Christie Osborne: Like many people get into the event industry. I got married and loved it. But in particular, I like the creativity of this industry. I like how beautiful this industry is. I like going to conferences and having my colleagues put on the best party and seeing all the beautiful outfits. Like you go to a history convention. And it really is all tweed and elbow patches, and they don’t know how to party. So I love the industry. I started mountainside bride primarily because when I got married in 2009 dating myself here, I didn’t find a lot of content out there that helped me to plan a successful wedding in the mountains. And there are some real weird quirks about the mountains I’m sure the beach as well, but the mountains in particular, that if you don’t know about them, they can really have your wedding become a disaster. 

So like, if you want to have an outdoor wedding in a meadow in the mountains, and you think you’re gonna have like tall centerpieces and taper candles underneath that clear tent, and it’s a recipe for disaster. All the bugs are going to be roasted under that clear tent in the high altitude sign and drop all over your tables and it’s going to be disgusting bugs and butterflies that rate with like dead. I love the butterfly release to in the mountains and then they go into the tent and they sell the dead butterflies all over and you don’t back then you didn’t have any content around that. You didn’t have any content about, you know, making sure that your guests are acclimated high altitude weddings or what to do if you get altitude sickness, you didn’t have content around, ‘Leave No Trace’ and “How not to destroy the wilderness” if you’re going to have some sort of like quasi backcountry wedding. And so I started mountainside bride in order to not only showcase mountain weddings, but to educate around some of these other issues in the mountains. So and now IO society owns it and they publish beautiful, beautiful weddings.

Courtney Hopper: Yeah, that’s awesome. I think that’s like honestly the start for a lot of people in the industry. It’s trying to fill a hole or need a centralizing a hole. Yeah, that isn’t like something isn’t there and you want to make it better because maybe there was a struggle for your own wedding or whatnot. But then what I love about this industry is that’s how it gets started. But people never want to leave it because it is so much fun, and it is like such a great community.

Christie Osborne: It’s a good reason to start. I think it’s a good reason to start a business to fill a need that’s not being addressed. I think the most successful businesses, you know, that’s how they start and if they can stay true to that and not be you pulled in all of the directions where, you know, the Guru’s tell you should do this and you get a little itchy about your competition and you think that they’re doing it better, and you need to do it that way. And that’s fundamentally where I see the most people hit a plateau is that they have slowly but surely backed away from that original vision and fulfilling that original need that they knew existed. And they got, they get this idea in their head that the answer is like out there somewhere. And they ended up just looking generic and like everybody else and end up competing on price and freaking out about competition and not knowing why they can’t market better and hitting a plateau. And oftentimes, that they just go back to that original vision and leverage that they’re there, they’re in a better place than then taking classes and not that you shouldn’t listen to podcasts and take classes, obviously, podcast, but you should have a core and an integral core, like literally integral integrity is, you know, comes from that word, an integral core, that is a touch point that you use, to, you know, leverage all that information and education that you’re getting, and bring it back to your core and bring it back to your integrity and be like, this works, this is gonna work for me, this isn’t gonna work for me. And it helps you be more discerning about what you’re going to do and why rather than just chasing after the next shiny thing, or the next tactic that’s gonna get you all this traffic or your attract your ideal client or whatever. If you don’t have that core, you’re just going to be adrift and you’re gonna plateau, and you’re gonna get frustrated in your business and not know how to fix it.

Dana Kadwell: I totally agree with that. I remember one time we were at this, we were doing like a pro bono event. So we just donated our services for a local juniors club. And we’re at this venue and they didn’t know we owned a venue and we were just chatting with them, like, oh, what made you like get started? Like, why did you open this and their response is very much like because we can do it better. Because we look at this, we look at it, we solve it in the area, we’re like, oh, we could do this better. And it was really off putting like, to me, and they didn’t know you know, anything. They just knew I was a planter in the industry. And I was like, well, that’s not really a hole in the industry because it’s just like every other barn event venue that you have out there. So I remember thinking like, there was a point when we started the Bradford when we’re like, okay, we felt like there was a whole like there wasn’t this European vibe event or space to get married at which was the main reason why we started it but then really what it came down to we started like getting into like our values and what is it that we want to be known for?

