this is she creates business a podcast for wedding pros your host Kinsey Roberts interviews incredible women in the wedding industry who are making their mark and creating success on their terms join the conversation hello hello and welcome to episode 109 if she creates business a podcast for wedding pros this is your host Kinsey Roberts thanks for joining me today I am very much looking forward to today's episode I look forward to all of our episodes of course otherwise I wouldn't bring on the guests and have them talk about that because this show means a lot to me more importantly you mean a lot to me so I want to bring things that you like but if you've been listening for any period of time you know that I am a wedding venue owner I own a wedding venue with my sister-in-law in Colorado on our family sheep ranch and so today talking about how to start a voting venue with Lindsey Lucas from lean on me consultants was extra fun and I can't think of anyone better than Lindsey to have this discussion with you know Lindsey has been a wedding planner in Texas for almost a decade and something that's really interesting when I first heard of Lindsey I thought to myself okay if she doesn't own a wedding venue how is she teaching on it and never one to shy away from hard questions I asked her that exact question directly on the podcast and she answered it absolutely beautifully she is so passionate and so dedicated to venue owners and future venue owners I am just blown away by her dedication by her integrity and by her knowledge you guys she just crushes it it was so much fun to talk to her she's so open she's so giving she's so freely giving of everything that she has learned and her answer to that question just oh man I love it so much I'm not gonna give it away because I asked the exact question in the episode so you can hear it from her straight from the horse's mouth as they say I knew the answer because I've talked to Lindsay before we've been friends now for almost about a year we actually recorded an episode similar to this back in the spring and I thought to myself you know with her course launching she's launching and I'm gonna get to that information in just a second but with that launching I wanted to record a newer episode not that the other one wasn't great it was but now that we're closer to the course launch I wanted this episode to just be right on time so let's talk about that let's talk about her course it's called the venue Academy and honestly I don't even want to call it a course because sometimes when I see online courses they are sort of a theoretical 30,000 foot overview of what maybe could work for you in your business and that is not the venue Academy at all this the venue Academy is I've seen it I've talked to Lindsay about it I've taken it I wouldn't promote it I wouldn't affiliate for it if I hadn't seen it she graciously is giving me access to the entire thing but it's not a course it's literally a step by step guide for current and future venue owners to absolutely crush it in the venue game and I don't say that lightly the other day she made 60 email templates like plug and play customizable email templates just 60 do you know how long it takes to write 60 converting emails awhile it's worth the cost of the course just for those but there are gosh 15 modules or something I can't remember the exact number it's there so many and they're all worth it and literally she starts with how to write a business plan to take to a bank to get a loan what I mean it just who does that Lindsay does that so this is not a course of like I guess you could try these Pinterest ideas and then they might work for you no no this is literally do these exact things and you will have a venue period right okay I'm super excited to introduce Lindsay let me tell you a little bit about her you know I like to read these BIOS Lindsay was born and raised in the south where sweet tea and good manners are staples to surviving the Texas heat and strict parents she describes herself as having a servant's heart and thrives most when helping others which led her to create lean on me consultants she coaches wedding venue owners and those who are striving to be wedding venue owners on how to create a successful and streamlined business she's most passionate about giving her clients a strong foundation to build a business that will give them the life they've only dreamt of her happy place is being barefoot outside with her son or trying a new restaurant with her husband Lyndsey loves church sweet tea and the latest business book I want to tell you guys I quickly mentioned it I am being I am an affiliate for Lindsay's course so full disclosure I am affiliating for this course because I believe in it and do you know how many emails I've gotten about starting a video since starting this podcast mmm like 53 I counted them the other day it's a lot a lot of people want to be a venue owner and I don't blame you it's amazing it's hard work but it's awesome and it's so worth it and so valuable so here's the thing if you purchase the new Academy it's not for sale just yet as the at the time of this recording but if you purchased the venue Academy through my link there will be some exclusive bonuses for she creates business listeners only and I will go over those bonuses when they come out the course is launching towards the end of the September as I record this at September 2018 but take a peek at all the links anyway because I know that it'll just keep relaunching and I also will chat about those make sure you're following me on Instagram but more importantly head over to she creates business podcast.com forward slash venue Academy that she creates business podcast comm /a venue Academy and pop your email in and you will be the first to know when the course opens and what bonuses are available the bonuses what I have in mind are exclusive one-on-one time with me which you guys know I don't offer like I don't do coaching at all unless I really want to this is one of those times I'm gonna do so 30-minute like one-on-one strategy sessions this might change a little bit but it's kind of what I'm thinking I'm recorded some exclusive podcast episodes that are all about my personal venue journey including mistakes we've made I give you actual numbers and details so how much money we spent on opening our venue how much we spend in expenses etc etc and then I'm thinking like unlimited boxer support for 30 days as you go through the course so if you haven't used boxer it's like a walkie talkie so we can literally talk on our phones just back and forth it's more fun than texting so those are kind of what I'm thinking don't get me wrong I might add a few things might take something away I'm but it'll be four to five exclusive bonuses so think about it head over to she creates business podcast.com forward slash venue Academy and pop your email in even if you're just a little bit interested and I will shoot you that information as soon as the venue Academy launches but today Lindsay is going through like her five best tips for how to start a wedding venue and we deep dive you guys this is almost an hour-long interview so buckle up get ready without further ado here's Lindsay Lucas from Lean on Me consultants talking about how to start a wedding venue Lindsay Lucas welcome to the show hi thank you so much for having me I'm so excited to be here you are welcome and are you kidding and it's my pleasure to have you here I'm thrilled to have you we were just chatting offline you guys about really about today's podcast episode which