Do you ever feel overwhelmed when it comes to marketing your wedding business? Today I'm chatting with Julianne Smith, founder of the 'Garter Girl' about exactly this. We talk about how you can make money by finding your niche, and how to simplify your marketing!

Find out more about Julianne below:

https://www.juliannesmith.com/

https://thegartergirl.com/

https://www.instagram.com/thejuliannesmith/

Want to meet other likeminded wedding pro's so that you can share ideas, network and help each other out? Then why not go ahead and join my free Wedding Pro community over on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/weddingprosreadytogrow/

Find out more about how I can help you grow your wedding business over on my website or Instagram page:

www.beccapountney.com

www.instagram.com/beccapountney

Julianne: 00:00:00

At the very top, right, if we're just saying, oh, wedding

Julianne: 00:00:03

in general, or event, or garter.

Julianne: 00:00:05

I mean, that stuff is so, so competitive, but the more specific you

Julianne: 00:00:09

get, the less competition there is.

Becca: 00:00:14

I am Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert,

Becca: 00:00:16

speaker and blogger, and you are listening to The Wedding Pros

Becca: 00:00:19

who are Ready to Grow podcast.

Becca: 00:00:21

I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life

Becca: 00:00:25

examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.

Becca: 00:00:28

If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion

Becca: 00:00:32

and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you

Becca: 00:00:35

love, then you're in the right place.

Becca: 00:00:37

Let's get going with today's episode.

Becca: 00:00:41

Today I'm chatting with Julianne Smith, founder of the Garter

Becca: 00:00:44

Girl based in Washington dc.

Becca: 00:00:46

Julia's been creating handmade wedding garters since 2004 and

Becca: 00:00:50

has been featured in many of the top wedding magazines and blogs.

Becca: 00:00:53

Alongside running her wedding business.

Becca: 00:00:55

Julie also helps small business owners with their marketing.

Becca: 00:00:58

And today we're gonna be talking all about marketing overwhelm.

Becca: 00:01:02

Julie, welcome to the podcast.

Becca: 00:01:04

Thanks for having me.

Becca: 00:01:05

It's an absolute pleasure.

Becca: 00:01:07

Now, before we dive into marketing, which is something that I love, so I'm

Becca: 00:01:11

really excited to get into it with you.

Becca: 00:01:13

Let's start with your wedding business.

Becca: 00:01:16

Garters, how on earth did you end up in the niche of making wedding garters?

Julianne: 00:01:21

It's a little awkward as well.

Julianne: 00:01:23

I agree.

Julianne: 00:01:24

So I don't, when you meet me outside of the wedding world, I don't usually

Julianne: 00:01:27

lead with it cuz it usually sparks more questions than you have time for.

Julianne: 00:01:31

But no, I somehow stumbled upon the one thing in weddings that really hadn't been,

Julianne: 00:01:37

or and still isn't really being done.

Julianne: 00:01:39

I had a friend who was getting married.

Julianne: 00:01:42

A long time ago and I couldn't, I was in charge of getting her a garter,

Julianne: 00:01:47

and so I couldn't find one that looked like something she would actually wear.

Julianne: 00:01:51

So I made it, and that is truly how the business began.

Julianne: 00:01:56

it wasn't anything that, you know, I was, when I grow up, I'm

Julianne: 00:01:59

gonna be a wedding garder maker.

Julianne: 00:02:01

It just, it really just started out and I was like, well, if I was the only one,

Julianne: 00:02:06

or if I'm not, I can't be the only one.

Julianne: 00:02:08

So, I mean, the wedding garter's, the oldest wedding tradition, you

Julianne: 00:02:11

know, it's been something that's been around since the Middle Ages

Julianne: 00:02:14

and I kind of grew from there.

Becca: 00:02:16

I love it, and I love that you're known as the Garter Girl.

Becca: 00:02:19

I think that's just excellent.

Becca: 00:02:20

We love a garter in the uk, very traditional.

Becca: 00:02:23

I definitely had one on my wedding day.

Becca: 00:02:25

So do you ship them worldwide?

Becca: 00:02:27

Are you covering North America?

Becca: 00:02:28

Like tell me about the garters and how you.

Julianne: 00:02:31

Well, pre pandemic, I was shipping all over the world, but then

Julianne: 00:02:36

during the pandemic, the shipping customs, it just got so outta control.

Julianne: 00:02:40

I'm like, I don't think that my wedding garter contains covid, but okay.

Julianne: 00:02:46

It just became so difficult, so I shut it down.

Julianne: 00:02:49

The international shipping, I do have a lot of international clients, but they'll.

Julianne: 00:02:54

You know, let's say it's a destination wedding or something like that, and

Julianne: 00:02:57

they'll ship it somewhere in, in the us and then, you know, the guest will

Julianne: 00:03:01

bring it or, or they'll do it that way.

Julianne: 00:03:04

But I'm not opposed to reopening.

Julianne: 00:03:06

Do you think I should reopen it?

Julianne: 00:03:08

Has things, have things calmed down?

Julianne: 00:03:10

I don't even know.

Becca: 00:03:11

I think things have calmed down.

Becca: 00:03:12

So I think the UK market is ready for your garters.

Becca: 00:03:15

Again, open it back up.

Julianne: 00:03:16

Okay, let's do it.

Julianne: 00:03:17

2023 goals.

Julianne: 00:03:19

Let's go.

Becca: 00:03:19

Love it.

Becca: 00:03:20

Love it.

Becca: 00:03:20

And it proves what everyone says, which.

Becca: 00:03:23

There is money to be found in the different niches.

Becca: 00:03:26

You don't have to be targeting everyone.

Becca: 00:03:28

You can go as niches just doing wedding garters and it works for a business.

Julianne: 00:03:32

Right, right.

Julianne: 00:03:33

I mean, I, somebody told me this expression a while ago, the,

Julianne: 00:03:36

the riches are in the niches.

Becca: 00:03:38

Yeah.

