Ben Bilbrough – Getting Gen Z to the polls
How much does your vote really count? Are you overlooking hidden ways to make a bigger impact, especially if you are Gen Z or just starting to engage in your community? In this guest episode with Ben Bilbrough, we explore how data, technology, and evolving habits reveal unseen power in our choices. What if your individual influence is greater in some places than in others? Are you making informed decisions that truly harness your potential, both in business and civic life? Discover tools and insights that help you recognize the real value of your actions and voice.
Listen to this new episode for a new outlook on audience, influence, and why understanding your true impact can guide how you participate at work and in your community.
About Ben:
The publisher of Modern Bride’s 16 regional wedding magazines before joining the then new startup The Knot.com as VP of Local Services. There he developed and implemented the innovative local advertising model that fueled The Knot’s growth for years. Since then he has founded and exited Mediamax Network, iCitycerts, and Addy.co. Today he is co-founder and CEO of Action Tank, which utilizes AI and data science to help nonprofits achieve real mission impact.
U26 VotePower Score – Learn how much power your vote has this year compared to the typical voter. U26.vote
LinkedIn – Ben Bilbrough
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View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/
Summary
In this episode, I sit down with my friend Ben Bilbrough, who was my boss back in the early days at The Knot, to take a deep dive into the evolution of weddings, advertising, and audience engagement over the years. We kick things off reminiscing about when The Knot was just AOL Keywords Weddings and what it was like launching a .com before anyone really knew what that meant. Ben Bilbrough shares how his mission was to help The Knot move into local markets at a time when everything was still print and the digital future was uncertain.
We talk candidly about the transition from print to digital, how we experimented with different advertising models, and how the rise of audience platforms like Facebook and Instagram have changed the landscape for wedding professionals and small businesses. Ben Bilbrough discusses his journey from The Knot into building businesses that focus on empowering organizations—especially nonprofits and educational institutions—by using technology, data science, and AI to better understand and engage their followership.
The conversation then shifts to the power and challenges of audience targeting in advertising, demystifying how businesses use data, geolocation, and even our real-world habits to serve up content and ads tailored to us. Ben Bilbrough explains that while there’s a perception that our devices are always listening, what’s really happening is a web of proximity, shared interests, and behaviors that tie us together digitally and physically.
We dig into the pressing topic of voter participation, apathy, and the real impact a single vote can have, especially in tight races. Ben Bilbrough introduces u26.vote, a nonpartisan website that calculates the power of your individual vote based on where you live and your age, illustrating that in some places a single vote can carry enormous weight. We reflect on generational differences in voting motivation, the barriers young people face, and how gamifying participation can make the process more meaningful for Gen Z and beyond.
Throughout the episode, we keep things grounded, share some laughs about how much the world has changed—and hasn’t—and offer some practical insights for wedding professionals and anyone interested in how technology, data, and engagement intersect with civic and business life.
What was it like in the early days of The Knot? Ooh, listen to this episode, see where I’m going. Hey, it’s Allen Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions Podcast. I am so excited to have my friend Ben Bilborough on to talk about the early days of The Knot. Ben, how you doing?
I’m great. Great to see you, Al.
So for those of you that don’t know, when I started at The Knot in 2000, Ben was Vice President of Local Sales. He was my boss, and I came on because of the acquisition of Wedding Pages magazine, where I had franchises and then was working. And I actually have to—I don’t think I’ve ever thanked you for this—but you didn’t want to do speaking for the first time in June of 2000 at Central Park, that the ABC was having something, and you’re like, Alan, you go do that. And then I ended up speaking there for 11 years. So thank you very much. In a good way. No, seriously, in a good way. It was really good.
So, Ben, what was it like in the early days? Because you were there—not from the very beginning, because the four founders started it—but you were there.
I was there pre-internet, actually pre-dot-com, right? So when I joined, The Knot was just the AOL keyword weddings. We didn’t have a website. It was when you went to AOL because that’s all we knew about, you know, the internet was AOL. Everybody went to AOL.
Everybody.
If you owned one of the keywords, then you created content, and actually AOL paid us to create content. That was because there was no internet, there was nothing else to see. So they were like, we need content and wedding content sounds good. So we were AOL Keywords Weddings, which became The Knot. And then in, I think, ’99, we launched our .com, which had no traffic. It was like, literally, we had to figure out how do we grow the traffic to www.theknot.com and move it away from AOL Keywords Weddings. So that’s about when I joined, when we were in the middle of that.
