Join us as we talk through the strategies that have helped Ashley Allan and Meagan Pinney, co-founders of Your Jubilee, build a strong and supportive team culture in the wedding industry.

As successful wedding planners and co-founders of Your Jubilee, Ashley and Meagan have not only mastered the craft of creating unforgettable wedding experiences but have also developed a thriving team by leveraging innovative strategies, including the use of internships as a training and hiring pipeline for emerging wedding professionals.

Join us as we explore the dynamics of company retreats, effective communication, and the power of constructive feedback in building a supportive and cohesive team environment.

We'll uncover how these elements, along with their unique approach to internships, contribute to a harmonious workplace and, ultimately, exceptional wedding events.

Whether you're looking to enhance your team's performance, foster a genuine sense of community, or discover new ways to recruit and train top talent, this episode is packed with valuable insights.

Highlights:

• A deep dive into how Ashley and Meagan use internships as a key strategy to train and hire new talent in the wedding industry.
• Insightful discussions on the value of company retreats and their role in team bonding.
• Real-life examples of how positive feedback and appreciation uplift team morale.
• Tips on navigating communication challenges and building buy-in among team members.
• The impact of culture on employee retention and overall business success.
• How to use tools like Timeline Genius and Chat GPT to streamline your wedding planning processes.
• Personal anecdotes and future plans, including a trip to Paris and hosting workshops for creatives.

Connect with Ashley & Meagan

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Connect with Kevin:

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Fantasy Sound

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Welcome to mind your wedding business podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Dennis. In addition to leading the charge at Weddingiq, I also run fantasy sound event Services, a lighting and entertainment company based in Livermore, California, that I founded over 35 years ago. Each week on this podcast, you'll hear thought provoking and empowering interviews with wedding professionals who have found success in the industry. If you're a business minded wedding pro who loves love but also cares about their bottom line, buckle up and get ready to learn from a new industry expert each week. All right, folks, welcome to the next episode of mind your wedding business. We have Ashley Allen and Megan Penny. Did I say it right, Megan?

Yes, you did.

Perfect. All right, so tell me about, first off, like, how did you guys get into the wedding industry? And then secondly, how did you two become one?

Yeah, well, so it's kind of. Both of those things are kind of combined. So, Megan and I have known each other since college. We both went to northern Arizona University up in Flagstaff. And if you haven't been there, it's a beautiful town. Highly recommend. And we were in the same sorority in college, stayed friends, and after graduation, I went on to work in public relations and eventually nonprofit events.

And I went into corporate and corporate event planning in, like, the fashion realm.

Oh, yeah.

And then over happy hour one day, we were sitting there complaining about our jobs, you know, like you do at happy hour, and we just thought, like, we could be doing this for ourselves. And we knew that we loved the event space, and we felt like we were being drawn to weddings. But at the beginning, we were doing really, any kind of events big on the bar mitzvah scene for a hot second.

Oh, wow.

And. But after a couple of years, we. We definitely decided that weddings were where we wanted to be. And so we focused all of our. Our time and intention there.

Perfect. Now, just out of curiosity. Cause I don't know why I'm curious. So you guys are more based in. Is it Scottsdale or Phoenix or.

Yeah. So, our office is in Scottsdale, Arizona, but that's where the bulk of our business is. But we do travel a. All across. Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, if I'm getting married in Scottsdale, am I local or am I from out of the area?

Great question. I would say about 70% of our clients actually don't live in Arizona. Oh, that's only about 30% of them do. But Scottsdale has one of the long. Well, Arizona in general has one of the longest wedding seasons. Um, so we really do weddings from pretty much the end of September, which is still a little hot, in my opinion, um, until the end of May.

Well, I'll one up you there, because in California, we go year round. We don't stop, so.

You wild? Yeah, it gets too hot this time here. You do not want to get married in Arizona.

No.

Yeah. So then what? Just out of curious. So what is your business like, this time of year?

We call it like a rest time, but it's not really. We were actually just talking about this this morning. You know, June, July, and August. We typically don't take any weddings just because it's pretty miserable and we don't want to be working. Um, so we use that time to, like, focus on our business and get caught up on all the things that we haven't been doing for nine months.

Yeah.

So it's. We're busy in the sense we're doing all the planning for the fall and the, the following spring. Um, we're doing all of the admin stuff behind the scenes, any brand revamp.

Stuff, team building activities, for sure.

But we're not doing events.

Yeah, I just. I think that's a great thing because, like, we were just talking about that here at my office. It's like we were. Someone was talking about workcations. Like, you go away and do a little vacation, but it's a, you know, but you're working on redoing the website, you know, whatever it may be. And it's because we don't have time to do that. I'm like, I think we need to implement that. And we were talking about doing it at Disneyland, of all places.

Cause we're kind of Disney freaks around here.

We did our retreat, our team retreat last year at Disneyland.

So it was very magical kind of.

Middle for us, I feel like. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Anyway, all right, so we're here to talk about a community driven team. So what is a community driven team?

Well, for us, that means a lot of things. One, it's, of course, the actual team that we are building here at your jubilee. But it's also the team of creatives that we work with on all of our weddings. So we just, as a company and as individuals, are very community driven in general. And so we really look at, you know, a people first mentality and a community first mentality in really everything that we do.

And we're both local to Arizona. Like, we're both natives. And so, like, we really love when we can pull in, like, local vendors to our weddings, and we love and trust and not only have, like, a good relationship with us, but create a good relationship with the couple and we know the product's gonna be amazing and then it's just like supporting that, like local and spreading around that local love too.

Perfect. Like, how often do you have to go outside of your area, just out of curiosity?