is very near and dear to my heart of course as you can tell from the title of this episode we're talking all about starting a white wedding venue and Lindsay is the go-to person in my opinion for owning a wedding venues starting a wedding venue and all aspects and everything that that involves and if anyone knows what that involves it's me and Lindsay so I am really looking forward to diving into this topic with you Lindsay because gosh you have so much experience so we're gonna get into that but of course as I always do I gave everybody your professional bio at the top of the show but I would love like I have lots of questions to ask you about this topic so give me like the two-minute rundown of who you are you've been a planner for a long time and what you're doing now really quickly and then let's get like kick this off awesome let's do it okay so I'm Lindsay Lucas I only know me Consultants I did not start out being a venue consultant obviously I've been in the wedding industry for about eight years now I first jumped on the scene as a wedding planner and I quickly built a team underneath me and because of our planning company's reputation in the Houston area about three years ago we had a ton of new venues popping up everywhere and other vendors were referring us to the new venue owners who had questions and they would say oh I don't know the answer to that but you should reach out to Lindsay she's always happy to help and I would do site visits and get to know them and they would ask me all of these questions you know how are other venues handling this situation and I have this really weird situation going on with the mother of the bride how do I handle it what's the etiquette what are some like potholes I should avoid and I thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed helping them in my heart of hearts I am definitely a servant and I love helping as much as I possibly can and so I kind of became like this trusted friend and they started calling me at dinner time in the evening and in the middle of the night when they had to you know deal with a crazy bridal party situation or what have you and I started to realize that there was a huge need for this and quite honestly I started googling because that's the first thing that we always do because I didn't want to turn them away without giving them somebody to turn to and my Google searches weren't turning up anything there was nobody else doing this and so I hired a coach and said I have this crazy idea but we are definitely gonna have to invent the wheel because there's nobody out here doing this and um you know I don't if I'm gonna do this I want to do it the right way I don't want to be the type which I don't think that there's anything wrong with this by any means but I didn't want to be the type of consultant that you just paid an hourly fee to pick their brain over a chai tea latte and so I told her that I wanted to put together a specific curriculum for this that is step by step holding my clients hands and god bless her she took me on she was like let's do it yeah so we did it and word-of-mouth just kind of spread and before I ever even launched a legit business for this I already had two clients that is incredible in Houston Texas what it great like what a right place to start this business because Texas I feel I don't I mean I'm kind of just making this up but I really do feel like Texas is the like the birthplace of privately owned venues oh my goodness they're everywhere yeah yeah they're everywhere so what a great place to start and I think it really speaks volumes to your knowledge about the industry itself and your reputation for people to contact you and not like other venues well that makes sense because I feel like people inherently their initial knee-jerk reaction is to say oh gosh I can't contact another venue because they'll like they're my competition and they won't tell me the answers and that may or may not be true I don't think it's always true for everybody but I it just really speaks volumes to your reputation to what you knew about the industry that all of these venues were willing to like quite literally lean on you and say husk Lindsay she's been here ten times she knows right yeah they were just such sweethearts for even recommending me but you know I love the point that you hit on as far as not recommending other venues I will say that I think that you're a unicorn and a very pretty unicorn at that but oh are you as far as venue owners are concerned they're they're much different than vendors as far as you know how they look at their business and because a lot of them have investors that are breathing down their neck and that they have to report to they want to hold things tight to the best and not share any knowledge that they have or it worse than that there's terrified to go and ask for advice or for questions and there's not a huge community for them there's there's not an intimate community for venue owners a safe haven for them to go to and ask questions and give advice and lean on each other and I really really that is my the legacy that I want to leave in this part of our industry and make an impact on is creating community with venue owners that is so true there truly is not a community there certainly isn't just a community of like venue owner friends but there's definitely not a community of education for venue owners Katie no I really the hard way we truly I mean when we started this process at the end of 2015 I mean we didn't even yes we googled and that's really it we weren't even truly to be honest with you that wasn't even in my mind like oh I wonder if I should find someone to help us you know what I mean I wasn't even thinking maybe there's a rail tan out there because and there certainly was it there just wasn't like that was three years ago I know there wasn't it was not a thing and so it was it was really just a lot of trial and error there's a lot of things we look back on and and there's good parts to that too because you learn a lot of stuff and you know trial by fire but gosh if there's a few things that we could have learned beforehand from somebody like you I would it really would have saved us a lot of time and in some cases a lot of money right yeah building a venue and starting one from scratch especially it's the largest investment that you can make in the wedding industry and going about it by trial and error is the last thing that you should do especially you have investors to report to absolutely we're really fortunate we don't have public investors in our venue we do have investors but they're private and so we have a lot different and I think this is important to touch on so and we can talk about this a little bit to Lindsay but for our venue we have a private investor and so we have a very different payment plan a very different interest rate and that is not always the case for folks who are starting a venue that has a public investment company or Holding Group and you might have like a traditional interest rate which those all really impact your finances and can create just kind of this blanket of anxiety but that's that's why you're there is to really help them be profitable I mean I'll say right out of the gate I know that things you work up to everything of course but to have like a profit plan so let's before we get into that let's back up a little bit and let's talk to those people who are listening who want to start a venue someday it's their dream to start a venue let's talk about like the two things the very first two things you tell your clients