Why Your Wedding Business Goals Keep Fizzling Out And How To Turn Things Around This Year

Transcript: Why Your Wedding Business Goals Keep Fizzling Out And How To Turn Things Around This Year

Hey there, my friend. Welcome to the podcast. I’m your host, Heidi Thompson, and I’m all about helping wedding pros book more weddings with clients they absolutely love and build businesses that give them freedom and flexibility. And if you are listening to this right as it’s coming out, happy Holidays. If you’re listening to this in the future, happy wherever you are in the calendar, I’m sure it’s still great. But today we’re talking about the real reason why your wedding business goals keep sort of fizzling out.

You have good intentions and then they just kind of sputter and how to turn things around in the new year. This is really important. And in case we haven’t met before, I am very adamant on wedding professionals being able to easily book more clients they love working with, but also build businesses that don’t require them to work these crazy 60, 80 hour weeks that get normalized in our industry. And I want you to know going into this that you don’t need to work more, you don’t need to work harder in order to reach your goals. And today I want to talk about probably the most relevant thing we can talk about right now at this time of year, as we’re coming to a close. And that’s goals and why most of them actually fail, unfortunately. But we’re going to cover how to change that. So don’t worry. I’ve got some solutions for you. Every December into January, wedding pros all over the world set these ambitious goals for themselves. But by February, if we’re being honest, maybe even sooner, those goals can feel completely out of reach. Does that sound familiar to you?

Here’s the thing. This isn’t because you’re lazy or unmotivated. Far from it. It’s because most of us skip one critical step when setting goals. And without it, those goals are almost guaranteed to fail. I’ve been there. I’ve had this happen myself. So let’s talk about the real reason most goals don’t stick. If it’s not, you’re not working hard enough, you’re not disciplined enough, whatever it is. I want to talk about what you need to do differently. And that is really around creating a plan to execute your goals that doesn’t just look good on paper, but actually works to make your goals a reality. Now, I know I’m not the only one who goes out and buys planners because they’re pretty and has all these intentions about how I’m gonna use them to make plans. And, yeah, I kind of fall off of those. You probably do, too, and I get it.

But we can create a plan that keeps us on track for our goals. And in this episode, too, I’m gonna tell you how. You can join me for a dollar inside The Wedding Business Collective to learn how to do that, to attend our next quarterly planning session and get your first plan in place so that 2026 doesn’t become another year of almost and what ifs and good intentions. So the problem here is we confuse busy with progress. We confuse motion and movement and kind of that frenetic energy with progress. Because setting a goal itself is easy, but turning that goal into a reality, yeah, not so much. The problem isn’t that your goals are too big or that they’re unrealistic. That isn’t the case for most people. For most people, they have just never built a system. And reaching your goals doesn’t just happen because you want them to. You have to have a system, a process, a plan to follow through with it, right? It’s like we’ve all set health and wellness and probably weight loss goals, but unless you have a system, unless you have a plan, unless you decide, okay, this is the eating plan I’m going to follow, this is the medication I need to take, this is the exercise plan I’m going to follow. And then you actually take the steps to execute that. It’s just a wish, right? When we all do this.

So I don’t want you to feel bad for it, but I want you to see that the disconnect isn’t between having your goal and having that be unrealistic. The gap, the place where people fall down, is they have this goal, but then there are literally no steps to get there. You’re just hoping it’s going to happen. And I see this happen all the time. It’s kind of how we’re taught to set goals, right? Think about it. You set a goal to book more weddings. Maybe you have a specific number in mind that you want to hit. But then you spend months bouncing between creating social media posts and updating your website and running ads, all without knowing if these actions are actually getting you any closer. To your goal.

So why does that happen? It’s not just you.

The truth is, it’s really easy to confuse doing things and being busy with making progress. But we have to disconnect those things. And often what happens when people have a real plan that leads to them being able to reach their goals, they aren’t as busy, they aren’t doing as many things, they’re doing things that are the most aligned with them reaching their goal. But without a clear plan, you’re really just guessing at what might work on a daily basis. And that leads to overwhelm of frustration and eventually giving up and feeling bad about yourself. And you really don’t have to run your business this way. The fix to this is the 90 day planning method. Instead of setting a big goal and hoping that you’ll figure it out on like a day to day basis, you need a roadmap. You know where you want to get to, you know the destination. So let’s plan out the map. In order for you to get there, you really need a step by step plan that shows you exactly what to do each week, each month to move closer to your goal. And this is where my 90 day planning method comes in.

