Show notes:

Planning on growing as a wedding business in 2026? Entering the new year today I want to reflect upon 2025 and set new goals for the year ahead. The wedding industry has a lot in store for us in 2026, lets prepare together and get ready for a successful year!

Time stamps:

• 00:11 – Reflecting on 2025 and Embracing 2026
• 07:29 – Reflecting on 2025 and Looking Forward to 2026
• 18:08 – Reflecting on 2025 and Looking Ahead to 2026
• 26:08 – Setting Intentions for 2026
• 33:35 – Setting Audacious Goals for 2026

Transcript:

2025 was a big one. I feel like over the last year the shift in how we did business felt huge for many inquiries were down and often lead time was incredibly short.

It was a wild year in many respects, but as we say goodbye to 2025, it’s now time to look forward to 2026. In today’s episode, I want you to grab some paper and a pen because we’re going to be getting interactive.

I’m Becca Poutney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger and you’re listening to the Pros who Are Ready to Grow podcast. I’m here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.

If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, then you’re in the right place. Let’s get going with today’s episode.

I must start by saying Happy New Year if you’re listening to this in real time because it is going out on the 1st of January, 2026, which just so happens to on a Thursday this year. So we are now here in 2026.

I’m not all about this New Year new Me business because I know that you’re the same person as you were yesterday when we were in 2025. However, a new year does give us a chance to reflect.

It gives us a chance to look at what happened last year and it also gives us a chance to look forward. And that’s what we’re going to do in today’s episode. Now for me, 2026 also feels like a huge, pivotal year.

2026 marks 10 years since I started working business to business in the wedding industry. My very first networking event took place in 2016.

And so as we go into 2026, I am celebrating a whole decade working with business owners, wedding venues all over the world to improve their visibility and their marketing. And another big thing this year, don’t tell anyone, but I’m also turning 40 now. Not till the end of the year, I’m a December baby.

But again, I feel like when we reach these decade birthdays it feels like a mil.

And I look back at where I was on my 30th birthday with this brand new fledgling business, very small children and it shows how much can happen in a decade.

But whatever this year holds in your life, whether you’ve got personal milestones, things that you know are coming up that you’re looking forward to, or things you know that are coming up that you’re not looking forward to. There are some things that we can control.

So I want to encourage you as we go into this exercise, let’s go into 2026 with an attitude of controlling the controllables. None of us know what’s going to happen over the next few months and years, but there are some things we can control.

And after all, that is the joy of being self employed. So in today’s episode, I’m going to walk you through some exercises.

That’s why you need a pen and paper, where we’re going to reflect back on things that happened in 2025, and we’re going to look forward to things that we want to achieve in 2026. We’re going to do it all in threes. So for every single reflection point, I’m going to encourage you to write down three answers.

There’s no reason why three. It just seemed like a good number.

And I’m going to reflect on some of these things with you as part of the podcast interview and live reflect on my own business too.

So I encourage you, if you are driving at the moment, okay, go ahead and listen, but do make time to go back and make notes because that’s how you’re going to get the most out of today’s episode. So shall we dive straight in then? Because the first thing we’re going to do is reflect back on 2025. And I want you to start on a high.

I want you to write down the three biggest achieve for you in 2025. What are you proud of now? These may be things in your personal life, these may be things in your business.

I’d encourage at least one of them to be a business achievement. And even if you feel like you had a really rubbish year in business, I guarantee you achieved something that you can be proud of now.

You don’t need to share these with anyone. These can be your own personal reflections and thoughts. So it doesn’t need to be something huge, but something you’re proud of.

I’m going to share my three things with you now. So it took me a while to narrow it down to three, because there were all sorts of things I could talk about. But I’ve decided on these now.

The biggest achievement for me professionally in 2025 has to be winning the British Podcast Award. To be named the best business Podcast of the year in 2025 was massive.

And for you, the podcast listener, I’m thankful to you for being here, showing up each week and allowing me to continue on this podcasting journey. But for me it was a real line in the sand to go, yes, take me seriously.

I know I’m just talking in the wedding industry, but I am a serious business person and we are all running serious businesses, whether it’s a venue, whether it’s a cake maker, florist, photographer. I feel like sometimes there’s this feeling that people don’t take us seriously because what we do is fun.

And for me, winning that best British Podcast award in the business category made me go, no, I am serious for my own self reflection, but also when I’m talking to other people as well. So that was definitely my biggest professional win win of 2025.

