Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett “Hey guys, thanks for joining today. I have Elizabeth Smith with me today. She is, well a very busy lady. She has a lot of different hats that she wears. Hey, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith Hey. How are you doing?

Angela Barrett “Good. Yeah, let’s start out. I don’t even know where to start, but, Look, we’ll start with, your photography capture, your happily ever after. Tell me about that.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. So capture your happily ever after. A very newly started photography about ten years ago, but, I think the name and started cap for Happily Ever After about a year, four years ago. It’s photography, videography and coordinating capture happily ever after. I really take that name because I wanted. I felt like the capturing your happily ever has.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Like, capturing someone’s happily ever after is very, the cliche happily ever after. Are you sure are. And when you fall in love, you get married. Is normally where that comes from. But happily ever after. I wanted to put in your, happily ever after indicating that it doesn’t have to just be love. That I do admit.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Wedding. It could be a number of different things. I mean, people can be nearly content and happy and find their happily ever after within a career path. Sure. Be a graduation. It could be, You like a baby? A new business opportunity. And so I really expanded from there.”

Angela Barrett “Oh, and speaking of having a baby year, do any date?”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Okay. I am, yeah.”

Angela Barrett “Well, good luck and congratulations. And this will be your second. Right.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “It is. Yeah. Thank you. He will actually be for a day at the fifth born. Oh, wow. And, I’ll be going in, and would, like, five, seven day.”

Angela Barrett “Oh, wow wow wow wow. And graduations. And excited for you. Sorry to interrupt, but I was like, oh.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “No, no, no.”

Angela Barrett “No, no. You know.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “What? He’s very excited, so he digs. I don’t know if this is going to be confusing for him for the next year, but.”

Angela Barrett If.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “That’s that’s, he bakes that for his birthday. He gets a baby sister. So I’m hoping next year he’s not baking. That’s the only birthday he’s going to get. I know there’s no blank because he did. He tells everyone you know he has a sibling coming for its part.”

Angela Barrett “Oh, that’s so cute.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith Yeah. Oh that’s.

Angela Barrett “Right. Yeah. So you sort of, I mean, happily ever after. So you do a variety of different. That is is. Yeah.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “I don’t work with newborns, so I just find that, you know, newborn photographers enough to have a very, you have to specialize. And I say that because you really need to, I feel like a lot of the newborn photographers have, backdrop and the the lot that goes into it. Sure. Birth is I mean, there’s a lot that goes to the other photography as well, but I just don’t personally specialize newborn photography.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith Anything else? I’m pretty much there.

Angela Barrett “Right. Good. Yeah. And I’ve seen some online. You do a great job. So again, let’s. We’ll switch to another hat. Tell me about this. I’m curious. This empowered, prosperous connections.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. Empowered. Prosperous connections. The networking company that I came up with. And it and it was it was back in August. Of 2023. And right now we have about 40 different, business owner within the networking group.”

Angela Barrett

Elizabeth Grace Smith And then.

Angela Barrett So has it.

Elizabeth Grace Smith Really.

Angela Barrett Has this work. Oh. Where do. Somebody wants to join the networking group. Say let’s just say I want to join your networking group. What do I need to do? What are the qualifications. What are the requirements. Work through there. Kind of. Give me that.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. Mainly it’s kind of like a you’d actually probably just reach out to me and we would discuss your profession, making sure there’s not someone else within that same profession within the group. You know how long you’ve actually been doing the company? As well as, you know, insurance license and just making sure everything in, you know, legit, like, kind of the business owner side.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “We also work with nonprofits and they’re the nonprofits, you know, just finding out learning details. We work with, for example, nonprofit. There’s the, the Hope project with Chad. They’re, a mom’s group, which online. We have some business owners, such as, Ultimate Interior System.”

Angela Barrett

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yep. And just I can go on and on, but, It seems like around this area, I kind of started doing a little bit of networking. Other group before I guess if I, if that was my group and I noticed a lot of what the groups were about was just meeting, mingling both partners and going, to exchange practically just business cards and think, hi, I’m so and so and I really got tired of it.”

