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Finding Work-Life Balance During Busy Season
43 Plays6 months ago
Introduction:
- Amber welcomes listeners to a new episode focused on achieving work-life balance during the busy wedding planning season.
- She shares her own past challenges with maintaining balance and stresses the importance of planning for the busy season to avoid burnout.
Segment 1: Setting Clear Boundaries
- Overview: Amber emphasizes the importance of setting clear boundaries with clients and vendors.
- Key Strategies:
- Define Work Hours: Clearly communicate your available hours to clients and vendors.
- Learn to Say No: Understand when to decline requests that do not align with your business goals or personal capacity.
- Manage Expectations: Regularly update clients on what to expect as their wedding day approaches to prevent last-minute pressures.
Segment 2: Prioritize, Organize, Delegate
- Overview: Discussion on using tools and delegation to manage workload effectively.
- Key Strategies:
- Task Management Tools: Utilize digital tools like Asana, Trello, or Google Calendar to keep track of tasks and deadlines.
- Delegate Responsibilities: Assign tasks to team members or outsource functions like accounting or social media management.
- Outsource Non-Core Activities: Consider hiring external help for tasks that consume too much time and do not require your personal expertise.
Segment 3: Embrace Technology
- Overview: Amber talks about how technology can streamline tasks and save time.
- Key Strategies:
- Automation Tools: Implement tools like Zapier or HoneyBook to automate repetitive tasks.
- Virtual Meetings: Use platforms like Zoom or Google Meet for meetings to save travel time.
- Cloud-Based Tools: Adopt cloud services for easier document and information sharing.
Segment 4: Take Care of Your Health
- Overview: Amber stresses the importance of physical and mental health during peak times.
- Key Strategies:
- Regular Exercise: Schedule time for physical activities to improve both physical and mental health.
- Relaxation Practices: Incorporate activities like yoga or meditation into your daily routine.
- Adequate Sleep and Nutrition: Ensure you get enough rest and eat well to maintain energy levels.
Segment 5: Time for Personal Life
- Overview: Importance of scheduling and protecting personal time.
- Key Strategies:
- Schedule Downtime: Block out time in your calendar for personal activities and ensure it's respected.
- Digital Detox: Set specific times to disconnect from work communications to enjoy your personal time fully.
- Pursue Hobbies: Engage in activities unrelated to work to foster a well-rounded life.
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Transcript
Introduction: Building a Successful Wedding Planning Business
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you a wedding planner just starting your business or have you been in the industry for just a few years? Do you want to build a profitable and enjoyable planning business that you're excited about every day? If the answer is yes, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the business of wedding planning podcast.
Amber Peterson's Journey in Wedding Planning
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm your host, Amber Peterson. I was a wedding planner for 10 years, a marketing strategist for service-based businesses, and now the owner of Planner's Lounge. I know what it's like to work so hard as a planner but not see the growth and profit you dream of. I also know that while you can be the most talented planner in your market, if you don't have the business foundation, it will be hard to continue growing.
00:00:45
Speaker
I have seen so many talented planners burn out because they become frustrated with things unrelated to wedding planning, like finances, marketing, team growth, and operations. This is where the Business of Wedding Planning podcast and Planners Lounge come in. Our mission is to help you learn what it takes to build the business of your dreams with simple digital product solutions, educational content, and the support of our free community, the Very Important Planners Lounge, or VIP Lounge for short. I understand what it's like to work in this unique industry while having a lot on your plate. During my time as a planner, I had three daughters, bought and moved to two new homes, and launched two other businesses. I am excited to combine my education, industry experience, and passion to help you reach your business goals.
Balancing Personal and Professional Life
00:01:39
Speaker
Hi, friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Business of Wedding Planning podcast. As we approach summer, we are going to chat today about finding work-life balance during the busiest season of the year. For a lot of planners, especially here in the US, The traditional summer months are our busiest season. And if they're not for you where you're at, then this is just good information to have as you prepare for those really crazy months that are coming up for you. Whether you're brand new to the field or you've been a wedding planner for years, there is magic to finding the sweet spot between balancing professional responsibilities and personal time during your peak busy months.