And my mission when I got there was The Knot at that point was—and Alan, you’ll remember this well—it was just wedding dresses. Like, that was its whole reason to be, which was, for the world, mind-blowing. Like, I can just go to my computer and look at dress after dress after dress after dress. And that is what created this huge audience for The Knot. My mission from David Liu when I came on—I left Modern Bride, which was a part of Prime Media at that point.
Yeah.
I left Modern Bride and came to The Knot. And David’s thing was, help us figure out how to do local because at the end of the day, all weddings are local, right? So that was my mission. That was the early days.
Yeah, because it was right after the IPO that The Knot bought Wedding Pages, and that’s how we ended up working together. And Wedding Pages had local reps around the country. And like you said, all weddings are local, and sales were happening local, and that’s what we were doing.
But it’s this transition, partly of technology and partly of, you know, ’98, ’99, 2000 versus 2026. We’re into new generations, right? And the way that people interact. And, you know, The Knot—I mean, Wedding Pages was all about our magazines, right? It was—we’re all about print. And The Knot was all about online. And the early days of, you know, you and I and our team there trying to sell local advertising and figure out what do we charge. And remember when we tried to do pay-per-performance?
Yeah, for about an hour and a half.
Yeah, I said that week, you said about an hour and a half. And it was the people that were doing really well were like, no, no, no, we’d rather pay the lower flat fee, right? And all of a sudden you realize maybe this isn’t such a good idea because, again, it was working so well.
But we transitioned all—you know, that flip from it was all about the print to it’s all about online now, right? But it’s not just online now, it’s AI now. It’s all the different ways that—there was no Instagram, there was no Facebook. David Liu friended me on Facebook and I tried to go to it, but our servers were blocking Facebook because apparently people that worked there were going on for personal use, so they blocked it. Can you imagine now a workplace blocking social media?
I actually remember that whole period. There was this fear that we had unlocked on people’s desks, like, a massive distraction engine and that people could go do all kinds of things.
Like, I don’t know, do you remember we worked in the office in New York? So our office was down in SoHo in New York City, and there was a brand-new service that would deliver you food or a book or snacks or anything.
Wow.
I’m trying to remember what it was called. But we very quickly realized that the elevator was full of people showing up with, like, an everything bagel and a Diet Coke or a copy of this paperback book and something else. And I think the powers that be had this moment of, like, do we need to block this thing? Like, should we be letting people go online and buy things that bring to the office? And ultimately, the decision I think was made to leave it alone. But I don’t remember what it was called because now it’s been 20—I don’t know—26 years, something like that.
Yeah. And again, we adapt to the consumers. You know, The Knot got to a point where everything was—actually, WeddingWire was doing everything remotely. And when I started consulting with them in 2012, I was like, you know, you don’t have people in the local markets, right? That’s what The Knot had, is people in the local markets. And then COVID hits and everybody goes home, and then they let them work from there and they’re like, hey, this isn’t so bad. You know, we can do that again.
Yeah, yeah.
But, you know, the thing that hasn’t changed is it’s all about audience, right? Facebook is selling audience, Instagram is selling audience, TikTok is selling audience. And I forget who said it, you might know this one, but if you’re not paying to be on that platform, you’re the product. You’re what they’re selling, right?
And I think about all the people here that are listening that are trying to do free stuff online, you know, social media stuff, posting and posting and posting and posting, but the algorithm is completely working against you.
Right, right. Yeah, exactly. I think so that was sort of my big insight coming away from The Knot. I made the decision to leave The Knot mostly because I realized that I’m a starter, not a finisher. Like, I think I figured that out, you know, that when I was happiest is when I was like the blank sheet of paper creating something that didn’t exist yet.
And we had lots of time, like lots of innovation and new things created at The Knot. But once The Knot went public and we sort of settled into our company, I wanted to go out in the world and figure out, like, what would be the thing that I could do next that would actually have some impact, that would do something?
Yeah.
So we’ve gone through the story. I started a number of businesses and sold a few of them. But what I’ve been looking at really closely lately is, in this hypercompetitive world for attention where everybody is trying to get everyone’s attention to sell them something, to convince them of something, to share something with them, there are just so many people that are being not heard. And some of those voices are important.
So not to make this political, but we’re sort of moving up into an election cycle here.
Yeah.
And my current business, which is called Action Tank, is premised on this idea that nonprofits that do a lot of really important work in the world are under-technologied, and they have lots of people that raise their hand and say, like, I see what you’re doing and I’m with you, I support you. And they might do that on social media, and they might do that by joining their mailing list. They might do that by whatever.
But at the end of the day, that nonprofit doesn’t have access to the same technology that we do in the commercial world. They don’t have access to the sort of identity technology, the data science, the things that we know now. Honestly, all of us live this every day. The ads that I see in my feed, on my television, in my Spotify, are wholly different from anybody else’s because of my online behavior. And behavior has got to be pinned to identity.
