Networking Tips Part 2 – Friendors Consultancy

Hi there! You might remember Part 1 of our Networking Tips a few weeks ago, and now we’re back with Part 2! Yay!

  1. Follow them on social media right then and there. Seriously. Pull your phone out and say you want to be friends online. They will most likely pull their phone out and reciprocate. How many Instagram followers can you get in one night of networking?
  2. If you feel compelled, go ahead and schedule a lunch date then. If you already know you want to spend more time with the professional you’re engaging in conversation with, why don’t you go ahead and make it happen there? Pull your phones out and peep those calendars instead of exchanging emails and then waiting forever after back and forths. It’s so easy to just do then and it makes sure it actually happens.
  3. Talk to everyone in the room. Don’t dilly dally around with one crowd all night. If you do decide to do that (sometimes people just click!), dilly dally around the room together and talk to everyone. Forge paths. Make new connections.
  4. Take a selfie and upload it. Tag everyone there – the sponsors, the professionals you talked to and added on social media, etc. Don’t just tag them in the caption – tag them in the photo too so it appears on their profile! Use their hashtag, too! It’s also good publicity for them from you! Placing your face online and tagging them in it makes it easy for them to remember you after the fact and kind of encourages growth in the relationship. Maybe they’ll even tag your company on their profile!

Want more? 😉

XOXO

Is Your Company Mobile Friendly? – Friendors Consultancy

We went to Wedding MBA and learned lots last week and plan to share some of our findings with you over the next few weeks.

This week, we’re talking about being mobile friendly and are here to present a few statistics given to us by Sonny G of WeddingWire.

Did you know there are more mobile phones on the Earth than people?

Did you know there are more mobile phones on the Earth than tooth brushes? More than the number of toilets?

Did you know we sell more phones than babies are born?

Did you know that people pick their phone up every 6 minutes?

Did you know that Google has the choice to not display you in the results if your website isn’t mobile friendly?

Now that you know all of these facts, are you 100 percent positive your website is mobile friendly?

Here’s a link to find out quickly:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

Click here to read some of what we learned at Wedding MBA last year and stay tuned for more to come. 🙂

4 Ways To Get Motivated About The Industry Again – Friendors Consultancy

Feeling jaded, burnt out? We know how it feels and we’re here to tell you that it’s normal to encounter boredom many years into your career – we think most people, regardless of what industry they are in, can get stuck doing things a certain way and get bored or burnt out on something they in actuality love, without realizing. (if you’re encountering these feelings too early on in your career, maybe you should reconsider your path instead of looking for ways to get motivated?)

You know you’re a die hard wedding and party fan, you know you love the industry, but are just a little worn out after years of wedding and event seasons – that’s okay. We’re sure Britney Spears has days where she doesn’t want to go on stage because she’s not feeling it. But you know what she does? She battles through like a Diva and loves every minute of it, finding new ways to enjoy it, and falls in love with performing over and over again – just like you do (and can do) with your business.

So, here are 4 simple ways to get you motivated about this incredible industry again.

