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
316. Your 2026 Wedding Business Plan Needs This
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
Are you ready for 2026 to be the year you ditch the burnout and finally scale your profits?
This episode breaks down the three non-negotiable levers—like auditing your pricing and fixing your funnel leaks—that every wedding planner, photographer, and creative must master to stop undercharging and build the truly profitable business you love.
Stop hoping next year will be better and start executing a plan that will completely transform your business and your weekends.
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
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EPISODE SHOW NOTES BLOG & MORE:
https://weddingproceo.com/2026-wedding-business-plan-revenue/
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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!
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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.
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If you're a wedding business owner and you want 2026 to look nothing like 2025. Because you're tired of working every weekend, you're still undercharging and you're hoping next year will be better, then this is the episode that you're gonna come back to in 12 months and say, wow, that's when everything changed. Because today I'm breaking down the three things that wedding pros must master. If you wanna double your current revenue. And scale your profit in 2026. Every year, thousands of wedding pros tell themselves the same lie. Next year will be my year. But it simply being a new year doesn't change you just because it's all of a sudden January doesn't change anything. Only the action that you take will change you. this is exactly why our students inside of Wedding Pro CEO scale from $60,000 to $250,000. From $150,000 to over half a million and even past seven figures? The pattern is the same every time. It's not luck. It's not a viral reel. It's not manifesting, and it's definitely not waiting for referrals to magically appear in your inbox. The business owners who grow are the ones who get obsessed with focusing on what actually creates growth in their business. Everything else is noise. I'm breaking down the only three levers that you need to pull to radically change your 2026 sales, marketing, and profit the last one, almost every wedding pro ignores, and it's actually the one that will single-handedly determine whether you thrive or burn out next year. So don't click away early because your entire 2026 hinges on the final point. So let's get into it. Okay. Lever number one that we're gonna pull is to audit our current and future state. If you wanna dramatically change your 2026, you can't plan based on vibes or gut feelings, or it feels like I'm busy. You need to anchor everything in real numbers and real data. And this starts with the simplest but most eye-opening question. What was your average client spend this year? If you aren't sure, this is exactly how you do it. It's simple. Take your total revenue and divide it by the number of events that you serviced. That number right there is the truth, and it's probably different than the number that you think that you charge. And that's it. It's that easy. That is how we audit our current state. What was the average amount that I was able to have my clients spend with me this year in 2025? That's gonna help us to project 2026. Now we're gonna set our revenue goal for 2026. I don't want you to overthink it. I want you to pick the number that represents growth, but also feels realistic. here's a little insider tip. Inside of Wedding Pro, CEO. Probably the number one thing I say to students is, You didn't set your goal high enough. You need to reach harder. You need to think bigger because most of the time we downplay what we're actually able to do. here's the challenge that I wanna give to you. CEO. Do not shoot too low, because guess what? Hardly anything has to change for you to grow by 10 or 20%. Instead, what I want you to do is double that revenue number, triple that revenue number. Heck, sometimes I even push our CEOs inside the program to five times that revenue number they did this year. Why? Because this year they didn't have the strategy. They didn't have the skill, they didn't have the roadmap To actually be able to achieve those super high goals. But you're getting that roadmap right here. You're hearing the strategy that you need to do it. So I want you to think bigger, and I want you to really shoot for what you really think that you can do if you change the way that you think about your business. Once you have that number, I want you to calculate. Based on the average ticket that your client spent with you this year, how many events do you need to do in 2026 to hit that revenue number you set? For most pros, this is the moment your stomach drops because the math reveals one of two things. Either one, you're gonna burn out long before you ever hit that revenue goal. Or two, it shows that you're actually closer than you thought to that massive goal, and you've been keeping yourself small for way too long. I love when I see our students have this aha moment, whether it's number one or number two. At least you have the data in front of you and we can make a plan to really hit those bigger goals because now you understand what it's gonna take. instead of just, I hope I hit this goal. So the last piece of this audit is how many events are already on the books for 2026. you wanna subtract that from the number of total events that you need so that you know exactly how many more that you need to book, right? So how many more events do you need to book per month in 2026 to hit this big revenue goal. this is what CEOs do. They don't guess they run the numbers and they build backwards from the goal. We call it reverse engineering because once you understand these numbers, you stop chasing everything and you start executing strategically. You know exactly what needs to happen every single