Wedding Pro CEO | Building Profitable Wedding Businesses

317. 10 Wedding Industry Icks We are NOT taking into 2026

• Brandee Gaar • Season 7

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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 

If the holiday scroll has left you feeling more comparison-fatigued than inspired, it’s time to stop dragging outdated habits and "vibes" into a brand-new year. 

We’re drawing a line in the sand to ditch the 10 industry "icks" that are quietly killing your profit so you can finally step into 2026 with a clear, scalable roadmap and a business you actually love. 

Listen to the full intervention and start running your business like the CEO you were meant to be!

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 

https://amzn.to/4lbqZFw

Another favorite book of mine: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell 

https://amzn.to/3ITKLb4

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EPISODE SHOW NOTES BLOG & MORE:

https://weddingproceo.com/wedding-industry-icks-2026/

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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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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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You think you're taking your wedding business into 2026, but some of y'all are packing baggage that absolutely cannot come with Today we're drawing a line in the sand. We're calling out the habits, the excuses, and the industry icks that are quietly killing your revenue, the stuff no one in the wedding world wants to talk about because it's easier to blame the market or blame the economy, the algorithm, anything but the actual root cause. This episode is your business intervention. No fluff and no coddling, no "trust the process", fairy dust, we're burning down what needs to stay in 2025, and we're taking only the strategies that actually make you money into 2026. So let's get into it. The 2025 Icks that we're burying aren't cute. They're cashflow killers, So let's talk about what those are. Ick number one is the, I don't have time lie that you're telling yourself. The reality check is that you do, but you're spending it on doing the wrong things. If your calendar's full, but your bank account isn't, you're prioritizing the wrong things. So many of us live in our inbox, our emails, we wake up first thing, jump in your inbox and you seem to never get out of it. So that to-do list that you made the night before, still sitting there unchecked because you let other people steal your time. You're also saying yes to way too many things, too many networking events. Too many people that just want a few minutes of your time. Too many clients who ask for a quick five minute call who never paid for that. You've got to understand that your time is the most precious resource that you have in your entire business, and you have to protect it like it's your first born child and you have to protect it like you're never gonna get it back because you aren't. Time is not renewable. You only have the 24 hours today that you have today, and they go away. So how are you spending your time and is it actually moving the needle in your business? In 2026, let's stop saying I don't have time and let's just call it what it is and say that's not a priority to me. I promise it will reframe your mindset about where you spend your time. Okay, ick number two, and this one has to die in 2026, is sending a proposal after the call. The brutal truth here is that delayed proposals equal lost revenue. And you guys, I feel like, I feel like for the last three years I have screamed this from the rooftop, I swear in almost. Every podcast episode, YouTube, video, social media posts that we make, I somehow work in, stop sending proposals after consults, and yet here we are. People drop into my dms every single day and say, I don't understand why I keep getting ghosted. I send a proposal and then nothing. And I'm like. That is exactly the problem. Here's the thing, when you do a consultation and then instead of talking about price, instead of talking about the service, instead of telling them exactly how you're gonna serve them on the day and the next steps to be able to lock you down for their wedding day, you are missing an opportunity to handle objections in real time. What you're doing when you send a proposal is requiring a couple to sit with you for, 30 to 45 minutes, talk all about their day and then have to wait for you to make time to send them a proposal that then they have to take time to review, and then they don't have an opportunity to go over objections with you because someone else already closed them during the consultation. Your fear of sounding salesy is losing you sales because you are not taking the opportunity during that consultation to lead them to exactly how you are the best pro for them and exactly how much that's gonna cost. When you handle objections right there during the consultation, your closing rate will go up. I promise you, I've seen it hundreds of times inside of our programs with our students because they finally understand that when you're leading someone to a decision, when you're telling them exactly how you're gonna serve them and exactly what that's gonna cost them, You're handling the objections right there in real time. That is not salesy. That is leading with confidence and our couples value this so much. Sending proposals after the console is the 2025 equivalent of leaving money on the table and hoping it crawls back on its own. Do not take this one with you into 2026. The third ick that