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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.

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300+ Episodes

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Over 250+ five star reviews

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350,000 Downloads

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290

10 Life Hacks for Squirrel Brain Entrepreneurs


239

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279

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

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Megan Gillikin Megan Gillikin

117: 8 Quick Tips to Audit Your Website for Booking Season

Join me on this solo episode where I give you 8 quick and easy (yet important and impactful) tips to audit your website, just in time for engagement season. This episode is brought to you by The Planner's Vault, my online membership site for wedding planners who are hungry to grow, ready to hustle, and actively seeking community and education. In the vault, there are guest experts on many topics relevant to growing and cultivating a successful event planning business with new content added consistently, plus all of my templates that I have built out over the years, like How to Get on Preferred Vendor Lists, The Client Experience, and more. The mission with the vault is to elevate the industry (along with some amazing experts and fellow entrepreneurs) and I want it to be affordable so it's possible to stay invested in the community and yourself for the long haul.

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Megan Gillikin Megan Gillikin

116: Words Matter: Inclusive Language in the Wedding Industry, with Taylor Griffith from Lemon Tree Editorial

Today we’re talking all about inclusive language - what to say and what not to say in what has historically been a very bride centric, straight, thin, pretty, white, and rich industry. As Taylor Griffith from Lemon Tree Editorial points out, that’s not what the world looks like, so it’s time to make some changes - on our websites, on our social media, in our contracts, and even in our speech. On the show, you'll hear about a collaborative workshop from Sam and Megan - Packages and Pricing for Wedding Planners: How to Build Bundles at the Right Prices, on October 15th at 8:30pm ET. If you’re a planner and wanting to make some intentional changes to your inquiry and consultation process as well as your package offerings, this workshop is designed for you.   This is two hours of live instruction and then a live Q&A. The link to sign up is bit.ly/plannerpricingworkshop. This episode is brought to you byThe Planner's Vault, my online membership site for wedding planners who are hungry to grow, ready to hustle, and actively seeking community and education. In the vault, there are guest experts on many topics relevant to growing and cultivating a successful event planning business with new content added consistently, plus all of my templates that I have built out over the years, like How to Get on Preferred Vendor Lists, The Client Experience, and more. The mission with the vault is to elevate the industry (along with some amazing experts and fellow entrepreneurs) and I want it to be affordable so it's possible to stay invested in the community and yourself for the long haul.

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Megan Gillikin Megan Gillikin

115: Tips for Improving Your Wedding Consultations, with Sam Jacobson

Today we’re talking to Sam Jacobson from Ideaction Consulting about the sales process, how to empathize with your clients right now and what you should NOT be doing when it comes to the initial consultation….and Sam’s going to be sharing some easy actionable shifts you can make ASAP. If you remember, Sam was on the podcast back in 2019 for one of the fan favorites, Episode 73, The Four Buying Types.

On the show, you'll hear about a collaborative workshop from Sam and Megan - Packages and Pricing for Wedding Planners: How to Build Bundles at the Right Prices, on October 15th at 8:30pm ET. 

If you’re a planner and wanting to make some intentional changes to your inquiry and consultation process as well as your package offerings, this workshop is designed for you.   This is two hours of live instruction and then a live Q&A. The link to sign up is bit.ly/plannerpricingworkshop.

This episode is brought to you by The Planner's Vault, my online membership site for wedding planners who are hungry to grow, ready to hustle, and actively seeking community and education. In the vault, there are guest experts on many topics relevant to growing and cultivating a successful event planning business with new content added consistently, plus all of my templates that I have built out over the years, like How to Get on Preferred Vendor Lists, The Client Experience, and more. The mission with the vault is to elevate the industry (along with some amazing experts and fellow entrepreneurs) and I want it to be affordable so it's possible to stay invested in the community and yourself for the long haul.

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Megan Gillikin Megan Gillikin

114: Is Work/Life Balance Possible in the Wedding Industry?

Join me on this solo episode where I give you 7 tips for balancing it all - life, business, family, personal pursuits. We're all works in progress, and no one has figured it out, but I have some ideas that can help. This episode is brought to you by , my online membership site for wedding planners who are hungry to grow, ready to hustle, and actively seeking community and education. In the vault, there are guest experts on many topics relevant to growing and cultivating a successful event planning business with new content added consistently, plus all of my templates that I have built out over the years, like How to Get on Preferred Vendor Lists, The Client Experience, and more. The mission with the vault is to elevate the industry (along with some amazing experts and fellow entrepreneurs) and I want it to be affordable so it's possible to stay invested in the community and yourself for the long haul.

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Megan Gillikin Megan Gillikin

113: What is Entrepreneurship Costing You? (She Creates Business Podcast with Kinsey Roberts)

I'm honored to welcome back to the podcast, my friend and fellow podcaster, Megan Gillikin.Megan and I have recently had many, hard, and truthful conversations about what owning a business and being entrepreneurs have cost us.What we want to do differently in the years ahead and what is REALLY important to us and how we'd like to be remembered. (hint: we don't want to be remembered as the best planner and venue owner ever). It's a conversation that I don't feel is had often enough. We start businesses and "grind it out" for years and many seasons before we take the time to look around at where we are and oftentimes, it's not where we WANT to be. In this episode, we're going to talk about the big "Myths of Entrepreneurship," what is actually true and what is not.We share personal experiences from our lives running businesses in the wedding industry and what our choices have cost us. 

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Megan Gillikin Megan Gillikin

112: How are You Diversifying to Survive 2020 and Thrive in 2021?

It’s August 2020, five months removed from our two-week pause that we were supposed to have in March.  That’s about half of your year that has probably gone up in flames, and let’s be honest, you’re probably not going to meet your goals for 2020.  So what are you doing about it? What’s your pivot? What are some new ways that you’re growing your business? Dixie Bagley from Rome Georgia has 8 businesses, all in the hospitality industry, and we’re going to talk about what you can do to diversify through this pandemic.

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Megan Gillikin Megan Gillikin

111: 10 Lessons from 10 Years in Business

Megan and Jason Gillikin celebrate the 10-year anniversary of A Southern Soiree, and Megan shares her top ten lessons learned over the past decade - lessons she's now bringing into The Planner's Vault. Weddings for Real is brought to you by The Planner's Vault, a membership site for wedding planners who are hungry to grow, ready to hustle, and actively seeking community and education. In the vault, there will be guest experts on many topics relevant to growing and cultivating a successful event planning business with new content added consistently, plus all of my templates that I have built out over the years like How to Get on Preferred Vendor Lists, The Client Experience, and more. The mission with the vault is to elevate the industry (along with some amazing experts and fellow entrepreneurs) and I want it to be affordable so it's possible to stay invested in the community and yourself for the long haul. 

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Megan Gillikin Megan Gillikin

110: 3 Things You Can Change Right Now for More Bookings

This pandemic has caused delays, cancellations, stress, tears, more delays, unanswerable questions, confusion...it really sucks to be in the wedding industry right now. But here's what it can't change - couples getting engaged and booking wedding vendors. So in this solo episode, here are 3 things you can change right now for more bookings. Weddings for Real is brought to you by The Planner's Vault, a membership site for wedding planners who are hungry to grow, ready to hustle, and actively seeking community and education. In the vault, there will be guest experts on many topics relevant to growing and cultivating a successful event planning business with new content added consistently, plus all of my templates that I have built out over the years like How to Get on Preferred Vendor Lists, The Client Experience, and more. The mission with the vault is to elevate the industry (along with some amazing experts and fellow entrepreneurs) and I want it to be affordable so it's possible to stay invested in the community and yourself for the long haul. 

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