Candice (00:02.542)

Hey, it's your coach Candice. Last week we talked about the shifts we're experiencing as an industry. If you haven't yet listened to episode 203, I highly recommend that you listen to that after this episode. Because today we're talking about the operating standards that I'm building my business around in 2026. These are the principles that are guiding how I lead inside my mastermind, Wedding Pro Insiders, how I support my students, how I show up here on this podcast and how I make decisions.

as the wedding industry shifts. And this matters so much right now because I believe that growth in this era of business looks a lot different than it did a year ago. The market has changed, technology is changing so much, buyer behavior has changed, all things that we talked about last week. And so if you're still building your business from the old rules or the old ways of doing things, you're going to feel exhausted.

but you're also gonna become very quickly outdated. Today's episode is for any wedding pro who wants to grow this year, but you wanna grow in a way that feels steady, strategic, and sustainable. All things that quite frankly, we're all craving. I'm craving steadiness, strategicness, sustainability. It's something that comes up with me and my peers, and it's something that I see so often in my coaching calls with women. And so that's what today is all about.

building a steady, strategic and sustainable business using my operating standards for 2026. Let's get into it.

Candice (01:43.726)

Hey there, welcome back to the show. If you're a returning listener, I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for tuning in for another week. If this is your very first time listening to the Power and Purpose podcast, may I be the first to say welcome? I think you're gonna love it here. We have a lot of important conversations like the one today. So please make sure that you're following the podcast so you don't miss any episodes that we drop weekly. And if something really hits today, if something inspires you, if you're like, wait a minute.

This lady's making a lot of sense. I would love it if you would send today's episode to a business bestie, friend in the industry who you think also needs to hear it. Put it in the group chat and start talking about our conversation today. Bring it to your community and start having conversations about what we're talking about.

Now we're talking about operating standards. This was a topic that I actually delivered inside my mastermind at the start of the year. I like to set the tone every single year inside Wedding Pro Insiders and really give the ladies a framework or operating standards to work from throughout the year. And so I delivered these operating standards to my private mastermind, something that I thought

Deeply on in the month of December and really put a lot of thought into these operating standards I did not want to gatekeep them inside WPI I think every wedding pro needs to hear this and so that's why I'm sharing them with you today So before we get into the standards I want to just put them into context for a moment and have a little conversation about them as you know

In my 2026 State of the Industry episode, I laid out what is shifting and has already shifted. And this episode is really the response to those shifts. As I go through them, you're going to see why I have highlighted these standards as a reaction to tech and AI and buyer mistrust. So these are not trends.

Candice (03:57.806)

I think of them as filters and they're the filters that I'm actually using to make decisions in my own business this year. And I really wanted you to have them too. So think of them as filters. Okay. There are seven standards. We're going to go into detail and spend time on each. I do expect to do.

future episodes on these individually and keep the conversation flowing. So if there's something you hear today that you want me to talk about in more detail, I want you to grab your phone, go to Instagram, type in Candace. Coppola, hit that DM button and start a convo with me. Be like, girl, I want you to talk about nervous system. Girl, I want you to talk about sales tactics.

Tell me what you're interested in and give me some feedback. It really does help shape this podcast. And I read and respond to every message, by the way. And it really does influence what we talk about here. This show is for you. And I love the conversations we have. On that note, let's talk about operating standards. And we'll begin with the first operating standard for 2020 sex. This should come as absolutely no surprise.

you need a strong point of view in a sea of sameness. When I open up Instagram or any app and I look at wedding pros marketing, a lot of it is carbon copy of one another. When I review pricing guides and sales decks and websites and website copy, most people are playing it too safe.

And are following what other people are doing. And I am here to tell you that the rules of business have changed so much. The industry is so saturated. AI has leveled the playing field on information and the production of information. It has never been easier to start a business. It has never been easier to post on Instagram. has never been easier to blog. It has never been easier to do insert the blank, but yet.