My more personal win of 2025 was going back to Easter when I went to Disney with the family and taking my email off my phone.

Now I remember talking about this at the time and I’ve talked about it since, but it was a huge moment for me when I’ve always had my email on my phone. I’ve always been able to work from wherever I am.

And before I went to Disney, I put things in place so that I didn’t have to have my email on my phone so I could have a proper break with my family. And the plan was to just take it off and then not and then put it back on again when I came back.

But I fe free taking that email off of my phone that actually it’s never gone back on.

And for me that’s a massive achievement because I took it off in April, we’re now in the first of January and I don’t have my email on my phone and I don’t plan to put it back on there.

Going a step further, I’m also looking into actually hiring someone to manage my emails for me so I can spend even less time stressing and in my emails and allowing someone else to do some of that work for me. So for me that’s been a huge achievement. It’s been a weight off my shoulders and yeah, it’s made a big difference in my family life too.

The third big achievement for 2025 for me was launching Wed Pros live into the World. And I’m going to talk about it a few times in this episode because it is going to define 2026 for me in many ways.

But I’ve wanted to bring some kind of industry conference to the UK for a number of years. I’ve been talking about it on and off since 2020, probably since COVID sort of times and it’s just never felt like the right time or.

It’s felt like such a big undertaking. And for Some reason in 2025, everything just came together and it felt like the right time to do it.

And there was that moment in my head where I thought, should I do this? Knowing it was a big leap. And so my Prada’s achievement is actually going, you know what? Let’s do it. And putting it out into the world.

And now Wed Pros Live is not just in my head. It’s an actual reality happening next March. Am I terrified about it still? Absolutely. Does it still feel huge and scary? Absolutely. But it happened.

And I’m proud of myself for getting out of my own way and actually putting it out there into the world. Because often we have ideas and they stay in our heads and we talk ourselves out of them. So what is it for you? What have you achieved?

Maybe it was a big particular wedding. Maybe it’s a financial achievement, maybe it’s a personal achievement. Maybe you’ve got fitter and healthier this year.

Perhaps it’s that you’ve made a new connection. You’re recommended by a new venue. I don’t know what it is for you, but be proud of what you’ve achieved and get them written down on paper.

Okay, we’re going to change dynamics slightly because I now want you to reflect on three things you didn’t enjoy so much about 2025.

I think this is an important exercise too, because when we look at what we didn’t enjoy, we can plans to do less of them or to change the way that we act. So if there were particular clients you didn’t enjoy, particular piece of work you didn’t enjoy. Let’s make a Note now. Or three things you think.

Now, I didn’t enjoy that about 2025, and I want to see that change in 2026. Now, for me, these are quite deep, so bear with me.

And yours may not be so deep as this, but when I was reflecting back on this, there are some quite key things I didn’t enjoy. The first thing is that I feel like I’ve hit a point where I’ve realized I’m not always valued as much as I’d like.

Now, I think part of that is my own problem. That’s not other people’s problem. I think often people tell me I should charge more. I think sometimes I undervalue myself.

I think we have that imposter syndrome. And sometimes I think it’s because it’s actually quite hard to put a value on what I do. You know, there’s no physical product there.

When I go and speak on a stage, you’re just hearing words. But so often I’ve done things for less than I probably should have, or I’ve undervalued myself and not realized the impact that I have.

So, for example, in the wedding industry, one of the things I talk about a lot recently is that people, on the whole, we’re not paid to speak. Sometimes we get expenses, sometimes we can sell things from the back of the room, and occasionally we are paid.

And there’s been some amazing opportunities that I’ve had, paid opportunities this year, and I’m thankful for it. But sometimes we’re not.

And there’s been a couple of times this year, like, one instance stands out to me where I found out that someone else at a conference I spoke at was paid and I wasn’t. And that moment made me feel so undervalued because I know that my talk at that event was excellent. I know that I gave attendees 10 out of 10.

I know that the event probably sold some tickets off the back of me speaking at it. And yet they didn’t value me. And that could be because I didn’t value myself.

So one of the things I didn’t enjoy when I look back on 2025 is realizing I’ve probably massively undervalued myself in many instances, which has then led to other people undervaluing me. And that’s a big mindset shift for me.

That’s going to change going into 2026 in terms of my speaking, in terms of the value that I know I bring to an event, to a podcast interview, to a training, to your business, if I sit and work alongside you, and I need to value that in order for other people to value that, too. And I know that this is probably a struggle that most of you also have. And so let me encourage you to go on that journey with me in 2026.

