In this episode of Mind Your Wedding Business, Kevin Dennis sits down with marketing strategist Heidi Thompson to talk about what’s really happening in the wedding industry right now and how to book more weddings without feeling completely overwhelmed.

Heidi shares insights on generational shifts, the rise of Gen Z couples, and why today’s buyers expect clarity, transparency, and trust long before they ever reach out. She breaks down the difference between visibility, messaging, and positioning — and why standing out is more important than simply being seen.

Together, they explore why referrals are still one of the most powerful booking tools, how to stop overworking in the name of growth, and what systems can help you market smarter instead of longer. If booking feels harder than it used to, this conversation will help you refocus on what actually moves the needle.

Heidi Thompson is the best-selling author of Clone Your Best Clients and the wedding business coach behind Evolve Your Wedding Business. She helps wedding professionals build focused, strategic marketing systems that consistently book ideal clients — without living on Instagram or working 60-hour weeks.

Her expertise has been featured by WeddingMBA, Aisle Planner, HoneyBook, WeddingWire World, and other leading industry platforms. Heidi is also the creator and host of the Book More Weddings Summit and Wedding Business CEO Summit, and has helped thousands of wedding pros worldwide grow sustainable businesses over the past 14+ years.

Highlights

1. What’s shifting in the wedding industry right now
2. How Gen Z buyers are changing the booking process
3. Why price transparency builds trust
4. Messaging and positioning vs. visibility
5. The overlooked power of referrals
6. Working smarter instead of longer
7. Simple systems to reduce overwhelm
8. Attracting ideal clients by speaking their language

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All right, folks, welcome to another episode of Mind Your Wedding Business. I am Kevin Dennis, and I'm here today with the one and only Heidi Thompson. How are you doing, Heidi?

I'm doing well, thanks for having me.

Good. I'm excited to have you. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how we got you here today?

Yeah, absolutely. So I've spent the last 14 years helping wedding pros make their marketing easier, book more weddings and build businesses that are actually sustainable, that give them freedom and flexibility. And I'm also the host of Book More Weddings Summit and Wedding Business CEO Summit. The latter one is coming up really soon here starting February 16th through the 20th and Kevin is going to be speaking at it.

That's right. I'm excited to be there. Thank you for having me. So all right. So today we're going to be talking about what's happening in the industry right now and how to book more weddings without being completely overwhelmed all the time. Because I feel like this is so in my market right now, because I know everyone's market is different, but in my market right now is ⁓ booking season is what we call it from now until the end of February. It's just when everyone's booking and it just

Yeah, I love having you on.

I can't ⁓ stretch myself enough to be on multiple Zoom calls and site surveys and everything, you name it. It's all happening right now. So I think this is a really good topic for us to dive into. So all right. So from your vantage point, working with wedding pros around the world, what are the biggest shifts you're seeing in the industry right now?

There's a lot of interesting things happening in the industry now. And I think we're seeing multiple different things converge at once. So we have a generational shift happening where many of our couples are now shifting into Gen Z. We have economic turmoil where people are more discerning and they are doing more research to make their decisions. We have more crowded marketplaces.

We love it.

Mm-hmm.

than ever. And then of course, we have things like AI tools. So all of this is happening all at once. It's a lot going on. I get it. ⁓ But I think a lot of these things are converging in ways that actually create better businesses and create less overwhelming businesses. So, you know, in particular, I

Yeah.

always been a huge proponent of like, you need to stand out. People need to be able to distinguish between you and your competitors if you want to compete on anything other than price. And I noticed last year that started to become a major determinant between people I saw that were doing well and people that were really struggling. And I'm just seeing that, you know, really, really escalate. And the great thing about that, the great thing about these generational shifts,

Mm-hmm.

They're all forcing us to get better, but also to work smarter and in a more streamlined way. So we aren't scrambling all the time. So I really see them as opportunities.

Yeah.

I love that you have the positive outlook on the whole situation. So are there any trends you think wedding professionals are overreacting to or underestimating right now?

Yeah, underestimating, I think people really underestimate the value. Clearly standing out, clearly being the go-to person for someone. And I look at wedding professionals websites constantly in my business and if they're marketing. And I can't tell like 80 % of them apart. And I'm in this business. So if I can't tell them apart,

Okay.

