Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / Help! What can I do when it all feels too much?
Transcript
- 0:01Becca: Owning your own wedding business is one of the best things
- 0:03working at something you're passionate about and making money from it.
- 0:07But let's be honest.
- 0:08It's not all roses.
- 0:09Sometimes it's hard.
- 0:11Sometimes there are long hours, late nights, difficult customers
- 0:15and really stressful situations.
- 0:17And sometimes if you're anything like me, you feel that you just
- 0:20want to throw it all in and go and get a normal nine to five office.
- 0:24In today's episode, I'm going to be talking about what you can do
- 0:27when it all feels like it's getting too much and how you can avoid
- 0:30getting yourself to that point.
- 0:32In the first place.
- 0:34I'm Becca Pountney, wedding, business, marketing, expert, speaker, and blogger.
- 0:38And you're listening to the wedding pros who are ready to grow podcast.
- 0:42I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life
- 0:45examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
- 0:49If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
- 0:53and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you
- 0:56love, then you're in the right place.
- 0:58Let's get going with today's episode.
- 1:01Okay.
- 1:02Becca, last week, you were talking all about Disney world.
- 1:05And this week you're talking about burnout.
- 1:07One earth is going on.
- 1:09I thought this was meant to be an uplifting, happy podcast.
- 1:12Well, it is, but my desire with this podcast is to be real.
- 1:16I'm not here just to give you more business advice.
- 1:18We're overloaded with business advice and podcasts.
- 1:21Yes.
- 1:21I want to help you grow your wedding business, but at the same time, I want
- 1:24to get really real with you and talk to you about the things that matter and be
- 1:28honest with you about my own struggles.
- 1:30And as I record this podcast today, I'm actually feeling kind of like this myself.
- 1:36Now, this is my usual problem.
- 1:38I love taking time off in the school holidays because after all I've got the
- 1:42flexibility to do that and to be with.
- 1:44And I love it, but what inevitably happens after the two week holiday
- 1:49is all of a sudden I have a mountain of work to do, to try and catch
- 1:53up on the time that I've missed.
- 1:55And often I feel completely exhausted and overwhelmed, and
- 1:59that's where I am right now.
- 2:01And I'm sure some of you are feeling the same as we head into a busy wedding
- 2:05season as you've just come off the back of school holidays yourself, or perhaps 2022.
- 2:11Just feels really overwhelming in today's episode, we're going to talk
- 2:14about practically what you can do to avoid feeling like that and what
- 2:18to do when you are feeling that.
- 2:20So let's dive in and talk about it.
- 2:23At the outset.
- 2:24It's really important.
- 2:25I make clear to you, I'm not a doctor, but I do spend a lot of time with
- 2:29wedding professionals just like you.
- 2:31And I know that lots and lots of you struggle with burnout or at
- 2:34least getting close to burnout.
- 2:36So I went onto the NHS website to have a look at what the signs of
- 2:40burnout are so that you can see whether you're approaching them
- 2:43or perhaps if you're feeling them.
- 2:45The signs that are listed on the NHS website are as follows.
- 2:49Perhaps you're feeling overwhelmed.
- 2:51Perhaps you have racing thoughts, or you have difficulty concentrating on tasks.
- 2:55Maybe you're more irritable than usual.
- 2:58You may be feeling constantly worried, anxious, or even scared.
- 3:03It may be that you feel a lack of self confidence, or even that you have trouble
- 3:07sleeping or just generally feel tired all of the time, if that resonates with
- 3:12you and you feel like you're heading for burnout, or perhaps you're already there.
- 3:16Let me urge you listen to the rest of this podcast, but also please
- 3:20go ahead to the NHS website.
- 3:22I've linked to it in the show notes, you can read more about burnout there and read
- 3:26all of their advice and tips about how you can get some additional help if you need.
- 3:32In today's episode, though, we're going to be looking at what we can do better to
- 3:36avoid burnout, to manage our time better and to have a more healthier lifestyle.
- 3:41The first thing we need to plan for is rest.
- 3:44Now I know that seems strange, but we actually need to put in time to rest.
