Ep. 102 Mastering the Art of Turning Every Challenge into an Opportunity

Megan Tobler (00:00.782)
Well, Dixie, thank you so much for hopping on the Self -Starter podcast today and sharing your story.

Dixie Bagley (00:05.436)
Thanks for having me, I’m glad to be here.

Megan Tobler (00:07.566)
Glad to have you. Now, I have to ask, you mentioned on your website that you know a thing or two about what it takes to become a boss. So I’d just love to learn a little bit more about you and your role as a boss.

Dixie Bagley (00:16.56)
Well, it started really early. Me and the daughter of a single mom in Mississippi and not having any siblings in the 70s and kind of having to immediately start, you know, fighting my way through things and making my own decisions and having to decide to take the path to achieve the goals I wanted to achieve. I would look around and see things going on around me. I’m fortunate that my grandparents exposed me to a lot of

nicer things in life, but being, you know, product of a single mom who was doing her own thing in the seventies dating, et cetera, all of that stuff. I wasn’t necessarily always a priority as far as setting me down like, and you know, saying, Hey Dixie, here’s goals that you should have in your life, et cetera. So it was nice for my grandparents to be able to expose me to things. And when I would go out and just even at a young age would just make observations.

of people in restaurants, people where my grandparents work and was like, I want those things. I want to have nice things. I want to have a nicer life. I don’t want to struggle. And so I can honestly say, I think it started really early and just really built a work ethic and a goal setting, you know, quality in myself to always go after what I wanted because I knew I wasn’t going to be handed anything.

Megan Tobler (01:37.87)
And sometimes I think it takes understanding what you don’t want in order to really understand what you do want moving forward. So even at that young age, when you’re taking a look at what your upbringing was and realizing that you wanted a life more like your grandparents, what was it at that young age that you were deciding you wanted to kind of strive for moving forward?

Dixie Bagley (01:42.012)
Yes.

Dixie Bagley (01:59.068)
It’s so funny, it sounds crazy, but one of my youngest memories was there was this Chinese restaurant in Mississippi and it was really like, you had to be the upper echelon to go there in the 70s, it was a thing. And I remember looking around at people and at the tables and what they were wearing and the way they were acting and behaving and way different than the Mississippi Southern Table, which there’s nothing wrong with that, the family table.

But I knew right then I was like, I want those things. I want to know how to use, you know what I mean? Like I would observe things like table manners and the forks and the place settings. And I just knew that that was something that I wanted and I wanted to know about and nobody was telling me about that. So it just kind of sparked an interest in me, I think to just always be looking for just something a little bit nicer. You know what I mean? I don’t know what it was. Nobody ever spoke any words to me. Like my family didn’t discuss money growing up. They didn’t discuss college.

Really nothing, you know, but I knew that I wanted something more than what I was seeing around me growing up in Mississippi. Like I said, there was nothing wrong with it. I just knew that I wanted something more and better and I didn’t want to struggle and ha ha, jokes on me, we all struggle. But in my mind, I would look at these things and think, I don’t want to be, you know, having a hard time making decisions or making income or having to hop from job to job.

I don’t want to be a single mom. Again, jokes on me. I went through that as well. I don’t want to do these things and I don’t want to struggle. And I just kind of always instinctively knew that I did not want to struggle and that I was going to, it was sink or swim and I was always going to swim. Nobody discussed it with me. It was just kind of the way I am. I’m also Capricorn. So now as I get older, I’m like, yeah, I think those things kind of lie to me. It makes sense.

Megan Tobler (03:45.87)
My husband’s a Capricorn as well, and I’m seeing a lot of similarities in your personalities already. And you guys are go -getters, that’s for sure. But as you were talking, I couldn’t help but think about you were talking about everything that you wanted, but there’s a difference between wanting something and actually going for it. And you went for what you wanted and you made those wants a reality. So at what point did you go from the wanting to the actual doing?

Dixie Bagley (03:50.3)
huh. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah.

Dixie Bagley (04:11.964)
it, I honestly, it’s always kind of been in me. My first job was when I was 13, my first official job. I got a job at Ryan’s steakhouse. it wasn’t old enough. I lied and said I was 15. but I told them, I was like, I will be the best hostess tray carrier ever. My mom would go to eat there all the time. So I’d carry trays just for the heck of it. Like, you know, to people’s tables. And the boss finally gave in and hired me and it was great. And then.

