It's addictive because all of a sudden you start seeing new followers, you start getting engagement on your reels, you get all these views, right? And reels are being shown to new people. And that's what we want is to always be bringing in new eyes to our platform. And Oh, Becca, that makes me so happy to hear you say, because I love that you just told them like how simple it really, really can be and how valuable they really are.
I am 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 speaking with Brandee Gaar, based in Florida. Brandy works with creative business owners to help them scale their businesses while maintaining their work-life balance as a wedding and event planner herself. She really knows our industry well, and I'm thrilled to have her on the podcast today. Brandy, welcome.
Thank you so much for having me, Becca. This is gonna be so fun. I love talking about.
It's an absolute pleasure. I'm excited to get into reels, but first of all, we need to talk about something. You live in Florida and I've heard you live really close to Disney World. . Brandee: Yes. Like minutes from Disney. So we can see the fireworks from our front yard and yep, we drive by them every night, every day.
It absolutely blows my mind because here in the UK we absolutely love Disney and we have to pay thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds to go see those fireworks and you literally see them every night out your window.
It's so funny too because especially if we're like, you know, driving home from dinner, even the girls' school, you know, at night, they're literally right in front of our face and we talk about it sometimes we're we're like, Gosh, this is so like we take this so for granted, you know, because especially if we do go to the park, which is pretty rare for us, but if we do go to the park, we are kind of giggling, like who on earth would stay here and watch these fireworks? Like they're amazing.
But I guess cuz we see them every night, we're like, hmm. It's not that big a deal. But it totally is. I will say it, it's ruined like any other firework show for our kids, if we. Literally anywhere. And there's like 4th of July or New Year's Eve fireworks. They're like, these are lame. And I'm like, yes, cuz you guys see Disney is every night . Becca: I just think that's so incredible that you see them every night, but it's totally normal to you. Okay, so enough chatting about Disney.
Let's get into weddings and before we start talking more about reels, I wanna understand your own journey. First of all, how did you end up working in the wedding industry in the first. Yeah, so I actually, you know, had such an amazing opportunity. I've always wanted to plan events since I was a little girl. I've always known that, and I had an incredible opportunity to open a really prestigious hotel here in Orlando, which was so cool to be part of, like an opening team of a hotel.
Not a lot of people get the opportunity, and it was incredible. And I was there for seven years as a corporate event planner. And it was just the most amazing company to work for. They were phenomenal. I loved my job.
I never thought I would leave, honestly, and I, I really hadn't planned on being an entrepreneur, but, After we had our first daughter, we have three daughters now, but after we had our first daughter, you know, I started to realize how difficult the corporate event planner life is on a family. I would sometimes go a week without seeing my daughter awake. And you know, if you have a show in house, you're like, you're there.
And so, Our company was incredible about, you know, taking time off after, but it just wasn't the same. And I was like, I do not want to live this kind of lifestyle for the rest of my life with her. And so I decided to branch out on my own. And to be honest, I hadn't ever planned weddings.
Like I'd kind of dabbled here and there for friends and I'd planned my own, but I really thought I was going to do corporate event planning, but, To be honest, I was 26 and like all of my friends were getting married and all of their friends were getting married and it just seemed like lowest hanging fruit just seemed a lot easier to do weddings. And so that's what we did.
We opened blush in 2007, so it's been almost 16 years, which is insane and amazing and you know, it's been, it's honestly been, Such an incredible journey. Like we went hard from the very beginning. We, you know, really worked to build our company up quickly. We had a team really, since year one, we've always had associate planners and team members, and I think right around the eight year mark for me, maybe six to eight years was when it got really, really difficult and we started to.
Literally everything I ever said I wanted from my business. We had, like, we were being referred by almost everyone in town. We had such a great reputation. We had a big team, tons of weddings, and it was amazing. However, we hadn't really built our company for scale. And so the challenge I started to feel was that every single thing that happened in my business, I had a hand in literally everything.
And so it always felt like if I even just closed my eyes for a second, all the balls would fall. Like there was always a hundred balls to be juggled and I couldn't turn away for a second. And I started to think like, I can't do this forever. I felt so burnt out. What, what I started to realize is I hadn't built my business well in terms of like, I, I was, became a bottleneck for my business.
