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Again, that's longangle.com. Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks, a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel. Now, so many business leaders say that you should just focus on one thing and not spread yourself too thin on so many different projects, and that the way to success is to laser focus on one goal, one product, one business idea, and tune everything else out.
But our guest today, Jen Glantz, throws all that advice out the window because she's an entrepreneur with multiple businesses, multiple streams of income, and she thrives at doing it. She started her first business, Bridesmaid for Hire, after an ad she placed in Craigslist went viral. But she's also written three books, over 1,500 articles for publications from Forbes, to the Today Show, to the Washington Post.
She hosts a podcast, You're Not Getting Any Younger, which I had the pleasure of being a guest on a few weeks ago. And if that's not enough, she has 3 newsletters, sells digital courses, does professional coaching and speaking. And oh, she has her own game called The Newlywed Card Game.
I have no idea how she does it all. So let's jump in and find out. Jen, thank you for being here. Wow, Chris. Thank you for having me. I honestly forget all that I do until you just read that intro. And then I was like, "Wow, that is a lot.
That is a lot." But I'm really proud of it all. So my first question is just, did you always think you would be someone that had all of these projects and businesses going on? In all honesty, I was that person at my full-time job that couldn't just do my job.
I was working at a startup as a copywriter and I couldn't just write. I had to know how the sales team was doing. I wanted to know what a project manager was. Like I was always so curious about other things. I was also the person at my full-time job that did the whole job within like a couple of hours and had the rest of the day to do nothing.
And that's when I started writing a blog and started doing all my own work while I was getting paid at my full-time job. So I always knew that I was never a person who wanted to do just one thing, but I never knew what I was going to ultimately do.
I majored in poetry in college. So I feel like I set myself up for a life of question marks. And when I graduated, I just knew I didn't want to live a standard life. I knew I didn't want to be someone else's employee. I knew I wanted so much more from myself, but I didn't necessarily know where that would take me.
The first side hustle was Bridesmaid for Hire, right? Well, actually I would say my first side hustle was a blog. I started in 2011 called the things I learned from. And I wrote that blog. I had no readers that grew and grew and grew. And eventually that led to me getting a book deal and that led to me becoming a freelance writer.
So while I didn't necessarily make money off of the blog, when I first started it, it led to all of these different opportunities that propelled my journey. And I'd started the blog because I was working a really bad job and nobody would publish my writing and I wanted to be a writer.
So I started this blog on WordPress and that was a game changer that set me up for so much more to come. So I think one takeaway there is it doesn't have to be a business to necessarily become a business. So if you're listening and you're thinking, Oh, like I have this thing, I don't know how to make money from it.
Your example here is you did this thing that made no money. And now you have, I don't know, seven, eight, like different businesses and streams of income that kind of all came from that. Yeah. How did you know when to spend more time on the blog or any other project versus you had a day job?
When I was working full time, I realized, okay, I don't necessarily need the income from other projects. So let me throw some things out there and see what sticks, see what's going well. I've always been a person who likes to work on multiple things. So I would wake up before work at 4am, work on one project, go to work and work on other projects that work, come home and do even more.
So I would literally take if I was working on three side hustles and I would split my day to give each the same amount of time. Now there were some points when some blew up a little bit more and then I would spend weekends working on those and let the other ones fall behind.
But one thing I've always vowed to myself is that if I created something that had an audience, whether a podcast, a blog, a newsletter, that I would not let them down. And what I mean by that is I would never miss a day when I owed them content. So my podcast comes out every Friday, my newsletter every Monday and my blog, used to come out every Tuesday.
I would never, ever, ever miss a day. So if I had something with an audience, I always showed up for them no matter what. And I'm still that way. And I think when you're building and growing, you need consistency. That's everything in branding. And as a content creator, that's what gives you your credibility, especially early on.
I have a newsletter and it comes out every two weeks and I think I've only missed one and there's at least a good reason behind the one that missed, but it forces me to not give it up. Even if it's your passion, right? Everyone always says for me, this podcast is a passion of mine.
This newsletter is that doesn't mean that there are days where you're like, gosh, I just need a break. I think the consistency forces you to keep going. Otherwise the break you take could go longer than you want. Even fulfilling things can be hard. Yeah. And also when you're creating content, you want some sort of validation and I've learned early on as a writer, you're not going to get people who email you every week and say, good job.
I love the show. Like that's a bonus. But I think if you still really want to take this seriously, you need validation in some sort of way. And I've always found that in accountability and being my own accountability buddy. So if I set deadlines, especially as an entrepreneur or a content creator, if I miss those deadlines, that's me failing myself.
And if I make those deadlines, that's validation, that's accountability. And I've always been so firm on that, that me showing up is the only ticket I have to my own success. Whether or not people are going to praise me for my content, it allows me to know that I'm doing the work I need to do.
That makes sense. And I'll give a shout out to a listener here named Darshan who sent me an email. It was like, Hey, I know most people write in and complain or ask questions. I'm just writing in to say thank you. And I was like, Oh man, it feels really good to get those emails because a lot of mediums podcasting, especially, it's not really easily a two way street.
But now let's go back to this first big break, I guess you'd call it. You put this ad in Craigslist. What led to you even posting the ad? It's not like there was a bridesmaids for hire business that lots of people were doing and you just wanted to throw your hat in the ring.
The truth is I had a really bad Friday night and I was rejected from an opportunity and I was feeling down about myself. And before that I had all of these friends getting married in my early twenties and I was always a bridesmaid. And that same night that I was feeling down about myself, I had two friends I hardly spoke to who ironically lived down the street.
Two of those people on that same Friday night called me up and said, Hey, will you be my bridesmaid? It was so random. I was feeling so down about myself. I was venting to my roommate and I said, Carrie, what is going on? And she said, Jen, come on, it's obvious.
These people are asking you because you're good at it. You're like some sort of professional. And I went home after my roommate had gone out and I just sat there and I was like, you know what? I'm so sick of where I am in my life. I'm so sick of feeling stuck.
I'm so fed up also about being a bridesmaid. Let me do something about it. If I'm good at this skill and I have distant friends asking me, why not allow strangers to hire me? I didn't know a thing about business. I didn't know if this was going to work, but I said to myself, let me try it.
So I went to craigslist.com, which is a website. My mom told me growing up never, ever, ever go to. And I posted the anonymous ad basically saying, Hey, if you need help at your wedding as a bridesmaid, I'll be there. I'll show up in the dress. I'll walk down the aisle.
I'll dance with your weird uncle. I'll give the speech. I'll help you pee in your wedding dress, which is like actually a hard thing to do. And I posted the ad. I went to sleep. I lived my life. I didn't even check my email over the weekend. I just figured whatever.
