Candice (00:00.236)

Are your clients expecting a gift? Do they expect you to send them something in the mail when they book your services? The answer to this might surprise you. I've brought on my gifting concierge, Alexandra Puccini from Lavender and Pine, to teach us how we can master the client gifting experience and wow, all the amazing couples you're gonna book in 2025.

You're here to grow a business, but not just any kind of business. You want to grow a profitable business with purpose, a business where you wake up every single day driven to serve your customers and make a difference in your own life. I'm Candace Coppola, published author, business coach, and your guide to building a profitable business with purpose. Join me here every single week as we explore how to build and grow your business with purpose.

Get ready to dig in and have meaningful conversations about the strategies and techniques that will help you build your dream business. This is the power in purpose.

Candice (01:14.904)

Hey friends, welcome back to the Power and Purpose podcast. It's me, your host Candice, and I've got a great episode lined up for you today and an amazing guest joining me. We are answering the question, do your clients expect you to send them a gift? And if so, what does that look like? What should your gifting experience look like? I think the answer to this question, gosh, I don't know if it's gonna surprise you or not. I don't know if you're gonna be like,

surprised by my guest today's thoughts on this. And I have an opinion on it too. But I'm excited to share with you our opinions on gifting. And today I'm joined by Alexandra Puccini, who is my gifting concierge. Is that what we would call it, Alexandra? I feel like that's what we would call it. Yeah, concierge designer. Yeah. All the things. She's fully in charge of my gifting experience.

And Alexandra and I have been working together for over three years now. I reached out to her several years ago when I realized that I, in my high ticket program, Wedding Pro Insiders, I really needed to lead by example when it came to gifting. And I also wanted to give the women in my mastermind a really incredible gifting experience. And that's when Alexandra came in and she just made it so special. I mean, our clients rave about their gifts and she puts so much thought.

into the gifting experience, but we'll get into that. Alexandra has a decade of experience in client services, in media and advertising, and she's worked with some of the world's most renowned brands. And despite her success in corporate America, she got started like we all did. She planned her own wedding and was like, I think I'm sick of corporate America. I'm also onto something here when it comes to gifting. She created an amazing experience for her guests, got a lot of positive feedback.

And before you knew it, 2020, she was all in on her business, Lavender and Pine. And over the years, she's gained incredible recognition. She has an amazing client roster list. So many people work with her for their gifting experience. In fact, almost all of my clients work with her. They either found her before I did and recommended her to me, or through the act of receiving their gift, they were like, I need Alexandra in my life and her team. And she's been featured.

Candice (03:34.898)

in everything from Brides magazine to being interviewed by Inc. And today she continues to grow Lavender and Pine as a full service gifting company, creating bespoke offerings in the wedding industry. And she also collaborates with big brands and brands like me who are wedding industry adjacent and then people totally outside the industry. She's dedicated to creating memorable experiences through thoughtful gifting, all while building a name and reputation that reflects

her passion for creativity and quality. Alexandra, welcome to the show. Wow. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited to talk about this with you. I'm so excited to share with your community. This is awesome. Thanks for having me. Well, my gosh. When I think of gifts, I think of you. You're the gifting queen, which is why I love working with you. so gifting is my love language. You know, they have to say there's the five love languages, or maybe it's four.

All I know is I love gifts. When I told my husband that this was my love language, he was like, I got you. I got you. It's my love language. I love to give gifts. I love to receive gifts too. I'm not going to lie. I love a gift. I'm curious, is gifting your love language? 100%. Yeah. 100%. It always has been down to going back, way back when Scholastic Book Fair, when I had $5, I would buy for other people.

and I really looked forward to that. So it's absolutely my love language. It's clearly yours and it's great to be able to connect with people that share that same love language too because you just get it. You just get it. Yeah. a hundred percent. I remember this classic book fair too. And then also, around Mother's Day or Father's Day, your parents would send you to school with like 10 bucks to buy them a gift or something. Or you're making soap balls. my gosh, for sure. It was always so fun though. And you were always so proud of the gift that you purchased. It was a big deal.

to this day. I love giving gifts. And we're today talking about gifting our clients and maybe even vendors. I have a question for you around that. I want your hot take if we should be extending gifts to some of our partners. But I want to answer this question right off the top about gifting and ask you your opinion. Are our clients expecting us to send a gift in this day and age? Is it something they're expecting? And if they don't get something in the mail or a gift, do you think

Candice (05:59.054)

they're disappointed. Great question. And my short and sweet answer to that is yes. Consumer behavior is like the Wild West when it comes to the wedding industry. But with what I'm seeing online and on socials and wedding vendors being transparent, which is awesome about their client experience and sharing gifts that are being sent, and there's also podcasts and there's Reddit forums where

couples and brides are sharing their wedding planning journey, they're talking about gifts that they are receiving from their vendors. So yes, it is definitely creating an expectation from other couples and clients that at the end of the day, they're spending X amount of money. Let's just call a spade a spade, thousands of dollars. There is an expectation there. I'm also a data nerd and I love asking people questions and

When it comes to, you know, I go to weddings all the time and for friends and family and I do, I ask them the question, hey, just, did you get a gift from your vendor? I have to, like it's market research. And there's, you know, some that say no and always end it with, but it would have been nice. And then the clients or the clients, the friends and family that do have, that they have received gifts, they say, yes.