  1. Go to a conference – they excite like no other. The classes (if you choose wisely from the line ups) are totally beneficial and educational, get you pumped like a mofo, and have you coming home with so many new ideas. But it doesn’t stop there (man, I swear). They also have PARTIES at these conferences. And guess what? These parties are for YOU. Yes, that’s right – after a lifetime of making other peoples parties bomb ass, you get a bomb ass one for you and all your Friendors. After watching everyone else drink and have fun event after event after event (times almost every weekend of the year), you get to grab yourself a few cocktails and shake your cute lil thang. And when you’re dancing like a wild child in the middle of the dance floor or talking with an entrepreneur you admire that you got to meet after class, you remember why you began in the party industry to begin with – you love events and want everyone to have this heart exploding feeling you feel right in this moment. Going to your own party makes you appreciate all parties.
  2. Attend a wedding without any expectations. This one is a little difficult because it’s mostly in our heads. We all get caught up with wanting every wedding to be the prettiest wedding ever, the one wedding that makes us go viral online and makes the phone start ringing so much that you have to hire a team of receptionists (the dream!). We want these things so badly that we forget about the couples and create expectations in our head and are let down by our own fault, instead of appreciating each love story for what it is – beautiful. We challenge you (and ourselves!!) to go to a wedding without any expectations. Don’t be sad if a couple spends 500 on flowers instead of 5,000. Don’t think DIY means ugly (we’ve found it to usually mean the opposite because artists do DIY weddings often). Don’t think about how you would have done it if it were yours. It’s not yours – it’s theirs and it’s perfect and you should just enjoy the honor of being a part of it.
  3. Do something just for you at the wedding. We know we just told you that it’s all about the couple and to drop your expectations at the door, but if you’re feeling down – go in with plans to do something just for you to make you enjoy the night. We once told a DJ who was tiring of playing the same top 40’s music every weekend to choose a song he really dug before each wedding, whether it was one the crowd would know or not, and make plans to play it. Just for himself. Mix it in some fun way to make it about the crowd so they enjoy it too. It will rejuvenate you to go in and get something you want out of an event and to see other people digging it.
  4. Personal projects are where it’s at. By personal projects, we mean a couple of things. We mean personal as in nothing to do with your career personal, and personal as in a decision to make your career more fun personal. Styled shoots are a great form of personal projects – the kind that make your career more fun which makes your personal life better. It’s your chance to do what you would do if it were yours (it’s okay to have those thoughts, just not at every wedding!). You’re tired of seeing the same style weddings every weekend? Design something you want and get it published and put it on your website. You sell what you show so if you show what you want, your personal life gets better because you enjoy your weddings more. And don’t stress over it – these personal projects aren’t things you have to do and you shouldn’t treat them like work, even if it helps your work life. They’re projects. Fun art projects.

Until next time, click here to read more Friendor Tips.

XOXO

6 Networking Tips Part 1 – Friendors Consultancy

Hey there, Friendors! One of our favorite things to do is network. Network, network, network. So, we thought we’d begin a Networking Tips Series for ya. Here’s Part 1: 6 Networking Tips.

1. Wear a conversation starter. This makes it easy to break the ice and will make people remember you. For example, instead of a simple black dress – why don’t you wear a sequin top and some glitter cat ears like Schellie from Far Out Galaxy? Or a wedding gown and some kick ass accessories like Baton Bob.  Everyone loves a cat and everyone loves a bride. What can be your thing? (seriously, get to thinking!)

2. Have a drink or two. But not too many. You should loosen up a little and a drink or two is a great way to do that – but you don’t want to be blabbering and then unable to drive yourself home. The company providing the alcohol is probably doing it as a Sponsor (for free) for promotional purposes and they’re there for you to enjoy. Do.

(Awestruck Ciders featured below at The Blogcademy)

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3. “What brings you out?” is the best first question to ask. It gets you straight to the point to see if your relationship is compatible and if it could become mutually beneficial for all parties involved.

4. Sure, ask what brings them out but go deeper once you know that answer (if you feel compelled to continue the conversation). What do they do when they’re not working? This is a great way to make a personal connection. Maybe they are (just like you!) trying to learn how to roll their own Sushi with Youtube Videos too – you never know.

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5. Have business cards. Too many business cards. You never know if someone wants 100 business cards of yours instead of one.

=

6. Name tag. Pleeeeeeazzzzzzz. It makes it so much easier to remember you and it’s just a nice thing to do.

Until Part 2!

XOXO,

Friendors Consultancy

70’s Geometric Inspiration Collaboration Published on Bespoke Bride – Friendors Consultancy

We’re totally into the 70’s, man. We dig how far out everything is. Because of this large love, we decided to have a 70’s Inspiration Collaboration. But not just 70’s – with a geometric spin as well – a Colorful Geometric 70’s Bridal Friendors Inspiration Collaboration! Whaaaaaa? Yeah – really groovy.
Even groovier? It was published on Bespoke Bride!
Click the image below to view the feature.

