This Week in Weddings

Featuring Natalie Franke, co-founder of The Rising Tide Society, this episode of This Week in Weddings explores the movement of fostering community over competition and building your tribe.

About our guest: 

Natalie Franke Hayes is an entrepreneur, mobilization marketer, community builder, and neuroscience nerd. As one of the Founders of the Rising Tide Society and the Head of Community at HoneyBook, she leads tens of thousands of creatives and small business owners while fostering a spirit of community over competition. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two dogs, consumes copious amounts of coffee every day, and enjoys traveling to new cities with a camera in hand.

In this episode, listeners will hear about:

• The Rising Tide Society - what it is and how it started
• The new water cooler
• Creating a community of your peers
• Dealing with haters as your business grows bigger
• The importance of "showing up" for your friends and peers

Want to connect with Natalie?

Website: http://www.risingtidesociety.com/ and www.nataliefranke.com

Instagram: @risingtidesociety and @nataliefranke

Twitter: @risingtidesoc and @nataliefranke

Facebook: The Rising Tide Society and Natalie Franke Creative

Featuring photographer Stephen Karlisch, this episode of This Week in Weddings explores the longevity of a wedding business with a business owner of 19 years.

About our guest: 

Capturing the energy, emotion and elegance of some of the countries greatest events, Stephen Karlisch has seen it all from behind the lens. Savoring the moments as they come, and documenting them for future generations to enjoy, he has become part historian and part family member to clients who trust his vision, patience, and thoughtfulness with any situation. With over 17 years experience as a wedding photographer, and many more as a commercial and editorial photographer, Stephen has been widely recognized across the Country as one of the best choices for crafting a volume of honest imagery from any event.

Since branching out in 1998 with his wife Kristen to start Karlisch Photography, Stephen has traveled the world photographing hundreds of weddings and events. His work is often published, and he has been featured in Town & Country, Martha Stewart, D Weddings, and Modern Luxury, along with many more blog features and local publications.

In this episode, listeners will hear about:

• How the wedding industry has changed since Stephen started his business
• How technology has changed the wedding industry
• Staying fresh and relevant in a changing industry
• Industry conferences and other ways to build relationship

Want to connect with Stephen?

Website: http://karlischstudio.com/ and http://www.stephenkarlisch.com/

Instagram: @karlischstudio_weddings

Featuring Chef Mark McDaniel of ReMARKable Affairs Catering, this episode of This Week in Weddings explores using networking groups as a marketing strategy and referral source.

About our guest: 

Mark McDaniel has been in the restaurant and food industry over half his life. As someone always passionate about people, Mark consistently found himself around an environment in helping others. Mark perfected his service skills while learning from many great talents. 

Mark is the owner and executive chef of ReMARKable Affairs Catering and Café. For the last 15 years, Mark has focused on what has brought him this far: service, attention to detail and commitment. His clients most appreciate that Mark and his company is willing to and often does exceed their expectations.

In this episode, listeners will hear about:

• The ins and outs of networking groups
• Tips for one-on-one meetings
• Using networking groups as a referral source

Want to connect with Mark

Website: http://www.remarkableaffairs.com/

Facebook: @ReMARKableAffairsDallasCatering

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (972) 849-0624

Featuring attorney Betsy Butwin of Bernick Lifson, this episode of This Week in Weddings explores the various types intellectual property (such as a trademarks, service marks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets), and the importance of implementing them in your business. 

About our guest: 

Betsy Butwin is an experienced Minnesota intellectual property attorney with Bernick Lifson. She works with business and corporate clients in the wedding and event, music, scientific, technology, marketing, branding, arts, literary and additional creative industries.She helps entrepreneurs launch their businesses, draft and negotiate contracts, and protect, manage, and license their intellectual property. Betsy really enjoys her many opportunities for public speaking on legal topics to various creative communities as well as the legal community.

Prior to moving back home to Minneapolis to practice law, she worked for record labels in New York City, including Atlantic Recording Corporation and E1 Music (formerly, Koch Records) and clerked for a large music industry law firm in Los Angeles.

In her spare time, Betsy enjoys spending time with her family and friends, exploring the Twin Cities ever-evolving restaurant scene, and seeing live music. 

