July 30, 2025 • 37 mins
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In this episode of the Wedding Atelier podcast, host Alora welcomes Heidi Thompson from Evolve Your Wedding Business to discuss the critical shift from being a business owner to becoming the CEO of your wedding business.
00:00 Welcome and Introduction
00:44 Heidi Thompson's Journey in the Wedding Industry
01:53 Marketing Insights and Strategies
04:01 Becoming the CEO of Your Business
15:48 Outsourcing and Delegation Tips
26:48 Time Management and Productivity
34:00 Book More Wedding Summit Details
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alora (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to the Wedding Atelier podcast.
(00:02):
We have a special guest with me,Heidi Thompson, of Evolve Your
Wedding Business, and we aregonna be talking about working
smarter, not harder, how tobecome the CEO of your business,
because that is actually like myfavorite topic.
So I'm glad someone can resonatewith me on this.
And we were both just talking inthe green room about how we hate
to waste our time and she hatesinefficiencies.
(00:24):
So we're gonna talk about that.
Maybe how you're wasting yourtime or how you can save time by
doing these couple ofstrategies.
So Heidi, welcome to thepodcast.
I'm so excited you're here.
Heidi Thompson (00:36):
Thank you for having me.
I'm excited to talk about
Alora (00:38):
No, literally I, this is my obsession.
Like being A-C-E-O-I had no ideawas my passion.
Okay.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour story and your background
in the wedding industry, how didit lead you to where you are
today?
Heidi Thompson (00:51):
Yeah, I actually started working in nonprofit
events when I went to Westernover in Kalamazoo.
Doing nonprofit events for some.
Different, organizations outthere.
And I loved it.
I was like, okay, I didn't evenrealize this was a thing.
This is super interesting.
I found when I moved back toDetroit, some opportunities to
(01:15):
work under a planner and toreally learn the ropes of how
weddings work and to get someexperience there.
But to throw a complete wrenchin the works.
I got married.
He's British.
We had to decide where we weregonna go.
I moved over there while I stillworked in planning a little bit
(01:37):
here and there, I was keeping aneye on the wedding industry.
This was like.
20 10, 20 11, starting into thegrowth of like offbeat bride,
rock and roll
Alora (01:48):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (01:49):
more like personalization into weddings.
My day jobs were in marketingand I saw being in marketing a
gap in the market over therewhere nobody was bringing
together.
These vendors who were doingjust like the most insanely
creative things in the world,and couples who wanted something
(02:12):
different.
So I started a wedding show.
ran that over there for a fewyears, and I realized through
the entire thing.
I was like spending so much timehelping my vendors get a good
return on their investment tomake sure, they knew how to make
the most of their booth tofollow up.
(02:33):
And it slapped me in the facethat not everybody just reads
marketing books for fun That Icould be someone that could
really help the people in, thewedding industry the money that
they should be making based onthe creativity that they have.
Because, if you guys were paidpurely based on your creativity,
(02:57):
you'd be millionaires,billionaires by now.
Alora (03:00):
Of course.
Heidi Thompson (03:00):
unfortunately, that's not how it
Alora (03:03):
Yeah you were able to become a wedding planner and
build your own business, justdabbling in the industry that
way.
What would you say was your areaof expertise?
Heidi Thompson (03:14):
I really gravitated to the marketing.
I don't know what it is aboutmarketing, I think its root.
It is psychology, and that'swhat I find most interesting
about it is you have to reallyunderstand someone in order to
get them to do something,whether it's, to sign up to
(03:35):
something, to buy something, todo anything.
And I just find thatexperimentation.
Really interesting and learnedearly on, because I had a
background in marketing thatexperimentation is not a
function of failure.
It's just a part of the beast ofworking with the human psyche.
Alora (04:01):
So then how did you end up becoming obsessed with the
CEO part of things?
Because like now you're, I guessmaybe in a sense when you market
so much, you build your businessand you're like, wait a minute,
this might be overwhelming.
How did that look like for you?
Heidi Thompson (04:14):
I was finding that a lot of wedding pros that
I, Were just.
beyond overwhelmed, completelyoverwhelmed all the time.
Felt like they were being pulledin a million different
directions.
And I still see this, it's been13 years since I started doing
this, and it's probably gottenworse because the number of
(04:36):
things you can
Alora (04:37):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (04:38):
of places you feel like you're supposed to be.
But that.
me because a big part of mybusiness and my like core values
in my business are aroundfreedom.
And I want other people to havethat too.
And if you started a businessand you're working twice as hard
(04:58):
and you're making half the moneyand you don't have the time to
spend with your family, yourfriends doing what you want,
like what's the point?
Alora (05:07):
Yeah, I feel like that is my story.
But I feel like
Heidi Thompson (05:11):
Yeah.
Alora (05:11):
you build a business and you have the creativity to
create stuff like book weddings,book this, book that, but like
not having a strategy, nothaving a game plan, and you're
just doing stuff.
It seems like the business kindof takes over, in a way.
And then you realize, and I knowa lot of my friends have.
Dealt with this where they wouldgo back to their nine to five
(05:32):
because they're like, I am aterrible boss.
And I did not wanna work thishard to make this little, and
really it could have beensomething as simple as
delegating, outsourcing, raisingtheir prices.
Of course.
But what do you feel likethey're dealing with the most?
What is their biggest bottleneckin the business?
Keeping them from scaling it.
Heidi Thompson (05:49):
Yeah, I think it's themselves.
That is scrambling to try to doso many things that nine out of
10 of them just aren't workingor aren't working as well as
they could And so it's a lot oflike wheel spinning, but you're
not getting the results from it.
It's a lot of like chaotic,working all over the place and.
(06:15):
one of the first things I dowhen I start working with
wedding professionals in mymembership is I have them go
through this process ofimmediately, okay, what are you
doing?
Because we all think we knowspend our time, just like we
think we know how we spend ourmoney, right?
But then you start actuallytracking this stuff and it's
(06:35):
spent how much on DoorDash, Iput how much time into this and
I'm not getting anything out ofit.
And we start taking things offof their plate based on the
proof okay, you're putting 10hours a week into just like
churning out content for, sayInstagram.
(06:56):
You've gotten two bookings fromInstagram this year.
All of these other things areproducing your bookings.
Let's shift our focus to thosethings and make those 5%, 10%
better.
You're gonna get more bookings,you're gonna have to do less.
It feels like the ultimate cheatcode because we feel like we
(07:17):
have to just be busy and dostuff and do all the things, but
when you really look at what isgenerating the results for you.
A lot of times it's the thingsthat you're not putting a ton of
time into, maybe likerelationships that you've built
that don't take a ton of time.
What if you spent a little bitof the time you're spending on
(07:42):
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube,wherever, building more of those
relationships because youalready have proof.
That they yield results.
like going after things wealready have proof for as
opposed to, complete, we gottafigure out if this even works
for your business, kind ofthings.
Alora (08:03):
What would you say are like the top three biggest
struggles that wedding industryor photographers have how
they're spending their time,like you said, they're wasting
their time on things that arenot bringing forth results or
How do you get to the root ofthe problem.
Heidi Thompson (08:18):
A big part of it is awareness, actually tracking
what you're spending your timeon are your bookings coming
from?
And then looking at those andseeing like it, does my effort
actually line up, or is thiskind of futile?
And what I have found is truefor a lot of people is it's like
(08:39):
the squeaky wheel gets the oilkind of thing.
If something isn't working, wetry to force it so hard to work.
But the much easier thing is todo more of the thing that's
already working and either, trysomething new with the thing
that isn't working, adjust yourstrategy, but like to stop just
(09:01):
willing it so hard to be thething.
