 coming for another episode of Adventures in Commercialization. We're here to talk about how to raise money, how to be a successful business. A lot of people had some extra time during COVID and we want to make sure that they turn their passions into careers. This week we have a very special guest. We have a Barrett agent and we have been co-workers and friends and he has a really great model for a company so we're going to find out what he's got going on. Hi Barrett. Hello Zoe. Glad to be here today. Awesome so tell us a little bit about you have an online business that has been one of a kind that you created. It goes back to actually 2016 and I was in Thailand at the time running my longtime corporate team building consultancy which over the years it had you know quite a few ups and downs being dependent on the corporate or sorry on the tourism market everything from tsunamis to financial fallouts to at the time pretty serious political problems in the country which was affecting our corporate market and I was you know that was really hitting my pocketbook shall we say and I started thinking boy you really need to think of some other backup idea Barrett when you know tourism something that's not so tourism dependent and it was just racking my mind for quite a while until one time because I was also doing a real life of course ceremonies wedding ceremonies on the island of Phuket which is a premier wedding destination in southeast Asia there so many couples go there from all over the world to have their weddings at beautiful four and five star beach resorts and villas but I was having a Skype call with one of the those couples before they were coming to the island and while I was walking them through the ceremony and we got to like the I do part and I was saying some of the words the lady actually started crying a bit and a little light bulb went out of my head and I said well gee if I could make her cry during this casual little Skype call we're having here I wonder what if I could do that same have that same dynamic during a real full-on ceremony online so I started playing around with that idea and I like with a lot of ideas I started convincing myself more and more it was workable and possible and then I just took it from there so we're looking at online wedding ceremonies online vows ceremonies um reunion ceremonies um so so what how did you know that this was a good idea were there other companies doing this out there in the world no actually I did quite a bit of research at the time because I suspected what I was doing particularly was maybe the first anyone had done like that so I researched quite a bit about the history of online weddings and I found interestingly first that they had actually started back in the late 1990s and were mostly from immigrant couples who were here in the U.S. but their bride maybe was back home in Romania and they had a on-site minister with her there and the groom would be here in the U.S. and that was basically all that had done anyone had been doing until actually Ikea I'm sorry I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly the home decor place came along and did a one-off beautiful home setting that they used for a virtual online wedding different from mine but it was still probably the world's you know maybe the first online ceremony formalized but it was a one-off advertising thing for them not the a commercialized service like I was going to be offering and again my format was different where I actually brought the couples in next to me side by side to create the most realistic kind of setting that I could and I wanted to make sure that my claim on my website this is the world's first commercial based marital service was correct and from all the research it appears to be so and what also inspired it at the time was my nephew was in the military he was stationed in North Korea and he was mentioning to me what a extraordinarily high divorce rate they had with soldiers who are living over there and their wives back home just because of the distance involved in the stress on the relationship and I thought gee if I could help connect those couples in a way and then I started thinking about other couples who are separated by distance or maybe offshore workers if I could help those couples connect even from across the world well that would be a valuable and useful thing for both them and myself because I really do love doing the ceremonies that's amazing sounds like you have a world traveling family so tell us a little bit about your business model so we are a virtual business only yes that is correct uh while I will still do still do some real life ceremonies when I go back to Thailand in the near future um I will keep doing virtual online weddings for many years in fact it's a little bit of kind of my semi retirement plan because while it has been semi popular up to this point I am also expecting it to get more and more popular over the years is if you think about it because a we have these younger generations who are born in a digital world and they're growing up in this so it's less of a foreign concept to them than compared to maybe current generations further um there's so many couples I'm running into now who met online actually maybe 10 5 10 I had one couple who met when online dating was just coming out like 20 years ago and they met in a simple forum a chat forum and they you know were courting each other for several years and they got married um again 20 or 18 years ago or so and they came to me and said hey we we met online and we want to get married online and it was just a fantastic event as