Why “Expanding My Brand” Created Other Opportunities For The Pawning Planners…

When I created Texas Twins Events several years ago, my plan was to offer low cost options as a wedding officiant, party planner, event coordinator & funeral clergy.  My initial plan was to offer services alone to clients but, over the years my plan changed based on my clients needs.

I quickly realized that my idea of the folks with money covering the families who didn’t have money obviously “didn’t work out!”  The families with money wanted the low cost options that were meant for the clients on a limited budget.  To overcome this, I decided to consider trades and started a creative idea by blending my Ebay store, Texas Twins Treasures (opened in 2009 to create revenue by selling my furs, jewelry and even furniture while my husband was unemployed due to the real estate crash) by taking trades, I needed an avenue to market the families with no money so I created The Pawning Planners and wrote blogs as a way of advertising to my “no money, no problem” client base. 

Expanding my “brand” was never an easy task.  I learned that families couldn’t afford photography- so I bought camera equipment and enlisted my twin sister, Cindy Daniel to accompany me to events.  Once again, I would realize that we still didn’t have enough help on location when things went wrong.  From bloody noses to torn hems and even wedding bouquets that were damaged- Cindy couldn’t do the photography and help the wedding party at the same time so, we added my son and his wife to handle photography.  Next my clients saw photos of our darling second generation twins and wanted them in their wedding party so they became The Little Pawners and part of our team.  While officiating another event, I found that no one spoke English so my niece Stephaney Mahaney became our translator and when we came across  an event 

with no music- added my niece Leigh Ann Blais as our wedding singer to “round out my team.” We are family owned and operated with my multigenerational staff and help anyone regardless of their income.

When I realized that many families couldn’t afford wedding flowers, I created wedding bouquets, boutenniers, Centerpieces, and anything else they needed so they wouldn’t have to buy it themselves. This was a huge investment of time and money but necessary in order to meet my client base. I don’t offer free photography to families booking through Texas Twins Events because Robert & Stephanie Hafele spend 2-4 hours on location handling photography when they are booked.  I pay for film development and, it isn’t inexpensive.  Robert and Stephanie are normally on site 1-2 hours for Pawning Planners clients.  Recently, families who can afford a venue, can afford caterers, etc. have heen expecting to borrow my floral designs and benefit from free photography- if you can afford everything else except paying myself and my staff- you need to pay for services and not expect us to work for free because that dog isn’t going to bark ya all!  

I’ve been burned 4-5 times by families with plenty of money who “stiffed me” on my fees and my photographers while they somehow found a way to pay $5-10k on e wry thing else pertaining to their event except my staff.  Because of this and realizing that no good dead goes unpunished- I require an appraisal appointment if you claim you have no money to pay for services or no trade.  I’m good hearted but, I’m also a businesswoman who has spent tens of thousands of dollars to create an opportunity and businesses in order to give the gift of a Dream Event.  What I didn’t do was create a window for myself or my family to be taken advantage of.  From this point forward- clients who claim to have empty pockets can “plan on” an appraisal appointment with me to better “grasp” their financial situation. 

How I went from wedding and event services to estate Liquidations and Pawning Parties is a pretty interesting “twist” to my concept along with adding Pawning Planners Apparel in order to fund “truly needy families with no money or no trade.”   

My background spans several career paths that include modeling couture clothing, selling Cadillacs, selling high end patio furniture and refurbishing items to flip and recover expenses.  Because of this, my product knowledge when clients asked for event services that were “out of the box” came in handy at Appraisal Appointments.
My family and I recognized the need to do this or that in order to address the needs of our client base.  Did I ever plan on expanding my services?  No, but being flexible is key to the success of my concept.  Cindy and I along with our Little Pawners “roll with it.”

Why did I add Texas Twins TV to my existing websites?  We had several requests for video at our events and decided the best way to provide these videos was through my YouTube channel to our clients since video is readily available for them within days of an event and also because clients contacting us to liquidate their property like to know what we think and are planning for the liquidation.  This weekend we were as usual, slammed busy bouncing from one booking to the next and,  evaluating the time necessary to organize and evaluate the sale process.  

How do we get paid at estate Liquidations?  First off, if we need to rent a truck to move items from one place to another, a flat fee is involved of $150.00 if the items are on site- we take 20% of the profit for setting up, organizing and advertising the sale.  We also keep the leftovers to sell at Texas Twins Treasures to benefit our clients with no money and, no trade.

YouTube videos of the Pawning Planners On Location are always packed with saucy observations from my GingerTwin Cindy and occasionally our Little Pawners-  The Pawning Planners Evaluate An Estate Liquidation was filmed after checking out another inquiry regarding liquidating a storage unit- A TwinTeam-The Pawning Planners Dig For Treasure At A Storage Unit.

You see, we offer many services that I didn’t originally “plan to” mainly because these folks contacted me unable to liquidate themselves due to health or being out of state.  Since we are an events oriented business, these opportunities presented themselves and we were up to once again “expanding and branding” my Texas Twins/Pawning Planners business.

Finding “a treasure among the trash” is often fairly interesting because we never know what these folks are like or, what state their homes are in prior to setting up the Appraisal Appointment Meeting With Jennifer Alexander- My Texas Twins Events/Pawning Planners Team is a video of meeting Jennifer with my family and gifting her a donated dress while showing her the bouquets I’ve made to loan her for her event.  This is also the best way for me to find out whether the client is truly needy or not and part of my process of “weeding out” requests from clients who have bought a new car or house or just returned from a cruise- if you can afford these luxuries- you can afford to pay for our services.  

Maryssa and Makenna explain “bad weddings” vs “good weddings” Little Pawners & Flower Girls- Maryssa and Makenna Mahaney The Little Pawners!

The twins are pretty funny and have seen the good in people along with the bad.  Weddings are “Wild Cards” because we never know what the inlaws or outlaws are going to be like.

My daughter in law, Stephanie Hafele explains her experiences “behind the camera” to give ya all a clearer understanding of inlaws and outlaws Stephanie Hafele Explains What She Has Experienced As A Photographer For Texas Twins Events.

Some folks have asked us how these families find us and the answer is our huge social network.  Often are clients are “like a box of chocolate” since we never know what we are going to get. 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

So while continually “expanding my brand” was never planned, we continued to do whatever was necessary to meet the creative requests submitted through my websites while recognizing that no job was too big or too small- when you have a “team” you’re capable of doing it all!
We consider any trade, from boats, to trucks, to houses, to anything you can imagine because “everything is worth something” #Cindyism. 

Wendy Wortham No Money? No Problem- We Take Trades The Pawning Planners