Being unapologetically you - celebrating 100 episodes of the podcast!

I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker, and blogger, and you're listening to the Wedding Pros Who Are Ready to Grow podcast. I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level. If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you love, then you're in the right place.

Let's get going with today's episode. In March 2022, I released my first podcast episode into the world. And now here we are at episode 100. To mark the occasion, I thought it'd be fun to turn the table. So today I'm going to be a guest on my own podcast. I'm going to be handing over the interview reigns to previous guest, client and wedding planning extraordinaire, Hannah Rose.

As host of her own podcast, Let's Get You Wed, and a long time client, I thought she would be the perfect choice to interview me. So wish me luck as I step to the other side of the podcast mic, for one day only. Hannah, it's over to you. Hello. I'm nervous, Hannah. I'm really nervous about what you're going to ask me. Are you going to look after me as a guest on my own podcast?

You need to do it somewhere really great. And I was like, let's do it in television. And so he's like, okay, great. I've got a neighbor down the road. Let's talk to him and see if we can get it. So From the early days, my parents were really like, you can achieve anything you want if you know the right people. So my work experience was at a local TV station. I then worked, did some other work experience on what not to wear, which was with Tri and Susanna, like back in the day.

And I did all this stuff and, and I hadn't even turned 18 yet. Right. So. I was like, okay. And so I, I started from a real place of I can do whatever I want in this life. I went to university. I did my degree. I worked in television. I worked on some amazing shows. I then decided I wanted to settle down and have kids and realized television wasn't the industry for me to do that because essentially. unofficially, you pretty much get sacked as soon as you get pregnant.

There's no maternity leave because it's all short term contracts. It just isn't a place to be if you want to have kids as a secure option. So I moved into radio because I still wanted that buzz and that excitement of working in that kind of industry. But radio is a long term contract. It's on all of the time. So I moved into radio and as part of my role at Heart Radio, I did lots of marketing.

So whenever there was competitions on the radio, these things where it's like the breakfast show sponsored by Kellogg's or whatever it is, that was kind of my job. I would work coming up with those campaigns, thinking about what to say. We would work directly with the clients, get them onto the radio. And through that, I learned a huge amount about marketing and it was, it was really fun. It was great working with these big clients and we were at the forefront of the change.

So I worked for Global who own Classic FM, Radio X, all the big stations. So they knew what they were doing. So then I. got pregnant and was having my first child. And again, I thought, right, I can do whatever I want. I don't want to work full time because I'm having a child. I want to start a business, but I didn't know what to do my business in. So I went back to the start, back to my roots, television, and thought I could be a wedding videographer.

But I don't actually want to go to weddings because I don't want to work at the weekends. And so I've seen. Unsociable hours. So I've seen this concept where people would basically send out the camera to the couples and then they would film their own wedding and then they would send the camera back to you and you would edit it together. And so that's what I did. I started a business called the Handmade Film Company where I had this really lovely camera.

I mean, these days you would do it on a smartphone, but back then I would send out this camera in the poster. I would come. it out to people. They would get the craziest footage from their wedding and then they would send it back to me and I would turn it into something really fun and crazy and they loved it. So that was my first step as it were. into the wedding industry. And then while I was on maternity leave and starting this business and building it up, my husband, Matt got made redundant.

And so all of a sudden we're like, I'm on maternity leave. He's made redundant. What are we going to do now? So he ended up getting a new job. We moved across the country from Bristol to Bedfordshire, where I am now. And All of the connections, everything I'd built up in Bristol, as you know, wedding industry is all about connections, everything I've kind of left it behind and I was now in this brand new place and I didn't know anyone. So I knew.

Going back to what my dad said right at the start, it's all about who you know, not what you know. And so I went to a wedding fair and I was at this wedding fair. I was at this point then pregnant with Alice, my second child, and I was promoting my videography business. But I went round and spoke to everyone else exhibiting at that fair and said, if I organize some drinks locally, would you come? And I just handed out my business card to everyone.

And everyone was like, Oh yeah, we'd come, we'd come, we'd come, we'd come. And one of the people there was a venue and they said, we'll host it. And so. Out of nowhere. Yeah. So out of nowhere, not knowing anybody, I suddenly got this venue go, great. And so I invited people along. They invited people along. And my first networking event back in 2016, 30 people turned up and I knew nobody, zero people. And all of a sudden.

I had 30 new connections in the industry and you know 30 people and they all wanted to talk to me because it was me hosting the event. So Miss Nobody here who just turned up in Bedfordshire with her wedding videography business. started making a name for myself to grow my videography business and get those connections. So I kept running these events kind of sporadically to grow my business.

