“I had to say goodbye. It was scary, but it was very empowering to me. I wasn’t saying “F* you” to my clients, but I was saying “F* you” to fear. And I was saying “hello” and “amen” to coming into my full self and my passion.”

-Holiday Childress

For months, Holiday Childress had been eyeing an antique-style barber chair, complete with leather upholstery and an ashtray in the armrest. He knew it would cost him more money than he could afford, but he also felt deeply connected with it. It harkened back to a life-long dream, a business idea he had always felt drawn to: owning a men’s grooming service.

“With this chair, I thought to myself I need to get creative and find a good financial reason to get this.”

And with that, Holiday’s business idea started to take shape. A few years later, Holiday Grooms, a bespoke mobile men’s grooming service inspired by a world of old-school men’s tailoring, speakeasies, and barbershops, was born.

Here’s What You’ll Learn:

  • The story of how Holiday transitioned from being a hair colorist and stylist to owning his own men’s mobile grooming shop
  • How the name “Holiday Grooms” was born and the whole branding process Holiday went through
  • The tools and software Holiday uses to run his business
  • Holiday discusses the hardest business decision he had to make (removing coloring from his menu) and how saying “no” empowered him to follow his real passion
  • The importance of men having a self-care and grooming routine
  • What tools and resources you need to up your shaving game at home
  • Holiday shares his thoughts on the Asheville community, as well as a few of this favorite places to hang out at
  • And lastly, Holiday gives some wise advice for anyone trying to “make it” in Asheville


Show Notes

Holiday Grooms is an on-location wedding and special events grooming service inspired by bespoke men’s tailoring, barbershops, and speakeasies worldwide. Connect with Holiday Grooms on their Website and Instagram.

Atlas Branding is a renowned Asheville-based branding and design agency. They worked on the Holiday Grooms logo, website, and branding design.

Square is the software that Holiday uses to book client appointments and collect payments.

What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith is a book that Tony mentioned during the episode while discussing the idea of change.

Crown Shaving Co. is the brand of shaving cream products that Holiday highly recommends, especially their luxurious Pre-Shave Formula.

Holiday’s Favorite Asheville places:

Music by Commonwealth Choir


Curious to learn more about what we do?

Making It in Asheville is a podcast where we go behind the scenes with artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs in Asheville. We learn about what they’re making and how they’re making it in Asheville.

Making It in Asheville is powered by Making It Creative, our boutique marketing and business consulting agency. We help passionate small business owners build and improve their sales and communication strategies. Learn more here.


We appreciate your support!

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribelikereview, and/or share. Each review means than you might think as they help this episode get discovered on podcast players.

To recommend an interviewee, visit MakingItInAsheville.com/podcast

Advice for Saying “I Do” in One of North Carolina’s Most Popular Wedding Cities

In this episode, we unpack what it was like to plan a wedding in Asheville.

A few weeks before recording this episode, we got married! And yes, we did it in Asheville. Getting ready for the big day has been a big part of our “making it in Asheville” experience. So, we wanted to take some time to share with you some thoughts, insights, and advice for saying “I do” in one of North Carolina’s most popular wedding cities.

Here’s What You’ll Learn:

  • How we went about choosing a wedding city and why we chose Asheville
  • Find out what was the very first wedding decision we made after we got engaged and how it shaped the entire planning process
  • Some of the wedding planning tools we used, plus which ones were the most helpful and why
  • The advice we’d give ourselves looking back


Show Notes

Wedding Planning Resources

  • The Knot – Great free resource for setting up a website, searching for vendors, getting an overview of what’s needed to plan a wedding, and setting up a registry
  • The Asheville Wedding Guide – Local magazine and website featuring hundreds of vendors and ideas for weddings in Asheville

Our Wedding Vendors

Music by Commonwealth Choir


Curious to learn more about what we do?

Making It in Asheville is a podcast where we go behind the scenes with artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs in Asheville. We learn about what they’re making and how they’re making it in Asheville.

Making It in Asheville is powered by Making It Creative, our boutique marketing and business consulting agency. We help passionate small business owners build and improve their sales and communication strategies. Learn more here.


We appreciate your support!

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribelikereview, and/or share. Each review means than you might think as they help this episode get discovered on podcast players.

To recommend an interviewee, visit MakingItInAsheville.com/podcast

“You do it for passion, you do it for love.”

– Melissa Gray

In this episode, we sit down with Melissa Gray (you know her as the founder and artist behind Cakes by Gray) to find out how she started and grew her cake business in Asheville.

Melissa was a long-time food service veteran who decided to follow her passion for pastry and head to culinary school. In the years since, she’s grown to become one of the premier cake artists in Asheville — a city with a booming wedding industry.