It’s horrible to feel undervalued. And actually, we often bring it on ourselves. The second thing I haven’t enjoyed about 2025 is I uncovered a bit of a darker side to this industry.

I’ lived in a very happy Becca land with lovely people surrounding me, where the clients I work with are amazing. I try and put myself in really positive rooms. The events I try and run are full and welcoming and inclusive, and I absolutely love this industry.

But this year I’ve discovered a slightly darker side to this industry. And unfortunately, I can’t talk about it at this point very much on the podcast because of what’s happening behind the scenes.

But all I can say is that things aren’t always as good as they look, and people aren’t always as great as they make out they are. And some of the behavior I’ve seen from people behind the scenes this year has actually really hurt my heart because I.

And I don’t always get things right, and I’m sure I don’t as a human. We don’t.

But I try and be authentically me, Whether I’m on this podcast, whether I’m on a stage, whether I’m talking to you in the street, or whether I’m at the school gate. I am just Becca through and through. And what you see is what you get. And I hope when you meet me in person, you realize.

Realize I’m just exactly the same as I am in any other space. But what I’ve noticed this year is that there are. And it’s not many. I promise you, it’s not many.

There’s a lot of incredible people that I surround myself with, but there are a couple of people that maybe aren’t what they seem.

They may put out a good projection, they may say stuff, but actually how they’re acting behind the scenes and the stuff I’ve seen this year that I can’t talk about right now and hopefully I will be eventually, has been heartbreaking. And I just haven’t enjoyed seeing that and having my eyes open to that. And maybe. Maybe some of you have experienced some of that stuff.

Maybe people have been unkind to you. Maybe there’s stuff going on behind the scenes and you think, I wish other people knew how I was being treated in this situation.

But I can’t talk about it yet. On the outside, they look like great people running a great business.

And yet behind the scenes, I feel like they’re not being such great, nice people. And if that’s you. No, I stand alongside you. It’s tough. It’s tough.

But all you can do is control the controllables and continue to do the things that you know are right, to continue to live by the right values. Because. Because we can’t control other people’s actions and we can’t control the narrative they project.

But what we can control is how we are as a person and how we present ourselves to society.

The third thing I wanted to share that I feel like maybe I didn’t enjoy so much about 2025 is going to be a bit of an oxymoron, if that’s the right word, because I’VE always said I enjoy this and suddenly this year I didn’t enjoy it. And that was summer 2025. I took the entire six week school summer holiday off of work. And I’ve done that every year in my business.

And that’s a very purposeful choice so that I can spend time with my kids. And that’s how I’ve built my business. But the first time this year, I didn’t enjoy it.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely enjoyed the time I had with the kids. I, I loved it. I loved spending time with them.

What I didn’t enjoy was the amount of pressure, work and build up that came in September because of it, because my business is so much bigger now. There’s other people working with me, there’s projects, there’s ongoing stuff.

And so just stepping out of business for six weeks in the way I’d always done, it didn’t quite work as it had before. And therefore, when I came back to my desk in September, I hit massive overwhelm season. And so I’ve learned from that for 2026.

I still plan to take most of the summer off in 2026, but I’ve learned that there are things I need to put in place as a family.

And I think I probably will choose to do one or two days work over that summer holiday period in order to not have the crazy September that I had in 2020. So what was it for you? What things didn’t you enjoy about 2025? Because reflecting on that can help you realize where you want to make changes.

Maybe you want to put yourself in different spaces in 2026, work with different people, outsource work that you didn’t enjoy, not take on clients that have red flags. Write this stuff down and reflect in your own time. Okay.

The next thing is very wedding industry specific, so I’m not going to share my thoughts with you, but I do want you to write it down for yourself. When you look back at all the inquiries and most importantly sales that you 2025, where were the three biggest sources of them?

Often we try and reinvent the wheel, but when we look at what worked last year, actually it’s a sign we can double down and do more of it this year. So where did your inquiries that turned into bookings and that’s important come from in 2025? Were they from Google? Were they from social media?

Was they from word of mouth? Were they from venue recommendations, planner recommendations, wedding fairs? There is no right or wrong.

Maybe it was directories for you Write them down, go back through your stats and if you don’t know the answer to this question, you need to get that goals list for 2026 to understand it better.

