Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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 two 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, tips, tricks that will give you your dream wedding business too. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Let's dive in. Happy Friday everyone and welcome to episode number 30 of the Wedding Pro Academy podcast. I'm Nicole and today I have a really helpful topic for you and we're going to talk about why giving away too much is the worst way to grow your wedding business and the worst way to attract new brides.
Nicole:So here's the problem: You have an amazing offer, an amazing business, you're really really good at what you do, right? But you're not booking weddings, you're not attracting quality brides and grooms. And why? What's the mistake here? Why aren't you attracting these, you know, quality weddings when you have something amazing to offer?
Nicole:It's because you are giving away too much. Too much of your time, too much extras, too many freebies, like there's a whole list of too many things you could be giving away. The belief which a lot of you guys have which is causing you to give away too much is that if you give away more services, more hours, more time, more value, you will book more weddings which will grow your business, make you more money, and, you know, all around work out in a better way for you. So you believe that giving away more, more value, more services, more time, whatever, is going to help you to grow your business and book more weddings. But that couldn't be further from the truth.
Nicole:And I understand why you think that way because honestly, that's what I believed too when I was first getting started. We think that if we are including more stuff, like we have extras, we give away more of our time, we offer to do more things for them, then we become more appealing to brides and grooms, right? So here's some examples photographers, you could be offering more time, more hours, you could be offering hundreds of edits, you could be offering to give them raw photos instead of edited photos because they just asked for it. Wedding planners, you could be offering to do flowers, to do their design work, to help serve food. Officiants.
Nicole:You could be offering to also, I don't know, do photography. Hair and makeup artists, you could be offering to do facials, spa treatments. And I only mention this because number one I've done it. I was that wedding planner who also did flowers, who also did their graphic work, who also helped them with their RSVPs and helped pass out drinks. I did all of that even though my official title was wedding planner.
Nicole:It's something that we all do when we first get started because we really don't know how to say no and we don't really know and believe in our value. So my value as a wedding planner is in the planning. That is what I'm really, really good at. And if I'm also doing flowers, design work, and all this other stuff, I can't really give them the luxury wedding planning experience that I would like to because I'm spread too thin doing all this other stuff. So, like I was saying, I personally was stuck in this rut for like a long time.
Nicole:I just had a problem with saying no. So, if you're doing that too, like we've all done it, well maybe not all of us, but a lot of us have, and once you start giving in and offering to do more things, it just builds up and builds up, and you offer to do a whole bunch of things that are not your job. Right? So, I totally get it. But, here's where we go wrong.
Nicole:If you look at any of the wedding businesses that are established, that have been around for a long time, the ones that have been around the longest, all the luxury wedding businesses, you know, the ones that work with luxury couples, The ones that are seasoned who have just been around for decades? They're all specialized. You don't see them trying to do multiple jobs here. The wedding photographers are good at wedding photography and only do wedding photography. The wedding planners that are established, that have been around for a while, that, like, you think of as the best of the best, they only do wedding planning.
Nicole:They probably only work with a specific type of couple too. So they do one thing. They're very specialized, and they do it really, really well. They're the best. The companies that try to do it all and you know which ones I'm talking about because I'm sure you've seen them I know we have a bunch of them here in Hawaii and they they might get by for a while, but they never actually make it long term.
Nicole:So, know of several wedding companies that try to do, say, wedding photography and videography and photobooth. Or there was one company that did photo, video, DJ, officiant. They did it all, and they started off just doing one thing and ended up doing more to try to, like, take up more of that business to pull in more money, but they're not still around. They never actually make it because they're not focused on doing one thing well and because of that, they do everything subpar. They do everything kind of junky and that ends up, you know, biting them in the ass.
Nicole:So, like, if I were to explain this in a totally different let's think about Subway. Subway sandwiches. Subway is known for doing a very specific thing. They offer healthy, quick sandwiches. Right?
Nicole:They use fresh ingredients. Now, it's this kind of like if Subway were to also offer fried chicken. So, they'd be offering more options, like, technically appealing to a larger quantity of people, and you'd think that they would make more money because they're now appealing to people that like fried chicken and people that like healthy sandwiches. But, what would happen instead is that they'd be turning off all of the healthy eating people because those people who were their bread and butter, those were their people, they would now question their authority. They wouldn't be the spot to get a quick healthy sandwich.
Nicole:People wouldn't even go there for a healthy sandwich because now they'd get confused about what they actually do, about what they offer. I'm sure you've seen these types of restaurants pop up too and they try to offer too many things. They don't specialize in just one thing and they never make it. So, how does giving away too much affect wedding businesses negatively? Let's look at the example of a wedding photographer.
