And yeah, we have great fun on it. I think it's definitely, TikTok is the way forwards I think for the kind of wedding industry.
I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger, and you are 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. Today I'm chatting with one of my lovely wedding pro lounge members, Jack Brierley founder of JB Performers. Jack is not only one of the loveliest people you could hope to meet. He's also incredibly talented and can play five instruments. He's passionate about providing quality music for weddings and events, and has quite the international fan Club. Thanks to success on TikTok, you are going to love hearing his story. Jack, welcome to the podcast.
Hello. How's it going?
Very good. Thank you. I'm so excited to have this conversation with you. But before we get into business, I have many questions for you. So first of all, what are the five instruments that you can play? Everybody wants to know the answer to that one.
Okay. So as I have this bit of a habit, whenever I go, I kind of go through phases of learning new instruments kind of every month, which is really bad for my bank account, mainly because it becomes very expensive very quickly. But I play. Piano is obviously my first one, so I play piano, trumpet, guitar, banjo, ukulele. Oh, here I've got another one, an accordion. So actually I play six now that I've, I've just added the banjo in the other week.
So yeah, I just get excited about learning new stuff and just go out onto eBay. I'm like, can I get a banjo in the next couple of days? And I am playing banjo now
I, I absolutely love that, especially the accordion that is such a random instrument to choose and really difficult to play, isn't it?
Oh, well, do you know what you say this, but I've actually find the accordion really quite easy to play because one side of it is like keys, like the piano. So it's almost, if you play piano beforehand, it's actually really quite easy to pick up. It's just a left hand trying to get the kind of intricacy of. All the buttons and stuff. But yeah, no, I find it the easiest out of all of the instruments to pick up.
So yeah, maybe that's what everyone should pick up from now on and just start playing accordions in the street.
Yeah, we can start getting the accordion back on the map. Maybe we need to have more accordions at weddings maybe.
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. Maybe accordions, I said walked down the. Walked on the aisle.
I love that. Now, the other thing I saw when I was reading your bio was that you are a massive musical theater fan, and I am a massive musical theater fan as well. It's something that I like to talk about a lot. So before we talk about business, we need to have a little bit of discussion around musical theater. So the first thing I wanna know is what was the last musical that you went to see and what's your all time favorite musical?
Ooh. So actually last night I went to see the play that goes wrong. Oh, in London, which was really, really great. Really, really funny. Highly recommend. My favorite musical, no, my favorite musical changes, like every week. It depends what mood I'm in. Like sometimes I'm like, oh, you need a bit of hairspray in your life to really get you through that house cleaning that, that sort of thing. But my favorite one has to be, I think, oh, Joseph and the Technicolor Dream coat.
Yes, it's always a good time. Everyone loves a bit of Joseph. Absolute classic and appeals to everyone,
I think. Well, the thing is, I wrote down mine cause I thought if I'm gonna ask Jack he might ask me back and Joseph is written down in front of me as my all time favorite musical as well. So we need a visit to London to go and see it because Oh my gosh, yes. It's like one of my favorite musicals from being a child I absolutely loved. I mean, he is in the news a lot at the moment, but I absolutely loved Philip Schofield when he was.
Playing Joseph and I actually wrote to him and rang him up on live and kicking back in the day and asked him a question, and it's just one of my all time. No favorite memories. So Joseph is massive. My favorite. At the moment though, I'm going through a bit of a Hamilton moment. I absolutely love. Okay. Yeah, everyone goes, I'm loving the Hamilton moment.
Ok, I see where you're at.
But also, I think musical musicals interject at certain points of your life. So I actually gave birth to my first child to the Les Miserables soundtrack, and I recommend that to anyone out there.
Oh, that's, that's quite a story. Jean Valjean is not my name. Ah, kids coming out.
It's actually, but it's very motivational. It's about the revolution. It's like, yes, we can do this. We can get through this. So yeah, I absolutely love musicals. And finally, before we get onto business, and I promise we will get onto business, but I just need to indulge myself at the moment. What is your dream role? If you could play anything in the West end?