And it was the nicest thing and they'll talk about it and they'll tell me about the products. And you can just see the shift in their emotions when they talk about it in both both aspects. So it's very interesting. But yeah, the expectation is there. But for sure, I fully agree. So our hot take is, yes, your clients are expecting you to send them something.

and they might be disappointed if they don't receive anything from you at any point throughout the journey of working with you. Do you think this is true, like, regardless of the type of wedding industry you have? So obviously, if you're like a big ticket vendor, we're going to talk about budgets too, by the way, of like what you can expect to spend on gifts. Let's say, you know, big ticket vendor, planner, photographer, that's kind of like expected. But what if you're a calligrapher or even a smaller budget expense?

Candice (08:10.254)

Do you think that clients expect gifts from those vendors? So to be honest, no. However, that is an incredible way to set yourself apart. So we do have stationary designers that send client gifts. And I know we're going to talk about pricing and all of that, but they're not breaking the bank. They're definitely not breaking the bank. And when I tell you those vendors,

amount of feedback that they then send me from those clients, it's text messages, it's emails, it's messages from the parents of the couple thanking them for making their son or daughter feel special. yeah, there definitely should be a strategy there. Yeah. that's good to know. So this applies to any vendor, no matter how big of a ticket you might be in the overall wedding budget.

You bring up some really good points about like how gifts make us feel and thinking about like how you want your clients to feel in working with you. When you think of the gifting experience that some of your top clients provide, what do you think it's the feelings that their clients have opening the gift and what do you think their strategies are in giving gifts to clients? So it's a total...

There's a whole lot of experience that goes on. So let's talk about the physical aspects of it, right? So it is a sensory experience. So from the moment that a client opens their door and sees a package with their planner's branding on it, it's kind of like, what's this? You know, it's that curiosity. Then they open it up and they're working with us. It's, you know, we spray lavender oil in our gifts. So there's that. And then when they're digging through the gift,

or the packaging, they'll see a beautiful bow. And it's like that just curiosity and then excitement. And then that feeling of, my gosh, they sent me a gift. They then pull out the card before they open the gift. They see a handwritten note. They're in their feels. Again, they're removed from the transactional part of working with their vendor because when we send the gift is probably coming off the heels of signing the contract and paying a

Candice (10:25.87)

paying a large amount of money. So they read the card, they're in their feels, they open the gift, they see that it's beautifully packaged, they're looking through the products, they're enjoying it with their partner. It is a roller coaster of all the good feels and that's exactly what we're looking for. And then there's that, the post-emotional element where...

they're then reaching out to their vendor, whether or not they share it. A lot of times they do share it on social media. Yes, that's another conversation, but they're then reaching out to their vendor and thanking them and they feel comfortable now with them. It's just really just setting the stone in that, the beginning of their client journey and really just making them feel special and comfortable and just cared for really. Yeah, appreciated, which-

I feel like we all want to feel a little more appreciated. And when you're spending thousands of dollars on a wedding vendor, you want to feel good about that purchase, right? You want to be like, yeah, I made the right decision hiring Alexandra to photograph my wedding or to do the gifting for my out of town bags. I made the right decision in hiring her. And this just affirms my purchase and makes me feel really good about that exchange of money.

And you have like a small window to do that. I talk about this a lot in sales where you have this small little window of time to make somebody feel really good about their purchase. Have you ever bought something and you're like, you bought it and then it didn't really do what you thought it was going to do or like you're just like, okay. It just wasn't that great. And then they did, they just treated you like a transaction, like a sale. And you mentioned something about not being treated like a transaction. Yes.

good old buyer's remorse. And it's, feel like buyer's remorse is such a strong term, especially when we're talking about hiring people for services, right? You know, they're not a house or a car, but it's still an expense that we have to remember that this is for the most part, the first time couples are getting married. They are catapulted into the wedding planning experience, whether they have a planner or not. So they are new to this entire territory.

Candice (12:44.566)

and it's a lot and it's overwhelming and it's also expensive. So yes, there is absolutely a sweet spot in that emotional kind of train where we want to get them when they're in their post-buying fields for sure and removing them again from the transactional part and becoming more of a relationship part with her.

their vendor for sure. Yeah. Establishing the nature of that relationship as one of, appreciate you. I value you. I see you. And here is some gratitude and here is a really positive way for us to move forward. Just putting a smile on someone's face, making them feel good about working with you. It's a really powerful thing. And I hope that our listeners understand that it can actually save you.

later on in situations where maybe something didn't go as smooth through the process as you would have liked. Your couples will be like, but Candace, she's so great. This mistake, let's give her a second chance. It's okay. Or we understand. It's a different type of relationship versus one that's purely transactional. Nailed it. How many times have you been slighted in some way, shape, or form?

but you let it slide because so-and-so is such a great person, such a nice person, such a thoughtful person. It humanizes the experience. Yeah, it's true. Actually, I was just on threads this week and there was a bride on there and she was really pissed off that her destination travel planner dropped the ball on something. I mean, she said she was shaking. She was so angry. I saw that. Yeah. I thought to myself like, you need emotional regulation.

Anyhow, I left a comment on it because I've been there. actually made big mistakes before. And I'm sure you have too, Alexandra, but you don't need to admit to those mistakes here on the show, but it's true. mean, we've all made mistakes as a business. And I had this rule in my company, it's not about the mistake you make, it's how you make it right. And so that's basically what I wrote on her comment. I was like, it's not about the mistake the person made, it's how they make it right. And I think that it's not like you're buying someone's

Candice (15:06.712)

friendship or relationship, but you are establishing a relationship with your clients by giving them a gift and showing value and appreciation. And in the long run, it may come back to support you if you forget to do something or you make a mistake, they can definitely be more forgiving or just like, but we love Alexandra. We love Candace. Like she didn't, know, it's not about the mistake. It's about how you make it right. exactly. The level of emotions that are

are added to your client experience. Again, I'm going to sound like a broken record, but it really does make such a big difference. And I feel like if you haven't client gifted before, you may not understand what we're talking about right now and how important it is. But those of us that have done client gifting time and time and time again, and have received the feedback and have just

established that relationship with a client, it does make a big difference. Huge. Yeah. There's nothing like getting something in the mail that you didn't expect. It surprises you. It delights you. It makes you feel appreciated. And the first thing that they should do is reach out to you and thank you. And they usually do. Sometimes some people take... Sometimes people tell. Sometimes some people tell.

And you know, at the end of the day, there's people that do bring that up where it's like, didn't, you know, was this gift delivered? And it's like, yes, it was delivered. I just a quick note on that. Just a lot of the times people are busy. They don't, yes, they'll appreciate it, but they don't articulate their feelings in a certain way. So that that does happen. I just want to set, manage an expectation there that that does happen. Not all the time, but it does happen. Yeah. And don't take it personally. No.

They may bring it up three months down the line, but don't take it personally. No. And listen, I've learned like, I don't care anymore. So I'll be like, hey, did you get the gift I sent you? It's great follow-up question, right? It is. Yeah. Did you get the gift? We sent you something special. Did you receive it? And usually they're like, my God, I'm so sorry. And they thank you. And it's appreciated.

Candice (17:20.558)

Let's talk about current trends though. I feel like our listeners now realize that they need to add some element of client gifting to their experience. I'd love to get your take on what's trending right now for wedding pros, the ones you're working with. What types of core elements do you think make up a great client gift that are impactful and memorable? Yeah. It's funny. When we're talking about products and

those types of trends. tend to stick to more lifestyle products. We stick to gourmet products. We do a lot of date night gifts, again, touching on the sensory experience for both parties. So what I've seen is that when people are DIYing or sending gifts from wherever, it's more bride focused. We want to make sure that we are that.

both people can enjoy the gift together. But yeah, it's definitely way more lifestyle. Again, going back to me sounding like a broken record, I will probably sound like that talking about candles, which, you know, candles are in just about every single gift. That's definitely a top product, but self-care also is really important. Subtle branding, which I'm sure we're going to touch on. That's definitely...

top of mind or I keep that top of mind with wedding pros and making sure that the branding is subtle. Trend that I am seeing is actually gift sequencing, which they're breaking apart their gifting strategy. So they're doing an onboarding, they're doing what I call a middle of the road gift. So a gift when there's a little bit of a lull. And then a post wedding or event gift, not necessarily a wedding gift, but a post

event gift on their first anniversary, birthday, or a first married Christmas, first home, first baby if they're expecting. So that is really something that I've seen a lot of this year, which has been really fun to create and strategize on. Yeah. Yeah. Gift sequencing. That's like its own podcast episode. I'm intrigued by that. Yeah. I love that you mentioned a few different touch points where you can send gifts.

Candice (19:39.31)

So mentioned obviously a welcome gift. that would come, I'm assuming at the time of booking, right? They book you, you send a welcome gift. And then you said something about a middle of the road gift. Where do you see, what do you see that? Like what are the highlights of that? What have been some popular middle of the road gifts? And what do you think, like what's the reason to send one halfway through? Yeah, sure. So middle of the road gifts and the timing kind of, it's a moving scale depending on your client journey, when they booked you and where they're at from that point in time to.

their event. So let's just say a client books you out 18 months in advance. You send an onboarding gift one to two weeks after contract signing, and then there's a lull. It's a pretty long time from that point until their wedding date. So I always tell clients, look at your client journey and wherever there's a lull, a break in time, send a middle of the road gift. Just keeping you top of mind.

letting them know that you're thinking of them, even though they know that you're working on 10 other, 18 other events going on, it just makes them feel still, top of mind, and that, you know, at the end of the day, they didn't get lost in the shuffle. Another way of middle of the road gifting is about two months out from the wedding or the event where stresses are high, checks are being paid, there's a little anxiety in the air.

