtoo, just to get a feel for what
interests them, what directionthey're going with thing, and do
it that way.
But really, at the end of theday, the answer is always going
to be the way they asked, withrare exception Unless, unless
you've gone to a bunch ofnetworking, you've become
friends with them your godparent, one of their children, you
know like maybe then at thatlevel you can, you can, across
(28:51):
the, across the holiday table,say, hey, I've got this wedding
for you.
But for the most part it'stypically going to be emails
listed on the site.
They all have a streamlinedform, even the ones that we know
really well.
We still follow the rules.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Amazing Megan, megan.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
I told you I was going to do that.
My mom was Megan.
I told her it was absolutelyfine, but everyone calls me
Megan because of, like, theaccent back home.
And I finally said my husbandsaid to me one day he goes, you
know, you crazy.
Do you ever think that everyonecalls you that?
Maybe that's name?
So who knows jack, maybe thisis my name and I just I need to
come to have a moment withmyself and realize, yeah, sorry,
(29:32):
so jack can I?
Speaker 3 (29:34):
can I shoot one question there?
Yeah yeah, so.
So megan ben's question if you,knowing what you know now, you
walked outside, you ran into an18-year-old version of yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Gosh.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
What advice would you give that 18-year-old version
of yourself, knowing what youknow now?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
You mean about like life or publications or anything
.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
About how to be successful.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
No, okay, I'll take it because I'm going to be like
get as many cats as you want.
That's what I want to say.
Like you can, you can have more.
No about being successful.
I would say bet on yourself.
Honestly, bet on yourself.
You know more than you realize.
I, when I graduated school, Ideviated for a year while I was
getting ready to go in thewedding industry and I spent a
year in working.
We have something in the UnitedStates called AmeriCorps, which
(30:22):
is a year of service.
I worked in the inner cityschools and I had a lot of
blowback from the adults in mylife and the people in my life
thinking you'll get too farbehind, and I think there was a
lot of self-doubt that becamebecause of that, and I'm so glad
I did it.
I'm so glad I gave myself ayear to volunteer and I worked
three jobs to pay the bills andthere's no regret, but there's
no regret.
But even when I looked into OFD, I started two years earlier
(30:42):
than expected for a thousandreasons that I won't bore you
with right in the middle of arecession here in the US, right
as I was about to pay for awedding with my husband now
husband, spoiler alert and wejust paid for a wedding and I
think there was a lot ofself-doubt there that I
encourage others to believe inthemselves but I don't.
Trusting that I understand andbet on myself more, I think
(31:06):
would be a big part of it, and Ithink I would have been not to
turn you, ben, your turn comingbecoming my therapist for a
second.
I don't mean you, but it's likeit's eight o'clock here, so you
know eight at night.
So now I'm like you know he'smy therapist, but I wish I had
said no sooner to things.
(31:26):
You know, I think I learned onlyin my face to start to say no
to things, cause I mean thereare years where I was traveling
90 plus plus days Cause I saidyes to everything because we're
all in hospitality different,different parts of it and we say
yes to things because we'rehospitable and we are natural
people pleasers.
And once I brought someone tostart doing my numbers about
eight years ago I think,michelle Loretta over at BCH,
who's just a brilliant,brilliant person I learned to
(31:50):
start saying no for the rightreasons.
But even now I mean I'm still,you know, but I think that's.
I wish I'd been kinder tomyself and said just because you
say no now doesn't mean onesomeone else is going to scoop
it up and they will wait for you.
When I had my son I rememberhe's 11 now, so this is a long
time ago but I remember therewas this like I mean it was sad.
It was only like a 30 dayperiod where I thought I
(32:11):
shouldn't take as much because Iliterally just had a baby,
which I know is a mis-American,terrible mindset.
So, forgive me everyone, thisis how I was raised, but for
myself, when I would tell peopleI can't start anything for the
next six weeks, I wouldn't saywhy.
They were fine, they waited forme.
There wasn't some mass exodusand I wish I had known that
ahead of time.
I think I could have learnedthat lesson earlier, not only
(32:35):
for success, but probably formental health, if we're being
totally candid yeah, yeah, onething I've really liked about,
about knowing you, megan, aswell, is when I've spoken to you
, because I keep hearing abouthow wonderful it is to work with
you.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I don't know how many times we've had conversations
and nearly started in somecapacity, but you were always
very authentic in your responsein that, you know, like I poked
around and found you had thisprogram that was like a group.
It's a group program, isn't it?
And I went what about that?
Can I do that?
And you said you're not goingto get like you could do it, but
(33:08):
I don't want you to becauseit's not going to give you
everything that you need.
So I love that.
You're very authentic aboutthat and you know, normally I
would have gone in and just paidand done it.
You know Does bother.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
No, I appreciate that .
Listen, I learned that in myvenue years and I appreciate
that.
But, like I mean, what?
The worst case scenario, whatif someone came in to this
beautiful hotel but it just wasall the things they wanted?
It was, they were trying tomake it work.
And then what if they'reunhappy on their wedding day?
And I would hate for someone tolike buy into a course or my
membership and then be like,well, this isn't what I wanted,
(33:40):
like that to me would be worseversus them numbers on it.
So I appreciate that I alwaystell people when I talk to
prospects, I said we're eithergonna, by the end of this, solve
what your challenge is with meor we're gonna find a different
solution for you.
Maybe it's not me, but that'sokay because it'll be productive
either way.
So thank you, I take pride inthat, thank you now are you
working with people.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Is there any way that people can get involved with
you?
What about your membership.
Is that still going?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
yes, ma'am, eight years now.
So, yeah, ofdconsultingcom,about 80 of my work is still
geared towards the collective,and so, for people who want us
to handle the submissions andreformat all those things and
send it out the door, we can dothat.
But in addition, we also have acourse on submissions for those
who are like well, show me howto do all of it, but then I'll
do it, and that's fine.
We're happy to do that too.
That's going to be this spring.