- 3:49As wedding business owners, it's really hard for us to shut off if you're
- 3:53anything like me, your phone is on almost constantly all during your waking hours.
- 3:58And people can contact you on email, on Facebook, on Instagram, on WhatsApp,
- 4:02on the phone everywhere 24 hours a day.
- 4:06Now we can put in some boundaries in order to make sure we have rest.
- 4:11Perhaps you want to set your office hours and and set an out of office when you
- 4:14are not available to reply to emails.
- 4:17This will take off the pressure from you in feeling like you have to reply
- 4:21instantly, perhaps it's just that you want to make sure you have 2, 3, 4
- 4:25evenings a week where you don't work well, put them in your diary as time off.
- 4:30Otherwise, I guarantee you because I know myself you'll end up filling those
- 4:34hours with work and you won't get the.
- 4:37Now I am notoriously bad at resting.
- 4:40I find it really hard to just sit and do nothing.
- 4:43And actually during the first lockdown, me and my husband infested in an inflatable
- 4:47hot tub for that exact reason to rest.
- 4:50Because when you're in a hot tub, you can't be watching TV or on your
- 4:54phone because it's not a great idea.
- 4:56And actually just sitting out of an evening, looking at the stars
- 4:59and chatting was so relaxing.
- 5:03Um, if that's what it takes, it's worth the investment.
- 5:06So think about what you find restful, what allows you to switch off and make
- 5:10sure you're planning in time for it.
- 5:12Planning date nights, planning nights out with your friend
- 5:15and just planning time to.
- 5:18And do very little while we're on the subject of planning.
- 5:22The next tip I have for you is to make sure you plan in time for holiday.
- 5:27Now, if we were in a normal nine to five office job, and I said to you, how
- 5:31many days holiday do you get a year?
- 5:33And you reply to me, maybe three, if I'm lucky, I would think you had the worst
- 5:37employer in the world, but I cannot tell you how many wedding business owners I
- 5:42speak to who say they struggle to get any holiday in because they're either
- 5:46fully booked or just constantly working, editing at wedding shows, making flowers
- 5:50or all the other things that you have.
- 5:53Now we will never have time to go on holiday if we don't plan it in because
- 5:58inevitably our diaries get full.
- 6:00So if you haven't yet decided for this year, how many days holiday you are going
- 6:05to give yourself as a business owner?
- 6:08Pause this podcast, or come back to it later and write down
- 6:11how many days annual leave.
- 6:13You're going to give yourself and then start to plan them in your diary.
- 6:17Now this is something that I do well at the start of the year.
- 6:20I decide when I want to have time off and I cross it out in my diary.
- 6:24So the two weeks Easter holidays.
- 6:27Great big line through my diary to make sure I don't book
- 6:30in meetings or appointments.
- 6:32And I make sure I'm off to spend time with my family to get away, to
- 6:35spend time doing non-work things, not replying to emails every five seconds
- 6:41and not uploading to my social media.
- 6:43We need holiday.
- 6:45And it's really important.
- 6:46You plan it in ahead of time.
- 6:48Even if you shift it, that's absolutely fine.
- 6:50But get those dates in your diary and cross them out.
- 6:53Otherwise, what happens is you plan to go away in the summer
- 6:56holidays, get to the summer, look at your diary and realize you've got
- 6:59meetings, weddings, appointments, all the way through the summer.
- 7:03And there's absolutely no free weeks in order to take a holiday.
- 7:06So plan them in ahead and make sure when you're on holiday,
- 7:10you're actually on holiday.
- 7:11It's okay to set an out of office to say, you're on holiday.
- 7:14I know what it's like.
- 7:15You might want to check the odd emergency email, but try not to reply
- 7:19to everything you deserve a break and you're going to do better in the long run.
- 7:22If you take it.
- 7:24The third tip I've got for you when it comes to planning
- 7:26is the one I'm terrible at.
- 7:29And I will admit that to you first.
- 7:31I've just talked about how I take the time off.
