Fyreside Newsletter - 6/22/26

Hey Reader,

Let me say upfront, I don't have much for you this week. I've decided to take a little time off from TikTok because, to quote organizational expert Marie Kondo, it was no longer sparking joy. Also, I've had a busy week full of job interviews and wedding planning. Both of those things are great! But they've also left me a little drained. I'd rather take my foot off the gas than fall asleep at the wheel, so forgive a shorter newsletter this week. Anyway...

You know what really grinds my gears?

People who ask for my budget before telling me their prices.

If you've ever explored my website, (which you should, I worked really hard on it) you've likely noticed that I list my pricing out in full. I think, as a service provider, I owe a certain level of transparency to the public. Whether it helps with sales is certainly up for debate, but it makes me feel better, so I do it.

I also think it is reasonable (in some cases) to not publicly list your pricing out in full. Some folks have variable pricing structures, some things aren't as cut and dry as a single payment, I get it. I think business owners are well within their write to require an inquiry for pricing information. It's not how I like to do things, so I don't do it, but I get it.

What I really hate is when someone asks for my budget before giving me information about their pricing. Now I'm not talking in absolutes here. Someone saying, "Hey, what's your budget like? I'd like to adjust my services to what you can afford" is very cool and I take no issue with it. Let me tell you two stories that explain what I am talking about.

"I just wanted to tour your apartment complex."

In our first few years after school, my partner and I were looking for apartments. We had toured a lot of apartments. If you don't live in a metro area as we do, you may not understand just how ever-present multi-unit apartment complexes have become, but they're literally everywhere. Because they are literally everywhere, it gets pretty easy to tell how much one may cost, what one may look like, or the general amenities one has available by appearance alone. Once you've toured one, you've toured them all.

Well, we were off to tour a complex that was close to where we wanted to be and were greeted by a very unpleasant property manager who gave us one look and scoffed. After an ice cold hello, she quickly asked us for our budget. It was clear that she assumed we couldn't afford the rent, even though it was well within our budget. We opted not to tour.

"I just wanted to tour your wedding venue."

Anecdote number 2 is fresh. Like, it happened today level of fresh.

I've been going back and forth with this venue for about a week trying to schedule a time to tour. It's been tough to align schedules, and I don't blame them for that. We finally locked down a tour date today and they immediately sent me a mandatory pre-tour questionnaire. Question number 3 (after name and email) was about budget. They asked for our total wedding budget and our venue budget. Both lines required a specific, numeric answer.

Maybe some folks have that info figured out at this point, but we don't, so I put in what I considered to be a placeholder number. Something middling, maybe a little less than what we're actually planning to spend. Again, I've been trying to schedule this tour for a week and they wouldn't guarantee the date until I finished the survey, so I was just trying to get it done. Unbeknownst to me, I had undershot their minimum investment.

My placeholder number yielded a response that was unexpected. Instead of a friendly, "Hey, that's lower than you might expect to pay with us, is that ok?" I received a response more in-line with the aforementioned property manager's. The response had a very "maybe we're too good for you" vibe to it. It made it feel like they were trying to dodge their commitment to our tour because I had gotten a test question wrong.

Is that the impression you wanted to give to someone who wants to visit your venue? Maybe it was, but it's certainly not how I would do things. We're still planning on touring the venue, but they've slipped down our rankings pretty quickly.

In conclusion:

The most well-curated Instagram page won't fix bad customer service. Also, be tactful when you ask about budget, you never know who you're talking to.

-MC

p.s.

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