design on demand days

website template customization

custom branding & web design

work with us

Showit’s Spark: A Conference for Creatives feat. Cassie Jones

Did you have some serious FOMO in November of 2022 when you saw how much fun we had at Spark, the conference hosted by Showit? I would love to see you at the next one, which is why I’ve brought on Cassie Jones to share all about the heart behind not only Spark, but Showit as well! Listen in to hear when the next conference will be, what you can expect, and how to snag a ticket!

The Branded by Bernel Podcast is brought to you by Bernel Westbrook, lead designer and founder of Branded by Bernel, a design studio dedicated to building strong brands and Showit websites for creative entrepreneurs.

Make sure you’ve hit that follow or subscribe button on your favorite podcast player to get notified each week as we air new episodes!

Subscribe on Your Favorite Podcast Player

Apple Podcast App | Spotify | Amazon | Google Podcast

What is Showit?

Showit is a drag and drop website builder that allows you to create a website with complete freedom to design a website that reflects who you are as a business. The platforms works so well for entrepreneurs and business owners who aren’t coders—allowing you to take control of managing your own website. In the times where you do find yourself stuck in the design process, their support team is unmatched!

The Heart Behind Showit & Spark

For years, Showit primarily served photographers as their clientele—especially through the conference they host for 11 year, United. The heart behind Showit’s business has always been to cultivate really good businesses with solid business practices. As they started to see the numbers behind the professionals who were using their pivot into different areas in addition to photography, they new it was time to make a change. They kept the heart and mission of their business and poured it into Spark—inviting everyone to the table and create a community of entrepreneurs.

Spark is a community where friendships are made. Entrepreneurship can be lonely, so when you find an in-person connection that understands what you do and what you’re going through, it makes you feel less alone. They love seeing friendships spark and stay lifelong.

Website Coaching & Audits at Spark

In addition to the valuable community you’ll find at Spark by Showit, there are also a number of educational opportunities and resources they offer at the conference as well! One of those is website coaching, where you can sit down with a Showit Designer and get feedback, coaching, or audits of your website done!

This creative entrepreneur conference encompasses industries like designers, photographers, copywriters, accountants, lawyers, and more! The next Spark Conference will be held in November 2024! Make sure you grab your ticket or join the waitlist! At Spark 2024, you can expect to see amazing leaders, value-packed education, and a new location—San Marcos Hotel in Chandler, AZ.

Connect with Cassie & Showit

showit.co

spark.showit.co

Connect with Bernel

brandedbybernel.com

instagram.com/brandedbybernel

Review the Transcript:

Bernel
Hey, hi. Welcome to the Branded by Bernel podcast. I’m your host Bernel. You may know me as the branding and web designer who obsesses over the details so you don’t have to. We all desire to be great at what we do. Although once we get there, no one seems to talk about the messy middle. This motivated me to set the table and invite industry peers over to share stories about living and working in the creative world. So grab the OJ and champagne, pull up a chair, join the creative community and be prepared to build a brand you fall in love with. This is the brand new bye for now podcast. Okay, guys, I am so excited to be joined by Cassie Jones. Today on the podcast. Cassie spent 10 years as a wedding photographer. And during her time she fell in love with show it in the show at United conference, which was for photographers, she pretty much stopped them until she got a job hoping playing united, which led to a full time position she loves on show its marketing team helping plan events. She’s a wife, mom of three a homeschooler living in the mountains of northern Arizona. Cassie, thank you so much for being here today.

Cassie Jones
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited. We’re finally doing this. Yes.

