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Wedding Pro - it's time to stop this! · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

• 0:00
  Becca: Today's episode starts with a little bit of a warning because today you
• 0:04
  are gonna hear a little bit of ranting from me as we start this new year.
• 0:08
  I'm seeing some great work out there from some of you taking action, doing
• 0:11
  great things in your business, putting your prices up, charging a worth,
• 0:14
  and a myriad of other amazing things.
• 0:16
  However, I'm also seeing some things that make me cringe.
• 0:20
  So today's episode is gonna be all about the things that I want you to stop
• 0:24
  doing in your wedding business, right?
• 0:28
  I am Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger,
• 0:32
  and you are listening to The Wedding Pros who are Ready to Grow podcast.
• 0:36
  I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
• 0:39
  examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
• 0:43
  If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
• 0:47
  and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you
• 0:50
  love, then you're in the right place.
• 0:52
  Let's get going with today's episode.
• 0:55
  Today I'm gonna be sharing with you five things I want you to stop doing
• 0:59
  in your wedding business right now.
• 1:02
  But I also wanna make clear that there's absolutely no
• 1:04
  judgment here coming from me.
• 1:06
  If you've been doing some of these things and you're listening to this and thinking,
• 1:10
  oh no, that's me, don't panic, it's okay.
• 1:13
  Because you can stop doing them and you can change the things you're doing.
• 1:16
  There's no point looking back on things you've been doing and regretting it.
• 1:19
  We're all about looking forward to the future.
• 1:21
  So if you hear yourself in some of these things, I'm about to share.
• 1:24
  Don't sit in a feeling of, oh no, that's me.
• 1:26
  Instead think, right, okay.
• 1:28
  This is my message that I need to change and I need to do something
• 1:31
  differently in my wedding business.
• 1:33
  Okay.
• 1:33
  Let's get on then with the first thing.
• 1:36
  Number one is discounting.
• 1:39
  I have been seeing that.
• 1:40
  Everywhere this month, huge discounts on your wedding business services.
• 1:45
  Please stop doing this.
• 1:46
  I'm gonna give you the reason why.
• 1:47
  First of all, you are worth what you charge if you are
• 1:51
  not worth what you charge.
• 1:52
  So you need to look at your pricing.
• 1:53
  But if you are confident in what you charge, you're confident in your
• 1:56
  ability, you're confident in the product that you have, you do not
• 2:00
  need to discount in order to get.
• 2:02
  It's really important that you learn to promote yourself in a
• 2:06
  way that's not taking money off what you deserve to be paid.
• 2:09
  You may have heard in a previous episode, one of the things I love
• 2:12
  to talk about is Disney World.
• 2:13
  Why?
• 2:14
  Because Disney World never discount.
• 2:16
  They cost what they cost.
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  They're incredible.
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  They offer incredible customer service, and people pay it.
• 2:21
  So you don't need to discount to get your customers.
• 2:24
  If you want to do some kind of offer, that's fine, but do an added value offer.
• 2:28
  Add an additional part of your service in if someone books
• 2:31
  within a certain timeframe.
• 2:32
  But what you don't wanna be doing is taking money off.
• 2:36
  Why?
• 2:36
  Because you only have a certain amount of dates throughout the year, and therefore,
• 2:39
  if you're starting to work for a lot less, you're gonna resent that and it's
• 2:42
  not going to be good for your marketing.
• 2:44
  The other thing is that actually it can wreak desperation.
• 2:49
  Putting loads of massive discounts.
• 2:51
  So I've seen some posts out there recently where it's like 500 pounds off my
• 2:54
  wedding photography, 1000 pound discount.
• 2:57
  It makes it look like you can't get work, which therefore makes it look like
• 3:01
  you're not very good at what you do.
• 3:02
  And that is not true.
• 3:03
  You're amazing at what you do.
• 3:05
  So stop offering these massive discounts in a desperate way to try
• 3:08
  and bring in money to your business.
• 3:09
  It's not gonna work.
• 3:10
  It's gonna do you more damage in the long term.
• 3:13
  Instead be confident in what you're charging.
• 3:15
  Yes, get out there and market yourself and if you do wanna put some.
• 3:18
  Specific offer together maybe for a wedding fair or for social media.
• 3:21
  Then do an added value offer where you give additional services for the same
• 3:26
  price rather than taking money off.
• 3:30
  Okay, the second thing I want you to stop doing right now is these follow
• 3:33
  for follow threads on social media.
• 3:36
  Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm talking about being in these
• 3:39
  wedding industry groups or places online where someone suggests, let's do a
• 3:43
  follow thread to help each other out with our engagement on social media,
• 3:46
  so often what happens is someone will say, post your Instagram link, and then
• 3:50
  everyone go and follow each other, and then comment on each other's posts.
• 3:54
  You also sometimes hear them called follow loops, where you get a group
• 3:57
  of four or five people who all within the wedding industry say that
• 4:00
  they're gonna follow each other Then.
• 4:02
  Comment on each other's posts when the post first comes out.
• 4:05
  Maybe they've got a WhatsApp group to talk about doing this.
• 4:07
  And the idea behind it is that you get increased engagement on your account,
• 4:12
  more people commenting, et cetera.
• 4:14
  However, this does not work from a marketing perspective,
• 4:17
  and let me explain why.
• 4:20
  First of all, when you post on these massive follow for follow threads, do you
• 4:24
  think people are actually going ahead and doing it, or are they just putting their
• 4:28
  Instagram on the bottom of the thread?
• 4:30
  It's kind of pointers, and to be honest, it just doesn't work.
• 4:33
  The second reason is because these follow loops do not work in the wedding industry.
• 4:38
  Here is.
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  When it comes to the Instagram algorithm, Instagram wants to show
• 4:42
  your content to more of the people that already like your content.
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  Okay.
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  So they're gonna push it into newsfeeds or they're gonna show it
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  to people who they think, Based on the algorithm likes your content.
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  Now, if your content and your followers are all other people in the wedding
• 4:57
  industry, if the only people ever engaging on your post, because these follow threads
• 5:01
  are other people in the wedding industry, guess what Instagram thinks this account
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  must be for people in the wedding industry and you end up in the algorithm just
• 5:10
  being shown to more and more and more people who do the same things as you.
• 5:14
  Now it's great for networking, but for most of us, what we want to
• 5:18
  be doing on our social media is making an impact and making sales.
• 5:22
  So therefore, we don't want the algorithm to think we're just there for
• 5:25
  other people in the wedding industry.
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  We want the algorithm to know that we are there for couples.
• 5:30
  So the content that we should be putting out onto our Facebook, on
• 5:33
  our Instagram, on our social pages should be resonating with people who
• 5:36
  are planning their wedding, people who are looking to get married.
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  So instead of getting yourself involved in these lengthy follow.
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  Threads where you're all commenting on each other's posts.
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  Instead, use that time, use that energy to create unique
• 5:51
  original content for couples.
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  Go create some Instagram reels.
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  Go create some tips, posts.
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  Go create some inspirational posts.
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  Go tag some other suppliers and collaborate on a post so that more
• 6:01
  and more of your couples can see your.
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  Work.
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  Do not spend time commenting on other suppliers posts constantly just
• 6:09
  to try and get your engagement up.
• 6:10
  Yes, maybe your engagement will go up slightly, but if it's to the wrong
• 6:13
  people, it's a pointless statistic.
• 6:16
  So if you have been involved in one of these follow loops or you see these follow
• 6:19
  threads in groups, just ignore them.
• 6:21
  Scroll on past and remember, they don't work for the wedding.
• 6:27
  Number three then of my list of things you should stop doing is working for free.
• 6:32
  Now, this probably applies to you more if you're just starting
• 6:35
  out in the wedding business.
