Candice (00:00.088)

Hey, hey, it's your coach Candice. Back in January, I gave you my state of the industry, where we discussed five very specific shifts that I believe would define 2026 for all wedding pros. And I don't ever want to be the coach who makes a big prediction in January of the year and never checks back on her work. So over the last eight months, across hundreds of coaching conversations with my students and my private clients.

Planners, photographers, florists, designers, stationers, folks at every stage of business. I'm so fortunate to get to work with people entering the industry, all the way down to people exiting the industry. I've been watching what's actually happening behind the scenes. And as you know, I have a really unique vantage point because I work with so many different unique business owners. And it really helps me to see wider trends, spot bigger patterns.

And I love sharing that information with you. So today I'm giving you a mid-year report on the state of the industry. We're gonna go through each of the five shifts that we discussed back in January. And I'm also going to talk to you about two new things that I'm seeing across all of these conversations. And you're really going to want to stay to the end of the podcast because I think the last shift that we talk about.

Is probably the most difficult. And don't fast forward through the whole episode. Listen. I know your buttons, like, should I just hit that 15-second scroll and just fast forward through all of this? No, do not do that. Now, if you are new here, I want to thank you for joining me today. You're in for one heck of a conversation. So thank you so much for

Jumping in. I'd love it if you would subscribe to the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts wherever you listen to podcasts. So you always are notified when we have a new episode released. And today's episode is a little extra special because you're actually getting to hear a conversation that I had inside one of my private communities. So the podcast episode is actually a live conversation that I had with my students on this very topic. I considered maybe I should

Candice (02:14.988)

Record a separate podcast episode for this, but I thought, you know what? The conversation was so good. And it was really insightful. People were really appreciative of it inside the planners playbook. And I thought, you know what? You can kind of get a feel for what we talk about inside my programs as well as hear this great conversation, raw, uncut, unfiltered. So that is what you're listening to today, a state of the industry recap presentation that I gave inside the planners playbook in the month of August.

Now, before we get into the episode, I just want to provide you with a little Q update. If you're new here, I'm launching a software for wedding planners. Her name is Q C U E. You can go to planwithq.com to learn more about Q. But my update is we have just welcomed our very first beta testers.

And as of this week, this is the the the very first week that these guys have been inside the platform and they are giving us feature requests, giving us feedback. It's been so incredible to see their thoughts, ideas, opinions, how much they really love some of the foundational pieces of Q. And I just wanted to share how excited I am for our very first beta testers. So if you have yet to sign up for the wait list for Q, I highly

recommend that you do that. We're doing it as sort of a ticketing system where the date and time that you sign up on the wait list provides you with a number. And as we begin to roll Q out to planners later on this year, we will be going in the order in which you sign up for the wait list. So I highly recommend that you get your butt on the wait list if you are not already. You can go to plan with Q that's C-U-E dot com to sign up to learn more.

And I can't wait to share my next update with you guys. So stay tuned. Okay, let's get into the conversation I had with the planners playbook earlier this month and talk about the state of the wedding industry. Let's get into it.

Candice (04:27.362)

I am going to deliver to you some interesting news about the state of what's happening right now. And I'm excited to share with you a little bit more in this state of the industry mid-year check-in. And let me open this by just reiterating that in January of this year, I shared with you five shifts that I think would define this year. And in that live, I also said that I would circle back mid-year and discuss how these shifts have panned out.

And if my predictions were correct and any additional things that I think are changing. And that's what today's live is all about. And so we've got a little bit of a mid-year report. I'm gonna share with you what actually was true, what held up, what even maybe got more complicated or got sharper. And also two new things that I think you need to be paying attention to. And one of those things is kind of.

A difficult thing for us to talk about, but I think it's necessary. And the follow-up today is coming from hundreds of conversations that I've had over the last eight months. I had Claude do a lot of digging into my private coaching calls, into our group calls that we have here, into calls that I have in my other programs to bring forward things that I may not see, but are present in.

Hundreds of conversations that I have had. So it's it looked for patterns, it looked for evidence. And then I also did some research just on statistically what is happening in the industry. The first thing that I do want to say is as I don't think our industry is in decline. I've seen a couple of little comments here and there where they're talking about retractions. I don't think that that is the case, but as I said at the beginning of the year, I do think we're in a recalibration period.

And I do think that many of the spaces that I discussed with you are those spaces that are recalibrating. And so let's dig into those and then talk about some new things that have occurred within each. The first is the trust recession. This is something that I told you at the beginning of the year. I've talked about this everywhere I possibly can. And what I said in January was that couples are being more cautious, they're slower to commit, they're skeptical.

Candice (06:46.688)

And trust is a currency, and we're now trading not just in dollars, but also in trust. This is confirmed. over my calls over the last eight months, there are tons of people across different sectors, but we'll focus on planners, describing that inquiries are not coming in the same way. They're noticing that inquiries have are stalled in months where they're normally busy, they're noticing a shift in buying.

ghosting after proposals is way up, way up for people. Their decision windows are continuing to stretch. And nationally, what it's looking like is the inquiry to booking window has gone up from let's say 40 days to 70 days. So it is literally doubled. The amount of time somebody makes from awareness to actual booking has doubled. And this just tells us that couples are taking twice as long to say yes or to even let you know where they're at.

And for many of you guys, what you could land in a week is now taking more. Maybe a week turns into two, maybe turns into a month, maybe they circle back to you three months later. And so this is a very interesting phenomenon. If you are experiencing this, I would say you're experiencing the industry norm. If you're not experiencing this, then I would say you're experiencing an industry anomaly. And I think this all boils down to a mid-market.

Squeeze. And this is something we also talked about in January. All year long so far, we're seeing that planners who are serving that middle market are fighting harder for every booking, where very inexpensive options and also premium options are maybe not experiencing this as much. So an interesting situation that I think for the mid-market.

It will be interesting to seek the remedy here because I I we're gonna talk about AI in a second, but I think a lot of things are eroding trust and making it a lot difficult for you. And in my mastermind, during our retreat, we talked about financial waves. And I am of the belief that these waves that we see in the industry, waves of booking, waves of inquiries, waves of trust, mistrust.

Candice (09:08.396)

These waves are becoming more pronounced. They're they're becoming bigger. We're noticing bigger swings. And your job may not be to figure out how to change the industry, because that might not be possible. Your job right now is to figure out how you can ride these waves better and not be tumbled by them. But I will say when these waves hit, premium positioning.

Is not the first thing to get cut. And so for those of you who are positioned in a premium way or are trying to position your business in a premium way, I'm not saying you're safe from some of this, but what I'm saying is is you're in a better position.

Now, speaking of trust and trust eroding, it's eroding in on both sides. So it's not just couples that are skeptical, but they're, I mean, it's not just that they're skeptical, they're also going around their planners, they're second guessing way more. But things are way more emotionally charged. And planners are feeling this. It is way more pronounced. This is, by the way, this has always been an undercurrent, but what I am noticing is that client over client, conversation over conversation.

This is becoming the norm. It is not the an anomaly. But on the flip side, you guys are also having trust erode with your clients and with the couples that you're working with. I am noticing this with my clients. I'm hearing it from you. I'm seeing planners that are responding to potential clients a lot differently.

They're changing their standards, they're pre-qualifying differently, they're walking away much easier now when they feel like trust has been broken. And I think that this, you know, the the scales, I guess, are balancing, but I I I think that the you are reacting to this as well in ways that I have not seen before. I think these are large consequences for the work that we're doing.

Candice (11:11.106)

The thing is, is you guys are developing stronger boundaries and you're you're needing to for a reason we'll talk about shortly, but you're developing stronger boundaries, and that is making its way into how you price, how you develop your services, how you treat people. I mean, there's so many different things. So the diagnosis that I made in January was that we are seeing a shift in the market. I do think we're in a calibration phase, but I also think that for some of you, this is you are transitioning to

improve your premium positioning. And I'm calling this more of a cocoon phase for some of you, where you're raising your minimum price, you're elevating your brand, you're elevating your positioning, you're elevating your services. And what you're going to notice when you do that is that there is a bit of a drought in your inbox and leads and sales. That is very predictable and it is often temporary if your positioning is correct. So and it's evidence that things are actually working. So for many of you who have adjusted your positioning

If you are experiencing a bit of a drought and you think and you're and you feel like this shouldn't be happening, I want you to know it's likely just the market catching up to you. Okay. What does this mean for you? Pricing clarity is very important here. You couple, in order for the trust on the couple side, they want to see referrals, references, reviews, pricing clarity, no fluff.

They want you to get to the point. They want you to be very transparent. And so, in order to play ball, regardless of what tier you might serve, this is no longer optional. In addition, responsiveness is one of the biggest trust indicators for couples when hiring. When you look at all the evidence, all the data, even the chatter on threads or on acts, you see people talking about.

The lack of response and the lack of speed in response. They expect you to respond quickly, which you know, but this is definitely one of those big decision-making factors. And I believe that clients are also buying certainty as much as they're buying planning. And what I mean by that is they're buying leadership, they're buying authority. They want to know they can fully trust you to get the job done.

