Episode Overview:  Targeting established wedding vendors to build connections is the worst way to grow your business.  This could look like cold pitch emails introducing yourself and offering to help them.  It could look like pitching them on your business, why they should use or recommend you you.  Or it could look like asking veteran wedding photographers or planners out to coffee to "pick their brain".  These are all old strategies that don't work because they feel disingenuous.  So what works? There is a better way! Nicole explains exactly why veteran wedding vendors are so turned off by these attempts of connection and gives specific strategic ideas of better ways to become besties with the vendors who can actually help you.

Notable Quotes:

"Established wedding vendors (wedding planners, photographers, etc.) are too busy to help you.  They don’t care about your business.  They don’t want to see another competitor in the field and they definitely aren’t going to take the time to train you or share all the wedding industry secrets that took them decades to learn and master. 

You think if you're nice, or give them something they'll help you.  You think you can use their connections to build your business  but that is the worst way to grow your wedding business.  Established, veteran wedding vendors are not interested in you or what you have to offer. 

At least not when you aren’t really offering them anything they need, want or value. "

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The Wedding Pro Academy
Grab the Freebie: "Strategies to Build Connections with Established Wedding Vendors that Actually Work"
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Learn more about The Wedding Business Masterclass: https://weddingproacademy.com/

Episode Overview:  How do you build a business when you feel like you have no time? Maybe you just had a baby.  Or maybe you have another job but really want to make this new wedding business work so you can quit the other job.  If you're in the phase of trying to make it work but feeling stuck, lost or overwhelmed with the idea of not enough time, this episode is for you.

Notable Quotes:

"It's important for you to understand that you create the idea of time.  Not enough time isn't a truth.  It's an idea you decided was true, you created this belief for yourself.  Shift 'I don't have enough time' to 'I create time for whats important to me.  I will figure out how to make the time that I have - work' and get really curious about the idea of time.  

Can you work early in the morning? Can you get your mom to watc the baby overnight 1x a week and bang out 2 straight days of solid work? Can you hire a sitter a few times a week? If you have another job can you talk to your boss about working from home so that you can give yourself more time in your wedding business? There's always a work-around.  Start being open to the idea and see what comes in" 

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The Wedding Pro Academy

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Connect with Nicole: [email protected]

Learn more about The Wedding Business Masterclass: https://weddingproacademy.com/

Episode Overview:   Feeling like you suck at sales? Hitting a plateau with bookings?  Feeling like your business is never quite at the level that it should be, not making what you should be by now?   It's not a sales problem, it's a belief problem.

Notable Quotes:

 "If you're business feels like it's at a plateau and you're having trouble closing sales or booking weddings ...

---> It's not a sales problem.  
---> It's a belief problem.  

You aren't fully behind your value (your offer, your service, your result, the experience you create) AND - you haven't mastered communicating this value yet.  None of this has anything to do with your worthiness.  You are always fully worthy no matter what.  Your business is an entirely separate entity.  Who you are as a soul, as a human is always 100% worthy" 

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The Wedding Pro Academy

Get the Freebie "5 Secrets of 6-Figure Successful Wedding Businesses"
--> https://weddingproacademy.com/5-secrets

Connect with Nicole: [email protected]

Learn more about The Wedding Business Masterclass: https://weddingproacademy.com/

Episode Overview:   In todays episode we talk about how wedding business owners hold themselves back with perfectionism and safe action steps rather than following their gut and taking messy action.  Nicole shares her experience with messy action and how it led her to her dream business and gives you insight on how you can do the same.

Notable Quotes:

"You’re a perfectionist.  Most of us in the wedding industry are.  So, you do things like wait for everything to be perfect before you launch a new package, idea or offer.  This is slowing you down, not getting you real experience and results, and keeping you from trying new things.

You are taking too many safe actions, not enough messy action.  Backend work like working on your website but not making it live, getting the photo shoot done (safe action) but not talking about that new idea, offer or package because it’s not “ready enough” yet. 

The underlying belief holding you back is that - everything needs to be perfect before I can show it.  The truth however is that you’ve got an idea that feels like a good one, it's very likely your intuition trying to guide you and the only way you’ll know if it works is if you put it out there. There is no point in making it perfect when you aren’t even sure people want it.  Put it out there messy and get a feel for what people think of it, you can always clean things up and make it better later. "

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The Wedding Pro Academy

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Connect with Nicole: [email protected]

Learn more about The Wedding Business Masterclass: https://weddingproacademy.com/

Episode Overview:   Your wedding work speaks for itself, your past weddings have been incredible, your website is beautiful, you're showing up consistently on social media - but couples aren't reaching out and your inbox is filled with crickets.  You're having $0 months and you feel defeated.  What TF are you doing wrong? What are you missing?  If you can relate even a little, this episode is for you.

Notable Quotes:

" We think that as long as our work is amazing, that is more than enough.  Example: Wedding Photographer - your work is phenominal, so good, everyone freaks out when they see it, people love it.  So - seems like a no brainer right - I’m an amazing photographer, brides will book me, there will be people lining up at my door, my work speaks for itself,  it will be EASY  to book weddings. 

But, if this is true - why are there wedding photographers with stunning portfolios struggling to go full time with their wedding business.  

It’s not about how good of a photographer you are.  Couples need MORE than that. 

