Building a Memorable Online Brand: A Design By Dorann - Event Planning Services

Welcome to Digital Beach, the podcast where we explore the world of successful digital marketing. I'm your host, Dana Kerigan, and in this episode, we're joined by Dorann Joiner, the owner of A Design By Dorann, a highly successful wedding and event planning service.

Dorann is a local business owner who has mastered the art of social media to grow her brand and connect with her audience. In this conversation, we'll dive into her strategy for building brand awareness on social media platforms and how it has helped her to take her business to new heights.

During our chat, Dorann shared her experience with the impact social media has had on her business, the challenges she has faced, and how she has overcome them. We'll also discuss leveraging the different social media platforms, from Facebook to Instagram and everything in between.

As someone who has experienced firsthand how daunting social media can be, I also provide my own insights on how to get started in social media when you're feeling overwhelmed. Whether you're just starting out or are looking for ways to keep your business top of mind, this episode is filled with valuable advice for anyone looking to expand their digital presence.

So grab a coffee, relax, and join us on Digital Beach. Tune in and learn how to make waves for your business using digital tools and social media. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, you won't want to miss this episode!

Transcript

[00:00:06.840] – Dana Kerigan (DK)
Hi, and welcome to Digital Beach. This is Dana Kerigan, your host, and I am excited today to be with Dorann McMullon Joiner. Dorann is the owner of A Design by Dorann, which is an event planning and wedding planning service. Welcome, Dorann.

[00:00:22.380] – Dorann Joiner (DJ)
Hi, thank you for having me.

[00:00:24.220] - DK
We're so excited for you to be here. Tell me a little bit about how you got into the wedding and event planning business.

[00:00:29.610] - DJ
When I was 15, I went to a high school that, fortunately, had a great vocational program. I had been in love with flowers and flower shops since I was a little tiny kid, and they had an ornamental horticulture program. I went through that. And as I got into my career working in floral shops, you work very closely with weddings. It's a huge part of what we do. And I had other vendors and other people take me alongside with them and teach me things. I would go on-site with floral designers, and then the caterer would come over and say, I need some help over here. We need to make this look pretty. Can you help me make this look pretty? So over time, I just ended up on-site at a lot of weddings and really liked it. Had an acumen for it, so I was good at it. And that's just where it started. I was 15 when I started doing that. Worked all over South Georgia, moved back home here to Florida and saw a niche, saw a need for what we do. Then I started my business in 2010. Specifically, I do a lot of types of weddings, but mostly destination events because we live on this beautiful beach, and everybody wants to get married here.

 [00:02:02.650] - DK
That sounds fantastic. Now, did you start straight into the wedding and event planning, or did you have your own floral shop?

[00:02:10.530] - DJ
Oh, I did. I opened my own Florist. It was in 2012 and started from there. But I had worked for another local company previously that had gone out of business. I garnered some destination wedding experience because most of the weddings I've done had been at churches or plantations. Beach weddings are in a horse of a different color.

 [00:02:36.960] - DK
I imagine you have a lot more to contend with.

[00:02:38.490] - DJ
They come with their own set of challenges and everything. But yeah, I had the flower shop and which had always been a dream of mine, but it accidentally happened. 

[00:02:48.590] - DK
But sometimes accidents are great things. 

[00:02:58.770] - DJ
Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, so we had that. But now our focus is 100 % on weddings and event planning. I do our floral for our events, but I also do our planning. And we also have a rental company. We rent tables and chairs and linens and lights and all the things you need to make an event pretty.

 [00:03:12.040] - DK
The full gamut.

 [00:03:12.340] - DJ
Now the whole thing.

 [00:03:14.110] - DK
You make the magic out of it.

 [00:03:14.790] - DJ
Yeah.

 [00:03:17.480] - DK
So you started, you said 2012, which was far before the digital age came into play.

 [00:03:23.030] - DJ
Yeah. And I was telling you, my daughter and I, we were talking about that. And yeah, people weren't really using social media as much as they are now to promote their businesses. But I didn't have a big marketing budget. I didn't have a lot of marketing savvy. So I started a grassroots campaign on Facebook to market my business because word of mouth is great in a small town, but sometimes word of mouth works against you in a small town. But I would do free giveaways. I had something where you could nominate a person that you thought did something really nice. A random act of kindness Friday is what I called it. And like the first Friday of the month, we'd take everybody's nominations, and I'd draw one out of a hat, and I would take flowers to that person. 