Nobody saw this Craigslist ad. I go to work Monday morning. And I see in my inbox, I have hundreds of emails from people all over the world that wanted to hire me. Let alone somebody in my office chatted me a link to a Buzzfeed news article about the ad saying, Oh my God, Jen, like this is you.
Like you're in Buzzfeed. And my life literally changed over the course of a weekend without me even knowing it. I have so many questions. So I want to dig into both the business side of this, but because I think most people don't understand this business, what can you just share a little bit about the role, why people actually end up hiring you?
Some surprising things you've learned. People hear this and they're like, this is so weird. Who would want to hire you? And I'm like, okay, just give me a couple seconds and I'll convince you. Number one, it's not a wedding planner. I don't help you pick your flowers or your dress or your venue.
I don't do any of that. I am strictly your hired bridesmaid. I'm there as the personal assistant running to CVS cause you don't have tissues. I'm the social director who plans the bachelorette party and makes it fun. I'm the person who is the peacekeeper when the mother-in-law and you are fighting, I'd come between that and break that off.
And I'm the on-call therapist. I'm the one you can call at two in the morning and vent about how stressed you are about your wedding. I am there for the people. I'd say there's two types of people who hire me. Type number one are people who have friends, but they need that professional embedded in their wedding party because their friends are a disaster and they want someone who's going to keep the peace, but also make sure they feel supported.
And on the flip side, I have the person who hires me because they don't have any friends. And I know that sounds bizarre, but the truth is a lot of people out there don't have close, solid relationships. And when you get married, you need that support system. You need that person who's going to be there for you emotionally, mentally, and physically before your wedding.
And on the day of, I am your bridesmaid. So what does that mean? While I wear the dress, I walk down the aisle, I dance on the dance floor. But aside from that, I also pretend to be a part of your life. So oftentimes I have a fake name, a fake backstory, and nobody in your life knows I'm hired.
Sometimes not even the person you are marrying. So I take on that role as your friend. And I've been doing this for seven years. People called it crazy. Some people called it brilliant. I always called it a must need. And I remember doing my first wedding ever for a woman named Ashley from Maple Grove, Minnesota.
I remember flying there, getting off the plane, thinking what are you about to do? You're about to show up at a stranger's wedding. Are you crazy? And when I got back on the plane to go back to New York, I remember thinking, Jen, this is something, and this is something that's going to be incredibly important to so many people's lives.
And that's sort of why I started it and why I keep doing it till this day. I want to go two directions here. So I'll ask first, what are some of the fun, surprising things you've seen or learned? I always say that I'm a person who never liked weddings.
I was never a person who planned a dream wedding. I could never care about my own wedding. I still don't like weddings. I think why I do this job is because I love helping strangers and chaotic situations. And that's what weddings are. I've learned so much about humans and love and relationship on this job that has completely reshaped how I think about humanity and both good ways and not so good ways.
One thing I like to talk about that nobody really will mention is that cold feet is an absolute real thing that happens to many people on their wedding day. I call it the diving board effect. We're right before they're about to walk down the aisle. They know whether or not they're making a mistake.
And these are people who might not have known before, but in that moment they know if you ask a lot of people who got divorced within the first year or so after their wedding, they will tell you, they knew in that moment they were making a mistake. And this is something so fascinating because a big part of my job is helping people when they have cold feet, whether a week before a month before, or five minutes before.
So watching cold feet, something that you only see on TV actually be real was incredibly fascinating to me and difficult to handle at first. The other thing that I've learned too, which is a little different and difficult to mention is that a lot of people don't get married for love.
A lot of people get married for love and something else. Pretty much all of us get married for love and something else. Some people don't get married for love at all, but some people get married for the and part, which might be financial security or might be because that person's going to provide them with a certain lifestyle or because they're at a certain age and this is just what they want to do.
And I have heard a lot of people admit to me candidly what that and is. And that was fascinating to me as well. I always thought people just had like fairytale romances. And when I met my future husband back in the day, I started to realize that this was true.
You fall in love, but what gets you to that finish line of marriage is always the and whatever that part is, whether positive or negative. And you said some people don't even have the love part. Yeah. Does that work out? And now you've been doing this long enough that you can see the end result.
It's crazy. Cause a lot of people will say, you must be so good at knowing if a couple's going to make it. But the truth is you could never, ever, ever judge anybody else's relationship because people stay in relationships, just like they enter relationships for different reasons. So just because you think your friends out there are not going to make it, whatever type of relationship they have might be exactly what they're looking for and what they want.
And it might be something so different than what you want. So a lot of people who are getting married because they want that person's money or because of whatever that reason is, they end up do staying together and it's because they got what they wanted and the other person got what they wanted as well.
And while it might be very different than what I want, it works for them. So I think it is so hard to know if a couple is going to make it. When I played this game at weddings, the couples I was like, Oh, they're going to be together forever, two years in are divorced.
So you don't really know. That's fascinating because I have some of those thoughts in my head, you know, Oh, that couple, they argue a lot or all this stuff. And so far I'm not anywhere close to being predictive of that behavior. Yeah. It might be their communication style. I can't tell you the amount of couples that right before they walked down the aisle, they're screaming at each other, they're cursing.
And while that's like not healthy and not good, that's their communication style. That's how they work. And for some odd reason, it just works for them. Cold feet is one thing and then calling it off as another. Has that ever happened? Many times. I've actually been hired a couple of times to end engagements where the person had nobody in their life they could ask for that help from.
So they'll call me up and we'll talk about the steps they need to take to get out of the engagement because they're scared to tell their parents or they're scared to tell their friends and they need that unbiased support system. But I've also been at weddings where they don't want to do it, where the bride tells me that she hates the groom and she wants out right now.
And my perspective, which is different than a friend or a family member, is I really want what's best for you. Yeah, your friends and family want that, too. But in the moment when the spotlight is on, they just don't want you to be embarrassed. They just want you to do whatever you can do to just get this moment over with.
So I've had a lot of people who we've had to end the wedding. I've had people who go through with the wedding, but they don't legally get married. But that's happened a lot. And that is not something I thought I'd have to deal with when I started the business.
This is wild. And you said you've learned a lot about relationships. Obviously, you haven't learned how to predict divorce. But what are things that you've learned that people listening could apply to their own relationship? I always thought because of this job, I would never want to get married anymore just because I've seen so much.
And when I started dating my now husband, I said to him after he proposed, we're going to do things differently. And I wasn't talking about the wedding. I was talking about what we had to do before we got married. I wanted to make sure we had all the checks and balances in place so that I knew that this was the right move for my life.
