Wedding Business Solutions

Clint Hufft - What does it means to be a professional?

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

Share episode

Clint Hufft - What does it means to be a professional?

What does it really mean to be a professional? Is it about getting paid, or is there more to how you present yourself, solve problems, and lift the whole team up? Am I making it easier for others to do their jobs, or am I unintentionally leaving obstacles in their way? In this episode, I dive into the real markers of professionalism, the unseen details that set you apart, and the crucial role of communication and teamwork in the wedding and events industry.

Listen to this new episode for insights on raising your standard of professionalism, becoming the easiest vendor to work with, and delivering value your clients notice—often before you ever take the stage.

Clint Hufft is a recognized and respected authority in the wedding industry. With a client list that includes Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and The Bachelorette’s Trista & Ryan, Clint has officiated ceremonies for some of the world’s most high-profile celebrities, athletes, and public figures. Clint’s professional background includes extensive experience as a corporate entertainment coordinator and video director. He holds a degree in Radio and Television Broadcasting, which informs his dynamic on-mic presence and production expertise across both live events and digital platforms.

Contact Clint:

ClintHufft.com

@hufftclint


If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com 

Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com  

View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/


Have you ever wondered... "What would Alan say or do about this?" - well, now you can ask my AI Alter-Ego "Ask Alan Anything" the things you'd ask the real Alan, any time of the day or night. And as a listener of this podcast, you'll save 50%, so starting at only $10 per month you can "Ask Alan Anything"!

Go to www.WhatWouldAlanSay.com and use the 50% off coupon code - podcast - to start asking Alan anything today.

I'm Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you'd like to suggest other topics for "The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast" please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