Becca: 00:03:38

It, it does not work so well with the UK version.

Becca: 00:03:41

Does it, it make works much better with the riches are in the niches.

Becca: 00:03:45

? Julianne: No, it's

Becca: 00:03:48

Riches in the niches, I guess.

Becca: 00:03:50

No.

Becca: 00:03:51

It just, it just works.

Becca: 00:03:52

I mean, I couldn't, so I make everything by hand.

Becca: 00:03:55

And the majority of what I do have a collection ready to ship that you can

Becca: 00:03:58

come and buy pre-designed and, but the majority of what I do is I make

Becca: 00:04:03

them from their family's materials.

Becca: 00:04:05

So mother's wedding dress, grandmother's veil, things like that.

Becca: 00:04:09

And so it becomes this very heirloom experience.

Becca: 00:04:13

So it's not necessarily the wedding garter.

Becca: 00:04:16

That maybe one has thought of before.

Becca: 00:04:18

It's very sort of new spin on the tradition.

Becca: 00:04:21

It's very meant to be this like heirloom that you're gonna love in your family.

Becca: 00:04:26

And so I couldn't, and I always remind myself, you know, sometimes

Becca: 00:04:30

when I get down or, oh, it's not enough, it's not enough.

Becca: 00:04:33

I'm like, I couldn't possibly make a wedding garter for

Becca: 00:04:37

everybody who wanted one from me.

Becca: 00:04:38

I mean, I just couldn't.

Becca: 00:04:40

And so that kind of give it, like you said, the riches are in

Becca: 00:04:44

the niches, so things are good.

Becca: 00:04:47

Absolutely.

Becca: 00:04:48

Now, before we go too far down the route of talking about wedding

Becca: 00:04:51

garters, let's go on to marketing.

Becca: 00:04:53

I know it's a rabbit hole, . I love it though.

Becca: 00:04:56

It's really interesting.

Becca: 00:04:57

So I love marketing myself.

Becca: 00:04:59

It's one of the things that I talk about.

Becca: 00:05:01

But I also really love to hear fresh ideas and fresh perspectives, and I personally

Becca: 00:05:06

particularly enjoy speaking with people who are working in the American market

Becca: 00:05:10

like yourself because you tend to be a lot further ahead of us here in the UK

Becca: 00:05:14

when it comes to your wedding trends and your wedding marketing trends.

Becca: 00:05:18

So we often look to America to see where the trends are going next.

Becca: 00:05:21

So I would love to start with, for you to just share some of the things that

Becca: 00:05:25

you think are working right now in marketing in the wedding industry in

Becca: 00:05:30

the US that you could share with us.

Julianne: 00:05:31

Well, I think actually it's an amazing segue because you know, it's

Julianne: 00:05:37

all about the niches and the niches and I think, you know, drilling down as

Julianne: 00:05:42

minute as possible as, and as specific as you can get is, is the way to go.

Julianne: 00:05:48

And I think that is a trend.

Julianne: 00:05:49

It.

Julianne: 00:05:50

I was saying, you cannot possibly serve everybody.

Julianne: 00:05:53

So the trick in this massive, you know, worldwide web is to drill down, if you

Julianne: 00:05:59

will, as specific as humanly possible.

Julianne: 00:06:03

Right?

Julianne: 00:06:03

And it's not just let's, if we're just say talking about wedding, or if we're

Julianne: 00:06:08

talking about Google or Pinterest or anything like that where people are

Julianne: 00:06:12

using a search bar, it's not necessarily, I'll just use my business like Garter.

Julianne: 00:06:17

It's wedding garter, but it's not just wedding garter,

Julianne: 00:06:19

it's heirloom wedding garter.

Julianne: 00:06:22

It's, you know, deep plum and, you know, hot pink wedding garter or wedding garter

Julianne: 00:06:28

made from the mother's wedding dress.

Julianne: 00:06:30

It's like specific, specific to specific.

Julianne: 00:06:32

And for me, I'm an e-commerce shop, right?

Julianne: 00:06:35

So I ship.

Julianne: 00:06:36

All over.

Julianne: 00:06:37

Right.

Julianne: 00:06:38

But for a lot of people that are listening that are more service-based businesses,

Julianne: 00:06:42

it's that regional focus, right?

Julianne: 00:06:44

It's, it's, it's adding that geographical location or that

Julianne: 00:06:48

particular location or venue.

Julianne: 00:06:50

It, it's really, really getting specific for photographers.

Julianne: 00:06:53

It's like, Getting very specific in the type of photography that you do, and it's,

Julianne: 00:06:58

if we think about it as a funnel, right?

Julianne: 00:07:01

You got the big, wide at the top and it's just going deep, deep,

Julianne: 00:07:04

deep, deep, deep, because you, you couldn't possibly serve everybody.

Julianne: 00:07:07

And by the way, at the very top right, if we're just saying, oh, wedding.

Julianne: 00:07:11

In general, or event, or garter.

Julianne: 00:07:14

I mean, that stuff is so, so competitive, but the more specific you

Julianne: 00:07:17

get, the less competition there is.

Becca: 00:07:20

And I think people panic about that because they think if

Becca: 00:07:22

I get too niche and too specific, then I'm gonna put people off.

Becca: 00:07:27

What do you say to that?

Julianne: 00:07:28

Well, I think so at the top of the funnel, right?

Julianne: 00:07:31

And there's general terms, those people are, it's like a cold lead, right?

Julianne: 00:07:35

You have to lead them down, lead them.

Julianne: 00:07:37

And by the time you get closer down on the funnel, that lead is warm, right?

Julianne: 00:07:42

So they are a lot closer to making the decision and they are a lot

Julianne: 00:07:47

closer to hiring you than they are farther up the colder they are, right?

Julianne: 00:07:52

And so by using your online presence, you're able to get

Julianne: 00:07:56

people with no more work or.

Julianne: 00:07:59

To get people a lot farther on in the funnel, right?

