Maria's Bio:
Maria Scott is a Wedding and Event Planner, Founder/CEO of Luxe Bounce, a modern event rental company, and a mentor/business coach for event professionals. Maria brings 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry.
Beginning her career with Marriott and Hilton properties, later stepping into corporate conference planning and high end weddings and events. What started as a passion for providing guests/clients with unmatched experiences, has blossomed into her love of working with and helping other event professionals grow and succeed in their own businesses.
She has also brought her passion for customer experience and dedication to excellence into her successful modern rental business by marrying the simplicity of modern bounce houses with superior customer service.
Maria’s true passion lies in her roles of wife, mom, and mentor. Much of what drives her is her desire to show others, especially her two sons, what is possible when you work hard and invest in your dreams.
Follow 19 Media Group:
Twitter: @19MGroup
Instagram: 19mediagroup
https://www.19MediaGroup.com
Discover our favorite podcast gear and support the show—shop our studio must-haves on our Amazon Affiliate page! https://www.amazon.com/shop/19mediagroup
Want to join the conversation or invite us to your platform? Connect with us and share your vision (budget-friendly collaborations welcome)! https://bit.ly/19Guest
Maria Scott is a Wedding and Event Planner, Founder/CEO of Luxe Bounce, a modern event rental company, and a mentor/business coach for event professionals. Maria brings 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry.
Beginning her career with Marriott and Hilton properties, later stepping into corporate conference planning and high end weddings and events. What started as a passion for providing guests/clients with unmatched experiences, has blossomed into her love of working with and helping other event professionals grow and succeed in their own businesses.
She has also brought her passion for customer experience and dedication to excellence into her successful modern rental business by marrying the simplicity of modern bounce houses with superior customer service.
Maria’s true passion lies in her roles of wife, mom, and mentor. Much of what drives her is her desire to show others, especially her two sons, what is possible when you work hard and invest in your dreams.
Follow 19 Media Group:
Twitter: @19MGroup
Instagram: 19mediagroup
https://www.19MediaGroup.com
Discover our favorite podcast gear and support the show—shop our studio must-haves on our Amazon Affiliate page! https://www.amazon.com/shop/19mediagroup
Want to join the conversation or invite us to your platform? Connect with us and share your vision (budget-friendly collaborations welcome)! https://bit.ly/19Guest
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:23):
Welcome back everyone, Welcome back,my insiders to another episode of Inside the
Wedding Planner's Mind. H I amI Rien Tindale, your host, and
today I am joined by an extraspecial guest. Not only is she a
colleague and has been a colleague foryears, she's a dear friend and we
(00:44):
had her grace our stage back atJanuary of twenty twenty four for becoming retreat.
Welcome Maria Scott. Thank you.Hi, good morning, good morning,
afternoon, afternoon. It's morning whenwe're recording, is everyone? Yes?
(01:06):
So I always like to ask myguests about their origin story. So
how did wedding and events find you? So give us your resume, your
CV, give it to us.All how this crazy world that we have
agreed to be a part of.Yeah, I always say weddings found me,
(01:33):
or weddings chose me because it isnot what I went to school for.
It's not what I even thought aboutor planned about doing. I was,
let's see, after college, Iwas all the way in playing rugby.
(01:56):
I had moved to so I livedin Minneapolis playing there for a semi
professional team, and then I movedto England to play and then I moved
to New Zealand to play and getbetter, and then San Diego and Boston
as well. My goal was tomake the US team and just be as
(02:21):
good of a rugby player as Icould. And before then I had to
decide because I was born to collegefor music, not that I ever used
it, but I had to chooseearly on music or rugby, and I
was like, obviously rugby because Icouldn't travel. But as I kind of
climbed that ladder to the US team, which I made it, my body
(02:49):
kind of started shutting down and Iended up having eight total knee surgeries on
my leftie, one right hip,one right thumb reconstruction. And after that,
I was like, well, Ishould probably retire. But then I
was like, well what do ILike, what do I do? I
(03:10):
kind of put all of my eggsin the rugby basket, and so I
was like, what should I do? And I ended up thinking because I
at that time I was working asa part time hospice caregiver for adults with
HIV and AIDS, and I waslike, I don't know if I can
(03:35):
continue doing this because that is hardand difficult. Yeah, So I was
like, well, I know thatI really enjoyed being kind of the match
secretary. I ended up booking alot of travel for the team, so
whenever we had to fly somewhere,I would book those flights, book the
hotels. Anyone coming in, Iwould help them find places to stay.
(04:01):
Even for refs coming in, Iwould make sure they were good booked the
field, make sure the field wasset up, make sure the after party
was set up. And then Iwas like, well, I'm really good
at that, So what how doI get into event planning since I didn't
go to school for it? AndI was like, well, let me
(04:24):
just take a job at a hotel. So my first hotel was Residents In
by Marriott and workfront desk. Imade pennies. I was like, this
is I was like, for thegreater good. I know, greater good,
and I you know, started becominga supervisor and then I wanted to
(04:44):
learn to night at and then Imoved to Hilton, like a Double Tree
by Hilton property, which was oneof the largest ones in Minneapolis. We
did a lot of comic cons,so I got kind of a piece of
that and booking rooms for all ofthem, and the goal was just to
stay there and my boss was greatand she was like, I'm going to
(05:06):
get you into events and do this. But I decided to come out of
retirement and play at a rugby tournamentten years ago gosh more than ten now
in Savannah when I ended up meetingmy husband, Jonathan, and that kind
of took me for a loop too, because he was living in Pennsylvania and
(05:32):
I was in Minnesota. And youknow, sure enough, I moved to
Pennsylvania six months later to be withthis guy who then said, we're moving
to Indiana because he just got transferredfor work. So we moved to Indiana
and I was like, I needto find a job, and there was
a job at a convention center andI was like, there's no way they're
(05:57):
going to hire me, Like Idon't have everything they want. And my
husband was like, you really needyou have everything you need. You were
good at what you do, youwere good at interviewing, so just go
for it. So I went forit. I got the job, and
that is that's kind of what tookme into the event world. I learned
(06:20):
early on that I had a bedin my office because I actually needed to
sleep in it. I worked eightyninety hour work weeks because we would do
a wedding on Saturday, have toflip, you know, we would have
multiple conferences conventions in the same spaceduring the week some nights. Some nights
(06:43):
I would be done at like twoam and someone would have to open the
doors at five for the next groupto come in. And that was usually
me because I was at the bottomof the totem pool. But what I
loved about it was I was like, I can I'm really good at this.
I loved the chaos, and Ithink working in the hotel industry taught
(07:04):
me a lot of patience, especiallyat you know kind of where I was
at a you know, people wouldfly in and stay for the week because
they always they worked in the areaand they would fly back, so building
those relationships, building that empathy withthem, I was like, I,
(07:26):
you know, I love this.So I ended up loving the job.
But I was like, I coulddo these weddings. I was like,
these planners, I got this.Uh. So I ended up I was
like, I'm just going to startmy own company. So I started it.
I had another planner with me andwe we did a lot of weddings
and in Indiana and it was greatand it was challenging and I didn't know
(07:53):
what I was doing. So Iended up going to my first you know,
retreat in in Dawn, which wasnot what I thought it was.
But yeah, but I feel likeI came back and I was able to
grow and learn and figure out whatI liked and what I didn't like.
(08:13):
But then my husband was like,we need to get out of here.
I was like, I agree.You know, we weren't planning on living
in Indiana forever. And he's like, there's a chance that we could go
to Atlanta. Do you want to? And I was like, yeah,
anything is better than here. Sowe ended up moving to Atlanta, and
(08:35):
I had the choice of continuing mybusiness, which I did for a while,
and I decided though too. Wewere getting married at the time,
so I was like, let mejust, you know, go back into
the working world. And I workedat chattau A Laan for a little bit.
