Here’s the full guide of lessons you can apply to your daily business life as a wedding pro from Andy’s interview with David Tutera.
Listen to David’s interview here.
Listen to the The Next Level Episode here.
Getting to Know Your Clients=Priceless!
Never underestimate the power of becoming friends with your clients. It’s one of the most valuable tools when it comes to really getting to know your clients, and having the ability to really understand their needs and what their event should be. You can never have enough communication or interaction with your clients if they’re your friend.
Don’t be afraid of Reinventing Yourself
David is an incredible inspiration to grow beyond what you initially thought you were capable of.
Expand your vision – allow yourself to do new things. Don’t box yourself in, or pigeonhole yourself. You can even “stay in your lane”, but still try new things within what you know you’re good at.
Change is not a Waiting Game.
Waiting until you are forced to make change, either by the economy or some other factor is a huge mistake. It forces you to change in a hurried manner, without enough preparation or thought and you may not reach your full potential if you instead embrace change before it is upon you, and you can have better chances at success as well as making a change that could potentially enhance what you already love doing!
Cliche but true.
Don’t stay so busy working in your business that you forget to work on your business. This is a number one factor in people becoming burnt out, and stagnant. It doesn’t allow you space to reinvent yourself or grow.
Staying Productive
Figure out your own secret sauce to getting your to-do list, and focus on what’s going to get you the money faster, or to your purpose and end goal faster. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by your to-do list.
Don’t be a Stranger to Delegation
Especially if you’re growing, the idea that you are the only one who can do it all is dangerous-both for your business and your personal life. It is important to take a step back, realize you can’t do it all and trust that your team will take care of it. There is an attainable balance between having control over the outcome and trusting your delegated duties to a well managed team or staff.
Don’t be afraid of the actual BUSINESS part of having a business.
It’s so easy to work on the parts of our business that we love. But we often get so caught up in those things that we forget to work on the things that actually make the wheels turn in our businesses-and those are often equally, if not more important. These elements-processes, team management, staff goals, operations-are all as crucial to our success as the creative elements of our businesses.
The Price NEEDS to be Right.
Ditch the fear – don’t lead with it, specifically when it comes to your pricing. You can’t be afraid of your own value, and you can’t be afraid to tell the world what your value is – especially if you ever plan to grow beyond where you are right now. GET THE PRICE FOR YOUR VALUE.
Undercharging for your work is detrimental to the industry and our success overall, the consumer needs to be educated on why you’re worth the price you’re charging. If you’re successful, don’t undercharge to try to keep up with the new people that are coming in to the industry – this is truly operating out of fear vs. operating out of charging what you’re worth.
“If we know what our fears are, we can move forward with trying to create more success”
Sometimes pushing for success is a manifestation of fear – often of failure – and when we can move on from this, we have room to actually obtain success.
“You don’t have to love your client, you just have to love what you DO for your client”
It’s possible that more powerful words have never been said. This is one of my favorite lines from David’s interview, hands down. There is so much power in recognizing that it’s ok if we’re not forever friends with our client, we can still do an excellent job for them because we love what we do.
The friends who you think are your friends are not the friends you need.
We tend to make time for the people who are the “loudest people” in our life that need us and want us-because they’re the loudest. But it’s often that the people who are our closest and most emotionally positive and beneficial to our lives that get pushed to the lower priority list because they’re not that loud. But these are the people who really add to our lives and we need to truly focus on. Our time is so valuable and it’s important to keep our eye on what will nurture our family and ourselves. This will add to the positive energy we have to apply to our professional lives.
“Success is quiet, family and peace.”
Something about this really struck a nerve with me. Regardless of how successful you become, keep your eye on what really matters in life.