You likely have some kind of plan for your wedding planning business – a plan that involves regular reviews, in-the-moment strategies, and overall goals. But what about a mental health plan? 

After all, mental health is an inherent risk when you embark on entrepreneurship. So why shouldn’t it be a part of your business plan? 

This week on Wedding Industry Insider, we’re talking with Shulamit Ber Levtov, a licensed mental health professional who works with women business owners through her company, The Entrepreneur’s Therapist. 

Shulamit is sharing fantastic tools and habits that will help you manage stress, work through difficult times, and maximize your potential. In past episodes, we’ve talked about bringing your most authentic self to your business, and this interview discusses an important aspect of that: caring for your well-being.

Here is some of what you can look forward to in this week’s episode:

• • A quick 30-second exercise to help you remain calm and present during stressful weddings
  • How to include mental health check-ins as part of your regular business practices
  • The ultimate power move in entrepreneurship that will make you stronger and perform better
  • And… Shula’s #1 advice to wedding planners

To hear Shula’s interview, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 

We want to say a special thank you to Shula for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Please take this information, act on it, and carry on the journey toward fulfilling your dreams!

Show Notes:

• Want to hear more from Shula? Subscribe to her newsletter here.
• Questions? Get in touch with Shula or Eddie
• Want to free up your time and energy to focus on your mental wellbeing? See how Timeline Genius can help!

The post WII 141 – Including Mental Health in Your Business Plan With Shulamit Ber Levtov appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

If you’re in the early stages of your wedding planning business, you may feel like you’re a long way off from planning luxury weddings and offering expert-level mentorships. 

But focusing on the right aspects of your business could get you closer to your goals than you think. 

This week on the Wedding Industry Insider Podcast, we’re talking to Lisa DiBenedetto all about how she grew from a no-charge party planning hobby to a thriving wedding planning business.

Lisa is the owner and principal planner of Nightingale Events, a quiet luxury wedding planning company that services New England and the East Coast. She is also a wedding planning mentor, offering expertise on topics like client interaction, website design, and social media presence. 

We are so excited for you to hear how Lisa created her business, learned from her mistakes, and turned it into a thriving company rooted in kindness and service. 

Here are some of our favorite highlights from Lisa’s interview:

• • How Lisa booked her very first clients (and how she books 6-figure clients today!)
  • A game plan for creating authentic social media posts that attract your ideal client
  • Key leadership traits that ensure her team uses their skill sets in the best way possible
  • Who Lisa leaned on before she had a team – and how this group still supports her today
  • And, Lisa’s #1 advice for wedding planners!

To hear Lisa’s interview, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 

We want to say a special thank you to Lisa for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Please take this information, act on it, and carry on the journey toward fulfilling your dreams!

Show Notes:

• Keep an eye out for Lisa’s new website launch here.
• Learn about Lisa’s mentorship program here.
• Want to learn more about website visuals and branding? Check out Eddie’s book recommendation here.
• Questions? Get in touch with Lisa or Eddie
• Access your free trial of Timeline Genius here!

The post WII 140 – How Lisa DiBenedetto Grew From Free Party Planning to 6-Figure Weddings appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

You’re eager for new clients (or at least the right clients) – so you’re ready to start paying for advertising. But seeing real results is way more complicated than throwing a few bucks toward social media ads. 

So how do you know if you’re ready to start advertising, and how do you make sure that your investment pays off? 

To get the best answers, we’re talking to Mark Chapman, president of The I Do Society. He’s a pro at online advertising, and he’s got great advice to make sure you don’t start advertising too soon (or do it the wrong way!).

Mark has so much knowledge to share – here are some of our favorite highlights from this episode of Wedding Industry Insider:

• • Mark is giving a cold-hard budget for how much you need to spend on advertising to make it worth it (Yes, an exact number!).
  • You don’t HAVE to know your ideal customer to start advertising. In fact, advertising can help you pinpoint your target customer.
  • The questions you need to ask before you begin advertising. 
  • Mark’s revealing the best platforms to begin advertising – and why!
  • And, Mark’s #1 advice for wedding planners.

To hear Mark’s interview, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 

We want to say a special thank you to Mark for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Please take this information, act on it, and carry on the journey toward fulfilling your dreams!

Show Notes:

• Learn more about The I Do Society here.
• Schedule a meeting with Mark here.
• Questions? Get in touch with Mark or Eddie
• Access your free trial of Timeline Genius here!

