Profiting on HOPE

Online wedding platforms like Zola, WeddingWire, and The Knot have become a growing problem for couples and wedding professionals. In this episode, we take a closer look at the influence these platforms have on the wedding industry and why it matters. Profiting on your hope while not providing actual clients to talk to is the problem we discuss today.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Oh, we're gonna get into that little intro riff. In a few minutes, that is my band Ambush from back in the day when the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl. We were so excited about their win, and we were like, you know, we need an anthem. We should write an anthem. Something that the entire city, the entire stadium can just chant. And uh there's a there's a whole story that goes along with how we created this song. But today I want to talk to you about um marketing or no, not marketing. So for those photographers, or not even just photographers, I think for any wedding vendors in general, I don't really matter who you are. If you're using, if you're paying for services like the knot, like Zola.com, like wedding wire, it has been brought to my attention of the oh man, they're basically earning money off of your hope. You know, earning money off of your hope. And uh all they have to do is uh get a couple of inquiries to you, and basically they've done their job, you know, whether they're even real brides or not. And the knot has a huge, huge problem that they've been living in the past, and I have been a part of actually and brought it to light. And since then, um I believe there's a class action suit happening. Oh man, so skipping skipping all that, okay, skipping all of the crazy, crazy uh negativity of this, you know, people need to understand how creatives in general, whether you're a florist, you're a photographer, um, you know, even if you're the venue, you're the person who does stationary, like it doesn't matter. Anybody who's in the wedding industry is is trying to market themselves, trying to get in front of these you know, shopping brides to show you what we can do, what is our fee for it? Let's earn a contract and let's kick booty on wedding day and wash, rinse, repeat. And you know, the old days of getting into a bridal magazine and it would just pull brides to your website or call you directly, those days have definitely changed. Um, how people are shopping now has changed, and um, you know, I love change as long as it doesn't affect my wallet, um, but it has. And some people may say it's the oversaturation. I'm not sure if it's completely oversaturated. I think to a degree the wedding industry um in general is kind of self-imploded. You know, you you can't be a business and think racing to the bottom is gonna keep you in business, and I think that is more of the problem. Everybody is just dying to not have to work a regular nine to five job that you don't like. Obviously, you want to do something you love, so let's try to outprice the guy down the block, gain the business, and surely we'll grow from there. And I think what has happened because of some, because of there are a lot of people doing everything these days. I know a lot of good lord, I do a I did a wedding a few weeks ago, and one of the bridesmaids is like, oh my god, I just love weddings. I'm gonna be a wedding planner. It's like no experience, no college programs, no seminar attendance, just she had fun. So let's let's be a business. And the people that are shopping the wedding industry, you would normally think that if you found a business, then surely they are a business, they know how to do all of these things. I am paying for a person who basically should be doing this for a living, right? Like they have my better interest in mine. How bad can it be? And I really I'm seeing so many how bad can it become pretty bad online. I'm here, I'm looking and reading and seeing TikTok to these poor past brides who wanted to save a few dollars, and their horror stories are just appalling to me. Appalling. And where it used to be, um, you know, you get what you pay for. Oh well, it's worse than that now. Because these people are running to TikTok, they're running to Instagram stories and X and Reddit and whatever it is. And the more horrible, bad things you hear about an industry, you just start disliking or trusting the industry, not just that Jane Smith person who, you know, robbed 12 couples of their money and went to Bahamas. There are a lot of us that have been doing this for a very long time. We set the standards, we kept raising the bar as we were getting into this business. And now here we are, we're offering you amazing, amazing quality services and experience. You're not gonna forget, you're gonna have fun, you're gonna have beautiful everything because if you hire the right vendors, that's just what happens. It's what we do, we care. Okay. So, marketing-wise, when I am trying to just, you know, get out of a get in front of a few more new brides, I'm like, let me go ahead and do zola.com. I'm just curious. You know, I've heard a couple of recent brides say that they're using the site, kind of like how people used to do the knot all the time. And, you know, Zola's growing. Sure, why not? When I tell you, zero, zero inquiries from Zola. I even had to do an email. I had I did the whole chat thing. I know I was talking to a