It's like everybody wants thething that doesn't work to be
the thing that gets themresults.
And if you just accept thatthere are other things that you
can do in your marketing thatare already getting you results,
and you take the easy way.
It starts to feel like cheatingbecause it's I didn't realize it
(09:23):
could just be this easy.
I thought I had to this.
Because I think one of the otherthings people get hung up on is
what everybody else is doing.
So we look around, we see, allthe other photographers, super,
active on TikTok or active onInstagram, places where we can
visibly see their activity.
(09:44):
That may or may not be somethingthat really works for them.
It may just be something thatthey are trying to force.
It may be something that worksfor them, but I am a big
believer that every business isdifferent.
Every ideal client is different,and if you just lean into where
they are and how working, youknow what you already have.
(10:10):
Looking quite honestly for thelazy way, the easy way to do
things, your life is going tobecome so much easier because
you're going to be gettingbigger results from less input.
But it is absolutely a mindsetstruggle for sure.
Because I think we have thisidea that.
(10:32):
We have to work super crazy hardand we have to work all these
hours and we have to make thesethings work because other people
seem to be making them work.
And that is, it's such a trap.
It really is.
And I'm sure you've seen thattoo.
Alora (10:47):
Oh yeah.
When you have social mediaconstantly in your face, and for
me, I try to look at it from apersonal perspective and not
always working like, oh, lemmelook at this funny reel of like
husband and wife and kid stuff.
But at the end of the day, Whenyou're scrolling all day every
day and you are ingesting otherpeople's content, you're gonna
get to a point where you'relike, oh, should I be doing
that?
I'm not doing that.
(11:07):
are they better than me?
Do they figure something out?
Oh my goodness, they're doingthis, they're doing, and then
you find yourself in this cycleand you're like, oh my gosh,
does this ever end?
And you once were confident, nowyou're insecure.
You once had creative ideas andnow you're copying.
And so I do think what ends upbeing market research can become
your biggest enemy, which isterrifying.
(11:28):
'cause it's almost okay, shouldI never go on social media?
There are apps that give youlimits, be like, Hey, you're on
for 25 minutes.
Go do something else.
Go touch grass.
But yeah, I feel like marketingis amazing, but also because a
lot of people are trying newthings and playing with new
things.
Heidi Thompson (11:46):
It, like it feels like you're falling
behind.
Alora (11:49):
yeah.
Heidi Thompson (11:50):
they have something that you don't.
And I completely get that and Istill have that feeling myself
in my business.
I see people doing things andI'm like, should I be But then I
bring myself back to, the sameprocess I take my clients to of
committing to these no more thanthree marketing channels for the
quarter.
We can evaluate, we can maybeadd something if we want, but
(12:12):
it's not gonna be like a franticthrow everything on the plate.
But you do.
You have to remind yourself.
You have to bring yourself backto And it's a lot easier to do
if you are intentionallyfocusing on something than if
you are doing random stuff.
And now we're gonna add onanother random thing that, you
can be like, yeah, I should dothat because that feels like
(12:34):
what I'm already doing.
But if you're like, no, I saidto myself, I was only gonna do
these three things over the nextquarter and really focus on
those and be strategic and makethem work.
It's a lot easier to putblinders on.
Alora (12:48):
Yeah, it's like being very intentional and specific,
like not just being like, oh, Iwanna grow.
My following, it's okay, I'mactually gonna play with these
platforms before we even dabblebecause shiny object syndrome
it's so easy to just be like,Ooh, that looks cool.
Lemme do that.
And then you're missing thepoint of like you building off
of something else and now youknow, the jack of all trades
(13:10):
kind of thing.
Master of none, which my wholething is I wanna be a master of
one or two.
That's my goal.
Heidi Thompson (13:16):
that's all you need.
Alora (13:17):
Yeah so what does it look like then to be a CEO?
What does functioning as a CEOreally, because a lot of people
have different definitions.
I've had someone say, oh you'renot A CEO if you don't have a
team, or you're not a CEO ifyou're just a solopreneur and
all these other things.
What do you think?
Heidi Thompson (13:34):
I think you're inherently the CEO, whether you
want to be or not.
The second you start a business,it's learning to step into that
role and to make use of it Theway I think about it, especially
for solo business owners, is youhave to function as two
(13:54):
different people in yourbusiness.
So you have to give each of themspace on your calendar, and it
doesn't have to be a ton ofspace.
Alora (14:02):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (14:02):
A couple hours a week that you are planning and
strategizing and making thedecisions.
But I think about it as like theCEO is the one that is basically
planning things out.
the work order to turn aroundand give to like worker BU to go
execute.
The problem is when you don't dothat as the CEO, because your
(14:27):
worker be self will go findstuff to work
Alora (14:30):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (14:31):
go find stuff to be busy Do you feel like you're
supposed to be doing stuff, butno one has given you, orders,
instructions, a plan, anythinglike that?
So I think it is really crucialto set aside some time to make
some decisions about okay, howare we spending our time this
week?
What actions are we taking?
Where's the priority?
(14:52):
And it sounds small.
but it gives the rest of yourtime so much direction because
it gives you that filter to belike, this is the priority this
week.
this part of that or is it not?
If it's not, then it gets put onthe back burner and it becomes
so much easier to say no tothings, I think really you are
(15:15):
that CEO, whether or not youwant to be, whether or not
you've learned how to step intoit.
'cause we all start off beinglike, I don't know, like what
are we supposed to do?
in an optimal environment.
You are stepping into that rolefor at least a small amount of
your week to make decisions sothat the other side of you that
(15:39):
goes and does the work can beworking on things that make a
difference and not just likerandom stuff together.
Alora (15:46):
Yeah, so if you were to paint the picture of what being
a CEO looks like, in the weddingindustry, what is something that
they could outsource today,tomorrow, next week, next month?
Maybe three things that they'rewasting their time on,
essentially.
Heidi Thompson (16:03):
I would say off the bat, bookkeeping,
Alora (16:05):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (16:05):
hands down.
Like I've never met someonethat's I'm a wedding
professional and bookkeeping ismy strong suit and I love it and
I don't wanna let it go.
And like I'm really good at it.
No, it's easy to outsourcethings that you're not good at.
So I think bookkeeping is one ofthose ones that you can get off
(16:27):
your plate.
Quickly, you can hand it over tosomeone and you can immediately
feel the benefit of having thattime freed up and having that
information about your business,like how much money is coming in
and out of the business so youcan actually make better
decisions about it as the CEO.
(16:49):
I'd say for everybody,bookkeeping is probably one of
those things.
Something I see a lot of peopleget stuck on that I think would
be a good thing to outsource isa, like a one-time project sort
of thing.
If you are like, I wanna get,all my systems set up on dub
(17:10):
sodo and I wanna build all thesethings and you were just like
building tiny bit by tiny bit,that's okay.
But it might be.
lot easier just to hire someoneto do it.
And then, a week, two weekslater, you just have it and it's
done and it works and they'vetaught you how to use it.
think that is a very wise use ofyour ability to outsource.
(17:36):
And I think sometimes we thinkit has to be like a forever
commitment.
Kind of Something that happensall the time, like bookkeeping,
but outsourcing one-off projectslike that.
It just gets so much off yourplate and it gets a real expert
into it so that it does actuallywork.
And you're not sitting here likebanging your head up against the
wall trying to make things work,and you actually have no idea
(18:00):
how they're supposed to work tobegin with.
So Yeah.
don't create a completely newjob for yourself.
