By Beth Erickson,Wedding Planner Magazine editor, La Crosse, Wis.In the wedding industry, David Tutera is a legend, a creative genius, a master of marketing and branding, a social media wiz, an author, speaker, reality TV star, and celebrity planner. And though his career was built on hard work and ingenuity, it was also accidental. “About 30 years ago, I was asked to do a party. It was actually a bar mitzvah,” says Tutera. At the time, he was 19, and had a little gift shop from which he sold balloons and did singing telegrams. One “Yes” transformed his life. “When I realized after doing several events that this was something I was good at, I realized that there was a business ahead for me,” he says. Change occurred rapidly. “It just was me figuring it out as I was going along,” says Tutera. After joining several industry associations, “I started realizing the associations were where I would realize how to master my craft.”Tapping into Tutera’s industry knowledge, Wedding Planner Magazine conducted an exclusive one-on-one interview with him in August. Here is what we learned:WPM: You are a master of branding and creative revenue streams. Can you tell us how your brand exploded?DT: In 2000, I wrote my first book, A Passion for Parties. Then, I was asked to go on ABC’s “The View” to talk about my book, and that is when the brand started to slowly build. I started going on TV regularly . . . I realized that I’m actually good at television, and I wanted to have my own show. In 2004, I had my first show on Discovery, “Party Planner with David Tutera.” I realized that you have to write a book to have a platform. You have to have a TV show, or at least a media presence, to have a brand. . . . About six years ago, I realized the platform was so strong that a brand was ready to be built. That’s when I started to introduce myself into the world of brand licensing.WPM: Did the recession that began in 2007 have an impact on your business and, if so, what did you do about it?DT: It actually taught me a lesson, which was, “You’re never going to build a successful brand on any product that has to do with luxury.” That was simply due to the recession. As the recession was happening, I was realizing that a brand was necessary for my demographic, my fan base is of middle income. My demographic isn’t obviously going to go out and spend a lot of money on a brand product, but they would if there was something that was a solution for them that was valuable.WPM: What advice do you have for wedding industry pros looking to grow their business?DT: Decide when you want to make that leap, take on the expense of additional employees, and take on the responsibility of additional help. There’s that odd chemistry of can you afford it? Is the timing right? What will they do? How will you delegate? And, I always say when I’m talking to people in the industry, you have to take very small baby steps. Do not overachieve or under deliver, but make sure that you are giving a product that you can actually execute.WPM: What is the importance of social media to yours and other wedding businesses?DT: For social media, there is a lot of analysis. . . .There’s the Q rating for TV. There’s the Klout rating for social media. For those not familiar with the Klout rating, it is zero to 100. I’m at about an 87. With Klout ratings, that shows how informative I am with my social followings. . . .Some celebrities have followings of two million people. Some have 100,000 people. I have about one million on all platforms, but it’s the influential Klout scores that people are following, listening to, responding to, and paying attention to because a lot of celebrities and experts can buy followers, but those followers do not translate into a Klout score because they’re not true followers.WPM: How do you build your social media platforms?DT: I’m really careful of how social media is done. The consumer is very aware of when I post an ad or anything about my brand. The reaction, response, and communication are very limited. But if I post a photo of me and my daughter, me and my partner, or me doing something in my life, the numbers are astronomically higher. [My followers] want to feel more connected to me as a real person than as a brand. What you need to do is find a happy medium and have the brand positioned somewhere within the photo or what you’re posting so the consumer is getting a little of both. It’s challenging. . . . I know what posts well because I track everything.WPM: What industry has the most impact on wedding industry trends, and why?DT: We as an industry, and weddings specifically, need to catch up to mainstream. We are so far behind. . . . We’re not even racing to catch up, we’re crawling. . . .We don’t follow the trends on Pantone, we don’t follow the trends on fashion or hair. It’s a long process that we have to get to. We’re seeing little steps happen—for me, not nearly as quickly as it should.WPM: Is any of that due to the time it takes for trends to filter down to clients?DT: Clients are dictating what the industry is selling based off of our middle-income clientele. . . . The mainstream consumers that are spending the largest volume in the industry . . . are not educated enough on the styles, the looks, and the needs for their weddings. We’ve got so many magazines, so many books, so many television shows that are regurgitating the same information, which, by the way, if you listen to it over and over could have been the same information as 10 years ago. So I blame that on the media [publications], and then I blame that on the companies—the owners of bridal salons, the owners of party planning companies. I go to so many industry appearances and so many bridal expos. I’m still amazed that they’re dropping spandex tablecloths from 1980 over tables and chairs.WPM: How do you stay ahead of the game?DT: By creating David Tutera’s Your Wedding Experience (www.YourWeddingExperience.com). When you go into the bridal shows that I’m doing, it’s mind blowing that this hasn’t been done before. It’s stepping it up. All we have to do is give the consumer something new to look at. They’re like sponges.WPM: How has being a parent impacted your life as a successful entrepreneur?DT: Decisions are quicker. The time and length of where I go is shorter. The perspective of how I see things is quite different obviously. I find my life to be a little more clear. I find my decisions and delegating things to be much faster so I have time for myself with her.WPM: Would you do it all over again?DT: One hundred percent yes, and I would do it because I love making people happy. How do you not do that? ••