when they come to you if they want to start a venue you know in the very near future yeah start saving now okay I usually suggest you know again your situation is a little bit more unique having those those private investors which is such a blessing but usually with investors you're going to have a higher interest rate and so because of that I typically suggest that if you can get your funding through a traditional bank it is a little bit harder to secure but the interest rate is going to be fixed and it's going to be a little bit lower than going through you know an investor or a corporation and so whenever you're approaching a bank first of all let's start growing that thick-skinned now because I can guarantee you you will be turned down by your first one to three banks that you approach most of my clients prior to bringing me on their team they get turned down six seven I had one client that was turned down nine times before she finally got a yes so get okay with people turning you down take it as a challenge and you know bow that back and just keep going at it but yes start saving that nest egg most banks are going to say that they will front eighty percent of the overall number that you're asking for so I like to play it safe and say that you need to save up about twenty five percent just so that you can show the bank that you definitely have a lot of skin in the game and are committed to this that's right and so before you go and ask for a loan you have got you've you've had to do that marketing plan because you have to know how much you're trying to ask for and you might need more than you think yeah oh absolutely yes so start saving first start building that up while you're saving start running your marketing reports make sure that the market that you want to be in is not oversaturated I ran a report I had a client come to me and they actually were fortunate enough to own two different properties in two different cities and I ran marketing reports on both ones so that we can make an educated decision on which one we were going to invest in and start building the venue on it and it was a no-brainer both reports came back one had 26 venues within a 30-mile radius of their property mm-hm I know and the other property seven okay yeah there you go and what you would not have know I mean they wouldn't have known not not necessarily this is not to say like oh my gosh they probably don't know anything but they don't know the type of marketing report to run to determine if there were 26 menus within a 30-mile radius and I think that that's something that's so valuable when you're running those reports when you're running those numbers but when you're also talking to a trusted source who can point you in the right direction absolutely and you know one of the things was those 26 venues that was just the number was made up of the venues that had the same business model that they were going to have there were more venues within that radius but it wouldn't have been on the same level as what they were competing at my goodness okay so running your numbers saving now what was the tip number two did we get to tip number two or is that the first tip saving now yeah yeah I say saving now running your marketing report okay and then once you have all of your information gathered and together I like to run national regional and local marketing reports for my clients and then put it all together in one nice neat format for them we go through it and talk about everything we pull the hard-hitting statistics that is going to be impressive to a bank or a lender and we start building out their business plan so what's the value you know when your wedding venue you're very much local and this I feel like I know the answer this question that you're gonna say but I what adds uh your we're very much local now of course the wedding industry is very transient there's destination weddings etc etc that really depends on your location I think but talk to me about where you find value in national and regional reports oh my gosh yes um national reports I typically pull the heavy-hitting stats from there for that business plan so you know the fact that the wedding industry was a fifty seven billion dollar industry in 2017 is just it's mind-blowing and then my reports will break it down and and talk about you know what that actual dollar amount equates to for venues specifically then we can break it down even further to the business model and speak to the expertise that the future owner has but yeah and then the the regional report what I pull from those mostly is going to be helping with marketing and advertising for my clients those reports are typically telling me what Brides in that region are looking for where they're going for their information what social media platforms they're at and just how they're obtaining their information with and what they're looking for and how to educate my client on this is how you need to talk to a bride this is the information you need to give her things like that mm-hmm okay brilliant so smart okay so I know we're kind of going through this faster guys it's only like an hour-long podcast so we have to go fast I know you're probably like okay what else about the bank Lindsey can tell you that in another conversation but let's say we're done like we got through it we were declined a few times but now we have our London we have our loan we have our piece of property we are like in the game what what would be the next steps for us as far as building our venue getting things done opening those doors what are your thoughts on that yeah so if you don't have property you need to know what to look for in a property first of all and you need to know that I usually recommend finding three properties that you love within the market that you need to be in and you need to be 30 to 45 minutes from a major metropolitan area having a rural venue is wonderful and majestic but brides are gonna go for convenience every time and if they can't drive 30 to 45 minutes to a major hotel chain and get their block of rooms for their guests or if they can't have you know a nice restaurant to go to for the rehearsal dinner if your venue doesn't provide on-site things like that then those are things that you need to take into consideration you also need to be looking for property that has some sort of attraction to it it's it's one thing to build the most beautiful castle on all of the land but there also needs to be some picturesque opportunities within the property itself that are attractive to brides and bringing them out there whether that's a hundred year old oak tree or beautiful mountains or a pristine lake or even just a incredible view of a city skyline you know something that you can mark it in and draws Brides to as well as your architecture that you're building on on site and then it you know once you have your property and you have your funding you need to make sure or even I'm sorry before you have your property one of the things that you need to take into consideration is what it where is that property zone – can you be can that property be commercial if it isn't if it's zoned for residential or do you have the opportunity to have go through the application process to get it raised owned and changed to commercial there are a ton it's really really difficult for me to you know without having a one-on-one client to educate on city zoning and permits and it it's so hard water is another thing I feel like I'm just like throwing spaghetti at a wall and trying to like word vomit as much information as