So I made us meet with a divorce lawyer to talk about prenums and what that would look like. And if we want one, we didn't end up getting one. But I can absolutely see why that's so important. And you can get a postnum, which I never knew about. We talked to a financial advisor to talk about what we should do with our finances.
And we didn't end up combining finances, but we went through the process of understanding that. We went to a marriage counselor to talk about why marriages fail. I literally was like, if you want to marry me, we are meeting with all of these professionals that people meet with once the marriage starts to go downhill before we get married.
And I wanted us to have education on what marriage is and what changes and all of these things. And while he was like so freaked out and was just like, can't you be normal and enjoy our engagement? It helped me feel prepared. And I think a lot of couples have conversations, but they don't really go through these motions before they get married because nobody tells you it's OK to or that you should.
Everybody in life sets you up to find love. They teach you how to date. Everyone helps you plan a wedding, but nobody helps you once you get married. You're just supposed to figure it out. And I didn't want us to figure it out. And that was something I've learned from the job is before you get married, go through a lot of these really tough conversations.
And then once you get married, things might be a little easier for you. Even if you are married and haven't gotten into them, right? Let's say you're thinking about having kids. You could go talk to a marriage counselor and say, hey, what are the problems that we're going to face when this happens?
What do you see? And what can we do now to find out how we would handle them and how we could do better? We're proactive with so many things in our life that matter, like our health or sometimes our careers. But we're not always so proactive with relationships. And that's what I've really tried to be with my partner is we don't really have a ton of big problems now.
We have our standard problems. But what can we know so that when we start to get into those problem areas, we know the tools that we can turn to and we know what to do. We're by no means perfect. But I think a combination of therapy and curiosity and meeting with a lot of these professionals has really helped us at least have these conversations in a neutral playing field rather than an awkward, hey, things are getting a little bad between us.
What should we do now? Because it's very hard to rise to the occasion when your relationship is starting to go downhill. Being a parent can be scary, whether it's watching your toddler jump on your new couch naked during potty training or the indescribable pain of stepping on tiny plastic dinosaurs in your bare feet, both of which happened to me recently.
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So whatever the occasion, download the Drizly app or go to Drizly.com. That's D-R-I-Z-L-Y.com today. Must be 21 plus, not available in all locations. So getting back to the business side of this, what advice do you have for someone trying to figure out what could be their side hustle? I think the important thing is think about what you're getting asked to do constantly in your life.
What are your friends asking you for help with? What are the things that you're spending your quality time doing? And if that's just reading different Reddit boards or reading certain books or watching certain TV shows or caring about certain hobbies, what are those things and can you monetize them?
I've literally tried to monetize everything I love in this life. And while that might sound like really creepy or cheesy, it works for me. But I think what are the things that you enjoy? What are the things that people consider you an unofficial expert in? And what are the businesses or side hustles that you would want to spend all day, Saturday and Sunday doing?
Once you start to think about that, you might come closer to an idea. The other thing to think about that I love to do is start tracking problems that you have every single day. What are the many problems you have from the second you wake up till the time you go to sleep?
Businesses are created because of problems need to be solved. And if you start monitoring and figuring out what the common problems you or your friends have, you might find yourself a really cool untapped business idea. Where are you tracking these? Are you writing business ideas and problems down in a notebook?
What's your method? I'm a paper and pencil kind of person. I don't really like a lot of technology and apps. If you saw my desk right now, I have a stack of papers and I use that. There's also a great website called notepd.com where you can write 10 ideas a day.
It's like a community. They can comment on it and it's free and people can add to your idea list. You can scan a site like that or read it or other places and write down a list of so many business ideas just on what people are venting about. When I think about how to expand Bridesmaid for Hire, I often go on wedding forums or in wedding Facebook groups, and I just read what problems people have and how they're trying to solve them.
And then I think of a digital product or something that I could offer that taps into that. When you're coming up with ideas, what advice do you have for someone who's stuck? If you're stuck with your own ideas, get out of your own head. So what does that mean?
Number one, find people in your life and just casually have a conversation. I was telling Chris that my personal friends are like really annoyed by me because all I do when I see them is ask them questions. So I'll say to them like, Hey, what do you have an idea about this?
This is my business idea. This is my newsletter idea. What do you think? Give me some ideas. And I'll write down their ideas and maybe I won't use them, but it'll get me thinking a different way. Sometimes when I'm feeling stuck, I just force myself through it. And I've learned this as a writer.
There's no such thing as writer's block when you're on a tight deadline to finish a book that you're getting paid to do, you have to write. So sometimes you just force yourself through it. Open up a Word doc, take out a piece of paper and pen and just force yourself to get ideas down.
James Altager is a big proponent of the ten ideas a day method, which is a game changer. So let's say you're like, OK, I'm feeling stuck about a new product to launch in my business. Great. Write ten ideas. Likely you're going to get to idea four and then really start to feel fatigued.
Then you'll get to seven and you'll feel like you can never add to that list. Usually ideas eight, nine and ten are the brilliant ones because you have to push this. You have to exercise that muscle. So either I reach out to other people and ask for their opinion or I force myself through that feeling of stuck by just doing.
And any type of motion you can put in your life, whether it's in your body or just in your settings or how you live your life will change your thought process. So if I can't figure out what to write or if I'm feeling stuck, if I go for a walk or if I change my location or if I change something about what's in my atmosphere, usually that feeling of stuck changes, too.
How did you first decide how much to charge someone to be their bridesmaid? And there wasn't a market for it. I'm going to be so honest with you. I was a poetry major. I was working at a startup. I had no idea. Literally, when the ad went viral, I went on national TV, live TV, and they asked me how much this cost.
And I said, Cos, this is a free service. I want to do this for free. And my brother, who's like in the business world, was like, what did you just do? And this is not going to be free. And to be honest with you, I didn't know how much to charge, but I found a different type of vendor in the wedding industry that I was closest to.
So I looked at wedding planners and they have coordinators and were very different, but I looked at their pricing model. I saw how much they charged, how they structured their packages. And I modeled it off of that. Even then, my pricing was far too low. And after I worked a ton of weddings, I would come home and raise my prices by five dollars, ten dollars just because I was exhausted.
So I think pricing is something that will take time to figure out. But you can do research, look at any other competitors that you have, figure out who your target audience is so you can match a price to your target audience and how much disposable income they might have to spend on your product or your service.
And the other thing to start to figure out is your operating costs. A lot of my operating costs are my time spent on these phone calls or me getting to the wedding or my downtime when I'm not working in the wedding or also being out on my own. I have to pay health insurance and all of these things can factor into your pricing.
But I was the one that never had any business training, any advice on what to do. I have learned and all of my success that I have had is because of all of the mistakes that I have made on my own costly mistakes. And if you went back in time, where would you start setting your price now if you could do it all over again?