(08:56):
I did a lot of conferences.We would planned here and then we
would ship everything and fly out,so plan a lot of corporate events that
way. I did a lot ofcatering, you know, I sold the
event and then a lot of timesI had to captain the event. Because
(09:16):
we just didn't have enough captains.So I feel like I've done it lots
you have. And what I loveabout it is we almost have the same
path, doesn't the same things,Like working at you know, I did
corporate planning when I first came outof college, and then I did you
(09:37):
know, I would say, atthe corporate events by day, and then
socials and weddings by night and weekends, and then I did stuff for nonprofits
and things like that. But myskills were sharpened working at a hotel because
you know, you literally get allthe gamut, Like you get the business
travelers, you get the leisure travelers, you get the military and family reunion
(10:00):
and I mean you get such agamut of people coming and going, and
depending on the level, you know, the service level of each hotel,
they're different clienteles, right, They'redifferent clientels. And then again depending on
what area town the hotel is,and that's a whole nother you know area.
So I just love that you didthat. And listen, working at
a convention center is no joke becauseit's literally it's literally like a hotel like
(10:26):
where it's like it could be operatingtwenty four hours a day. It really,
it really can. And I remember, and I'll tell you that a
lot of her story, which she'snot saying, a lot of this story
is free babies, right, SoI always say this DC before you know,
the four children, you know,saying it's literally all that. So
I remember, like the sixty seventyhour work weeks at the hotel, and
(10:46):
my whole first hotel job was herein Atlanta, you know, when we
first moved here, you know,in whole seven on seven o eight when
I moved here, And yeah,I thank god I lived so close to
work because I literally would get homein time to take a shower, close
my eyes, awake back up,and get back to the hotel. But
yeah, it's been jokes that people'slike, oh, I have a bath,
(11:07):
a full shower, and and imaginea mattress underneath the staircase, because
there's there's things like that, especiallyat a convention center. So I just
I love all of that and Ilove that you and that's what makesure.
It's such a great planner and honestlyis such a great business owner. But
you've had multiple businesses as well,like this is not you know, you
had the wedding planning business and thenyou started other things, and what are
(11:31):
you doing currently, Like, whatare your businesses currently and what are you
up to currently. I struggle gettingcompletely out of the corporate realm. I
feel like I've worked so hard toget here that I have a hard time
just letting go of it, eveneven with it being sometimes stressful. I
(11:52):
love the idea of a team environmentand all of us coming together and just
killing it. So I work ina member's only club, actually the oldest
club in Atlanta, so there's alot of history, a lot of you
know, a lot of these membersare upscale, you know, the one
(12:16):
of five percenters. So it's kindof in my realm of things anyways,
and I love it here. I'mstill able to do a lot of weddings,
retreats, corporate events, conferences.We get a lot of just different
(12:37):
style of members coming. We workwith a lot of big wake CEOs from
a lot of the corporations around here. They travel in. So I love
being here. One day I'll leave, but I've been able to figure out
how to kind of do this joband own a luxury bounce house business,
(13:01):
which we've been in business now.My husband and I for three years wow,
and we yeah, I s builtit from the ground up. We
were one of the first ones todo it in the Atlanta area, which
is crazy. Looking back at someof the photos and some of the things
that we did three years ago,i just shake my head and laughed because
I'm like, this is a thingwe did. We did this, We
(13:24):
made this sign or we you know, we said this or looked like this
or wore this, and I'm like, whoa, We've come a long way,
which is yeah. I mean thereit's for I love it because they're
adults or children. And we hadone retreat and I remember when I said
that I wanted the bounce house thereand he was like, I don't know,
(13:45):
no one's going to really bounce onit. And I was like,
fine, let's just talk some Mariaput some moves on it and make it
a backdrop as far like everyone createdreal and everyone jumped in it. Everyone
jumped in it. And the laughterand the giggles and the tears from the
laughter that ensued it had it stilllike makes me smile when I see videos
and photos of everybody. So kudosto you for doing that. I remember
(14:09):
when you think you this is whatI'm gonna do. And I was like,
cool, we're helping you at anevent, and You're like you have
to jump in it. And Iwas like, we have video of it,
but we do not show it toanybody because I literally, oh my
goodness, it was. It's fun. We might have to show that video.
I think we do too, withthis uh, with this podcast,
(14:33):
this episode, I think we Ithink we should because the our beauty of
our relationship is, you know,whenever I have a crazy idea, you
jump on board and you support me. And whenever you have a crazy idea,
I jump on board and support you. And I feel like that is
so important when you're building, youknow, relationships with other vendors especially,
(14:58):
It's especially vendors who do the samething as you. Right Like when I
met you, we were both planners. So you know, why do we
have to not be friends or becompetitive when you know we can still be
our own company, be our ownpeople and and build businesses and support each
(15:20):
other. So for you to comeout, So it was my first ever
event with lux Bounce, the firsttime I pulled out this ginormous black because
we did black for this wedding shows. It's huge, and it just you
know, for you to be there, for you to help out, for
(15:41):
you to help sell it, foryou to bounce on it. And then
you know, I brought like thesmallest vehicle possible to try and put this
thing in and between us and theamazing pop doughe stylist, we just we
(16:03):
worked really hard to figure out howto fold that thing and get it into
my kiss Torno. So we didit. We find yourself some friends that
would do some crazy things with youwithout question, because I mean, yes,
you put it in there with noproblem, but we just because listen,
it's kind of like when you takesomething out of a box and you
go put it back in the box, it doesn't fit the same way.
(16:25):
Yeah, it was like it waslike a clown car. But we I
mean we laughed so hard. Andthen when they go eat tackles and have
margaritas, because after a long day, you're like margaritas. Yes, I
love it. So you know thetopic that you spoke on at the retreat,
which is kind of great segue,right, Yeah, vendor and venue
(16:51):
relationships, Like how important is thatfor planners? Like talk about that?
I mean, that was such anvaluable topic because you know, I preach
it all the time, and soit was great for the group to actually
hear it from someone else and someonewho does it well. Because in every
(17:11):
you know, whether you're working fora catering company, whether you were managing
the airbnb that you manage a whileago, whether it's at the country club
you know with loox Bounds. Andwhat she's kind of leaving out too is
that she's our senior planner for ireneTo and their wedding and events now as
well. And so just how valuableis all like the relationship building and just
(17:34):
let's talk about that, sure.So I you know, I've been thinking
a lot about this. I thinkas I you know, as I continue
working for you, as you knowwhere I'm working to, I think as
planners we you know, as wemarket ourselves and as we you know,
(17:57):
try and really build our businesses,is we have to depend on others in
a sense, right, Like wedon't have beautiful photos to show what you
know we've done. We don't havebeautiful arrangements because we don't do that.
So our goal is to bring everyoneand everyone's skill set together to bring the
(18:25):
best experience possible for all of ourclients, and to do that you need
to build a great team team,a team that will vendor team, a
team that will trust you and youtrust them to be able to provide the
(18:47):
perfect service for your client. TeleI've just been thinking about that so much
lately and just how important it is, because yeah, we don't have you
know, when you know, whenpeople look at our photos and portfolio,
they only see just a little justa little bit right, like they see
(19:08):
the gorgeous photos. But what happens, you know, what happened to get
those photos, How we treated ourvendors, how we communicated with the photographer
to make sure that they weren't stressed, and to make sure the caterer was
good because we were on time andthe food didn't sit in the hot box
(19:30):
too long. You know, weare the quarterback of a wedding, so
we have to be on top ofour game for everything we do. The
communication has to be on point withall of our vendors, even before.
We need to know what they're supposedto be doing and when, and then
(19:56):
if something goes wrong, we needto be the ones to be able to
communicate what we need to change anddo quickly. And the only way that
our vendors will be like, weget it, no problem, let's make
this change. Is if you buildthat relationship ahead of time. I feel
like so it is just I feellike I have I've worked so hard at
(20:22):
I think in my career, justbuilding relationships and seeing what it's like being
on all sides. Right, So, as a venue manager, what what
do I know that I need tobe successful for this wedding? As a
caterer, what do I know thatmy entire catering staff when they come on
(20:48):
site? What do they need toknow? I was never a photographer,
because you know, I'm terrible atthat. But and I don't want That's
just I don't want that's the worldthat I don't want that either. But
I feel like being able to bea part of all of these, you
know, different vendor sides have reallymade me appreciate what they do and be
(21:11):
able to empathize with what they needto be able to provide the best service.
So building relationships, getting to knowall of the vendors that you want
to work with, even if it'sin a really short amount of time,
asking the simple questions like what doyou need to be successful? How can
(21:33):
I help you make sure you weregood. I have never been one to
look down on someone because there's aspecific type of vendor, you know.
