Welcome to The Venue Accelerator
An 8 Week Journey Where You’re The Hero of This Story, and We’re Your Guide.
Getting Started: Do All Steps Below Before Diving Into Week 1
Step 1: Schedule your one to one calls here
Step 2: Send a friend request to Kristin Binford and one to Jerry Dunaway on Facebook and we will invite you to the private Venue Accelerator Facebook group. You’ll need to watch your notifications on Facebook and accept the invite when we send it after accepting your friend request.
Step 3: Put our Coaching Call on your calendar for the next 8 weeks (details below under “weekly call”)
Step 4: Complete the coaching program work in order. Please fully complete each week before moving on. Do not jump around without discussing it with Kristin first. If you have a team who is working through the program together, please choose one team member to submit your work.
Step 5: Listen to this quick housekeeping audio
Step 6: If at any time throughout our 8 weeks together you are getting stuck, or feeling challenged, please reach out to our team at hello@kristinbinford.com, or by submitting a help ticket here.
Step 7: Download the Voxer app (it’s free) and setup a free account. Add Rebecca Gardner (rgardner2020), our Coaching Operations Team Leader (and a fabulous human you’ll love!) as a contact. Send us her a quick hello by Voxer via text message so you are connected. We can’t connect with you on Voxer until you message us, so make sure to send two individual (written text) notes saying hello.
Voxer Directions:
Please also turn on your notifications for this app in your phone, so you receive notification of any messages coming from our team
Please send your *confidential or time sensitive* questions via Voxer text to Rebecca Gardner, Coaching Operations Team Leader. If she needs more background she’ll ask you to send us an audio follow up. This helps you be direct and clear in your question so that we can help you best! Often Rebecca will be able to answer your question directly, but this is also your direct line to Kristin Binford if it’s a higher level strategic or tech question you need help with, or Jaynie Stein our Lead Marketer if it is a website tech question. Rebecca will route your confidential and time sensitive questions to the appropriate person on the team so we can serve you best. In most cases you should hear back within one business day.
If your question is *not* time sensitive or confidential, please post it for the weekly coaching call instead of sending via Voxer. Each week in The Venue Accelerator Facebook group there will be a post reminding you about the upcoming call. In the comments of that weekly post, please comment with any questions you have that aren’t time sensitive or confidential so Kristin can cover on the call.
If you send a Voxer late on a Friday, expect to hear back from us the following Monday. Voxers over the weekend will be responded to on Monday. (Remember Venue Owners - We want YOU to create boundaries in your businesses too so that you can support your couples AND have dedicated time with your family.)
Step 8: Dive into week 1. Once you have completed steps 1 - 6 above you are welcome to get rocking on week 1! You do not need to wait for your welcome call to dive in.
Weekly Coaching Call
Tuesday, April 30: 1 pm CST
Tuesday, May 7: 1 pm CST
Tuesday, May 14: 1 pm CST
Tuesday, May 21: No call (Extra week)
Tuesday, May 28: 1 pm CST
Tuesday, June 4: 1 pm CST
Tuesday, June 11: 1 pm CST
The link we use to join the coaching call each week is: https://zoom.us/s/306953129#success
Coaching Call Recordings:
If you have to miss a live coaching call, you can find the call recording by the following Monday here. If you know you won’t be able to join us for a call, you can still submit questions on the call post in the Venue Accelerator group prior to the call.
8 Week Coaching Roadmap
Week 1 - Map Your Market & Identify Opportunity Pocket
This week you are going to become your markets’ expert - being the expert in my market is one of my secret weapons. Knowing your market inside out will allow you to identify areas of opportunity, ensure you’re priced appropriately for the value you provide, enable you to make strategic instead of simply tactical decisions, and will begin to build “muscle” for what you need to do to be successful for years to come.
Week 2 - Ideal Client, Effective Messaging & Communicating Your Value
With new clarity on the marketplace and what couples need, this week you’ll narrow your focus on your ideal couple, build a compelling message to speak directly to their needs, and learn to price your available dates for additional opportunity. You’ll also learn to clearly articulate your value so that you’ll start to see couples be ready to buy, and you don’t have to “hard sell” your venue.
Week 3 & 4 - Turn Your Website Into Your Best Sales Person
Your venue’s website is hands-down your #1 sales tool. It’s also the first point in the process where couples have the chance to fall in love with you and your venue. This week you are going to transform your site to attract your ideal couples, answer your couples most critical questions (therefore adding tremendous value to them in their search for a venue), and learn how to pre-qualify couples prior to touring so that you are spending your precious time with the couples most likely to book.
Week 5 - Reach and Attract Your Ideal Couples
Now that your website is ready to do its job, it’s time to start driving potential couples to the site. Unless you want to pay those big name wedding advertisers - that’s your role venue owners. Get ready to jump into leveraging free industry resources, proven social media strategies (where you learn to ask for engagement every-single-time!), and dive into how to leverage Facebook ads to reach a completely new audience.
Week 6 - Operations Strategies for Success
This week you’ll dive deep into the nuts & bolts of running a successful venue. Learn strategies to provide oodles of value to your couples - without it taking more out of you. Implement the 9 email templates that save me hours every week and gain insight on how we host 105 weddings a year with only 2 full time employees. Most importantly - get access to the #1 tool I use in my own business, which allows me to stay home with my family most wedding days and know my team is totally prepared to nail it.
Week 7 - Effective Tours & Booking Strategies
You’re starting to see an increase in tour requests - now it’s time to make the most of every one. This week I share all of my strategies that has my venue consistently booking 60 - 80%+ of couples touring our venue. Getting there will take practice, but now is the time to get to work. I share the details of my own contract - rules I’ve learned to implement the hard way after 600+ weddings, and several booking process options.
Week 8 - Integration and New Goal Creation
You’ve made tremendous progress building the foundation of your business and implementing our step by step strategies you’ll be leveraging for years to come. This week you’ll celebrate your progress, begin to set new goals based on what’s possible now, and learn how creating and staying in a successful community working toward common goals will help you continue to build momentum in your business.