Donna Eade  0:03  
You're listening to the wedding procast UK the place to be if you are looking to grow and streamline your wedding business My name is Donna I'm your host and if you are new here welcome. I hope you have hit that subscribe button where you listen to so you don't miss an upcoming episode. And if you haven't yet, please leave a review on Apple podcasts so that we can reach more people just like you. Let's jump into today's show

We are 100 episodes old! I can hardly believe that I'm saying that. This has been a journey of discovery and I hope you have been enjoying the ride. So in today's show, we are going to be looking back on some of our previous episodes. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about why I started the podcast and we're going to jump into it. So let's go so first off, I'm going to give you the top five downloaded episodes of all time currently, so our top five episodes. So I will link them all in the show notes so you can go and have a listen if you have missed these particular episodes. 

So I'm going to start with our top five downloaded most downloaded episodes of the Wedding Pro Cast UK so number one the most downloaded episode you have to go right back to Episode 039 for Episode 39, which was my episode with tamarind settle who was one of the leaders of the hashtag what about weddings campaign, along with Annabel and Jessica. So she came on the show she told us all about what was going on in the wedding industry at that moment in time. What they were looking at trying to achieve what they were working towards. It was a fantastic episode, although it was of its time and not particularly relevant to the here and now it's definitely an episode to go back and look on to see where we have come from. 

So that was a really great episode and along the same vein, my number two most downloaded episode was coping with lockdown with Lynnette Chasmer and that was episode 041 Episode 41. Me and Lynnette had a fantastic conversation Lynnette was doing lives on Instagram and having conversations with people all throughout lockdown, especially for bridal hair stylist and she came on the show and just told us about what she'd been doing to keep herself busy. Because she's actually somebody who works part of the year in Crete, I think it is. She works over in Greece part of the year and obviously she couldn't do that during lockdown, so she kind of gave us the ins and outs of what she'd been doing to cope with the situation. 

Number three most downloaded episode is actually a more recent one. It was episode 91 and that was my episode on three tips for more success in your wedding business in 2022. I love to do these episodes of little quick tips and tricks that you can do that are not necessarily innovative, not necessarily brand new thought processes but things that are easily forgotten that can make all the difference. So that was definitely one of these episodes where we looked at making sure that we've got our basics under control to help us increase our success in 2022. So that one will be linked below as well. 

Number four most popular episode our fourth most popular episode was episode 026 Episode 26, which was minding your thoughts with Saira Hasan, and this was part of my self care series. So back then, I think it was probably August time and it was when Boris had just announced that weddings weren't going to open up to the 30 people it was going to stay at 15 and we were all just on that edge of seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and it was whipped away from us and I just thought it was going to crush so many people, that I felt the need to do a little bit of a self care series, where we could just really kind of go inwards and look after ourselves at that time and Saira's episode was one of the four episodes in that mini series. So I will link the whole miniseries below and Saira's episodes so you can go back and listen to that because you know what self care is not a one and done thing. So you should definitely be going back and listening to those episodes on a regular basis when you need to to hype up your self care. 

And number five, the top most downloaded episode is another recent one and it is episode 95. And that was my episode where the Camilla Fellas Arnold on exploring your creativity. So I'm really really pleased that some of the more recent ones made it into those top downloads. That's really exciting to me. 

Let me know Are you surprised by them? Have you got an episode that is your favourite that you thought would be in that top five. You can come over to the group facebook.com/groups/WPCUK and let me know what your favourites are. I will put these in the group as well so you can vote on which one of these particular ones was your favourite. 

So before I go on to my top five, so I decided to give myself some parameters with my top five. Now I wasn't going to repeat any of the ones that were in the top downloads because I do love a lot of those ones in the top downloads I really enjoyed doing and you'll notice that actually four of them are interview episodes and I do love doing my interviews but I challenge myself not to overlap and not to choose any of those top five downloads in mine and I also took a bonus six episode because I couldn't not and it's my game so I made the rules but before we go in to that I wanted to talk about the podcast itself and why I started it. 

So the Wedding Pro Cast was born we are this episodes going out and then I think our second birthday is 16th of April. So it's a couple of episodes away. It's our birthday episode. So I'll bring on a cake or something for that one. Why not? But yeah, we're 100 episodes in and it all started back in April 2020. Now I run the Society of Professional Wedding Vendors, which as you may or may not know. And the Society of Professional Wedding Vendors is an organization set up to raise standards within the wedding. Industry using our code of conduct and our application process for members. So the idea being that wedding suppliers would come to us apply to be part of the membership agree to the code of conduct and then in turn, we promote them as being code abiding members. This was an idea that I had around five or so years ago that I really wanted to do something to help with regulating standards within the wedding industry and I believe the wedding industry is an industry and if nothing else came out of the pandemic I think it is very obvious that the wedding industry is a standalone industry in its own right. And it always bothered me that you could never select that when you were looking at industries that you were part of when it comes to jobs. You know what industry do you work in construction, you know, retail office admin, all of that stuff and wedding industry was never there and it has always bothered me. So I wanted to kind of help to solidify that visual to the world that we are an industry in our own right. And I think the pandemic has actually helped in that respect to make it very clear that we are an industry that stand together. So that was the idea behind the society. And my plan was to open up the society at the beginning of 2020 in March in fact and I did I started it, I had no idea what was really coming. You know, there had been rumours about this pandemic and how it was going to affect us. And, you know, I've been put on furlough in the March and I was just like, great I can really buckle down on doing the website for this society and really get it ready to launch. And obviously, you know, the pandemic hit and it hit hard. And I was looking at it and thinking that the likelihood is that wedding vendors aren't going to be running to sign up to this society because the whole industry has stopped so they don't really need that third party endorsement from a professional organization. But what they do need is something to help them through what it is that we're going through. And that is when I decided to set up the podcast. So the podcast in its first vision was the Society of Professional Wedding Vendors Podcast, but I changed the name down the line because I thought it made it look like it was a members only podcast and it's not it's open to everybody so I changed the name to The Wedding Pro Cast UK and the rest as they say is history 100 episodes later. Here we are. The society is still around. I still