My next job was as an assistant, which was probably one of the best things for my business knowledge and work ethic. But I was an assistant for the person who did my mom’s hair, who owned a chain of salons in Atlanta that was coming up in the eighties. And again, I swept his floors every time she would go get her hair done. And I would just instinctively do things and take the initiative and act like it was mine and show interest in it. And he hired me and I worked there with him probably for six years.

made me read the book Think and Grow Rich when I was 15 years old, which was a lot to read from somebody who had never been asked really to read a book other than what I had to read in school. But really, it helped push that drive in me and he saw something in me and a quality in me and he kind of honed in on putting me in positions to do that. And I became his assistant at all of his salons and he made me make decisions. Like he made me split tips and he made me do these things that were his jobs. And then I thought he was

crazy for asking me to do, but he put me in the position. He’s like, you’re going to be here, you’re going to do these things and you’re going to learn how to do it and do it like it’s yours, even though it’s not. And from that point on, my mindset never changed as far as walking into a job, whether it be for someone else, you know, for myself, I’d never really worked for many people because of, I think having that, that drive, some people just weren’t comfortable with that. But if I did go to work for someone, I made it very clear that I was going to actually

I was the boss and that I was going to run it and I was going to make suggestions and I was going to do things and it was okay. But that was just the way I was and then I knew that about myself.

Megan Tobler (06:15.342)
Well, and having that experience, I think is so crucial in order to have those learnings while someone else is kind of financially responsible for like the greater business. So you were able to be boss without being the boss, essentially, to be able to take those learnings and then apply it to your own businesses because you have created it. I want to call this like a wedding empire, essentially. But obviously it doesn’t start out that way. So at what point did you go from?

Dixie Bagley (06:29.148)
Yes.

Dixie Bagley (06:37.404)
Yeah.

Dixie Bagley (06:43.32)
you

Megan Tobler (06:43.726)
working in these salons and being a boss to being the boss.

Dixie Bagley (06:47.676)
Yeah. So I worked there with him for a long time. And then after that, my girlfriend went to work at a nightclub in Atlanta and was making all kinds of money. And so my dumb self, you saw what she was making. And at that point in time, I was just really money -driven. I was in high school. I decided to enroll in adult education so that I could work more. I was already working a lot as a teenager at the hair salon, working as much as I could, but to be able to work.

nights and also make you know $300 a night. You know tips was something that was very enticing to me and I knew my mom and I were not close. She went through multiple marriages etc. I was kind of always on the back burner and so at 16 I was definitely ready to move on on my own and I knew that I was going to have to make a good income so I went and started working nights as well started making money etc. enough money to support myself live on my own.

Then somewhere along the way, I managed to get married and have babies and for a long time was an attorney’s wife and did all the duties, which I, you know, I contribute a lot of that to my, my expertise in hospitality because being an attorney’s wife and in the junior service league of Atlanta and Marietta and doing all of those things at 21, you know, that was a lot, a lot of hospitality, a lot of social expectations.

And so that definitely helped me along. And then we went through a divorce and it didn’t work and went to like no money. He wanted me to struggle, suffer, not have anything. And he point blank told me he wanted me to struggle and suffer and eat off dirt floors, whatever it took to make me come back to my senses and come back to him. And when he told me that, it just…

fired something up in me and the like hell no factor came on. I always joke and say I’m a dirt road white girl from Mississippi deep down inside. And it hit that point. And I was like, the last thing I will ever do is struggle. My children will not suffer. I will not come back to you and I will be happy. I don’t care if it’s working and running a gas station, McDonald’s. I don’t care. This will not be the way my life goes. And

Dixie Bagley (09:04.188)
From that point on, it was game on. And then I, you know, I taught preschool, got my degree in personal nutrition, personal training, yoga, everything like that, and started being a personal trainer and nutritionist and everything like that. But my husband, who I’m married to now, moved in next door to him in our sweet little divorce neighborhood. He was going through divorce as well. We both had custody of our kids. It was defined intervention.

He and I both are a lot alike. We moved in next door to each other dated four years, got married and both of us just like our businesses just blossom and the ball started rolling.