You want to kind of get a good finger on the pulse with your client's emotions. Tapping into that again. So whenever there's a little bit of angst happening, it's a great time to send a gift. Make them feel better. Send a date. We actually encourage people to send date nights because even with working with a planner, couples do get overwhelmed. Chances are they have a full-time job on top of that. And it's just a lot.

bringing back the connection with their partner is important and being the catalyst to that is just eye-opening to them and again, memorable and impactful. Yeah, definitely a surprise and delight in the middle. think clients expect some kind of welcome gift or welcome package in some way, but it's truly a way to surprise and delight them in the middle and just show that you understand their stresses or anxieties, creating a bit of a core memory for them too before the wedding. So that surprise and delight will stay with them.

Candice (21:58.348)

long after the wedding when they go back and refer to you. What about after the wedding? So you've mentioned a way to maybe keep yourself top of mind after the event by sending a gift. Yeah, yeah. So this is great when you really have, I mean, I recommend keeping your client experience consistent across the board. So what you do for one client, you do for another.

But this is great, again, keeping that emotional connection with your clients that just because the event ended doesn't mean that you're done and you're wiping your hands clean of them. It helps with referrals. It helps, again, keeping you as a business owner top of mind and still moving along with that client experience because at end of the day, a client's a client of client. So they're planning their wedding with you, celebrating their first married Christmas, even though their wedding is

five months past, that's huge. Striking that emotional cord. Same thing with buying a first home. They went from their apartment to their home. You're no longer their planner or their photographer, but at the end of the day, you spent so much time with them during one of the most important times of their life. Why not celebrate the next step? Yeah, it's a great idea. One of the things that I love to give as a gift, and this is something I kind of learned along the way, maybe

I heard it somewhere or I experienced it because I have experienced it in the past as somebody who received a gift. But whether it's an onboarding, a mid journey or a off boarding or end of the relationship gift, I always try to find something that people will keep picking up and thinking of me. so Alexandra mentioned candles. Well, that's so fascinating because like a smell can be associated with you or every time they light that candle, they're thinking of your business.

I in my mastermind would send out a t-shirt. My assumption is this, every time you put that t-shirt on, which it says every hour is cocktail hour, happy hour, something like that, you think of me, right? Some of the ladies even brought their t-shirts to be signed like a yearbook at our first university. that so much. That's fun. But I love thinking about how can you give something that people will use over and over again?

Candice (24:17.548)

And every time they pull that cup out or every time they light that candle or wear that t-shirt, they're thinking of your business. Yeah. We have, we just added these gorgeous serving boards to our shop and it's a beautiful serving board with some tea towels on it wrapped in a bow, right? It's really nothing crazy, but it's beautiful. And that is something that's practical and a keepsake and will be used. And it's also a conversation piece because it really is beautiful.

And that's what you want to do, especially in post-event gifting. Just top of mind, five years down the line, my God, that serving board is beautiful. My wedding planner gave it to us five years ago on our first anniversary. That's what you want. who's your wedding planner? You know, it just sparks those memories. sure. starts the conversation over again. Absolutely.

In my first marriage, which is such a weird intro to what I'm about to say, but whatever, it is just the truth. In my first marriage, on our first Christmas together after we were married, the hotel that we stayed at for our honeymoon sent us a ornament. It was a beautiful ornament. I thought it was so clever. Every year, we were only married for three, so it was a very short, every, had three trees, but every year I would take out the ornament and I would think of the

hotel, I'd be like, my God, I got to get back there. I got to get back there. So yeah, it created like every time on Christmas I would hang that ornament for those two or three years, I would think, my gosh, I'd think of that hotel and how amazing it was. So it just goes to show you like the impact, something that people will touch either once in a while or on special occasions like holidays or anniversaries or when they're entertaining or just great gifts to give. Hey friend, hear that noise?

That's the sound of HoneyBook, depositing cold hard cash into your bank account. HoneyBook is an all-in-one client flow platform that helps you manage your leads, send wedding proposals, and sign more contracts all at the click of a button. HoneyBook also offers a variety of resources and materials to help you grow your wedding industry business. One of my favorite features of the HoneyBook platform is actually the community of creative entrepreneurs just like you.

Candice (26:38.85)

HoneyBook is offering listeners of the Power in Purpose podcast 35 % off any of their three plans for your first year. 35%. It's an amazing deal. Use the code PURPOSE at checkout or go to CandaceCoppola.com slash HoneyBook to learn more. That's CandaceCoppola.com slash HoneyBook. And thanks to HoneyBook for sponsoring this episode of the Power in Purpose podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by our partner,

Flowdesk is an email marketing software used by thousands of creative entrepreneurs just like you to grow their business and their brand. What I love most about Flowdesk is just how easy and simple it is to create stunning and effective email marketing campaigns in just a few clicks. It's perfect for the wedding industry and for anyone looking to grow their business with email marketing. Go to CandaceCoppola.com slash Flowdesk to sign up for your free trial.

where you can start designing beautiful email campaigns while I teach you about marketing here on the podcast. That's CandaceCopla.com slash flow desk to start your free trial and use the code Candace50 at checkout to save 50 % off your first year. Check it out and see what's possible. And thanks to flow desk for sponsoring this episode of the podcast. Now let's get back to the episode.