Candice (06:16.61)

The people who are advancing, the people who are booking great clients, the people who are hitting their goals, their marks, their sales goals, they are doing so because they have a strong point of view in a sea of sameness. They are literally standing out. We can go back in time in our little time machine and go back to 2008 when Candace was really trying to get her business off the ground and she bought a book called Blue Ocean Strategy.

And in this book, it talked about how you have to do something different. If you want to stand out in business, you got to zig while other people's ag. You got to do something different. It talked about blue oceans versus red oceans. And right now, the wedding industry is one big red ocean. Very saturated, lots of predators, a lot of blood in the water, not a fun place to be.

A blue ocean business is one that thinks differently. It's one that does things differently. It's one that reinvents what it means to have a DJ, have a florist, have a planner. And people who build blue ocean businesses, who stand out in a sea of red, will be successful in 2026.

You need to develop a strong point of view. You need to have an opinion. You need to have a style. And sure, it might not be so inventive and crazy that people, you know, don't, I don't want you to do something that is, well, I mean, you can do, let me, let me backtrack here for a second. I want you to develop a strong point of view and it's okay if your style is something that people can recognize. That's what I want to say. That's okay.

So long as your point of view and your aesthetic is strong and you're standing 10 toes down on it.

Candice (08:15.062)

My question to you is, what are you willing to stand for stylistically, aesthetically, in the industry as a whole? What are you willing to stand for? And where are you still trying to be liked rather than respected?

A strong point of view is what is going to separate you from the pack and help the right people find your business. And it's so important. It's something that I spend a lot of time on inside planners playbook for planners is something that we've basically taken this entire experience and changed it to focus on this developing the confidence around this.

But it's also something that I myself have really spent a lot of time examining my own business and making sure that I'm trying to lead from a strong point of view in a sea of sameness. My brand, my brand messaging, the content we put out. AI has made it so easy for people to just put out junk. When I look around, it's just junk. It's all, and sure, you feel good because you're getting stuff out.

your marketing, your business, it's never been easier, but that doesn't mean that it's good. And I am choosing to slow down to maybe even reduce the amount of content that we produce, reduce the amount of things that we show and share and focus on the quality of it and the point of view we bring. And I'm asking you to do the same thing for all the same reasons. So a strong point of view and a sea of sameness is so important this year.

Spend time developing this, nurturing it, watering it, tending to it. And I guarantee you will see a difference in the quality of leads, in your sales, in the income you make, and just in your overall happiness in the work that you do. Now, the second operating standard is a really important one. And we're kind of going from marketing and branding into something more personal.

Candice (10:24.63)

And so operating standard number two is nervous system regulation.

I have learned so much about nervous system work over the last, been about over a year in my own journey. I don't know if it's my algorithm or what, but everywhere I look, people are talking about nervous system now. And it makes me happy because as a person who was very dysregulated for so many years, I don't think I truly understood how dysregulated I was. And

My dysregulation came from the extreme stress that I was under as a luxury wedding planner working with big budgets and high value clients and the amount of responsibility I had, the amount of pressure, the amount of stress over a number of years compounded and completely dysregulated me. I am willing to bet that

A large majority of you listening today are also operating from a dysregulated nervous system. And that is because the wedding industry is extremely stressful. You have so many different personalities. You have so many dysregulated nervous systems, mothers, couples, vendors, we're all trying to do our best. And many of us are operating from a place of dysregulation.

If you are not familiar with nervous system work, I would encourage you to read a book and do your own research. I love the book, Healing Your Nervous System. I think that really helps to put into perspective what nervous system, what role it plays in our day to day. But the short version of this is that every single day, your nervous system is operating to keep you safe. And every day it is assessing