Megan Tobler (09:41.422)
how well I have to say, I’m sorry that you went through that experience. You definitely did not deserve to be treated the way that you were treated, but you also understood your worth and you didn’t kind of go back despite everything that he was kind of threatening at the time. So always wish everyone the best, but in this case kind of jokes on him because yeah.

Dixie Bagley (09:46.172)
I’m sorry.

Dixie Bagley (09:59.004)
Yeah.

Yeah, I have no regrets about it. It made me the woman I am. I mean, it wasn’t easy and I hate it for anybody. There’s so many people who go through things like that are much worse. But it definitely, I’m one of those people that I feel like it contributed to where I am today. The good, the bad, the ugly, every bit of it.

Megan Tobler (10:20.558)
Right. And you have so many different life experiences that you’ve been able to bring into where you are today. And even just in the last couple of minutes, you were talking about how you were a preschool teacher, you got your nutrition certifications, you did personal training, you were at a nightclub. I mean, and this is back in, was it in the eighties when you were bringing $300 a night? And even today, that’s big money for people. So to be bringing that in back then and to also walk away from that too.

Dixie Bagley (10:35.612)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Dixie Bagley (10:49.948)
Yes, yes, yes.

Megan Tobler (10:50.35)
that’s, that’s a big deal. and, I, I saw, I heard something else about when you were, the attorney’s wife and you were putting on all these different events, it’s really interesting too, because at the beginning of our conversation, you were talking about how you would, be, you were a child and you’d be going to these restaurants and you’d be like really, intrigued by how everyone was eating and like the different table settings to use. And so you had that experience as a child, you had that experience as.

Dixie Bagley (11:11.548)
Yes.

Megan Tobler (11:19.822)
and attorney’s wife with all these different events. And that kind of all goes into the business that you’ve created today. Obviously we haven’t spoken about it yet, but before we talk about how you’re doing everything, how did that start?

Dixie Bagley (11:26.716)
-huh.

Dixie Bagley (11:35.356)
the business I have today. So.

Megan Tobler (11:36.718)
the business. Yeah, because from what I’ve read online, there’s a pretty good story with this.

Dixie Bagley (11:41.148)
Yeah, so I was a personal trainer at the time and my, the guy who I worked with and it trained me and really honed in on me and my skills to be a trainer decided to sign us up for a half marathon at Mary College.

and everything, needless to say, my husband and I bought this farm at the time as well with the intention of just living here and it being our home, but it was 300 acres. So it was just like every weekend there was something to do. It had been abandoned for six years. You know what I mean? Like every weekend we had to come cut grass, watch water drain, watch all the things that go with buying a money pit, so to speak. And so I couldn’t go train this one weekend and…

His name was Scott and he was training to run half marathon, which we lifted weights. We did CrossFit before CrossFit was CrossFit. We didn’t run. We were like, that wasn’t our thing. But he fell over and died while training to, for the half marathon. And that night his son was going to have a party here at the farm to, and propose to his fiance. And so obviously.

that wasn’t gonna happen. And so after the funeral, everything happened a couple months later, I just told my husband, I was like, I’m gonna offer to throw little Scott’s wedding, just we’ll do it. I can make it happen. I’ve done plenty of stuff in the past, you know, fundraiser stuff. And I was like, a wedding’s just another big party. It’s just two people getting married. And I did that and through it here, you know, months later, six months after the death of Scott, we had the wedding here. And after that, people just started asking me to,

to do weddings and I was very reluctant because I was never a wedding girl myself. And so I finally gave it a shot called the place, the farm, didn’t put a whole lot of thought into it. And I was like, I’ll just rent the venue and people can pay and come do whatever they want. And then that slowly turned into, well, we need Dixie to help because our wedding planner is not this or they just weren’t getting the attention that they needed and they didn’t have a boss, you know what I mean? In their life to make things come together.

Dixie Bagley (13:47.548)
and then it spun into wedding planning and it like, it spun into the bakery and all the things, the wheel just kept rolling from there.

Megan Tobler (13:54.83)
It’s so interesting because it’s not like you went seeking this out. You bought the farm first and then it just kind of, the red carpet was essentially laid out for you, but you could have not ran with it. I think that’s something different that you’ve done that maybe other people wouldn’t have done is that you saw an opportunity that was here and you took it and you, I spent, I said,

Dixie Bagley (13:59.932)
Yeah.