active in there. We have members in there you are welcome to join us it is something that I want to grow. But tonight we are closing our doors to new members for the next little while and that is because I have some things coming up that I need to focus on. We are closing the doors to the society at midnight tonight if you are listening to this on the day of release so this is coming out on Thursday the 31st of March and we are closing doors at midnight tonight. So if you want to get in and take advantage of the trainings that we have in there, we have some fantastic master classes, some summer conversations. And we have obviously the directory and the promotion all of that is in there. And you get access to everything that we have in there for the last two years that we have been putting things in there. So you'll get access to all of that. If you sign up before midnight tonight so you can head over to the link in the show notes. For that you can go just to spwv.co.uk. And there is a button straight there on the homepage that says Sign up and that will take you to the join information. Or you can follow the link in the show notes whichever is easier. For you. But once we are closed, we will not be opening again this year. So this is your last chance to get into the society this year. I get promotion over the summer period through the autumn period through the society so that is there if you would like and if you need any help any questions you've got then just drop me a DM or send me an email all of the information is on my website. And I will get back to you on that as soon as I can. 

So over to uh my top five episodes so the episodes that I thoroughly enjoyed and think of well worth going back and listening to. So number one is episode 48 and that was with Heather Stanford gold and it was your legal Fairy Godmother talking about contracts. Now, I am a huge, huge believer in doing things the right way. And if you are in the wedding industry providing a service or a product to a couple, you should have a contract in place, or at the very least an order form with a set of terms and conditions. So that episode is a really great one to listen to. Especially if you are new to the industry or thinking of getting into the industry head over and listen to that one. 

The next one is episode 86 And this was get rid of your to do list and do this instead. And that is because I found an amazing amount of time when I did this. And for me. It's something that I've really struggled with. I'm a big believer in calendar blocking but I found that what I was doing was putting too much on my plate and having too big expectation of myself. So even with the calendar blocking for example, I would expect myself to get three podcasts done in a day from beginning to end. So from the recording, the editing of the creating the show notes, the uploading to my podcast provider to doing the website to doing the YouTube video and editing the YouTube video and getting that up on the website. I was expecting myself to do three of those a day. And then when I get to the end of the day and I'd only done one possibly started editing another I get really upset with myself and just stopping and realizing how long things actually take was a really big eye opener for me. So getting rid of your to do list and doing this instead. Is a great episode to listen to if you are somebody who over commits for time so that was episode 86. 

Number three on my top five, six was episode two. So this was obviously way back at the beginning of April 2020 and Episode Two was called a future proof your business. So I think that this is a good one to listen to at any stage. It is always great to be looking at ways you can future proof your business. And I think it's a really important one. So that is why that one made my list. 

The next one is episode 56 And that one was with Bernadette Chapman it was don't discount if you want to be profitable. And I think that stands to reason again, it's about making sure that your business is sustainable and that you're going to be here for a long time doing what you love. So I think that episode was a really really great one to listen to. 

My number five choice that was episode 66 which was have better sales conversations and that was with Hannah Walker and I just think she is a great character. And the way she talks about sales is a way that I really enjoyed listening to I always said that I'm not a sales person. And when you listen to Hannah talk who is has been in that position where it's been sales targets and you must get these people on the books and you've got to land this account, and you hear the way she talks about sales. It just gives you a different perspective. So if sales aren't your thing, definitely go and listen to episode 66 with Hannah because it was a fantastic episode, 

and then my bonus episode which is by no means least on this list is my episode 68 which was passion to purpose with Amy McLaren. Now I've spoken about Amy and the book passion to purpose a number of times on the show. I am really really a huge fan of everything she stands for and being able to have her come on the show. And do that episode was literally like, you know, seeing your favourite celebrity Come on. It was very I was very starstruck and so excited to have been able to be part of her book launch journey. So if you haven't read the book yet, definitely go and download it. I will link it in the show notes for you can get it on Audible or you can get the hardback version but I will link it for you. It's a really great book that talks you through a seven step pathway to finding your passion and purpose. A lot of times if you're in the wedding industry, you may think you've already found your passion and purpose and you may well have done but it's definitely worth a read so that you can look at it as the big picture of your life and your work and how they work together and what you might move forward to doing now that you've reached this stage in your journey so definitely some fantastic episodes there.

I would like to say a huge huge thank you to everybody who has come on the podcast over the last 100 episodes and interviewed with me. I have enjoyed all of them. I really absolutely love having conversations with people on the show. If you are interested in being featured on the show for an interview then I would love to hear from you. I will put a link in the show notes where you can apply to be on the show. And here's to the next 100 Guys, I'm so super excited for what the future holds. The wedding industry is going from strength to strength and so if this podcast I look forward to seeing you all back next week for another episode of The Wedding Pro Cast UK have a fantastic weekend. I'm sure there are going to be lots of weddings happening. So if you are working this weekend, I hope everything goes smoothly for you. And I will see you in the next one. Bye for now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai