Let’s Look Ahead! – I’m Taking You Behind the Scenes At Crystal Uncorked!

I love when podcasters show us behind the curtain. And I want to do the same thing. I think it’s very relatable when we can hear what businesses are going through and kind of their thought process and what led them to make certain decisions. And so that’s what we’re going to be doing today.

So let’s have a cheers and let’s dive in.

Are you ready to open up and talk about all things business? I’m Crystal Vilkaitis, a curious entrepreneur who loves talking about business, especially over a glass of wine. I started Crystal Uncorked to share open and honest conversations about my journey and talk to other entrepreneurs about their experiences.

We pull back the curtain and talk about the highs and the lows. Wine isn’t required, but is recommended. This is Crystal Uncorked.

I am feeling very crystal uncorked tonight, and I think part of the reason is I’m home, which has been rare the past few weeks. Another reason is that I have wine. On today’s episode, I am drinking the Pessimist by Dao. Great wine from Paso Robles. It’s a blend and I love it, and I’ve got like this massive swoop going on with my hair.

If you’re watching this, you can see it, and so I’m like really loving that. And it’s six o’clock on a Friday and I’m alone. Dustin is in Minneapolis for his Catan championship, which I talked about. I think it was last week’s episode, so hopefully he’s crushing it. But I’m just here like cranking out a ton of episodes and I’m just excited for this one because in this episode I am going to talk it.

I’m going to be talking about behind the scenes, stuff that’s happening at Crystal Media and CU and Rooted in Retail. And the purpose of this is to pull behind the curtain and share what’s happening at my business.

One thing that I absolutely love when other podcasters do this is…well, that doesn’t make any sense. This is gonna be a really great Uncorked episode actually, because it is six. I’ve already filmed three episodes and I’ve been working for, I’ve been at this for over 12 hours, so we’re super uncorked. Let me try that again.

I love when podcasters, pull the curtain and show us behind the curtain. And I want to do the same thing. I think it’s very relatable when we can hear what businesses are going through and their thought process and what led them to make certain decisions. And so that’s what we’re going to be doing today.

So let’s have a cheers and let’s dive in.

Now I’ll come back to CU because I’m going to be changing the format slightly. And the thing is, with this show, I’ve had it since March of 2021, and I feel like I’ve changed the format a lot. It started as a business and personal podcast. Then it just went into business interviews.

Then it was mostly solo, and then it was maybe gonna focus just on business women. And now I’m back to the solos and really taking you through my experience of running a business, a seven figure business. I travel a lot, I’m a speaker, I have a team, we’re remote based and I have a lot of stories.

That I haven’t shared. And I think the other, just the other day I was in like Tahoe with Pauline, my COO, and I was like, I actually have a lot of stories I think I could tell. And she’s like, yeah, like it was like, duh. But I think sometimes we get caught up in the fact that we’re like, oh, I’m not that interesting, or, oh, people wouldn’t care about this.

And so. We don’t post it or we don’t share, and I am just going to be sharing more. I know I said I’ll come back to Crystal Uncorked, but obviously I’m leading with this and telling you what is going on with the show. So I wanna create a show that I would love. Like me today would love as well as me two years ago, would love, and that person has stayed the same as far as like what kind of content I love listening to on shows.

And that content is stories I love when people are telling stories, when they share experiences and challenges and you know, their process for making it out on the other side. Or maybe sometimes they haven’t figured it all out yet and you’re just like, wow. They’re human, they’re struggling or they’re going through stuff and I really appreciate the honesty.

So Crystal Uncorked, I mean, that’s how this show is built, is to have open and honest conversations about wine. So, we’re gonna have conversations, but a lot of these shows are gonna be solo and stories about what’s going on as I’m on the road and what we’re doing with CM, Crystal Media, and stuff that’s happened to me in the past, which some of these things are pretty crazy and funny and all sorts of things.

So that’s happening with CU. Expect some more stories.