What does it mean to be a professional? Listen to this episode and find out. Hey, it's Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. I am so happy to have my friend Clint Huft on It's only Clint Clinton with me. Inside joke. Sorry to talk about this. Clint, how you doing today? Life is fantastic. Thank you. Because I get to talk to you, Alan. Well, I appreciate that. And I was just on the Wedding MBA podcast. You are the host of the Wedding MBA Podcast, and you graced me with being the first one on each year. And I do appreciate that. And this is actually from a conversation we were having offline before we started recording for the Wedding MBA Podcast about what it means to be a professional. So, first of all, how long have you been doing the Wedding MBA podcast? Oh, my gosh. Well, we're. We're in season number eight, so. So I guess, you know, eight years. Eight years. Yeah. It's weird because, you know, you lose a sense of time when you do something repetitively over a long period of time. But I think this. Yeah, we're in our eighth season. That's great. Yeah. And this is going to be my 18th wedding MBA. Right. That I've spoken at since, every one that they've ever had. So, first of all, tell people what you do. Oh, my gosh. Well, in the event industry, I do a lot of different things for weddings. I'm a wedding officiant, do the ceremonies for nonprofits. I'm an auctioneer. I've been a master of ceremonies almost my entire life. And that works for corporate. And then, of course, I've been doing podcasts. I've done six podcasts so far where I get to interview really cool people like you. I appreciate that. So. So we were talking about what it means to be a professional, and I'm trying to remember how that conversation started. Do you remember how we got on that topic? Well, normally people start talking about that when they interact with somebody who isn't. So. Yeah. So I. I remember. I. I think for me, a lot of people, when you become a professional, technically, when you got paid to do something. Right. Because you. That's a business now. But a lot of people, it's like when they first asked me for my liability insurance. Right. That's when they realized, wait a second, I now have a business here and there. That seems to be one of those lines. Right. Like, they're either going to go cross that line and say, I'm getting the insurance and I'm serious about this, and I'm doing this or they're not, and they're going to try to fly under the radar hoping nothing ever happens. Right. So a lot of those people that I again had to say it because of the conversation, are not professional, are probably the same people who don't have liability insurance. Would you agree with. Well, that's a great question. I think it's. The interesting thing about words is they're just symbols. You know, we're trying. We use them as a way of communicating ideas or describing a thing, and all we have at our fingertips or at our disposal is words. And so over time, the definition of words kind of evolves. I could give you a lot of different examples, particularly in the political landscape, but in this particular case, professional. Being a professional, I think the way we were discussing it the other day doesn't have anything to do with whether or not you call yourself a professional or you have a dba. We weren't talking about that. We were talking about how you conduct yourself and does that make you a professional? And I think. I think that's really kind of the crux of what we were, I don't know, not necessarily moaning about, but, you know, but it was. It's fascinating because I was talking to my wife just this morning. I said, I get to be on a podcast with Alan Berg. I think he's the consummate professional. And then I started to think, we go for a long walk every Thursday. And I said, I think he's the consummate professional because he takes care of all the details. And for instance, I've been backstage at the wedding mba. You come rolling up with your little case, and it's got every connector that could possibly be asked for with audio, visual. It's got everything in there. And having been in the business for so long, and I was also in a DJ forever, so dealing with equipment is like, secondhand for me. I looked in that thing and I thought, oh, yeah, there's that and there's that and there's that and there's that and there's that. And I thought. I said, alan, nothing's going to stop the show. Nothing's going to slow this train down, because he's figured it out. Whereas when you do an event, and that's one thing that I think is interesting, is that you're a business consultant. And so when you go to a client, you're dealing with them in that environment where those of us who are actually wedding professionals and working every weekend, we walk into a completely different environment, and there's so many variables in regards to how people conduct themselves. And what's. What's the point? I always think about that. What. What's the goal? What's driving the impetus of the behaviors? And that's where I think professionalism comes into play as we define it. Does that make sense? Yeah. And I think it's, you know, you're all part of a team, right? So when I come backstage at Wedding mba, I am coming on to a team that's already there. The team that set up the video walls, the team that set up the microphones, the team that set up the speakers and all that kind of stuff. I don't want to disrupt what they've done. I also know that sometimes I walk in and I'm my own AV guy, because there is no team. There is no. The stuff was left there. And that's it. Right. That's why I have the connectors. That's why I have my own countryman mic. That's why I have my presentation on my device, whether it's my iPad or my MacBook. I have it on a flash drive. I have it in keynote. I have it in PowerPoint. I have it in the cloud. Right. I have a clicker. I have a backup to my clicker. I probably have a backup to my backup to my clicker. Right? But these are the things. First of all, you learn this over time, right? You learn over time on certain things. So the countryman mic, the one that