If I could go back in time, I would say to myself, Jen, even though you don't think you are worth this price, let me tell you, you don't know your worth because you are too deep in the business to know better. So I want you to double, if not triple what you were charging.
I think I first started off in 2014 charging under a thousand dollars for this service, which is ludicrous because the amount of time and energy and resources that go into this. And now I'm closer to the three thousand dollar mark for the baseline package, which I think is a really good price for the service.
So I wish I would have tripled my price and said, you know what, Jen, you might not feel like this is what you should charge, but the value you're giving is extraordinary and people will pay it. We're always so scared that if we raise our prices or we price something higher than competitors, nobody will come to us.
But that's where branding and marketing and sales tools come into play. And I wish I had the confidence to do that. And I'll be honest with you, even now, I'm so scared to raise my prices. I do made of honor speech writing. And I had a client say at the end of working with me, I just want to let you know you are completely undercharging.
You should triple your prices. And I said to her, wow, I appreciate that feedback. But inside, I'm a bit of a scaredy cat because that price points working for me. I'm getting business. If I raise it, I might lose business. So even till this day, it's a confidence issue more than anything else.
So do you think you're going to raise your prices now that you've had that feedback? Absolutely, because not only did a client have to tell me, but I've had business mentors and just friends tell me that I'm charging too little. And I think it took the words of a client to make me think, you know what?
I asked her, OK, how much would you pay? So I think that's good feedback is once you've worked with clients or you've had people buy your product is to send out a survey and say, hey, how much would you have paid for this and get their honest advice? And have you changed your price since?
To be honest with you, this phone call was two days ago, and I haven't changed it since, but I'm working on it. I'm working on it. OK, that's a good question, though. I like it. I need this accountability, Chris. This is good. Well, why don't you just commit to change the price before the end of the weekend?
I'm going to because I'm launching a new website for Bites Me for Hire, and I'm going to go do it. I'm not going to triple it. I'll be honest with you, but I will tack on a couple hundred. And when it comes to marketing, not everyone will launch a crazy side hustle and go on national television in a matter of days.
So let's shelve that tactic. But you've launched a lot of other lines of business, side hustle, sources of income. What advice do you have for people to just get them out there? I think number one is you have to think about how to be different. There's so many people out there who are starting another podcast, another wedding business, another this, another that.
Your branding, your voice, everything has to be different. You have to differentiate yourself from all of the noise. If not, the marketing is going to feel impossible. So think about how you can do things differently, how you can do things like nobody else has done them before. Number two, tap into any resources that are currently where your audience are spending a ton of time.
There's so many people right now who are so against TikTok because they think it's for the young people or whatever. But the truth is, everyone's on TikTok. TikTok is the fastest growing way that you can blow up right now for free, not even spending a penny. Tap into that.
When we're doing marketing, we all look for a downloadable plan off the Internet of what we can do to market ourselves. And that downloadable plan will tell you Instagram, Facebook ads. None of that is going to work because it's oversaturated and your growth rate will be very, very low.
Go to the places that are new, that are fresh, that your audience is spending a lot of time on. Number two, press is great because it gets the word out there for you for free. So it's like advertising, but you don't have to pay for it. How do you do your own press?
There's two free websites that everybody should sign up for because they're absolutely free and the press comes to you. What I mean by that is every day you'll get a list of sources that news reporters need to talk to. And if you are a source, you'll end up in these articles for free.
One of those websites is called helpareporterout.com and the other is called Quoted, Q-W-O-T-E-D. The press is coming to you. So get on those two websites as a source. Press is great, again, because it spreads your name. You don't have to pay for it. So that's a good marketing channel.
Social media is good as long as you're not doing social media like everybody else, because most people are doing it wrong. And the third way is to create some sort of free value content stream. Rather than just be a business, be a brand. You also have to be a content creator.
So consider a newsletter, consider a podcast, consider a video series, but make it fresh, make it interesting, make it something where after the person reads it, watches it or listens to it, they walk away and go, "Whoa, I cannot stop thinking about that." How do you find that idea?
Because I think it's easy to say, write something that people stop in their tracks when they see. But you're a writer. What tips do you have for someone who's like, "I don't know what that is"? You need to wear the shoes of your audience, because a lot of times we start businesses and brands for people who aren't us or who were just one of that audience.
So you need to embed yourself with that audience. Number one, join Facebook groups, Slack channels, Discord groups where your audience hangs out and virtually stalk them. Read what they're talking about. Read how they're saying things. Read what problems they have. Get to know them from that level. And that will really help you feel like you start to understand who you're marketing to and who you're talking to.
Next, look at all your competitors and what they're doing. Find the similarities in what they're doing and try to do the opposite, because you will be surprised how doing the opposite of what they're doing might give you traction and might impress your audience in a really unique kind of way.
The third thing to think about is what can you put out there that is going to let people feel smarter, more inspired and entertained? All good content has that in there. So if you're not sure, think number one. Okay, what will my audience need to hear or read that would let them feel smarter about this topic?
So if you're selling mattresses, okay, what would your audience need to know about mattresses that would make them feel that way? What would they need to know that would make them entertained and inspired? And if we can start to answer these questions, what we're putting out there will attract the people we want to attract.
That's fantastic. So how did you end up making the decision to take this thing that you started on a whim on a Friday afternoon and say, "Okay, I've done this. I used to think I should do it for free. I'm getting paid. Now this is my full time business.
This is me. I'm not going to look for a day job. I'm not going to look for steady W2 income. I'm going all in on myself." I was a bit of a coward, I guess, because I really didn't. I waited till I was laid off from my full time job.
I'll never forget my boss calling me in and said, "We're having a massive layoff and I'm letting you go first because I don't think you should be here anymore." And I remember being devastated by that because I love the steady stream of income. Again, I did my job so quick.
I did it really well. And I had all the free time in the world and I was getting paid like $70,000 to do it back then. So I was so devastated. And I remember packing my bags and exiting the door. And as the front door hit me in the behind, I said to myself, "Jen, you are never going to work for somebody else ever again, ever again." And to make that happen, we will figure out what we have to do to pay our bills.
And I went home and I devised a plan that said, OK, we're going to take Bridesmaids for Hire to the next level. We'll figure out what that means. We're also going to tap into the other little side hustles that you had sort of done when you worked full time, like freelance writing and book writing and all of these things.
And we're going to make it work. We're going to figure it out. But that was the moment where I said, "I can't work for somebody else because you know what? I'm not a good employee. I don't want to just do my job. I want to do other things. And I will never be happy in a corporate environment." And I made that decision.
