Michelle Loretta from Sage Wedding Pros is a wedding business consultant with a mind for numbers and a passion for business plans! Today she comes on the show to talk all about how to make your big business decisions, and it can't be just because your competitors are doing it.

Sage Wedding Pros on Social Media:

Instagram: @SageWeddingPros

Facebook: @SageWeddingPros

twitter: @SageWeddingPros

Kinsey Roberts is the owner Vista View Events on Open Heart Ranch in Colorado, but you probably know her best as the fabulous host of the She Creates Business Podcast! Today, Kinsey comes on the show to talk all about opening up a wedding venue! What are some tips and recommendations to help you through the process? And what are some potential landmines to avoid?

On the show, Kinsey recommends hiring Lindsay Lucas if you're interested in guidance on how exactly to open up a venue and how to deal with some of the county ordinances (and other things you don't even think about). Lindsay can be found at https://thelindsaylucas.com/.

Support this podcast by supporting our sponsor, BetterHelp.com!

BetterHelp is affordable, private, online counseling. Anytime, Anywhere! By going to BetterHelp.com/WeddingsForReal, you get 10% off your first month.

The latest Engage! Summit was June 10-13th in the Bahamas, and Megan was there for the full luxury wedding and event education experience! And today, she shares her top ten takeaways from the speakers she heard.

Tips are from:

1) Hayley Paige (14:10)

2) Amirah Kassem (18:40)

3) Cindy Novotny (22:30)

4) Duncan Wardle (26:50)

5) Julian Leaver (31:55)

6) Tracie Domino (35:10)

7) Tracie Domino again (36:55)

8) Andy Maurer (37:55)

9) Jove Meyer (40:55)

10) Mike Michalowicz (43:50)

Support this podcast by supporting our sponsor, BetterHelp.com!

BetterHelp is affordable, private, online counseling. Anytime, Anywhere! By going to BetterHelp.com/WeddingsForReal, you get 10% off your first month.

Engage Summits on Social Media:

Facebook: @EngageSummits

Instagram: @EngageSummits

twitter: @EngageSummits

Generation Z is the next generation of consumers and (wedding) clients. Christie Osborne from Mountainside Media is an expert on analytics and marketing, specifically for the wedding industry. And today she comes on to talk about what's different about Generation Z, what's the same, and what we as wedding vendors should be doing to get ready for this group!

Support this podcast by supporting our sponsor, Storyworth!

For a really cool Father's Day (or any time) gift, visit StoryWorth.com/WeddingsForReal for $20 off your subscription! With Storyworth, you or a loved one answers questions about your life weekly, and at the end of the year, those stories are bound into a keepsake book!

Some believe the creative path is a winding road from zero to (one-day) reaching your full creative potential. But for destination wedding photographer Perry Vaile, that didn't work for her. Because as creatives, some days are more productive than others, and sometimes we have feel like everyone else is doing so much more than us, and sometimes we’re on a roll, and sometimes we want to be proud of our accomplishments, and some days, we fail. It’s a mindgame. And so Perry came up with an amazing metaphor called The House of Creativity!

Brittny Drye started Love Inc Magazine in October 2013 as the first equality-minded wedding publication. And although the wedding industry has come a long way, we still have so much further to go to make sure that LGBTQ couples aren't discriminated against. Part of that is looking into our content - are we using bride- and groom-specific verbiage on our websites, contracts, and proposals? And even in our own language?

Sha'Quitta Brown just got married to her wife L'Erin in July 2018. And for them, they didn’t feel welcome by all wedding vendors. Some were downright bigoted, and some just didn’t have the collateral on their website to make Sha’Quitta and L’Erin comfortable in contacting them. For those who are outwardly intolerant, Sha’Quitta doesn’t have any time for them. But for those who WANT to be inclusive and who WANT more LGBT weddings, Sha’Quitta has some great advice.

If you've been in business long enough, you've probably had a negative online review (or several). Whether the review was fair or not, you NEED to respond. Not so much to the person who wrote the review, but for the potential clients who are reading your reviews. So how do you do it? We give some tips on today's show!

Lindsay Longacre from LVL Events (Southern California) and LVL Academy comes on the show today to talk all about pricing for profitability, a vision for creating pricing standardization, whether or not she takes on partial planning (or is it day-of coordination? or month-of? or wedding management), and the best way new vendors can connect with vendors in their market (hint: it's not a mass bcc email).

On the show, we also talk a lot about LVL Academy, and Lindsay is bringing their wedding planner workshop here to North Carolina in June and yours truly (Megan Gillikin) is on the planner panel! Join us June 7-8th at Muse at the Mill in Winston-Salem for 2 full days of learning best practices, ways to refine your planning process, resources and tools to grow your business, and more! Use the code WEDDINGSFORREAL by May 10th for $200 of your registration at lvlacademy.com. See you there!