Julianne: 00:08:02

You can move, like people are basically using your online profile,

Julianne: 00:08:05

whether it's your Instagram, your website, to pre-interview you

Julianne: 00:08:10

before they even reach out to you.

Julianne: 00:08:12

They're already like, I don't know, would you say like 90, 95% of the way there.

Julianne: 00:08:17

It's just making sure that like once and for they've already decided

Julianne: 00:08:21

whether they like you, whether they like your work, whether they.

Julianne: 00:08:24

You know where you live.

Julianne: 00:08:25

Like they, they know they have internet stalked you to the

Julianne: 00:08:29

tee and they're really close.

Julianne: 00:08:32

So the more information that you can give them about what it is that you do

Julianne: 00:08:36

and how you can, you know, solve all their problems, you know, it's like I

Julianne: 00:08:40

don't just have a wedding garter for you.

Julianne: 00:08:42

I have the exact one that you're looking for that's gonna make your.

Julianne: 00:08:47

That much easier and that much better.

Julianne: 00:08:49

And so I, I think, you know, and I'm sure you've heard it before too, right?

Julianne: 00:08:53

Like you'd rather have two amazing inquiries as opposed to 2000 ones

Julianne: 00:08:59

that are never gonna hire you.

Julianne: 00:09:01

I mean, traffic is just, traffic and inquiries are just inquiries.

Julianne: 00:09:05

So I think the riches are in the niches.

Julianne: 00:09:07

We're gonna keep coming back to that one

Julianne: 00:09:10

. Becca: Absolutely.

Julianne: 00:09:10

And I, like I said, it sounds so much cooler when you say it,

Julianne: 00:09:14

rather than us saying the niche, the reaches are in the niches.

Julianne: 00:09:17

Right.

Julianne: 00:09:17

It just doesn't really work so well.

Julianne: 00:09:19

Right.

Julianne: 00:09:20

. Now when it comes to marketing, I know that some of my suppliers who

Julianne: 00:09:23

are listening really struggle with choosing where to put their efforts.

Julianne: 00:09:27

There are so many options when it comes to marketing.

Julianne: 00:09:30

They could be on Pinterest, they could be on Google, they could be

Julianne: 00:09:32

on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, like where should they start and how do

Julianne: 00:09:37

they stop just ending up doing nothing because it all becomes so overwhelming.

Julianne: 00:09:41

It's a lot.

Julianne: 00:09:43

It's overwhelming, as you said.

Julianne: 00:09:44

And you know, for me, It, you have to start somewhere, right?

Julianne: 00:09:48

And, and it kind of just starts out with where you're at.

Julianne: 00:09:52

You gotta pick one and you start somewhere.

Julianne: 00:09:55

And how does that, I, I heard somewhere, so I can't take credit for it.

Julianne: 00:09:59

But if it's like, if you like being on that platform, chances are you're gonna,

Julianne: 00:10:04

you know, do it better and you're going to be more engaged and more interested.

Julianne: 00:10:09

So for example, like if you don't like using TikTok, that's not a great place to.

Julianne: 00:10:14

But if you really like using Pinterest personally, whether you're finding

Julianne: 00:10:18

recipes or core ideas or inspiration, that's a great place to start.

Julianne: 00:10:22

And the truth is, and I think there's this big misunderstanding, it's like

Julianne: 00:10:27

potential clients are everywhere and on everything, you will find your people.

Julianne: 00:10:32

Yes.

Julianne: 00:10:33

You know, you can be everywhere and be all the things to all the

Julianne: 00:10:35

people, but at a certain point there is going to be overlap, right?

Julianne: 00:10:39

Because.

Julianne: 00:10:41

Potential clients are on more than one platform, right?

Julianne: 00:10:43

Like I might go to Pinterest to get this recipe, and I'm standing

Julianne: 00:10:46

in line at the grocery store, and so I'm gonna hop on TikTok here.

Julianne: 00:10:49

I mean, they have accounts everywhere, so, It's really about

Julianne: 00:10:53

you and what, what you find to be the most interesting for yourself.

Becca: 00:10:58

Yeah.

Becca: 00:10:58

This is so true, and one of the things that really drives me crazy are when

Becca: 00:11:02

people say, my people aren't on Facebook.

Becca: 00:11:04

My people aren't on Pinterest.

Becca: 00:11:06

My people are all on Instagram.

Becca: 00:11:07

I'm like, your people are on Facebook.

Becca: 00:11:09

They're just not doing anything on Facebook, but I guarantee you

Becca: 00:11:12

they have a Facebook account.

Becca: 00:11:14

The people are everywhere.

Becca: 00:11:15

So I a hundred percent agree with you.

Becca: 00:11:17

So you're saying go to where you.

Becca: 00:11:19

, enjoy hanging out yourself as a starting place and go from there.

Julianne: 00:11:23

Yes, I agree.

Julianne: 00:11:24

I mean, listen, I don't personally like to use Facebook personally for

Julianne: 00:11:29

myself, so I don't, I don't think I could even say, well, my people aren't

Julianne: 00:11:34

on Facebook cause that's not true.

Julianne: 00:11:36

I don't know that what I'm really saying, what those people really are saying is,

Julianne: 00:11:41

I don't like using Facebook personally, so I'm just not going to even explore it.

Julianne: 00:11:46

How many billions of people use Facebook?

Julianne: 00:11:48

You need me to.

Julianne: 00:11:49

You can't find a client there.

Julianne: 00:11:51

I mean, that's not true and it's just what you're trying to say is, I

Julianne: 00:11:55

just don't like the platform, so like I'm just not gonna spend time there.

Becca: 00:12:00

Yeah.

Becca: 00:12:00

Very, very true.

Becca: 00:12:01

Okay, so we found our platform.

Becca: 00:12:03

We've started putting out our content and we're putting stuff out and we're

Becca: 00:12:07

just getting tired cuz we feel like we're not getting anything back and

Becca: 00:12:10

we're becoming exhausted, overwhelmed.