I would love to talk about budget for gifts because I think what holds a lot of people back is they're like, this shit sounds expensive. And it's not cheap, but you're not cheap. Right? So it's like what? mean, you're charging a lot of money for your services, or you should be a lot of money for your You should be charging the right amount. And you're not cheap and you don't pretend to be cheap. So of course, gifts aren't going to be cheap and you're not going to send a cheap gift.

But guess my biggest question, and maybe this is the right place to start, you tell me, what percentage of a project budget would you recommend setting aside for client gifts? Yeah, budget is 1000 % the number one thing when I have new clients coming in, people asking me questions. They're so overwhelmed by it and completely understandable. I mean, we've talked about gift sequencing, onboarding, surprising and delighting, all that stuff, and people are probably just seeing dollar signs and panicking.

Candice (29:01.358)

But rest assured, you do not have to panic. There's a way for everything. I see anywhere, from a project budget standpoint, percentage standpoint, I see anywhere from like two to 5%. That's the swinging scale. From a dollar standpoint, the sweet spot really is like $75 to $150. Of course, there are people that spend a lot more.

And there's people that do spend less than $75. So budget, huge question, totally get it. It's something that, you this is a personal choice, but you know, I talked to so many clients about that, about this is that I don't recommend absorbing that cost. I recommend baking, baking that cost into your price point. You know, you're charging $5,000, $4,000, $75 to that. At the end of the day.

You should not feel it. You really should not feel it. shouldn't make you feel overwhelmed. It shouldn't give you agita. It should really just be something that is baked into your costs. It's a client gift. It's a part of your client experience. And yeah, so it should not be, you shouldn't go broke doing gifts. No, absolutely not. And you should feel really good about like, best money spent. I am treating my clients. I am giving them.

and experience that no other planner or photographer can touch. Like that's what I'm known for is supporting my clients, right? And it feels good to spend that money rather than like feeling like you're taking it out of your own pocket. So if you feel like you'd be taking 75 bucks out of your own pocket, girl, you need a price check.

Come to aisle three, we need to do a price check. You need a price check, yes. And if you're unsure about check with your accountant, although I will say accountants do like to push back on gifting, I'm gonna put that out there, just managing expectations. But it's not just you sending a gift to send a gift, 1000 % part of your client experience, it establishes the relationship, it is worth it, it is worth it. Agreed.

Candice (31:08.16)

I'm curious, any gifts that you think have a higher perceived value that don't break the bank? So I'm like, let's say somebody listening is like, all right, I'm on board. I'm going to start off at the $75 mark. What's something that they could put in that gift that has a higher perceived value, if there's anything you would suggest? Yeah, there's definitely a lot of things. If you're DIYing, which of course there's going to be people that are DIYing. A lot of people don't want to hire outsource off the bat, but I'm going to talk about like

DIYing and then outsourcing. Great. With DIYing, think what people think that clients want is a lot of stuff, right? Like they'll do, I see it, I still see it, champagne flutes with Mr. and Mrs. His and her vow books, a small candle tin with a brand on it, a pen, just, know, Ferrero Rocher, those truffles in a gift box because it looks like a lot of stuff. With this,

you know, a little goes a long way. It's just finding the right products and making sure that you are creating that that overall nice experience. Because with all those products, even though it's a full gift, it's still going to cost you seventy dollars plus because it's a lot and that stuff adds up and it's not going to last. Your clients are going to toss it, be done with it in about a month or two. With the gifts that we curate, we do have gifts on the

lower end of the budget where we'll have gourmet caramels, we'll do a candle, we'll do a candle and apothecary matches, we'll do that serving board with the tea towels that I was talking about. A little goes a long way in that regard and you're still getting a gift that's under $75. So I recommend people to one, create a system which we'll get into if you're DIYing, but less is more in that.

Yeah, I agree. I think you're onto something really important. And this is just across the board, not just in gifting, but just doing a lot for your clients or over-promising stuff. Less is always more. People get easily overwhelmed. But there's something so special about an artisan jar of honey that has a story behind it than a jug of honey from Costco, right? They both cost the same. The volumes are different.

Candice (33:31.15)

but one has a higher perceived value and that's the smaller jar. Right? That a good analogy, but no, That was a really good analogy. Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. Yeah. That's such a great point. I also want to mention too, in the story of the products, Alexandra and her team, curate all different types of products from all different types of businesses. And what I found in my experience is they tend to work with a lot of small businesses.

They work with a lot of female-owned businesses. They work with businesses of color. So even female-owned businesses of color with a story behind them. like your dollars go to real people like you and I who really benefit from every dollar spent rather than our Jeff Bezos friends and the people who maybe don't need another dollar from us.

