Design Your Business | Empowering Creative Women Business Owners

Have you ever done a styled shoot for your wedding business? If you have, you’ll know that they make great marketing material, but they take a lot of work to create, coordinate, and execute from start to finish. So, are styled shoots worth the effort? I thought we should ask a professional.  Margaux Fraise is here on Design Your Wedding Business to teach us all about the pros and cons of styled sh...

What do you do when your pricing doesn’t seem to fit in any market? Your business has grown and you’ve gotten too expensive for the budget shoppers, but you don’t yet have the reputation or prestige that luxury clients are looking for. Does that sound like you?  It’s a tricky spot to be in, so in this episode of Design Your Wedding Business, we’re hearing from someone who has been there and naviga...

How do you get into the luxury market?  If your goal is to work with high-end clients, you might be wondering where to start. I have the perfect guest for you in this episode of the Design Your Wedding Business podcast. James Christianson from James x Schulze is sharing his expert advice for breaking into the luxury market as a wedding professional.  There’s more to this than just marketing; we’re...

Follow-up. You know you need to do it, but it always ends up on the back burner.  In this episode of Design Your Wedding Business, I’m joined by fellow wedding industry mentor Kate Storey to talk about why follow-ups are so valuable and how to use them to get more bookings from your ideal wedding clients.  Believe it or not, a good follow-up strategy can double or even triple your business. Yes, t...

Wedding shows: we all have questions about them. Which is the right show for me? Are they worth it? What should I bring? How do I capture the attention of attendees? Kristen DeBadts has answers for you in this episode of Design Your Wedding Business.  Kristen and I are getting into the nitty-gritty of how to choose the right wedding show for you, prepare for it, and follow up afterward. If you’ve...

What does building a house have in common with building a business? Well, for starters, a house can’t be built in a day and neither can your business. It takes time to lay the foundation, create the structure, and get everything working smoothly. In this episode of Design Your Wedding Business, I’m walking you through the process of building and structuring your business and standard operating pro...

Have you been wondering about Human Design but don’t know where to start? Let me make things easier for you and give you a starting point right here! When I first heard about Human Design I was enthralled. It showed me so much about who I am as a person and in turn as a business owner.  If you’re wondering what Human Design is and what it has to do with business, don’t worry, our guest Melissa Fro...

How can you incorporate more self-care into your life?  A few months ago, I did a self-care Sundays series on the 8 Dimensions of Self-Care. In this episode of Design Your Wedding Business, I’m joined by the author of that framework herself, Stacy Fisher.  Stacy is talking about what self-care really is and how to discover what it means to you. She’s walking us through the 8 Dimensions of Self-Car...

What are you doing to continue your education as a wedding professional? Let’s face it, you don't just sign one contract, send out one proposal, do one wedding, and know it all. You have to take time to continue to invest in yourself to grow as a business owner and wedding professional. That’s why continuing education within the industry is so important, and in this episode of Design Your Wed...

So, the slow season is approaching and you know you had things you wanted to do but you can’t remember what they all were.  Don’t panic, I’m sharing my list of everything I like to get done during the off-season to make sure that my business can continue running smoothly. Work your way through this list and you’ll be good to go by the time things start picking up again.  Take advantage of this slo...

How can you simplify your schedule? There are three things you need to include in your schedule to set yourself up for the best week possible, and I’m sharing them in this episode of Design Your Wedding Business.  I’m teaching you how to plan your calendar and create your schedule to make your weeks more manageable, productive, and efficient. If you want to save yourself time and make sure that yo...

Do you have a process for wrapping up your year and transitioning into the new year? If not, get some inspiration from this episode of the Design Your Wedding Business podcast.  I’m sharing what I do at the end of each year to prepare for the new year and make the transition as easy as possible. We’re covering organization, standard operating procedures, pricing, and more.  Ensure that no areas of...