For CM we are, you know, I read a great book. This was actually a book recommendation from Michelle Smith with Piccolo Mano Toys, which was, 10x is better than, or 10x is easier than 2x. If you haven’t read this book, I really recommend that you read it.

I did it through audio books, but oh my gosh, I loved it. And a big part of the book is your unique abilities and really focusing on what you’re good at. And not doing anything else. And I’ve talked about this before on the show, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ve perfected it. I think it’s really hard for entrepreneurs to get in our zone of genius and just stay there and really try to cut out anything else.

It’s really hard and I would question like, is it possible because there is just so much that as a business owner you still need to have, your finger on the pulse with financials, with the team, with sales and marketing. So can you really just live in your zone of genius? I don’t know. I would. Yes, you probably can.

You have to have the right team, right, right people, right seats. But for me, as I was really getting clear and going through this book, I thought it was so interesting, the 2x is easier than 10x when you look through that filter at your business.

And so I was thinking about our conference evolve and we had 111 tickets for Evolve. So instead of focusing on having 222, what if we had 1100? We couldn’t actually seat all those people. I think we could seat 1,050 or something. So almost 1100. But we’re just gonna say a thousand evolve tickets. What if we sold a thousand evolve tickets? How would we have to operate differently to do that?

How would we have to think? What do we need? What kind of budget? What’s top of the funnel? How are we getting the awareness? And all of a sudden you start asking different questions possibly than what you were looking at and asking before. And so for us, you know, doing these shows. I have another show called Rooted in Retail and then doing Crystal Uncorked.

Somebody bought an Evolve ticket a couple weeks ago from this show. You know, we’re generating ticket sales, but it is like the top of the funnel on getting to know me personally, getting to know Crystal Media, like through Rooted in Retail. We have really great guests over there and you really get to know me better in a lot of different ways and people buy from people.

And evolve, I am our main speaker and I think it’s an easier way to sell a ticket when you know the person. Like I go to events when it’s people that I love or speakers that I’m like, oh my God, I have to see them live and like I maybe get a chance to meet them. What? Like, it’s so fun. You know? So we do that with people we know and that have changed our lives in some way, or taught us something or inspired us.

And so for us, top of the funnel makes a lot of sense to be these shows. And at the same time, one of the most favorite things that I do is CU and Rooted in Retail. I love doing these two shows. If I could mostly just do these shows for the rest of my life, I feel like I’d be pretty happy.

I love doing these solo episodes. I love sharing what’s going on and I love interviewing entrepreneurs and I don’t know, there’s just something like this is my preferred mode of content. And so in knowing that, and I think that I’m pretty good at it too. I know sometimes I can lose my train of thought. Actually, I don’t really do that very often.

Except for now, . I think that I can maybe not be as tight with the episode as it could be as scripted as maybe it could be with CU. I never really wanna be scripted because we are uncorked. That’s the whole point of the show, is the realness, the vulnerability, the authenticity. Messing up because I’m human and that’s part of the human experience, and so I don’t want it to be scripted, but I know that I could probably spend a little bit more time planning out the content or finding guests or things like that.

And ultimately, I’d like to work up to that. With Rooted, I think we got a pretty solid show, but there’s always room for improvement and there’s so much more I could do there too. But I do think I’m good at being a podcast host. I really enjoy it. And that’s where you look at your zone of genius.

Like what are you good at that you love that makes money and for making money. It’s indirect with these shows, but as we look at the 2X versus 10X, well, if we really went in on the shows and increased our reach with the shows, and then the main call to action is to go to Evolve, well then we have a better chance, I think of 10 x-ing versus two x-ing.

The thing is, is that we then have to look at how are we promoting the shows, and I do feel like getting listeners is. You know, like anything, just like getting followers or subscribers just takes time. And so, we’re gonna be having more focused efforts to that and just creating more consistent content will help.

But that’s been definitely a main focus. So what we did in order to help us really 10x the business, I knew I had to get in my zone of genius most of my time. So my zone of genius is the two shows, is speaking and I am writing a book and we don’t know if that’s my zone of genius yet, but that is my focus.