And honestly, in full honesty and transparency, it is not easy because every month I have a certain income goal of what I want to make. And sometimes you don't hit that and sometimes you do. And it's very inconsistent and it's hard. One month, you know, one side hustle or one business is taking off and the rest are failing.
And during the pandemic, all of them are failing and you start to panic. So it's definitely a lifestyle where you are on your toes. And some days you find yourself thinking, "Huh, would it be easier just to collect a paycheck?" And I do think that sometimes. But I just know that my happiness lies in me being able to run wild and free with these crazy ideas.
When you were deciding Bridesmaids for Hire, let's make this a thing. You mentioned you also looked at, "OK, what about writing and books?" Did a part of you say, "What if Bridesmaids for Hire could just be the one thing?" I always thought that Bridesmaids for Hire would never be the only thing because that wouldn't make me happy.
I am somebody who has known from a very early age that there's two categories of things that I am meant to do. One of them is write in any capacity. I've known since I was four years old, I wanted to be a writer. And the other is speak to inspire.
I've always wanted to be this inspirational speaker. So when I started Bridesmaids for Hire, I sort of turned both of those things into the gig. I wrote maid of honor speeches and I spoke and I inspired and I helped people. But I always knew I had to do other things with those passions.
My other passion was always being able to support people when they were going through really challenging situations. That's always been my target audience are people who are not feeling great about their lives and me being that person that could hopefully pick them up. So knowing that those are my passions always led me to figure out other things.
But no, I never thought Bridesmaids for Hire would be my only thing because it wouldn't make me happy. So two of the side hustles you spun up probably because of the passions you just talked about were coaching and speaking. And I hear a lot of people talk about, "I like advising people.
Coaching would be fun." Some people turn that into a full time gig. But how did you even get started in those two areas? And what advice do you have for people who are interested in them? I remember graduating college with a poetry degree and people would ask me what I wanted to do next.
And I said, "I want to be a motivational speaker." And so many mentors and people older than me were like, "Cool, but you have nothing to speak about. You're 22. You haven't lived a life." And I was offended by that because I thought I had lived a life at 22, but perhaps they were right.
But as I built my career, as I got laid off, as I built Bridesmaid for Hire, as I wrote books, as I did all of these things, I felt like I had more life experiences. And that led to a lot of people knocking on my door and asking for help and asking for advice and asking how to launch this or that.
And I decided rather than doing these one off free chats or rather than speaking and teaching at a school, why not offer coaching so it can be more personalized? So I think I got the confidence to offer coaching as a service once I started to get a steady stream of maybe 10 plus people a month reaching out for some sort of help.
And I got to do more speaking just by figuring out, OK, what was my keynote? What was I going to bring to the table at all of these conferences? And a lot of what I spoke about was how to take a crazy idea and turn it into a side hustle or how to market using no money or how to do your own PR.
I tapped into all of these skills that I figured out by starting Bridesmaid for Hire and running with it. So I guess that person at 22 was right. I really didn't know what to speak about or coach back then. But through these experiences, I built the confidence to launch that.
And these are things I still do till this day. And some seasons are busier and some seasons aren't. And that's the cool thing about juggling multiple streams of income, multiple side hustles, is that some seasons you'll run with three out of seven of them and then the other season that will change.
That's both stressful and exciting. And that summarizes, I really believe, my personal life and journey as an entrepreneur. Before I do any interview, I like to go find an episode of a podcast where someone's been interviewed and just kind of get a sense of their vibe. And I saw a bunch of you on one show and I was like, "Gosh, why is she going on the James Altucher show so many times?" And so I looked and you'd started this coaching series where you publicly were being coached.
It was called Make You A Millionaire. I only listed the first one so far. The goal was in six to 12 months, you were going to go through this coaching series and build your business up. How has that gone? What have you learned? I've been a fan of James Altucher for so many years.
I've loved his style. I saw somewhere that he had posted he was taking on these mentorees for his podcast, and I wrote an email. I reached out and never thought I'd hear back from him. I got an email within a couple of minutes being accepted to the show. We filmed the next day.
I opened up my entire life on that episode. And I remember thinking, "What did I just do?" I was so nervous because I figured a huge audience of people would hear it. I was so vulnerable in a way I had never been before. And frankly, I was quite terrified.
Not only that, but if you know James, you know that he has a lot of ideas, big ideas, scary ideas, things I've never done before. And I wanted to do everything that he said because I really did view him as that mentor. So he threw me into a world where I was already doing so much.
And now he gave me five other things to start to do. He had me start two newsletters, a product, all of these things. And it was a complete game changer. Did I make a million dollars from any of it? No. Am I close to that? No. But what it did help me figure out is other places and other things to tap into that I normally never, ever would have thought to do or would have thought about.
I'm somebody who for the past seven years, I've been my own boss. I'm a team of one. I am the brainpower of everything I do. And sometimes that's not enough or that's stale. But listening to somebody say, hey, do this, do this, do this, do this got me out of a funk and forced me into all of these different worlds that taught me something new.
I learned how to use Substack. I launched a product on Kickstarter. I created a card game, something I'd wanted to do, but had no idea what to do. I created a website where people can be human billboards. I just did everything. And I felt like I had no risk because I almost felt like I was doing these things to show him.
And it was almost like a fun experiment. So I felt risk free. Whereas in my own life, taking those risks is harder because I'm always so worried about making money. So I start to sort of put those risks aside and focus on things that are going to make me money.
But working with him on this podcast and this experiment forced me to try new things that I hadn't done in a while. I want to ask about a few of them, because Kickstarter is a great example. Everyone listening has probably found some interesting project there. What would you say about that experience?
If someone has an interesting idea of something to build? Was that a good, positive experience? I really liked the Kickstarter platform in the sense of it gives you a great landing page. You can film a video about your product. You could offer different tiers. And it's a great place to send people to to hopefully invest in your product.
And if you reach the goal, you have the product will get made and they'll get the product they bought. And if you don't, they get their money back. So it's a little bit risk free for your audience. However, what I am learning about everything in life is just because you're on a website like Kickstarter or you're on another type of website like that, it doesn't mean you're going to get organic traffic.
So you still have to market no matter what you start in this world, whether you release a podcast, a book, a product, a business. Having marketing skills is so essential. So the Kickstarter was great for a lot of those resources. But I still had to do a ton of hands on marketing.
I still had to think about how am I going to make this go viral? I still had to figure out how to post this on Instagram or talk about it on the podcast or get people to share it in order to get people to that page. That was all me and not so much Kickstarter.
And I think a lot of people think if you have a Kickstarter page, that Kickstarter will send you traffic. And that could be true, especially if you have a very viral idea or a really awesome video. That could happen. But for me, it required a lot of marketing. I liked it because it gave me the confidence to produce a product that I was very, very scared to release.
