Candice (00:10.264)

Hey, hey, it's your coach Candace. Have you ever made an investment in your business? Maybe a new website, you hired a coach, you bought a course, you went to a conference, you invested in a rebrand, you hired a new person on your team, hired a subcontractor, and you found yourself a few weeks later wondering, did I just waste my money? Today we're talking about why so many entrepreneurs measure ROI the wrong way.

And why that's causing you to make worse business decisions. I also want to talk to you about how you can start evaluating investments like a real CEO, like a visionary, instead of somebody who's just chasing quick wins or expecting more immediate financial results. So, this episode is for every single wedding pro who is trying to decide where to spend their time, their money, and their energy and wants to feel more confident making.

those investment decisions. Let's get into it. Hey friends, welcome back to the Power and Purpose Podcast. If you're new here, I'm so happy you found us. You stumbled upon a great episode that is going to help you make so many smart decisions in your business. Every week here we talk about building a purpose driven wedding business. And we do that with strategy, a whole heck of a lot of honesty and real talk. I try not to sugarcoat anything.

And if this episode resonates with you, I'd love for you to hit follow. And if you are a returning listener, you know I want to thank you for being here every single week. It means so much to me. I love reading your DMs. I love when you reach out to me. I love when you tell me an episode resonated with you. So if you're listening to today's episode, it sparked something in you. I would appreciate it if you would just do me a big favor. Would you go over to Instagram, type in my Instagram at candis.copla, and shoot me a DM? I respond and I care and I want to hear from you.

I also would love for you to send this to a business bestie who might be trying to make a big decision right now and they're trying to weigh pros and cons and options, or maybe they've recently made a big decision and they need a little support in measuring the ROI of that decision. All right. So I came up with this episode inspiration because I, as you know, coach tons of wedding bros. And I am always answering questions in planner's playbook.

Candice (02:32.383)

I'm answering questions in my mastermind, Wedding Pro Insiders, whether it's on Boxer in a one-on-one coaching call, in a group call. And we are always measuring ROI and talking about investing in something and trying to untangle whether or not it is going to give us a return in our investment. And I think that a lot of people have a really narrow definition of ROI. And I want to start by saying something that might sound a little surprising.

As you know, I spend a lot of time telling business owners to know their numbers. I tell you this all the time on the podcast. I want you measuring your marketing. I want you understanding profitability. And I absolutely believe that we should be paying attention to financial returns. So many people do not look at this. But I also think that we've become a little obsessed with reducing every investment to one question, which is: did I make my money back?

Now, that question is not wrong. There's nothing wrong with that question. It is a question that I wish more people asked. But I do think that there's something incomplete about it. Because not every investment that you make as a business owner is actually supposed to produce immediate revenue. And some investments in your company, in your brand, in your business aren't revenue-producing investments.

And when we judge every investment that we make by a singular scorecard of like, did I make money? I think that we end up abandoning a lot of things that were actually working for you. And I see this a lot. Or we end up avoiding opportunities that could have changed our business completely. And gosh, I have a gazillion examples of this. So if I looked back over the last 20 years, well, 20 is a little too wide.

Last 19 years of my business and judged every investment just after 30 days, I would have convinced myself that half of them were mistakes. Like, I don't think that I would have ever been approached by a publisher for a a book deal, let alone getting to publish two books, if I measured what I was doing in the early stages of my career by ROI.

Candice (04:59.17)

I would have never done all of those styled shoots that got me a book deal. I would have never done it. It would have never, it would have never appealed to me. If I measured every single free pick my brain phone call I had, that I was just generous to answer people's questions about starting a business or running their own business, I wouldn't be sitting here telling you anything on a podcast, let alone coaching people and having a wildly successful coaching business.

So I could think back in a million different places where I invested my time, invested my own money, and wasn't necessarily measuring ROI as money back in my pocket. And I probably would have convinced myself that they were mistakes. The first coach I hired, the books.