Okay.

really? Yeah.

and I could copy and paste stuff from each person's website and nobody would notice. Think about what someone who's coming into this as the very first time is experiencing. They don't understand why they should book you, why they should work with you. And they really want you to tell them that. want, everyone wants like a clear, yes, this is the thing for me. Think about like anytime we're shopping, anytime you find like, this is for people who want X, Y, Z things.

my god.

Yeah.

And you're like, wait, that's exactly what I want. That's exactly what I'll go for. I think people really underestimate the power of standing out and the power of really honing in on who it is that you want to serve and making yourself the go-to person. I also think people are underestimating the difference between millennials and Gen Z. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

No, big difference. Yeah.

And I think it's really interesting because millennials grew up on, you know, from I I'm an elder millennial. I was born in 86. So I grew up like middle school, high school into college on like early Internet. But I wasn't like buying things on the Internet until I was older. Gen Z has always had a fully developed digital ecosystem that is

Mm-hmm.

optimized, that is well designed, that has been cultivated to get people to take action, to add things to cart on Amazon. know, all of these things were established by the time they came around. So the way they shop is different. The way they look for things is different. The way even, you know, price transparency has been an issue that has come up yet again, because millennials were definitely concerned about

Mm-hmm.

price transparency, but I feel like we grew up with certain services like you had to inquire to find out more. Gen Z does not have that experience. They just don't have that life experience. So why would they take that extra step when they can go with someone that's giving them all the information that isn't trying to get them onto a call to settle? Because they know, they know. They know what you're doing. They're savvier.

Mm. Yeah.

Yeah.

than generations that have come before. But I think a lot of people see Gen Z as this like continuation of millennials, but I think they're very different. Like they grew up in very different markets in very different ecosystems with different expectations about the simplicity of purchasing things and the clarity of information. Whereas millennials, like we had to work a little more for it, you know,

the internet wasn't always super easy to navigate, they just never had that experience. So if you want to sell more to that group, that clarity, that transparency, that trust building, allowing them to seamlessly and simply converse with you and not throw hurdles in the way and make it a complicated process, I think is even more important than it was with Millennials.

funny I have a 13 year old which I forget what she's like on the border of a couple of the generations but she ⁓ one of her favorite things to do is collect physical media which is CDs and records and all so and I

I have friends

with kids around that age and they're like super into like CDs and like I've seen people buying their kids landlines and they're like super nerding out about it. It's adorable.

Yeah!

I know.

I'm just like, all things, go, are we coming full circle on this? But anyway, when you were talking about you never purchased anything online or just as a kid, I'm like, well, you were probably buying CDs and you were doing all the stuff that all of a sudden is really cool right now.

Hahaha!

Yeah.

Yeah,

and it's a different trust environment. think, know, Gen Z, Gen Opa, they're more aware, they're less trusting of just things that are out there because they've been exposed to more of it. I think the further you go out, older generations tend to be more trusting. That's why, unfortunately, like they get targeted for scams because they tend to just trust, you know, businesses, people that sound authoritative.

Mmm.

Yeah.

That decreases with every generation. So we really have to look at like, how are we building trust in your communication, in your transparency, in your brand, allowing them to come to trust you before they reach out, because that's what they're doing. They're doing the research.

Yeah, and think that jumps right into our next question about trust would be, how has buyer behavior changed recently, and what do wedding pros need to understand about today's couples to stay competitive?

I've always been a proponent of price transparency. I've been talking about it for ages. It is no longer negotiable. You are getting skipped over if you are at the very least not giving an indication of Yes. Give me a range. me a typical couple of spends. Give me something so that I can see is this worth my time or is this not worth my time.

⁓ I love that.

a range. that? Yeah, OK.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

because

I'll self-select out if it's not. And that's great. That's a good thing. If you're not what people are looking for, that's totally fine. They should be self-selecting out. But that is incredibly important. And I think it builds a lot of trust because when you withhold that, first of all, it's really funny that there are people that will withhold that information and then they get mad when someone asks about it. And it's like,

That's the thing you're hiding. Like you're covering it up and then wondering why people are asking about it. It's like, well, because that's the thing you're withholding. But it builds trust to provide pricing, to be able to share that, or at least explain why. think we underestimate what this is like when you're doing it as a couple for the first time. And you're like, why can't you just give me a price?

Yeah.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Let them

know, like, you know, price depends on number of guests and the type of menu that you choose, but our typical, you know, couple spends X amount per guest or something like that. Then they're like, ⁓ okay, I understand. Or flowers vary in cost by season. They probably didn't know that, but now they do and they trust you because you were upfront with

Yeah.

