Wedding Business Solutions

The pursuit of money doesn't bring me the happiness I seek

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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The pursuit of money doesn't bring me the happiness I seek

Are you finding joy in what you do, or are you just chasing the paycheck? Can you truly find success if you're not enjoying your work? In this episode, I dive into how focusing on joy and value, rather than money, can lead to a more fulfilling career in the wedding and events industry.

Listen to this new 5-minute episode for insights on finding happiness in your work while still achieving financial success.

Episode Summary: 

In this episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast, I dive into a profound realization that I've had: chasing money doesn't necessarily bring true happiness. I stumbled upon an old note that reminded me the pursuit of happiness can actually lead to the financial rewards we need. Through my personal journey, I share how prioritizing joy and providing value to others has been the key to my own fulfillment and success. By recounting moments from my career, I illustrate how focusing on meaningful work and customer satisfaction can ultimately lead to both personal and financial rewards. If you're in the weddings and events industry, this episode is a reminder to seek happiness and value in your work, rather than just chasing the money.

If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com 

Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com  

View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/


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I'm Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you'd like to suggest other topics for "The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast" please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2024 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

The pursuit of money doesn't bring me the happiness I seek. Oh, now I'm getting profound on you. Listen to this episode. Hey, it's Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. I was going through some old digital notes. I have a digital notebook, and I had a ton of old notes in there, so I was trying to delete them so it'll sink faster. And I saw this note that said, the pursuit of money doesn't bring me the happiness I seek.

The pursuit of happiness brings me the money I need. I was like, wow. I mean, I think I wrote that six years ago now. I must have heard it somewhere. I don't think I just wrote it for myself. I can't. I don't know who to attribute it to. Didn't have it.

Or maybe I just came up with this profound thought and I wrote it down. I don't know, but it's so true to my life. I was a guest on somebody else's podcast recently and they asked me why I do what I do. And I said it has to fulfill two things. I said, I don't do it for the money. It has to bring me joy and bring you value. And if it does both of those, I will cash the check. If it doesn't bring both of those, I don't want the check.

If it brings me joy and doesn't bring you value, that's for me personally, that's a hobby. There shouldn't be money in that. If it brings you value and doesn't bring me joy, I don't want to do it. Life is too short to do things you don't want to do. And yeah, we all have some tasks and things that we don't like to do as much. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about your main everyday has to bring you joy. And of course there is doing the business side and then there's doing the events, right? Like, I remember a very famous speaker, we were sitting with some other speakers at a conference and he said, I hate my job.

And we all just looked at him like this record scratch sound that just happened. Like, what do you mean? He said, no, don't get me wrong, I love speaking. I love being on stage and speaking. I hate my job, which is all the other stuff, the back end stuff. And a lot of you can relate to that. Like you love doing the wedding and events more than the business side. It's actually the subtitle of my book, stop selling and help them buy. It's for people who love doing events more than they love selling them.

So this idea of the pursuit of money doesn't bring me the happiness I seek. I can go back through my life and find times where I chased the money and I wasn't happy. As a matter of fact, I'm in this industry because I was in a job that I was being paid really well, and I had a company car and paid benefits, and I was miserable, and the money was great, but I was miserable. And that's why I took a job in an industry I didn't know. Doing outside sales, which I had never done, doing cold calling, which I had never done, all those things. And my wife was pregnant at the time, and it was straight commission, no salary, no draw, no minimum, no guarantee. I did that. Chasing the money made me unhappy.

Then I was able to find that I love doing this. This is why I've been doing it for so long. I can't imagine not doing this, because it feeds those two things. It brings me joy, and it brings you value. And therefore, it's not seeking the money. It's seeking the happiness. It's seeking that joy. And then the money comes.

I don't think a lot about the money because I'm thinking about who else can I serve? Who else can I help? And when I do that, if it brings me joy and brings you value, yes, there's a transaction involved, but it's not transactional, transactionalism, doing it for the money, that's not the case. If you're doing weddings and events for the money, you're missing out on the joy that you're bringing to them at this event. Because almost every case, other than what would it be? Celebrations of life, which should be a happiness of celebrating the life of that person, hopefully well lived. These are all happy occasions. Weddings, bar mitzvahs, quinces, proms. These are all happy occasions, fundraisers, where we're trying to raise money for a good cause. These are all happy occasions. If it brings you joy to do it while bringing value to your customers, then, yes, you should be cashing the check, because that's where the money comes from.

And we should not be afraid to charge for the value that we're bringing, because if they're getting value, there is a transaction involved because it did those things. So I'm glad I came across this note again. The pursuit of money doesn't bring me the happiness I seek. The pursuit of happiness brings me the money I need. I hope that you can live that truth as well. And if not shoot for it.

I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or you can  text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2024 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com


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Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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