And what happened very quickly was I was having more conversations at the events about people's marketing than anything else, because that's my background. That's what I did at the radio station. And so naturally I was just helping people with their marketing. And so people started saying, Oh, can we pay you? Can you do a workshop? So I do these little in person workshops about social media and they pay 10 pounds to come. And I teach them about Facebook or Instagram, and then they go away happy.

And then I thought, well, actually now I'm spending more time doing that than the videography. So long story short, the videography shut down. And then I went full throttle into helping wedding business owners.

I know everything I'm doing. Teaching people, it's helping them. And actually it's just taking time away from what I want to be doing. And that's helping business owners.

And I was showing up and doing lots of live videos and in person events, but I couldn't be everywhere at once. And the timings weren't always right for people. So they couldn't always attend my live video and they wanted to listen back at another time. And so I knew a podcast was a good option, but there was a few things holding me back. So the first thing was. Will anyone listen to it? Was number one. But number two, the bigger thing was, will I actually be able to maintain it?

Because as you know, you started your own podcast. Once you start, you're on a train. And I knew if I'm going to do this, I've got to do it well. And I want it to come out every week and I want it to be consistent. And I knew that most podcasts fail because they do like the first six episodes. And then just stop. And I remember before I started writing a list of 50 episode ideas to prove to myself that there was enough things for me to talk about and enough people to talk to.

But actually I would say it's the best thing I've done for my business. I absolutely love the podcast because actually it's, it's given me opportunities to meet and talk with people that I would never have spoken to otherwise. And. I love it when I meet someone who I have no idea who they are, and they say to me, I've learned so much from listening to your podcast, and I think I've served them without even realizing that I'd helped them.

However, I also told myself at the beginning, the only way I'm going to guarantee I do this every week is if I can turn up and record an episode in my pajamas with no makeup on and not worry about it, and so for me, that's doing the audio only, that is a choice that I've made so that whatever. I can just turn up, rock up, record and not worry about it. You can rock on.

I feel very privileged and the longer I go on in life, the more privileged I am to have had my parents bringing me up because not everyone has people from day one cheering them on and saying, you can do anything you want. And so realizing that actually people come from different places. I think technically I learned a lot from Sarah Does SEO. She is one of my favorite guest experts. I use it everywhere. She's so amazing. I've met some incredible people. I love her.

And the reason I love her is because she's so down to earth and she, like me, really, she likes to keep things straight talking and easy to understand. And anyone that can explain a complicated subject like SEO and make it sound simple is an absolute miracle worker. That is a brilliant episode. I love that episode. Definitely.

And I just, I just couldn't believe that someone with that big a following and that big of a reputation would want to be on my podcast. And it was that that kind of woke me up to the power of having this podcast and how, as I said, it's one of the best things I've done in my business.

My other favorite pinch me moment, and I laugh about this one all the time, and I've mentioned it on the podcast before, was when I met out in Vegas, Janay, and I saw her in the queue line and she shouted my name and said, Are you Becca Pountney? I listened to your podcast and for a moment, there was a moment where I felt like Beyonce, like someone really famous. Cause I thought, wow, someone knows who I am, the other side of the world. And they like what I do and they recognize me.

And I thought, you know, all, all the way along this business, whether it was. In Hertfordshire, in a room with six people talking to them about Facebook or whether it's in Las Vegas. Every step of the way, my mission has just been to help individual people grow their businesses. And so every time I hear a story where someone's listened to something in an episode and then they've implemented it and then they've had a result, that brings me so much joy.

I mean, you just mentioned there, you've been to Vegas, like, you know, you're taking your business to next levels, but how do you always stay so upbeat and positive?

You know, we all have struggles. We have things going on. However, I genuinely love what I do. And I think that just comes through. And I love that what I'm doing now helps other people to succeed. That brings me positivity. And the other thing is, I've designed this life to do things that I love, you know, all the way along. And again, I, I really put that down to my parents and how they brought me up.

And that's how I'm trying to bring my kids up to say, you don't have to go to school, get a dead end job and be bored for the rest of your life. Like do something that in. interest you. I mean, we've talked before, Hannah, because when I was in between university and a job, I went and worked at Haven as a fun star. Now that was not a career. That was never going to be a career for me. However, on a whim, I was like, that would be fun to try what it was like. And so I just went and did it.

And then I was like, well, I've done that tick the box now. And so I think. Filling my life with experiences and doing things the way I want to do them. What the thing I loved about TV was the glitz and the glamor and the parties and the connections. The things I didn't love about TV were the long hours and being at someone else's beck and call. And so I took the bits I loved from that, that career and have bought them into my business.

