Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / 3 things that are holding your wedding business back

Transcript

3 things that are holding your wedding business back · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

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Becca: I'm in such a privileged position that I get to meet so many different
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incredible people in the wedding industry.
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I've met so many of you over the years who either own your own
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wedding business or work in a wedding venue, and the great thing is that
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I can see all of your journeys, and I love seeing your successes.
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But when I see so many different people from those just starting out in the
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wedding industry, to those who've been in the wedding industry a long time,
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I start to see similarities between the things that you struggle with
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and the things that hold you back.
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And today, I wanna share with you three common things that I see holding wedding
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business owners back all of the time.
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I'm gonna share them in today's.
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I am Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger,
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and you are listening to The Wedding Pros who are Ready to Grow podcast.
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I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
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examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
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If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
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and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you
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love, then you're in the right place.
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Let's get going with today's episode.
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You may have heard it said before that the biggest barrier to success
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in your business is probably you.
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So often it's us that holds ourselves back.
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We're worried about what other people think of us.
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We put in excuses as to why we can't get things done.
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But the clients that I work with who see the greatest success are the people
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who realize this, work out what's holding them back, and then start
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to break through those barriers and.
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The change.
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So today I'm gonna be sharing with you three and maybe a little bonus
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one as well, different things that I see wedding business owners and venue
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workers just like you struggling with in their businesses and why they're
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using them as an excuse to hold them back and how we can then overcome them.
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I'm sure that you struggle with some of these things that I'm gonna share
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with you, and you may find yourself nodding along as I share the struggles.
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So be vulnerable, be honest with yourself, because if we can identify the things
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that holding us back, then we can actually go ahead and make the change.
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So let's get going with number one.
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The first thing that I see holding people back as a barrier to
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their success is lack of time.
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Have you ever said, if only I had more time, if only my life wasn't
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so busy and I had more time, then I could grow my business.
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I want to make all of these changes in my business, but I just don't have the time.
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Time is an excuse that I hear all of the time from so many of
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you, and you may be nodding along as I say some of those phrases.
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Let's just think for a moment because ultimately all of us
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have the same amount of time in a week and a month and in a year.
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In fact, it's not more time that we necessarily need, but actually it's
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considering how we spend that time.
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Now, each and every one of you are gonna be in a very different situation
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when it comes to the time you.
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Perhaps you currently work full-time alongside trying to get your
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wedding business off of the ground.
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Perhaps you work set hours and therefore you can't get everything you want to
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achieve done in the hours that you have.
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Perhaps you've got children or grandchildren that you have to
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factor in because guess what?
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They take up a lot of time.
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Or perhaps you've got elderly parents or a health condition, which means
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that you don't have as much time as other people or what you perceive
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as, as much time as other people.
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I don't know what your personal circumstances are, and I can't possibly
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start to address them, but if you find yourself using time as an excuse, then
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we need to start changing your thinking.
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This is something that I've implemented for myself in my business, and it really
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has made a huge difference to my mindset.
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I started my wedding consultancy business back in 2016 when I was
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pregnant with my second child.
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So I already had a toddler at home.
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I was about to give birth to another child.
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It's not the most ideal time to start a new venture, but that's what happened.
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And while I had two under five year olds, Guess what?
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I didn't have a whole lot of time.
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Now.
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In some ways I had more time because I was on maternity leave.
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I didn't have a job to go to.
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But if you know anything about small children, they take up a lot of time.
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So I had to build my business in the time that I had in the few hours when they
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were napping in the evenings when they were asleep, or in the odd occasion when
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someone else was there to look after them.
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As they grew and started going to preschool and now school.
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The hours that I had during the day started to increase,
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and that meant I didn't have to work so much in the evening.
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Now they're both in school and I suddenly have more time than I've had
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for the whole length of the business.
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But guess what?
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There are days when I still wish I had more time.
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You know what?
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There's never enough time to get all of the things done that we want to
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do, so there's no point looking for time that we just can't possibly find.
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None of us wanna be working all of the hours we need rest.
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We need recuperation time as.
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So if this is you and you struggle with time and you feel like time holds
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you back, I want you to start changing your mindset around this instead of
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always thinking, I wish I had more time, which isn't necessarily possible.
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Instead, I want you to look at your average week and work out where you
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have the time and how much time you.
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Instead of asking for more time, we need to make the most of the time.
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You had, when my children were little, I only had very small snippets of time, and
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so that was really valuable time to me.
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I had to prioritize the things that I was going to do in that short
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snippet of time because if I didn't and I wasted time, guess what?
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I didn't have any time left.
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It also may mean that for some periods of life, you do have to make sacrifices.
