 There we go. Hi, hi everybody. I'm Chris Lethem and this is The Economy and You here at Think Tech Hawaii. Today's guest is June Dillinger. And today we're going to be talking about entrepreneurship, especially entrepreneurship for folks that are sort of 50 and maybe a little older and trying to figure out how to launch a new enterprise. I know a lot of us worked for other companies for a lot of years, but our dream is to have our own company. And June, thank you for being on Think Tech Hawaii here and The Economy and You. I'm happy to be here. I like how it says 50 and You say or something. Or something, yes. So a lot of us see that we were entrepreneurs at heart, but when you're young, you find yourself working for somebody else. But then eventually, you say, okay, I'm going to cast my sales to the wind and see where it takes me. And you did that. I did. And I don't know that it came up in just that sort of way. It was sort of a divine guidance after I had left many, many, many jobs. I mean, honestly, I've had as close to 75 jobs as you can imagine. Some of them very long term. Some of them are short. I worked for Delta Airlines for 13 years. That's my caveat. And I did a lot of other jobs as well. But my belief is that everything that I've done has led me toward the success of where I am now. Because in this industry of the wedding business, all kinds of people get married. And as a destination wedding business owner, I get calls from people all over the country and all over the world. And so being able to take the experiences from where I have come from and filter them into the present, it works beautifully. Well, you've been doing this business for how long now? Five years. Five years, wow. And every year it gets a little bigger, a little better? I'm not going to say bigger, but I am going to say better. I have changed my pricing a little bit. I'm not the least expensive, and I'm not the most expensive. Although I was just sharing with somebody earlier in the day that my business is more of a feeling business rather than a thinking business. And I just, I happen to think that there are a lot of people that... So what you're saying is if we were thinking more, we would do wedding, we would do less weddings if we were... You would choose a different service. Is that right? You would choose a different service, yeah. Yeah. Because my business has a feeling sort of sensation to it. Yes. Well, I've been to one of your weddings. Yes, you have. Yes. And it was very nice. I even asked you if you'd like to work with me. Yes. As an officiant. Yeah, yeah, doing the Japanese wedding thing. I'm not quite sure. Like, I need a white guy. I need a white guy. Yeah, yeah, well, we'll see. Tall and handsome. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah, just butter me up. Get it any one. So we have, you know, we've sort of been... We met at Toastmasters and it's been a great experience there. And it seems like there are a lot of people that are involved in the Toastmasters organizations are sort of entrepreneurial people. You know, they're sort of motivated to do better and to... They set goals for themselves. And that's one of the great things I've got out of that organization. And meeting you and, of course, some of the other wonderful people over there. We started this business five years ago and we've talked about how to grow the business and how you wanted to grow the business and what your vision is. How do you find... How do you find in terms of what are the biggest challenges that you have to get to a place where you have growth? The internet seems to be the answer to everything. While I'd like to believe that it was connecting with hoteliers, referrals, it seems that everybody goes to the internet. So I have Instagram. I've had Instagram for several years and I spoke with a friend the other day and she says it looks like you haven't been on your Instagram account for two years, June. Oh. And so I'm like, well, give me a refresher course. You're in your 20s. You could probably help me out. And so it's really about keeping up with technology, what the general masses are looking at, because now that I'm on Instagram and it's only been about six days, I can't believe all the hits that I'm getting for putting up one single photograph and it's a way to spread, a whole nother way to spread to business. It doesn't come through Facebook. I've been on Facebook for a long time. You think Facebook has gotten too big? No. No? No. It's just billions of people on Facebook today. The more challenging thing in my business is because there's so many different forms of communication. Some people send information to me through Facebook. Some people send it through an instant message. Some people want to send it through WhatsApp. Some people want to send it through Line. There are all of these apps now that you can communicate on. And I say, you know what? Email is the best form for me to keep your stuff in order. And so for me to invite the conversation for them to communicate my way so I can do the best for them, it's very challenging because it's languaging. Yes. Now, 65% of my business is same sex. Set aside the fact that a woman can have the name of Alex and a man can have the name of Alex. And they could actually be a couple. And so figuring out in conversation and email when it's not on the telephone because most people talk on their handheld devices now and text on that is how can I be polite and get the most gentle words across and also support them in their dreams in a text message. So most of it