I'm always that person who who lendsa helping hand. Oh, do you
need help moving your photography equipment in, no problem, I got you.
You need help putting out your furniture, no problem, I got you.
(21:59):
You know, never looked down onanyone for that, And I feel like
I've been able to see the otherside of that when it comes to you
know, they left their nose upat me, and I'm like, well,
(22:21):
if you're doing that with me,you're probably doing this with all of
us, and we're here to makeyou look good. So it's probably a
good thing to to me that it'skind of like, you know, growing
up the Golden rule, right,like do want of others as you want
to do them. Yeah. Butone of the things that I constantly teach
(22:42):
is that it's kind of like makeit easy for each vendor to be able
to do their job. Well.Yes, and I have been planners like
roll their eyes like, yeah,but I have to worry about all the
things, and they just have toworry about catering and they just have to
worry about, you know, rentals, so they have to. Yes,
it doesn't matter because it's the jobthat you signed up for. Like if
(23:04):
you don't want to be in charge, the director, the quarterback, the
leader or whatever, then you shouldnot been a planner. You just go
do one thing and move on,right. And so you know, I'm
always saying like it's our job asplanners to know it all. I'm not
saying to do it all. I'mnot saying to do everybody els this job,
but to know enough about each ofour colleagues jobs to be able to
(23:26):
help them execute it better. Andone of the people, you know,
this is a brand new venue thatyour your your vendor partners haven't been to,
or they don't have certain you know, logistics of loading things. Do
that. Take a picture or avideo of the catering kitchen, take a
picture of the loading dock. Imean, I remember when the Epicurean opens
(23:49):
up a few years ago, theydidn't have like loading dock directions or maps
or whatever. And I literally screenshotthe Google map, pinpointed where it's at
gate, exact turn by turn directions, told them exactly what to do,
created that and there's a pdf andadded that to the final email, and
every vendor call, even the hotelwas like this was amazing. Yeah,
(24:11):
people need because I first of all, we have a timeline to keep.
So you know, if you don'tgive people what they need, they're going
to be late. We live ina city that we could have traffic at
three o'clock in the morning, eleveno'clock in the morning, you know,
nine o'clock at night, like itdoesn't it doesn't matter. So you want
to be able to give everybody whatthey need to succeed. And like Maria
(24:33):
says, I know for sure,for sure, one of our key to
success is the fact that we treatour vendor partners and our venues so well.
We don't go in there with ournoses turn up in the air.
We don't act like we're better thananybody. You know, my team,
our team really just jumps in anddoes whatever it needs to be done on
(24:53):
top of whatever their duties are.And again it's all for the grid of
good. Yeah, great, goodof our clients. So what's your So
you know we have in different listeners, like we have this listeners that are
just starting out, as you know, they're planning companies people who've been in
business for a few years, youknow, starting growing and scaling their businesses.
(25:15):
What are some advice on how todevelop strong vendor and venue relationships because
I feel like that's always the thething that keeps everybody holding their birth,
Like, well, how do Ibecome friendly with these people? Or how
do I get in front of thesepeople? So any advice that you have
for anyone? Yeah, yeah,so back you know when I when I
(25:40):
first started, or when I wasyou know, a few years in,
I really leaned on networking events.I you know, and I'm such an
introvert. If you are arth retreat, you would have seen me being an
introvert a few times. But youknow, trying to get out of your
(26:00):
own head, trying to get outof your own way to meet people and
really get to know them. It'snot just oh you're a photographer. Great,
you know, you don't just wantto ask them, oh what do
you do? Obviously they're a photographer. It's you know, trying to dig
a little deeper on who they are, you know, how they kind of
(26:25):
go about a wedding day, youknow, ask them, you know,
some tough questions too, just whathappens if or have you ever seen this?
What do you recommend for this?You know, and really just figuring
out how they like to do things, and you can be like, oh,
like this is you know, thisis what these guys care about,
(26:48):
and this is what I care about, and I feel like we align very
well and what we provide for ourclients. So being able to connect with
those people go a little bit deeper, invite them to do a style shoot,
which is always something that I dida lot of back then too,
(27:11):
because since we're not photographers and sincewe're not you know, most of us
aren't designers. Things like that.You know, being able to produce some
style shoots gets you gorgeous photos.It allows you to kind of coordinate and
run the behind the scenes things,help get models, help get venue,
(27:33):
help get all of this, andthen really be able to work with these
vendors on a more low key atmosphereinstead of just doing it on a wedding
day. And then once you buildthose relationships, you know, you can
easily call them to say, hey, I have a you know, referral
(27:53):
for this, are you free?Things like that, But just getting yourself
out there, and I think it'shard, you know, as a newer
planner to to just be like I'mhere, look at me, like love
me. You know you got youhave to work for it because we don't
have we don't have a lot toshow for it in a sense. So
(28:15):
you have to really just get outof your head, meet as many people
as you can and figure out whoyour vendor tribe is, who you work
well with, who will help youand will help you know you will help
them. And yeah, you know, I don't think it happens it Yeah,
I don't think it happens overnight.I think we've all worked with you
(28:37):
know, we've all tried building relationshipswith people who may just not want the
relationship with us, or maybe they'renot what they say they are, maybe
they their work ethic is not whatwe thought they were, you know.
So it's it's going to take along time, and it's going to be
continuous because there's going to be peoplecome and going from this industry. So
(29:02):
you really just have to continue workingon it every day, every day.
Everything those two I think it's it'skind of like in life. I always
remember my mom saying to me asa kid, and I hear it honestly
in my mind even as an adult, I see myself telling this to the
kids. But tell me who youhang with, and I tell you who
(29:23):
you are, right. So shewas like, if you hang out with
the fast girls, they're gonna thinkyou're a fast girl. So you could
be friendly with them, but youdon't have to be bfs with them.
And so it's just kind of thesame adage. I think. To add
on to everything Maria just said isyou know it will take you a while,
and the brand and the company youhave when you first start is different
(29:45):
than the year three is different inyear five, it's different in year ten
or fifteen. It changes and itshould evolve, yes, but also like
who are you trying to attract?Right? Like, who is who's your
idea client? Who you're trying toattract. Honestly, the first few years
of being in business, you kindof work with everyone. And I'm here
to tell you, and I knowMaria Pie agrees with this, It's okay
(30:07):
because that's the only way you figureout who you want. Because people like
I'm only going after high end luxuryclients and do a year of that or
chasing after that and be like,oh my gosh, I do not want
to work with them because they justdon't speak to my spirit. Like you
have to like be very Brian conscious, like who speaks to your brand?
(30:29):
Not only you know, I thinkwe do that for ideal client and like
going after those clients, but that'sthe same thing for your vendor partners and
the venues you work because there's beentimes where you know, we've loved the
venue owner, but we don't necessarilylike the aesthetics of the venue and we're
not going you know, we're notpursuing a ton of weddings at those venues.
(30:51):
But if they book us, theybook us. That doesn't mean they
have to go on the website orthe Instagram, but they book us,
right. But then the same thing, just what are your core values?
Right? Like if you are likeone of ours is you know, being
gracious and kind and you would besurprised. Like kindness is the thing that
we hear so much because it's partof our core values now like written in
(31:12):
stone and our manuals for our teambecause people tell us that all the time,
you're so kind no matter what thesituation is, which I think is
crazy, Marie. We're in thehospitality industry, like why like, I'm
not only gonna be kind to ourclients and guests, I'm gonna be kind
to everybody, because it doesn't justlike, well, you get more bees
with honey than vinegar. So Idon't understand that even if I'm not happy
(31:33):
with the vendor, you would neverknow it unless you're really you don't know
it. They don't know it.There's probably a bunch of people out there
that don't realize that. I don'treally fool with them because I'm still going
to treat them to respect and kindness. I'm never going to say an ill
word about them, because that's theirlivelihood. That's how they're paying for their
bills and feeding their families. Butbeing mindful of who you associate with and
(31:56):
being okay with you know, I'veknown people that when their ideal client with
DIY Brides, and they loved workingwith DIY Brides, and they were killing
it in that in that level andin that market, and it was great,
do you and then finding vendors thatare more reasonably priced and that kind
of thing, and but then theyover times, you know, their business
(32:17):
is elevated and they went up tothe next bride, like the everyday bride,
Like I call them the middle ofthe roadbride. So it it it's
like you said, it takes time. And I think in the age that
we're in, you know, it'sit's you know, we used to say
the microwave age like people, butbut now it's even lightning speed. Right.