goes over my ear, I can use the one they provide if they have one. But I wear glasses, and it's been that their mic has been bent and re. Bent and bent and re. Bent and bent. Re bent, Right. Mine has been bent from my ear with my glasses. And it fits me. It just fits me. And I'd rather. And nobody spit on it but me, Right? So I'd rather have that. But it's also being the easy one to do business with, right? So, Clint, you walk into a wedding and you look around, you see who the other people that were hired for that event. And the average wedding has 12 to 14 services. They're not all visible the day of the event. Right. The rental company should have done. If there's rentals should have done their job, and they're gone. You're not seeing them because you're probably coming after the. The chairs and the tables and things are set up. Right. The flowers might be on the table already, or maybe you're there early enough and you know they're still setting up. Probably not. But but again, professional versus not right. Did they set up early enough so that when you come in, which you're going to be early too, is all that stuff there? But I'm sure you walk into some events and see some of the other people and go, oh, this is going to be a good day. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. It is such a wonderful feeling to recognize the team and. And have that good feeling because of history. That's the thing, you know, you were talking about how you learn lessons over time. The way I call it is you get slapped in the face and you say to yourself, I don't want to get slapped in the face anymore. And so you make the adjustments. And so it's the exact same process. Well, in my opinion, as an officiant, is the exact same process. Every time I show up, I look and see what's going on, and is there anything that I need to fix? And I don't make a thing out of it. If there's any way possible that I can quietly adjust something or, you know, repair something without bothering anybody, then that's exactly what I'm going to do. Because part of working with a team, I think, is there's an emotional component. Everybody wants to feel good about what they do. Like, for instance, it's not uncommon for the DJ to not have the same level of experience. And so maybe they don't hit the cue exactly right. Or whatever the case may be, I never, never, never walk up to the musicians or the DJ and say, you screwed that up. All I do is thank them, and if I really believe it, I'll say, you guys were great. Thank you very much. I never tell them what they did wrong, ever, because they're. I'm having been in that, in that position, they're about to move on to the next phase of whatever their responsibilities are. And I do not want them to carry that criticism with them because I know what that feels like. And so there's different levels. I had an event planner not that long ago call me on something that she never explained prior to the ceremony. And she said, you should have done, da, da, da, da, da. And I'm thinking, well, I handled it the way I handled it to protect the couple. And she was insistent that her way was better. And then replaying it in my mind, I thought she never told me that that was, well, right, you know, and. Again, here's the thing. If something is that important, does that planner. And again, we're not naming names here. Does that planner ensure that by reaching out to you personally, before the event, saying, okay, I see you're going to be the efficient. Maybe they hired you, maybe they didn't. And so let's say they didn't hire you and say, oh, I see, you're going to be the efficient. I'm happy to be working with you for the first time. Just want to go over a couple of things to see we're on the same page since we haven't worked together before. Here's the timeline. Here's what I have there, right? Is there anything that you think I should know? That's what a professional would do. You know, there are conferences that say to me, alan, you know, once we choose the topic with you, we don't give you another thought, right? We know exactly. We know you, and there's no greater compliment, really. Right? And it's. And I go to them and I say, what else can I do? What else can I do to help? What else can I do to promote? What else can I do over here? Because I had somebody say to me one time, you're probably our most expensive speaker for this event, but you're the easiest to do business with, right? And to me, that's part of the definition of being a professional. It's not leaving your truck in the loading dock so nobody else can load in, Right? It's. It's not running wires in a way that might be a problem. It's saying to that I hear DJ say, you know, the professional say to the photographer, hey, listen, if you want. Need to leave some stuff here behind the. Behind the facade or whatever, hey, let me, you know, so it's not sitting out, that's great. If that's easy for you, you can come and get your lenses over here or stuff like that. It's looking and saying how, like you said, how can I make this better? It's not necessarily fixing things, but it's also how can I make your job easier as the caterer, the photographer? You know, what you see is the problems online, right? You see the Facebook ones where somebody says, you know, they took pictures for an extra half an hour, nobody told the caterer, right now the food is overheating. Oh, yeah, exactly. Just things like that. And, you know, then you could get into the debate about, you know, whose job is it to feed the vendors or not. And there are some vendors that feel entitled to the same meal that the guests get. And some are like, listen, I bring food with me. If they feed me, great. If they don't feed me, that's okay. But I'M prepared for myself. Right? And listen, you want to complain in your circles about things that people did, that's okay. But you also have to look in the mirror sometimes and say, am I doing anything to make it harder for somebody else? Am I not communicating? And to me, the timeline is one of those things. It's like, who owns the timeline? It depends upon who you ask, right? Oh, right. You