bot. I said I need to talk to an actual human, or I'm just gonna cancel my subscription. Um, I just paid for three months. I even paid for like the boost thing to, I guess, get in front of other photographers who are the million people that are online. Um, none. Not one. And I know it's not the quality of my work, I know it's not just a price. I just I don't know. There's more at play here, and the problem that I'm having is a lot of these issues that many of us are dealing with right now are out of our control. I mean, what are we supposed to do? Raise our hands in the crowd and say, but I'm the good guy. I don't know. I really don't. All I know is I feel like the wedding industry as a whole um has its pockets of greatness and then it has its pockets of what the hell is going on. And unfortunately, the what the hell is going on is more public online, changing people's minds, changing people's spending attitudes. You know, I mean, think about it. I mean, whatever is a trend online, people get behind. So if it's a negative thing, and then you see several videos of people talking about, you know, a negative thing about an industry as a whole, people who don't know any better just start believing it without them even doing any of their own homework. They just start from scratch of, well, I can't trust anybody. Are they even worth paying for? The whole wedding industry is a sham. It's all a setup. Like, that gets so much more traction than the beautiful, amazing, loving, stunning weddings that we do. You know? Something as simple as wedding invitations. I have seen some of the most beautiful creative ideas in the last two years, and they're nowhere online. But you can easily find somebody that um had a negative experience with Aunt So-and-so who do their wedding invitations and they want their money back and blah blah blah. It's like that just all the negativity just rises above all the good stuff. I don't know why. It must be Satan who writes these algorithms. I have no idea, but I'm just letting you know that the other problem that I see happening are people benefiting off of your hope. You know, advertising with on advertising on websites like Zola, the knot, wedding wire, whatever. You're hoping to get some interactions. You're hoping to get somebody on the phone so you can at least talk to them, have a conversation, maybe close the contract from there. But you're just also hoping to get some human-to-human activity happening, and you feel like your money is well spent, and I'm gonna keep investing in this website, I'm gonna keep adding images and real weddings, I'm gonna keep doing all the things that I need to do to stay relevant on this website. Well, when Zola.com answered me, we scheduled a time. It was yesterday actually, like I don't know, 11 a.m. And for whatever reason, my phone was not on vibrate, but I see a missed call, and it's from this girl from Zola. She said in her voicemail, I'm so sorry, couldn't get you at this time. Click on our calendar and schedule another time so we can connect. I immediately emailed her and said, Hey, I'm not sure what happened to my cell phone, but I'm still available for our allotted time, which is still now. She blew me off so fast. So sorry to hear it. I clicked the schedule link, we'll go from there. Wow. Wow. That's that's the customer service we're paying for these days. Okay. And people wonder why the industry is being experienced the way it is. You know, when when you don't have people that care about you at all, they're just worried about the next person to sign up. All they care about is whether you made your payment on time. That sucks a lot, you know, and it just makes me very angry because one, I'm I'm not gonna re-up, obviously, my subscription. I two when I tell you I have not spoken with one single bride on Zola.com, not one. So if you're out there considering, don't spend your money, don't do it, don't waste your time and the hours of doing all the legwork to do your photos and fill out the bio and the package and the price and the style. And don't even spend spend your time on yourself, you know? You get more traction of doing an Instagram story or a live or a tic-tac video or I did say tick tock, right? Not tic-tac. I'm not gonna replay this or edit it, so let's just roll with this. You see where I'm going with this. We have so many opportunities as social media that is free. The only thing that costs you is your own time. And yes, you should value your own time. However, I do not need one million followers, I don't need 10,000 likes, I need a very small one percent of my views that I do my own content on to be a possible client. And that's what you need to understand when you're doing social media. Okay, sometimes the person that is not your bride seeing your video has a friend getting married, and she passes on. Hey, I saw this person online. They seem really cool, they do good work, they do interesting work. I like his style, I like her style, I like how they dress, I like how they talk. So you have to understand that being relevant as a business in general these days is deserving of you spending the time and effort on being visible online on your social media content channels, not another website, another third, fourth, fifth party website that you're hoping you're found on, if that makes any sense. You get more traction on TikTok with the right hashtags, talking