Nicole:Let's say this wedding photographer decides that they want to stand out from the other photographers, so they offer unlimited edits. Or maybe they offer to give the client, the bride and groom, access to the raw photos, so the unedited photos, so that they can go and do whatever they want with them. So, in the case with the unlimited edits, now the photographer has put themselves in a position where they might need to work on editing for months and months after the wedding. And what this does is this now takes away from their value as a photographer because they are essentially saying, I will do whatever you want me to do to these photos. And not, I know how to edit my photos in the best possible way and I value my art.
Nicole:The same thing with giving away raw photos. If you give away something like raw images so that the couple can do whatever they want with them, you are not valuing your art. And then your art or your work could go out into the world and other new couples could see it. And it's not really a good representation of how amazing of a photographer you are because it's no longer yours. Who knows what, you know, these people did to it?
Nicole:And that then makes you unattractive to new brides and grooms. So even though offering to do these things, like offer to do an unlimited amount of edits, it might let you book this one wedding. But ultimately, it takes away from your business success and the growth that you could have achieved. Right? Because now you're totally diminished your value and your credibility and your authority as an artist, as a photographer.
Nicole:Let's look at a wedding planner. How can a wedding planner give away too much? Well, this was me. I was a wedding planner who was like, oh, I'm gonna make a little bit of extra money so I can stay afloat here and offer to do their flowers because I can do flowers. And then I was also like, I can do design work.
Nicole:I'm a graphic designer. Let me also do your table signage and menu cards. And then also, like, I can handle your RSVPs. Sure. I'll do that for you.
Nicole:So what am I doing here by offering to do all of this extra stuff that isn't wedding planning? I'll tell you what I thought I was doing. I thought that I was making myself more appealing to couples by offering more things. By offering more stuff, then it would be a greater value. That's what I thought I was doing.
Nicole:I also thought I was making myself a little extra money by offering to do things that I could already do. But, here's the truth. I was diminishing my value as a wedding planner. I was pushing away all the quality brides because I was offering to do everything under the bus. And it it got to a point where the brides and grooms were like, well, you're already doing all this stuff.
Nicole:What's one more thing? Then they would be like, Oh, can you just drive my guests to the hotel? Now I'm doing transportation too. I essentially was devaluating myself as a wedding planner. And then, once I do that, like, who is going to respect me?
Nicole:Like, definitely not my clients, not my couples, not their guests. They're gonna have me do everything, right? And why wouldn't they? I already offered to do it. And when you do this and you devalue your actual service that you are providing, which for me was wedding planning, it makes it really really hard to raise prices and I'm not attracting quality luxury high end couples because, you know, I am not appealing to them.
Nicole:I'm appealing to budget brides, ones that want everything for no money. And that is not how you're going to grow and build and sustain a wedding business that feels fun to you. Those kind of businesses just straight up suck. They feel messy, it feels like burnout, and it's not the way you want to go. So, here's the main point here: you cannot do a quality job planning if you're too busy doing all this other stuff.
Nicole:And the same would go for photography. You cannot be a high quality photographer if you're offering to do a thousand edits. It just doesn't work that way. So, what do successful wedding business owners do? I know this now because I had to totally shift the way I thought about my business and not offer to do all of the things because it was devaluing me as a business, as a service, as a planner.
Nicole:So, the thing that successful wedding planners or wedding businesses will do is that they have this unwavering confidence in their skill set. A confidence to go all in on one thing and do it really, really, really well to be the best of the best at it. When I'm talking about a photographer that's been around for a while that is regarded as a well sought after, fully booked out, quality, luxury wedding photographer, they are probably the best at it and very, very careful about what they offer. They don't offer to do free edits. They would never give away raw photos.
Nicole:They aren't doing extra hours just to get the wedding booked because they are confident in their value. They are confident in their art and who they are and what they do and they know they're the best and they know that what they offer is worth the money. Now, all of that being said, this may be a little bit different when you're new, when you're first getting started, when you're just building your wedding business. Because at that point, you don't really know what you're best at and you're kind of just guessing, so you may want to just take on all the weddings just for experience. But once you've been around for a while, you've got, you know, a dozen or so weddings under your belt, you're gonna start to know what you're good at, what you like doing, and you really need to hone in on this one thing.
Nicole:One thing that you can do really, really well. One thing that you can be the best at. So, how can you apply this idea of not giving away too much to your business right now? Here are some tips that you could implement. Number one, having too much stuff on your services page.
Nicole:Offering to do too many things. It should be simple. It should be about the experience that the couple has. And you should limit what you give out. Out.