Mmm.

Yeah, and do you think because we have to build trust with these, you know, our couples today that it the The process is it's taking longer to book these clients and to get them You know to where they need to be. Yeah

That's an interesting question because

I think a lot of the trust is actually built before they ever reach out. So the trust is built in what they can find about you, what you're putting out there yourself, how you're communicating your brand. Do you stand out? Are you the go-to? Do you have good social proof? Do you have testimonials? Are you featuring any, you know, client case studies or anything like that?

Yeah.

So they're seeing and understanding that, like they're really not reaching out to people they just don't trust. And they're looking for signifiers of that. So are other people finding that you are trustworthy? know, all types of social proof, not just like featured in certain places, but like client testimonials, client case studies, features of your wedding and talking through about like,

No, okay.

how this is what they really wanted and this is how you dealt with it. And featuring that on your social media as well, I think that really allows you to get to know a business before you ever reach out to them. And we need to allow people to do that because they're more likely to reach out to you if they can actually see like, okay, like this aligns with the kind of person I'm looking for.

Mm.

I'm seeing that people like me find them trustworthy. I'm doing research in different areas. People have this and this to say about them. So a lot of that is done in the research and the fact-finding phase, which, I mean, the only thing you really control is your website, getting reviews. But I think really making sure that you're showing.

Mm.

and not just telling. If we can get more into this mindset of showing over telling, yeah, it becomes a lot easier to communicate things. So it's not just like, here's this beautiful wedding. It's here's this beautiful wedding. And the thing that the couple really wanted when they came to me was XYZ thing. And they were concerned about this because this family issue or this issue with, you know, whatever it is, but it allows you to step into it.

I like that.

Yeah.

little bit more and see like okay like this person can problem solve they can handle things they can roll with.

Mm.

And to me too, I'm wondering, they have to get to know you as a person as well as a business. And maybe what you stand for as a person and what you stand for as a business, that's part of the process where before it used to be, don't show your personal life on social media. Now it's like, you need to put your personal life out there.

Definitely.

Absolutely, and you can decide to what degree you do that. Like you don't have to share absolutely everything. But if, you know, a lot of couples you're working with have kids and you have kids like sharing things about doing kids stuff or, you know, sharing stuff about your dog or just sharing some behind the scenes stuff, that's really valuable and it lets people in and we all love that stuff. Whether we'll admit to it or not, we all love.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. No, it's

just like that glimpse behind the scenes.

And

I think you hit on it is like dogs for sure. Yeah, everyone can that touches everyone. then and then some people kids because even you know, some of these couples want to have kids someday. So they I get a lot of questions about my kids, you know, from my couples and how I navigate different things. Or it's just kind of interesting to me. I'm like, ⁓ OK, yeah, let's have this conversation. But it just.

Yeah, because it's

like, you're a dad, you understand, like can talk to you about.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's probably a good way of feeling it. So all right, for someone who feels it's like harder to book than it used to be, what's the first assumption they should challenge?

I this. I think this really comes back to confusion on behalf of the couple. understand you exist. That is kind of it. They don't understand why they should choose you over someone else. They don't understand how you're different. They don't understand. I like to think of it, you know, in the marketing world, we think of things in like

Uh-huh.

problem solution. We don't really tend to do that in the wedding industry, but I find it really helpful to really think about like, what is the problem that they want you to solve and really positioning yourself as a solution to that problem that they're looking for. So specificity is specificity and clarity is really the antidote to confusion. And I think it's a huge opportunity. It's

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

you can see it as like, it's so much harder. I think it's just the wedding industry has stepped up a level of like market maturity. Where like, you know, in a town you used to be able to be like the bakery, you know, and now like you need to be the sandwich shop or you need to be like the bagel place or you need to be the donut place. Like it has just upped a level of market sophistication and specialization and

Yeah.

Yeah.

The cool thing about that is if you actually take the mindset that this is an opportunity, it allows you to carve out a segment of the market that you can completely own, that will be totally yours. And you won't have to compete on price with everyone that is selling the same thing because you're no longer selling the same thing that everyone.

Yeah.

to everyone.

