Brands That Book With Davey Jones

Today’s guests are Lauren and Rachel, the founders of Sweet Root Village, an event floral design company in the Washington D.C. area. Lauren and Rachel chat with me about starting Sweet Root Village, and their journey from an ‘all-in-one’ event shop to specializing in high-end floral event design. Their story is such a good lesson in narrowing one’s focus, and intentionally growing a business with the resources you have. In addition to that we talk about how to engage an audience with Instagram stories. Everyone I chatted with that is familiar with Sweet Root Village has brought up their Instagram stories, so dive into how they create engaging stories and use that platform to grow their business.

Today’s guest is Petronella Lugemwa of Petronella Photography, and we’re chatting all about strategies for connecting with your ideal client. Petronella has an incredible background—she was born in Uganda, moved to the states from Zimbabwe, has an MBA and undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering, and she worked with big brands like Cover Girl, Advil, and Splenda. That's all before becoming a wedding and marriage proposal photography specializing in helping multicultural couple celebrate their love in a modern way. We dig into how Petronella figured out who she wanted to serve, and then she shares steps for figuring out in your own business. For more resources and the show notes, head on over to https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-petronella-lugemwa-episode-34.

Today’s guest is Stacey Krolow of Pepper—a business admin outsourcing company for creatives. We have personally found that outsourcing different tasks has made us more productive, efficient, and has freed up our time for other things that we enjoy spending time on. So I figured it was about time I record an episode on outsourcing. I chat with Stacey more specifically about the benefits of hiring a VA or administrative assistant. We cover how to get over my fear of giving up control, when you know you’re ready to hire a VA, what you should expect to pay, and how to make sure you set up the relationship for success. Head on over to Davey & Krista for the show notes and more resources.

Today’s guest is Pinterest Marketing Strategist, Vanessa Kynes. Vanessa needs no introduction because she was our guest back in episode 17, where she talked about using Pinterest to increase brand visibility and website traffic. After we recorded Vanessa’s episode, we actually hired her to do some work on our Pinterest account and we have been so happy with the results—including increasing our referral traffic from Pinterest by 1600%. In this episode, she’s sharing about few of the things she did in our account to get us those results and she’s also sharing tips for being successful on Pinterest in 2019. If you haven’t listened to her first episode, I highly recommend going back to listen to episode 17, because it was one of our more popular episodes of 2018, and then of course, come back and listen to this one.

Today’s guest is Natalie Franke Hayes of the Rising Tide Society. This is an exciting episode because it brings me back to the very first podcast I was ever a part of, The Coffee Commute, which I actually started with Natalie. Natalie is an entrepreneur, mobilization marketer, community builder, neuroscience nerd, and of course, she’s one of the co-founders of the Rising Tide Society, alongside myself, Krista and her husband Huey. She’s also the head of community at HoneyBook. Natalie and I chat about growing a platform, which is something she has successfully done across so many life transitions. We talk about how she’s been able to do this so effectively and advice she has for others also trying to grow a platform. For more resources and show notes, check out https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-natalie-franke-episode-31.

Today’s guest is Abby Grace of Abby Grace Photography, an international wedding and anniversary photographer based just outside of Washington D.C. Abby’s background in communications and PR is on full display in this interview as we discuss client communication, and specifically we talked about instances where you have to say no to clients or prospective clients. We walked through all sorts of different scenarios from unreasonable client requests, to how to turn someone away who’s not a good fit, to dealing with requests that are just outside the scope of work that you usually do. What stands out in this episode to me is how Abby sets boundaries and educates our clients from the very beginning of their correspondence and how she does her best to find ways to say yes to clients even after having to say no. For show notes and more resources, go to https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-abby-grace-episode-30.

Today’s guest is Chip Dizard of Chip Dizard Weddings. Chip is a wedding photographer and videographer based out of Baltimore, Maryland. He provides photo and video services to creative businesses in addition to offering mentoring and consulting. One of the things that Chip consults on is Facebook advertising, and that’s what we’re chatting about in today’s episode. We chat specifically about the mistakes people commonly make, the different aspects of running Facebook ads, and some tips for getting the most out of the ads that you run. For show notes and additional resources, go to https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-chip-dizard-episode-29.

