Speak to your own audience. So whether that be the channels that you're using, Instagram, TikTok, your website. If you have a newsletter, try and understand the mixture of people who already follow you and engage in you, because I think you may be surprised with what you find. I'm Becca Poutney, 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 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 Anshika Arora, founder of Eternity.
Eternity is a planning tool designed to make wedding planning simpler and it's been created with a multicultural lens. As a specialist in South Asian and fusion weddings, Anshika is helping bring more understanding to the ways wedding planning differs across cultures. We first met at a fam trip that we were both attending and I knew you would all benefit a lot from all of her insights. And Sheikha, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me, Becca. I'm so excited to be on it.
Thank you for coming. Now we actually met on this fam trip ages ago and I've had you on a list to get you on this podcast forever. And then you came along to my event in London and I'm so thankful you did because it actually made me get on and sort out you coming on here. So thank you for coming to my London event so that we could finally get you on the podcast. Absolutely. It was great. Now I love that event and then I've loved buying your book after that.
There's just been so much that we've both done since we first met and it's great to get the chance to chat about it. Yeah, absolutely. As we've got lots of exciting things to talk about and lots of things that we're going to be collaborating on as well going forward. So before we get there, let's start by explaining how you got to this point. I always find it interesting to find out how people ended up in this crazy world that is the wedding industry.
So what was your background and how did you end up in weddings? So my background is not related to weddings at all. I started in finance as soon as I graduated from university. I studied business management, so always knew all right. At some point, I might want to go into a business of my own. And then ended up in finance. I was in banking for about two and a half years, which was really exciting. But then I knew I wanted a change.
For me, it was around the time of COVID and I think everyone of tried to take a look at the different opportunities that they had out there and to see if they wanted to change career paths at that point. And so I fit into that circle as well. Alongside that, my sister was getting married at the same time, and it was through her wedding. She was the first generation in our family to get married in the uk.
And it was through that wedding that I found there were a couple of different nuances in the South Asian spirit, which made it really prominent that South Asian and multicultural ethnic minority weddings aren't digitized in the same way as Caucasian weddings. And that was really how I got into the space. It was through her wedding. Wow, okay. Often it's for our own weddings. For you, it was through your sister's wedding and seeing the challenges. So how did you actually get started then?
What did you do? So you saw that there was a gap in the market and you realized you wanted a career change. What were the next steps? Yeah. So for me, I tried to visualize exactly what it is that I wanted. And for me, I was very clear that I wanted One Stop Shop, an online place where you can plan your South Asian wedding. So that was the main culture that we covered at the time. We built it up as a online directory, as a blog, and with a handful of digital planning tools.
So that was step one that got us into it. And for me, I was bootstrapping the business through my salary in finance. So it was just me working on it up until the point that we launched. We launched and did our launch at one of the largest Asian wedding exhibitions at the time, in February 2022. So that was at Grosvenor House. It was Asian a bridal show, which was great. And then about two months later, I resigned and took the business full time because I could see the growing demand for it.
I saw some suppliers seeing the need to digitize themselves, because at the moment, they were mainly working through offline channels, whether that be exhibitions or print magazines, to spread the word. And then on the flip side, couples were really liking the fact that there was an online directory. So to see both suppliers and couples coming together and really see that growing demand, that's what kind of catalyzed me into taking it full time. Amazing.
So you saw this Huge gap in the market and you decided to go for it, which is so brave of you. So congratulations, because I know it's, it's not an easy thing to do. Now just talk to us a little bit then about this South Asian wedding industry. Part of the market that you're talking about. What is the opportunity here, particularly here in the uk, Is it a big piece of the market? Tell us a bit more about that.
Yeah. So according to the facts, figures and stats that we've been able to find, I think, Becca, you would know better than anyone else. Finding stats for the wedding industry can be quite tricky. There's no real sick codes which make it easy for you to measure it. But based on the stats that exist, we're told that the UK wedding industry is about 14.7 billion pounds of that. The South Asian side of weddings is meant to be around 4 to 5 million, so almost making up a third of the industry.
