On a road near my house there’s a billboard that promises to expose my business to many thousands of people. A similar promise has been made by the producers of Married at First Sight and other TV shows. Everyone wants to sell us exposure.

I would argue that exposure is the last thing we need.

A bad day

I’m willing to bet that your day would be significantly worse if you had 300 daily enquiries for people who would never book you. I know my life would be unimaginably more stressed if I had to take even 10 or 20 more phone calls a day.

Exposure

Exposure can bring all that. You can spend enough money on advertising, billboards, social media marketing, SEO, public relations, magazine features, and mailbox drops that you’ll get that exposure, and your life will be worse off for it.

Because most of us would be financially and soulfully happy if we married a certain number of couples. For some it might be 30 a year, or 100. I can tell you from my own experience that more than 200 is a drain on your soul that none of us are prepared for.

Number one

Gaining that massive exposure where you get to call yourself the number one celebrant, or the most popular celebrant, or the best, or whatever tagline you think works for you, will certainly take you to that number quickly.

But can I propose a different way, a way that might bring you to your goal albeit slower, but whilst maintaining your sanity and your joy.

Awareness is not action

Just because all these new people know you exist, it doesn’t mean they will enquire with you, book you, and love what you do. Just because they are aware of you does not mean they will act on contacting and booking you.

I would focus my energy on trying to expose myself to people that would take action.

First step is self-awareness

Know what you’re good at and not good at. Cut out everything that is hard for you, too much work, things that don’t bring you joy in your celebrancy business. For some it might be travel, for others it might be supplying furniture, if it doesn’t bring you joy, bin it.

Second step is client awareness

What about you have people loved? What elements of your business do people go out of their way to compliment you on? I know in my business my couples love that I don’t read from a script, but in your business it will be something special about you.

Third step is clarification

Bring that self-awareness and the things that matter to clients, and mash it together into a brand, a product offering, a price, and a package, that sits well with your soul. Once you’ve built the product, and the storefront (website and social media), you need to find the right people to tell. And that’s a story for another article.