Becca: 00:12:12

And we feel like all we're ever doing is creating content

Becca: 00:12:16

and not getting any results.

Becca: 00:12:18

How do you help us in that situation?

Becca: 00:12:22

, Julianne: shut it all down.

Becca: 00:12:23

No, no, no.

Becca: 00:12:23

I'm just kidding.

Becca: 00:12:24

I think it comes back to, are you going, you know, are you in too many places?

Becca: 00:12:30

Is it too much?

Becca: 00:12:30

Are you going an inch deep and a mile wide?

Becca: 00:12:33

Right?

Becca: 00:12:33

If we're going all the cliched expressions today, I think this

Becca: 00:12:38

happens a lot in marketing.

Becca: 00:12:40

We spread ourselves way too thin.

Becca: 00:12:43

Maybe you're creating content, but is that content the best, most

Becca: 00:12:47

helpful content for your customer?

Becca: 00:12:49

And more importantly than that, is that the right content for the right platform?

Becca: 00:12:55

I see this.

Becca: 00:12:56

All the time on a multi daily basis.

Becca: 00:13:00

So I do a lot of Pinterest work.

Becca: 00:13:02

A lot of clients who we manage their Pinterest accounts and they will take

Becca: 00:13:06

their Instagram reels, for example, and they dump them over on Pinterest

Becca: 00:13:10

and they're like, I'm all the places.

Becca: 00:13:12

I'm on Instagram, I'm on Pinterest.

Becca: 00:13:15

And but the problem is, is content.

Becca: 00:13:18

While you can repeat content, the message has to be slightly different, right?

Becca: 00:13:23

You cant just dump your content in all the places and sort of wash your hands of it.

Becca: 00:13:28

You have to specifically tailor your content.

Becca: 00:13:31

For that particular audience.

Becca: 00:13:34

So it kind of gets back to yes, maybe you're, you know, busy and overwhelmed

Becca: 00:13:39

and doing all the things, but are you doing like all the right things?

Becca: 00:13:42

Yeah, that's so true.

Becca: 00:13:43

So we've got, people are spreading themselves too thin.

Becca: 00:13:46

We've got, people are kind of going too generalist.

Becca: 00:13:49

They're not going niche enough.

Becca: 00:13:51

What other pitfalls do you see wedding pros falling into

Becca: 00:13:54

when it comes to their market?

Julianne: 00:13:56

I think it gets back to, well, it's two problems.

Julianne: 00:13:59

Number one is not taking care of their home in a sense, and that is by home,

Julianne: 00:14:06

I mean your website not owning your own content, whether that's doing blog posts

Julianne: 00:14:11

or building at your galleries or whatever.

Julianne: 00:14:14

Not putting, putting yourself first.

Julianne: 00:14:16

As an insurance policy, right?

Julianne: 00:14:18

Like, you know, Instagram's no longer, you can't take those likes with you.

Julianne: 00:14:21

So, you know, and that, that would include, you know, building your

Julianne: 00:14:24

email list, things like that.

Julianne: 00:14:26

And the second one was not understanding the platform.

Julianne: 00:14:31

And that's what I was getting at, a bit ago, is that they are taking content,

Julianne: 00:14:36

posting it across multiple platform.

Julianne: 00:14:39

And it's not landing the same, or it's not doing anything for them.

Julianne: 00:14:43

And what they do is, oh, well, I'm gonna blame Pinterest,

Julianne: 00:14:47

or I'm gonna blame TikTok.

Julianne: 00:14:48

Those platforms stink.

Julianne: 00:14:49

I don't get my Facebook, I don't get clients from there.

Julianne: 00:14:53

And it's not Facebook's problem, it's your problem.

Julianne: 00:14:56

You're and I, I use this example a lot.

Julianne: 00:14:59

So I have a client, they own a wedding shop, and they make all

Julianne: 00:15:02

this super fun content for TikTok.

Julianne: 00:15:06

I mean, really fun, right?

Julianne: 00:15:08

They're bouncing around in the wedding dresses and they're, you know, doing

Julianne: 00:15:11

all the voiceovers and it's really fun and entertaining, and they send

Julianne: 00:15:16

it all to me to, to post on Pinterest.

Julianne: 00:15:19

And what do I do?

Julianne: 00:15:21

I strip all the audio.

Julianne: 00:15:23

And that same content where you're doing a voiceover of some

Julianne: 00:15:27

celebrity doing something, saying something funny in a wedding dress.

Julianne: 00:15:31

I stripped the audio we posted on Pinterest, and what is that?

Julianne: 00:15:35

That is a sparkle, strapless wedding dress, you know, for a beach wedding

Julianne: 00:15:40

because we have a fundamental understanding of the platform and how it.

Julianne: 00:15:45

and you know what?

Julianne: 00:15:47

What the customer is looking for when they're on that platform.

Julianne: 00:15:50

So it's really important that when you are posting your content, you

Julianne: 00:15:53

really understand the platform.

Julianne: 00:15:55

And I think that's a huge mistake that people are making.

Becca: 00:15:58

Yeah, and that goes back to that same thing again, doesn't it?

Becca: 00:16:01

About trying to do everything and that people are better to do one thing and

Becca: 00:16:05

really get to grips of it and really understand how it works and do it

Becca: 00:16:08

well before moving on and trying to.

Becca: 00:16:12

Everything and trying to do it not so well.

Julianne: 00:16:15

Right?

Julianne: 00:16:15

I mean, if you, if you serve every client that would potentially come across your

Julianne: 00:16:20

stuff on Instagram, that's enough to fill 10 lifetimes worth of business.

Julianne: 00:16:25

And so I, I think it's more, I had this revelation a couple years ago

Julianne: 00:16:30

about my website and so I get really, really, traffic from Google, right?

Julianne: 00:16:35

I really am like the number one for my keyword, right?

Julianne: 00:16:39

Wedding garters.

Julianne: 00:16:40

And I just was focusing on more traffic.