 It was about hospitality. And I’m not saying that no one no other venue in the area doesn’t have hospitality, but that was what you’re talking about the integral core like that is what it is like we want every single person who sets foot on our property to feel welcome and loved and to be that space for somebody and to provide a wonderful experience no matter you know, what their budget is, or whatnot for it. And I totally get what you’re saying that I feel like when you’re doing it too, as a as a competition side or you’re constantly looking at what the next person is doing because you feel like you are your whole goal is just because you want to do it better or you want to you know, blow the competition out of the water. I do think you become really stagnant. 

Courtney Hopper: Yeah, well, you kind of lose focus. 

Dana Kadwell: Yeah, like you lose what your main purpose is. 

Christie Osborne: And you’re always going to be second best. 

Courtney Hopper: Like always gonna be someone better.

Christie Osborne: Well, the person you’re copying is probably better. You have to have a beautiful venue in order to just be playing on the field right like so. And you have to have good customer service just to be in the event industry. And so, it becomes a matter for me as a researcher and as a strategist to figure out like, Okay, if I know that you have to have a beautiful venue and you have one check and you have to have you know, decent customer service and be you know, service and hospitality or oriented check. What else above that baseline. Do you do that we can that we can talk about and take ownership in the market that will put you above the fray. So everybody has to have a beautiful venue. But do you have the most view, beautiful venue? And if you think that that is true, right, which I hope everybody does? What makes it the most beautiful or to your point, Dana, when somebody said we can do it better, what is it? And what is better? 

When you start to handle these concepts that you feel in your gut more precisely, and start writing down those words, that’s when you can, you know, kind of be on the playing field talking about your beautiful venue, everybody has, I’m talking about your customer service, everybody should have that. But you do it in a way that is uniquely you and you start to own those concepts. So like, if you’re talking about like hospitality, what is it about your hospitality that’s different than the hospitality of everybody in the event industry? And then you talk about that, you tell stories about that, you know, and you can even identify it, like, everybody in the event industry talks about hospitality, but we believe hospitality is defined this way. And when we work with our guests, this is how we embody that. If this sounds like something that you are interested in, you know, check out our website, or DMs for pricing and availability. And if you do that consistently, instead of just being general and letting your audience figure it out and connect the dots, you will succeed and you will get over a plateau. But it takes a little bit of, you know, inner work and checking in with your core and then coming up with some words matter, folks, words matter.

Dana Kadwell: Yeah, but I think that it’s like this, like a catch 22 almost a lot of ways because to be an entrepreneur, you have to believe deeply in what you’re selling. And you started this company, or this business, or you started this product, because you felt like there was need for it in the industry, or because you felt passionate about it. But at the same time, as if you’re not like a natural extrovert, or you aren’t someone who has the experience of selling or hyping yourself up, it’s really hard to get over that hump of like, I am, like, when you’re talking about hospitality, like this is why my hospitality is better. This is, you know, what puts us you know, above the rest and being able to almost like, be your own hype girl, in a lot of ways, you know. And but you have to do that, because part of your business is you like, and that’s it, that’s a lesson that we learned, you know, early on is that it’s no one can really sell your business more than you like, no one believes in it more than you do. And it’s there’s some training available, and you can find amazing employees, but at the end of the day, when you are selling your product, like you are the one that can sell it the most and the best.

Courtney Hopper: I do think so. And I love how you said that, you know, there’s always some sort of inner work that needs to be involved when you start that kind of marketing campaign, or you start talking about what sets you apart, you start talking about what makes your business tick. And I think that’s so true. I’ve always say that about entrepreneurship, especially being in a partnership, that is a lot of introspection that has to go in to making it successful. And then being able to translate that into words that are meaningful to someone else, like a staff member, or an employee, or a client, I think is where the real magic happens. And I think that’s kind of where the marketing piece, you know, really gets moving.

Dana Kadwell: Yeah, it’s so interesting, because I have been to a ton of conferences, and I always go to the marketing talks, because I find them to be very interesting. And honestly, marketing like you, like there’s sometimes I feel like I can have a grasp on it. And then it like goes away very quickly. It’s like, you know, a whisper in the air. And so I’m always curious, it’s something that I’m curious about, and I love to learn about. And I would love to hear like, do you think that your approach to marketing is different than other agencies? I have my own opinion about that that based on talking to you and hearing other things, but I love to hear like, do you feel like you are kind of creating a new wave of marketing?

Christie Osborne: Oh gosh, I hope so. I make it super different. I fundamentally don’t believe anybody’s ideas, including my own. And so what makes me different is I’ll take this, this initial foundational core work where we’re dreaming and scheming and thinking of our ideal client avatars and what makes us different and, and stuff like that. And then my real interest is how do we validate that in a real market with real human beings? And you can tell that I’m passionate because I’m like talking faster and more forceful now. But based on, typically, it’s a good start. And I always start here with the ideal client avatar work in the, in the, you know, unique selling proposition. But in reality that is really just bellybutton gazing. And so oftentimes what I’ll do is, I’ll take a business’s initial, in this is where the integrity like I can’t work well, without that, that core of, here’s who we want to serve, here’s how we want to serve them “better”. That’s the start point. But then actually go out into the market and research your market and research your competition. And I will come back and tell you, here’s what I see in the market. Here’s what people are talking about when it comes to your brand. And what I think you do particularly well, here’s what your competition does. Well, that’s good to know, like, let your competition have their slice of pie. And then here’s the gap in the market where there’s an intersection between, you know, what your competition doesn’t do well, and their weakness, what you do well, and then what they do and what you don’t do well, and I find that that sweet spot, and then we develop, you know, core content pillars and a content plan based on that. And the fun thing about that to answer your question, Dana, and this is very different, is I have found time and time again, once this research is done, and some of this core work is done, it becomes really difficult for your competition to effectively copy what you’re doing. I mean, they can try it, they can copy what you’re doing. But because you’ve taken the time to really identify who you want to serve, how you serve them differently, and whether or not your ideas about them are in line with their ideas about them, and their ideas about you until you do that work. You know, you can’t get to that place where you’re going to come up with that perfect mix of, we know we do this great. Our clients agree with us, we own that concept in the market, and then go forward with that. 

I’ll give you an example. I worked with a venue in Georgia, in their space, they were one of the only outdoor venues that had like permanent structures, like pavilions and things like that. So in the south, it rains a lot in the summer, and especially in the afternoon. And so they could seamlessly move like a 250 person wedding from an outdoor garden ceremony into the pavilion within like a handful of minutes and not affect the beauty of the of the venue or the guests experience. And so that’s you know, that’s a lot to talk about. So I went into their market and did some market research for them, and found that time and time again, in their reviews. In particular, I start with reviews of both the client and the client’s competition. Their reviews, consistently talked about the gardens, not outdoor wedding ceremony space, the gardens. And what was particular about these particular Gardens is they created that sense of space in terms of being in the south, and acted as a jumping off point for their southern hospitality. It was a classic southern garden wedding. And so what we did was we took that that core of garden wedding, and we started to leverage that in the content. Now did it check all of the venues boxes in terms of talking about a rain plan and outdoor ceremony space and southern hospitality? Yes. 

But by going out into the market and researching what people were actually saying the words coming out of their mouths, when they talked about this venue, we landed on garden, and guess what nobody in that market had a “garden space”. So anybody looking for an outdoor southern garden wedding, there was only one venue at that point. What not, and it wasn’t that they didn’t have a garden before. They just didn’t talk about it in a way that their market was demanding that they talk about it. And so that’s instead of just like being the marketer that says, you have to have a feed that looks like this, and you have to be on TikTok and you have to do behind the scenes stuff. Yeah, fine. But that’s all like vehicles for the message. Like you still haven’t talked to me about your message and how to find your message and how to find a message that works for your market and your competition has a hard time copying. 