I possibly can you're doing amazing testing your water and making sure that it's okay for public consumption making sure that the property itself is large enough for a public well and septic system and that you have that included in your budget most of them are a minimum of $50,000 and can get up there to you know over a hundred grand so things like that are the very unsexy things that most people don't want to think about concerning a venue they want to talk about the beautiful architecture and the you know amazing Restoration Hardware city that they purchase Israel I I totally get all of that and that's the end goal and what we want to get to with making our Brides happy but we got to set everything up right the firt right out of the gate it's so true and I think it's a good time to tell people that a lot of this stuff like if you have to go through a rezoning process from residential to commercial it takes time so something about a venue in building a venue especially if you're building it from the ground up and actually even if you're remodeling an existing building you have got to be in it for the long haul because it took us almost two years to open ours and we already owned the property it was private we already have water rights to this property and it still took a long time because we I mean we've kind of had the opposite problem it wasn't zoned at all and our County didn't know us know what to do with us because we were truly that one of the first people in our area to do this they were kind of like what are you doing like what what's happening they almost wanted to make us a subdivision and we were like no no no no that's not what's happening here so it takes time it can go into the county process is it's different for everybody but I I almost wonder and I'm kind of just talking out loud but I almost wonder if a county has gone through it before like if you have other venues in your area take that as proof of concept of course like if you have 26 in a 30-mile radius obviously that's that's a lot of competition but take it as proof of concept and I wonder – and I wonder what your experience has been with this Lindsay do you find that the county process can be faster if they've gone through it more you know if the county is like oh we get it like we did this for a guy you know and you know 45 minutes down the road or is it always just kind of like it it really depends on who you work with yeah I think it really does depend on who you work with I think that some aspects of the process are a little bit smoother if the county has gone through it before and you can reference another venue that falls within that same radius but at the same time it is very property specific and so there are going to be little you know holdups and stuff and hiccups along the way that you know you just have to grin and bear and get through it and you know you'll make it on the other side it'll be worth it absolutely and the only guarantee in construction and building is that there will be delays so the elbows in to your plan build those into your opening date because it's gonna happen things don't always go as anticipated when you're building something you can when you're involved in construction because the to be honest you're not just beholden to yourself there's a lot of people involved in that process oh yeah there's a lot of things out of your control whether true if subcontractors are going to show up that right that's right if they have all of the tools that they need if the lumberyard hide all of the two money forks seriously okay amazing okay I did we make that sound scary because I don't want it to sound scary it can feel scary but like Lyndsey say it's worth it on the other side there is just things to be aware of that's just realism right right absolutely that just sounds scary okay no no I don't think it sounded scary I would much rather be overly prepared than surprised down the road so fair point well made I love that okay so let's talk about this is a new gun you guys we're moving so fast we we started we're building I venture to guess that you teach your clients to start marketing right away like you're not waiting for opening date right talk to us about how you feel about that yes so I put a very specific marketing strategy and place for my clients you know advertising your opening date is super super tricky whenever you're a venue you never want to advertise that early and booked clients earlier than what you are 100% confident in your opening date the worst thing that you can do is hurt your reputation by having to push bride's wedding dates back so we are prepared for the worst with my clients as far as adding in a contingency date within those contracts that they sign early but at the same time as far as the marketing strategy is concerned we are very strategic with their social media and their online presence with only stating and in the beginning the year that they will be open and then as construction starts going along and we are on a good timeline and we can see the end in sight then we'll put a season attached to the year so fall of 2019 and then of course as we get even closer than will start announcing that launch date that grand opening and do you start with a grand opening every time do you encourage your venues to do that like have a grand opening party I mean I actually encourage them to have a vendor meet great first so yeah so a lot of times I'm sure as you have experience being a new venue it's really exciting for other vendors in the industry as soon as they hear of a new venue opening they're knocking down their doors they want to bring them flowers and gifts and business cards and introduce themselves and get to know them and unfortunately when you're a venue owner more times than not it's just you and maybe a business partner and you're handling everything from construction decisions to design decisions to fielding email inquiries and responding to social media comments like you're wearing all the hats right so really what you need to be focused on is getting your venue up and running in tip-top shape in a timely fashion and as promised and responding to those brides and making sure that you're giving them face time first I do think that it's incredibly important to build great relationships within your vendor community so when I what I usually instruct them to do is as those vendors are reaching out be polite be gracious you know thank them for reaching out and just say I would love to meet you I'm actually hosting a vendor meet-and-greet may I add you to the invitation list put their information down in a Google Doc or a spreadsheet and then when the time comes you host a vendor meet-and-greet before your actual launch – or the grand opening to the public so that you're building those connections and you're meeting those vendors face to face and getting to know them and you're building your tribe and then they already know you and once you do your grand opening in your launch then they're just those added voices to support you within your community mmm I love it so a vendor being great and then they kind of have a sneak peek – you know you're giving them that register a little like you're the first one to see this yes absolutely and then brides are seeing it on everybody else's social media and they're intrigued and excited for the grand opening and it's just building that anticipation more and more that's lovely okay so what's next for somebody if building a venue I you know what I really would love to touch on is I think this kind of gets long I actually