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I did have to work more evenings when my children were young, but I
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had the social time while they were at home during the day that I could
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enjoy with them, taking them out for coffees and that kind of thing.
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Whereas in the evening, that was when I had to sit down and work
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not every evening of the week.
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But I did work more evenings than I do now.
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So I want you to look at your average week and look at the time that you.
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We always find time for the things that we want to make time for.
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I recently joined the gym and I told myself I didn't have time to go to
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the gym because I'm too busy working.
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But guess what?
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Now I go to the gym probably three times a week, first thing in the
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morning after I take the kids to school.
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I'm home by 10 o'clock and I'm getting just as much work done.
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I'm more energetic, I'm more proactive, and I'm wasting less time.
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So sometimes it's a mindset.
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So sit down, work out how much time you've got in the week and when that time is, and
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then start to put tasks against that time.
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Start with the most important tasks are things that are gonna
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bring you money into your business.
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Then look at the building tasks, the things that are gonna help you.
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Build going forward.
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So for example, if you wanna rebrand or look at your website,
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then that seems like a big job.
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So it becomes overwhelming.
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But if we think, well, I'm just gonna work on it one hour a week for the
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next six weeks, all of a sudden you've got six hours of work on that website.
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The other thing to consider if time is always your excuse, is maybe you need
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to look to outsource some of the tasks.
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There was once a stage when I wanted to move all of my information from
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one piece of software to another.
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The amount of time that was gonna take me was overwhelming, and there was no way I
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was gonna fit it into my busy schedule.
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So in that instance, it was actually much better for me to spend some money and pay
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someone else for their time to do that task and manually move the data over.
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I'm so thankful I did because I could use that time that I saved to bring in other
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income into the business doing things that I need to be doing rather than some
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tasks that I just don't have time for.
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So if time is your problem, I want you to redefine how you look.
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Stop.
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Keep saying you need more time because that might not be possible, but look
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at the time you have and make sure you're being really productive with it.
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Don't waste time and remember, you will always find time for the
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things you want to find time for.
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Okay, let's go on to barrier number two.
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The second barrier I see to people trying to build their
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business for success is money.
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Perhaps some of these things resonate with you.
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If only I had more money, then I could invest in training, then
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I could get a brand new website.
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If only I had some money, then I could make more money in my business.
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I would be successful.
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Money is a touchy subject and one that I don't really like talking about a
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whole lot, but sometimes we need to.
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If you are always wishing you had more money in your business, guess what?
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Once again, it's not like a tree where money grows on it, just like time.
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We can't necessarily get more of it just by wishing it.
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However, we do need to redefine the way that we look at
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money inside of our business.
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The first thing I want to ask you is how do you sort out your
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money in your own situation?
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Again, this is gonna be different for each and every person, but my preferred
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method and what you really should be doing if you're running a business and
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not a hobby, is dividing your money.
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Therefore, you have business money, and then you have your personal money
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and you work that out as you go.
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If you're inside of a job, the business money is separate
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to the money you get paid.
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So why don't we treat it like that in our business?
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When I work with clients and people go through my Wedding Pro, business Builder
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program, we look in depth at money.
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I suggest you have a separate account for your business, have a business
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bank account where all of your business transactions go in and out of that.
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And then you pay yourself out of that account into your personal account.
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So either each month you pay yourself an amount or you pay
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yourself a percentage based on the weddings that you have booked.
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But you pay yourself regularly out of your business account,
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into your personal account.
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Now, when that money lands in your personal account, that's
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now your money to do with what you want in your personal life.
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Whether that's paying the mortgage, going on holiday, buying yourself something new.
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I don't know how finances work in your home, but the business money is separate.
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So once you've taken some money out to pay yourself for those lovely personal.
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You should be keeping some money in that business account for tax purposes, ready
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to pay your tax bill, but also so you can start reinvesting into your business.
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Businesses grow when we reinvest into them.
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You shouldn't be taking everything out for profit.
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You should be reinvesting in marketing, on branding.
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You should be investing in training, all of these things which are gonna help bring
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more money into the business as you go.
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Now once you keep your money separate and start managing it well, you won't
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feel like it's hard to pay for things out of your business because you feel
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like you're taking away from your personal money because they are separate.
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You need to be reinvesting in your business if you
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want your business to grow.
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Now when I talk about investing in either training programs or
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equipment or software, you do need to make wise investments.
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Think about how you're gonna see a return on that investment.
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Now, that's not always a direct return on an investment.
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So for example, if you were going to a wedding show and it cost you a hundred
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pounds to have a stand, you would want to make sure that you are gonna get at least
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a hundred pounds worth of bookings back into the business in order to pay for it.
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That's fairly straightforward to.