We know that if I’m a published author, that adds credibility to who I am. I have an angle for a book about being 15 mile famous that a lot of retailers are resonating with, as I speak on stage about it, I’ve got a lot of examples of retailers that we’ve turned into, local celebrities, and I wanna tell their stories.

So I’m writing this book, I’m hoping I’m good at it because I actually really love this experience and I do love writing. And so that’s kind of my, you know, my focus is the two shows, speaking, writing the book and then evolve.

Evolve. My focus there is the agenda. My team can handle everything else. But for me it’s the agenda.

I care…so I feel like I’m saying agenda. So we’re so different. So let’s take a sip of wine for our agenda.

Again, this is, I’m feeling so uncorked today. It’s beautiful. And also I’ve only had like three sips of wine, so I can’t wait to see what episode three of tonight is that I’m filming. This is one. Then I’ll have two, then I’ll have three. We’ll see how that goes. You’ll have to tune in two episodes from now.

See what that one’s like, actually, my story for that one, the episode is about Drake, the artist, the rapper. I have a story about working with him. It’s a funny story. It’s a weird story. Anyways, you gotta tune in two episodes from now.

So Evolve agenda. I care so much about content and agendas and respecting people’s time and the fact that people are paying to come to evolve and traveling and spending time away from family and friends and their store.

I gotta deliver. And I think I’m pretty good at pulling together epic content. I mean, I definitely feel like that is a superpower of mine. So those are my focuses. They’re kind of big, honestly. It is kind of a lot to focus on. Evolve agendas, speaking, getting my 2024 topics ready.

The thing is another thing that you could take away from this, so the 2X is, is easier than. Sorry, 10X is easier than 2X. That whole mentality, I do really encourage you to look at that for your business because you ask different questions read that book. And what are your unique abilities and can you get to a place where you’re doing majority of those, and how would that scale the business?

How would that grow if that’s a goal for you? Maybe you don’t wanna scale the business, maybe you don’t wanna grow. Maybe you’re happy where you are now. But maybe you wanna do things that are more enjoyable. Maybe you’re happy with the sales and net, but you wanna have more time. So asking those questions or you wanna do stuff that you enjoy more.

So I would ask those questions. I think it’s so important to boil it down and then get really clear on what you want, and then you have to change your schedule. That is something that I’m really realizing is with the new focuses, needs to come a new schedule and new structure and new habits, and that’s hard.

That one I’ve been finding really hard, especially because I’m on the road so much. So it’s really hard to create a routine and habits when you’re waking up in so many different cities and travel delays. And but I do have a plan. I, I have a whole structure of like when I’m gonna be writing, when I’m gonna be working on presentations how I’m gonna be recording, like days I’m gonna be recording and those are all, those all have to become non-negotiables. I can’t move those things around. And then I’ll have my meeting times too, but ideally the team is taking most of the meetings, so that’s kind of one point.

The second point is I have been on the road a lot. And for 2024, I am in this mentality right now of like, okay, what have I learned in 2023 of basically saying yes to everything I. I don’t know how many places I’ve been at this point, but when we close out the year, I think I’ll have had 17 in-person speaking gigs, and the most I’ve ever done in one year is 12.

So I beat that. That’s super fun and have met amazing people along the way. If you’re one of those people, thank you for listening to this show. ’cause I sometimes talk about CU in my presentations and it gets people over here and I just love people listening to the show. So thank you. And the thing is, is that I’ve said yes to everything and I’ve done a lot.

And especially with all the travel delays, it gets tiring. I’m not gonna lie, like I have been a little tired. Even a little exhausted. There’s some days are better than others, and I think I’ve maintained pretty well. And a big part of that is like you gotta stay hydrated and man, I gotta make sure I eat the right foods on the road, which can be really hard, but I’m tired.

And when I say yes to stuff, it means I’m saying no to other things. So for 2024, what I’m doing is I’m looking at what I’ve learned. Of all these gigs this year and what worked, what audiences really resonated with our content, what audiences converted, whether they joined our list or they bought, they joined our programs.