Bernel
Okay. So to give you guys some backstory of why I’m so excited. Number one Cassie’s awesome. But nobody Cassie is one of the first people that I met when I started designing show at websites. And it’s crazy to think about now that I’ve known you for like five years. But I was really nervous. I was a very nervous web designer. I mean, I’m still a little bit of a nervous web designer. But I was so nervous. And Cassie was nice as emails. And I was just like, oh my goodness, why is this lady so nice to me. She’s great. And so we were emailing back and forth about what was then the show at United Conference, which really like was a catalyst to like my business taking off. But that’s a whole different conversation for another day. But showing you nine it in 2019 was the first time I ever had a speaking engagement like on a stage. And I was super nervous, terrified to apply. Like, I mean, guys, I’d have this application pulled up in a tab for like, weeks. Um, and I hit submit and I was like, Okay, I did it, you know, you hit submit, you close your laptop. And I was just like, all right, like, I’ll never hear from these people again, and it’s fine. It’s fine, everything’s fine. And then I get this email from Cassie. And it was like, I am excited to let you know that we would like to have you here for five minute fuel. And for you guys who had not attended shall unite it the five minute fuel was like a five minute fast paced Talk Teaching on something on the mainstage. So this is like in the auditorium with all these people. And I’m like shaking as I’m reading her email, like I’m like, Okay, well, how did I apply for this? I really just thought and it’s crazy, because I had a five minute fuel and a breakout like it was too thick. So I kept reading the five minute fuel was at the top of the email. And I’m like, Alright, I just gotta do this for five minutes. She was like, we’d like you to do a breakout on branding. And I almost fell out my chair, because I was like, this was a big scary risk to apply to this. And I really did not expect to hear from them. So anyway, fast forward. I’m emailing Cassie. And I’m just like, Okay, I’ll do it. I’m excited, I guess. And I’m like asking all these questions, because I’ve never been to a photography conference. So I’m like, I’m so like, where do I fly into? And like, where is it? And how do I do this? And every email guys, she was so enthusiastic. I mean, exclamation marks. I got some like smiling emojis. And I was just like, this lady is the best thing. So fast forward. That’s it like spring. By November, I had remembered that and I’m like, I have to meet Cassie because I don’t really know anybody else. And the whole team was great. Todd is great. The CEO show it JT works with show designers. He’s awesome as well. But I was like I have to meet Cassie because that’s like who I’ve been emailing. And her energy in person and her infectious laugh in person. It was like 10 times better than I can. Sorry for the long winded introduction. Anyway, guys, this is Cassie.

Cassie Jones
I’m super red now.

Bernel
And I was like I after that. So you know, we hung out at the conference. I ended up like dance. We were on the dance floor together. I think Kayla we took an Uber together with her husband to the after party. I

Cassie Jones
mean, like it was just the whole thing. We were friends. We were

Bernel
Yes, we were best friends literally in a matter of like 24 hours. And then I was like, Oh, I’d love to have because you were still shooting weddings pretty regularly at the time because I followed you on Instagram and I’m like wow, like she’s a really talented wedding photographer. Okay. Um, and so I was like, I want to have her on the podcast and talk about wedding photography, and all things pretty. And that didn’t happen for numerous reasons, but it didn’t happen. And I’m so glad now though, to be talking about a subject that we both love, and I feel like know a lot about and that is show at conferences, which now it is called the spark conference. So yeah, I’m glad that you’re finally in the hot seat.

Cassie Jones
Me too little nervous, but going excited.

Bernel
Yes. Okay, so I’m gonna take it back to basics, guys. If you are new here and have never heard of show it. You’re like, what is this weird word that Brunel talks about all the time and loves and wears on T shirts? Cassie, can you tell us what show it is?

Cassie Jones
Yes. Show it is a drag and drop Website Builder. It is easy to use. It’s for creative business owners. It’s especially the one to have like, really visually dependent businesses. And one of the things that I love most about show it is that you have complete freedom to design a website that reflects who you are as a business. Without the constraints of templates ever, you can purchase a template, but everything is completely freeform, you can move anything around, you can change any font to whatever you want. I think that that’s kind of one of the things that makes show it stand out is that it’s all drag and drop. It is easy to use. You don’t have to know code. It works with WordPress and your blog. It’s just amazing. I know that I’m biased, and I work for them. But I was a business owner that use them as my website first. And that’s one of the reasons why I fell in love with show is because they made it so easy for me to create what I needed to create and do it beautifully. I was a wedding photographer for 10 years and in my website has always been on show it. And it’s the back end is kind of built like Lightroom or Photoshop. So it was really easy for me to learn and update all the time. And I just really still enjoy it.

Bernel
Yeah, I agree. Well, you’re, you’re you may be a little biased because you weren’t for sure. I don’t work for show it guys. And I love it. And I tell people all the time. I’m like, I don’t work for show it but show it. The platform works for me. So that’s not the company. But that works for me in my business. And that is why I love and it works for so many of my clients. Like this. So fun,

Cassie Jones
weird, weird tidbit. This is super nerdy. But even though like, I don’t have my business anymore, I still really love getting in there and like designing on show. It’s just fun. It’s a good way to exercise your creative brain.

Bernel
Yes, for sure, for sure. And it’s easy. Like I think most people think of web design is this big scary thing. Because I mean writing usually it is when you look at like the developers notes, and it’s just lines and lines of code. But that’s not show it, you get on the backside, you have this canvas. And as Cassie mentioned, you can start with a template if you like. But if you don’t want to there’s literally a blank canvas and you can just drag and drop and layer and overlay things and just create these incredible pieces. So with that being said, if you’ve never played around with show it there is a free trial. So go to show it.co And you can sign up make an account. I don’t think you need a credit card to do your free trial.