• 6:36
  If you're thinking of starting a wedding business or if you're just about to
• 6:40
  leave full-time employment or something like that to grow your wedding business
• 6:43
  and you are not paying yourself.
• 6:45
  Or you're working for free.
• 6:47
  So I'm gonna cut this into two categories now.
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  The first one is working for free.
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  This was sparked off because of a wedding industry group that I'm in.
• 6:55
  I saw someone this week post that they're going to offer five wedding
• 6:59
  videos for free to five couples because they're just starting out now.
• 7:06
  As someone who used to be a wedding videographer.
• 7:09
  I know that that is a huge amount of value that they are giving away completely free.
• 7:14
  Not only do they need to turn up on the wedding day and work the
• 7:17
  hours, but they also are gonna spend hours and hours and hours editing.
• 7:20
  There's gonna be costs to them for music and that kind of thing.
• 7:23
  And it's not only working for free, it's actually going to cost them money.
• 7:27
  And it also, again, reeks of desperation.
• 7:30
  It's not great marketing and it just looks kind of strange and it doesn't
• 7:34
  do any favors to the rest of the.
• 7:36
  So why are they doing that now?
• 7:38
  I imagine the person who is posting that is doing it for a couple of reasons.
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  One, because they're just starting out and they want to
• 7:44
  get a bit of a portfolio going.
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  Number two, maybe they're lacking in confidence and they don't wanna charge
• 7:49
  a lot of money because they're worried that they're not gonna be good enough.
• 7:52
  Okay, I understand the reasons behind it.
• 7:54
  However, that doesn't mean it's a good thing to do.
• 7:57
  Now, if you are just starting out, I understand you might wanna get
• 7:59
  a bit of a portfolio behind you.
• 8:01
  Well, why not offer to do a friend's wedding or someone
• 8:04
  you knows wedding for free?
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  Therefore, you're not putting it in the public domain.
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  No one needs to know that you did it for free, if that's what you wanna do.
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  Or you could do it for a token cost.
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  Ask them to at least cover the costs to you, even if they're not paying your full.
• 8:18
  Secondly, you should get experience.
• 8:20
  If you are starting a business doing something, you should know how to do it.
• 8:23
  Now, if you've worked in the industry before, then you probably
• 8:26
  do have enough experience and it's just imposter syndrome saying that
• 8:29
  you shouldn't be charging for it.
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  However, if you really are brand new to it, then you probably need
• 8:34
  to get some experience before starting to work with couples.
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  Even if they're not paying you, even if they're getting that service for free,
• 8:40
  they're gonna expect that it's going to.
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  Good.
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  And they are gonna be unhappy with you even if you're giving it
• 8:45
  away for free, if it's rubbish.
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  Because why is the best day of their life and if you mess it up, well, I
• 8:50
  know you haven't charged them for it, but they're still gonna be annoyed
• 8:53
  with you and it's not gonna do your marketing or your ongoing referrals any.
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  Favors.
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  So instead, go get some experience, go work on some styled shoots, go second.
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  Shoot for someone.
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  If you're a photographer, go and apprentice.
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  Work with a florist, work with a cake maker.
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  Work with someone already in the industry as an assistant and get some experience.
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  Therefore, you're building up a bit of a portfolio.
• 9:14
  You're building up your experience.
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  Without having to go out there and work for free, please don't go out
• 9:21
  there and post these things in a group.
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  It's not doing your self worth any good.
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  It's gonna mean yoga, working really hard.
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  Often people who aren't willing to pay for the service can be really
• 9:30
  difficult and hard to work with, so it's gonna be mentally exhausting.
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  And like I said, they're still gonna expect a good job, even
• 9:36
  if they haven't paid for it.
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  And if you don't do a good job, they're gonna complain.
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  You might get a bad review.
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  It's not gonna help you get work referred on in the future.
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  So instead, take a different.
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  Keep it quiet.
