The Wedding CEO: Photography Podcast

195. Rebrand Series: From Cursive Notes to Lavender Lattes

• Alora Rachelle • Episode 195

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In this episode, Alora shares her rebranding journey for the Wedding CEO podcast while battling a lost voice. She dives deep into her passion for strategy, investments in various creatives, and how her unique handwriting became part of the brand. She discusses the importance of intentionality in sales and pricing and emphasizes empowering women entrepreneurs, drawing from her own experiences as a successful mother and businesswoman. 

00:00 Welcome to the Wedding CEO Podcast

00:28 The Importance of Strategy in Rebranding

01:06 Inspiration Behind the Rebrand

03:33 Detroit: A Source of Inspiration

05:59 Embracing Personal and Brand Evolution

06:30 Empowering Women in Business

12:14 The New Wedding CEO Program

13:21 Conclusion 

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Hello, my beautiful friends, welcome or welcome back to the wedding CEO podcast. And in this rebrand series I am. I while I lost my voice. So if it goes out, if I sound like Miley Cyrus a little bit, it's cool. We're just gonna roll with it. I have said this to many people. So if you are in my circle, you're probably tired of hearing me say this, but I have been on 10 calls a week for the past three weeks. And guess what? Your girl finally lost her voice. So I'm going to explain a little bit about what that looks like and why, because I have hired I think over like I've had made over 10 investments, whether it's strategists. Whether it's done for you work to finishes rebrand because that's how much I heavily. Value strategy. And I want this rebrand to last me a minute. I don't want this to be like, oh, I'm gonna rebrand every year. No, I want this to last me, like at least two years. And maybe a refresh, but essentially I I want this to be like it, And as a serial rebrand, or I think I invalid in saying that. What have I been working on these past two weeks? I had recently, I always share post-it notes of people who have joined wedding CEO because I love cursive. It's something that's always brought me joy as a child. I've always loved cursive and how fancy the letters looked. And I don't really follow the rules. I do cursive my own way. Like I don't follow the actual, like vintage cursive workbook and I should know it was, I bought it for my daughter and I got stressed out. I was like, I do not do curse it this way. I just pick when I want to do it, and then I do it. Anyway. After writing cursive and posting post-its of all the new girls who have joined the program. People were like, whoa, I would buy your handwriting if it was a font. And then someone was like, you need to use this in your rebrand. Ken, your handwriting also be a font that you use on your website. My mind absolutely exploded the joy because for one. And my email footer, my XO Allura is handwritten by me. And I think I scanned it. Guys, I'm so old don't make fun of me, but like I made that signature years ago. I think I wrote it on a piece of paper. And then I screenshot it on Google docs. And then I remove the background in Canva. And guess what it has served me for decades. So here we are. And my brand designer, Madeline said that she actually downloaded a software to get my handwriting as a font. And it would obviously be like, an accent font. Cause you know, my handwriting is not that legible. I am left-handed and life has just been very hard for me. I've been told my handwriting was chicken scratch and is a mess. And I'm so used to my handwriting going up and. Getting smudge on my wrist. That's the life of a left-handed person, if DME, because you're not alone, but we are the 3% of the world guys, so cool. So been working on that. And I finally, this weekend, I got on a call with my business mentor and we mapped out. The entire. Program. That wedding CEO is now we changed the name. It's pretty similar, but also some kind of different. And it's going to be a nod to all the intentionality that I have behind this rebrand. When I was talking to my creative director separately. And she was like, what is the inspiration? Like, why are you all of these things? And I was just like, oh my goodness. Like everything that I have done. That was incredible. Has always been in Detroit, like downtown Detroit weddings, back when I was growing up, I wasn't even allowed to go to Detroit guys. My mom was like, you can't go to Detroit because it's dangerous and you really can't go to Detroit. After the sun goes down and me doing weddings until midnight, like crazy. Anyway. Yeah, Detroit is where I actually discovered fancy ramen. It was this place called urban ramen. And I would always go there on Sundays. I would go there and actually eat ramen before a shoe before and encourage the session. It was like my treat me self kind of gift to myself. And that's where I found lavender lattes. I actually met one of my wedding besties over a lavender latte and it changed my life. I actually bought a lavender latte creamer from Starbucks because. That's how basic I am, but it's just so good. And the thing about great lakes, coffee, which is now closed and urban ramen is also closed, but they made their own like signature lavender latte syrup and is just so good. I just, I wish you could go visit, but. Unless they decided to bring it back. A lot of places closed during COVID, but I will never forget. And also the library in Detroit is absolutely gorgeous. And if you go to the second floor where you can see the mural, when you go up the stairs on the left, it's absolutely gorgeous that room. The murals, even in the hallways, the marble staircase. It's just a work of art and of course the DIA, which everybody knows, and I have shot there before and I do love it. But there are some really good gems that are overlooked and yeah. That is a hint at the direction we're going in. And but there's just so much depth to it. And I did not realize Having Roberto's great. Like just having one, just to have one, but going this deep into like my roots and who I become and what I experienced and what I love. It took me through my own brand story. So I'm like going through my brand personality, which all the things I just told you about, like ramen laminar, lattes and the library and coffee shops and cafes and all, especially the hotels in Detroit, too. The architecture of every building. I could go on and on guys. Seriously. I really can. Can you say obsessed? I'm trying, I'm working on it. But yeah, that's yeah, my brain personality, but also the kind of like street style, like the day to night vibes, just, I don't know, everything that I'm like thinking about. And it's wow, this has always been me. And I think when I launched. The Allura Rochelle brand after leaving a lower Rochelle weddings. I went in a complete different like direction, because that felt like a fresh start for me. I was like, okay. I'm going to go full on modern and that's fine, but I'm just learning more and more that there's so much work to be done. And you're always evolving and changing. Or you're just like the same. And going back to who you really were. I was on a strategy call today with a student. And she was just saying like one that she was looking through. What'd she say she was waffling through a bunch of different educators before she chose me. And I'm honored, of course, every time a student enrolls in the program, I'm like your life in business are really about to change. I'm not just saying that we are going to help you. But also she said, it's you feel like you need to do what everybody else is doing. And you feel like you can't think out of the box, like it's too scary. But when you do think out of the box and you do listen to that feeling, that's maybe I should try this even though no one's doing it. Maybe I should be the first one. It is so scary to do, but when you do it, you just lean into yourself. And I think that's what happened is out of nowhere. I feel like I have stepped into a Laura. 3.0 4.0, I don't even know at this point, but the best version of myself. And my word of the year, this year is flourish and I feel like everything that I'm touching is turning into gold and I'm not even kidding. You. Like every person I talk to every strategy I give to somebody. I'm like they're booking a wedding, they're raising their prices. They're booking a wedding at their raise prices. They're going to be charging 10 K at the end of this year because of this strategy. And I've also learned that. I have to say I know that sales is my secret sauce, but I definitely think it's like the psychology of sales and the psychology of pricing and positioning and packages. And Just knowing buyer behavior, why people buy, how they buy, how they make decisions, even with the way that you position your price, your prices, and what you put inside of them is telling them what package they should choose. Every single thing is always intentional, which is why I have been doing so many of these intensives. And they've been getting results in a day or two, or even by the end of the week. Because it just takes one small tweak that's intentional, but that also is rooted in sales that actually gets your customer. And then also too. I spoke on a friend's podcast about this, but like your energy behind, the booking, the process, your confidence level, that plays a huge part too. If you come with this needy energy and constantly sending reminders for them to sign the contract, like that's just. I just, I don't like. I don't like the vibe. I just don't think somebody who is a high end photographer would do that. It's like you booked me or you don't and the next person in line is going to get your date. Versus oh, I need to book this weddings. I need to make money. If you do, that's fine, but your clients don't need that energy. And it's the worst feeling when you know that somebody needs your money. Okay. Same kind of like for I think that's why car salesman gets such a bad rep is because, they need the commission. With everything that they're saying, they're going to be upselling you because, they want to cap that commission. And so it's so funny because I'm five, two, I'm small, I'm petite. And so I think a lot of times when I go places and I go to these experiences and men hard sell me, I already know what they're doing. And so I just, it's so funny. I'm just okay, yeah, you're doing this, you're doing that. And you think I'm going to do this? And then I do the opposite and they're just kinda like what? And I was like, no, I don't know. I don't need that. I'm good. Actually, I would prefer this. And then it just throws them off every time, because I know that there's like this weird bias that like, Women are dumb and women don't know sales and women will just, ask their husband for more money. And I'm like, you know what? I'm going to change the stigma on that because. I disagree, like powerful women. Can be in control. Can be in control of the sales call, the sales process. And we can have power and authority, but still be feminine. I want to embody the bougie, but also relatable. Girl, next door, probably putting on a rice mask with her daughter, which I did a couple of weeks ago. If you ask me guys on Instagram, real chase, a rabbit really quick. If you use leftover rice and add a little bit of water and blend it, you and then add some honey. You just made a rice mask. And I would keep blending it until it's like really gooey, but it's a gentle exfoliant. And if the Koreans are doing it, guys, we got to do it right. So anyway, back to the point is Owning into like authority, but in a feminine way. And just really figuring out it's so weird. I get what my students are going through in this rebrand process. You really figure out yourself. As you go through the process, not just, okay, what do I want to do for my clients? But why? And the why I think is the secret key of standing out in the wedding industry in any business. But yeah, it's just, it's so eyeopening to be like why does this matter to me? Why do I want to help people? Why do I want to cultivate a community? Why do I want, women doubling and tripling their prices? It's because I was a mother. Like my business took off when I was a mom. And I was charging three K and I could not sustain booking 30 weddings a year forever. I literally launched myself into burnout. So I made a plan. I was like, by the time I have my son or baby number two, I want to be shooting 10 weddings a year. But we ended up with 12 and then my team was shooting weddings and we still hit six figures, no problem. And it was so great and it was peaceful, but I was also charging 10 K and I was able to do that. It was a beautiful business that I had built while being a mother, a stay at home, working mom, mind you with a newborn. And my daughter was in preschool, but still like it's possible. And I just want to help. More people are saying, oh my gosh, I joined your program because like we're planning on building a family or I want to be a mom, but I just don't think it's possible at the way that I'm running my business. And I'm just like, there is another way. And I've done it. And I'm going to show it to you, but also we will tailor it to your business. And I think that's a big thing. It's like wedding CEO previously was just tailored to raise your prices, build a team, launch a rebrand, essentially what I had done. But now we're making this more of a workshop where you can take a training here and there and build your own business with the trainings. We'll hop on a one-on-one intensive, I'll tailor everything to yourself, your style, your brand story that you come up with. We'll put it in our GPTs and you're ready to go. And now you have 12 months of ongoing support. And you have the community and you can submit your wins and know how much money you've made this year. Just joining this program. My goodness. It's insane. So that's what I want. I just want wedding seat. You would be this no brainer community focused. Women in power. Group program rooted in sales and psychology. And marketing and just I just want more women to own a business. I even got off a call with my mom today because she owns a business. And I'm like teaching her how to use ads and everything. I'm just like, yeah. We, as women need to learn how to do more So that is my goal. And yeah thanks for listening to this episode, I will see you in the next rebrand series or in the next podcast episode. Thanks for hanging out with me. Bye

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Alora Rachelle

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