Peter: Today I'm joined by our client success director, August Flieger. Augie has worked with us for a couple of years, and he also runs his own wedding studio, Velvet and Vows. We started working together when Velvet and Vows was just getting started, and we grew it to $300K in about 12 months. We're going to talk through the key projects, systems, and hires that made that possible. Augie, give us a quick intro.

Augie: You can call me August or Augie. I first picked up a camera in high school. I'm from a small town of about 150 people in Kansas, and my high school had about 45 students. We had a little news program, and our teacher didn't really know how to teach the camera side, so I had to figure it out myself. In college, I started as a wedding DJ and taught drum lessons on the side. That's how I got into the wedding industry. Around 2018, I switched to photo and video because I wanted to have a more lasting impact on my couples. Showing up for a few hours in the evening and leaving didn't feel fulfilling. I wanted to leave a mark on the world.

Augie: I grew my business doing things the way I thought photographers and videographers were supposed to. Then I decided the next level was to drop everything, move to a new city, and run the wedding side of a friend's business. That didn't transition well. In a small Kansas town, people know your name, but in a new city, I didn't have the tools or the knowledge to grow. After about eight months, we'd gotten maybe two or three bookings. Things were really quiet.

Around then, I got in touch with you, and I decided to start my own business up again. Within the first week of signing up with you, we had about $12K in bookings. About 12 months later, we rebranded the right way, from AP Film Co to Velvet and Vows, and in our first year, we hit $300K in cash.

Peter: And somewhere in there, you joined our team as head of client success and helped a ton of other studios grow, while running Velvet and Vows. The business was so dialed in that you were only spending five to 10 hours a week on it.

Peter: Let's go through the biggest lessons at each stage. How did you get to six figures?

Augie: By rebranding with my friends for eight months, I'd basically erased myself from the wedding industry. My business name and social media had completely changed. Working with you helped, because we had a solid plan to build a machine that brought leads in immediately. I had people to talk to right away. I leaned on your mentorship, learned the system, and focused on selling from passion, not greed. Once I got consistent and comfortable with the sales process, the road to $100K became real.

For those first couple of weeks, my full-time job was eight hours a day of texting, calling, and posting on Instagram to get my name back out there. I had a following, but I'd just switched my name again, so I had to connect the brand with my face while going after leads from ads and organic sources like Facebook groups.

Peter: So the first problem to solve on the way to six figures is client acquisition: getting leads consistently from paid and organic, and getting people on the phone.

Peter: Whenever I watch one of your call recordings, it doesn't feel like sales at all. You build so much rapport, your close rate is probably 50% to 70%, and these aren't small packages. People also pay in full a lot. Can you speak to that?

Augie: It starts with why we do sales in the wedding industry. It's easy to think sales is sleazy, maybe from experiences with door-to-door solar salespeople. But we have a unique opportunity to touch lives. What fills me with passion is telling stories and being around people every weekend. So I look at sales less as "This is money for my company" and more as "This is what gives me joy." That's when it flipped for me, from needing to say exact words and hoping they'd book, to focusing on their story, hearing their desires, and selling to that. If I focus on that process, the bookings follow.

Peter: Sales is relationships. Ironically, the most transactional salespeople are usually the least experienced. A skilled salesperson doesn't feel like a salesperson. It just feels like connection.

Augie: I also see a lot of people in the industry who are egotistically attached to their price point. It's good to know your worth, but it's not good to value couples less because of their budget. Last year, I gave a couple a massive discount for a wedding in Oregon, so we basically only covered travel and my second shooter. It wasn't the best business move in terms of profit, but the story and the connection were just as good as a $10,000 wedding. Keeping that mindset, whatever budget couples come in with, helps me approach every sales call with a genuine heart.

Peter: The people who don't judge couples from the start often end up booking the bigger, more expensive weddings. That ego, like "I won't even talk to someone unless they have this budget," affects how you talk to everyone, whether you realize it or not.

Peter: Once you hit $10K a month, what had to change to get from $100K to $200K?

Augie: Building a team so I could hand off tasks and focus on growing the business, and documenting my systems and processes and working them consistently every day. My first hire was Pilar, a VA from the Philippines who's been with me for about two and a half years. She handles a lot of the nurturing: initial conversations with couples, getting their information, and learning about their day. I also had a social media manager doing our posting. Later, we brought on Angel as our systems manager. She focuses on optimization and finding the most efficient way to do things, so we work out kinks before they become kinks.

Peter: For anyone not at $100K yet, the first dragon to slay is being able to take people from cold to sold. Once you're there, you can't do everything, because you have all these clients to communicate with, plus shooting and editing. If you want to go from $100K to $200K, your business has to look different. That first assistant, messaging leads so you can just jump on the calls, is what I see work for a lot of people.

