REVISIT: Jose Villa is a fine art wedding photographer known for crafting vibrant, fine art images that are as unique as the people in the photographs. Jose has been published in many magazines around the world, including Grace Ormonde Wedding Style, Elegant Bride, Instyle Weddings, Inside Weddings, Brides Magazine, Modern Bride, Weddings, Brides, Pacific Weddings, Southern Weddings and many more.
Andy recently attended the Bridelux Conference in New York City. He was asked to select a panel of professionals to discuss the importance of personal connection in the wedding and events industry. His panel consisted of Sylvia Weinstock, Ceci Johnson, and Christian Oth; three amazing innovators in their fields of culinary arts, invitation design, and photography. Listen in as they chat about client relationships, establishing trust, and how to break the ice in the first interview.
Sylvia, at 90 years young, is one of the great industry entrepreneurs and is best known for creating edible art. Ceci is the Founder and Creative Director of Ceci New York and has been called an invitation design icon. Christian is the Founder and Creative Director of Christian Oth Studio. He is a world-renowned editorial photographer and has pioneered a distinctly evocative and authentically emotional editorial style. All three of these amazing professionals have been interviewed on The Wedding Biz. Andy highly respects each of them and was excited to include them on his panel.
Listen closely as they discuss “audacious transparency,” knowing when a prospective client isn’t the right fit for your business, and how hard an event planner’s job is. They talk about being open and honest with new clients, conflicts at weddings that don’t necessarily involve the bride and groom, and having a quality wedding on a budget.
With Andy Kushner at the helm, you have a group of individuals who have done it all and made it look easy. When you are lucky enough to be in a room with this kind of talent, you need to pay attention because what they have to say will resonate with anyone in any industry. You don’t want to miss this once in a lifetime episode!
Andy welcomes Sean Low to this episode of The Next Level. Sean’s company, The Business of Being Creative, focuses on providing practical advice to those in the business of being creative. His client list includes the whos who of the wedding industry and design community.
Clane is an award-winning international photographer. His images have been featured in dozens of magazines, including PDM, National Geographic and Smithsonian. And he was inducted into all of the National Geographic Fine Art Galleries across the world!
Sean and Andy talk about Clane’s vulnerability, his perspective on people living the life they allow themselves to live, and why he believes that we should try to live in the moment. They speak about what Clane told us about his upbringing, leaving the Mormon church to be able to live the life he wanted and the hardships that came from it.
Listen in as they discuss and bring their insights into some of the fantastic things that Clane said in the interview. How he captures the essence of a client’s wedding in “one shot,” the way he picks his clients and how he gambles when he thinks he can get the perfect unexpected photo.
There are so many fantastic details about Clane’s insights that you won’t want to miss this episode. The conversations between Andy and Sean are always entertaining, so put your feet up and live in the moment!
Andy is excited to welcome Clane Gessel to this episode of The Wedding Biz. Clane is an award-winning international photographer. His images have been featured in dozens of magazines, including PDM, National Geographic and Smithsonian. He was also inducted into all of the National Geographic Fine Art Galleries across the world!
Clane speaks about growing up in a Mormon family in Seattle, where he got the inspiration to get into photography. He also talks about the reason he lived in his car during some tough times. Growing up the way he did allows him to understand vulnerability, and believes that you have to understand vulnerability to understand art. Clane feels that behind each of his iconic images is a fantastic love story.
Listen in as Clane tells us his process for picking clients to work with, how he gets the amazing unexpected shots, and how he uses the rules of the camera against it to get the pictures he wants. He describes what he means when he says he wants to capture the essence of the wedding in one photo, how he uses light to the best advantage, and why he believes that color and light are both essential tools when telling a story.
Traveling the world taking amazing photographs seems so glamorous and it is yet Clane says that success to him is just getting to do what he does with the people he respects in the industry. Being able to touch people’s lives is why he loves photography, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Being passionate about capturing just the right photo is what makes Clane the best in the world at what he does. If you want a glimpse into his genius, you don’t want to miss this episode, he lays it all out there for us, and you want to hear what he has to say.
Lindsey and Cherish Conklin, who make up the team of Le Reve Films, are Andy’s guests on this episode of The Wedding Biz. This duo is known for their work on the Engage 19 Baha Mar summit and other discerning clients. Cinematography to them is building a relationship with clients and telling their stories through film. They are brilliant at capturing the emotion of events in the most engaging ways.
Lindsey started taking multimedia classes in high school and shooting video wherever he could. He quickly found that if you used video in school projects, you were pretty much guaranteed a good grade. Cherish, on the other hand, took control of the family video camera at a young age. She says that if it weren’t for her, they wouldn’t have any home videos. They have been friends since they were three, but it took until the last few years of high school for Lindsey to get out of the friend zone with Cherish, and they have been together ever since.
The leap from a steady job and guaranteed income to building their own business was terrifying, but the benefits outweighed the fear, and it paid off with the success of their company. Their goal is to keep Le Reve Films a small boutique company so they can concentrate on crafting fine art wedding films for every client. Capturing the true essence of a couples’ wedding day requires that they know the real, raw, and profound truth on how the couple came together.
