When I ask clients: What does success look like to you? I get a variety of responses. The two most popular are, 1) I want to move into the luxury market, and 2) I want to scale my business to include a team.

We spend a lot of time on the podcast talking about how to move into the luxury market, but not nearly as much time exploring what it looks like to scale your business with the team.

This week I bring in Taryn Blake, one of our clients who found wild success in all the places most people tend to struggle.

In our conversation we cover:

• What motivated her to build a team in the first place

• How she kept quality standards at the forefront in her strategy

• The roles in the company that she spends most of our time on

• Her version of a solid company culture

If you've ever considered growing your team beyond just yourself, this is the perfect episode to see what it's like from somebody else's proven path.

Many of you work directly with your spouse - and if you do, you know it’s not always easy. 

Today, I chat with Jessica and Michael Masi, who co-lead Masi Events, one of the top wedding planners by Over the Moon. We explore:

• Why they decided to partner in business, not just life

• How they divide client-facing and BTS work

• What they learned about themselves over the years to make it better to work together

• Specific recommendations to release pressure when times get tense

Even if you don’t work with your spouse, the insights we discuss are a good way to divide and conquer with anyone on your team as you learn your own role as the boss of your business.

The recent and current market conditions are tough to navigate. I wish things were different for the wedding industry right now, but they are not. I always provided advice on how to market and sell your services to book more ideal clients at higher prices, and I know many listeners benefit from the tactics that we talk about.

It’s not “business as usual” right now - and so I’m taking a break from regular programming to address the elephant in the room more directly.

Trial and error is very very unforgiving in tough times. You might not get a chance to learn from your mistakes if you make too many of them. In good times you have a safety net. But not now. You’ve got to play it smart and do so as early as possible when you sense difficult times ahead.

Three things today:

1. Expectations for the near term

2. Financial moves you can make

3. Strategies to consider for the next 3-6 months

Wouldn’t it be great to get inside the mind of couples doing research for their wedding plans?

Until that happens, monitoring their online behavior is the best we can do. 

Today, I bring in co-founder and CEO of PartySlate, Julie Novack, to share insights and data based on millions of visitors to their site. She shares:

• What kind of content to share in the early stages of the buyer’s journey

• What couples want to see immediately when they land on your site

• And we discuss the current market conditions and what to expect in the short- and mid-term 

Julie’s studied buyer behavior in digital spaces for decades. Let’s hear what she has to say about what tomorrow’s couples want from your marketing efforts.

Today's wedding client is not interested in yesterday's celebrations - and today's wedding business owner should adapt accordingly.

But how do you change things up? What areas do you focus on? How do you know if it will work?

Well, there's not one simple answer for any or all businesses to these questions. It depends very much on a number of different factors, but they all start with knowing yourself and what you stand for and what you want. If you don't know these things you can’t take the first step, let alone reach success.

In this episode of Own Your Business, I bring on Elizabeth McKellar, the founder and principal planner for The Nouveau Romantics, to discuss what it's like to operate your business with a sense of integrity and authenticity.

Learn to think deeply about yourself and your business, so you can avoid the mistakes she made and capitalize on the wisdom she’s gained along the way.

Too many wedding pros spend their time trying to fake it till they make it. Not only is it a slow way to success, it’s stressful - what if “they” find out?

One problem - and I mean only one of the many many many problems with “winging it” as a business owner - is that you end up guessing your way through important situations. 

• How do you raise your prices?

• When and how do you rebrand?

• When and how do you talk about pricing?

• What’s your social media strategy?

• And where do you focus your limited energy when pulled in so many different directions?

Today, I talk about how the collective wisdom of the wedding industry often points you in the wrong direction on these important topics.

Stay tuned as I bust these myths you’ve probably heard.

People don’t want information, they want transformation.

And the best way to do that is to share a story with a beginning, middle and end that follows a narrative arc. It hooks them, draws them in even more, and then builds desire to learn the outcome.

In today’s attention economy, stories are a very successful way to communicate with potential customers. To market and sell your services.

In this episode, I’ll share:

• 3 key elements of a great story

• 6 ways you can implement stories in your own marketing and sales material

• 2 things you can do today to start telling stories your clients and professional network actually want to hear

Last week I sat down with Rock Paper Coin for a conversation about pricing. We covered a range of topics, including how to talk about budget with potential clients.

It reminded me how hard it can be to talk about the topic of money - from both sides of the conversation: couples and vendors. Money matters are hard for most people. So today I thought it would be a good idea to bring back this oldie, but goodie from the podcast way back in 2021.

Originally episode 12, this podcast is the one I refer 1:1 clients to more than any other for “homework” after our session if we talk about about discovery calls.

Confidence is often about competence. Competence is knowing what you’re doing. Take the next 20 minutes to get the skills you need to talk about budget with potential clients.

Katy and I want to take a minute to provide a PSA to business owners, copywriters, and VAs.

Don’t steal other people’s stuff.

In our world as copywriters, that means intellectual property. Art. Writing. 

We see businesses crib our clients’ website copy all the time, which is baffling. It’s like taking someone’s photo and passing it off as your own in a portfolio. Who does that?

You’d be surprised. Tune in to today’s podcast for a conversation on a topic no one wants to talk about: Plagiarism.

Sway Mastermind Alumni Panel