Celia Milton on Why you need to get to know your ideal clients and what makes them tick!

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Why You Need to Know Your Ideal Clients and What Makes them Tick

Owen: Hi. My name is Owen McGab Enaohwo. Welcome to hireyourvirtualassistant.com, where we provide entrepreneurs with exceptional virtual assistants. On my blog we have a show. I bring small business owners come in the show to share their insights with you so that you can learn from their experience. Use whatever they talked about during the interviews and apply it in your business.

Today, I have Celia Milton from celiamilton.com. She is actually a wedding officiant. The reason why I interviewed Celia Milton is two-fold. First, her story how she got started will tell you that it’s never too late to move forward for to your dream. You can always begin your work, work in your passion and work in your idea. Do whatever is in your mind. It’s never going to be perfect. Just grab the idea and work on it. The other reason why I interviewed Celia is because she knows who her clients are. She gets the idea of what is the right type of clients for her business. The way she approaches the wedding officiating business is she gives clients an experience they wouldn’t normally get from the typical wedding officiant. She knows that she needs to know the type of client beforehand.

I brought her on the show because I want her to share some insights with you guys so that you can apply this to your business. Take it out there and figure out what types of clients do you really need to be working with. Who are the clients that need the type of service that you provide.

I look forward to talking with you at the end of the show. Thank you.

Hi everyone. Welcome to hireyourvirtualassistant.com. Today I am talking to Celia Milton. Tell them where you are from.

Celia: I am from New Jersey. I am right outside of New York City.

Owen: What is it that you do for your business?

Celia: You know what, I tell people I do “I do’s”. I write and perform weddings and civil unions which are legal in New Jersey.

Owen: That’s nice. You do I do’s. I like that term I was like, what was she saying?…

Celia: I do too.

Owen: I want you to take some time and introduce yourself to the audience. Also go ahead and talk about what your company is doing and all that.

Celia: I was thinking that I wanted to be a parish minister. I was looking at a career change. I was in my late 40’s and owned a catering business. And I knew I didn’t want to do that forever. So I went back to the seminary. I thought, this would be fun – to be a parish minister.

When I actually got into a church I realized that there are fun parts and not-so-fun parts. For example, who’s going to order the candles in the sanctuary? I have no interest in that. So I signed up to train as an “officiant”. And I graduated in 2005. And literally a week after I was ordained, I had my first wedding. I never looked back. It has been absolutely fantastic.

Owen: That’s good. For me right now, am actually going through the process with my fiancée of trying to the wedding started and planned. She has the whole idea of how the wedding should be. I’m just showing up for the wedding basically.

Celia: That happens to a lot of grooms.

Owen: You also mentioned that you also officiate a wedding that is what you do right?

Celia: Yes. I work with my couples. Most people who don’t have church affiliation or temple affiliation, they want to do something different, a little funny. They want their dog to be the ring bearer or they have friends who are going to sing or play music. It is something a little bit off beat.

I work with what they want to have instead of telling them what they are going to have. I work with what they want. We work something together and then I perform it and make it legal.

Owen: Please give me an example of how something can be off-beat?

Celia: Oh, I have a great one this morning. You picked a good day to call me. This morning, I officiated for a vow renewal for a couple in front of the cyclone, which is one of the oldest roller coasters in the United States. They have been married for 5 years. Their life had been a roller coaster of ups and downs with all kinds of good things and bad things.

And the wife decided that she was going to surprise her husband with a trip to Coney Island, New York. I officiated and I redid their vows in front of this rollercoaster. It was a hoot.

Owen: I think it was a perfect way to symbolize what they are through life – a rollercoaster.

Celia: Exactly. It was perfect. He was surprised. It was lovely. We had fire trucks and people being arrested at the back of us. It was a typical New York day, nothing stops for a wedding.

Owen: One of the things I really enjoyed when I read your email was about when you started your business; permit me to say this you said you started your business when you were 49. The dream of doing anything you wanted to do can start at anytime.