Candice (13:33.026)

And while there are a lot of people who say they can do the work, a lot of people who pretend to do the work or have good marketing but lack the actual skill set to do the work. And many clients have been burned by that or have read horror stories on TikTok and read it and things like that. You showing up as the expert that you are and leading people with your expertise and not shying away from it and stopping your imposter syndrome around it, these are really big things that I want you paying attention to. Okay.

The next story here is around AI. And what I said in January was that couples are going to use AI to plan their wedding. And AI is going to shape the value behind what you do specifically. As a planner, what you do is a lot of in administrative work. And for the couples who are hiring you for checklists and documents and creation of things.

The gap to build that has been shrunk. They can just do that now. And so what's happening is you're seeing on the couple side, we can actually measure how much AI they're using. So five out of 10 couples are using AI, and I think it's probably much higher, to plan, they're using it for etiquette, timelines, budget, questions. They're using it to draft emails that they send you, which I know you notice.

So these AI emails that you're getting from clients, I know you're rolling your eyes and you're like, you know, or the inquiries sending you these long, dumb AI emails, or filling out your form using AI. We're seeing this a lot. And you're also seeing and you're hearing from your clients, I asked Chat GPT, it said we can do this, or I put this in Chat GPT, or Chat GPT told me, or or they may be masking what ChatGPT is saying.

But you know that the advice or the information is coming from chat. And this is an area for you to really double down on your expertise and the human element of what you do. But there is a boundary that couples are drawing here. And I think this is really fascinating. They're using AI for logistics around planning, but they're rejecting AI and all other areas. They're rejecting AI written vows, they're rejecting AI marketing.

Candice (15:51.16)

They're rejecting AI. Like if they if they get a hint that maybe something you've done was created with AI, they feel they don't feel good about it, whether that's in your marketing or in your planning process. And so that is it just goes to show you how we use AI for things, but there's a limit to what we use it for before it starts to erode trust. Now, also as a wedding vendor, you're using AI quite a bit. And as you

Get onboarded into Q, you're going to see that there's AI elements to it. But I am structuring how AI is used for you in Q maybe differently than some of these like AI planning tools that are just junk, in my opinion. They're just garbage. I want AI to reduce the friction for you on the things that AI can truly help you do while still giving you complete control over the vision, over the expertise that is warranted in.

Planning. Okay. The biggest thing around this is that adequate is free. People can go into chat and do the same things you're doing. Anyone can create a budget, anybody can create a checklist, anybody can create a timeline using AI. And so you have to not just meet the minimum requirements because the minimum requirements are worthless now. And I mean, they're literally worthless. But the human side.

Taste, judgment, discernment, leadership, how you show up for your clients, that's actually never been worth more. And there's a lot here that I think as a community we need to start unpacking and implementing in your business. So if your service is sort of like I handle all the logistics, you know, I I deliver these documents to you, or I help you behind the scenes navigate all the stuff, you're starting to compete with free. And that is not.

Great. But if your service is, I know what matters, I am intentional, I have years of experience and expertise. I know who to call, then AI is not your competition. Okay. And this is why I built Q. I want to build a planner for a software from the frameworks that you're already learning here or that you've already implemented that.

Candice (18:08.642)

You know, pun intended cues up what's next for you and literally eats all the administrative work so that you can show up and be present more for your clients who are paying you a premium. Okay. The next is visibility. And I I can't tell you how much harder it has become to be visible without paying for visibility. So what I said in January around visibility was that algorithms are very unpredictable. Education content is

Not it, it's getting ignored. AI content is super cringe, that has even become more apparent. And your unique point of view, your creative point of view, your opinion about things is what is winning. And this has been confirmed. If you look at many of you may be familiar with this, some of you may not, but there was a phenomenon with a person who is actually my business mastermind. Her name is Jessie Jean, and she launched something called the Yap Challenge. Are you guys familiar with this?

Did you guys buy it? Did you see it on your feeds? But what Jesse did was she launched this like live boot camp, so to speak. It was like 300 bucks. It was called the Yap Challenge, and she promised that she would teach people how to yap on camera. And I bring this up because Jesse was showing people that the human side of content and getting up on camera and talking and having an engaging conversation, kind of like what I'm doing now, is content that wins and it cuts through a lot of the noise.

And what's so great about the gaps, and by the way, she sold seven million dollars in like a month and a half, in six weeks. Seven million dollars. Do you know how hard that is to do on a $297 product in this day and age? It is literally impossible.

And it won because people are craving human content and also people need help getting on camera. But all this to say it is getting more difficult to stand out in your marketing. And so if you're feeling like you're putting things out there, people aren't paying attention, or the algorithm has this bipolar feeling where, you know, one minute you're on the up, the next minute things are down. That is the new normal.