Cassie Jones
I cannot confirm or deny. Because I might work for sure what the I’m not on support

Bernel
is funny. No, I just checked. I just checked guys, you know,

Cassie Jones
a tech girl. And before I worked for show it I won an award for being the neediest customer for support.

Unknown Speaker
Oh, no, no, there’s no secret. Oh, my

Bernel
goodness, there’s no way you could be a needier customer than me. So I have so much fun with the support team. Like I literally just like send messages all the time. And I’m just like, hey, guys, I don’t know why it’s doing this. And they’re great. So that is also a really good selling point of this platform. I feel as a business owner. So as a web designer, I feel like their support is unmatched to any other platform that I work with. I mean they send like dancing gifs or gifs in their in their responses.

Cassie Jones
And they have super Tibet’s personalities.

Bernel
Yeah, yeah, they do. So as a web designer, that’s my favorite thing. But as a client like my websites on show it so as a from the client side, I think my favorite part really is the creative freedom. So yeah, so Okay, that’s all about the platform. So now that you know what show it is. There was a conference that they hosted for X amount of you yours I cannot confirm or deny how many years your 911 it was not 11 Cassie. Yeah, it was Wow. Okay, so they had a conference with their hosting for 11 years. And it was incredible. And yeah, it was, it was great. It was a photography conference. And so photographers from all over the nation would come, a lot of them had showed websites, some of them didn’t. And you learn how to build an incredible photography business. And that included like a gala. Like we mentioned at the beginning, there were parties and karaoke and just all kinds of stuff. And it was great. And then they announced in 2021, that it was going to be the last year, and there was not a dry eye in the house guys. Like there were you saw one,

Cassie Jones
especially my eyes. Oh, yes.

Bernel
It definitely was read for all four days. But I was so sad. And it was crazy. Because like, I knew like I just had a feeling in my soul like show it was not abandoning us. But I was like, okay, they keep saying this, the last one, like, I was waiting for the punch line, you know, when people are like we’re liquidating, but then they’re not waiting for the punch line of like, no, there’s really going to be another united and there wasn’t, um, spoiler alert, it was the last one. But something they did announce at the end of the conference was that they were going to start a new conference series called spark. And Spark is literally for creative entrepreneurs transform your business through the unlock power of your creativity that’s like the tagline everywhere when you see spark. And so this year 20, or you’re listening to this in 2023. Last year, 2022. We’re recording guys in December. And I just like to tell you all that because I’m here for transparency, right? Like you’re listening to this in January, but we recorded it in December. Um, but anyway, Spark 2022 was an incredible experience. So I wanted to get Cassie on here to tell you about what that conference really stands for, what’s the difference, the major difference between spark and united,

Cassie Jones
United was really solely focused on photographers. And that we felt like we were able to serve that community well, for a long time. And as show it grew, our clientele changed. While we used to be mainly wedding photographers, or photographers in general, we were seeing that NUMBER Take a downward shift. And we were realizing we had all of these, all of these customers that didn’t fit into the photography category. And so our heart behind spark was really to create a place where everyone, every creative business owner felt welcome. And were given the tools or the tools were made available to them to create a really successful business show. It isn’t just here to be the place where you build your website, we also want those websites to be an extension of a really successful business. And a website is just one small piece. And so our heart behind that has always been to cultivate really good businesses with solid business practices. And so that’s where that’s where the heart from Spark came was really wanting to invite everybody to that same table and create community. And we as a whole really feel like in person connection is so important. We want that place to be a place where friendships are made. And not not just like a what can you do for me type friendship, but real friendships. entrepreneurship can feel so lonely, you know? Yeah. But whenever you get in a room with like minded individuals, there is something that you automatically have in common, and it just makes it makes you feel less alone. But also, it makes building friendships, they’re easier. I guess, because you understand each other, we understand the struggles that each one of you has. And so even if there’s not someone like in your immediate family circle or friends circle at home, that understands what you go through as an entrepreneur, here’s a whole room full of tuna 300 People that understand exactly what you go through every day. And so that’s a fun bit of it that we really enjoy is watching those friendships for a while, but at the risk of sounding cheesy but watching those friendships spark into life and create a lasting friendship that, you know, goes on and on there. friendships that have been made at United 10 years ago that are still really deep friendships. I have some of my best friends at these conferences. So again, I’m biased, but we’ve watched people meet and get married. We’ve Wow. Okay. This take off because they’ve teamed up together. The community aspect of a show at conferences is really, really where it’s at.