(34:28):
We teach people how to bespeakers as well, and so there's
a few things that we do.
We also do some customizedtraining when the right
opportunity comes along.
It has to be very specific.
Again, that's one of those oneswhere I turn sitting down with
someone.
It really is my area ofexpertise.
So, yeah, so you can find me onInstagram and OFTconsultingcom.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Just quickly before you go.
If Ben joined the collective,what's in it for him?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah, well, given his world travels, I'll have to
find office hours where that canactually match when he's awake
and around.
So that's that's going to bechallenge number one here.
But anyone interested injoining the collective?
We do offer ongoing educationwhere it's going to be live but
also recorded.
We do all sorts of metrics.
I believe that appliedknowledge is power, so we try to
(35:13):
provide that.
We do Q&As with editors allover.
We just had Mary Clark, who'sthis lovely, lovely.
She's an icon bridal guideprint, so we have that available
.
We also do office hours, whichwe try to be very globally
minded with our hours and thetiming where people come and
pick our brain sessions.
But the biggest things that wedo is we do submissions, so we
do up to 80 year for people in a365 day calendar where we
(35:34):
literally take them off theirhands.
We do the media strategy, wecurate the gallery.
We do everything and it's allpermission based, of course, and
we keep people posted.
And then we also do something.
I don't know if anyone outthere ever did HARO help a
reporter out, quoted as anotherversion of it now, but what we
do is about 20 to 25 times amonth.
We work with writers and I dosome writing as well where and
we've partnered with you guys aswell on this but where we'll
(35:57):
work on articles into biggerpublications.
We'll reach out.
We'll work with Destination Ido the not so-and-so a lot of
North American based but butglobal audiences, and what we'll
do is they will have needs of aparticular nature for art, like
I'm doing an article onphotography trends for 2025.
And so we will collect answersfrom our members, combine them,
get them everything in and getthem over to the writers.
(36:18):
So we love doing that.
That's it's such a joy becauseit combines my love of working
with wedding pros, but I alsodeeply love the media to be able
to help them on articles aswell.
So, yeah, that's what peopleget.
Those who do particularly welland use a lot of our services to
the year get really dorkytrophies mailed to them, and so
that's always like up for grabstoo.
They get these trophies and saysuper user, so that's something
(36:41):
I try to sell to people.
No fees, it's a super user, sothat's something I try to sell
to people no, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
This is a fun surprise and delight element so
I could reach out to you, Icould read you, megan, and palm
off any submissions for eightsubmissions a year we'll take
them.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
We'll take them and we'll get them he's thinking
about it, look at him wait aminute.
Ben's like wait a minute, butwe do.
You know that.
That's the thing too.
Is is everything'spermission-based, so we make
sure that the photographer hasgiven the final yes.
So we're not sending anythingwithout making sure that we're
properly representing the workas well.
But yeah, I know people lovewhen we just take it off our
hands and we're like we shalltake the work on from now and
(37:17):
they just love that.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
So it is a joy to do that's very handy to know you'll
be getting an email at anymoment.
Oh, thanks so much, megan.
It's taken us a while to gethere and to actually connect
like this, um, but it's beenworth the wait so, thank you,
it's always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Thank you so much to you both for having me we'll get
you back sometime soon yeah,it's been a pleasure to meet you
, thank you.
Welcome back to Wedding Empires everyone.
Today, ben and I will be joinedby the wonderful Megan Elly,
who is the owner of OFDConsulting and she's an absolute
, true powerhouse in publicrelations and marketing for the
wedding industry.
Specifically, megan is a verysought-after speaker, a wedding
(00:21):
pro-educator, and she's beenfeatured in major publications
like the New York Times, forbesand the Knot.
With her unique ability toblend PR strategies and deep
industry knowledge, she's helpedcountless wedding professionals
elevate their brands andconnect with their dream clients
.
Megan, I've been dying to getyou on here.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm so excited.
We've known each other for awhile, haven't we?
We?
I was thinking about that I was.
It was such a pleasure to beasked to come.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm so glad to be here yes, and we've had a few of
your clients too, haven't we?
I was thinking who's thatmemorable, who's that guy that
we like, ben Jordan?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Jordan yes, wonderful though it's a cast of
characters, but they're all soamazing and just wonderful.
But no, I'm thrilled to be here.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I'm very glad that you did that full intro, jack,
because as usual here, I am justmaking you look good, yeah so
Ben Ben likely hasn't even readthe run sheet.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
It's okay, we can have fun with this.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
We can have real fun.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Ben's just gotten off a plane from Japan.
Ben's only just back in thecountry a very short time, so
Ben's read nothing, ben knowsnothing, and it's just normal,
really, isn't it Jack?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So why don't we just start from the beginning?
Make it really easy for you,ben Megan, how did you get into
PR.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So we'll start from the very beginning.
Believe it or not, I was inhigh school and a test told me
I'd be good at it.
That is an actual true storywhere I thought and I'm a bit of
a rule follower so I thought,well, I mean, who am I to ask
you know and judge that?
Just I should go for it.
But no, that's how I gotintroduced to it and over time,
(02:10):
when I started really studyingwhat I could go to school for,
go to college for, it really hitme that that could be the right
fit for me.
So I went to college.
I went to university for publicrelations.
I loved it.
I had notable internships atsome larger publication.
I worked at Nike, the world'sheadquarters.
I got a lot of great experience.
But I always had a bit of a pullto the wedding industry.
There's something about.
I mean we can blame thosewatching today.
They make it look fun.
I felt like it looked fun.
It could be a happy place to be.
(02:30):
So I made the decision to kindof veer off a little bit and
jump into the world of events,which I did, and so I split my
time between the two for a longtime, but always knew I would
return back to my PR roots,which is what I really did in
2000 when I started OFD.
The idea was let's start a PRagency, one of the first
globally to really service thewedding industry.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Great.
Why do you think that, as awedding professional, getting
published is such a game changer?