 [00:04:15.700] - DK

What a great event. Yeah. And it really fostered a lot of goodwill. Who doesn't love flowers? I know, right? And surprise flowers. 

 [00:04:27.310] - DJ
And surprise flowers. Yes. Exactly. And for something nice that you did that you didn't realize someone noticed. I mean, it had a good effect all the way around, but it also grew my followers on my Facebook page and on my Instagram page. So that was great. It was a great way to be more visible [00:04:48.660] in our community.

 [00:04:49.950] - DK
Absolutely. And you mentioned something, a couple of things that I took from that. You said at first, I really didn't know and have a lot of marketing background and what I should do but you took a natural instinct and something that came naturally to you of wanting to make people happy and wanting to make them feel like they're special. You turn that into a way to really grow your business and grow your awareness, which is fantastic because, like you said, utilizing things like Facebook and Instagram is so visual people can see for themselves exactly what you're about. And I mean, what is better for visuals than beautiful flowers?

 [00:05:33.460] - DJ
I can't think of anything. And especially, you pair beautiful flowers with the beautiful backdrop of the beach.

 [00:05:40.620] - DJ
And the water. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And I have a saying that I don't think I came up with it, but it's my philosophy about flowers. People always say, Oh, I don't send flowers. Flowers die. Or girls will say, “Oh, I don't like flowers. They die.” I'm like, No, you're not getting flowers. You're not sending flowers. You're sending a feeling. And I think that was a really good way to convey a feeling with a visual.

 [00:06:09.660] - DK
That's brilliant. I love that because that immediately makes me think of a social media strategy of here's how I'm feeling today. Today I'm feeling happy, and maybe it's yellow flowers that you're showing a beautiful bouquet that you've done that way or showcasing different weddings that you've done and their color palettes, pairing that with the feeling and the mood that they were trying to sell.

 [00:06:33.970] - DJ
Exactly. And I can't think of a better way to show that.

 [00:06:39.980] - DK
Absolutely. I know in planning my own daughter's wedding, that was something digital really helped us do that because you want to see other people's ideas. You think of what you might know, but when you see it visually, that makes a huge difference.

 [00:06:56.120] - DJ
Absolutely.

 [00:06:57.980] - DK
And does that make it easier for you when a bride comes to you and maybe they have set up a Pinterest board of what they want to show you those visuals for the wedding?

 [00:07:07.770] - DJ
Absolutely. And it's something I suggest to them in our initial conversation, I will say to them, Here's your homework. I want you to send me pictures. Send me your Instagram, send me your Pinterest board, send me wherever you're gathering your visual ideas. Because my idea of casual chic might be completely different than your idea of that, or your idea of something big and my idea of something big could be two completely different things. It definitely helps bridge a communication gap that could be there. But sometimes, I'll tell my clients, Pinterest is my best friend and my worst enemy. Because a lot of times, it's hard for girls to understand that sometimes those photos are retouched. They don't make a blue rose. They don't grow a blue rose. They've dyed it. Someone's colored it. Someone's photoshopped it. A little bit of realistic expectations sometimes it's helpful.

 [00:08:09.440] - DK
I can certainly see that. Have you ever had times when maybe the bride's vision wasn't exactly something that you would have agreed with, something that you would have gone with yourself?

 [00:08:23.380] - DJ
Well, my philosophy with my business, with my wedding planning, and there's wedding planners that approach this way different. It's their wedding. It should reflect their style. It should reflect them as a couple. It shouldn't reflect my influence on it. So, if I don't like their color palette, if I don't like what they've chosen, I mean, that's theirs. Those are their memories to create. I'll step in if I feel like something isn't feasible, like if they select a flower that is impossible to get or out of season. I do step in if they're using something where the flowers are heavily dyed because the quality isn't good. They don't smell pretty, which is half the reason you have flowers at a wedding. So I might advise, I might direct, but if someone comes to me with... You wouldn't believe some of the themes that I have.