Celia: Absolutely.

Owen: and explain to us, how did that happen?

Celia: I think for everybody the ideal situation is to do what you love and get paid for it. I just got to an age where I said to myself, “If not now, when? What am I waiting for?”

I had a business that I love. I was a caterer but it was very physical with a lot of hard work. I did it for 20 years. I thought, why not now? If I don’t do it right now, I am going to be 50 next year regardless if I do it or not. In 5 years, guess what? I am going to be 54.

If you don’t follow your dreams, the time is never gonna be perfect. People wait, tell don’t have enough money. I can’t do it right now, I don’t have enough help, I don’t know how, blah blah blah, the economy is terrible, etc. If you don’t do it at the time that is imperfect, you’ll never do it at all because there is no perfect time.

Owen: What hit you that day that you decided am doing it.

Celia: I remember the exact day.  I was working for another caterer when I sold my business. And I was working for a lovely lovely guy. Being a caterer was his dream. He started his business when he was in his 40’s as well. I went to work for him and I needed to take a day off because I had this crazy wedding that I had to do.

The bride was Chinese and her mother has figured out all the astrology. They needed to get married a Tuesday in March before noon, South of Cikocis. They called me and I’m like “I’m your girl. I’m here for you.”  It was a beautiful day in a March in New York. It can be terrible but it was beautiful. The sky was perfect. It was gorgeous. I got in my car and had a day off from my real job. I never had a real job before. I took a day off, got in the car, drove down to the beach and into this fabulous little wedding at the water’s edge.

I got back into the car and said to myself that I can do this. And if I did this 4 times a week, I didn’t have to work a job. It is a job but I don’t have to go to an office. I can get up and go on to my computer. I can write my weddings and go. I could do this, I went back and I quit the next day. My last day was my 50^th birthday.

Owen: Wow.

Celia: It was my last day. That is it.

Owen: If you are doing something that you love, it doesn’t look like work.

Celia: Yes, it doesn’t.

Owen: But at the time now when we’re actually having this conversation, what would you do? I should be tired with this point, but I’m enjoying talking to you about your business. It is what the whole thing about is go out there and be involved with something that you love doing.

Celia: It’s true. If you really love what you do, it comes through everything that you do. Your customers know that, your clients know that. They know that they are not just paychecks for you. There is something that you’re really engaged in.

I have friends that do the strangest things that they say they love. I don’t know how you could love renting chairs for a living. I have colleagues that rent 100 chairs and cover this. That is their day. They are happy. It makes a difference. It really does.

Owen: Yes. How do you actually get across that with your client? Give us an example where in fact you showed them that you love what you are doing. I want to get a more precise example.

Celia: I say that in every ceremony that I do, every ceremony has a little piece where I say “am the celebrant and I have the best job in the world”. I think when you are in a business like my business is basically entertainment. Everything that I do is entertaining. My invoices are entertaining. My contracts are entertaining. From the first time that people call me, they are entertained.

That might not work for a tax attorney. You may not like your tax attorney to be entertaining. You want them to be authoritative. But everything that you do, your product is not the only thing you are selling. You are selling the whole entire experience. From the first time that those people land on your website to the time they speak to you on the phone to the thank you note afterwards. It is all part of the experience.

Owen: Yes. I get that because you are selling the business of entertaining them at their wedding. Your presentation, you are able to meet them first time to give them an idea of what you are doing.

Celia: It has to be different.

Owen: Yes.

Celia: You have to find your niche and make that niche believe everything that you do. So that it’s all coherent in that niche.

Owen: You mentioned that what you are doing is something you stumbled on when you started this whole wedding officiating thing or did you already know that in the very beginning that that is what you wanted to do.

Celia: When I started my business, I knew I wanted to do weddings and only weddings. I do baby welcoming once in a while. I do memorial services occasionally. They are usually for families where I did weddings first. But I’m very clear who my client is.