Ooh. Oh, so this also changes, but I'm in love with the book of Mormon. And I would love to play elder price. That would definitely be the ultimate dream come true. So, any producers or casting directors listening, you know, I'm also available for the next, next round of casting. You know, just putting that out there. so yeah, if anyone wants to gimme a job, I'd love that.
Absolutely love it. I've not, I'm yet to see Book of Mormon. I've seen some clips from it and I've seen some like parts of Medleys, but I haven't seen the full show and it's definitely on my list of things to go see.
Oh gosh, you have to go. If you like Joseph, you will like, it is the ultimate comedy night. I brilliant.
Okay, it's going on my bucket list, and I know there's lots of other musical theater fans who are listening to this podcast as well. So hopefully you've enjoyed indulging for a moment in our musical theater chat. Okay, let's get back to business then. So we talk, I, I talked in the intro about your business, JB performers. Take me back to how that began. Where did that come from?
So it actually began, I think it's 4, 3, 3 years ago. Three and a bit years ago. Whenever I moved to London, so before that I had like played in like churches, stuff like that. I'd always sang at kind of random events throughout kind of Belfast and stuff like that. And then I came to London and I really didn't wanna work whenever I came over. So I was like, how can I utilize what I do and what I love to kind of build up like a, a business that I can.
You know, make the, the money myself, keep it myself, invest it in myself, invest in my training, that, there sort of thing, and have all the flexibility that I need and like want to live over here. So that's kind of how it kind of started. And then my friend, well my partner and I, he had an e-commerce business and he was like, oh, why didn't you set it up? Like actually do it properly? I was like, oh, right, okay. And then he helped me set it up, which was really, really great.
And yeah, no, he's been a great help and we've set up website and then we've exhibited at the wedding shows and stuff like that. So that's kind of how it came about. And then obviously I trained in musical theater, so I had lots of friends that were. Huge influences on like my music style and stuff like that. And then that's where I kind of got my singers and other pianists as well from, and cuz everyone at drama school is just so talented. Oh my goodness.
The amount of talent that people have, like playing instruments, singing, dancing, everything. And I was just like in awe. So I've definitely utilized some of my friends and drafted them into coming to sing at weddings as well. So yeah, that's kind of how it all became a thing, and I've loved it ever since.
Well, that's good because you're doing something that you love, right? Instead of being in a job that you hate all of the time, you are being able to use that passion and go out there and perform and also give work to some of your friends as well. So how did you find your first clients?
Well, my first clients, so I can tell you this, one of them, my very, very, very first inquiry was an absolute nightmare.
I was on the phone to this lady about three times a week for about 45 minutes at a time, answering questions, and they weren't even remotely related to music sometimes, and I'd just sit there and try and answer, but she ended up not going through, which was fine because it was so difficult, but it gave me such a clear like, A clear path of what kind of client I wanted, where I wanted to go within the industry.
Like I know people say like, oh, the wedding industry is so big and like there's so much opportunity there. But within that I always find like there's loads of different segments, like on where you want to go, like what style that there sort of thing. So it really narrowed it down. And then my very first client was actually.
Another musical theater lover and we went and performed at her wedding wedding reception and I took four of my friends with me and we all, like, we'd set up before we added in, we had like five part harmony going at one stage. And this girl's wedding, it was, I think it was Brighton at this point. And yeah, we sang musical theater songs for an hour and a half and we absolutely loved it. And she was a joy and she was just fun and giggly, loved everything we did.
And she was up dancing along, singing along. At one point she took the mic and was like, I want to sing. Define Gravity on my own. Wasn't in the right key or anything, but you know what? We all had a great time and yeah, all the guests loved it. So she was definitely the ideal kind of client for me. Really lovely, really sweet. And this is the one thing that I'm not. Loving about the wedding industry is you don't get to work with like your clients again.
One time it's like, oh, I would love to work with you again. I've really enjoyed this. I would love to stay friends though, cuz I build such a connection with everyone that I've had that I'm like, oh, you're so lovely. We really get on. And it's just like that kind of bittersweet moment of the wedding, like getting to know them and then. Going to perform at the wedding, and then that's it.
Jack, I've got a business proposition for you. Maybe we need to get you running a night, a musical theater, live night in London once a quarter, and then you can invite all of your clients and me along to it, and we can all come and have sing.
Let's do it. Let's rent out the Novella Theater for the night. Let's do that. Why not?
Why not? Because then you can have something to invite your friends along to from your clients. Yes. Cause you're right, it is difficult in the wedding industry cuz we're always looking for new people. Right. We're always looking to get our name out there to find new people. Cause. Most people only get married once, and therefore we need to find clients all of the time.
Now, one of the things I know that you did, last year to get more clients, I think it was last year, maybe it was even this year, was to exhibit at the National Wedding Show. And I wanna talk to you a little bit about that because the National Wedding Show here in the UK is something that quite a lot of people think about doing. They're a bit nervous about doing it. It's quite a big deal. It's, it's a fairly big expense. So how did it. Come about and what was your experience?
So I've actually exhibited two times now. So I set up, I think it was in my first year of running, within the first couple of months, I was thinking, oh, how can I kind of gain traction to JB performers as a whole? So that was kind of the first big event that, that I took my singer with, with me. And we went and sang and played piano and stuff like that. So, yeah, no, we had an absolutely amazing time. The first time we exhibited at the Olympia in London, it was really great.
I was just like blown away, by like the quality of all the stands and stuff like that. So that was the first time. And then the second time was in just passing that October, which is, I believe, whenever I met you. So the first time I didn't think I, I knew you. I think, I think I was with Kelly Mortimer, your friend at that time, and then the second time, yes, I was with you and yeah, had an absolutely amazing time this time in the Excel and yeah, absolutely loved it. Brought the piano along.
We had an amazing time. We had a right old Bop of the time, playing some musical theater songs as well. And yeah, I had a really, really amazing time seeing everyone, meeting new people that there sort of thing. And I think the second time I had more of a strategy put in place from your kind of learning set up that you have like the, the exhibit exhibiting. So the first time in my own opinion, was an absolute throw.
For a way of my money, which is really disappointing cuz I didn't really know what I was going in doing. I didn't have a strategy in place. I was just going, oh, here's my email. If you like me, kind of send me an email or gimme a call. So that wasn't the best success. We got a couple, I think we got three people booked from it, which was really great considering we had no strategy but. No, the second time around we got a whole lot more traction, a lot more followers.
People were a lot more engaging. I took phone numbers, emails and that, there sort of thing. And I knew what I was doing. Then from the past experience, actually talking to people, cuz I always find there's like, I was going in with the seals, like being like, oh, Come look at this. We've got this amazing thing. Oh, I'll do you a deal. This is, this is what I'm gonna do. And I was trying to act like a car salesman, which really doesn't work, especially not at wedding shows.
So the second time, Ryan, it was a lot more conversational, really getting to know people and stuff like that. And, Yeah, no, as I said, had a really amazing time getting to know people. So yeah,
and I think it's really brave of you actually to do it again, because you've, by your own admission said that you felt like the first time was throwing money away, and a lot of people would've just thought never gonna do that again, was a waste of time, waste of money. But actually to reflect and to realize maybe it was mistakes you made rather than the show itself and to go into it again is really brave.
So what things would you say to someone if they're thinking of doing the National Wedding Show or doing one of those? Big things where it's gonna be a decent amount of money spent to get involved in it. What kind of thing would you say to them to make sure they've got sorted before they go for it?
I think definitely make sure you have all your campaigns ready. Make sure you have your email marketing, your text, marketing everything, all the plans in place, have everything scheduled. That was my biggest thing. I had to have my Instagram posts or TikTok, or I had them all scheduled for the entire weekend. Because I knew I wasn't gonna have any time at all to sit down at night after doing, like, being there from six o'clock in the morning until like Jerry knows what time at night.
So I had all those schedules, and the first time I remember I tried to do things as cheap as possible. And this is where I get going, trying to do things as cheap as possible. But there is cheap and then there is just like almost tacky. And I think I went beyond the cheap, into the tacky, and I, I think it reflected, really badly on JP Performance's brand. Cause that's not what I wanted at all for the kind of brand that I was going for. So, second time round I bought a bigger stand.
I actually need. The stand out of wood. So I made paneling out of wood and like painted it all. I drafted in my flatmates that there kind of thing, all my friends, my family, and spent a bit of money on it because I thought the quality and the look of this stands really stands out and I think people do notice. So that would be definitely, I think it's definitely worth spending money on the stand itself. I think the compromise should probably go to the stand size.
If you have a smaller stand size and a more high quality stand, I think that's definitely the way to go, in my opinion. Yeah, make sure you have your flyers, all those contact information all in hand. The spreadsheet to get people's details is the biggest thing. I remember saying to my singer, Fiona, I was like, I don't care if you don't get along with them. Just please make sure, as long as they like who we are and they're liking what we do.
Make sure we get our phone numbers because if they're liking us, then that that's the best thing we can call them. Then we can organize for like a kind of conversation over Zoom that there sort of thing, and we can get to know them, build up the relationship there. Yeah, that was our biggest thing and I definitely think that helped out so much because then we added them into their email campaigns, that sort of thing, phone calls, and a lot of them ended up converting, which is.
Exactly what we aim for. So
yeah, absolutely. That's perfect. And I think your stand looked amazing when I saw you at the Excel. I think you, what you did with the brand colors and your logo and the wood, it really did pay off and it did stand out a mile. And again, if people. If people are listening to this and thinking about doing something like that, I recommend going along to the show as a guest and having a look first because it is a big investment.
And actually when you go and see what other people are doing and the standard of some of the stands and how terrible some of the stands look like when people don't dunno what they're doing, like it's really worth doing your research for sure. And I think that paid off for you for sure.
I actually went back to the Excel the other week. They, give us some tickets and I was like, absolutely. I would love to go because I think it's really good to evaluate what you've done the last time and like, well, what can I do this time? Maybe I can use the same material, but what can I do to make it better? That there's some stuff constantly trying to better yourself. Definitely, I, I think it's worth paying the money to go see it beforehand.
Hundred percent. And actually quite often if you contact them, the National Wedding Show particularly, and say you're interested in in exhibiting, they'll quite often give you complimentary tickets to go and have a look around. So do take that insider tip from me and go and contact them if you want. Go and have a look around the show now, Jack, the next thing I wanna talk to you about is TikTok. Now, TikTok is something that many people in the wedding industry are a little bit.
Nervous about and feel like they're not quite cool enough for, and they avoid it. But I know that TikTok has been instrumental in the, some of the success in your business. So talk to me about TikTok. Let's go back to the start. Like when did you go on TikTok? How are you feeling about it and how did you get started?
So TikTok at the start, I was just posting like videos of me playing piano and stuff, like videos of my singer singing that, there sort of thing. Not really wasn't getting that much engagement. Then I was like, I was trying to think of new ways to get business into the business on how to make money in different way, as in like, why am I only concentrating on London? How can I appeal to the, not only the greater UK, but also to the rest of the world?
And then I was like, oh, what if I offer recordings? Because a lot of people often think, oh, I would love live music, but can't quite afford. The full live music price that comes with it. So I was like, oh, this is a really good, great idea. I can record my piano playing through my computer and it gives like, it sounds like an actual pianist is playing at the wedding. So then I started doing these kind of tiktoks where it goes in from like pachabels canon into like, you are my sunshine.
And then it just started taking off from there. I think I remember sitting up in like bed one morning and I woke up and was like, Oh my gosh, I've suddenly got like 800,000 views on one of my things. I was like, what? What is going on?
So, yeah, no, it's been really amazing and actually is where I make most of my money from now rather than live weddings, is cause I find a way to streamline the kind of TikTok side of things, the custom recordings where, you know, one recording can do this, this, this, and this. How can I adapt that to fit this?
That there sort of thing, and it's made it more streamlined and almost a bit more e-commerce side to it, which I think is actually really quite important in the wedding businesses, the e-commerce side, how, how can that influence the business sort of thing.
But yeah, no, since then I've been trying to post like, I think I've post three times a week at the moment, although I'm up in it currently because around this time of year we, this is whenever we've, I've noticed that we get most of our recordings from. So I'll be posting maybe like three times a day now, which is really great. And yeah, that's really where I go from.