well so I expect with the increasing number of couples nowadays and I'm running into that are meeting online as opposed to traditional methods that the business model will be more successful over time so we do people from all over the world for this type of business um did COVID like people being from home and staying at home did that boom your business does that affect you at all sure I will be quite honest in saying that before COVID I only had a few couples which was partly due to the fact that I had kind of put in vows off to decide because I was my corporate business had come back and I was so busy with that and I wasn't doing any marketing with it but then along comes the pandemic my corporate market disappeared and then fortunately and I say this uh truly because it put food on the table at the time when I had no other income thankfully I started getting lots of inquiries for couples about online ceremonies and I soon realized that it's not that there's anything wrong with my concept or whatever but it's just that couples didn't know about it and they didn't think about it until circumstances required them to be creative and come up with a solution to a problem which was COVID and they couldn't go out and do these things in real life and vows fit in perfectly there and it met their need and they really appreciated it we had the same emotions as you would in a real life ceremony and again I've had real life ceremonies nearly about 2000 I stopped counting but I get as many tears in my online ceremonies as real life ones hands down so it's so fantastic it's funny because my parents uh my mother and her uh her new husband they actually got married during COVID um they got married 10 10 2020 and I think that they at that time during COVID they just had to go down they didn't even have to go to the courthouse because we were you know social distancing and everything so they actually had to go and just get a notary to sign it if I think if they would have known about this this would have been a little bit more extravagant of an event and maybe a little bit more emotions involved I asked if they had a picture with the FedEx guy for sure I would have loved to have helped them out um unfortunately though during the pandemic states did get more lenient and accepting of virtual online weddings as a legal ceremony however since the pandemic most all of them have pretty much rescinded that uh unless you meet very certain uh requirements like your military person overseas or um other there are ways to do it but it's quite complicated which is the main reason why also why I have focused on symbolic ceremonies with vows and also I will say this um weddings are not my main market or my main business by far the um majority of couples coming to vows are doing it as renewal of vows which I love it's I love that idea as well I've I've been to a couple uh renewal of vows ceremonies recently and I just think it's fantastic I think there's a lot of meaning towards it and I think that if you can help you know help the couples do that that's that's fantastic so let's take a idea of like how does how does your marketing look how how does these types of ceremonies uh look uh primarily I um receive inquiries from couples directly through the website I'll be the first to admit that there's a lot more I could be doing marketing wise but at this stage I've pretty much exercised all of your basic lower cost kind of advertising models and using first and foremost google itself and ensuring I have a high google uh SEO ranking especially for the renewal of vows and I believe I do have a very one based also on the longevity I was again doing that since 2016 long before the pandemic and also on my website I have uh or sorry on google reviews 100 five star rating and some not just five star ratings like some awesome reviews from the couples and google loves that so they really help they do help me uh with that and I hope my couples will continue to give those great reviews but uh I if I want to take it to the next level basically I will have to move to a more extensive paid marketing campaign level yeah well that's just you know the next step in your marketing team um as a startup and as a self-run business I think that this is fantastic the look and feel is already looking great I've reviewed your website several times so virtual weddings.com if anybody is thinking about renewing some vows or having a very special moment um Barry Jen is here for you uh you can do themes we have different themes what's what are some of the themes that you've had on your show uh those were actually complicated and involved as they were were just awesome experiences as well because it was like a interactive cooperation between myself and the couples and they brought a lot of the original ideas themselves for example we did the first world's first online matrix renewal of vows uh lovely couple uh out of uh New York and this was during the height of the pandemic and we got really creative about it and you know using video editors I can bring in special effects have a nice matrix background with the numbers running um and we just had fun with it if you uh I checked out the youtube channel there I believe there's a clip of that and also a star wars loving couple who goes to these conventions and has costumes they wanted a star wars themed one which we also had a great fun with and I brought in Darth Vader as a little cameo and good fun so just bring me I tell couples bring me your ideas we'll play with it and run with it there uh best as we can though I do have trouble with um Elvis impersonations I just don't