The post WII 139 – An Advertising Plan That Pays Off with Mark Chapman appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

If you’ve listened to any episode of Wedding Industry Insider, you’ve heard us mention Timeline Genius. But what exactly is it? 

Here on our podcast, we get to talk with wedding pros and innovators who are improving the industry through their work and mindset. We love highlighting leaders in wedding planning, technology, and education every time we share an episode. 

And this week, we’re talking about the wedding software that started it all: Timeline Genius. 

Brooke Bowenschulte is the Business Development Manager at Timeline Genius, and she’s sitting down with Eddie to discuss the features and benefits of this beloved wedding planning software. 

Brooke is a certified wedding planner who knows Timeline Genius inside and out. Not only does she offer incredible insight in this episode, but she also offers free one-on-one demos for anyone who wants a personalized introduction to the software. So she knows how to talk to wedding planners about their everyday work and their most pressing needs!

In this week’s episode, Brooke and Eddie dig deep into Timeline Genius to showcase some of its most impactful benefits. Here are some of our favorite highlights:

• • The ability to use (and easily change!) your own wedding timeline template, OR use our genius feature to create a customizable AI-generated timeline
  • Even wedding planners who are experts at creating timelines (and love making them!) find Timeline Genius incredibly helpful. 
  • This beautiful, responsive software can help you meet the expectations of Gen Z and younger Millennial couples.
  • How to structure your business so that you can invest in software that better serves your clients
  • And, Brooke’s #1 favorite benefit of using Timeline Genius!

We’re also introducing Timeline Genius’s newest addition: the checklist feature! This brings everything full circle because it helps with both the day-of timing and the start-to-finish planning timeline so that you never miss a beat!

To hear Brooke’s interview, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 

We want to say a special thank you to Brooke for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Please take this information, act on it, and carry on the journey toward fulfilling your dreams!

Show Notes:

• Schedule your free, one-on-one demo with Brooke here. 
• Keep up with the latest Timeline Genius features (and send us a DM!) on Instagram here.
• Questions? Get in touch with Brooke or Eddie
• Ready to begin using Timeline Genius to streamline your business? Access your free trial of Timeline Genius here!

The post WII 138 – Timeline Genius Deep Dive with Brooke Bowenschulte appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

You’re putting a lot of energy into marketing your business and delivering an amazing service for couples. But how do you know if your efforts are resonating the way you want them to? 

Wedding planning is an emotionally driven career, requiring lots of creativity and passion. That often means pros miss out on an essential part of building success: data analytics. 

If analyzing data feels like a huge, impossible task, then this episode of Wedding Industry Insider Podcast is for you. We’re joined by Shauna Smith, Director of Business-to-Business Marketing for The Knot Worldwide, and she’s sharing fantastic advice for using data to scale and grow your wedding planning business. 

The good news? You don’t need a special degree or access to detailed studies to use data in your business. In fact, some of your most valuable data is trends and feedback from your own clients. 

That’s why we love this interview so much – Shauna shares her immense expertise while offering actionable steps anyone can take to make informed decisions for their business. Here is some of what you can look forward to:

• How to narrow down the many ideas and directions you have for your business
• Trends and values among Gen Z couples
• How to turn your unique business data into easy-to-analyze spreadsheets
• Tips for making sure your website is ready to draw in your ideal client
• And, Shauna’s #1 advice for wedding planners!

To hear Shauna’s interview, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 

We want to say a special thank you to Shauna for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Please take this information, act on it, and carry on the journey toward fulfilling your dreams!

Show Notes:

• Connect with Shauna Smith on LinkedIn here or on Instagram here.
• Keep up with The Knot Worldwide on Instagram to learn about upcoming events and promotions. 
• Questions? Get in touch with Shauna or Eddie
• Want more time to grow your business? We can help! Access your free trial of Timeline Genius here

The post WII 137 – How to Use Data to Drive Growth with Shauna Smith appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

You know a strong foundation is essential to running a successful wedding planning business. But when it’s time to refine or restructure, getting to the bottom of things can seem daunting. 

Fallon Carter of Fallon Carter Events is here to help! She’s joining this week’s Wedding Industry Insider to talk about the essential (and pretty simple!) process of refining the foundation of your business. 

The good news? It doesn’t have to be a big, sweeping project you tackle all at once. Instead, Fallon walks us through the seven key elements to focus on, and gives us a totally doable timeframe for achieving it!