So I still try and do some of the glitz and the glam and the going on these trips, but now it's in my own way and not the beck and call of someone else. So I do think we design the life. that we want in that sense. And just being thankful for the small things every day. You know, ultimately I've got a house, a roof over my head. I've got kids that I adore. I've got a husband who I love. And, you know, those are the things that keep me grounded and that I live for.

Back when I was at university, one of the biggest Kind of life changing moments for me really is I went out to Africa on a trip to go and work for two weeks at an orphanage and just seeing the reality other people live with also gives me something to be thankful for every day.

They said sometimes you see people online and they're all upbeat and chatty and then you meet them in real life and they're miserable and they're really rude or they're not, you know, they're not that person. Whereas I like to think that I am the same person in every walk of my life. Obviously there's down days, obviously there's days when I'm cross with my kids, but I do talk to my children in the same way I talk on Accountability Monday. I will say to them, you can do anything you want.

If you want to, you know, we talk about what they want to do when they're older. And at the moment, Daniel wants to go and be an engineer at Disney World and Alice wants to be a professional footballer. Now, most people would say to them, well, that probably won't happen. But I don't, I'm like, great. So I'm already like Daniel's 10. I'm already looking at contacts. I know that work at Disney, how he could get work experience there if he wanted to, when he was older. Love that.

And also just holding things lightly because, you know, money, I know money doesn't buy us happiness, right? Yes, money, you can do great things with money. And again, what I learned from Africa was I can't change those people's situations, but actually if I do well in my situation, I might be able to influence their situation. I might be able to have more money to donate to a charity or to be able to go back and, you know, pay for something at that orphanage.

So I don't see money as a bad thing. thing. But I don't see it as the, as the key to happiness, if that makes sense. So for me, having people around me and family, and that is what drives me that's, and seeing other people's success, obviously also having money buys the experiences that takes my children to Disney World. And then we can use that money to put back into those greater causes as well.

face, it was like, you were like, you know, something out there is talking to me because I've got a big day ahead of me. This song is playing, it's my favorite song. There's a reason. And I was like. Wow, that like really touched me, even though I'm not a religious person. That was a great experience, wasn't it?

But actually, before we went on that trip to Cyprus, I don't know if I told you this part of the story, Hannah, but someone that I know who knew I'd been going through this stuff said, like, I'm going to pray that you meet some Christians when you're out on your work trip to encourage you.

And so that moment when I heard that song and I'd been going through this stuff and I heard this song and I heard all these, and I remember it was like this like out of body experience because I just went, I love this song. And I literally just walked into the back of this random conference and listen to this song. You did. Because for me.

And at times, especially early on in business, that's tripped me up because I've trusted people and I've almost given too much and then they've used it against me or copied me or taken it in their own direction. And I think for me in business, those are the hardest times because it's nothing you've done. It's something that someone else has done that's influenced you, but you feel silly for having trusted them and given themselves of you.

In those times it's easy to shut yourself down and, and kind of put walls up. As time's gone on, it's the cliche, as I've got older, as I reflect back. I think actually those things happen for a reason and you learn from those experiences and it's not that I can never trust anyone again, but it's that I need to be more careful about it and I need to put in things in place to protect myself and my business and to make that really clear up front and to not just take everyone on face value.

And that comes through to what I teach you, what I teach all my clients when it comes to, you know, these client relationships is. Don't expect everyone to do everything right. So make sure you've got contracts in place. If someone sends you an email saying, I need to cancel my wedding because my grandma's died, don't necessarily believe that straight away. They might just be trying to pull a fast one. They might just be trying to get money from you. Take the emotion out of it.

Go back to basics. And I think I've learned a lot of that from going through experiences where I have been naive and I have believed what people are saying to me. Cause I think, well, who would do that? Who would make something up? Who would lie to me about that? Because I would never do that. But it turns out there are people out there in the world that don't have the right intentions.

And that's, you know, just before COVID is when I think we first met Hannah at a networking thing, there was this real buzz around the world. Like 2020 is going to be this huge year. Everyone's got loads of. Everyone's got loads of bookings and like instantly overnight that was stripped away. Now there was a couple of positives. I'd already moved a lot of my business online and so I was set up. I was using Zoom before most of the world knew what Zoom was.

All of my stuff was happening online and so I realized, okay, actually I don't have to change what I'm doing. In fact, I can increase it if I need to because I've already got all of this stuff in place. And I can support other people in how to set it up technically, if they want to do consultations, all that kind of thing. So I kind of took my energy and started throwing it towards how to keep people motivated.