have the look that's awesome it brings a little bit of personability to every ceremony that you're having you mentioned youtube so we have our website we have your youtube channel a lot of the couples allow you to record them and post them on youtube is that for them or is this for your marketing or how does that work that's actually a tricky question Zoe I have some used some clips on there but generally for privacy reasons I don't use a lot of them we have a lot of intimate moments in our ceremonies and there is one clip on there and I even had to cut it out but they were just bawling their eyes out and so was and it made me a experienced celebrant crying as well and I just and I did get their special permission to put that on there but generally I don't want couples to think or worry about well is my uh my uh special moment going to be broadcast out there for the world so I do limit the amount of video advertising I actually do and if more likely and rely on static shots that uh post to like google my business or my profile google my profile that's uh wonderful so what are some of the biggest hurdles that you have faced as an entrepreneur trying to have a business an online business well besides the usual challenges first of coming up with the name and a logo which I think is mind boggling for a lot of um entrepreneurs or SME owners that might be doing this themselves a lot of these things themselves um though I did also I'll tell you a hint maybe to other people that really did help me out was using online services that provide like Fiverr and Upwork along those lines where you can find specialists to help you whether it's your logo or your web design and a lot of them are quite affordable so it that was a big help to me getting started but in so far as challenges I guess the main one for me is that a lot of couples naturally don't think about online ceremonies it is natural I understand it for weddings this is the most special day in their life most brides are thinking about these grand ceremonies with all their family and friends completely understandable it's not their first inclination to think online and even for same goes for renewal of ours um but I think if the concept was more out there in front of couples that they would say hey that's that's actually a great idea and maybe we're gonna run off to Martha's Vineyard for our renewal of ours just like I had a couple of a few weeks ago and we don't need all of our other friends and family just us there and our beautiful setting and let's have a good time person very personal setting and for the online ceremonies they don't have to worry about anything else it's just them and me so they get really um connected yeah I I do know a lot of ceremonies over COVID that had a live broadcast a lot of people couldn't travel as far I mean like tickets are getting more expensive so I think that this is a great resource for them to be able to have a special day and have everybody included um worldwide nationwide statewide I think that this is really fantastic um tell us what are what are some of your favorite stories of of having some of your couples here I know that you you were telling me a couple previously but I'd love to share with some of our audience yeah I have to be careful here not to go on too long but first my first one was was an awesome one it was a a lady in the US a Christian lady who had approached me and she had a fiance who was in Saudi Arabia and he was Muslim and they had never met in real life but had had a quite you know ongoing online relationship for over a couple more than two years and they really loved each other but it was very difficult for them to get together at that time and in fact for him it would be illegal he could go to jail for marrying a non-muslim in Saudi Arabia so it was actually kind of dangerous what he was doing and so they were truly on opposite sides of the world but we got together for this and I was still you know experimenting a bit with my formatting stuff like that but it just went off so smoothly the both of them were crying and at the end I said Barrett you got something good here and uh because it got this wrong the exact response I wanted to get so that was a great one um another one was recently had American guy who was in Turkey his Iranian fiance was is in Iran but her father wouldn't let her leave the country he has her passport that's how it is there and wouldn't let her leave the country to officially marry him even though they had a license until they had some kind of ceremony well catch 22 they couldn't get together they couldn't have a ceremony so they got creative they found vows and we got ready to do the ceremony at the last minute the dad pulled the plug on it said no this is now I'm not going to give my blessing to this and I was waiting on hold there for 30 minutes while they talked to dad and then finally came back around and we did it with a groom sitting in his car at the airport and the bride in her wedding dress in her place and again the tears were just flowing magic okay one more real quick yeah I had a couple just last week who they met 30 years ago during high school they were the first first for everything for each other first boyfriend girlfriend first date first kiss first everything but somehow over the years they got separated and went apart 30 years later they come back and find each other in real life and they're at a stage where they don't need no fancy real life wedding they came to me and we had just the most wonderful tearful ceremony you could imagine again magical you're creating some incredibly special moments for