Wedding Business Solutions

Terry Brock - ChatGPT, AI and your business! Have you heard of ChatGPT? It seems to be all over the place these days in the news and in discussions online and off. It’s next-level AI (Artificial Intelligence) is even making Google play catch-up. I wanted to know more, so I invited my friend, and tech guru, Terry Brock to join me to fill us all in on what it is, where to find it, how to use it for...

Can your business survive without social media? Is that a controversial headline for you? It’s the title of the only presentation I do solely on Social Media. I touch on social media in many of my trainings and talks, but I stay away from talking about the platform of the moment, because that can change in the blink of an eye. And, as you are reading this, some platform you’re using has adjusted s...

Letting Go of Perfection This is another listener suggestion, from Walter in New Jersey. He knows that he’s a perfectionist, but it sometimes gets in the way of getting the work done on time, especially when it involves other wedding/event pros. Can you relate? When we know we can do better, we want to do better. If we have an unlimited timeline, as when making art for yourself, that’s fine. But w...

Ben Herman – Do you have a system for your business? I’m sure you know how to deliver the products and services for you business, and you probably have a system to help you get it right, every time. You’ve likely honed that system over time, as you gained more experience. Do you also have a system for running your business? That’s a completely different set of steps and things you need to have a p...

A tale of two cities No, not the Charles Dickens story, this episode is a tale of the different experiences I had recently at two locations of the same brand. It got me thinking about the consistency, or inconsistency, between experiences your couples, clients and their guests might have, either when encountering different members of your staff, or at different events. Listen to this new, 6-minute...

I just finished reading (listening) to a great book, for the second time, called “The JOLT Effect”. It’s from the same authors as “The Challenger Sale”, a book I’ve mentioned here before on the podcast. They bring up a very interesting concept that oftentimes, they’re convinced that you’re a good fit for them and their needs, yet they still say No. It could be indecision that’s holding them back a...

Meghan Ely - PR for your wedding business I love having interesting guests on, especially friends that have so much to share. Meghan has pivoted from doing weddings at a 5-star hotel to being one of few people in the world that specialize in helping wedding businesses, like yours, with PR (Public Relations). Listen to this new episode for ideas you can use, right away, to help get your wedding bus...

Are things slowing down a bad thing? I’ve been predicting for about 2 years that things would be slowing down as things went from pandemic lockdowns to the next normal. Yet some people are freaking out that their inquiries have slowed down. After the craziness that so many of us felt in 2022, is a slowdown actually a good thing? Listen to this new, 7-minute episode for a little reality check and p...

Is making it easier for you, making it harder for your customers? Have you ever been a customer where you encountered a store or business’ policy that just made you scratch your head? Too often companies do things that make things easier for them and their employees, without realizing that they’re making it harder for the most important people… their customers. Are you doing that? Listen to this n...

Janelle Barlow - A complaint is a gift! When is a complaint a gift? Actually, almost every time. I’m so happy to have Dr. Janelle Barlow on to discuss this topic that’s so relevant to our industry and the world we live in. It’s not just about customer complaints, it’s also internal from our staff. We had a great discussion about reviews and other forms of feedback. Janelle shares ideas from her bo...

What's the worst that could happen? Too often people get stymied by the possibility of something bad happening, even if the likelihood of that result is slim. Instead, what if you embraced the worst that could happen, visualize it and use it to help you move forward? Listen to this new, 8-minute episode to see how “the worst that could happen” could really be an asset to you, instead of a roa...

Decision complexity or decision simplicity? I was reading a great book by Jon Picoult - "From Impressed to Obsessed", and one of the concepts he wrote about is Decision complexity vs decision simplicity. In our world that means are we making it easy or hard for our customers to make a decision, whether it’s for the initial sale, or post-sale choices (menus, colors, music and more). Liste...

If you’ve heard me speak about sales, or read my books, you’ve probably heard me use the phrase “Would it make sense…?” as a soft lead-in to asking for the sale. I also always credit a speaker friend, Lois Creamer, from whom I learned this, years ago. So, it’s only fitting that I have Lois on and talk about the origin of the phrase, how it’s used and more fun stuff. Listen to this new dialog episo...