think this gets lost after all these interviews I've done I feel like this kind of gets lost in any business but I I know that you're passionate about really building a strong foundation business-wise administrative Lee talked to me about that yes I spend a lot of time with my clients talking about their systems and the software that they need and all of the automation that goes into that so I actually will take their contract and see everything that they're they're legally bound to we first write out policies and procedures for them they're specific to their business and what they need in order to run their business efficiently from their clients and from there I take all of that in stock which we taught we have a lot of conversations about the different CRN's that are out there I recommend a couple of different ones depending on the business's needs and then from there once we make a really educated decision on which one is the best fit for them and then I take it on get them all signed up and I'm the one that actually goes in and stocks it and customizes it and then we start having these one-on-one meetings to where I am showing them basically how to run their business a lot of my clients haven't seen these particular CRM systems before maybe my clients are coming from the medical industry or attorneys things like that I am starting to get this amazing shift in clients to where it's more vendors planners and photographers and florists that are wanting they've seen all the venues and now they want to build their own which is amazing I am so excited to work with more and more vendors and are in our creative space but anyway so teaching them the CRM system getting those workflows and automation set up so they aren't trapped behind their computer and a slave to email all of the time you know for a venue it they can have anywhere from 40 to 120 clients at on any given day and so just handling email communication is a lot yes mm-hmm yes so making sure that they're running their business efficiently and their business isn't running them is the end goal that is so key and I think I wanted to make sure I understood what you said that's that's part of what you do when you're consulting is you said you customize their CRM for then like you fill it up I do yeah absolutely it's incredible that's hug that's a lot of templates that's a lot of automation that's a lot of setup yes it is we have conversations from the very beginning of the client experience when a potential bride is submitting that inquiry form all the way through a couple of months after the wedding ends mm-hmm that's I'm just thinking in my mind like how long it took me to set up my CRM and I feel like it's something to that's for me not the processes themselves but you're always adding processes like as you add offerings or as you add services or as you learn right because you can you can be prepared for everything like prepare for everything expect the best but you are going to learn a few things and add a few things to your contract as you go haha oh absolutely you know what I mean but it's my CRM it's sort of like a living thing I'm constantly tweaking automation and seeing where I can improve and save time right right do you feel like that's something that you see too with your clients it's like okay here's the here's the basis this is a really strong foundation just know you're gonna have to you know keep this kind of like a living document oh right yes absolutely which is why it's key that we have those one-on-one meetings too that I swim teach them and they say you know we'll set our computers up right next to each other and I will be the test subject there's a lot of role playing they're driving through everything so that they're actually going through it as if they would with an actual client because I find that that's how most people learn best is just by doing it ah yeah absolutely 100% like I couldn't listen I couldn't even watch it I've been like listen to someone tell me over the phone I'd have to do it with my friends yes absolutely same same thing okay there's so much to consider here I know we are you're truly you guys we're just scratching the surface i when i asked Liddy to talk about this I was like listen I know that we can't get into everything this is we truly just kind of just barely scratching the surface of each of these sections and these aren't even all of the sections to consider but I feel like we're really touching on the high points that will give you a good idea of what's coming up in your venue journey so this this is great we're we're close to wrapping up here so I want to make sure we touch on a few things and the the kind of the final thing I want to touch on about being a venue owner is once you've had your Grand Opening you've laid your foundation things are set up and tours are coming in like this is happening what does that look like what are your top two or three pieces of advice for people for managing their leads managing their clients and you know turning a profit because that's what we all want it right yes absolutely so in the beginning I get my clients set up on a three tiered profit planning system so depending on where they fall within their pricing obviously their pre-construction rate is going to be the lowest that it ever is and so we talk about their their goal we're looking at whatever funding they have been approved for from the bank and granted and we have a very strategic plan within their Performa that walks through the next three to five years right until they're reaching that ROI and they're seeing that come in on a consistent basis so bottom tiers are pre-construction rates we break that down into three tiers so if your overall goal is in eighteen months after you start accepting bookings not after you have opened that eighteen month mark if you want to have a hundred weddings then you're first here with the pre-construction rate is weddings one through thirty-three thirty-four and then you jump up to the next pricing tier which is based on a percentage once you hit that goal then you're jumping up to your third tier which is your overall goal to get to within your first eighteen months if you're doing what you should be doing and you're attracting the brides and your remarketing and advertising is doing what it should be doing and you're basically just closing the bride by the time she gets to her tour and is seeing the property in person saying you should be at your third tier by that eighteen month mark and that is when you're really going to start seeing a difference you may depending on your funding you may not start seeing ROI at 18 months it might be closer to three years or so depending on you know where your if you took out three million five million whatever your case might be but yes that three-tier pricing model has worked for the majority of my clients okay alright and that made a lot of sense so and in case you guys let me I'll just like break that down a little bit so the three-tier pricing model that she was talking about that Lindsay does with her clients is in Tier one that's your that when correct me if I'm wrong Lindsay but in Tier one it sounds like that's from when you start accepting bookings through let's for number sake like you said wedding number 33 or 34 right and then after you've booked that and execute that wedding then you move up you you increase your price right by a pietà – it's like predetermined percentage for weddings 35 through I guess what would that be like 73 or 72 right okay and then so on and so forth um so brilliant okay I have a