The the styled shoots I was doing, the conferences that I attended, the team members I brought in, and even looking at my business today, no longer being a wedding pro, even launching certain programs and certain products. Now, some of the investments I made didn't pay me back immediately. And they actually weren't meant to. But I can draw a line, a straight line actually, from those decisions to the business I have today. And the funny thing is, I couldn't draw that line when I wrote the check.

When I made the decision. So before you invest in something that you are hoping has an ROI, I want you to ask yourself one question. What return am I actually buying? This is the question I wish more business owners asked before they spent money. Not will this make me money, not will this bring me a million dollars.

But what return am I actually hoping this creates? Because every investment should have a purpose. And different investments produce different kinds of returns. Not every investment is going to put money back in your pocket, let alone double the amount of money you put in your pocket or triple the amount of money. And if you don't define the success before you invest, you're probably gonna feel almost

Candice (07:13.332)

Always disappointed afterwards. So this question: what return am I actually buying should help you make better investments and also temper your expectations of what those results should be. Now, when I am looking to invest, or when a private client of mine comes to me and says, like, Candace, I want to get to a rebrand, or I want to go to engage.

I in instantly think about that investment and the ROI based on five different types of ROIs. So I think, okay, is this a financial investment? Is this a capability investment? Like, what are we doing? And what I'd like to do is take you inside my brain as a coach.

So that you can start asking the same questions and running your investments past what I look for as a business coach and guide people toward. So these are the five types of ROIs that I look for as a business coach. And I think your investment needs to at least tick off one. If it ticks off more than one, cool, that's great. It's like extra credit, but it definitely doesn't need to. The first is the obvious one, and the one that everybody jumps to, but it's financial ROI. Some investments absolutely

should generate measurable revenue. And I don't want to sugarcoat that. I don't want this episode to lead you into thinking you don't need to know your numbers and that certain investments should not produce revenue. They absolutely should. Paid advertising, if you're doing meta ads, Google ads, if you're going to bridal shows, if you're paying to be in a vendor directory, like those things are paid advertising and they absolutely should have a measurable revenue ROI. And you should know before you invest in that

What you hope that ROI is. And if the return on your investment is not there, that is data and information for you to make a decision of whether you want to renew those contracts, continue investing in paid advertising in those directions. So examples are paid advertising, things like bridal shows, which you know I'm not a huge fan of, but they work for some people, lead gen, referral partnerships, certain softwares should actually give you a financial return on your investment, marketing campaigns.

Candice (09:37.428)

These deserve fine financial metrics. And so you've got to ask questions like, did my inquiries increase? Did my bookings increase? Did my revenue exceed the investment? And a question that I don't think anybody asks is what's my customer acquisition cost? Like, how much did this raise my acquisition cost of getting a new customer? And was it worth it? And this is where numbers really do matter. And I don't want you ignoring them.

But financial ROI is not the only picture we're trying to paint. So the second one that I think of when somebody's bringing me an idea is capability ROI. Some investments are not actually buying revenue. They're helping you acquire skills. This is examples are hiring a business coach. Hiring a business coach doesn't guarantee that you're going to make more money, but it should help you acquire better business skills for sure. Especially if that business coach has a specific narrow focus, you're buying a very specific hopeful result.

So hiring a business coach, taking a course, learning AI, learning a new skill, learning a new trade, improving your sales process, purchasing better equipment, investing in education and your skill set. This is all about becoming more capable. And you're expanding what your business is actually able to do. And that is exciting. I don't think anybody expects to pay Photoshop a a sum of money and become an incredible designer overnight. Like we're buying the software.

But the software is not helping us necessarily become more capable, right? And so capability is something that can compound over time. And through becoming more capable and investing in your skills and even investing in skills that other people are not willing to make the investment in, I I think of photography right here and I think of film. I think of somebody who can walk around and shoot film has an incredible capability.

