Project Engaged

In Episode 22 we speak to hair and makeup artist Danee Bolan from Killer Queen creative who has built an amazing brand and network with her business Killer Queen Creative. Danee (originally from Perth but now in Melbourne) has always had a passion for hair and makeup. This was a side hustle for some time while she worked the 9-5 grind. After the birth of her first son, she decided to take her small business full time, re-brand and create a movement. Enter Killer Queen Creative! We speak to Danee about her branding and vibe and how she was able to jump into her business full time. As always, key takeaways are available at projectengaged.biz.

This week we have the pleasure of speaking with the man, the myth, the legend that is Yarra Valley based wedding photographer (and fellow podcaster), Michael Briggs (aka Briggsy). We cover Briggsy's journey of ditching the desk for a camera and how he took that leap into doing something he loves.

We ask him what he's been up to between lockdowns from a business perspective and chat to him about how he's automated his business to be as efficient with his time as possible.

He also chats to us about the biggest lessons he's learnt since he started wedding photography full-time and gives some advice to wedding photographers who are just starting out.

As always, key takeaways and useful links are available at projectengaged.biz.

In this episode we (Aleks and Eddy) chat about the top 5 lessons we've learnt from our stints in the "corporate world" and how we apply these to our wedding business, One More Song DJs.

In a nutshell, treat your business as if it were a large organisation or publicly listed company. Hold yourself to high standards and adopt the same professional practices as large successful businesses!

The lessons we chat about are as follows! Communication is key. Stand by your pricing and focus on value. Nurture your booked clients. Maintain your professional network. Be accountable.

We also chat about an upcoming presentation we are doing on Tuesday the 5th of October with the DJAA (for DJs and MCs) about staying relevant in a pandemic (or on the off season). For more info on this preso, be sure to hit out website projectengaged.biz!

This week we speak to Jeremy Robertshaw from Agility Digital about all things Search Engine Marketing (aka SEO). We've mentioned SEO a few times during our podcasts.

We kick things off by asking what SEO actually is and Jeremy takes us through some of the important things to consider when thinking about SEO for your business.

Jeremy also dishes out some "quick wins" gold that listeners can implement TODAY to make improvements to their web rankings!

Success with SEO is not something that happens overnight though, it takes time, work and patience. But once you start seeing results, it's hard not to get excited about its potential to help grow your business or side hustle!

Resources mentioned in this podcast (in no particular oder):

• Google My Business (for local business listing)
• Google Analytics (for data on your website visits)
• Google Keyword Planner (to research keywords that your potential clients may be searching for)
• Google Search Console (so Google can crawl your website once you drop a sitemap into it)
• Amazon Web Services (for super fast, local hosting)
• Hotjar (really helpful screen recordings of instances on your website).

As always, full episode takeaways can be found at projectengaged.biz.

In Episode 18 we chat to one of our lovely couples for our second "Couple Insights" episode!

We're very excited to be chatting to one of our lovely couples for our second "Couple Insights" episode!

Jelena (aka Jel) and Tim got married in what could only be described as a picture perfect wedding. Not only was it in 2019 BC (before COVID), but it was at the stunning Euroa Butter Factory on a warm summer's day and styled to absolute perfection!

Jel and Tim came to us through their planner and stylist Laura from Wanderlust Creative. We provided a brass trio as well as DJ (Aleks Mac) to cover music all day from pre-ceremony drinks right through to the final song. As it was quite early in the business, both Eddy and Aleks worked with the couple early in the process, with me taking over as their DJ. It was quite a long lead time as the guys were super organised and booked in their big ticket items early.

In this episode, we chat to them about how they planned their dream wedding, lessons learnt and any tips they have for suppliers!

Check out the full show notes at projectengaged.biz.

Large scale weddings with Colleen Haggarty from Showtime Event Group!

Episode 17 is our first venue interview! We are excited to welcome Colleen Haggarty, Wedding Producer at Showtime Event Group.