So it's very large. And I think that probably comes down to the value of the weddings being so high. But it was for me, it was really when I saw those stats and saw that we make up about a third of the wedding revenue contribution in the UK that I realized we're not digitized at all. And so now is the right time to bring this model to life. Amazing. So it's not a small opportunity at all. It's huge. A huge sector of the market.
But obviously through the experience of your sister getting married, you realize there was some gaps, some things that weren't quite as helpful as they could have been. So you talk about it not being digitized. Explain that to us in more detail. What do you mean by that? Yeah, so that, and it is exactly what you said. There's so many nuances in the Asian wedding space.
For anyone who's attended a wedding of a different culture, or whether that be a South Asian one in particular, you would have seen there's lots of different events. I think multi day events have always been a thing on the South Asian side and we're seeing them growing on the Caucasian side, which is great. As well as guest list numbers, the specific rituals that take place.
There's so many things and when I say that it's not digitized, there just isn't enough information out there as well as availability of finding your vendors. So from an information point of view, we have something called, for example the Haldi ceremony, which is the turmeric paste which you might see, which is often put on both partners as a pre wedding celebration. It's meant to be before an event, to calm them down, bring them good luck. And that's a really exciting one.
But if you were to look online, so many couples struggle to find what needs to go in that turmeric paste. And so it's little things like that where from the smallest of elements of a wedding to the largest of elements of. Okay, what kind of venues even cater to Asian weddings? For my capacity, there's very little for you to be able to find online. And so for us, it was really important to bridge the gap from a knowledge piece as well as from a vendor piece.
So at the time that I started, there wasn't actually anything online which housed all of these different suppliers under one roof, where you could literally go filter according to your location and the category of supplier and then see South Asian specific suppliers. So that's where we've been a real value add for couples. And then of course it's another distribution channel for the suppliers. And it's just absolutely blows my mind really that there isn't that much information out there.
Because you see in other parts of the wedding industry, I feel like content is just overwhelming. I mean, if you see another blog about how to plan your wedding in the Caucasian market, I mean there's hundreds and thousands of them. So the fact that you can't even find this information online or couldn't is just absolutely crazy. It shows what an opportunity there was there for you.
Now talk to me about your sister's wedding then, because I think it's interesting to hear real stories about how people are planning their weddings. So for your sister, she was planning a multi day wedding, was she? And how did she go about finding her venue, finding her food, finding her suppliers? Yeah, it was a multi day wedding and actually it was also a two different cultures. So whilst it was a Hindu ceremony, we are Punjabi as a family and her partner is Sri Lankan.
And so there were a lot of different traditions. There were also traditions that overlapped, but I think that also plays a part as to why there was such a need for a platform like this, because we actually didn't know some of the rituals that they do or why they do them. So for example, in the South Asian culture you have something called a mangaltutra, which is a necklace that's often worn and it symbolizes you now being married.
The way that that's done on the Punjabi side of things is very different to the Sri Lankan side of things. So even though you have the same object and you have similar meaning behind it, the process of actually Doing that is completely different. So it was things like that where one, there was a bit more of a profound need to be able to Google it and search online.
And actually secondary to that, it's also the ele of when you're planning a wedding, which is for the diaspora, so South Asian wedding, but taking place outside of South Asia, things are done very differently. And that's something that we found with my sister, is that you took the tradition and the culture, but then you wanted to make it your own.
And I think that's something that the community in the UK in particular, they really resonate with each other when they're all doing the traditions a little bit differently and evolving them in a way that they can make them their own. And especially if you've grown up, seen Caucasian weddings happen in a certain place, you want to fuse elements of both of those together. So that's why for us, that was really important.
The way that she really started her wedding planning was caterer first, which I think does differ from a lot of other weddings. I think in the South Asian space, that's very common. We were really lucky that we know her caterers very well. And so they were amazing and incredibly helpful throughout the process, whether that be helping us find different suppliers or helping us understand our itinerary for the day.