I think anything that you don'tenjoy doing.
And that takes up a significantamount of time, is a good place
to.
with outsourcing.
As you get further down, it canbe the things that you enjoy
(18:23):
doing, but maybe shouldn't bethe CEO's time.
Maybe you like creating, imagesin Canva, but is that the best
use of your time as the ceo?
Could you be using it elsewhere?
For a lot of photographers, I amsure editing is a very common
one where people hold back andfight it a little bit.
(18:45):
No, I can do it all.
I can do all the things.
I have seen so manyphotographers that decide to
outsource that in some way,shape or form, whether that's
the entire editing process orhelp with the culling process or
whatever that looks like foryou.
And then they just have thislike breathing room finally in
(19:08):
the business and it makes a hugedifference because you're no
longer trying to be 10 people.
Alora (19:15):
Yeah.
I feel like the editing one isthe hardest one to let go of
because we are artists and thatis our art.
Heidi Thompson (19:21):
I.
Alora (19:22):
And thinking that somebody could edit as good as
us is almost like.
Taboo, for lack of better words.
But no, the bookkeeping one thatwas, I thought you were gonna
say like inbox, but bookkeeping.
Yes.
Because if you mess up yournumbers and mess up the
management of everything, thatcould be bad.
It's almost like you don't haveto do it all.
You can, but you don't have to,is like kind of the mindset
(19:44):
shift there.
Heidi Thompson (19:45):
I think being aware of that is really huge.
Like anytime.
I have clients all the time whoare going into something like
that and they're like, okay, I'mgonna redo my website, or I'm
going to all of my systems inthis particular tool.
I always stop'em and I'm like,do you wanna do that or do you
feel like you need to do that?
(20:07):
there.
are people who will just do itfor you and you can.
focus on booking more business,bringing in more clients while
they're building this for you.
one is necessarily right orwrong.
It's different in everysituation, but I think at least
knowing that you have theability to do that can be really
(20:28):
helpful.
Alora (20:29):
I am curious, when you were growing your business, what
were the things that yououtsourced that helped you be
able to scale it further faster?
Heidi Thompson (20:38):
The first thing was bookkeeping.
And I was like, oh my God, whyhave I been spending this time?
you will have that resistanceevery single time.
I started working with a virtualassistant, which took a lot of
admin stuff off my plate.
A lot of the processes you justhave to go through, over and
(21:00):
over again, and I thinksometimes we overcomplicate, you
know how that.
Oh, I have to teach this wholeperson absolutely everything.
Alora (21:10):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (21:10):
It is really as simple as just recording your
screen as you're doing somethingand then talking through it, and
then that person hasinstructions for what you're
doing, why you're doing it.
Like my virtual assistant nowhas recordings of me from five
years ago of yep, this is how wedo this process, and we're still
doing it that way.
Alora (21:31):
Okay, so what are other kind of admin things that people
could outsource?
If they hired a va, they'relike, okay, I wanna get started.
I wanna hire somebody to dosomething because time.
What are the kinds of thingsthat VAs can do that are super
simple, super easy for them tobe like, okay, wait a minute.
There's something to this.
Heidi Thompson (21:51):
I think inbox can be really powerful.
And I think the thing a VA cando in your inbox is like sorting
They may be able to juststraight up, get back to people
on certain things if you givethem enough information to be
able to do that.
But even just having your VA gothrough your inbox and be like.
(22:13):
Here is all the email that camein.
Here are the four that youreally need to pay attention to.
That's it.
Having someone call that downfor you can be super, super
helpful.
If that's a place you feel likeyou get stuck, I think we have
to look at what are the placeswhere we get stuck?
What are the places where welike uniquely self-sabotage and
(22:35):
find ourselves spending tons oftime doing things that don't
really matter?
But that can be a great one.
Anytime you are like creating.
Content.
There are different pieces tothat, right?
So if you are creating a, let'ssay a carousel post on
(22:57):
Instagram, so there's thecreating of the text for that.
There's the choosing the images,there's putting it together,
there's adding it to whateverscheduler, creating the caption,
actually scheduling it.
Like those are several
Alora (23:12):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (23:13):
And depending on the strengths of your va, it
could be that you're just doingthose first two parts of these
are the images I wanna use, thisis what I wanna say.
You can go put it all together.
And then I think the thing a lotof people forget is when you
outsource something, it doesn'tmean you're like abdicating.
(23:37):
responsibility, all to have anyinput on it.
What you can do is have someonego through that process, let's
say, they're creating thatcarousel post the end, put it
into your scheduling tool, theyset it as a draft.
They tell you to go look at it,and then you can come back and
(23:57):
be like.
good to go or I wanna make thesechanges and going forward, make
a note that I actually like itthis way, not that way.
what would've been a much longerprocess becomes like a 10 minute
process.
Alora (24:15):
Yeah, I feel like too a lot of things that I've noticed,
people, at least the students inmy program, are always
procrastinating on.
'cause that's my sign if I'mprocrastinating on something.
I'm like, I probably shouldoutsource it.
Somebody's gotta do it if it'snot gonna be me.
Heidi Thompson (24:28):
point.
Alora (24:29):
But anyway, key indicator in case you're listening.
But I noticed it's been likeblogging, like an SEO.
They're like, Ugh, I just don'twanna write.
I don't want to sit down and doone thing.
But they love the editing.
A lot of'em, like I love toedit.
It's therapeutic for me.
And then I know some too.
It's the social mediamanagement.
But how do I have them writelike me and then that's when
(24:50):
their overwhelm comes back ofbeing like my captions won't
sound like me.
And all those other things.
Even though we do have chat GBT,there are still like so many
nuances when you're outsourcingit's, I'm sure it can be scary
in that way too.
Heidi Thompson (25:03):
Yeah, I think it's adding in those checkpoints
that.
give you confidence and add thecontrol back.
So if you're outsourcingsomething like social media
management or parts of yourcontent creation, it can feel
like, oh no, I'm losing controlover this process.
When really you could just havesomeone do the process and come
to you and say, Hey, does thislook good?
(25:25):
Or does it need any changes?
And that's a lot easier than youhaving, a blank Canva document
Alora (25:33):
Sure.
Heidi Thompson (25:34):
where do I even start from putting this
together?
And it's one of those thingswhere it's like, with most
things we can outsource, itfeels like I can do this faster
myself.
Okay, that's true.
If you do it once.
Alora (25:49):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (25:50):
If you're ever going to do it again, which for
social media, yes, you'll bedoing it a lot.
If you can get someone to takepart of that process over, then
you gain time back every singleweek.
It's one of those weird thingslike investing money and seeing
(26:11):
compound interest.
It's like we can't really wrapour heads around
Alora (26:14):
Okay.
Heidi Thompson (26:14):
do it, and then it's like, why didn't I do this
sooner?
Alora (26:17):
Yeah, no, totally.
And then you become obsessedwith saving time.
Like me, when I outsource onething, everything must be
outsourced.
Heidi Thompson (26:25):
It just opens the door,
Alora (26:27):
Yeah and I remember being like, if I can just send this
email, I could send this email,or if I can make this post, I
can make this post.
But you're not just posting itone time.
You're probably posting two tothree times a week and instead
of having to stop what you'redoing and make time for social
media, you can be doingsomething else and then
therefore freeing up your time.
Which leads me to my nextquestion of time management and
(26:49):
productivity.
What does that look like as aCEO?
I know somebody told me thatCEOs should be bored, we
shouldn't be busy.
What are your thoughts on that?
Heidi Thompson (26:58):
Ooh, I love that?