And if you want to, and there's not a huge amount of people that are doing that. Why? Because it's first of all, it's risky. And second of all, it requires that you develop a new skill set and you be able to produce images with limited information in the moment. So we're not relying on what's the back of your camera is saying. We're hoping and praying that we load it in the film right, that the film's gonna be processed right, that you set your exposure.

Candice (11:59.328)

Right, that you did all these things technically right. And not everybody is willing to invest in that and take the risk. It also is an additional expense. You got to buy the film, you have to have the film processed, you probably have to store, you know, the negatives and things like that. So it's going back into more of an analog style photography that which the majority of photographers are not willing to do. But the ones that are can charge a lot more money, like a considerable amount.

So it's up to you investing in education on how to do that, investing in the process, investing and really investing your time, your energy, months, years of developing these skills can equate into a pretty sizable increase in your fee. So the ROI is there in the months and and more like years to come.

It's not there immediately. And if you were judging immediate ROI on that, you would probably be pretty disappointed. But you can see if you invest in your capability, that compounds over time. And over time, so many different opportunities and windows open up for you that do eventually become money in your pocket. The next ROI filter I look through as a coach is relationship ROI. And this is the one that I think wedding pros underestimate all the time.

All the time, whether it's local relationships, whether it is more international relationships that you build, you go to engage, you go to something like kinetic, you go to be sage, you fly across the country for a networking event, and then you come home and say, Well, I didn't book any weddings. I mean, that's a silly way to look at it. You have to think, who did I meet?

Who knows my name now that didn't know my name before? Who introduced me to somebody? Who became someone that I can actually text when I'm stuck? Who invited me into an opportunity? I mean, I have such a funny, a funny memory of

Candice (14:00.854)

When I decided I was gonna move to Barbados and switch up my entire life to be with a man who is now my husband, I told a group of people on a fam trip to Costa Rica. I didn't even tell my I didn't even tell my friends. I told a small group of people who are my friends.

And we were on a boat on a catamaran. It was the funnest day. It was me, Allie Phillips, Amy Moynihan from Tropical Occasions, David Beam, Rishi Patel, Jess Gordon was there, Anne from Daughters of Design. I hope I'm not leaving anybody out. I'm I'm sure I am. I have a photo of us all in my office from that trip. And I'm on this boat with people who are I'm friends with, but I wouldn't say I would confide in. And I just said, you know, I'm thinking about doing this. And to tell to

To to to tell you how encouraging they are would be an understatement. And they were like, girl, do it. And I think back to that moment in time, being on that boat, being on that fam trip. I would have never gotten to experience that. A free trip to Costa Rica, staying at the Four Seasons, having this amazing trip and spending time with all these great people, had I not been to engage. Had I not met somebody like Allie Phillips and then met Amy Moynihan. I would have never had that experience. And I

Would it that that memory would not be lodged in my in my brain. And I've had so many instances of that, of developing relationships with people through networking, going to events, going to conferences, meeting people, and those people introducing me to more people and expanding my opportunities, expanding who I know in the industry. And we know that in the wedding industry, who you know is really important, especially my friends, as you get into the luxury space. Relationship ROI is probably one of the single most

Important things you can do if you want to book clients who have a lot of money.

Candice (15:59.82)

It's all who you know, and it's all the relationships that you have. So imagine if you didn't go to an event and develop those relationships, you may not have access to certain things. Relationships often have a lot of delayed payouts. And the payouts aren't necessarily money, but they certainly can be. And they certainly usually are. But there are other payouts like being on a catamaran and having a fun story that you get to tell.

Sometimes the ROI shows up in the moment, and other times it shows up three years later. But the point is, if you're measuring every relationship by the instant ROI it gives you, it's not painting the full picture. And if you abandon certain relationships or you just think, that's not gonna give me anything, I'm not gonna spend the money, you're missing out on a lot of opportunities. So I always think what's the relationship ROI on this decision?

And could it be something that can compound over the weeks following meeting people, months, and years, and even decades?

The next window that I look through is confidence and confidence ROI. And this one is kind of hard to measure, but it is actually really important and incredibly real. Sometimes an investment changes how you show up. Professional branding might change how you start marketing and talking about your business. New headshots might make you motivated to start sharing. If you start putting yourself out there on Instagram talking,

Taking a little inspo from Jesse Jean's Yap challenge, which is a viral sensation right now, that could lead to more confidence, which could lead to who knows what. Hiring your first team member, all these things help to build confidence. And confidence is incredibly important in business. Confidence is the difference between getting hired by somebody and not getting hired.

Candice (18:07.394)

You could have the shiniest website, the nicest sales deck. You could do everything right behind the scenes. Everything could be beautiful, gorgeous. But if you're not confident in what you produce and in what you do, and in the fact that you can photograph that wedding, you can do the flowers for that wedding, you can show up and do the design of that wedding, nobody's gonna hire you. And so investing in confidence is so important. And we have to look at some of these things and

Recognize that sometimes the confidence isn't immediate. But in some instances, investing in professional branding, investing in a course that helps you communicate better, helps to build your confidence. And when you become more confident, you can raise your price. You can pitch yourself to a higher value client. You might actually be tagged in on the team for a very, very big wedding.

Thinking about Taylor Swift's wedding. And I think about all the amazing small business owners that got a chance to be a part of that. And I know that there was probably an enormous amount of people who were tapped to participate in that wedding, whether they were subcontract for something, whether they were their teams were hired. I mean, that wedding was a sensation. And we don't even at this stage of recording this on Tuesday, July 7th, know what it looked like. But I know one thing for certain.

That there were teams of small businesses that developed relationships and needed to have confidence in order to be tapped for that wedding.

And confidence changes behavior. It changes how you show up. It changes how you talk about yourself. It changes how you operate. And behavior changes results. So confidence is often the first domino in a series of dominoes that you need to knock down in order to be a part of some of these conversations. And confidence ROI is incredible, it's important.

Candice (20:10.87)

And I see it every day in my students who join my programs and develop confidence in their process and their marketing. I think about my students who sign up for my course, the Wedding Planning Business Blueprint, which helps them launch a wedding planning business. And it's what I'm trying to instill in them in every video, in every phase, and everything that we do is confidence. Because I know that when you're starting a business, confidence is what matters the most.

But I also know that when you're trying to grow a business, when you're trying to edge out a business, when you're trying to narrow a niche of a business, when you're trying to raise prices, when you're trying to enter into new markets, when you're trying to do something big that is outside your current scope of understanding, confidence is what's going to get you there. And you've got to build it where it does not exist. So investing in things that help to raise your confidence is ever so important.

Coaching does that for for sure. I can say confidently that the women that I've coached throughout the entire span of my business have bought results, but they gained a lot of confidence. And that is something that I am so proud of. I'm proud of the results, but I'm more proud of the confidence that I have helped thousands of women have in themselves and in what they're doing. And boy, that is so gratifying from my vantage point.

But it's gratifying for you. So confidence is one of those ROI things that I look at. The final measurement of ROI is how it compounds. So some investments don't pay you once, they pay you over and over again. I want you to think about blogging SEO. And I know all my marketers who listen to this podcast are like, hallelujah. That is one return on investment where it just keeps compounding. That blog post that ranks ranks for years and it just keeps bringing you in fresh leads. Same thing with SEO.

Email marketing is something that can compound over time. Brand visibility, brand recognition, brand reputation. Systems in your business compound over time. The simpler they get, the easier are the easier they are for you to use, and the easier they make work compounds. Training your team is a perfect example of an ROI that compounds over time. You spend the time developing the trainings.