 [00:09:26.730] - DK
Tell me some of them. You don't have to name any names. Tell me something funny.

 [00:09:29.370] - DJ
I did a superhero-themed wedding in Pensacola for a friend. I had to make boutonnieres out of action figures. Okay? And they wanted to use artificial flowers because they wanted to keep them. But they were in ultra-bright primary colors that probably photographed really well. But aesthetically, like red, green, blue, black, yellow, like the superhero colors, it's not real pretty. You know what I mean? We had comic book hero table overlays. We had this whole thing. But it's what they wanted. It was what they wanted. It was definitely unique. It was very unique. Then last year, we did a wedding that was on Halloween, and their theme was Till Death Do Us Part, which I thought was very clever. But everything in this wedding was black. The bride wore a black gown, all of their table linens, all of their... It was a very dark, Gothic-themed wedding.

 [00:10:41.460] - DK
Did they bring in a pop of color with the floral?

 [00:10:44.700] - DJ
They did. But blood red. And when I say blood red, I mean blood red. But it was on the beach. So it was a very juxtaposed view that I had a hard time at the time reconciling. But when I saw the photos, I was like, Well, this is just genius.

 [00:11:09.330] - DK
Is that something that you would want to do again?

 [00:11:13.730] - DJ
Listen, it's their party. I'll do whatever they want me to do.

 [00:11:18.620] - DK
That's right. You are the party planner.

 [00:11:20.900] - DJ
I find it almost a little insulting, I guess, when a wedding planner goes, Oh, honey, no, we're not doing that. Oh, that? That's so last year. It's their one perfect day. That's not my business. What they want is my business. Exactly.

 [00:11:38.760] - DK
So if you ever... What is your business, though? Sometimes I can imagine you would be in situations where you're going to do what the bride wants, but it may not be what you want to be known for or something that you would recreate. So what do you call that? Like, when you're promoting your business on social media or digital marketing, learning?

 [00:12:00.320] - DJ
We have two very defined seasons here where we live. Everybody likes to have a beach wedding in the spring. They like to have a beach wedding in the fall. Summer, we still do a handful of weddings. It's really hot. Wintertime, we still do a handful of weddings. The beach is not always hospitable in the wintertime. In those seasons, I will go to my previous season's photographers. I have them send me events. There are some that I don't share on social media. Either I did 20 weddings just like it that season, or there was something particularly challenging or troublesome about what my client, what we executed for them that I don't necessarily want to execute again. And it's not particularly designed. A lot of times it is where a client has had us do something in an inhospitable environment for vendors, for their guests, but it's what they wanted. We could make it happen, so we made it happen. A lot of times it's dining on the beach. Everybody has this romantic notion about that. But unless you like wind in your face, bugs and sand in your food, I highly recommend against it.

 [00:13:16.070] - DJ
But it's such a beautiful... They see pictures. They see pictures on Pinterest. They see pictures online, and it looks so romantic, and it looks so fun. And it probably is for a minute. But the people that had to shlep those tables and chairs when you're bar telling vendors that had to set up a bar on the beach was, which is a heavy job. It's a heavy job to do. I don't have a catering company that will set up a buffet on the beach. They're not going to do it because the quality of their food will instantly be ruined. So there are certain things that I don't like to share and promote.

 [00:13:52.250] - DK
Well, that makes total sense because you always... I think with any business owner, you want to sculpt your business into what you love. And if it's not something that you love, then why would you want to do that when you can give someone another experience that is actually going to be enjoyable in the moment, not just how it looks online?

 [00:14:14.590] - DJ
Yeah, exactly. But it's a question that I ask my clients in our initial consultation is, what's the thing that you're most excited about with your wedding? Is it your photos? Then that's where we need to put our time and attention. Is it the food? That's where we need to put our time and attention. Absolutely.

 [00:14:31.120] - DK
Now, apart from... I hear a lot of business owners that they know they need to do social media, they know they need to do some type of digital marketing, and they know that it's growing, but they're not really sure where to go as a business owner. Have you experienced that?