Honestly, Phoenix Scottsdale is like a big, small town, so the wedding community is pretty small. I think there's a lot of things in the Phoenix market that we can't exactly get that you might be able to get in San Francisco area or laden Chicago, even Las Vegas. And so sometimes when we're doing some of those larger scale events, we do have to pull in product or people from Vegas or LA to get the scale that we're looking for.

All right. Makes sense. And I was going to ask, where do you go from? Or where do you pull from? And the LA and Vegas do make the most sense, so. All right, cool. How does company culture play a role in the success of your business and employees?

Oh, I think it's like, it's number one paramount. Yeah. Like, we work. So, like, when we started the company, it was Ashley and I hustling, just like a lot of entrepreneurs, but, like, hustling so hard working multiple weddings a weekend, back to back multiple wedding weekends in a row. And we just got to a point where we were like, we can't do this anymore, just us two. And so we slowly started bringing on interns and creating it and creating an internship that was really focused around, like, not just your Jubilee weddings, but the wedding industry in Arizona. So we could show them different aspects of the industry so they could see if they really love planning or maybe they really love catering our rentals or flat florals or whatever it is. And that has helped us get the people that do really love planning and love working with us and love servicing our clients and, like, I don't know.

Yeah, I think honestly, our internship program has been a huge piece of our success and it's something that kind of was birthed out of us having terrible internships.

True.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. So I always tell people I was an intern right after college for a fashion pr company in London, which sounds like super cool.

Yeah, it sounds awesome.

Oh, my gosh, that's amazing. No, it was terrible. It was like one of the worst experiences not being in London. I loved living there part, but the actual working part was one of the worst experiences I've had in my life because I didn't learn anything and they didn't respect that I could learn things. It was very like they just needed a body to do a job, and that job was scanning in clothing and scanning out clothing. And, you know, I wasn't paid to. To do what essentially, like, a factory worker would be doing. And then I made tea in the afternoons, and it was never very good.

But from that experience, I knew that it's really hard to get into the wedding industry, especially into wedding planning, without experience. And you can't really get experience without already having experience. So how do you do it outside of, like, just starting on your own? Which, you know, when we first got into it, we were like, okay, well, maybe we can, like, shadow some people or do some things, but, like, in general, people kind of keep things close to the vest and don't necessarily want to share their secrets when they know that you're trying to start your own company.

Yeah.

And so we kind of wanted to just break away from that. And, you know, nothing that we're doing is rocket science, you know, very much open books. Yeah, we're not curing cancer over here. We're planning weddings. And so we wanted to break away from that and create something that would be a launchpad for people into the wedding industry. And so our internship program has really been that for us, and it's helped us build an incredible team of people that are molded exactly how we want.

Them in the YJ way is what we call it.

But also, it's given a funnel of people that maybe aren't the right fit for us or don't love wedding planning into the wedding industry in general. So we have past interns that are working for venues now that are working for dress shops, that are doing social media and advertising and marketing for the wedding industry. All kinds of different avenues, but they figured out what they loved because they got to see so many different things through our internship.

And then how quickly, like, once you have an intern working for you guys, like, how quickly can you identify they're not going to be a fit of. For the y. What is it, the YJ way?

The YJ way? Yeah.

Such a good question almost right away.

Yeah, yeah.

After the very first wedding, they work with us. You kind of. You can see if they have, like, the it factor, because, like Ashley said, what we're doing is not rocket science, but there's a lot of common sense, there's a lot of hustle, there's a lot of drive, being able to speak clearly and sometimes not aggressively. What? 01:00 a.m. i.

Looking for command the room.

Thank you. And, like, get people to listen to you and do what you're asking them to do is a lot, and especially for some of these interns are still in college. They weren't. And we kind of throw them into it, and we tell them that during the interview process, like, we do a lot of training, but on wedding days, it's like, go, go, go, and we throw you into it, and we want to see how you react to the situations. And then we kind of give feedback in the moment or feedback right after the wedding. So I think almost right away.

Yeah, yeah. We always say, like, if we don't want to be stuck in an airport with somebody.

Yeah.

They're probably not the right fit, because I can teach you how to do a timeline. I can teach you the basics of design, but I can't teach you how to be a personable person.

How to hold a conversation.

Yeah. How to hold a conversation and how to command a room.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's. Because that's. I mean, you got to think about it with these. You guys are with these, you know, the families with the bride, the couple, the bride and groom or whoever. And it's. It's a stressful moment, you know, that those moments before the wedding and someone didn't show up when they wanted to be, and so you got to be a therapist and, you know, like, you know everything to these people, you know, as far as, you know, on that day of. So it's a really difficult thing.

You know, I always admire, I have, in my area, I have wedding planners I love, and then wedding planners that are always like, the hair on the back of my neck goes up when I'm like, oh, we're working with that one because they make our lives harder. So it's. I always respect the ones that make our lives. You know, your job is to make our lives easier. Everyone, the couple, totally. The vendor team and everyone, but not, not make it, not cause the drama. And so that's.

And I think that that goes back to, like, our community driven focus is for us, we see the wedding day as a team. Like, we might be the project manager, but we need every single person on the team to be performing at their top level for us to create the end product that we're trying to create, which is ultimately like, a happy couple. Right. And so we want people to do what they do and do it well. Well, so we try not to. We want to get all the information in advance so that we can let you, like, do your thing, and we're just there if you need support.

Yeah.

Well, and, cuz, excuse my phrase, shit does happen, you know, on the day of. And it just. That's a good wedding professional is gonna be able to, you know, diffuse the situation quickly and handle it and move forward. And the ones that don't drive, those are the ones that put the hair on the back of my neck. Anyway. All right, so moving on to why is it important to have company culture when you have a small team, you know, instead of just having one person? So why is that culture so important?