And so I really dug into learning how to build a business, like a really healthy business, how to become the c e o, how to manage my team. And so now that's what I teach. And I always think it's so funny because that wasn't my plan. That wasn't like, oh, I'm gonna teach this one day. Like that was never my plan. But they say your mess becomes your message. And honestly, that was the hardest.
Of building my business was learning how to become the CEO and now I really enjoy teaching other wedding professionals like how to build a business that doesn't require their everyday oversight, but still pays them a full-time salary and that they really feel fulfilled from. And so, yeah. I love it.
You've been on quite the journey really, haven't you, from being employed to taking the leap to being self-employed and then to getting to that success of realizing you need to take a step back to where you are now. When you look back over those years, what do you think about when you think about all those things that you've.
I love it. I really genuinely think that we've had a really charmed business story. I don't think that that's because of luck, though. You know, like my favorite podcast is how I built this with Guy Raz. I love it. I've listened to every single episode and he always asks people at the end, you know, do you think your success is because of hard work or luck? And I really think it's a, a mixture of both, obviously.
I definitely think that there was factors at play that helped me to have what I have now. Honestly, there was a lot of tears. Like a lot, there's, I can't even tell you how many times I would sit on my living room floor crying and just say like, I can't do this anymore. I wanna burn it all to the ground. Like I, I, it doesn't come easily to anyone, I don't think, you know, I think that there's always like, Potholes in the road.
And to be honest, around that eight year mark is, I, I wanted to give it all away. Like, I was like, burn it to the ground. Like, I don't wanna do this anymore. I'm going back to work for someone else. And you know, thankfully I have an incredible husband who believes in me more than I believe in myself. And he would push me, you know, to say, no, we can be, we can do this better. We just have to rethink it. We have to find somebody to help us. And so, yeah. I. I think it's pretty incredible.
I love now getting to help people to see what I learned so much earlier in their journey. Like I tell my students all the time, like, I'm saving you years, , years of, of heartache because I can help you to avoid some of the roadblocks that I had. Yeah, so it's pretty exciting. I love teaching now though. It's my favorite thing.
Yes, and you're very good at it. And that is why you are here on the podcast today. Now, I know one of the things that you love to talk about and one of the things that you do really well in your own business is Instagram reels. So talk to me about reels. Why do you think they're important for people in the wedding industry to be looking at and using?
So, you know, it's interesting reels and really all short form video, but reels specifically, you know, I say get the juice while its on sale. I mean, will reels always be, you know, this phenomenon that can fill your sales funnel? Probably not. But they are now and they are for the foreseeable future. And one of the cool things for the wedding industry is that we know without a shadow of a doubt, that our clients are on Instagram and Pinterest. Like that's where they hang out.
That's where they're shopping, you know, wedding wire's. Latest report said that 82% and climbing of all engaged couples research their vendors on social media before they ever make a purchase. And that's a massive amount. So, Instagram is favoring reels. They are at battle with TikTok, and so they are favoring reels on their platform, and so it's a really great way to get in front of more engaged couples.
One of the other cool things is that in the wedding industry, again, we have such a cool feature is when someone gets engaged, one of the very first things they do is change their. Online . So they change it on Facebook and they go and tell everyone that they're now engaged. Well, Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same company, and so it makes it really, really easy for Instagram to know who to put your content in front of, because.
They tell us that they're engaged, so it, it makes it really, really cool. And because Instagram's favoring reels, your content is gonna get pushed out to more engaged couples when you're making reels. The other piece of that too is that, now, I dunno if you guys have noticed this, so reels have been around for about two years now, and now every single platform, not just a few, every single social media platform now has short form video incorporated.
TikTok, obviously, but Facebook Pinterest instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, all have short form video. So if you can master reels, it really translates to all these other platforms, and it is the way we're going to start marketing to people and the future. So understanding it. Using it while Instagram's giving you that extra juice anyway, is really gonna be to your benefit in the future for marketing your business.
So really, it's the best way to get in front of people that aren't already following you, is that right?
Yeah, and that's the thing too, I think a lot of people don't understand is that when you post on Instagram, Less than 10% of your followers will see your content. Instagram's told us that themselves. So when you make this beautiful feed post, you've spent an hour creating in Canva, or you do your stories or whatever, less than 10% of your followers are seeing that content. And that's the people who are actually following you with reels. They use a different algorithm.