So the commercial world, the brands, the advertising technology companies, they know our identity and they know what we’re doing and they know what we like and what we don’t like, what we respond to.
This is not news. Nonprofits don’t have that. And there’s a lot of nonprofits trying to do really important things in the world. So Action Tank, our insight there was that we think there’s an opportunity to create like a Palantir-type business, but, at the risk of being political, for good.
Like, how could we take data science and AI and basically empower nonprofits to actually see their followerships more clearly, those people that raise their hand and say, I’m with you, and be able to say to them, like, I’m not gonna ask you for $20 today. I’m gonna ask you to do something different, something that’s in your power. Maybe it’s make an introduction.
Maybe it’s, you know, write an article. Maybe it’s call into a radio show on our behalf. Maybe it’s something else, but something that is more engaging.
Yeah.
So we’ve been following that thread, which interestingly is very appealing to colleges and universities, right? Because they have huge databases of people that are graduates and alumni and parents and spouses. So that has been the focus of what we’ve been working on. But that’s, you know, leads us up to the elections.
Right. But again, it’s not about politics. It’s about these underfunded companies. And again, of all different ilk, of all different colors. We’re not talking hats or anything here. We’re just talking about that in general because there’s a lot of great causes out there. And like you said, they get—the shouting that happens, right?—drowns out all these other things.
And I, again, remember a day—well, you and I, we’re going to date ourselves—when you and I could go to school the next day and we watched the same TV show as all our friends. We saw the same commercials as all of our friends because that’s all there was, you know?
Right.
I had told you, and everybody here probably knows this already, but we had a new grandson as of April 7th. So we watch, you know, on Instagram stuff, we click on some baby stuff. Well, once you click on something, my entire feed is filled with baby stuff.
But then my wife likes the cooking things, you know, all those viral recipes. So my feed is baby stuff and recipes and car stuff and then wedding stuff. And it’s just this—
Right.
—ridiculous thing over here. And, you know, we know they tell us not, but I know that my phone is listening and whatever, because it can’t be coincidence all the time when something we spoke about just happens to show up. You know, I forget what it was, my wife and I maybe going somewhere, and it’s like, all of a sudden, there’s an ad for that part of the world. Like, really?
Really? So I’d love—let’s dig into that a little bit. Because that’s actually kind of right. So I started a company called Addey, and Addey’s mission was this: how do we make advertising as easy as shopping for small businesses, right?
So it’s literally Amazon for advertising. Anybody can show up, buy anything they want—magazines, online advertising, billboards, radio, television, whatever you want—add it to your cart, check out. And we were solving a problem of access by creating a marketplace.
And I sold that business in 2022, and the company that bought me was in the geolocation space, right? So they’re on the data side of advertising.
Right.
And, you know, when we hear about, like, how do people know how to give me what ads? One of the ways that some companies do it is we’re all walking around with transmitters in our pockets or in our purses. So it happens to know that Alan every Saturday morning goes to Home Depot or wherever he goes.
The secret’s out. Okay.
And you’ve probably seen it because sometimes you’ll get into your car and it connects with your phone. It’s like, are we going to Home Depot today, Alan?
Oh yeah, all the time. All the time. Home Depot, my supermarket, you know, the places we go.
Right.
And then the prediction, you know, my phone predicts what apps I’m going to want to open based upon the time of day because it knows that I do my French lessons in the morning and I do ASL lessons in the evening. So when I go to my phone, if I swipe down, the first thing that’s there is Lingvano, which is how I’m learning ASL. And it—again, all of this, it’s timing, it’s location, it’s all these—
This is—
—we didn’t have that information back in the day, but that’s wild. So the company that bought Addey is still doing this thing?
Oh yeah, it does this thing, and it’s one of many companies that do it. But what they basically do is this: they build audiences. Again, Alan and I very much are cut from the audience school of thought. In the advertising world, what you’re selling is access to people’s attention.
But their audiences were built on where you went in the real world. So if Lowe’s in Monroe, Connecticut, or Monroe, New Jersey, wanted to compete with Home Depot, they would say, let me buy that audience. Everybody who goes to Home Depot, let me target them.
Or also, let me target people that haven’t been to my Lowe’s store in a month. Or let me target people that just moved into the neighborhood. And how do we know this? Because their beacon now goes to a house in the neighborhood that didn’t go there six months ago.
But I will tell you, I went there and I was asked to run product for the company. So I did that for three years, three and a half years.
Okay.
I will tell you this: in all of the meetings that I was in with a lot of people in the ad tech space, no one once ever said that they were building audiences based on what people were saying and were being captured by their phones.