 [00:14:49.100] - DJ
Oh, absolutely. I would have to say that probably my digital marketing is at a stall right now because I see my initial model in the way that I did it that's antiquated. It's very old. It doesn't work like that anymore. Digital marketing has changed and I need to get with the time. But I am typically very slow at adopting new technology, and it intimidates me.

 [00:15:19.750] - DK
Well, honestly, you're not alone in that. I do see that so much with business owners that know they need to do things, but they're just not really sure what to do. And as a digital marketer myself, I can tell you, it does change every day. There's always something new. There's something that's phasing out. And it can be a bit exhausting. What my recommendation to you would be just to choose. You don't have to do everything, but choose one or two avenues that you're comfortable with and do those really, really well. I think that a lot of times, people think they need to be everywhere online. You don't need to be on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and LinkedIn and TikTok and Pinterest. But there may be one or two of those that make the most sense for your business. Really dig into those and do what you know because inherently, it was brilliant what you came up with, the event of the nominating and bringing someone some happiness that day. I think if you capitalize on those things, that's what's going to make it even better for you, and it's going to be more comfortable for you. So, don't ever feel like you got to be everywhere.

 [00:16:35.050] - DJ
That's the thing, too, is sometimes it feels so unnatural for me. It just doesn't feel like... Yeah, it feels very unnatural. But you've got a great point with that, that it doesn't... I don't have to do things that make me feel uncomfortable.

 [00:16:48.400] - DK
You don't have to. And another thing is if you ever do decide to dip your toe in the water, one thing that I see a lot of people are really scared about is video, but I will tell you that video is the number one preferred source of social media consumption on the planet that's out there. Everybody wants to see a video. People don't read directions anymore. They go to YouTube and figure out how to watch something do.

 [00:17:21.200] - DJ
I should do a video of my contract because nobody reads it anymore.

 [00:17:26.290] - DK
Oh, you totally should.

 [00:17:27.480] - DJ
That's a really great idea. 

[00:17:28.030] - DK
Here's another idea for you. What if you do a series of videos and you literally can do it with something as simple as putting your iPhone in front of you and recording it when you're home alone at night, and it would go viral. Do a series of questions that people ask you all the time or a series of most common mistakes or most common misconceptions. And I bet you got a million of them. Don't tell them all at once.

 [00:17:57.720] - DJ
No, that's a really good idea. 

[00:18:01.620] - DK
Make those 30 seconds and no more than two-minute little spurts. And you've got a series of things that is valuable information that people would want to see.

 [00:18:07.140] - DJ
Absolutely. And you mentioned that, and it's really funny. I do have a TikTok account that is for my business because I had the idea that I would make these videos, like you're saying, but getting in front of the camera is I'm paralyzed. I'm paralyzed about being in front of the camera. I don't know why. Don't like even my picture taken. I don't know. But when I go to particular venues, I take video and I narrate. This is why this venue is great. This is what I've got. I don't know. Half a dozen different videos like that. And they perform so well on my TikTok. My TikTok is very small. My audience is minuscule in comparison to probably anybody else's. But those seem to be the things that people see the most. But I made them to show my clients when I have a client that says, What does this video look like? Well, I'm going to send you this TikTok video because I did a walkthrough of this venue, so I'm going to send this to you. So I really made them as a tool. But they've gotten... I get at least there's a particular venue in Apalachicola that I at least get one or two Facebook or TikTok messages a week asking me, where's this venue?

How can I get in touch with it? So yeah, I think the digital marketing expert is probably correct on your recommendation of what I should do.

 [00:19:29.900] - DK
I experienced the same thing. I do videos from time to time. I used to do a lot more often during COVID, and I need to get back to it myself. It's hearing yourself and seeing yourself. You're like, Oh, I looked so fat that day. Or I hated that outfit, or my hair was terrible. But in the grand scheme of things, nobody cares. Nobody cares. One of the biggest following I've seen on YouTube, and this is just nuts. I have to admit, it is absolutely nuts. It is a guy that takes his phone and he sits it on the coffee table in front of his couch and he hits record and he lays down and he takes a nap and he records himself sleeping. And you know how many people follow that? It's the craziest thing. So if that guy can get a following, I know you've got some valuable things to share for sure.