But write down what were your three biggest referring sources in 2025 that bought you the best quality weddings that converted really well that you can double down on in 2026. I then want you to think about the three favorite weddings that you worked on in 2025.

What were the three weddings that you went, wow, that was a perfect wedding. Maybe it was the venue, maybe it was the way that everything worked from your end. It just worked beautifully and you got a lovely.

Maybe it was the couple that you worked with. I want you to write down the three weddings that you enjoyed the most last year and then make some notes about why that was.

Because again, we can learn from that reflection. Maybe it’s we’ve realized that there’s a certain type of couple that we vibe with and love working with and we want to try and attract more of them.

Maybe it’s because a particular venue is really easy to work with and therefore we want to try and book more weddings at that venue in 2026. If you can look at what you enjoyed and what worked and double down on it, it your business is going to be more enjoyable in 2020.

The final thing I want you to do as we reflect on 2025 and I’ve purposely left out numbers because you should be doing the numbers anyway. You may do them as a financial year, but that’s not what this is about.

This is about reflection and self kind of thinking about what we want to do next year. And so the final thing I want you to do is to think really carefully about three people in the industry that you’re thankful for in 2025.

Three people that made a difference to your business. Maybe it was people you learned from pod. You listen to people you heard speak on stage. Maybe it was a planner that referred you some great work.

Maybe it was a friend who got you through some really difficult times in the industry. I’m sure you’ve all got people that have made a difference to you in 2025.

And I want you to take a moment because we don’t do this enough to write them down, write their names down and then send them a very quick message, a voice note, an email, a little a DM and just say I just want to thank you for the impact you had on me and my business in 2025 because of X, Y, Z that so much to that person who probably doesn’t even know that they made an impact on you and your business. And it’s also going to make you feel good for saying thank you. I don’t think we say thank you enough.

So if there’s someone you want to say thank you to right now, take 30 seconds out of your day, write down the three people that had a real positive impact on you in your wedding business in 2025 and send them a quick message to say thank you. There are so many people I could name in this section for myself, people I’ve worked alongside this year, people I’ve worked with this year.

There are so many and I can’t name them for fear of offending or missing someone else. But I am hugely thankful to my team who work alongside me day in, day out throughout the year to make stuff happen.

And I’m particularly thankful this year to Simona as well.

I know I’ve spoken about her a lot in this year in business and on the podcast, but it’s because her impact on my business has made the biggest difference to me and my family in terms of my own personal social media use by outsourcing that part of my business. I have spent so much less time on social media in 2025 and yet I’ve been the most visible I’ve ever been.

And so I’m really thankful to her for the work that she’s done this year to allow me to have that time back with my family without losing any business. That’s 2025. 2025 is a wrap. Let’s look forward then to 2026. We stand on the precipice of a brand new year year. It’s unwritten.

There are so many things you can do with it and that choice is up to you. That’s why you’re self employed for many of you.

But even if you’re not self employed, you still have the freedom and flexibility to make change this year if you choose to. So the first thing I want you to do is to reflect on what three things are most important to you this year.

What is it that’s going to define the year? And these can be personal things, these can be business things. These can be. These are deep rooted. This is not. I want to post on TikTok more.

That’s not what I’m looking for. It’s. It’s deeper than that. Look at those things from last year that you didn’t like and how can we change that and bring it into 2026?

For me, this then helps you Come up with a word of the year. What is the word of the year? Now this time last year, I can’t remember my exact word, but it was something like float, something like that.

Because I’d worked so hard the year before to get to speak in Vegas to write my book and do these big achievements that I kind of just wanted to float through 2025 and enjoy all of the things I’d achieved. And Im many ways I did do that. Yes, I’ve gone crazy and decided to launch a new event which technically is now in this year, so doesn’t count.

But I did do those things. And so although a word is just a word, sometimes it does help us frame what we want to do with the year.

So once you’ve worked out the three things that are important to you this year, use that to come up with your word of the year. Now my word of 2026 comes back to what I talked about earlier and it’s going to be value, value.

I need to value myself more in 2026 to enable other me more in 2026. Self value is important. Not in a way that we need to become egotistical. More on that later. But I want to value myself more in 2026.

I want to value my time more. I want to value my clients time more. I want to value my family’s time more. Because none of us know how much of it we’ve got.

So that’s the first thing I want to do. And I’d love you to share some of these if you’ve come up with a word of the year, share it, tag me on social media, send me a dm.