So you really do make an impact, not just with your guests, but you make an impact on the small businesses you support with the curation of gifts. It's a very big impact that, you know, I don't talk about enough to be perfectly honest. It's so true that the amount of support that your dollars, wedding vendors dollars go to for other businesses, you know, nationwide, helping these small businesses. I mean, the amount of money that we have pumped into these businesses is incredible.

and it's also the awareness to their products also. So we'll have clients that reach out, clients of clients that have reached out and said, hey, I received this candle. Can I just buy this from you? And I direct them to the vendor or if they want to buy from me, they absolutely can, but I will definitely direct them to the vendor. It happens constantly. And it's such an incredible ecosystem that we've created, even down to our wood boxes, family owned business in Wisconsin.

there's a lot of good that these gifts are going towards too. I love hearing that. That makes me so happy supporting small business with your dollars here and the impact that it has. That's so gratifying for you too, because you start your business off because you love curating gifts. You're great at it. And then fast forward four years later, almost five years later, you're having a direct impact on the lives of small businesses, curators, makers, whether it's...

Candice (35:51.394)

the bee farm in Wisconsin or a black owned business in the United States creating something amazing. It's just wonderful to see that impact. And then also, you're sending gifts and then like you said, the client's seeing this candle and thinking, well, how do I buy this now? Then they're telling all their friends and it just opens that business up to more customers. It's so common. Thank you for bringing this up. And we also make a huge effort to work with people in the industry also. People want

calligraphy ornaments for the holidays. They want a hand-painted bottle. We'll recruit our fellow wedding vendors here to support them also during their off season. So it's just really nice, something that we've created with the business that I didn't expect in the beginning. No, that's definitely one of those, I guess, just things that you don't expect to happen, but it's one of those just a great, great thing. Yeah.

On the topic of budget, do you think that we should have different gifting for different price points that we might service? So for instance, let me use an example of a planner. A planner has an event management or a month of coordination package, then they have their full service client package. The buy-ins of those are totally different. Should they provide a different gifting experience for each client? What's your take? I think so, yes. I think that...

you should absolutely have a gifting experience for every service that you have. The reason why is because gift aside, we're talking about client experience. So client experience under your business umbrella should, yes, there's different workflows and things given the package, but the client experience should be the same. So there's also the chance, a high chance that one of the clients is going to share the gift online.

And then that may create a point of contention between somebody who didn't buy the higher tier package. At least at that point, you don't have to do the same price point for each package. And that's something that I recommend. We work with clients that have many different packages. Actually, I want to say anywhere from like three to four different packages. And what we do is we keep it flexible.

Candice (38:08.824)

will buy a certain amount of products and will create different curations based on the products. So they're not over buying inventory. They're still serving their client and giving a great gift experience. And then also at the end of the day, there is the worry of, is the client that's for package two going to be a little butter about the full service client?

No, because at the end of the day, that person understands that they didn't buy the full service package. Right. No, that's very true. some type of way about it, they do, but I have not seen that. No, I haven't either. No. And clients are sharing gifts on social media, which is like one of those great marketing tools that you now just unlocked when a client is sharing the gift they got from their amazing planner or photographer or calligrapher or stationer. They're like, my God, look what they sent me. That's just

Kind of free marketing. say kind of because you did spend the money on the gift, but it's like an offshoot of that spend. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I like to call it a bonus. It's bonus marketing. Not everybody does it, but when they do, it's effective. They share it with their network. Then you get the followers. It's that lovely.

whatever I'm thinking of environment that we create. Exactly. It's true. Yeah. It's a bonus for sure. And that's where, we talked about subtle branding before. That's where things like that helps too. well, this is what my next going to tee up my next question because I actually write off my gifts as marketing because they're so branded. Branded to me and they feel, I mean, they feel very, they're very personalized. And so, you know,

Brand is all over it. So it really is an extension of marketing for my business. And I want to talk to you about branding because this is where gifting gets just even more fun. I think branding is so fun. And as wedding pros like our brand, we don't have branded stuff. Do you know what I mean? Like we don't get to participate in that so often. This is a place where you can like put your logo, your patterns, your colors. Like you get to have a lot of fun making your brand feel like a gift. Yes.

Candice (40:18.828)

Yes. the way that you have your gifts set up, they're so fun. Yeah. mean, your branding is fun also on top of that. to your point, there's ways of creating a branded gift that's an extension of your business without it being a full out swag bag billboard for your clients. Because your clients, at the end of the day, they know if they're getting branded tchotchkes because you have it left over in a closet.

Yeah, like they're at a conference. They're getting like a door hanger with your freaking brand on it. Nobody wants a pen with your name. backpack like that. But if we're talking about products that match your branding, colorful, bold, light and airy, romantic, whimsical, that type of branding is really fun. Adding your logo in, we can absolutely do that in tasteful ways without it being a super promotional.

At the end of the day, you won the client. They already signed you. So you don't have to go super duper nuts, but there's ways that we can really get creative and unique with it for sure. I mean, I love, I personally love, it's so silly, but I'm obsessed with the damn branded packing tape. I think it's such a nice, and everybody loves it. I love it.

Yeah, but it's a surprise and delight. I love packaging and we largely purchase based on packaging and the different elements within your client gift are chosen for the brand that creates it, what it might represent, how it represents your brand, but also because of the logo and the way it looks. So being able to stick your brand on some tissue paper.

or packaging tape is a lot of fun. And it just, think it also puts you in a different category, your business in a different category. It's like, this bitch has tape with her name on it. Yeah. Like think about the high-end premium luxury brands that we all know and love and shop with. Look at their packaging. Their name's all over it. All over it. tasteful way. Yes. And yes, it completely adds an incredible layer of professionalism. You're polished.