What conferences paid a fair speaking, speaker deposit, no speaker fee, , because some of them are free, but it’s like in exchange for, they always pay for travel, but then in exchange for I can pitch or you get the list or some other kind of benefit, and I think there will be barely any, if any at all, free gigs moving forward.

I bring a lot of great content to the stage. I’m always customizing for the audiences we’re speaking in front of. And you know, I have a good sampling of what audiences really convert for us and resonate with the message and what don’t. And so the ones that really do, and we can sell more to, then, we might negotiate more with those conference planners, depending on their budget. And if we’re allowed to pitch or not.

So that’s a little, if you ever have questions about speaking, if you yourself are a speaker or you’re thinking about becoming a speaker, I am so happy to share any and everything that I’ve done and what’s worked for me. I can share my speaker kit with you, anything, I’m happy to share. And also if you want me to do an episode around speaking, I’m happy to do that too.

Um, Quick sip of wine.

So I’m gonna be choosy, I’m gonna be a little more choosy with where I’m saying yes to next year for a couple reasons. One, like I said, when you say yes to one thing, it’s no to another. And I really want my book published and it’s gotta get written in 2024. Like it’s gotta be done in 2024. Ideally in June.

By the timeline of everything. So I gotta focus, I gotta write, I’ve gotta be really focused on that. I also really am building these shows, and so when I’m traveling so much, it minimizes interview days that I have available. And then I start to feel like, oh, I have like no time available because I’m always traveling and I try to buffer in a little bit of before and after so I can spend time with family and have a little bit of rest.

So it just really makes it almost impossible to get on my schedule. Or I’m like booked out two months in advance and I don’t love that. And here’s the deal. That might just be how life has to be ’cause I’m so in demand. I am, I mean, I don’t mean to really joke about that. It, it’s been a very demanding summer and year for speaking. So we’ll see. But that means like, okay, so I’m saying no to other things. So that’s one of the reasons.

Also just charging for what you’re worth, you know? I think women have a harder time with this, and I was very much in an exploration phase this year. So wasn’t necessarily thinking I’m not worth it, it was I wanna explore and I wanna go to everywhere that invites me. If they’ll pay for travel and ideally there’s some financial investment in it, or I can sell from stage and see and like see what audiences are resonating, do my research. I was doing market research. I also feel like some of these places. Could have paid or could have paid more. I really brought a lot of value. I always do. And not everybody always knows that. Like they want to try you out first. And I get that because I have my own conference now. I’ve done some research now. I’ve done a lot of research. I feel like I feel pretty confident moving forward and I will stick to my speaker fees and I didn’t this year, not as much.

And because it was the year of research and exploration and so I learned a lot, but I’m definitely sticking with those speaker fees and just know I add a lot of value and I’m really excited for 2024 topics. They’re gonna be so good. New topics coming out.

The other thing with speaking next year is I am getting married in September and so I should have a bachelorette party. And I think that’s the only thing I’ll have. And then we’ve got like a week of activities before the wedding, then we have the wedding, then we have the honeymoon, and I just really wanna like play in the wedding space that I’m gonna be in, you know, like have a lot of fun there and do fun bride things. I don’t know what the bride things are. If I have no idea, if, you know, tell me this is my first marriage, even though I’m 38. I don’t know what to expect, but I have a wedding and so I can’t be bouncing all over the place.

I definitely have to have some space for myself and for that wedding. So I’m excited about that and what’s to come for 2024. So that’s part of like the behind the scenes of looking, getting really clear what’s my unique ability? How can I best serve this business? 10X is easier than 2X, so how could we 10X and how could I be a part of that?

And then the team is like there to really support everything. And so we had a company meeting getting the team on board. We restructured our company meeting to ask three questions and the employees don’t have to answer all three, but we want everybody to address or answer at least one of the questions or thoughts.