Right.
And these were a lot of uncomfortable conversations about things that we could do to deliver ads to people that you wouldn’t want to have known could be done to you, right? Like, hey, why don’t we—this is illegal in most states—but why don’t we draw geometric lines around maternity wards? And so then we know whoever is going there is having a baby, you know, or things like that.
We don’t want to know how the sausage is made, is what you’re saying.
You don’t. But I will tell you this, that I’ve never heard anybody stand up in a meeting or say, in all the partners I spoke to—and again, I dealt with a lot of data partners that brought stuff in—that I have a listening capability.
But there was one that was really interesting that is just true and which might solve this riddle for some people. And that is, when you are talking about a thing, the likelihood is the people that are near you are talking about it and thinking about it too.
Okay.
And that while you didn’t Google it, somebody—your friend, your son, your wife, your neighbor that you were talking to about it in your proximity—Googled it. And those proximities are ways that advertising companies use to target people as well.
So if Alan’s friend who he spends, you know—and again, it’s all the amount of time your phones are near each other—if Alan’s friend is thinking about this, Alan might be thinking about it as well. So Alan just talked about it, but his friend Googled it, or his friend went to the website, or his friend talked to his wife and she did.
And that’s how you start seeing those ads for things that, like, come on, I never could have—
But location, but there’s also—they know my demographics. So they’ll say it’s somebody like Alan of his age, right?
I heard something interesting recently that said that Pokémon Go was a way to map the world and get photos around the world. And the game, they basically got people around the world to take pictures of things around the world, and now they have photos of things all around the world.
Absolutely true. And same with Foursquare, by the way. Remember back in the day of Foursquare? Like, yeah, that was—it was just a massive data harvesting play.
And they got us to do it for them. Gamify, right? Gamifying it. You know, that’s what Pokémon Go did, is gamifying it.
So let’s, because we could just go on forever about this, again, not making this political, but we are dealing now with Gen Zs, right? The oldest Gen Zs are 29 or 30 years old.
Yes. Every time I—
Every time those words come out of my mouth, I’m like, wow, how can that be?
How can that be, right? And then I guess my grandson, is he Gen Beta, if he was just born? I don’t know. Is he a young Alpha? I don’t even know what he would be in 2026.
I think we have moved into Beta. Yeah, I think Alpha—there’s a hard line for Alpha, and now we’re in Beta.
We’re moving through the Greek alphabet. Okay, there we go. Gamma is next, I suppose.
But something that you’ve seen—we know that people need to be motivated, right? We’ve seen this in other elections. Again, please, people, we’re not talking blue or red here. We’re just talking about in general. You just look at the turnout and stuff.
We also know that a lot of people have apathy, you know, that my vote doesn’t count, right? Ask Al Gore if your vote doesn’t count, right?
Yeah.
I mean, just think about that. It wasn’t that many votes that really would have made that election. And I love—I mentioned this—that in Australia, you are legally required to cast a ballot. I did find out recently that you don’t have to fill it out, but you do have to cast the ballot. And if you don’t two years in a row or two elections in a row, you actually get fined, legally fined. I don’t know what happens after that.
But so they have a very high participation. But we know that historically here, we have a low participation, and young people in general, because, you know, they don’t have the history of it.
But you were telling me about something that you came up with, and again, not about age now, not about party now, but if you think your vote doesn’t count, in certain places it counts a whole lot more than in other places.
Yeah.
Right?
So if you’re in a place where everybody kind of votes the same way, the same color, if you will, of party, your vote really isn’t gonna change much one way or another. But there’s a lot of places, and we always see—I don’t know what you call those little spots on the map—where this made a difference by hundreds of votes or whatever.
But you created something for this, right, to show people how much your vote counts. Again, whichever, however you vote, whatever you vote, right?
Yeah.
Tell everybody about this because I thought it was fascinating.
So, to your point, Alan, if you look at the 2024 elections, the presidential race wasn’t that close, but the congressional race was incredibly close. And actually, it came down to three districts, and one of them was won by under 800 votes.
Right now, in a general election, a presidential election, all congressional districts are by law about the same size. They’re somewhere between 750,000 and 1 million people.
Okay.
And in a presidential election, close to 65%, 66% of people vote. So that’s many, many hundreds of thousands of people per district are voting. And these races are being won by 800 votes, 700 votes, 1,000 votes, right?
Wow.
So control of the House of Congress last year—or the House of Representatives—was, in 2024, decided by 7,000 votes out of millions and millions and millions of votes that were cast.
Crazy. Crazy.
And what we all—when we all find this out is later, right? And the number of times you wake up on Election Day and say, like, you know, I don’t even know if my vote counts, right?
