You’re 3 years into your business. Or insert whatever that number is for you.

You love what you do: Meeting couples with love in their eyes ready to commit to one another. Flexing your creative muscles to play your part in an incredible event. Collaborating with vendors as passionate as you are to bring an entire wedding together.

So again, you’ve been doing this for about three years now. Do you want to keep doing this for another 3 years? Another 5 years?

Listen, I don’t mean to scare you out of your business, and in fact, it’s quite the opposite. I want you to create a business that will continue to serve you and your lifestyle.

Most wedding pros are willing to put in the 70+ hour weeks to get their dream up and running in the beginning. Long-term? Yeah, I don’t know about you, but I have a husband and children I want to spend time with. Plus, hello I need to take some time for myself too and I won’t apologize for that!!

If you don’t have a map or any idea where you’d like to go or become in the next year, 3 years, 5 years, trust me when I say a lot of wedding pros put this off too.

Once you take the time to create a crystal clear definition of what success looks like for you not only in your business but in your lifestyle, you’ll have a better idea of the steps you need to take to get there: 

Define Your Core Values

Before you can achieve success, you first have to define it. Success is different for each of us and is defined by our core values.

Why core values? Your core values determine the focus and direction of your business. They align us with activities that make us feel fulfilled while helping us attract our ideal client. The cool thing is, core values can never be wrong or bad because they are personal to you. To help determine your core values, think back to a time that you felt most fulfilled. A moment you would revisit over and over.

Now conversely, think back to a time where you felt suffocated or frustrated. A time where you would hate to relive.

What is similar about these memories? What value is being added or taken away in these moments? This is a great indicator that this is a core value for you! 

What Do You Want Your Life to Look Like?

Take a minute to visualize what you want your life to look like in 3 years.  What about 5 years?  Do you want wealth?  Time freedom?  Notary?  Will you have kids?  Do you want to travel?

Again: NO WRONG ANSWERS HERE!! The only way your vision can be wrong is if you decide to follow someone else’s rather than your own.

If you want time to travel with your family, it doesn’t make sense for you to create a schedule where you’re working 70+ hour weeks down the road, right?

It also wouldn’t make sense if you decide to turn down speaking engagements so you can work in the business if your vision is to reach more people worldwide.

What kind of lifestyle do you need to reach your vision. It’s not a matter of if “it would be nice to have. But it’s absolutely necessary if you are going to reach your level of success?

Create a Destination for Yourself!!

Now that you know where you’re going, it’s time to create a concrete path to get there. When we were vision-casting, we were mostly thinking abstract.

With creating a destination, you need to quantify what it actually means to reach the lifestyle you want. Give it a specific definition and metric so we can work towards it.

For example, in 5 years, you will have a business that supports one full-time income and allows you to take a 2-week vacation each year.

Or, in 5 years you will have a business that allows you to travel whenever you want, wherever you want, and be able to work from the road with the clients you love.

Or how about, in 5 years, you will have a business that supports a part-time income so you can be a full-time parent while doing work that you love!! 

Remember….just because you set a destination doesn’t mean you can’t take a detour.  The road will be filled with lots of twists and turns but if you know where you’re going you’ll be able to correct the route if an exit leads you astray!!

Let’s Redefine Success, Shall We? 

There is NO wrong answer when defining success for you. What most coaches won’t teach you is that success looks different for everyone. For some of us, it’s fame or influence. For some it’s wealth. For some, it would be the ability to travel the world and still make an income.

But before you can know how to get there, you have to know where you’re going!! I’ve seen WAY too many entrepreneurs fall off the map because they jumped headfirst into every big opportunity that came their way and eventually, they just burnt out and closed up shop. That’s why I created this worksheet and Defining and Achieving Success.

The worksheet will walk you through:

• Defining your top core values
• Visualizing what you want your life to look like in 10 years
• Creating a step by step plan to achieve that 10-year vision

After all, a goal without a plan is just a dream.

I hope this helps you visualize where you want to be and where you are now so we can start implementing steps to scale you to the next level!