They're actually, that algorithm is. Seeking out people who will want to watch it. And so the reels algorithm is going and searching for people and bringing new eyes to your platform. So I always consider reels as kind of like top of funnel. You know, it's it's brand new eyes that don't really know you yet, and they want to learn more about you. They like your reels, they like your content, so they're gonna come to your profile.
Then the idea is to get them to click through to your website, obviously book a console, and then to book.
Okay, so there's gonna be people listening who totally resonate with what you're saying. They can see that reels are the future. They can see that it's important in their business, but they're scared and they don't really know how to get started. So, have you got any tips for people about how they can just get started, how they can make their first reel, what they should be making it about?
Absolutely. Okay. So the easiest way to get started, especially. In the beginning, I think it's scary to show your face. I'll push you . If you come into my, my space of the web, I'm gonna push you and say I love your reels, but I haven't seen your face on one yet. But to start, I do totally understand that showing your face on video is scary. And as wedding professionals, you know, it's great to be able to show our. So what I would encourage you to do is to use a template.
Reels has templates now. It's kind of a new feature. It's been around for about eight months as of this recording. And you can use a template and you can literally grab content. Right out of your phone. Or you can use the photographer's professional images. A lot of them will send like a favorites, right? A favorites folder to all the vendors. You can use those and you can literally use someone else's template and then you can just add your own media to it and it will make you a reel.
Instagram will make you a reel that you can post of your own content. So if you're thinking about using a template, I actually keep one at the top of my Instagram. So if you go over to Brandee Gaar on Instagram, the only wedding photo that you'll see on my entire feed as a coach. Is actually a template for other wedding pros to use if you click on it. And then on the bottom left you'll see, use this as a template.
If you literally click there, it'll tell you, add your own media, and then it will make that same reel for you, but with your own content. So I think this is a really easy way. I love teaching people to use a template because what you can see, It takes you two minutes to make it, and then you're gonna see how much juice you get from that reel. It's, it's honestly incredible. When you post a reel, you're like, wait a second, I just got 400 views in an hour. You know?
And you're like, what's happening? And so you start to really realize the power of the reel's algorithm.
So it doesn't need to be complicated. It can be as simple as just sharing footage or images from a wedding you've recently worked at and using a template.
Yeah, and I think the template's the easiest way because you know, a lot of times, I, I tell people all the time, listen, reels can be as simple as literally grab your phone and then when you see maybe like the bride and groom do a first. Capture it on your phone and then make that into a seven second reel. But I think a lot of people as wedding pros, you know, we're so cautious of our grid. Like we get nervous that, oh, but I don't want iPhone footage or, you know, phone footage on my grid.
Listen, reels are really meant to be more real. And so it's definitely okay to use phone footage, but I, I think the template makes it a little bit easier for people to baby step into because you can use more professional images with it. But guys, there's so many. You can make quick reels that don't ever even show your face. I think for like, let's say a florist, I love seeing behind the scenes of like a florist making a bouquet, right? Or processing flowers.
You get all your flowers in, you've gotta process them. Or let's say a dj. Packing up all their equipment for wedding day. Like people love to see what you actually do behind the scenes cuz they see you at the wedding. You know, there's one DJ here, she always does reels of like, they're getting ready to go on site because there's so much that goes into it. You know, they've gotta have equipment, backup equipment, and then they've got to pack the truck and setting up.
And it's really, it's very, very interesting for people to get to see what you're doing and what equipment you're bringing. So those are simple reels that don't even show your.
Loads of great ideas in there for people to get started with. Now, the other question that people ask me quite regularly when it comes to this kind of thing is, how do I make sure that what I'm doing actually converts to sales? So I'm not just spending all of my time making content and making beautiful things for Instagram when I'm actually trying to run a business and make sales. So do you think reels can lead to sales?
Do wedding couples look at reels and then buy, like how does the whole process integrate?
Yeah, that's such a great question, Becca. You know, I will tell you guys, it's funny that I teach on Instagram now because two years ago I didn't even have a personal Instagram and I had always outsourced blushes, social media, blushes, my planning company to someone else. I've never done my own social media prior to two years ago, cuz I hated Instagram for that exact same reason. It would be like, you know, you'd listen to an Instagram guru or an influencer come teach about Instagram and they.