Oh, I think, this comes from themarketing side for me, I think.
is a good sign it means that youare repeating your message, and
if it's working, you should berepeating your message.
You shouldn't be continuallyreinventing Because that's the
(27:18):
thing that works.
Let's stick with
Alora (27:19):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (27:20):
over and over again in different ways oh, I
like that.
That's really good.
I think really have to look asthe CEO.
What you're spending time onwith a critical eye, with a
couple questions in mind.
The first is always does thisactually have to get done, or am
I doing it because I feel likeit needs to get done?
(27:44):
I feel like I need to keep up inthis way.
There's usually some sort oflike external pressure or
internal pressure from lookingout and seeing what other people
are doing, but does this.
need to happen in order to movethe business forward.
And you would be surprised howmuch time people are spending on
(28:07):
things that don't matter andthen they stop doing and
literally no one notices.
It's crazy.
So we all have things like that.
So I would say, this need to getdone?
Does this need to get done byme?
So does this require my brain ina way that it would be.
(28:30):
Difficult, probably notimpossible, especially now with
ai, but that it might bedifficult to outsource that we
can cross that and try tochallenge that.
But I think that's a good filterif it does need to get done, and
a lot of people will use thatexcuse like it just has to get
done.
Alora (28:47):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (28:47):
Okay, yeah, but do you need to be the one.
That's doing it.
then I think, the CEO is thecaptain of the ship.
They have to have the higherorder plan of like, where are we
going?
How are we going to get there?
So spending that time onplanning is because that then
(29:08):
becomes your decision making forother things.
Okay.
I wanna add in.
Let's say you wanna work on yourSEO, which is a huge drag on
you, but you still wanna bringit into the fold in your
marketing plan.
Okay?
Does that get us where we wannago?
(29:29):
Is that a way for us to getwhere we wanna go, or does that
take us in a completelydifferent direction?
it's very easy to see things, toget excited about things.
I think having an idea parkinglot is really important for
CEOs.
Just like a place to keep stuffyou don't have that anxiety of.
(29:50):
I have to act on this idea rightnow, or I'm gonna lose it just
let it marinate and you can comeback to it.
I have been marinating onYouTube for like over a year.
I have a friend that teaches it.
She's brilliant, and it's yeah,I will eventually do this.
I'm not doing this right now.
And I have to tell myself.
(30:11):
When I, especially when I watchher stuff, I'm like, ah, nope,
I'm not doing this right now.
me has to come in and pull meback and be like, Nope, step
away from the edge.
That's not what we're doing.
That's not on the plan.
So the CEO, having the time tomake the plan.
Is crucial in what I have seenchange so many businesses
(30:35):
because most are not operatingin that CEO mode and most are
operating completely without aplan.
They're just doing random stuff.
Alora (30:45):
I think it's like a couple of things that prepare
you for thinking like a CEO.
Like one of them is being veryself-aware because if you're not
self-aware, you're not gonna beable to self-correct.
And I think a lot of people willbe what are the benchmarks?
Like how do I know I'm wastingtoo much time on this?
Or how do I know that's notgonna help me grow?
(31:05):
Or I can do multiple things atonce.
I hear the very multi-passionatepeople speak for this all the
time, and thank God they're herebecause I could never I'm a one
at a time person and I need onething to be good before I can
even think of becoming octopusarms here.
In terms of creative versus timeconstraints.
How as artists, as photographersand business owners are we able
(31:28):
to balance the two with, withoutfeeling like too constrained,
trying to be a CEO, but thenalso like allowing creativity
and allowing fun,
Heidi Thompson (31:37):
And I think that's part of the planning
process is planning some of thatLooking at your.
Plan for the next quarter, oryour marketing plan as this like
super rigid thing.
Yes, there are things you wannaaccomplish and you wanna
accomplish them within thisperiod of time, you're gonna
take these steps to do that.
(31:58):
We do that not to make it rigid.
We do that to give your brain abreak that you can show up on
some.
Cloudy Tuesday afternoon andyou're foggy and you're not
really sure what you're supposedto be doing, already made the
decision around that.
when it comes to creativity, Ithink it's really important to
(32:22):
look at reclaiming your time asan exercise in giving yourself
more creativity.
Because if you can make morespace, maybe it's like a whole
day a week that you are justplaying with things and trying
out new things creatively.
If that feeds you and that helpsthe entire machine run, then it
(32:45):
absolutely should be set asideand it should be protected.
No one else gets to encroach onthat time.
You treat that basically likeyou would a client appointment.
I think that's super importantto give yourself that time and
that space because like yousaid, the CEO part should be
boring.
Like here are the steps, we'regonna follow the steps, let's
(33:08):
just follow the steps.
But also with that, it gives youmore time so that you can go
experiment outside of that,Everything in marketing as an
experiment, as something we'retesting, we're trying, it can
give you space to add somethinglike that in.
(33:29):
If you're like, I really wannasee what would happen if Did
this kind of content on TikTokfor 90 days.
Let's just see what happens.
You don't have that room todabble and play and try new
things if you don't alreadyhave, like the baseline covered.
Alora (33:48):
Heidi, this was amazing.
Thank you for telling us aboutbecoming a CEO, what that looks
like, time management,outsourcing, all the things that
I love, live and breathe.
It's my life.
But also we're doing a weddingsummit together, so can you tell
the audience a little bit aboutwhat that looks like?
I'm doing a little mini trainingin there.
There's gonna be tons and tonsof speakers and topics.
Heidi Thompson (34:11):
Yeah, I'm so excited about this.
So Book More Wedding Summit isthe summit I host every August,
September-ish that reallyfocuses on.
How do I get more bookings?
How do I book more weddings?
How do I get more of the rightbookings?
And this year especially, we arevery focused on what is
happening right now, what'sworking right now, what needs to
(34:34):
change because it has been afunky year.
For many people, if you feltthat, you're definitely not
alone.
So we have, I believe we have 46speakers in
Alora (34:46):
Agree.
Heidi Thompson (34:47):
all Laura being one are talking about all sorts
of different ways that you cando this from all sorts of
different perspectives.
So it's this like amazing buffetof things you can choose from
and learn from all of thesedifferent experts in the wedding
industry about marketing,related to sales related to
(35:09):
getting more bookings in someway.
We have everything covered withall of these different speakers,
so it is free to attend.
You can get your free ticket.
It runs August 18th through the22nd, and with the free ticket,
you get access to each day'spresentations for 24 hours.
(35:30):
Then they expire and the nextdays come out and we have two
different upgrades.
You can choose between if youwant Ongoing access to those
presentations.
If you want some additionalbonuses.
We have almost$4,000 worth ofbonuses contributed by our
speakers in one of those, soreally excited about it.
Alora (35:50):
Yeah, it is exciting.
I didn't know it was 40 of us.
That's crazy.
That's a lot.
Heidi Thompson (35:54):
a lot.
A little crazy and then I waslike, some of these people will
say no, and then they didn't,
Alora (36:00):
maybe our next goal should be like 52, a hundred.
that's amazing.
But I think it's great becauseit's free and people, can just
binge it like Netflix and seewhat you can apply to your
business.
I know my age old Instagramstories class, still holds true
because my students are bookingclients.
From Instagram stories,literally just showing up as
themselves, like selling alittle bit here and there, but
(36:22):
mostly just showing up andbuilding connection.
Still converts as a marketingstrategy, so I'm excited and my
link will be in the show notesto sign up for that That is
amazing.
Thank you again, Heidi, forcoming on the podcast.
This was great.
Thank you for sharing yourwealth of knowledge.