I’d love to hear year what’s going on for you and your word will be different depending on the season of life you are in. Maybe for you it’s rest. Maybe for you it’s growth. Maybe for you it’s explosion. There is no right or wrong to this.

It’s where your headspace is as you set out what you want this year to look like. Okay, the next thing I want you to do, and I told you we’re going quite deep today, but I think this stuff’s important.

This foundational work will set our intentions for the year. And like I said, although we can’t control these year, we don’t know what’s going to happen.

We could get sick tomorrow, our business, we could decide to shut it in a month’s time. Like there are so many things that could happen but we can control the controllables and by Setting the foundations.

We’re setting ourselves up to be able to do that. So the next thing I want you to do is write three promises that you want to make to yourself in 2026.

Because if you make those promises to yourself, you’re more likely to keep them.

Now, I took a little bit of time thinking about this, and again, there’s probably loads I could say, and some of it is going to hark back to what I’ve already said. Kind of the point of these exercises is learning from what you’ve said in the earlier part and then implementing it in 2026.

So here are the three promises I’m making to Becca Pouny in 2026. The first one is to maintain humility.

I was having a conversation a couple of weeks ago, actually, at the Christmas party I went to for wedding supplies, which was so much fun. If you can get to a Christmas party next year or get to the one where I’m going to be, it’s so worthwhile.

But I was having a conversation with two people I’ve worked with in my business business forever. Like, they’ve been around for almost the entire eight to ten years I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing.

And so they’re, as I call them, OGs in the world of Becker and my world. My business has completely transformed in that time.

You know, at one point, I was just running a few social media workshops down the road for 10 people at a time. And now I can speak on stage in Vegas to a thousand people at a time. Okay, so in terms of business, my business has evolved, exploded.

I’ve had all of these exciting opportunities, but one thing that I see some people with success is that they change as a person and they become better than. And this is where it’s really difficult. This is the whole thing in my head all of the time around value.

Because I don’t want to become better than in my mind, but I do want to value myself. So that’s going to be my ongoing balance this year. But I want to keep that humility.

I never want someone to think that I’m better than them, or they can’t talk to me, or I’ve achieved some things, which means I’m not interested in their business anymore, because it’s absolutely not true. The people who I met 10 years ago are still as important to me as the people I meet tomorrow.

And so for me, the promise I want to keep to myself and will continue to keep year after year is to stay humble, to stay grounded, and to continue valuing everyone and making my spaces welcoming and continuing to, to yes, value myself and my time, but to have those lower entry point offers so that people new in business can still learn from me and can still work with me so you don’t have be earning trillions of bazillions of pounds to work with Becca Boutney and have my eyes on your business. That’s not what I want to do. But I do need to value my time. So that’s going to be the thing that’s going on in my head this year.

The second promise to myself this year is I’m going to do a huge amount less speaking for free. You know, I’ve already said it in this episode.

There’s this thing in the industry that you speak for free and if you don’t do it, someone else will do it instead. And that is true, they probably will. But that doesn’t mean that they’re good. That doesn’t mean they’re bringing the same level of quality.

And yes, I know if I turn down speaking at some events this year that someone else will speak in my place. And that’s number one, a good thing because it gives people variety of audience. But number two, that doesn’t mean that they’re good at it.

It just means that they’re willing to do it for free. And one of the things I’m doing with Wed Pros Live this year is I am paying my speakers. Not a lot.

I wish I could pay them more, but because I want to change this narrative and start trying to shift it and to be valuing people and their time and their expertise, tease so that they don’t think they’ve got to give it all up for free.

And although I’m not paying the worth that they are, and I’ve had that conversation with them, for me it’s about changing the tide and trying to change that narrative around. Well, you can only ever speak for free in the wedding industry because why should we? Why should we be doing everything for free?

Now don’t get me wrong, you have to change and evolve over time. So when I first started speaking, of course I was going to speak more for free.

I was going to do as many speaking events as I possibly could because I was getting started, I was getting my name out there. Things don’t stay the same as, as you evolve and things change. Well, you need to change with it.

So for me this year, my promise to myself is that I’m going to turn a lot more stuff down unless people are willing to pay for it, or to value me and my time in a way that they maybe value other people’s time. And the third promise that I’m making to myself this year is to continue to keep space for my family.

As my business grows, it gets harder and harder and harder to keep that space. And the temptation to crowd stuff in and over, book work and travel more is huge.

