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The stories from the places where people gather.
Dana Kadwell (01:27)
And today we are joined with Daniela Justice and Whitney Hodges, who are the co-founders of LeadLock, a lead management software designed to help wedding venues and wedding professionals turn more inquiries into booked appointments. Whitney brings a background in events, sales, and operations, while Daniela has spent over a decade supporting small businesses with branding, growth, systems, and marketing. The two met inside a mastermind program of Facebook ads, quickly realizing they shared a similar approach to business strategy and long-term thinking.
they hit it off immediately and began collaborating. The partnership took shape after signing their first venue client, a moment that sparked the creation of wedding industry ads and eventually the systems behind LeadLock. Today, Danielle and Whitney continue to build LeadLock and their agencies side by side, combining strategy, technology, and real world experience to support business owners and contribute meaningfully to the wedding industry and the community they serve. Welcome to the show, Danielle. Whitney's so excited to have you guys.
Daniela Justus (02:20)
Thank you so much for having us. We're excited to be here.
Whitney (02:24)
Good to see you, Dana. Thanks for having
Dana Kadwell (02:26)
Yeah, yeah. So a little bit background how we connected. actually didn't even know how we got connected initially. do you remember? Oh, that's right. Okay.
Whitney (02:34)
It was through Emily Foster. I just remembered the other day because I was on a
call with her and I was like, you know, just talking about how wonderful the conference was. And she's like, Whitney, I introduced you to Dana. Remember? I was like, Oh, now I
Dana Kadwell (02:43)
Yeah.
Yeah, I was thinking about that the other day and I was like, how do I even know, like get to meet Whitney? Like it was such a random connection, but yeah, that's totally true. Yeah. So, and you came to the, the Venu master class in Houston this past January. So thanks for being there. It was, uh, yeah, it was always, uh, exceeds my expectations. I always walk into a little anxious, but it up being fine in the
Whitney (03:01)
Absolutely.
You did a great job. It was really wonderful. And we got to meet so many amazing venue owners and it was nice that it was right here in Texas. So just a few hours away from me. Can't wait for next
Dana Kadwell (03:17)
yeah.
Yeah, that was super convenient for you obviously. Well, I would love to, before we kind of get into the meat of today's episode, love to learn a little bit more about you guys, kind of how, I know the story talks a little bit about how you guys met, but what really prompted the start of Lead
Whitney (03:23)
Yes.
Daniela Justus (03:39)
That's a great question. And I would say it was really an evolution more than it was just like this one moment where we realized that something needed to happen structurally. It was more that we had been working with clients and we started seeing some patterns and noticing some disconnects and trying to reflect on the different things that we were doing to sort of bridge the gap to help our clients on a case by case basis. And we started to see that
really what a lot of the businesses were lacking were a way to receive those leads and a system for how to then take them to that next step with more clarity. And so we started building it and we've worked with so many different softwares over the years, so many different softwares and they change really fast and especially coming from the advertising space.
Dana Kadwell (04:28)
Yeah.
Daniela Justus (04:36)
What we saw was the biggest challenge really had to do with lacking attribution data or having all of these disconnected systems that aren't really speaking with each other and then a lot of manual tracking in order to then see the full picture of this lead pipeline and how people are converting from one stage to the next. When a business, especially a venue, is really wanting to grow and to grow on
you really have to start paying attention to those numbers and that's really what's going to help you dial in, focus on the right things and then start to really see those results compound on the back end. And so long story short, we started working with GHL, Go High Level, and we found that it really did have the best data.
Dana Kadwell (05:30)
Mm-hmm.
Daniela Justus (05:31)
in terms of being able to connect all of these different pieces and to really bridge the gap between the lead process and the actual client management system. They're two different things. And so we're not replacing your CRM. It's just we're bridging the gap between the marketing and then that sales conversation and creating opportunities to track and refine.
Dana Kadwell (05:43)
Yeah.
Yeah. And then I show, yeah.
Daniela Justus (05:54)
In a nutshell, right? That's so wordy. But it doesn't,
you know, it's not one of those things that happens overnight. It really truly was an evolution and we were responding to the real problems that we were seeing our clients having.