Why does it need to happen?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
There's a few different reasons.
I mean, what's interesting isit's not going away 15 years.
My answer does evolve over time.
We are facing this big shift inaudiences right now, right,
these couples coming inuniversally.
They're being known asGeneration Z, and so the answer
is a little bit different than afew years ago.
But here's the thing.
A few different things.
One is social proof that's thebiggest thing right now is the
(03:23):
couples these days in that 25 to35, they want to know that
everyone thinks you're greatbecause you can think you're
great.
You can showcase your beautifulportfolio.
That's wonderful.
A beautiful grid on Instagram.
All of that is important.
But there's a magic to otherpeople saying you're great, so
to be able to showcase thatyou're being quoted in the
publications and that theseeditors are saying yes to your
beautiful weddings and havingthem stand out.
(03:45):
There's something to be saidfor that.
But if I could be a bit of anerd for a second, you know from
the SEO standpoint, which isnot my area of expertise by any
means but you know there'salways those great backlinks
back, so you get featured, youget links back.
I mean, I've seen it with.
I've seen transformations withpeople's Google rankings because
of press.
And then, finally, you knowwhat we hear across the board.
Statistically, yes, couples willfind you through Google, so
(04:08):
this works well together.
But also the power of referrals.
I think we can all agree thisis a people industry and we for
business to each other.
And so imagine you have thisgorgeous wedding with a couple
and then, six months later, youcan tell them well, you're in
the latest issue of Bridal Guide.
You send them an issue likeyou're top of mind again.
Imagine you're a photographerand you submit, get things
published, and it keeps theplanner happy and the venues
(04:30):
happy, so it really weaves intoother promotional strategies as
well.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I love that.
Yeah, so what would be thefirst thing that a wedding pro
should do if they're thinking Iwant to get published?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah Well, I'm going to give you kind of, I'm going
to give you a boring answer, butit's a very truthful answer,
right?
Because everyone, when theythink of PR, maybe they'll be
inspired today and they're likethat's it, I'm going to go out
and be in everything.
And you really got to stop andask yourself, because I doubt
anybody has unlimited time andmoney.
I mean, if they do haveunlimited time and money, I'm
always like come find me andwe'll, we'll figure out what to
(05:02):
do with that, you know, but withit, but because of that, we
really have to ask ourselveswhat has to happen for this to
be a success.
Why do I want to do publicity?
Why do I want to, if I'm goingto be representing myself, which
I encourage people to considerdoing?
You know, to start is the firstthing you do is why do I want
to do this?
Am I trying to like, do I needto boost my Google rankings?
Do I, am I looking to increase,of course, my referral base and
(05:25):
things like that?
Do I need to build my socialproof or am I doing it for ego,
which, if that's the answer,that's the honest answer, right?
So, asking yourself what has tohappen and really leverage your
strengths Like what's mostappropriate for me.
If you're a planner,photographer, venue I would say,
designers, florists as well,then real wedding submissions
might make sense.
If you don't fall in thosecategories, maybe you're a DJ,
(05:46):
hair and makeup then you wouldconsider getting quoted as well.
So what do I have there?
And then the big thing is whatkind of resources do I have?
And I don't mean money, I'm notsaying you have to pay someone
but what sort of resources fromthe idea of timing and bandwidth
and team to be able to help youwith that as well?
So it's some pretty bigquestions you should.
(06:10):
Anytime you're jumping into anysort of promotion, new
strategies, you have to askyourself those things for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
That's what I would do first, ben, do you submit
yours to publications?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Not normally.
No, it's something that I havebeen going to do for so long.
There's quite a few blogs andquite a few sort of websites out
there that that I should dothat too, but no, it's I'm.
I kind of find that I I get abit sort of lazy and then having
to go through and fill out allthe submission criteria and it's
just for me it's kind of likeit's all too hard so but I, with
(06:40):
that said, it's, some casesit's a lot, some cases it's not,
but it's.
I do recognize the fact thatit's something, as a
photographer and potentially asa videographer and stuff as well
, that we need to be doing toget published.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, it's very difficult when all the
publications have differentprocesses, isn't it?
You know?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
It used to be.
There was this brief, magicaltime where Two Bright Lights had
a huge part of like so manydifferent blogs and publications
and they still do havedefinitely a bunch of them.
But then the knot took over andit looks a little bit different
now, but it used to be like somany that you could just do it
once and get it out the door andthat was beautiful.
That's probably been why we'restill in business, because
everyone's like, if I have toformat that vendor list one more
(07:20):
time, I'm like I get it, like Iget it when it comes to that
and I wouldn't say I wouldactually push back and say I
wouldn't see.
This laziness is just whenpeople they either come to me or
they're just looking to trainon their own.
It's just the middle of thebusy season when you've done all
the weddings and the editingand like who who wants to have
to revisit it with a differenteye.
So I know it's a lot to ask ofpeople as well, but I do feel
(07:41):
strongly the importance ofsocial proof.
But I totally get.
It's like me with my accounting.
It's like I know I have to doit but I end up outsourcing it
because I just don't.
At the end of the day, I don'twant to add it to my plate.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Megan, you're making me feel a lot better for not
doing it, but you shouldn't, soI know it's something that we
all need to do.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
No, no, no, no, absolutely.
But I do recognize with thewedding pros too.
I mean, I was in weddings foryears and it's like the idea of
adding anything, anything elseas well.
The good news is there'ssmaller transformations people
can make to like build layers tothe bigger stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So that's that's hopefully what I'm encouraging
people today yeah even if it'sas simple as I know with darling
, don't panic.
We just had a spreadsheet whereit had the direct link to the
submission page and whatnot.
So yeah, I mean even just thatsimple starting point to sort of
go okay.
I suppose that leads me to mynext question, though how do you
choose which publications areworthwhile doing this for?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So it goes a couple of different ways.
It starts internally with thosebigger questions and it kind of
lands on well, if I'm here,point A in my business, I'm
trying to get to point B,wherever that is.