But the reason I started my business 10 years ago was to spend more time with my kids. And I’m a decade into that. In another decade they’ll have left home, which is terrifying. And so I want to make sure I keep that space.

And I do that by continuing to outsource work to other people, by continuing to say no to things so that I have that time with them. So what are the three promises you’re going to make to yourself in 2026? Maybe they’re not as deep as mine. Maybe they are.

Again, you don’t need to share these with anyone if you don’t want to, but promise your yourself that you’ll do things differently if you didn’t like how they were in 2026 and set your intentions right at the start of the year. Okay, let’s get back to business then. I want you to think about the three main marketing pillars you are going to use in your business this year.

One of the things I see in the wedding industry is that people are spreading themselves so thin when it comes to marketing and they can’t afford to outsource that they end up doing a tiny bit of everything. Whereas actually if you leaned in deeply into certain areas, you’d probably find more success.

So look back on where your three biggest referrals were last and are they going to match this year? Do you need to lean into it more? If wedding fairs are hugely successful for you, do you need to do more of them?

If TikTok and Instagram is usually successful for you, can you do more of it? Can you grow your audience? If directories work for you, can you double down on what you’re doing there or hold it the same?

What are your three big focuses going to be this year when it comes to marketing? Now, you can have multiple.

You don’t have to just have three, but I want you to get focused on the three you’re going to spend the most amount of time time on. I also want you to write down three things and this may correlate to what you’ve just written.

Three things you want to get better at in 2026, three things you want to learn more about because if you’re anything like me, year after year you say, oh, I wish I understood this better. I wish I knew more about this. And then it’s constantly changing and so you have to be intentional about what you want to learn.

So the things that I want to learn more about in 2026 are stuff that’s evolving all the time. A AI still blows my mind. I’ve learned a lot about it, but there’s so much more to learn and it’s changing all the time.

I want to understand AI on a deeper level in 2026 so I can serve you better. I also want to understand more about SEO in 2026 and continue to deepen my learning in that area. I have the basics of the knowledge.

I’ve learned a huge amount from the lovely Sarah from Sarah does SEO and stuff that I can give the basics to my clients, but I’d like to be able to go deeper into that for some of my clients. And so therefore, that is One of my to dos for 2026 is to get better at that.

And the final thing for me is I actually want to explore a little bit tentatively, a bit more of the corporate world in 2026 and more on that later. But one of the things I want to understand more about is, okay, how does training work in the corporate world?

How does speaking work in the corporate world? And by corporate world, I just mean in industries outside of weddings.

Everything pretty much I do at the moment is inside the wedding industry and I love it.

But I also know that the things I talk about the marketing theme park are translatable to other small businesses, to other business areas, and I’d love to understand that better. So if you’re listening to this and you’re someone that does know more about that, reach out to me.

I’d love to connect because it’s definitely on my to do list for 2026. Okay, let’s carry on then with the theme of connections. I want you to write down three new connections you want to make in 2026.

I think word of mouth market marketing is so key in your business and the people you surround yourself with can make the biggest difference too. So who are the three people you want to connect with better in 2026?

It’s, you know, not just people you want to connect with online, but who do you actually want to build a relationship with. Who do you want to get to know better in the coming year? Maybe it’s someone you’ve admired for a long time in the industry.

Maybe you want to meet new. A new planner. Maybe it’s a particular venue you want to build a better relationship with.

Maybe it’s a publication, maybe it’s a person, a mentor, a coach, a strategist. I don’t know what it is for you, but right names down, write their businesses down and get specific. Don’t just write three new venues.

You’ve got to get really specific with this stuff. Who is it that you want to build a better relationship with in 2026? Maybe you’ve got a big goal of being on my podcast, for example.

Well, how are you going to build your relationship with me in 2026 so that we can make that happen? Is it coming to one of my live events? Is it, you know, dropping into my inbox?

I don’t know what it is for you, but maybe that’s one of the connections you want to make. You know, we have to be intentional about this stuff, which is cold email people. It’s quite difficult.

But if we’re intentional about getting in the right room supporting their events, then we’re much more likely to be able to build a relationship with them. So who are the three people for you? And then make some notes about how you think you can make that happen.

On a similar thought, I also want you to commit to going to three in person events as a minimum in 2026. Getting out of your office has never been more important.