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  Do it behind the scenes.
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  Don't post it out there on social media for everybody to see and get some
• 9:52
  experience working with someone else.
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  Most of the time though, it's actually down to imposter syndrome.
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  You feel like you're not good enough to charge your worth, but you probably are.
• 10:00
  If you've had the confidence to set up a business, start a website, get some help.
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  Listen to this podcast, I promise you, you're probably better
• 10:07
  equipped than you think you are.
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  So make sure you're charging your worth.
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  Be confident and get out there and get your first customer.
• 10:14
  You don't need to give your work away for.
• 10:16
  Now the second mistake I'm seeing people making in terms of working
• 10:20
  for free isn't that they're not charging their customers, they are
• 10:22
  charging their customers properly.
• 10:24
  It's actually that they're never taking any money for themselves.
• 10:27
  Now, this may be you.
• 10:28
  You may be working incredibly hard in your business.
• 10:31
  You may be taking orders, working for filling orders, and never
• 10:34
  seeing anything at the end of it.
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  And this is really sad.
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  Why?
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  Because you're putting in so much hard work and you're not
• 10:40
  actually getting paid anything.
• 10:42
  Therefore, it's really a hobby and not a business.
• 10:44
  You could earn more by working in Tescos, which isn't really where we want to be.
• 10:49
  When we start our business.
• 10:50
  We wanna be successful and we wanna be earning money.
• 10:52
  If this is you and this is resonating, then I want you to start looking
• 10:56
  at what you can do differently.
• 10:57
  You need to look at your finances.
• 10:59
  You need to make a plan.
• 11:00
  You need to look at your sales plan.
• 11:02
  You need to look at your finance plan.
• 11:04
  You need to look at your pricing.
• 11:06
  Are you charging enough to cover your costs and to pay yourself?
• 11:09
  And I want you to start paying yourself something every.
• 11:12
  Even if it's really small, even if you set it as 50 pounds a month, direct
• 11:17
  debit from your business account into your personal account, pay yourself
• 11:20
  something otherwise you never will.
• 11:22
  There's always money to be spent and you'll just get out of the
• 11:25
  habit of ever paying yourself, or you'll just take random amounts
• 11:28
  of money out of your account.
• 11:29
  It's much better to pay yourself little and often, and then to build that
• 11:33
  over time as the business gets more successful rather than to never pay.
• 11:37
  If you are not paying yourself any money and you don't even think there's 50
• 11:41
  pounds in the business to pay yourself, then you need to go back to your plan.
• 11:45
  You need to go back to your spreadsheet.
• 11:46
  You need to reach out to me, and you need to work out what is happening.
• 11:49
  Is it that your marketing needs improving?
• 11:51
  Is it that your branding needs improving?
• 11:53
  Is it your prices need to raise?
• 11:55
  What is the problem?
• 11:56
  That's meaning you're not bringing enough money to pay yourself because
• 11:59
  it's not sustainable to keep running a.
• 12:01
  And never earning any money and ultimately you are worth it.
• 12:04
  You deserve it.
• 12:05
  You're putting in the hard work.
• 12:06
  You should have something to show for it.
• 12:09
  Let's move on then to the fourth thing on my list of things you need to stop
• 12:12
  doing in your wedding business right now, and that is being unreliable.
• 12:17
  Have you ever signed up to go and take part in a wedding industry event?
• 12:20
  Perhaps you've signed up to one of my networking events.
• 12:22
  Perhaps you've signed up to another wedding industry event and then just
• 12:25
  not shown up at the last minute.
• 12:27
  Perhaps you've said that you're gonna do something for someone and then you
• 12:30
  just don't do it because you decide you can't be bothered or you don't have time.
• 12:34
  Has anyone ever asked you for a quote on something and then you just leave it so
• 12:38
  long that by the time you get back to.
• 12:40
  They found someone else.