- 7:33I'm good at taking time off to spend with my kids over Easter, but then when it gets
- 7:37to this side of the holidays, I have a mountain of work and appointments to do.
- 7:42The reason being is I plan in my appointments and I diarize my meetings.
- 7:47But sometimes, actually all the time, I forget to plan in time to
- 7:52actually prepare for the meetings.
- 7:54So for example, if I've got a training next week, I haven't actually
- 7:58booked in any time in my diary to sit down and prepare the training.
- 8:01So I end up doing it late into the night.
- 8:04Instead, what you need to be doing is looking at other
- 8:07things that happen in your.
- 8:09Other than the wedding itself.
- 8:10So if you know that you're going to have to spend a lot of time prepping
- 8:14before the wedding day, make sure you block that time out in your diary.
- 8:17So you don't end up putting something else in there.
- 8:20If you know that you're going to have to send a certain amount of time
- 8:23of hours editing after the wedding.
- 8:25Make sure you are blocking that in your diary as well.
- 8:28I know photographers and videographers that have taken on 30, 40, 50 weddings for
- 8:32this year, but have forgotten to plan in when they're going to edit and then guess
- 8:37what you end up staying up late into the night or having to pay to outsource it.
- 8:41If you know, roughly how long it takes you to edit a wedding, start
- 8:44blocking in that time, the moment that you take the wedding booking.
- 8:48And if you don't have the time, you need to look at other options, either
- 8:51taking less weddings or outsourcing, I need to get a lot better at this.
- 8:57So I'm, I'm not preaching to you because I need to do it as well, but I want you
- 9:02all to get into the habit of looking at what else comes around the wedding
- 9:06and putting that in your diary as well.
- 9:08Block it in as time, time to record this podcast for me or.
- 9:13Edit or make the cake or do the flowers or have the consultation, put it
- 9:17all in your diary so that you don't overload your diary and make sure
- 9:21you've also got that time off booked into your diary so that you don't
- 9:24put those tasks onto your days off.
- 9:27So far.
- 9:28We've talked a lot about planning, but now I want to give you
- 9:31some permission, permission.
- 9:33First of all, to say.
- 9:35No.
- 9:35You have permission to say, no, it's your wedding business.
- 9:39You don't have to say yes to everything.
- 9:42I know it's tempting again.
- 9:43This is something I struggle with, but it's okay to say no.
- 9:47And it's okay for you to set your own boundaries.
- 9:49For example, instead of going to your couples and asking them
- 9:53when they want a consultation and leaving it completely open to them.
- 9:57Give them some set times, make sure you've got an app, like Calendly
- 10:01where you can send it out to them and they can book into your diary.
- 10:04At the specific times.
- 10:06If you say to me, Becca, when do you want to meet?
- 10:09I might say nine o'clock on a Saturday night.
- 10:11However, if you send me your diary and the only options are
- 10:14Tuesday between nine and 5:00 PM.
- 10:17I'm going to have to rework my diary to make the appointment work.
- 10:20At the time that suits you it's a much better way round.
- 10:24If you're always doing whatever your customers want, you're going to be
- 10:27working all sorts of strange hours.
- 10:29Now, no one does this in the real world.
- 10:31The dentist doesn't say to me, Becca, you need a checkup.
- 10:34When do you want to come and I just turn around and say, oh, I'd
- 10:37love to come Sunday at midday.
- 10:39That's just not how it works.
- 10:40So why are you doing that in your own wedding business?
- 10:43Calendly is a great app.
- 10:45It will save you loads of time.
- 10:46I'm sure we could spend more time talking about that in a future episode, but
- 10:50if you need help with it, jump into my free Facebook group, wedding pros who
- 10:53are ready to grow and tag me in there
- 10:55and I can send you some useful links, but it's okay to say.
- 11:00The other thing that's okay to say no to is taking wedding bookings.
- 11:04You do not have to take every inquiry that comes in, even though I know that's hard.
- 11:10If you feel like a customer is going to be difficult in the initial conversations,
- 11:14if they're asking too much, if they're wanting to discount too heavily is
- 11:18okay to say to them, you know what?
