Mental Detox from Think Splendid

The first thing that I usually lay eyes on every morning is the email from the blog Think Splendid which I subscribe to. I know it's not healthy to be checking email first thing in the morning to start your day, but this blog is different. It inspires and motivates me to get up and to get energized for all the things that I want to do for my business. Now, THAT'S a great way to start the day off for all of us!

Liene Stevens is the founder of Splendid Communications and Blue Orchid Designs, and she is considered the social media expert to many of us in the wedding industry. It seems like we learn something new from her each day through her blog posts and her tweets on twitter. I recently had the pleasure of meeting her in person at Engage!09::The Encore, and she is super nice, down to earth, funny, and brilliant. I only wish I had more time to talk to her!

Today, she did a blog post call Mental Detox 2009 Edition and it was JUST what I needed as I wind down and reflect on all the happenings of this year. As we gear up for 2010, we should all keep this list somewhere close to us, so that we can refer to it often and stay positive, encouraged, and motivated.

Thank you Liene! This is the best Christmas gift for all of us!

Staying Focused

We all like to present ourselves as multi-taskers. I use to be in Human Resources, and interviewing potential candidates for the company was a big part of my job. Every interviewee I met with always brought up 'multi-tasking' as one of their greatest strength. Indeed, it is important to have the ability to multi-task, but I also find it valuable to have the ability to stay focused. Creative people often have a hard time doing that, but in order to raise our productivity, we need to learn how to stay focused! It's extremely challenging in today's world to be focused, for email alerts often keeps us spinning in circles. Then, there's the urge to sign in to facebook to see what our friends/colleagues are up to, or tweet a message to your followers. How many of us take pride in our ability to stay focus? It's an important skill that often gets unnoticed.

I bring this topic up because I'm seeing that more and more wedding professionals are selling themselves in so many different facets in order to bring more 'value' to the table. A DJ may include 'wedding coordination services' in their proposal, because they also create a timeline for the reception. A photographer may bring in an extra assistant who just happens to know how to operate a video camera, and thus, 'videography services' can now be included in the proposal. 'Event design' is an easy add to a planner's proposal--after all, she can match a napkin to a linen, right?

Before you start selling yourself as a multi-talented professional, please ask yourself if you can truly offer the services you are selling. A wedding coordinator's scope of service goes way beyond creating a timeline. An event designer will conceptualize, sketch, source, and style. A videographer needs to have the ability to tell a story from beginning to end and have a thorough understanding on shooting techniques, lighting, and editing.

In order to raise the standard in the wedding industry, we need to encourage brides and grooms to hire the right person for the right job. We should not proclaim ourselves to be everything to everyone. Focus at what you do best, and over deliver to your clients when you can. Exceeding expectations is always better than not meeting expectations.

If you only take a bit of time to try to understand and respect other professionals' scope of work, you will quickly realize that it's not easy to proclaim certain titles. By trying to fool your clients into thinking that you can do things which you have no training on will only come back to bite you in the long run. Remember it's not about making the immediate sales. It's about establishing trust, and relationship, so that the one sale can turn into a lifetime of referrals.