Augie: Pilar couldn't just take a script and start messaging leads overnight. We have a set flow for texting leads, but I had to learn to manage and train her so she'd pick up my voice, my mindset, and our company culture. A lot of people get hung up when their VA says something they wouldn't say. I reviewed her conversations and told her what I'd do differently, or "Hey, this was awesome." Sometimes I'd say, "I'm going to take over this conversation. Watch how I respond." Now, two years in, I fully trust her with conversations. I still keep an eye on things, but if I didn't touch my phone for a week, the business would still run normally.

Peter: The two common pitfalls are being afraid to hire at all because no one will do it as well as you, and thinking a new hire will magically fix your business. Can you speak to both?

Augie: I've been there. As creatives, we hold our product close to our hearts and grew up doing everything ourselves. But shift your perspective. Imagine what someone could do for the business if they could spend 10 times more time each week messaging leads than you can. Do you want to spend eight hours a day on your phone texting people? Before you hire, understand what it takes: daily meetings for the first month or two, reviewing conversations, and having examples of your best conversations ready for them to model. I can't do 10 things to the best of my ability. I can do one or two things really well, like sales calls and shooting a few weddings, and offload everything else to people who'll do it better.

When I hired, I was referred three or four people and did formal Zoom interviews. Do I enjoy working with them? What experience and value do they bring? Why should I trust them with my business? Pilar was eager, had a high standard of excellence, was teachable, and showed up to every meeting on time. She was there for my wedding and when we had our baby a couple of months ago. She feels like family now.

Peter: It's actually ego that makes us think we're the secret sauce. The first time I hired someone good, I thought, "Oh, this is how the pyramids were built." Good talent follows instructions. Great talent follows them and then innovates, seeing problems coming and fixing them. And developing as a leader is a skill. It's what most people who want to scale beyond six figures really need to work on.

Augie: And this wasn't an overnight thing. I've learned many lessons, and I'm still learning. I never want to think I know everything and have made it.

Augie: I had to choose between perfecting my craft and chasing super-high-end destination weddings, or building our brand and expanding our team. I chose the team. I don't personally want to travel the world. I'd rather do less work and make more money, and given the general budget levels here in Kansas, the team made more sense than trying to get in with high-end planners. The biggest lesson was learning to sell weddings when I'm not the one at the wedding, while still maintaining trust. We have a separate tier of team packages. I made sure our team members shared our culture and mindset and inspired me. I'd genuinely trust them with my own wedding, and I actually hired them to shoot it.

Peter: Not enough creatives think about the realities of their market. They say, "I want to charge 10 grand," but they live in a rural area and haven't built a name yet. That's why it's called marketing: you look at the market first. In tech, it's called product-market fit.

Augie: If you master your craft for your market, the higher-end weddings come as a byproduct. We focused on shooting a really solid barn wedding film, and high-end planners started noticing our work. One couple booked a lower-end package, and a high-end luxury planner happened to be working that wedding. Focusing on your market and perfecting your craft elevates your brand without a ton of extra work. When people want to start with high prices, I ask, "Why? And what are you basing that on?"

Peter: There are lots of ways to make money besides charging $10K out of the gate: product sales on the back end, upsells, or an associate team.

Peter: A lot of people struggle with selling associate packages. If someone just wants to sell their first associate wedding, what do they need to do?

Augie: First, expect objections and prepare for the obvious ones: "Who will be at my wedding? How much experience do they have? How do I know they'll be as good as you?" Second, transfer the trust couples have in you and your brand to your shooter. Now, couples come to us because of work our team has done and weddings they've seen our team at. They see Velvet and Vows less as the Augie show and more as a team of awesome creators who give a great experience and a great final product. That comes from how we present ourselves on social media and in our videos. Our website is built around the team, and that's why we rebranded from AP Film Co, my initials, to Velvet and Vows.

Peter: People want a magical script, but it's really about you being sold on your associate. If you're sold, couples will be too. Post their work, get excited about it, and maybe have them take photos of you. Then on a call, you'll naturally say, "Lisa's going to shoot your wedding, and she's amazing." It stops feeling like a sneaky move and starts feeling like you're doing what's best for the client. And if you have a second shooter you're thinking of promoting, shoot your next wedding with them as the lead while you're the second. It bridges the gap, and you're there to catch anything they miss.

Augie: That's a fantastic idea. A lot of people are afraid to let go of creative control, but ultimately couples just want their wedding day captured. Also, make the offer almost too good to be true. I wasn't massively discounting, but we incentivized couples to book our team. I priced team packages $1,000 less than my own, partly because I wanted to shoot fewer weddings after doing 30 to 40 a year, and we removed a few things from those packages so it still made sense for us. The $1,000 softens the blow: "I won't be there, but the editing and everything else is exactly the same." And I avoid the word "associate." I just say "team." Our website says "the VMV team."

Peter: When you're testing a new package, start with the lowest price at which people would feel stupid saying no, but not so low that you'd get resentful. Hit that sweet spot, and your conviction on the call comes through. The first sale is always the hardest.