I took that sort of rhetorical question and thought, why don’t people have an answer to that? Like, you actually should have an answer. There’s an algorithm that could tell you that where Ben lives versus where Alan lives, and even how old Ben is versus how old Alan is, and a number of other factors about the composition of the electorate in that district, we actually each have a different voting score.
So if I live in deep, deep blue Cambridge, Massachusetts, right?
Right.
And I am a baby boomer who, as a percentage, vote the highest of anybody, the relative value of my vote might be one-fiftieth of a Gen Zer in Iowa’s 3rd, which is a highly contested district.
Yeah.
But now the parties don’t want to talk about this because they’re like, I don’t want to talk about some votes being worth more than others. But they know it. They act on it every day. Right? That’s what their targeting is based on.
Yeah.
And the candidates don’t want to think about it because, again, nobody wants to be the one saying your vote is worth more because that sounds un-American, it’s undemocratic. But they reflect it with how much they spend, right? They spend an inordinate amount of money to get certain people to turn out.
Right.
So we thought, what if we just made that information public? What if we developed an algorithm and delivered it via a tool where anybody can come and enter their zip code and enter the year of their birth? That’s it. No personal identifying information or anything.
And then find out instantly the score of your vote, the value of your vote relative to everybody else. So in some districts, your vote might be worth 0.6, and in other districts, your vote might be worth 49, right?
What’s the scale? What’s the scale?
So it is 0 to 50 is the scale. And most Americans, when we look at all 435 congressional districts and we factor in a lot of things like, how competitive is the race for Congress? And also, is there a Senate race that’s competitive in your state? Specifically where you are geographically and the turnout for that district and how much your vote might matter.
And hey, you go to a polling place that has 300 people that vote, right? Like, compared to a polling place that has 40,000 people that vote. So there’s, I think, eight factors that go into it. And it tells you then exactly what the value of your vote is.
And all we want people to do is have that information. When you wake up on Tuesday morning and say, should I bother to vote or not? You don’t want to find out on Wednesday morning that you should have. You want to find out on Tuesday morning that you should have.
So we’ve created this. The website is u26.vote. I guess Alan will probably include it in the notes here.
The letter U or Y-O-U?
The letter U. Yeah, yeah. That’s short for Undeniable 26.
Okay. Okay.
26 for the—and also for the fact that the people that we really would like to have more clarity about the value of their vote are the people that aren’t paying close attention to it.
And you mentioned this a minute ago, Alan, that especially Gen Z. Now, listen, you and I both remember when we were 22 years old. Voting for president was easy. I know, I got that. I know the answer to that question. I can show up and is it going to be—I don’t know, like, who would it have been back then? Let’s not even guess.
Let’s not talk about that.
Yes.
But do I—it wasn’t George Washington. Okay. We just want you to know that.
But president these days is identity. Like, you’re for Trump or you are for Kamala, right? You are for Gore. You are for Bush.
Like it’s identity. Right.
So there’s enough information out there in the world to have a feeling about what I should do if I care about the future of the world, what I should do with my vote.
Right.
But when you look at the midterms and you look at things like congressmen or ballot measures or judges or things like that, or even senators, when you’re 22, you’re not focused on that and you shouldn’t be. I mean, honestly, there would be people that would be unhappy that I said that, but you’re living your life at a different place.
Also, the messages that the parties are sending are not intended for you. Like, when you’re 22, you’re not really thinking about affordability. You’re buying your groceries by the armful, not by the cartful.
Right.
So, like, how much something costs isn’t really what you’re thinking about. But you still have an opportunity to have a real impact on maybe other things that you do care about.
So our intent with this and why we called the project Undeniable 26 is to allow young people to find out what power they actually have. And if you decide not to use it, okay. And if they decide to use it, either way, that’s still good.
But you should have some sense of—I think young people need some motivation beyond civic responsibility to vote, because they’re not so firmly coded yet, D or R, when you’re 19, right? Especially with the world we’re living in right now.
And Alan, you and I both have kids who are somewhat in this age bracket. But when you say to them, are you a Republican or Democrat? Their answer is, it’s complicated. Like, I don’t know exactly. I don’t know exactly what I am yet.
So not knowing but having power maybe gives you an incentive to find out, what should I actually do? Like, if I actually have some say, if me and people like me have some say in the direction of this country, I should know that I have some power.
But how much power? We give them a number. We give them a number and a score that says, like, this is the power that you have, which is a really fun project. It’s getting some traction. It’s taking on. People are sort of coming to this conclusion that maybe all votes are not the same.
And we think that’s an interesting dialogue.