- 11:20I don't think we're a great fit.
- 11:21Actually.
- 11:22Maybe you should work with someone else.
- 11:24That's.
- 11:25Often, you know, with a gut feeling, if a customer's going to be difficult,
- 11:29and I know you want the money, but sometimes the stress isn't worth
- 11:32the money that they want to pay you.
- 11:34The other thing you can say no to is taking on too many wedding bookings it's
- 11:39really important at the beginning of a year or the beginning of a financial
- 11:42year to plan out how many wedding bookings you actually want to take in
- 11:47a year, work out the finances, work out how much money you need, work out.
- 11:51Exactly how many bookings it would be for you to be what
- 11:55you're happy with as fully booked.
- 11:56Now there's no amount that's okay for this.
- 11:59I know suppliers that only want to take three.
- 12:02Maybe 10 weddings a year.
- 12:03There are other suppliers that might want to take 50 or more weddings a year.
- 12:07The number doesn't really matter what matters is, you know, what your number is.
- 12:12So if you've decided you only want to take 10 weddings a year and you've already got
- 12:16your 10 weddings booked in for 2022 or even 20, 23 and an 11th inquiry comes.
- 12:23You don't have to do it.
- 12:25It's your choice.
- 12:26Now you might want to stretch if it seems like a quiet time of year
- 12:29or an amazing wedding, but it's okay to say no, I'm really sorry.
- 12:33I'm fully booked.
- 12:34Give yourself permission to say no.
- 12:38And the final thing I want to give you permission to say no to is doing lots of
- 12:41meeting up and lots of coffees and that.
- 12:45I once was told that you should be having networking meetings like five
- 12:48times a week and coffees with different people every single day of the week.
- 12:52And as someone who's quite time poor trying to fit in by work
- 12:55around the kids and all the other things going on in my life, that
- 12:58just felt completely unachievable.
- 13:00And for me, actually, it wasn't possible now I love to meet for coffee.
- 13:04I love to chat with you.
- 13:05I love to reply on Instagram, but I just don't have time in my diary.
- 13:09Five times a week, 10 times a week, or however many, some people
- 13:12are able to do and that's okay.
- 13:15It's okay to say no.
- 13:16As long as you explain why you're saying no, don't be rude and just
- 13:20say, no, I don't want to meet you, but if someone wants to meet you
- 13:22and you don't have the time, either give them a time when you're free.
- 13:26Ask them t#o just jump on a phone call, which takes less of your time
- 13:29than traveling somewhere, or just say, actually right now, I don't have time,
- 13:32but let's try and catch up in the.
- 13:35It's okay to say no.
- 13:36And today I'm giving you permission to say no to all of the above
- 13:40and other things as well.
- 13:44The other thing I want to give you permission for today is to
- 13:46say, it's okay to take a breather.
- 13:50It's okay to take a breather.
- 13:53We are terrible at taking time out.
- 13:55I've already admitted.
- 13:56I'm terrible at it, myself.
- 13:58Why?
- 13:58Because we pile on the guilt to ourselves.
- 14:01We feel guilty when we take a break, we feel guilty when we don't reply to
- 14:05an email within 10 seconds, but it's actually okay to take a breather.
- 14:10It's okay to take a breather from your entire business.
- 14:13If you want to.
- 14:14I know people that have taken six months off for maternity leave.
- 14:17I know someone that took a year off after the death of one of their parents.
- 14:22And guess what?
- 14:23After that year off, they were able to build up their business
- 14:25to be really successful.
- 14:27Sometimes other things in life take priority.
- 14:30Sometimes our families need us, sometimes something unexpected comes
- 14:34up with our health and it's okay.
- 14:36And we don't need to feel guilty about taking a breather.
- 14:40So whether it's taking a week off, taking a month off, taking a year off,
- 14:44taking five minutes off to go make a cup of tea or watch something on Netflix.
- 14:48Don't feel guilty.
- 14:49Don't burden yourself with guilt.
- 14:51The only person that's making you feel guilty is you, the idea of running
- 14:55your own wedding business is having the flexibility to make things work for you.
