Are You Holding Yourself Back From Success?

By: Tracey Manailescu

Are You Holding Yourself Back From Success?

Is it possible?  In the words of the Beast from the children’s cartoon, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, “Great googly-moogly“,  yes it is.  Strangely enough, I’ll bet that most of us unknowingly do it too!

Are we afraid of the attention, nervous about how our peers/family/friends will receive it? Are we going to be judged and labeled?  Whatever the reason, we need to get over it, like STAT! Time to get out of your own head and show the wedding planning world what you are made of. I am not talking about being in everyone’s face on every social media platform out there fifty times a day, but gosh-darnit, share some of your successes and talents with the rest of us. We want to see it.  We want to be proud of your achievements and accolades. How are clients ever going to see your value and what you are capable of, if you don’t show and tell? How are you ever going to be recognized as a power player and expert in the industry by your peers if nobody knows what you are are made of?

Hopefully, I have piqued your interest a little bit…

Here are some ways that you might be holding yourself back from success:

Not Investing in Your Business: Do you have a website? Is your website in need of updates or an overhaul? Examples would be using professional high-res photos of your couples’ weddings, having it look and feel modern, making sure your wording is geared towards the couples you want to work with, easy to navigate, and having information available for them to learn about your services, pricing and style.  Are you on social media? When is the last conference that you attended? Have you taken any courses to learn new skills? Are you WPIC certified? What are you waiting for? If you can’t take the time and initiative to invest in yourself and your business, then why should potential clients? It doesn’t matter who you are, or how much experience that you have, you can always learn new ways of doing things to make your business run faster, easier and be more profitable.

Shying Away From Making Decisions:  This is a tough one, I know because I do this too. Waiting (or putting things off) until you have more time on your hands, more money or even more experience isn’t going to help your business grow now. Someone else will come along and do what you wanted to do, if you don’t. Find out about small business loans, talk to your spouse/family to weigh in on the pros and cons, and go for it! Sometimes in life you need to just take a chance. The worst thing that can happen is it won’t work, but you can figure out why it didn’t and try again. Remember that saying, “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”  People have tattoos of this on their bodies and signs or posters on their walls for a reason.

Making a big life change is scary, but know what’s even scarier? Regret.

Awkward Social Skills:  Get over it. So many of us are shy in new situations. Just like anything in life, the more that you practice the better you will be. Put yourself out there and you really will see the benefits from it. Attend local networking events, open houses and launches. Join Facebook groups for others in the same industry, read up on questions to ask new people that you meet.  Ask questions and give input. You have go to give a little to get a little. Stop making it all about you. I really mean this.  This is a BIGGIE! Monopolizing a lot of someone’s time at a networking event is self-sabotage. Ask questions and be interested in their answer. Make eye contact (not the creepy eye contact but the, “I am interested in what you are saying” eye contact) No one wants to hear all about your problems at a social event. Conversation should be light, entertaining and give and take. Save the serious stuff for a one on one.

No Clear and Concise Mission Statement: You need to tell people what you do, why you do it,  and what you do differently. Be clear and concise with as little mumbo-jumbo as possible. Think about your elevator pitch. If you only have thirty seconds to tell someone about what you do, what would you say to make them interested and want to learn more about you and your company? Let people into your world.  Let them know what makes you tick. Couples want to feel a connection with you from the get-go. There are a lot of planners out there (just like there are a lot of bankers, lawyers, real estate agents, etc. ) Give them a little bit of information about you that makes you, you.

Avoiding Being Around Like-Minded Individuals: Like what you ask? Well www.wpicalumni.com to start.  If you are WPIC alumni then you have this free tool literally at your fingertips. By being around others with the same interests as you, then you are hearing other ways of doing things, hearing others challenges and triumphs, and you will get the encouragement to keep going and growing! We have in-person get togethers about every other month that are geared to learning more and making your business better.