Well, I think culture starts from one person, right? As soon as you bring one person onto the team, you are already creating the culture of your business. And I think, again, I don't know. I've been talking a lot, but I think that I've had a lot of not great work experiences before starting my own business. And it taught me so much because it taught me who I didn't want to be. And for us, our company culture is really about, like, we're trying to create a family, because wedding planning is hard.

Wedding days are hard.

Wedding days are hard. Working with couples that you love and couples that maybe you don't love for sometimes 18 months is taxing, and you need people that you can vent to. You need people that will support you. You need people that understand you well enough so that, like, when you're on a wedding day and maybe, you know, the stuff in your personal life is hitting the fan, and you just need to be able to say, like, things aren't great for me today, and that person can step in and be the support that you need to be able to get through all the hard. That is a wedding day. Yeah. So, yeah, I think for us, it, like, it started with the very first hire that we brought on. Like, we had.

We sat down and had a conversation of, you know, what do we want this to look like, and how do we want. How do we want the employee to feel as a part of our team? And then. And we continue to have that conversation, I think, like, constantly.

Culture as well. Like, if you have a good company culture and a good company environment, they stay on the. On the company, on the team. Right. The teams that we see that have this constant, like, turnover in the industry, like, you kind of question, like, what's going on? What's happening there? Like, are their clients being taken care of if their team's not actually being. Being taken care of? I think it kind of raises some questions, and not, the clients may not necessarily see that, but the wedding industry does. And again, it's wanting our community to, like, want to work with us, respect us. And, you know, when a bride's like, oh, I'm talking to your jubilee, they're like, oh, my God, your jubilee is the best.

Hire them. You know, and that all stems from.

And then it puts the client at ease, and it puts, you know, the venue or whoever that they're talking to at ease. You know, like, if it's a photographer or whoever, it's just like, oh, yeah, yeah. I always. I have a bad joke, but I think there's a lot of truth in my bad joke is you want, like, I always consider a wedding like a war, and you want to go to battle with all the people that you trust and that, you know, get through. So, I don't know. I always. Yeah, that's right. There you go.

You've even made it even better because I've never, I've never been able to bring it. Like, war and wedding. How's that? How does that go? Like, thinking of culture, like, what are things that businesses can do to, like, you know, create a culture, identify the culture, implement a culture, any of that stuff? Because that's all seems hard to do.

Yeah, totally.

I actually think it's easier than most people think. I think the biggest part is to be intentional about what you're trying to create. If you don't have purpose behind the things that you're doing, especially internally, I think it's really hard to maintain a direction. So one of the things that we kind of review every couple of years is, like, what are our core values? And have any of those core values changed? I mentioned, for us, one of those things is people first, and that stems to our team. So, like, how can we make sure that our team is supported? How can we make sure that they're always learning and they're expanding and growing, and how can we make sure that they always feel supported and taken care of? And then also our clients, like, what can we be doing to make their experience better without putting more on our team but creating a better overall experience? And then, of course, our vendor teams, like, how can we be making their experience better? I think it's a common question, but maybe it's not. But what could we be doing to make your experience working with us better? That's something that we ask a lot of our venues and a lot of the vendors that we work with consistently, and we really take those things to heart and implement them.

Yeah. And do you ask for the good, bad and ugly? I mean, yeah. Yeah.

We're also not afraid to share the good, bad, ugly.

Yeah.

For sure.

And I think that's important because I have a few venues that, you know, that my. I work at, and they're always like, can you give me your honest feedback on a. You know, it could be food, it could be a new hire. It could. And I feel like I am trusted in the fact that I. If I give it, you know, it goes a long way. You know, like, I become a trusted advisor because I'm working behind the scenes. You know, they're not there on the battle day, you know, the wedding day, you know, the upper management, they're always gone.

So that when I'm giving them that feedback, it's really important because there's a venue that I work at a lot that is not as much fun to work at anymore because of COVID and because of turnover, they just don't have that. That team in place, and they haven't been able to implement the culture that used to be there before. And it.

Yeah, I think, yeah, like, along those lines, sometimes it's, like, time. They don't have the time to implement the culture again because of COVID and because of the turnover in people and, like, they're just. There's so much catching up to some companies and people are still doing from COVID I feel like, for us and our company, we're finally, like, leveling out after Covid so we can put more time back into our team and the culture of our team. And every summer since it's our, you know, off season, non event season, we do have our team retreat every summer. That's a lot of fun, but a lot of training and retraining and, like, circling back to our company cultures with our team and, like, hearing them out, too, and, like, what we can be doing better, what they want to be doing, all those kind of things.

Yeah, I think it's really easy to put company culture on the back burner, but then when you do that, you end up having to work really hard to get it back. And so, I don't know. I think, genuinely, it's something that I'm thinking about weekly, like, how can I be supporting our team? And I wanted to go back to feedback a little bit because I think a common misconception about creating a positive company culture is that you can't provide feedback. And I've actually. I think we've found that giving people honest feedback and also, like, steps for improvement actually cultivate a much stronger culture, because not only if they take your words and act on them, they become better at what they're doing. But they also trust you and giving them negative feedback, but then also saying, hey, I know that we talked about this and I can see that you're working on it, I think goes a long way. I also love that our team tends to, when they get feedback, they reach out to somebody else on the team that they know is doing well at that thing, and they get individual coaching. It just warms my heart all the time.