It's like you know, Lisa backa way, if you had to
wait a few seconds for the popcornto pop or the thing, you know,
(32:38):
at least thirty seconds to a minutefor something to get warm. Now
it's like, you know, youblink and AI is giving you spitting out
answers, you know, and Googleis spitting out answers for you. I
think it's not the same thing.If so, if you're going, if
you have decided to be an entrepreneur, a business owner, started planning business,
(32:58):
it is a long game. Andfor those introverts out there, I
know, I know, bless yourhearts because I'm not by anything, y'all.
Y'all know me. I'm a pusher. I could talk to the wall,
the wall talk back, you know, like I have never met a
stranger I didn't like. Now I'mvery discerning and I feel it in my
like I feel it in my shinanot and know if something is not right.
(33:22):
But I still I'm still friendly andtalkative. But for some reason,
God sees a fit to send mean introverted husband, an introverted son,
and introverted team members and introverted coachingclients. I just don't understand. And
I think it's because he knows I'ma pusher. That's how I'm gonna look
at it. It's just hit myspirit, y'all. He knows I'm a
(33:42):
pusher, and I'm going to pushthose that need to be pushed because they're
not going to push themselves. Sobut I love it because what I tell
people is, yeah, big networkingevents are great, but when you ad
a networking event, just find oneor two people that you can connect with
or go with the friends or knowsomebody that's an extra. Say hey,
I need to meet three people,introduce them, she's like, or make
(34:05):
that introduction connection. And one ofthe things I have to tell people is
like, you know, the bestway to connect is just do like site
visits in one on one situation,like they'll have to go to these gigantic
networking events. If that doesn't speakto you, it doesn't feed you like
it feeds me like I love Ilove it, love it, love it.
And that's why one of the reasons, like, yeah, you know,
becoming could be a conference with onehundred hundred fifty people, but I
(34:28):
don't think I ever will get tothat point because of the intimacy and the
connections and the relating that happens insmaller groups, and I it's just hard
to do that when it's one hundredand fifty two hundred people in the room.
So true. Yeah, So thishas been very informative and I hope
(34:49):
you all got something out of this. Maria is an open book, so
if you want to hit her upin her DMS, she'll definitely answer for
the questions. But yeah, it'smiss Maria. I like to end my
podcast interviews with two questions, andso the question is two questions. So
(35:10):
first question is how is your spiritin this current journey? And that comes
from a book I read a fewyears ago, and the author says she
stopped asking her friends and those closeto her how you doing, because that's
such a blanket statement, Like Ithink when you say how you doing,
it's just like okay, Like noone ever gives a deeper answer. You
(35:31):
know. Now, it's funny becauseanytime I ask someone how they're doing,
I get that, like, youknow, three paragraph texts right. Somebody
once told me I had walked inactually a venue manager, a venue owner.
I walked in and asked her howshe was doing, and we spend
thirty minutes talking about her kids andsome stuff going along with them. And
then she looked up and she waslike, what did you come in here
(35:52):
for. I was like, it'sokay. She's like, I've had five
here today asking me asking that samequestion, and it was a generic response,
and she's like, you walked inand now I'm just like and I
was like, that's a blessing.If that's if that's one of my one
of my gift things. But whenI saw this question in the book,
I started doing that to like mydearest friends, my closest friends. I
(36:14):
was like, Okay, how how'syour spirit in this year, in this
season? That's the first question,and then the second question is what are
you currently loving either personally and orprofessionally? So ooh okay, so my
spirit, My spirit's pretty good.I feel like, you know, it's
(36:37):
spring. So finishing wedding season forme, So it's just been on.
It's been a lot of back toback to back to back to back weddings.
So I'm ready to kind of takea break for the summer and just
spend more time with family. Butmy my heart has been tugging me in
(37:04):
a little different direction. It's kindof pulling me towards telling more of my
story, supporting and cheering others on. I feel like I've I've spent so
much time learning and you know,learning different aspects of weddings and doing and
(37:28):
now I want to kind of givemy knowledge and help to others. And
that was one reason why I wasso excited to join. I've been a
part of your team for a longtime, let's be honest, but really
being able to a pretty much notonly as you know, a continued seeing
(37:52):
their planner, but you know,more of your head of team development,
which I'm so excited to really helptake some of our planners you know,
more under my wing and just teachthem, be there for them, just
cheer them on with with what they'redoing to you know, the betterment of
(38:15):
what they are doing outside of youknow, outside of planning, and then
how it will help our team,our weddings, our clients, things like
that. So I'm really I feellike my my brain is shifting, my
spirit is shifting to say I don'tI don't need to do all the things
(38:37):
I've done. I've done a lotof things, and now it's time to
give back, you know, andbe that mentor, be that friend to
to others. And you know,I've had some amazing mentors, you know,
in my path, and I justI hope I can be that mentor
(38:58):
to others who've kind of, youknow, just like they've helped me along
the way. So, uh,spirit is good, staying positive, trying
to get through the last month ofcrazy. And then I'm excited. What
am I excited about? I'm excitedabout spending more time with family. I
(39:23):
know, growing up fast they are. Isaiah literally just grew more than half
a foot in kindergarten. It iscrazy. He is almost as tall as
me and he's six. Not thatI'm like short short, but I'm sure
(39:44):
you're gonna be the shorty wop inyour house because John and the boys will
be right there. I'm pretty suresomeone's gonna be playing rugby because I hope.
I think it's gonna be James.He just looks like he's going to
be tackling somebody. He he will, He has that look. He hasn't
look at his eyes already. I'mlike, oh, okay, we're gonna
(40:06):
have to do a tackle sport foryou. But yeah, no, I'm
just I'm excited to you know,dig deeper on this, on this journey
of mentorship. And you know,we're trying to do a couple of things
with lux Bounds where we also mentor. I was able to get John to
agree to you know, some everyother week lives, so that's coming out
(40:31):
soon, just to talk about ourexperience. We're calling it Beyond the Bounce,
So we are going to be talkingabout just everything, like I really
want us to go deep with it, just about our relationship, about you
(40:52):
know, being a mom, beinga dad. You know, we both
have these big corporate jobs and we'rerocking out this business and you know,
at some point since you know,we are like ships in the night,
ships passing in the night, andyou know, really being able to talk
(41:13):
through all of all of that,because if we are going through this,
other people are and if no oneelse talks about it, how are you
supposed to work through it. Somepeople will, some people won't. And
I am definitely ready to share moreof my story because I have a lot
to tell. No, that's reallygood because I mean, you know,
(41:34):
you know this that at the retreatdu Wayne session was you know, supposed
to be all about luxury customer service, which he did get to that eventually,
but you know, just how theHoly Spirit works. They talked about
you know, working with spouses orhaving like your significant other, your partner
so be supportive and all that stuffand how that works. And you know,
(41:58):
we're definitely going to have so stayto because we're gonna have a podcast
story a podcast episode about that too, about just kind of watching them,
the support that he's given me allthese years, and how he officially joined
the company this year but YouTube forthe past three years have buckled down and
work together while raising a young familywhile working full time jobs. But you
know, we I truly I'm inthis season right now that uh we're gonna
(42:23):
hustle and work like no one elseworks now, provide the service and provide
you know, provide service and providelove and support to our clients like no
one else does it. So thatwe could live like no one else later,
Right, Like, there's that weall have and as families of color,
it's a beautiful thing. I thinkwe need to share more of our
(42:45):
stories because I think you know wherea lot of us are taught to not
like what happens in this house staysin this house. Nobody needs to hear
about it, but then we windup suffering in silence. Right, So,
like, if your story can helpanother couple not listen, let's be
really honest, not close the doorsof their business and not get divorced.
