As creative entrepreneurs, you have the gift of vision and the ability to create. It takes drive, passion, perseverance, and a whole lot of fearlessness to really get after your dreams, day-in and day-out. The reality is, starting a business is actually quite simple, but continuing to show up in a big way in your business takes a lot of work. All too often, I hear creatives share how tired, lonely, and depleted they feel, and admittedly… this is me at times! The stress to perform at our highest level while outside pressures of perfectionism and the internal daily struggles and inner voices wreak havoc on our creative minds. But, I’m here to tell you that you’re doing an amazing job. It’s time to celebrate the tiny victories, shut out the noise, and celebrate YOU!!!
Having a solid process for taking your prospect from a lead to a client not only makes you more efficient but leads to less stress in your workflow and better prepares and equips your couples to work with you. Setting boundaries and defining expectations in the early stages leads to a more successful event and higher levels of satisfaction for all parties. Today, I’m sharing with you the Ins and Outs that we follow at Modern Day Events + Floral for managing the client lead process…
For those of you who follow my newsletter, you already know how much I try to practice an attitude of gratitude all year round! But the holiday season has a way of putting things in clear focus and perspective. There is no better time in life and business than today (be it March or November or whenever) to practice gratitude. I know personally, when things are overwhelming or life gets chaotic, I have to check myself. But that’s why they call it a “practice”, right? It takes consistent work and we’re never really finished with that work.
I’ve been sharing with my newsletter subscribers about the scarcity gremlins, a/k/a the negative self-talk in our head that makes us do things out of fear instead of from a place of clarity. I’m here to encourage you to kick the nasty gremlins to the curb and give you some tips + actionable steps that will help you keep them at bay.
This week, I want to share what happens after the client books. This is the part where we get to do what we do best – designing flowers and being creative, but there is a smarter way to approach ordering product than with a pencil, paper, and calculator. I’m sure you can already guess what I’m going to say…my lifesaver is my recipe program, Ularas.
A value I will always stand by in my business is being honest and transparent with our clients about our whole process, from beginning to end. It’s about building trust from the very start of our relationship so that they know they’re in good hands when they book with us.
We hear people say all the time that we have the same 24 hours in a day as someone with a HUGE empire, like Oprah. Technically, yes… it’s true, but they’re missing the fact that Oprah has a massive team supporting her and executing her business every step of the way – a luxury that we, as small business owners, don’t have. However, there is a way to make it a little more manageable.
I’m sure a lot of you are the same as me in that the way I run my business now looks completely different than when I first started. I’ve learned so much along this journey, but there are a few things that stand out to me that I truly wish I would have known at the beginning.
To recipe or not to recipe…that is the ultimate question.
I know, I know - building from recipes sometimes feels like the thorn in all our sides as floral designers. But, it’s the necessary evil of what we do.
Designing from recipes gets a bad rep sometimes, but honestly, I can’t think of any other way that we could run a sustainable and profitable business without doing it. Creating recipes is a big part of what allows us to do 200+ events a year. There is no way we’d be able to pull off so many without a system like this in place.
As you all know, preparation for event and floral designers is KEY. You simply cannot run a successful event without it. I've learned over the years that a big part of preparation is thinking ahead about what could happen and making sure you're ready for it. That's where these must-have emergency bags come in.
I want to get a little more focused in on how this organization actually plays out when we’re prepping to be on-site specifically for a wedding or event floral design. Listen up my floral friends!
Do you ever feel like you're addicted to your work? If you work anywhere in the floral, wedding, or events industries, my guess would be YES. We know what it's like to work hard and have a ton to show for it.
But, what about when we start neglecting those other things in life that we love and care about?
In this video, Marie gives some wonderful tips on how to shift the focus sometimes to start enjoying more of the things that really matter.
Have you ever gone into your closet and said to yourself, “Okay, let's face it - these clothes do not fit anymore. I’m so sick of looking at them. I NEED to purge.” Yeah? Me too. I probably do this once every season! I have clothes in my closet that I think I’m going to wear someday even though I haven’t taken them out of the closet in years.
Today, I want to talk to you all about something that I’ve really struggled with in running my wedding and event business. I hope that what I share will help save you from making the same mistakes I did in the past!
I also want to preface this post with, running a wedding and event business is ever-changing and incredibly demanding, yet so rewarding and borderline addicting. I've cried more tears and questioned myself more times than I care to count, so just know that wherever you are in your journey, you are NOT ALONE!
Friends, if you’ve been paying attention to the blog, you’ve probably noticed that there is a common theme here: the things that I love.
I love to share the things that have really made an impact for me, in hopes they make an impact for you, too.
Do you ever look at a successful entrepreneur and wonder how they do it all?
How they have time to run and grow a business, have a family, a social life, and everything else in between? I don’t know if even the most successful entrepreneurs would say that they have everything completely figured out. But, the one thing I know for sure is: they don't do it alone. At some point in their journey, they were brave enough to admit that they needed help.
Throughout my career in the wedding and events industry, I’ve found myself mentoring and coaching individuals “unofficially” for many years. Being able to help and mentor fellow entrepreneurs has been one of the greatest joys of my journey so far. I love seeing my fellow #bosses succeed. From my experience, I’ve found that the best and most impactful way to begin to help is to take a deep dive right alongside you into your business to help you achieve the results you ultimately want. I like to call this the Immersive Business Deep Dive.
If you haven’t already figured it out, my main goal and objective is to always find the best available tools, the easiest way to take in as much knowledge as possible, and finding things that are going to make my life easier while also serve our clients well. What I want to share with you is the tool we use to create our 2D & 3D event design rendering boards for our clients that are easy to use, look incredibly professional, and you don’t have to be a graphic designer to use them. A total win-win in my book!
If you read last week’s blog post, you probably saw the part about my undying love for Brené Brown. I have another to-die-for video by Brené that I want to share with all of you. This one is called, “Why Your Critics Aren’t the Ones Who Count.” As creatives, we’ve all had experiences with critics. It’s part of the job. In this video, Brené is talking to us directly - a whole audience of creatives.
Since time is of the essence, I wanted to share my three favorite resources which I find work perfectly in my busy life. I can honestly say that these 3 resources really transformed how I view and run both my personal and business life.
Something I see come up for entrepreneurs time and time again is to-do list paralysis. Running a business is hard work. We have to-do lists that are miles long - not only filled with big-picture tasks, but also with those day-to-day tasks to keep your business running. Looking at this list, sometimes it feels virtually impossible to get everything done. Here's how I prioritize my personal to-do list to prevent overwhelm.
Hello and I'm so glad you're here! This new venture has been on my heart for well over a year, and I'm incredibly excited to finally see it all come to fruition. Of course, Modern Day Events and Floral is still in full swing, and the two companies will be completely connected, but I'm excited to work with creative entrepreneurs that will benefit so much from Modern Day Creative.
As many of you know, I had the tremendous opportunity to attend Amber Housley’s Inspired Retreat a couple weeks ago. The impact it had on me and my business has been transformational, but not exactly in the ways I expected. Watch the video below for a taste of what this amazing experience was like.