Tell you all these rules and hashtags and how many words and what time to post. And I was like, wow, I have a business to run. Like I do not have time for this. And so what I started to really think about two years ago as I started to see the market change, where it was like, listen, Paid publications are really not where it's at anymore. Like I want to be able to connect in real time with potential buyers right there on Instagram, right? And so I wanted to learn it myself.
What I started to realize is that you have to have a strategy. It's not just a pretty place to post pictures and videos. If you don't have a strategy, you can post until you're purple. It's not gonna work. Like it's not gonna turn into sales. And as a business owner, I'm not trying to go viral. I'm not trying to make content that's gonna go viral. I really want to make content that turns into dollars. Right?
And so what I want you to think about again, is kind of going back to that funnel analogy. I want you to think about if reels are top of funnel, how are you moving them through the funnel to become a buyer? Well, what I encourage you to do is I want you to make a piece of anchor content. So what does that look like? So that might be a blog on your website. I would say it should always be a blog on your website. Let me rephrase that. So you are gonna create a blog.
Let's say that you create a blog that. You know, we're here in engagement season, so let's say it's what are the first three things you should do once you're engaged? Right now? Literally any kind of wedding pro can write a blog like this, and it's a, it's a very searched thing during engagement season. So first three things you should do once you're engaged, now you're gonna write that blog, you're gonna keep it simple, and then you're gonna make at least, Two reels about that exact same topic.
One of them could be you literally talk to camera like you do on your stories, but you're gonna do it as a reel. And it would be, oh, you're engaged. So exciting. Here's the first three things you need to do. And you're literally just gonna name them. And then you're gonna say, go read our blog for more information. Right? Or more about this topic. And then you're. Another reel that might be like some different pictures of your couples, and you can say, you're engaged. Now what do you do?
Here's the first three things that you should do, right? So two totally different kinds of reels, but you want to make sure that both of them in the caption has a call to action to go click the link in your bio to read more on your blog. Once you can get them to your blog, now you've got them right there. It's like having somebody at your front doorstep.
All you have to do is bring them in because what you wanna do on your blog is you wanna make sure you say things like, if you're ready to, if you need help from a wedding planner or you're ready to book your dj, Click here to book a consult with us. You wanna make sure that's at the bottom of your blog, but you're really moving them through your funnel.
The whole point of reels isn't to just show them pretty things, it's to become an expert, to show them how amazing you are at their work and to fill a pain point that they have, right? So you're wanting, they have a pain point, you've got the solution, and so you really want to make sure that your call to action is always, always, always to learn more. On your website, and that should be a blog. That's a great way to get them to your blog.
So you don't wanna just have the strategy of like, post, no, that's not all we wanna do. We wanna post with strategy to move them to your website. Does that make sense?
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I think it's really excellent advice because if you're posting, just because you're trying to post so many times a week and you're not thinking about why you're posting or what you're trying to get people to do next, what is the point? So I think that's a really, really great way to look at it. So how often then, I know it's the obvious question, but how often should be people be making reels?
Yeah, so my answer is always at a minimum of twice a week. And I know that sounds kind of like a lot, but if you're already creating content for Instagram, which I'm sure that you are. You can actually make reels way faster than you can make grid posts. Once you get the hang of it, it, it actually goes really, really quickly. I only teach wedding pros how to make reels that you can make in five minutes or less.
I don't think that, you know, spending an hour on one reel is giving you the return on investment that it should. So I always want you to spend only five minutes making a reel now of. In the beginning, you're trying to kind of learn how the buttons work and things like that, so it might take you a few extra minutes, but once you get the hang of it, you're going to really be able to make five minute reels, and so I would love to see you make at least two a week.
I would love to see it as you get better at it to make about three to four. And honestly, I would tell you. That you could replace your grid posts with reels. Now, if you love making grid posts, if you love making feed posts, that's fine. You're welcome to keep them. But once you start getting the hang of reels, you'll see how much faster that they are to make, and you can put them on your feet as well. And they're gonna get so much more interaction than those feed posts ever will.
And so you'll start to see that and you'll become addicted pretty quickly. So two at a minimum, but three to four is
ideal. I've got a question off of the back of something you just said to do with putting them on the grid post and replacing your grid posts with reels. So one question that I had from one of my members recently was if they make a reel, And they share it to their grid. Can they just use one of their beautiful photos as the cover image so that they keep that protected beautiful grid that they all want to keep?