we are getting rid of in 2026 is the overly aesthetic Instagram grid. Now, don't get me wrong, we work in an industry that is very visual, so I'm not telling you to just post gross pictures that took you no time from your iPhone. I'm not telling you to do that, but what I am telling you is that so often we get stuck on making sure that our grid is pretty, that it's aesthetic, that it all goes together, that we either one, get too afraid to post because it might not be the perfect one. And two, those pretty posts have no strategy behind them. We're so concerned with what it looks like that we forget that our Instagram is actually a powerful sales tool that we need to use as top of funnel to bring more people. Into our funnel and lead them through exactly how they're going to move through the process to get to work with us. So every single time that you're posting, you need to be thinking about does this post actually move someone closer to being able to work with me, or is it just a pretty post that people might double tap, but then scroll. Pretty posts do not pay your taxes if your grid looks stunning, but your bookings are down. Congratulations. You've built an art gallery instead of a lead machine, and we are leaving that in 2025. ok, ick number four might be the most controversial one on this list. I always catch so much hate when I post about it on social media, but we are going to go all in and say, if you are still hiding your pricing, if you are not putting your pricing out there publicly, if you are pricing scares you. It'll scare your clients too. Here's the thing. We say way too often if I put my pricing out there, it's just causing price shoppers. If I put my pricing out there, my competitors will know what I'm charging. And I say to that, who cares? Right? Here's what we don't wanna do. We are not asking you. We're not telling you to put a menu of pricing out there like your McDonald's. We are not McDonald's, okay? We are a premium service and we need to act like it. However, our couples are planning this event for the first time in their life most of the time, and they have no idea what things cost. And so having to reach out to 10, 15, 20 vendors just to get pricing, and 90% of those vendors say. Let me get you on a phone call before I'm even gonna give you an idea of the ballpark we're talking about. They're not gonna do it. No one has that kind of time. They're frustrated and they're exhausted, and they're gonna move on to somebody who gives them the information that they need to make a buying decision right away. So what does this mean for you? In 2026 if you do not currently have a range of pricing? A starting pricing, an average pricing, on your website or in your social media, easy for leads to find it. You need to go do that right now. Because gatekeeping your prices isn't strategy. It's honestly an insecurity because you are afraid of what other people will think, that's not how you become one of the top 1% of businesses in your market. Ick number five is the faceless, personality- less business. In 2026, gen Z and younger millennials want to know who you are. They do business with people that they know, like, and trust, and when they can't understand who you are and what you value and what you do, and what your personality is behind the brand. They're gonna bolt. They're not even gonna stop on your profile to learn any more about you because there's nothing there for them to find out, right? You've gotta stop hiding behind the logo. You've got to stop hiding behind the pretty real weddings that you're putting out on your Instagram feed. Those are important. Those are helpful, but you've got to pepper in the personality. No longer do people want to do business with a logo, they're excited to know more about you. Now, this doesn't mean for those of you that are like choking right now listening to this, that you're like, I don't wanna expose everything in my personal life. guys, Listen, that's not what we're here to do. I don't need to see everything you do every day. I don't need to see every meal you eat. I don't need to see every single thing that takes up your day. But what I do wanna see is more about. What it looks like to build your business, what it looks like to manage your team, what it looks like to prep for a wedding, what it looks like to onboard a new client, what it looks like to put together an invitation suite, to create a playlist, to create a shot list, to get the perfect lighting. All of those things that our clients want to see. They want to know what it's like to work with you, and they want to understand your personality. A faceless business is a forgettable business, so we're gonna leave that faceless business back in 2025 and starting, today, you, my friend, CEO, are gonna go and make some videos that show your face and show your process, and most importantly, show your expertise. These are getting juicy, right? So ick number six is saying yes to every inquiry. Now, this one gets easier the longer that you've been in business and the easier it is to spot the red flags. But what I want you to understand is that just saying yes to every inquiry, especially we do this when sales might be down a little bit and you're like, let me just say yes. Let me just take that one. Let me just discount, let me just get within their budget. Every misaligned client costs you so much more than they pay you. Every single one. And we all know this, right in the moment when you're booking it, you're like, it's fine, I'll make it work. But then all of a sudden, you now have to service that client and they are so misaligned with you that it ends up costing you