talked about that. I thought that was really cool. But it's true. Because there needs to be one timeline, right? And everybody's got to stick to it. And you can't tell. Like I said, you can't tell the caterer 15 minutes before the food's going to be served. We need another half hour. Because it just doesn't work that way. The food doesn't understand. Stop cooking. It just doesn't work that way. Stop plating, Stop doing those things. And that's the. Being part of a team is understanding that. There was a wedding planner in Australia that came to me. She was just finishing her training, and we talked about her business. That's what we're doing. She said, what else do you think I should do? I said, I want you to spend a day working with every single type of vendor. Oh, yeah. Like, become part of their team. So you know what they do. I want you to cut flowers and arrange flowers and set tables and wash dishes and. And, you know, whatever legally you're allowed to do, but I want you to see what they do. So when somebody says, why is that DJ charged so much? And say, well, listen, I spent time with them and they're investing 30 hours to make your wedding amazing. Right? Why is that efficient? Gosh, why is that efficient? So much. You don't realize how much time they're spending getting to know you and writing this out so that your guests will think that they're part of the family, you don't see that. So you, as a planner can explain that instead of being, oh, wow, they're expensive, Right? And that's, again, to me, the. It could be the novice, it could be naivete. It could be that they're just not professional because they're not trying to learn. I'm not picking on wedding planners here. Cause this goes for everybody here, right? If you, as a vendor ever say that somebody else is expensive, do you know what goes into their. The results of their work? Because if you. Well, I like the way you explained it on the Wedding MBA podcast. You said, it's all about value. It's not about the cost, it's the value. Which I think is brilliant. And before we go further into that, I think. I think what we're talking about, the key component is communication. Yeah. It can be thorough. Yeah. But you could be saying you could be sending the wrong message. But I would start with being thorough. I think communication is 80% of everybody's job. In order to make this work, that's what I consider to a key component of being a professional. You know, when you take professional to being the highest level of a business and the standard operating procedure, but then how you communicate well, and that could be a little dicey, you know? Right. Yeah. Some people are a little more tactful than other people. Well, sometimes it's ignorance. I really do believe that. Okay, I just had a zoom, and normally the zoom is just with a couple, and this is to see if they want to hire me to officiate their wedding ceremony. On this particular zoom was the event planner, the couple, two parents of the couple. And so there was all these people were on the zoom, and we started talking about the rehearsal. My personal business thing is, I'll be at the rehearsal, but I charge extra for that. You probably won't need me at the rehearsal. And so there was this back and forth, back and forth. And on that zoom, in front of all the client and the parents who are probably paying for it and all that stuff, the event planner said to me, will you discount the rehearsal? I said, no. Yeah, no. And she listed a price of $200 less than what I charged for rehearsals. I said, no. How about. And then she gave me a different price. No. And I'm thinking, what are you doing right now? Stop it. You know, she was communicating, but she was doing it in a way that was. I think most people in any business would say, you don't do that in front of the clients. So that's what I mean. She was communicating, but was she communicating properly? So there you go. Right. Well, again, so does she understand the value of the rehearsal? Because I know some officiants that don't charge extra for rehearsal. I said, really? So on another day, you need to take your time and drive somewhere and show up and hope they're on time and spend some time and whatever. And you're not charging for that time. Right? Because. Well, I think in their minds, they are charging for that time. In their minds, their package includes the rehearsal price. Right, right. And so in their minds, that makes sense for them and their business model. Yeah, it does. But when I look at their price, I go, no, it doesn't. Like, you're not, you're not charging enough. And thing is, if you're charging enough, and I'm okay with that, if you're charging enough and say, listen, I don't think you need me at the rehearsal, but if you do, I'm not going to charge you extra for me coming because I've. I've. Then subtext because I've already charged you enough. Right. That's what you do. Right, Right. But again, to me, it's a different day that you're taking time, that you could be doing something else, which could be money making, it could be personal time, it could be whatever, family time. You know me as a speaker. If I'm on site, I charge by the day, I don't charge by the hour. So I'll say, you have me speaking. Is there anything else that I could do to help add value to you and the audience? Speaking, moderating a panel, sitting on a panel, telling jokes, playing the piano, whatever, just doing something. Right. But I'm offering because again, you're paying me. How can I. And. But the wording was how can I add more value to you and to the audience? Yeah, I like that. That planner who's negotiating with you on that call thinks that they're advocating for. For the couple by trying to save them $200. Right? That's what, that's what their mindset is. That's what I heard when you said that they're on the call. They're. They're trying to show off. Look, I'm saving you money. Your point is. Listen, call me privately. Let's talk, you know, talk about this. I'll still tell you no, but you call me privately, we could talk about this and I could explain to you why I charge for coming