Julianne: 00:16:43

More traffic, bringing in more, bringing in more, bringing in more.

Julianne: 00:16:46

And it got to the point where I was like, I, like I was saying, I

Julianne: 00:16:48

couldn't possibly serve all these people that are coming to my website.

Julianne: 00:16:54

So I kind of flipped the switch and I was like, if I'm bringing all these

Julianne: 00:16:58

people here, what is my conversion?

Julianne: 00:17:00

So I really flipped the switch and was trying really hard to

Julianne: 00:17:03

like convert the people that were coming to my website, right?

Julianne: 00:17:07

So it's not about being in more places and having more eyeballs on your stuff

Julianne: 00:17:12

or being on more platforms and more and more and more it's about converting

Julianne: 00:17:17

and connecting with those that are finding your stuff in the first place.

Julianne: 00:17:22

Because the way I look at it is, okay, let's say you've come, you've found

Julianne: 00:17:26

yourself to my website in some way, shape or form, Google, Pinterest.

Julianne: 00:17:30

you've said yes-ish.

Julianne: 00:17:33

Right?

Julianne: 00:17:33

So if I can get that in some way, shape, or form, maybe it's not

Julianne: 00:17:37

like to the full thing, but you are at least interested, right?

Julianne: 00:17:40

That's why I call it yes-ish.

Julianne: 00:17:42

So if I can get you to a little farther down that funnel or just a little

Julianne: 00:17:47

more warm, I mean, you've already kind of, you're not cold, right?

Julianne: 00:17:51

It's not like it's like a Facebook ad or an Instagram ad.

Julianne: 00:17:54

You're standing in the grocery line, you're scrolling through and like this

Julianne: 00:17:57

ad pops up sort of outta nowhere, right?

Julianne: 00:17:59

When all you just wanted to do is be like entertained, right?

Julianne: 00:18:02

They're on my website, they're looking, they have said on some

Julianne: 00:18:06

level they're kind of interested.

Julianne: 00:18:08

They're pretty warm.

Julianne: 00:18:09

So my job is, is, is conversions.

Julianne: 00:18:12

And I think the same thing can be said for people that are feeling

Julianne: 00:18:15

themselves spread way too thin.

Becca: 00:18:17

Definitely.

Becca: 00:18:18

So we are not paying attention to the vanity statistics, which we

Becca: 00:18:21

can get really carried away with.

Becca: 00:18:23

Instead, we are looking at what those people are doing

Becca: 00:18:25

and how we're converting them.

Julianne: 00:18:26

Oh yeah.

Julianne: 00:18:27

Hey, I'm guilty.

Julianne: 00:18:29

I am so guilty.

Julianne: 00:18:30

I mean, When Instagram, if you didn't have 10,000, you couldn't have swipe up.

Julianne: 00:18:35

I mean, I was all the worked up about that.

Julianne: 00:18:38

I mean stressed and it's just, it wasn't true.

Julianne: 00:18:41

It's not true.

Julianne: 00:18:42

It's no longer even a thing.

Julianne: 00:18:44

And.

Julianne: 00:18:45

Because everyone has the link now.

Julianne: 00:18:46

I guess I, it just, I figured out kind of, let's say for

Julianne: 00:18:51

example, on, on Instagram, right?

Julianne: 00:18:53

Like what my people want and my people want to know, not

Julianne: 00:18:58

necessarily my follower account.

Julianne: 00:18:59

They wanna know what are they doing to come there, right?

Julianne: 00:19:02

And I've really like dug in to find out what they're looking for and the number

Julianne: 00:19:07

one thing that they're looking for.

Julianne: 00:19:09

And, and again, this is not true for anybody's business except for my.

Julianne: 00:19:13

Maybe it's helpful to somebody else, but they wanna know

Julianne: 00:19:15

that I'm open for business.

Julianne: 00:19:17

So they want to see that I have hosted in the last, you know, 24 hours.

Julianne: 00:19:23

They wanna see content.

Julianne: 00:19:25

Now, if I haven't touched my Instagram account in six months,

Julianne: 00:19:29

It's that little like question like, Hmm, I wonder what's going on.

Julianne: 00:19:32

Hmm.

Julianne: 00:19:33

If I buy from her, is she gonna fulfill this purchase?

Julianne: 00:19:36

And so that's where you really have to get in and decide what your customer

Julianne: 00:19:41

is looking for from your account.

Julianne: 00:19:44

For people, a lot of people that are service-based business, when they

Julianne: 00:19:46

come to your social media account, they're looking to get to know you.

Julianne: 00:19:49

They wanna see your behind the scenes.

Julianne: 00:19:50

They wanna see the nitty gritty.

Julianne: 00:19:51

They wanna see that you're a real person.

Julianne: 00:19:54

. I mean, it's up to you.

Julianne: 00:19:55

My customers, they don't care who I am.

Julianne: 00:19:57

They want their item and they're out, right?

Julianne: 00:19:59

They wanna know that they gimme their money.

Julianne: 00:20:01

I'm gonna fulfill their order.

Julianne: 00:20:02

And so that's the goal of my Instagram account, which is completely different

Julianne: 00:20:06

than another, another business.

Becca: 00:20:08

I think that's a really interesting perspective as well, thinking about not.

Becca: 00:20:12

Who's coming, but what's driving them to come to you in the first place?

Becca: 00:20:17

So you said you dug into that a little bit.

Becca: 00:20:19

How did you do that?

Becca: 00:20:20

Because that's the elusive question, isn't it?

Becca: 00:20:22

That people wanna know like, why are people coming to my account?

Becca: 00:20:25

So how did you dive into that?

Becca: 00:20:26

How did you discover it?

Becca: 00:20:27

Did you survey people or did you have another thing that you did?

Julianne: 00:20:31

No, I just, I really just kind of paid attention.

Julianne: 00:20:33

And so, and this kind of gets to the original topic that

Julianne: 00:20:36

we were talking about, is.

Julianne: 00:20:38

How do you avoid the overwhelm?

