We were lucky to catch up with Kathy Bull recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kathy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
This is easily one of my favorite “getting started” stories. I had recently purchased my website from GoDaddy and was struggling with a name and design that set our business apart from other, already established, planners in the area. I knew that the way we conduct business and how we build relationships would be an integral part of the process, but how do you put that into words?
As I was on the phone setting up my account with GoDaddy, we got to the part of the conversation where the rep asked me what my business name would be. I probably had 15 different names on my list, and as I started talking through them all, the most wonderful thing happened. The young man I was talking to, actually had an opinion and jumped right into the process saying, “Yeah, those are good but they’re not impactful.” He then followed with, “So what is it you want people to do?” I responded, “Well, I want them to plan their weddings with me.” Without hesitation, he said, “How about Plan It With Me”? My face dropped and I said, “Yep, that’s it!”, and that was literally it. I felt like that had a certain assertiveness you want your planner to have, you know, a direct call to action. And the “Me” part seemed to convey I am a person, not a large corporation where you as the customer would ever become a number or get lost in the mix.
So I have to credit that sweet young man at GoDaddy with naming my business. I will forever be grateful for a complete stranger who gave us a name that fit us to a tee. Now almost 15 years later, people are still choosing to “Plan It With Me”.
Kathy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I started my life as an event planner with the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce in 2001. After I left the Chamber in 2007, I continued to work in Marketing & Events on the corporate side but it wasn’t until 2008 that I started thinking about stepping out on my own. It actually took an episode of Bridezillas to finally push me to make it happen. That particular episode focused on a bride that wasn’t a “bridezilla” at all, until all of the friends (and family) that she had assigned to help out on her big day, all bailed out on her at the end of the night. The worst part was watching the bride pick up trash while trying to hold her dress off the floor and crying…it broke my heart. It was then that I thought, “Okay, I can do this… I can help clients have the day they’ve dreamed about and do it without breaking the bank.” The basic foundational belief being that everyone deserves to have at least one day where it is about them and not anyone else. And with that, Plan It With Me was born in the summer of 2009.
Since 2009, I’ve been hard at work building the business, while still working a full-time day job. With the support of my husband Russell, and countless family and friends, we made the decision to take Plan It With Me full time, and I left my 16-year-old day job in July of this year. That was probably the hardest part…letting go of a full-time job with secure pay, benefits, insurance, 401K, etc., to take the plunge and just do it. It’s extremely scary, especially when you didn’t come from money, and aside from the savings we have, there was nothing else to fall back on. But I am oh so glad we did it and it’s been a fun learning process. Being organized and having an extensive background in the event industry, the “planner” part of building Plan It With Me came easy, but the business side did not. I’ve definitely put in the hours learning about how to build the business, make it sustainable, scaleable, and build it big enough that it would take over my day job. Every day I learn something new from the business side and with every event, there is a small nugget I take away of what to do better next time. I feel like as long as we are still learning, the clients are happy and our business is growing, we’re doing pretty well.
Over the last 14 years, the thing I’m most proud of is that I built this business by word-of-mouth alone. I have never purchased advertising to promote our methodology or to “sell” weddings. That tells me that not only are my clients happy with the work that we’ve done, but they are so happy, that they’re telling others, and those folks are hiring us too!
The biggest lesson I’ve learned (and still learning) is how to not get overly involved. Wedding planning is an extremely intimate business. You get deep into the family’s lives, their complexities, and finances…even when you are trying not to. It’s very hard to take on a client as “just a client”, and not the beginning of a new friendship, which many of them do turn into. At the end of every wedding, there’s a bit of sadness that you won’t talk, email, or text that person every day anymore. That’s the hardest part, letting your little bird fly off into their new life without you. Sounds silly but it’s true. I do think that’s a big part of our success…we care deeply, and people know it.
In the DFW area, we are fortunate to have an abundance of wonderful planners; however, I think we stand out in the industry because aside from being really great at what we do, we build true relationships, and heavily believe in the power of communication. One of our deepest principals behind our brand is communication. Brides, couples, moms, etc., are easily stressed out when they feel they aren’t receiving proper communication or when they feel like someone isn’t truly listening to their needs. We are extremely clear with communication, timeliness of responses, our intent, capabilities, and level of professional execution. I believe in being as honest and direct as we can, and if that means we aren’t the right fit for a particular client, we’ll tell them and often help find someone who is. But if you decide to Plan It With Me, and we take you on as a client, you’ll never feel like you are left alone to navigate the wedding process. We guide our clients 100% of the way. That means once you are a client, you can reach us by phone, text, or email pretty much any time we’re awake. We want you to have answers to your questions, someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to get direct input from and put all the pieces together so you can truly relax on your big day.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Hands down, word-of-mouth referrals! That’s how I wanted the business built from day one. If you are great at what you do, the word will get around, and it has. I made it a practice early on to spend my time cultivating relationships, refining communication, and executing a warm and loving event experience.
Having said that, I did get pretty heavy into TikTok during Covid and established a decent following. From 2021-2023, I would say about 20% of our business came from there…which was mind-blowing, to say the least. I took a bit of a break on TikTok in early 2023 but am back now and excited to share new content.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I don’t think I can narrow that down to one thing…it was many things. I have always had high integrity and brought that into the fabric of this business. Once your clients know they can trust you, and you establish honest and ethical relationships with vendors, then word gets around.
We are fortunate to be on multiple preferred vendor lists because our vendors know that they are working with someone who will get the job done, done well, and be easy to work with throughout the process. I too have a fairly extensive preferred vendor list and one of the things I’m most proud of is that I have personally cultivated that myself. You can’t pay to be on it, you can’t request to be on it, and we definitely don’t take kickbacks or percentages from those on our list. Our vendor list is comprised of businesses that operate at the highest level… which means service and price. I only recommend those who go above and beyond for their clients and help in making the planning process enjoyable. If you add to the stress, have absorbent fees, or don’t hold up your end of your own vendor responsibilities, then I’m not interested in pursuing a vendor relationship.
Lastly, we are accountable. That’s a big one these days. Although our goal is always 100% perfection, we are human and sometimes we fall short. If and when that happens, we own the issue and work diligently to resolve it.
A brief example is that in our formative years, there was a green planner who worked with our team. We quickly learned she wasn’t following our core beliefs, and wasn’t great with timely responses or communication. The client reached out to me personally, and after sharing her concerns, that planner was removed from the project. I took their event back over myself, and things quickly went back to normal.
After the wedding was over, per our normal process, I reached out to follow up on their wedding day and asked for a review. Although they were very pleased with the remaining planning process and wedding day, on a star rating they gave us a 4 out of 5 (our goal is always a 5). When I read why we were scored down, their narrative response was spot on. They had a bumpy start to the planning process but they reached out to honestly share their concern, I listened and we course-corrected. To this day, I’m still in touch with that sweet couple and I learned a very valuable lesson early on. Today, we have a much stricter process in place for onboarding new planners, and it’s thanks to this couple for providing us with honest conversations and feedback throughout their planning process.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.planitwithme.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/planitwithme
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/planitwithme
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-b-77782434/
- Other: Wedding Wire: www.weddingwire.com/planitwithme
- Other: The Knot: https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/plan-it-with-me-plano-tx-2078449
- TikTok: @weddingtips (www.tiktok.com/@weddingtips)
Image Credits
Perez Photography; Sami Kathryn Photography; Harper Blankenship Photography; Bird & Rose Photography