Candice (42:40.758)

you have a system going on and that is what you want your clients to see too. I agree. I love branded tissue paper. If I bought something at Hermes, bought a scarf, you think I'm throwing the tissue paper out? Girl, it says Hermes on it. No. Absolutely. I might put it in a frame. it into a square. Hello. It might make itself on a wall. It's actually a really good idea putting it in a frame if it's not super wrinkled. Can you see?

I was just going say I'm an idiot. I you could. steam paper. No, you can't. It'll No, can't do that. No, but I do have a great framing company here. Now that I'm thinking, it could be so fun to take all the tissue papers from all the packaging I have from like Louis Vuitton and Prada and do some kind of art installation with it. I've seen people do that with their bags. Yes. With the shopping bags. Shopping totes. Yes. I love that. Absolutely love it. All right.

My next question for you is around working with somebody to create a curated brand experience because sure, people can go at it and do it on their own. And listen, if you're just getting started and you don't have a large budget for gifting, you can make something happen on your own. I did that in the past. I will say it is a totally different ball game when you work with somebody like Alexandra to help curate your gifts. It just is a totally different ball game. But I would love for you to share with me

When we hire a gifting company, what should we expect them to help us do and what do they provide to us? Yeah, so we create a system for you. So it's not just the gift It's a whole system. So if you're working with us on a custom gift design

We will create a gift that represents your brand, which we just talked about. We'll talk about all those fun bells and whistles and then design a gift. When we're talking about the service part of it and how we are really helping you, we automate it for you. So we are an extension of your team. So you hire us to do your gifting. You just, we designed a gift for you. We have all of your inventory here. You just log online and you.

Candice (44:49.29)

order up a gift at the one to two week mark, we build it, we handwrite your cards for you, we ship it out, we handle all of it. We'll even provide reporting for you. So you get automated tracking so you know if your gifts have been delivered. We provide reporting in the sense of, know, which happens, this happens often, understandably so because wedding pros are so bogged down with everything. Did I send a gift to so and so?

Or can you send me an end of year report of who I've sent gifts to so I can forward this along to my accountant? Yes. We do all of that for you so you don't have to. So gifting, the gift itself aside, it's the service that saves you quite literally countless hours. Hours. And like who wants to go to a post office? Who wants to go to FedEx? Nobody. It's awful. It's, it's, it's, you're standing in, you have to drive there. You have to wait online.

Another thing is, this is a perk working with us, we pass along our shipping discounts to our clients, so you're saving money there. I think that a lot of times going back to the price point, people are intimidated by the price point, but if you actually factor in all of the time, mental space, physical space that's being taken up with gifting,

hiring out, hiring a gift service is ultimately a game changer. Not to mention we keep your client experience very consistent. So it doesn't become disjointed where it's like, I booked a client and then you're onto the next client or you get personal things happen. Next thing you know, five weeks have gone by and you haven't sent a client gift or you're letting gifts pile up. You just really want to keep the experience.

consistent across the board for every single client. And that's what we do. Yeah, I fully agree. It's been a game changer. And the first reason why I reached out to Alexandra was because I'm in Barbados. Like, I can't be shipping gifts from here. That would be a total nightmare. And I can't send my stuff from the US and then ship it out. That's an even bigger nightmare with duties and levies and taxes. It's just, it was impossible. I needed somebody to actually help me do this. And I needed somebody who had a system and could hold the inventory. That's the first thing that led me.

Candice (47:06.488)

to Alexandra and then I've stayed with her for all these years because she's amazing at this. And it's so nice to have somebody thinking thoughtfully about your customer experience and then just taking care of all this for you so that you can deliver a great experience in the things that you do really well. Let Alexandra take care of the gifting and also make sure your clients actually get the gifts, which I think we're all guilty of being like.

I'm going to send that gift. yeah, I'm going to send that gift. And then the gift doesn't get sent. So this is such a, you know, this is such a big one. All right. Final question for you. We're running out of time. We have so much we could talk about, but I would like to just talk about the gifting experience of other to other wedding pros. Do you think that we should annually every year look to create some kind of gifting experience for our partners that we work with all season long? Yes. And I do think that there's, there's a lot.

There's a completely different strategy to implement here because at end of the day, this is more of a sales strategy. I would imagine if you're sending to vendors that are referring your business or that you've worked with or you're creating this referral network. So it really just depends on what your goal is, gifting the vendor. So if it's appreciation, yes, sending a gift off season so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle, 1000%.

If you're sending a gift to venues that have been referring you business, there's a bit of a strategy behind that and what you're sending, what you want to write in the note, and also timing too. So I think that gifting fellow vendors is a great strategy. It's just, it varies across what your goals are at the end of Yeah. Yeah. What's great is working with Alexandra, you can figure out what your goals are.

what key partners you want to target and what you want to do for a gifting experience across the board. I think there's a lot of fun to be had here. So I can imagine sending maybe smaller and price point gifts to a larger group of people, sending them a little self-care package after wedding season, or doing something kind of fun around Valentine's Day or the holidays can be really fun to send out to your partners.