And again, the idea is not to dissuade you from voting if you have a low score. But I mean, at this point, you know, it’s ingrained in you and I. An election comes up, we vote. That’s what we do.
When my sons were younger, I made it a point to be vocal when there was an election and tell them, listen, you know what, I really don’t know what’s going on with this one, but I’m gonna cast my vote because if you want a right to complain about what’s going on in your village, in your town, in your city, in your state, in your country, cast your vote.
I think to me, that’s your ticket that says I can bitch about what’s going on, or I can say I love what’s going on, but I got my golden ticket here. I did that.
Right.
But like you said, you know, I mean, how many times did they tell us when you’re 21, start saving for retirement? You can’t see that. And I love that you brought that up, is how does that 22-year-old see the value of, I voted for so-and-so and therefore my roads are paved, or therefore this cause that I believe in or don’t believe in, right, is that.
And it’s that bigger picture. But, you know, if I asked my sons what your party is, I think they would answer like you said, it’s complicated. They’re not—you know, if I go to my mother-in-law who’s 86, I know she’s got an answer, right?
She’s got an answer.
She’s got an answer. And I would have to say my wife and I, because we grew up in more of that world, we definitely had that answer.
As I got older, I think as a lot of us do, you know, I became more fiscally conservative. It’s only because I understand the world better, right?
Right.
And that doesn’t mean, again, politically. It’s just I know if I want my roads paved, I have to pay my taxes because that’s where the money comes from, right? And I know that the police are getting paid by my taxes and things like that.
So do I like that my real estate taxes just went up again in one of the highest-tax states in the country? No. But I understand that when I get on my street and it’s newly paved, I’m like, okay, I know where that came from now. I get that.
I had an interesting conversation with David Shore—Shore, no E on the end—who is a really sort of brilliant, I guess he’s an analyst, and he pays very, very close attention to the patterns of voting and who votes and why they vote and all this.
And he was one of the ones that early on sort of clocked this shift rightward of Gen Z voters in 2016 that we saw—I’m sorry, in 2020 that we saw.
Okay.
But, you know, he shared a piece of wisdom with me that I thought is actually probably the most common sense I’ve ever heard about voting. It’s like the single biggest predictor of whether or not someone will vote—not how they will vote, but whether or not they will vote—is their conscientiousness.
And he’s like, you’ll see that in the people that vote are the people that bring their garbage cans in after garbage day, you know, that morning. They’re the people that pay their taxes. They’re the people that, as a part of society, know they have responsibilities beyond themselves to other people.
Right? Like, your garbage can staying out on the street all week, it doesn’t hurt you at all, but it’s affecting other people’s quality of life.
Right.
And when you’re 18, 19, 20, 21, you’re not at your conscientious best yet, right? You’re still in a very self-centered world of, like, about me.
So what we’re hoping to do here is, how do we make a thing that is normally about conscientiousness and civic responsibility and all that, which honestly they’re somewhat allergic to—
You and I were too.
—too when we were 19, right? Like, we had very different things in mind when we were 19 than how important it was to vote.
How do we take that and tie it to something that scores it, gamifies it, gives it power, gives it potential energy? Which we think, like, hey, if that’s motivation to get people to just show up and vote, however you’re gonna vote, but just show up and vote.
That Wednesday morning when you look at the results of what happened, you will feel more American. You will feel like I played a part in this, whatever happens or doesn’t happen, right? Like, I played a part in it.
I didn’t feel that when I was 22. I just didn’t, right? Like, yeah, ballot measures for your uncle, right? Like, I don’t even know what they’re talking about.
But a great quote that somebody shared with me recently, actually it was from Tufts Circle—Tufts does these great analyses of especially Gen Z—and they’re like, for a lot of Gen Z, showing up, voting in the midterms is like showing up for a final exam for a class that you never went to.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Somebody hands you a sheet of paper with bubbles to fill out and you’re like, I know none of the answers.
Right. Well, and that’s—and I have to say, you know, we’re the same way. I travel so much. We’ve only lived in New Jersey for 16 years, actually only 16 years, but I’m not involved in the local community.
Now, when I published my Wedding Pages magazine, you know, back in the days when you and I were competing with New Jersey Wedding and Wedding Pages—
Yeah.
—we’re out there. I mean, we’re out there. We’re out there at the bridal shows. We’re out there in the community. The mayor in my local town was also the tailor. I could walk down the street and see him and know him by first name. He knew me by name. I was involved in the local schools and all things like that.
I’m not like—I’m an empty nester. My kids didn’t go to the schools over here. I don’t know them. But yet I vote for the school board every time. I vote for the school board.
