Jared Judge: 0:02

What's up? Denver event professionals? Welcome back to another episode of the Denver Nays podcast. I am your host, jared Judge, music director of Extreme Strings, electric Violins, and I am here today to spotlight one of our industry's leaders, somebody who wears so many hats. You've definitely heard her name before. You've probably been involved in one of the many things she's up to, so I'd love to welcome to the podcast Gray. How's it going, juls?

Jewels Gray: 0:29

I'm great. How are you, Jared? Thanks for having me.

Jared Judge: 0:31

I am amazing. I am so excited because we are actually just under a week away from one of I don't know the most visible hats that I think all of us know you from, which is the Rocky Mountain Bridal Show. So I'm very excited for that. I'm sure you are too. How's planning going for that?

Jewels Gray: 0:48

Absolutely. You know we're and, like you said, we're under a week to go. The show's on Sunday. So every day is lots of last minute emails from my exhibitors with questions and last minute people wanting to sign up and grab a booth. Of course, ticket sales and last minute marketing production stuff. So it's a little nutty, but we're good, we're hanging in there.

Jared Judge: 1:08

That's amazing. I'm very impressed. I cannot imagine how much work goes into planning this kind of expo. Right, you have hundreds of vendors, thousands of brides, just all the moving parts. How do you balance all of that?

Jewels Gray: 1:23

Yeah, it is definitely a lot of moving pieces and a lot of people involved my staff, exhibitors, the convention center staff and all of their labor, and food and beverage people and wifi, people power, people. Yeah, it's a lot. Thankfully, I have a great team behind me that helps out, and then also, I make a lot of lists and I live by a color coded calendar. That is the only way that it's possible.

Jared Judge: 1:51

Yeah, well, that's impressive, you put it all together. So, to somebody who is unfamiliar with the Rocky Mountain Bridal Show, how would you describe it in a nutshell?

Jewels Gray: 2:00

Yeah, real quick, I'm the third owner of it. It's been around since 1989. Yeah, real quick, I'm the third owner of it.

Jared Judge: 2:14

It's been around since 1989. It's Colorado's best wedding show and it is the only one who is locally owned and operated and run by a fellow exhibitor. That's awesome.

Jewels Gray: 2:21

You say it's the best in Colorado. How do you define that? Well, I say that as an exhibitor because before I took over the Rocky Mountain Bridal Show, I've been a photographer since 2006,. So 18 years, and I've exhibited in all the shows, all the smaller venue ones, the big, national ones that come and everything in between. And so I say that the Rocky Mountain Bridal Show is the best because it always has the best leads with the best conversion. I say quality over quantity. Yeah, it's just awesome Great vendors, great location, like I said, locally owned and operated and run by an exhibitor. I mean, we go all out to make an experience not only for our exhibitors but also our guests.

Jared Judge: 3:01

Yeah, that's amazing. I remember you know this is going to be the second year that I'm participating in this bridal show. The first year, I remember I got a bunch of emails with webinars on how to make the most of the exhibiting process. That's something that from my experience you know I've done wedding shows in Colorado and Wisconsin and pretty much you just pay them at least a thousand bucks and then they're just like good luck. So I feel like it's very unique that you here are actually trying to help us make our money back and more. Why Tell us more about that?

Jewels Gray: 3:36

Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up because, as an exhibitor myself, I want my exhibitors to have the best ROI, the best conversion rates, because if you guys are happy and you get business out of it, you'll continue to come back. I love it when I see small businesses grow, so bringing educational opportunities to learn how to work the show, work the leads, convert those brides it only helps everybody, right? I love to see small businesses grow and expand and hire new people and just grow in general. I guess is what I'm basically trying to say. But yeah, we're the only one. I mean, we're not here to just sell you booth space. I want your experience to be amazing, so we bring those educational opportunities throughout the year. We even started doing styled shoots with exhibitors only to help build portfolios, build relationships, and then we have, of course, a lot coming in for 2025 that I'm excited to tell everybody about.

Jared Judge: 4:39

I'm excited to hear about that, Probably whatever you can reveal today that would be awesome. Very cool. I'm sensing you mentioned earlier, before we were recording, that you are a champion of small business. Where does that come from?

Jewels Gray: 4:54

Yes, so well, obviously, I'm a small business too. Both of my businesses are small, and I've been in business for myself since 2006. I have that entrepreneurial spirit and I also work with a company, an organization called NFIB, the National Federation of Independent Business, and basically we are the voice of small business in the legislature. We're the only organization who fights exclusively for small business at the state and the federal level. So I'm out meeting small businesses every single day, hearing about their struggles, letting them know that we're here to help them. We keep our members updated on legislation that's coming that affects their bottom line.