• 12:42
  Have you been booked for an event and then turned up really late because
• 12:45
  of a reason that was probably your fault or made a mistake so that
• 12:48
  something's been double booked?
• 12:50
  Have you ever done one of these things?
• 12:52
  Now we're all human, so we're all gonna make mistakes from time to time, but there
• 12:56
  are examples that I see of this where people are unreliable time and time again.
• 13:00
  Now, you may not think that that matters.
• 13:02
  Maybe you've made a good excuse.
• 13:04
  Maybe you've worked something out.
• 13:05
  Maybe something better came up, however.
• 13:08
  People are looking at you and what you do, and they are making a judgment
• 13:12
  on you based on what they see.
• 13:13
  So for example, when I run a networking event and I have a list
• 13:17
  of who's supposed to be there, I tick people off when they arrive.
• 13:21
  And often if someone calls me or messages me and says, I'm really sorry, I've got
• 13:24
  stuck at work, or I'm not very well, or I'm running late, that's absolutely fine.
• 13:28
  I'll cross them out.
• 13:29
  These things happen.
• 13:30
  But then there'll always be a few people left on that list who haven't turned.
• 13:34
  And haven't even told me that they're not gonna come.
• 13:36
  They haven't reached out.
• 13:38
  And to me then I'm thinking these people are pretty unreliable.
• 13:42
  They've said they're gonna come to something and they haven't.
• 13:45
  How do I know that they're gonna be reliable if I recommended
• 13:48
  them for some work at a wedding?
• 13:50
  So if that is you, if you sign up for something wedding industry related,
• 13:54
  maybe to go and be at a wedding fair, maybe it's to come to a networking event.
• 13:57
  Maybe it's to go meet with someone and then something comes up, that's okay.
• 14:01
  But make sure you contact them and let them know so they
• 14:03
  know you're not unreliable.
• 14:05
  If you've been booked to do something, make sure you get there early.
• 14:08
  Get there on time, leave additional time.
• 14:10
  Think of it like when you're trying to go and get a flight.
• 14:13
  You leave additional time in case there's a problem on the public transport, or
• 14:16
  maybe there's a problem on the roads.
• 14:18
  You make sure you are there because otherwise you're gonna miss that flight.
• 14:21
  You need to have the same attitude when it comes to these opportunities
• 14:24
  for your business, because if you're constantly late or you turn up.
• 14:27
  Doesn't look very professional, and although it's just a meeting, not the
• 14:31
  wedding day, people start to put two and two together and think, well, if
• 14:34
  they're not reliable for this meeting, how can I know they'll be reliable?
• 14:37
  For my couple, it's really important that you don't get a
• 14:41
  reputation of being unreliable.
• 14:43
  Be honest, be open and make sure you are appearing as good as you would for
• 14:48
  a couple, even when you're talking to someone else in the wedding industry.
• 14:51
  Perhaps someone who's organizing event, perhaps a wedding planner, perhaps a venue
• 14:54
  coordinator because they are watching.
• 14:58
  I used to work in television, and one of the things I did when I worked on Deal
• 15:01
  or No Deal was to help at auditions.
• 15:04
  So we'd audition new contestants, there'd be researchers that would do
• 15:07
  the actual interviewing on camera, and then I would be around welcoming people,
• 15:12
  signing them in, chatting to them, making sure they got to their room on time.
• 15:16
  Now what those potential contestants didn't know was that I wasn't just
• 15:21
  there as an admin person, ticking them in and chatting to them.
• 15:24
  I was actually part of the team deciding on who got the parts.
• 15:28
  Now, for some of those contestants or potential contestants, they thought
• 15:31
  that the audition was all about being in the room in front of the
• 15:34
  camera, and they'd put on a good show.
• 15:36
  But if they were rude to me or they were unreliable to me, or they
• 15:40
  didn't talk to me in a very nice way.
• 15:42
  Guess what?