I'm so excited for the summit.
Heidi Thompson (36:39):
My pleasure and thank you for deciding to take
part.
I was so excited to have you onboard, and I can't wait to dig
in with everyone.
Alora (36:47):
Perfect.
All right everybody.
We'll see you next week bye.
Hello and welcome back to the Wedding Atelier podcast.
(00:02):
We have a special guest with me,Heidi Thompson, of Evolve Your
Wedding Business, and we aregonna be talking about working
smarter, not harder, how tobecome the CEO of your business,
because that is actually like myfavorite topic.
So I'm glad someone can resonatewith me on this.
And we were both just talking inthe green room about how we hate
to waste our time and she hatesinefficiencies.
(00:24):
So we're gonna talk about that.
Maybe how you're wasting yourtime or how you can save time by
doing these couple ofstrategies.
So Heidi, welcome to thepodcast.
I'm so excited you're here.
Heidi Thompson (00:36):
Thank you for having me.
I'm excited to talk about
Alora (00:38):
No, literally I, this is my obsession.
Like being A-C-E-O-I had no ideawas my passion.
Okay.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour story and your background
in the wedding industry, how didit lead you to where you are
today?
Heidi Thompson (00:51):
Yeah, I actually started working in nonprofit
events when I went to Westernover in Kalamazoo.
Doing nonprofit events for some.
Different, organizations outthere.
And I loved it.
I was like, okay, I didn't evenrealize this was a thing.
This is super interesting.
I found when I moved back toDetroit, some opportunities to
(01:15):
work under a planner and toreally learn the ropes of how
weddings work and to get someexperience there.
But to throw a complete wrenchin the works.
I got married.
He's British.
We had to decide where we weregonna go.
I moved over there while I stillworked in planning a little bit
(01:37):
here and there, I was keeping aneye on the wedding industry.
This was like.
20 10, 20 11, starting into thegrowth of like offbeat bride,
rock and roll
Alora (01:48):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (01:49):
more like personalization into weddings.
My day jobs were in marketingand I saw being in marketing a
gap in the market over therewhere nobody was bringing
together.
These vendors who were doingjust like the most insanely
creative things in the world,and couples who wanted something
(02:12):
different.
So I started a wedding show.
ran that over there for a fewyears, and I realized through
the entire thing.
I was like spending so much timehelping my vendors get a good
return on their investment tomake sure, they knew how to make
the most of their booth tofollow up.
(02:33):
And it slapped me in the facethat not everybody just reads
marketing books for fun That Icould be someone that could
really help the people in, thewedding industry the money that
they should be making based onthe creativity that they have.
Because, if you guys were paidpurely based on your creativity,
(02:57):
you'd be millionaires,billionaires by now.
Alora (03:00):
Of course.
Heidi Thompson (03:00):
unfortunately, that's not how it
Alora (03:03):
Yeah you were able to become a wedding planner and
build your own business, justdabbling in the industry that
way.
What would you say was your areaof expertise?
Heidi Thompson (03:14):
I really gravitated to the marketing.
I don't know what it is aboutmarketing, I think its root.
It is psychology, and that'swhat I find most interesting
about it is you have to reallyunderstand someone in order to
get them to do something,whether it's, to sign up to
(03:35):
something, to buy something, todo anything.
And I just find thatexperimentation.
Really interesting and learnedearly on, because I had a
background in marketing thatexperimentation is not a
function of failure.
It's just a part of the beast ofworking with the human psyche.
Alora (04:01):
So then how did you end up becoming obsessed with the
CEO part of things?
Because like now you're, I guessmaybe in a sense when you market
so much, you build your businessand you're like, wait a minute,
this might be overwhelming.
How did that look like for you?
Heidi Thompson (04:14):
I was finding that a lot of wedding pros that
I, Were just.
beyond overwhelmed, completelyoverwhelmed all the time.
Felt like they were being pulledin a million different
directions.
And I still see this, it's been13 years since I started doing
this, and it's probably gottenworse because the number of
(04:36):
things you can
Alora (04:37):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (04:38):
of places you feel like you're supposed to be.
But that.
me because a big part of mybusiness and my like core values
in my business are aroundfreedom.
And I want other people to havethat too.
And if you started a businessand you're working twice as hard
(04:58):
and you're making half the moneyand you don't have the time to
spend with your family, yourfriends doing what you want,
like what's the point?
Alora (05:07):
Yeah, I feel like that is my story.
But I feel like
Heidi Thompson (05:11):
Yeah.
Alora (05:11):
you build a business and you have the creativity to
create stuff like book weddings,book this, book that, but like
not having a strategy, nothaving a game plan, and you're
just doing stuff.
It seems like the business kindof takes over, in a way.
And then you realize, and I knowa lot of my friends have.
Dealt with this where they wouldgo back to their nine to five
(05:32):
because they're like, I am aterrible boss.
And I did not wanna work thishard to make this little, and
really it could have beensomething as simple as
delegating, outsourcing, raisingtheir prices.
Of course.
But what do you feel likethey're dealing with the most?
What is their biggest bottleneckin the business?
Keeping them from scaling it.
Heidi Thompson (05:49):
Yeah, I think it's themselves.
That is scrambling to try to doso many things that nine out of
10 of them just aren't workingor aren't working as well as
they could And so it's a lot oflike wheel spinning, but you're
not getting the results from it.
It's a lot of like chaotic,working all over the place and.
(06:15):
one of the first things I dowhen I start working with
wedding professionals in mymembership is I have them go
through this process ofimmediately, okay, what are you
doing?
Because we all think we knowspend our time, just like we
think we know how we spend ourmoney, right?
But then you start actuallytracking this stuff and it's
(06:35):
spent how much on DoorDash, Iput how much time into this and
I'm not getting anything out ofit.
And we start taking things offof their plate based on the
proof okay, you're putting 10hours a week into just like
churning out content for, sayInstagram.
(06:56):
You've gotten two bookings fromInstagram this year.
All of these other things areproducing your bookings.
Let's shift our focus to thosethings and make those 5%, 10%
better.
You're gonna get more bookings,you're gonna have to do less.
It feels like the ultimate cheatcode because we feel like we
(07:17):
have to just be busy and dostuff and do all the things, but
when you really look at what isgenerating the results for you.
A lot of times it's the thingsthat you're not putting a ton of
time into, maybe likerelationships that you've built
that don't take a ton of time.
What if you spent a little bitof the time you're spending on
(07:42):
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube,wherever, building more of those
relationships because youalready have proof.
That they yield results.
like going after things wealready have proof for as
opposed to, complete, we gottafigure out if this even works
for your business, kind ofthings.
Alora (08:03):
What would you say are like the top three biggest
struggles that wedding industryor photographers have how
they're spending their time,like you said, they're wasting
their time on things that arenot bringing forth results or
How do you get to the root ofthe problem.
Heidi Thompson (08:18):
A big part of it is awareness, actually tracking
what you're spending your timeon are your bookings coming
from?
And then looking at those andseeing like it, does my effort
actually line up, or is thiskind of futile?
And what I have found is truefor a lot of people is it's like
(08:39):
the squeaky wheel gets the oilkind of thing.
If something isn't working, wetry to force it so hard to work.
But the much easier thing is todo more of the thing that's
already working and either, trysomething new with the thing
that isn't working, adjust yourstrategy, but like to stop just
(09:01):
willing it so hard to be thething.
It's like everybody wants thething that doesn't work to be
the thing that gets themresults.
And if you just accept thatthere are other things that you
can do in your marketing thatare already getting you results,
and you take the easy way.
It starts to feel like cheatingbecause it's I didn't realize it
(09:23):
could just be this easy.
I thought I had to this.
Because I think one of the otherthings people get hung up on is
what everybody else is doing.
So we look around, we see, allthe other photographers, super,
active on TikTok or active onInstagram, places where we can
visibly see their activity.
(09:44):
That may or may not be somethingthat really works for them.
It may just be something thatthey are trying to force.
It may be something that worksfor them, but I am a big
believer that every business isdifferent.
Every ideal client is different,and if you just lean into where
they are and how working, youknow what you already have.
(10:10):
Looking quite honestly for thelazy way, the easy way to do
things, your life is going tobecome so much easier because
you're going to be gettingbigger results from less input.
But it is absolutely a mindsetstruggle for sure.
Because I think we have thisidea that.
(10:32):
We have to work super crazy hardand we have to work all these
hours and we have to make thesethings work because other people
seem to be making them work.
And that is, it's such a trap.
It really is.
And I'm sure you've seen thattoo.
Alora (10:47):
Oh yeah.
When you have social mediaconstantly in your face, and for
me, I try to look at it from apersonal perspective and not
always working like, oh, lemmelook at this funny reel of like
husband and wife and kid stuff.
But at the end of the day, Whenyou're scrolling all day every
day and you are ingesting otherpeople's content, you're gonna
get to a point where you'relike, oh, should I be doing
that?
I'm not doing that.
(11:07):
are they better than me?
Do they figure something out?
Oh my goodness, they're doingthis, they're doing, and then
you find yourself in this cycleand you're like, oh my gosh,
does this ever end?
And you once were confident, nowyou're insecure.
You once had creative ideas andnow you're copying.
And so I do think what ends upbeing market research can become
your biggest enemy, which isterrifying.
(11:28):
'cause it's almost okay, shouldI never go on social media?
There are apps that give youlimits, be like, Hey, you're on
for 25 minutes.
Go do something else.
Go touch grass.
But yeah, I feel like marketingis amazing, but also because a
lot of people are trying newthings and playing with new
things.
Heidi Thompson (11:46):
It, like it feels like you're falling
behind.
Alora (11:49):
yeah.
Heidi Thompson (11:50):
they have something that you don't.
And I completely get that and Istill have that feeling myself
in my business.
I see people doing things andI'm like, should I be But then I
bring myself back to, the sameprocess I take my clients to of
committing to these no more thanthree marketing channels for the
quarter.
We can evaluate, we can maybeadd something if we want, but
(12:12):
it's not gonna be like a franticthrow everything on the plate.
But you do.
You have to remind yourself.
You have to bring yourself backto And it's a lot easier to do
if you are intentionallyfocusing on something than if
you are doing random stuff.
And now we're gonna add onanother random thing that, you
can be like, yeah, I should dothat because that feels like
(12:34):
what I'm already doing.
But if you're like, no, I saidto myself, I was only gonna do
these three things over the nextquarter and really focus on
those and be strategic and makethem work.
It's a lot easier to putblinders on.
Alora (12:48):
Yeah, it's like being very intentional and specific,
like not just being like, oh, Iwanna grow.
My following, it's okay, I'mactually gonna play with these
platforms before we even dabblebecause shiny object syndrome
it's so easy to just be like,Ooh, that looks cool.
Lemme do that.
And then you're missing thepoint of like you building off
of something else and now youknow, the jack of all trades
(13:10):
kind of thing.
Master of none, which my wholething is I wanna be a master of
one or two.
That's my goal.
Heidi Thompson (13:16):
that's all you need.
Alora (13:17):
Yeah so what does it look like then to be a CEO?
What does functioning as a CEOreally, because a lot of people
have different definitions.
I've had someone say, oh you'renot A CEO if you don't have a
team, or you're not a CEO ifyou're just a solopreneur and
all these other things.
What do you think?
Heidi Thompson (13:34):
I think you're inherently the CEO, whether you
want to be or not.
The second you start a business,it's learning to step into that
role and to make use of it Theway I think about it, especially
for solo business owners, is youhave to function as two
(13:54):
different people in yourbusiness.
So you have to give each of themspace on your calendar, and it
doesn't have to be a ton ofspace.
Alora (14:02):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (14:02):
A couple hours a week that you are planning and
strategizing and making thedecisions.
But I think about it as like theCEO is the one that is basically
planning things out.
the work order to turn aroundand give to like worker BU to go
execute.
The problem is when you don't dothat as the CEO, because your
(14:27):
worker be self will go findstuff to work
Alora (14:30):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (14:31):
go find stuff to be busy Do you feel like you're
supposed to be doing stuff, butno one has given you, orders,
instructions, a plan, anythinglike that?
So I think it is really crucialto set aside some time to make
some decisions about okay, howare we spending our time this
week?
What actions are we taking?
Where's the priority?
(14:52):
And it sounds small.
but it gives the rest of yourtime so much direction because
it gives you that filter to belike, this is the priority this
week.
this part of that or is it not?
If it's not, then it gets put onthe back burner and it becomes
so much easier to say no tothings, I think really you are
(15:15):
that CEO, whether or not youwant to be, whether or not
you've learned how to step intoit.
'cause we all start off beinglike, I don't know, like what
are we supposed to do?
in an optimal environment.
You are stepping into that rolefor at least a small amount of
your week to make decisions sothat the other side of you that
(15:39):
goes and does the work can beworking on things that make a
difference and not just likerandom stuff together.
Alora (15:46):
Yeah, so if you were to paint the picture of what being
a CEO looks like, in the weddingindustry, what is something that
they could outsource today,tomorrow, next week, next month?
Maybe three things that they'rewasting their time on,
essentially.
Heidi Thompson (16:03):
I would say off the bat, bookkeeping,
Alora (16:05):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (16:05):
hands down.
Like I've never met someonethat's I'm a wedding
professional and bookkeeping ismy strong suit and I love it and
I don't wanna let it go.
And like I'm really good at it.
No, it's easy to outsourcethings that you're not good at.
So I think bookkeeping is one ofthose ones that you can get off
(16:27):
your plate.
Quickly, you can hand it over tosomeone and you can immediately
feel the benefit of having thattime freed up and having that
information about your business,like how much money is coming in
and out of the business so youcan actually make better
decisions about it as the CEO.
(16:49):
I'd say for everybody,bookkeeping is probably one of
those things.
Something I see a lot of peopleget stuck on that I think would
be a good thing to outsource isa, like a one-time project sort
of thing.
If you are like, I wanna get,all my systems set up on dub
(17:10):
sodo and I wanna build all thesethings and you were just like
building tiny bit by tiny bit,that's okay.
But it might be.
lot easier just to hire someoneto do it.
And then, a week, two weekslater, you just have it and it's
done and it works and they'vetaught you how to use it.
think that is a very wise use ofyour ability to outsource.
(17:36):
And I think sometimes we thinkit has to be like a forever
commitment.
Kind of Something that happensall the time, like bookkeeping,
but outsourcing one-off projectslike that.
It just gets so much off yourplate and it gets a real expert
into it so that it does actuallywork.
And you're not sitting here likebanging your head up against the
wall trying to make things work,and you actually have no idea
(18:00):
how they're supposed to work tobegin with.
So Yeah.
don't create a completely newjob for yourself.
I think anything that you don'tenjoy doing.
And that takes up a significantamount of time, is a good place
to.
with outsourcing.
As you get further down, it canbe the things that you enjoy
(18:23):
doing, but maybe shouldn't bethe CEO's time.
Maybe you like creating, imagesin Canva, but is that the best
use of your time as the ceo?