Jared Judge: 5:33

Yeah, that's awesome. I'm going to go even deeper into the onion here. And why is small business important to you?

Jewels Gray: 5:41

It's the backbone of our country, right? I mean in Colorado, I think. Gosh, what are the stats? I'd have to look them up. But I want to say I don't even know, I don't want to misquote, but you know, the majority of business and commerce in the United States is small business. From the guy, you know, the one guy in the garage down the street who doesn't even speak English, to a big, huge cement company that has over 700 employees, they all are small and independent business. They count for that. So you know, from providing services and products to a big corporation, that provides a service and we can't live without.

Jared Judge: 6:24

Yeah, I love that. I feel very similarly to like. I feel that you know we, especially in the wedding and events industry, it's mostly small business.

Jewels Gray: 6:33

Oh, absolutely.

Jared Judge: 6:34

A lot of it is creators, people who love their craft. I know you're a photographer. You were probably doing photography as an art form for yourself for quite some time, very passionate about it, before you decided to monetize that, and that's when you became a small business owner. I'm the same way with music. I've been playing music since I was eight.

Jewels Gray: 7:00

And then when I went to grad school, that's when I was like how do I monetize this? I became a small business. So I feel like and I love it when people are like, I quit my day job to go full time with my business. It's so exciting when I just get such a charge, when I hear people doing that.

Jared Judge: 7:09

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, I love what you're doing. I appreciate it so much. I'm sure the hundreds of other small business owners in the bridal show community appreciate it, and in the greater small business community at whole. So thanks for what you do.

Jewels Gray: 7:23

Absolutely.

Jared Judge: 7:24

Thank you For sure, and so I mentioned your other business, the photography company. Would you mind telling us a bit about White Buffalo Photography?

Jewels Gray: 7:34

Yeah, so White Buffalo is actually a rebrand. I've been by by since 2014. But yeah, I just I wanted to raise my prices a little bit, go after higher end weddings. I'm saying that I shoot lavish weddings for exciting and in love couples and I shoot them all over Colorado, all over the United States and even internationally.

Jared Judge: 8:00

Oh wow, that's awesome. What was like the craziest destination wedding you've ever done.

Jewels Gray: 8:06

Oh, the craziest. Well, the most recent and I'm so excited that I got to mark it off my bucket list was that I shot a wedding in Italy this summer, which was such a dream, I felt. Which was such a dream, I felt like I was in a movie. It was unreal.

Jared Judge: 8:19

That's amazing. What part of Italy.

Jewels Gray: 8:22

The Amalfi Coast. Okay, I don't know that specific coast, but any coast in Italy sounds like a bucket list. I mean Italy's amazing right, yeah, for sure. I truly felt like I was in a movie. It was incredible.

Jared Judge: 8:35

That's gorgeous. I truly felt like I was in a movie. It was incredible. That's gorgeous. And how was the food and wine.

Jewels Gray: 8:39

Oh, I ate so much food. I came back 10 pounds heavier. All the pasta, all the gelato, all the drinks. It was so good.

Jared Judge: 8:47

Yeah, that's awesome. So is it your photography business? Is it primarily weddings, then?

Jewels Gray: 8:53

Yeah, I would say the majority is. My bread and butter is weddings, and that's what I like to shoot the best. You know, I'm so lucky because well and anybody in the wedding industry really but especially with photography because we're the one vendor that's around a couple the majority of the day, but we get to spend the happiest day of their lives together with their best friends and family. They look amazing, they're in these incredible locations and I get to do that for my job. Yes, please, that's incredible, you know. And then I just I love it when my clients come to see their photos and then they get tears in their eyes. We live in their wedding day. It's such an amazing feeling and they get paid for it. I mean, you can't go wrong.

Jared Judge: 9:32

Exactly, I know. Sometimes I'm still like shocked that I get paid to play music for a living. How crazy is that, that's awesome. Yeah, so I'm going to throw you some, some hardball questions, because I feel like you can handle them OK. As a photographer, I know one of the biggest challenges is differentiating yourself. How do you stand out in a marketplace that is full of lots of great photographers and a lot of people who are just trying to enter the field because they have a nice camera? How do you stand out?