And it was through that, that process that I realized not everyone is as blessed to have people like that who are so embedded into the wedding industry, who can then be there for you on your big day. And so there is just a big knowledge gap and a lot of opacity in the industry, I think. So the caterer first thing is definitely very, very different to how often things work here in the uk. So what are some of the other challenges?
Because I imagine that that limits the venue choice, for example, because there are a lot of venues here in the UK that will. So you can only use their own in house caterers. So that's difficult if you want to choose the caterer first. So what are some of the challenges you come up against in that part of the market when it comes to actually getting married here in the uk? Yeah, I think that's probably one of them.
Specifically because your venue is your first thing and, and you often have an idea of the kind of venue you want to get married at before you think of the kind of food you want at your wedding? I think so. It's been. That's definitely one of the challenges, but I will say that I've seen that changing a lot more and more wedding venues that I've spoken to recently now do offer you the option to have outside and external catering, which is great.
I guess some of the other challenges come down to health and safety, making sure that your venue actually knows what your regulations can you have. If you're having a mandap ceremony, can you have a fire in the specific venue or what kind of ventilation do they need? So I think it's different nuances like that, but again, seeing it changing, which is great.
Something which I think is a bit of a challenge, but not always a challenge is when you have fusion weddings and you're trying to bring suppliers together from different backgrounds. And I think it's always really interesting because I'll speak to suppliers of all backgrounds and they'll often say that, oh, I don't. I want to ask this question and understand it more about the culture, but I don't want to say the wrong thing.
And so I think there's still a lot in that education piece where it's great that everyone's so mindful in trying to understand different cultures, but for us, as a platform, that's something that's really important to us, is to break them down as easy as possible for everyone to understand it, but then also understand that you can't have a cookie cutter approach to every wedding.
So if you're a Caucasian supplier who's doing an Indian wedding this week and then another one in a few weeks time, they could look completely different. And so it's really important as suppliers and as part of the industry to take time to really understand what the event is for the two people who are getting married.
Yeah, I think it's really important it's that couple first thing, because actually every couple is going to be different, whether they're Caucasian, whether they're South Asian, whether they're any other culture or fusion, their family situation, their beliefs, everything is going to be very different. And so whoever they are, we ought to be taking them on a case by case basis. I think that also plays into this conversation.
And I know I've talked to you about this before, but quite often I hear people saying, particularly venues, oh, I want to move into more of a multicultural space. I want to attract different parts of the market and they kind of lump it all together as this one big thing. How should we be talking about this stuff? How should we be talking about it in our marketing? Yeah, absolutely. I think with marketing, one of the most important things is imagery.
I think we live in a generation where everyone is extremely visual. I know I definitely am and especially with social media, that is the first thing you see. So before you even read the word multicultural on someone's website, you look at their imagery to see if it's somewhere where you can visualize yourself getting married.
And it's very natural that if you are having a Asian wedding or a Chinese wedding, if you can see in their marketing that they've got a couple from that specific background, or even one individual in that couple from that background, you're automatically more drawn to it. And I think that's something which suppliers should increasingly be more and more mindful of, especially if it's a space that they want to go into, that your imagery is going to be the most important thing first.
Secondary to that, I would say it's the network. We are a relationship based industry and I think really trying to speak to and know and hear from as many suppliers who operate in that space, you'll learn so much more. So I know that even through our conversations, I've learned so much about your space and you've learned so much about my space, even within just an hour or half an hour. Zoom call.
And so I think that's something which is definitely sometimes overlooked because naturally we're also busy in our work, whether it be through wedding season. Once wedding season finishes, we're in inquiry season. But I think it's really important to take that time out, especially if you want to intention enter a specific culture.
They've had certain ways of doing things all along, and whilst they're evolving, it will always be really beneficial for you to at least know a couple of people within that industry and at least rely on them to say, oh, by the way, we have a couple coming in, they're of this background. Do you mind if I just ask you a few questions? Because I think that will help you get so much further as well.
And do you think there is an opportunity, particularly for perhaps Caucasian suppliers to move into more of that space? Because I think sometimes there's this feeling like, oh, I'd love to do more weddings in the South Asian market, but they'll only ever want to work with other South Asian wedding professionals. Or do you think that's changing? Do you think there is an opportunity for everyone to work in each of the different markets?