(43:06):
Yes, that's huge because people typicallyget divorced the majority of the time is
because of finances. It's not evenit's not even infidelity, it's the finances
they get people. So then youadd kids in the mix, and then
you add a business in the mixand all that other stuff, it becomes
a lot. It becomes a lot. So I am so proud of you
all, and we'll be tuning intothat. Thank you. Yes, So
(43:28):
tell the folks where they can findyou, how they can follow you,
and all that good stuff. Sure, so you can find me at lux
Bounds l u x E b OU n C. There we go.
Lux Bounds feel free to DM mecomments any questions, would love to would
(43:52):
love to help on your journey kindof wherever you are at with the planning
process. Yes, yes, yes, And she'll be at the twenty twenty
five becoming the business retreat for weddingplanners. She's actually is actually the lead
of the entire thing. Amen.She also she also will be one of
(44:15):
our coaches there that you'll be ableto ask the questions and you know,
any kind of business questions because asyou can imagine, she's had years of
being in business for herself and workingin different businesses. But Maria, thank
you so much. My friends.You know I love you from the bottom
of my heart. We will betogether for an entire week, so I'm
(44:38):
going love. We're going to bea tough conference and yeah, so I
love you, and thank you somuch everyone for listening. I'll see you
next week. Titters Big, whetheryou're kicks out of your business, you've
(45:04):
got to check out
Welcome back everyone, Welcome back,my insiders to another episode of Inside the
Wedding Planner's Mind. H I amI Rien Tindale, your host, and
today I am joined by an extraspecial guest. Not only is she a
colleague and has been a colleague foryears, she's a dear friend and we
(00:44):
had her grace our stage back atJanuary of twenty twenty four for becoming retreat.
Welcome Maria Scott. Thank you.Hi, good morning, good morning,
afternoon, afternoon. It's morning whenwe're recording, is everyone? Yes?
(01:06):
So I always like to ask myguests about their origin story. So
how did wedding and events find you? So give us your resume, your
CV, give it to us.All how this crazy world that we have
agreed to be a part of.Yeah, I always say weddings found me,
(01:33):
or weddings chose me because it isnot what I went to school for.
It's not what I even thought aboutor planned about doing. I was,
let's see, after college, Iwas all the way in playing rugby.
(01:56):
I had moved to so I livedin Minneapolis playing there for a semi
professional team, and then I movedto England to play and then I moved
to New Zealand to play and getbetter, and then San Diego and Boston
as well. My goal was tomake the US team and just be as
(02:21):
good of a rugby player as Icould. And before then I had to
decide because I was born to collegefor music, not that I ever used
it, but I had to chooseearly on music or rugby, and I
was like, obviously rugby because Icouldn't travel. But as I kind of
climbed that ladder to the US team, which I made it, my body
(02:49):
kind of started shutting down and Iended up having eight total knee surgeries on
my leftie, one right hip,one right thumb reconstruction. And after that,
I was like, well, Ishould probably retire. But then I
was like, well what do ILike, what do I do? I
(03:10):
kind of put all of my eggsin the rugby basket, and so I
was like, what should I do? And I ended up thinking because I
at that time I was working asa part time hospice caregiver for adults with
HIV and AIDS, and I waslike, I don't know if I can
(03:35):
continue doing this because that is hardand difficult. Yeah, So I was
like, well, I know thatI really enjoyed being kind of the match
secretary. I ended up booking alot of travel for the team, so
whenever we had to fly somewhere,I would book those flights, book the
hotels. Anyone coming in, Iwould help them find places to stay.
(04:01):
Even for refs coming in, Iwould make sure they were good booked the
field, make sure the field wasset up, make sure the after party
was set up. And then Iwas like, well, I'm really good
at that, So what how doI get into event planning since I didn't
go to school for it? AndI was like, well, let me
(04:24):
just take a job at a hotel. So my first hotel was Residents In
by Marriott and workfront desk. Imade pennies. I was like, this
is I was like, for thegreater good. I know, greater good,
and I you know, started becominga supervisor and then I wanted to
(04:44):
learn to night at and then Imoved to Hilton, like a Double Tree
by Hilton property, which was oneof the largest ones in Minneapolis. We
did a lot of comic cons,so I got kind of a piece of
that and booking rooms for all ofthem, and the goal was just to
stay there and my boss was greatand she was like, I'm going to
(05:06):
get you into events and do this. But I decided to come out of
retirement and play at a rugby tournamentten years ago gosh more than ten now
in Savannah when I ended up meetingmy husband, Jonathan, and that kind
of took me for a loop too, because he was living in Pennsylvania and
(05:32):
I was in Minnesota. And youknow, sure enough, I moved to
Pennsylvania six months later to be withthis guy who then said, we're moving
to Indiana because he just got transferredfor work. So we moved to Indiana
and I was like, I needto find a job, and there was
a job at a convention center andI was like, there's no way they're
(05:57):
going to hire me, Like Idon't have everything they want. And my
husband was like, you really needyou have everything you need. You were
good at what you do, youwere good at interviewing, so just go
for it. So I went forit. I got the job, and
that is that's kind of what tookme into the event world. I learned
(06:20):
early on that I had a bedin my office because I actually needed to
sleep in it. I worked eightyninety hour work weeks because we would do
a wedding on Saturday, have toflip, you know, we would have
multiple conferences conventions in the same spaceduring the week some nights. Some nights
(06:43):
I would be done at like twoam and someone would have to open the
doors at five for the next groupto come in. And that was usually
me because I was at the bottomof the totem pool. But what I
loved about it was I was like, I can I'm really good at this.
I loved the chaos, and Ithink working in the hotel industry taught
(07:04):
me a lot of patience, especiallyat you know kind of where I was
at a you know, people wouldfly in and stay for the week because
they always they worked in the areaand they would fly back, so building
those relationships, building that empathy withthem, I was like, I,
(07:26):
you know, I love this.So I ended up loving the job.
But I was like, I coulddo these weddings. I was like,
these planners, I got this.Uh. So I ended up I was
like, I'm just going to startmy own company. So I started it.
I had another planner with me andwe we did a lot of weddings
and in Indiana and it was greatand it was challenging and I didn't know
(07:53):
what I was doing. So Iended up going to my first you know,
retreat in in Dawn, which wasnot what I thought it was.
But yeah, but I feel likeI came back and I was able to
grow and learn and figure out whatI liked and what I didn't like.
(08:13):
But then my husband was like,we need to get out of here.
I was like, I agree.You know, we weren't planning on living
in Indiana forever. And he's like, there's a chance that we could go
to Atlanta. Do you want to? And I was like, yeah,
anything is better than here. Sowe ended up moving to Atlanta, and
(08:35):
I had the choice of continuing mybusiness, which I did for a while,
and I decided though too. Wewere getting married at the time,
so I was like, let mejust, you know, go back into
the working world. And I workedat chattau A Laan for a little bit.
(08:56):
I did a lot of conferences.We would planned here and then we
would ship everything and fly out,so plan a lot of corporate events that
way. I did a lot ofcatering, you know, I sold the
event and then a lot of timesI had to captain the event. Because
(09:16):
we just didn't have enough captains.So I feel like I've done it lots
you have. And what I loveabout it is we almost have the same
path, doesn't the same things,Like working at you know, I did
corporate planning when I first came outof college, and then I did you
(09:37):
know, I would say, atthe corporate events by day, and then
socials and weddings by night and weekends, and then I did stuff for nonprofits
and things like that. But myskills were sharpened working at a hotel because
you know, you literally get allthe gamut, Like you get the business
travelers, you get the leisure travelers, you get the military and family reunion
(10:00):
and I mean you get such agamut of people coming and going, and
depending on the level, you know, the service level of each hotel,
they're different clienteles, right, They'redifferent clientels. And then again depending on
what area town the hotel is,and that's a whole nother you know area.
So I just love that you didthat. And listen, working at
a convention center is no joke becauseit's literally it's literally like a hotel like
(10:26):
where it's like it could be operatingtwenty four hours a day. It really,
it really can. And I remember, and I'll tell you that a
lot of her story, which she'snot saying, a lot of this story
is free babies, right, SoI always say this DC before you know,
the four children, you know,saying it's literally all that. So
I remember, like the sixty seventyhour work weeks at the hotel, and
(10:46):
my whole first hotel job was herein Atlanta, you know, when we
first moved here, you know,in whole seven on seven o eight when
I moved here, And yeah,I thank god I lived so close to
work because I literally would get homein time to take a shower, close
my eyes, awake back up,and get back to the hotel. But
yeah, it's been jokes that people'slike, oh, I have a bath,
(11:07):
a full shower, and and imaginea mattress underneath the staircase, because
there's there's things like that, especiallyat a convention center. So I just
I love all of that and Ilove that you and that's what makesure.