Here’s the actual problem.  You are not getting in front of enough potential couples AND you are not showing up in enough different spaces to build the level of trust that is necessary for them to pay you money. "

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The Wedding Pro Academy

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Connect with Nicole: [email protected]

Learn more about The Wedding Business Masterclass: https://weddingproacademy.com/

Episode Overview:   What to do when your wedding business has hit a plateau for 6 or more months?  Today we dive into one of the reasons you're stuck and what to do to shift this. 

Notable Quotes:

" Your business isn’t going to become successful (make money) from booking more weddings.  You need to realize that the value is YOU.  You are the magic piece that makes what your company extraordinary.   It's the value that YOU bring.  "

"The better you get at communicating your VALUE and the more you believe in it and root to it, the more magnetic you’ll become as a wedding pro.  Brides can feel the shift.  You’ll book more weddings, make more money, feel more ease around your business. "

- - -

The Wedding Pro Academy

Get on the List --> https://weddingproacademy.com/subscribe

Connect with Nicole: [email protected]

Learn more about The Wedding Business Masterclass: https://weddingproacademy.com/

Episode Overview:   Your website isn't converting.  Your spending hours, days, months re-designing your website, your packages, trying and you feel like it's getting there, but you still aren't making enough money in your wedding business.  It's because you have the belief "I need the perfect website to book weddings" and it's that belief that is keeping you stuck. 

Notable Quotes:

"In the wedding world it's the industry norm, your website needs to be beautiful. Weddings are beautiful, they are elegant, they are rich, they need to be perfect.  Our websites need to reflect this perfection.  All the top tier wedding vendors have beautiful websites, this is why they’re booked out and so successful.  Brides only book wedding vendors with stunning perfect websites.  Is this true?  Let's check in with reality - Today, couples find you on Instagram or TikTok — then visit your site to confirm you’re legit.

Your website validates, not generates.

We think “Brides & Grooms will only book us if our website is beautiful, it’s our website that sells our business.  But this isn’t true, your website is just one part of it.  You need to generate trust with couples through many facets, your website is important but it’s not the only factor. Your website alone isn’t enough to build the trust needed with new couples.  Your website alone won’t book new weddings. "

- - -

The Wedding Pro Academy

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Connect with Nicole: [email protected]

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A wedding business can be a direct route to financial success and provide the opportunity for a dream life with lots of time and freedom - but, it building a business can also feel difficult, overwhelming, exhausting and impossible.  Entrepreneurship is never an easy path, but as Nicole dives into her personal experience going fro $20k/yr to $120k/yr - it is 100% worth it.  Today we discuss what it takes to build a dream wedding business and what separates hobby wedding businesses from  6-7 figure wedding business.  What do they have that you’re missing?

Notable Quotes:

"Wedding business are hugely profitable.  They’re never going out of business (people are always going to be getting married).  They have the potential to give you tons of freedom and they’re also really fun - but - there are some definite differences between hobby wedding business owners and full time successful 6+figure wedding businesses."

"Six & seven figure businesses aren’t trying to cater to everyone, and don’t want to. They’re not offering everything under the sun, because they know their ideal couple and exactly what they want and they’re only catering to them. They’re giving them the best of the best experience, one that exceeds their expectations and gives them everything they want and need, nothing more, nothing less.  They are all in on a type of wedding they LOVE. These are the weddings you’re naturally going to feel called to, the weddings you’re going to be the best at.  The ones that will be your Dream Weddings.  The ones you’ll be able to offer the best experience around because you get them in a way nobody else does. This is when weddings become more fun, more luxurious, easier, simpler. "

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Connect with Nicole: [email protected]

Grab the Freebie: https://weddingproacademy.com/5-secrets

Learn more about The Wedding Business Masterclass: https://weddingproacademy.com/

Episode Overview:   In today's episode we talk about why giving away too much is the worst thing for your wedding business and how it pushes away quality brides.  Even if you have the most incredible offer or service, if you're giving away too much (more services, more hours, more edits) you devalue yourself, creating burn out, an inability to scale or raise your prices, and you become unattractive to high quality weddings.  This one mistake kept me stuck at the $30k mark for over 5 years.  I don't want it to keep you stuck too.  Today we discuss why we're unintentionally giving away too much, what it costs you, and how to shift into a more empowering belief of confidence around your wedding business.

Notable Quotes:

"We think that if we include more, we become more appealing, more valuable, but even if we book that one wedding, because we have devalued ourself, we ultimately end up blocking the success and growth we could be achieving."

- - -

The Wedding Pro Academy

Get on the List --> https://weddingproacademy.com/subscribe

Connect with Nicole: [email protected]

Learn more about The Wedding Business Masterclass: https://weddingproacademy.com/

Episode Overview:   What is the biggest mistake newbie wedding businesses make, preventing them from booking weddings?  It isn't not having a Niche down, or having a crappy website.  It's a wasting time on the wrong things.  In this episode Nicole breaks down exactly what these "wrong things" are that you could be focusing, and how they're keeping you stuck.  Plus she gives you a better path to get actual momentum in your business and breaks down what you should be focusing on instead. 

Notable Quotes:

"The consequence of this mistake, is that instead of becoming an actual legit wedding business that makes money  (meaning you have actual weddings booked that pay you) you become an imposter (someone who wants a business, but never actually really makes it off the ground and you can stay stuck in this place for months, or years).  This can be an easy shift if you start focusing on the right things instead of the wrong ones. "

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Connect with Nicole: [email protected]

Learn more about The Wedding Business Masterclass: https://weddingproacademy.com/