Jewels Gray: 10:04

Exactly. Oh my gosh, I was just talking about this yesterday. Yes, there are a million photographers, as most people know, in the wedding industry, and that's because technology has gotten so much easier over the years and anybody can call themselves a wedding photographer. But I stand out with my experience. Like I said, I've been doing this 18 years, which is so crazy to say. But also my style. It's been described as edgy, maybe gothic, I don't know about that so much. That's one of the reasons why maybe I rebranded. I could see how my old brand that was black on black, could be conceived as gothic anyway. But also my, my hair, my personality, the ways you know. I could never get rid of this purple hair. That's how people know me, that's true. But you know, it's just. It's all about presentation, my style experience. It's all about presentation, my style experience.

Jared Judge: 10:56

Yeah, that's awesome and I love that you mentioned the aspects of your business that are not just about the art, because I think that's probably one of the hardest leaps to make as a small business of business skills and soft skills that aren't related to the art of capturing amazing, beautiful scenes with our camera or anything in the wedding industry, but they don't understand that it's 80% of it is business and taxes and client management and shipping and editing and all the things that are on the back and that people don't really see.

Jewels Gray: 11:46

20% photography I mean, yes, you have to be good at that 20%, but also you're not going to be in business for more than you know. I think what there's a huge stat like 80% of small businesses go out of business within five years. Because they don't understand that business side of it.

Jared Judge: 12:04

Absolutely. How did you like come to discover the business side and clearly you're good at it to the point where you now have two businesses that are running concurrently? Tell me about that journey.

Jewels Gray: 12:16

Yeah, so I got married in 2003 and my now ex-husband was a photographer. He went to school for it. He was kind of doing it on the side. And when we got married, we didn't have a great experience with our photographer, so kind of got our wheels turning. We were working in the music business, I was doing production, and we were like, oh well, maybe we'll try this. So we started getting that going.

Jewels Gray: 12:41

I've always been very business minded. He's more of like the artist type. He just wanted to be the guy behind the camera, which is fine. How do you become a business and what do we need to do? And we got that going. I went to school and got licensed cosmetology just as something to fall back on, just in case this whole photography thing didn't work out Right. And then we just kind of went from there. Thankfully, in the photography world, you don't have to go to college for it. There's a million workshops, conferences, online resources that you can learn from, which I highly encourage everyone to do. And I got a great mentor who has been with me ever since 2010. Eight, I think, 2009, something like that. But he's always been in my corner and, yeah, that's kind of how it started.

Jared Judge: 13:34

That's awesome. I'm curious what are some of like the books or courses or learning resources that you would consider to be on your business bookshelf?

Jewels Gray: 13:45

I'm so glad you asked. My mentor's name is Sal Sincotta. He runs an incredible conference every year in St Louis. It's called Shutterfest. Last year was our 10-year anniversary of it. I also teach at it, but that would be the most incredible place to start for anyone who wants to get into wedding photography, videography, but also there's a ton of business courses as well. At this conference. It's in April. Like I said, it's in St Louis and that's not like any other conference. There's a lot of hands-on shoots going on and we're a Shutterfest family. We're a little nutty, but we take over this hotel in St Louis and from the few days before to the few days after the conference, you can get up any time of the day or night and there's shoots going on. There's groups of people walking around, there's models available, there's wardrobe, there's hair and makeup. It's incredible. That would be an incredible place to start. You can also look up Sal on YouTube. He has a huge following. He does a magazine called Shutter Magazine. Yeah, that would be a great place to start.

Jared Judge: 14:56

That's awesome, very cool. I find one of the hardest things within business like once you're a small business owner and you've accepted that you still have so many different things to learn. To me, the thing that I find myself spending the most time on is marketing.

Jewels Gray: 15:14

Absolutely.

Jared Judge: 15:14

I'm curious if that's true for you too, and what were some of the lessons that you had to learn in marketing.

Jewels Gray: 15:21

Balance time management. But again, thankfully, things have gotten easier. I find myself using Canva a lot for my marketing pieces instead of starting from scratch in Photoshop, which has been a tremendous time saver. And then also, I do need someone for social media, because that is a whole job within itself, right. It's hard to be able to post every single day, or I've even tried doing. Okay, monday I'm going to sit down and do all my social media posts for the month. That doesn't work for me.

Jewels Gray: 15:57

So it's a constant battle, right? They say you need to be consistent and you need to post every day and repost on your stories four to five times a day to get that algorithm going and break it. But it is such a time suck. It's like the pain of my existence is social media, especially with two businesses. So, yeah, marketing that's a whole job.