So it’s more like engaging. And we did this the first time last week and it was so good. Like, I loved it. I loved the collaboration. We’re all smart people. We all have smart ideas and everybody on my team is doing different things and knows different things and talks to different retailers and people, and so I always say two heads are better than one, so that was really fun. Kind of restructuring our company meetings is another thing that we’ve been focusing on.

I’ve gotta pause because this is airing on October 4th, which means that my team and I. Are in New York City watching Hamilton on October 4th. Yes. You heard that right? I took my entire team, except for Eric, who’s in the Philippines, that didn’t work out, but everybody else got to go. Is in New York City with me. I love New York City so much. That city owns my heart. I love it and I definitely wanna live there one day. I wanna have my own talk show that’s filmed live in front of a live studio audience in New York City.

So, when I’m in that, it’s just electrifying. And so every Every time that I watch , Hamilton or any Broadway show. I’m always looking at all the different parts, all the different actors, what everybody’s doing in the back, even not the lead, like everybody’s so engaged, so enthusiastic, even though they’re way in the back and not a lot of people are looking at them.

Then you think of the teamwork that goes into the whole, like the writing of production, acting, all the choreograph, like the cadence of everything, the lighting, the music, the set design. It’s a massive. It’s massive teamwork. I get wildly inspired by that. So there’s been a few times I’ve seen Hamilton live three times now, and every single time I sit there and I think I would love to experience this with my team, like I just don’t know why that thought comes over me, but it just does and I get emotional.

I immediately start tearing up. So I’m doing it. We are doing it and I’m gonna be so transparent here. I got ERC money, the employee retention credit money. If you are a small business owner and you haven’t applied for this, you are missing out on free money. The thing is, here’s where I’m at. It’s worth seeing if you qualify.

If you qualify, then go through the process and get your free money. The whole thing is that you retained employees during COVID. You didn’t lay people off. You held your payroll. You paid people like all the things and if your business was impacted, then there’s a good chance that you qualify.

So we weren’t on the road anymore, so that totally stopped a bunch of shows, selling opportunities. When I speak, I get more speaking opportunities and so it impacted our business. And so I got ERC money and so I’m taking $20,000 of that and taking a trip with my team. So I’ve had a few friends be like, wow.

And that’s pretty cool. That you’re doing that, and it’s very cool that I’m doing that. There’s this element of me that’s like, why wouldn’t you? There was definitely like, Ooh, is this, is this ? Am I feverishly spending? Is this a bad like budget idea and whatever, and it’s just like, what my heart wants to do.

I wanna experience this with my team. There’s seven of us that are going and I get to write the rules ’cause I own this fucking business and so I’m gonna do what I want. And it doesn’t matter if people are like, oh, but you could take that 20,000 and put it in ads and then, or you know, whatever. Nope, I wanna invest in my team.

I have to tell you, and you’re gonna see more of this on the show, I am becoming more and more over like all the ad strategies, funnel strategy, marketing. I know they’re important, but you hear them so much on podcasts and I just like, I love connection. I love conversation and that’s why I love doing these shows.

That’s why I love Evolve. That’s why I’m focusing in those lanes, because that’s what I love from a marketing perspective. It’s not a marketing perspective, it’s just who I am. But it just happens it can also be a marketing strategy. So this is how I wanna spend the money and this is how I wanna connect with my team.

So anyways, that’s happening. As I’m filming this, let’s take another sip of wine.

So just a couple other things that we’re focusing on at Crystal Media. We are going to be putting a bigger emphasis on affiliate marketing and selling some of our partners programs. We have a new partner that I’m very excited about that we haven’t released yet, so I’m not gonna share it here.

But some new training that we’re gonna be able to offer, that’s epic. That’s like business changing. If you wanna grow and scale your business, you’re gonna want this training. So I’m very excited to be a partner. More to come on that. Also looking for sponsorships for both Crystal Uncorked and Rooted in Retail.

So shameless plug. If you wanna get in front of either of those audiences for your business, DM me on Instagram or email me crystal@crystalmediaco.com. About sponsoring because we have some availability. Now we’re gonna start rolling those out and we actually have our first sponsor Christina Graciano, who is my photographer.