Yeah, yeah, I like that. Yeah, because I know some planners that specialize like in Indian weddings or different things. And therefore then boom, they become the the go to for that, you know, that segment that's planning weddings. So it Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

And it could be something like that. It could be stylistic. It could be they care about their wedding being like really sustainable. Or I have a client who specializes in like outdoor and backyard weddings and all the complications that come with that. So. Well.

Yeah.

Which everyone thinks is easy to do, but it's

harder to do that than getting married at a venue.

Yeah,

and you better believe when someone is researching that she's coming up because she is the specific answer to the question. know, people aren't searching for wedding planner. I mean, they are. But if they can find a solution that's like wedding planner for an outdoor wedding at a national park and that's something that you know how to do, you know, all the ins and outs you are.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

maybe specializing in entirely, maybe it's a segment of your business, but you're putting yourself out there as an expert in that area. my God, you're going to jump right to the top of the list.

Yeah.

Well, then probably your interest align with your clients as well when you go that route as well. ⁓

Absolutely. Yeah, you're going to be outdoorsy. Like you're going to be

aligned in so many different ways. And it becomes like an instant like, my God, this is exactly who I need to work with as opposed to here are 10 people who I guess could do the job, but no one's really standing out.

Yeah.

Yeah, love it. All right, so you're known for helping wedding pros book more without working 60 hours a week. So what's the biggest mistake you see professionals make when they're trying to grow their business?

It's the belief that doing more equals more, right? That if we put in more input, we get in more output. And a lot of times that doesn't actually work. And it is a huge, weird mindset thing in running a business. There are times where I know very well that something I'm doing that takes me 15 minutes is gonna have a bigger result than something that takes me four hours. And I'm still in the back of my head like, this doesn't feel hard enough.

Mmm.

wow.

This doesn't feel like I'm having to put as much effort into it, but we need to stay focused on the things that actually get us the best return on investment. And when I see people do that, they end up shedding a lot stuff that they're doing that isn't working for them, that doesn't actually generate results. They're just doing it because they feel like they need to do it.

Yeah.

Mm.

And paring down and being really specific to, you know, I take my clients through, you know, we're building this marketing plan. You're going to make all the decisions upfront. If we're focusing on like getting more referrals, if we're focusing on SEO, if we're focusing on Instagram, we go deeper. So what are you specifically doing to get referrals? What are you specifically doing with your SEO? What are you specifically doing on Instagram?

Mm-hmm.

And when you actually break it down into like, these are the decisive intentional actions I'm going to take, you might get like two to three hours per week that you actually have to do these things, but it's going to yield better results. And I fully understand if you don't believe me, cause it doesn't make any sense. We always think, you know, working harder is going to yield better results. But I was telling one of my clients who was asking about like,

Yeah. Yeah.

dealing with this mindset that you have to remind yourself on a regular basis that you get to choose between digging a hole with a spoon or digging a hole with a backhoe. And you get to choose the backhoe. You get to choose the digger, like the easy option that's going to make this easier and get better results faster. But I think it's really important to recognize that that's not naturally where our brains want to go.

Mm-hmm. ⁓

Yeah.

And we naturally want to work ourselves to a result when sometimes the opposite is what you need. You need to take things off your plate and you need to be really intentional about the things you're doing and it winds up taking less time, which yeah, you got to check yourself and your brain with that because it does not feel right.

No.

Yeah, it's funny. I have been around and been doing this so long that I started my business without even a computer. And so I would have to type my contracts on a typewriter and mail them to my clients and wait for a check to arrive two to three weeks later down the road to book a client. And now we email the contracts. We send out a link.

Usually we book a client and it's paid within hours, know, like and sign sealed delivered, you know within hours. It just blows. Yeah

Yeah.

Yeah, and it's weird

because if you actually, if you're stuck in the mentality that your effort equals your results, it's hard to break. And I understand why someone might be in that. I think we all are to some degree just from like social conditioning. You know, we're all encouraged to work hard and hustle. But, you know, like that analogy I gave, you can hustle all day digging a hole with a spoon. It doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's funny too, because I grew up in the generation where the harder you work, the further ahead you're going to get in life. So I think for some maybe older folks like myself, it's going to be hard for them to wrap themselves around.

It's weird and there's a lot of just like mental untangling. I feel like so much of entrepreneurship is a mental game anyways. It's you versus yourself. But I think recognizing that you're going to think that and it's fine that you think that that's just not how you're going to take action. You're going to decide to behave differently. You're going to get different.

⁓ 100%.

love it. All right, so if you're having ⁓ trouble getting bookings, they're inconsistent, how do you go about determining whether the issue is visibility, messaging, or positioning?

Most of the time, it's a combination between messaging and positioning. And your positioning influences your messaging, but it's almost never visibility. The issue a lot of people get into is they think that the more visible they are, the more likely they are in a book. The more visible you are, think about like a billboard. Like people know you exist. They don't know why they should care.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Yeah.

They don't know why they should book you instead of someone else. They don't know how you're different. I'm sure we all have seen brands that we'll never buy from, never want to buy from. It's just like, okay, I know that exists, but it doesn't make me want to buy. I think it's that positioning of like, who do you want to be in the market? Where do you want to be? Who do you want to serve? And then the messaging, which the way I teach,

Yeah, no, no.

Yeah.

figuring out your messaging is going direct to your clients and asking them some questions and pulling the messaging direct from them because we get so trapped in this curse of knowledge, this curse of expertise and we just, we all talk about stuff in ways that couples are like, huh? Like no, they would never use that language. They would never be seeking that out. But if we can then in turn, like speak their language and reflect them.

that is when they really see themselves in our brand and really want to take action. So I would say it's part positioning, like where do you want to be? Who do you want to serve? But a large part messaging, like what are you all about? Why should I work with you? And what do your people actually care about? Because most of us go off of assumptions until we do this work of like asking them questions and figuring it out.

Yeah.

Mm.

And we're always at least a little bit wrong. And it only takes like a minor alignment sometimes. We'll really just have it click in place for people to see you and be like, yes, you're my person.

Okay.

Yeah.

You

All right, so what's like one marketing channel or a marketing strategy that still works extremely well, but is like widely miss like maybe misunderstood or misused?

There is a lot. Yeah, I'm going to say SEO is one of them for sure. People are 100 % no matter what, like some flashy thing like SEO is debt. No, it's not. That is how AI gets its information is from search results. So getting found in search is going to equal getting found in AI. So that is

And if you have more than one, that's okay.

I think it's really misunderstood and seen as like super technical and difficult. And it's really not. It's like putting a puzzle together. ⁓ The other one I think is a little bit misunderstood is referrals. I find everybody has like their plan, their thing they're going to do for social media. going to make this kind of post. Nobody has a plan for referrals.

Nobody has a plan. And it's like, okay, if you don't have a plan and you're getting referrals, imagine how many more referrals you could get if you were a little bit more intentional about this. A little bit more intentional about the relationships you're building, the relationships you're fostering, and spending even like 15 minutes on doing that can have such an impact. And I think a lot of people

Yeah.

see that as the long game and to a degree relationships are, but they're also where I want people to focus when they're like, I need a booking now, I have nothing. A lot of people wanna go to social media. I see social media as a much longer game than a direct relationship to someone who can say, hey, I think you should work with this person.

Yeah.

Yeah, hey, call Heidi because she's the best at this. then boom, it's yeah, the client comes. They're like, hey, I talked to Kevin and Heidi, said you're the best. you know, tell me what do I need to do to book? You know, like it's it's such a hot, hot lead when it comes in. Yeah, it's really ready to go. And it's funny because we do a couple of different things like right now. This is the time of year, you know, because we said it's booking season. So we're not as busy with the we still have events, but it's not as crazy.

Right, yeah.

Yeah.

as it is come here in about a month or so. But we're in the process of taking all our ⁓ venue clients to lunch and just sitting down like, hey, what can we do better? How can we make your lives easier when we're on your property? just trying to strengthening and deepening that relationship. And then even tonight, for Valentine's Day, we're doing just a quick little hour and a half cocktail. Come have a cocktail after work.

I love that.

Spread some love around and you know something so but you can do it's multiple little touch points. It's really easy to do so.

Yeah, and that's

something you're so great at is orchestrating that and making sure that you're like staying top of mind and you're touching base with these people, not just when you need something, but to figure out like, okay, how can we help?

So we try.

Yeah.

Yeah, you don't want to be that person when you call and they go, oh, what does Kevin need now, kind of thing. just, yeah, you don't want to be that type of person at all. All right, so you talk a lot about attracting ideal clients. What does that actually look like in practice beyond just saying the words?

Ha ha ha!

Yeah.