I felt like for me, if all of my members who are paying could stay in business and come out of COVID with a wedding business, then I'd done the. done my job. And every single person that was in my membership who stayed through my membership came out of COVID without quitting their business. And I'm really proud of that. I'm really proud that people stuck at it, even though people were having to go and get other jobs, even though people were having to. You know, find other income streams.

I actually think the community needed each other during that time more than ever. And so if anyone contacted me and I haven't said this publicly, but if anyone contacted me during COVID to say I need to leave because I've lost my income, I gave them the time free in the membership. I didn't tell anyone. I kept that very low key because I was like, you need us more than ever right now. So if finances are holding you back, I don't, I don't want that to be the reason you're leaving.

If you're leaving because you don't like this community anymore, that's up to you. But if you're leaving because you can't. can't afford it. Like, please, I will just let you stay in here and then we'll sort it out once life is back to normal. And so I did that kind of behind the scenes as well so that everyone had that place to go for support. But it was, it was a dark time.

It was a difficult time, but on the flip side, it was also a really good thing for my business because everything went online. So during COVID. you know, virtual summits were popping up. I spoke at this summit in Brazil during COVID, where they translated my talk into Spanish. I was everywhere. I spoke at something in Dubai. And so pre COVID, pretty much everything I did was like Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire centric post COVID. It was all over the world.

You know, a lot of people that come forward and especially during COVID that almost kind of use that emotion again, you know, to get people to pay into them, they turned into mentors and coaches, and you need to invest in yourself and all these kinds of things to make money. And I see that a lot. And I see a lot of coaches that are advertising how much money they make and look what I've got and look what I can afford because I have learned to build a, build a set six, seven figure business.

I never see that from you, and I don't think that's the kind of person you are, and that's why I've always bought into you. But how is it being in an industry that maybe doesn't always have that kind of positive, you know, overview? A lot of people look at it and think, oh God, here's another post from someone bragging about how much money they've got because they're coaching people.

I think for me, I try and just block out the noise and keep being myself because all of these people in the past that have popped up and tried to copy me and done all these things and tricked me or whatever it is, none of them are anywhere now. Because you can only do that if you're not actually genuinely good at what you do and you don't genuinely care. You can keep up that facade for a while, but it comes back to haunt you eventually. And so all the way through, I just try and be myself.

I avoid using the word coach anywhere. In fact, someone did a write up about me recently and I went back to them and said, Can you take out the word coach? Because I, I just don't like being associated with that world. I prefer consultant. I prefer expert. I prefer wedding industry. Best friend. I don't know what you want to call me, but I don't want to use the word coach because I feel like it's negative. The other thing is I just try and be authentic.

So one of my kind of main values is that I want people to always feel like they got more than they paid for. So for me, sometimes people say you should put your prices up and I know I should put my prices up in certain areas. But for me, if you walk away and you thought that was too expensive, I didn't get value for money, then I failed at my job. I always want people to go, I paid for that, but I got so much more value than that. It was the best thing I ever paid for. And so.

I kind of keep that in mind as well. And also I just think, well, I'm not that person. I could pretend to be the person flying first class on a private jet, but actually that's not me. And as we said earlier, I just try and be the same everywhere I go, because I think you can't keep up this random facade. And actually not everyone has that driving force towards money. I recently did a survey in my membership to try and find out about the members in there.

And hardly anyone who voted in that survey said that they were driven mainly by money. It was very, very low. So clearly I attract people with lots of other driving forces.

anywhere else in between. Then some evenings I then go out myself to go and do my musical theater show and rehearse for that. I have my own singing lessons and then I come back and either do some more work or collapse on the sofa and it all starts again the next day. However, life would be boring if I was just sitting still all of the time. Wow. Exactly. And so I think people don't, don't see that.

And I don't often, I do a bit more with my members, but kind of outside of that, I don't share a huge amount about my family online. No, you don't. I don't, I don't share a lot about those things. Like I'm not the person that you're going to follow. And I'm like, now I'm at a dance class and now I'm at that because I'm like, that's not what people are here to do. They're here to grow their wedding business. But I talk about it, especially to my members to say it is. Possible to do both.

It's not something to be, I'm not ashamed of it. It's just not marketing wise, what I want to be talking about. But actually, you know, I've, as I said, I've designed this business around the life I want to lead. Could I make more money if I did things differently? Probably. Do I want to? Not if it means I can't pick my kids up from school every day. So I'm happy doing what I'm doing and staying in my own lane.

