I was recently a guest on The Venue RX Podcast with Jonathan Aymin, and I have to be honest, I went in expecting a pretty standard conversation and walked out feeling like I’d just had one of the best industry conversations I’ve had in years.
Jonathan has this gift for pulling opinions out of you that you didn’t even know you had. The conversation ranged way further than I expected, and I loved every minute of it.
A few things that came up that I think are worth your time:
Mediocre venue or crappy marketing — which would I choose?
Jonathan asked me point blank: if a venue has to have a weakness, is it better to have a so-so physical space or a broken sales and marketing process? My answer surprised even me a little. Give me the mediocre venue every time. Because you can hire, train, and market your way to the right couples. It is genuinely harder to fix a bad sales process than it is to make peace with a less-than-perfect building.
I got a little bit vulnerable – and kinda personal.
On this episode, I admitted something true: I’m probably a little annoying to be married to. I love to work. I’m always chasing 1% better. And Johnnie, my husband, has been working with that tendency of mine for 25 years. I said it as a joke, but I meant it. If you’re a venue owner running a business you’re obsessed with, you know the feeling. The very thing that makes you great at this is the same thing that makes you a lot to live with. Jonathan and I got honest about what that actually looks like in the day-to-day.
The North Star question.
Jonathan asked me what parting advice I’d give a venue owner who’s stuck. My answer was this: What’s the result I’m actually looking for? It sounds obvious. After 30 years, I promise you it isn’t. Every hard decision gets easier when you start there.
TO-DO FOR YOU:
Listen while you’re doing something else. It’s that kind of conversation. You’ll want to take notes, but you don’t have to.