It also gave me the funds to go off and release it without having to tap into my own money. So there were a lot of benefits to releasing something on Kickstarter. Also, all I needed was a proof of concept. As I got the Kickstarter up and running, that's when I designed the card deck.
That's when I wrote the cards. That's when I figured out how to produce it. So it gave me some lead time to actually put it out there in the world. And it's out there. You hit your goal. People can buy the cards. I doubled the goal. I funded it 200%, which was cool.
And I've released the card game. I'm practically sold out with the first release of it. I'm reordering it right now. It's been an amazing, amazing thing to do because I've always wanted to create a physical product. My entire career has been services or books or nothing like a product of my own.
And creating this card deck was the first one that I've done. And it's a cool learning experience. I'm learning how to sell on Amazon. I'm learning how to talk to retailers and get it there. I'm learning about e-commerce. Like I'm learning about all of these things that I've always wanted to learn, but I didn't have an excuse to.
And that was the cool part about working with James is he gave me an excuse to learn different softwares and platforms and put out different ideas out there that I think I would have been too scared to do. If you're a person who wants to start a side hustle or you want to go out on your own and be an entrepreneur, people always talk about the importance of having mentors and people to turn to.
And I never really had any of that. But you get to points in your career where it's so essential because your brain can only take you so far and feeding off of the ideas of people you trust, whether they're in your industry or not, can really help you get out of a certain place where your brain is locked.
I've been fortunate to have mentors throughout my career. But oftentimes, they're not necessarily people that you might think are mentors. Like one of my closest friends is a mentor for a certain area of my life. And I would say don't always write off who could be a mentor because sometimes what you need is just someone with a different perspective.
And that doesn't need to always be someone who's done it a thousand times. It could just be someone whose opinion you respect. And oftentimes, I personally think the most valuable trait of a mentor is that you respect their opinion. Because if you don't respect their opinion, a lot of their feedback isn't going to be taken to heart.
And if you're not going to take the feedback, then the relationship doesn't always work. I like how you said you have a mentor for a certain part of your life. And I find that to be true. My true first ever mentor, and I write about this in my book, was an 86-year-old man that I met on the internet because I googled "free business help".
And I found this guy, met him at a library. He didn't even know what a bridesmaid was. And I went back to him every single Saturday for two years. I realized I wasn't going to him for business advice because frankly, he wasn't giving me that. But he was mentoring me on how to be tough.
And he was mentoring me on how to have mental strength and resilience and how to stand up for myself and how to have really tough conversations in the business world. And I was going to him for different reasons. I thought I was going to him for how to scale a business and write a business plan.
But truthfully, what I got out of him was something I never knew I needed, but during that time, got me through that. And I think it's the same thing with James. I started the podcast with him because I needed business advice, but really what he taught me is how to have fun, how to have experiments, how to think outside of the box.
Things I was greatly missing in my life. So you're right, don't write off people. And sometimes find a mentor who knows nothing about your industry, nothing about what you're doing, because you might take so much from them that somebody who's a seasoned vet in what you're doing might pass over and not even know to tell you.
So what were the lessons from this man about grit and resilience that made that possible? I found that early on when I started Bridesmaid for Hire, I was in all of these different negotiations and business contract meetings. And I was trying to pitch a TV show. And I was so scared to stand up for what I wanted.
And I remember we would do a lot of role playing. And one time he got out his keys and he said to me, if you're ever in a negotiation and they don't like what you're bringing to the table or they say no to you, you just drop your keys and you say to them, that's my final offer.
If you decline it, I'm picking up these keys and I'm never speaking to you again. This was a really tough guy and maybe some of his advice wasn't perfect, but it really toughened me up. And it showed me that I need to figure out how to push my scaredness away and my fear away and step up to these conversations like I've been there before.
And I know how much value I'm bringing. I'm somebody who you might not realize this from hearing me on podcasts, but I'm really shy, like in real life. I'm really, really shy. So when I found myself in a lot of these business conversations, I had imposter syndrome. I was just shy.
I didn't think I was good enough. And this guy, I think, really toughened me up. And through role playing, he would fix my language. He would fix my body language. And he would really just teach me how to bring myself there in a room. Sometimes the people who scared me like crazy.
And it's really made me, I swear to you, till this day, I could walk in a room of anybody, the most famous person in the world. And I won't let it faze me. You would never know that I'm scared. He's taught me how to not be intimidated, which is something that was really hard for me to learn as a person who's just naturally really shy.
Everybody intimidates me always. So what would you do if you were walking in to a room to meet the president? Is there something you would do in advance to prepare? I always do my body language warm up. So I always make sure that I drink a lot of water.
But I always tell myself, OK, keep your shoulders back because the more your shoulders are back, the more you open your chest up, the more you can breathe and the more you show confidence. I always remember to keep my hands controlled because that shows that you are controlled. So I'll keep my hands either at my belly button or by my waist.
And I'll sometimes I'll hold my hands together. And then the final thing is because you can learn about how anybody feels about you based on where their chin is. If someone's chin is down, they're completely terrified by you. They're intimidated by you. If their chin is up, you find this air of confidence.
So I'll walk in the room, shoulders back, my chin up, my hands controlled. I won't be shaking my body side to side. I'll be relatively still. I'll look the person in the eye and I won't show any kind of extreme emotion. I'm somebody in real life where I'm very enthusiastic.
But when I meet somebody who I'm intimidated by, I'll tone that down and I won't show that enthusiasm. And why that is is because I want them to know that I came there with a serious reason or I came there for a serious type of conversation. So I'll really play into that, too.
I just want to thank you quick for listening to and supporting the show. Your support is what keeps this show going to get all of the URLs, codes, deals and discounts from our partners. You can go to all the hacks dot com slash deals. So please consider supporting those who support us.
I'm going to take a little bit of a turn. I saw on Instagram you applied to be a host on QVC, which is wildly different than everything else you've done, other than maybe selling your card game online. What's the story behind that? My whole life, people have told me I should be a QVC host.
And I know this goes against everything I just said about being shy, but I'm also really good when the camera turns on. So I've done a lot of TV thanks to Bridesmaid for Hire. And when that camera goes on, I'm a different person. My mom will say to you, she doesn't recognize me because I completely light up.
I love TV. I love that spotlight. I love it. So my whole life, people have told me that I would do really well on QVC because if I genuinely like something, I am so passionate about it and convincing. If I genuinely liked this water that I'm drinking, I would bring such passion to it that you would say, you know what, Jen?
I'm going to give it a try because you really do seem to adore it. I've always been that way. I'm so passionate. So my whole life, people have mentioned QVC, mentioned that I should be a host. And I was on Instagram one day and I saw this casting director post about it.