more time because you're working outside of your normal flow and it costs you honestly so much of your mental clarity and sanity that it takes away from your ability to focus on finding those right clients. Finding where those those aligned leads are hanging out and being able to really focus on your sales strategy. The thing is every yes has a cost and some of you are literally going broke on your yeses. Ick number seven really goes along with iic number six, and it's discounting out of fear. And I know, I get it. You guys trust me. I've been there and I even still to this day sometimes will be like. What if should we discount? Should we make this work? And the answer is no. And I've been in business long enough at this point to understand that every single time we discount for a client, we end up hating working with that client because it puts the balance out of order. Now, I'm not saying that you always have to be in power, that you always have to be the one driving the bus as the business owner, but when you hand that power over to the client and say, yes, we're just gonna take it, they immediately have a lower amount of respect for you, and they are then holding the cards and they start to pull every single thing that they possibly can out of you it will become such a challenge for you as you're working with this client. Discounting is a tax you pay for lacking confidence. When you're confident in your pricing, when you understand why you charge what you do, you'll be so much more confident in saying, this is our price. And yes, we may be more expensive than someone else that you're looking for, but here's why we're worth it. And you need to be able to explain that out loud to every single lead that you talk to. If you discount just to close, you're training your market to negotiate your value down, and we are leaving that behind in 2025. The number eight ick that we are leaving behind And none of you should be surprised by hearing this one, because you know how much your girl loves the data, and number eight is not tracking your numbers. We are leaving that behind. It's gone. We're not doing this anymore. In 2026. In 2026, you are gonna understand your data so clearly that you can spit it off at a moment's notice because here's what I need you to hear, CEO, you cannot fix what you do not measure. And way too many of y'all drop into my dms. And you say things like, my leads are down. I feel like everything's slow. I'm not making enough sales. And when I ask you how many leads that you get every single month, you have no idea. You cannot fix your sales funnel if you don't understand, where the leak is coming from. It's no different from being in a boat and knowing your boat's, taking on water, but having no idea where the hole is. You simply can't fix it, and you're gonna sink treat your business the exact same way. If you want to make sure that you're not gonna sink, figure out where the leak is, and you can only do that by tracking your numbers. If you don't know your lead count, your conversion rate, or your capacity, you're not running a business. You're running on vibes. And please, for the love of all things, can we leave vibes behind in 2025 and start running our businesses like legit businesses. Number nine. We do this all the time. When you raise your prices, especially, I cannot tell you how often I see this. A wedding pro will say, okay, I'm gonna raise my prices. I'm doing it. I'm so excited. I'm in it. Brandee, I heard you. I'm gonna do it. And then all of a sudden they start overdelivering. They're like adding 30 bullet points to their services, and I'm like, whoa, what are we doing? What happened? Now we're just misaligned again. When you're overdelivering, it's coming from insecurity and it's causing unpaid labor. You're literally delivering services that you're not being paid for. We wanna think about our services like a cheese pizza. When you go to Domino's or pizza hut, or your favorite local pizza joint and you order a cheese pizza, you're ordering a cheese pizza because. That's what you want, right? And you're expecting it to be hot. You're expecting to have cheese sauce, maybe a nice crust. You're expecting it to taste delicious and it should, but you didn't pay for toppings and nor are you gonna get them, just because the business owner's like, oh, you know, I feel really bad for charging them $20 for this cheese pizza. I think I'll just throw supreme toppings on it. That's not how it works. So stop delivering like you're just gonna give away all the free things if your client comes in and orders your base package. Deliver the best freaking base package that they have ever expected. Be amazing at it. Deliver exactly what you said you were going to, but nothing else. They didn't pay for it, so stop overdelivering. Just to make yourself feel better. If your client experience requires your martyrdom, it's not a client experience. It's literally self-sabotage. In 2026. We're gonna have systems, boundaries, and clear deliverables so that we feel confident in what we're selling, and the client is excited about the experience that they had working with you. Okay. The last ick that we're talking about here in this episode is comparing your business to everyone else's highlight reel. Now, we all do this, so have a little grace with yourself if this is where you are, especially here towards the beginning of the year. We had two full weeks at the end of 2025 where I feel like I know personally I scrolled on social media way more than I, ever have, I think in like my entire life because you're opening presents and then you're kinda like sitting around and everybody's in