If you do have copycats, and I love doing this in a very like community or competition way because I think it makes us all better but look at your competition and see if they have any negative reviews and where they get dinged and see if you do that well. And also look to see if there are things People talk about you that they can’t talk about the competition. So I had an Entertainment Group in New York City, very tough market, live bands. And, you know, they were trying to figure out, like, how are we different from these three camps because the competition was really tight, and they were competing over price. And through looking through the reviews, I realized, because these people were actually like, professional musicians like they taught at like NYU, like, they were high level musicians. Two things. One, they attracted other professional musicians that would play their musical instruments would they would like bring their trumpet and like, do some sort of improve stuff on stage at the wedding with the band. And also, they could learn any freaking song within, you know, however. And this was really important because they were attracting all of these music snobs. And so we really, like leverage that to the hilt, we started storytelling around the fact that they could learn in every song and showcasing new songs that they were learning and showcasing their musician clients. And that was something that it New York City, which is a tight live band market, literally none of their competition could copy.

 And so if you are having copycats, or you do think that you’re in a tight market, and you do think that you know, your clients that are inquiring how they’re having a hard time distinguishing how awesome you are even though you know how awesome you are from your competition, start coming through those reviews on your competitor side and your reviews, and just find that one thing that that they can’t effectively talk about, or even if they can, if they’re not being reviewed in that way, and you start talking about it, people are going to look at those reviews anyway, and be like, oh, you know, this band said that they could learn any song. And when I read the reviews, all the reviews validate that I’m gonna go with this band, even if the other band could learn any song, it’s not in the reviews they’re not talking about it does not matter.

Courtney Hopper: Well, we would love to kind of end on a high note here and hear what has been one of the most rewarding parts of starting Mountainside Media.

Christie Osborne: It is my absolute mission. And I feel like I’m finally over the hump with this. It is my mission to make research and data accessible to creative right brains, people. And so I feel like I’m finally getting to a space when I talk to my clients. And I build out their dashboards, which are graphical and intuitive. And they start to like, talk to me about what they’re seeing in their data and coming up with their own ideas. I just get lit up, because now they have like power and agency over their own data, and their own destiny as a business. And I just I’ve loved that journey because I feel like a lot of people who are into math and data and are on the nerdy side of things, creative think that they’re just so different from those people and that there’s this false separation between people who understand numbers and data and people who just want to play with pretty things. And I find the most satisfying part of my job is being able to bridge that gap between the two types of folks.

Dana Kadwell: I love that that I know and I it has been so wonderful, chatting with you and I think no matter like I hope people can hear it through this podcast. And then also like I’ve ever heard you in person, you could just tell you’re so passionate about what you do. Like you have so much zest and energy for it.

Courtney Hopper: And knowledge surrounding it. 

Dana Kadwell: Yeah. Oh, why not. But so refreshing. So thank you so much for spending your time with us today.

Christie Osborne: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Dana Kadwell: Thanks everyone for gathering us today to talk about the hustle. For episodes Christie we are drinking Campari and soda. We hope you get the chance to make it this week and cheers to being true to your core values. To learn more and connect with Christie, you can check her business on Instagram @mtnsidemediaco and you can visit the website mountainsidemedia.com.

Courtney Hopper: And learn more about our hustles visit us on the gram @cndevent, @thebradfordnc and @hustlinggather. If you’re interested in learning more about our speaking training or venue consulting head over to our website at hustlinggathered.com. 

Dana Kadwell: Also if you love us and you love this show, we would be more than honored if you left us a rating and a review.

Courtney Hopper: This podcast is the production of Earfluence. I’m Courtney. 

Dana Kadwell: And I’m Dana.

Courtney Hopper: And we’ll talk to you next time on Hustle and Gather.