Yeah, so a lot of people think about an ideal client is this like worksheet they do, right? It's like a demographic between this age at this age and it's really broad. I really like people to look at who is someone or maybe multiple people that you've worked with that you wish you could clone and work with over and over and over again. So we're gonna think about this one person, this few different people.

Okay.

And then we're going to think about them as like actual human beings and how we would describe them, you know, if we were going to that Valentine's Day cocktail with them, how would I tell you like, ⁓ Kevin, you're going to love this person because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, about who they actually are, because we get tripped up in this like role that they play for a day in their lives and that's not who they are.

Mm-hmm.

And marketing is so deeply rooted in psychology. have to understand who they are, what they actually care about, what they're actually motivated by, which is why I take people through my calling your best clients process, which I'm going to be sharing during wedding business CEO summit for people so that you can go to these people and say, you know, hey, why did you choose to work with me?

instead of someone else. And what was really important to you for your wedding? Like let them talk, let them talk about the things that they actually cared about and you're going to learn, okay, I thought they were worried about stress or overwhelm, but it turns out they were actually looking for somebody that could blend

Mm-hmm.

them and their partners cultures together so they had music that like both families would really love throughout the night. Then you can shift your marketing to really focus on that in the messaging and that starts to attract them like crazy because they actually see the thing that they're looking for and it sounds silly but like when you actually give people the thing that they're looking for they get excited and they want to work with you because

Enjoy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Nobody

is doing this. Nobody is speaking to people this way. They're speaking about like, it's a wedding planning service or it's a wedding photography service. But if you really speak to the problem, that problem language I mentioned, it allows them to be like, you're the person. Like you are obviously the person who has what I need.

Nah.

Yeah, and I think that's a big mind shift for people that have been in the wedding industry for a while, because that's not what we're used to. We're used to show the pretty photos, and they'll book, and then they'll do it. All right, so how can wedding pros audit what they're currently doing right now to decide what to keep, maybe refine, or let's completely cut that out?

Yeah.

Okay, so we're going to be going through this in a session in the summit. I'm really excited about this. I love doing this one. It's all about quitting things. And I love quitting things because it frees up space for the things that actually do things for you. So I would look at where is your time going? What are you spending your time on? If you don't know, start tracking it. It's an incredibly powerful exercise. And then you want to make sure that

I love it. Okay.

It does.

Yeah.

Or depressing

exercise, I will say. It could be very depressing.

Yes, it's very eye opening. It's like tracking

your budget and it's like, no, I'm spending how much on takeout? Okay, that's eye opening. But ⁓ what it allows you to do is then see, do the things I spend time on actually line up with the things that give me results? So if you look at your past bookings and you figure out, okay, where did they come from?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

put them in order from top to bottom of the number of bookings you got from each place, does the effort you're putting in, does the time you're putting in align with that or are you spending time on places where you're not getting anything? And I see a lot of people get stuck in this idea of, I'm gonna go to the squeaky wheel. I'm gonna go to the thing that I feel like I'm not doing right or I haven't mastered or that I'm not.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

good at. And instead, if we can look at what are we already doing that's working and how do get a little bit more out of that, you know, being a little bit more strategic, a little bit more intentional, adding in an additional step, you know, like for referrals, putting together that super small cocktail event, not a ton of work, but it's a thing that you can be like, so for this month to nurture my relationships.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I did this thing and relationships are a huge part of where I get my bookings. You don't want to be spending all your time on things that aren't actually getting you results. So I love looking at that difference between like, what are the results you have? What's driving your bookings? And where is your time actually going? Because we're all spending our time on things that do not deserve to be on our schedule.

Yeah.

Yeah.

A lot of them can be cut out. A lot of them can be streamlined, automated, but honestly, a lot of them can just be cut out entirely.

Yeah, it's funny because one of the girls in my office is going through this instagram cleanse right now where She has some app on her phone that doesn't allow her to look at instagram And so she and only she can only look at it for an hour a day and I don't know but but she's trying because she found that she was Wasting a lot of her time You know on social media, but I think that could be said for any aspect of your life and you know, do you volunteer? You're getting rewarded out of it, you know, like I volunteer a lot and use sports and

Like it's overwhelming sometimes to do, you know, deal with all the, sometimes I have to look at these parents or these coaches that I'm in charge of go, Hey guys, I don't get paid for this. Like you guys are like, I volunteer right now, you know, so work with me, help me help you, you know, kind of thing. So yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and like it has

to earn its way onto your plate. Like I talk to people all the time and they're like, I'm so overwhelmed. I'm running three businesses and I volunteer at both of my kids' schools and also this other organization. it's like, well, yeah, that sounds overwhelming. Like you have to, you can do anything you want, but not all at the same time. Like that's going to create such a demand on your time. You're going to feel completely overwhelmed constantly.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, no, it's my wife like, hey, it's good to be on the couch watching some TV at night every once in a while. Yeah. Remember where you live? know, anyway. all right. know, what's you know, speaking of overwhelmed, like what's one system or process every wedding professional should have in place to reduce daily from being overwhelmed throughout the day?