Candice (22:32.083)

And let's be honest, that shit takes time. It is a lot for you to wrap your head around. You recognize that you've got a million issues going on behind the scenes, and you're like, this is nowhere near where it should be to bring a team member in. So your instinct is to start fixing things and it just takes forever. But you build it once. And then now you can train 10 people on it instead of training 10 people individually all the time. So there are a lot of things you can invest in that compound over time.

And these become assets. And assets should compound. The problem is, compounding this stuff feels super boring. Right? We're not like seeing that instant result. It's not the reel that goes viral and suddenly we have a thousand followers that we didn't have yesterday. It feels super boring. And it feels really hard. It feels it I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. It's not fun creating SOPs. I mean, unless you're like.

An SOP creator. I love creating SOPs. I love building systems. That's something that I enjoy because my brain, my brain c craves it. But not everybody does. So it feels really boring in the beginning. But in six months, 12 months, three years later, hello, these investments become very sexy.

And you think to yourself, sure, that was a bit of a drag in the moment, but that compounded over time. And look at what that investment brought me. And it becomes the foundation of a business that is often easier to run and creates money easier. Now, I want you to take a lesson here from some big brands. When I was thinking about this episode, I was trying to contextualize like,

A big brand that makes investments that don't often have an immediate financial ROI. I think larger companies actually understand this much better than small business owners do. And for good reason, they have more capital, they have more money to spend. So for them, they can spend $2,000 here, $500 here. And it's like not a big deal. But when you're a small business, $2,000 is, you know, can be a lot of money, right?

Candice (24:50.584)

But I want you to start thinking like a big business because if you keep thinking like a small business, you're always gonna be small in your mindset. So think like a company like Flowdesk. They sponsor educators, they sponsor creators, they support people, they'll contribute towards your conference, they'll send merge, they'll give you money, they invest in their community. They're always asking, what are you doing? Tell us, we wanna be a part of it.

Do you think that they're expecting every single dollar that they spend, whether they're giving people physical money for sponsorships or they're sending over awesome Flowdesk neck necklaces? Or in my case, they brought us out to Lisbon, a small group of us, about two years ago. And we had this most amazing trip, which probably cost them a gazillion bucks. Do you think that they were expecting immediate subscriptions from us next week? Do you think that they thought we were gonna leave Lisbon and just go to our communities and be like, you have to sign up for Flow Desk? And

You know, they would get a thousand subscribers in a week? Of course not. That's because they're building something much bigger. And they've actually invested heavily in their educator program, in their affiliate program. What they're building is trust. They're creating trust. They're creating goodwill. They're building relationships. They're helping people feel supported. They're creating a lot of loyal customers and they're investing in an ecosystem. And I think that's such an important reminder. And I would ask you, you may not

arguably have a $40 million company that can, you know, fly a bunch of people out to a foreign country and treat them to three days of spectacular entertainment. But if you have got a small sum of money and you are looking to make an investment, how could you invest in creating trust, in creating goodwill, in building relationships, in helping people feel supported, in creating loyal customers and investing in an ecosystem?

Candice (26:41.1)

I think the key takeaway here is small businesses often measure transactions. And that's because every transaction is really important, right? That's why I want you to stop thinking like a small business, because great businesses measure momentum. And momentum eventually becomes revenue. But you have to be willing to think beyond today's sales, this month's sales, and sometimes this season sales, the sales for the year.

Now, I do want to be careful because I don't want you walking away thinking, well, I'm just gonna start spending money. I mean, I want you to spend some money on your business. If you're clutching your purse strings all the time and you're not investing in anything, babe, we have to have a serious talk. Maybe that's a whole nother podcast, is just, you know, getting your nervous system to invest in some stuff, especially if you've been burned by bad business coaches or bad educators, which is a problem in and of itself. But

I don't want you walking away thinking like, okay, I'm gonna start spending oodles of money and not have a strategy. And I don't want you think I want you thinking everything is about building awareness because no, some investments again should absolutely perform for you. If you're spending money on ads for six months and nothing is improving in your business, you probably need to evaluate that. If your marketing isn't generating inquiries, if you've hired a marketing team and it's just not doing its job, you need to take a look at the data and you need to be like, okay, something's not working here.

But some investments, and I would say a large amount of investments do deserve a lot of patience. While others need accountability. And part of becoming a stronger business owner is knowing which is which. What investments in your business need patience, and what investments need accountability. And that's up for you to decide. I can't decide that for you. And quite frankly, I don't want to. I want you to understand what that looks like in your business.

And to make business decisions from your own gut, intuition, and experience and not always rely on someone like me to make those decisions for you. So here are some questions that can help you define this. Questions to ask yourself before you spend money. Write this down.

Candice (29:00.598)

What return am I actually buying? Biggest question. How will I measure whether this worked?

What's a realistic timeline for seeing results? Is this supposed to generate revenue or build something that eventually generates revenue? And final question: if this doesn't produce immediate sales, what are other outcomes that would still make this worthwhile to you? Those questions are going to help you make way better decisions than simply asking.

Will I make my money?

Candice (29:44.322)

Now, I think the entrepreneurs, the business owners, the wedding pros who will build sustainable businesses are not always chasing quick returns. They make intentional investments. And I see this all the time in the women I coach. They understand that some decisions are going to create money while other decisions might help them build their confidence, create better relationships, create skills, or create momentum. And over time, all these returns.

begin working together. Which is why you can't measure someone's success against your own. You don't know what they've invested to get there. And you don't know how much money they've spent building confidence, creating relationships, creating skills, creating momentum.

And not just money, but the investment of their time. So here's what I'd love for you to reflect on after today's episode. Is there an investment that you've been calling maybe a failure simply because you were measuring it from the wrong return?

I don't know, maybe. Do some digging and ask yourself some of those questions above.

Candice (31:00.47)

And I just got a notification on my computer. It was time for me to record my podcast. So if you heard that, no, there's not a notification on your phone. That's just automatically baked into this episode to provide you with just a gentle cortisol spike. I should have turned on my do not disturb. But this is the real behind the scenes of recording. Just me in my office. Okay.

So another thing I want you to reflect on is maybe there's an investment you've been afraid to make because you're expecting it to prove itself too quickly.

If so, maybe you should look at that investment from a different perspective, the one that I've given you today. Because sometimes the biggest return isn't what lands in your bank account next month.

I think that it's the person that you're becoming because you made the investment in the first place. Think about all the investments you've made, the good, the not so great, and how they've shaped the entrepreneur you are today.

And what investments should you be making to help build the next version of you that your business needs? So if this episode gave you a new way to think about investing in your business, please don't let it stay as just an interesting idea. I want you to take a few minutes today, look at some of the investments you've made or one that you're considering, and ask yourself what the return is that you're really buying.

Candice (32:42.572)

And of course, if you're looking for more coaching like this, you're gonna find the links to all my programs and all my resources in the show notes. You know I would love to support you wherever you are in your business journey. And I wanna thank you for spending so much of your day today with me. I love being along on your workdays, on your drives in the car, on your ways to a wedding. On your ways to a wedding is one of the best ways to listen to my podcast because you're in the zone, babe. You're in work zone. Like it's a great way to try to pump you up.

And I try to be thoughtful about what we produce during wedding season. So the content is getting you thinking in the right direction, but not bumming you the F out. I don't want you walking into your wedding days feeling overwhelmed. I want you feeling lit up, excited. So make sure you follow the show if you're not already. I would also ask you very kindly, could you leave us a review? I love hearing from subscribers of the show, listeners, and it's one small way that you can thank me.

for the 200 plus episodes we've produced here and the work that we do, leave a review and share this episode with somebody who you think needs to hear it. All right, I want to remind you there is so much power in your purpose, and I will see you next week.