It's such a great planner and honestlyis such a great business owner. But
you've had multiple businesses as well,like this is not you know, you
had the wedding planning business and thenyou started other things, and what are
(11:31):
you doing currently, Like, whatare your businesses currently and what are you
up to currently. I struggle gettingcompletely out of the corporate realm. I
feel like I've worked so hard toget here that I have a hard time
just letting go of it, eveneven with it being sometimes stressful. I
(11:52):
love the idea of a team environmentand all of us coming together and just
killing it. So I work ina member's only club, actually the oldest
club in Atlanta, so there's alot of history, a lot of you
know, a lot of these membersare upscale, you know, the one
(12:16):
of five percenters. So it's kindof in my realm of things anyways,
and I love it here. I'mstill able to do a lot of weddings,
retreats, corporate events, conferences.We get a lot of just different
(12:37):
style of members coming. We workwith a lot of big wake CEOs from
a lot of the corporations around here. They travel in. So I love
being here. One day I'll leave, but I've been able to figure out
how to kind of do this joband own a luxury bounce house business,
(13:01):
which we've been in business now.My husband and I for three years wow,
and we yeah, I s builtit from the ground up. We
were one of the first ones todo it in the Atlanta area, which
is crazy. Looking back at someof the photos and some of the things
that we did three years ago,i just shake my head and laughed because
I'm like, this is a thingwe did. We did this, We
(13:24):
made this sign or we you know, we said this or looked like this
or wore this, and I'm like, whoa, We've come a long way,
which is yeah. I mean thereit's for I love it because they're
adults or children. And we hadone retreat and I remember when I said
that I wanted the bounce house thereand he was like, I don't know,
(13:45):
no one's going to really bounce onit. And I was like,
fine, let's just talk some Mariaput some moves on it and make it
a backdrop as far like everyone createdreal and everyone jumped in it. Everyone
jumped in it. And the laughterand the giggles and the tears from the
laughter that ensued it had it stilllike makes me smile when I see videos
and photos of everybody. So kudosto you for doing that. I remember
(14:09):
when you think you this is whatI'm gonna do. And I was like,
cool, we're helping you at anevent, and You're like you have
to jump in it. And Iwas like, we have video of it,
but we do not show it toanybody because I literally, oh my
goodness, it was. It's fun. We might have to show that video.
I think we do too, withthis uh, with this podcast,
(14:33):
this episode, I think we Ithink we should because the our beauty of
our relationship is, you know,whenever I have a crazy idea, you
jump on board and you support me. And whenever you have a crazy idea,
I jump on board and support you. And I feel like that is
so important when you're building, youknow, relationships with other vendors especially,
(14:58):
It's especially vendors who do the samething as you. Right Like when I
met you, we were both planners. So you know, why do we
have to not be friends or becompetitive when you know we can still be
our own company, be our ownpeople and and build businesses and support each
(15:20):
other. So for you to comeout, So it was my first ever
event with lux Bounce, the firsttime I pulled out this ginormous black because
we did black for this wedding shows. It's huge, and it just you
know, for you to be there, for you to help out, for
(15:41):
you to help sell it, foryou to bounce on it. And then
you know, I brought like thesmallest vehicle possible to try and put this
thing in and between us and theamazing pop doughe stylist, we just we
(16:03):
worked really hard to figure out howto fold that thing and get it into
my kiss Torno. So we didit. We find yourself some friends that
would do some crazy things with youwithout question, because I mean, yes,
you put it in there with noproblem, but we just because listen,
it's kind of like when you takesomething out of a box and you
go put it back in the box, it doesn't fit the same way.
(16:25):
Yeah, it was like it waslike a clown car. But we I
mean we laughed so hard. Andthen when they go eat tackles and have
margaritas, because after a long day, you're like margaritas. Yes, I
love it. So you know thetopic that you spoke on at the retreat,
which is kind of great segue,right, Yeah, vendor and venue
(16:51):
relationships, Like how important is thatfor planners? Like talk about that?
I mean, that was such anvaluable topic because you know, I preach
it all the time, and soit was great for the group to actually
hear it from someone else and someonewho does it well. Because in every
(17:11):
you know, whether you're working fora catering company, whether you were managing
the airbnb that you manage a whileago, whether it's at the country club
you know with loox Bounds. Andwhat she's kind of leaving out too is
that she's our senior planner for ireneTo and their wedding and events now as
well. And so just how valuableis all like the relationship building and just
(17:34):
let's talk about that, sure.So I you know, I've been thinking
a lot about this. I thinkas I you know, as I continue
working for you, as you knowwhere I'm working to, I think as
planners we you know, as wemarket ourselves and as we you know,
(17:57):
try and really build our businesses,is we have to depend on others in
a sense, right, Like wedon't have beautiful photos to show what you
know we've done. We don't havebeautiful arrangements because we don't do that.
So our goal is to bring everyoneand everyone's skill set together to bring the
(18:25):
best experience possible for all of ourclients, and to do that you need
to build a great team team,a team that will vendor team, a
team that will trust you and youtrust them to be able to provide the
(18:47):
perfect service for your client. TeleI've just been thinking about that so much
lately and just how important it is, because yeah, we don't have you
know, when you know, whenpeople look at our photos and portfolio,
they only see just a little justa little bit right, like they see
(19:08):
the gorgeous photos. But what happens, you know, what happened to get
those photos, How we treated ourvendors, how we communicated with the photographer
to make sure that they weren't stressed, and to make sure the caterer was
good because we were on time andthe food didn't sit in the hot box
(19:30):
too long. You know, weare the quarterback of a wedding, so
we have to be on top ofour game for everything we do. The
communication has to be on point withall of our vendors, even before.
We need to know what they're supposedto be doing and when, and then
(19:56):
if something goes wrong, we needto be the ones to be able to
communicate what we need to change anddo quickly. And the only way that
our vendors will be like, weget it, no problem, let's make
this change. Is if you buildthat relationship ahead of time. I feel
like so it is just I feellike I have I've worked so hard at
(20:22):
I think in my career, justbuilding relationships and seeing what it's like being
on all sides. Right, So, as a venue manager, what what
do I know that I need tobe successful for this wedding? As a
caterer, what do I know thatmy entire catering staff when they come on
(20:48):
site? What do they need toknow? I was never a photographer,
because you know, I'm terrible atthat. But and I don't want That's
just I don't want that's the worldthat I don't want that either. But
I feel like being able to bea part of all of these, you
know, different vendor sides have reallymade me appreciate what they do and be
(21:11):
able to empathize with what they needto be able to provide the best service.
So building relationships, getting to knowall of the vendors that you want
to work with, even if it'sin a really short amount of time,
asking the simple questions like what doyou need to be successful? How can
(21:33):
I help you make sure you weregood. I have never been one to
look down on someone because there's aspecific type of vendor, you know.
I'm always that person who who lendsa helping hand. Oh, do you
need help moving your photography equipment in, no problem, I got you.
You need help putting out your furniture, no problem, I got you.
(21:59):
You know, never looked down onanyone for that, And I feel like
I've been able to see the otherside of that when it comes to you
know, they left their nose upat me, and I'm like, well,
(22:21):
if you're doing that with me,you're probably doing this with all of
us, and we're here to makeyou look good. So it's probably a
good thing to to me that it'skind of like, you know, growing
up the Golden rule, right,like do want of others as you want
to do them. Yeah. Butone of the things that I constantly teach
(22:42):
is that it's kind of like makeit easy for each vendor to be able
to do their job. Well.Yes, and I have been planners like
roll their eyes like, yeah,but I have to worry about all the
things, and they just have toworry about catering and they just have to
worry about, you know, rentals, so they have to. Yes,
it doesn't matter because it's the jobthat you signed up for. Like if
(23:04):
you don't want to be in charge, the director, the quarterback, the
leader or whatever, then you shouldnot been a planner. You just go
do one thing and move on,right. And so you know, I'm
always saying like it's our job asplanners to know it all. I'm not
saying to do it all. I'mnot saying to do everybody els this job,
but to know enough about each ofour colleagues jobs to be able to
(23:26):
help them execute it better. Andone of the people, you know,
this is a brand new venue thatyour your your vendor partners haven't been to,
or they don't have certain you know, logistics of loading things. Do
that. Take a picture or avideo of the catering kitchen, take a
picture of the loading dock. Imean, I remember when the Epicurean opens
(23:49):
up a few years ago, theydidn't have like loading dock directions or maps
or whatever. And I literally screenshotthe Google map, pinpointed where it's at
gate, exact turn by turn directions, told them exactly what to do,
created that and there's a pdf andadded that to the final email, and
every vendor call, even the hotelwas like this was amazing. Yeah,
(24:11):
people need because I first of all, we have a timeline to keep.