00:02:26
Speaker
And I would argue that long term, it is so important for you to be successful and maintain excitement about your career as a wedding planner. When I was planning, especially in the beginning, I had a mentality that May to October was just going to be chaotic, and I just had to deal with that. And nothing could be changed about it. After a few years, I realized that that was just something I was telling myself because I just didn't have a plan for busy season. And all of the people around me, other wedding vendors, other people in the industry, we were all just so busy and it was sort of a just put your head down and get through it. And at the end of October,
00:03:12
Speaker
you'd look up and be exhausted and burned out. And for myself, I was so at the end of my rope that I would basically put my business on the shelf and not really do much until it was time to start getting ready for wedding shows at the beginning of the new year. which basically just created a cycle of burnout, total rest, and then extra stress because I hadn't really prepared and then I was looking at a wedding show in two weeks and needed to get everything done at once. So was not a great way to run a business.
Setting Boundaries and Managing Expectations
00:03:48
Speaker
So today let's talk about how to create some work-life balance during busy season so that you get through the season,
00:03:55
Speaker
And at the end, you're not so tired and overworked that you can't really focus on anything except for decompressing. Let's start with the basics of creating that work-life balance, setting very clear boundaries with your clients and the vendors that you're working with. Now, if you've listened at all, you know that setting boundaries should be something you're doing from the beginning when you sign a new client. But it's so important that you've defined your work hours and you communicate them to your clients and vendors. This is going to be managing their expectations so they know if they email you at eight o'clock at night, you're not emailing back right away.
00:04:43
Speaker
But it's also going to carve out that personal time that you need to rest and recuperate in between events. It's totally fine to say no or to say, I'll get back to you. And it's really important that you avoid over-committing and creating an expectation that you're available 24-7 because that is just going to lead to very, very quick burnout. During your busy months, since you're managing multiple events, these boundaries are going to protect your time, but it's also going to allow you to have the dedicated time you need for each and every event during those busy months.
00:05:26
Speaker
I know for me that the few days leading up to a wedding, I was really focused on those couples. And so I created a system that I let all of my couples know that Wednesday through Friday leading up to their wedding I was going to be almost solely dedicated to them. My team members would get back to other couples with information that they needed, but there was an expectation that between Wednesday and Saturday,
00:06:00
Speaker
if someone reached out to me and it wasn't like a 911 emergency, I would get back to them the following week. And it's not only is that a it helps manage their expectations, but it also communicates that when it's their wedding week, they have your almost undivided attention. Having boundaries with clients and vendors also gives you that time to rest and recuperate because you need to be 100% on every wedding day, right? So if you are constantly being bombarded with all these different questions and needs and you're just one by one just knocking them out and never taking a breath for yourself, you'll feel drained. And then when you show up on Saturday, Sunday, whatever day the wedding is, you're already a little bit tired.
00:06:48
Speaker
So make sure that those boundaries hold firm and that you have time for yourself. Even if you have set very clear boundaries all throughout the print planning process, as we approach these busy months, it's always good to refresh couples on what they can expect and what your boundaries are. just to So everybody's on the same page and there's no misunderstandings, no miscommunications. And finally, if you have any meetings during these busy months, you know those last minute walkthroughs, all of that, make sure you come with an agenda with exactly like what needs to be achieved during that meeting so they don't run long and encroach on either your personal time or work time. Being concise and efficient is going to help keep everybody moving forward and your time protected.
Effective Task Management and Delegation
00:07:45
Speaker
The next part of creating some work-life balance is to prioritize, organize and delegate where you can. If you have a team, if you have one assistant, if you're just by yourself, sit down and figure out exactly what needs to happen during this really busy season. and prioritize what like what has to be done, what is what can't be let go, what do you have to do, and then look at the other things and either delegate them to a team member, or if you don't have anyone else, is there anything that could just wait? There are a lot of things that we think are so important all the time, but really,
00:08:28
Speaker
If you had, you only have so many hours in a day and you need to be taking care of yourself ah during these busy, busy months. So what can you put on a park list like to do after or to do when you have just some extra time and go through all your tasks like that? And then if you do have a team, what can they take on for you? Things like managing social media, while you don't want to completely disappear during your busy season, is this something that you could have a virtual assistant do? Or if you have a planning assistant, can you task them with you know posting Instagram stories for you on the wedding day or whatever it is, just so you still maintain your presence, but it's not something that you specifically have to do?