Dixie Bagley (14:05.884)
Yeah. Yeah.

Megan Tobler (14:20.206)
Especially I saw on your website too that you also said if you want to thrive as a business owner You must turn everything in into an opportunity and that’s exactly what you just explained right here so you also said something that you created a bakery which I think that’s a really interesting component to talk about too because as a wedding venue and a wedding coordinator You’re also

Dixie Bagley (14:35.772)
I did.

Megan Tobler (14:45.39)
controlling another aspect that is huge in the wedding business as well, and that’s the desserts. So at what point would you decide that, okay, I have the venue, I’m also a coordinator, but you know what, let’s add a bakery to the mix too.

Dixie Bagley (14:51.228)
Yes.

Dixie Bagley (14:57.884)
Yeah, it was another one of those, you know, opportunities where I was coaching and mentoring another woman who was really going out. Our connection was that she was going through basically the same thing I had gone through in the divorce and she just really needed a friend. She needed a mentor after her divorce. She didn’t have the business sense. And she was distraught on so many outlets, you know, with her children and emotionally, mentally, everything like that. And, and not to mention again,

she didn’t have the business sense. And when you throw all those emotions and everything that you’re going through and you’re trying to, you know what I mean, get it together and learn how to do bookkeeping and pay bills and advertise and all of that kind of stuff, it’s hard because you’re just, you can’t focus. And, and so it really started there with me mentoring her and helping her. And we kept trying and kept trying and kept trying. She was having some issues with drugs also that she had started relying on. And that became.

a huge factor in her life of not helping her, being able to move on and make the good decisions. And just one day she was just like, why don’t you buy my business? And I did not want to buy her business. I did not want her business because of the situation it was in. I also did not know that I could take on a business at that time, especially a bakery. I’ve grown up baking, but that’s totally different, you know what I mean, and doing stuff like that. And so I privately, my husband and I privately invested to try to help her.

And because of the situation mentally that she was in, it just did not work out. And eventually we all had a sit down discussion and revisited that option to take over the bakery. And we chose to go with that and we went from her best day being $900 to.

10 times that all day. So.

Megan Tobler (16:47.47)
All right, Dixie, we’ve got to take a step back here because you are someone that takes things and turns it to absolute gold. And obviously there’s not like the secret sauce out there. Everyone has different ways of doing something, but what do you feel has really contributed to your success?

Dixie Bagley (17:02.621)
I really think it’s the sink or swim mentality. I think that every position that, you know, I have been dropped in, being dropped into this farm, Scott passing away, me doing his son’s funeral, the bakery, mentoring this woman, everything has organically happened, enrolled into something. And everything, and I do, I look at everything as an opportunity. I have a car sitting, a foreign car in my driveway. The day my husband gave it to me, in my brain, I was like, I can rent this out to people.

for specialty car. Like, you know, that’s just, I mean, I look at things and think like worst case scenario, you know what I mean? If I had to make income, how am I going to make it? What can I do? I’ve got flowers out here. I’ve got 500 blue hydrangeas right here on my porch. I could sell those. And I think it’s just that whole, you know, sink or swim mentality of I get dropped in a situation and I’m immediately trying to figure out, and maybe it’s because I grew up with not having a whole lot, you know what I mean? That survival instinct to look at things and go.

How can I make this profitable and make this work and still enjoy my life and provide for myself and my family?

Megan Tobler (18:07.086)
think that you are absolutely swimming and you’re not just like you’re not floating like you are full on like winning those swimming meets left and right over here you’re just doing what do they call those the triathlon you’re taking it to the next level over here.

Dixie Bagley (18:10.172)
Yeah.

Dixie Bagley (18:19.228)
Yeah, I’ll probably be doing that till I’m 100. I hope to live to 100 and I’ll probably still be a think in that way.

Megan Tobler (18:26.798)
I think with just your zest for life and how healthy you are and how entrepreneurial, I think that the chances are pretty good for the longevity there. But with your whole entrepreneurial spirit here, a lot of people are likely listening and thinking, this all sounds great in theory, but gosh, I don’t know. You talked about selling flowers on night porch. Like I don’t have flowers, things like that.

Dixie Bagley (18:31.42)
Yeah. Yeah.

Megan Tobler (18:52.654)
What are some different ways that maybe you have chosen to look at different creative or different ways that you’ve been able to create, get creative with making money when you were like tight on cash essentially.

Dixie Bagley (19:05.34)
Yeah, yeah. Well, first of all, we’ve all, I think every single one of us has something special about us. We all have something that we do that’s really good. It may not be the best. It may not be better than everybody else, but we all have something we do. I don’t care if it’s making it your favorite, you know, grits and greens casserole. And fortunately now we have this thing called social media that is free. You can find whatever it is you’re good at and put it out there.

and start advertising it and sell it and people will buy it because people want convenience, they want ease. And if you’re good at something and you stick to it, you’re going to make money. If you can add and do math, crucial part, basic math, you know what I mean? Then you can make money and you can’t make a profit. I don’t believe that there’s any, I don’t believe in this day and age that there’s any reason someone can’t sit down and find a way to make themselves profitable.

Megan Tobler (20:01.294)
When there’s a will, there’s a way, right?

Dixie Bagley (20:01.628)
We’ve all got something. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there’s computers, there’s internet, there’s, you know, free social media. I mean, my children all have college degrees, but I have told every one of them, I’m like, you need to have something where if the shit hits the fan, COVID again, that you can go figure out a way that you can make money without having to rely on your boss, your company and your office.

Megan Tobler (20:27.886)
And that’s exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing today because even the traditional route to go is no longer safe. You always have to have a backup plan, something that you can really rely on like when times are tough or potentially just go all in. But even for those people listening, you had mentioned earlier when you purchased the bakery in full, you were able to, I think you said nine times the profit. How? What did you do differently?

Dixie Bagley (20:35.516)
Yeah.

Dixie Bagley (20:54.78)
Well, when I purchased it at first, it was primarily just a donut shop with a couple of cakes here and there. And again, the person who was running it, she did not ever evaluate cost. She never looked at cost. She never went outside her box. She never did anything different. And the first thing I did was I wanted to, I hate bacon, I hate pork. It’s hysterical.

but I’ve never liked it. I think I was poisoned by it, Mississippi, growing up. But the first thing I did was create maple bacon donuts, blueberry bacon donuts, like candied bacon donuts, things with bacon. And this was about 10 years ago, kind of before that was really becoming, you know, where bacon is everywhere now. It became a really popular thing. And so I started out like adding different donuts and.

kind of weird stuff. I love cooking. I love to make food porn and just be creative with food and flavors and stuff like that. And so bringing in stuff like that was the first thing to start really turning a profit and start offering some different stuff. In our town at that point in time, we didn’t have any other competition. We’d have a Dunkin’ Donuts or Krispy Kreme. We now do. We outdo them a million times over. But then after that, it was going into bringing in cakes and desserts and then pushing.

into the, which I have the advantage with the wedding industry, being able to push a concept of not doing traditional wedding cakes and having dessert bars and having all donut bars and things like that. And pushing that on my own clients and getting that out there. And that just in turn, I mean, in our town, we’ve got, I think 25 wedding venues, wedding and event venues. And so that, you know, those people were seeing that and everybody wanted that stuff.

Everybody wanted these things for their birthday parties for their anniversary. I made a donut hole cake, a tower where I stuck it on Q -tips, I mean not Q -tips, toothpicks and stuck it in a foam thing and made this huge donut hole tower with flowers in it. Everybody wanted one after that. So just putting new stuff out there and being creative. I mean, somebody could have been like, that’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. Have you ever seen a donut hole tower? No. But I didn’t know until I tried, you know, and it worked. And there was somebody out there who liked it. There may be.

Megan Tobler (23:05.614)
Right.

Dixie Bagley (23:09.084)
a ton of people who hate it, you know, but there’s just enough people who like it to keep it on there and keep it as a steady revenue of income that only we offer.

Megan Tobler (23:17.454)
Well, and it sounds like you recognize that you’re not the only people that make donuts. If someone wants just a regular donut, you can go to, before this was in your town, you can go to Dunkin’ Donuts and you can get a glazed donut, but you’re gonna be unique. You’re gonna give people something that they want even before they know they want it. So you’re really becoming a trendsetter here. And then telling people kind of what they want. And then it just kind of caught on. Is that kind of what I’m hearing?

Dixie Bagley (23:35.068)
Mm -hmm.

Dixie Bagley (23:42.044)
Yes. Yes. Yes. And I mean, 100 % I tell people, especially when in weddings, I’m like, whenever they say, what are the trends? The trends are what you make. I mean, I could put a runner down the center of my table right now, monkey grass, and I guarantee you, and put some candles, I guarantee you in two years, you’re gonna be having monkey grass on your table at your wedding. It is what you put out there, how it photographs, it doesn’t matter how many people like it.

You set the trends, you’re putting it out there and it’s crazy. I mean, as you see a Stanley cup has become a trend. I mean, come on. You know, so you just got to be, I don’t, I tell people all the time, you don’t know until you try. It’s not wrong to try. Throw it out there, see if it sticks, give it time to stick, you know, and go from there.

Megan Tobler (24:14.03)
Yeah, absolutely.

Megan Tobler (24:28.174)
Absolutely. And I think it’s again, just going down to making the decision and then taking the action. And you’ve been doing this since you were a child. So a lot of people, it doesn’t come as easy because they’re maybe stuck inside thinking, but it has to be perfect, you know, before I can take any step. But the reality is, is exactly what you just said. It can always be altered. It can always be modified. Every single business is going to go through their pivots and their changes.

Just look at what you’ve been able to do in your career. You’ve done a wide variety of different things. Your wedding business has gone through different iterations. You now own a bakery. It’s really inspiring, honestly, what you’ve done. Now, a huge component, what we’ve talked about, is this wedding business. So I would love for you to just kind of shine a little light on this wedding empire of yours and what it looks like today.

Dixie Bagley (25:09.98)
Thank you.

Dixie Bagley (25:20.028)
Yeah. It started out with a European barn. I’ve always been attracted to real estate and so, odd real estate. Fun fact, my bakery is an old rundown waffle house that I’ve rehabbed. I love to take old buildings that have been put away like a pizza hut, things that have architectural significance that are no longer in style. And I like, Joe can say I like to polish a turd. That’s one of my favorite things.

Megan Tobler (25:46.126)
Well, and again, it goes back to being unique, really being the trendsetter here. Yeah.

Dixie Bagley (25:49.884)
Yeah, yeah. So our barn is a European barn. We started out, I was just doing ceremonies outside, because as I said, it was abandoned for six years. So it took some time to redo everything. But eventually my husband’s a builder, which comes in really handy. He’s an excellent builder and great at fixing stuff and great at carrying out my vision with things. And so eventually, you know, we got the inside finished, we got all the cottages, there were eight homes on the property, we got all of those redone.

and put those on there as Airbnb. And I slowly went from doing like, you know, small, lower income weddings, which there’s nothing wrong with those, but lower income, only outside weddings to doing all weekend, sometimes all week weddings with all the AirBnbs full. So 50 people staying on site, 200, 300 person weddings, tents, dance floors, helicopters sometimes. And then I also still flip it. And I’ve come back to going back to where.

This week I’m doing a one hour elopement. I’m doing a two hour ceremony and cake reception. I’m doing a four hour micro wedding on Sunday. So this week I’m doing four weddings, all different sizes, but they’re all on the smaller end and they’re going to bring me income. But I’m not having to work 16 hour days like I do with those big weddings where I’m working four 16 hour days or my crew is. So we’re working a fraction of the time, but we’re still making money there.

And I really love doing those as well. So it’s just kind of become, it went full circle, went really big. And now we’re kind of coming back down into, you know, being able to do some small ones and some big ones and picking and choosing what I do. It’s the longevity. I’ve stuck with it for 15 years. I bucked the system in the wedding industry a long time ago. I made it very clear. I was not going to go with the flow of what everybody expected. And, you know, it’d be the pushover. I wasn’t going to blow smoke up.

the asses of my couples and tell them things just to get them to spend money. I’m very coming from a place of not having money and to having money. I’m very mindful of my couples going into this and the pressure that they have to spend so much money on a day, which is great for some people, not great for some people. And so that’s really important to me to give them the most bang for their buck, you know, while still showcasing my venue and me still enjoying who I’m working with.

Dixie Bagley (28:04.156)
and giving them the best day that I can possibly give them for the amount of money they want to pay for.