Dana Kadwell (06:07)
Yeah, I can really appreciate that because I too have been, I've worked with so many different CRMs and, and even just like doing the conference, like I have CRM people like our CRM sponsors and whatnot. And, know, and clients all the time last like, well, who do you recommend? Who do you use? And like, I can't, I actually cannot answer that question for you because it depends on what do you, how do you want to use your CRM? What are the goals you have for it? But there is not a single one and there never will be a single one that we call the silver bullet that like does all of the things.
And going into a multi-venue ownership kind of role now, I've realized that there is a very big difference between there's some CRMs that handle the client management, like booking and posts like beautifully, like, my gosh, there's so much resources. It's amazing. It's exactly what I want. It works. But then you don't have the same support on the inquiry side or it's vice versa. So I love that you guys are kind of creating like a niche product specifically.
for this problem and not trying to like put it all into one
Whitney (07:08)
Yeah, when I think when we really reflect back to how things started with lead block, you know, it was with some of our initial venue clients who we were running Google ads and meta ads for. And the most immediate need that we identified was that if they had a landing page specific for their ads traffic, as opposed to just sending all of this traffic to their website.
that they would see better conversions. They would see more inquiries. So that ended up being kind of like the very first piece of it, right? Custom long form landing pages, sales pages, essentially to get more inquiries and get more tours booked. And then beyond that, we're like, well, inside the system, we can also automatically respond to all of these inquiries, not only with email, but with text also.
So like, let's layer that in. so over time, like we built upon it and built upon it, right? So now, you know, there are email nurture sequences for every lead that comes in. There are nurture sequences leading up to every tour that's going to come through the door. Post tour sequences so that you can stay top of mind after the tour actually happens. All of these things that like are so amazing and they're supporting the personal touch points throughout the sales journey.
And things honestly that like 15 years ago when I was managing managing a wedding venue, like I probably couldn't even wrap my head around like, this is something that exists, right? Because I was just used to like copying, pasting template emails, like editing them each time, keeping track of everything inside of my little spreadsheet sort of thing, you know.
Dana Kadwell (08:49)
Yeah. Stretchy. Yeah.
No, I totally understand that. I think that's super interesting because, and I'd love for you to talk, guys talk about maybe your opinion on, when I hear people talk about things, like when they talk about funnels and automations, there's this fear that if they're automating, it becomes less personal. And like being, and I know you guys being in like the ad space.
there is definitely, and you know, like the, generation is all about connection and not feeling like a number. So how do you guys in like combat that kind of fear of everything being so automated that it doesn't, you're kind of losing that personal touch or do you feel like you lose it at all actually?
Daniela Justus (09:31)
So it's interesting that you, that's definitely something that comes up with our clients is that they don't want to completely replace the personal touch in their sales process. And that's important. And so what we like to say is that these automations and these workflows, they don't replace the personal touch, they support it. They give the sort of immediacy of the information that's being requested and that's really in line with what.
the expectation of the market is today is that they want to be able to get the information that they're asking for right away. But then you follow up with them. so not only is it the automations that we set up aren't only to send more information to the leads, we're also sending notifications to the clients, letting them know, hey, this email has been sent to the lead.
But this was their particular question. Now take the next step to sort of follow up with them when you have time, when you're done with the event that you're running right now, right? So it's a way that you can kind of support the leads on their timeline, but then also supplement that with your personal touch on your own timeline. So it's not that the automations replace the personal touch in the sales process at all. It's just that they kind of help you give the client the immediate
information that they need in a really timely way with those automations, but then having the ability to follow up and stay top of mind are built in on the back end. And I think as consumers, you know, to your point, consumers are really sophisticated these days. They understand what an automated marketing sequence is a lot of the time. And that's not a bad thing, right? Like it gives them the ability to
Dana Kadwell (11:12)
Mm-hmm.
Daniela Justus (11:19)
access more information about you in a way that's easier for them to find when they're ready to, whether it's in their inbox or with retargeting campaigns, it helps the businesses stay top of mind. And people will move through when they're ready. And so we just want to make sure that they can consistently see that that door is open for them.