tough question for you this is and I know that you're totally willing to ask to answer this but I feel like it might be on other people's minds and I want to you and I are totally on the same page with this but here's the question and the question is Lindsey Lucas you are not a venue owner but you are a new consultant yes and you are 100 percent confident and that I know why and you should be tell us why you feel comfortable being a venue consultant even though you're not a venue owner so first I just want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to answer this question because I I think you're right I feel like it's on everybody's mind and people are just maybe they don't want to come off as rude and ask me directly which I'm an open book and but yes I love this question and I feel like I am a good consultant because I've seen it all you know whenever you are a venue owner you're you are in tune with your business you know exactly the way that your business functions it's a living organism you know the way that your brides are what they're thinking what they're looking for but you don't see other markets you know what's going on in your neck of the woods in Colorado but you don't necessarily know what's going on in New York or in Maine or in Tennessee I have clients all over the nation and I run marketing reports constantly I see a ton of different floor plans and the way that different venue owners interact with brides and what works and what doesn't work I see online presence that is awful and I can tell you what not to do you know and coming from a planner background the beautiful thing about that is the fact that I've had the best of both worlds I know what makes a vendor happy to work with a venue and vice versa and I can talk to my venue clients about that and I just I really feel like there's this big gap for the majority I don't want to include everybody but as a whole I feel like there's a gap between vendors and venues and I want to work really hard and diligently to close that gap to make sure that everybody is just working together in harmony and the end goal is just making our brides happy so that we get that five-star review and those referrals later on so yes to answer the question directly I am NOT a venue owner I have never been a venue owner I do not have plans of becoming a venue owner I very much love what I do and I feel like I'm very qualified and doing what I do and educating venue owners and those aspiring to be because I've seen it all I have the experience and this is a really funny side note so part of my offering is I set up your business foundation and I teach you how to make it profitable and more importantly how to make it sustainable I've recently had a client that she went through five different contractors and oh my gosh yes and they just did not get it of them got it and they were sending her these you know mock-up floor plans and cads and they were just so frustrated and so on one of our calls I screen shared with them that they live out of they don't live in my state but so all of our meetings are done virtually but I screen shared with them and was showing them examples of other venue floor plans and what worked what didn't work I was like I told them this catering kitchen is way too small catering teams are working on top of each other I showed them a storage room that was too large and it was wasted space that they were being taxed on because it was air-conditioned and I just went through different scenarios like that and by the end of it and my intention was for them to pass these notes along to the architect and the contractor and by the end of it they just said will you design our venue and I was like oh no I'm not an architect and like started like backpedaling but I really are so I I did I took it on I was like okay I'll have the software but I'm gonna give it my best shot and I did it and this past week I flew out there and our first site visit within their package and met with the contractor and the architect and the architect offered me a job at the meeting it was really really fun and I enjoyed it and but my point to all of that is not to my own horn but to say that I would not have been able to provide that one-off service for her if I was a venue owner of just one venue you know I could I could only give her the design and floor plan that I knew which was just from that one venue but I essentially took 12 different venues and mesh them into the one that worked perfect for her that's so true because as a and I'll speak to this as a venue owner myself you guys there's a lot if there's a handful of things that Katie and I built or didn't build that for us is like hindsight now and we're like shoot we should have added that so there are things I you know what there's there I hope there always is I hope there all the way I hope we never just stagnating and kind of a cesspool of like we're just settle for what we have now but there's definitely things that we want to add to the property and there's a few things logistically that we're like gosh darn it why don't we think of that storage is one of them and so it's we but this is such a perfect example we only know our venue we only know what we're doing here we didn't spend a lot of time like peeping on other people's venues which I will say was really intentional because we didn't want to just adopt other people's smile and taste unintentionally but yours like subconsciously by right you know being able to talk to somebody like Lindsey could have saved us you know having to build storage this fall but you know so it's just so hilarious and I just love that you decide to this venue but like what a gift to them because now they truly are gonna have so much of what they need starting out and they you know they pup they won't have as many like oh gosh you know hindsight is 20/20 moments that they could have had had they not had you in their life right yeah well and I I'm just so thankful that they believed in me when I wasn't that confident I've never done that before and I'm glad that they talked me into it because it was really really fun and it it worked out to everybody's benefit the architect was thankful the contractor was thankful because once they could like see it on paper it made sense absolutely and it really helps the working relationship go smoothly and it also helps move everybody forward when the communication feels there and it really feels like you're speaking to someone who's on the same page and you helped them get there right mmm okay that I love that and I just wanted to touch on something really quickly about my question about you know why you feel comfortable which that was such a perfect answer and of course I like I say I knew that and I knew I know that that's correct but I want to Lindsay and I were talking offline kind of about this question and I just said you know what I have come to learn as a venue owner is that and not even as a venue owner it's really just for me once you understand what all the vendors do in the industry is that the wedding planner is truly the only vendor of all of us you guys that has their pulse on every part of the wedding as a venue owner I don't I don't know what the deejay is doing like I do but I don't I also don't care I do know like I care in this sense that like I hope the bride likes you because we love our couples but I feel like that's what makes us I feel like you know we are a unicorn in the sand it's like something we hear from our vendors at the end of the night is wow you're so involved like I love that you're here