I will say I have gone to using AI now for my votes and say, okay, give me the stance of all these people. Tell me what these are. Because I can do that now.
I can do that research and then go, okay, all right. You know, assuming this information is true, which I try to pull different sources, all right, now I can make a semi-informed decision, right? Like a semi-informed decision.
And I don’t think any of us—I don’t think many of us are making a really informed decision because the ads are trying to inform us. And so much of the ads is negative. You know, it’s what’s bad about so-and-so, and a little bit about what I’m for. But it’s all, oh, no, no, but not them. You don’t want to vote for them.
Right.
Because, you know, that’s Voldemort over there. You’re gonna—
So, right, right.
But I love this. So somebody can go to u26.vote and put just your zip code and your age, your year of birth—
Year of birth.
Year of birth—and it will tell you in your area how powerful your vote is, your specific vote right there, right there where it is.
Yeah.
Wow. I love that. I love that. I think this is a good place to end because we could just keep going on for another hour about this, but I will put it in the show notes.
But I love this again. And please, folks, this is not blue or red. This is not by party. This is anybody. Go there and you’ll see, you know, if you’re in a deeply fill-in-the-blank color district, right, your vote carries more weight.
And I think share this with the young people that you know. Share this with the people you know that are 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-year-old college students who think this doesn’t really affect me. When they realize they have more power, I think hopefully it empowers them to say, yeah, you know what? Okay, I need to have my vote counted because it does count. And that’s really what it is.
Exactly. Well said.
All right. Well, Ben, it’s been fun catching up here. Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. I’m going to put in the show notes that U26.Vote, U26.Vote. Yeah, share it around. Please share it around with people that you know.
You know, what’s that old shampoo commercial? You tell two friends and they’ll tell two friends. And, well, I don’t have hair, but anyway, we’ll get there.
So, all right. Well, thanks, everybody. Tune in to the next episode.
Thank you.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected] or you can text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
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©2026 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com
Question
How do you build an audience for a wedding business in a crowded online world?
Tags:
#audience #marketing #weddingindustry
Answer
It’s always been about audience. Whether it was print, online, or now social and AI-driven platforms, the most successful businesses focus on growing and understanding their audience. Today, social media platforms make you the product if you’re not paying, and their algorithms work against free posts. Invest your time and resources where you can actually reach and engage your audience, not just shout into the void.
Takeaway: Audience is your real product—invest in growing and engaging it.
Question
What was the biggest lesson from transitioning from print to digital in the wedding industry?
Tags:
#digitaltransition #weddingindustry #businessgrowth
Answer
The shift from print to digital wasn’t just about technology—it changed how we connected locally. We had to move from being all about magazines to being all about online, with new pricing, new sales strategies, and learning to reach couples where they actually were. The lesson: Stay flexible and don’t get stuck in old methods as the world changes around you.
Takeaway: Adapt fast—what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow.
Question
What’s a common mistake wedding pros make with online marketing?
Tags:
#marketing #socialmedia #weddingindustry
Answer
Too many pros rely on free social media posts and hope algorithms will do the work. But the platforms are selling audience, not reach. If you’re not paying for strategic placement, your posts are just a drop in an ocean. Don’t count on “free” to bring in business—make paid marketing part of your plan.
Takeaway: Free posting rarely moves the needle—treat marketing as an investment.
Question
Why is local presence still critical for wedding vendors?
Tags:
#localmarketing #weddingindustry #sales
Answer
All weddings are local. Even as tech takes over, local reps and personal connections drive sales. I found that having a presence in the community and understanding local clients makes all the difference—even as national brands scale up.
Takeaway: Local presence builds trust and closes more sales.
Question
How do algorithms target you with such specific ads?
Tags:
#algorithms #advertising #data
Answer
It’s not magic—your behavior and your network matter. Companies use location data, your habits, and even the habits of people near you to predict what ads you’ll see. Sometimes, it’s your friend searching for something you talked about that triggers the ad, not you.
Takeaway: Your digital and physical circles shape the ads you see.
Question
How can nonprofits compete with for-profit brands in reaching people?
Tags:
#nonprofits #technology #marketing
Answer
Nonprofits often lack access to the same data and tech that brands use. My goal is to empower them with tools that let them really see and activate their supporters—not just ask for money, but for real actions. Using better data and smarter requests moves the needle.
Takeaway: Give nonprofits the right tech, and their voices get heard.
Question
What motivates younger generations to vote or get involved?
Tags:
#motivation #youth #voting
Answer
Gen Z often isn’t moved by civic duty alone. They’ll take action if they see their efforts matter. Showing a clear impact—like the real value of their individual vote—motivates them far more than talk about responsibility.