Dana Kadwell (11:36)
Yeah, I think that's super interesting because and I totally agree with that and I have a lot of people say that and I think that you see it probably more in like my generation and maybe the older generation like you know where like I'm you know like a elder millennial or whatever that the only thing we ever yeah so the only thing we don't like we just don't have like we have life before internet and life before like just having
Daniela Justus (11:53)
Same.
Whitney (11:55)
you
Dana Kadwell (12:02)
information at your fingertips where you had to like literally go into a phone book and make a phone call and do all the things, right? But then we also had life after that. And so you understand kind of, oh, wow, it's so nice, like being able to access information right then and there. But I always tell people that when you're talking about leads, like, yes, people want that personal touch, but that's not what they're looking for when they're reaching out to you necessarily right away. Like there is a certain point in the sales process when they want that and they need that and you need to create that.
But in the very beginning, you're exactly to your point. They're just looking for information. They're just trying to decide, does it check these two boxes that I need checked before I can go any further? Because they don't wanna waste their time and they don't wanna waste your time. They don't wanna talk to you if they don't have to. They're adverse to the telephone in general. Please, please don't talk to me. Yeah, yeah, so think that's a really good point.
Daniela Justus (12:51)
Spot on.
Whitney (12:56)
Yeah, exactly. And especially when you're dealing with a really high volume of leads, like so many venues are if they're in popular markets, if they're running ads, if they have a lot of leads that are coming in, you know, realistically, they're not going to be able to book all the leads that come in. All of the leads that come in are not going to be a right fit. Venues are the first stop, right? On the wedding planning journey, people are reaching out to a lot and just looking for.
that information. And so if it's up to you to manually be like responding and crafting personalized, you know, touch points at that initial stage for everyone, like it's going to get pretty exhausting, right? Unless you have like this huge full blown sales team. So by having a system in place where you know, not only are they going to get
automated initial response, but they're also going to get a sequence of marketing emails that's frequently following up with them. It really alleviates so much in terms of your mental load of not feeling like you know there's potentially money being left on the table or you know I haven't been following up enough. Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't also be personally reaching out be personally following up.
But when you have a system in place like this, it can give you the ability to potentially be a little bit more discerning, right? Of really seeing the leads that are coming through and like, ooh, like these ones look really good. These are the ones where I need to like spend my time or energy picking up the phone or sending a text or sending a personalized email because they've responded back and are asking questions and are engaged.
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Dana Kadwell (15:38)
So do you feel like that's like one of the biggest challenge points that you see when you're talking to, I mean, I'm sure any vendor, but let's talk about venue specifically. It's really the time that it takes to reply to leads. And even you were saying before, like even if you had a big sales team, even if you had a big sales team, who has the time to reply to, if you're a high volume of wedding venue, like for us, like we get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of leads a month, you know, like who has the time to sift through that and to do that?
So do you feel like that's one of the biggest challenge points that you see with venues?
Whitney (16:12)
It's definitely a huge area of opportunity, right? Cause if it were up to you to be just manually reaching out and reaching out and following up and following up, it wouldn't get done in the manner that it really should, right? Or for the timeline that it really should, because you know, beyond like an initial nurture sequence, when a lead first comes in, there's still the opportunity to send out marketing emails 30 days later, 60 days later, 90 days later. We know that it's taking couples, you know, more time these days.
to make their decisions or even make a decision after a tour happens, right? And today's couples, like they do understand good marketing. To Danielle's point earlier, they're gonna understand the difference between a marketing email versus an email that's coming personally from you as the venue owner or from someone on your sales And yes, a marketing email can feel less.
personal than a personal email, but that's that's kind of the point, right? And when a venue or any business is able to show their potential clientele that they have their stuff together in terms of their marketing, that builds trust, right? Somebody is able to see, they really are investing in their marketing. They're good marketers. They're probably going to be good at hosting my wedding and my event as well, you
Dana Kadwell (17:23)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that's a really good point. I was on a podcast the other day actually, we were talking about different advertising, everyone's like, oh, where did you get, where did you...
where'd you find me at? And it's hard for them to actually pinpoint it because they'll see you on a Google ad, they'll see you on a Facebook ad, they'll see you on Instagram, they'll see you on wedding pro, they'll see you here. And then it just happens to be that maybe the 10th time they saw you, they finally clicked that button and it says they got it from this, but it was all put together and it creates validity to that person.
and I don't think I, I don't think I realized that when I first started in the venue space that that's something that's so important is to create the validity of your business.
