043: Kelsey Rae Angelotti of Kelsey Rae Designs
PLANNER LIFE PODCAST
043: Kelsey Rae Angelotti of Kelsey Rae Designs
"I always say if you can make it in California, you can make it anywhere." - Kelsey
Today's guest is Kelsey Rae Angelotti, owner and creative director at Kelsey Ray Designs. Kelsey got her degree in business from Vanguard University and landed her first job out of college at Ponte Winery in Temecula, California. After a move to Greenwich, Connecticut, it was there that she got a job doing social media for a luxury hotel group in South America and Italy. And she was encouraged to launch her own company, Kelsey Ray Designs, on the side.
Over the years, she's built a large team and then scaled it back to focus on more full -service planning and design. Kelsey moved across the country from Southern California to Nashville, Tennessee, where she grew her business there and into other destinations. Kelsey Ray Designs has been published over 50 times in some of the largest publications, including People Magazine, Brides, Huffington Post, Style Me Pretty, Green Wedding Shoes, 100 Layer Cake, Wedding Chicks, and more.
In this episode, we talk about:
Her early start in hospitality at a winery wedding venue
How doing so many weddings early on gave her a strong foundation
How industry pressure led her to building a team
Building Credibility through Relationships and Styled Shoots
Scaling a Wedding Planning Business: Challenges and Successes
Navigating the Pandemic: Rescheduling and Financial Challenges
Moving from California to Nashville
Challenges of Managing a Team from Afar
Breaking into the Luxury Wedding Market in Nashville
Attracting High-Profile Clients
Expanding into Destination Weddings
Staffing for Destination Weddings
Building Relationships and Landing High-Profile Clients
Setting Goals for the Future
You can connect with Kelsey Rae Designs
This episode is supported by ENJI, the easy to use marketing software that helps you create a marketing plan for your business in minutes and empowers you to start making actual progress with the tools you need. I get it, you're a wedding planner, not a marketing expert. Marketing is my least favorite part of being a business owner and all too often it's something I push to the bottom of my to -do list. Luckily, the queen of wedding industry marketing and a long time friend of planner life, created a marketing software specifically for small business owners so we can easily do our own marketing. ENJI handles the hard stuff, like creating a marketing strategy so you know what you need to do. It also helps you actually stay consistent with creating content. One of my favorite things about ENJI's platform is that it also includes an AI copywriter to help ensure my messaging fits my brand and reaches my ideal audience.
But my favorite new feature is the social media scheduler that makes it so much faster to create my content and get it scheduled so I don't have to think about it every single day.
The best news? ENJI is celebrating their first birthday the entire month of May.
Right now, you can get ENJI for only $19 a month for your first year. But don't wait. This offer ends on May 31st.
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Be well and happy planning!
xo, Heather