about a problem that you can solve as a business owner. Trust me on this. Um I recently booked somebody and they did the same thing. They follow me, they love my work, they finally had a reason to get in touch with me and uh move forward. Best decision she ever made. That makes me feel so good. That one person that I booked is worthy of the hundreds of hours I am spending on doing all of my social things, whether it's my website, whether it's the SEO, whether it is all of my little short form stuff, my long form stuff, everything does take time. And yes, I have attempted to create a schedule for myself, but man, my day-to-day just changes and it's different all the time. You know, if I have on Tuesday all things Facebook, it never fails. I'll be working on a client I photographed on Monday that needs the images, they need images immediately. ASAP, they paid the rush, and um my interest for working on Facebook suddenly goes away after me working on this client for several hours. In the meantime, more emails have come in. I have a contract or two or a proposal I need to do. The next thing you know, it's four o'clock. That's how quick our days go in the creative world, by the way. You know, um, many of us, myself included, are a one-man job. You know, I have a team, I have other photographers and videographers that are part of my circle that I will include on certain jobs and text them and say, hey buddy, are you available? You know, I want to include you in the bid, blah blah blah. Um, but I'm I'm a solo operator here, and and most are. So we use um CRM like honeybook or 17 hats or whatever it is, but you've got many things as an octopus. You have to have many arms and tentacles to keep up with all of the things and be on time with all of your deliveries, respond to your emails. Automation or not, you personally need to be reaching out to your inquiries. So, you know, that's just something I wanted to come on here and talk about. We're at the 15-minute mark. I'm looking at my Rodcaster duo. I love this little thing, man. This Rodcaster duo makes my recording so much easier than the way I used to do it. I love this thing, man. I got all my pads, I got my levels, I've got things pre-recorded. Um, what you heard on the intro was a song called Who Dat Nation. I'm gonna play it for you in a minute or two. Um, I'm gonna give my listeners this very rare opportunity to hear a song that is not on Spotify, it's not on the radio, it has not been picked up by the Saints yet. Um we have some things in motion for this year, but it's uh it's our little pride and joy. You know, way back when when Drew Brees was on TV on the news, and he was thanking all the super fans for their support and always showing up and how everybody who attends the games in the dome, we're like that other man on the field, we make a difference, and that felt so good, honestly. Um because even though you pay for tickets to go and whatever it is, you're still an observer. You know, but when the leader of the team that is setting these positive waves in motion and tells everybody on TV, hey man, you are part of this team too. You getting loud and crazy and supporting us, whether we're down or ahead or whatever it is, we need you, we love you, we respect you, thank you. You need to stand up and be counted as one of the Hugh Who Datat Nation. So that's the name of our song, Who Datat Nation. And you'll hear in the song Stand Up and Be Counted, that all just came from Drew on being interviewed one night. It just hit us hard, you know. So, um anyway, I just want you if you are in the wedding industry in general, I know right now times are tough on money and spending dollars is is more difficult than ever. So when you do, you would like to see some kind of a a return, you know? And I'm just bringing light to the to the fact that a lot of people make money off of us off of hope, our hope. It's it's like going after the weak people when they're down, they have the hope to succeed. Well, let's offer them the idea of hope being succeedable, you know, and uh let's take their money and go from there. They owe us nothing. We don't owe you a lead, we don't owe you anything, these quote unquote shopping brides need to decide, which they do, but you can't tell me in two months' time I shouldn't have gotten at least one person trying to talk to me. Not one. So yeah, man. So since that negative hope is how we started, we're gonna finish on some positive rock and roll, the anthem that only a handful of my clients have heard. When we first wrote this song, I made single CDs and just gave it to my my people, man, when they came in for sessions. And it's so cool because when it's like Saints game on a Sunday, and I'd see them um at the grocery store or something, they're like, Oh yeah, man, we had your W Nat Nation, cranked in the car, going to the game. I'm like, oh, that feels so good. That just feels so good. So look, you guys, uh, I'm gonna get out of here. We're working on 19, 20 minutes. The song, there's probably three all by itself, uh, under a 30-minute podcast. So if you're at the gym taking a jog, you're going for a walk, you're just driving somewhere, you don't need a very long podcast, but you needed something just to kind of give you some variety in your day, something to think about, something to stand behind. And uh this, my friends, is the Who Dat Nation. Next podcast is on the way.