I love that you're involved I love how much you love your venue it's a little bit different for us because this is a family ranch and so it's not just property that like we are going to pick out this is like deeply personal on it's an almost century-old ranch but if you as the planner Lindsey have just had your have had your hand on so many weddings on so many different vendors on so many different styles so many different personalities and I feel like it's the perfect segue to start consulting to venue owners because you're right there is a bit of a gap I feel like the venue there's a bit of a gap between the venue and the other vendors and I can't pinpoint exactly why I don't think I can articulate that very very well but maybe you can but I feel like you're the perfect perfect person to just bridge that gap and bring that you know almost decade of planning experience into venue owners like for me particularly it's funny because we're kind of going backwards like we're considering offering like day of wedding planning services because we're so deeply invested in our venue hmm and we're kind of working it the other way and said you know what I mean instead of like writing a plan are becoming a venue owner we're kind of going the other direction yeah I just feel like it's so natural it's such a natural thing like of course you would be a venue consultant that's how I feel in my brain yeah well and I love that I have the background that I do and and and I'm not like I don't see it as a negative by any means I feel like my background is more of a positive for my clients because I can speak to okay when you're building your venue you need to make sure that you have adequate power for your deejays and your bands that are coming in and you need to make sure that it's located sporadically I'm not sporadically but you know on separate circuits yes thank you I could not get there so I'm here processor yeah and then you know I can talk about load in and load out for florist and how God bless them more times than not it's raining when they're bringing in all of the floral and they need an overhang or the fact that a photographer when they're coming from a church ceremony there the last vendor to arrive on-site and the bridal party is already at the venue they need a designated parking spot so that they're not hauling gear from the back of the parking lot and running like crazy to capture that first dance you know I can speak to all of these little nuances that are they're tiny tiny things but they're what going are going to set your venue apart and they're when you please your vendors and you have vendors that are singing your praises it's just it speaks that much more to your business and having way more voices on you yes yes so true this has been so informative my head is exploding with ideas what is next let's talk about what's next what's next for you what's next for your clients there are lots of people listening right now who want to start a venue and tell them how they can do that Lindsay oh man so much is on the horizon oh I am actually about to launch an online course so because with my one-on-one consulting it's very very hands-on and I devote a lot of attention to my clients and so I it's just me here in this business and I only have the capacity to take on four clients a year and serve them well so I couldn't accept everybody that was sending in inquiries and asking for complimentary consult off of my website so again I hired another business coach to help me take my 6-month curriculum and turn it into an online course and it is a beast of a course yes oh my goodness um I drastically underestimated the amount of time that it would take it home information wow it's a lot like belly video oh my gosh so much yeah so um it's 15 modules and it walks through everything from getting started what to look for in property if you're a vendor wanting to be a venue owner how to conduct your own market research I show you the exact steps that I use for my clients how to write a business plan it has a business plan template that is just plug and play for you to take to the bank we talk about different in-house options from if you wanted to have in-house coordinators or an in-house caterer or have an in-house bar we talked about the benefits of that and added revenue streams we talked about funding of my incredible friend Brooke Olson of Brooke Olson consulting who is like a finance guru um she came on board and taught the funding module with me and we talked about how to get funded what to do once you are funded and then we talked in depth about profit planning and what that would look like for your your venue specifically we talked about contracts even my one-on-one clients that have hired a corporate attorney to do their contract I still review them and I have not reviewed a a contract yet that did not have missing elements in it so the contract module talks about the main things that most corporate attorneys miss because they aren't familiar with the wedding industry and they're just going about like a normal contract we talked about policies and procedures I give you a very lengthy PDF of policies and procedures for you to pick and customize to fit your business the CRM module is insane it is oh my gosh okay I didn't even think of that I bet you showed everybody exactly what you do yep oh boy oh yeah Wow I edited out the tuss word so you're welcome that goes through her mind she's out I'm totally kidding but yeah I definitely dropped four-letter words all the time you guys okay but yes so I flipped the screen and you get to see what two different CRM modules how I stock them the workflows that I put in place the automation triggers that I have I show you step-by-step how to set yours up and how to customize it am i shaking my head right now because I like I don't even care how much this course cost you know why because even just the attorney part of it just the contact part of it you guys I'll tell you how I'll tell you how much it costs us to go get to go to an attorney and get our one contract written we have a couple of contracts and a couple of forms that people sign but our main venue rental contract it cost us twenty three hundred dollars just to visit an attorney twice and get that contract written so let that sink in okay keep Oh bless yeah yeah those attorneys fees will getcha all right and don't get me wrong has it been totally worth it absolutely it was 100% worth it I would do it again I'm just saying that that's how much it cost to do that and if you can mitigate some of these costs again like I was saying we could have avoided some headaches and saved ourselves a lot of time and a lot of money having a consultant or heck if we had a course I believe this wholeheartedly I mean here's another situation we had and we've done so much construction around here it is a ranch people but we had a road situation where we we didn't know we would have to we've built in we built into the budget but we had to spend twenty five thousand dollars just on an extra road and we already had a road to our property so think about that again this course like the price unless it's like a million dollars which it's not but it doesn't matter I will I will tell you that even if you just have an inkling that you might want to start a venue someday I'd beseech you to take a course like this before you do it because you will understand everything that is involved like I said we just scratched the surface on today's interview you donated would you agree oh absolutely yes and you get lifetime access so so there's