00:09:18
Speaker
To effectively prioritize and organize and delegate, you can use things like task management tools like Asana, Trello, even your Google Calendar to organize your tasks and track deadlines. And these will help maintain a clear overview of all your commitments and responsibilities. And especially if you're delegating to other people, you can kind of keep an eye on who's doing what, the deadlines, all of that. If you are delegating to team members or you're bringing on a virtual assistant, make sure you're assigning tasks based on their individual strengths and areas of expertise.
00:09:57
Speaker
If you have an assistant who has never helped you with your marketing, probably not a great thing to dump a bunch of marketing on them. But if you do have someone that, you know, they've either helped you or they've helped other people, then play to that strength and give them something that is not going to take you a ton of time to get them up to speed to make sure that it happens. And finally, if you are on your own and you don't have anyone to delegate to on a team, think about outsourcing to other business owners. So things like graphic design, social media management, even bookkeeping. This might be a time to to bring on a bookkeeper because they're all trained up. And if you find someone that uses, you know, if you use QuickBooks and they use, they understand QuickBooks, it might be an easy thing just to delegate that to them.
00:10:53
Speaker
You want to be able to free up your time to focus on things like client tasks, event design, the actual things that have to happen to execute a wedding, and maintain your high standard of service without being overwhelmed the operational side of your business. So prioritize, organize, and delegate where you can.
Leveraging Technology for Efficiency
00:11:15
Speaker
The next way that you can create some balance is to embrace technology. There are a lot of things and platforms and apps that can really help reduce the time you have to spend hands on doing things. And before we jump into this, I want to say this is not the time to adopt a whole new platform that you've never used before because that's going to take you time to learn.
00:11:41
Speaker
But if there are things in your business, applications you've been using that you're familiar with and you can easily leverage them to create more space in your business, this would be a great time to do that. Things that you can automate with an application, if you can hold meetings virtually, those are the things that will make a big difference during the busy months. Automation is the quickest way that you can get rid of repetitive tasks. So things like sending out invoices, scheduling appointments. If you can use platforms like Honeybook, Seventeen Hats, Calendly, things like that, that is going to remove a back and forth email that would have to happen. So anything that you can automate
00:12:32
Speaker
try and do that. Virtual meetings. I know that COVID made it so Zoom meetings are, well, at the time, they were the only way we could meet. And some people now don't love that. But if you have clients that need to just go over a timeline before their wedding, um if it doesn't have to be together or at the venue, If you can do something virtually, that's going to reduce your travel time immensely. Using Zoom is going to help a lot with saving time and make things a bit more efficient. And I find that, especially in the weeks leading up to the wedding, if the unless the couple needs you to meet them at the venue, they're really busy too. So a quick Zoom meeting is sometimes preferable to actually getting out, driving somewhere and meeting together.
00:13:28
Speaker
And finally, anything that any kind of tool where you can collaborate with your clients, even if it's just as simple as Google Drive or Dropbox where things can be shared back and forth, reducing, you know, searching through inboxes for emails, things like that, that's going to be helpful in just staying organized. A lot of the planning tools out there will have client portals so that you might already be using that. And they're so amazing. But any way that you can reduce the need for, you know, searching through your email inbox, things like that is going to be helpful in saving time. And I know that as we discuss these things, a lot of them, it's like, you know, a couple of minutes here, a couple of minutes there. But imagine how it feels when you are like, oh, I need this. There's this one thing that they sent and I need to find it. And you're searching through your inbox. Those couple of minutes, you know, for each client, those add up and it's
00:14:26
Speaker
And also there's just the cost of the frustration and the kind of frazzledness that can be felt when you can't find something that you know is there.
Health and Wellness for Planners
00:14:35
Speaker
The next thing I want you to consider during your busy season is taking care of your health. We all have backup plans for if we get sick for a wedding or if something terrible happens and we can't be there. But ultimately, our clients are expecting their planner to be there on their wedding day. So taking care of your health and making sure that you are feeling good and have energy is going to be huge for getting through a really busy wedding season.