Julianne: 00:20:39

And the overwhelm for me starts even before you get on, or, I mean, it

Julianne: 00:20:45

can be done anytime, but it's like deciding what's the point, what's the

Julianne: 00:20:49

goal, what am I trying to do here?

Julianne: 00:20:51

And for me, for Instagram, I have like four really specific defined goals

Julianne: 00:21:00

and the, the content that I post hits.

Julianne: 00:21:05

One or all of those goals every single time.

Julianne: 00:21:08

And one of them, as I mentioned, is to make it look like I'm open for

Julianne: 00:21:11

business because I am, you know?

Julianne: 00:21:14

And another one is like to really show off the custom work that I do.

Julianne: 00:21:21

People wanna see it.

Julianne: 00:21:22

And so I post a lot of pictures of the custom work that I do.

Julianne: 00:21:27

It's like a mini gallery for me.

Julianne: 00:21:29

The other thing that they wanna see, not so much, but enough, is that they,

Julianne: 00:21:34

they wanna see that I am a real person.

Julianne: 00:21:37

You know, I'm a girl behind the garter girl.

Julianne: 00:21:39

They don't necessarily wanna see photos of my kids.

Julianne: 00:21:41

You know, they don't wanna see me like going to the grocery store,

Julianne: 00:21:44

but they wanna see the girl, that there is a girl behind the garter

Julianne: 00:21:49

girl, and that each item is handmade.

Julianne: 00:21:53

So what does that look like in terms of my content?

Julianne: 00:21:55

It looks like me posting my face, me posting pictures of my sewing

Julianne: 00:21:59

machine, you know, me posting pictures of the products being made.

Julianne: 00:22:04

And so each one of my posts hits one of those goals.

Julianne: 00:22:08

And to just really, show people.

Julianne: 00:22:11

What they're coming for it.

Julianne: 00:22:12

Paint.

Julianne: 00:22:13

You were asking how it's like Yes, I do.

Julianne: 00:22:15

Yeah.

Julianne: 00:22:16

It's like you just, you kind of have to, you have to pay attention.

Julianne: 00:22:19

It can't be, this is, this is a big probably shift for people and

Julianne: 00:22:23

I think people would say they're doing it, but really are they?

Julianne: 00:22:26

Is like, you have to take your hat off.

Julianne: 00:22:29

And this is something that my husband says to me all the time

Julianne: 00:22:31

is like, it's just not about you.

Julianne: 00:22:35

It's just not about you.

Julianne: 00:22:37

It's not, and if you want it to be about you get a personal

Julianne: 00:22:40

Instagram, which I have, right?

Julianne: 00:22:42

Which is about me and, and it's for my friends, it's for my family.

Julianne: 00:22:46

But like Garter Girl is about the business.

Julianne: 00:22:49

It's not about me.

Julianne: 00:22:50

They don't necessarily wanna know about me.

Julianne: 00:22:52

They wanna know I'm a real human, but they don't need anything more than that.

Julianne: 00:22:56

And it's not about you.

Julianne: 00:22:58

It's about what your customer wants.

Julianne: 00:23:01

And that is a big shift for a lot.

Julianne: 00:23:04

Of businesses.

Becca: 00:23:05

Yeah, that absolutely is.

Becca: 00:23:06

So do you have different goals for different platforms?

Becca: 00:23:09

So when it comes to Pinterest, obviously we've talked about how it's

Becca: 00:23:11

a totally different kind of platform.

Becca: 00:23:13

So for you, what's your goal when it comes to that platform?

Julianne: 00:23:16

All right, so Pinterest, my goals, let me see if I can remember these.

Julianne: 00:23:20

So my Pinterest goal is to just completely own the phrase wedding garter, and

Julianne: 00:23:27

not just wedding garter in general.

Julianne: 00:23:30

Is those specific things that we were talking about?

Julianne: 00:23:33

The, the specific like color specific types, you know, specific things.

Julianne: 00:23:37

I just pump out tons of content because I really, really wanna own that search bar.

Julianne: 00:23:45

For my business cuz that's what works for my business.

Julianne: 00:23:48

Also, one of my goals is like Pinterest works really well with Google and so it

Julianne: 00:23:52

helps my Google rankings to, to be having that traffic coming in from Pinterest.

Julianne: 00:23:57

So that's one of my goals is to do it consistently.

Julianne: 00:24:00

Keep doing it, keep doing it.

Julianne: 00:24:02

I also get a lot of email signups from Pinterest, so that's another goal.

Julianne: 00:24:07

And we shape the content that's going on Pinterest around.

Julianne: 00:24:11

Let me tell you what are not my goals when it comes to a lot of these platforms.

Julianne: 00:24:15

Not my goal followers, not my goal engagement.

Julianne: 00:24:19

I don't care if you go to my Instagram.

Julianne: 00:24:21

Some of 'em have one.

Julianne: 00:24:22

Like I don't care.

Julianne: 00:24:24

And that was a hard thing to get over.

Julianne: 00:24:26

And I used to get really worked up about engagement cuz it's,

Julianne: 00:24:30

everyone tells all that engagement.

Julianne: 00:24:31

It's all about engagement.

Julianne: 00:24:32

And then I was like, wait a minute, engagement's not on my goal.

Julianne: 00:24:36

My goal list is look like I'm open for business.

Julianne: 00:24:39

Did that post do that done Check success.

Julianne: 00:24:44

I'm onto the next thing.

Julianne: 00:24:46

I'm onto the next like millionth thing on my to-do list.

Julianne: 00:24:50

And when you can just, when you find yourself getting worked up or confused

Julianne: 00:24:55

or I don't know, is this working?

Julianne: 00:24:57

You gotta go back to your goals.

Julianne: 00:24:58

Did this hit my goal?

Julianne: 00:24:59

Did this hit my goal?

Julianne: 00:25:00

If it did, Done.

Julianne: 00:25:02

You're on to the next thing.