people I think this is fantastic so as your business model are you the only person in your company you're you run you manage you host all by yourself yes at this stage if it ever you know grew to bigger proportions I would definitely need a zoom engineer to help me with the technical side because it is quite a bit for me to be managing the technical side especially when we get to those movie themed ceremonies and stay in ceremony mode because here's another thing is my whole ceremony is in my head I've been doing it for 20 years and I don't need to be looking at stuff like most ceremony masters or wedding celebrants or ministers would that helps me out a lot but it still requires an intense amount of focus to be doing both of those at the same time and I can do it on the level I'm doing now but if it ever got super big I would expand that what other milestones do you have coming up here that you'd like to achieve for your business gee I haven't really thought about that so much but I guess recently I have been getting more and more couples so it is inspiring me I mean I lost confidence for a while that I thought oh maybe this is only because of the pandemic and that couples were only coming to me then but since you know recently I have it goes it does go up and down a bit but I am still having couples coming to me so that's giving me inspiration to think what is the next level that I want to take this to and should I while juggling it with my other career obligations which still do include the corporate team building side of things which I would like to do for at least another year or two before I would then turn more fully to vows and expanding upon the possibilities there and so as a entrepreneur and with a great business model thus far creating magical moments for people what other advice would you have for other entrepreneurs out there today well I suppose it might be a bit of a cliche that they'll hear from lots of entrepreneurs or people in business and that is that it really does help of course to come up with something that you can truly be passionate about and when I first started this thought of this idea of concept and I put it by all my friends and family almost every single one of them thought Barrett that's really not a great idea nobody's gonna want to do that okay but I did have you know maybe one or two people who were helpful there and and giving me confidence and and in my own heart I believe it could be so I persisted with it and it paid off so you know don't let others dissuade you if they might not think your idea is great I think we have heard that before on the show so that's really insightful I think you know never giving up if you feel your idea if you have that little voice in your head that's telling you to just do it go ahead and try it you know the words they can say is no right and but they could say yes and they could be saying yes to address they could be saying yes to their virtual wedding they could be saying yes to their future husband and they're saying yes to trying out this new virtual online business which I just think is fantastic I think that this model is really great you're creating great moments for people and it it's a whole new model it's a whole new thing I mean you're the first one that I know who's doing it um if you look up virtual weddings um online so we have that you can just look up here's the yep virtual online weddings.com then actually if you sorry if you do google that you'll just as much likely come up with real wedding services who are giving you virtual coordination online but are far different actually from what I'm doing so I'm not sure how it in general it comes up there but especially if you google a renewal of ours or something along those lines you're bound to run into me uh well we have Barrett agent you can look him up uh he does come up pretty quickly on google there are you know ads and things like that now that are probably boost up right in front of you but you are there once you look it up uh his renewal of vows are there there's examples there's I think star wars and the matrix and a lot of different models where you can look at and pick a theme if you're looking for something really unique and special to do with your partner for your next renewal of vows I think that this is a great model and everybody should try it out thank you so much Barrett for coming on here you have created something that is unique and very special and I think that more people should take advantage of it we're going into this digital age people from all over the world can benefit from this so I'm really excited to show them um I think that you have come up with a model that's here to make money and not only for yourself but also just as a great online platform to as a business um and also to create just incredibly special moments so it's it's all in one here and it's something that he's passionate about I think that that's really important we always want to give back more into the world than we're taking out of it and we want to make sure that everybody's having as special of a day as we feel that we are having so it's really awesome to see what you're doing as this business model that we can tell you're very passionate about and it's creating amazing times for everybody so thanks so much for creating this platform um we'll broadcast it to the world and see um how it goes thank you so much for coming on the show my pleasure and thanks for having me Zoe thank you so much for watching think tech hawaii if you like what we do please like us and click the 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