Nicole:Having that confidence in what you do you're not over giving. Keep things simpler to create a feeling of quality. Here's number two: You could just be being too nice. Know this is hard to hear, we all especially, well not all of us, but many of us are just too nice and doing these extra things for people. There was a point somewhere in, I don't know, many years after being into my business where I was like, This is what I offer, this is what I do, and that's it.
Nicole:I don't do extras for people anymore because once I stopped doing all those extras, I started being valued more. They knew not to ask me to do these things because I was going to charge them for it and because I just don't offer them. I do one thing really, really well and I'm really, really good at it, and they value that. Number three is not trying to do it all. Many of you guys are holding your business back because you are trying to do everything.
Nicole:Trying to get all the ways that you can get money, you know, trying to do all the things that you can do with this one wedding to try to make the most out of it. But that isn't how you build a quality, luxury, long standing wedding business. You cannot do it all. You have to be really good at one thing. And then the last thing is offering a, like, mishmash mix of things.
Nicole:So and I say this in the kindest way. If you're doing this, just think about why this is not serving you. But I it could be like a photographer that also does videography or a wedding planner that also does flowers or a, you know, a DJ that also does videography. So there are some things that do go together. Like, wedding and, you know, photography and videography can be matched, but then you would have to have two teams.
Nicole:But if you're one person trying to do two jobs, that is not going to help build grow your business. It's only going to dilute what you do best. So what do we you gotta do to shift, to really, like, embody this idea of doing one thing really well is you just gotta start thinking about, like, what is it that makes me really special? What is it that I do the best? And then start leaning into this specialty.
Nicole:Like, if I am a wedding planner, what makes me, like, me personally so unique to this? What makes me really special? What kind of weddings do I love doing? What about me can I bring into my company, into wedding planning? And how can I make it the best of the best?
Nicole:The other thing is you got to really focus on and start believing in yourself so that you can build confidence, so that you can build trust. Trust in yourself. Trust in your abilities to do this thing the best. And if you're really not sure how to get there and you're struggling here, that's when you would get a coach. So, a business coach can kind of help you hone in on one thing that you do really well and learn how to market it.
Nicole:If you look at any of the successful wedding businesses, the ones that have made it through the test of time, who are making money, they're all confident. And most of them also have coaches because they didn't get there on their own. They had somebody to support them and to guide them and to hold them accountable. It's much quicker and more efficient to get to a big goal like that when you have someone behind you. So if you're looking at bigger results and growth and all that, having a coach is really, really helpful, especially one who has been in your place and knows how to get through these, you know, time periods where you feel stuck.
Nicole:And, For me personally, it took me a while before I was comfortable enough to invest in a coach, but once I did, it made a huge impact in my business. Even more than that, it made a huge impact in the way that I thought about myself and my business. It helped me to build that confidence and helped me to see things from a different perspective so that my business could grow in ways that I didn't even expect it to. Okay, so that was a big tangent, but it was all about why giving away too much devalues your business and services, and why it is very unattractive to new brides. It's a simple concept, but it is one that I personally missed for years.
Nicole:Something that took me down this road to burnout and made me feel stuck for a long time, so much so that I actually thought about leaving the wedding business altogether because it didn't feel like me anymore, and it just was, like, too hard. I I didn't like it. I I felt like I was working so much, and I was never getting ahead. It felt like there was nothing I could do to get past this, like, threshold of $40,000, and I was like, f this. Like, I'm out.
Nicole:And it was I also had a partner at the time, and I didn't have the confidence in myself to really go all in and be the best at the best at one thing and recalibrate the company to be an expression of me. That's kind of the end goal of where you want to get. But just want to bring an awareness to this, you know, mistake that so many of you guys are making, which is giving away too much. And what that causes is your business can't really take off and flourish and grow the way you would like it to because you're devaluing yourself. So, if you found this interesting and it was helpful to you in some way, I've also created a really fun, kind of simple PDF that goes over the top mistakes wedding businesses make, why they're hurting you, and what you need to be doing instead.
Nicole:You can go through this in like five minutes, see if there's anything that stands out to you, maybe things that you might be doing doing that you need to shift or can change really quickly so that you can expand and step into a place where your business is actually starting to make money and not hold you back and get into this place of burnout. You can find this PDF at weddingproacademy.com/mistakes. Again, it's going to go over the top mistakes wedding businesses make, why they're hurting you, and what you should be doing instead. Weddingproacademy.com/mistakes Hope you guys found that helpful and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and one that is relaxing and enjoyable and stress free and hopefully you're not in a space of burnout and I will talk to you guys all again next week