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However, if you are, for example, starting a podcast for the wedding
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industry for brides and grooms, you're gonna have to invest in equipment.
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Now, you are then gonna have to invest time in creating that
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podcast, and you might not see a direct return on investment.
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Straight away.
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But you will see a return on the way your credibility builds and the way more
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people find out about you, or more people start recommending you to their couples
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because you've got a name for yourself.
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It's not so easy to see the return on investment, but there will be one and
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you need to work out what that is.
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So every time you look to make an investment into your business, be
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that training equipment new branding.
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A new marketing strategy, think about it, sit down, work out.
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Is it a wise investment.
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One question I always ask when people are thinking about investing in a program
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with me is for your situation, which again, is gonna be different for everyone.
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How many wedding bookings do you need to bring in in order
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to pay back that investment?
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It is an investment and not a cost, because when you invest,
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it should make you more money.
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So for example, if you were gonna take my Wedding Pro Business Builder program
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for 447 pounds, how many wedding bookings would you need to bring back into your
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business in a lifetime to pay for it?
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For some of you, it may only be one.
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For some of you, it may be two, three or four, depending on your.
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Then you need to think, will I learn what I need to learn in this program?
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Will it help me bring in those additional bookings?
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Now I want to say, yes, it will, because if you put in the work and you do the
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action, you should see a huge return on your investment, not just the money
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that you spent on the program, but that money again and again and again.
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Every single year because you're improving your business marketing,
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you're improving your branding, you're improving your knowledge, and therefore
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your business is growing and becoming more successful and more profitable.
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So you see, all of a sudden it's not taking money away from your business.
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You are reinvesting your into your business to make more money in the future.
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So make sure when you're thinking about money, you are thinking of it as an
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investment, not a cost, but you are being wise about where you choose to spend it.
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In business, you have to speculate to accumulate.
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That's how business works.
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We're lucky in the wedding industry quite often we don't have huge outlays.
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Imagine if you are starting a shop, you would have to outlay on the
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building, on the website, on the branding, on all of the products
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before you even get a customer.
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We're lucky in the wedding industry cuz often people pay before.
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We have to spend a huge amount.
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The other thing I want you to think about when it comes to spending money
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on something like business training, because I know this is a sticking
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point for some people, is if you wanna learn how to do a job properly,
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you have to invest in learning from someone who knows how to do it well.
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If you want to become a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer, you invest thousands
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of pounds in going to university.
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Why to learn how to do that job well.
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So if you want to have a successful small business, Why are you not
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wanting to invest in learning and understanding how to do that?
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Well, it's the same thing.
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Okay.
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We've covered off time.
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We've covered off money.
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So what's the third thing that is holding you back right now?
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The third thing that I see holding people back all of the time is lack of knowledge.
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Maybe some of these phrases resonate with you.
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If only I understood how to use Instagram and the reels feature, then
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I'd be reaching more people and more people would be coming to my business.
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If only I understood marketing, I just don't really understand it.
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I dunno how to do it and therefore I'm not doing it well and I dunno where to
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spend my money, and therefore I just don't have the knowledge in order to grow my.
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I am rubbish at sales.
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I don't understand how to sell.
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I feel awkward when I'm trying to sell, and therefore I just don't make the
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sales cause I crumble at the last minute.
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Or perhaps you wish you were more technical, you understood how to
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build a website, how to create an amazing brand, how to set up an email
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list, and all of the things that you've heard are gonna help people.
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You feel like you don't have the technical knowledge to make them happen.
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Lack of knowledge, again, is an excuse I hear all of the time and maybe a
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reason why you are not getting as far in your business as you want to.
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I want to say to you, it's okay not to know everything.
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Nobody knows everything and lack of knowledge is totally normal.
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However, we don't wanna use it as a barrier to success.
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In fact, it should propel us on to want to understand, get more
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knowledge and grow our businesses.
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We don't know how to do everything.
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I recently put a post on my Instagram page all about the
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things I don't know how to do.
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For example, I'm rubbish growing flowers or even having flowers in
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my house, keeping them alive, and definitely not flower arranging.
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I can take an average photo, but I'm not a professional photographer.
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I cannot bake a cake.
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My baking skills are horrendous.
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But there are some things I do know how to do really well, like teaching
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you how to sell, teaching you how to market your wedding business.
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These are things I have experience in and have taught hundreds of
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wedding business owners previously before you, how to do them well.
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Now you are probably incredible at what you do.
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In fact, I know you are.
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You are an amazing organizer, an amazing planner, an amazing florist, an amazing
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cake maker, an incredible celebrant dj.
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The list goes on, but perhaps you lack in the area of marketing and sales
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knowledge, and that's okay as well.