How do you feel about your conflict resolution skills? Could they use some brushing up?  At some point in your career, you might experience a relationship with a coworker that goes sideways. It might be a passing comment that gets taken the wrong way or maybe an action that causes hurt and distrust. Whatever the cause, we all have to repair relationships from time to time.  Luckily for us, I know...

Have you ever been in a toxic relationship with a client? It’s hard to accept when a client relationship isn’t working out, but sometimes it’s better to move on than be hurt by a toxic client relationship (or any relationship for that matter). I had the opportunity to sit down with Cathy O’Connell to talk about walking away from toxic relationships. How do you do it? How do you know when it’s time...

Do you often feel stressed or overwhelmed? We all face stressful situations in our careers as wedding professionals, whether it’s at an event, in a meeting with a client, or behind the scenes. This episode is going to provide you with the tools you need to regulate your system and manage stress.  Christina Algeciras is joining us to share her knowledge of the nervous system and teach us some of th...

This episode is a tribute to my new life. Five years ago at 2 a.m. on October 31st, my husband passed away.   As I reflected on this experience and what I wanted to share about it, I thought about all the things I’ve learned and worked on over the last five years that have shaped me into who I am today, and that’s what I want to talk about. Of course, there have been times that felt impossibly dif...

How do you balance your wedding business with all the obligations you have over the holidays? The holiday season is just around the corner, so it’s time to start thinking about how to prepare to make sure that you can enjoy your holiday season and not burn yourself out from trying to do all the things.  There are two important questions for you to ask yourself: what are your self-imposed obligatio...

Do I need to hire a virtual assistant? If you’re asking yourself this question, this episode of Design Your Wedding Business is for you. As your wedding business coach and mentor, I want to make sure you have all the information you need about who to hire in your business. We’ve talked about online business managers, now it’s time to cover virtual assistants.  Emilie Given is here to answer all yo...

Do you need an online business manager? That’s the million-dollar question that I’m going to answer in this episode with the help of our guest, Kristin Amundson.  If you have no clue where to start when it comes to hiring an online business manager or virtual assistant for your wedding business, we’ve got you covered. We’re starting with the basics like what an online business manager is, what the...

Where are my organization lovers at? Okay, how about my organization haters? Whatever camp you fall in, I want you to listen up for this episode!  I’m getting geeky with Lisa McHargue and we’re talking about organizing your digital clutter. Lisa is walking us through how to streamline your email, Google Drive, Dropbox, hard drive, and other digital storage systems. If you’re overwhelmed by your di...

As business owners in the digital age, we are constantly surrounded by screens. From the computers in our offices to the smartphones in our pockets, it seems as though we're always connected, but have you taken measures to protect your business privacy and ensure your personal safety?  In this episode of Design Your Wedding Business, we are discussing the often overlooked yet extremely vital...

Are you making marketing decisions based on data and analytics? If not, you’re missing out on an opportunity to make your marketing much more effective.  Lisa Galletti is joining me to talk about how to validate your marketing efforts with Google Analytics. She gets that Google Analytics can be overwhelming and she’s here to help.  This episode will walk you through what Google Analytics is, how t...

Do you feel a little lost when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? It sounds complicated and technical, but the most important SEO principles are actually pretty simple and can do a lot for the visibility of your wedding business.  Let’s dive into the world of SEO with marketing expert Adrienna McDermott. You might remember her from our recent episode about marketing funnels, and she’s b...

Do you find marketing overwhelming in an age of social media, digital advertising, and advanced technology? A lot has changed since the days when we depended on flyers, brochures, and magazines to get the word out. Now it can be all too easy to get lost trying to navigate things like graphic design, video content, and SEO.  Enter Tayler Cusick Hollman. She is here to share her top marketing tech t...

How can you create more visibility for your wedding business? Over the next few episodes of the Design Your Wedding Business podcast, we’ll be learning about some of the best tools available to help you grow your wedding business through marketing and visibility.  These tools are going to make things easier for you behind the scenes of your business so that you can spend more time doing what you r...