It’s all about breaking your goals into smaller, actionable steps that fit your time, energy and resources. Because we all have limitations. Whether that you don’t have a ton of time to work on your business, whether you have kids you’re caring for, maybe you have other loved ones that you’re caring for, maybe you have a job. We all have limitations. And your 90 day plan can break down your big goals into small action steps that fit with you and your life. So let’s say your goal is to book 20% more weddings in the next year. But if you want to reach your goals, you can’t just focus on that 20%. You can’t just focus on the goal.

And I get that that’s counterintuitive. But you’re not in control of how many people decide to book you. You’re not in control of increasing that by 20%. So instead you have to focus on the steps that you do control that get you to where you want to be, right? Those steps you take on the roadmap in order to reach the destination. By taking those steps, you make reaching your goal inevitable. That’s what we do in your 90 day plan.

So instead of just writing down, I want to book 20% more weddings next year as your goal that you’re thinking about and you’re hoping for the best, your 90 day plan for something like this might include building relationships with three new venues and doing different things to get more referrals from them. And we break this down to granular step by step so that like you on a bad day can sit down and see exactly what you need to do. Another thing you might focus on your 90 day plan, updating your SEO for the right keywords.

But we’re not just putting update SEO in our 90 day plan because what the hell do you do with that? We need that small micro goal to switch it into an area that many of us set goals around health. The goal sure might be to lose X amount of weight or, you know, get my particular health metrics to this point. But you can’t just focus on that number because you don’t have direct influence over that number.

What you have direct influence over is, did you take a walk today? Did you do the exercise you said you were going to do today? Did you follow your food plan? Did you make your food plan? Did you grocery shop ahead of time? Or did you have a really stressful day and get home and realize that you don’t have any groceries so you ordered really unhealthy takeout? These are the small steps that we have control over. And that’s why in your 90 day plan for things like maybe you want to build relationships with venues, maybe you want to update your SEO, maybe you want to book more weddings from Pinterest, maybe you want to get featured in this place or get more bookings from Instagram. We can’t just leave it at that. And that’s what I see so many people do. And that’s why they get stuck. They don’t know what the steps are. We need to figure out the steps now. Are those the things that need to be in your 90 day plan? I don’t know. It’s going to be different for everyone. It’s a very, very personal thing.

And that’s why it’s so important to go through this planning process. Because you can’t just take a prescriptive approach and hope it’s going to work for you. You can’t just copy someone else’s plan and hope it’s going to work. Because we are all in different situations in our businesses. We all have different things that work for us that don’t work for us. And we want to make sure that our 90 day plan is mapping out the steps to take that are going to get us to our goal in the easiest way possible. And this is a mistake. I see a Lot of people make, and I catch it all the time when people join the wedding business collective and create their first 90 day plan. You know, they want to do something that they’ve never done before. They want to do something that’s not working.

But maybe you’re already getting referrals. What if we could increase referrals by 20%, by 50%? There are small steps, small actions you can take in order to make that happen. And it’s going to be a lot easier and take less time than starting a bunch of things from scratch. So we need to take an approach that is really designed to work with you and your specific business. Your time, your energy, your ideal client, your specific limitations. So we focus on three areas.

We have those three focus areas. The one, the examples I gave was building relationships with venues to get more referrals, updating your SEO so you can get found in Google search. And you know, another one might be you want to get more inquiries directly from Instagram. Okay, cool. But like I said, we don’t stop there. We break them down further. What needs happen in the first 30 days in order for you to reach these goals by the 90 day mark? What can you realistically do next week? What can you do by Friday? We turn this into an action plan so you know exactly what you need to do and when in order to reach your goals. So there’s no guessing, there’s no hoping, there’s no focusing on things that don’t actually get you closer to your goals and continuing that frenetic energy, that jumping from one thing to another, that constant movement, those things that make you feel busy, make you feel productive, by the way, I’m not trying to shame you. We all do that.

But when you focus on this 90 day plan, the steps in the 90 day plan become your most important tasks. They become your focal point. Absolutely. Everything else is optional. This allows you to put blinders on and know when you’re done. So many of us just work and work and work and work and work. And a lot of times we don’t get anywhere because we’re not being intentional about the things that we’re working on. But also if you limit the number of things you need to do in order to reach your goals, you get to reach your goal in fewer steps. And that’s going to make things a whole lot easier. Easier for you. So these steps in your 90 day plan, these are your absolute most important tasks. This is like the most important thing you’re going to do today or the most important thing you’re going to do this week. Everything else is optional.

When you realize that, it results in a lot less stress and overwhelm and feeling like you have to do everything. And it reduces the amount, the amount of time that you spend because you’re being very intentional about your actions. This 90 day planning method really does three big things. First, it gives you clarity because you always know what to focus on now and what to focus on next. So you’re not thinking, oh, should I do this thing? Should I do this thing? No, you’ve already made those decisions. This is what you’re focusing on now. This is what you’re focusing on next. You just have to follow the steps that you created for yourself. Two, it massively, massively reduces overwhelm because you’re not trying to do everything at once. And a lot of the time, members of the wedding business Collective will start putting their 90 day plan together, especially if it’s their first time.