I personally think that we can cross over and work into different markets. And I think I probably, maybe it comes from my corporate background, but I think there's a lot of benefit in having people with different skill sets entering.
And we always say that if we have grown up and if you have a marketing team who has the same cultural background or is the same age, you're never going to get new ideas and you're going to grow in a very different way versus a marketing team, perhaps, who has different backgrounds or different age groups. And I think the same goes for our industry that there's so much benefit in speaking to people of different backgrounds working together.
Because I think what that will also do is make the weddings look different. If you have different suppliers who bring different experiences to the table and have spoken to a ton of different couples, I think there's so much more to offer. As opposed to maybe each Caucasian wedding looking the same or each Asian wedding looking the same. I think as suppliers, we'd actually enjoy the creativity of it a lot more as well. Yeah, definitely.
And I think education as well is a big piece of it because just like we said, you can't just slap the word multicultural on your website and just start going into that world. Really. There's a place where we should be understanding cultures, understanding what the different ceremonies are. I mean, you talked about them so eloquently and to a lot of people, they probably won't understand any of it. So are there places where people can go for that kind of education?
Do you have that kind of information now on your website? Talk to us more about that. Yeah, absolutely. So we try and promote it as much as we can on our website and we try to have culture specific experts that we work with to make sure that we're not misquoting anything. But like I said, even within a culture, you will have two weddings, could be siblings from the same family and their weddings would look different. So we try to do that as much as possible.
I know that there are tons of different platforms out there and it's great to see platforms at a larger level, whether it be the Knot in the US or Hitch in the uk, Guide to Pride in the uk, who are doing wonderful things at promoting different cultures. So I think that's great and that's growing from an events perspective. I definitely know that there are a lot of people taking, making the effort to run events for specific cultures.
And again, to do that education piece, we're actually part of one, which we're lucky enough to have you speaking at, which is at the start of next year, which is called Revive, and it's an Asian wedding symposium, specifically bringing together those who are either already within the Asian market or want to be in the market. So I think that there's a lot. And even having spoken to some of my counterparts in the wedding industry.
I know that there's a lot more in the pipeline over the next few years for us all to really bring that multicultural, fusion wedding side together. It's exciting. I think it's a huge opportunity. I think there's a lot. I know we've talked about this. With your upcoming event, there's a lot of work to be done in areas where there's wedding pros who aren't digitized, who aren't keeping up with the modern couple. And it's great that we're going to be able to work with them.
But then on the other side, also wedding suppliers that want to break into that market and want to be educated and it could be a good opportunity for them. So just briefly talk to us about that symposium then. Where did the idea come from for it? What's it all about and who's welcome to attend? Absolutely. So it was myself and two others. There's a lady called Shalina who runs Coco Blush events and a lady called Trish who runs Shurney London.
And we were all just sitting one day and talking about how there's so many great events that happen worldwide. Wedding mba, of course, you're very familiar with that, Becca, and they're great, but there's nothing for the Asian side and there's nothing that we see in the uk. And we've always wondered, you know what, we'd love to attend those events, but why don't we try putting on our own one? So that's how Revive came about and with the hopes to grow and evolve much larger.
But we're actually doing our inaugural event on Saturday 25th January 2025 at the Grove here in Watford, Hertfordshire. And the purpose of that event is really to bring together as many people as possible who are either already in the Asian wedding space or wanting to enter the market and just talk about the current state of the industry and how we see it evolving and how do we fit into it.
And really a part in improving that one from an internal standpoint being suppliers, but also from a standpoint of what is it that couples want. And I think it hits perfectly with what you said there, Becca, earlier in this conversation, that you need to put your couples first. And so if we think that the industry needs to evolve, it really should be couple centric and see how they want it to evolve. And I think it's such an interesting time right now with Gen Z couples on the rise.
