All in Mindset
Throughout this month, we've written about all kinds of things related to being more productive and effective in your wedding business, from creating systems and workflows to taking baby steps toward outsourcing.
If you truly want your business to be successful, however, there's something important you need to do that doesn't involve taking more on or getting more done. Rather, it's a major mindset shift that absolutely has to take place if you want to grow and thrive. It involves letting go.
(Editor's Note: Today we welcome our friend and colleague Meghan Ely of OFD Consulting, with a fantastic piece on whether work/life balance is actually an achievable thing in the wedding biz. Read more about Meghan at the end of the post!)
Ah, the ever-coveted work/life balance. From my experience, most people tend to lean towards one side or the other – rarely is it a 50/50 split. In the event industry, it can be especially difficult to prioritize your time as we’re often dealing with weddings and events on the weekends and weeknights.
We hear a lot about work-life balance these days: from parents, colleagues and, well, anyone with a job. There seems to be this belief that work and personal life are completely separate and should be kept so through rigorous scheduling. It implies a "punching of the time clock" mentality in which a worker has set hours on the job that they happily leave behind at the end of the day.
I don’t know about you, but I have never experienced this type of employment, and increasingly, find that my work life and home life have completely melded into one another. When work is no longer confined to an office, when we are in constant contact with clients or when your colleagues are your friends, the lines become blurred - if not nonexistent. Instead, parents now bring their children to work, companies maintain virtual offices and friends start businesses together. More than ever, we are in charge of our own calendars on a daily basis, which is why scheduling down time is so important.
Last year, I wrote a post on whether inspiration would ultimately be the wedding industry's downfall. I remember feeling nervous when I posted it, because let's face it, certain "movements" and hashtags have become wildly trendy among wedding pros and other creatives. I worried that, by questioning the motives of the people behind it, I'd be seen as some kind of wedding industry mean girl. as negative, as judgmental. (It wouldn't be the first time. Some people really don't like being called out.)
Still, as with most of my quasi-controversial posts on WeddingIQ, I felt the topic needed to be discussed. And I stand by what I wrote, as well as my follow-up piece on how sugarcoating the reality of business hurts wedding pros and aspiring entrepreneurs.
This post is similar, but a little more personal to me. And it's not an easy one to write, that's for sure.
(Editor's Note: Our monthlong look back at WeddingIQ's most influential posts continues today, as Jennifer revisits her January 2013 article, "Why Wedding Confidential Should Make You Proud, Not Mad.")
If there's one thing I've learned in almost 20 years in the wedding industry, it's that the media will apparently never tire of not only vilifying wedding businesses, but also thinking it's original to do so. The January 2013 episode of the ABC News program 20/20, titled "Wedding Confidential," was no exception.
While the program link in my original article no longer works (evidently, ABC didn't feel the show was worth archiving anywhere - which is no big loss, trust me), my feelings on the program itself remain the same.