- 15:00So don't feel guilty.
- 15:01Take the time.
- 15:03Now, when it comes to replying to inquiries, people often say to me,
- 15:07if I don't reply to the email inquiry immediately, I might lose the booking.
- 15:12I'm not saying that's wrong.
- 15:14Ultimately often the quicker you reply to an inquiry, the more
- 15:18likely you are to get that booking.
- 15:20However, it's not always possible to reply to every inquiry really, really fast.
- 15:25If you're on holiday with your family, you're away and you pop an
- 15:28out of office on and you lose that.
- 15:31It's not the end of the world.
- 15:32Stop beating yourself up.
- 15:34You know what I was thinking about this the other day, because
- 15:36actually, yes, it's annoying.
- 15:37If you lose an inquiry.
- 15:39But don't you think it would be worse if you get burnt out and you don't have
- 15:43the time to spend with your friends or your husband or your children,
- 15:46because you're always constantly just trying to get back to those inquiries
- 15:50and neglecting everything else.
- 15:52Actually, it's also not kind to your current couples that you've already
- 15:55got booked if you hit burnout because you're not going to serve them as well.
- 16:00So sometimes neglecting to reply to an email immediately is actually going
- 16:04to be more beneficial to everyone around you and yourself in the.
- 16:09The next thing I want to talk to you about today is something I know each
- 16:13and every one of us struggle with.
- 16:15And if we pretend we don't struggle with it, well, we're probably not being
- 16:19that truthful to ourselves because ultimately I think we all fall into this
- 16:22trap and that is the trap of comparison.
- 16:26Now there is no time.
- 16:28That's more important for you not to compare yourself to other people and other
- 16:32people's business than when you're feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or nearing burnout.
- 16:37If you feel like you want to throw it all in, or you feel like you're not
- 16:40achieving as much as you should be.
- 16:42Do not go and look at your competitors on Instagram or Facebook, don't
- 16:46go and look at what other people are doing, because it's just
- 16:49going to make yourself feel worse.
- 16:52We have to remember everyone's on their own journey and they might be
- 16:55further into their journey than you are.
- 16:58That doesn't mean they're better than you.
- 17:00It just means that they're on a different place in their journey.
- 17:03And the other thing we need to remember.
- 17:06It's social media is a marketing platform.
- 17:08Everyone is going to be showing their best self on social media.
- 17:12So you can't compare yourself to that because it might not be the truth.
- 17:15In fact, I've heard it when people are looking at a competitors, social media
- 17:19and feeling rubbish, and then discovered that that competitors looking at their
- 17:22social media and feeling rubbish too.
- 17:24We're always projecting our best selves on social.
- 17:28I had this myself recently, I'd gone through a bit of a rough time.
- 17:31And, uh, during that one of my friends sent me a text message saying,
- 17:35Hey, Becca so good to see how well everything's going and how great things
- 17:39are for you and how happy you are.
- 17:41And I replied, what gives you that impression?
- 17:44Because clearly you don't know what's going on.
- 17:47And her reply was well from your social media posts, everything
- 17:50looks like it's amazing.
- 17:52And you're super happy.
- 17:53Well, of course it does.
- 17:54If you look at my social media posts, no, one's going to post pictures of themselves
- 17:58looking miserable and upset because social media is a marketing platform.
- 18:01You're there to market your best self and your business.
- 18:04Now.
- 18:05No, one's going to listen to a podcast.
- 18:07If I say, listen to my podcast, I'm really miserable right now.
- 18:10And, uh, yeah, it's going to really cheer you up.
- 18:13No one's going to do that.
- 18:14So we have to protect our best selves in our businesses, even when we're
- 18:18feeling a little bit less than best.
- 18:20So remember social media, isn't ultimately the truth.
- 18:24So don't compare yourself to it.
- 18:26If you want to know how someone's doing drop into their inbox and ask
- 18:29them, but don't compare yourself and it's even more important.
- 18:32Like I said, when you're feeling stressed or burnt out or like giving up, don't
- 18:36go ahead and do that to yourself.