to rehearsal. Well, you know what? When you, I've heard you talk about when you talk to your clients that hire you to come consult or speak or whatever the case may be. And I don't know, sometimes the phrase is can you do anything better? Or whatever it is, which means can you lower your price? And okay, what I would like, if you don't mind, share with me and anybody who else is watching what you say to them, because I just think it's so relevant and it kind of throws the ball back in their court. And like, would you do that to yourself? You know, something like that? Well, there's different things with that. First of all, the fact that someone's asking for a discount is a huge buying signal because people don't ask for discounts for things they don't want, Right. That's great. Right. So when somebody asks you for a price, that's a buying signal. If I want to know how much it is, it's a possible I might buy it if the price and value work out right. For me, when they say, can you do better? It means I want it, I want to buy it and I want to know I got the best price. Right? Right. So if somebody says to me, you know, you know, can you, is there a discount? You can do something. I always say, well, thank you for asking. I understand how things like this can add up. So I'm acknowledging the question. I'm not insulted by it. I am never insulted if somebody asks. Because if you have, if you have ever asked for a discount on anything in your life and you can't be insulted when someone asks you, right? That's hypocritical. If you've ever asked for a discount, don't be insulted. You don't have to give them the discount, right? But don't be insulted by the question. So if somebody in an industry thing, right, if you want 100% value, and that's all I know how to do is 100% value, I, this is what I charge. And part of the reason is I can only accept a certain number of clients per year, per month, per day, per whatever it is. And I put in a lot of time that you don't see. And it, and, and as somebody wisely said to me one time, you're not paying for the hours, you're paying for the years, right. You're the years of experience that got me to this point. So I appreciate you asking for what you're asking for. That is the price. If I have an alternative that's something of lower result, that has a lower price, fine. Like if I say, listen, if you don't want to bring me on site, if that doesn't fit your budget, we could do a two hour zoom training with your team. That'll cost you this, that is less. You're getting two hours, you're not getting seven or eight hours. You're not getting me a dinner the night before, you're not getting me when we have lunch, you're not getting that, you're not getting me to see your office, your venue, whatever. So it does cost less. And also remember, when I come on site, it's not the one day because I have to fly there, I have to fly home, right? So you're getting more than one day of my time, way more than that. Plus plus again the years. So thank you for asking. I appreciate how things like this add up for, for your event, for. For these particular things, that is the price. Would you like to move ahead? And then I asked. I'm lucky that I just do the one thing. You know what I mean? I'm an officiant, so I just do the one thing. When I'm an mc, if I am flying on, going on location, then I do say something along the lines of, you know, I'm there, you know, use me. How is there anything else you need me to do or anything like that? Absolutely, yeah. It's just. That's a different job category. Yeah, I like that a lot. But then not everybody does that. So some of my speaker friends, they charge for a keynote and it's the keynote price. And if you want to breakout, it's more. Right. Even if it's the same day. Now most of my friends will say, if someone is on the fence, they'll say, listen, if it happens on the same day, I'll also do this for you. So they're doing added value. Okay. Now that added value still requires time on our part. I had mentioned what was. Since we're talking wedding mba one year, I was already doing three presentations. They came to me a little bit before and said, hey, could you do a fourth presentation? And it was only a couple of weeks before the event. And I'm always. If I'm on site and somebody gets sick, plane gets canceled, can't make it. I will fill a stage. No slides, no anything. I could fill the 45 minutes, keep people both educated and entertained without that. But if you want me to prepare a presentation, that's different. And I said, I don't have the time. And they said, well, you're already going to be there. I said, no, I have the 45 minutes. I don't have the 30 hours to prepare another presentation. Right. And that's the difference. Right. Like you don't just walk in and do a standard boilerplate ceremony for somebody that's not your job. There are people that do that, and that's fine. My son got married at City hall in San Francisco. They assigned us someone. We had 15 minutes and man, they were on the clock. Right. But she did a phenomenal job of making that feel personal. And I give her a lot of kudos for that in 15 minutes. But she didn't, she didn't know them ahead of time. She didn't tell any stories. There were no anecdotes. There was what you do that wasn't there. We didn't expect that for also what we were paying. Right. It's also a different story. So getting. I want to circle back, if you don't mind. I want to circle back to. I, I'm of the opinion that I don't think the client really cares what the business did to get to that point. I mean, I think in terms of. I, when I was a dj, they would talk all the time about, you know, how much my equipment costs and, you know, how much I did. And I'm like, they don't care. The client doesn't care. There's, what's your price? Okay, what am I going to get? And every now and then, this hasn't happened in a long, long time. But the question of this other person charges less. Why do you charge more? And I, I had to stop and say, okay, I'm going to say a bunch of stuff that's going to sound like I'm bragging. I don't mean that at all. But in answer