Showtime Event Group is one of Melbourne's leading event companies, with six fabulous wedding venues under its umbrella, including State Library Victoria, Cargo Hall, Rippon Lea Estate, Showtime Events Centre, and more.

We've worked with Colleen on State Library weddings and can tell you she's an absolute machine! A State Library wedding is a serious production and on the night you will see Colleen with her headset on, directing multiple staff and suppliers and getting more than her daily 10,000 steps in as there are a lot of large and grand spaces at the venue.

On this episode we get an inside look into how such a large operation works and some tips from Colleen for suppliers who'd like to work in venues like the State Library.

As always, you can check out the full show notes at projectengaged.biz.

How we conduct client discovery meetings for One More Song! We asked what you wanted to hear about and you answered!

In our latest episode, we (Aleks and Eddy) go in depth about the client discovery process (ie the initial chat/meeting we have with prospective couples).

What is it? Why and how do we do it? And what have we learned? We cover all of this in depth on this episode.

As always, check out the full episode notes on projectengaged.biz.

In Episode 15, we speak to Geelong based money mindset coach and speaker, Nicole Alesios. Nicole helps female service based business owners value and price their time accordingly and have easier money conversations, firstly with themselves and secondly, with their clients and prospects. She started her career in human resources and has worked with large and medium sized companies, C-suite executives, high net-worth individuals and entrepreneurs, across a number of sectors including publishing, utilities, pharmaceutical and property and well-being. She now consults privately and although she works with women-led businesses, we spoke to her about how everyone can identify and change their mindset around money. In this episode we share Eddy and Aleks' money personalities (hint: they're very different!) and how that affects mindset, and Nicole offers some tips for how to approach those difficult money conversations. We think this topic is especially important for wedding vendors as the pandemic has really challenged a lot of us financially and we've been thrown into having many uncomfortable money conversations. It's also made a lot of us think hard about what we're charging clients and the value we offer.

As always, be sure to check out the show notes at projectengaged.biz.

In Episode 14, we interview Melbourne based stylist and florist Lucy, who works under the business banners Styled By Varu and Flowers By Varu. Launched in 2017, Styled By Varu blends Lucy's floristry and design credentials with her more than 15 years' events experience and passion for delivering stunning, personalised weddings. Before starting her business, Lucy worked in a fast-paced events role in an exclusive 5-star Melbourne hotel for eight years. During this time, she saw first-hand a local wedding styling market saturated with overpriced services only accessible to a select few. So Lucy set about developing a boutique wedding styling service offering a high-quality service at an affordable price point. The following client review on Google says it all: "There is no doubt Lucy was our biggest support during the entire wedding process. She looks after everything! From offering much needed emotional support at times, to buying a last minute lock and wishing well for our big day, nothing was too much to ask. We are sure that our day only went smoothly because of Lucy's planning, guidance and expertise." Lucy gave some really interesting insights into wedding planning, floristry and styling, and how she works with clients to bring their dream vision to life! We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it! As always, you can check out the podcast page at projectengaged.biz.

In this episode, we chat about a super important issue in the wedding industry - inclusivity and how as a vendor, you can genuinely support marriage equality.

We interviewed Alex Ross, the founder and creator of Theodore magazine - formerly Mr Theodore - Australia's largest LGBTQI+ wedding guide dedicated to promoting the finest wedding suppliers who are supportive of marriage equality.

The guide has been around since 2015 and we've been a part of it since One More Song was established. Alex has been awesome to work with. He's a very savvy marketer and that definitely comes in handy when you're a supplier listing on Theodore.

What we love most is that Alex advocates for inclusivity in the wedding industry and makes it easy for LGBTQI+ couples to find their dream suppliers.

In this episode, Alex shares his deeply personal story about why he founded Theodore. We also chat with him about where Australia is at in terms of support for LGBTQI+ marriage and how to ensure that you're a truly inclusive wedding supplier.

Check out projectengaged.biz for all takeaways from this episode!