Daniela Justus (18:10)
Yeah, it's exactly to your point. It's all really tied together through having that strong online presence that's in multiple places on multiple channels and having consistency around your branding and your messaging and all of those places too. It just further builds trust. It's funny because we've even had some clients or leads that we've had conversations with where they're hesitant to run ads because they don't want to make it look like their business needs a
help or that they think the impression that it's giving is like if I'm running ads it means I'm struggling and we're like it's the opposite actually it shows that you have so much authority that you're established enough to have this level of marketing in your business that you're you know investing.
Dana Kadwell (18:38)
Interesting. Yeah. no. Yeah. Yep.
Daniela Justus (18:51)
actively in your growth. It's a sign of success actually. And it builds a lot of trust with your clients when they, you know, do an organic search for example and they see you pop up on the map in the search results, your website's beautiful, it says the same thing, cool, now they're on your socials and to your point they don't really know where it is that they decided to book you from but all of those different touch points have been equally important.
Dana Kadwell (19:14)
That's so interesting. I think that it comes from this misconception. It's probably some like old, like business book or something that there's these people like, Oh, I don't need to advertise. Like I have enough referrals. I have enough this, but you're talking about an industry that has like repeat business. Like I was, we were talking to somebody who owns a dental practice and you look, when you're buying, so when you're buying a business, right, there's like, you have the, the amount that the business
Daniela Justus (19:25)
right.
Dana Kadwell (19:39)
the profits, whatever. And then there's like this factor that you can multiply it by, right? And the factor is determined by, does their growth opportunities? Is it, how much are you spending on marketing? Is it like, are you resetting the clock every year? Like meaning that you don't have any repeat clients. And so for the wedding industry, that marker is between three and four because you are setting the clock every year. You very rarely have repeat clients. You have a couple corporate, yes, but most of the time you are like out there drumming up business.
all day, every day, you can never stop. Whereas when you're talking to a dental practice, like that factor is like 12 or 15 because they have repeat people that come back two times a year for 20 years. And so it's a completely different thing. So yes, for a dental practice, maybe who's running ads, you're like, huh, it's concerning. They don't have enough like stable clients or whatever the case may be. It's like they're not getting that referral business, but for a wedding company or industry or anyone who's in the wedding industry.
That is necessary because we are not guaranteed client to client year to year. Like it is like you are having to hit the pavement like all day, every day. There is no set it and forget it. And I think, you know, people who aren't in the industry who maybe just opened a business, they don't realize that the aspect of
Whitney (20:58)
Definitely. Yeah. mean, referrals are always going to be wonderful, right? And are going to be your strongest leads, but really the reality in order to run a successful venue is you have to have a constant flow of leads and it has to be a high volume of leads as well to really be able to book out your calendar. And so with that, with that constant flow and with that high volume, there have to be systems in place, not only to support it and to manage it,
Dana Kadwell (21:01)
Sure.
Whitney (21:27)
but so that you also can be measuring the data and digging into that data, figuring out the story that that data is telling you about where the areas of opportunity may be in your marketing or in your sales process, and then being able to respond to it and refine it.
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Dana Kadwell (22:58)
Yeah. So I, you talked a lot, little bit about like how this is, you know, a way to support sales and whatnot and not really meaning to like replace somebody. But I, I super curious if you have somebody that you guys have worked with that maybe it's like an owner operator, right? And as an owner operator, you are wearing a thousand and a half hats. And the scariest thing for you to do is to hire, not because you shouldn't.
that just because it's scary because you have had all the information, you are the face of the company, know, know all the things, right? And then when you hire somebody, it's like, you have to have this, like, you kind of wish you were like connected, like, you know, like they could see inside your brain, like this is you're supposed to do it or whatnot. And I am like a huge SOP process systems person because I believe it's how I can make my team successful. So.