I feel like it’s taken us five years since COVID started for us to actually be brave enough to go out again and realize it’s exciting to be out and about going to that Christmas party last week and seeing the joy in that room and the connections being made. Going to Wedding MBA and seeing the incredible vibe and atmosphere and learning that was going on. These things inspire me and they will inspire you.

If you get out of your comfort zone, get out of your little friendship group and your your office and actually go and meet new people. Get out there, do something brave. And I want you to commit to going to three live events in 2026.

Now that could be a local networking group for small businesses. That could be a wedding industry networking group. If you’re in the States, that could be something like WIPA or nace.

If you’re in the uk, are there groups that are in your area that you can go meet up with? It could be going to a conference. So I’d encourage you come to Wed Pros Live in Ireland or London in March.

I’m literally putting a space for you to meet each other on and it’s going to be well worth your time and money and you can trust it’s going to be great. So maybe put that on your agenda. If you’re out in America, put wedding empty MBA on the agenda.

If you’re not in America but you’ve got the money behind you, go to Vegas. Absolutely. As an experience, I believe everyone in the industry should have at least once to go and experience that huge conference for yourselves.

Or it could be a Christmas party that you didn’t go to this year and you wish you had. Write down three live events or three types of events you’re committed to going to this year and do it. If you can do more than three, amazing.

But let’s start with three. Okay, here’s another big one. What are three things you want to do less of in 2020 26? What do you want to do less of?

Maybe it’s you want to do less weddings under a certain value.

Maybe if you want to do less admin and you want to bring in some technology to help that go away and do a CRM system, maybe there’s something in your business editing, for example, you want to do less of and you’re going to look to outsource. Maybe you want to cut off a piece of your business entirely because you don’t enjoy doing it anymore, and that’s perfectly acceptable.

Now I’ve had people that used to hire out props who’ve just completely stopped hiring out props and now only do stuff styling because it was such an effort for them to just go out for one mirror and they didn’t enjoy it. So if you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it anymore. It’s your business, your choices.

So what three things do you want to do less of this year and what can you do with those things? Is it that you’re getting rid of them completely? Is it that you’re outsourcing them to someone else?

Is it you’re changing your direction so you don’t have to do as much of them?

For example, if you want to make less naked wedding cakes in 2026, we’ll stop promoting them all over your social media media and start promoting a different type of cake so they start to slowly disappear. You know, a few years back now three, four years back, I decided I wanted to teach Pinterest less. I used to do it all the time.

I used to teach on Pinterest like multiple times a year and I wasn’t enjoying it anymore and the platform was changing and I couldn’t keep up in the way I wanted to. And so I made a decision to do less of it. And now I hardly ever talk about it. Occasionally I can help people.

I’ll talk to people about it on a venue day when I’m training their team, but I’m not going on stage and talking about it anymore because I wasn’t enjoying it so much much anymore. So you can make a change and you can make a transition. It might take time, but there’s absolutely no reason you can’t do that.

Okay, the final thing I want you to think about and make a note of for today is what are your three big, audacious, crazy goals for this year and beyond?

Now, I say this year and beyond because for some of you, this goal might be massive and it may not happen in 2026, and I don’t want you to get to the end of it and go, oh, I didn’t achieve that because actually, sometimes goals take longer to achieve. It took me two years to launch my podcast. It took me four years to launch Live event Wed Pros Live of It being in my head.

It took me a number of years to write the book. It doesn’t always just happen, even if you know you want it to happen eventually. So what are they for you? I’m going to share some of mine.

So the first one I’ve alluded to already, but I actually want to do more paid speaking in 2026. I love speaking. It’s one of my favorite parts of my business, and I’ve done enough of it now to know that I’m half decent at it.

And I know that the concepts I share are valuable to people both inside and outside of the wedding industry. So for me, this year, I’m the lookout for more exciting opportunities outside of the country or outside of weddings.

So if you’ve got something and you think, yeah, I’d love to have Becca speak at that, and you’ve got budget for a speaker, reach out to me and let’s chat, let’s talk about it. Let’s find a way to see if we can make it happen in a way that I can get value out of it and you can get value out of me.

I know I need to learn more about this area of the world, but I would love to do some more paid speaking because I love spending speaking so much and. And I love the impact it has on the people listening as well. So that’s one of my big, audacious goals.

It may not happen this year, but I’d love to do a big Keynote at a big corporate event which is totally outside of the industry, but sharing my marketing theme park concept with the wider world. The second big audacious goal, which sounds crazy to even say it out loud, is to make Wed pros live 2027 happen.

