If you’re like many wedding and event pros, it was your creativity that brought you into the industry, not your business acumen. To have a successful business, you need both. There are lots of hobbyists who are very creative. Once you decide to sell your products or services, you need to develop your business skills and an understanding of the many ways to measure your success. Read More
Crossword puzzles are my diversion. I do one almost every day. It’s both 
a brain stimulant and meditation for me. When I’m doing a puzzle my mind is focused, not wandering or multi-tasking. What’s your diversion? For some of you it’s Sudoku, or maybe a game on your phone or tablet. For others it may be yoga, or reading a book.
As my family and I live in the New York area, I get The New York Times delivered daily. I rarely get to read more than a few articles in a day, while eating breakfast, and I can get the same news on my NYTimes iPhone app. I get news alerts on my phone, so I’m up to date on the latest in world happenings. I find that reading the actual newspaper, as with reading a physical book, is a different experience than reading on a screen. Read More
I’m a happily married man. So, when something goes wrong, it’s always my fault. That may sound like a joke, but accepting responsibility when there’s a problem is a major step towards getting past it. Rather than trying to find blame, we try to find solutions. Chapter 15 of my new sales book is even titled “Do you want to be happy, or right?” I’ve often said that I’d rather be happy, and successful, than right. Proving to my wife (or a customer) that they’re wrong, never works out well. Read More
In my frequent travels, I find myself in need of transportation, either from the
airport, or from a hotel. I started wondering why I’ll go on my phone and order an Uber or Lyft car, instead of choosing to get a cab, when there are often cabs right at the airport or hotel? I could just walk outside and find a cab… but maybe I’ll find a line waiting for cabs; or maybe a hotel attendant will have to call me a cab. For me, it’s the convenience – and certainty – of knowing that I have a ride, and when it will arrive. It’s also the convenience of having the charge go right to my credit or debit card, without having to make that physical transaction. Read More
As a speaker and business consultant, I often get asked if it makes sense
to add a new service or product to someone’s offerings. Of course, the answer will be different for each business, but we’re very fortunate to be in the wedding and event business. Why, you ask? It’s because of the lead time between when they book versus when the wedding or event will happen. Rather than investing in the new product or service, especially one that’s capital-intensive (code for significant financial investment), why not try a different approach?
Let’s say you wanted to add photo booths to your offerings (whether you’re an entertainment company, or venue, or photographer). Rather than making the up-front investment in the photo booth, why not start to sell photo booths to your weddings that are happening a year from now. If you have good success, you can buy the booths, way before those weddings happen. If you have limited success, you can either buy them, or sub-contract those events out to another vendor who does have them. Read More
As a consultant and sales trainer, I get to see a lot of websites and
online ad profiles. It still amazes me at how many wedding and event pros are using the wrong images to promote their businesses. For years, I’ve been saying to use, what I call, Aspirational Images; images that show your prospective clients what the result of doing business with you looks like. When possible, make them so beautiful and emotional, that someone viewing it would want to jump into that photo and be a part of the fun, excitement, and emotion of that event.
Yet with all of my preaching (which is what it sometimes feels like), there are still countless venues that show pictures of empty banquet rooms, DJs and bands that show equipment or staff images, florists who show headless brides holding bouquets, and many others who lead with images of themselves. An aspirational image is one that the viewer can take their “mental eraser” and substitute their face for those in the photo, so they can picture themselves getting that result. We can’t get that from looking at your building, or your furniture, or your equipment… or from looking at you. Read More
When I speak about handling reviews I encourage you to write replies to reviews,
but write them for the other people who will be reading them, and don’t get into a he-said, she-said in public. When you have an upset customer it’s always best to keep that discussion offline, and out of email if you can. Your goal is to make your customer happy, so they’ll refer you and, if you offer more than just wedding services, maybe come back and use you again.
One of my favorite things to live by is that I’ve learned in business, and in life, that I’d rather be happy and successful, than be right. If I have to prove that I’m right, that means someone else has to be wrong. If I tell my wife that she’s wrong about something, how is that going to work out for me? If I tell a customer that they’re wrong, how is that going to work out for me? Read More
The battery on my iPhone dies faster when I wear my Apple watch. That’s a classic example of a “first-world problem”. If you’ve never heard the expression, a “first-world problem” is something that a person in a third-world (developing world) country would never say, and probably wouldn’t understand. People who are wondering if they’re going to eat today aren’t worried about having “nothing good to watch on TV tonight”.
I recently visited Mumbai, India, and I was struck by the close proximity of poverty and wealth. I travel a lot and I see both poverty and wealth – but never intermingled the way it is there. In most major cities, the poverty and wealth are separated. You can tell when you’re in a wealthy area, and you can tell when you’re not. But not in Mumbai. As you ride from one place to another, you pass 5-star hotels and extreme poverty, almost randomly. New apartment buildings rise next to ramshackle huts, protected only by tin roofs and plastic sheeting. Read More
If you’re like me, you have more ideas than time. You may have pages and 
pages of notes from conferences, books you want to read, and videos you want to watch; now, if you could only find the time for all of it! Well, I hate to break it to you, but with all the modern technology at our fingertips, the one thing we’ll never invent or create is more time. It’s a finite commodity, and every second that passes is one that will never exist again.
OK, enough of the gloomy words. I want this article – as with most of mine – to be inspirational and to get you motivated to act. That’s the idea that prompted me to write this. Knowing that you can’t do it all is easy. Deciding to take action on some of your ideas is the important first step in achieving greater success. Success is not a product of having ideas or money. Success comes from acting on your ideas, and since you can’t do them all, it means prioritizing them so you can get started. Too many people get paralyzed trying to do too much. You end up spreading your precious time between too many things, only to complete very few (if any) of them. Read More
I’m a new speaker. That’s a funny way for a Certified Speaking Professional® (CSP)
,
who’s been speaking professionally for years, to start an article. I’ve taken a giant leap backwards in my speaking career. I’m a CSP, but I’m also a beginner. Some of you already know that a little over 3 years ago, I committed to becoming conversationally fluent in Spanish. I was at a conference in Mexico, and I thought that my high school Spanish would allow me to engage in basic conversation. Well, I was wrong. High school was a very long time ago, and I realize now how little Spanish I had actually learned. Read More