I don’t want every single wedding that comes across my doorstep because there are people who are not right for me and vice versa. I want the person to want something really different. From the first words I utter, which are not “dearly beloved”, here we are to be bored to death.

Owen: Okay.

Celia: We are not going down that road. Everybody knows that shorthand for like 20 minutes of boredom coming up. Why not get a glass of wine already?

I need to have a client with a great sense of humor that has a certain importance in their ceremony because not everybody does. A ceremony for a lot of people is something they need to get through in order to be married and have a party. and those are not my clients.

Owen: I know that you already know or have an idea of who your clients are. When you come across a client who is not your client, how do you go about in letting them know? Some business owners have that difficulty of saying no. I you choose my business but they don’t know how to tell those who are not their right client or the preferred candidate for them. How do you go about that step?

Celia: I think if you honed all your materials, it does not happen. You put your first good foot forward and it’s not going to be a perfect website. The important thing is having the web presence and the marketing presence.

I think as you learn who are the people you want to work for, who they are; you hone your marketing so that that person knows what they are getting into when they get to your website. I know that some people don’t call me because my website doesn’t speak to them. That’s fine. That’s not my client. That’s an evolutionary process.

I am reading a wonderful book called, it’s at my desk “The Chic Entrepreneur” It’s a fabulous book, It’s by Elizabeth Gordon. She’s absolutely wonderful. One of the examples she uses is about a woman mechanic who decided that her customer was going to be women. Women usually make the appointment to take cars. She was going to be woman-friendly. She is going to have pink uniforms. She is not going to be placed in a scrounggy area outside town. She is going to be in between a grocery store and a day care center. Everything she did spoke to her client.  Her client is a woman who got a car and wants to keep it in tiptop shape. It’s like brilliant. It’s absolutely great.

Owen: I never heard that. That’s exciting.

Celia: It really is. For me, my clients, if they are not laughing at the first phone call, we’re not meant together, that’s just it.

Owen: They have to laugh.

Celia: Exactly.

Owen: if they don’t laugh then we-re not working together

Celia: That’s right.

Owen: That’s true. What are you doing these days in terms of getting your clients and putting your business out there? What are you implementing these days?

Celia: I dumped a lot of money into my website. I have no regrets there. I have a great web designer. I’m on some very effective gateway sites for brides that are carefully chosen.

Owen: Can you explain gateway sites? Some people might not understand what you’re talking about.

Celia: If you are a handyman, there are places that people go to look for a handyman. If you are bride, you are going to certain sites to find your wedding benders. The key is to find sites that work best for you.

Owen: Okay.

Celia: How are you going to be optimized on search engine optimization? You live and die by that now. When people and I did a lot of research to find out what people are looking for something like me. What they put into Google. Like New Jersey wedding officiant, that is what they put in. So that’s all over our website.

Owen: That’s correct. One thing that all business owners end up being is you learn so many things.

Celia: Yes.

Owen: Who would say that you being a wedding officiant now is learning internet optimization, SEO… That’s the beauty about handling your own business. You learn all sorts of stuff.

Celia: You have to because the internet is a fabulous thing. I do about 80% of my weddings they met online. So it’s a great thing for my business. But it also makes the pool of competition much stronger.

For everybody who used to go down to their family pastor and say are getting married. Now, they can find 100 officiants with 3 keystrokes. You have to be good at that.

Owen: You have to find ways to differentiate yourself. You have to be different. With the comments that you have, they have to laugh.  At least then you know they have a sense of humor.

Celia: Yes. I know They are going to have fun. I am lucky because people expect that it’s terrible to find a wedding officiant. They are going to assume that it’s going to be somebody judgmental and boring and horrible.

The first thing they will ask you is when did you go to church last. They are going to say that we don’t go. Then it is going to be terrible. Then they encounter me and I’m not the only person who works this way. I have a lot of great colleagues.

