OC Brides Networking Mixer July 2010 at Muzeo

What can I say? The frogs were the cutest little things. A huge "thanks" goes out to the Muzeo Museum in Anaheim for letting us all view the Celebration of colors Frog exhibit and the Delta Blues exhibit during our mixer. I know I put a lot of the frogs in this video but I couldn't resist. Dave Greenwood of Dijital Engagement did an awesome job as the DJ. I know he spent hours researching just what kind of Blues the Delta Blues is and downloaded the perfect music for the occasion! Thanks so much Dave! Tony of Tony Perez Photography took these awesome pics ... thank you Tony!

This location is something you MUST see. They have so many outdoor areas for events and they even have an outdoor Chapel. Most people don't know all this is included in this location. Patricia Davis gave our guests a nice tour. If you want to know how unique it really is as someone you know that attended. This location is truly a hidden gem. Check them out!!

Need motivation! Have to get the new accounting system set up!!

Cooperative Competition

by Rick Brewer -- Author  "How to Get More Brides"

Cooperating with the competition? What a Weird idea. In the 90’s the mantra was “crush your competition” or even “eliminate or annihilate your completion”. Fact is, that many companies have not only worked this process, but they have thrived because of it. In the Central Florida Area, where I live, (Orange, Seminole, Osceola and southern Lake County) there are 30,000 +/-marriage licenses issued each year. If half of those Brides booked your product or service, you would be able to handle all of them, let alone most of them. Very few could handle 1% (150 weddings). That being the case, you will always have competition. Good Competition is not a problem. 

When a Bride has a positive experience with one of your competitors, it lifts your industry. When they have a bad experience, that vendor needs to change very quickly or simply get out of the wedding business. The industry associations such as for photographers, videographers, wedding planners and more are designed to raise the bar to insure Great service is offered to all Bridal couples. 

One of the key components to cooperative competition is to find like thinking vendors in your Industry. Let’s take a photographer. Many photographers are owner/operators and are limited to what they can book. If they book one event a week, they are doing a lot (considering the back end time involved). Based upon that, they may have several brides asking for the same Saturday. Once they have that Saturday booked, it behooves them to send that Bride in a good direction towards someone they know and trust will do a great job. This will do two things: 

1.  Help a friend who may return the favor 
2.  Protect that Bride from A hobbyist who is only interested in her money, not a performing a great service. 

A Good adage to live by: “all things being equal, people do business with people they like and trust. All things not being equal, people still do business with People they like and trust” Get to know people who will like and trust you and search for those you can like and trust. It will do wonders for your business, and it never hurts to have a few more friends. 
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You can see Rick Brewer in an all day seminar, live, at the Crowne Plaza Anaheim September 14th.  Contact Cindy Lieber  for more info or stay tuned for an updated post!