In this episode, listeners will hear about:

• The five types of intellectual property
• Why protecting your intellectual property is important for an established business
• The process of applying for a trademark or service mark
• The importance of monitoring and defending your intellectual property
• Securing a trademark or service mark before you're ready to use the mark
• Renewing a mark

Want to connect with Betsy?

Instagram @bernicklifson_ip / Facebook: Bernick Lifson / Website: http://www.bernicklifson.com/ / Email: [email protected] / Phone: (763) 546-1200

Featuring Alan Berg, speaker, author and sales consultant to the wedding industry, this episode of This Week in Weddings discusses sales techniques for the wedding industry.

About our guest: 

Alan Berg has been called “The Leading International Speaker and Expert on the Business of Weddings & Events”. He’s presented in 11 countries, and is the wedding and event industry’s only Certified Speaking Professional®, the highest earned designation for a professional speaker, an honor less than 800 Global Speakers Federation members have achieved.

Alan’s 25+ years of industry experience includes publishing 2 wedding magazines, 11 years at The Knot, most as Vice President of Sales and Education, and now, as a consultant and Education Guru for WeddingWire, the leading wedding technology company. He also speaks and consults for websites in Ireland, the U.K., India and Dubai.

Alan is the author of the books “If your website was an employee, would you fire it?,” “Your Attitude for Success”, and the new, and much anticipated sales book “Shut Up and Sell More Weddings & Events!”

In this episode, listeners will hear about:

• Best practices for selling your products and services
• The right questions to ask during a consultation
• Why customers ask about price first
• Showing pricing on your website
• The importance of asking for the sale
• Tips for closing the sale on the spot
• http://www.wedinsights.com 

Want to connect with Alan?

On the web: https://alanberg.com/

Facebook: Personal - https://www.facebook.com/alanberg1/ Business - https://www.facebook.com/AlanBergspeaker/

Twitter: @alanberg

Instagram: @alanberg

Alan's books and products: http://shopalanberg.com/

Featuring Jolie Oree-Bailey, owner of catering company Low Country Quisine, this episode of This Week in Weddings discusses the challenges and best practices for building a team of employees.

About our guest: 

Enjolik “Chef Jolié” Oree-Bailey began noticing that all social event invitations extended to her were prefaced with, "Can you make that shrimp salad" or "Can you make us macaroni and cheese?" These requests began to make her question whether it was her company that was welcome or her dishes!

In 2007, Jolié finally decided it was time to succumb to her heart’s passion, thus Low Country Quisine by Jolie' Ramize was born! Fast forward to today, Low Country Quisine is celebrating 7 years in business with growth year over year, recently doubling the size of their commercial kitchen, adding 5 new full-time employees in 2015 and has become an industry-leading caterer well-known for their authentic approach to Upscale Southern Comfort Food. Today, Low Country Quisine specializes in catering for Weddings, Social, and Corporate Events in the Dallas Metroplex and surrounding areas. Low Country Quisine has been awarded Wedding Wire’s Couple’s Choice, as well Best of The Knot award.

Before settling in a culinary career, Chef Jolié celebrated several corporate successes including serving as a Market Manager for a Marketing Promotions Company, Co-Owner of a fashion show production company in Atlanta, GA/ Dallas, TX, and Top Performing Sales Executive for two Fortune 500 companies. In all these feats, nothing gives her as much satisfaction as creating new recipes and bringing her client’s visions full circle.

In this episode, listeners will hear about:

• How defining your company's mission and vision is a critical first step in hiring
• Tips for finding great employees using your current staff
• Interviewing processes
• Providing constructive criticism to your team

Want to connect with Jolie?

On the web: http://www.lowcountryquisine.com/

Instagram: @chef_jolie_lowcountryquisine

Featuring Julian Leaver, owner of The Dapper Diplomat, this episode of This Week in Weddings discusses basic principals of etiquette for the event industry, including before, during, and after an event.

About our guest: 

Julian Leaver is the owner of The Dapper Diplomat. Certified as a Wedding Planner through the American Association of Certified Wedding Planners and as a Certified Protocol Officer through The Washington School of Protocol his firm focuses on celebrations, etiquette and style worldwide. 