You hear that, like, you know, one of our team members has gone out to lunch with the other one to talk about x, Y and Z just because they feel supported by that person. And I think, like, those are the things that I'm proudest of with our company. Like, we've grown, we've done all these things, but the culture that we've built is probably what I'm the most proud of. Yeah.

The team relationships, for sure. Yeah. And I came from a company that was very much, like, goal oriented and feedback. And feedback in the moment. Like, my last job before I left it to fully dive into your jubilee, and it was so much part of the culture of that company, and it was a very good experience for me. And I brought a lot from that to your jubilee, that if you didn't share your feedback in the moment and you came back a day or two later, it was like, well, too bad. Like, you. You have to share your feedback within that moment to really get the growth for yourself and that person.

And so we try to give feedback as much as possible, as soon as possible, so that we all can grow. And it's hard, too, especially for our team. Yeah, exactly. Because something wasn't originally even all about.

Yeah, yeah.

And next thing you know, you're upset or someone's upset with you, and I'm like, why didn't you ever tell us that?

Yeah, exactly.

My delivery driver parked in a spot that he wasn't supposed to park in, and, you know, like, I can't correct the behavior unless I know what's going on in the moment, you know?

Yeah. And we do the same thing on wedding days. Like, I've. You know, I've had a vendor that snapped at me for no reason, and I've said, okay, let's take a breath for a minute. Can we just talk? Like, what's going on? Like, are you okay?

Yeah. Because it wasn't necessarily something we did. It was just, obviously, this is a very intense industry. Lots of emotions and things build up week after week, and then finally, sometimes there's a snapping point and, you know, we may get it because we're the planner. But, like, let's just take a breath, talk it out and how can we fix it?

The thing is, I think there's always time. It's like prioritizing self care. You have to prioritize, like, care for your business and care for the people that you're collaborating with.

Yeah, yeah. It's so true. Because it won in. The self is so important. You got to take care of yourself, and then. And then the business comes a long way, so.

Totally.

I don't know why, but I kept thinking of the scene in wedding singer where he starts freaking out after the girlfriend breaks up with him and he does the wedding. I don't know why when you guys are saying that all that scene in the movie just came in there. Because I always joke, if anything bad happens to me, I'll be the wedding singer yelling at everyone. Anyway. All right, so we've talked about culture implementing it, and then, so now we have. And we talked about, you got to do it right away. But what if someone doesn't fix the behavior? Or, like, how do we get them to step back in line? Oh, they're out of here. Okay.

No, I'm just kidding.

Not even one strike.

It's like, well, I think the first thing is, I don't know, for me, as a leader of a business or a leader in even the wedding community, I'm always looking at like, okay, what could I have done differently to create a different outcome? So if I've given somebody feedback or I've said something and they either didn't take it well or they aren't implementing or whatever the case may be, like, okay, so either I didn't communicate the way that they need to be communicated to.

Yeah.

Or something. There's some kind of an external factor that I am not aware of because I know that the feedback that I'm giving is from a positive place. It's from a place of wanting them to succeed. It's from a place of wanting them to grow. So that means for me usually to go back to that person and say, hey, I know we talked about this, but it's not happening. So what can we do to fix that?

I think the biggest thing in, the hardest thing within that is communication. Like, with our team and with vendors. Like, communication is so tough. No one reads anything. No one, you know, everyone, the half listens because we're all so busy. So I think it's like, really trying to connect with the different communication styles of people on our team. And even, like, now, the different generational gaffes that we have, you know? So I think, like, communication, everyone says communication is key, but it really is as cheesy as that.

Yeah. And then I think it's also creating buy in. If you tell somebody, hey, if you do this, then you get this. But they don't care about the end result. They're not engaged to do whatever that thing is. But if they create, hey, this is what I want as the end result. Okay, great. This is what you need to do to get there.

I think then they're more empowered to take the steps to do whatever it is. And so, I don't know. That's one of the things that we are always looking at with our team is like, hey, what would incentivize you guys to take more weddings or to do X, Y and Z? And we get the feedback from them and then we look at, okay, well, what's realistic for us? Great, let's do that. Because without their buy in, we can throw whatever we want at them. But if they don't care, then it doesn't matter.

Yeah.

Then does this all happen? You mentioned your. Your company retreat that you guys do in the summer? Like, is that all the time?

Big chunk of it, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

We do periodic check ins with our team. So we do, like, we do a survey usually twice a year, that has to do with our most valuable Jubilee. We call our team members jubilees so everybody can vote on who they think has been the most valuable on their team. On the team for the year. What we call it MVJ.

MVJ. Yeah.

And then that person gets, like, some kind of a big prize. Last year, they got their trip to Disney taken care of.

Oh, nice.

Some amazing spa day at one of our local luxury resorts. Yeah.

Yeah. So we try to like. And also the entire team has voted for that person. So we do things like that. We check in, you know, when we notice that, like, things are slowing down, we're like, team, what are your thoughts? We try to really have a collaborative experience overall for the team because we do want them to be bought into not just their clients and. And that, but we want them to be bought into your jubilee. And we want them to feel like the company's wins are also their wins.

You get by them. All right, so your company retreat that you go on, how long and where do you decide who gets to decide where we get to go, what's discussed?

So we usually make the decisions on, like, how long and where we go.

Okay.

And there's always a theme as well. So we could talk as well.

Okay. That's fun.

Like your sorority days. Kind of reliving a little bit.

There you go.

So, yeah, so we've been to. Where's it? Payton or pine top?

Pine top.

Pintop, Arizona. We've done Scottsdale. We did Disneyland. We've done. There was Covid years that we just did at my house, but. So it just depends. Depends on the year and season.