And I was like, you know what? What will it take for me to try out? Literally five minutes, record a five minute video. So I did my hair. I put on some makeup. I recorded a five minute video on my camera, on my phone camera. And I sent it to them and they liked it.
I moved to the next round. I ended up doing like a zoom live interview with them. And that was all it took to try out for QVC. Now, ultimately, spoiler alert, I did not get hired, but it was something that I always wanted to try. And it took me nothing, five minutes of my life to initially try out.
Rather than sitting there and thinking about, should I, should I, should I? If I get it, my whole life would have to change. I have to move to Pennsylvania. I have to do all these things. I'm the kind of person who has always treated life, business, relationships, anything like this.
Don't overthink it. Just try. Just start. And then after you start, after you have a little bit of skin in the game, then figure out what the heck is going on. With Bridesmaid for Hire, I didn't have a business plan. I didn't have anything. I put the ad out there.
I figured it out. And that's how I am with every single thing I do. I do not overthink it. I just put it out there and then I figure it out. What would you tell someone if you were coaching them who's like, I'm not good at that, I'm sitting here overthinking everything?
Is there a trick? One thing tomorrow, what's one decision, what's one thing you have to do tomorrow and give yourself five seconds to make a decision and go. If you're somebody who is overthinking what color shirt to wear, count one, two, three, four, five, grab something and wear it.
And then you deal with the consequences of that for the day. And if you start to become a person like that, you'll start to realize, OK, I'm not going to overthink decisions. I'm going to make one and then deal with the consequences. I do this with everything in life.
And let me tell you, 90% of the things are not successful. You haven't heard about them because they haven't taken off. Right. But there's occasional thing here and there that ends up working out for you. And I think that's how it has to be, how I met my husband.
I like sharing this story because, again, it was a weird experiment. It wasn't something I overthought. I was horrible at dating. I was so awkward. I'm so shy. I said, you know what, for the whole month of February, you're going to go on 14 dates that month. I would go on four dates a day.
I didn't overthink it. Anybody who asked me out, I said, sure, we'll meet. What's the big deal? I didn't overthink it. I became so good at dating. I met nobody I wanted to ever see again. I go to delete the dating app and he was my final message. He was date 15.
Now I could have overthought that experiment or I could have just said, you know what, I'm going to go on these 14 dates and we'll see what happens. So I've tried to really be this kind of person with everything in life. And if you're not that kind of person, that's okay.
You're not going to wake up tomorrow and do something drastic, but try it with a tiny, tiny, tiny, small decision and then see how you feel after. I like that. Before we wrap, I want to come back to the topic of weddings because we're almost on the other side of this pandemic, right?
People have canceled weddings. What advice do you have for anyone planning a wedding coming up or maybe better said, what do you think having gone to so many makes a great wedding? There's three things that people care about at your wedding, and they don't care about anything but the three things.
Number one is the music. It doesn't matter if you have a DJ or live music, but you want to have music that gets people up and dancing. You really want to make sure that the music is good because that makes people have a good time and they'll never, ever forget that.
You could always remember the weddings where you found yourself smiling and laughing and just having a good time. And usually music helps make that happen. Number two, people love food. So good food will make your wedding phenomenal. And here's the thing. You don't have to go with a traditional wedding caterer.
You don't have to have steak and fish and chicken. You can have whatever kind of foods you want. Make it unique. Make it about you. Go to local restaurants, have food trucks, have food there that you genuinely would be excited to eat, because usually that wedding food goes in the trash.
You don't even want to eat it. And number three is some sort of open bar or alcohol. People love their drinks and having that just makes them happy. I don't personally care about number three at weddings. So I'll give you one more thing that really matters is the weather.
The weather can really affect your wedding. So if you're having some sort of outdoor experience or wedding, make sure you always have an indoor rain backup plan because your guests don't want to feel uncomfortable in any sort of way. My number one tip for people getting married, and I beg you to listen to me on this, is please do not go into debt with your wedding.
Yes, it's a big celebration and it's super important, but it is never worth going into debt. If you don't have the cash to pay for your wedding, try to plan a wedding where it fits the cash that you have. Try not to go into credit card debt or any type of debt for your wedding.
The best way to do that is to set a budget before you start planning. Come up with an overall number for how much you can spend. It doesn't matter if it's five thousand fifteen or one hundred thousand. Pick the number first and then break down how much you can spend per vendor.
The best way to figure that out is to pick the top three things you care about for your wedding and then spend the most money there and everything else you'll find budgeted ways to pay for. But please, your wedding is special. It's important. It is great. But you will never meet a couple who says, Yeah, I'm glad I went into a ton of debt and started the marriage off in debt because of the wedding.
Most people, after they get married, say it was great. But if I could do it again, I wouldn't spend that much. I'm going to push back on all three music. Do you have no, no, no, not not push back. But sorry, let me say that again. I'm going to drill down on all three and try to get more out of you.
Music. Do you publish your playlist? I'm sure you've had to be the one that picks the playlist. Is there a Spotify playlist of what you think makes for a good vibe that you share? It's hard because no one ever wants to listen to my music, but I would play Kesha and Chainsmokers and I would play hits that if you were in like a Vegas nightclub, you would play right.
Because you want people to have fun and get up and dance. What I think doesn't work well at weddings are the standard playlist. Don't play Bruno Mars. Don't play Ed Sheeran. Don't play these songs that you hear again and again and again. Because people are so bored. We just went to a wedding this weekend and the music was so slow that people were on the dance floor and they were like, wait, what do we do with our bodies to this music?
So I know that you want to have like your favorite songs and stuff, but also have things that like put people in good moods. And I can tell you all day what to play. But of course, pick songs that you also like and you enjoy because it is your wedding.
But you want to have some good hits as well. What about finding something that works with the old people in the room as well? I think, yeah, you want to throw in some songs that they would like. But truthfully, they are the kind of people who are so happy to be at your wedding that they're going to dance to Kesha or the Chainsmokers.
Even if they don't know the song, they're going to have a good time. I think we're always like, oh, I got to play some hits that like my great aunt's going to like, but truthfully, your great aunt is going to like anything you play and is going to be so happy to dance.
We spend so much time and money accommodating everyone that's coming to our wedding. But the truth is, we cannot make everybody happy. So in general, try to think about how you can make everyone happy as a whole. OK, on food, what are some of the most memorable food options you've had?
I'll share mine because it was my own wedding, but we decided we didn't want seated, plated meals. So we just picked three countries we'd been to where we love the food. And then we just served in little paper baskets. One was sliders and sweet potato fries. One was Thai curry.