Photography: SIX HEARTS PHOTOGRAPHY

Hair and Make Up Artist: REBEKAH NELSON

Model: Raven Hill

Garland: ROBOTBOOTH

Furniture: IKEA

Dolls: THE CINNAMON BEARS

Skirt: FOREVER 21

Blouse: Vintage

How to Know if They Read Your Email – Friendors Consultancy

didtheygetmyemail

So, we were putting together an email for someone we admire the other day and were struggling with how to reach out to them. We thought, if we message them on Facebook or Instagram, we’ll be able to see when they read our message vs emailing where we don’t know if it hit their spam box, got lost, or if they read it but are just entirely too busy and cool to respond.

The struggle of being a millennial. Ugh. This desire to know is valid, and since emailing is much more professional, we wondered if there was something out there that tracked when emails you sent were read – to clients, employees and contractors of your team, people you admire, etc – just like social sites do.

Wouldn’t that be SO nice? You’d be able to see when your team members read your email and how long it took them to reply after reading, rest easily knowing that your email to that business you really admire was received and not lost, and so much more. So, we searched. Our search wasn’t long. It was quite short, actually. But, then again, this download is just for Gmail.

We are now officially users and fans of MailTrack, a downloadable in the Google Chrome store. It’s free for the basic package and prices are around 4.95 if you wanna start adding fancy features (which we don’t find necessary).

We thought you should know about this, gmail users.

Anyways, download this shizz. You’ll like it.

Click here to download MailTrack.

Sure, this may not be an issue you want to stress about, may even be something that would give you anxiety to know, but it works for us. 😉

Favorite Internet Finds – SEO Tips, Admiration, + America’s Most Instagrammed Locations – Friendors Consultancy

FAVORITE INTERNET FINDS (2)

Hi, Friendors! Happy Monday! Today, we’re sharing a few of our favorite internet finds from this week.

 

This is the neatest article to us. Time discovered the most geo tagged locations in each state of America and now we can’t wait to visit them each. If they’re Instagram worthy, they have to be good, right? Annnnddd, a lot of these places are venues that clients are getting married at.

Click here for the Most Instagrammed Places in America.

 

We think Wedding Wire is one of the most innovative wedding industry companies out there and we thrive on hearing the owners speak at each conference we attend. Here are 3 tips for improving your SEO from their Pro Blog.

Click here to learn how to improve your SEO.

 

Offbeat Empire, another one of our favorite wedding industry brands, also shares tips on SEO on their vendor blog.

Click here to read tips on improving your SEO.

 

We all know by now that engaged peeps are planning their weddings at work – in their cubicle – but how do we cater to them finding us in this fashion? I don’t know how many times we’ve heard it said or how many more times we’ll have to hear it before it’s no longer a problem, but you should not have automatic music on your website. Like, at all.

Click here to read more about why you shouldn’t have music on your website.

 

We reach out to people that we admire all the time; we’re drawn to some people. But what do you say to someone you’ve admired for months or years when you finally have the chance? Here’s something you might not think about but that could pay off.

Click here for the one question you should ask the person you admire but never thought of.

 

We think those five links should be great reads for your Monday and this week. Enjoy!

 

See you next Monday!

 

xoxo

 

Have an online article or blog you think might help wedding and event professionals?

Email it to us at schellie@faroutgalaxy.com 🙂

 

 

How to Invite ALL Your Friends to Like Your Facebook Page AT ONCE – Friendors Consultancy

HOW TO INVITE (1)

 

Hi there, Friendors!

We all know how important social media has become in the buying process, how important it is to be visible on the internet, and dare I say, well liked. We all know we should invite our Facebook friends, and everyone else for that matter, to like our Facebook business page, so why haven’t we? We can go ahead and answer that for you now – it’s so dang time consuming, that’s why. No one wants to sit at their computer and hit an individual button that says “invite” next to every.single.one of their 2,485 friends.

But what if you could hit just a few buttons and invite ALL of your friends list AT ONCE to like your page? Would you do it? How many likes do you think you would accrue?