Yeah. We've talked about doing a cruise. We've talked about going to Mexico. We've talked about, you know, potentially.

And we do have to ask our team, like, what's realistic for them and their life and their lifestyles and, like, how much time they can take off for it or whatever it looks like.

But usually it's about two and a half days.

Okay.

And it's a mix of training on any, like, new programs or new things. We spend some time usually on self development as well, so usually something about, like, mindfulness or managing anxiety or stress management or time management, all that stuff. And then there's also, like, a fun component. So for the last, what? Three years?

Three years has been a thorndier.

Three years we've been doing a lip sync battle, and it gets very competitive. So, you know, the whole team waits for our announcement of the theme, which this year is YJ two k. Oh.

So we're doing want to live to two k again?

Yeah, it's like coming back. Anyway, so.

So we announced that. We announced the who the lip sync teams are.

Yeah, it's a full on competition and things like that, too, like help bond to bring our team together. We have some new assistants on our team this year that we're excited that they can all be at the retreat. We're doing it locally again this year because our team is kind of changing and shifting, and we've brought some new people on. So every year after the retreat, we just kind of re energize and feel like a family again. And where these newer people on our team can really, like, be, I don't know, initiated, integrated, not initiated. That's a better.

Well.

Or they feel comfortable having to see the table, you know, like, yeah.

And then on wedding days and everything, it's just a more cohesive team. We all feel comfortable with each other. We can get things done and say things quickly to one another without having to be like. I always tell my team at my timeline meeting, this is my please and thank you on wedding day. We're getting stuff done. If you don't hear me say it, it's all out of love. It's just getting things done.

Yep.

But then we all feel comfortable within that space.

Now, have you ever brought in an outside professor? We did it one year. We brought out an outside professional to come run our retreat. Have you ever done that before?

No, not our full retreat. Yeah, we have brought in people before to do, like, training on specific things. Okay, so, like, we've brought in. We actually. Let's see. Two years ago, we brought in a yoga and meditation specialist.

Oh, okay.

Do some coaching on that. We've brought in someone to talk about sales before.

Goal setting.

Goal setting.

So different aspects of our retreat, yes. But full retreat, no.

Yeah, it was kind of crazy. Well, you. Sydney Novotny. So we. So we hired Sidney for Cindy for the year, and she. Part of it was the retreat, but then she created. I don't know, she created the Ritz Carlton credo. She was part of that.

And so she. That's one of the things she does with all the companies, is she creates the, you know, like a. Like a credo for yourselves. And with the pillar, like, you mentioned all that kind of stuff. And it was amazing because she started working with us, and within, like, a. An hour of her being there, she looked at me, she goes, that person does not belong here, and they don't not be working for you anymore. And it's. Sure enough, it's within, like, after she said it, the person fought her all the way through, and I was like, we got to get rid of that.

You know, like. And I was just like, that person was very good at doing what they needed to do, but wasn't bought into the culture. And I think that goes a long way because it's like, they're not implementing or drinking the Kool aid or doing everything that we need to do. And then they are the sour. You know, the sour grapes or the sour apples to all the other employees. And I don't know why at the time, I wasn't recognizing it, but it took her to. I always joke, she came in and shook us up and turned us upside down. And so it was the most true, though.

We've definitely had people that have joined our team for a short amount of time, and, you know, we kind of got the feeling that, oh, they're. We knew they're not going to stay, and, you know, they found their way off of the team. But I think, for the most part, like, our retreat really helps us bond, and I think it does do that filtering thing on its own a little bit because, you know, since we do this lip sync battle, they do have to get together with their teams and, like, practice. And, I mean, it's very competitive. Like, there's costumes, drops, there are props. It is very intense, and it's like the greatest night of the year to me. But there's practices leading up to that, and there's the development of the teamwork that it requires to pull it off. And then the fact that everybody is cheering and just dying for one another as they're performing, there's just a lot of bonding that happens there.

And so I highly recommend do something cheesy and ridiculous and you'll have a great time.

That sounds, I don't know, with maybe a couple cocktails, and I would be.

Well, yeah, she's not sober during this.

I don't know if I could do it sober. So, anyway, so we kind of. Kind of touched on it. But how do you feel the culture, like, reply, like, for employee retention? Like, what does that have to do? You know, like, having a good culture, a bad culture, you know, I mean.

I feel like if you have a good company culture, your employees want to stay and they want to help you grow. They want to. They want to grow. They want to lead other people and, like, the next generation of jubilees, I think it's like, yeah, again, it's.

Well, and I also think culture trickles down. So whoever's the top of a business, like, whatever you're putting out is what everybody else is picking up. And so, I mean, there's been plenty of times where, you know, I've been in a bad mood, and Megan's like, ashley, you need to check yourself. Like, take a minute, go outside, breathe, and then come back and we have the mutual respect for one another that we can do that for each other, and I think our team does, too. But if she were to allow me to have, like, a negative attitude, then the whole team's gonna have a negative attitude. And I think that that's true in, like, a. In a bigger way, too. If you're constantly, like, putting out negativity or pushing people beyond their limits and expecting a lot and not giving a lot in return, why is anybody going to give a lot to you if you're not giving a lot to them? So I think it trickles down from the top.

And when you do have a ton of turnover, I think that that's usually a sign that maybe your leadership style needs some adjustment, and maybe you could do with some leadership coaching and lip sync battles. Lip sync battles?

Or just some alcohol shots?

Yeah, whatever.

He said. Drink the Kool aid. I was like, what's our YJ Kool aid? Is it fireball?

Fireball, 100%. Not by my choice, I'm gonna say.