Wow! The tips that these two give us in this conversation are mind-blowing. The way they market their business and themselves is truly next level. They have found ways to set themselves apart in an industry that is saturated, which is why they will be around for years to come.
Listen to this episode with a drink in one hand and a pen in the other. This episode will teach and entertain, so be ready.
In this episode of The Next Level, Andy is with Jennifer Stein. Jennifer is the Co-Founder and Editor in Chief of Destination I Do Magazine. She publishes a daily blog and also consults, and custom publishes.
Audrey is a film photographer based in Paris and is known for her unmistakable fashion house inspired aesthetic, and unique and sophisticated work. She also brilliantly utilizes social media, especially Instagram, in ways that will surprise you.
Andy and Jennifer discuss Audrey’s moxy in starting her business before learning the trade and how testing is a great way to make sure your business is viable. They also speak about Audrey’s authenticity and vulnerability and that she isn’t afraid to put it all out there because she wants potential clients to be able to connect with her in a real way.
Have you ever had a meet up with clients when you are traveling? Listen to Andy and Jennifer talk about Audrey doing just that. She posts where she is going to be, so if a potential client or vendor wants to meet up with her in their area, they can get together.
Listen in to this deep dive into some key points of Audrey’s interview. Jennifer speaks about Audrey’s ability to market herself by listening to what people want, how she connects with people by taking photographs of her life and posting them on her Instagram page and how networking when traveling can boost your business.
If your business is struggling and you are having trouble getting new clients, you need to listen to this conversation. What these two discuss, you won’t learn in books, so plugin and enjoy.
Audrey Neracoulis, Welcome to The Wedding Biz! Audrey is a film photographer based in Paris and is known for her unmistakable fashion house inspired aesthetic, and unique and sophisticated work. She also brilliantly utilizes social media, especially Instagram, in ways that will surprise you.
Audrey has a master’s degree in marketing and dreamt of being surrounded by, and working with, a wonderful team. When faced with the reality that a first job working for a corporation meant sitting alone in a cubicle, she decided it wasn’t for her. She chose to pick up a camera, tell stories visually with pictures and become a photographer, even though she had never taken a picture before.
Is the hardest part of your business attracting new clients? Listen, as Audrey describes what she did when she started out and what she does today to attract clients. She says you have to have a strong brand and make personal connections with your clients. Audrey is sharing her life with pictures on Instagram believing that letting potential clients see her story through photographs will give them the best idea of the reality of her work.
Audrey’s vision for a wedding is to blend fashion photography and cinematic documentary to make the perfect photographs. Her passion is capturing the emotional and physical connections of the bride and groom so that the images evoke meaningful memories. For added dimension, she likes to build in a sense of sensuality learned from her experience with shooting boudoir.
If you are a photographer or want to be, pay attention as Audrey points out the difference between using film, going digital, and the benefits of both. Listen as she tells us how to create and connect with clients when traveling, about her retreats in Paris, and all the ways she teaches about photography.
This is a compelling episode with so much great information you will definitely need to take notes, so sit back and enjoy.
Andy is excited to be speaking with Greg Finck on this episode of The Wedding Biz. Greg is a brilliant photographer based in Paris. He studied business in France then came to the U.S to get his MBA. Greg was a marketing executive for ten years with Proctor and Gamble and at first, was doing wedding photography on the side as a hobby.
Greg is now a major photographer even though he’s technically only been doing it full-time for five years. Besides shooting significant weddings, he is doing fantastic work in the fashion world and has mastered marketing digitally in social media. He also gives master classes on photography and speaks at Engage.
“Elegance is the only beauty that never fades,” a quote on his website from Audrey Hepburn summarizes the approach that Greg has to photography. Black and white photos are what he started out doing, giving him the ability to really focus on what he wanted to shoot in order to hone his eye.
Greg talks to us about many things; his life in marketing, the catalyst for moving into photography professionally, and how glad he was that he took that leap of faith. He speaks about the niche he found with destination wedding photography, mostly taking place in Paris and other parts of Europe, doing fashion photography during the slow wedding season, and why he uses medium format film.
Listen in as Greg shares with us his secrets to rapid success, how to manage your client’s expectations and the tools to choose the right photographer. He discusses his tricks for calming the nerves of a bride and tells us what equipment he uses to get such fantastic shots.
The knowledge Greg has acquired in his relatively short time as a full-time professional photographer is immense. His business acumen is on point, and his humility is second to none. If you want to learn how to build your business in any industry, this is a conversation you shouldn’t miss.
In this week’s discussion, photographer Greg Lawson takes Andy through his museum-like gallery in Sedona, Arizona, to explore the fundamentals of his philosophy on human nature.
Just in time for Engage!, Andy and Melissa are discussing all of the best networking techniques to make you stand out among your competition. The topic of today’s episode comes from lessons learned from Andy’s interview with Phillip Van Norstrand. He’s a master networker!