100%. That's a great question, Becca. And if you guys wanna see this in real time, I will tell you exactly how I do it. So on my coaching page, which is Brandee Gaar on Instagram, you'll see that I rarely use a cover on my reels. I l I tend to be very, very, Real and authentic over there, and I'm a little bit of a goofball, so I don't care what my grid looks like that much , and so I don't use covers that often.
However, on blush, so we're at blush, B B G, on Instagram, you can go over and see the blush. Instagram we. Always put a cover. Like always put a cover because same, right? We're wedding professionals. We are tend to be a little bit more buttoned up over there. We cater to a luxury client and I do have to care what the aesthetic of my grid is over there. So what we do is I would tell you to do two different things.
If you're posting a real wedding or something about your work, then I would use a professional. From that wedding, or even use, like let's say you do the example of you packing up your DJ and you're packing up for wedding day. I might put a professional image of you, like rocking out the dance floor as the cover or something like that, right? So that you've got a really great aesthetically pleasing cover.
But if you're doing an educational reel, which I think you should do at least, at least once a week because it poses you as an expert. So an educational reel, meaning you're teaching engaged couples something, right. Then I would make the cover. Something pretty and on brand, but I would make it in Canva and I would say what question you're answering or what pain point you're answering on that cover.
Because when people come to your profile to binge more of your reels, like they see one, they come and they wanna binge more of them. You want them to see what topics you're covering and so that they can quickly binge the ones that they wanna see. Right? And so that, that's really important, is to make sure if you're answering a question, that you make a cover that tells. What you're talking about in that reel.
Love that loads and loads of helpful tips in there. Now I'm gonna let the listeners into a bit of a secret brandy, because I wanna share something with you that you may or may not have noticed from my world. So for those people listening, this is actually the second time that we've had this conversation. So a couple of weeks ago, me and Brandee did this podcast recording. It was a great conversation, all about reels and some, for some reason, the technology fail.
And it didn't record, which is why we're back again now. Now in that conversation, I was very honest with Brandy and I said, I don't do reels very much, and I know I need to be doing them more, and I feel like it's just too much effort. Well, since we had that conversation a few weeks ago, I think I've actually made seven new reels myself. Yeah, I've made 70 reels and they have reached thousands. Of people. So this works and it isn't as complicated as it needed to be.
And all I am doing on my reels is I'm going, I'm hitting record, I'm giving one tip. There's no background music, there's no dancing, there's no nothing. It's just me talking with some captions and a cover with the, with the question on it, and people are loving it. So Brandy, thank you and to everyone else. Listen to what she's teaching you today and realize it doesn't have to be that hard. It really is simple and it really is addictive and it does get you the results.
It's addictive because all of a sudden you start seeing new followers, you start getting engagement on your wheels, you get all these views, right? And I love what you just said, Becca, because it's so funny. People will say to me, but why can't I just do a story if I'm just gonna sit down and talk to the camera? Why can't I just do that as a story? That is what I want you to think about.
I want you to think about it as it's as simple as doing a story, but remember, stories only get shown to a percentage of your followers. People already have to be following you to watch your stories. Reels are being shown to new people, and that's what we want is to always be bringing in new I star platforms.
So think about it like it's as simple as doing a. You're gonna make it as a real, and Oh, Becca, that makes me so happy to hear you say, because I love that you just told them like how simple it really, really can be and how valuable they really are.
Yeah. And how many people they reach like, Honestly, I was actually joking with some friends because we went out to this Girls shopping evening the other night to buy some gifts and a couple of them were like, we keep seeing your face and we keep seeing your reels. And I was like, I know. And they, they said, do many people watch them? I was like, well, sometimes they reach 3000 people. I was like, imagine if I was saying that on a stage to 3000 people.
And they're like, it just blew their mind and it blows my mind. And actually, yeah, it's the way to reach people and my stories never. 3000 people, right?
Please, no mine either. No. I mean, I, I'm lucky if I get, you know, two or 300 views on my stories, which is crazy cuz I have, what, 4,600 followers And I, I get excited when I get 300 views on a story, which is ridiculous. And so this is something I do wanna encourage you guys. A lot of times you'll hear people say like, oh, I got 3000 views on a reel, 4,000 views on a reel. It's okay if a reel only hits 5, 6, 700 views as well.