- 18:38The best thing you can do in that instance, if an account is making
- 18:41you struggle, or you find yourself going to look at what they're
- 18:44doing, hide them, unfollow them.
- 18:46Don't block them.
- 18:47That's kind of mean, but just make sure that you can't see it because
- 18:50if it doesn't pop up on your newsfeed, you won't worry about it.
- 18:53Stay in your own lane.
- 18:54Don't worry about what anyone else is doing.
- 18:56Focus on yourself and getting the time, rest and energy back that you.
- 19:00Finally in this episode, I want to give you some really practical advice.
- 19:04If you're really struggling right now with feeling overwhelmed and feel like
- 19:08you're heading for burnout and everything just feels a little bit too much.
- 19:13Well, when you're feeling that way, like you've got way too much to do often.
- 19:17It's a sign of two things.
- 19:19Number one, perhaps you're spreading yourself far too thinly and therefore
- 19:24you're kind of not doing anything.
- 19:26If you are on every social media platform and trying to improve your SEO and
- 19:30trying to blog and trying to podcast and trying to run a Facebook group and
- 19:34all of the things all at the same time.
- 19:36And you feel like nothing's working it's probably a sign that you're just
- 19:39spreading yourself a little bit too thin, and you don't have the time to
- 19:42do everything well, if that is you, here's a couple of ideas for you.
- 19:48First up, have a look at what you're doing right now, and then look at where your
- 19:53enquiries recently have been coming from.
- 19:56If you're getting a lot of enquiries for wedding shows, or perhaps you're
- 19:59getting a lot of your inquiries from Instagram, or perhaps you're getting
- 20:02a lot of your enquiries are word of mouth, wherever you're getting the
- 20:06most inquiries, which are converting to bookings double down on that.
- 20:11If you're getting inquiries from a place double down and do more of
- 20:14it, if you know, wedding shows work really well for you and you need more.
- 20:18Well do more wedding shows.
- 20:20If you know, Instagram is super successful for you, we'll spend time
- 20:24doing more Instagram, maybe doing more reels or posting more content more
- 20:28often, whatever's working for you.
- 20:30Do more of it.
- 20:31Don't spread yourself too thinly.
- 20:34If, you know, wedding shows are amazing for you, then why are
- 20:37you spending time thinking about setting up a Tik Tok account, if you
- 20:40don't have the time at the moment.
- 20:42Okay.
- 20:42It's fine to introduce new channels and to try new things, but you have
- 20:46to make sure you've got the space in your diary to implement them.
- 20:50Don't get that shiny object syndrome where you just keep trying new things
- 20:53all of the time and see what sticks, make sure you're being strategic, thinking
- 20:57about where you're getting the most inquiries from and doubling down on.
- 21:03Now, if you're listening to this and you're thinking, yikes, I'm not
- 21:05getting inquiries from anywhere.
- 21:07Well, that may be a different conversation.
- 21:09Perhaps there's something wrong with your marketing or your messaging, maybe
- 21:12that needs reviewing, but maybe ask in my Facebook group where people get the
- 21:16most inquiries from and choose one of the most popular answers and spend time
- 21:20focusing and improving that, get training on that area, improve that area, get
- 21:25help with that area and see if you can convert it so that it starts working.
- 21:31The other tip I have for you, if you feel totally overwhelmed and like
- 21:34you've got way too many tasks and that's how I'm feeling right now, as
- 21:37I record this podcast, what I tend to do is get it all down on paper.
- 21:42So I get a big bit of white A4 paper, a pen.
- 21:45I switch everything off and I just write.
- 21:48Everything.
- 21:48That's in my head, all the tasks I've got to do all the
- 21:51things that feel overwhelming.
- 21:52And there's something freeing.
- 21:54First of all, of getting out of your head and onto paper.
- 21:56Sometimes there's not as much as you expected.
- 21:58Sometimes there's more than you expected, but at least it's
- 22:01out of your head and on paper.