Bernel
Yes, I have to wholeheartedly agree with that. I have not found a husband at the spark conference, but

Unknown Speaker
you burned now,

Bernel
I don’t know about that. But I will tell you though, I have made some incredible long lasting friendships at the conference. I mean, that’s where it’s like a family reunion. I literally say this every year when I come to Arizona, it is literally like a family reunion. Like, you get to see your cousins that you don’t talk to every day and you get to see like your favorite aunts and uncles like it’s just it’s so cool. Yes, several of my podcast guests. In season two, I met at Spark like, I will have probably 50% of Spark, or I met at United at the time for season two. So, um, yeah, you meet some incredible people, you can learn from so many people that aren’t on stage. I think that was a part that really stood out to me. I mean, of course, the people on stage are very knowledgeable, and you’re learning from them, as well as industry leaders. But I learned so much at lunch at this past. Because I tried to sit with different people every day. That was something I was like, I have definitely made friends like here, but I want to try to make new ones. And I want to try to sit with new people and get to know people who it’s their first year at the conference. And I learned so much from them. Like I was just like, wow, okay, so in a few years, I hope to see you on this stage. The connection aspect is good. Also, a favorite moment for me is always website coaching, there is a free, wonderful service for people to take advantage of where they can sit down with a show designer, and either get coaching on SEO, which is search engine optimization for your website, or just an overall website audit type thing. And so many people took advantage of that this year. And that was good. So those are some of my highlights. So with that being said, Cassie, when is the next spark? Because that has been a big question in my DMs. You know, I think FOMO was real for a lot of people when they saw it. They saw what we were doing on Instagram. So when is the next spark companies,

Cassie Jones
the next spark conference is in November of 2024. We’re actually skipping a year. So we’re not going to have one in 23. But we are going to have one and 24.

Bernel
Yes. And I think those tickets are gonna go fast, guys. I’m going fast. Yeah, they’re gonna go fast. So if you go to and this link will be in the show notes as well. So you don’t have to rummage and find a piece of paper because they are gonna be right below this show. But the link is spark dot show it.co. And there you can join the email list to be notified when it reopens. That’s right. I hope to see some of you guys. Alright. Hasley. So I want to know, I mean, obviously, you can’t tell me any secrets that are any surprises. But I want to know, what are some things people can expect in 2024 from the conference.

Cassie Jones
So yeah, can’t give away any secrets. But you can expect really amazing leaders and education community. And we are actually moving locations. We have been at the buttes for the past several years, and we are moving locations and we’re gonna be over in Chandler, Arizona, it’s a lovely little downtown area, we’ve got a great spot. It’s called the San Marcos Hotel. So it’s going to be wonderful. I’m really excited about that. And yeah, we’re in the early planning stages for 24. So we’re gonna have some things up our sleeve that you’re not going to want to miss. Oh, that

Bernel
sounds exciting. Yes, I am super excited for that. And one of the things I wanted to point out too, because if you’re listening to this, and you’re thinking, wow, going to Arizona is going to be an investment. Obviously you have to pay for the conference. You have to pay for flights, lodging, all that great stuff. One of the things I want to remind you guys is it’s all of right off. Now granted, I’m not an accountant, but it is all right. Like this is all part of business education. It’s a write off so If you’re starting to play in kind of where you want to allot some of your budget for business education, this is a really good option for that. Some of the industries that are represented or that have been represented as spark and will continue to be represented our designers, copywriters, coaches, photographers, YouTubers, virtual assistants, illustrators course builders, I mean, all the creatives will be represented. But if you are in any of those industries, you know how hard it is to find a conference for those industries. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a conference for brand designers or seen one that was specifically for copywriters, or you know, seen one where you could go and be a copywriter, meet a brain designer, also your accountants there, and there may be somebody in the corner, like selling like contracts as well. So it’s just a really good place to be for networking.

Cassie Jones
It is. And, you know, if Spark is like three days of really intense learning, and one of my favorite things to think about is that if you were to purchase a course from each of those people, or the opportunity to learn from each of those people, it would be so much money. Yeah, but you get three full days of just jam packed education, and it’s a lot of fun. And you get to do it with friends.

Bernel
Yes. And there’s always really good food. Like, I mean, hot lunch food. Can we just talk about that for a minute? Because, you know, I’m not going to compare any conferences. I’m not going to do that, guys. But show it is one of the only ones I’ve been to where your lunches are where they provide you with lunch? And also it’s hot food like it’s not

Cassie Jones
lunch. I’m not a confident lunch girl.

Bernel
Yeah, like that’s not that great when you have the cold sandwich and some chips and yeah, like Yeah, so anyway, oh, that is a little sidebar for me. I love the food. I always look forward to the food and desserts and treats and candy bowls and just all the things um,

Cassie Jones
one of my favorite moments this year Speaking of food was that we had rattlesnake it wrestlers roost. And did you try it?