Because listen, I promise you, there's not a single feed post or story post you've ever made that have seen that many views. And so even when a reel does, Not great. Right? Under a thousand views. I have tons of reels that get under a thousand views. I don't care. I keep making them. I actually just had a client the other day tell me that they found us through reels. They literally were like, we saw your reels, and you kept coming back up and kept coming back up.
So then we started following you, and then we were like, we love this girl. And so we booked you and I. You're kidding me? Like I need you to say that on video for me, . Becca: Yeah, it really does work. And that's interesting as well, talking about views because it does feel like it's a bit random.
That is one of my learnings from the last few weeks, is that sometimes I can give a tip and it can reach 2000 people, and then the next day I'll give a tip and it reaches 200 people and it doesn't seem to be a reason why you know, I would agree with you, and I'd love to tell you, oh, Becca, if you do it this way and you say it this time and you post it this time, it'll totally take off.
But if you even watch some of the Instagram influencers, I, I follow a lot of influencers so that I can take what they're telling people, kind of understand it, use it, and then bring it back to the wedding market in a way that works for us. And it's so funny, everybody's kind of like, Instagram is a total guessing game at this point because they're trying so hard to figure out how to battle TikTok.
You know, they're not TikTok, they're Instagram, and so it changes when I tell you it changes daily, like no one ever knows what's going on. And so what I would tell you is don't get caught up in the views. Don't get caught up in all of the insights post consistently. Just post consistently. If you can do twice a week and you consistently post, I promise you I've seen it. I've had hundreds of students go use my real traffic toolkit.
Dozens and dozens of students in my accelerator that this works for. I'm telling you guys, consistency trumps any algorithm any day. So consistently post, keep showing up, hit the pain points of your engaged couples. You know what they're asking, right? You know what they're asking you talk to them all the time. Um, Just hit their pain points post consistently. I promise you, you will see a return in your business. Yes.
And if I can do it, then you can do it as well. Now, one of the things I've had to get over with my own reels, and I know this is something that people are gonna be struggling with too, is that feeling of perfectionism, having to make it perfect and therefore never, ever posting anything because it's not perfect. Like any tips on how to kind of get over.
You know? Yes. Honestly, the only way I can tell you to get over it is you just have to start doing it because you know it's funny, I. Beg people to go back to the beginning of my Instagram and see my reels because they were so, so cringey and so cringey because I was so uncomfortable on camera and no, people do not believe me now. And I get it. Like I see people that are, you know, doing something I wanna be able to do, and they're like, it wasn't always this way. I'm like, sure it wasn't.
But I genuinely would hyperventilate, like I threw up the first time I did a live, I, I was very nervous to be on camera. But I knew I had to do it. And so it's kind of like, you know, your business finances, right? Like most of us get into the industry because we're great at planning or being a DJ or whatever it is. And then you realize, oh, junk. Like I have to actually know how to do taxes. And business finance, you have to learn it cuz you don't have a choice, right?
You're running a business. It's the same thing with reels. You, you just have to do it. The more you do it, the better you will get at it. Kinda like Becca said when you said your friends were like, oh, I keep seeing you. Honestly, I think that was probably the most uncomfortable part of my journey when I started showing up on reels. My friends would be like, oh, I saw this reel. I was like, Ugh. And so I would freak out and be like, oh, I don't wanna do it, but you know what?
I'm reaching my ideal clients and I know I am. And so you just have to do. It will be awful at first. You will feel ridiculous. You will feel ridiculous. Post it anyway. Post it anyway. And you will keep getting better and you'll get addicted to the numbers. You will. Yeah.
And it is embarrassing when your friends say, Hey, I saw you on the reels, but you just, it's so embarrassing. So let it go. Let it go. And actually, here's another funny story my granddad said to. I just keep wondering what on earth you're talking about. I was like, don't worry, granddad is not for you.
isn't that so funny? And that's the thing is you have to understand like they're not your ideal client. But yes, my father-in-law said the same thing. He was like, I saw you like dancing with a bottle of champagne or something the other day. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is so embarrassing. But I knew that it was reaching the right people and he's just not the right person. And so you kinda have to let that. You're going to get that you guys, but it's okay.
Just keep doing it because it is going to give you the return. I promise you. I wish I could shake people sometimes, like wedding pros and be like, please do this for your business. Please do it. Here's the really cool part, once you start mastering it, I kind of talked about this in the beginning. Every major platform has short form video. Now, you can literally take that same video, put it on TikTok, put it on YouTube shorts, put it on Facebook, put it on Pinterest.