Yeah.

Hahaha! ⁓

I'll tell you one thing I do and it makes a huge difference. I plan out my week in advance, what I'm gonna be focused on each day. And I'll have like a handful of different things, not a ton. Usually it's like maybe three different things, or it's like, this is a call day. I have a bunch of calls on this day. Calls are what I'm focused on this day. But I plan that out in advance so that...

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

I can really make decisions about how I'm using my time and I restrict my calls to two to three, depending on like the season. Right now I'm in like three days a week available for calls. Sometimes I'm only available two days a week. And that's just a boundary I set for myself that allows me the space to do the other things that I've decided are important to me and then that I've decided that I want to be able to do.

Mm-hmm.

So making decisions, feel like so much of it like relates to budgeting, relates to food. Like if you plan your dinners for the week, you're gonna be a lot more likely to actually do that. And you're gonna feel a lot better about it and more in control of it because you've already taken those steps ahead of time. So just taking those steps ahead of time, like I don't mean you have to be super specific. It can just be like,

Yeah.

These two days are for calls. I'm working on SEO in my own business and every Friday I have a block in my calendar that's like do the SEO tasks that you decided on for this week. And that's just my time to focus on that. So I think really assigning things to time slots or to days can really ease the pressure because then everything has a home. Then you know things are actually going to get done.

Yeah, I forget what conference I was at and even the speaker, they were really pushing time blocking and then having appointments with yourself. And exactly what you're saying is like schedule, hey, for this little chunk, I'm going to do X, Y, and Z. And if you don't do it, then you can reschedule it with yourself down the road. if you don't get through the whole project, but then that way, you're constantly moving in a forward motion. I think people, when you do that, you feel less

Yeah.

overwhelmed by everything when you could that I'm guilty of it I'll get in and I haven't done my time blocking and I look at everything I have to do and I'm like where do I don't like I freeze up I don't even know where to begin you know and so when I but when I do take the time like Before I leave for work or like you're saying I you gave me a really good idea It's like looking ahead five days and be blocked out for five days because I think that helps you like man I'm really not gonna be in the office

Yeah.

I have a wedding this day or there's more weekday weddings or events or anything that's going, or I volunteer with a NACE or a WIPA or any of those groups. that takes me out of my office that day. So how do I manipulate everything I need to do and fit it in that one week? So that was really,

Yeah, and think it's

when you make decisions ahead of time, just like everyone always says, like, don't go to the grocery store hungry. It's the same thing. Like, don't go into your day without some sort of a plan or you're just going to be all over the place. It's the worst.

I do that all the time. Yeah.

I'm so guilty of the hungry in the grocery store.

And I'm like, yep, that looks good. That looks good. Yep. So yeah, or going to Costco when you're hungry, that's even 10 times worse. yeah. All right. I'm curious. kind of not really rapid fire, but little quick questions here at the end is what's one thing every wedding professional should stop doing immediately?

Ugh, that's dangerous.

Switching between.

Ooh, okay.

This is studied in neuroscience. It's called context switching. Your brain doesn't get up to 100 % when you switch. So if I were to stop now and like take a call and come back, I'm not like 100%, 100%. It takes like 20 minutes for your brain to get fully back up to cognitive capacity. And you build momentum when you do things back to back. instead of like, I'm reacting to this, I'm reacting to this, like taking a proactive approach of I'm going to do these things.

Yeah.

on this day or during this period of time. And then realizing you're not perfect and you're going to pull yourself back. You're going to catch yourself getting distracted. But as long as you actually realize it, like that's a win.

No.

Yeah, I like that too. And we're not perfect. You like you said, like things happen. And I think once you have a little bit of grace with yourself, I think that's, I mean, it goes a long way. All right. What's one thing we should double down on this year? And I have a feeling what your answer is going to be because you mentioned a couple of times. So I'm curious if I'm right. So.