So we actually have a session called Don't Be Afraid of Gen Z because I think it is the case when suppliers have historically worked with a certain type of couple who works and operates in a certain way. There is a big change coming and so we do need to evolve with that. So the. The entire focus of it is really to be couple centric, couple driven and evolving the wedding industry in a particular way. Fantastic.
And a great opportunity to come and network and to be in that room with all sorts of different suppliers coming together and having those conversations which, as we said earlier, just having a 10, 15, 20 minute conversation, you can learn so much. So if people are interested in coming along to that event in January, it's open to all, isn't it? You don't have to already be working in the Asian wedding market. It could be someone that just wants to learn or understand more about it.
Where's the best place for them to find out more about that? The best place would be to go onto ReviveSymposium.com we also do have an Instagram page which is ReviveEviveWedding Symposium. So those are the two best places for you to find out more. Fantastic. And if anyone can't find that, have a look in the show notes and I'll make sure that I link to that. And it would be great to see some of you coming along to Watford in January.
I'd love to see you there and I think it's a great opportunity and I'm excited to see where the event goes because I think it will continue to grow as we continue to see this need in the market. Now, we talked at the beginning about your journey into the wedding industry and how you saw this gap with eternity. But eternity itself has also evolved over the last year or so, so it's no longer just a place inspiration. Talk to me about where you've taken it now. Absolutely. So we have evolved a lot.
It's been a great learning journey for me. So where we initially started off, probably more as a digital planning destination, we really, within our first year, wanted to gather as much feedback as possible, both from our couples and from our suppliers.
And the big growing need that came out of that was something which helps them manage their administration, I think something as weddings are increasing, they're becoming more lavish with social media, where we're coming up with so many more ideas and working a lot more closely with our suppliers to be creative, which is absolutely amazing. But also that comes with a lot of admin and a lot of back and forth.
And we increasingly found that there was a lot of information exchange that was happening over a combination of email, Instagram and WhatsApp. And for suppliers, that was a bit of a headache to manage because if someone in your team is speaking to a client over WhatsApp, but someone else is looking at an email chain with your client, there's often going to be a mismatch of information there.
And so that was causing a couple of issues and then secondary to that from a couple's point of view, again, if partner A is the one who's got the payment reminder, for example, on their phone, partner B is unaware of it, gets this email, this phone call to say, oh, hey, your payments due. There's just a lot more stress that is being added on. And I think we always describe it as the wedding planning process has probably become a bit inefficient as we've grown.
And whilst we want the industry to keep growing, the way that we see ourselves fitting in is also then making it efficient as you grow both as couples as well as suppliers. So essentially we've launched an event management tool which is collaborative and that's our usp.
It's the fact that you can use our management tool as your own CRM internally for your business, whether that be to manage your clients, track your payment schedules, keep documents, shared notes in it, and then equally, the couple has their own planner on their side where they plan their wedding. Your events all sit in the middle. So you can put information into their.
Couples can put information in there and then at least everything is stored in one place, whether that be your messages, whether that be your quotes or your payment schedules. And something that we're really looking to do is evolve the platform even more to promote the within industry and within supplier messaging. So, for example, if you're working on a wedding and there's 10 to 15 suppliers, you can have a group chat, but then you can also have a breakaway group chat.
If you're a cake artist and you need to speak to the decorator, then if you want the couple to be part of a one to one chat with you, you can create that. So it saves the need for mixing our personal and professional lives via WhatsApp, but equally just makes it really easy if you need to trace back and look back at a conversation and find a missing piece of information. Really interesting.
Now, obviously there's a lot of different planning tools on the market and as I said in the intro, you describe it as having been created through this multicultural lens. So just explain to me a bit more about what makes it more relevant to multicultural couples. Yeah, so for us, we tag our suppliers and our couples with their cultures.
So you can pick as many as you want, but essentially when you log in, you can pick which types of cultures are involved in the wedding, whether that be by a partner, a partner, B, if you're doing a civil wedding, you can select that on the onset. And then on the flip side, suppliers are also tagged to specific cultures. So, for example, most venues are tagged to all of them. If you are a specific type of pianist who only works with certain cultures, then you're tagged to those particular ones.