Do you have like a story or an instance where this has actually helped alleviate that pressure from an owner operator because maybe they were able to hire somebody but they still had control of the process?
Whitney (24:00)
Absolutely. Yeah, it's happened a few times, honestly, right? Where we onboard somebody into LeadLock. We've got everything set up for them. We're showing them how to use the system, how to be able to really go in, see their pipeline, work their pipeline, right? Like, you know, manually text leads, email leads, kind of where appropriate. And it's always exciting when, you know, a few months or, you know, a year.
down the line, they reach out and they're like, help me add a new user. I'm hiring somebody to do sales because you know, it's like they've got the support, they've got the infrastructure and now they're ready to pass it on to somebody else. And they feel comfortable doing that because of the oversight that they have from within the system, because of the visibility, If needed, they're able to go in and check what all of their sellers have have been doing.
Dana Kadwell (24:52)
Yeah.
Whitney (24:53)
Read the emails that have been sent out. See the text messages. Know if somebody hasn't been followed up with. Somebody on our team, she just showed one of our clients recently how they can actually pull a report to see the activity of what their sellers are doing manually within the system. So I
First of all, you've got to hire people and trust them and let them do their thing, right? But then also being able to have that kind of security of being able to go into the system if needed and really dig in and make sure that what you have hired them to do is getting done is super
Dana Kadwell (25:19)
Sure.
Yeah.
Daniela Justus (25:33)
Yeah, I would even offer that having the system in place makes it easier to delegate some of those tasks because to your point of having like clearly defined SOPs or just processes that exist and systems to support those processes, it gives you the ability to be really clear and specific around like, this is your responsibility within this role and here's what we expect and here's how it works.
makes it a lot easier, honestly, to train on that position and to delegate those tasks when you have systems behind them to support it.
Dana Kadwell (26:03)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I totally agree. It's one of those things that it's like a light bulb moment when you finally figure it out. Like, and I like there's so many times people talking to like, I know I need to hire a VA or you to hire an admin person to hire this but then like, they hire the person but then they don't even know what that person should be doing because they don't know how to pass off the job or the information
So what are some things that you find people, like what are they doing with Leadblock and maybe like as they're giving it to their teams or whatnot that is really making them the most successful?
Whitney (26:42)
I would say probably the areas where our clients are spending the most of their time and then having team spend the most of their time, you know, if they're selling is in the pipelines area of the platform. So making sure that they're going in there on a daily basis and are really seeing, okay, these are people who have inquired and they haven't done anything else beyond that. These are the people who have inquired, but they've also been responsive. You know, we're emailing and texting back and forth.
These are the people that have a tour coming up. These are the people that have already scheduled a tour. You know, we've sent a contract and so on. Right. So that at a glance, they're really able to see exactly where people are at each stage in the pipeline and have the personal touch points personally be reaching out. Right. So like clicking into each contact, going into the conversations based on what's already been discussed, sending a personal email, sending a personal text message, you know, really kind of
one liners that are just keeping that engagement going and continuing to move them along in the journey. So I would say even just spending like 30 minutes a day truly working your leads the way that you should is huge. Right. And it's hard to do that effectively when you don't have a system that's really clearly laying it all out for
Dana Kadwell (28:04)
was gonna say 30 minutes a day based on what typically is required to run your leads to a system is like a game changer. It allows you to focus more and create more like tour times, be able to spend time and energy on the other things that are gonna be bringing you in more clients, but that's amazing. I think I would like...
I would be amazing. And my salesperson only had to spend like 30 minutes a day on like working through the leads So I would love to hear a little bit, a little fun stuff, like love to talk about the fun side of the industry. Just as you guys have been in it, maybe you have experienced it yourself or you work with clients like,
Whitney (28:28)
Yeah.
