The Wedding Pro CEO Podcast: Episode 187 With Brandee Gaar

Are you ready to become a great leader for your business? Hey there wedding pros! My name is Brandee Gaar, and my mission is to help you, the wedding industry entrepreneur, to build a profitable wedding business that you actually love. Welcome to the Wedding Pro CEO Podcast!

In this episode, I go into a deep dive into five essential tips for becoming a great leader in the wedding industry. As a wedding pro, speaker, and coach, I understand the challenges of running a successful wedding business while juggling the demands of your team.

Join me as we explore practical strategies to build a strong team, improve communication, empower your members, lead with compassion, discover the importance of continuous learning and setting an example for your team.

One of my favorite things to talk about on the show is about how to step into your role as a CEO in your business and getting yourself out of the day-to-day operations of your biz! In order for you to be able to do that, you have to build a team, and to lead a team, you have to be a good leader! But, just because you started a wedding business doesn’t mean being a leader comes naturally right?

So let’s dive into those 5 super easy and simple tips that you can implement right away to help you really become that great leader that your team needs you to be.

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Tip #1: Communicate effectively

The very first tip that I want to focus on is communicating effectively with your team! In order to do that, you and your team have to understand what your boundaries are going to be and in what ways we’re
gonna communicate with each other.

A good way to maintain this constant and effective communication through weekly staff meetings. Set a time aside for the whole team to get together on a weekly basis to discuss what is working, what isn’t working, bounce any ideas off of each other, etc.

Between those staff meetings, here’s things that’s gonna take place that we need from each other,
and so we’re gonna do that through our company, Slack channel. We have different channels that allow us to communicate between meetings with each other really effectively. The reason I love to use Slack is
because it’s important to me that when my team is not working, that they’re able to shut that app off. They can turn their notifications off, and they won’t see that we’re all still slacking or that I’ve even slacked them. I don’t like to use text messages unless it is an absolute emergency that cannot wait.

We like to make sure that the work communication is completely separate. Anything that’s non-urgent or is really an fyi or for a project that we’re working on that needs to be emailed. However you do it in your company is great as long as it works, but it is so important that you explain to everybody what that communication style looks like so that you can do that effectively.

“Effective communication sets the foundation for a cohesive team.”

Brandee Gaar

Tip #2: Empower your team

Tip number two is going to be to empower your team and you guys, this one is huge! As you start
stepping out of the day-to-day operations of your business, it is gonna get more and more imperative that you empower each member of your team to really own their role on the team.

You need to remove yourself from the “side conversations”. So what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is that everyone on your team needs to feel like they can go to each other and if changes need to be made then everyone involved should feel the most empowered to do their job well!

Your team needs to feel like they can do their job without constant oversight. You should always be available to help them if they need it or if they want to talk through something, but for the most part, they go to each other to complete the day-to-day tasks.

One other tip I want to give you inside of this empowering your team members is to really make sure that when they come to you with a problem, you put it back on them and ask them how they would solve it. Don’t give them the answer, push them and help them to think critically through it on their own. You don’t want people that are just doing tasks. You don’t want people that are just picking stuff up and putting it back down. You really want team members that are thinking critically.

So that next time they have the same issue, they can now critically think through it.

“Empowering your team leads to a more efficient and productive work environment.”

Brandee Gaar

Tip #3: continue to learn and grow

Tip number three is to continuously learn and grow. I cannot say enough about this one! It is imperative that you, as the CEO of your company, you need to constantly be learning and growing. Learning how to be a great CEO, learning how to be a great leader, learning how to manage your finances, learning how to build that team and how to take your business to the next level. Learning how to bring in additional revenue sources and how to really just take your business to a new level. To do that, you as a CEO have to surround yourself with people who are also doing what you were trying to do.

You need to invest in education. You are the best investment that you will ever make. The better you can be, the better your team’s career is gonna be, the better your company is, the more chance they have of creating a career from your company.

I also want to encourage you to invest in their learning and growing. When you have a team member that you know is ready to take on a new piece of your business, give them the tools to do so. If there’s something that they’re struggling with that you may not be the best fit to help them, you wanna make sure that they’re learning and growing as well.

“Continuous learning and growth are essential investments for your success as a CEO.”

Brandee Gaar

Tip #4: Lead with compassion and empathy

Tip number four is to lead with compassion and empathy. This one is really, really important as you start to step into that role of CEO because there will be a guilt factor that will start to settle in with you as you do less events. I always want you to remember that your job is to lead the people, not to lead the events.

What you want to be doing is focusing more on the growth of the company and mentoring and coaching your team. Sometimes that means that your team is in busy season and you are not necessarily slammed anymore because you are not taking a full load of weddings. Sometimes that can feel
like you’re not overwhelmed when your team is, but that’s because it is so important that you’re still focused on the growth of our company and leading and coaching and mentoring.

It is so important for you to still be able to be that empathetic ear when your team may be feeling overwhelmed. Make sure that they’re getting that downtime and empathize with how they’re feeling. It’s really important to just lead with that empathy and to help them know that you’re here for them and that you want to help them because that’s your job now is to lead and mentor your team.

“Leading with compassion and empathy nurtures a supportive and thriving team.”

Brandee Gaar

Tip #5: Lead by example

Tip number five is to lead by example! What do I mean by this? I just got done telling you, I do not want
you thinking that you have to take on as many events as your team, so when I say lead by example, is like The way that you hold yourself, right? The way that you listen and empathize with them is the way that they will listen and empathize with your clients. The way that you treat them is the way that they will treat your clients.

I also think things like boundaries are super important to lead. If I tell my team I do not want them responding to text, emails, phone calls at nine o’clock at night, I shouldn’t be either! It’s so important that you lead them as a team, show them that you can get all of your work done in a reasonable amount of time. If you set a deadline for your team, set a deadline for yourself and if you don’t, that’s okay! Make sure to own up to it and lead by example!

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Listen Now to Episode 187 of the Wedding Pro CEO Podcast, 5 Essential Tips for Wedding Industry Entrepreneurs to Become Great Leaders

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Bye for now!!! 😊

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