Wedding Pro CEO | Building Profitable Wedding Businesses
Dive deep into the wedding industry and learn actionable tips from host Brandee Gaar and guest wedding pro CEOs that will enable you take your wedding business to new heights!
Uncover the proven strategies, insights, and stories of successful wedding professionals who have built thriving businesses in this dynamic and competitive market.
Each week, Brandee Gaar, a seasoned wedding industry expert and CEO of Blush by Brandee Gaar, brings you exclusive interviews with top wedding industry pros!
This weekly podcast is for wedding pros. Here from planners, venue owners, photographers, florists, caterers, djs, and more!!
You will gain valuable knowledge and practical tips on sales, marketing, branding, client management, and the latest trends shaping the wedding industry and the business leaders that create incredible events for a living.
Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, this podcast is your go-to resource for actionable advice and inspiration.
Get ready to elevate your business skills, learn from industry leaders, and discover innovative ideas that will set you apart in the wedding industry.
Become a part of the Wedding Pro CEO community connect with Brandee at brandeegaar.com
You will become motivated to transform your passion into profit, develop incredible processes and create unforgettable experiences for couples on their special day.
Are you ready to become the CEO of your wedding empire?
Let's dive in!
Wedding Pro CEO | Building Profitable Wedding Businesses
312. The $140k Mistake this Wedding Pro Will Never Make Again!
You didn’t start your business to stay stuck. If you're ready to finally hit 6 or 7 figures WITHOUT burning out — book a call with our team → https://weddingproceo.com/application
This week we’re talking about the $140,000 mistake one wedding pro was making without even realizing it — and how fixing it transformed her business (and life).
If you’ve ever felt stuck doing all the things while wondering why your profits don’t match your bookings, this episode is a game-changer. You’ll learn how to remove yourself as the bottleneck, fix your sales system, and finally start running a business that works for you, not because of you.
The (FREE!)ASSUME Sales Training: 2x your wedding bookings in 30 days—step by step. Thousands of wedding pros have already used it to land more clients immediately! http://weddingproceo.com/freetrainingorg
A favorite book of mine: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
Another favorite book of mine: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
=========================
EPISODE SHOW NOTES BLOG & MORE:
https://weddingproceo.com/140k-mistake-wedding-pro/
=========================
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Wedding Pro CEO Podcast. If you find these strategies helpful, make sure to share this episode with your fellow wedding pros. And remember, in the world of weddings, it's all about building genuine relationships and showcasing your best work. Until next time, keep shining, CEOs!
PLEASE SUPPORT THE PODCAST! LEAVE A REVIEW HERE: https://ratethispodcast.com/swd
Have a question you’d like Brandee to answer? Ask here: http://bit.ly/3ZoqPmz
Heads up, CEO! Some of the links I share may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase—at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools and resources I actually use and love, and that I believe will help you grow a profitable, sustainable business you’re obsessed with.
=========================
When she joined Wedding Pro, CEO, she was ready to quit. She said, Brandi, I can't do this anymore. I'm literally drowning. I love my clients, but I hate my business. And honestly, I get it because I've been there. She wasn't failing. She was booked out. She had a steady stream of leads, clients who literally adored her company and weddings every single weekend. From the outside, it looked like she'd made it. She was the market leader in her area, but behind the scenes, she was exhausted. She was overwhelmed, and she wasn't paying herself nearly a livable wage. The craziest part is she didn't even realize that she was sitting on over $140,000 in lost revenue every single year. Most wedding pros think being busy means being successful, but here's the truth, being booked out and being profitable are not the same thing. And that's where she was stuck. She was doing everything, sales calls, contracts, follow-ups, vendor meetings, networking, hr, and still wondering why she couldn't get ahead. So when she joined our program, the first thing I asked her was Simple, who's in charge of sales? And she kind of laughed and she said, technically me. and that's when I knew exactly where the problem was because here's what happens when you're the one doing all the selling, while also doing all the delivery. You stop selling. It's not intentional. It's literally just survival. She was only booking clients who somehow made it to her calendar and almost had to beg for a contract. Everyone else that wasn't quite there yet, the ones who needed a nudge or needed a follow-up or even a conversation, they literally just fell into her lost pile, and that right there was her $140,000 mistake. So how do we fix it? Here's what we did differently, and this is what no one else in this industry is teaching the way we do. We didn't throw money at ads. We didn't rebrand. We didn't build a new website. We looked at what was actually keeping her stuck at what was her bottleneck at Wedding Pro, CEO. We don't just coach, we dissect. First. We wanna understand what's your core constraint, what's actually holding you back. We pull your numbers apart. We find your constraint. Your constraints and we fix it with strategy that actually scales. So for her, it meant two very specific shifts. Shift number one was that we had to hire a salesperson. Now, if you're listening to this, before you say Brandee, there's literally no way that I can afford a salesperson or that I would allow someone else to sell my company. Let me tell you, that's exactly what she said too. But remember, she wasn't losing like. Five or $10,000 a year, she was losing over 140,000. And we knew that because we were able to see how many leads were going straight to lost Because she wasn't working them, and so this was a very specific number. It wasn't something we just pulled out of the sky. It wasn't a feeling. It was literal data. We were able to show her and say, simply because you don't have time to do sales the way it should be done in your business, which is totally understandable, you're losing $140,000 just this year. Imagine what we could make of it if we had someone else fully focused on sales. So what we did was bring on a sales consultant part-time. We trained her in our wedding pro CEO sales framework. Her only job was to manage every inquiry, every