Dana Kadwell (28:47)
What is a misconception that you hear all the time, whether it's from clients or whether it's from venue owners or whatnot that just drives you crazy. Doesn't have to do with lead lock, just in general dealing with the wedding world industry.
Daniela Justus (28:58)
Yeah.
I think it's kind of in line with what you were saying. So I'm not from the events or wedding industry. I've been able to tap into it because of my connection with Whitney. And so from an outside perspective, being able to see that,
when we move into a paid traffic.
world when you're really starting to invest in ads or paying for more leads in that way, expecting the leads to perform the same way as a warm referral is one of the biggest misconceptions that we see. Your conversion rates are going to change when you're bringing in cold leads versus when you have a really hot lead from a warm referral where you basically have this trust by proxy from the person who's sending them your way. And that's, again, where all of these additions
Dana Kadwell (29:35)
Yeah.
Sure.
Yep.
Daniela Justus (29:48)
touch points can really help support bridging that trust gap and making sure that these leads that are really coming in cold, that they're getting all of the information, the touch points, the nurturing that they need.
they don't work in isolation and so it's not a quick fix, let's turn this on and then my business will be fixed. There's just so much else that happens behind the scenes and so making sure that everything is really well integrated is so important. But I think that that's probably one of the bigger misconceptions that we see is just this...
Dana Kadwell (30:02)
Yeah.
Daniela Justus (30:22)
not really expecting that the leads will be any different than the ones that they get or that they're used to getting, especially if they're new to sort of a paid traffic situation.
Dana Kadwell (30:32)
Yeah, it's so
interesting. think, I think because like, I think business ownership is so emotional and especially if you are in a place where money is tight. like I was talking to somebody and you know, we were saying how like, you know, investing in advertising, but like, let's say you spend, I don't know, $1,500 a month on a Google ad. If you just book one client, it's worth it. And they're like, well,
but I'll put that client anyways. I was like, no, like you wouldn't book that client anyway. So we're not talking about a client, not that you only have to book one client to make it worth it, that that ad actually generates one client for you. It pays for itself and then some, and you know, it's generating more than that, but like there's just this, it's a, it's a, a a data driven decision as opposed to an emotional decision.
Daniela Justus (31:18)
Mmm.
Dana Kadwell (31:20)
And there's so many times I'm like, okay, let's look at the data. Let's look at the data. Let's look at exactly what it's saying. And this is what it's saying. Like I know you don't like love this like advertiser, but it is literally saying that it has brought you five clients in the past six weeks. Totally worth it. You know? Yeah.
Daniela Justus (31:38)
I think
that that fear is so valid, right? A fear as a business owner in any type of investment that you're making. But we were talking about this before we jumped on, that that fear is natural, but it shouldn't be something that stops you from investing. And there's really no such thing as a bad investment. I mean, there might be one where, through the lens of a monetary return.
Dana Kadwell (32:04)
Sure.
Daniela Justus (32:04)
we can see things break even or maybe not even make money on the other side immediately. But what you get every time is more information, more data, something to respond to, something to help you make better decisions, there are lessons in every investment. And so I think that as business owners, it's so important that we push past that fear and just really try to think through like, what can I gain from this even if it wasn't the outcome that I expected in the first place, right? There's always something hidden that you can gain from it.
Dana Kadwell (32:23)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it's so true. That's
my favorite. I got it from my husband actually, cause he said it to me one time. He said, it's not failure. It's just a data point. And I was like, mm, valid. It's not failure. It's just a data point. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. What about you, Whitney?
Whitney (32:44)
Yeah,
Well, outside of like the advertising piece of it, I think one of the biggest misconceptions I see and, know, it was something that I dealt with way back in the day when I was selling weddings, selling events, is taking a couple's budget, especially when they're at the like venue stage at face value.
Dana Kadwell (32:49)
Yeah.
Daniela Justus (33:07)
Mmm.
Dana Kadwell (33:07)
Mm.