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But instead of using it as an excuse, this is your wake up call
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that you need to learn how to do it.
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Now, listening to this podcast is a great start because there's loads of
17:21
different little bits of information to help you on here grow your business.
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If there's an area of business you struggle with, then it's
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time you got help with it.
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One thing lots of my clients struggle with is finance, which is why I work
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hard in my program to help you understand the financial side of your business,
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the spreadsheets, the profitability, because there's no point running a
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business if you're not making money.
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That's why an accountant is such a good investment because they are.
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Experts in the financial side of your business and doing your tax return and
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making sure you pay the right amount and not too much and not too little.
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They are the experts.
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It's okay for you not to know everything, so stop using knowledge as
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an excuse to stop you in your business.
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Instead, understand where your weaknesses are and look to upskill in
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those areas with an expert who knows exactly what they're talking about.
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This is gonna help you grow and thrive, and it's gonna
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help your business immensely.
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Okay.
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Let's recap then.
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The three things that I think are holding you back in your wedding
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business right now, and perhaps you resonate with all three of them.
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The first one is time.
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You feel like you don't have enough time.
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The second one is money, if only you had more money.
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And the third one is knowledge.
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Now, I said at the beginning I was gonna throw in a little bonus one as
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well, and that's because I think there's one thing that can tie all of these
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things together and hold you back.
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And it's the one that all of us struggle with all of the time, and that's.
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Confidence.
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Perhaps this resonates with you.
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You just don't feel confident in your business.
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Maybe you've got people around you that have told you it's not possible
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to make money doing that, or, well, it's just a little job on the side.
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It's not a proper business.
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Those things are just not true, but they knock our confidence and suddenly
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make us believe that we can't do it.
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Well, I want to tell you right here, right now, you absolutely can do it.
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I'm passionate about showing you that you can have a profitable.
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Business, doing what you love, it is possible.
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I'm sure you're incredible at what you do, and you may lack a little bit of
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confidence, but you need to look at your work and realize it's amazing and
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people are willing to pay for it, and you absolutely should be making money from it.
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You may not feel confident in your marketing.
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You may not feel confident putting your face on social media, but these
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are things you can learn about and you can grow in confidence over time.
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Sometimes you've just gotta give it a go, or sometimes you just need someone
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to help you to be accountable for and to encourage you to go out there and do it.
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I recently had a client who was struggling with the idea of putting
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her face out on social media.
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She was worried about what people would think of her.
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She was worried about whether people would think she was too old, and she
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messaged me to ask me my thoughts on it because I work with her as a client.
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And I responded to her saying People would love to see you.
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Age is not a barrier to business.
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In fact, if anything, it's gonna help people trust you and realize
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you've got great experience.
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And ultimately people just wanna know you are good at what you do, which you are.
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And they want to know, like, and trust you.
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You want to see their face.
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Now, she was really brave.
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She took action and she put her face on her social media channel.
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And guess what?
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People loved.
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Her engagement and interaction doubled double.
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The people like the posts on Facebook and Instagram that they did normally.
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She just didn't have the confidence and she changed that.
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She got the accountability.
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She went out there, she tried it, she did it, and she got the results.
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Don't let confidence hold you back.
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You absolutely can be unapologetically you.
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Go out there.
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Be yourself.
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Tell the world how amazing you are at what you do, and be confident
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in the prices that you charge.
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I'm here for you each and every step of the way as well.
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If you need some encouragement, drop into my Instagram inbox and I'll give
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you all of the encouragement about why you and your work is amazing.
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As we draw this episode to a close, I just want you to spend a couple of minutes
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maybe with a piece of paper thinking about what it is that's holding you back.
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Which of these things are barriers to you in your business, and how can you
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start smashing those barriers down?
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So much of it is in our mindset.
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What can you change in your mindset in order to break through and start seeing.
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If you need help in any of these areas, if you're thinking, yep, I wish I had
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some more understanding of marketing.
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I don't really know how to take my business forward.
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I'm not profitable and I wish I was, I don't understand how to price and
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sort out the numbers, then guess what?
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You're in the right place.
22:08
Check out my brand new program, the Wedding Pro Business Builder.
22:12
This has been a year in the making and it's for you.
22:16
Easy, step by step guide that you can follow through in your own time,
22:20
which is gonna take you through all of these things and give you the
22:23
knowledge that you are struggling with.
22:25
I'm gonna help you with your marketing, help you with your sales, and help
22:29
you create that profitable wedding business, doing what you love.
22:32
All of the details are in the show notes, or if you've got questions,
22:35
again, drop into my inbox on Instagram and I'm more than happy to chat with.
22:40
Go out there, smash down some barriers, and I'll see you next week.