comes through the internet to answer your question. So that's where the business now, once you have a client or once somebody starts to talk to you, what do you find, where is most of your time and energy spent? In communication and email. Sometimes it's really great when a couple, they can't wait and so they pick up the phone and they call me and we were able to get through all of the details right away. But most people, they're multitasking and so they send off a text or they send off an email and a lot of my business is on the other side of the planet or on the other side of America. And so while I'm working at night, they're sleeping and when they get up in the morning, they have an email. And then I get to go to sleep and it's a really nice exchange. So now, most of your business is coming from the mainland? Is that about right? Mostly from the mainland and Australia. Australia? Yeah. I'm from the folks down under. Hawaii and I'm perfectly delighted. Yeah. That's interesting. Now, if you were going to look at sort of this wedding business in Hawaii, where are we at? Are we saturated? Is there room for more growth in Hawaii in the wedding business? We have the Japanese that are coming here. We see other markets in the world. I think there are other markets in places like China and Korea. I completely agree with you. As a matter of fact, I had a call the other day from a Chinese wedding business and she said, I have a same sex female wedding I'd like to speak to you about and I'd like to be able to connect with you in order to make an agreement of some sort so that we could perhaps use your services regularly. And I said, Chris is going to like this news. Yes, yes. That's great news. That's great news. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, so I definitely think so. And that's not to say, I mean, the way my business came about, I was working in prison ministry and I was about three and a half years in working at Halava and Wayava twice a week. And one Saturday morning I was walking out and one of my colleagues said, June, why don't you join my wedding business? And I said, doing what? And she said, well, marry people, of course. And Chris, I went like this. And she poked me. She said, I'm talking to you. I am speaking to you. There's nobody else standing here. And I couldn't believe it. And I had just competed in the state championship for Toastmasters that year. I was on the top 10. And I said, all right, I'll follow you. And so I worked with her for about six months until I realized that I could do it on my own. And I asked her permission. I said, I can do this myself, but I'd like your blessing because I don't want to be in competition with you. And she gave me the most valuable lesson of my life. And it was, there's enough love and money for everyone. How can I support you? And so since then, I've actually, I married one gal to her fiance. And I have supported her in opening her own wedding business. And I just have to believe that because that's the way abundance comes, is by giving. And so, come on, Chinese, come. Come on, Koreans, come. Come on, Japanese, come. Let's see what we can do to keep giving. So having, you know, now you're sort of reaching out and doing more international or sort of looking at more international opportunities. Do you think that there's going to be some additional challenges that you're going to have to overcome? Oh, the internal piece, most definitely. I'm a people person. And so just conquering quick books. I mean, maybe that's why my hair turned white. Oh my God, it was so challenging just to get quick books down there. That was like a whole summer's worth of lessons. And so to be able to have multitudes of weddings. And my goal is to do 30 weddings a month. And right now I'm between 10 to 15. And they're small. I mean, I never have more than 15 or 20 people that come. But I know that right now I can handle about 30. It would be great if I was doing 50. I have a fabulous team and I know they all want to work. So I think it's the internal structure. I might need your help with that. Okay, we'll sort that. We'll sort that out. It's all a software issue. It's all software. It's all software. We'll figure that. There's an amp for this. Yeah, that's the tech part that I need support with. Definitely. Right, yeah. Because one of the great things about technology is it's a problem-solving tool. And as we did the last couple of shows that we did, we did some shows about how do you sort of start with developing software to help you solve business-related problems, which was great. And J. Fidel actually was on my show. We talked about databases with J. Very exciting. Now, he's very excited about something called QuickBase, which is produced by the same company that produces QuickBooks. So he's like, I don't know, you know... I might have to have a talk with him. Yeah, I have to have a talk with him. Yeah. So now you started this business and you're into other things as well, though. You're also a minister. I am. I served as the Associate Spiritual Leader at Unity Winward last year. Mm-hmm. And bless Reverend Geo. He wanted me to stay on a year, and I said, I can't. I have a nudge to go do something else. Mm-hmm. I'm not clear on what it is, and I knew that it would make room for others. And actually, I'm headed off to Unity of Dallas to give a couple sermons for two congregations of 150 each, so it's going to be really wonderful. That's great. And it's about the five-star experience. And that's about you being the five stars. You being the five