Self-Employed Wedding Professionals:
Are you attracting enough brides to your wedding business?
If you're like most wedding professionals I've been watching over the past four years, you're very good at what you do, but you just haven't mastered the marketing to brides "thing" yet. Yes, your business could use some polishing, but for the most part everything else runs pretty smoothly. It's just the part about bride attraction that's holding you back. You may be struggling about how to make enough money and book more weddings. Maybe you even feel confused about what steps to take and what marketing systems to setup. And, if you don't start bringing in new paying brides consistently, you may not be in business for yourself in a year. Yikes!
Now, before we continue, can we just agree that there's absolutely nothing wrong with you. Chances are, you've only been taught your wedding profession and never learned how marketing to brides and bride attraction really work. You see, as wedding business owners, we tend to think of approaching new brides as "trying to get something" from them as opposed to "offering something really valuable and fabulous to them". This almost always leads to mediocre or even poor results. No matter how hard we work, or what you try, it just doesn't work the way it should.
Living from a Place of Gratitude and Appreciation (will Change Your Life)
Over the past 6 years in particular, I’ve been on a very different path from previous years of my life. In the beginning, I was driven to succeed, to be number one, to beat out the competition, to win, win, win!! Failure was never an option. And then an interesting turn of events took place for me.
While pregnant with my daughter Reese, I began asking myself and God, “Is this what it’s all about? Because if it is, I don’t get the point.”
I was so confused at that time in my life. On one side, I was the happiest I’d ever been, but on the other, I felt lost, alone and afraid. I was 28 years old, and I had already “achieved” every dream I had. I had created a successful business that was in it’s 5th year, I was making well over 5 figures every month, I had a TV show, I was a writer for a lifestyle magazine, I was planning and designing dream weddings and events with amazing clients, I had a husband who loved me, a supportive family, I was pregnant without any issues whatsoever, and yet I felt empty.
I know that it sounds ridiculous, because I had everything I ever dreamed of. But some of it felt so superficial, and I found myself yearning for meaning in my life. I wanted to raise my daughter consciously. I wanted to show her how wonderful life could be. I was so excited at the idea of our daughter having both parents in the home with her. The potential ahead was vast and wonderful, but I felt like I was missing something very key.
About the time I was asking God for guidance, a friend highly recommended I read Eat, Pray, Love . (If you haven’t read the book, please do. There’s so much more there than in the movie!) I didn’t get around to it until Reese was born, but I vividly remember rocking her in her nursery and reading the book while tears streamed down my face. I felt just like the author. I had constructed this gorgeous dream life on the outside, yet it lacked substance and meaning on a level that I didn’t know existed, but I could feel was there at the same time.
To make a very long story short, after reading this book, a series of things happened very quickly. All sorts of opportunities began popping up, including Bride Attraction, guest lecturing at the university, and joining a mastermind group that opened my eyes to a completely different way of being than I’d ever known could exist. I’ll never forget my first mastermind meeting experience, sitting in the Trump International Hotel meeting space in Miami, surrounded by my “Sacred Circle,” and having what I’d later realize was a huge breakthrough that changed my life path incredibly.
I’ll tell you more in the weeks to come, but what I’ve learned since then has mostly been about living in the space and place of gratitude and appreciation.
One of the biggest lessons I can share with anyone is that if you want more, if you’re going for your dreams, you absolutely must be grateful and appreciative of what you have … right in this moment. Even if you’re knee-deep in debt, about to lose your home, you feel alone, you have no idea what tomorrow may bring, and you feel like nothing has been working for you in your life. Find some way to be grateful for this experience right now.
I’ve been in that exact situation before. Literally. It was hard. So hard. But once I found a way to express gratitude, even for the experience of having major debt and not being able to pay my bills and the lessons those things brought me, miracles started popping up around me.
Money started showing up. First, in the form of change on the streets. Like a sign that everything would be okay. And I gave thanks for that quarter, dime, nickel and penny. Then, random checks and refunds started showing up in the mail. Debts were canceled for no reason whatsoever. Then the windfalls came. From business and from personal experiences. And what seemed like miracles happening around us, everything was shifting. And our debt became almost nonexistent.
Relationships improved. My marriage became happier, joy-filled, with more love than I knew was possible. Family even started to change and shift and be more fun to be around. Friends started popping up seemingly out of thin air.
Health improved. My energy returned. I discovered what I needed to change, behaviors and patterns to release…and add to my life.
Everything. And I mean everything. Got so much better, more fabulous, and incredible. And every day I give thanks. Not from a place of trying to manipulate God or anything like that. But from a place of true gratitude. That feeling that overtakes your body and you can actually tangibly feel in your body. For me, it feels like a mixture of openness, love, and excitement in my throat, heart and belly areas. Every morning and every night I write down everything I’m grateful and thankful for. I write down signs that I’m not alone. That God is listening and moving things around for my very best interest. And I take note of things coming up from my intuition.
And I’ve discovered that the more I’m grateful and appreciative for what I already have, the more blessings and love I receive.
Here are three books I highly recommend that have changed my life and will change yours too.
Money and The Law of Attraction
I hope this helps you as much as it’s helped me. More to come in the weeks and months ahead.
Many blessings and much love to you this new year,
Natalie
© 2008-2013 Natalie Bradley, BrideAttraction.com
Want to use this article in your E-zine or website? You can as long as you include this complete statement: Event Planning entrepreneur Natalie Bradley publishes the “Bride Attraction” e-zine. Get your FREE audio course: “How to Close the Sale Without Fail!” at www.BrideAttraction.com