Angela Barrett So.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “My group, we actually picked, a perfect, professional to go ahead and speak within 15, 20 minutes in the group. Really dive in deep to know you know who you’re going to be working with. So, for example, just we’ll say, Kim, who is my admin for the company, he also works for other company, Body Shop.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “In fact, the we have her speak for about 15, 20 minutes the following, meeting we might have through the, with cleaning talk about her business. And we have a PowerPoint. We might have. We might actually go to their place of business and then some food, some drinks, and then other people will mingle, will share some video.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “You know, we’ll get into, kind of like business seminar stuff. Go ahead and help with the businesses when it comes to marketing. We have Carly. And she can help out with website design. So it just really offer a lot more, than the E I. Great. Yeah. You know. Net. Yeah. So I really wanted to dive in deeper with businesses to get that connection going from one business to one nonprofit.”

Angela Barrett And so there’s a thi in it.

Elizabeth Grace Smith Yeah.

Angela Barrett Then you can do.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. The fee right now is 150 every six months. And so we usually have two meetings a month. And it normally every second Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. for about an hour and a half to two hours. And then the second meeting is the last 30 of the month, 630, about 830. But normally you don’t have that. And that’s that ends up going from like three to 9 to 30, just because people are still hanging out on to talk to other people.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah, I like my Adam. And that’s really, recently changed up the group. And it’s very exciting because we’ll be doing this towards the end of the year. We now have a public page for that, like foster connections on Facebook, not just a private.”

Angela Barrett

Elizabeth Grace Smith “And what we’re doing is actually having the business owners meet the first hour. By the second hour, we’re going to be opening up to the public. In other words, people that might be interested in learning about the business. Would be joining the meetings as well. The second hour.”

Angela Barrett Oh.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “That’s neat. Spotlight member talking. Yeah. So that’ll be closer to the end of 2024. And it’s exciting because, you know, we’re not just going to have the spotlight. What business owners allow for the second hour. It will be maybe people that want to assist in the company in turn potential clients. You know anything from that nature?”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Well, that sounds pretty neat. Yeah, I like the way you do it. You know, there’s network, network, network. You know, that’s what they say. And what they do. I’m like you. It’s like cheese. If I went to every network right.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “And yeah, I know.”

Angela Barrett That’s a lot.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. That seems like, you know, a lot of them are the meet and greet. That’s right. Get something out there a little bit more different.”

Angela Barrett Yeah.

Elizabeth Grace Smith Hopefully it takes 16th. We’ll see where it goes.

Angela Barrett “Right, right. Absolutely. Well, good luck with that. It sounds like it’s, a great plan, a great program. Now, a different yet again. The Charleston, South Carolina wedding planner.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. Yeah. I am, I’ve actually, I’ve been doing coordinating for some time with Capture Happily Ever After. But I, I wanted to establish a new company with the wedding planning. You know, it’s more so other people working, underneath the Charleston wedding planning company versus more just myself out there. And we have, you know, because I have the empower passport connections.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “I have a list of business owners as well that we deal deals with underneath the wedding planning. Through empowered prosperous connection. And so, it just seemed to make sense to have a different company with that. And honestly that one has just been established, you know, a couple months ago. The wedding planning can help with just about anything you need.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Like I said, I even go beyond a little planning to get, you know, the partnerships and the deal with have like, other vendors to really get the wedding to be smooth, to get within the budget of the bride or the groom or the.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. And to date, in this, this day and age. Good lord. At the price of a wedding. Oh, Lee, tell us. Well, yeah, I had some.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith Friends recently.

Angela Barrett “Had kids get married, and they were telling me we had to give them a budget. Ni tell me what the budget is. And I’m thinking, oh, dear God.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Right. Well, you know, the big thing is, you know, the trick of getting married with it within the budget in this area, it really going to be the time of year number one. And number two, you know, so you actually pick the help you you need the wedding, all that stuff. Because if you have the wedding planner out there that, does it know certain venue, does it know certain vendor.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “But you’re not going to find the best price. They might be able to help you find people, but they’re not going to be able to find exactly what you want within your budget.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, I understand that. So to clear something up for me, like there’s a a debate between my sister and I about this, text, texting invitation. And that’s a big thing. And I’m like, how inappropriate. But, I mean, you know, you guys remember how old I am. Is that what a what a.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Again, texting.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, it’s it’s an invitation. Instead of getting a paper invitation.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Oh, yeah. That is definitely a thing. Now that, like, more of the digital side. You know, I, I’ve helped out with seating charts and, when I help with the timeline, but, I mean, I really feel like the biggest thing for a wedding that the biggest thing for a wedding. Even if you don’t go with a wedding planner, you still need to have a timeline.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “So I’ve I’ve worked, you know, having a digital tech timeline, for example, as well.”