Could you be using it elsewhere?
For a lot of photographers, I amsure editing is a very common
one where people hold back andfight it a little bit.
(18:45):
No, I can do it all.
I can do all the things.
I have seen so manyphotographers that decide to
outsource that in some way,shape or form, whether that's
the entire editing process orhelp with the culling process or
whatever that looks like foryou.
And then they just have thislike breathing room finally in
(19:08):
the business and it makes a hugedifference because you're no
longer trying to be 10 people.
Alora (19:15):
Yeah.
I feel like the editing one isthe hardest one to let go of
because we are artists and thatis our art.
Heidi Thompson (19:21):
I.
Alora (19:22):
And thinking that somebody could edit as good as
us is almost like.
Taboo, for lack of better words.
But no, the bookkeeping one thatwas, I thought you were gonna
say like inbox, but bookkeeping.
Yes.
Because if you mess up yournumbers and mess up the
management of everything, thatcould be bad.
It's almost like you don't haveto do it all.
You can, but you don't have to,is like kind of the mindset
(19:44):
shift there.
Heidi Thompson (19:45):
I think being aware of that is really huge.
Like anytime.
I have clients all the time whoare going into something like
that and they're like, okay, I'mgonna redo my website, or I'm
going to all of my systems inthis particular tool.
I always stop'em and I'm like,do you wanna do that or do you
feel like you need to do that?
(20:07):
there.
are people who will just do itfor you and you can.
focus on booking more business,bringing in more clients while
they're building this for you.
one is necessarily right orwrong.
It's different in everysituation, but I think at least
knowing that you have theability to do that can be really
(20:28):
helpful.
Alora (20:29):
I am curious, when you were growing your business, what
were the things that yououtsourced that helped you be
able to scale it further faster?
Heidi Thompson (20:38):
The first thing was bookkeeping.
And I was like, oh my God, whyhave I been spending this time?
you will have that resistanceevery single time.
I started working with a virtualassistant, which took a lot of
admin stuff off my plate.
A lot of the processes you justhave to go through, over and
(21:00):
over again, and I thinksometimes we overcomplicate, you
know how that.
Oh, I have to teach this wholeperson absolutely everything.
Alora (21:10):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (21:10):
It is really as simple as just recording your
screen as you're doing somethingand then talking through it, and
then that person hasinstructions for what you're
doing, why you're doing it.
Like my virtual assistant nowhas recordings of me from five
years ago of yep, this is how wedo this process, and we're still
doing it that way.
Alora (21:31):
Okay, so what are other kind of admin things that people
could outsource?
If they hired a va, they'relike, okay, I wanna get started.
I wanna hire somebody to dosomething because time.
What are the kinds of thingsthat VAs can do that are super
simple, super easy for them tobe like, okay, wait a minute.
There's something to this.
Heidi Thompson (21:51):
I think inbox can be really powerful.
And I think the thing a VA cando in your inbox is like sorting
They may be able to juststraight up, get back to people
on certain things if you givethem enough information to be
able to do that.
But even just having your VA gothrough your inbox and be like.
(22:13):
Here is all the email that camein.
Here are the four that youreally need to pay attention to.
That's it.
Having someone call that downfor you can be super, super
helpful.
If that's a place you feel likeyou get stuck, I think we have
to look at what are the placeswhere we get stuck?
What are the places where welike uniquely self-sabotage and
(22:35):
find ourselves spending tons oftime doing things that don't
really matter?
But that can be a great one.
Anytime you are like creating.
Content.
There are different pieces tothat, right?
So if you are creating a, let'ssay a carousel post on
(22:57):
Instagram, so there's thecreating of the text for that.
There's the choosing the images,there's putting it together,
there's adding it to whateverscheduler, creating the caption,
actually scheduling it.
Like those are several
Alora (23:12):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (23:13):
And depending on the strengths of your va, it
could be that you're just doingthose first two parts of these
are the images I wanna use, thisis what I wanna say.
You can go put it all together.
And then I think the thing a lotof people forget is when you
outsource something, it doesn'tmean you're like abdicating.
(23:37):
responsibility, all to have anyinput on it.
What you can do is have someonego through that process, let's
say, they're creating thatcarousel post the end, put it
into your scheduling tool, theyset it as a draft.
They tell you to go look at it,and then you can come back and
(23:57):
be like.
good to go or I wanna make thesechanges and going forward, make
a note that I actually like itthis way, not that way.
what would've been a much longerprocess becomes like a 10 minute
process.
Alora (24:15):
Yeah, I feel like too a lot of things that I've noticed,
people, at least the students inmy program, are always
procrastinating on.
'cause that's my sign if I'mprocrastinating on something.
I'm like, I probably shouldoutsource it.
Somebody's gotta do it if it'snot gonna be me.
Heidi Thompson (24:28):
point.
Alora (24:29):
But anyway, key indicator in case you're listening.
But I noticed it's been likeblogging, like an SEO.
They're like, Ugh, I just don'twanna write.
I don't want to sit down and doone thing.
But they love the editing.
A lot of'em, like I love toedit.
It's therapeutic for me.
And then I know some too.
It's the social mediamanagement.
But how do I have them writelike me and then that's when
(24:50):
their overwhelm comes back ofbeing like my captions won't
sound like me.
And all those other things.
Even though we do have chat GBT,there are still like so many
nuances when you're outsourcingit's, I'm sure it can be scary
in that way too.
Heidi Thompson (25:03):
Yeah, I think it's adding in those checkpoints
that.
give you confidence and add thecontrol back.
So if you're outsourcingsomething like social media
management or parts of yourcontent creation, it can feel
like, oh no, I'm losing controlover this process.
When really you could just havesomeone do the process and come
to you and say, Hey, does thislook good?
(25:25):
Or does it need any changes?
And that's a lot easier than youhaving, a blank Canva document
Alora (25:33):
Sure.
Heidi Thompson (25:34):
where do I even start from putting this
together?
And it's one of those thingswhere it's like, with most
things we can outsource, itfeels like I can do this faster
myself.
Okay, that's true.
If you do it once.
Alora (25:49):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (25:50):
If you're ever going to do it again, which for
social media, yes, you'll bedoing it a lot.
If you can get someone to takepart of that process over, then
you gain time back every singleweek.
It's one of those weird thingslike investing money and seeing
(26:11):
compound interest.
It's like we can't really wrapour heads around
Alora (26:14):
Okay.
Heidi Thompson (26:14):
do it, and then it's like, why didn't I do this
sooner?
Alora (26:17):
Yeah, no, totally.
And then you become obsessedwith saving time.
Like me, when I outsource onething, everything must be
outsourced.
Heidi Thompson (26:25):
It just opens the door,
Alora (26:27):
Yeah and I remember being like, if I can just send this
email, I could send this email,or if I can make this post, I
can make this post.
But you're not just posting itone time.
You're probably posting two tothree times a week and instead
of having to stop what you'redoing and make time for social
media, you can be doingsomething else and then
therefore freeing up your time.
Which leads me to my nextquestion of time management and
(26:49):
productivity.
What does that look like as aCEO?
I know somebody told me thatCEOs should be bored, we
shouldn't be busy.
What are your thoughts on that?
Heidi Thompson (26:58):
Ooh, I love that?
Oh, I think, this comes from themarketing side for me, I think.
is a good sign it means that youare repeating your message, and
if it's working, you should berepeating your message.
You shouldn't be continuallyreinventing Because that's the
(27:18):
thing that works.
Let's stick with
Alora (27:19):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (27:20):
over and over again in different ways oh, I
like that.