 [00:20:25.500] - DJ
Maybe I'll just do the nap thing.

[00:20:28.590] - DK
If that makes you get you comfortable, yes, go for it. Do the nap thing.

 [00:20:35.580] - DK
So talking about social media is so much now we just put our lives out online. And it's not just our personal lives; it's our business lives, and it's our friends and our family. How do you separate the two?

 [00:20:51.330] - DJ
It's tough. Clearly, I have a Facebook page for my business. I have my personal Facebook page. But the generation that is my demographic is very social media savvy. And for them to be Facebook friends or follow you on Instagram or TikTok, that is like, oh, that's just they follow thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people, maybe. For me, I'm of a different generation where I don't put my whole life out there. I don't really like friend people on Facebook who are actually my friends, people I actually know. So it's a foreign concept to me, but I, as a rule, don't accept request from my clients. And I'll tell them that. Your life is private. My life is private. We have a way of communicating. I established that in my contract, how we can communicate with one another. Not that I post anything particularly damaging on my personal page, but I feel like I need to draw a line. They have so much access to me already into my life, and I have so much access to them, I feel like there just needs to be a line. There just needs to be a line.

 [00:22:05.590] - DK
Yeah, that self-protection, that is so important because there needs to be a point where you can step away from that. One challenge I see with people is that once you give them something outside of the way that you've defined to communicate, there's a danger that they're going to use other methods to communicate. And when I say danger, what I mean is that you can have someone that needs to tell you something important, but instead of sending it to you in a way that you are conditioned, and you run your business. To see that, you could miss something that was a deadline or something they absolutely had to have because they sent it to you all the time, and that you weren't prepared for.

 [00:22:52.120] - DJ
I turned off the Facebook messenger function on my business's Facebook page, because people would send me orders. Facebook messenger is so unreliable, particularly the ones that are linked to business accounts. I don't know why that is. I think it's probably because we have multiple profiles when you have a personal page. I would miss orders. I would miss things. Or people would try to communicate that way with me when I like to use email as my means of communication for workflow purposes because that way I have a paper trail. I can backtrack, and it's all in one spot. I don't have to go to my Facebook messenger or my text message or whatever crazy means they've tried to contact me.

 [00:23:37.840] - DK
And that's so interesting because generationally, email is how I communicate as well. But people that are, let's say Gen Z, Gen Y and Gen Z, they don't. Social media is how they communicate, and they don't even check their emails.

 [00:23:56.220] - DJ
Oh, they don't. And they don't want to talk on the phone. They want text you everything. And that's okay. I have a lot of clients who maybe work a shift where they can't really talk on the phone during the day. So we email, and that's great. And I'll tell my clients, if it's a quick message or a quick question that isn't imperative to things, totally text it to me. That's completely fine. But we don't need to get into a long discussion on text about your event. I do the grandma thing and I copy the text and email it to myself because then it gets in the chain of my workflow.

 [00:24:35.770] - DK
But you have to, certainly not bashing other generations.

 [00:24:39.110] - DJ
Not at all. But it's important to understand how we communicate and come to a term. Communication styles is definitely a thing that's got to be there.

[00:24:49.880] - DK
So do you think that there are trends that you see? Like you said, you’ve been in this business since you were 15. What's next for you? Do you feel like you would want to continue doing your business... Because I imagine beach setups are pretty difficult.

 [00:25:10.660] - DJ
I turned 51 this year, so I'm a spring chicken. You are. I don't feel like it, but you are not wrong about that. I see my business moving into a different direction. I would like to be more of a consultant as opposed to the person who is actually boots on the ground executing someone's plan, simply because of that. I don't think anybody really thinks about it, but being a wedding planner is a very manual job. I am 16, 18 hours on site on a wedding day. When I was 41, I could do that and then get up the next day and go on to the next project. It takes me a few days to recover now, and I'm thinking about career changing to a degree. My daughter is a very savvy young woman, very internet savvy young woman. She's helping me develop a line of online courses where someone could plan their own wedding, or where I could consult with someone remotely on their event, help them troubleshoot their plans if they're having some trouble, also help other wedding planners troubleshoot or maybe pick up remote work for them. But the challenge that we're having, I got all the content; the challenge is marketing it digitally. I don't have the first clue how to do that.

