{MAKING THINGS HAPPEN} Progress Not Perfection

Boy a lot has changed since I attended the Making Things Happen conference a few weeks ago. We were challenged to not fully share our experience, and I have every intention of abiding by that but I still want to say I feel really good. Not just really good, I mean I feel really great. I have been so productive, so refreshed, and so ready to do the things I want to be doing. Anyway, this post is about the progress I have made as well as some of the business changes I am working on making. Progress not perfection. It doesn't happen overnight, right?

First things first, I have started to work on changing my habits and am working on changing my business hours. One of the biggest things I realized at Making Things Happen is that it's not all about work. I need to make time for myself, for my boyfriend and our relationship, for the home we are creating together, for our animals, for relaxing, for time away from social media, and most importantly time away from work. I mean seriously think about it. How can I be helping couples get married if my relationship itself is falling apart, not that it is because it's not but it was not in the best of places before this conference. This is really hard to admit, but honestly before that conference he was not my top priority, nor was my health or my pets. Work came first always. Before the MTH conference I was checking my e-mail constantly. I mean my cell phone was on constant streaming so if I got an e-mail it was instantly sent to my phone and would instantly notify me. And I would feel this intense stress right away that oh my gosh I have an e-mail, I need to attend to it, ahhh what do I do I'm not at my computer, there are 4 calls I have to make before I can write this person back, but I am in the grocery store with my boyfriend trying to shop for dinner, ahhhh what do I do!? It was rough guys. I mean real rough. Not fun, real stressful. I think the first thing I did when I got home from the conference was turn off the instant stream of e-mails to my phone. Now I have to manually update it to see what is new in my inbox. This has been so incredible and it's funny how such a little change has made such a huge impact on my peace of mind.

So instead of constantly getting an influx of e-mails, I have set my business hours to 9am-5pm. The best part about this?? When I go to my e-mail inbox, and sit down, and go through my e-mails (oldest to newest), I have the time to sit down, read the e-mail thoroughly, attend to the e-mail whether it's calling a vendor, looking up pricing information, sending them referrals, then that e-mail goes directly into the client's folder in my e-mail. I update their client account with the information, add a to-do on my checklist if necessary, and voile. I do this repeatedly until there are not even one single e-mail in my main inbox. Completely clean. Completely attended to. Done. The craziest part about this? When you really focus and really get down to business, you would be so surprised at how quickly you can get stuff done. I have never since I took over this business ever felt so accomplished and so on top of things. And to be even more honest, I don't think there's been one single day where I haven't "gotten off work" after 3pm. Because when I focus and set my mind to it I make things happen so that after 5pm the only living beings that get my attention are Chris, Winnie and Tigger.

More focused time for business + more time for family minus all work distractions = refreshed, happy Nicole. I have been able to remember why I love weddings in the first place. It's about love. And at the end of the day I have to say I would be a big ass scam if I didn't believe that love was the most important thing. It is such a relief to remember this, and to remember the reason I love what I do. It's because I love love stories and I believe that love never fails. And at the end of the day I gotta focus on my relationship and my love or else I will become some crazy bitter jealous wedding planner who secretly resents my clients that are in love and happy and I'm not in love and I'm not happy. I deserve love and happiness too and I want that too just as much as I want that for my clients. Because then when I'm working with my clients I don't have to worry about my messed up relationship and instead I am super happy in love and super happy they are in love too. I'm being real here guys. Trust me, I'm not a good liar. I can't even fake laugh without it being very obvious that I am not real laughing. It's like this weird awkward HUUh-HUuuH-HUUUH sound. And oh hey... can you spot me in that picture below? I'm the big goof smiling in that one picture + then again see me rocking my cool Frye cowboy boots and writing like a fiend!? Soo... anyways...


The second big change I've been working on is my client experience. The first matter of business was creating a more simplified means of helping clients plan their wedding. I recently implemented a new online tool to organize all of my weddings into separate wedding accounts so that me and my clients can access it, make changes, make updates, etc. So far I have gotten pretty good feedback regarding the new tool and I am super excited about it! (If you are my client reading this thinking... uh I hate it Nicole, well seriously please let me know because I want feedback along the way so I can improve my business processes!) The second matter of business was client gift bags. Gosh I have to admit this has been on my to-do list for way too long. But with a little help from the MTH girls, some suggestions for good resources, and a few hours online shopping putting together all the little details... I am excited to say that all of the supplies to put these together are officially ordered and on their way here! And if you are my client get excited because you'll be the first to get a sneak peak of the new logo + brand when you get your gift bags!!!!

Big thank you to all the women who made the Making Things Happen Conference such an incredible experience! You have all truly touched my life and helped me realize the ways I can make my life so much more fulfilling and better! Pretty sure I'll never stop thinking about the impact this conference made on my life... but really... :) Happy weekend ya'll!!! I have a busy day tomorrow with our 2nd wedding of the year, like us on Facebook or follow me on Instagram for some sneak peaks!