stars. You. Yeah. You. Me. Yes, you. Okay. Well, I've seen a few stars in my time. I've gotten wallops pretty good a couple of times. It's awesome stars. So now when you're doing all this work, doing the weddings, what do you find is the most rewarding part of this business? Because, you know, I watched the picture-taking and all of this. The couple that you invited me to come and attend me, this was the guy that had been with this woman for, I think, about eight years or longer. And he finally said, well, he was very romantic about it, so the boy might as well get married while we're there. Yeah. You know, that's a really good question, because I think what's the most rewarding is when a thank-you note comes in. And they are astounded by the connectivity, the customer service. They're overwhelmed by the incredible photographs. They're delighted by the service itself and how the vows were delivered, our voices. My team is really service-oriented, and so they pay deep attention to the needs of our couples. And not just the couples, but the children and how do we gather all the children together and are we watching out for the bigger picture and saying, well, let me take your cell phone. I'll snap a few shots for you. I know you don't have a photographer. Let's not miss out. So the thank-you note that comes in is really the greatest reward, because it takes a lot of effort for people to send a thank-you note. Most people don't do it anymore. And so it's a beautiful reward to have that. Yeah. And it doesn't mean that it needs to go to a Yelp review or a Wedding Wire review or The Not or Google+, if it's just a note to us. Yeah. It's huge. Yeah. And that's rewarding. Very much so. That's amazing. Well, we're going to take a short commercial break. We're going to come back and we're going to talk more about entrepreneurship in Hawaii here at the Economy New. So stay tuned. We'll be right back. Aloha. My name is Danelia, D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. Welcome. We are co-hosts of a show called Keys to Success, which is live on the Think Tech Live Network series weekly on Thursdays at 11 a.m. We're looking forward to seeing you then. Aloha. Aloha. It's summertime in Honolulu, Hawaii. My name is Stephen Phillip Katz. I'm your host for Shrink Wrap Hawaii. We're on every Tuesday at 3 o'clock. And we talk about mental health and general health. Join us. Thank you. Aloha. How are you doing? Welcome to E-Botsy Talk. I'm here at Gordo the Tech Star on Think Tech, Hawaii. I'm here with my good old buddy, Andrew, the security guy. Hey, everybody. How are you doing? Aloha. Good to have Andrew here in the house. Please join us every Friday from 1 to 130 and follow us up on YouTube. And remember, as we say at the end of every show, how are you doing? Hi, and we're back. Hi. I'm Chris Lee. I'm here with Think Tech, Hawaii, in the Economy and You. Today's guest is June Dillinger. She has a company called I Do Hawaii Weddings. And the website is, I'm sure, Idohoiweddings.com. It is. That's right. Yeah. So if you are interested in getting married, you should give June a shout. And she can tell you all about what she has to offer you. Now, June, I want to talk a little bit about entrepreneurship. I want to change gears just a little bit because, you know, running a business anytime is fraught with lots of challenges. You have people issues and everybody is unique. And one of the, you know, you have to deal with finance issues, right? So spending is an issue. Like, how do you know, how do you figure out, how do you get the most bang for your buck? Well, when I began my business, I have to tell you I was a sleuth. I looked at everybody else's website. I wanted to see what others were charging. I wanted to see where I fit in. I wanted to see what the vocabulary was like. And that's not to mention that my website crashed twice. And I finally found a format that worked for me. And so that, that, that's just the website portion. And the website portion is a daily exercise for I Do Hawaii Weddings to be in top form. There are mistakes that pop up that I haven't noticed because, gosh, maybe I'm having a glass of wine and I'm working at 1.23 in the morning and I, and I've sent in a change. Don't you know that's the best time to write code for programmers at 1.23, especially after a glass of wine. Oh, is that why you're available late at night? That's funny. That's good to know. Yeah. So it's paying attention to those details of, of the website. And that is just one piece of the whole pie because if the website has poor grammar or it's overlaid or there's something that's lopsided about it, the people out in the real world go like, are you kidding me? That's so unprofessional. Oh, I got to tell you about a new tool. I just got to do this because there is a new software tool called Grammarly. If you haven't seen it, folks, you can download it for free. It's called Grammarly and it will check your grammar, no matter what you're doing on the internet. And it's Grammarly. So G-R-A-M-M. Love it. G-R-L-Y. Grammarly. Yeah. And it's a great little product. And it fixes bad grammar better than Microsoft Word does. And it's all real time. So it's really nice. I got to put a shout out for that little application that somebody developed. I love it. Hey, I just got a text from my son today and he used the word to, spelled T-W-O and then T-O-O properly in a text. And I went, yes. I love that. I was so proud of him. I was like, good job, mom. So, you know, website is one whole, a very large piece. And after snooping around