I've been going live a lot recently and getting quite a lot of people who come on live and are like, oh my gosh, my, my daughter's getting married. Let me send this to her. And then she comes on the live, then we have a conversation on the live about like what she wants and like what kind of music she wants. And then I'll play a bit for her and yeah, no, it's really great and it's really nice. I think it's.
I think it's very personable as well, like getting to actually have a, it's almost like a live chat before the, the live chat with just me and yeah, we have great fun on it. I think it's definitely, TikTok is the way forward I think for the kind of when industry showing it off. I've noticed quite a few, like DJs as well, like given kind of top tips out there sort of thing on like entrances.
Yeah. And then with within my package I was, A lot of people were asking me like, oh, when does such and such enter? Like, when does the bride's mother enter? When does my flower girl enter? So with it, I developed like different packages. So you can get like a standard package, which is just the recording itself, and then you can get like our standard one, which is.
It has like a recording of me, like talking over to the top, the top of it being like, this is whenever bride not bride number one. Bri, what do you call? Oh my gosh, I've completely forgotten it. Bridesmaid, bridesmaid, bridesmaid. I could not think of the word. I was like, it's bride something. And I was like, oh my gosh. Complete mind blank. How funny. Yeah. This is whenever bridesmaid number one comes in. This is whenever groomsmen comes in. That their sort of thing.
And yeah, that's, we kind of developed a package by that and yeah, packaging is my new favorite thing to do. how can I create packages for different things? Cause I think it really works. So yeah, that's kind of gone really far off TikTok. But yeah, no, I love TikTok now. I love it. Love reading all the comments as well. Cause I get some like, oh my gosh, my Grandad used to sing this to me whenever he was like two.
I know I'm having it as a, as a wedding entrance, and I like stories like that, just like really touch me and it's really great to hear like people all around the world. Talking about their different stories and it, yeah, it, it, it really makes me feel happy about what I'm doing and adds like a next level and an extra dimension to it, so, yeah.
Yeah, and I just love how this TikTok explosion has kind of taken your business in a bit of a different direction, probably to where you expected it to go with these recordings and growing and reaching an international market, and it's really exciting. One of the things that I think is really smart about what you've. Is that you've kept the concept on TikTok the same, so it's very simple, isn't it? You're always, you're not trying to do new things.
Now on TikTok, is it always pachabels canon that you start with and then you go into something else?
Well, we do love, I do. I do love a bit of Pachabels canon, and actually a lot of my friends make jokes at me, now they're like, they start singing a song and then they go, well, if you like such and such, it's the perfect wedding entrance for you. And I'm like, okay guys. Right. Come on. But yes, I mainly do pachabels canon or like the kind of traditional wedding march as well, which goes into it.
But I've actually, recently, I've been doing a lot of mashups, so I done a mashup for Abba the other day. Absolutely loved it. Slipping through my fingers. Had me in tears recording that one. I literally emailed the, the client was like, you've, you've got me really upset. I'm so, I'm so love, I'm so in love with this recording. I really hope you love it. And she was like, I'm now crying at it as well. Let's come up FaceTime. And then we FaceTime and we're like, I just love this so much.
And I was like, no, I love this so much. And yeah, no, it was really, really great. So I'm doing a lot of mashups and stuff like that. And then different kind of, I'm trying to find new ways of kind of giving top tips that they're sort of thing like, yeah, no, as you said, it's completely different direction to, to what I was initially anticipating. Like I was expecting to be like, Actually in person at weddings.
But no, this works out a lot better for me with the kind of lifestyle that I have at the moment. So, yeah, no, really great love TikTok.
I think it's really inspiring. I love the success you've had, and if you haven't seen Jack's TikTok do go and check it out. Or if you feel like you're a bit scared of TikTok, he does post some of his videos over on Instagram as well, so you can go and have a look at those over on his Instagram. But it's just fun and it's a simple concept, but it really has. Been so successful for you. You've had clients from all over the world.
Tell me, where are some of the places that people have bought your recordings from?