So what you can do on the platform is you can also filter through to find your specific culture ones equally. That then means that because we know your culture, we make sure that we're sending you relevant information as opposed to you finding out anything and everything. I know that emails, sometimes things just get lost and email spam is really a big thing.
And that doesn't help anyone, it doesn't help us, it doesn't help the couple, and it doesn't help the suppliers who are trying to reach their target audience. So, as a tech platform, we're trying to be as conscious as possible to make sure that it's not like finding a needle in a haystack. It's actually very easy for you to plan your fusion wedding, and for us it's great because we get to be inclusive and hear about all of these incredible different cultures coming together. Amazing.
So if I'm a Caucasian wedding supplier, maybe I make cakes and I think, yeah, I'd love to get involved in this platform. How would I go about deciding which cultures I would be selecting? Am I able to just select all of them? Is there any kind of check on whether I know what I'm talking about? How does that all work? Yeah, so it's a platform really led by you. You can, of course, select all of them, but we always say, be as conscious and intentional as you can be.
Because if you, for example, if you're a cake artist and you say that you do all cultures, and that includes the South Asian side of things, if someone then clicks on your imagery and they can only see Caucasian couples on it, they're going to easily know and maybe be deterred away. It's the same as the website where we said you can't just put the label of multicultural on it and not have the imagery to back it. As a platform, we want to facilitate and be the way for you to open those doors.
But I think as suppliers, there's definitely a lot of work that probably needs to be done on your end to be Marketing towards that specific culture. Anyone that it could be. So it's as easy for a supplier to log on, create their account, they have a profile on the directory and then if they choose to upgrade to the CRM where they can really manage their client conversations, that is always an option for them. Regardless. What we do when a supplier joins is that they have a chat with our team.
We try to understand your purpose of being on the platform and support you as much as possible. So if we can see that your purpose is to enter a specific culture of weddings, we'll see if there's anyone that we can connect you with who can maybe expand your network in that way. Additionally, if we do see feedback that right, you can potentially change your FAQs to show how you, how you help out and cater to that specific culture, then we do that piece to guide you as much as possible.
But ultimately, like I said, it's a platform that facilitates you to promote your business in the way that you think best fits the multicultural space. Amazing. And what's your feedback been from the couple side of it? The couples that have used it so far, how are they finding it? Tell us something about that. Couples have loved it and I'm really glad to hear that. From my point of view, it always makes me really happy when a couple says, I really wish that I'd come across this sooner.
Or I'm so glad that this exists because it's exactly what I'm looking for. We've even had feedback where couples have said, oh, me and my friends are talking about this at the pub because we're all getting married. Often when you are getting married, you know about two to three other people getting married and you're talking about the highs and the lows of it. So they'll say, oh, we were talking about in the pub and we thought that we should come up with an idea like this.
And so it's great to see that someone's already executed it. And I think that is the shift that's coming with generations that we love things being easy, online, efficient. We always say we're a platform built by Gen Z for Gen Z and that's really our usp. Because I, I always look at it and think, right, well, what would I actually want when I'm planning or what would make my best friend's life easier when she's planning her wedding?
And it's great actually because I know a lot of people getting married and so we're always getting real time feedback from them as well. Great. I'm so glad that you're getting such positive feedback. What's next for you then, Anshika? Because you've had all of these big things going on in your business life over the last couple of years. Where do you see things going next? I think for us it's just about spreading the word and evolving the platform as best as possible.
As with any tech platform, you're never going to be in a finished state where you want it to be. We have an entire roadmap built out of features that we want to be enhancing, so that's all in motion. But I think for us it's really important to keep getting that feedback because the more feedback that we get, we'll know that the features that we're building are built for the right user, whether that be from a supplier side or from a couple side.
So anyone who is listening, if you do use the platform, we really, really do value feedback a lot because we want to make sure that the platform is being built in the right way for the wedding industry. That's really how we differentiate differentiating ourselves from other CRMs which are built for kind of blanket small businesses. Because there's a lot of nuances in the wedding industry itself where you might look at another CRM and find it's overly complex.