Julianne: 00:25:04

Because if we sit around and we try to, you know, As you call them, chase,

Julianne: 00:25:08

vanity metrics or chase things that aren't really gonna have an impact.

Julianne: 00:25:11

That to-do list is never gonna get done.

Becca: 00:25:14

And that is so freeing for so many people to hear you say,

Becca: 00:25:17

I don't care if I only get one.

Becca: 00:25:19

Like, because so many people panic about that.

Becca: 00:25:22

They feel embarrassed, they feel ashamed.

Becca: 00:25:24

They feel like they're not doing the right thing.

Becca: 00:25:25

They feel like their work's not good enough.

Becca: 00:25:27

But I think that's a massive mindset shift and a massive perspective

Becca: 00:25:31

change of how you're talking about it.

Becca: 00:25:33

To say, actually, if that's not your goal, don't worry.

Julianne: 00:25:36

I mean, I had a coach years ago, or it wasn't even that long ago,

Julianne: 00:25:42

and she was great, but she was like, you know, you really don't need to post on

Julianne: 00:25:46

Instagram as much as you're doing there.

Julianne: 00:25:48

The, you know, best practices are saying it's like, you know, two times a week

Julianne: 00:25:53

with the carefully curated caption that you know, and really like, it's a quality

Julianne: 00:25:58

over quantity game and all this kind.

Julianne: 00:26:01

I thought about it and I was like, Hmm.

Julianne: 00:26:03

And then I got back and I was like, no, that's totally different.

Julianne: 00:26:06

That might work for her Business, but my business, one of my goals is

Julianne: 00:26:10

to look like I'm open for business.

Julianne: 00:26:11

And if I've only posted once a week, what does that say?

Julianne: 00:26:14

Right?

Julianne: 00:26:15

And if I spend, you know, 45 minutes writing the perfect caption,

Julianne: 00:26:20

That's not hitting my other goals of doing all the other things.

Julianne: 00:26:24

I don't have that kind of time.

Julianne: 00:26:25

So it's like, you know, one of my goals for Instagram is to not have a takeover.

Julianne: 00:26:30

My life truly like, so I'm writing the, the quickest caption that gets

Julianne: 00:26:35

the job done that makes it look, I'm open for business, done and done.

Julianne: 00:26:39

And that is also part of the reason why I invest a lot in Pinterest

Julianne: 00:26:44

is because I have the content.

Julianne: 00:26:46

A photographer comes to my house once a week and we have the content.

Julianne: 00:26:50

We blog all the time.

Julianne: 00:26:51

We have the content, and if it doesn't get out there, what's the point?

Julianne: 00:26:56

So some of the goals can be really just about, they don't necessarily

Julianne: 00:27:01

have to be goals within the platform.

Julianne: 00:27:02

They can be goals within your business, right?

Julianne: 00:27:04

Like what works for my business?

Julianne: 00:27:06

What works for my.

Julianne: 00:27:08

And for a lot of people in the wedding and event business, like

Julianne: 00:27:11

you have the content, and so it's a matter of using what you have.

Julianne: 00:27:16

And that is, is an awesome goal, is to use what you have.

Julianne: 00:27:20

It's a smart goal.

Becca: 00:27:21

Yeah.

Becca: 00:27:21

And if you're listening to this, then have a think about those questions for your

Becca: 00:27:25

own business, because you absolutely know your business better than anyone else.

Becca: 00:27:29

So think about what you are trying to achieve and let go of what.

Becca: 00:27:33

All of the noise and everyone else is saying and think, actually,

Becca: 00:27:35

what am I trying to get out of being on this platform now?

Becca: 00:27:38

I would love you to indulge me for a second, Julie, because I

Becca: 00:27:41

know that you love Pinterest.

Becca: 00:27:43

You've talked a little bit about it, and I am also a massive advocate

Becca: 00:27:47

for Pinterest, and I feel like it doesn't get enough good credit.

Becca: 00:27:50

So I would just love to hear from you because I'm always going on

Becca: 00:27:54

to everyone about how they should be on Pinterest and how important

Becca: 00:27:56

it's in the wedding industry.

Becca: 00:27:57

Why do you think that people in the wedding industry should a

Becca: 00:28:01

hundred percent be on pinterest.

Julianne: 00:28:03

Listen, I love when people tell me that they, that they don't

Julianne: 00:28:06

like Pinterest and their clients aren't there and they don't use it.

Julianne: 00:28:09

Cuz that's more for me and more for my clients.

Julianne: 00:28:11

Truly.

Julianne: 00:28:12

I mean, the fact that like little old garter girl can, you know, compete with

Julianne: 00:28:18

the big blogs and websites out there is beyond me and, you know, millions of

Julianne: 00:28:25

views and engagements and, and that's, that's like, and I only by the way,

Julianne: 00:28:29

pin about one thing, wedding garders.

Julianne: 00:28:32

And so that, that's kind of mind boggling to me.

Julianne: 00:28:35

And so I don't, I don't always mind , when people don't use it.

Julianne: 00:28:41

I just think they just, I think the reason why they don't is

Julianne: 00:28:43

they just don't understand it.

Julianne: 00:28:45

I think they're overwhelmed and maybe they've tried it, haven't had success, and

Julianne: 00:28:51

haven't had success for all the reasons we've talked about today, which is they're

Julianne: 00:28:54

just not posting the right content.

Julianne: 00:28:56

And are posting the content in the right way, I should say, I think

Julianne: 00:29:01

before you decide about getting onto Pinterest, even though, and

Julianne: 00:29:05

I and I know it's hard, right?

Julianne: 00:29:06

Cuz you hear from peers and friends, you got, I'm crushing

Julianne: 00:29:09

it, I'm nailing and I'm doing it.

Julianne: 00:29:11

But it's like, be on Pinterest.

Julianne: 00:29:13

If you want more inquiries to your business, if you can handle more increase.

Julianne: 00:29:18

If you can't handle more, if you don't want or need.

Julianne: 00:29:23

Then don't even go there.