Okay.

I'm going to say relationships. Yeah, because I think it's the one thing that people are very squishy around with their marketing. And it's like, just kind of hope this is going to come to me. And I think they're more important than ever. But I'm curious, what did you think I was going to say?

OK, I was wrong.

Okay.

I

thought you were going to say SEO. I don't know just what I thought. I think both are good. Yeah. We just did a big ⁓ SEO project with Sarah Dunn. She's with you this time, right? Yep. Yep. And so it was the most eye-opening experience. And I felt like an idiot the whole time we were going through it. we hire professionals to build our website and help us with everything and everything that we

I mean, it's up there.

we're either told or thought we knew was pretty much wrong. know what saying? And we're already seeing results from what they're doing. Yeah, it's amazing. So I highly recommend anybody go listen to Sarah's at the summit. Please listen to Sarah, because she is probably the smartest person when it comes to SEO in ⁓ the wedding industry for sure. All right.

Yeah.

That's great.

What's a sign someone's marketing is working even if the inquiries haven't skyrocketed yet?

I think if people start recognizing you for something specific, like I reached out to you because I saw that you're really good at this or you specialize in that, that's a really good affirmation that your messaging is connecting and people are getting it and it's only going to spiral.

Okay.

it'll eventually kick in. So all right, so what's the most overlooked metric wedding pros should be tracking?

Yeah.

time input 100 % because we all put so much time into things. And if you actually step back and look at how much time did I put into that and what was the result that it got me, a lot of times like that time wasn't even worth like half of minimum wage to be spending on that particular.

I love it.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it's especially for like a planner, someone that's, and then how much time have you, you know, had access and you mentioned boundaries, you know, like, that was the greatest thing I used to make myself available to clients, you know, seven days a week. And if a client called, I'd stop whatever I'm doing to answer the call. And now I meet with clients on certain days, I, know,

I do podcasting on certain days. It helps me get through the mindset of all the different tasks I need to do because it all gets so overwhelming. All right. Heidi, thank you so much for the wealth of knowledge that you had. But before we let you go, can you tell us a little bit about the summit and how can we find it and sign up for it and all the things?

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

So it's happening at February 16th through the 20th. You can get access for free to each day's presentations. They're available for 24 hours. We have optional upgrades if you want, you know, a bunch of bonuses from our speakers that are really awesome as well as lifetime access. But you can attend online from anywhere and get access to these presentations from

40 different brilliant minds in the wedding industry, totally free. And then you can come over to the group for the summit and share your takeaways, discuss what you're going to do, get ideas, ask the speakers questions, and actually figure out how you're going to take action on it. yeah, everything is very action oriented. So you will be able to go and take immediate action from these presentations. And we have people joining us from

and share your wins. I think that's a good place to share.

all over the world, all different types of wedding pros. And the aim of it is to really help wedding business owners be able to book, you know, the weddings that they really want without running an unsustainable business that burns them out, that keeps them feeling pulled in a million different directions, that keeps them feeling overwhelmed. So that is really like the overarching theme of this summit. So

I love it.

you know, whether you're in your first year, your 20th year, your 40th year, you're going to find something in these presentations that you will be able to apply to your business.

one thing that always cracks me up is someone's like, I've been in the industry for 10 years. There's nothing I can, I know everything. And I, I'm going to be honest, I've been in this over 35 years now and I'm still learning. And you, I don't think you, and if you go with that mindset that you're always going to learn, you can always learn a new thing. You know, even like, you know, like we were talking about, you know, volunteering, I've coached the league now for 18 years, you know, and I just went to a training.

on Monday for Little League and I learned something. I learned a few new things. I'm like, that's a great idea. I think if you go with an open mind, you will grow and develop your business. But if you go with that closed mind, I've been at it for 10 years. then you got someone like myself that's been at this for 35 years laughing that you've been at it for 10 years. It makes me laugh. So go with an open mind.

Yeah, and the people who learn

and continue to evolve are the ones that are going to get the business.

Yeah, I 100 % agree. So all right, we will have all of Heidi's information and how to sign up for the summit and all that in the show notes and the email blast that goes out. Heidi, we can't thank you enough for being here today. All right, good luck with your stressful week next week. I know it's very stressful, but you'll get through it. All right, folks, that's it for this episode of Mind Your Wedding Business. We'll see you next time. Bye.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks.