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We all know that dreaded feeling. You get to the end of the sales meeting or sales call, you’re totally jiving with the potential client, you know they are loving everything you’re telling them, and then you get to the part where you have to talk price so you tell them what your offer costs and….crickets. And then they say something along the lines of “that sounds great! We’ll have to think about it and we’ll get back to you.” And so the meeting ends. And you either never hear from them again OR you get an email several days later saying something along the lines of “I loved meeting you BUT you’re just not in my budget right now or I just can’t afford it right now.”

Bummer right? But it actually doesn't have to be.

Before we get into the price objections and the actual steps for refuting them, I want to first address the idea of smokescreens. Often times the objection that you are given ISN'T ACTUALLY THE REAL...

Let’s imagine for a minute that it’s the end of your workday, whether it’s 4 pm or 8 pm or midnight (hopefully not midnight), and you have finished the last thing on your task list, or at least the last thing you plan to do on your task list, and you’re ready to wrap it up for the day. Now I know it can be tempting to just slam the laptop shut and run, and there is nothing wrong with that. But I have found that if you spend a few extra minutes wrapping things up neatly, and putting things in place for the next day, you can really end your day productively instead of in a rush and set yourself up for even more success.

Even though it’s Friday and I just want to be done with the day and the extra crazy work week, I will not just slam my laptop shut then say “peace out!” No matter how busy or tired I get, I still plan to follow my 3 step process that I go through at the end of each work day to be sure that I’m staying on track with my...

You hear about it all the time, people engaging in questionable business practices like copying, plagiarism, using other people’s photos and images, coming to work for you or under you and then disappearing to start their own company. I’ll be honest, it sucks to get screwed over. It puts all this bad energy into your life and makes you feel like awful. Imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery actually. Nevertheless, there are some lessons you can learn and I’ve got some thoughts on what you can do when someone screws you over. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, so do not take any advice I may say as legal advice and always consult a lawyer before making any legal decisions.

There are three major ways that people can screw you over in business and what you can do about it.

1) Copying

When someone copies your stuff: whether it be ideas, marketing, words, names, the way you structure things in your business, etc. While this is frustrating, don’t become...

Let’s cut to the chase. Here are 5 thoughts that are keeping you STUCK at the same level in your business and preventing growth.

 Number 1: “THAT person looks successful, so I’ll just do what they are doing.”

 How many times have you looked at what someone else was doing in their business and figured “well they must know what their doing so I’ll just do that too,” It is really easy to look at what other people doing, whether it’s some service or product they are offering, what they are charging, or maybe even how much they are posting on Instagram, and think “it works for them so it should work for me.”

 However there are two things wrong with this idea. First, you don’t actually know how well it’s working for them. Everyone makes their business look amazing on social media. You don’t actually know how well some particular strategy or idea is actually working for someone else, so don’t...

The topic today is a good, but tough one because it involves MONEY. Everyone wants to make money in his or her business, because being profitable is what makes your business a business. But what if you’re not quite as successful as you want to be yet? What if you keep trying and hustling to get to that next level but you just can’t seem to get there? So you know you need help and you know that with some guidance you can probably grow your business. Yet, you are still refusing to invest in you business because you tell yourself “that’s more than I can spend right now’’ or “once my business starts making money, then I can afford to invest more into it.”

If nothing has changed in your business in a few years, it’s probably because YOU are not ready to get outside your comfort zone. Not investing in your business is often never about the money. It’s about all the other fears and insecurities you have in yourself and often...

Today I want to tell you about why you should STOP worrying about what everyone else is charging and since you shouldn’t be worrying about what they are charging, you definitely SHOULD NOT be basing your own prices on what other people charge. Usually when someone starts a business, they aren’t sure what they should charge so they do some internet digging and other research, and they try to figure out what other people with the same service or product are charging. Then they decide to charge about 25-50% less than what everyone else seems to be charging in an attempt to get some quick business.

Now there are a whole lot of issues happening here, but don’t feel bad if this is how you set your prices for the first time. You are in good company as this is how pretty much everyone I’ve ever talked to or coached or consulted with also did it. Even I did it this way when I first started out. Unfortunately this method is pretty problematic because many people in the...

How are you managing your days? Do you have at least some sort of master list of things you need to do somewhere? Hopefully not just on post it notes all over your desk nor a 20 page word doc with 300 things on it. How are you deciding what you should be focusing on and when?  How are you deciding what to do first?

Today’s post really centers around a few key tweaks that I made to how I structure my day that have made a WORLD of difference in my efficiency.

Schedule

First, you need a schedule. If you are someone that is winging your days, knock it off. Before you can figure out what to do each day, you need to have a plan for when you’re going to do it. I work off of a block schedule for my weeks. If you’re new to block scheduling, I highly highly recommend creating one. The premise is simple, you organize and batch your tasks into several blocks or buckets and then you schedule blocks of time to complete them in your week. This allows you to keep focus...

The key thing to remember is that not all money is the same, and not all business is the same. I didn’t realize that by taking on a client that isn’t the right fit, I was actually hurting my bottom line. 

Let’s look at some possible red flags when you are considering working with a potential client.

The first one is questioning EVERYTHING during the sales process. I can remember on several occasions during my wedding planning days having an engaged couple show up to a sales consult with a list of 40 “questions to ask” that they printed off from a website such as The Knot or Wedding Wire. First, if they took a few minutes to read my website, about 95% of those questions would have been answered. Don’t get me wrong, it’s so important to be sure that you understand what your paying for before you hire someone however let’s get to know each other a bit first and be sure that these are actual things you feel you need...

There are seasons of planting (spring) - where you are sowing the seeds of what’s to come, you might be focused on learning, education, or just gaining experience, or maybe creating your products or services, this also includes putting out consistent content to grow your audience.

There are seasons of growth and abundance (summer) - where business is blooming, you’re easily booking clients and selling products, you’re spending a lot of time IN the business, doing your craft, working with clients, doing the work you love and seeing the fruits of your labor.

There are seasons of harvesting (fall), where you’re pulling back a bit, seeing what’s working or what’s not working and making the appropriate changes, possibly implanting new systems or revising your systems, getting rid of revenue streams, products, or services that aren’t working or selling or just aren’t speaking to you anymore. This is the time to prune and revise, and pivot....

Today I’m going to give you some tactics and strategies that I’ve learned over the years in working with both hundreds of engaged couples as well as consulting clients in both, setting yourself up for success on the front end of the process AND what to do when the working relationship takes a detour and jumps the tracks and you need to get it back on track.

First you HAVE to set expectations on the front end, as soon as you begin working with a new client. You can do this  within your proposal or contract or (my preferred way) you can explain your expectations and boundaries in a welcome letter or guide AND review them together either in person or on a call, whatever type of interaction you usually have with your client. Because let’s face it, people don’t usually read, or if they do skim through it, they aren’t going to remember it, especially once weeks or months go by. So it’s important to actually talk them through everything and this...