So you know, if you don'tgive people what they need, they're going
to be late. We live ina city that we could have traffic at
three o'clock in the morning, eleveno'clock in the morning, you know,
nine o'clock at night, like itdoesn't it doesn't matter. So you want
to be able to give everybody whatthey need to succeed. And like Maria
(24:33):
says, I know for sure,for sure, one of our key to
success is the fact that we treatour vendor partners and our venues so well.
We don't go in there with ournoses turn up in the air.
We don't act like we're better thananybody. You know, my team,
our team really just jumps in anddoes whatever it needs to be done on
(24:53):
top of whatever their duties are.And again it's all for the grid of
good. Yeah, great, goodof our clients. So what's your So
you know we have in different listeners, like we have this listeners that are
just starting out, as you know, they're planning companies people who've been in
business for a few years, youknow, starting growing and scaling their businesses.
(25:15):
What are some advice on how todevelop strong vendor and venue relationships because
I feel like that's always the thething that keeps everybody holding their birth,
Like, well, how do Ibecome friendly with these people? Or how
do I get in front of thesepeople? So any advice that you have
for anyone? Yeah, yeah,so back you know when I when I
(25:40):
first started, or when I wasyou know, a few years in,
I really leaned on networking events.I you know, and I'm such an
introvert. If you are arth retreat, you would have seen me being an
introvert a few times. But youknow, trying to get out of your
(26:00):
own head, trying to get outof your own way to meet people and
really get to know them. It'snot just oh you're a photographer. Great,
you know, you don't just wantto ask them, oh what do
you do? Obviously they're a photographer. It's you know, trying to dig
a little deeper on who they are, you know, how they kind of
(26:25):
go about a wedding day, youknow, ask them, you know,
some tough questions too, just whathappens if or have you ever seen this?
What do you recommend for this?You know, and really just figuring
out how they like to do things, and you can be like, oh,
like this is you know, thisis what these guys care about,
(26:48):
and this is what I care about, and I feel like we align very
well and what we provide for ourclients. So being able to connect with
those people go a little bit deeper, invite them to do a style shoot,
which is always something that I dida lot of back then too,
(27:11):
because since we're not photographers and sincewe're not you know, most of us
aren't designers. Things like that.You know, being able to produce some
style shoots gets you gorgeous photos.It allows you to kind of coordinate and
run the behind the scenes things,help get models, help get venue,
(27:33):
help get all of this, andthen really be able to work with these
vendors on a more low key atmosphereinstead of just doing it on a wedding
day. And then once you buildthose relationships, you know, you can
easily call them to say, hey, I have a you know, referral
(27:53):
for this, are you free?Things like that, But just getting yourself
out there, and I think it'shard, you know, as a newer
planner to to just be like I'mhere, look at me, like love
me. You know you got youhave to work for it because we don't
have we don't have a lot toshow for it in a sense. So
(28:15):
you have to really just get outof your head, meet as many people
as you can and figure out whoyour vendor tribe is, who you work
well with, who will help youand will help you know you will help
them. And yeah, you know, I don't think it happens it Yeah,
I don't think it happens overnight.I think we've all worked with you
(28:37):
know, we've all tried building relationshipswith people who may just not want the
relationship with us, or maybe they'renot what they say they are, maybe
they their work ethic is not whatwe thought they were, you know.
So it's it's going to take along time, and it's going to be
continuous because there's going to be peoplecome and going from this industry. So
(29:02):
you really just have to continue workingon it every day, every day.
Everything those two I think it's it'skind of like in life. I always
remember my mom saying to me asa kid, and I hear it honestly
in my mind even as an adult, I see myself telling this to the
kids. But tell me who youhang with, and I tell you who
(29:23):
you are, right. So shewas like, if you hang out with
the fast girls, they're gonna thinkyou're a fast girl. So you could
be friendly with them, but youdon't have to be bfs with them.
And so it's just kind of thesame adage. I think. To add
on to everything Maria just said isyou know it will take you a while,
and the brand and the company youhave when you first start is different
(29:45):
than the year three is different inyear five, it's different in year ten
or fifteen. It changes and itshould evolve, yes, but also like
who are you trying to attract?Right? Like, who is who's your
idea client? Who you're trying toattract. Honestly, the first few years
of being in business, you kindof work with everyone. And I'm here
to tell you, and I knowMaria Pie agrees with this, It's okay
(30:07):
because that's the only way you figureout who you want. Because people like
I'm only going after high end luxuryclients and do a year of that or
chasing after that and be like,oh my gosh, I do not want
to work with them because they justdon't speak to my spirit. Like you
have to like be very Brian conscious, like who speaks to your brand?
(30:29):
Not only you know, I thinkwe do that for ideal client and like
going after those clients, but that'sthe same thing for your vendor partners and
the venues you work because there's beentimes where you know, we've loved the
venue owner, but we don't necessarilylike the aesthetics of the venue and we're
not going you know, we're notpursuing a ton of weddings at those venues.
(30:51):
But if they book us, theybook us. That doesn't mean they
have to go on the website orthe Instagram, but they book us,
right. But then the same thing, just what are your core values?
Right? Like if you are likeone of ours is you know, being
gracious and kind and you would besurprised. Like kindness is the thing that
we hear so much because it's partof our core values now like written in
(31:12):
stone and our manuals for our teambecause people tell us that all the time,
you're so kind no matter what thesituation is, which I think is
crazy, Marie. We're in thehospitality industry, like why like, I'm
not only gonna be kind to ourclients and guests, I'm gonna be kind
to everybody, because it doesn't justlike, well, you get more bees
with honey than vinegar. So Idon't understand that even if I'm not happy
(31:33):
with the vendor, you would neverknow it unless you're really you don't know
it. They don't know it.There's probably a bunch of people out there
that don't realize that. I don'treally fool with them because I'm still going
to treat them to respect and kindness. I'm never going to say an ill
word about them, because that's theirlivelihood. That's how they're paying for their
bills and feeding their families. Butbeing mindful of who you associate with and
(31:56):
being okay with you know, I'veknown people that when their ideal client with
DIY Brides, and they loved workingwith DIY Brides, and they were killing
it in that in that level andin that market, and it was great,
do you and then finding vendors thatare more reasonably priced and that kind
of thing, and but then theyover times, you know, their business
(32:17):
is elevated and they went up tothe next bride, like the everyday bride,
Like I call them the middle ofthe roadbride. So it it it's
like you said, it takes time. And I think in the age that
we're in, you know, it'sit's you know, we used to say
the microwave age like people, butbut now it's even lightning speed. Right.
It's like you know, Lisa backa way, if you had to
wait a few seconds for the popcornto pop or the thing, you know,
(32:38):
at least thirty seconds to a minutefor something to get warm. Now
it's like, you know, youblink and AI is giving you spitting out
answers, you know, and Googleis spitting out answers for you. I
think it's not the same thing.If so, if you're going, if
you have decided to be an entrepreneur, a business owner, started planning business,
(32:58):
it is a long game. Andfor those introverts out there, I
know, I know, bless yourhearts because I'm not by anything, y'all.
Y'all know me. I'm a pusher. I could talk to the wall,
the wall talk back, you know, like I have never met a
stranger I didn't like. Now I'mvery discerning and I feel it in my
like I feel it in my shinanot and know if something is not right.