follow up, and every call. And you guys, let me tell you, it was like flipping a switch. All of a sudden, every lead got a response. No more ghosting potential clients. No more. I forgot to follow up moments no more. I know I should follow up, but I haven't in like two weeks. Her close rate doubled within two months and not because she got better at sales because someone finally had the time to sell. And that makes such a big difference in so many businesses is that you think there's no way I can give up sales. But when our coaches really dig in and they say, well, how often are you following up? How often are you sending a personal text? How often are you saying, Hey, oh, I would love to get on a consult with you, and even resecting old leads. How often are you doing that? The answer is always, I know I should, but, and if that's your answer to this is part of your problem. The second shift we made in her business still had to do with sales, but it was that we opened her books early. So this one is actually really, really simple, but it changed everything for her. So she didn't open her books for the following year. So let's say for instance, here in 2025, she didn't open her books for 2027 until January 15th, 2026, and that was because she was on vacation at the end of the year. And this was something that she always looked forward to. It was off season for her, and she was so burnt out from her business all the time that she was like, I have to just like go Ghost for two full weeks. And so she wouldn't open her books because she was like, I just can't manage the lead flow. And I was like, you have to be kidding me right now. Like this is actually part of the problem of you not having a sales manager. So we're gonna fix this one too. Now that we have a sales manager and she was working year round, we were able to have that sales manager go ahead and open the books on November 1st. And you guys, the difference that it made. so often I see wedding pros make rules or guidelines in their business that are really based around just more their personal preference. And while that can be okay, sometimes it really creates, peaks and valleys in your business where all of a sudden you're like, why don't we have enough bookings? And it's because you stopped selling for a significant period of time, or you pushed off all of those 2027 bookings and they went and found someone else who would take that piece of business. And those kind of decisions can create dry spells where your team is literally twiddling their thumbs and cash flow starts to take a dip, and you feel like you're on this rollercoaster. The amazing thing about this was she kept texting me every single month and she was like, You'll not believe what our sales are this month because my sales manager literally is closing more than I ever did in a month. let me tell you, she was a good sales manager herself. But the reality is it doesn't matter how great you are at sales, if you don't have time for the follow-ups, if you don't have time for the conversations, if you don't have time to get a client a contract in a reasonable period, you're going to lose that client because they're gonna start to lose confidence in you and how you're gonna communicate once they become a client. And so putting this salesperson in place whose only focus is to follow up and close like that is their literal job will change the trajectory of your revenue so quickly. In this case, adding $140,000 in revenue to her bottom line in less than one year. Honestly, it was in less than six months because we didn't bring her sales manager a hunt until mid-year. No ad spend, no fancy funnels, just leadership and removing herself as the bottleneck in her business. this isn't just a one-off story. We see this across every business level. At a hundred K, the bottleneck is usually you, and you're doing it all yourself. At 300 k, it's your system. You're selling, but the backend is a total mess. At 500 K, it's usually team and delegation. You are afraid to let go, and when you're scaling to a million, it's usually leadership and vision and learning how to get out of the weeds entirely. The truth is success leaves clues. Every business that scales hits the same walls. But what separates our Wedding Pro CEO students from everyone else is that we don't just tell you what to do. We walk you through it step by step with a team of coaches who have each scaled their own successful wedding companies. No other program in the wedding industry does that. And that's why our students grow faster and with less stress because they don't have to guess. They don't have to use a business in a box methodology or strategy. So let me ask you this CEO, where are you? The bottleneck in your business right now? Is it sales? Is it delivery? Is it leadership? Because if you're feeling stuck, burned out, or underpaid, it's not because you need more clients. It's because your system is maxed out. You don't need more hours, you need more leverage. You don't need to work harder. You need to work like a CEO running a business that's bigger than them. And that's exactly what we do inside Wedding Pro, CEO. We teach you how to lead. Not how to hustle harder. We help you install systems that make you money while you are off the clock, and we coach you through that every step with a team that's been there, done that, and built it all. So if you're ready to stop being the bottleneck in your business, I want you to take a quick second drop down into the link below in the description and book a free gap assessment with our team at weddingproceo.com slash application. Our business consultants will walk through your numbers. We'll find your leaks and we'll map out exactly what your next shift needs to be. Because the mistake that cost this pro $140,000 was not lack of effort, and it wasn't lack of trying, it was trying to do it all. Herself. She didn't need to work harder, she needed a system. And when she finally got one, she scaled faster, made more money, and actually started loving her business again. And you can too. So click that link in the description below, tell us a little bit about your company, and book a time to chat with one of our business consultants completely for free. And let us walk you through the gaps that are holding your business back from scaling to that next level. And if you've gotten any value out of this episode, I really would love it if you would. Stop what you're doing right now and leave a five star review on whatever platform that you're listening on, because that helps other wedding pros to see those reviews and say, oh, this is a legit podcast. This is gonna help me scale my business too. it helps us so much in getting this podcast into the ears of even more wedding pros so that we can change the way the wedding industry does business. thank you so much for being here and I will see you next time.