Angela Barrett “It just it just baffles me. But again, you know, I’m old school, you know, or, you know, some calligrapher, right? By my hand. All the invitations, Zen, blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, you gotta what? But text.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Right? Right. And so, I think, you know, over the years, I think I’ve seen just about half now.”

Angela Barrett Wow.

Elizabeth Grace Smith You have the paper invitations. You have the the text. But I think it’s increasing more with the digital tech.

Angela Barrett “Well, I don’t imagine there’s a big cost me humongous costs and.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Right. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, if you have normally people work through Canva. Yeah NBA. Com I think it is. And yeah.”

Angela Barrett That’s what they all.

Elizabeth Grace Smith Did for Titanic.

Angela Barrett Yeah. Yeah yeah. Yeah I love Canva.

Elizabeth Grace Smith No.

Angela Barrett “So the way and most of the weddings that you, help people with are in that Charleston area all the way to, like, Summerville or not that far or.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith But I try to stay within the Charleston limit.

Angela Barrett Gotcha.

Elizabeth Grace Smith I just did a wedding out in Myrtle Beach last month. That was for photography Anthony Walker.

Angela Barrett

Elizabeth Grace Smith

Angela Barrett And then now you’re my stomping grounds.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Oh, yeah. Where where are.”

Angela Barrett “You? Well, I don’t live there, but I grew up. I grew up near there. And we all my family had a house. They are close to North Myrtle Beach. Yeah. So,”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Oh, cool. Yeah. I’m.”

Angela Barrett I feel like I lived there.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Well, yeah. Yeah. I think it was. I grew up until about does one p Conway and Myrtle Beach area. Yeah. And then we came down here. Yeah.”

Angela Barrett “Absolutely. So now, sort of on that coattail of your photography, you, are also a magazine photographer for about four different magazines, right? So this has had a for.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. Yeah. Well currently I am working photography with Western Marvel neighborhoods and that’s like I want to say ten different neighborhoods that were in Dorchester such as legend, Oak, Sparrow, Sparrow, Ethan and number of different one. Then I kind of West or now I have Brownfield living magazine. In Bay living magazine, as well as Low Country Living magazine.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith And that’s what next then.

Angela Barrett

Elizabeth Grace Smith “So if you’re a family out in those areas, you know, we can always go ahead and get your information and maybe go over to see if you’d like to be on the cover of that.”

Angela Barrett Yeah. Yeah.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “I’m not the editor or the publisher, but, you know, we can help you out and get you over there.”

Angela Barrett “Right? Right, right.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith To be on the cover and also get to do an inside article.

Angela Barrett “Yeah. And those magazines, I just they have different criteria for how you get on the cover and we blah, blah, blah, but, that would be a phone call away as well. Yes. Now, a couple other hats you’ve got here. I don’t know when you sleep, but anyway, we’ll get to that in a minute. But.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith Yeah.

Angela Barrett “So, You’ve also written children’s books.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith Yeah.

Angela Barrett And so.

Elizabeth Grace Smith

Angela Barrett How many are there? Three.

Elizabeth Grace Smith Just two. Two.

Angela Barrett Okay. I’m.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “I’m practically done with the third one, but I’m holding off on releasing it until 2025.”

Angela Barrett “Gotcha. And so now tell me, then tell me, the name. I know there’s one, something magical would like.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. That was my first book. And I read this poem by Nathan Colby. And it’s actually when I had my first child,”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Sorry. He’s actually talking right now. Oh, that’s something about him. Give me one second. Sure.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Sorry about that. I’m so good. So a step in magical woodland. Found. Want to know? The book. That was very exciting to get that. Well, I. Left, we dream a thing with TJ Nico, and he really helped put everything together. We were in there for, over 25 hours. I would say. And, that can be found at farms and or both as well.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Audio book. And I think it’s, play Store a few other places. I went ahead and picked out some of the care there. Well, I think that all the characters voices and me, the dream. Yeah. And so like, in other words, Dan played grand. Just like then, you know, a few other Ben. I really wanted to bring the book to life.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Sure. And, you know, dream. And I feel you’re the define the literary agent who specialized in animation. So I could sell that to be a cartoon.”