that so she's gonna update it and then I'll be back I'll be going to get this course to start with another video okay great yeah so I mean it's even for venues that are already established that I mean the course isn't just for new venues I talk about website presents marketing and advertising client experience growing your team how to hire what to look for in people an onboarding process with new team members how to lead a team and inspire them to want to be as invested in your business as you are as the owner that's a really hard thing to do we talk about event management you have pre event checklist post event checklist email templates bride guide which is so so amazing I think the bride guide might be my favorite like bonus that I'm going to be releasing all of my one-on-one clients that's like the main thing that they're like oh my gosh this is amazing so it's basically like you have everything in there for your venue that Brides ask you it's frequently asked questions helpful hints sample floor plans measure and emeasure mcdr ways where they want to hang garland you know all of those are in there your policies and procedures just to give them friendly reminders like hey remember you have to abide by these catering policies I mean absolutely everything the Year amenities if you have rental add-ons that they can you know rent from you so everything is in there and the idea is that this is your bride's Bible and every time that they email you to ask a question you are resending that PDF that they already have because you've included in your in your onboarding process with them and you're referencing the page number and eventually they are going to be conditioned and think oh before I email and ask this question I should check my bride guide and it's gonna save you so much time so much time so much time we have one we call it the wedding experience guide but it's everywhere yes oh my gosh it's a life saver tell me what else what else do we need to know there's a resource toolkit that has everything that my venue clients use for attorneys recommendations there's architect recommendations in their systems software's oh gosh it's jam-packed with stuff but my very very very very favorite thing that I'm just so excited about is there's gonna be a private membership site and when I say private membership site I'm sure everybody listening automatically just thought of a private Facebook page and that is not what it is it is a so a long time ago I was talking to a client and they were just struggling with the fact that they didn't have anybody other than me to like turn to and just like voice their frustrations there's such a lack of a community that is specific to venue owners you know there's the rising tide Society which is amazing and has changed so much for our industry but there isn't one that anything that's specific to just venue owners and so the tricky thing is is like I mentioned earlier you know most venue owners have investors and they're scared to admit when they're struggling with something or ask for advice or they're even scared to give advice and this private community is basically formatted like an old-school chat room to where if you're comfortable sharing your name or your business name that can be your avatar if you are not comfortable then you can make up a completely different avatar to where nobody knows who you are and it's a safe place for you to come and ask questions and get and give advice that's really thoughtful Lyndsey my goodness because that's I know and I don't blame anyone because the reality is this if we are if within a 10 mile radius of each other we are competition and it wouldn't it's just not a good business decision to be like let's share everything right you don't even mean it's just not like come on like I mean we can be you know we can be in community but we can also be in competition in a fair way that is truly brilliant what a thoughtful addition thank you I have like my gosh you should see the Google Doc that is just for this membership site I mean we have everything from I'm gonna have an entire lineup of guest speakers that are already committed to coming on and answering questions for our venue community everything from an attorney that will that's going to come on and answer your contract questions to Brooke my my financial guru friend is going to come on and talk about funding I have an Instagram expert I'm working on getting a Facebook expert we have SEO coming on so I'm so excited about it and then of course I'll be in there often as well this is fantastic when when is this happening how can we so as we record this it's August 30th 2018 when is this launching how do we get involved how do we get on the wait list what do we do yeah so um you can join my newsletter if you want to subscribe to my newsletter I think right now I'm as the often I'm offering a profit planner as the the downloadable often and I should be launching and of September is the goal is the goal okay awesome yes and these links will ever everything will be in the show notes you guys so you can find Lindsay so for some reason you're listening to this at the end of September or when it launches on September 13th of 2018 or even afterwards follow the links of the show notes you will find Lindsay and you will find this course cool yay yeah this is cool I'm so excited I'm so excited that you're sharing this with my community because there are so many future venue owners here I think I think a lot of people actually just thought I didn't think there was a future venue order but now I might thank you enough I know that you worked really hard to put all of this information together through your own experiences and through your own clients and I just want to thank you for bringing it to us and truly helping us you know hash out our own ideas you know just get being so giving of your time thank you thank you thank you absolutely no thank you I'm I'm so grateful just for the opportunity to and be in front of your audience and I feel so fortunate just to be able to talk with you as a venue owner and you've been through it and you're obviously knowledgeable and this as well so thank you for inviting me to come on it has been my true pleasure Lindsay aside for meters letter I'm gonna pop everything in the show notes but tell us where people can connect with you like on your Instagram and your website and all of that what's what are the all of what's that oldest I can't talk what's that information to give it to I'm done talking your turn absolutely yeah so my Instagram is lean on me underscore consultants that's plural with an F and my website is lean on me consultants calm and more than anything I would love to just start a genuine conversation so if you want to email me even if you have questions please feel free to reach out I would love to help my email is Hello at Lean on Me consultants calm there is power in consistency lean on me I love it Lindsey Lucas thank you so much for being here it was a true privilege to have you on and everybody go sign up for Lindsey's newsletter so that you can be notified when her course opens I will definitely be promoting it and you know I know it's in it and I'm excited about it and I want you guys to know what's in it too so Lizzie thank you again for being here I hope you have a really really great evening thank you so much for having me you're welcome good night good night thank you so much for listening to she creates business please take a minute and head to iTunes to leave an honest review so we can help more wedding pros find the show you
