A Wedding Business Podcast - Tips and tricks to, grow and sustain a amazingly successful wedding business in a way that's is fun and gives you tons of freedom.
Welcome everyone to The Wedding Pro Academy podcast. I'm Nicole, your host. I'm an expert in the wedding industry and I've personally built 2 6 figure businesses from the ground up. I am obsessed with building businesses that make lots of money but do so in a way that also create luxurious amounts of freedom. So if you're looking to build, grow or scale a wedding business in a way that doesn't burn you out and you'd love some guidance from someone who has done just that, this podcast is for you.
Nicole:Each week I'll cover strategies, ideas, tips and tricks that will give you your dream wedding business too. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Let's dive in. Welcome everyone to episode 5. I hope everybody had a wonderful, very merry, beautiful Christmas.
Nicole:Today is the day after Christmas and I have all 3 of my kids at home with me and my dog, and so if we hear noise in the background, you know, gotta do what you gotta do. But I told them to be quiet for 40 minutes, and we'll see how they do because my youngest is still 8 and, you know, boys I have 3 boys. It is nearly impossible for them to stay quiet or to do their own thing for more than 10 minutes without being like mama, and so we're just gonna hope for the best here. But I wanted to get a quick episode out and share some insight as to something I think that could be really valuable for you guys. So today, we are going to talk about the art of listening, and I want to relate this specifically to booking new couples, booking new weddings, your first interaction with them, your first communication with them may be through email or through a consult that you might do over the phone or in person, but basically, that first bit of communication with them, which is so vital to building a connection, to booking them.
Nicole:Right? Okay, so this is a strategy that I figured out after, like, dozens, 100, maybe, even of consults, and each time I did a new consult, I got a little bit better at it I tried something different a little each time and I slowly came up with a process that kind of worked but in the beginning I used to just follow a printed sheet that I would ask them questions and kinda remember what the responses were, and it it made it really easy for me to stay in charge and, I guess, get all of the information that I needed from them, but I don't do it like that at all anymore. And the way that I do it now is so much better. It builds such a more comfortable and cozy connection with them, which I think is essential to them getting to trust you and getting to like you and getting to feel comfortable with you enough that they would want to book you. But I didn't do it that way at the start.
Nicole:So when I first started, I had a consult sheet, which really was helpful because I was super nervous, and I didn't really have the confidence built up within myself yet, so having a sheet to follow questions to ask was really essential to me being able to take the lead in that conversation and to guide the con the consult in a way where it felt professional and, like, you know, we were going through a process together, and I found that to be super helpful. But later, after years of doing this, I discovered that all of those questions that I was asking, I was going through that list of, like, how did you guys meet? How many people are in your bridal party? Where is your venue? Like, all this stuff.
Nicole:It was just like a list that made it super informal and didn't allow that genuine connection that would come out more naturally if I connected with them in a more real way from the start, and so I dropped that whole sheet. I don't do it at all anymore, but I do think that is helpful for people that are just getting started. But the point of this whole podcast that I wanted to talk about is the art of listening and that is how I book clients now. So I'm gonna tell you what I do now because I think even just incorporating a little bit of this into the way that you connect with couples off the bat is gonna be super helpful for you. So now what I do is I get all the information that I need from them at the start by email, so basically where they're getting married, what their budget is, how many people, their guest count, you know, just all the general stuff.
Nicole:And then when I talk to them on the phone or in person or via, you know, a web chat, I really let them do most of the talking instead of me do most of the talking, and I'd spend more time listening than I do talking. Whereas before, I used to spend more time talking than listening because I was so self conscious about what was going on during the consult. And now I'm more trying to just get a feel for what it is that they're wanting, what it is that their vision is, what the things are that they're worried about. So what I do is, like, once I know all the the general stuff, like where they're getting married, what they need, what their budget is, how many guests they have, what their general timeline is looking like, and what they need me for, I ask them, you know, tell me a little bit more about what your vision is, tell me a little bit more about your wedding, tell me all the things like what are you looking for, why do you need my services, what specifically about what I do do you need help with?
Nicole:What are the things that you're concerned with? Tell me all of it. And I leave it wide open like that and I just let them talk. And then, this is the important part, I just listen. I listen to all the stuff that they say what their vision is I guide them a little bit if they get stuck but I just listen and usually they will have a very clear idea of what they want what they're looking for, what they're afraid of, what they're missing, what they think they need, but they are not sure, what their worries are, what their concerns are, what's freaking them out or stressing them out, and I'll get them to like tell me all of this by just listening and even when there's like moments of silence I'll be like tell me more tell me more about that because the more that they share with me the better I get to know them, the better feel I get for them as a couple.
Nicole:I get to see like what specifically these people are looking for, what exactly is their biggest desire? What would their perfect wedding look like? What does their ideal budget look like? What kind of things are they expecting to go wrong? What kind of things do they absolutely need to go right because of these specific reasons?
