Join me in Dubai this October for my talk on the secrets to getting booked by your ideal brides and grooms.

I'm giving free trial access to just 10 growing wedding suppliers, to beta test an innovative, world class course, that's built from the ground up and designed to oversubscribe your wedding business at the price you want. The course is going to change the way successful wedding professionals get booked and it's called...

Phoenix.

To be 1 of 10 lucky suppliers selected to trial the complementary version, you MUST BE good at what you do, but identify with 1 or more of the following top 10 wedding marketing problems:

1. You want more wedding bookings.

2. You want fewer price shoppers.

3. You want to raise prices without loosing work.

4. You’d like to be listed at top venues.

5. You are neither the cheapest nor most expensive.

6. You get the meeting or enquiry but not the booking.

7. Competitors undercut and steal your prospects.

8. You are viewed as an expense not an investment.

9. You are not a high priority in the booking chain.

10. You attract...

The reality is the barriers to entry for many wedding industries are practically non existent today, for example anyone with a digital camera and some software can become a wedding photographer.

Gone are the days where a shopfront premises are required or specialist dark room skills. Digital has removed the friction, or put another way, digital has removed many of the expert skills and heavy investment required from a bygone era. Digital has made becoming a photographer so much easier. And this is why the market is flooded. It’s happening world-wide. In short, digital has let the genie out of the bottle, and it’s never going back in.

If you are a videographer, cake maker, stationer, make-up artist, hairdresser, musician, DJ, toastmaster (and this list is by no means extensive)… cases for concern can be made for your industry as well.

So how do you cope in the new world where weekend warriors and coffee shop wannabes enter your market and compete with inferior...

What would it do for your confidence if you were able to articulate value and convey worth so well, that your ideal clients nearly always booked you at the price you are worth?

How relaxed would you feel going into each meeting knowing brides and grooms would book you more often than not because your wedding marking was so compelling?

What follows is 1 of 7 influencers that motivates discerning couples to do just that.

In order to INFLUENCE you must first be INFLUENCED.

Success happens in your mind long before it materialises in your wedding business. Believe in yourself even when others tell you to let go of your dream. Know this; it will be those closest to you who will tell you “It can’t be done.” Quite often these are the people who care about you the most and want to protect you from the pain of possible failure but have ironically never stood in the shoes of failure nor success in your pursuit, and whenever you hear similar...

Think about the last time someone gave you a free unexpected gift, how did it make you Feel? Did you want to give something back even if it was just your thanks? Reciprocity makes you feel this way.

Let me give you an example of its power. Imagine it's Christmastime and someone gives you an unexpected present ... but you have nothing to give back in return! You will almost certainly like that person just a little bit more, be deeply thankful but possibly feel a little bit awkward because you could not return their act of kindness… This is the effect of reciprocity.

So be the 1st to give something away of high value to your bride and groom, but of low monetary cost to you. Your gift must move the needle and add value to your couple's wedding planning process. Period. Because if your gift is token or does not propel your couple into a genuine state of excitement and gratitude, you will be wasting your time and potentially cheapening your brand. Your...

Love what you do and show emotion for it.

People buy people who are passionate about their craft, and are turned-off by the apathetic - which is why when you go to purchase something and the assistant appears to not care less, you consider taking your business elsewhere.

Passion is contagious. That's why when you watch a romantic movie you sometimes end up with a lump in your throat. The director was able to transfer the emotion from the screen into you; and you must learn to transfer the EMOTION for what you do to inside your bride and groom if you want to influence them into booking you.

Let me ask you a question: have you ever fallen in love with and purchased something even though a cheaper option was available? A car, holiday, item of clothing, something to improve your wedding supplier service? Either choice would serve its purpose but you chose the more expensive option.

Have you ever thought why? It’s because you passionately believed that the...

Imagine you find yourself on the airstrip of a private runway. You urgently need to fly home and an aeroplane is almost ready for take-off. It’s a small jet and the unkempt pilot and co-pilot seem quite unsure about the instruments, regularly referring to flight manuals for instructions. The cockpit looks shabby and in need of mechanical attention, some of the dials show small but noticeable cracks unnerving you.

20 minutes prior to take-off, the captain eventually ignites the engine and an irregular clanking noise amplifies your concern.

You have the opportunity to disembark or fly.

Will you “sit back and enjoy the flight,” or heard for the nearest exit? Based on your first impressions, probably the latter.

A tale of 2 planes

Imagine instead you find yourself onboard a private jet, where after being checked in by the smartly uniformed flight attendants, you notice the soft leather flatbed seats. The door to the cockpit is ajar and the crisply dressed...

During my early teens I had no idea the American entrepreneur Victor Kiam would influence my marketing strategy decades later.

I was in the sitting room watching our 14” black and white TV, when an advert came on and there was Victor Kiam confidently guaranteeing “The Remington will shave you as close as a blade, or your money back!” He exclaimed.

I had not even hit puberty, yet the power of his confidence held my attention, I can only imagine the effect his promise had on his hairy target audience! His differences made Remington stand out against the competition, memorable to a pre-puberty schoolboy and contributed to the massive success of his company.

Money Back Guarantee Sends Massage of Confidence to Brides

Some time in the small hours of 2012 I was restless and could not sleep, and still lying in bed with the bedside light on, I flashed back to Victor Kiam’s TV advert, and in that moment decided to differentiate my wedding business. I...

Prospects expect you to say you are the best because they know you want their business so your affirmations of awesomeness will always fall on partially sceptical ears... at least initially.

It is much more powerful to have hoards of past clients rave about you because they have no vested interest in their testimonials declaring your brilliance and therein lies the power of a testimonial. The more prospects discover your wedding business being positively talked about by large numbers of brides, grooms, guests and wedding suppliers both on and offline, the better. So do everything you can to ignite this fire and keep it raging because social proof has the power to move the needle of your business.

Reading moving testimonials by others who have used your services can ease prospects another notch further down your sales funnel. It is for this reason whenever I present to couples at meetings, the penultimate slide before price revealation is...

Scarcity Is Good For Your Wedding Business. Things of limited supply are highly valued which is why for example when gold, diamonds, friendship or love are found, they are treasured, secured and protected.

If you are small enough to offer a signature wedding experience that can only be served to one couple per wedding day, let brides know they have a ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY to have you as part of their wedding. Turn limited availability into exclusivity. If you have done a good enough job with the other 6 influencers I've shared over the passed few weeks, and you've got your couple to fall in love with you, scarcity will speed up their decision making process to buy because they won’t want to lose you to another couple.

Architect a restricted window to hire - because if brides and grooms think you will be available in a month or longer, they will procrastinate over their decision to buy. Thats just the way...