• 15:42
  They got a black mark against their name because they thought that I was
• 15:45
  just the admin person and they thought they could be rude to me, and that's
• 15:48
  when their true colors came out.
• 15:50
  And if they were rude to me or I didn't like how they were outside, that held just
• 15:54
  as much weight as how they were on camera.
• 15:57
  So it's an important lesson to remember.
• 15:58
  You don't know who's making decisions, you don't know who's
• 16:01
  watching what you're doing, and you don't know what opportunities
• 16:03
  you might be missing out on because you've been unreliable in the past.
• 16:07
  So yes, things happen, things come up.
• 16:10
  Sometimes we get sick, sometimes things clash in the diary.
• 16:13
  We all make mistakes.
• 16:14
  We're all human.
• 16:15
  But it's how you deal with that to show that you're not unreliable,
• 16:18
  that's important, and make sure you're leaving extra time so you're not
• 16:21
  late to any of those appointments.
• 16:23
  Okay.
• 16:23
  That brings me onto the fifth and final thing that you shouldn't be doing when
• 16:27
  it comes to your wedding business, and you need to stop right now, and that is
• 16:31
  buying into really cheap content hacks.
• 16:35
  Now, again, I've seen this in all sorts of places recently, so
• 16:38
  if you're thinking, oh, they're talking about me, it's not personal.
• 16:41
  I've seen it all over the place.
• 16:42
  And it's really tempting.
• 16:44
  Now what I'm talking about, content pack is where there's already pre-made
• 16:48
  social media posts, pre-written blog posts, pre-written emails, things that
• 16:52
  are done for you as a template and you for a very low cost can buy them
• 16:57
  and then use them in your business.
• 16:59
  And that is very tempting cuz we're all short of time and anything
• 17:02
  that's done for us is a good thing.
• 17:04
  And so we wanna spend that money and get it.
• 17:06
  Now.
• 17:06
  Here's why I think you should be careful or stop doing.
• 17:11
  First of all, if you are buying these things and then just
• 17:14
  putting them out there as they are or with very small changes.
• 17:17
  Then your content is gonna look like everyone else's content,
• 17:20
  who's bought the same packs?
• 17:22
  It's not gonna be original.
• 17:23
  So you're still gonna have to put the time and effort into making it
• 17:26
  more original, changing the colors, changing the images, changing the fonts.
• 17:29
  Well, at that point, you might as well just have made the content yourself
• 17:33
  and saved yourself some money.
• 17:35
  Now, when it comes to content prompts, these can be helpful, so you know,
• 17:38
  Of questions, lists of ideas of things that you could put out there.
• 17:42
  They're useful.
• 17:43
  In fact, I've got one myself.
• 17:44
  I'll link to it in the show notes.
• 17:45
  But where someone has made the content for you as a generic template, well,
• 17:50
  it's probably not the best idea because very quickly you can see that other
• 17:54
  people have the same content as you.
• 17:55
  And if you are all putting it out on the same day at the same time,
• 17:58
  well, it's not gonna take someone who's doing some research very long
• 18:01
  to realize it's not unique content.
• 18:03
  It's just the same as everybody else.
• 18:06
  When it comes to blog posts, it's an even bigger danger?
• 18:09
  So if you buy a made-for-you written blog post, and it's a template as in
• 18:14
  more than one person has got the same blog post, this can be a massive problem.
• 18:19
  When it comes to blogging and writing on your website, Google
• 18:22
  is very hot on plagiarism.
• 18:24
  So if you write a piece of content and then someone else has an identical
• 18:28
  piece of content, Google will think that one of you has plagiarized the
• 18:31
  other and you will be penalized.
• 18:34
  Whenever you write something online, you need to make sure
• 18:36
  it's unique and original to you.
• 18:37
  So if you are gonna buy a template blog post, again, you're gonna have
• 18:40
  to do so much changing to it to make sure it's original, that you might as
• 18:44
  well have just sat down and written something original in the first place
• 18:47
  rather than just regurgitating the same thing that everybody else is hosting.