month to hit your revenue target, and that level of clarity alone will change the way you run your business. Okay. Lever number two that we're gonna pull in our business is to audit our sales funnel. here's the part where most of wedding pros crack. You can't hit your revenue goal if your sales funnel is leaking customers at every stage. So let's start with the basics. How many leads did you get per month this year, and how many of those leads booked a consultation? And how many of those consultations turned into bookings. Those three numbers tell your entire sales story. They reveal where your funnel is leaking and where revenue is slipping through your fingers. if you're getting leads but not enough consults, your messaging could be unclear in your marketing or you're not following up nearly enough to get them to book a consult. If you are getting consults, but you're not getting enough bookings, your sales process is inconsistent or you're not confidently articulating your value. If this is the case, I have a free training called the Assume Method, where you're gonna see exactly what you need to do inside of your consult to not only have incredible discovery, but then to use that discovery to assume the sale and close the contract right there while you're talking to those clients. You can find that free training over at weddingproceo.com slash freetraining, or drop down to the show notes below and click the link in the description. Trust me. If you're not already assuming the sale, this is the game changer that you need. Okay. And the last one, if you're not getting enough leads at all, you have a marketing problem, not a wedding industry is slow or the economy is bad problem, and here's where you have to be honest. Are you even getting enough leads to hit the revenue goal that you set? Let's say that you need 20 more bookings. If your close rate is 25%, you're gonna need 80 leads next year. If you're only getting 35 a year, your math is never gonna math no matter how good your work is. So once you know your real numbers, you can answer two game changing questions. How many more leads do I need to get per month? And where do my best leads actually come from? Not all leads are created equal. If your strongest bookings come from vendor referrals, double down on networking. If they come from Instagram content, Overhaul your posting strategy, and I'm gonna encourage you to make sure that you're engaging consistently as well on Instagram if they come from paid directories, optimize your listing. Stop trying to be everywhere. Start putting your effort where the math says it matters. When you audit your funnel and you fix your leaks, you stop chasing bookings, and you start controlling your revenue every single month to get that consistent revenue that's gonna help you hit that revenue goal that we set. Okay, the third lever that we're gonna pull, and this is the lever that will change your entire business in 2026 if you take it seriously. once you know how many events you need to hit your revenue goal, you have to ask the hardest question, do I actually even have enough hours in 2026 to deliver that many events? For most wedding pros, the answer is a very loud. No, because your current pricing was built on what you thought people would pay, not what the service actually cost you in time, energy, and labor. If the number of events required to hit your revenue goal exceeds your capacity, you only have three options. Number one. Raise your prices, add team members or both, and this is where growth really happens. When you accept that you can't out hustle the math, you start building a real business instead of a hamster wheel. If you raise your pricing, your average client spend increases, which means you need fewer events to hit the same revenue. If you add team members, you free up capacity and you can serve even more events without burning out. If you do both, you scale sustainably and quickly. And here's the part that nobody talks about. Your capacity isn't just ours. It's your mental load, your weekends, your health, your family, and your ability to show up at your highest level. You cannot build a profitable, scalable wedding business on a model that requires you to be super human. Pricing and capacity are the foundation of every bit of growth you want in 2026. So CEO, listen closely, audit them honestly, and you gain control of your entire business if you ignore them. You'll stay stuck no matter how hard you run or how much you hustle. If you want 2026 to be your breakthrough year, you must audit your current reality, your sales funnel, and your pricing and capacity with brutal honesty. Nothing here is complicated. It's simply not optional anymore. If you're ready to stop guessing and start building, I wanna invite you to book a free gap assessment with my team. Our business consultants audit hundreds of wedding businesses every single year. We'll audit your business. We're gonna find your revenue leaks, and we're gonna map out your 2026 plan so you can finally scale with confidence. A year from now in December of 2026, you're either gonna be celebrating the best year your business has ever had, or repeating the same patterns, and that decision starts today. CEO. I have absolutely loved being part of your week, every single week for the last four years. So here at the end of 2025, this is the last live episode that we're putting out in 2025. We'll be back at the beginning of 2026, and I cannot wait to continue scaling with you. I hope to see you on a gap assessment soon, I would love to see your name pop up in our member roster, and if you've gotten anything from this podcast in 2025, I'm gonna ask you to go over to whatever platform that you're listening on right now and leave us a five star review. This helps us so much to have other wedding pros find our podcast and see that it is a valuable tool to grow and scale your business. And of course, make sure that you're subscribed or you follow the show on whatever platform that you're listening on. And thank you so much for being part of this community. I'll see you in 2026.