Julianne: 00:29:24

Right there.

Julianne: 00:29:25

I, I talk to a lot of event professionals that they just like,

Julianne: 00:29:29

listen, my referral game is so huge.

Julianne: 00:29:32

I, you know, invest in this area, that area.

Julianne: 00:29:35

I go to conferences, I, they, they, they have a totally different

Julianne: 00:29:39

marketing strategy and they don't need Pinterest, and that's okay.

Julianne: 00:29:44

And that's where the marketing overwhelm piece comes in.

Julianne: 00:29:47

It's like understand the platform, understand what's involved, and

Julianne: 00:29:50

then make the decision for yourself.

Julianne: 00:29:53

And it's okay if that decision is no, it doesn't have to be no forever.

Julianne: 00:29:57

I always love saying it's not a no, it's a no for right now, because

Julianne: 00:30:01

you're the business owner, right?

Julianne: 00:30:02

You can come back in six months, you can come back in a.

Julianne: 00:30:06

And part of the reason, I'm not sure you two, one of the reasons

Julianne: 00:30:09

why I love Pinterest so much is you could start a Pinterest

Julianne: 00:30:12

account tomorrow and have success.

Julianne: 00:30:14

I think it's a little tougher on something like Instagram to grow

Julianne: 00:30:18

and to to feel success, but I think it's a lot easier to grow, to

Julianne: 00:30:22

grow a Pinterest account right now

Becca: 00:30:24

because of all the people not being on there.

Becca: 00:30:26

So maybe we should keep quiet because , we don't wanna give

Becca: 00:30:28

away the best kept secret.

Julianne: 00:30:30

Yes, it's Pinterest.

Julianne: 00:30:32

You can go to www.facebook.com.

Julianne: 00:30:35

no

Becca: 00:30:35

exactly . Oh, it's been such a pleasure to talk to you, Julie.

Becca: 00:30:39

I feel like we've had some really great insights and some real mindset

Becca: 00:30:42

shifts for people to learn from today.

Becca: 00:30:45

I'd love to know before we finish, what's the one thing you wish you'd

Becca: 00:30:49

known sooner in your own business?

Julianne: 00:30:51

I love this question and I think we just, we, we talked

Julianne: 00:30:54

about, it's like you don't have to be everywhere to be success.

Julianne: 00:30:58

You don't, and people who tell you that you do, that is their

Julianne: 00:31:03

own sort of issue coming out.

Julianne: 00:31:06

And I think another, another one for me, if I could do two is that make sure you

Julianne: 00:31:10

compare yourself to yourself honestly.

Julianne: 00:31:13

And you know, and I used to sit around and I would say, again, all

Julianne: 00:31:17

these people, they got 10,000 million Instagram followers and things like that.

Julianne: 00:31:21

And I'm like, you know what?

Julianne: 00:31:22

They're an influencer.

Julianne: 00:31:23

They need that.

Julianne: 00:31:25

If they don't have a following, they have nothing.

Julianne: 00:31:26

You, you make your money elsewhere.

Julianne: 00:31:28

Stop comparing yourself to influencers who make their money put, like doing that.

Julianne: 00:31:35

I am not that, like, where, where do you make your money?

Julianne: 00:31:38

Right?

Julianne: 00:31:38

And so I just, again, compare yourself to yourself.

Becca: 00:31:42

So, so true.

Becca: 00:31:44

Love it.

Becca: 00:31:45

Absolutely love it.

Becca: 00:31:46

Julie, if people wanna find out more about you and what you offer, where's the best

Becca: 00:31:50

place for them to go and find out more?

Julianne: 00:31:53

Well after I, now that I just trashed Instagram

Julianne: 00:31:55

for the last, 45 minutes?

Julianne: 00:31:57

No.

Julianne: 00:31:58

So you can, if you wanna just like find me personally, my Instagram is

Julianne: 00:32:02

the Julianne Smith, or if you wanna check out what Garter Girl's up

Julianne: 00:32:06

to, my Instagram is at Garter Girl.

Julianne: 00:32:08

Or you can come to my website, julianne smith.com.

Julianne: 00:32:11

Or if you're in the mood for a wedding garter, you can go to garter girl.com.

Becca: 00:32:15

Amazing.

Becca: 00:32:15

And especially if you're gonna start shipping back to the UK because

Becca: 00:32:19

then people can go and check out.

Julianne: 00:32:21

Yes, I need to do that.

Julianne: 00:32:25

That's it.

Julianne: 00:32:25

2023 goals.

Julianne: 00:32:26

It's happening.

Julianne: 00:32:27

Absolutely.

Julianne: 00:32:28

Especially if it could just be like just the uk like so I shipped to Canada cuz

Julianne: 00:32:33

that one was one of the ones that was not such a big deal with the customs.

Becca: 00:32:39

So well, maybe you can just ship to the uk.

Becca: 00:32:41

Maybe that's an option.

Julianne: 00:32:42

I think that, yeah, let's do that.

Julianne: 00:32:44

2023.

Becca: 00:32:45

Let's go.

Becca: 00:32:46

Awesome.

Becca: 00:32:46

Well, I look forward to seeing your garters landing

Becca: 00:32:49

in the UK again sometime soon.

Becca: 00:32:51

Julie, it's been such a pleasure to talk to you.

Becca: 00:32:53

Thank you for your time.

Becca: 00:32:54

Thank you.

Becca: 00:32:56

Such an interesting chat with Julie.

Becca: 00:32:58

It is always good to get another perspective on the whole world of

Becca: 00:33:01

marketing in the wedding industry.

Becca: 00:33:03

And one thing I really liked is the fact that she just doesn't care about likes

Becca: 00:33:07

cuz it's not on her objective list.

Becca: 00:33:08

So I'd encourage you to think about what are your objectives when it comes to

Becca: 00:33:11

your marketing and your social media.

Becca: 00:33:13

Do you need to be in all the places or do you need to focus down on one

Becca: 00:33:16

of them and do the likes really?