That's one of the biggest feedback pieces that we've gotten. So we want to make sure that our CRM has all of the relevant pieces for you, markets your business, so helps you connect and manage your business, but does it in a way which is enjoyable as opposed to overwhelming or a headache to set up. Amazing. If people want to find out more about eternity or check it out for themselves. I believe you've got a special code that my listeners can use. We do.
Users can use Becker 15, which will give them 15% off the CRM. That will be. So there's always a 21 day free trial. You can test it out. We want to make sure that you love it, but then make sure that you use the code so that you can get a discount. Amazing. And again, I'll put all of the links to that in the show notes as well.
Now, before I let you go, I would love to just kind of round up all of the things we talked about because we've talked about all sorts of different things and I think there will be people listening who think this is a really interesting, exciting opportunity. I'd love to get more involved in some of these different cultures that are here in the UK in the wedding industry. Can you just give them the pieces of advice that you would give them.
If I am a florist, a caterer, a cake maker, a venue, and I'm sat here listening to this and thinking, I want to do this, I want to understand more, what kind of three things would you advise them to do? To start with, oh, that's a good one.
I think, number one, which is the easiest one, is in your own location, whether that be via Google, Instagram, TikTok, your preferred platform, or even use our platform, just try and find two to three different suppliers of that culture and just connect with them. Even if you don't message them initially, just take a look at the kind of stuff that they're posting, because I think that will do wonders in trying to understand the culture a lot more. That would be number one.
Number two, I would say do your own research online, possibly just even whether that's asking ChatGPT how does the specific ceremony for this run? Because I think you'll learn more. And it's everything that we've said to be able to work in the industry and operate it in the best way for a specific culture, you need that education piece. So that would be number two. Number three, I would actually say speak to your own audience.
So whether that be the channels that you're using, Instagram, TikTok, your website, if you have a newsletter, try and understand the mixture of people who already follow you and engage in you, because I think you may be surprised with what you find. I know that we definitely were when we do those exercises as a business, that you never know how many people of those cultures may already be following you and then ask them for feedback.
Kind of say, well, if you were interested, what drew you to my page to begin with? What kind of work was it that I was doing? Or if there was something that drew you to my page, but then you didn't actually end up booking me, what was the reason? Like, what was maybe the missing piece of my business for your specific culture? So I think those would be my top three pieces of advice. Amazing. Really, really helpful. Thank you so much for your time today.
Now, before I let you go, we always end on this podcast with the same question. So I'm going to pose that to you now. And it's what's one thing you wish you'd known sooner in your own business? One thing I wish I'd known sooner was to gather as much feedback as possible. And I'm sure you hear this one many times before for us, we gathered a lot of feedback in year one, but I Don't think we did in month one.
And I think that could have really helped us because I always believe in the philosophy that you should build a product which has demand as opposed to building a product that you think needs to be out there. Or you try and create demand. Don't make a circle fit a square. It's just not going to work. It's always best to keep talking and keep engaging as much as possible. So whether that be feedback from your friends, from your family, from your first client, let them be harsh on you.
And I think that's all about being a business owner, right? It's about having that thick skin and evolving your product. Because is, I guess everyone would know that no matter what stage of business you're in, whether you're two years in or 20 years in, your business will change year on year. And the quicker that I wish I got used to that, the better it would have been. Fantastic advice. And Sheikha, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you for being here and I cannot wait to see you in January at your symposium. Thank you so much for having me, Becca. And I'm so, so excited to have you. I know that you are going to be an incredible value add to everyone. Thank you. And I can't wait to see you there. I'll see you soon. Take care. Bye. What a great conversation.
I really hope that's piqued your interest and helps you understand a little bit more about how there's so many different cultures here in the UK and how we can engage with them as part of our wedding businesses. If it's something you're more interested in, I really recommend you try and get along to that event in Watford. Go to the Show Notes for more information, but I think that's a great starting place for you to understand, educate yourself and to network with other professionals.
Else. I'll see you next time.