
welcome to the podcast
Weddings For Real has officially rebranded to
For Real: Life, Leadership, and Unlearning
After 7 years and 300+ episodes, the podcast has evolved... because so have you! What started as a show for wedding pros has has evolved into a bold, no-BS space for high-achievers to unpack identity shifts, quiet the inner critic, set boundaries that stick, and navigate the messy (but powerful) moments of growth and change.
For Real is still hosted by Megan Gillikin, and it’s here to meet you in this next chapter as a whole human, not just a business owner.
Click the button below to check out the latest For Real episodes, or scroll down to dive into the archive of Weddings For Real, featuring 300+ episodes on client experience, team building, social media, SEO, branding, and the real-life lessons of entrepreneurship in the wedding industry.
300+ Episodes
Over 250+ five star reviews
350,000 Downloads
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10 Life Hacks for Squirrel Brain Entrepreneurs
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What You Need To Know About Growth + Burnout (Part 1)
Use This Strategy For Standing Out In A Crowded Market
5 Truths Every Business Owner Needs To Hear
CHECK OUT OUR RECENT EPISODES
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64: The House of Creativity, with Wedding Photographer Perry Vaile
Some believe the creative path is a winding road from zero to (one-day) reaching your full creative potential. But for destination wedding photographer Perry Vaile, that didn't work for her. Because as creatives, some days are more productive than others, and sometimes we have feel like everyone else is doing so much more than us, and sometimes we’re on a roll, and sometimes we want to be proud of our accomplishments, and some days, we fail. It’s a mindgame. And so Perry came up with an amazing metaphor called The House of Creativity!
63: LGBTQ Weddings and Equality-Minded Content, with Brittny Drye (Love Inc) and Sha'Quitta Brown
Brittny Drye started Love Inc Magazine in October 2013 as the first equality-minded wedding publication. And although the wedding industry has come a long way, we still have so much further to go to make sure that LGBTQ couples aren't discriminated against. Part of that is looking into our content - are we using bride- and groom-specific verbiage on our websites, contracts, and proposals? And even in our own language?
Sha'Quitta Brown just got married to her wife L'Erin in July 2018. And for them, they didn’t feel welcome by all wedding vendors. Some were downright bigoted, and some just didn’t have the collateral on their website to make Sha’Quitta and L’Erin comfortable in contacting them. For those who are outwardly intolerant, Sha’Quitta doesn’t have any time for them. But for those who WANT to be inclusive and who WANT more LGBT weddings, Sha’Quitta has some great advice.
62: How to Respond to Negative Online Reviews
If you've been in business long enough, you've probably had a negative online review (or several). Whether the review was fair or not, you NEED to respond. Not so much to the person who wrote the review, but for the potential clients who are reading your reviews. So how do you do it? We give some tips on today's show!
61: Pricing for Profitability, with Lindsay Longacre from LVL Academy
Lindsay Longacre from LVL Events (Southern California) and LVL Academy comes on the show today to talk all about pricing for profitability, a vision for creating pricing standardization, whether or not she takes on partial planning (or is it day-of coordination? or month-of? or wedding management), and the best way new vendors can connect with vendors in their market (hint: it's not a mass bcc email).
On the show, we also talk a lot about LVL Academy, and Lindsay is bringing their wedding planner workshop here to North Carolina in June and yours truly (Megan Gillikin) is on the planner panel! Join us June 7-8th at Muse at the Mill in Winston-Salem for 2 full days of learning best practices, ways to refine your planning process, resources and tools to grow your business, and more! Use the code WEDDINGSFORREAL by May 10th for $200 of your registration at lvlacademy.com. See you there!
WWD12: Happy Mother's Day! Interviews with Megan and Megan's Mom, plus Invisible Pants?
On this Mother's Day Weekend Wine Down, we have interviews with Megan, Megan's mom, and oldest daughter Emma.
Happy Mother's Day!
60: Moms for Real - A Vulnerable and Hilarious Look at Balancing Business and Motherhood, with 5 Entrepreneur Moms
Happy Mother's Day! Today we give a real, honest, vulnerable, and hilarious look at the balancing act of being a mom and a business owner. Our guests today are Ginny Corbett from Ginny Corbett Photography, Kim Holderness from the Holderness Family Podcast and all those crazy YouTube videos, Grace Beason from Grace Leisure Events, Perry Vaile from Perry Vaile Photography, and Jessica King from Happily Ever After. These ladies share funny stories, best and worst advice, what they would tell their moms, and more!
59: How to Promote Your Wedding Business, with PR Expert Meghan Ely of OFD Consulting
Meghan Ely, Wedding PR and Marketing Expert at OFD Consulting comes on to share the best ways to promote your business. Most of us creatives have very little time, so we need to figure out the most efficient strategies for maximizing exposure. And with the craziness of the past year or so – with WeddingWire and The Knot merging, with Southern Weddings shutting down, with Style Me Pretty shutting down and opening back up – it’s hard to know if we should be focusing on the bigger publications. So I asked Meghan what we should all be doing, and she shares some great tips!
58: Mental Health Tips for Creative Entrepreneurs, with Root & Restore's Catrina Ballard
Life is stressful. Owning a business is stressful. Clients are stressful. Parenting is stressful. Relationships are stressful. As a creative entrepreneur, it's not possible to be all things to everybody at all times. Sometimes it feels like life is in complete disarray. Catrina Ballard from Root and Restore has been both a creative entrepreneur AND a counselor, and she comes on the show today to give some tips for managing stress!

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