(33:22):
But I still I'm still friendly andtalkative. But for some reason,
God sees a fit to send mean introverted husband, an introverted son,
and introverted team members and introverted coachingclients. I just don't understand. And
I think it's because he knows I'ma pusher. That's how I'm gonna look
at it. It's just hit myspirit, y'all. He knows I'm a
(33:42):
pusher, and I'm going to pushthose that need to be pushed because they're
not going to push themselves. Sobut I love it because what I tell
people is, yeah, big networkingevents are great, but when you ad
a networking event, just find oneor two people that you can connect with
or go with the friends or knowsomebody that's an extra. Say hey,
I need to meet three people,introduce them, she's like, or make
(34:05):
that introduction connection. And one ofthe things I have to tell people is
like, you know, the bestway to connect is just do like site
visits in one on one situation,like they'll have to go to these gigantic
networking events. If that doesn't speakto you, it doesn't feed you like
it feeds me like I love Ilove it, love it, love it.
And that's why one of the reasons, like, yeah, you know,
becoming could be a conference with onehundred hundred fifty people, but I
(34:28):
don't think I ever will get tothat point because of the intimacy and the
connections and the relating that happens insmaller groups, and I it's just hard
to do that when it's one hundredand fifty two hundred people in the room.
So true. Yeah, So thishas been very informative and I hope
(34:49):
you all got something out of this. Maria is an open book, so
if you want to hit her upin her DMS, she'll definitely answer for
the questions. But yeah, it'smiss Maria. I like to end my
podcast interviews with two questions, andso the question is two questions. So
(35:10):
first question is how is your spiritin this current journey? And that comes
from a book I read a fewyears ago, and the author says she
stopped asking her friends and those closeto her how you doing, because that's
such a blanket statement, Like Ithink when you say how you doing,
it's just like okay, Like noone ever gives a deeper answer. You
(35:31):
know. Now, it's funny becauseanytime I ask someone how they're doing,
I get that, like, youknow, three paragraph texts right. Somebody
once told me I had walked inactually a venue manager, a venue owner.
I walked in and asked her howshe was doing, and we spend
thirty minutes talking about her kids andsome stuff going along with them. And
then she looked up and she waslike, what did you come in here
(35:52):
for. I was like, it'sokay. She's like, I've had five
here today asking me asking that samequestion, and it was a generic response,
and she's like, you walked inand now I'm just like and I
was like, that's a blessing.If that's if that's one of my one
of my gift things. But whenI saw this question in the book,
I started doing that to like mydearest friends, my closest friends. I
(36:14):
was like, Okay, how how'syour spirit in this year, in this
season? That's the first question,and then the second question is what are
you currently loving either personally and orprofessionally? So ooh okay, so my
spirit, My spirit's pretty good.I feel like, you know, it's
(36:37):
spring. So finishing wedding season forme, So it's just been on.
It's been a lot of back toback to back to back to back weddings.
So I'm ready to kind of takea break for the summer and just
spend more time with family. Butmy my heart has been tugging me in
(37:04):
a little different direction. It's kindof pulling me towards telling more of my
story, supporting and cheering others on. I feel like I've I've spent so
much time learning and you know,learning different aspects of weddings and doing and
(37:28):
now I want to kind of givemy knowledge and help to others. And
that was one reason why I wasso excited to join. I've been a
part of your team for a longtime, let's be honest, but really
being able to a pretty much notonly as you know, a continued seeing
(37:52):
their planner, but you know,more of your head of team development,
which I'm so excited to really helptake some of our planners you know,
more under my wing and just teachthem, be there for them, just
cheer them on with with what they'redoing to you know, the betterment of
(38:15):
what they are doing outside of youknow, outside of planning, and then
how it will help our team,our weddings, our clients, things like
that. So I'm really I feellike my my brain is shifting, my
spirit is shifting to say I don'tI don't need to do all the things
(38:37):
I've done. I've done a lotof things, and now it's time to
give back, you know, andbe that mentor, be that friend to
to others. And you know,I've had some amazing mentors, you know,
in my path, and I justI hope I can be that mentor
(38:58):
to others who've kind of, youknow, just like they've helped me along
the way. So, uh,spirit is good, staying positive, trying
to get through the last month ofcrazy. And then I'm excited. What
am I excited about? I'm excitedabout spending more time with family. I
(39:23):
know, growing up fast they are. Isaiah literally just grew more than half
a foot in kindergarten. It iscrazy. He is almost as tall as
me and he's six. Not thatI'm like short short, but I'm sure
(39:44):
you're gonna be the shorty wop inyour house because John and the boys will
be right there. I'm pretty suresomeone's gonna be playing rugby because I hope.
I think it's gonna be James.He just looks like he's going to
be tackling somebody. He he will, He has that look. He hasn't
look at his eyes already. I'mlike, oh, okay, we're gonna
(40:06):
have to do a tackle sport foryou. But yeah, no, I'm
just I'm excited to you know,dig deeper on this, on this journey
of mentorship. And you know,we're trying to do a couple of things
with lux Bounds where we also mentor. I was able to get John to
agree to you know, some everyother week lives, so that's coming out
(40:31):
soon, just to talk about ourexperience. We're calling it Beyond the Bounce,
So we are going to be talkingabout just everything, like I really
want us to go deep with it, just about our relationship, about you
(40:52):
know, being a mom, beinga dad. You know, we both
have these big corporate jobs and we'rerocking out this business and you know,
at some point since you know,we are like ships in the night,
ships passing in the night, andyou know, really being able to talk
(41:13):
through all of all of that,because if we are going through this,
other people are and if no oneelse talks about it, how are you
supposed to work through it. Somepeople will, some people won't. And
I am definitely ready to share moreof my story because I have a lot
to tell. No, that's reallygood because I mean, you know,
(41:34):
you know this that at the retreatdu Wayne session was you know, supposed
to be all about luxury customer service, which he did get to that eventually,
but you know, just how theHoly Spirit works. They talked about
you know, working with spouses orhaving like your significant other, your partner
so be supportive and all that stuffand how that works. And you know,
(41:58):
we're definitely going to have so stayto because we're gonna have a podcast
story a podcast episode about that too, about just kind of watching them,
the support that he's given me allthese years, and how he officially joined
the company this year but YouTube forthe past three years have buckled down and
work together while raising a young familywhile working full time jobs. But you
know, we I truly I'm inthis season right now that uh we're gonna
(42:23):
hustle and work like no one elseworks now, provide the service and provide
you know, provide service and providelove and support to our clients like no
one else does it. So thatwe could live like no one else later,
Right, Like, there's that weall have and as families of color,
it's a beautiful thing. I thinkwe need to share more of our
(42:45):
stories because I think you know wherea lot of us are taught to not
like what happens in this house staysin this house. Nobody needs to hear
about it, but then we windup suffering in silence. Right, So,
like, if your story can helpanother couple not listen, let's be
really honest, not close the doorsof their business and not get divorced.
(43:06):
Yes, that's huge because people typicallyget divorced the majority of the time is
because of finances. It's not evenit's not even infidelity, it's the finances
they get people. So then youadd kids in the mix, and then
you add a business in the mixand all that other stuff, it becomes
a lot. It becomes a lot. So I am so proud of you
all, and we'll be tuning intothat. Thank you. Yes, So
(43:28):
tell the folks where they can findyou, how they can follow you,
and all that good stuff. Sure, so you can find me at lux
Bounds l u x E b OU n C. There we go.
Lux Bounds feel free to DM mecomments any questions, would love to would
(43:52):
love to help on your journey kindof wherever you are at with the planning
process. Yes, yes, yes, And she'll be at the twenty twenty
five becoming the business retreat for weddingplanners. She's actually is actually the lead
of the entire thing. Amen.She also she also will be one of
(44:15):
our coaches there that you'll be ableto ask the questions and you know,
any kind of business questions because asyou can imagine, she's had years of
being in business for herself and workingin different businesses. But Maria, thank
you so much. My friends.You know I love you from the bottom
of my heart. We will betogether for an entire week, so I'm
(44:38):
going love. We're going to bea tough conference and yeah, so I
love you, and thank you somuch everyone for listening. I'll see you
next week. Titters Big, whetheryou're kicks out of your business, you've
(45:04):
got to check out
Popular Podcasts
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!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.