We think you’ll love her straight-shooting discussion on being a business owner (and her trifle cake shooters, too).

Note: We chose Melissa to be our cake artist for our own Asheville wedding (happening September 2019!). We love her laid-back personality, innovative cake flavors, and beautiful designs. Plus, she let us eat five cupcakes during our cake tasting, so how could we say anything but yes?

Here’s What You’ll Learn:

  • How Melissa started and grew her cake business, Cakes by Gray
  • The importance of choosing the right business name (and domain name)
  • Why Melissa chose to specialize in pastry and not cooking
  • The inside scoop of Melissas soon-to-open dessert and cocktail bar, RosaBees
  • Melissa’s favorite restaurants and things to do in Asheville, plus the worst days for eating seafood in a restaurant
  • Advice for aspiring bakers and why she thinks going to culinary school is crucial


Show Notes

Where to find more on Melissa’s cake business, Cakes by Gray:
Website
Instagram
Facebook

Plus, check out Melissa’s new dessert and cocktail bar, RosaBees (opening August 2019):
Instagram
Facebook

Engaged Asheville (One-stop shop wedding studio where we recorded this podcast)

Melissa’s Favorite Baking Resources:
The Flavor Bible by Karen Page – Melissa uses this book to find the best flavor pairings (it’s how she came up with some of her best buttercream icing-cake combinations like lemon cake with basil icing for example)
Kitchen Aid Mixer – Professional Series 5-Quart (Melissa’s favorite Kitchen Aid, great for serious bakers and meringue lovers)
Kitchen Aid Mixer – Artisan Series (perfect for beginner and home bakers, comes in many different colors)

When talking about seafood and restaurants, we referenced Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.

Half of life is learning what are the eggs and what’s the icing.” – Tony attempting to quote Seth Godin

Melissa’s Favorite Things To Do in Asheville:
Bull & Beggar (for their Seafood Tower and the Lobster Roll)
Cucina 24
The Imperial Life
(for dancing and cocktails)
The Biltmore Estate

The LaZoom Comedy Tours

And where Melissa goes for the ultimate tattoo experience: Victory Boulevard Tattoo

Music by Commonwealth Choir


Curious to learn more about what we do?

Making It in Asheville is a podcast where we go behind the scenes with artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs in Asheville. We learn about what they’re making and how they’re making it in Asheville.

Making It in Asheville is powered by Making It Creative, our boutique marketing and business consulting agency. We help passionate small business owners build and improve their sales and communication strategies. Learn more here.


We appreciate your support!

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribelikereview, and/or share. Each review means than you might think as they help this episode get discovered on podcast players.

To recommend an interviewee, visit MakingItInAsheville.com/podcast

In this episode, we go behind the scenes with Nikki to talk about how she has grown her wedding planning business from a company of one to six.

Nikki Sciurba is not your average wedding planner. She is somehow magically laid back and calm all the while paying meticulous attention to the details.

As some of you may know, we’re getting married this September in Asheville. Planning a wedding takes way more time and attention than we could have imagined and we couldn’t have planned ours without the help of Nikki Sciurba, founder and owner of one of Asheville’s top wedding planning businesses, Carolina Love Events.

Here’s What You’ll Learn

  • The steps Nikki took to start her wedding planning business in Asheville (and what she ended up changing)
  • How she manages conflicts and problems that arise on wedding days
  • Advice on how to write vows and speeches
  • Which wedding apps can help couples through the process (and which don’t)
  • Some of the ways she helps her couples make their wedding days unique representations of their relationships
  • Nikki’s insider picks on the best things to do, places to see, and food to eat in Asheville

Show Notes

Carolina Love Events
Explore the website and follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest (some great wedding ideas here!).

Nikki’s Favorite Business Resources:
Google Suite for all her wedding planning and documentation
Apple Watch so that she can manage incoming messages from the DJ and the venues without breaking stride
Gusto for all payroll services
QuickBooks for accounting, invoices, and finance management

Nikki’s Top Asheville Picks:
Salvage Station
Burial Beer
Burger Mondays at Bull & Beggar
Copper Crown
Smoky Park Supper Club
Hole Doughnuts
Hiking at Graveyard Fields

Music by Commonwealth Choir


Curious to learn more about what we do?

Making It in Asheville is a podcast where we go behind the scenes with artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs in Asheville. We learn about what they’re making and how they’re making it in Asheville.

Making It in Asheville is powered by Making It Creative, our boutique marketing and business consulting agency. We help passionate small business owners build and improve their sales and communication strategies. Learn more here.


We appreciate your support!

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribelikereview, and/or share. Each review means than you might think as they help this episode get discovered on podcast players.

To recommend an interviewee, visit MakingItInAsheville.com/podcast