Fallon is one of the earliest supporters of Timeline Genius, so she’s sharing some awesome ways that our program helps her provide the best service possible to clients (while protecting her time and energy). Plus, she’s sharing other programs she uses to streamline her processes and keep her business running smoothly.

We love the authentic, kindhearted advice Fallon offers in this episode – here are some of our favorite highlights:

• How structuring her weekly tasks helps ensure Fallon is staying financially stable and legally compliant. 
• Fallon’s story of overcoming imposter syndrome and becoming confident in her work as a planner
• She breaks down her pricing structure and reveals that different models can work for different clients (as long as you protect your finances in the contract!). 
• And, she shares her #1 advice for wedding planners!

To hear Fallon’s interview, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 

We want to say a special thank you to Fallon for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Please take this information, act on it, and carry on the journey toward fulfilling your dreams!

Show Notes:

• Follow Fallon Carter Events on Instagram here.
• Questions? Get in touch with Fallon or Eddie
• Listen to our interview with Fallon’s lawyer on this recent episode of Wedding Industry Insider.  
• Ready to refine your foundation with the best systems and processes? Access your free trial of Timeline Genius here

The post WII 136 – Refining Your Foundation With Fallon Carter appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

“Show up, shine bright, get loud, be clear, and take up massive space in your market.” 

How do you bring your identity to your business? 

Today we’re sharing an incredible interview with Don Mamone, an identity coach and photographer whose unique journey to authenticity is an inspiration to anyone who wants to shine bright as an entrepreneur. 

Don is sharing amazing advice about channeling your truest self and using that to elevate your business. You’ll love hearing about how they discovered and accepted their own identity and then became better at all aspects of life – from emailing business clients to raising their family. 

Here’s some of what you can look forward to in this beautiful and deeply personal interview:

• A four-step framework for becoming your most authentic self (in life and in business!)
• Why you want authenticity to serve as both a beacon and a filter so that you’re surrounded by the right people and clients
• How discovering your identity can improve your brand and marketing 
• Tips for standing out in a saturated market and attract clients based on who you are instead of what you do
• And, Don shares their #1 piece of advice for wedding professionals

To hear Don’s interview, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 

We want to say a special thank you to Don for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Please take this information, act on it, and carry on the journey toward fulfilling your dreams!

Show Notes:

• To learn more about Don and get on their mailing list, visit their website here. 
• Follow Don on Instagram @donmamone
• Questions? Get in touch with Don or Eddie 
• Access your free trial of Timeline Genius here

The post WII 135 – Don Mamone’s Inspiring Journey to Authenticity appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

Your wedding planning business is taking off. You’re doing the work you love, grasping the business side of things, and finding some work/life balance. Then it all comes crashing down with one single client. 

If you haven’t had a problem client yet, you likely will encounter one soon. And it’s not that they are bad people, or even universally bad clients. They just aren’t a fit for how you do business. Now they’re bringing you down, giving you extra work, and chipping away at your profits. It’s time to break up with them. 

What is your exit plan?

On this week’s episode of Wedding Industry Insider, we’re talking with Leah Weinberg of the law firm Oduberg, which offers legal services for entrepreneurs in New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Washington, D.C.

Leah is a real treasure for us because she is an experienced lawyer who also worked as a wedding planner for 10 years. So she’s able to give us practical advice for navigating contracts, dealing with difficult clients, and managing entrepreneurship. 

She has a lot of valuable insight, both as a wedding pro and a lawyer – here is what you can look forward to in this great interview:

• Leah debunks the myth that a long, formal contract will scare away clients.
• We hear real examples of problem clients and learn how to prepare for them in your contract.
• Leah gives a quick primer on how to classify employees and independent contractors. 
• And, she shares her #1 piece of advice for wedding professionals

To hear Leah’s interview, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 

We want to say a special thank you to Leah for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Please take this information, act on it, and carry on the journey toward fulfilling your dreams!

Show Notes:

• To hear more from Leah, listen to her previous interview with Eddie on Wedding Industry Insider. 
• Follow Leah on Instagram @theleahweinberg and @oduberglaw
• Questions? Get in touch with Leah or Eddie 
• Access your free trial of timeline genius here. 

The post WII 134 – Leah Weinberg on Contracts and Breaking Up With Clients appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

The direction of your business has likely changed over the years, but have you changed your goals? 

Many wedding planners are still strategizing based on goals they made years ago. Or, based on other people’s goals. 