And then we had some sushi rolls. We did chocolate chip cookies for dessert because we didn't really care about cake. So we tried to do small plates that represent countries we'd been to. But I'm curious what stood out in a memorable food way. And that's epic because you know what?
People are never going to forget that. And it meant something to you. It was good food. Obviously, and we talked about this before. I love pizza. And I just went to a wedding that was all pizza. And not only that, but at the end of the wedding, all of the leftover pizza that nobody ate, they had on a table with to go boxes that you can take home with you.
I was like, this is the best wedding ever. But if you don't like pizza, that's OK. But you know exactly what you did, Chris. Normal food that people would be excited to eat any other time. I think we're also forced to think that we need to have this traditional wedding with all this fancy food.
But the truth is, most of your guests just want the Thai food or the hamburger sliders or they want slices of pizza or they want macaroni and cheese. And especially if it's because it means something to you, they'll be happy as well. I love a wedding where the food is different, but also the food is something that means something to the couple.
And I especially love a wedding where they go heavy on the desserts because I'm a big dessert person personally. So I love a good dessert at a wedding that's not wedding cake. And then the last this is something we struggled with. So for drinks, do you think open bar?
Do you think just pick two cocktails? What do you think works best? It's funny because I'm not a drinker at all. I am like a water seltzer root beer float drinker. But I know a lot of people at weddings will say this, that if possible, and if this works for your budget and your finances, a type of open bar is usually best.
And even if that means, by the way, it's open bar for an hour, that's OK. But if that is something you can afford, that might be something to lean into because a lot of people do enjoy drinking. But you're absolutely right. It doesn't need to be this extravagant open bar.
You can do just a couple of beers or wines or you can do liquor. That's not top shelf. You can do a signature cocktail and then have like just beer and wine. So you don't have to have an extensive open bar. But I do think offering alcohol for your guests is something that they do appreciate if they have to pay for it, they will.
But if that's something you can budget for, I think that's a good gift that a lot of your guests appreciate, which is hard for me to say because I'm not a drinker, but I know a lot of people do care about that. And from the perspective of the couple, since you have the inside ear to the bride, usually what is something that someone going to a wedding can do to be a memorable guest in a non embarrassing way?
I think going along for the party and being enthusiastic during the ceremony, not having your phone out, recording everything, and instead just making eye contact with the couple or with the officiant. And when they walk down the aisle, smiling at them and just being supportive with your body language.
And during the wedding, most couples who have a dance floor, they really want their guests to be on it. So even if you're not a big dancer or you're a little bit shy, just crowding around the dance floor, at least having your conversations on the dance floor. A lot of people are so stressed about is this going to be fun?
Are people going to dance? So if you can get near the dance floor, you make a lot of people happy. Try to also if you can be like a superstar guest, try to be that guest that sits down at their table and makes genuine connections with everybody there. Tables at weddings are really awkward.
You're sitting with people you don't know. And if you can be that person that bridges that gap, that relationship, you make the couple happy because then they feel like everyone at their wedding had a good time, met new people, and it wasn't awkward. I can't remember the exact person, but I remember after our wedding, there was one person that all of like my aunts and uncles and grandparents were like, "Oh, they were such a great person." It's like, you know, that guest.
So maybe I'm both saying it was memorable and not because I can't remember who it was. Yeah. But be that guest. Be that person. Be that guest. I know you help people write a lot of speeches. So obviously, if you're stuck, you have a service for it. But what advice do you have to someone delivering a speech at a wedding to nail it?
Number one, practice public speaking beforehand. But really what I mean by that is break down your speech in such a way where every three sentences you are forcing a two second pause. So the three, two rule, every three seconds, pause for two seconds. That will slow you down. That will allow your audience to hear what you're saying, and that will let your jokes land and make them funny.
Oftentimes, when people are nervous as speakers, they go too fast and nobody can hear what they have to say. The best length for a speech is about the three to four minute mark. You don't need to go over that. If you want to share more, write it down and hand it to the couple to read later.
But they will really respect a three to four minute speech. And when you're writing the speech, remember, you're not writing it for the couple. This is something that I think people don't realize. You're actually writing the speech for the entire wedding. So what you're really trying to do is prove the relationship you have with that person who you're good friends with and the person they're marrying to the entire audience.
So skip out on inside jokes or these long, detailed stories that will take an audience forever to understand and write the speech for the audience who is learning about the relationships that you have. That's what makes for such a good speech. Anything else I miss advice for anyone going to or planning a wedding?
If you're a bridesmaid or a groomsman in a wedding, the only thing I'll tell you is please, please, please understand that you're allowed to say no. We often think that if we take on that role, we have to say yes to everything. But if there's something you can't afford, you don't want to do or you don't have time for it, make sure you say no.
How do you say no? You simply say, hey, thanks so much for asking me to do that. But at this time, that's just not something that I can swing. Happy to help in other ways. Keep it easy. Keep it friendly. But make sure you stand up for yourself and say no.
I like it. Last area I like to ask everyone is to pick a city often where they live, but sometimes your favorite city to visit and tell anyone coming to that city where they should have a meal, grab a drink and something unusual to do. I would love for you to come visit us in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York.
It's a small little neighborhood in Brooklyn right outside of Manhattan. When you get here, you're going to get off the subway on Bedford Avenue. You're going to walk to Joe's Pizza. It's a famous pizza place all over New York. You're going to get a slice of cheese pizza and you're going to get it on a paper plate and you are going to walk with that pizza to the East River.
Once you get to the park down there, you're going to be able to see the Manhattan skyline. There's lots of places you can sit and drink and eat right there and have a really, really good time. One of the cool parts about this neighborhood is all of the fun vintage shops, but you can shop all day bookstores you can go to.
And there's tons of music venues. There's lots of cities in the world with great music, but there is something so cool about the music in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I'm proud to live here. Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. This has been great. Where can people find everything you're doing online?
Because there is a lot. You can check out my website, Jen Glantz dot com. You can follow me on Instagram at Jen Glantz, where I share personal stories, secrets of behind the scenes of my life, or because you're listening to a podcast right now, you can search for you're not getting any younger.
It's my podcast where I share how you can disrupt your life, whether it's health, business relationships. And you can check out Chris because I just interviewed him. The episode is live. Chris shares stories he has never shared before, and he gives you his favorite top three hacks on the show.
So check it out. Totally. That episode is great. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. I really hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much for listening. If you haven't already left a rating and a review for the show in Apple Podcasts or Spotify, I would really appreciate it.
And if you have any feedback on the show, questions for me or just want to say hi, I'm Chris at all the hacks dot com or at Hutchins on Twitter. That's it for this week. I'll see you next week. And I'm Chris. And I'm Chris. And I'm Chris. And I'm Chris.
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