That stuff's pretty potent. I used to do an event for an elementary school, and the kindergarten parents all got really drunk off a fireball and started to fight with everyone. So ever since then, I've always equated fireball with a fight. So, I don't know.

Kindergarten parents fighting. That's amazing.

And the best part was is that the principal brought all the parents that did that. They were all in her office on Monday morning, all talking to her about the situation. I was like, I was so. It was. I was, like, so impressed with that, because I was like, she could, like. I'm like, what are you gonna do? She goes, I'm calling all these. They're all coming to my office on Monday morning.

We're gonna talk.

I'm like, yep. And they were never bad after that ever again, so you never, never know. So. All right, so what are some small steps that someone can take in their business today to improve their team culture? What do you think? Some easy little nuggets that we could just implement.

Easy nuggets.

I think one of the easiest things is to have conversation with your team, either individually or as a group, depending on the dynamics within the group, but. And just say, like, what do you love about working here and what do you think is a challenge and what could change? And what would you. Where do you. Would you like to see your role and this company in the next five.

Years and can be done, like, super easily, anonymously? Excuse me? Because obviously, some people are too intimidated to share how they actually feel. Some. Some leaders, unfortunately, can't take feedback very well face to face. So even just, like, sending out a survey monkey where you don't know who's saying what or whatever that looks like to get the ball rolling takes, I don't know, ten minutes? Not even. Yeah, five.

Yeah, I think feedback again. Like, if you're a leader, you have to. You have to figure out how to take feedback.

You do?

Yeah.

Yeah. Cause otherwise you'll never grow. Like, sorry, none of us are geniuses and can are doing everything right. Like, we're all learning. We're all growing, and we're all figuring out how to be the best at what we do. And that's going to constantly evolve because the world is constantly evolving.

Yeah. And it can't be, like, feedback with an excuse, you know, like, because you get feedback. Well, it's because of that it's like, okay, let me take. Let me think about how we can make a change. You know, even, like, with an event, I'm like, we're only as good as our last event. And, like, we have a wedding going on today as we're recording this, and if that wedding goes horribly tonight, then we're a horrible company, you know? Yeah. And it's like, and when something goes wrong, I'm always like, all right, it went wrong. How do we fix it to where it never happens again? Because that's the biggest thing.

Because I don't want to make the same mistake over and over and over again because you're just beaten. Whatever. Use any analogy. And it's not good. It's bad all around.

It's really easy to forget to celebrate the wins. And I think that that adds a lot to company culture. If you're constantly just pushing, going, going, and never stopping to celebrate how far you've come and what you've accomplished, even if it's not what you set out to accomplish for the year, you've still accomplished a lot. And I think it's important to celebrate the wins and make sure that you are giving people the appropriate. What's the word I'm looking for?

Recognition.

Recognition. Yeah.

Yeah. No, and that's probably really good feedback, because that's something that I think we always focus on the negative and not the positive, and that's. I think we really gotta really focus on the positive stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, our human nature. Yeah. And our company motto is life should be celebrated. And I think we even struggle.

I was about to say we even struggle with it. Like, we have to remind ourselves, like, yeah, x, y, and z happen, but look at all of. Look at all the good that's happening.

Yeah, yeah. No, we got to look that way, so. And if I will say if, you know, Ashley and I know each other through the whip a world and I used to go to do. I can't tell you how many board retreats I've ever done, but the best one I've ever attended was one that Ashley planned, so I'm sure.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I just know about it because there was a bunch of googly eyes at our office.

I'm like, what happened was Alice in Wonderland, right?

Yeah.

I made flowers into the singing flowers.

Yeah. It was literally, I was like, it was the best one I ever, and it was. It was like, it was amazing. So anyway, you did a great job, like, in getting. Rallying them and bringing them all together. So I can only imagine what your. What your ones are for work. So, thank you.

I will say I thrive in a retreat atmosphere, so, yeah, I can tell.

I could tell. Anyway. All right, so anything you want to leave us when it comes to, you know, building a community driven team, anything that we haven't touched on?

Yes. One thing that I will say, we've talked about feedback a lot, but I think that positive feedback goes such a long way. So one of the things that we, of course, within our team, we love to give positive feedback. At our retreats, we also do something called love notes, where we make everybody a bag. And throughout the weekend, people can put love notes in everybody's bag about things that they love about them or ways that they've helped them throughout the year or whatever. But we also do this for the creatives and the vendors that we work with. So if, for example, last year, a venue team was absolutely phenomenal for me, the whole season, I had multiple weddings with them, and they just went above and beyond. And so I went to the venue coordinator.

I asked for every single names of every single person on their, um, catering team, and we went and got $10 Starbucks gift cards for 40 people.

Wow.

And then wrote them each personal notes and gave it to the venue coordinator to give out to them. And the venue coordinator was, like, blown away because she's like, no one has ever taken the time to actually thank the team that supports the wedding. And so now that's something that, like, we're always looking for is like, how can we. How can we make sure that everyone on a wedding day feels appreciated, even if it's not in that moment, in that wedding day, like, know that their work doesn't go unnoticed. We do the same thing. During COVID we did love notes. We would just. Every week, we were taking five people and sending out notes to just say, like, hey, we're thinking about you.

We know this is a hard time, but we're going to come back, and if there's anything that we can do to support you in the meantime, let us know. So I think just, like, letting people know that you care about them more than just the business that they're bringing you is important in building community.

Yeah. Being a selfless leader, a kind leader, goes a long way. It's not all about you. You probably won't succeed.

Well, it's amazing, too, that you guys recognized everyone on the team, because I think a lot of people focus on the salesperson or the person that is going to get them the business and then ignore everyone else. But it's, you know, I have some amazing relationships with the setup folks, and, you know, like, they're asking me about my kids or, you know, just, you know, I actually have a relationship with people, and I think that goes a long way, so.

Absolutely. And I mean, when I say everyone, like, dishwashers set up team, the catering staff, the chefs in the kitchen. Like, we wanted everyone so that we could make sure that everybody knew that, like, we saw them.

Yeah, yeah, no, and it goes a long way. Cause I've even. I've worked a wedding to where I distinctly remember the photographer bagging on the venue. And then as soon as the, you know, venue coordinator walked in the door, it was like she was kissing that venue coordinators. You know what? And then I finally looked at her at dinner, and I'm like, why are you kissing her ass if you don't even want to work here? You know, like, you hate. You hate this place so much. She goes, well, they just have a lot of business here. And I'm like, well, maybe this venue is not for, you know, it was just a very weird, weird thing that I was like, you know, be real.

Is important, I think, as well. When it comes to, like, leading and also creating community. If you can't be. If you're not authentic in all moments, then you're not very trustworthy, and people can feel that.

I agree 100%. Well, you know, from our industry just working in all the. You could tell the fake people right away from the people that are there, that are genuine and really there. So I don't know. Or you could tell. I call them the tasmanian devils, the folks that come into, like, one of our associations, like whip or whatever, and just try to get as much business as they can, and then they're. Than they were.

Yeah, so true. Good analogy.

Yeah. So. All right, so I got a couple wrap up questions, but before we do, tell me about Paris in 2024. What we're. Why are we going to Paris in 2024? What's happening?

Yeah, well, like I said, I live my best life at retreats, so why not take the Paris? Oh, yeah. So it came up for a couple of reasons. I don't know.

Yeah, so my husband's a Paralympian and cross all fingers and everything that he will be making the paralympic team in 2024, which will be in Paris.

Okay.

And so as a family, we decided we wanted to be there for a few months beforehand.

All of.

He's a cyclist, so all of his races are overseas anyway, in the. In, like, Europe area. And so it's just easier to be located already over there in Europe. Ashley's obsessed with Paris, and so I told her my plan, and she's like, okay, cool, YJ's coming. I'm coming. Let's do this.

Like, I hope you weren't wanting to, like, be there alone.

So.

Yeah. And then we just figured, okay, if we're going to be in France and, you know, we have Europe pretty close flights away, like, let's take some weddings there. We're going to be doing elopements and proposals, but then we're also going to be hosting a couple of workshops for creatives.

Okay, cool. That's amazing.

So, yeah, follow along to your jubilee on Instagram. And we're posting a lot of fun things about it.

Yeah, everything's in the works, but it's all going to be coming out very soon.

Yeah.

All right. So now, did we watch Emily in Paris?

Oh, yeah.

Okay. I figured that was a stupid question.

But I think I've watched the series from start to finish, like, three times.

Really? I love. I love you've only.

I love it now we're just slowly shopping and building our Paris wardrobe.

Yeah. I dress completely different when I'm in France. I'm like, the best version of myself.

Good for you. I could not do that. She wears some pretty crazy outfits, but.

It goes, because it's in Paris. It's fine. It's okay.

About that life.

All right, so what is your absolute favorite part of a wedding? Each of you?

I think we kind of both.

I think we're the same. Yeah.

No way.

Yeah.

I mean, the design element of a wedding day is the most fun, and it's the most fun to collaborate with your clients on it, get to know them and what they want and get to know their love story. Story and to bring that to life on their wedding day. So to see it all finally come to place, especially, of course, the bigger budget weddings and seeing just all the details, small to big. Like, I've never cried on a wedding day because of the details, but definitely after the fact, I have, and I actually had an intern ask me after one of my biggest ones, like, have you cried yet? Can you believe this happened? And I'm like, no, because I'm still go, go, go mode. But seeing everything come together and then having the client see it all come together and like. And just their genuine love for the space and shock and awe is such a beautiful moment, and it just helps light a fire within me again of why we do this and why I love doing what we do.

Yeah, I think that's 100% true. I notoriously, for probably the first five or six years of our business, cried at every single wedding, because I do think love stories are beautiful, and I love that we get to share and be there for this incredible moment in people's lives. But I think now that we're almost ten years in, what I really love is seeing how months of decisions have come together and created this beautiful space where all of these people that love this couple are getting to celebrate them. And I think there's just something really incredible about that moment. So, like, I love seeing the couple walk into the space and see it for the first time. I love hearing the reactions from there, their guests, and I love just seeing the party that takes place and all of the love that's being shared within the spaces.

Yeah, well, and that's a. That's a good thing because, you know, and that's the one part everyone. Everyone has mentioned something different. You guys are the first to talk about design, and that's the part I like, because that's what I do well. Yeah. And I just recently, like, for me, like, like you said, it re energizes you, is I had a. I was end of the night knocking, you know, knocking a wedding down. I was working because, you know, we're still trying to build up our staff up on a scissor lift, and the bride's like, kevin, come down here.

And I'm like, coming down. She goes, I have to give you a hug. This was the best everything. You listened, you know, in this, you knocked it, and it was just. And I was like, okay. After a really shitty weekend, that was, like, the motivation I needed to continue. I'm like, I'm good at what I do, and this is why I do it. And, you know, sometimes we need that little pat on the back.

So at the end of the night, when the couple is, you know, exhausted and drunk and about to leave with their friends and family, like, when they find us and give us a hug and thank us, I'm like, oh, I'm so glad you loved it. You know, definitely, like, gives you all the warmth.