And they’ll realize they are putting so much on themselves that they’re destined to fail. They are destined to crash and burn and feel completely overwhelmed. And that’s a great realization because then you can take things off of your plate and make sure that you’re actually focusing on the things that are going to get you closer to your goal and that are doable. We’re not trying to stress you out here. I don’t want you to do more than you need to do. The third thing it does is it keeps you accountable because you’re tracking your progress every step of the way. You either did the thing you were supposed to do or you didn’t much like meeting a fitness or a weight loss goal. You either went on your run today or you didn’t. You can track it easily and you can hold yourself accountable. And those little steps add up just like they do in business.

So if you want to make real progress in 2026, now is the time to start. And to start using this 90 day planning method. If you’re just setting your goal and you’re waiting to see how things go in March or June or September and trying to pick up the slack, it means you’re losing really valuable time. And you’re staying stuck in that horrible cycle of guesswork and stress and always feeling like you’re on a treadmill that you’re just about to fall off of. That’s why I’m inviting you to join the wedding business Collective for just a dollar for your first month.

And inside, you’re going to get access to our live Quarterly planning session happening January 7th and the replay. And together we will map out your first 90 day plan so you know exactly what steps you need to take, exactly what you need to do to start hitting your goals. To turn them from something you hope to reach to something that is inevitable because you’re taking the steps to them.

Just like it’s inevitable you’re going to reach your destination. If you’re following, you know, a map or a GPS, it takes you step by step by step. That’s exactly how this works. You’ll also get access to everything inside the Wedding Business Collective, including daily access to me and the community for support and accountability. You’ll get our six figure wedding business roadmap to guide your growth and tools and resources to simplify your marketing and reclaim your time. So if you feel like you’re too busy, oh my God. Is this going to help you? Most of our members when they first join us free up anywhere between five to eight hours per week and then they get really focused on this 90 day plan.

So if you are ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making progress, head over to evoleyourweddingbusiness.com plan where you can join the Wedding Business Collective today for just a dollar. But don’t wait on this. This offer is only available through December 31st. That’s New Year’s Eve at 11:59pm Pacific Time. When it becomes 2026 here where I live, in the Pacific time zone, this will disappear. And you don’t want to miss our live quarterly planning session. Of course I’ve got lots of bonuses for you.

I’ve jam packed this special end of year offer with so many bonuses to make sure that you’re going to be successful. So if you feel like I don’t have enough time, I’m pulled in a million different directions. I’ve got you covered with my time creation blueprint that creates five hours or more per week. If you can’t commit to the live planning session, maybe you’re busy that day. You will have access to the replay. You can watch it anytime. So time zones aren’t an issue. If you’re struggling with the confidence you’re uncertain that you’ll do it right, you can submit your plan to me for feedback. And if you feel like you need a little bit more structure, a little bit more accountability to get this done, you can join us for our bonus get it Done coworking session.

When I put this offer together I thought, how can I make it damn near impossible for someone to fail as long as they show up and try. I’ve got you covered all around and you can get in for just $1. Why am I doing this? Because I have seen year after year inside the Wedding Business Collective that wedding pros who create a plan and follow my 90 day planning process like I’m going to take you through, they crush their goals and I want that for you. Members like Carolyn, a floral designer who said having a plan has been transformative. It’s freed up so much time and energy to be creative, take care for my clients and work on my rebrand. And Casey, a planner who said I feel like the fog around my business has been lifted and I now have a clear drawn out path of what I need to do for my business over the next 90 days. And Emily, a stationery designer who said being able to look at everything over a whole quarter, breaking it down by month by week was something I’ve never done before. It makes me feel like such a legitimate business owner.

Now I’ve got a plan. Instead of just looking at my to do list every day, this is your chance to make 2026 your most focused and successful year yet. So go grab your first month of membership in The Wedding Business Collective for just a dollar over at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/plan before December 31st and you’ll get access to that $1 for your first 30 days offer and all of these bonuses.

Just imagine what it would feel like to wake up each day in 2026 knowing exactly what you need to do to reach your goals. That is what we’re going to create together inside the quarterly planning session. So don’t let another year slip away without a plan. Join for a dollar and make 2026 your best year yet. Remember, goals without a plan are just dreams. With business plans done, they’re just hopes. They’re just wishes. But with the right plan and the right support, you can absolutely make them happen. I cannot wait to see what you will achieve in 2026. Thanks for tuning in. I will see you inside the Wedding Business Collective. Until then, here’s to making 2026 the year that you big goals a reality.

Bye for now.