Bernel
No, I did not. You guys cannot see my face. My whole face is twisted up. I did not

Cassie Jones
know. I tried it. And I loved it. And it was my favorite things. I ate the whole document.

Bernel
Yeah, it was like somebody said it tasted like chicken. Yeah, it does.

Cassie Jones
But it doesn’t. Like it’s not it’s not as like, you know, I kind of anticipated it being kind of like calamari, or something. Yes. It was not that rubbery. So it was kind of like textured like chicken but tasted really good. really different.

Bernel
Interests. Interesting. Oh, maybe I should have tried it. But no, I literally it It smelled really good. The people came around and they’re like, the servers were like, Would you like to try this? And I’m like, Oh, great. What is it? And the lady was like rattlesnake and I was like, No, thank you.

Cassie Jones
Rattlesnake and cactus fries. Right there together. And man, both of them delightful.

Bernel
Didn’t do either one of those. But

Cassie Jones
my Arizona native now is coming out. Yes, yes.

Bernel
Well, it’s funny because we’re both southern girls. And I feel like Arizona has stole both of our hearts. Now you moved before me. But I love Arizona. I mean, the conference is obviously a highlight of my year but also just taking a trip to Arizona like I love to go the weather is always so much better there than anywhere else

Cassie Jones
you can November

Unknown Speaker
yes

Bernel
it’s sunny and like kind of warm but not hot. But you don’t need a coat like it’s just don’t sit

Cassie Jones
by the pool and work. Oh for sure. It’s very comfy.

Bernel
Yes. So this episode was not to sell you guys on Spark but I mean, we’ll be there me and Cassie will be there and we will be soaking up some sun by the pool and greeting people and giving out hugs and like if that sounds like a place you want to be then really start planning I mean, you have over a year to plan for this and to budget for this. So I really hope to see you guys there moving forward in the future. If you are interested in speaking at Spark being a sponsor to a speaker at Spark, that information usually comes out about six months in advance.

Cassie Jones
If you if you watch show it like Instagrams Stories are emails, we send out a lot of information about applying to speak at Spark. If you’re a vendor and you want to get on the vendor, like hit me up list, you’re welcome to email me personally, it show it and I keep a little running tab of all the vendors that request information. And we’ll send those out when we have it. But yeah, the speaker application will come out the vendor application will come out and then yeah, so just keep an eye out.

Bernel
Awesome. All right, guys. Well, you heard it here. First. Spark 2024 is going to be the place to be do not watch from your couch or other people’s fun in their Instagram stories. Like yours. You’re getting a chance to be in the building. Um, oh, Cassie, I am so glad that you came to chat with me today. I feel like this will not be the last time that Cassie is on the podcast because I just really liked chatting with Cassie. But anyway. No. Also show it as a podcast. Um, I think they’re taking a little break with it right now. But you can go on there. And they are good. They’re real good guys also show it did a Creator series where they came and recorded several showing users, designers, photographers, I mean all kinds of industries were represented in that as well. So you can find that on show its website. They did one for me and I loved it and it was so much fun. So I will have the links to all of that in the show notes. You will be able to find all things show it in the show notes.

Cassie Jones
Also, yours made me tear up we’re now really yes when you are

Cassie Jones
talking about how your business had changed because the show it and everything I just started though who

Bernel
did? It’s true guys. Like you can’t make this stuff up. Like I definitely found my people and I found my community and I made the joke all the time. I’m gonna apply to work it show it but you know, that’s it’s one of those like, Haha, but kind of serious like am I work here that’s how much I believe in the community and uh, you know, if you know me outside of bypassing, you know, I don’t say I’m applying to very many jobs because I love being an entrepreneur through and through. But that’s a company that I believe in, in their vision and they believe in their people. So yes, well, you can find all the links in the show notes. If you want to contact Cassie directly for vendor stuff. I will have her email in the show notes as well go follow her on Instagram. She’s been cute as family. But thank you so much for joining us today, Cassie,

Unknown Speaker
thank you for having me. This is a blast for now. Yes, it’s

Bernel
so much fun. Wow, that went by really fast. As always, thank you so much for showing up in my little corner of the internet. I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. So please, please subscribe, leave a review and share what you learned with friends. Some of the best things in life are freebies. So don’t forget to head over to brandedbybernel.com to check out our free branding goodies, the show notes and more educational resources.

© 2017- 2024 BRANDED BY BERNEL, LLC  

TERMS AND CONDITIONS