So you’ll be hearing a little bit more about her on the show. But we’re looking at some other revenue opportunities like revenue streams. Obviously, if a business has multiple revenue streams, then it is more secure. So for you to look at your business, are there other ways that you can add additional revenue streams that maybe you don’t have to do the work either, that’s ideal, right?

So affiliate marketing is one of those. Sponsorships is great because we’re investing in these shows, so we want to at least be able to cover those costs. But affiliate can be a really great way where you’re now offering a whole new product or a whole new software or service that you don’t have to build, you don’t have to do the customer service, you don’t have to manage, you don’t have to update. You just market it and get paid.

So there’s a very good chance that any business listening to this has an opportunity to do something like that, to add a second, or third, or fourth or 10th revenue stream. So we’re looking at that. That’s some of the behind the scenes for us.

And then also a little announcement, if you are a retailer and you listen to my show, rooted in retail, but even if you’re not a retailer, this could apply to you.

In 2024, starting in January, we are going to start doing after the show. So episodes are released on Sundays. There is a fly that is totally this damn fly has been with me all day today making several appearances in podcast interviews. We are doing after the show. So episode. Launch is on Sunday, and then on Thursdays I’m gonna do a after the show and you can join me live on social media in a lot of different places and you can ask questions about the show.

I’m hoping that some of my guests will join me on after the show because again, in thinking about creating podcasts that I would wanna listen to. I don’t know about you, but I have been in a place where I’m listening to a podcast and I’m like, I really wanna ask a follow-up question. I’m like, but what software did she use or how did she overcome that?

Or like what, she mentioned one little side story but didn’t talk about it. What was that story? You know, like there’s these questions that you have, you wanna go deeper on the episode and this is the opportunity to do that and really connect even deeper with listeners. I mean like connect with listeners.

Right now, the only way I really connect is if people write reviews or, or, I mean, you can’t even reply to reviews. Really how I’m connecting is, Maybe on social media, maybe in our Rooted in Retail Facebook group. You know, that’s kind of the only way. So this is an opportunity to connect. So I say, even if you’re not a retailer, my curiosity is that will it be.

Will we do an after the show for CU, for Crystal Uncorked? I would love to know. We’re gonna start it with Rooted and see how that goes. There’s other opportunities to do like engagement things through cu with wine tastings which I’ve talked about before in the show. And in person retreats at vineyards and wineries and things like that.

So I’ve got lots of ideas and as we build the audience, then we can start building some of those fun things. So if you’ve got a friend who owns a business who’s a small business owner, and maybe they like wine, they don’t have to like wine, but maybe they do, and if you find value in the show, share it with them.

I’d love to have them as a listener and as we grow we can do more fun stuff together where we can connect in person.

So those are our updates. Looking at 10X, how do we 10X, what’s my unique ability? How is the team supporting? Adding the after the show with Rooted to just add a deeper connection with our audiences, telling more stories on Crystal Uncorked and the behind the scenes, which is what I always really wanted, and the podcast that I’ve always just hoped for the things that I really resonate. So we’re really focusing on those things that I’m saying yes to as far as speaker gigs, really kind of owning my worth with speaker gigs next year and adding in new revenue streams like affiliate and sponsorship. So lots of fun stuff that’s going on, and as you could see, like you’re just, you’re always kind of asking this or something better.

I think that’s a really great question to ask in business and in life, this or something better. And I feel like we’ve been asking that a lot this year and really analyzing it and getting deeper and finding like good people to help support us in these ways and events and marketing outlets and things like that to support us. it’s been really good.

So I am giving a wedding update on this episode. I’m not gonna do it on every episode, but here’s a little wedding update. . I mentioned this a few episodes ago or maybe it was last week’s episode, but when I’m traveling, so many people are like, how’s wedding planning? And everybody’s always asking.