Pick Your Hard After recording an episode with Trip Wheeler he told me that he has been trying to live by the credo “Pick Your Hard”. When I asked him to explain, he told me that life is hard, business is hard, relationships are hard, and we have to make choices, every day to pick the hard that we want to go forward with. Listen to this new, 6-minute episode to get a better understanding of what t...

The lure of the friendor  When couples or customers choose to have a friend or relative do some part of their wedding or event for free, or cheap, it can be frustrating. Have you ever been a friendor, or used the services of a friendor? Have you ever had good results being or using a friendor? Is the problem really using a friendor, or getting bad results? Listen to this new, 8-minute episode for...

Mark Chapman – Are TikTok Ads Right for Your Business? I hear a lot of talk about whether TikTok ads are something that you should be using. So, I reached out to my go-to expert, Mark Chapman, from The I Do Society, to break this down for us. So, in this new episode we talk about TikTok, TikTok ads and how they’re different than Instagram or Facebook ads, and whether you might want to consider the...

Do the same problems come up over and over?  Are there some problems that just keep cropping up? Whether it’s with your customers, your couples, and even with your staff or industry partners, if there are some things that seem to come up often, the problem just might lie in an unexpected place. Listen to this new, 5-minute episode to see if the problem really is your customers, or maybe it’s in th...

How accessible should you be? This is another listener suggestion. Valerie wrote to me on Facebook messenger and posed this question. So, how accessible should you be? Do you have to reply to every email, text and WhatsApp message, regardless of the time of day or night? Or, is it OK to set boundaries and regular business hours? Listen to this new, 8-minute episode for some ideas on how to set you...

Trip Wheeler - Is inflation eating your catering profits? Inflation has taken a bite out of the profits of every wedding and event business. It’s not just food and supplies, it’s gas, shipping, supply chain disruptions and more. I invited Trip Wheeler back on to talk about what the future might bring, and to share his expertise, since his business is all about saving caterers on your food and supp...

Do they need more choices or just the perception of choice? When we’re trying to help our couples and customers make decisions, do they really need more choices, or just the perception that they have choices? That’s the paradox of choice. When we’re the customer, we want to know we have choices. However, when we see the myriad choices out there, we can’t decide. So, what do your customers need – m...

I used to be competitive When I was younger, I was very competitive. Whether it’s maturity, or just getting older (and wiser?), but now I look at being competitive very differently. While life has some zero-sum games (sports has winners and losers), most of our efforts are happening in abundant places, where someone getting more doesn’t really affect the rest of us. Listen to this new, 6-minute ep...

Brian Lawrence – Making Your Business More Visible Online  When it comes to increasing your visibility online, my go-to guy is Brian Lawrence. So, I asked Brian to come back on to discuss the Google Business Profile and much more. We talked about the change from Google My Business and what you can do to help your business and website show up more online. Listen to this new episode for some tips yo...

What's your next big idea? Are you just going through doing the same things, year after year? Or, are you coming up with new ideas to stay ahead of people who are trying to copy you? New ideas don’t always have to be big changes, and they may even come from outside your category or even outside the industry.  Listen to this new, 6-minute episode for some thoughts on how coming up with, and tr...

Quality is just table stakes When playing competitive poker, you have to pay to get into the game. That’s called the “table stakes”. When it comes to the wedding and events industry, or really any business, quality is table stakes. You can’t claim doing quality work as a differentiating factor. It’s the minimum required to be in business or in the industry. So, what are your differentiators? Liste...

Rod McMahon – Rightsizing your business I’ve had guests on who have scaled their businesses way up. And I’ve had some on who’ve intentionally scaled their businesses down, some down to just them. I’ve asked my friend Rod McMahon on to talk about how he’s scaled his business up, then down, to the right size for him. Listen to this episode and hear how he’s profiting more, doing less events, so you...