their jammies for an unending amount of time. And so comparison fatigue can set in and it's real. I understand that. But comparison is a distraction, dressed like research. We say that we're gonna scroll Instagram, for ideas or to understand what other people are doing, the competition, we wanna understand like what are they delivering? But instead, what you're doing is comparing yourself and that comparison sneaks in, in the most unhealthy ways. Not only does it give you a mindset to make you feel like you're never doing enough because you're only seeing their highlight reel, but it also starts to make you think, maybe I should do that, maybe I should do that. And all of a sudden you have the most confusing service offerings that you don't even know exactly what you're offering anymore because you've hodgepodge it from a bunch of other people's chaos. Stop doing it. There's nothing I've done better for my mental health than muting 98% of my competitors, and that goes for both blush and wedding Pro, CEO. I think that having a healthy mindset and understanding what you provide in the market, understanding how you help people transform, how you are going to deliver someone's most amazing wedding day, and whatever area of the market it is that you serve, you are either gonna keep their dance floor packed, you're gonna deliver the most incredible storytelling video, you're gonna deliver these incredible invitations that are gonna set the tone for their wedding, whatever it is that you do, do it so well that you are so proud of it that you don't even want to compare yourself to the competition any longer. I'm telling you, please, if you heard none of the other icks from this episode, hear me when I say. Mute the competition. Honestly, I even mute friends sometimes because they can make me get in my head about, am I doing this well enough? Are they doing this better than me? Oftentimes, muting is not about what someone else is doing wrong. They're not doing anything wrong. Sometimes we think, when I mute somebody, that means that I don't like them. That's not true at all. It's for your own health and the sake of your mental health in your business. Being a business owner is hard. We have enough things running through our head all the time that comparison fatigue is not one that we need, and we can easily handle this by simply muting people that make us get in our head. You can't benchmark your way to a seven figure business by stalking your competitors' reels. You have to understand what is it that I need to do? What is it that I deliver, what makes me unique? And then go after that. So those are all of the icks that we are not taking into 2026. Okay. We're leaving all 10 of those icks behind in 2025. And if you're listening to this episode and you're like, I do a lot of those things and I want to stop doing them. I want to stop sending proposals. I want to understand my numbers. I want to raise my pricing and be confident in it. But you're just like, how? How do I do that Brandee? Like, it sounds well and good, but it seems so overwhelming. You guys. That's exactly why we have Gap Assessments. We offer free Gap Assessments for wedding business owners so that we can dig into your business. Our team will dig into your business, spot your biggest gaps, and help you to understand exactly what you need to do, to change those to make sure that you are fixing those so that you can scale your business. If you're interested in learning more about how to book a gap assessment with our team, head over to wedding pro ceo.com/application. Fill out a few things about your business and book a time that works for you, and our team will dig in with you to spot the gaps and to help you understand what exactly you need to do here in 2026 to double or triple your revenue. Here's the truth. Most wedding pros won't say out loud, 2026 isn't gonna magically be your breakthrough year. You either change how you operate. Or you repeat the same cycle you swore you'd never go through again. The market is louder. The buyers are smarter. The margin for error is smaller, but the opportunity is massive. If you stop dragging 2025 thinking into a 2026 economy, so CEO, if you're listening to this and you're doing something else, I want you to come back to me right now and listen closely. Are you building a business that scales? Are you babysitting a business that drains you? If you're ready to leave behind the excuses, the busy work, the outdated habits, and step into a version of your business that actually grows, I want you to book a call with our team, jump in, get a gap assessment scheduled step into a version of your business that actually grows. I want you to Take a bet on yourself, jump on a call with my team. Let us dig into your business. Let us show you what are the gaps in your business that are keeping you from scaling here in 2026? Because this year we're not playing small, we're running real companies. And the wedding pros who treat it that way will dominate the market. CEOs, thank you so much for being here for this episode. If you, if you found this episode valuable, make sure to hit that subscribe button because we share new content every single week to help you grow and scale your wedding business. And if you're feeling extra generous, I would love it if you would take two seconds to leave a five star review for us on whatever platform that you're listening on. That means the world to our team when we see that you guys are loving the content that we're putting out. Thank you so much for being here, and I will see you on the next one.

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Brandee Gaar

Host