Megan Tobler (28:09.006)
And that’s something I saw again on your website that I really liked is that you are, you take a very ethical approach to your business. And that sounds like what you just described right here, but you’ve done over 400 events. And I think you said you’ve been able to pick some small ones recently. but obviously you’ve had some really massive events as well. But the nice thing about being boss is that you get to decide again, it goes back to that decision that you’re able to really.

understand like, okay, or you get to choose what business you want to take and what you don’t. So I think that’s something that’s really beautiful that you are in a spot now where you get to do that. So I think that’s wonderful. Now 400 events later, over 400 I should say, and growing clearly, what have kind of been the biggest lessons that you’ve learned in this business?

Dixie Bagley (28:46.556)
Yes.

Dixie Bagley (28:50.524)
Yeah, I will work the other way.

Dixie Bagley (29:01.372)
You know, the biggest lesson, honestly, have always been to trust my instinct and to whatever my, I mean, unfortunately, some people I’m sure their instinct steers them wrong, but looking back through history, my instinct has served me well. And staying true to myself, being authentic to myself, respecting myself first and setting the boundaries for the way everybody else treats me.

You know, that’s been huge and trusting my instincts on what I want to do, what I feel is right, who I feel is my ideal client is huge. Cause there’s always, you know this, everybody knows this. Everybody’s got so many opinions on what you should do with your business and how you should do it. Most of them who are giving out opinions don’t have a pot to piss in regarding a business. And when I say that, I mean, a successful business, you know, has stood the test of time.

doesn’t mean it’s got to make tons of money, but something with longevity there. And so we know when you’re doing these things, don’t get so caught up in the weeds that you’re letting all this noise in your head. It doesn’t matter if you’re planning a wedding and you’ve got noise, you’re having a baby, you’ve got noise, you’re starting a business, you’re getting a divorce. Everybody is telling you the way you should do this. You have to sit down. I just got back from 33 days in Mexico. Those 33 days, I spend a lot of time listening to myself uninterrupted.

with my husband, talking to him because he is the most important partner in my life. You know, as far as going back and forth with things, I have to take time to listen to myself and have some quiet to know what it is that’s going to feed my soul, feed my business and make me happy and me keep going and not being burnt out. And those are the most important lessons I’ve learned in all of this time and this journey of going through all the things. And the times I strayed from listening to myself or given into peer pressure for other people.

have not worked well for me.

Megan Tobler (30:54.734)
That’s really, it’s good self -reflection on your end, but also really great advice for those people that are listening because there is a lot of noise out there. There’s a lot of opinions and exactly what you said, a lot of them are coming from people that haven’t done it. So I also think there’s a component of also surrounding yourself with positivity, people that are going to really fuel it rather than kind of tear you down. I think that’s also a really good component. So really.

Dixie Bagley (31:21.02)
Kiss.

Megan Tobler (31:21.902)
Yeah, I like that a lot. Now, there’s, I know you also, in addition to having the wedding business, you also do consulting, venue coaching, and speaking. So if anyone wanted to learn a little bit more about how they could either book a wedding with you or work with you, where could they go ahead and find out some more information?

Dixie Bagley (31:23.516)
and

Dixie Bagley (31:41.116)
Yeah, the easiest thing to do is head over to my personal Instagram, which is Dixie Does Weddings, Dixie Bagley or Dixie Does Weddings. You can find me and that kind of links to everything there. I’ve got a link tree, you know, Stan’s store on there that kind of carries you to the farm, to the bakery, to consulting with me and just chit chatting with me. Just say, hey, hop in my DMs. I’m that girl. You can say, hey, I’m not going to be mad or think you’re weird or anything like that. And I’m like I said, I’m an open book and I believe in talking to people.

hate emails, I hate text. I’d much rather hop on a Zoom call or FaceTime with somebody or just a phone call and kind of get to know each other and hear what you got to say.

Megan Tobler (32:20.878)
Wonderful. I definitely encourage everyone listening to go say hi to Dixie. She is as wonderful virtually as she is with the sound in your voice through the pods here. So anyways, Dixie, seriously, you are the ultimate boss. In my terms, you’re the ultimate self -starter. So thank you so much for hopping on the podcast today and sharing your story.

Dixie Bagley (32:27.516)
No.

Dixie Bagley (32:36.796)
Thank you.