Now I realize as this goes out, we still haven’t had 2026 and. And yes, that is still coming in three months. Please get your tickets.

But I’d like it to happen again and people have already asked me about speaking at it in 2027. And so my big goal is to do it again in 2027.

So if you’ve got a venue and you want to host Wed Pros Live 2027, reach out to me because right now that’s where I’m at. I’m at let’s push a door and see if it opens.

I’ve got an incredible lineup of potential speakers who have said they want to be on the listing for 2027. It will be an amazing event. I just need to open the door and work out where it’s going to be.

And my third thing, because we’ve got fun in there as well. I just wrote more holidays, more holidays in 2026. I mean I had a massive holiday in 2025 when I went to Florida and I want to go back again in 2027.

But 2026, I want to put in a few more trips. So any thoughts, ideas or people that want to book me to speak in exotic places so I can go on some more travel adventures, then again, let me know.

I would love to chat with you. So what is it for you? What are your big audacious plans? Maybe you want to write a book. Maybe you want to launch a new product.

Maybe you want to do a high value you wedding. Maybe you want to go abroad more on more holidays. Maybe there’s a piece of equipment that you’ve been wanting to get for a while. What is it for you?

Write them down. I believe no goal is too big. It might not happen, but you can at least try and make it happen or put work in towards it.

Take those steps, get it on paper because it’s a starting point and why shouldn’t it happen when it can happen for other people? As we close, then I want you to write down two final things. I do want you at this point to write down a financial goal.

I’m not going to go into detail about it because this is so different for everyone and I don’t want you to just put an arbitrary number or I want six figures because that’s, that’s just a thing that people say and it’s not really a reality of, of actual numbers. I want you to look at the reality of what your business is doing right now and where you want it to be in this time next year.

Is there growth to be had there? Maybe actually your goal is to keep it the same because you don’t want to work harder.

Maybe it’s actually to make it less because you’re trying to do less next year. Like, there is no right or wrong to this. But have that goal in mind. So you’ve got something to work towards this year.

And then I want you to write down one personal goal as well. We’ve talked a lot about business, but maybe there’s something in your personal life that you want to get better at this year.

Maybe you want to start a new hobby. Maybe you want to get better at gardening, get better at cooking.

For me, I definitely want to get fitter again in 2026 because I feel like being busy with life and family and work and getting older has meant that, you know, fitness has gone lower down my progress priority list and that’s something I want to get back this year and that’s going higher up my to do list. What is it for you?

I hope you found today’s episode a helpful reflection, a time to think back and to celebrate what you’ve achieved, but also to go deeper and realize not everything’s rosy all of the time. And what can we do differently and how can we act differently in the year ahead?

I hope it’s also helped you frame and shape what you want to achieve in 2026. My financial perspective, from a personal perspective, from a connections perspective, and helped you shape that. I have so many plans for 2026.

We’re going to have so many great guests here on the podcast. I’ve already recorded some of the 2026 episodes and they are gold. And I’ve got more coming, of course.

I’ve got Wed Pros live happening in 2026 as well. And I cannot wait to join those of you that are going to be there in the room.

It is going to be special and I believe that launch event is going to be particularly special because I’ve bought it to life. I’m looking for more speaking opportunities in 2026 and exciting news. As of next week, I have an exciting new the podcast.

More of that coming very soon. If you need help working on your 2026 plans, or if you want to work alongside me in 2026, reach out and chat. It’s just me. I’d love to chat to you.

No message is unimportant for me. It may take me a while to get back to you and if it does, keep on chasing me because it’s normally because I’m running around after one of my kids.

But just drop me a message on on Instagram if you want to chat. I would love to find out more about working with you and to hear more about your Twitter 2026 plans.

Whether it’s outsourcing work to me and my Wedding Pro agency, or whether it’s actually having my eyes on your business for a marketing review or a strategy call, I’d love to work with you this year. So if that’s on your agenda, let’s have a conversation. Or if you want to get me speaking at your event, running an in person training day.

Or maybe you work in a corporate job and you think Becca should come in and talk to my team about marketing and give them a fresh perspective. Again, I’m open to opportunity, opportunities. I just want to know that I’m being valued. I’m excited for the year ahead.

I’m excited to see what you achieve. I’m excited to connect with you even more at both wedpros Live and here on the podcast. And I hope you enjoy the week bringing in 2026.

I’ll see you next time.