• 18:53
  Now I understand that it saves you time and there are ways to save
• 18:57
  time on your content marketing.
• 18:59
  Like I said, you use a prompt to get you ideas of what to post.
• 19:02
  Pay someone to outsource your content to who's gonna create you original
• 19:06
  content rather than just the same content as everyone else, or pay
• 19:09
  someone to write your blog posts or get training to help you do it faster.
• 19:13
  But just be really careful when it comes to these packs of pre-made
• 19:17
  content that you don't just buy it because it's cheap and easy.
• 19:21
  And it seems like it's gonna save you time because again, it could do you
• 19:24
  more damage than good in the long term.
• 19:26
  If you're putting out the same content as everyone else.
• 19:28
  You don't wanna get that plagiarism mark from Google cause that's really
• 19:31
  gonna harm your seo and you don't wanna look like a copy of everybody
• 19:35
  else who's doing the same thing.
• 19:37
  On the same day.
• 19:38
  If you can stand out, be unique, be yourself, put your content out.
• 19:42
  I'd rather you put out original content a couple of times a week than
• 19:45
  pre-made copied content the same as everyone else's five days a week.
• 19:49
  It's no good to just have this same regurgitated stuff.
• 19:52
  It's much better to have fresh, unique content to be yourself, to be helpful
• 19:56
  to your couples, rather than to spend a tiny bit of money save time, and actually
• 20:00
  potentially do yourself more harm.
• 20:02
  Now, there are ways you can use these to your advantage, so don't think that.
• 20:07
  Useful at all, but you will have to put in the time and effort to edit them, to
• 20:11
  maybe change the date order so you're not doing the same as everyone else.
• 20:14
  And like I said, by the time you've done all of that, you're probably better off
• 20:17
  just making the original content yourself.
• 20:21
  Okay.
• 20:21
  Before we finish, I'm gonna recap those five things that I think you need to stop
• 20:24
  doing in your wedding business right now.
• 20:27
  Number one, those big discounts, you are worth what you're charging.
• 20:30
  You don't need to discount.
• 20:31
  It just makes you look desperate.
• 20:33
  Secondly, those follow for follow threads or follow loops.
• 20:36
  You don't need to do those either.
• 20:37
  They're not helpful.
• 20:38
  Instead, create content that's gonna reach couples.
• 20:42
  Thirdly, working for free because you're not feeling confident.
• 20:45
  You don't need to give your services away for free, and you need to
• 20:48
  make sure you are paying yourself.
• 20:49
  Number four, being unreliable, being late, not showing up, not
• 20:52
  doing what you said you would do.
• 20:54
  All look bad and you dunno who's watching and what that could be
• 20:57
  losing you out on in the future.
• 20:59
  And finally buying into those really cheap content packs
• 21:02
  where things are done for you.
• 21:04
  Just be really careful about this.
• 21:06
  I don't want you to get a bad mark with plagiarism.
• 21:08
  I don't want you to look the same as everyone else's content.
• 21:10
  So if you are gonna purchase something like this, then make sure you're putting
• 21:13
  the work into changing it enough to make it look unique and original.
• 21:18
  Now I realize some of these things may be seen as a little bit controversial,
• 21:21
  and these are all my own opinions.
• 21:24
  If you've got a different idea, if you've got a different alternative
• 21:26
  opinion, I'd love to hear it.
• 21:27
  Don't be mean, be nice, but feel free to reach out on dms and let me know if you
• 21:31
  have had success in any of these areas that I'm saying you shouldn't be doing.
• 21:35
  But on the whole, most of what I've said, I'm pretty sure it's
• 21:38
  gonna do you more damage than good.
• 21:40
  So it's probably time to stop.
• 21:43
  Stop trying to cut corners.
• 21:45
  Stop lacking in confidence.
• 21:46
  Go out there, be unapologetically you, and I look forward to seeing you next week.