We tested this, a code a Friendor introduced us to a while ago, with Far Out Galaxy on their Facebook Page and the results were seriously amaze balls. At 2:00pm, we followed the procedure below, and by 5:00 pm we had 75+ new page likes. Now, 75+ is no big number, but it seems like friends are still steadily liking the page as they login and see the notification, and 75+ likes is quite a feat for a 3 hour time period on something that took us less than one minute to do. Turns out that friends come out when you invite them. 😉 Thanks, Friends!

Now follow the instructions below to get your friends to come out and like your page.

  1. Do this in Google Chrome on a Windows Computer.
  2. Since you’re inviting your friends, you’ll need to be logged into your personal account. Go to your personal timeline and you will see the “Your Pages” tab in the top right side bar – click on your page. It will then take you to your business page. Once you are on your page, a statistics box will be directly beneath your profile photo, with things like your response time, how many people you reached this week, etc. Click on “Invite friends to like This Page”.
  3. A box will pop up with all of your friends. Scroll ALLLLL the way to the bottom of the pop up until you can’t scroll anymore because it won’t populate more friends.
  4. Open the Java Script Console, a feature intended for developers, by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + J
  5. In the Console, Copy and Paste the code below EXACTLY as it is, beginning with j and ending with }, then press Enter and wait. The pop up will close after it has invited all of your friends.

     javascript:var inputs = document.getElementsByClassName(‘uiButton _1sm’); for(var i=0; i<inputs.length;i++) { inputs[i].click(); }

WALLAH. Now you can sit back and enjoy the notifications of your friends that actually like you liking your page. Some people might say this is spamming – we simply say it’s a work around the silly system. 😉

Talk to ya next Monday!

xoxo,

Friendors Consultancy

Friendor Feature – Vintage English Teacup – Friendor Consultancy

  Friendor Feature (1)

You guys remember Vintage English Teacup from several of our Inspiration Collaborations, right? If not, refresh your memory by clicking here to view them all. 
We asked Vanessa, the Founder, Owner, and Operator, to tell us some things she’s proud to have accomplished and a bit about her company.  Before you get started, let us just go ahead and tell you that we were thoroughly impressed! 😉 She talks to us about overcoming obstacles, learning how to network in the wedding industry, and what true success and pride looks like. Enjoy her insights below.

 

 

 

I started!!!
Getting started is rather like jumping off a cliff, leaving behind all the comfort of stable employment and a normal schedule!  I threw a Tea Party at my home for the Royal wedding of  Prince William and the, almost above perfect, Katherine Middleton. I invited a bunch of people imagining that as televised coverage began at 3 am  very few would arrive. Well my street was full of cars and ladies in hats quickly filled my home all pulled in by the lure of Tea served on Real Fine China. Such Fun!!!
Being raised by a father who was self made, this set off all sorts of bells in my brain. If these people like this, who else would? Does anyone else do this? If not why not?? etc etc as any of you creatives know it’s an obsession that becomes your life.
 
 Overcoming obstacles
Well buying endless luscious pieces of Fine China was not at all hard! Especially as I did most of it in my home, England. I have now found two ladies who own antique shops and through the joy of iphones we are able to shop auctions together! If they find anything that is utterly irresistible I dont resist!!! Then my wonderful shipper Trevor wraps each piece, and then wraps it again and puts it in a magic box and it arrives intact.
 
Networking
for the first time involved hiding in a hotel bathroom and having a long conversation with myself about why I was there!!! Funny now but terrifying at the time. It’s vital to make good face to face contacts and to be able to tell them why you are the best thing since sliced bread in about two sentences!  
Next comes choices, where to advertise and why, also extremely difficult at first. My advise, ask someone who is experienced. Then ask some more. Knowledge is Power. I am still asking and still making mistakes with my budget that makes me weep every time. But you learn from those mistakes and hopefully can help others.
Invest in a good contract! end of story!
Get paid before the event! Also self explanatory! 
Be nice to all, in life and in work!
 
What does success look like?
Deciding what success is …hmmm. For some it’s being “busy” all the time. For me its checks in the bank and a happy client! Oh and zero backache or throbbing headache! 
I do not want to launch an empire, I want to earn but not be burdened with more than I can handle. I do my best work when I can focus and not worry about what I am missing.
Spending hours looking at other vendors sites is not productive and often disheartening. Just because they have a million followers does not mean they have a healthy company. Perception is so important in this business, but only if its backed up by substance.
Being who you are is a gift that equals success.
 