00:15:06
Speaker
So even though we get tons of exercise on the wedding day, taking all those steps, make sure you're scheduling regular physical activity. And it might, for for the busy wedding season, it might be something just like yoga or really good stretching or a class that you love. I personally love my Peloton, but Just something that you like to do and that makes your body feel good is going to boost your energy and it also just helps with your mental clarity and just feeling really good. Do something that you love, take a hike, swim, whatever it is that is not just running around a wedding venue.
00:15:44
Speaker
I also love when planners have a post-wedding relaxation routine. For me, I always scheduled a pedicure for the day after a wedding because I knew that my feet were going to be killing me. And I just loved the feeling of sitting and having my nails look pretty and all those things. And so think of something that you love to do or that will make you feel really taken care of, that will help you unwind. For me, my family knew like I was going to go get a pedicure and I just wanted to be quiet and just have a day to read or watch a movie or just relax and not have to make any decisions. So figure out something that you can do post-wedding that's going to make you feel great.
00:16:34
Speaker
And if you do, I never booked back-to-back weddings. Well, I won't say never. I did it one time and then I was like never again. But if you do book back-to-back weddings, this is especially important to figure out how are you going to regroup in the ah little time you have between those two events um just because that's a very intense couple of days to have. And then finally, prioritize your sleep and good nutrition. Make sure you're getting enough sleep every night and you're getting a healthy diet. I know for me, my car looked like um I had driven through a Starbucks at some sometimes just because
00:17:16
Speaker
you're so busy and you're so on the go that a lot of things are really easy to just grab and go that might not be the healthiest and that might not fuel your body. I always try to have things in my car too that were maybe not fresh fruit and vegetables because they're in my car, but you know some protein bars, things that are going to give me energy and aren't just loaded with sugar. Taking really good care of your body is not only going to be good for your stamina, but also just you know avoiding getting sick. We are at events with hundreds of people who all are bringing germs, and so you want to try and avoid getting a summer cold or you know anything like that that can slow you down.
Maintaining Work-Life Balance
00:17:58
Speaker
Finally, don't forget to schedule your own downtime. Just like you schedule client meetings, make sure you block off time for yourself. In past episodes and in blog posts on Planner's Lounge, I talked about, at the beginning of the year, sitting down and blocking off vacation time. If there's any events that you don't want to miss in your own life, you know special weddings or you know just those special events that your own families are going to have, make sure they're blocked off so that you do have your own things to do even during a busy season and make, well, or try to for those to be non-negotiables. If you haven't blocked time on your calendar for 2024,
00:18:42
Speaker
Spend some time looking at what you have coming in the next few months and see if you can block off a weekend or two if you have any free weekends or or if you have no free weekends, then make sure you're taking days off during the week and communicating that to your client. You need at least one day a week that is completely work-free so that you can just focus on yourself and your own life. If you can, try and do a digital detox on those days where you're unplugged from work-related things you set or you set boundaries for checking emails. For example, on days off that I took post-wedding, I would check my emails in the morning and I would check my emails at night, but I tried to give myself a block of time where I just wasn't on my phone. I wasn't looking at my inbox just because
00:19:29
Speaker
I don't know about you, but if I look at my inbox and there's an email there from a client, even if it's not that important, I want to just resolve it right then. So try and give yourself a little bit of a digital detox, even if it's just a few hours here and there. And then even if it is the most busy season, try to engage in some non-work related activities. If you have hobbies or interests that are unrelated to your work, try and get that in where you can. This could be your physical activity. I love to hike. We live in the Pacific Northwest, so we like to get out. So during this during the summer, we try and do that as much as possible. This could be crafts or social events, can just give you some time that is not completely wedding related.
00:20:18
Speaker
I know that it seems like work-life balance is this like, that'd be great idea, but it actually can happen. You just have to be really disciplined and proactive with your planning and be aware of the boundaries you have and maintaining those. And I ah promise if you can do this, you will end your season feeling a little bit better and a little less burned out and ready to just crawl into bed for the next three months and not worry about anything until it's time to get ready for a wedding show.
Sneak Peek: Handling Difficult Clients
00:20:53
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining me today. Next week, we are going to talk about how to deal with difficult clients and genders that you might encounter during the planning process. Have a great week.