Candice (00:18.094)

Hey, it's your coach Candice. Have you ever had a problem follow you around for so long that you stopped asking why nobody had solved it yet and started wondering if maybe you were the one who was supposed to solve it all along? Well, today I'm telling you something that I have been holding on to what feels like forever, although it hasn't been forever.

And I'm really excited to share with you the biggest swing I think I've ever taken in my career. And to be fair to myself, I've taken some pretty big swings over the years. Well, what is this big swing that I'm taking? I'm building a software company. I'm building intelligent wedding planning software for planners. And it's called Q, C-U-E.

And this is day one of me building Q in public before everything is polished, packaged, and ready for you to purchase. I think this is the biggest, boldest, most exciting, and also most terrifying thing I've ever done in my career. And I don't want to share this with you, disappear and come back when it's finished and pretty. I really want to take you along on the journey of building this for so many reasons, which I'm gonna.

Share more with you about in this episode. So, this episode is for the wedding planner drowning in 18 open tabs and spreadsheets that are all called final, final, final, final, final version seven. And it's also not just for wedding planners, it's for every single wedding pro who works alongside a planner. And it's for anybody who's been sitting on an idea that scares them. I want you to know that this episode is gonna inspire you, or at least I hope it does.

So let's get into it.

Candice (02:10.882)

Hey, hey, welcome back to the Power and Purpose Podcast. If you're new here, I'm Candace. I'm your business coach, and you picked a wild week to start with. Because this is a brand new, exciting chapter, and you're getting a front row seat to day one. And to everyone who shows up here every single week, you know I appreciate you so much. Thank you for letting me coach you through your earbuds. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You were the reason why I get to do this. So please make sure you hit follow.

Before you go anywhere, in case you're not following the podcast. Because this is also not the last time we're gonna talk about Q, not by a long shot. I'm taking you behind the scenes while we build it, test it, break it, break it, fix it, and put it in planners' hands, maybe in your hands. And you already know exactly who needs to hear this episode. You need to.

Text your business bestie wedding planner, drop it in the wedding planner group chat that you're a part of in Instagram, and be like WTF, our girl Candace is answering our prayers. Okay, so I've been sitting on this one for a little while now, and I feel like I've probably almost blurted this out in 14 different places.

I have shared this with my students. So if you're a student of mine, you already know what's going down. And I have sort of seeded that I am working on something on Instagram, but I really haven't given you any context. But I feel like I've dropped enough breadcrumbs everywhere for some of you to know that I was definitely up to something. And over the years, I've been so fortunate to build a wedding planning company. I've built coaching programs, mentorships, courses. I've written two books. I've built a team. I built a whole business that reaches.

Thousands of wedding pros every single year around the world, but a software company that was not on my vision board for 2026 or really ever. And it's interesting because I actually have a lot of experience in this. And I'm pretty technologically savvy and I have been from a young age. And I am finding that this is coming so natural to me. And it's almost like a full circle moment. As a child,

Candice (04:30.858)

I worked an entire summer washing dishes at a restaurant so that I could afford to pay for half of a computer. My mom promised me that if I worked and washed dishes for the summer and I brought in half of what it cost to build a custom computer, that she would put the money towards the second half. So, girl, I washed dishes until I couldn't wash dishes anymore. And of course, you know, back in the 90s, there was a guy.

Who came to the restaurant who built computers and he built me my very first computer? And from the day that I logged into my AOL account, I started building websites. So I've been doing this since I was 15. Now, a website and a software are two different things, but there are a lot of similarities that I am recognizing these days. And so it feels very full circle that I would kind of come back to my roots of what got me.

interested in being online, what got me interested and curious about business because I believe it or not, I actually built websites for businesses when I was in high school and in college. So I've I have a fun little entrepreneurial journey here. And this opportunity came into my life in a way that I could have never planned honestly. But when I look when I look into the past and I look backward I can see that I've actually been preparing for years to do something like this.

And to understand why, I want to share with you a question that I get asked all the time. And it's Candace, what wedding planning software should I use? I have been asked this more times than I can count. I would say that I have been asked this question thousands of times over the years by brand new planners, seasoned planners who have completely outgrown their systems in the DMs, at conferences, on Zoom calls, like, babe, everybody's asking me this question. And guess what? I don't have an answer.

I don't have an answer because my honest answer was never one that I really wanted to give. It's like, I think most wedding planning softwares are absolute shit. I think they're shit for two reasons, by the way. Reason number one, they're built by some tech bro. Like, no, they see this opportunity that wedding planners don't have good software options. So they build something they think wedding planners want, but they've never planned a wedding in their life. So of course their software is.

Candice (06:52.64)

Not good. And then on the other side, you have people who are well intended but have really no experience planning weddings, or they only have the one singular experience they've had planning weddings. They don't have the knowledge and the experience of not only planning weddings for their own clients, but working with thousands of wedding planners. And so naturally, what's on the market is junk.

It doesn't function well. It does, it's not intuitive. And planners hate it. Hate it. And so I have tried my best to find alternative solutions. I even built an incre a crazy awesome Asana planning portal for planners, but that presents its own challenges because Asana was never built for wedding planners. You know, it was built for like robust business teams. So it works, but it doesn't work.

As well as a planning software that could do that plus so much more. And so what I actually told people was: use this for your CRM, use this other thing for project management, you know, use Google Drive for this or a tool for timelines, a spreadsheet for your budgets, you know, and then light a candle and pray. Pray that they all talk to each other.

It's like a housewife's cast trip where you've got way too much personality going on. Nobody's communicating, everybody's drunk. It's like the it's like a Vanderpump Rules cast trip. It is not fun. And I'm not here to tear anybody down, okay? I people have worked incredibly hard to build tools for this industry. And a lot of these tools have helped planners. So I am not going to sit here and bash anybody.

I have a lot of respect for people who had enough gumption and courage to see a problem and create a solution that they feel good about. But I can respect something and also recognize that I see a huge gap. And the gap is that most tools are good at like storing information. They give you a pretty filing cabinet. They, they, they, they, they are good.

Candice (09:12.248)

For the client to use. They're very client-facing. And I notice a lot of planning softwares can't seem to capture the planner market. So then they position themselves towards the clients as well. And that creates a huge issue. A huge and it and it and it corrodes trust.

And so they're good at storing information and they create a cute experience for clients. But the hardest part of planning a wedding is never where to create the to-do list. It's carrying the mental load of all the stuff. Clients, vendors, deadlines, budgets, relationships all at once spread across 15, 20, and for some of you guys, even more clients every single year.

And so what I hear from planners is they wish they didn't wake up.

Candice (10:09.014)

And just have a more decorative place to type a task. They wake up thinking, what actually needs me today? Which wedding is falling behind? Where am I dropping the ball? Who's waiting for something from me? Who am I waiting for something for? What decision is blocking five other decisions before this becomes a true crisis? And they're sitting there managing tasks, prioritizing, sequencing, deciding who needs to do what.

And all this effort and energy is wasted on task management instead of being applied to actually do your job. Also, most wedding planning softwares make you do all the thinking first. You gotta build the system, you gotta maintain it, you gotta remember what goes into the system, you gotta babysit the system to make sure it's still working and accurate. And the tool is like helping, right? I mean, technically.

But it's also handing you a second job, managing the tool, which is why I always say you should be able to plan a wedding on a back of a napkin. Meaning you should be able to do your job without needing a tool to do it. But imagine that you have a tool now that works for you and allows you to do your work. And this was the beginning of Q. And this just goes to show you that there was an opportunity for me.

Hiding in plain sight inside that question. For so long, people have been asking me this question, and I didn't even occur to me to create software. But that repetition of that question actually proved to be information. And here's a lesson for you. When people ask you the same question over and over and over and over again, start paying attention. We dismiss it because the answer feels very obvious to us. And sometimes we get a little annoyed by it. We're like,

I was just having a conversation with a client on Voxer about this very thing this morning. And I was like, pay attention to the questions your clients are asking, because that's often a problem that you should be solving or that you could solve. But a question that keeps following you around is showing you of an unsolved problem with your clients. And so repetition is information. I was hearing a recommendation request, but it was actually a signal to me that there was something here.

Candice (12:33.71)

Planners like they weren't necessarily asking me to name a product. They were saying, I can't find a system that fits how I work, that thinks like I think. I have the strategy you taught me, Candace, which I love through your playbooks and through your coaching programs, through your shop, but I don't have the operating environment to run it in. And that's a much bigger problem than picking between app A or app B. But the part that kept me really stuck in this was.

My own identity. You know, I'm a former luxury planner, I'm a business coach, I'm an educator. I mean, software founder was not something I ever thought I would put under my name and my email signature. You know, it's not a costume I ever thought I'd wear. And so I could just look at a software problem and still f like file this under great idea for somebody who's not me. I wish somebody would build that.

And by the way, people approach me every week with something they've built. And I log in and I'm like, nope, this isn't gonna work. I can immediately tell this isn't gonna work. And I'm like, thank you so much. I'm you know, I I could charge them for my knowledge, which I have offered to do, and they always kind of like, that's too expensive. And I'm like, okay. I could help them for free, which I mean, sorry, but no, I didn't spend 20 years.

Developing my skill set and expertise to just give it away per se. Or I could build it myself. And something I've realized in this process, now that I look back, is this like I filed this under an idea like great for somebody who isn't me because I didn't know how to code software, but I actually know a lot more than I gave myself credit for. It's just like I never experienced what it was like. So I didn't understand it. And I think sometimes we confuse not knowing how to do every part of something.

With not being qualified to actually do it. And those are not the same thing. And I should have recognized this in myself, and I should have recognized this to begin with, but I just didn't. You know, I didn't sew every linen or bake every cake or hang every light when I produced weddings either. And so leadership to me has never meant doing every specialized job myself. In fact,

Candice (14:50.936)

I have a whole email that goes out in my nurture sequence that says, you can't be a jack of all trades and a master of none. Like you gotta own what you're good at. And so it means vision, judgment, assembling the right people. That's what leadership means. My expertise is in code, but I actually know how it works. My expertise is in wedding planners, how they think, where they get stuck, what creates anxiety, what makes them feel safe, what makes what gets them excited.

And I'll tell you, that knowledge isn't just a cute little thing that you sprinkle on top. That's more than seasoning. That's the whole cake, babe. That is that is the whole recipe. That is the strategy for the product. And so while I couldn't see it all on my own, somebody else helped me see this. And this is where I want to introduce you to my guardian angel, Martha. You might actually know Martha because Martha is one of the co-founders of Flowdesk.

And a lot of you use Flowdesk. Why? Because Flow Desk is freaking awesome. It's founded by two women, Martha and Rebecca. And they built like a $40 million year SaaS company from nothing with no outside funding, fully bootstrapped. And you know Flowdesk as the thing that makes sending a beautiful email feel actually doable if you're not a designer or a tech person. And what Martha and Rebecca built is like a huge it's incredible what they built.

And it is amazing to see how it has completely transformed the small business world. And I have an enormous amount of respect for the scale and thoughtfulness behind a company like that. And so you're probably wondering how Martha plays into all of this. Well, Martha DM'd me and said, Candace, how would you feel about turning your full service planning playbook into software? And I was like, that would be amazing because most wedding planning software is total shit.

And I just didn't think this conversation was really gonna go anywhere. And she's like, when can we jump on a call? I want to talk to you about this. And I was like, Are you for real? I looked at my husband and I was like, babe, Martha from Florida is messaging me about building software. Like, this is crazy. I messaged my team in Slack, and my my team member Kara was like, Yeah, I saw that DM. And I was like, my God.

Candice (17:09.442)

So Martha and I get on a call, and Martha presents me the opportunity of a lifetime. And before I tell you about that call, I want you to know that I have built a real relationship with Martha. And I think I even shouted Martha out two episodes ago when I was talking about ROI. I got to meet Martha in person when Flowdesk flew myself and a small group of partners, affiliates, people who promote Flowdesk to Portugal to meet the team.

And to be a part of like an activation, a partner activation. They treated us to a week in Lisbon. We had the most incredible time. And we really built relationships amongst the partners that got flown out to Lisbon, but also the founders of Flow Desk, Rebecca and Martha. And Martha got to know my work, my industry, the planners I coached. She was so excited about my work. And honestly, it was so wonderful to meet someone like her who got her start.

At a SaaS company and had the idea for Flowdesk, and it just hearing their origin story is so inspiring. And so Martha and I developed this great relationship, kept in touch here and there. And I want you to know that, like I got invited on this trip, and I could have never expected that I would be recording this podcast episode two and a half years later. I would have never expected that we would be two years later. Sorry, it's been two years. I would have never expected.

That I would be recording this episode. I would have never expected that I would be presented with this opportunity. And it just goes to show you that sometimes you can't see the ROI on a situation until the opportunity later presents itself, which is what we were talking about in the ROI episode. Now, Martha approached me about this. We got on a call, and we, she's like, here's how we're gonna do it.

We're I'm gonna give you access to this new software that I'm building that's going to help you build your software. And then I'm gonna back this all up with a team of the most talented engineers in the world who are going to work alongside you to build your software. And I literally started crying on the call. I was like, is this real life? She was like, I can't like we both have a moment where we're like, my God, this is the craziest thing. And

Candice (19:29.688)

From that day, Martha has kept her promise. She has given me guidance, mentorship, perspective, and access to people who could actually build something for you. She wasn't just like, you should build software and then, like, you know, plant the idea. She created a path. She connected the vision that I have to the support I need and the people who could bring into life.

And you know, it's so fascinating because I think sometimes we're standing so close to our own work that we can't see the full shape of it. And some here comes somebody, a coach, a mentor, a friend, somebody who has built something real, and they have a different vantage point. And they can look at everything you've built and say, do you realize what this could become? And that's what she did to me. That's what she did for me. And so Q would not be happening like the way it is without Martha.

And I don't want her to be a footnote in this journey. And I don't want to share this because it sounds impressive, although like low-key it is. Like having Martha from Flowness reach out to you and like offer you this opportunity is a flex. Okay. But it's her belief in me and her generosity. These are the things that I am I am taking with me out of this experience, plus so much more. And you know, I think about relationships and the most meaningful relationships in my career.

You know, have have materialized over just human connection and conversation. They've come from a cup of coffee. They've come from a bond over something, a hobby we share or an interest we have. And they come from conversations that are real, a sense of mutual respect, and also over time. And I think this is one of those beautiful, those beautiful examples of.

So let's talk about Q and what has transpired over since since Martha and I have met. Because, you know, the the I built an app can mean like 47 different things nowadays, right? Due to vibe coding. And so this is not me at my desk one weekend, like asking AI to stitch, you know, a few screens together and slapping a cute logo on it and saying, guess what, guys? I'm the new Steve Jobs at weddings. That is not, this is not that.

Candice (21:51.523)

This is a serious, serious fucking swing. I'm building a real product. I have a team of engineers. I've got access to an incredible group of people. We're building real infrastructure for this, real testing, security, data onboarding. we're almost in beta for this, by the way, which I'm gonna share how you can sign up for a wait list at the end of the episode. So please like hang with me.

these aren't the sexiest details of of software development, but I want to share them with you. We're focusing on all the real things. And this is because if I'm asking a planner to trust Q with her work, Q cannot be a toy. Q has to be, you know me. You know I don't fuck around. And if I'm gonna ask somebody to put their business in here and work on their clients' weddings, like I have to be.

1000% confident that this is gonna be not only the best software, but it's the most reliable. And I feel like every swing that I take at my stage gets a lot bigger. You know, I have an established company, I have a team, I have things at work, I have a reputation that I care about. And it would be so easy to keep doing what I'm doing, what I already know how to do. It's profitable, it's great. I love my work, I love my students.

But sometimes I feel like the next chapter asks you to leave the comfort of being known for one thing and to step outside your comfort zone. And that is exactly what I'm doing. That's exactly what I'm doing. And I'm I couldn't be more excited about it.

And so what is Q? Because it's more than just a planning software. It is the physical representation of everything that I have taught. And I think this is the part that means the most to me. And it's what what prompted Martha to reach out. Q is not me abandoning anything in my business, by the way. So like nothing is changing. This is an extension.

Candice (23:54.371)

But it is the literal extension of what I have been building for 15 plus years. If you've learned from me, if you've bought the blueprint to launch your business, if you are in the planners playbook or have ever been in the planners playbook, if you've been in my mastermind or in my mastermind, if you've attended a workshop that I have given, if you've bought a playbook from my shop or any tool from me, if you've learned from me at a summit anywhere on this earth, if you've met me in person and you're obviously listening to me on this podcast, you already have met pieces of what Q is.

You have already met the strategy of what Q is, because Q becomes the physical embodiment of everything I teach. And as I say this out loud, I know there's somebody listening who's like, I'm a photographer. I want to use Q. And I love that. I I I know there's somebody out there who's like, I'm a stationer, and damn it, I wish I was a planner. Maybe something will come along for you. Maybe somebody will solve the problems that you've been bitching about for years that your s that your software doesn't solve. But

Q is going to be me running your wedding planning process, me helping you run your wedding planning business. It's how to think about the planning journey, it's how to sequence all the work, it's how to build timelines and production schedules and budgets, and also how to stop running your business from that constant reaction.

Which planners really do get stuck in. And until now, all of us lived in videos, PDFs, templates, and the all the notes that you take while I'm just yapping away. And I love teaching you the strategy because I think it's like one thing to use the software. It's another thing to know like why you're doing certain things. So the strategy is really important. But right now I can teach you the strategy, but you have to go try to translate that into your own operating system. You've got to take the lesson and then build the deck, or you've got to take the framework and build the workflow.

And then remember how all of this fits together while you're still trying to run your business and like make things happen. And what Q does is it closes that gap.

Candice (25:54.285)

The strategy I teach you is in native in the software. So the strategy becomes the sequence you work from. The lesson becomes the workflow. And the advice that I would give you on a coaching call is a literally how the product helps you make decisions. I also am not building software to replace the planner, which a lot of wedding planning softwares resort to. Like I said.

What I've noticed over time is that they don't get enough users on the planner side. So they start bringing in the client, which replaces the planner. And planners hate that naturally because what the fuck? Stop doing that. I'm not replacing you. And in fact, I'm not building software for your couples. I'm building it for you. I'm building it for how you work, how you want to work, that aspirational version of yourself.

Everything is organized, you know exactly what's supposed to be happening that you can't seem to ascend to.

Candice (26:52.148)

I want Q to protect your judgment by taking the remembering to do things off your plate. I want Q to intelligently help you plan your weddings and assist you, but never become your brain.

I want you to think about how much of your brain is spent just on remembering what comes next, who owes you an answer, what payment is due, which vendor goes to do, like, it's so frustrating. And that is not the best way to use your talent. It really isn't. Technology should carry more of that remembering so that you can be more of the expert, so that you can do more of the leading part. That's my vision for Q. And when I say my vision, it's really our vision.

Because every planner who has ever asked me for help with her systems or with their systems, every student who has ever showed me a messy workflow and is like, could you help me clean this up? Every single member of my membership, the planner's playbook, who has ever said, like, I know what I'm supposed to do. I just can't keep up with it all. You have been handing me the research for Q for decades now. Decades. And I'm building this for you.

Now, AI will be a part of Q because I teach AI, but there's one thing about AI that I think I want to recognize early on, because I've already got AI in Q, because people are gonna assume that intelligent software just means a chat bot. And so AI is part of the bigger vision, but it's I don't see this. I mean, naturally it needs to have this. And I feel like software's solutions to this is like build a chat bot into everything. But that is not what we're doing here.

We need a chatbot that is has all my intelligence and is grounded in my methodology and can confidently lead you through the day-to-day operations as you need it and is there to eliminate pressure and reduce decision making for you.

Candice (29:05.6)

And so we have got intelligent software, but it's not just some like AI pop-up that's like, you know, ask me a question. And then it gives you like way more information that you can actually process in your brain. So let me paint the experience about Q without turning this into a 45 minute feature list. I'm gonna give you a couple of little things and then I'm gonna share with you how you can sign up.

For the wait list, okay, and what that means when you sign up for the wait list. So, first of all, Q has intelligent setup. When you join Q, instead of having to set up all your planning processes yourself, we are going to understand more about your business and load in all of my templates. Yeah, baby, questionnaires, timeline templates, all the things naturally, workflows, tasks loaded in for you.

And so this now is the intelligence behind Q. It understands what type of planner you are and it helps you set up your systems automatically. When you sign a new client, Q knows what to do next. Based on the level of service you've signed them at and what's included in your service, Q knows what to do next, and it also knows how to schedule tasks for you.

So that you can understand when to send your onboarding questionnaire versus understand when you should be sending the final details questionnaire, all based on the intelligent methods that I have coded into Q. So when it's Monday morning, instead of every task for every wedding in one giant list, or worse, you gotta click into every wedding and see siloed information. Q is going to bring this all together for you.

Not only that, it's going to allow you to manage your timelines, your day of run sheets, so therefore your production schedules, all vendors, payments, budgets, and so much more. And so much more. This is only the beginning, and this is just the first version of Q. There's when you see what we have built, you're gonna be.

Candice (31:26.038)

Absolutely amazed. And the best part is that it all makes sense. The workflows make sense. The amount of clicks you have to do, you have to do in order to create one thing to happen makes sense. It's intuitive, it's beautiful, it's easy, it's reliable. And my promise is that Q is going to allow you to grow your business and to plan and design incredible events.

So that you can get back to doing more of the things in life that you want to do. So many planners are spending late nights, task management, catching up on things, trying to untangle in their brain what the fuck is going on across all their clients. When you could be spending that time outside with your kids, girls' night.

Playing mahjong, going to a movie, going on a date night, or binge watching the latest season of the Valley. Which we need to talk about, Danny and Nia, but we can't do that here. We'll do it in my DMs. I need to know what your thoughts are about Danny and Nia this season. Okay, back to the point. Q is built for planners so that you are not spending all your time planning events. And it's gonna help you get a life.

That is my big vision. And so here's what I want you to go to candyscopola.com slash Q C U E and sign up for the wait list. When you do this, you will automatically be added to a special list of interested people. The first people to get access to Q will be members of the planners playbook. So listen.

If you want to become a member of the Planners Playbook, you're also welcome to go to plannersplaybook.com, sign up for the wait list, or just email me and say, babe, send the invoice. I want to be a part of Planner's Playbook because I want to be one of the first people to use Q. The way I plan on rolling out Q is to my mastermind first, and then in a few weeks, we'll roll out beta testing to Planners Playbook members. And for a good period of time, this will be accessible to members of the Planners Playbook until we feel

Candice (33:50.601)

so good about it that we are going to release it to all. So this is just a little friendly, you know, sales pitch. If you want Q and you want to be part of the beta, signing up for Planner's Playbook will fast track you. So you can do that and you can also sign up for the Q wait list. Candiscopola.com slash Q C U E. And there'll be some details on that page and you can sign up and it'd be on the wait list.

Which means you'll be one of the first planners to access Q, to start using Q. And if you're one of our coveted beta testers, there are a l, you know, I want to take care of you like crazy for your knowledge and your time. And so you're going to get access to Q first and then access to Q at a really special price moving forward, our beta tester price. Now

This episode is not just for planners. So let me speak to all of you who have been listening, and you're a photographer, floristation, or designer, a caterer, a venue, or some category I have not listed. You might be thinking, cool, Cadis, I really want to use Q, but damn it, you didn't build it for me. And I'm not the one opening this up every morning. So congrats. This is great. But I'm gonna tune out to any future Q episodes you might release. And that's fair. you can do that. But I also want you to know you're not off the hook because.

Starting Q means that I am now a beginner at something again. And I think being a beginner at something is humbling. And I am excited to be a beginner at something. I've already learned so much. And I want to take you along for the ride. There's a lot of knowledge that you are going to gain from my experience being a beginner at something. You're going to watch me work positioning, marketing, product fit, pricing, hiring, prioritizing things that my clients want.

founder psychology, all of this stuff in real time. And these decisions that I'm making all have big consequences, right? And you're gonna get access to that, which I think is so great because I'm gonna show up here on the podcast occasionally when it feels like I've got a great update or a lesson to share and talk about Q. And so I want you to pay attention because there's gonna be so much.

Candice (36:09.226)

About this process that is going to benefit your business. Even if you're ultimately not who I'm building Q for, you're going to learn from my journey of becoming a beginner again at something and building something from scratch. So, what does that mean? Because I do plan on building this in public. This doesn't mean that I'm going to be, you know, performatively building this and, you know, being, I hate when people are like,

Being performative online and like trying to show vulnerability, even though it's like not real. I am not gonna hide the process from you. And I'm not just gonna show you the shiny ending. I am gonna show you what really happens. I'll share with you the decisions I've had to make, the lessons. I mean, guys, here's the thing: this could be a failure. Like, I could be recording this podcast episode so hype about this idea, and you're guys like, this is gonna be awesome, and this could be a massive failure.

People could use Q and be like, this sucks worse. I don't know. I don't know. This could be the worst decision I ever make. I could sink so much money and time into this that it could bankrupt me. I don't know. I don't think that's gonna happen because history has shown me that that has not happened to me before. So I don't see why I would do that now, but it could.

And I know I'm gonna fail at things. I know I'm gonna stumble. I know I'm gonna fall. I know I'm gonna have a crying fit or a hard moment. And I'm gonna share that with you. I'm gonna share the lessons, the things I cut, the decisions I make, the moments that felt hard, and then also share what people tell me, what surprised me, what they loved about Q, what they got stuck on, what they hated. And then I'm also gonna celebrate because I think we've got this sort of weird habit.

Online habit of thinking that transparency only means like sharing the shit. But like I'm also gonna share the good stuff because I love celebrating the good stuff. In my mastermind every Wednesday, we celebrate the wins. We celebrate the wins. We don't always just talk about challenges. When we have big money months, when we do awesome, cool things, when we get great, great collaborations, we book an awesome client, when we freaking hit our sales goals, we don't shy away from that.

Candice (38:23.764)

We're like, holy shit, I did this, and I'm gonna have some holy shit. I can't believe this freaking worked moments here. And I want to do this partly for accountability because I think, like, if I'm doing this out loud, you guys like I gotta do it, right? Like, you've never seen me say I'm gonna do something and not do it. I mean, maybe I have in the maybe somebody here is like, I remember you said you were gonna do this, and probably. I mean, I know I've done that in the past, but like, I don't

record a podcast episode and say I'm gonna do something and then like not do it. So tr accountability is awesome, but also honesty. I know how to market. I know how to to to to I I know a lot, but I mean there's also some things that I don't know.

And I wanna show you the bullshit. So that's why I'm building this impossible.

Now, as we wind down this episode, and I hope you're so excited for Q. So go to candiscoppla.com slash Q sign up for the wait list. Sign up. Tell your planner friends. If you're a photographer and you're like, babe, I want to see inside Q, go, go right ahead. I don't care. The more people that are excited about this, the better. And if you want to be a beta tester, you've got to get your booty and planners playbook. And you can email me, you can reach out to a support at candiscoppa.com, email me at hello at candiscopola.com, DM me. I don't care.

Get in touch and be like, send the invoices 67 bucks a month, and Q is going to be included for beta testers in that program for now. So you're gonna get access to it plus all the awesome, cool shit inside Planner's playbook. So it's kind of a no-brainer. But here's the bigger lesson, and I think what happens next. For years, I was the person teaching planners how to build better systems. And now I have become the person building the place where those systems can live.

Candice (40:16.888)

For years, my methodology was the knowledge I gave, and now it gets to become the infrastructure you use. None of that happened overnight. None of that did. None of it did. This is 20 years of experience, both as a planner and as a coach for planners. And it's also years worth of networking, meeting people.

And I also have to give a shout out to my ads girls because Martha saw an ad for something in my shop and that is what piqued your curiosity. It wasn't that I was posting about this playbook in my shop all the time, because y'all know I don't do that shit. And I should really.

So the announcement of this is new, but I want you to know the preparation of building Q is not. I have been who I have been training for this shit since I was 15 years old. And it feels so exciting to be here in my career. I want you to pay attention to three things in your business related to what we talked about today. Number one, these are your takeaways. Write it down. The question people keep asking you, there could be an offer, a service, a product, an entire company hiding inside of that.

Two, the relationships that help to expand your imagination. Not every relationship owes you an opportunity. And that can never really be while you build one. I think if we're just collecting people so that we could collect money, that's not good. But the right person can help you see a future that maybe the current identity you have right now can't see just yet. And number three.

The idea you keep having that will not leave you alone is something to pay attention to. Now, granted, I see a lot of ideas. I see a lot of bad ideas. And I'm I have no problem saying to somebody, that's not gonna work. So not every idea deserves to become a business, but some keep coming back because they're attached to a real problem that requires your expertise or the expertise of somebody you know. And it's also a chance to serve people better.

Candice (42:34.13)

I want you to focus on that and focus on the fact that the work for that is becoming discerning enough to know which idea deserves the big swing. All right, friends, DMs are open, wait list is open, planner's playbook is open, email is open, everything is open. I hope you're as excited about this as I am. Do me a fave. If this episode got you.

So pumped for what is to come, share on your stories for me, tag me, and be like, OMG, Candace is fucking up the scene. I'm like, why do I want to say this? Don't say that unless it's on brand. but to be like, my God, my girl, our girl, just dropped a bomb. And I'm so excited. I want you to help me spread the word about Q, and I want you to spread the word about this podcast episode.

So I can get people listening to it. Because the more planners I can help with Q, the better the wedding industry will become, especially for you wedding vendors, you photographers, you caterers, you invitation designers. When your planners are organized and everything is on cue, they've got everything dialed in and all their tasks are on cue and their wedding planning is on cue. You're gonna reap the benefits of that because you're gonna have stunning, gorgeous.

Nervous system regulated wedding planners running shit in your neighborhood. And I can't think of a more powerful bitch than a regulated, organized, excited, and motivated wedding planner. Period. Period. I always said give wedding planners the keys to anything. Politics, elections, healthcare, complex problems. Wedding planners would solve that shit in a minute. And imagine what they're gonna be able to solve using Q.

All right, friends, thank you so much for letting me announce this today on the podcast. I'm so excited. I can't wait to keep you updated. Future episodes on Q will be loading. Nothing is changing in my business. None of my programs are going away. Everything, this is just an evolution. So do not fret. Podcast is not going to become a SAS podcast by any stretch, but I will be sharing the journey. All right, friends, thank you so much. I'm so excited for us. I want to remind you, there's so much power in your purpose, and I will see you next week.