Pride!!!
I am proud that I have survived…and did not give up at times when well meaning folks tried to tell me there was no market for a luxury china line. They meant well and perhaps as there was not a market then they were right. However a market now does exist and I am mentoring other start ups doing the same thing because they saw my company! Awesome! 
I am proud of the “real” friends that I have made in the industry and for the support that we have for one another. I am further jolly chuffed to have made the choice not to work with those who seek to only elevate themselves to the detriment of others! Enough said! This frees me to enjoy what I do, most of the time.”
So, what does success look like to you? We say it’s good business and good Friendors.
 

7 Blogs You Should Read on the Reg – Friendors Consultancy

Hi, Friendors!

We love blogs – we love the community they create, the knowledge given so freely on them, and how darn easy they are to read on your cell phone while on the go. So, we’re here to share 7 of our favorite blogs, ranging from business, weddings, and all the way to just good ol’ motivation, that you should be reading as an entrepreneur. We’re also going to share with you how you can keep up with all of them easily! Enjoy!

 

WeddingWire EDU

If you can’t go to Wedding Wire EDU in DC, you at least have to frequent their Pro Blog. Seriously, do yourself a favor. We personally think WeddingWire is one of the most innovative wedding industry businesses out there, always on the cutting edge. This is THE blog for wedding industry professionals.

Click here to explore WeddingWire EDU Pro Blog.

 

Hootsuite

Hootsuite, as you probably know from our past post about social scheduling, is a social management tool. They also run this super helpful blog, where their byline is “Social media strategy, advice, and tips you can use—baked fresh, several times a day”. If that doesn’t catch you, we don’t know what will.

Click here to explore Hootsuite’s blog.

 

Contently

Contently, as you can probably guess, is all about content – but not just any content, content for freelancers. They actually sell software and services, but blog simply to help, with a “mission to build a better media world”. They have three publications that you can read about on their site, but our favorite two are The Freelancer and The Content Strategist.

Click here to explore The Freelancer.

Click here to explore The Content Strategist.

 

Harvard Business Review

Everyone knows the smartest of the smart go to Harvard. Brilliant minds blogging about business? We don’t think there needs much more convincing to visit this blog.

Click here to explore the Harvard Business Review.

 

LinkedIn

Where is the one place online that all professionals are, whether they actually use the social site or not? Linked in. So, as a professional, why not be a follower of their blog and not just a a silent social profile? They’ve got some great content, like articles on how to manage your team, communication, and more.

Click here to explore Linkedin’s blog.

 

Alan Berg

If you haven’t heard of Alan, he’s a speaker who frequents wedding and event conferences to share his business advice. He’s attentive and intelligent, two things we should all strive to be more of. If you can’t make it out to one of his speaking events, you’ve always got his blog! (We’ve heard him speak more than once and can testify!)

Click here to explore Alan Berg’s blog.

 

Wonderlass

Wonderlass is a colorful, straight forward blog by Allison all about how to “embrace your inner weird to grow your blog and business”. Don’t you want to let loose your inner weirdo?

Click here to explore Wonderlass.

 

Now that we’ve got 7 of our favorite resources down, let’s chat about how you can easily read them (and Friendors.com!) on the reg.

SpecificFeeds is an easy to use tool that allows you to search for your favorite sites, follow them, then sit back and relax while newsletters arrive in your inbox full of all your favorite blogs in one place. Every time your favorite blog puts up a new post, it’ll be sent directly to you for easy access. Don’t worry, you can tailor your news sources to your needs so you don’t receive a bajillion emails. We’re still adding to our collection of SpecificFeeds, so join us. 🙂

Click here to get started with SpecificFeeds.

 

We hope you enjoy these blogs and come back to visit ours! 😉 If you visit any blogs we didn’t mention, share them with us!! Email us at hello @ friendors . com (without the spaces). We’d love to check them out!!

 

xoxo,

Friendors Consultancy