So, if you’re one of those people, then you could stay till the end of these episodes and I’ll share. Right now where we are with wedding, I’m getting married September 21st, 2024. We were originally looking at October 7th, 2023, but I was just feeling like that was too soon. We got married in September, or I’m sorry, we got engaged in September of 2022. So like October, it was a year. It just, I don’t know, it felt soon because I was planning evolve my first in-person conference and that was taking so much time and so much energy and I just always saw myself being engaged for a while. Like Dustin and I have been together forever. We were together for 12 and a half years when he proposed.

So I came to him and I was like, think I wanna be engaged longer. He’s like, okay, we can move it. The other thing is that 24 is my lucky number. It’s always been my number. I love 24 and Dustin’s is 20, so we’re getting married in 2024. And his birthday, which is also the day he proposed, which was on this podcast, I believe it was episode 56, if you wanna go back and watch the proposal and we’ll link to it.

I mean, such a special day. His birthday and that day, September 21st is on a Saturday. So we’re just gonna get married on his birthday and he can always remember our anniversary and we could celebrate his birthday. And it’s just gonna be such a fun celebration week. So we already have our venue, we’re getting married at a winery and we haven’t sent our save the dates yet.

That’s just killing me. It’s stressing me out. I have my venue, caterer, videographer, photographer, and caterer. Yeah, I said caterer. I have those things. I feel like that’s pretty much everything you need except for flowers. Maybe some decor. We have not sent save the dates. We got our engagement photos in January of this year in the snow and fun story.

Oh my God. Not fun for me. I was wearing boots with heels with nylons, no socks, and we went to the mountains Devil’s Backbone in Colorado and hiked. I didn’t think we were gonna be hiking. We started hiking. I was hiking in heels, on snow, and sometimes ice. With no socks. I could not feel my feet. I was freezing.

And Dustin has an overactive schnoz is what we like to say. He’s got a lot of snot happening, and so when it’s cold, it’s like endless. We’re freezing. We do these pictures. They turn out beautiful. They’re amazing. Love them. We still haven’t sent out or save the dates. I barely even posted those photos.

It’s ridiculous. Life has been so busy. I gotta send and save the dates. So our venue only holds 200. We have a list of 260 right now, I think like 255. So we have an A-list and a B-list, and obviously not all the A-list can go. We’re really operating like Southwest Airlines, so we have to get this out, how many of our A-listers can come and then, no offense to the B-listers, it’s just like we’ve got, we’re older now, you know, we’re older, so we’ve collected a lot of friends along the way.

We’ve been together for a long time. We’ve got family, so we gotta get these things out so people can add it to their calendar and it just keeps getting pushed. ’cause you gotta like get everybody’s address. I mean, it’s a lot of work. It’s probably not that much work, but it’s been on the to-do list. So that’s what’s happening and I’ll share another fun update in a couple of weeks that it’s a really good idea for our guests and I love it, Dustin loves it.

So cool. It’s so cool. So I’ll share that in a couple weeks. I think I’m gonna share it on my Drake episode, actually. So I hope you tune into that. And I just wanna thank you so much for being here.

Real quick, if you are a retailer, we last week finished our holiday marketing workshop and you can access the replays to it.

So if you wanna set yourself up for success when it comes to marketing your store in Q4, then you can go to crystalmediaco.com/insider and join for $97. This is month over month, so you could join for $97, go through the holiday marketing workshop, and then if that’s all you want, then you could cancel the next month and then you’re done.

There’s a lot of other training resources, weekly challenges, active Facebook group for support. A lot of great benefits in there. But now’s the time to be planning your marketing and getting it done and ready to save yourself some hassle during the hustle and bustle of it all. So definitely check that out.

If you’re a retailer, we would love to help you and I will see you on the next CU where I’m gonna talk about starting my very first company. I had a company before Crystal Media and it’s how I got in the social media space and there’s so many stories within that, but I’m just gonna talk about the opportunities I saw and some of the lessons I learned and some stories there.

So I hope to see you over there and have a great rest of your week. Bye. Cheers. Bye.