Jared Judge: 16:23

It definitely is. You mentioned that before we hopped on the recording that the numbers for this year's Rocky Mountain Bridal Show are even much better than last year. How the heck do you get a thousand people to show up to one place on one time? That sounds like a massive undertaking.

Jewels Gray: 16:40

It is, and thankfully I do have a guy for that. He does so. I'm also on the board of WSPI, the Wedding Show Producers International Group, and it's a whole group of wedding show producers around the country and we even have some international members as well. But this guy, jason, he's in South Africa. He is a numbers and data nerd and he is incredible. So he works with a few other bridal show producers around the country and we kind of share ideas. Incredible so he works with a few other bridal show producers around the country and we kind of share ideas and he compares our shows to others and what's working for them and not me and you know vice versa. So he's been incredible. But it's all Facebook and Instagram ads.

Jared Judge: 17:21

Okay, so I'll pay advertising.

Jewels Gray: 17:23

Yeah.

Jared Judge: 17:24

That's awesome. That's definitely like something I'm very interested in, but I know not a lot of people in our wedding industry actually run paid Facebook and Instagram ads. Yeah, any, uh, any tips or advice for those who might be considering it.

Jewels Gray: 17:40

Oh man, um call Jason. I'm happy to share him with everyone. Um, yeah, I I don't really know. He tells me what he needs. I send him photos, I send him copy and content and he just runs with it after I approve it. Yeah, facebook ads. I need to do them for my photography business, for sure.

Jared Judge: 18:03

Yeah, have you thought about doing them?

Jewels Gray: 18:06

Oh, absolutely, I just haven't gotten to it.

Jared Judge: 18:08

Yeah for sure. I've tried a couple for my extreme strings business and it's hard to get them to work consistently, like they'll work for a little bit and then the numbers just tank.

Jewels Gray: 18:20

So right, right, and that's that's another thing that sal does. He has a group called level up and it's basically you pay a monthly fee and then you have access to all these resources. There's a Facebook group and then monthly webinars that he'll go into Facebook ads and he'll give you templates, if you're a member, that you can just drop in your photos and your info, so he makes it really easy and streamlined to get those going. He also owns a company called Disruptor, which is a leads management tool, and it also works with 17 Hats, which is a CRM that I use, and so they kind of talk to each other and it makes it really streamlined.

Jared Judge: 19:04

Oh, that's awesome. Well, I love workflow automation, especially if you generate the lead. You don't want them to go dead, so that was exactly part of the training that you guys offered for the Rocky Mountain Bridal Show was following up with your leads post show. Yes, yes.

Jewels Gray: 19:20

And that's where most of the bookings come from. It's not necessarily at the show. It's so important to follow up with those leads after and stay on top of mind, because sometimes they'll come months after when you know they'll go to the show and not be ready to book at that time. But if you stay on top of mind, you're who they think of when they're ready to book.

Jared Judge: 19:39

Yeah for sure. That kind of leads me to just kind of a selfish question, which is you know, I've been a part of the nationally owned and operated bridal shows and I've also been a part of yours and it seems to me like you encourage your vendors to market to these people on a consistent basis afterwards, whereas those national ones tend to like put limits and they'll even say you can only email them once a month, and if you email them more than once a month, we have hidden email addresses in our list that we will know and we'll catch you and punish you somehow.

Jewels Gray: 20:15

I know, and I'm not sure why they started doing that, because they didn't used to. I think I could see, maybe, if people got really spammy and then they got bad reviews or complaints, because that happened at the Rocky Mountain Bridal Show last year. A couple vendors got really really spammy and aggressive and then the show got a bad review. So I can see how they would do that. But at the same time you're paying for this leads list and if you're offering an option to opt out, then I don't see what the problem would be, because you're following the law.

Jared Judge: 20:50

Exactly. But I guess I do understand the other side of the coin, because I hadn't thought about that. I have a mailing list I run another company as well outside of this and I've got an email list that has a clear unsubscribe button on the bottom and I will get people replying saying take me off your list. It's like there's a button at the bottom, so part of it's just human error, I guess season, oh my God.

Jewels Gray: 21:16

I get so many political ads and emails. It's insane. So I can see that, yeah, and I mean it's overwhelming sometimes and people just get frustrated and they get exhausted with it. And then you get and if you spam them too much or they're you know they're on Facebook and social media and so they see all of that too. They just what do they call it? Buyer fatigue?

Jared Judge: 21:43

Sure.