to your question, there's, well, there's this and this and this and this, this and this. This. And, and that's why, you know, I, I charge what I charge. Right. But, but, but I really do believe most clients couldn't care less. Why you know all of that stuff about, well, poor me, because I've done all this. And yeah, no, well, but again, if you're making it about you, you're approaching it the wrong way. Exactly. Right. It. Because it's always about them. So they care more about their experience than yours. Right. So the fact that I've done this many weddings, or I have this many years experience, or in my case, all these, these acronyms after my name or whatever, they care about their experience. So somebody says to me, why do you charge more than others? The first thing I say is, you know, because of the amount of time that I will put into making your event fantastic or making your team sell. I can only accept a certain number of clients per year because, Because a lot of time that you're not going to see. And what you're paying me for is the results of that. So if you want, and then I repeat back to them what they want, if you want, in your case, you know, your guests to say, oh my gosh, is he a member of the family? Like, he knows you so well. I've never heard a ceremony like that. And when you watch your video again and you go, we chose the right guy. Right. If that's what you want, I can do that. And to do that need to charge this amount because of the time I'm going to invest so that you will get that result. If you want to spend less, you can spend less. It's very easy, very easy to spend less. But if you want my results, I'm the only one that can do that. Yeah, I like that. Right? I do. And again, it's not arrogant. It's pointing out the obvious, right? If you want a new car, you can buy a Hyundai or a Ford or a GM or a Mercedes or a Bugatti or whatever. They're all new cars, right? And they will get you from here to there. But then let's talk about the utility and the value comes tangible and intangible. What you provide is an intangible result. And what if you listen, you know, everybody listening here, food is a tangible result. The service with which that food is served is an intangible. Photography is a tangible result. It's an intangible. How they feel about you as the photographer and how they, how do you interact with them? How, right. Everybody, you know, has intangibles. A lot of us have tangibles that go within tangibles. So. Prof. You again, to me, professional, professionalism is an intangible. You feel it, you understand it, right? It's not whether you say the right words, it's how you deliver the right words. I checked into a hotel the other day and it wasn't a fancy hotel. It's one of the Marriott properties, Town Place Suites. The rooms were great. The hotel was fine. The, the person at the front desk was saying the right things, but not the right way. And again, as someone that stays in a lot of hotels, right? And I'm a Marriott Platinum for life, so I've stayed in a lot of Marriott hotels. I could feel the difference, right? The person who was, they have a free breakfast at this hotel. The person that was, you know, bringing stuff out and whatever couldn't have been any nicer. Absolutely a champion for that person. Property. And what a juxtaposition because it's the same building and it was about 15ft away from where the breakfast was to the front desk. And at the front desk, I'm feeling, not feeling it. And over there, that to me, right. And, and then the little kicker was there was something where they needed to call the manager at, from the front desk. And he calls and he walks five feet away and he's talking in Spanish to the manager on the phone, not realizing that I speak Spanish, which was, which was great. So after he came back and we Said some things, and then we're saying some things in English. And then right before I left, I said something to. In Spanish, and then I walked away. But again, professionalism right there. If you're going to talk to the manager and you're going to talk to them in Spanish, go more than five feet away, go out of earshot, say, excuse me, you know, I need to call. That's unprofessional to do that. They're thinking, am I. Am I doing that because I don't think the client can hear me? Or is it just their first language and they're more comfortable in their first language? I don't know. I don't care. But I. I didn't feel that was professional what they did. So. Yeah, when we were talking the other day about this, there was a phrase that. That jumped into my head and it's. I can't be bothered. Yeah. Yeah. When somebody says whatever the category is, whatever the vendor category is, they know if you do this thing, then I think it'll flow a lot better for everybody else, whether it be move this thing or plug in this thing or say this thing or whatever, whatever. But. But for somebody, in order to make themselves feel important, says the line, oh, yeah, I can't be bothered with that. That. Oh, gosh, that drives me crazy. Because I think that is another level of professionalism where they turn it inward and from an insecure standpoint, trying to make themselves feel important, but they don't realize, and this is what you said, that if you go that extra bit, if you take. Pay attention to how everybody else is affected, it actually saves you time, increases your reputation, and brings you more business, which, of course, but somebody needs to be slapped in the face in order to really understand that that's really going to bring you positive rewards as opposed to making yourself and being able to say to somebody, oh, and then, you know what I said? I said, I can't be bothered. What do you. Yeah. You know what I mean? And. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I remember when, When I was at the knot, I was VP of sales, I had customer service people under me, salespeople under me, probably about a hundred people. And I remember saying to some people on my team one time, if I ever hear you say it's not my job, you're right, because you don't work anymore. Right, right. That's the whole thing of if you believe you can and you believe you can't. You're right. You're right. It's a version. What I meant is maybe it's not your job description and maybe you can't do that thing, but you can get them to that. You can help the customer get the result. I remember one time I was being cc'd on emails and I generally don't respond to ccs because you're saying, I want you to see this. If you wanted it to me, you would have put me in the two line, right? But it was something happened with a customer, whatever it was, and people are going back and forth trying to figure out what went wrong. And I finally jumped in and I said, has anybody called the customer and said, we're working on this for you? And they said, no, we're trying to find out what happened. I said, the customer thinks we're doing nothing right now because that's invisible to them. Somebody called the customer and say, we're working on this. Definitely have it done within 48 hours. If we think it's 24, tell them 48 and then over deliver. Right? I said, but right now it's invisible. You can see it. I'm looking and seeing the wall that's up and they can't see that again. That to me is part of professionalism. Are we keeping the customer in the loop? Are we afraid to say to the customer, we screwed up? That's unprofessional. If you're afraid to say that to the customer, it doesn't make you weak. It makes you stronger. Admitting to it and saying, this is what we're doing to fix it. I just had something with my auto insurance and I tried to get to a supervisor and I was told, here's their email, here's their whatever. They never called me back. I sent emails, I sent phone, and they've been great on customer service with other things and now I'm just ticked off at them because I've emailed and called multiple times. And this supervisor probably knows I'm not happy. Why would I be going to a supervisor if I was happy? Right? And the fact that you won't reach reach back out to me. Like, are you afraid that I'm going to yell at you? Like, you don't know me, right? I don't yell at people. I'm, well, rarely. But, but think about, you know, me for a long time. How, how, how hard do you have to push my buttons for me to yell? Right? I, I, it's never been an issue because we get along so great. It's never been a thing. But just you can imagine, I, I, I go with the flow and I, I listen Things go wrong, we make it better. There we go. Professionalism is understanding. There's peripheral vision. There's other stuff going on. I'm not the only one here. I am not the most important person here. I don't care who you are, you are not the most important person there. If you are a. A celebrity, whatever, you're a billionaire and you're speaking on stage, there is still a team that is making this happen for you. And are you thanking them? Are you making it easier? Are you. What are you doing? So, you know, getting back to. We're going to wrap up, you know, what does it mean to be professional? What it means to be professional is to understand, you know, again, I think if. Understand that other person's job, understand that things happen. And like you said, I'm not going to tell them you screwed up. Now, if somebody says to me, hey, you know, if there's anything, I always say, what can I do to make it better? Right? What can I make it? What can I make? What can I do to make the next time better? And I think that's us as professionals saying, you know, how can I do this better? So when something goes wrong, you say, you know what? Before that might happen again, I'm going to go over to that person that missed the queue and I'm going to say, hey, we good on the queue? We good on the timing? Does everything seem right with that? Is there anything that you think would make us not be able to hit that mark? Right? And now if it doesn't happen now, maybe the conversation afterwards, you know, hey. And they should be saying, hey, I'm sorry, just quick side story. I was watching a documentary on the Thunderbirds, you know, the Air Force Elite. Oh, yeah, Exhibition pilots. And they were. It was the new team. And so half the team changes every year. And they. They were at the. It was July 4th, some sports thing that they were doing, and they're supposed to come in at the end of the national anthem, right? And the home of the brave, right, there it is. And now the singers can speed up, slow down, hold notes because they're singing acapella, right? And this particular one, they came in 10 seconds late. No, so. And the home of the brave, right, it held out the note and then it was just like sile for 10 seconds and then the plane's over. They didn't just miss the mark, they way missed the mark. And meanwhile, coming in, they're speeding up, slowing down, speeding up, slowing down. There are people at the stadium trying to do. And they missed that by 10 seconds. If you don't think they went back and watched that tape again and again and again and again. Right. That's what we need to do as professionals and say, okay, what can I do to make it better? I can't change the past. I can make it better the next time. So, Clint, my friend, thank you so much for, for joining me and having this conversation. We could keep going forever on this. Share your thoughts with us. If you have an idea for a topic, go to podcast.Alanberg.com Click on the Ask me anything button there. Clint, if they wanted to find you, how can they find you? Oh, it's simple. Just go to my website. It's my name, C-L-I-N-T-H-U-F-F-T.com and you can, and you can contact me through that. Right. So if you need an MC for a corporate event or if you know someone who wants an amazing ceremony for their wedding, or an auctioneer, and I don't know if you do that kind of auctioning, but there you go. Hit subscribe if you haven't already done that. Post us a review if you can, and see us on the next episode. Thanks.


I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or you can  text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

[recent_posts category="all”]


People on this episode

Head Shot

Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

Host