 [00:26:40.980] - DK
Well, being able to market that, I think that it's the same as with any other business. Think about what you're doing when you're trying to get that message out, and you can use a lot of those same strategies and tactics that you've done in the past. Start by utilizing your social media. Use the things that are free and easy to do and that you are comfortable with to just start building awareness. First thing you want to do is start building that, hey, this is out there. Hey, we're setting up a brand new YouTube channel. Some things that you may want to consider is setting up a series of these consulting videos that we talked about. And some of them, maybe there's five of them you do that are free that people start to subscribe to your channel. But then if you tease them to say, if you want more information to do this, subscribe, here's a quick sign up and you get full access to this and this and this. You really only have to record those things one time. Or maybe you're in one of it, and then it's just a stream of income that comes to you. So I do believe that even though you don't feel like you know how to market it, you actually do because you've done it. It's just you're not marketing being physically somewhere. You're marketing [00:28:01.740] for someone to come to you on a specific channel.

 [00:28:05.790] - DJ
I didn't think about that way.

 [00:28:06.570] - DK
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know the answers to all these questions, I am sure, because I tell you, I am the biggest fan girl of Dorann. I am. And I told before Dorann and I even really got to know each other, I ran into her husband, and I said, I just have to tell you, I'm such a fan girl of Dorann because you have built this amazing, incredible business. How many weddings did you do last year?

 [00:28:37.490] - DJ
We do around 100 a year.

[00:28:40.010] - DK
A hundred a year.

 [00:28:40.100] - DJ
Around 100 a year.

 [00:28:41.820] - DK
There's 52 weeks a year, and you're doing double that.

 [00:28:46.420] - DJ
I will say that's all shapes and sizes. If they're a file on my bookkeeping site, if they have a file, then I count that as a wedding. So that could be a bouquet and a boutonniere. That could be a $50,000 event. So they still count. Little weddings count to me. They count to them, too. Yeah, they count to them. It's important. They're just as big as a big wedding. It is. It's important. It's the same memories. It's the same... I've just got a smaller budget. It doesn't mean they don't count. So yeah, we do on average about 100 a year.

 [00:29:19.320] - DK
Well, I am thrilled to see your next step. What you do now is just incredible to me. Thank you so much. And if we can help you in any way get going because I want to see these tips and how you grow that online.

 [00:29:32.380] - DJ
You've got me excited about it. I'll be honest with you, I struggle with anxiety. It is a daily battle. And around this topic, it's been really big because I'm like, if I can't get past this, what the heck am I going to do? But you have made it. You've removed that anxiety, and I appreciate that. I'm so.

 [00:29:57.240] - DK
Glad that I could help you in that way.

 [00:29:58.670] - DJ
Well, you’re right. This isn't hard. Why am I making this more difficult than it needs to be?

 [00:30:03.420] - DK
We get in our heads.

 [00:30:04.580] - DJ
So much. Oh, my gosh. I live there.

 [00:30:07.040] - DK
Yeah. I do believe that every business owner has the potential to become their own celebrity within their niche. That every business owner knows something that your customers need. They need that knowledge that you have. And if it's just sitting alone in a room in your pajamas and just speaking to you, even if you don't want to see yourself on camera, there are so many things now through Canva and other things that you can do a video, create a video by using a slideshow of photos that you have and just talking through it like you've already done. But the more you do, the more comfortable you become with it. And I think you're going to surprise yourself.

 [00:30:52.810] - DJ
I hope you're right.

 [00:30:52.990] - DK
Dorann, thank you so much for being here today.

 [00:30:57.310] - DJ
Thank you for having me. You shared some great insights. Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed it.

 [00:31:01.160] - DK
We wish you well. And we're going to be following along to find out how your online courses go and help you get going there.

 [00:31:06.440] - DJ
I'm excited. Thank you. Thanks so much.

[00:31:07.090] - DK
This has been Dorann Joiner with us with A Design By Dorann on Digital Beach. Again, this is your host, Dana Kerigan, and we hope you have a great day. See you next time.