Jewels Gray: 21:44

They're exhausted. I get it.

Jared Judge: 21:46

For sure. I think that you know. Getting deeper into the weeds of marketing, I feel like there's a difference between being spammy and being helpful. Agreed, so there's a whole like. I went through a lot of marketing training too and one of the best piece of advice I got was to use information first marketing, where your emails actually help them think through their situation and problem rather than just like in your face. 20% off if you buy today.

Jewels Gray: 22:13

Yeah, yeah, bye, bye, bye, yeah, hire me, hire me, right, right. And I think that I learned that, one of those things, from Vanessa Joyce. She's a really amazing photographer, incredible at business, she has a huge following, but she I learned something from her that stuck into my brain and I think she read it from a book. Of course I don't know the name of the book, but it was Jab Jab Jab, right Hook. So the Jab Jab Jab is nurturing, educational, helpful, and that right hook is the sale.

Jared Judge: 22:44

Yeah, that's awesome. I feel like I've also heard that from like Seth Godin.

Jewels Gray: 22:47

Yeah, right, and maybe that's where she heard it from. I don't know. Yeah, maybe it's just a common marketing thing, we'll take it For sure.

Jared Judge: 22:56

We've got so much in common, so much to talk about. We should definitely grab coffee outside of the context of this podcast, but cool. So we talked a lot of business. Let's talk a little personal stuff. So tell me a bit about what you love to do in Colorado, for fun.

Jewels Gray: 23:13

Well, when I do have time, my favorite thing to do is ride motorcycles. I started riding when I turned 40. I call it a what is it? A midlife crisis. I bought a Harley and decided I was going to learn how to ride it.

Jared Judge: 23:27

That's amazing.

Jewels Gray: 23:29

I can't wait to get out right now, especially after the show, probably next week, to just take a day and decompress and go ride through the hills and maybe the peak to peak and see the leaves changing. That's one of the best things to do in the fall.

Jared Judge: 23:42

That's awesome. I heard last weekend Gwinella Pass was like an hour to get a half a mile.

Jewels Gray: 23:48

So oh, I don't doubt it.

Jared Judge: 23:50

That's why I don't go on the weekends.

Jewels Gray: 23:53

That's so cool yeah.

Jared Judge: 23:55

Um, you'd never owned a bike before then.

Jewels Gray: 23:58

No, I, my ex-husband, rode, but I never had the right gear. And his bike it's a hard tail, it didn't have suspension on the back, so trying to ride on the back was like not fun for me and so and I was always cold. So my boyfriend now we've been together 10 years, he rides, he builds, he's award-winning bike builder. But none of his bikes ever have seats on the back, because they're choppers and they're cool. So I'm like, well, fine, I'm going to get my own bike. Then you know.

Jewels Gray: 24:24

So I started writing, yeah, when I turned 40. So it's been seven years now, um, but I've been missing out. I should have done it a long time ago. It's amazing.

Jared Judge: 24:35

So cool, I do not ride, but maybe one day so fun. That's so cool, um, very cool. Well, I think we're getting close to the end of this episode. Was there anything that I didn't ask about, that you wish that I did?

Jewels Gray: 24:49

No, I don't think so.

Jared Judge: 24:51

Okay, very cool. Well, it was amazing getting to know you and hearing more about your story of starting your businesses. I am curious for our listeners how could they go and find your different businesses and get in touch with you?

Jewels Gray: 25:05

Yes, so white buffalo photography. Of course I'm on Facebook. Instagram is white buffalo underscore photo and my Rocky Mountain bridal show is Rocky Mountain bridal show on Instagram and Facebook. Of course I'm on TikTok for both of those things as well, and then if anybody wants to learn more about NFIB, just feel free to reach out. I'd be happy to show you and tell you more about it.

Jared Judge: 25:30

Fantastic. Well, , it has been a pleasure having you on the Denver Nays podcast. I cannot wait for this coming Sunday. We're going to have so much fun at the bridal show and thank you so much for sharing your insights and stories. Appreciate it.

Jewels Gray: 25:43

Thank you for having me Jared. Yeah, this has been great Of insights and stories.

Jared Judge: 25:46

Appreciate it. Thank you for having me, Jared. Yeah, this has been great, Of course, and thanks to our listeners for tuning into another episode of the Denver NACE podcast. To learn more about the Denver NACE chapter, just go to nacedenvercom that's N-A-C-E stands for National Association for Catering and Events, nacedenvercom and hope to see you at one of our upcoming