Today’s guest is Gavin Wade, the founder of CloudSpot, a photo gallery solution for professional photographers. CloudSpot makes it easy to load, organize and share your images with clients, and it's actually what we used in our photography business. In the episode, we get to hear about Gavin’s journey from fitness professional, to wedding photographer, to founder of a software company, and the challenges that Gavin and his team have faced and overcome throughout the last few years. One thing you’ll pick up about Gavin is that he’s not scared to take a risk and pursue an idea, even if there are some serious challenges to tackle.  For the show notes and additional resources, go to https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-gavin-wade-cloudspot-fs.

Today’s guest is Laura Joseph, the Founder of Paper & Honey, an heirloom wedding stationary and letterpress studio. In today’s episode, we get to learn about how Laura started her stationary and letterpress business. I know next to nothing about stationary, so it was really interesting for me to learn more about her business. I think one of the most fascinating parts of the discussion is hearing about the letterpress machines that she has. These are machines that are over a 100-years-old. We talk a little bit about what went into adding that into our business, the process, and by process, that’s probably an understatement of researching, acquiring, transporting and maintaining those machines. One of the most important parts of the episode, however, is a discussion that we have about mental health in the latter half of the conversation. Laura opens up about her journey with depression, anxiety and ADHD, how that’s impacted her business and what she’s done to deal with those things. I really, really apprec

Today’s guest is YouTube strategist, Trena Little. As you probably guessed, we’re chatting about how to utilize YouTube in your business. I heard about Trena from a mutual friend but I got the opportunity to meet her in person at a conference we recently spoke at. I’m glad I did because she knows her stuff. This is one of those episodes where you’ll want to have the notepad ready. Trena is an MBA graduate who has built the two YouTube channels of her own. She served clients like Heather Crabtree, Think Creative Collective, The Contract Shop and Jessica Rasdall. She also speaks at various conferences about YouTube strategy. You’ll want to check out the show notes at daveyandkrista.com for the resources we mention during this episode. Trena provides a number of freebies to help people get their YouTube channel started. Check out the show notes at https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-trena-little-episode-27

Today guests are James and Jess of James and Jess Photography; a husband and wife photography team based out of Santa Barbara, California, and New York, New York. If you follow James and Jess, you know they travel quite a bit and they’ve shot weddings all over the place. In today’s interview, I chat with James and Jess about how they market their business effectively in multiple cities, especially since those cities aren’t exactly close to one another. We discuss some of the challenges they face as they got started in New York City and ultimately, what it was that led to a successful presence there. Check out the show notes at https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-james-jess-episode-26.

Today’s guest is Elle Ellinghaus of Elle Ellinghaus Designs, a high-end event planning business based in Baltimore, Maryland. Elle has created one of the most sought after event planning companies for weddings and boast an impressive client roster from NFL players, to Fortune 500 executives. She was even asked to be a featured author for a textbook that colleges use for event planning degrees. So I wanted to know what went into creating such a high-end brand and how did she attract those types of clients? That’s what we discussed in today’s interview. For more resources, check out the show notes at https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-elle-ellinghaus-episode-25.

Today's guest is Nate Grahek, the founder of Sticky Albums, and more recently, Sticky Email. Sticky Albums makes it easy for photographers to create and share custom mobile apps for their clients. Nate built it after seeing the reaction his own photography portrait clients had to the custom mobile apps he was building for them and the referrals that it generated, but eventually realized that he didn't want to only provide a tool that generated leads. Nate also wanted to develop a tool that helps nurture those leads into clients, and that was Sticky Emails meant to do. In this interview, we chat all about email marketing, how photographers and creatives can implement email marketing into their businesses, some of the do's and don'ts, and how Sticky Email can help. You can also find a link for getting started with Sticky Email in the show notes. For more information and resources, check out the show notes at daveyandkrista.com/btb.

Today’s guest are Jake and Becca Berg, the co-founders of Dubsado, the client management system for entrepreneurs. Dubsado makes any contracts, invoices, questionnaires, bookkeeping and other business workflows easy. I can confidently say that, because we’re now Dubsado users, but we weren’t before this episode. I signed us up for a trial to prepare for the interview with no intention of continuing to use it. After a test run, I was hooked. One of the reasons that I wanted to interview Jake and Becca was because Dubsado seemed to come out of nowhere. As with most entrepreneurial journeys, Dubsado wasn’t an overnight success. It started small with very little functionality. Through many iterations, carefully listening to their user base and their own intuition, they’ve created an incredibly impactful tool for businesses. For more information and resources, check out the show notes: https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-jake-becca-berg-dubsado-fs/

Today's episode features founder and CEO Shaun Gordon of Kiss Books, an heirloom album company for professional photographers. I've had the chance to get to know Shaun over the last few years through a year-long leadership program we both participated in, and more recently as we designed and built Kiss's new brand and website. Shaun's the kind of guy that's reflective and finds opportunities to invest in himself and his relationships—all of that is on display in this episode. We chat about why him and his partner decided to build Kiss Books. But not before exploring his beginnings as a photographer and—an experience I wasn't aware of—owner of a brick-and-mortar photography equipment store. It was through his experience of shooting hundreds of sessions a year that he came to realize the need for an album company that was simple. Check out the show notes at https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-shaun-gordon-kiss-fs/ for more information.