Candice (49:21.452)

And what a great thing for them to be surprised and delighted by you and feel really appreciated by the work that you do. It's a great networking opportunity and relationship building. And I will say, if you want to get into the hearts and minds of wedding planners in your area, first, be really easy to work with. Respond to their emails, be timely, be the easiest to work with vendor ever. Secondly,

surprise them a little something special to show your gratitude or why you want to work with them. That is instantly going to make you stand out. Absolutely. Absolutely. You don't have to go nuts either. It's just paying attention, being aware of the little details and things there. Because I do know that sometimes the point of contention is especially vendors that are newish in the space asking to go out for coffee and things like that. Planners don't have time for that. don't have time for They don't.

But what you can do is create some sort of gifting strategy behind that to then spark a conversation. Yes. And it does work. It does. It works. I'm sorry. It works. Think about all these big brands sending out PR to influencers. Do you think that they're spending millions of dollars in PR packages for skincare and beauty products and whatever they're sending just because? No. They're sending it and getting it in the hands of people to create relationships. And then from there, those relationships lead to money.

Same situation in this, what we're talking about, gifting your vendors. Also, I just think it's important to show appreciation for one another and to deepen those relationships as best you can. We're in such a wild industry. It's not easy. It's not always fun. It's not as fun as being a guest at a wedding and getting drunk and eating free food, unfortunately.

Right now. every once in a while where we can make it nice and make it fun, we should. Now, one thing I want to share is that Alexandra has put together an awesome promotion for our listeners. This is really generous. First things first, if you want to dip your toe into gifting, definitely check out her shop because she has pre-made gifts that you can select. You can see the cost. You can see what the vibe is. You can talk to her about a personalization add-on.

Candice (51:38.894)

she's giving you 15 % off all gift orders from her website. Use the code POWERINPURPOSE to get 15 % off. This is perfect for onboarding season, which we're in right now, thankfully, hopefully. Cross our fingers and toes. You're booking like mad right now. Yes. We're manifesting all the sales. Do a little dance. We're doing the money dance. don't know what we're going to it.

We'll call it a money dance. Yes, we'll call it a money dance, but you're going to get 15 % off all gift orders from Alexandra's shop using the code POWERINPURPOSE. Her business is Lavender and Pine. I will link to it below in the show notes so you can easily go into it. This is great for anybody who's like, you know what? just, want to absorb this expense. I want to get used to it. I want to get that feedback from my clients. When you are ready, and I guarantee you're going be ready pretty quickly to work with Alexandra and her team to do custom gifting, by the way.

She also does out of town bags and large orders for weddings if you're a planner and you're sick and tired of going on Amazon trying to find snacks, you're going to Costco, you're doing Costco runs full of chips and you're like, girl, this is not it. You have a fairy godmother of gifting to call who is going to take this off your shoulders.

I know Alexandra's writing down fairy godmother of gifting. That you do, folks. That you do. You have somebody who can do this for your clients, and this is amazing. This is the experience they should want to invest in when they're giving gifts to their guests. But either way, Alexandra is offering a very generous $100 off her custom services. Just tell her that I sent you, and this is available to you when you're ready.

Alexandra, I hope I did a good job pitching all of this amazingness that you do. Yes. Can we start a tour? I would love to have you come along with me. We can, absolutely. Thank you. can, absolutely. I'm so grateful for all that you've done for my business and helping me to surprise and delight my clients. It's truly been such a great relationship. You take good care of our people and yeah, I'm not going anywhere. In fact, I got a whole new gifting experience.

Candice (53:49.026)

being prepared right now. So that we do that we do. All right. So share with us where the people can find you online on social. How can they connect with you? Sure. If you want to head to my website, it's lavender with an ER and pine gifting.com. You can find me on Instagram at lavender and pine gifting. Send me a DM, send me an email, give me a ring. Happy to talk to anyone who has questions or needs help with their gifting. my gosh. And please

forward your questions. If you have any questions about anything we talked about, any ideas for what you want to do for our custom gift, start your Pinterest board, get your ideas together. Alexandra is going to ask you a ton of great questions about your business and your clients. And when you put your heads together, you're going to come up with an awesome gifting experience. Thank you, Candice. This has been absolutely incredible. I love talking about this stuff. It's just been a great conversation with you.

I'm happy to be a part of this and I'm just so grateful to have you as a client and a friender and just all of the things. So this has been awesome. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. You're so very welcome and thank you for all that you do for us wedding pros. We appreciate it. Friends, thank you so much for listening to today's episode. I'd love to hear what you thought of the conversation. Don't forget to hit up Alexandra for your 15 % off. You can use that code in her shop, power and purpose.

Or if you want to go the custom route, which I highly recommend you do, you can get a hundred dollars off per custom services. I want to remind you, there is so much power in your purpose and I'll see you next time. Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Power and Purpose podcast. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode and consider leaving a review.

Head over to powerinpurposepodcast.com to access all of the resources and links mentioned in today's episode. That's powerinpurposepodcast.com. I'll see you next time.