What are the media outlets thatare going to support that?
I want to be better known onthe destination side.
So maybe it's destination I do,I want to attract the North
American markets and maybe it'sstyle, made pretty or, you know,
(08:58):
I want to do more broad andwhat does that look like?
So you kind of start there,right, and then you have to do
and you have to pair it withthose, of course, answers like
SEO.
You're going to look at itdifferently than you are the
clout, right.
Those are very different things.
But really, what guides thefinal selection, at least when
we're working with our clientsas well?
It's going to be the photographystyle and it's going to be the
(09:18):
aesthetics of the wedding,because we could all want to be
in Martha Stewart Weddings,which, by the way, has not
published a wedding since lastAugust 19th, by the way.
So at the time of this, it wasbeen a very long time since
they've published anything, butwe could want to be a Martha
Stewart wedding in better times.
But if the aesthetics of thewedding which are the final
choice of the couple, even if wedo have impact influence over
it, if it doesn't match up, thenthat's not what's going to
(09:40):
guide you.
You know, I just had thisreally thoughtful conversation
with these really, really,really talented planners we work
with and they definitely havemore of a timeless aesthetic and
it's it's perfect in theirregion.
People love using them, but itdoesn't catch the eye of the
editors as much.
So we can sit here till we'reblue in the face and say these
are the publications I want, butthe aesthetic of the wedding
and the photography style doesguide the final decision there.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
So, megan, can you have you got any advice, then,
for someone that doesn'tpotentially have a photography
style that is conducive to allof these editors and all of
these publications going oh?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Sure, I would say it's not usually a yes or no, I
would say it's more of a.
Is it limiting?
You know what I mean.
If someone chooses a prettydark and moody that look that
was popular for and some peoplestill do, and is quite well
loved amongst the couples whowant it, that's just going to
limit them to places likeJunebug weddings or Storyboard
(10:37):
weddings and things like that.
So I think it's more of alimitation than like yes or no
altogether.
But to answer your question moreat length is if you have
someone whose photography styleis unapologetically what it is
and they love it and it's theirart and the couples love it,
then that route of PR is notgoing to be the way to go.
Instead, I would absolutelyadvise them.
Of course, they're going tolean into other marketing, such
(10:58):
as Instagram and all this, but Iwould advise them if PR is
something they really want andthey want the clout of the as
seen in, then they need to gothe route of being quoted, to
look to the places where thearticles are.
Maybe bridescom is not theright fit for them from an
aesthetic standpoint.
Well, right now, unfortunately,their weddings editor was laid
off literally a couple of daysago.
(11:20):
So that looks.
I know there's a lot going onin the last week, in particular
in the new year, but then tolook to the articles to see
where you can be quoted as well,so that's a great question.
But I don't want anyone tothink, oh, my photography style
doesn't work at all.
It's like, well, it just willbe limited to certain
publications Sure, and visualsare key.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
So I guess I've been faced with this problem where
I've got, you know, 300 photosfrom the wedding.
How do I know which ones tochoose and upload?
Is there a strategy?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
There is so much of a strategy to the point where I
thought I had the right strategy.
And then I brought in more of ateam and Megan Acosta, who is a
wonderful part of our team, shekind of re-imagined it, and
then I asked her to train me inthis, even though I'd been doing
it for a decade.
And so, yes, so when it comesto the images, first of all, you
could have 300.
You could also have 3000.
If you've got this amazing, youknow, south Asian wedding, it
(12:10):
just depends on what, what it is.
And so first you go and youfinalize, looking at the photos,
and say, well, whatpublications are going to make
the most sense for me, kind ofin what order?
One at a time, thailand, or theright fit.
And you've got to look to theirrules first, because the
question would be well, how manydo I pull?
And it's like, well, how manydo they want?
Because if somebody says ahundred, they mean a hundred,
they don't mean 105.
They don't mean 96.
(12:30):
They mean a hundred.
And so you go through and justsee, okay, thematically, what do
I need to pull From there,bearing in mind that for the
majority of the time, you'regoing to have some of the couple
.
But people newer in thisprocess always think you need to
pull more of the couple andthat's not necessarily the case.
And so what you're going to dois start really, you're going to
(12:52):
cull it down and then curate itbased on, really the story of
the couple Chronologically istypically how we do it.
We normally start with, likeflat lays so if someone has
really extraordinary flat laysand then of course the getting
ready and you have one for onecouple and then the other
partner and you kind ofalternate from there and then
you go chronologically throughthe day, being especially heavy
on, you know, anything from thereception.
(13:14):
You can capture all the up closeand different angles of the
cake and and so and so forth,and then you bring it down to
the end.
I will say that we use AdobeBridge, which is free at least
here in the States.
It's free and it allows you toput it in a particular order so
you can really tell a story ofthe day and highlight the
details you want.
But typically we're tellingpeople you know you are not
(13:36):
going to have a ton ofhorizontal, you're going to pull
more vertical, you're going tohave a ton of black and white,
even if you, I love black andwhite, but they just don't want
a ton of those and you're reallygoing to want to narrow it down
to the most impactful photos ofthe day that tell the story of
the couple.
It really, you know, it showsoff the details and it shows off
different angles of the thingsthat you really want to
highlight.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I like that.
I feel like almost that shouldbe applied to portfolio pages on
like planners websites.
Do you think as well?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
There's some similarity there too, and I
would say that you know wealways want to put out there
what we want to attract, and soif someone really and I want to
encourage them this you knowwe've known over the years some
very talented, you know,photographers who are very
focused on telling the story ofthe couple and the details are
secondary, and I respect that,and so I want to make sure that
you know their portfolio andtheir site should reflect their
philosophy in that style,whereas when you're submitting
(14:27):
it to blogs and publications, wehave to lean into what the
editors are looking for, whichis more the detail.
So I think that would be theonly main difference, but I do
agree with you, there's somesimilarities there yeah,
interesting that's.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
That's one of the things that I noticed as well
with a lot of publications.
As a photographer, I'm verymuch there for the couple and
their story and I found thatwith a lot of publications and a
lot of my friends have sort ofsaid the same thing that the
publications wanted us to bealmost product photographers so
that they could have all thedetails and that sort of stuff,
and it's wet for photographersthat don't normally do a lot of
(15:02):
that.
We now maybe need to startshooting specifically for blogs
and and publications as well.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Now no, I agree, it's something that and people are
surprised about this, about me,because my start was in weddings
you're going to find a verywell, I'm very pro vendor.
That pardon us, but I'm alsopro couple.
So I always tell people listen,at the end of the day you shoot
for the couple and you make thedecisions on the rest of it.
You're not taking away fromwhat the couple wants.
I will contend that as more andmore couples consume the media
and these real wedding features,they are in some markets the
(15:31):
expectations getting higher thatthose details are being
captured, which I do think iskind of it's permeating the
scene a little bit more.
You know, we have some peoplewhere they have some of the most
and again to your point, theproduct feeling, these just
really dazzling flat lays like alevel that's just way up here.
But when couples see thatthat's their expectation,
they're going to see it.
So I think it's going to beinteresting to see how the
(15:52):
consumption of this media leadsto the expectations of the
couples.
But yeah, it's not.
You know the submissions aren'tfor everybody.
You know, sometimes I workedwith some great people who you
know the relationship didn'twork out.
I mean it ended in a couple.
But it didn't work out becausethey would do these gorgeous
like very high-end, but likeelopements where there's just
not enough details and theeditors aren't going to want
(16:13):
those, unfortunately.
But you do shoot based on thecouple's preference, number one
and I would always agree withthat.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And when it comes to a great pitch, how much of it is
about the story, the story ofthe couple and, I guess, the
story of the day.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I would say, if I was going to put a percentage on it
, which I will it'll probably beabout 15% most of the time.
Now there's going to be rareexception when you have a high
profile couple that's well knownin their own circles, well
known enough to be able topeople.
Yeah, that that's going toaccelerate, right, that's going
to look a little bit higher, buttypically, as a whole, what we
find is that what it's going tocome down to are the details of
(16:52):
the day and how it was shot soyou could have a couple.
And I've had people come to ussay, oh my gosh, this is amazing
.
It's siblings that got married,which is a cool story, but it's
not enough.
Well, depending on we've seen afew of those and it's not
enough with the double weddingif it can't bring it to the
finish line with theextraordinary details.
What we have to remember,ultimately, is that the media
has to make money In order forthem to say they have to be a
(17:14):
sustainable business.
We all have to be a sustainablebusiness and it's going to be
likes and engagements and visitsto their site and the right
story that pulls at theheartstrings.
On occasion can make sense, butreally they want the
extraordinary details, and Idon't mean lux all the time, I
just mean different.
I mean oh wow, I haven't seenthat before.
So I would say most of the timethe story, the couple, is about
(17:35):
15%.
Really, I think it goes higherif you start thinking about
because right now it's all aboutthe thoughtful crafting of the
details, the personalization,when the story ties in that way,
that's when it has more of aweight to it.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah, All right do's and don'ts.
For those of us who arelistening, who are going to give
it a crack.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
How much time do we have on that?
No, let's start with that.
Okay, the don'ts.
Okay, we'll start with thedon'ts.
No, we'll start with a coupleof positives.
Let's do the do's First andforemost.
Do your, do your research, doyour research.
The biggest mistake I guesswe're going into a don't already
by mistake, but the biggestmistake people make is they take
a wedding and they throw it outto a bunch of places
arbitrarily to see what's goingto be a right fit.
(18:19):
What you do want to do is youwant to research, you want to be
clear on the publication whattheir guidelines are, because a
lot of them are popping up andnow only allowing for
advertisers, right.
So you want to be mindful of,like knowing that ahead of time.
You want to pay attention totheir rules, understand all that
going in, but you do want topay attention.
Also, I always say, if you'vegot like five places, you want
to be featured, like a littlebit of a longer term goal,
(18:41):
follow them and get to knowtheir content, understand, like,
pay attention and take it allin.
But what you don't want to do,like I said, is just to start
throwing things out arbitrarily,because that's where you want
to see yourself being, becausethe biggest mistake you can make
is keep sending the wrongweddings to an editor over and
over again because they will.
I can't speak on their behalf,but there's a good, strong
assumption they're going todisregard you over time.
It's like this person doesn'teven take the time to understand
(19:03):
Cause it was like, well,there's no harm in trying, and
I'm like.
I disagree with that.
I think you can get one pass,but I think that after a while
you can't keep doing that.
Do make sure that you have allthe permissions in place.
If you are not the photographerbecause we all know the
photographer primarily owns thecopyright and that's globally, I
mean, I think in most placesthat's the case you have to make
sure if you're not thephotographer, you have their
(19:24):
express permission, but you alsohave the couple's permission.
Now, here in the States, what Iwould tell people is you get
with your lawyer and make sureyour contract says that.
Of course, that varies countryto country, but you want to make
sure the couple's on board andeven if they sign something we
all know we sign things and thenforget what we sign so running
it by again to make sure thatyou've got their permission and
that they're willing to workwith you.
Because you do to your point,jack, about the telling their
(19:48):
story.
You're going to have to pullthem in at some point and
interview them and it or even ifthe editor interviews them as
well, like you need to make sureyou go ahead and do that.
So do make sure you do that.
Do make sure you're as accurateas humanly possible.
We don't want to guess onvendors at all, because the last
thing you want to do is get itto the finish line.
It is featured, and then youfind out there's a bunch of
errors with the vendor list andthen people are unhappy and then
you throw off the editor, whohas a job to do and they don't
(20:10):
have time to keep going back andfixing mistakes as well.
So accuracy is going to be keywhen it comes to that.
And then, at the end of the day, we do want to follow the rules
of communication.
We don't want to hound people.
We don't want to.
You know you submit to an editorand they said it'll take eight
to 10 weeks and then, at theseven week mark, we're asking
about the wedding, like we justwant to ask that each of them I
(20:31):
mean to the point we were makingbefore.
There are a lot of differentrules, but we have to follow the
rules accordingly to get it outthe door.
So those are some of thebiggest things.
Let me do one more.
Let me one for the road.
Also, make sure, do make surethat you're the only one
submitting of your group,because how many times have I I
mean, oh, my goodness, over theyears, where you get all the
permissions?
I'm going to tease myphotographers for just a second.
(20:52):
I mean, I represent a lot ofplanners and we'll talk to the
photographer and we have theirpermission and they know what
the plan is and they say, okay,great, yep, you've got my
permission.
I mean, I did just submit thisone to the not, but you've got
my permission to send it out.
And it's like that's not how itworks, like I wish I had known
this, you know, weeks ago whenwe were talking about this.
So, making sure that thecouple's not submitting if
(21:12):
you're the photographer, thatthe planner didn't jump the gun
by mistake on that as well.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So, so, those are just a few.
I mean, we could spend hoursdoing this, but I'll leave it at
that.
And what if they?
You don't hear back or, evenworse, they reject?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
you.
You know what I almost think.
Not hearing back is worse.
Is that terrible of me?
Like I would rather have aclean yes or no at the end of
the day, because I know thatthey've taken time to review it.
So if someone says no, let mestart with that one, is it?
First of all, I, hopefullysomeone has a media plan, so
it's not just it has to go here,and if I don't get it, that's
(21:47):
the end, because because youknow, press is as much as
getting nos as it is gettingyeses, and so you want to make
sure that you go ahead and dothat.
And so if, if it's a no, youthank them accordingly and you,
you know, better luck next time,kind of thing, and then you
move on to the next outlet.
The end you do let, if there'sanyone you need to let know,
like maybe you were workingalongside the planner and you
(22:07):
want to update them or whateverlet them know, and then you move
on.
Now, if you don't hear anything, this is where it gets more
complicated.
I feel very strongly aboutclosing the loop on this.
So if you submit it and then youdon't hear back from them, and
it's been the time typicallywhat we'll do is, let's say it
takes eight to 10 weeks.
So at the 11 week mark, if wehaven't heard anything, and
(22:28):
because sometimes they'll say ifyou don't hear back in 10 weeks
, it's not a done deal, you know, but let's say they don't say
that Then you follow up once yougive it about a week hey, just
checking in, I know it's beenalmost three months and I know
it's been past our time.
I just wanted, before I moveforward with submitting
elsewhere, if you don't hearanything in a week, then you go
ahead and respectfully withdrawit and say Amy's my fake name,
(22:48):
so so just bear with me.
But I'll say hey, amy, and Ihope you're well just following
up one more time on this.
We haven't heard back, we'regoing to assume this has passed.
We'd like to respectfullywithdraw the wedding and look
forward to trying again down theroad.
And I say that from theexperience of submitting not
hearing back.
Months pass, we send itelsewhere and then the first
publication goes surprise,you've been featured.
(23:09):
It's like what is happening, soyou always want to close the
loop, and I would always ratherget a no, just because I know
that the editor hopefully lookedat it.
It's tough sometimes when youare sending something out and
you just don't know if it'sgoing to be looked at or not.
You know, hopefully they allare, though I know I know how
hard the editors work.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Something I found too was I would.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I would go and submit and then months later I'd just
look up the couple by name andI'd find that someone else had
submitted and it was publishedsomewhere that I didn't even
know about you know which waslike thank you very much, I'll
have that, and you've got to becareful with that, because it's
great when that happens, but butit wouldn't if it was published
in two places, because theeditors can get pretty upset,
(23:56):
understandably, because theyexpect most of the time,
exclusivity is first, rights ofpublication, so you want to be
mindful of that.
I'm going to give you guys afree tidbit.
Here is there is this globallyit could be used.
It's called Talkwalker Alerts.
It's T-A-L-K and then Walker,like walking W-A-L-K-E-R, and so
it's free.
And so, jack, what you could dois you plug it in and you put
(24:16):
in your name and quotation marks, like the name of your company,
and so that when you pop uponline, maybe with a happy
surprise, it will send you analert.
It's like Google alerts, butit's a little bit better and
it's also free.
So I'm going to just tell youyeah, it's really great yeah.
Yeah, it just comes in a littlebit handy.
Plus, the thing is I mean theeditors sometimes they'll give
you a publication date, butsometimes it's not what ends up
(24:38):
being.
Sometimes they surprise youwith it earlier, and so it's
nice to have that in case.
It's also great when you'redoing articles, because a lot of
times those writers have noidea when something goes live.
So that's, that's my freeadvice, extra free advice for
tonight.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Awesome.
Now, when it comes toeditorials, I guess how
different is the process ifyou're you know as opposed to
submitting a real wedding if youwant to submit an editorial.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
So editorials or or style sheets I know they go by
both of them.
The thing about those is thisyou know, in 2009, when those
really took off, everybody wasdoing them and they were
everywhere.
But these days it's you know,the editors.
They're it's far morecompetitive.
The editors almost always leantowards actual weddings, like,
if you've got a great weddingand a great style shoot, the
wedding's always going to winout.
It just is it has a morecomplete look at the day, and so
(25:29):
the style shoots are.
What I tell people is this ifyou're doing a style shoot first
, you've got to get in themindset that there has to be
other goals other than beingpublished because of the level
of competitiveness, because youreally have to think way beyond.
I mean, I know this because youdo.
You really do do someextraordinary ones.
So you understand but noteverybody's at your level of
what we've seen before.
(25:50):
And so to think really farahead and ask yourself are there
other things that can happenfor the shoot that will make
this a win?
For me it's like theserelationships and the content
and all this stuff.
So once you get kind of pastthat, you are still going to
curate the gallery in the bestof your ability and storytelling
way, knowing that you're notgoing to have the whole day what
you're going to do is, insteadof interviewing a couple of
(26:10):
course it's going to be the kindof lead of the shoot the
designer, the planner, maybe thephotographer as well and
they're going to share theinspiration where they drew it
from, any challenges, the colors, things like that and so the
story is going to look more of ahow I made this versus how we
got married, and so that's howit's going to look different.
I think the biggest thing isgoing to be the media selection.
Most print is not going toaccept a styled shoot.
(26:31):
There's exceptions to that, butwith online, you just have
fewer choices these days, so youwant to be very judicious when
you're trying to pick outlets tomake sure it's the right fit.
I would also say, too, thebiggest difference with managing
is when you're doing a wedding,you kind of let the couple in
later in the process, butobviously, when you're doing a
style shoot, these vendors allknow from the very beginning.
(26:52):
Imagine a lot of weddings getfeatured.
You don't even know you'regoing to be published and it's
like a happy surprise.
But with style shoots you havelike 15 vendors jumping on you
being like where is it?
What's going on?
So that's a harder.
I think there's a lot ofpressure with a styled shoot
that you have to put it in thefront, you got to get it out the
door, you've got to keep peopleposted.
So I think it's I'm not tellingpeople not to do it and I'm
(27:13):
saying it's a lot of work forwhat the return could
potentially be.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I don't know if you guys can hear this, but my
pomeranian is under the desk andhe's snoring, so he's not
interested.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Oh, did I bore him.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I'm sorry he's having a good old snore.
Um, any tips on how to reachand find and reach the right
person?
Like get hold of these editorsand get in the right inbox.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Absolutely so.
The biggest thing is andforgive me because this is a
very like low, key answer, butit's actually the right answer
Someone who's like a rulefollower I think this is why it
works for me so well is theywant to be reached the way they
asked you to reach out to them.
So that's something that, like,I'll give you.
Until recently, with brides,for example, which they accepted
weddings all over the globethey have a submission sheet.
They want you to send it in thesubmission form unless it's
(28:02):
high profile and there was anemail the end, unless you.
I always say listen.
If you regularly went out forcocktails or whatever these guys
and you knew them very well andthey're open to a different way
, then do it.
But we follow the rules becausethey are having to streamline,
because the submissions havegotten.
There's just so many out there,there's so many people
submitting, and so what I say isthis if you're looking at a
(28:28):
particular outlet that you haveinterest in, you are going to
follow their rules, but it doesnot hurt to go ahead and follow
them on social.
Follow the editors on socialtoo, just to get a feel for what
interests them, what directionthey're going with thing, and do
it that way.
But really, at the end of theday, the answer is always going
to be the way they asked, withrare exception Unless, unless
you've gone to a bunch ofnetworking, you've become
friends with them your godparent, one of their children, you
know like maybe then at thatlevel you can, you can, across
(28:51):
the, across the holiday table,say, hey, I've got this wedding
for you.
But for the most part it'stypically going to be emails
listed on the site.
They all have a streamlinedform, even the ones that we know
really well.
We still follow the rules.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Amazing Megan, megan.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
I told you I was going to do that.
My mom was Megan.
I told her it was absolutelyfine, but everyone calls me
Megan because of, like, theaccent back home.
And I finally said my husbandsaid to me one day he goes, you
know, you crazy.
Do you ever think that everyonecalls you that?
Maybe that's name?
So who knows jack, maybe thisis my name and I just I need to
come to have a moment withmyself and realize, yeah, sorry,
(29:32):
so jack can I?
Speaker 3 (29:34):
can I shoot one question there?
Yeah yeah, so.
So megan ben's question if you,knowing what you know now, you
walked outside, you ran into an18-year-old version of yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Gosh.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
What advice would you give that 18-year-old version
of yourself, knowing what youknow now?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
You mean about like life or publications or anything
.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
About how to be successful.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
No, okay, I'll take it because I'm going to be like
get as many cats as you want.
That's what I want to say.
Like you can, you can have more.
No about being successful.
I would say bet on yourself.
Honestly, bet on yourself.
You know more than you realize.
I, when I graduated school, Ideviated for a year while I was
getting ready to go in thewedding industry and I spent a
year in working.
We have something in the UnitedStates called AmeriCorps, which
(30:22):
is a year of service.
I worked in the inner cityschools and I had a lot of
blowback from the adults in mylife and the people in my life
thinking you'll get too farbehind, and I think there was a
lot of self-doubt that becamebecause of that, and I'm so glad
I did it.
I'm so glad I gave myself ayear to volunteer and I worked
three jobs to pay the bills andthere's no regret, but there's
no regret.
But even when I looked into OFD, I started two years earlier
(30:42):
than expected for a thousandreasons that I won't bore you
with right in the middle of arecession here in the US, right
as I was about to pay for awedding with my husband now
husband, spoiler alert and wejust paid for a wedding and I
think there was a lot ofself-doubt there that I
encourage others to believe inthemselves but I don't.
Trusting that I understand andbet on myself more, I think
(31:06):
would be a big part of it, and Ithink I would have been not to
turn you, ben, your turn comingbecoming my therapist for a
second.
I don't mean you, but it's likeit's eight o'clock here, so you
know eight at night.
So now I'm like you know he'smy therapist, but I wish I had
said no sooner to things.
(31:26):
You know, I think I learned onlyin my face to start to say no
to things, cause I mean thereare years where I was traveling
90 plus plus days Cause I saidyes to everything because we're
all in hospitality different,different parts of it and we say
yes to things because we'rehospitable and we are natural
people pleasers.
And once I brought someone tostart doing my numbers about
eight years ago I think,michelle Loretta over at BCH,
who's just a brilliant,brilliant person I learned to
(31:50):
start saying no for the rightreasons.