Candice (12:22.498)

based on a variety of factors, much of which is not even conscious to you. You're not even aware of. It is looking at these factors in your environment, and it is deciding how your body is going to react to an email, to a phone call, to a competitor posting something on social media. Back in the day, we were running in the savanna trying to find food. Now,

our nervous system and in reacting to predators and real threats, now our nervous system is trying to help you move through the grocery store without a bomb going off on your phone or an active shooter in the parking lot. mean, have changed dramatically and so many of us are operating from dysregulation and you truly only begin to understand this when

you come off the other side and you can see things a lot clearer. So why is nervous system regulation so important? Well, as a coach, I see dysregulation all the time and I've seen it in myself, but I see it in my private clients. I see it in my students and it shows up in pricing yourself. It shows up in how you over discount, how you under price, how you react to what your competitors do, how you doom scroll and are constantly

trying to solve problems or fix things. I see it all the time. And my hope is that this year you'll pay attention to this because when you focus on regulating your nervous system and you get out of fight or flight and you can learn the difference between a email that is maybe the tone of it isn't great.

but you can learn the difference between that and being stalked by a bear, you start to make decisions a lot differently. And regulated leaders, regulated business owners make better decisions. They make better decisions about how to respond to things, how to initiate things. They react a lot differently. They create a lot differently. Unfortunately, creativity shuts down when we're very stressed. And as a creative industry,

Candice (14:45.72)

we have to safeguard our creativity as well. I want you to pay attention to this because your body and how it operates is part of your business strategy. And if you are in fight or flight or burnout, or you are so dysregulated that you cannot handle any pressure or stress, it is going to show up in every aspect of your life, including your business.

But if you can find a place where you are calmer, more regulated, more level-headed, more stoic in your approach to things, that's going to become your competitive advantage. And some people might laugh at me for this and think this is the hokeyest thing and the silliest thing, but I mean, let them. This has completely changed my life. And I would love to share my story about this and what I've experienced. So if you'd like to hear it, you know what to do. Open your phone, DM me.

and start a conversation, you can just simply say, Candice, I'd love for you to talk about nervous system. I'm very interested in your journey. And I would love to record an episode. So if enough people reach out to me and share that they would like to hear this, I would love to create an episode around nervous system in general and my knowledge and understanding of it and my journey. I think this would also be great to bring an expert to come and talk to us on as well.

So nervous system regulation is a big one. We are living in a world where things are happening fast, things are moving quickly, the news is terrible all the time, and it is just really rough to move through. And if you can regulate your nervous system and operate from a place of regulation, it is going to unlock so much potential in your business, and you're just gonna be 10%, 100%, a million percent happier.

Candice (16:34.988)

The next operating standard is a different, is different as we're shifting now into client experience. So we've talked about marketing. We've talked about your body and your own wellbeing. And now we're talking about your clients. And I believe that high touch client experience are going to be the differentiator this year. And you need to be creating high touch client experiences that tech cannot replace.

We are living in the age where AI has already eliminated certain elements of the workforce. And if you pay attention to AI news and the conversation that tech leaders are having, this is only going to become worse. There are roles in the wedding industry that will become obsolete. There are things that we do that are no longer going to be necessary because AI is going to handle it.

And so that is where this operating standard comes from. It is a reaction to a industry where for many years we placed automation above everything. We were so obsessed with automating everything, emails, invoices, contracts, workflows. You we created 20 step complicated workflows to do things behind the scenes.

thinking if we could just get all this shit off our plate, our lives would be so much better. Our businesses would be so much better. And while automation is necessary in this day and age, you you can't do everything the old school way. I do think that many people over automate it, their businesses and removed a lot of the human element to their, to what we do as, as wedding industry business owners. And what I will tell you is, that the businesses that focus on

high touch client experiences that tech can't replace will become more in demand than the businesses that do what chat GPT can basically do for you.

Candice (18:42.444)

I see automation as something that handles the logistics of how things get from A to B, but as a human, you have to handle the judgment. And only you can bring personalization, thoughtfulness, discernment, and taste to this for your clients. And couples will very soon...

be seeking out service providers who focus on that human touch, that discernment, taste, thoughtfulness, personalization, especially luxury clients and high-end clients. This is already part of their entire buying process, which I have a whole episode planned on very soon, by the way.