Whitney (33:08)
Yes, we want to make sure that we're pre-qualifying all of our leads, right? And that, you know, we're not spending too much time on those who can't truly, you know, afford our services or afford our venue. But when leads are first coming to us, especially when, you know, they're just searching for the venue, they don't have a good grasp on what their wedding budget should be. Right. So you.
when you're asking for that information upfront, or if somebody, you know, if it's coming up in an email dialogue back and forth or on an initial tour, like you really do have to take that with a grain of salt because you have to educate them and their budget could increase tremendously from what they initially think that it should be, or from what, you know, mom and dad have expressed that it should be when they really start learning throughout this process, how much everything is going to actually cost. mean,
Dana Kadwell (33:49)
Yeah.
Whitney (34:06)
nine times out of 10 when I was at luxury hotels and resorts selling weddings, people would come to us thinking that they had one budget, right? And may spend even like double that because at the end of the day, they just didn't know how much it should actually cost. It wasn't that they didn't have the money to spend, right? They just needed to understand the value of it, how much it's all going to cost and then make a decision sort of based on on that. Right. So
Dana Kadwell (34:17)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Whitney (34:35)
It's something that I continue to see clients come across or will ask a question about potentially a little bit too early in the inquiry journey and then kind of like write somebody off when it's wait, wait, like they just needed a little bit more education and understanding.
Dana Kadwell (34:51)
Yep.
And a lot of times you see that budget and they're not even understanding the question. They're, they might be thinking, this is the budget I have to spend with you, not an overall, even if you're like overall wedding budget or so on and so forth. And that was one of the things that like, like I didn't come from a lot of money. I really came from nothing. And you know, my wedding was like under 20 grand and like 20 years ago, which even at that time was tight and it was quote unquote cheap, right? Um,
But there were so many places I would tour that wouldn't even give you the time of day because you didn't have the number.
so, you know, when I opened my venue for the first time, I was like, that's very important to me is that people realize like they're the one of the things that we are inclusive about is is money is cost. Like, granted, maybe you're not going to be the best fit for a Saturday, prime Saturday. But like I have one, I have a cancellation that is like on super sale to I have Thursdays are like the best day to ever get married. Like everything's like
crazy and expensive and the opportunities are huge. Like you just, you know, there's just so many things that you could do to educate people to help them and, you know, help fill out your calendar, those fringe dates, but then also just to give them the benefit of doubt that they, again, like it's not, it's, it's kind of an ignorance thing. It's the first time they're going through it. They have no idea. They're just throwing out a number that they're like, this sounds good. Like this sounds accurate based on some random, you know, internet article told me that this is the average wedding.
cost in my area and you're like, that's not really the truth. But yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that. That's true. okay. So do you guys have any like crazy like event stories that happened during an event? So maybe Danielle, you don't because you didn't work in the industry, but Whitney, I'm sure you have some working in, events prior to this.
Whitney (36:23)
Exactly.
Definitely. Yeah. So my craziest one didn't necessarily happen at the wedding itself, but it happened leading up to the So I worked at a really beautiful wedding venue on Lake Travis outside of Austin. And we did a really good job there of just having really incredible weddings. at I would say just really great.
price points, right? And so because of that, like, and I say this in the most loving way, like it was a wedding factory of sorts, right? Like we would have multiple weddings every weekend, like Saturday's back to back tours sort of things. So I've met and worked with a lot of interesting people through that. And there was one couple that I toured and remembered kind of thinking, you know, yeah, this this bride is maybe a little bit.
Dana Kadwell (37:15)
Yeah, turn and burn. Yep. Yep.
Whitney (37:35)
higher caliber than this groom. Like this is an interesting match up sort of thing. Right. But they toured and they signed the contract. I remember she was the one that signed the contract. She was the one that put down the deposit. We would always include, you know, bride and groom's name on the contract, but we didn't require both of them to sign. Whoever was paying for the wedding would sign sort of thing.
Dana Kadwell (37:54)
Sure. Yep. Yeah.
Whitney (37:58)
But I can remember, you know, maybe a month, maybe two months after her signing, she called and she said, Whitney, I just have to call and talk to you because I'm not getting married to Derek anymore. And I'm like, I'm so sorry. But in the back of my mind, I'm like, probably for the best girlfriend. But
Dana Kadwell (38:13)
Mmm.