That's really good.
I think really have to look asthe CEO.
What you're spending time onwith a critical eye, with a
couple questions in mind.
The first is always does thisactually have to get done, or am
I doing it because I feel likeit needs to get done?
(27:44):
I feel like I need to keep up inthis way.
There's usually some sort oflike external pressure or
internal pressure from lookingout and seeing what other people
are doing, but does this.
need to happen in order to movethe business forward.
And you would be surprised howmuch time people are spending on
(28:07):
things that don't matter andthen they stop doing and
literally no one notices.
It's crazy.
So we all have things like that.
So I would say, this need to getdone?
Does this need to get done byme?
So does this require my brain ina way that it would be.
(28:30):
Difficult, probably notimpossible, especially now with
ai, but that it might bedifficult to outsource that we
can cross that and try tochallenge that.
But I think that's a good filterif it does need to get done, and
a lot of people will use thatexcuse like it just has to get
done.
Alora (28:47):
Yeah.
Heidi Thompson (28:47):
Okay, yeah, but do you need to be the one.
That's doing it.
then I think, the CEO is thecaptain of the ship.
They have to have the higherorder plan of like, where are we
going?
How are we going to get there?
So spending that time onplanning is because that then
(29:08):
becomes your decision making forother things.
Okay.
I wanna add in.
Let's say you wanna work on yourSEO, which is a huge drag on
you, but you still wanna bringit into the fold in your
marketing plan.
Okay?
Does that get us where we wannago?
(29:29):
Is that a way for us to getwhere we wanna go, or does that
take us in a completelydifferent direction?
it's very easy to see things, toget excited about things.
I think having an idea parkinglot is really important for
CEOs.
Just like a place to keep stuffyou don't have that anxiety of.
(29:50):
I have to act on this idea rightnow, or I'm gonna lose it just
let it marinate and you can comeback to it.
I have been marinating onYouTube for like over a year.
I have a friend that teaches it.
She's brilliant, and it's yeah,I will eventually do this.
I'm not doing this right now.
And I have to tell myself.
(30:11):
When I, especially when I watchher stuff, I'm like, ah, nope,
I'm not doing this right now.
me has to come in and pull meback and be like, Nope, step
away from the edge.
That's not what we're doing.
That's not on the plan.
So the CEO, having the time tomake the plan.
Is crucial in what I have seenchange so many businesses
(30:35):
because most are not operatingin that CEO mode and most are
operating completely without aplan.
They're just doing random stuff.
Alora (30:45):
I think it's like a couple of things that prepare
you for thinking like a CEO.
Like one of them is being veryself-aware because if you're not
self-aware, you're not gonna beable to self-correct.
And I think a lot of people willbe what are the benchmarks?
Like how do I know I'm wastingtoo much time on this?
Or how do I know that's notgonna help me grow?
(31:05):
Or I can do multiple things atonce.
I hear the very multi-passionatepeople speak for this all the
time, and thank God they're herebecause I could never I'm a one
at a time person and I need onething to be good before I can
even think of becoming octopusarms here.
In terms of creative versus timeconstraints.
How as artists, as photographersand business owners are we able
(31:28):
to balance the two with, withoutfeeling like too constrained,
trying to be a CEO, but thenalso like allowing creativity
and allowing fun,
Heidi Thompson (31:37):
And I think that's part of the planning
process is planning some of thatLooking at your.
Plan for the next quarter, oryour marketing plan as this like
super rigid thing.
Yes, there are things you wannaaccomplish and you wanna
accomplish them within thisperiod of time, you're gonna
take these steps to do that.
(31:58):
We do that not to make it rigid.
We do that to give your brain abreak that you can show up on
some.
Cloudy Tuesday afternoon andyou're foggy and you're not
really sure what you're supposedto be doing, already made the
decision around that.
when it comes to creativity, Ithink it's really important to
(32:22):
look at reclaiming your time asan exercise in giving yourself
more creativity.
Because if you can make morespace, maybe it's like a whole
day a week that you are justplaying with things and trying
out new things creatively.
If that feeds you and that helpsthe entire machine run, then it
(32:45):
absolutely should be set asideand it should be protected.
No one else gets to encroach onthat time.
You treat that basically likeyou would a client appointment.
I think that's super importantto give yourself that time and
that space because like yousaid, the CEO part should be
boring.
Like here are the steps, we'regonna follow the steps, let's
(33:08):
just follow the steps.
But also with that, it gives youmore time so that you can go
experiment outside of that,Everything in marketing as an
experiment, as something we'retesting, we're trying, it can
give you space to add somethinglike that in.
(33:29):
If you're like, I really wannasee what would happen if Did
this kind of content on TikTokfor 90 days.
Let's just see what happens.
You don't have that room todabble and play and try new
things if you don't alreadyhave, like the baseline covered.
Alora (33:48):
Heidi, this was amazing.
Thank you for telling us aboutbecoming a CEO, what that looks
like, time management,outsourcing, all the things that
I love, live and breathe.
It's my life.
But also we're doing a weddingsummit together, so can you tell
the audience a little bit aboutwhat that looks like?
I'm doing a little mini trainingin there.
There's gonna be tons and tonsof speakers and topics.
Heidi Thompson (34:11):
Yeah, I'm so excited about this.
So Book More Wedding Summit isthe summit I host every August,
September-ish that reallyfocuses on.
How do I get more bookings?
How do I book more weddings?
How do I get more of the rightbookings?
And this year especially, we arevery focused on what is
happening right now, what'sworking right now, what needs to
(34:34):
change because it has been afunky year.
For many people, if you feltthat, you're definitely not
alone.
So we have, I believe we have 46speakers in
Alora (34:46):
Agree.
Heidi Thompson (34:47):
all Laura being one are talking about all sorts
of different ways that you cando this from all sorts of
different perspectives.
So it's this like amazing buffetof things you can choose from
and learn from all of thesedifferent experts in the wedding
industry about marketing,related to sales related to
(35:09):
getting more bookings in someway.
We have everything covered withall of these different speakers,
so it is free to attend.
You can get your free ticket.
It runs August 18th through the22nd, and with the free ticket,
you get access to each day'spresentations for 24 hours.
(35:30):
Then they expire and the nextdays come out and we have two
different upgrades.
You can choose between if youwant Ongoing access to those
presentations.
If you want some additionalbonuses.
We have almost$4,000 worth ofbonuses contributed by our
speakers in one of those, soreally excited about it.
Alora (35:50):
Yeah, it is exciting.
I didn't know it was 40 of us.
That's crazy.
That's a lot.
Heidi Thompson (35:54):
a lot.
A little crazy and then I waslike, some of these people will
say no, and then they didn't,
Alora (36:00):
maybe our next goal should be like 52, a hundred.
that's amazing.
But I think it's great becauseit's free and people, can just
binge it like Netflix and seewhat you can apply to your
business.
I know my age old Instagramstories class, still holds true
because my students are bookingclients.
From Instagram stories,literally just showing up as
themselves, like selling alittle bit here and there, but
(36:22):
mostly just showing up andbuilding connection.
Still converts as a marketingstrategy, so I'm excited and my
link will be in the show notesto sign up for that That is
amazing.
Thank you again, Heidi, forcoming on the podcast.
This was great.
Thank you for sharing yourwealth of knowledge.
I'm so excited for the summit.
Heidi Thompson (36:39):
My pleasure and thank you for deciding to take
part.
I was so excited to have you onboard, and I can't wait to dig
in with everyone.
Alora (36:47):
Perfect.
All right everybody.
We'll see you next week bye.
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