That's, that's a different level. I'm not gonna tell you to do that in the beginning, but it makes, you are now covering every platform and you're getting this juice from every platform. It's crazy what you can do with short form videos, so don't miss this train.
Yeah. And actually for every one embarrassing person saying something, there's hundreds of others who are watching it and actually being helped by it. Your ideal, your ideal client are loving it. And people have said to me, oh, that tip today was really helpful. That really transformed my thinking that really helped me today. And it's those voices you need to listen to, not the ones telling you. What an earth are you doing on Instagram?
That's exactly right.
I love, I love it. Now, Brandy, I want to, encourage the listeners to do a bit of being active, right? And to go out and make their first reel or their next reel. So we've talked about templates. Is there another kind of reel that we can challenge them? Give this one a go this week and then show us what you achieve.
Yes, I would love to challenge your listeners. So I want them to do basically what you just talked about, Becca. Like I just want you to go to good lighting. Okay? So you don't need a ring light, you don't need any fancy equipment. You just need your phone and a window on a, on a sunny day, and you make sure that the light is hitting your face. You want good lighting, you don't wanna be in a dark room, and I want you to just give. Tip, we are in engagement season, you guys.
So this should be really easy. Okay? So like, give one tip on the first thing you need to do when you're engaged, or, a great one too, would be like questions to ask your dj, your florist, your planner, right before you book them. That's a really easy one. Here's three questions to ask before you book your dj, right? Whatever you are. And then you can say, you can check out our website for more information about what we do or whatever, right? I just want you to do a talking.
No more than 15 seconds. Okay, so I'm gonna challenge you to keep it at 15 seconds. Reels allows you to do all the way up to 90 seconds, but talking head videos don't need to be that long. So 15 seconds. Give us one tip and just straight to camera. And if you tag me, I'm at Brandee Gaar and Becca, do you want them to tag you as well? Yeah, tag me as well. Yes, and then I'll share it. I'd love to share it so that you can get even more juice.
And I'd love to, to share and just say, you know, this is a great tip from such and such a company, so please go make a reel. I'm telling you, you will love it once you do it the first time.
Yes, and if you are sat listening to this now and thinking already, oh, I'd love to do that, but I don't think that's for me, then I wanna challenge you. Take a step out of your comfort zone, give it a try, and do tag us so that we can see it, because we would both love to celebrate you and say, yes, you did a good job. Keep it going. That's right. Brandee you have given us so many great tips on reels. I, for one, am sold.
As I said, I've been working on it since we spoke last and I'm definitely gonna keep on doing that. Before we finish the conversation though, I. End with the same question on my podcast, which is this. What's the one thing you wish you'd known sooner in your own business?
I think it just goes back to my kind of origin story, which is I wish I would've understood how to build a business, like a business from the beginning. You know, like I wish I would've understood just. How to build a business strategically right from the beginning. So I could have saved myself a lot of heartache, but you know, I live and learn, right?
So I, I definitely feel like that's something I wish I would've known sooner was your business needs to be able to operate without you being involved. In it on a daily basis.
Yeah, a hundred percent. Brandee, it's been such a pleasure to talk to you. Hopefully all the text work this time and everyone's gonna be able to hear this marvelous episode. Now, I'll make sure that I share your Instagram links in the show notes, but if people wanna learn more about reels or. Have some more help. Is there anywhere specifically where they should be going?
Yes, absolutely. If you head over to brandeegaar.com/reels, you can actually grab a freebie that I have for you guys. It's a hundred reels ideas for Wedding Pros, so it's specifically for wedding pros. You can go through the entire document, it'll help you get your creative juices flowing. There's also some tips in there on making great reels, and so I'd love for you guys to go grab that. It's totally free. Just brandeegaar.com/reels.
Amazing. Everyone go download that resource. It's gonna be so helpful for you, and that's gonna help you decide on what reels to make. And don't forget to tag us in them. Brandy, thank you for your time and when those fireworks go off tonight, think of me.
I don't. I definitely will
take care and we'll seek soon.
Thanks Becca.
I absolutely love that conversation with Brandy. If you are not yet making reels consistently, take her advice and go get them. I'll be back next week. I'll see you then.