Today's episode is part of the Founders Series, where we chat with founders and CEOs of companies that have created products and services that help creatives run their businesses. Today's guest is Todd Watson, the Founder and CEO of Showit, a website platform created specifically for photographers and creative professionals. This episode is a little different than previous episodes. Instead of focusing on tips, strategies or tools that you can use in your business, we focus mostly on Todd and the Showit story. I don't know about you all, but I'm fascinated by stories of how businesses got started, especially businesses I admire, because I found regardless of the type or size of business, that there's so many shared challenges that entrepreneurs face when getting started. I've had the pleasure of getting to know Todd and the Showit story over the last few years, and I can tell you, it's a good one. We discuss how Showit got started, how at one point there was uncertainty over its future and why Todd and his

Today’s guest is Julianne Smith of The Garter Girl, a company with a singular mission to design and hand-create a wedding heirloom that is so stylish and so special that brides couldn’t wait to save it for their daughters. Sometime during her journey building The Garter Girl, she also founded a popular D.C. wedding blog called United With Love, which she eventually sold. This episode was inspired by a blog post that Juli recently published titled Life Without Swipe Up, which essentially reflects on the obsession with getting 10,000 Instagram followers and the Swipe Up feature, and it explores why more followers doesn’t necessarily mean more success, the importance of knowing your niche and showing up consistently where your potential customers are. We chat all that and more throughout this episode, and we also learn how Juli used her background in PR and politics to vault The Garter Girl forward. Be sure to check out the show notes at daveyandkrista.com for the resources we mentioned during the episode,

Today’s guest is Kaitlin Holland of The School of Styling, and more recently, the McAlister-Leftwich House, which is a wedding and event venue located in Greensboro, North Carolina. Kaitlin, like so many of our guest, is one of those multitalented people. Her entrepreneurial journey started with a vintage rental company called Simply Put Vintage, which she eventually sold in 2015, but not before starting The School of Styling, a workshop that provides creative women education and inspiration for creating beautiful work, events and spaces. In today‘s episode, we’re chatting about choosing the right educational experiences for your business, whether it’d be in-person, or online, a conference, small group setting, one-on-one, or a mixture of those things. Kaitlin shares five steps for choosing the right education and we also share what we’ve learned from our own educational experiences. Before we get to the interview, I want to mention that tickets are currently on sale for The School of Styling, and Krista an

Today’s guest is Nancy Ray of Nancy Ray Photography. Nancy has built a thriving photography business in Raleigh, North Carolina area, so much so that a few years in the business she realized that something needed to change for her to be able to both continue to grow her business and for her family to live the life they wanted to live. She built a team. That’s exactly what we’re chatting about in today’s episode. Nancy shares with us how to know whether you’re ready to build a team, what she’s learned from her own experiences, insights into how to decide who to hire and how she evaluates candidates. Before we get to the interview, I want to mention that Nancy is launching another platform for creatives over at nancyray.com, where she’ll be sharing all of her best resources on life, work, home and faith. If it’s anything like the resources she’s made available in the past, you’re going to want to check it out. Also, if you’re interested in building a creative team, but would like someone to walk you through

Today's guest is wedding photographer and attorney Paige Griffith of Paige Marie Photography. Paige primarily serves the Missoula, Montana area, which—relative to cities that we're near like Baltimore and Washington DC—is a pretty small market, and that's exactly the reason that I wanted to chat with Paige. We often hear from people in smaller markets that some of the strategies out there just don't work for their smaller, especially more rural areas. Well, I wanted to chat with Paige about how she was able to build a six-figure photography business in a smaller market. She outlines the challenges business owners face in those markets and then gives us steps that business owners can take to market their businesses in those areas. The highlights: 03:02 How a creative outlet in law school led to a full-time business. 10:40 The three challenges of building a business in a small(er) market. 16:15 How Paige intentionally built her portfolio. 20:43 Advertising in a small market, and the importance of choosing