- 22:02Sometimes I'll do that in the middle of the night or first thing in the
- 22:04morning, if it's keeping me awake.
- 22:07So get it all down on paper.
- 22:09The next thing I want you to do is start prioritizing those tasks.
- 22:12So get another piece of paper and start writing them in the priority order.
- 22:18What needs to happen first?
- 22:19And how many hours is that going to take you?
- 22:21What needs to happen?
- 22:22Second, third, fourth, fifth, and get them down.
- 22:24Cross them off on the original piece of paper and get them marked down.
- 22:28If it's not a priority and it doesn't need to be done this week.
- 22:31Maybe make a note in your diary to look at it for next week.
- 22:34Take it off your list entirely.
- 22:37Spending five, 10 minutes doing this exercise can make a ton of difference.
- 22:41It gives you the freedom in your brain to process everything, to feel less
- 22:45overwhelmed and to realize what tasks are the most important money generating
- 22:49tasks are very important in business.
- 22:52So make sure if you've got anything involving invoices.
- 22:55Booking inquiries contracts.
- 22:57They go top of your list because ultimately it's really important that
- 23:00you get the money in to run a business.
- 23:03The other really important task is obviously if you've got a wedding day
- 23:05coming up, but if you've done what I said earlier and booked in time for that.
- 23:10Before the wedding day, then you won't have this problem.
- 23:14So make sure you're prioritizing your tasks, get them out of your head down
- 23:17on a piece of paper and then start numbering them in order of doing them.
- 23:21And then it's really important that when you're doing that work time, you focus.
- 23:25So put your phone in airplane mode or hide it.
- 23:27If you've got no self control, like I don't sometimes and start working
- 23:31through those tasks in number order.
- 23:33Anything else don't open your emails.
- 23:36Don't open your Facebook page.
- 23:37Don't do anything until you've ticked those tasks off.
- 23:40Then give yourself a break.
- 23:42Do those other things.
- 23:43Check your Facebook, check your emails.
- 23:44If you want to.
- 23:45And then come back to your list, put your phone off again and carry on.
- 23:49I promise you you'll be so much more productive and you'll feel so much
- 23:52better when you get those tasks ticked.
- 23:55The other reason that you might be feeling close to burnout, stressed or overwhelmed.
- 24:00It may actually be a good thing because it means you're really successful.
- 24:04And you just need to look at how you do things differently.
- 24:07I've watched lots of you over the last few years go from very new wedding
- 24:11business owners, not having much.
- 24:14To do with inquiries, not having much in the way of bookings, having
- 24:17a lot of desire to learn, go through my courses, join my membership
- 24:22and become incredibly successful.
- 24:24In fact, having more bookings or more inquiries than you can.
- 24:29And that's incredible.
- 24:31And although right now you're feeling overwhelmed and stressed.
- 24:33First of all, you need to give yourself a massive pat on the back, look at
- 24:37how far you've come over the last couple of years, you've hit the dream.
- 24:40You've got the inquiries you've desperately wanted.
- 24:43You've got the booking she desperately wanted, and now you just need to
- 24:46rethink how you do your business.
- 24:48If that's you, you're very successful.
- 24:50You're getting lots of enquiries in and you're getting the bookings
- 24:52in and you just can't cope.
- 24:55Let me suggest two ideas to help you.
- 24:58First of all, it may be time to raise your prices.
- 25:02If you're getting loads of inquiries at your current price, more than
- 25:05you can handle, perhaps you need to bump that price up so that you can
- 25:09get more money from less bookings.
- 25:11You can't keep on adding bookings in.
- 25:13Otherwise you're going to get more and more burnt out.
- 25:16So instead raise your prices.
- 25:17If you're fully booked at the price you are right now, you can probably raise
- 25:21your prices and still be fully booked.
- 25:25If you're not a position right now that you want to raise your prices.
- 25:28And actually probably most of you could raise your prices a little bit.
- 25:32The other thing to look at is outsourcing when your business gets to a certain size,
- 25:37you can no longer do everything yourself.
- 25:39That doesn't mean you can't do it.
- 25:42Okay.