Nicole:So I wanna know as much as possible about them, as much as possible about their wedding, as much as possible about their vision and their fears and whatever is worrying them. And the more that I can get out of them, the better because then I can assess whether my services will be a good fit for them or not and once I get a good feel for what they want and what they're willing to spend and where they're at you know then I can say okay well here's what I can do for you and I can also kind of understand okay here's what they really need they don't think they don't know what they need because they've never planned a wedding before so of course they don't know what they need right that makes perfect sense but I know what they need. I've planned 100 of weddings or I've photographed 100 of weddings or I've officiated whatever it is that you do. Right? You know what they need.
Nicole:You know what needs to happen in order for their wedding day to be that magical day that they're looking for. So now that I know all about them, I know what their worries are and their concerns are and all of that, now I can take my expertise, my knowledge, and I can apply it to them specifically. Okay. Here's what your vision is and here's why this will or won't work and here's what you need to do in order to achieve this and here's what it actually will cost. So I give them my real life feedback as though I'm talking to my best friend, you know, that's one of the things that helped me, I guess, step into confidence and get more relaxed during consults is thinking about it like I'm just talking to my best friend.
Nicole:I'm not trying to sell them. I'm not trying to book them. I'm not trying to, you know, sneak something under them. I'm just talking to my best friend here and I want to help her or help him as much as possible. I want to give them all the information that they're going to need to make an informed decision for them to to really get a better feel for what it's going to take to pull off something like this.
Nicole:Like pulling off a wedding is no easy feat. Couples know that but they just don't know like how the pieces are going to come together and that's what you can help them with. So any kind of knowledge that I have that I know will help them specifically is what I'm gonna give them I'm gonna give it all to them for free everything I know I'm just gonna share tons of like tons of knowledge because they're gonna find that so helpful and you know what? So what if they don't book me? I still wanna help them.
Nicole:I wanna help them as much as possible. I want them to walk away from this meeting feeling like, yeah, that was an hour well spent or however long you end up talking for right I don't have a time limit anymore but sometimes a lot of times we end up talking for like 45 minutes an hour because you know there I just have so many things that I can help them with so I share all of this and then I relate it back to my services. So, like, here's how I can help you and here's how you would fit into my specific service. This is why this is the the best one for you. But I don't ever push that on them I'm more in the energy of trying to help them so it's being in this this space of listening listening listening listening like trying to be build connection through listening and just understand where they're at and what they need and how you can help them and then helping them just helping them as much as you can just because they're your best friend.
Nicole:Think about it that way. And then, later, you're like, okay, and here's how I I can help you specifically. Here's what I do and here's why I think it would be a good fit, and here's why this specific package would fit you. And then at the end, I always ask, do you have any questions? Like, is there anything else that I missed or that you, you know, you think that I could help you with?
Nicole:And a lot of times, they're like, oh my god, thank you so much. That was so helpful. I really really appreciate all of that knowledge. It means a lot, you know, and I will do this also by email. So it can be by phone or it can be by email.
Nicole:And sometimes my emails are like hella long, like it just keeps going. I will break out a budget for them, I'll give them information that I think will help them to make a decision without hanging on to needing to book them. So I don't ever have that needy energy, it's more like a helpful energy and couples really resonate with that because once you build that connection in a genuine way where they know you're not trying to sell them but you're just trying to help them, that's when they feel genuinely connected to you and they want to work with you. I can't tell you how many times I have had couples change around their wedding plans just so that they could work with me, like, I'll be like, I don't do weddings of 50 or more guests, I just don't, that's my company policy and they're like, oh, we have to work with you so we need to have less guests, Or we really wanna work with you, so we're not gonna do that original plan that we had and we're gonna do your plan. And I'm not pushing them to do that.
Nicole:They just want to because they love, you know, working with me because I make it really easy for them. They know I'm in it to help them, so it works really well. But it starts at the core with listening. There is an art to listening and it needs to come from a very genuine place. You have to, like, really care about them, like, put yourself in their shoes.
Nicole:They're planning the biggest day of their life. It's hard. It's stressful. It's a lot. A lot of times, they have, you know, input from all different places, from parents, from everyone that has an idea of what they should or shouldn't do, so it's nice for them to just have somebody there for them who has some knowledge, who is an expert in this, who can just give them some real, you know, feedback on what they can actually do and how to do it and reassure them a little bit, make them feel heard and make them feel safe and make them feel understood.
Nicole:That's what listening is really all about. So, yeah, I hope you guys found that helpful. I go into this in-depth in my course, the wedding business master class. So if you wanna learn more, definitely check that out at weddingproacademy.com and I cannot believe it, but my kids have not come up here to interrupt me once, which is a freaking miracle. If you have kids, you know what what I mean and I hope that everybody had a wonderful holiday season and all the moms out there, you guys made it, yes, we got through Christmas time, which I know for me and for many moms out there is a tough, you know, season to get through.
Nicole:It's super fun, it's so magical, but man, that was a lot of work. And now we have all the cleanup to do, but yeah, Anyway, I love talking to you guys. And if you found this helpful, please leave me a review. I would love to hear it. And if there's specific things that you wanna learn about, you can also shoot me an email at nicole@weddingproacademy.com.
Nicole:Until next week. Bye.