and looking at others, and then I had to make it my own. I wanted to have my own feelings. And so that was the first piece. And then the second piece is, how the heck do you manage money when you've never done it before? Yeah. And my mother used to, well, my mother still says, you have champagne taste in a beer budget, June. So you either have to buy, you either have to switch over to very expensive beer or a really cheap champagne. That's right. And then my accountant says, I wanted to quit. And both she and my mother says, you can't quit. Do you realize how many people are making money working for you? You can't quit. Yeah. So then I become inspired. I'm like, well, maybe I can do this after all. And then I go back to the service itself and how it feels to be of service to others. Yes. So I'm not just being of service to the couple, but I'm servicing the contract workers that work for me. And for parents out there, I always, as a parent, I always, one of the things I've always taught my children is live a life of service. If you live a life of service where you're committed to the dedication, you're dedicated to serving others, that's where success lies. And I think that's fantastic. I'd love to hear that story, because that's one of those values that we want to instill in our children. And that's a great segue back to the prison ministry, because I was a volunteer. I volunteered for a total of five years at Wayava and Halava. And because I was of service, the invitation came to me to dive into this wedding business. And then I was able to call it my own. But it was because I was of service. So what I would say to anybody that was seeking is that if you don't know what you want or you don't want you doing, go volunteer. I mean, there's plenty of places that would take you for a not pay just to have you do some filing in their office where you can get the down low on what's going on and figure out, is this for you? Okay, so I don't want to work in a flower shop. I'll work somewhere else. Yeah, that's a great tip. Go be of service. Go be of service somewhere. I actually, one of the things I used to do was take temp jobs. As a software developer, I went into a company on a temp job and I'd kind of go in there and see what they were doing. And I'd go, you know, I have a way. I can help you solve that business problem. I can reduce redundancy. I can help you streamline your data flow or, you know, all these kinds of things. And I picked up all kinds of interesting projects. And in the meantime, you are the gift to them. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and how great does that feel? I mean, that massage is an ego a little bit. And it pays the bills. And it pays the bills. Well, you used to have a smarter like that idea. I didn't think of that. Well, now, you've hired people. Now, how do you manage, like, how do you figure out what to pay people? Because, you know, when you hire these people, you know, people are always, you know, it's not always about throwing more money. Sometimes there's more to it than just how much you pay them. You're right. I've noticed as I've been hired to perform weddings for other services, I know what they pay. And I know what my time is worth and what feels good to me. And I always want to pay more than what the standard is. Just because there's value in money, but it also pushes the envelope for work a little bit. I think that people work a little bit harder, at least the people that are with me, because they're earning their keep and they're comfortable with the amount of pay and they feel worthy of that money. And at the same time, there are other vendors that I can't pay as much as they ask for. And their volume is different. And so it becomes a give and take. I mean, some of my vendors have said, Gigi and I really like to earn a little bit more for the amount of time I spend on this. And I'm like, well, how much would that look like? And then they're happy to tell me, I'm like, hmm. Okay, can we meet in the middle? And then we meet in the middle and I see a change in both their attitude and mine and we grow again. And then I end up paying them what they want because they go like, shoot, it's so totally worth it. Or as close to it as possible. So it's really about communication. And not being upset, but like they're, oh my gosh, they're willing to come speak to me. And I don't want to have that boss vibe. I want to have that colleague vibe. Yeah, and it's also, you know, there's this discussion about equal pay for equal work, you know, that's been going on out there for a while now. If you're a man and I'm a woman, as we are, we should both be paid the same. Right, right. I taught my daughters, I said, but one of the things I taught my daughters is I taught them how to negotiate. Negotiate nicely, you know, professionally. If you don't like what they're paying you, go negotiate a better deal for yourself. Don't be afraid to negotiate a better deal for yourself. And I think, I think, you know, and I say that to my daughters because I think sometimes I look at my sisters and they're unwilling to go and negotiate a better deal. They feel afraid to say to somebody, I think I'm worth more than what you're paying me. So for all those ladies out there that work hard and don't feel like that they're paid enough, you know, don't be afraid to step up and say, hey, I think I'm worth more. I know I am worth more. My father always said to me, if you don't ask, you don't get. That's right, that's right, yeah. So don't be afraid to ask. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. And if you, and I'm sure you, they could call you, Jun, and ask, how do I ask that the right way? That reminds me to say, so my wedding, my officiants started at $95. And then I raised it at one to $125. Oh God, that's so much. And then I raised it to $145 and went, oh, can I do that? And then I raised it to $195 and I went, shoot, I'm just going to raise it to $250. And it's been there ever since. Is that right? And when you think of it, if you're going to get married it's not your minister worth $250 to perform it, to stand between you and your beloved. That's right. Yeah. And that's what I mean with it. For you. I do it. Now, so, you know, now business isn't always about good news. It's not always about more profit. Sometimes things get a little tough, you know. So how do you, how do you handle, you know, one of the things is, is, is when you, how do you handle problems or people who maybe aren't, you know, they're having their own challenges? How do you deal with people where you have to sort of say, you know, I need, I need a little more from you? It's not so much from my, well, I guess on occasion it happens with staff or team members where I need to say, well, I'll give it an example. I have three photographers and one of them was having an experience in their life that appeared to be reflected in their work. And I take a look at my other photographer's work and take a look at yours. I'm inviting you to take a look at theirs because theirs has a sense of juiciness and feeling and like light and there's something romantic and, and fluffy and it just, it feels so rich and warm and, and inviting. It's like their wedding day and you could imagine being them in this picture. I can't do that with yours right now. And I want to keep working with you. Is there a way that you can shift to work through this? And this person said, I'm going to do my best. And they did. And so it's just how do I communicate with my people so that I'm supporting them in their world and they're supporting me in mine. And then we're all supporting our clients and our couples the best. Yeah. Because, you know, it seems like in corporate culture there's this sort of, it's okay to be critical component to, you know, where people can criticize and it's very diminishing. It is and I don't want to be like that. Yeah. As a matter of fact, there's one company I work with and whenever I show up I almost feel like there's the boss and I feel like a little girl again. I'm like, shoot, I'm a 54-year-old business owner. Like, I make money and I live prosperously and I feel like a little girl when I show up and I'm thinking, what if I say something wrong and I'm tiptoeing around this woman and I'm thinking, how lame is that? But that's part of growing up and learning to command my own sense of self. Yeah. So I'm, because I always found you very, very, you always sort of looked for the glass half full. Always. Yes. Hey, my son says, Mom, the world is not made up of unicorns, rainbows and glitter. I'm like, it is. It totally is. That's the way I like my world. Yeah. Yeah. So we create our own filters. Definitely. Yeah. So now, you've been at this for five years. Where would you like to travel five years from now? Let's see. Shopping in Venice over in Europe, traveling, going to Beijing in Cambodia and while traveling. But business-wise, certainly, I'd like to be able to have a recreation and duplication of what I have now. And I'd like to see that two or three times bigger. So it'd be fabulous to be doing anywhere from 40 to 60 weddings a month. I don't know if it's possible, but... People who are writing books in our Toastmasters group. Yes. So how about writing a book about the wedding business and using that as leverage and going around and replicating your business? You know what? I'm surprised that you would say that and something that I've never shared with you. But I have a book that I've been working on for almost 10 years and it will be out in the spring. Well, there you go. All right. Although it's not about weddings, it's about divorce. It's about the benefit of our former relationships and the good news that comes out of them. Yes. And you know, as you know, I worked for 12 years to reform the family court system to make it a less adversarial model, make it a collaborative model that supports and respects the value of parents and children and having a model that says, hey, there is something that you did get good out of it. Sometimes it's not kids, but sometimes if it's kids and if it is kids, the worst possible for your kids. And that's why we need to reform our family court system and we need you both in the picture. You're both imperative. You both have value. Let's figure out a way to have a collaborative, solid working relationship so that you're working together to lift up your children rather than tearing them apart in litigation. Lawyers hate that message but you know what? We have to keep it going. Well, I mean when the same sex law was passed both here in the state of Hawaii as well as nationwide. There were a lot of attorneys saying, yeah, there's more money from my pocket. That's right. Well, you know, it's just the way it is. It's balanced. Well, I wanted to let as we're signing off here I'll let people know it's I Do Hawaiian Weddings. I Do HawaiiWeddings.com If you want to find out more about June Dillinger. I-A-N Hawaiian. Hawaiian I Do HawaiianWeddings.com So check out June Dillinger's website. Thank you for watching the show today and we'll see you again next week. Aloha.