He is the former Area Director of Catering Sales and Events for Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek and Rosewood Crescent in Dallas, Texas. His 13 year career in hospitality, event planning and etiquette have touched every facet of the industry from luxury hotels to corporate etiquette training to large scale wedding & event production. 

In his spare time Julian enjoys traveling and volunteers his time to charitable organizations such as The Birthday Party Project, The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Dallas Museum of Art and The Lee Park Junior Conservancy. 

In this episode, listeners will hear about:

• Etiquette with other vendors
• Etiquette on-site at an event
• Post-event etiquette
• Social media etiquette

Want to connect with Julian?

On the web: www.julianleaver.com

Instagram: @julianleaver

Featuring Lauren Kitchens, owner of Fancy Cakes by Lauren, this episode of This Week in Weddings discusses the process of managing a wedding business during the personal struggle of divorce.

About our guest: 

Dallas wedding industry bakery owner, Food Network champion, international cake instructor, veteran on-line cake instructor, inventor of her personal line of cake tools, and public speaker… Lauren Kitchens has done it all.

In 2002, she founded Fancy Cakes by Lauren Kitchens, a boutique wedding cake bakery in Dallas, and quickly became the most sought-after cake artist in the North Texas wedding market.  With over 500 clients a year, she and her small staff of artists design each cake to the clients’ needs, from elegant wedding cakes to mind-blowing sculpted designs.

Lauren was a competitor and multiple gold medal winner on the popular Food Network Challenge TV show, where one of her winning cakes was hailed by the judges as “The best cake ever made on Food Network.”

Though her success and mastery of her craft has made her one of the most popular cake artists in the world, it’s her unique personality and warm, creative spirit that she brings to the table when meeting with each of her clients.

In this episode, listeners will hear about:

• Keeping your business afloat when you're going through personal struggles
• Meeting with happy brides and grooms while going through divorce
• Using your business to keep and grow your confidence

Want to connect with Lauren?

On the web: www.fancycakesbylauren

Instagram: @fancycakesbylauren

Featuring Nikki Nuckols, owner of Doodle Dog Creative, this episode of This Week in Weddings discusses website basics and design for the wedding industry.

About our guest: 

Iowa girl turned Texan, Nikki Nuckols, started boutique Design and Development agency, Doodle Dog Creative after working at various corporate ad agencies as a designer, project manager and marketing strategist. 

Starting in 2010 as a one-woman-show, Doodle Dog was born to help small businesses find their brand personalities, design identities and create effective websites. Today, Doodle Dog consists of a team of dedicated designers, programmers and strategist who have launched nearly 300 small business websites and brands and who come to work every day to create personality filled design, packed full of purpose.

Nikki, her husband Tommy, their two children Colton and Olivia and their giant husky dog, Ringo can be found anywhere where there is sunshine, music, and cold beer. 

In this episode, listeners will hear about:

• The must-have pages for a wedding industry website
• The biggest mistakes wedding entrepreneurs make with their websites
• The average investment for having a website created
• SEO basics

Want to connect with Nikki?

On the web: www.doodledog.com 

Instagram:@doodledoginsta

Featuring Sam Jacobson, owner of Ideaction Consulting, this episode of This Week in Weddings discusses the four types of struggling points of growing businesses.

About our guest: 

Sam Jacobson gets results for solopreneurs, small-business owners and emerging nonprofits with Ideaction Consulting. He focuses on directly applying best-practice models to getting things done for his clients, rather than just telling them what others have done to get better or how to find an improved work-life balance.   Before striking out on his own, Sam led Todd Events as the Director of Operations for two years in the luxury markets of Dallas and Houston, Texas. Prior to that role, he directed lodging and event operations for Roche Harbor Resort on San Juan Island in Washington for nearly a decade.

In this episode, listeners will hear about:

• Sam's four personas for businesses - Starting, Struggling, Stuck, and Stretched
• The characteristics of each stage
• What you can do to get out of the stage you're in

Want to connect with Sam?

On the web: www.ideactionconsulting.com 

Instagram:@ideactionconsulting / Facebook: Ideaction Consulting / Twitter: @ideactionconsul

Medium: www.medium.com/@ideactionconsul