Angela Barrett Yeah.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “But, Yeah. And so mainly the the main character of A step in the magical was then resembled my son Benjamin. And, you know, so share the same name. And he meets a bear named Griff in a magical land that came from his backyard. Yeah. So encounters other animals within, the story and. The main lesson is paying it forward.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “All each, you know, don’t worry. That comes along within the the book. One animal health. Another does it look for anything in return? And it continues on throughout the the forest and the land. Another animal, you know, need help. And so, Benjamin, go ahead and pay it forward as well. So it’s a very selfless story. Lots of kindness.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “And lots of help without, picking. And it’s just a great adventure. Mainly for 4 to 9 year olds, I would say.”

Angela Barrett “Ni ni. Yeah. And the characters, They’re cute. Cute. But now I do have to say the dancing dinosaur and the stinking, monkey. No. That’s fine.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith Right.

Angela Barrett “Oh, yeah. Yeah. That’s funny.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith Thank you.

Angela Barrett “But so that’s your other book. And so, that came out, I guess, February of this year.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “I think so it would then. Yeah, maybe February or March of this year. Okay.”

Angela Barrett And tell us a little bit about that one. I love the stinky monkey. It’s the.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. Well, pretty much. My son, who is now about to be four. I was really happy taking it in. What makes him finding funny? And of course, something ding stinky. Poor 3 or 4 year old and something hilarious.”

Angela Barrett Absolutely.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Number two dying of the earth, dancing, being silly and, I wanted to also create a toddler book. You know, maybe has maybe 2 to 3 sentences math on each page. Right. And it goes into like that question repetition, rhyming, something that at that age really makes the the brain development right.”

Angela Barrett And holds intention to learn.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Right. And hold the attention. So that’s where I went with that book. And there’s also an excavator in it. Okay. Tons of little boys. And you know some girls love excavator that the stage especially though yeah. And it’s, I don’t want to give away the whole story, but I mean, I guess this being a toddler book and it going into running and repetition and all that stuff.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “It’s completely different from what I’m actually going to tell you about the story from what you read in the story. Sure. For the parents out there, it’s mainly about, you know, dinosaur that love dancing. You get lonely. A stinky monkey comes along. To you try to help the stinky monkey get clean, and they, you know, start dancing together themselves and become best friends.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith So they just got the book.

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Lulu is very cute and, like, I love child, and I love, like I said, the stinky monkey. He’s kind of cute.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith Thank you.

Angela Barrett “So, you have are in charge of again, another hat? I’ve lost track of how many it that despite, a, pickleball tournament coming up in September. Tell me about that.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. So it actually is it’s coming from empowered, prosperous connection.”

Angela Barrett Your networking group.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Company that, Yeah, that’s the company that chose that. And, I got in touch with the great recreational, and we now are hosting it at the Central Creek Park. 147 Old Monk’s on a road on September 7th, 2 to 8 p.m.. And the backup rain day is that 1028 to the 8 p.m. that if if it rains.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Right, you have until, family fun going on within that day. We have. I left a deejay Nico, with me. Drama. He will be out there. Between two now I say six. We have wild current live band between six a And it helps with the Charleston animal. They’ll be having foster dogs out there, I believe between 2 and 4.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “The meet trio with or which I want to say collection. We’ll be doing a dance perform at around 330. We are in the works, discussing a possible flashmob, which is quite a special area.”

Angela Barrett I love that. Yeah.

Elizabeth Grace Smith Yeah. And.

Angela Barrett “Again, this is to benefit the Charleston Animal Society, right?”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Correct. Correct. And so, you know, some of the vendors from SPCA will be out there as well. The Epcot that the networking company and, some other vendors, as well as food truck, bartenders. I think that’s about it when it comes to that. It’s called the sweet and sour smack down the hill. While all the family fun is going on, the pickleball tournament, will be in the background.”

Angela Barrett “And for people who want to find out more or sign up for this, how do they do that?”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Well, you would, I guess, reach out. I have a couple different numbers. The main number for myself would be (843) 345-7854. They could also reach out to Kim, who is the admin, and. Hey.”