So we've, I think, I can't remember how many I've counted the other day, but we've had ones, quite a few from Australia. We've got Texas, New York all the way down America. We've got ones in Columbia, New Zealand, where else? Dubai. Russia had one. Yeah, we've had loads. I think the furthest I've had was Iceland. I was like, right. Okay. That's cute. So, yeah, no, we've had them all over. I just think that blows my mind. Like my piano playing is literally, All over the world.
And that is like, ah, it just, yeah, mindblowing.
And as a performer, that is one of the greatest compliments to know that your wedding, your music is being listened to at one of those biggest events of their life across the world. That must feel good. It,
it feels immense a lot. Honestly. I, it just, it's just really nice hearing everyone's stories and things like that and highlight. Different parts of the world, like fair, like where is it that I think it's Texas, that the You are my sunshine. It's like their main theme tune, but they love that there you are my sunshine. Stuff like that. So, yeah, it's really amazing. I love it.
So we know that you are out there doing weddings in person. We know that you are finding success on TikTok as well. What do you think is next for you and JB performers?
I have been saying for years that I want to set up a band. I've been saying for the minute, I dunno how young I was, but I always used to, in my, in my, nan's house, I always used to put on performance performances for, and like ever since then, I've loved the live music kind of aspect. Like music is a huge part of my life.
And I love that, that, I think that's definitely the next step is setting up a band going forward, the kind of reception music a lot more rather than the ceremony music at the moment. But definitely I think bands live music is the way forward. Trying to find a new, unique way to put on the bands will be the next project. I think for me, I think definitely by the end of summer I'm gonna have a band. I said this probably a new instrument by the end of summer as well,
and maybe a new musical theater night in London that I can come along to as well. You never know. Let's do it. Maybe you need a band that specializes in musical theater songs, because one of the things I found for my wedding way back in 2010 when I, I booked a band and they were a great swing band, but some of the songs I wanted them to do, some of the musical theater songs I wanted them to do. They were like, we just can't really do that. Like, that's not really our thing.
So there's definitely a gap in the.
Oh wow. Maybe. Maybe we need to have a full on musical day then. Well, this is music to my ears. I absolutely love that. I love, there is nothing better than hearing, like, especially whenever you go to shows, you hear the orchestra kind of kick off. Imagine that at a wedding. I would have such a great time if I had musical theater at a wedding like that.
Yeah, absolutely. And it's, it's definitely a growing thing. You see the musical theater, waiters and waitresses going into weddings and also the musical theater community is huge. I don't know if you've seen in London now that they have these musical theater raves where they take over a nightclub and just play musical theater songs. So there is a big fan club out there.
Nuts, absolutely nuts. Musical theater. People are nuts. I love it.
We absolutely are. Jack, it's been such fun talking to you today. I always end my podcast interviews with the same question, which is, what's one thing you wish you'd known sooner in your business?
Oh my gosh, this is really hard. I think one thing that I know I sooner is relationships. I think relationships are key, and I really underestimated how much you rely on relationships with not only your clients, but. Only the other wedding businesses because I think getting jobs from other wedding businesses is the ultimate compliment. Yeah. I think relationships are really, really, really important.
And I wish I knew that earlier because I think we would've been a bit further on than we are now. But we grow, we learn. And we keep going.
Absolutely. And if people wanna find out more about you and what you do, or they wanna get in touch, maybe they're another wedding supplier and wants to build a bit of a relationship with you and your business, where's the best place for people to find you?
You can find me on every social media platform thinkable. At jb performers dot com is my website. And at JB Performers, you can search me up anywhere and hopefully it'll come up.
Perfect. Do get in touch with Jack. I'm sure he would love to talk with you and find out more about your business as much as you wanna find out about his. Jack, it's been so much fun talking all things, musicals and business with you. Thanks for being on the podcast.
Thank you so much.
I love that conversation with Jack, isn't he brilliant? Thank you for indulging us as we discussed all things musical theater. I know lots of your musical theater fans out there as well. I loved hearing his story. I loved how he's navigated the changes in his business through going so huge and international on TikTok, and I know there's big things for him to come as well. I'll see you next time.