It’s the New Year, and even if you’re not one to make resolutions, it’s the perfect time to evaluate your goals as a wedding entrepreneur. 

This week on Wedding Industry Insider podcast, sales and business expert Sam Jacobson shares great ideas to ensure your strategy and sales flow align with a completely up-to-date, true-to-you set of goals. 

Sam is the founder and co-owner of Ideaction Consulting, a firm offering business coaching, sales, marketing tools, and website copywriting for wedding pros who want to book high-quality (and high-paying) clients. 

You’ll love Sam’s insight as both a business owner and a sales coach, but here are some of our favorite highlights from this great interview:

• How to work from a place of bliss, and the value in delegating tasks outside your genius zone
• How to create value for clients in your sales process
• The top 3 mistakes wedding pros make in their sales process (and how to fix them!)
• And, Sam’s number #1 Advice for wedding professionals

To hear Sam’s interview, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 

We want to say a special thank you to Sam for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Please take this information, act on it, and carry on the journey toward fulfilling your dreams!

Show Notes:

• Want personalized help from Sam’s team? Get 50% off a website audit here!
• Discover more Ideaction tools, services, and courses here.
• If you’re following along for Eddie’s book recommendations, check out Ray Dalio’s “Priciples” here.
• Questions? Get in touch with Sam or Eddie 
• Access your free trial of timeline genius here. 

The post WII 133 – Setting (& Changing!) Goals With Sam Jacobson appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

Are you looking to rebrand or update your business in the year to come? If so, this week’s Wedding Industry Insider episode is for you. 

Web designer and brand strategist Emily Foster (owner of Emily Foster Creative) joins us to talk about elevating your website and brand, and what major mistakes to avoid. 

But she’s not letting us jump ahead. Before we can create a picture-perfect website and soul-stirring copy, we’ve got to complete one must-do task: identifying our ideal client. 

Luckily, Emily has excellent, actionable advice on how to do that. And you’ll be surprised how specific she gets as she guides you toward that one, perfect client (who will book your favorite package). 

Here are some more of our favorite highlights from this week:

• How to strike a balance between showing your unique personality in your brand while speaking to your ideal client too. 
• We get Emily’s great insight as both a business strategist and a creative web designer. 
• Emily reveals the top mistakes she sees on wedding professionals’ websites – you’ll be running to your own site as soon as you hear them. 
• And, her #1 piece of advice for wedding professionals!

To hear Emily’s interview, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 

We want to say a special thank you to Kristin for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Please take this information, act on it, and carry on the journey toward fulfilling your dreams!

Show Notes:

• Want your website to sing to your ideal clients? Snag Emily’s elevated website checklist here. 
• Check out Donald Miller’s book “Building a Story Brand” here
• Questions? Get in touch with Emily or Eddie 
• Access your free trial of timeline genius here. 

The post WII 132 – Attracting Your Ideal Client with Emily Foster appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of competition in your wedding market? If so, you’re not alone, but you’re also not stuck. 

Expert wedding planner Kate Murtaugh found success by viewing fellow planners as her community, not her “competition.”

Kate Murtaugh is the CEO and Creative Director of Kate Murtaugh Events & Design, an award-winning studio based in New England. Today on the Wedding Industry Insider Podcast, Kate shares her unique insight on how you can strengthen your business and your wedding market by embracing community over competition.

This interview is full of so much heart and warmth, as Kate shares the ways she has struggled (and succeeded!) as an entrepreneur and a mother. Here are some of our favorite takeaways:

• There are clients for everyone, and creating a referral network and community of mentors benefits everyone.
• Family means everything to Kate, and clients have shared that they feel even more cared for because of this.
• We get 3 guiding principles that help Kate balance family and entrepreneurship.
• Kate uses Timeline Genius to keep track of her community, plan polished events, and claim more time in her day.
• And, Kate shares her #1 piece of advice for wedding planners!

To hear Kate’s interview, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 

We want to say a special thank you to Kate for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Please take this information, act on it, and carry on the journey toward fulfilling your dreams!

Show Notes:

• Find your Rising Tide chapter online here. 
• Follow Kate on Instagram here.
• Questions? Get in touch with Kate or Eddie. 
• Want to see if you’ll love Timeline Genius as much as Kate does? Access your free trial of timeline genius here. 

The post WII 131: Kate Murtaugh Embraces Community & Motherhood as a Wedding Planner appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.