Luxury clients, they don't give a shit about your checklist. They don't care about your 10 calls and all this bullshit. They don't care about that. They first care about your confidence. You come across confident enough to take this job, but they also care about how you are going to prioritize their needs and provide a high touch client experience. Even you in your business are prioritizing this. How do I know?

Because interest in my mastermind has never been higher, which tells me that people are craving high touch client experiences. They want direct access. They want access to me. They want access to the container I've built. They want access to that. I see that coming from the coaching side, but I also see it with the women I coach on the client side. They're landing deals and clients bigger than ever before.

because they are focusing on the access they're giving them and the expertise they bring to the table. So your edge here is not efficiency. It's not how quickly you can set up your DJ equipment. It's not how quickly you can get vendors to respond to you. I truly believe the edge that you bring, your competitive advantage, what is going to separate you this year is how you interact with people and the level of access you give them.

Candice (20:54.964)

And many of you need to rethink your strategy because so many of you have tried to limit the amount of access you give. And rightfully so, you're protecting your boundaries. But we need to find a new way to operate this year because access is what people want. The good news is if you focus on high touch client experiences, you get to raise your price because access costs money.

And the more human the element, the more expensive it will become.

Candice (21:29.26)

The next operating standard, number four, is developing real rich relationships. The wedding industry is relationship driven and we, in this climate, have to double down on the relationships that we have established and also the relationships that we need to build.

Real relationships and personal connections that compound over time are going to be your secret sauce. Algorithms change, marketing changes, but relationships will create long-term opportunity and stability for your business.

That is where you will find stability, vendor relationships, past clients, referrals, industry friendships. First of all, we need more human connection, more genuine human connection.

Candice (22:37.036)

And those connections will help your business in so many different ways, including bringing you more of the right clients. So ask yourself, what relationships am I nurturing? Who am I checking in with quarterly? Who am I really building something long-term? And where am I investing money and time relationally?

because those are the places that I want you to spend your money and your time this year. In our episode last week, we talked about relationships. So this should come as no surprise. We talked about how the industry is changing, how you need to get out from your office and get out there at an industry event, go to a conference, go to a retreat, join a mastermind, do something.

that gets you in the room with different people. And part of that is this, is this operating standard of building real relationships that compound over time. I know you're too busy to get a cup of coffee. I know that you don't want to go out to lunch. I know that you are tired of your brain being picked. It's okay to have boundaries, but I just want you to know

that relationships are important and don't sacrifice them at the altar of rigid boundaries. Okay. The next operating standard is a creative advantage that is rooted in taste and discernment.

It kind of goes hand in hand with a strong point of view. You need to have a creative advantage over your competitors, your taste, how you're able to look at something, how you're able to know whether it looks good or bad, how you put together something on wedding day, how you use lighting, how you create paper components, how you arrange flowers.

Candice (24:49.031)

This is your advantage.

And I need you to focus on developing your taste, your skillset, your instincts, studying design and creativity and looking at outside the wedding industry for inspo and for creative delight. do this in planners playbook. have a whole trend report that we really see each month. And this month I dissected.

Couture Fashion Week in Paris and it was so fun for me to do. I mean, I love doing this. Our members love watching this because it gets them to look outside of the wedding industry for ideas. The opinion you hold on design, on creativity, on what it is that you do is extremely valuable. It is actually part of your value. And so discernment, editing, what you leave out.

The confidence that you have in your designs, in what you make and what you produce. This is your advantage. This is your edge. And when you lead with this, your photography style, your design style, your invitation style, even the style of DJ you are. When you lead with this, people begin to seek you out for it.

They also start copying you, which is good. It means that you're standing for something that people want to be a part of or are they see you and they want to replicate what you're doing. It's a good thing, even though it's super annoying. a creative advantage rooted in taste, discernment, judgment. This is one of your superpowers this year and it has to be your focus.

Candice (26:46.006)

If you don't feel strong in your design skills, if you don't feel strong in your creative skills, if you need help here, seek out guidance, mentorship, study how to do this better. You do not have a choice. AI can do the busy work that you do behind the scenes. It can help people make decisions. It can spell things out. Does it do it well and accurately all the time? No, but it can still do it.

Your creative advantage is something that technology and AI cannot take. And quite frankly, a lot of beginners don't have just yet. So as an OG in the industry, if that's you, and if you're so tired of the new planners on the block, the new florists, the new invitation designers, the people who think they can just make pretty paper, I hear you, I feel you.

But your creative advantage rooted in your taste, your discernment, your judgment, how you see the world, how you see things, how you put things together is what you need to focus on. And that is what is going to separate a novice, a newbie, a beginner from someone like you. So start owning it. Okay? Okay. Your opinion on things, your style, it's part of your value.

The next operating standard is you need to have a weekly active sales activity. You have to be selling all the time. If you post in ghost, if you put things out there and just think that people are just gonna come to you, my friend, that is not how things work. That level of behavior is earned and it is given to a select few.

of wedding industry professionals who've been doing this a long time and do not need necessarily to market their business. However, they still choose to do it. So if you watch them, you will see that they still choose to be on the cutting edge of marketing. They don't have to do it because their business is largely relationship driven, but they choose to do it. So you need a weekly active sales activity. Sales, my friend, is a behavior.

Candice (28:58.24)

It is something that you do every day, like make your bed and tie your shoes and put food in your mouth. I need you to start thinking of sales on that level. If you're passive, you're just posting and hoping or posting and worse, posting and ghosting. You're not going to get clients. If you are active, if you're doing direct outreach, if you're following up, if you are building those relationships, if you're pitching, you're going to see better results. So my questions to you are, what are you doing weekly?

that directly leads to revenue in your business, consider putting a day on your calendar and calling it your sales day and do sales generating activities, follow ups, marketing, relationships. Weekly, we need to be doing this. So what are you doing weekly that is directly leading to revenue? And are you tracking it?

No, you need to be. That's going to help you make better decisions. And are you being intentional? Are you just throwing things around and hoping it sticks? Are you just jumping from trend to trend? Are you listening to 50 podcasts and you're doing every single thing each host tells you to do? And so you're moving around in a million directions or are you getting intentional and focusing on the right things and leveraging the right things?

If you can make sales a consistent behavior, it's going to stabilize your income. And that is something that wedding pros need so badly. I see the highs, I see the lows. One month you get three sales, you're on top of the world. And then two months, boop, nothing. And you're freaking the fuck out. You're freaking out. You're like, Candace, what do I do? Everything's falling apart. And then a month later you get five sales and you're on top of the world again.

Imagine if you could have more stable income. It is possible, but it is not possible unless you have a stable sales strategy. So make that a priority this year. And if you want more discussion around sales and if you would like more support in sales, you know what to do, DM me, tell me what you're struggling with. Tell me what you want me to talk about. Okay, we have reached the final operating standard for 2026.

Candice (31:16.354)

And you will be so happy to hear this one, because I'm asking you to do a lot this year, but I'm also asking you to do all of these things under clear boundaries around your time, around your price and around your services. And very important, these boundaries do need to be in place, especially if I'm gonna ask you.

to focus on sales and pitching and putting yourself out there and create more access for your clients, you have to have good boundaries because you cannot grow sustainably without them. You can't. And your nervous system, if I'm telling you be regulated, regulation comes from boundaries, OK? So we have to talk about underpricing just to book the job, that scarcity.

We have to talk about over-customizing things that's killing your productivity, it's killing your client experience. We have to talk about scope creep and how you are just saying yes to everything, just trying to make everybody happy, but it's costing you your peace. We need to talk about being constantly available. Access doesn't mean that you, I'm not a gym, you don't get 24 hour access to me, okay? But you do get access and you get access,

that other people don't get. But it's within my boundaries around my time and how I want to show up. So you can't be constantly available anymore to your clients. It's destroying your nervous system, okay? And it's destabilizing your business. So in order for you to grow, you need to have energy, okay? Think about it like this. In order for a garden to grow, it needs to have energy. Where does it get that energy? Well, it gets its energy from the sun, right?

Energy requires protection. If you're going to grow and you know you need energy, then we need to protect that energy so that you can grow. How do we protect that energy? Through boundaries. We create borders. We create safeguards so that you can operate within these boundaries. Okay?

Candice (33:26.958)

If you want a business that is going to be sustainable throughout the changes of this year, you do need boundaries. And some of these boundaries actually need to be around how much time you're spending on social, how much time you're spending watching the news, how much time you're spending consuming things. I have a beautiful episode and it's about how your inputs affect your outputs. We'll link to it below. If you.

know in your soul, deep down in your gut, that you are in a routine that is not supporting you. You are doom scrolling too much. You're in social media too much. You're comparing yourself too much. You are too connected to everyone and everything. That episode is going to help you so much. The truth is, is

we're all wait, we know too much shit about each other. Like I don't need to know what you had for breakfast. Do you know what I'm saying? I know way too much about way too many people that I will probably never meet in real life. And it is having an effect on all of us. So boundaries around your time, but not just the time you spend with clients, or if you're going to have a coffee date with a vendor who wants to pick your brain. I'm also saying about where you choose to spend your time.

And if you're spending a lot of your time on social media or in places where you are not in control of the information and what you're consuming, you are really jeopardizing your business, your health so much. We were never meant to see so much of somebody else's life. I I enjoy it to a point, but I can tell when I've spent too much time on social, my nervous system starts to go cray cray.

And I'm willing to bet yours is too. So I really want you this year to operate within these operating standards, but set boundaries so that you can protect your energy. If you want to grow this year, even if you want to recalibrate, if you want a steady year, it still requires energy to do those things. And in order to reserve that energy and apply it to the right things, you have to protect it. And that's where boundaries come in.

Candice (35:51.246)

So those are my seven operating standards. Let's go through them real quick one more time, and then I'm going to give you some final thoughts. Number one, a strong point of view and a sea of sameness. Two, nervous system regulation. Three, high touch client experiences that tech cannot replace. Four, real rich relationships that compound over time. Five.

A creative advantage rooted in your taste and your discernment. Number six, a weekly active sales activity. Number seven, boundaries. Clear boundaries around your time, pricing, and services, and so much more. Now, if you're not sure what to focus on this year, focus here. Return to these operating standards. Write them down. Put them a sticky note on your computer.

Put them on a whiteboard in your office. Put them on a vision board. Let them shape how you evaluate things like opportunities, how you set goals, how you decide what's worth your energy or if a client is the right fit or if you're gonna do, you know, number 10 styled shoot this year. Let it help you evaluate things. Use it as a filter.

Candice (37:14.52)

For me, this year is about building something that feels steady, feels human, that is profitable, but also sustainable. That's what I want for you. So I'd love to know which of these operating standards feels the most activating for you.

Where did you get activated? Activated could be like positive or it could be negative in a way like where it stressed you out or it brought up something for you. Which one feels the most uncomfortable? I think that all that is information as to where you might want to focus first. And of course, I'd love to know which one of these operating standards caught your eye. Share it with me. Open up your phone, DM me on Instagram, share with me.

what operating standard you're going to be focused on first. I would say the most, because I think they equally need all the love, but where are you going to start first? Now inside wedding pro insiders, WPI, my mastermind, this is the work that we're doing together this year. We're really trying to build a business that leads boldly, but is not reactive to every single shift or change or

or client request, but a business that is very grounded and rooted in the right things. And if you want to explore these operating standards with yours truly, you know, you can sign up for the WPI waitlist. You can reach out to me and ask questions. And if it feels like the right fit, I'll send you details on how to apply.

All right, friend, thank you so much for being here. And also thank you so much for caring about the way that you build your business. I know you're here because you care and I appreciate that so much. I want to remind you there's so much power in your purpose. I will see you next week. Take care.