They come to ask us and said wait a second, you do what and never heard of them. It’s fun to plan the reception. It is fun to taste the wedding cakes. It never occurred to them that it is going to be fun to find us.

Owen: The way you explained what you do to me is exciting. I can see that to you how this is your passion.  I didn’t really have an idea of what you are doing. Talking to you right now, I’m excited with what you are telling me.

Celia: Cool.

Owen: That brings me to a point where you acquainted me with all of that stuff that are happening. Now, one of the questions I want to ask you is what having you started doing in your business now that the economy has changed. What steps are you taking to mitigate the economy changes for your business in general?

Celia: I think a lot of it is education- educating our clients. If price was the only way that people make decisions, we will all be driving a Scion and we will all be eating at McDonald’s. It’s the way that life goes. I’m driving a Scion. I love the Scion.

Owen: Okay.

Celia: But you know, people make budgets that have room for the things that are meaningful to them. Not everything is meaningful for everybody. For some people, having a really fabulous officiant, that would me, that is not important to them. And it’s fine. Probably for them, it’s having an excellent dj, the best dj they can afford.

Everybody got some things that they want to have. When I sit down with a client and no one can believe the price. Price comes up as with any business.

My say is, look, this is why I cost this much. This is why, because this is going to happen, that is going to happen. You’re not going to wonder if I’m going to show up. You not go to be worried about me. I’m going to take care of everything. This is why this is quality experience. Not that quality product, not that 20 minutes on that day but the whole entire thing is a quality experience for you.

For anybody who is trying to make a sale on anything, whether it is a service or a thing, we need to be able to explain to our clients why does this cost this much.

Owen: Yes.

Celia: Because very often, it’s like buying a house. When you’re buying a house, you don’t really know about mortgages. You don’t really know about insurance. You’re being educated and at the same time, you’re investing a huge amount of money and time into that experience. It’s very frightening.

For me, the best way to get my clients to actually see what my price is fair is to let them know how it is going to benefit you. You are not going to be up at night wondering if I’m going to show up or if I’m legal. It’s going to save you on a lot different ways.

Once they have the information, then they can make an intelligent decision about whether their budget can really accommodate this. But nobody is a shopping prize. Whether you are buying a car, house or a plumber or a grass weed, nobody is a shopping prize.

Owen: I see that. Basically, you have to know the voice and understand how your client is different. How they are thinking.

Celia: Absolutely.

Owen: You would be able to explain to them in a language they understand as to why the price is as is.

Celia: What is important to them? What is keeping them up at night? Are they freaking out because they think their dj is going to be terrible? Are they worried if their officiant is going to show up? What problem can you solve for them in whatever instance you are in?

Too many of us have this tactic of how fabulous I am. Here’s my website. I’m so fabulous. Here’s is this. I’m so fabulous. It’s not how fabulous you are but it’s how you are going to solve their problems. That is the key thing.

Owen: It’s always about them

Celia: It’s always about them.

Owen: Yes. The reason why I said on the blog that you need to understand is that it’s never too late.  It’s never too late to go ahead and move up on your dream.

Celia:  No. Yes.

Owen: What would you say to someone who is still thinking about that bride or bride idea? What would you tell them from you? Tell them what you’re going to tell.

Celia: It always comes down to if not now, when. If you’re not going to do it now, what needs to be in place for you to go and do it? Because if you wait for all the lights to go green. You’ll never get home.

Owen: That’s true.  I’m sure everybody wants to ask you some questions.

Celia: Excellent.

Owen: How do they contact you?

Celia: They can get me at celia@celiamilton.com or they can go to my website and poke around there and contact me from there.

Owen: Thank you very much.

Celia: Thank you. Good luck. Bye bye.

Owen: Thank you very much.

Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed the interview with Celia Milton. I want to know what you think. Go ahead and leave your comments and suggestions.

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