Angela Barrett “Is there a, somewhere on a Facebook, more of your Facebook pages that this is,”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “The well, I just got the, the public in our math connection, so I’ll go ahead and share the link. Yeah. And the flier on to that as well. Oh, and it’s also on e w w w dot and powered prop thrift connections.com on the phone page for all the way down. Okay. The link.”

Angela Barrett “Oh cool. So if you are interested in that, pickleball is a serious thing. I know at least it is around here. So we’re Allianz. It’s just a while. And it’s I mean, we have a 24 hour pickleball place now. It’s like what? It’s like it’s playing pickleball at three in the morning. But I guess I did right?”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah, we actually, I got the entire episode through two different meaning separately to boat, you know, on different sports ideas or whatever. And pickleball was one of them. At that time, I really wasn’t sure what pickleball was to be on. Yeah. And, you know, we wanted to go ahead and advertise epiphany. But also, I have a passion for helping animals and big and animal.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Right. So I of the animal society. Yeah. And then now it might admin as well as some of my phone numbers for me, but I really wanted to learn more about pickleball. And so I learned a thing three weeks ago. Okay. So I’m nine months pregnant. I did not run on the court. I didn’t do anything like that, but I.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “I had to go ahead before I had the baby. Before the tournament, I said to myself, I have to learn how to play pickleball. I have to learn that. And so I wound or I like a little bit here, turn it fly the fun. Or actually, I mean, I was thinking at first, there’s no way I could do that, but, it’s actually you have to bounce the ball, so it’s not like a scary sport being pregnant.”

Angela Barrett Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “You go at your own path because, you know, the ball’s bouncing and you’re tapping it.”

Angela Barrett Right.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Now versus, you know, some sport for the ball just going howling, being thrown in the air at you. Right. I would never do it right now. Right, right, right. It was it was fun.”

Angela Barrett “The way I described it. The first time, I guess I ever saw it, I was like, oh, it’s like ping pong. I start.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah, yeah. Kind of. Yeah, that’s what they said.”

Angela Barrett “Fast paced man, right?”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. Like tennis, then ping pong on a court something. Yeah, right. Yeah.”

Angela Barrett “Well, I listen to. So when do you sleep? I sort of know with all this going on because I think we cover so well.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith

Angela Barrett I do. Are you are you really just that organized? And if you are to come help me.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah, well, I can do that. That’s that’s also another reason why I do coordinate for you. Because they make sure I list down. That’s the biggest thing, is prioritize prioritizing. Every single night before I go to sleep, I write down a list of ten things I need to do the next day.”

Angela Barrett Right?

Elizabeth Grace Smith “I’m balancing a toddler. I don’t put it on a calendar. Surprisingly, I don’t put.”

Angela Barrett It on in a few days like a newborn.

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. Good luck. And yeah, I know, right? I, I actually already have everything set up, so it should be good to go. I have Kim on the next few UPC, meaning that, you know, for example, already I’ve done the next four months or the magazines right now and they clear that spot hopefully.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Well, no doubt it.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith They can do.

Angela Barrett “It. If you can juggle all this, you you’ve got it. You’ve got it down pat for sure.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “And I also don’t, don’t think the. No.”

Angela Barrett “That’s right, that’s right. Oh. Well, it’s, it’s been a great pleasure to talk with you. And, I am in all, you’ve been able to do all that, and, and, well, I mean, you know, with a many a successful businesses, I, and and absolutely and all and, I thank you so much for, be here today.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Yeah. Thank you so much. And then I just wanted to mention that we brought that up the next test. I am very excited to share that, after Happily Ever After is now five star. I want to say just hit 400, star reviews within the social media platforms between Facebook, Instagram, Google.”

Angela Barrett “Oh, that graduations. Wow.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith Yeah. Great.

Angela Barrett “You there? Well, and speaking of pictures, you know, baby, make sure you send me one.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith “Oh, yeah.”

Angela Barrett “And big Brother, take.”

Elizabeth Grace Smith Yeah. Might take me a month. Yeah I imagine I’ll definitely get there.

Angela Barrett Yeah. That’s right. Will you take care.

Elizabeth Grace Smith For that newborn?

Angela Barrett Thank you so very much.

Elizabeth Grace Smith Yeah. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate.

Angela Barrett It. Absolutely.