Takeaway: Show real impact to inspire action from young people.
Question
Does your vote really matter in elections?
Tags:
#voting #impact #localpolitics
Answer
Absolutely, but how much it counts depends where you are. In some districts, one person’s vote can sway an entire outcome, while in others, the impact is diluted. Knowing your “voting power” makes a difference and can be eye-opening.
Takeaway: The power of your vote depends on your district—know your impact.
Question
What’s the thinking behind the u26.vote project?
Tags:
#voting #technology #civicengagement
Answer
We built u26.vote so you can see exactly how much your vote counts based on where you live and your age. All you do is enter your zip code and birth year, and it tells you your vote’s relative power. Knowledge is motivation—especially for younger, less-engaged voters.
Takeaway: Seeing the value of your vote motivates you to use it.
Question
Why do young people often skip the midterms or local elections?
Tags:
#youth #voting #engagement
Answer
Midterms feel like a test for a class you never attended. Young people aren’t focused on these races, and the issues don’t always seem relevant. Giving them personalized info about their voting power and impact helps them see a reason to show up.
Takeaway: Make voting relevant—show what’s at stake for each person.
Question
What’s the biggest predictor of whether someone will vote?
Tags:
#voting #psychology #engagement
Answer
It’s about conscientiousness, not party or beliefs. People who take care of things—bring their trash cans in, pay taxes, look out for neighbors—are most likely to vote. Voting is just another way responsible people contribute to society.
Takeaway: Voting habits match your sense of responsibility.
Question
How can you motivate yourself or others to vote beyond “civic duty”?
Tags:
#voting #motivation #engagement
Answer
Civic duty alone doesn’t move everyone—especially younger people. But learning your vote could sway an election, especially in “swing” districts, makes it personal. When you realize you hold real influence, motivation follows.
Takeaway: Personal impact is more motivating than vague duty.
Question
What’s the problem with only targeting people on “identity” in presidential races?
Tags:
#marketing #voting #youth
Answer
Identity-based messages work for national races, but aren’t enough for younger voters in local or midterm elections. They’re not tied to one party and often don’t see the connection to their everyday lives. You need fresh messages and context.
Takeaway: One-size messages don’t reach young or undecided voters.
Question
How do you make advertising accessible for small businesses?
Tags:
#advertising #smallbusiness #marketing
Answer
I wanted buying ads to be as easy as shopping online. So I built a platform where any business could pick what they wanted—magazines, billboards, digital—and check out like they were on Amazon. Solving access unlocks new growth.
Takeaway: Make advertising simple and you open it to everyone.
Question
What should you consider before switching to pay-per-performance advertising?
Tags:
#advertising #sales #pricing
Answer
We tried pay-per-performance but found it only worked for businesses struggling to get results. The ones already performing well preferred predictable flat fees. Don’t assume every “innovative” model fits every business.
Takeaway: Pricing models should match client needs, not trends.
Question
Should wedding businesses fear new technology like AI and social media?
Tags:
#technology #AI #weddingindustry
Answer
Each tech shift feels disruptive—AOL, websites, social media, AI. But every one creates new opportunities if you’re willing to learn and adjust. The businesses that thrive are the ones that embrace tech and rethink how they serve couples.
Takeaway: Embrace technology early and stay ahead of the curve.
Question
How do you deal with negative or misleading political ads?
Tags:
#advertising #voting #media
Answer
Most ads focus on telling you what’s wrong with the other side. I don’t rely on them. Instead, I use research, even AI, to see what each candidate actually stands for. Don’t let ads make your decision—inform yourself.
Takeaway: Use your own research, not ads, to make decisions.
Question
Why do social media platforms block or throttle business posts?
Tags:
#socialmedia #marketing #audience
Answer
Platforms aren’t in the business of giving away attention for free. If your posts aren’t getting seen, it’s because the algorithms are built to favor paid placements—your content won’t get far unless you’re investing.
Takeaway: Pay to play is the rule on social platforms.
Question
How do you make complex or “boring” civic information engaging for younger people?
Tags:
#education #youth #gamification
Answer
Gamification works. When you give people a score or make it interactive—like our voting power tool—it turns information into something fun and relevant. Engagement jumps when people can see where they stand.
Takeaway: Turn info into a game and watch engagement rise.
Question
What’s the risk if you don’t keep evolving your business model?
Tags:
#businessgrowth #adaptation #innovation
Answer
If you stay locked in old habits, you’ll miss out when the market changes. I’ve learned to recognize when I’m better at starting new things and to move on when it’s time for a fresh challenge. That keeps me fulfilled and the businesses growing.
Takeaway: Evolve or risk becoming irrelevant.