But even now I mean I'm still,you know, but I think that's.
I wish I'd been kinder tomyself and said just because you
say no now doesn't mean onesomeone else is going to scoop
it up and they will wait for you.
When I had my son I rememberhe's 11 now, so this is a long
time ago but I remember therewas this like I mean it was sad.
It was only like a 30 dayperiod where I thought I
(32:11):
shouldn't take as much because Iliterally just had a baby,
which I know is a mis-American,terrible mindset.
So, forgive me everyone, thisis how I was raised, but for
myself, when I would tell peopleI can't start anything for the
next six weeks, I wouldn't saywhy.
They were fine, they waited forme.
There wasn't some mass exodusand I wish I had known that
ahead of time.
I think I could have learnedthat lesson earlier, not only
(32:35):
for success, but probably formental health, if we're being
totally candid yeah, yeah, onething I've really liked about,
about knowing you, megan, aswell, is when I've spoken to you
, because I keep hearing abouthow wonderful it is to work with
you.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I don't know how many times we've had conversations
and nearly started in somecapacity, but you were always
very authentic in your responsein that, you know, like I poked
around and found you had thisprogram that was like a group.
It's a group program, isn't it?
And I went what about that?
Can I do that?
And you said you're not goingto get like you could do it, but
(33:08):
I don't want you to becauseit's not going to give you
everything that you need.
So I love that.
You're very authentic aboutthat and you know, normally I
would have gone in and just paidand done it.
You know Does bother.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
No, I appreciate that .
Listen, I learned that in myvenue years and I appreciate
that.
But, like I mean, what?
The worst case scenario, whatif someone came in to this
beautiful hotel but it just wasall the things they wanted?
It was, they were trying tomake it work.
And then what if they'reunhappy on their wedding day?
And I would hate for someone tolike buy into a course or my
membership and then be like,well, this isn't what I wanted,
(33:40):
like that to me would be worseversus them numbers on it.
So I appreciate that I alwaystell people when I talk to
prospects, I said we're eithergonna, by the end of this, solve
what your challenge is with meor we're gonna find a different
solution for you.
Maybe it's not me, but that'sokay because it'll be productive
either way.
So thank you, I take pride inthat, thank you now are you
working with people.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Is there any way that people can get involved with
you?
What about your membership.
Is that still going?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
yes, ma'am, eight years now.
So, yeah, ofdconsultingcom,about 80 of my work is still
geared towards the collective,and so, for people who want us
to handle the submissions andreformat all those things and
send it out the door, we can dothat.
But in addition, we also have acourse on submissions for those
who are like well, show me howto do all of it, but then I'll
do it, and that's fine.
We're happy to do that too.
That's going to be this spring.
(34:28):
We teach people how to bespeakers as well, and so there's
a few things that we do.
We also do some customizedtraining when the right
opportunity comes along.
It has to be very specific.
Again, that's one of those oneswhere I turn sitting down with
someone.
It really is my area ofexpertise.
So, yeah, so you can find me onInstagram and OFTconsultingcom.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Just quickly before you go.
If Ben joined the collective,what's in it for him?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah, well, given his world travels, I'll have to
find office hours where that canactually match when he's awake
and around.
So that's that's going to bechallenge number one here.
But anyone interested injoining the collective?
We do offer ongoing educationwhere it's going to be live but
also recorded.
We do all sorts of metrics.
I believe that appliedknowledge is power, so we try to
(35:13):
provide that.
We do Q&As with editors allover.
We just had Mary Clark, who'sthis lovely, lovely.
She's an icon bridal guideprint, so we have that available
.
We also do office hours, whichwe try to be very globally
minded with our hours and thetiming where people come and
pick our brain sessions.
But the biggest things that wedo is we do submissions, so we
do up to 80 year for people in a365 day calendar where we
(35:34):
literally take them off theirhands.
We do the media strategy, wecurate the gallery.
We do everything and it's allpermission based, of course, and
we keep people posted.
And then we also do something.
I don't know if anyone outthere ever did HARO help a
reporter out, quoted as anotherversion of it now, but what we
do is about 20 to 25 times amonth.
We work with writers and I dosome writing as well where and
we've partnered with you guys aswell on this but where we'll
(35:57):
work on articles into biggerpublications.
We'll reach out.
We'll work with Destination Ido the not so-and-so a lot of
North American based but butglobal audiences, and what we'll
do is they will have needs of aparticular nature for art, like
I'm doing an article onphotography trends for 2025.
And so we will collect answersfrom our members, combine them,
get them everything in and getthem over to the writers.
(36:18):
So we love doing that.
That's it's such a joy becauseit combines my love of working
with wedding pros, but I alsodeeply love the media to be able
to help them on articles aswell.
So, yeah, that's what peopleget.
Those who do particularly welland use a lot of our services to
the year get really dorkytrophies mailed to them, and so
that's always like up for grabstoo.
They get these trophies and saysuper user, so that's something
(36:41):
I try to sell to people.
No fees, it's a super user, sothat's something I try to sell
to people no, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
This is a fun surprise and delight element so
I could reach out to you, Icould read you, megan, and palm
off any submissions for eightsubmissions a year we'll take
them.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
We'll take them and we'll get them he's thinking
about it, look at him wait aminute.
Ben's like wait a minute, butwe do.
You know that.
That's the thing too.
Is is everything'spermission-based, so we make
sure that the photographer hasgiven the final yes.
So we're not sending anythingwithout making sure that we're
properly representing the workas well.
But yeah, I know people lovewhen we just take it off our
hands and we're like we shalltake the work on from now and
(37:17):
they just love that.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
So it is a joy to do that's very handy to know you'll
be getting an email at anymoment.
Oh, thanks so much, megan.
It's taken us a while to gethere and to actually connect
like this, um, but it's beenworth the wait so, thank you,
it's always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Thank you so much to you both for having me we'll get
you back sometime soon yeah,it's been a pleasure to meet you
, thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com