I love when they are, like, drunk, crying.

Yeah.

Oh, that's.

And telling me that is pretty good. They are. That just makes me happy.

Yeah.

As long as you're not having to hold the hair while they.

Yeah, exactly.

We draw a line.

All right, so then I'm a big techie, and I love apps, so is there what kind of app that you're using? Right now in your business that you guys can't live without. And I see Ashley looking at her phone right now.

I mean, I don't know if it's an app, but I feel like timeline genius. We can't live without. I never use it on my phone, but, like, that is like our timeline generator. Like, that's one thing I definitely can't live without.

Yeah. We could never go back.

Yeah. I don't know how planners don't use timeline genius.

Honestly.

Agreed.

I don't either, because I like how you can give, you know, the rental company a certain time. Yeah.

And it's, you don't need the 20 page document. You need maybe the ten and the 20 I can give you both, but like, yeah, people don't read, so the less.

Well, no, and that's the thing. I have a wedding planner I work with that. His timelines are generally anywhere from 45 to 65 pages long. And it's like, I don't need all that. Yeah. And that's what I do.

Like, that feature all the information, but also a digestible version.

Yeah. Tell me what I need to know and where I need to be, and I don't need to know the, the makeup and hair schedule.

Exactly.

That's why nothing to do with my, my team setting up lighting. So.

Yeah.

All right.

Any apps of time of genius.

So I've been using chat GPT a.

Lot, so what's that?

Well, it's AI. It's creepy and weird, and I like creepy and weird. Saves a lot of time.

Okay.

So I'm, I've been using it a lot for, like, generating captions for Instagram, not writing the whole thing. For me, it gives me a good starting point. So when. And I'm really, like, just stumped about what I want to post and what we're doing, I'll just ask chat GPT. Like, hey, give me ten Instagram fans, but it's cool for wedding tips and that'll at least get my juices flowing. It also can write great blog posts.

Yeah, my husband just used it. Team USA needed an updated bio and he put it in a chat GPT, and it was honestly only a couple edits. It was wild.

It is amazing. It is. Well, I use an app called Grammarly a lot to fix my. Yeah, and so, but this is Grammarly on steroids because Grammarly fixes what I do, but not, not, you know, doesn't create. And I like the fact that it creates.

That's totally.

Yeah, that's a girl.

Oh, well, I.

Thank you. So I thank you both for being here. I hope we'll see you. I would love to come out and visit you guys. And I miss my time in Scottsdale. I used to go there a lot for my whip a world, and I haven't. I literally. It's funny.

It came up. It's been a year. Almost like a few days ago was the last time I was there. It popped up on my. It was that pool party that we did that. Yep. That was the last time I've been to Scottsdale. And I feel like I used to go there, like, at least once or twice, you know, a month there for a while.

Yeah. Well, I can tell you there's some fun WIPA events coming up, so.

Well, I might just have to come.

So you guys are.

We're in the same. We're in the same time zone now, and it's easy. Yeah, I'll have to off to come visit you guys. So anyway, well, I can't thank you enough for all your wonderful wisdom that you've given all of us here today. What's the best way to connect with the two of you?

Definitely our Instagram. Yourjubile weddings. And we are very, very active on Instagram. It takes over my life, so that's probably the best way. Also our website, yourjubilee.com.

Yeah.

And, yeah, that's pretty much it. And our personal instagrams are always tagged on our business. So if you want to talk to.

One of us specifically about the other, so we can.

Yeah, I'll talk shit on Megan all.

The time and then screenshot it to me.

Exactly.

And then one more thing. You mentioned happy hour. What's. What's our happy hour drink that we're drinking right now?

Oh, I've had such a good, um. Okay, so I'm known to, like, always take fireball shots, like, in a group setting. And, like, we're having fun. We strike the night off with fireball shots.

So gross.

It's gross, but, like, it gets the job done. Right? But, um, now, as I'm getting older, I'll still do the shots.

Maturing.

I feel like this is so boring. But I'm just a red wine gal. Like, I love a good job, and I'm just happy with wine right now. But I'm not a big, fancy, like, mixed drinker. I feel like you.

Yeah, I love a mixed cocktail, but right now I'm on a grapefruit train, so I really like greyhounds.

Oh, okay.

And then I also really love wine, but I'm not just strictly red wine. I'm. I'm an equal opportunity wine drinker, so anything is great for me. But we went to Paso Robles last year, and I have become obsessed with Paso Robles wines.

Oh, they're a good little wine region. And I'll be honest with you, I live in Livermore, and we have 60 something wineries now in my little town, and. Which we were before prohibition, we were Napa. Everything was happening in Livermore, and then prohibition hit, and we never recovered. There's still two wineries left that were around pre prohibition, but the rest of them never made it. So we're slowly coming back to where we were, what, 140 years ago or whatever. I mean, that was a long time ago. So.

Anyway, yeah, no, it's amazing.

We have to plan our next girl trip there.

Oh, yeah, we have.

It's. You know, we're really close to the city, so. You still have all the city stuff. I hate the city. As someone that lives here, I don't want to go there. But anyway. But. But we have.

We're an hour and 15 minutes, like, south of Napa. We're close to, like, Monterey. You know, we're not far from. Paso Robles is probably about a two and a half, three hour ride from here. So you can hit all the wineries and have a good time. But Paso Robles does have some really good wine down there, so they're doing a really good job. So, yeah, can't go wrong with any California wine.

So, yeah, as long as it's right, I'm happy.

That's right. All right, well, thank you, guys. Thank you for being here. All right.

Thanks for having us.

Bye, guys.

Bye.

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