And I was like, I don't have a book. They were like, Oh, we'd buy it if you did. And so I do think, okay, there is something in this that I, that, you know, putting a lot of Becca into a paperback book that people can read where it's kind of your guide to starting a business when in the wedding industry, whether you're brand new or whether you just want a refresher. So I'm starting to put all of my knowledge into a book. I've written 3, 000 words.

The goal is 50, 000, but I plan to have a hard copy of the book in my hand by the time I'm on stage in Las Vegas. So I have a hard deadline and I will do it.

That's okay. That's marketing as well. You only need to market to one kind of person. So that's the first thing is be yourself and stop using yourself as an excuse that you're not succeeding because you, you know, you are perfectly made how you are made and therefore own that and go out there into the world. The second thing is don't hide away.

I think in British culture, we like to be really humble and we like to keep our Our lives to ourselves, and we don't, we're not very good at celebrating our achievements, and we're not very good at telling people we're really great at what we do. We find it really uncomfortable, but actually I work with so many amazing business owners, many of whom will be listening now, who are incredible at what they do, but just don't talk about it enough. They don't show it enough.

They don't value themselves enough. And so stop thinking that that is showing off. It's not. You're actually serving the world by telling them how good you are, what you do, because you can help them. You know, if they're looking for amazing stationery from the best stationer on their wedding day, you showing them how amazing your stationery is going to benefit them.

If you are amazing at planning weddings and they are not, you need to tell them that you can tell them how you can help them, show them your achievements and help them on the day. So stop pretending that you're being really humble. Just. Get out there and be yourself and talk about what you're good at and how you can help people. Get visible and stop hiding behind yourself.

And so you can only ever compare yourself to yourself. So stop comparing yourself left and right. Look back at where you were this time, six months ago, this time, a year ago, and think, am I further forward than I was? Am I doing better than I was? And if I am good, let's keep going.

Now, Mike, I know you've worked with Mike for a long time. She's, he said in my circle of heroes, which includes everyone from big thinkers like Stephen Bartlett to authors like Alan Berg, there's one person who just steals the show. She's got this knack for pulling the best out of everyone. That's Becca Poutney for you. Becca isn't just a mentor. She's a real friend and someone who lights the way, not just for me, for a whole community, spreading her worth far and wide. Next up, I've got Vicky.

Vicky says, Becca is brilliant at what she does, what she knows, how she helps people, and she takes other people's successes and struggles personally. So true. She's the epitome of an awesome wedding pro. Becky she says, seven years ago, I had a random message from someone I'd never met inviting me to a networking event.

I almost didn't go, but I'm so glad I packed up the courage to get out that evening and get out of my comfort zone as it led me to meeting one of my favorite people and best industry friends. They was a very pregnant Becca, doing what she does best, and bringing people together. I'm so glad to count Becca as a colleague and a friend, her knowledge, enthusiasm, drive, sense of fun, and love of Disney and musicals knows no bounds.

I'm grateful to the universe for allowing our paths to cross and thankful for the seven years of friendship and counting, although she thought it might be eight afterwards. Well done on a hundred amazing podcasts, my love, keep smashing it. And from Kelly Becca, firstly, I want to congratulate you on all your successes. I've watched you and your business go from strength to strength and feel so very proud of you.

In fact, I feel like a little, I feel a little like saying I knew her before she was famous because now you are known across the globe. Very true. I've learned so much from you and from all the members. I really want to thank you for the amazing connections I've made from the incredible community you've created. There's never been any bad feelings. Feelings or words crossed in this space and for an online community that is unheard of. So very true. I feel that's all down to you.

You ooze kindness, generosity and have bred a team that promotes collaboration over competition. To top it all, you are a busy mum of two and a blooming good one at that. Hear, hear. Long may you continue to be successful and happy. I can't wait to see where you be in another five years. And then the last one we've got from the lovely Dan. He voice noted. I'm hoping you can hear this.

, Dan: Becca. The amount I've learned from you is insane and I just wouldn't be where I am in my career without you. Can't thank you enough from forcing me to do my tax returns to helping me realize that Disney doesn't discount. I just, yeah, there's, there's not really anything that can put into words how much you've helped. Cheers, my duck. Be good. And if you can't be good, be good at it. And from me, I just want to say you are a true inspiration.

We all love you so much and it was not hard to get messages. I messaged a few people and I was like boom, boom, boom straight back because everybody just thinks so much of you. You're one of the most down to earth people I've ever met and it's been an absolute pleasure interviewing you today.

Thank you, Hannah, for being here and thank you for the interview. Whee!