I saw that coming.
Whitney (38:19)
You know, I'm so sorry. You know, this is our cancellation policy. You know, this is what you're going to sort of thing like, you know, I'll send you the cancellation thing to sign. And she's like, no, no, like you're you're not I'm I'm not getting married to Derek, but I do still want to keep the I'm getting married to Greg. And I was like, oh, OK. Yeah, you
Dana Kadwell (38:26)
Sure. Right.
Daniela Justus (38:30)
Hmm
Dana Kadwell (38:42)
there we go. Wow.
Whitney (38:48)
we can do that. Like, I'm going to need to send you an addendum where you change the name on the contract and like, let me send that your way. And I can remember, I mean, it was like the wedding was like a couple of months away and I was just like, what is happening? So immediately I go to like I go to the I go, you know, start like Facebook stalking, right? To to figure it out. And, know, was able to learn so much that she had been with.
Dana Kadwell (38:48)
Sure.
Crazy.
That's crazy, yeah.
Sure, of course.
Ha ha
Whitney (39:15)
Derek for a very short amount of time. Prior to that, she had been with the not new guy, right? Like a very long time. And so I guess my assumption he wasn't, you know, making the commitment. And so she's like, I'll show him. And then when he saw that she was going to marry somebody else, he came back around. But after that, I mean, it was so funny because all of Derek's family
Dana Kadwell (39:34)
Yeah.
Whitney (39:43)
calling the venue and wanting the intel and wanting the information. It's just like, no, wait, like you're not the contract signer. We can't give any of that information away. So it was wild. Mm hmm. Yeah.
Dana Kadwell (39:47)
wow.
That's crazy. That is insane. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you ever
Facebook stalk and see if they're still married?
Whitney (39:59)
I don't know that I remember their names at this point. No. Yeah. huh. Yes.
Dana Kadwell (40:00)
Okay.
I'd be so curious. that's amazing. Well, good for them for figuring it out. Sometimes you just
need that push to know that you don't wanna be the one that got away eventually. Yeah. well, I love that. Well, thank you. It's been such a wonderful conversation. I am such a tech nerd. I love anything that brings like clarity.
Whitney (40:11)
Exactly. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Dana Kadwell (40:26)
seamlessness to the venue world because it's just such a beast and an animal to operate in and of itself. so thank you guys so much for your time today.
Daniela Justus (40:36)
Thank you so much for having us Dana. It's always great to have conversations that give us the ability to just sort pit forward and share some of the things that we've learned because it's such a special industry and everything is so nuanced. And so it's just great to have a platform to be able to share.
Dana Kadwell (40:43)
Yeah.
Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. so for people who are listening, I will drop in the show notes where you can reach out to Danielle and Whitney. they're, they are amazing. I know they do a free console and they can take, like show you the program and you will be convinced. I promise. I definitely would say before we leave real quickly for people to reach out to you guys, what is like, like, what are some of like the main markers you're looking for in somebody who needs to reach out? Like what are some of the key elements you're like,
Whitney (40:52)
Thank you so much,
Dana Kadwell (41:20)
If you are X, Y, Z, then we are 100 % the right fit for
Whitney (41:24)
Great question. So in terms of, you know, really wanting to utilize lead lock, I would say, you know, you're in a good spot for it. If you are running a venue and you're getting leads and you want to organize things better, right? It really is, I would say a foundational piece. Now, if you're also wanting to talk, you know, ads and doing all of that, like we can definitely have that conversation down the road, right? That's probably a little bit different in terms of
you know, where you want to be in the business and, you know, what you have kind of available to invest. But lead lock is usually what we would suggest as the starting point because it's what's going to set you up for running successful ads, essentially. Yeah.
Dana Kadwell (42:09)
Gotcha. Awesome. Well,
you heard it guys. If you have a venue and you need some organization and some foundation, then it is for you. So make sure you reach out to them. Thank you guys so much for joining me today. It has been so much
Whitney (42:22)
Thanks,
Daniela Justus (42:23)
Thanks.