- 25:42I struggled with this for a long time because I thought, why do I want to
- 25:45pay someone else to do my social media or my blog posts or my tech stuff?
- 25:50When I perfectly capable of doing it myself and saving money, well the reason
- 25:55you just don't have time to do everything.
- 25:56And actually someone else can do some of the tasks for you.
- 26:00So if you're looking at outsourcing, look at everything you do in your
- 26:03business and start to categorize things.
- 26:05What's absolutely essential that you do.
- 26:08For example, for me recording this podcast is an essential task for me.
- 26:13I can't get an assistant come and record it for me.
- 26:15It would be strange.
- 26:17You want to hear from me and my.
- 26:19However, if I wanted to, I could outsource the editing of the
- 26:22podcast or the transcription of the podcast to save myself time
- 26:27where I could be doing other tasks.
- 26:29So there will be things in your business that are essential for you
- 26:31to do, and there'll be other things in your business that you could
- 26:34outsource and allow someone else to do.
- 26:37Not because you can't do them, but because you need to free up your time
- 26:40to do the thing that you're the best at.
- 26:42So for example, it may be, you could take on double the amount of wedding bookings.
- 26:46If you paid someone else to do your.
- 26:49Or you could take on more wedding bookings if you paid someone else to be a VA for
- 26:53you and to manage your diary, or perhaps if you've got someone else to come and
- 26:57work for you to halve the load on the day, you could fit more bookings in.
- 27:02There's always ways you can look at outsourcing.
- 27:05So, first of all, look at what you have to do and what someone
- 27:08else could do, and then look at what you really don't enjoy doing.
- 27:12Now that might be within your business, or it could be within your home.
- 27:16So for example, very recently I hired a cleaner because I hate cleaning.
- 27:21I'm terrible at cleaning.
- 27:22It takes time and actually, I just don't really have time to do it well.
- 27:26So I've started paying someone which helps their business.
- 27:29And at the same time, it frees me up for another couple of hours a week.
- 27:33I don't have that burden and guilt of feeling like I need to spend that
- 27:36time cleaning the home and I'm able to spend that time on my business.
- 27:41So there will be things in your business that you love and there'll
- 27:43be things in your business that you don't like, or maybe things
- 27:46in your home that you don't like.
- 27:47And you could outsource to somebody else now that's going to be different
- 27:51for each and every one of you.
- 27:53But if you're feeling like you've got too much work, you can't stay at this point.
- 27:58You've got to do something about it, whether that's raising your prices and
- 28:01working less or outsourcing some of that work to a VA, to a freelancer, to a
- 28:07specialist, to your family member, to a cousin, to a student, to an apprentice, to
- 28:11anyone so that you can free up your time to increase your business in other areas.
- 28:18Now there's been a lot to take onboard in today's episode, but
- 28:22I think it's really important.
- 28:23We talk about these things in business because it's the reality.
- 28:26Everything's not perfect all of the time.
- 28:29And if we think that everyone else's business is perfect, we need to
- 28:32think again, because I know all of you have your own struggles with
- 28:35all sorts of different things.
- 28:37And if we're honest, I think as business owners, we're really
- 28:39prone to working too hard and to getting stressed and burnt out.
- 28:43Let me remind you to go and take a look at that.
- 28:46Um, NHS website, I've popped the link in the show notes,
- 28:49if you need additional help.
- 28:50And if you're looking for the support of your peers, go into my free Facebook
- 28:54group, wedding pros, ready to grow or come and join my wedding pro membership because
- 28:58that's a place where you can be super safe, super vulnerable, and we share with
- 29:02each other, how business is really going.
- 29:05We don't pretend that it's all rosy.
- 29:07I'll see you next time.
- 29:13One thing I love about the wedding industry is the other amazing
- 29:16people you get to work with.
- 29:17If you want to meet like-minded wedding pros, just like you, then why
- 29:21not join my free Facebook community wedding pros who are ready to grow.
- 29:25Come meet some new connections, hang out with me and hopefully learn some new
- 29:29things to, just search for us on Facebook.