Candice (20:26.198)

And everybody's feeling reach is down, engagement is down, and there's a huge backlash in AI content. When I ran ran the research, it says that consumer preference for AI generated content collapsed from the beginning of the year, which was at 60%, to now 26%. And so you're seeing a huge decrease in trust for AI-generated content. All of us raced to go to our learning language model and use it to help.

Us, you know, create make it easier for us to create content. And now that everything is flooded with it, that has become no longer valuable. And if anything, it could be turning people away. And so there's also a layer here that we need to talk about with AI, and it's not just visibility, but it's also couples looking toward AI for who they want to hire.

And about 73% of wedding planning AI answers route to one of the three big directories. We're talking the knot, Zola, or Wedding Wire. And this upsets me for so many reasons. And you've heard me say that the knot is not your friend. They're not your friend. They're not their their market share and their footprint is so big.

And at every turn, they usurp from small businesses visibility and reroute it to them. And we are seeing this with AI generated content for couples. So when they're asking who to hire, AI is using the not. It's also using Reddit to make decisions. Shockingly, a large portion of individual wedding vendors, the statistic is over 80% don't have much presence in AI answers.

The not even launched an app inside ChatGPT this year. They have big spending power, they have a huge footprint, they have huge market share. And all of this, by the way, is meant to take traffic away from you. So what can we do? Well, you can still get, I mean, I have plenty of clients who are getting found on Chat GPT, but we have a new market, we have a new audience here that I think we need to.

Candice (22:52.544)

Acknowledge you're no longer just marketing to couples, but you're also marketing to algorithms and you're marketing to AI. And in order to actually come out on top, being specific about things is is how you're going to be rewarded. So specificity, I cannot pronounce this word, specificity.

Why is this word so hard for me? Is it hard for anybody else? Being specific is actually very important. So visibility is dying in the generic wasteland of marketing and content. Generic visibility is dead. And so when you get specific.

In your content, you target specific keywords, or you become known for something specifically, or your creative point of view has a specific layer to it, that increases visibility. And I know this kind of feels counterintuitive because I come from a place of like volume, right? Keyword volume, keyword research volume. You want to target the biggest bang for your buck. You want to throw out the largest net to catch fish.

But what we are seeing is that because AI makes that so easy to do, it no longer is valuable. And it is in the specific keywords, the specific, let's just say like a hashtag that is going to get you clients. And what Claude noticed in some of my coaching calls was the same months that people were saying, like in group calls, my reach is dead, I'm not booking clients.

In those same months, some of my private clients were booking their biggest clients ever. And they were booking them from Instagram, from TikTok, from word of mouth, which we'll talk about. So it's it's it it the dichotomy is very interesting here. And you've heard me say before that the amount of followers you have, the amount of engagement you have doesn't always tell the full story. And that is still very true.

Candice (25:07.532)

You can have 25,000 followers and no sales, or you can there are people with 200 followers and $200,000 in sales. So those vanity metrics are never a measure of someone's success. And I hope that by now we have stopped paying attention to this. And we are focusing in on creating marketing content for this very specific people who are buying what we have to sell. But now

You're not just marketing to the couple, you are marketing to algorithms and also AI. And that is something that you have to think about when you think about creating content. And so this means tips and tricks. Again, not a big unless it's specific for an audience, unless it's very specific to a certain type of person, then it has merit and it can deserve a place on your feed.

And if it's opinion-based, if it's taste level based, if it's sort of like this behind the scenes thinking, that content attracts buyers. And Jesse Jean's Yap Challenge is a good example of that. In a different industry, but just a really good advan example. Showing your face and showing your opinion or your process. And I don't mean like step one, we onboard you do your business. No, I mean your creative process, your thought process. Why you say yes to something and no to something else?

All that human content, especially if it gets a little messy, is is an advantage on the algorithm. It's like an algorithm darling. And more and more we're noticing that the this sort of overly polished stuff is no longer desirable and it no longer gets rewarded with views, with clicks, and ultimately with buyers. When you when somebody starts doing a video like this and they're like, it's not just blank.

It's blank and you know that they're reading from a chat GPT script. Tell me, how much longer do you stay on that video? Do you continue watching? Or do a lot of times you go boop, you scroll? Cause I know what I do. I'm like, bye. I could I could ask Chat GPT this question. I want to hear what you have to say. I care what you have to say. So what we're noticing is that all of this AI generated content, even when there's a human element to it, it still gets.

Candice (27:27.414)

It's it still gets pushed away. So the fun little era of using AI to help us with our marketing and do a lot of the heavy lifting is gone. And it just goes to show you that human-based stuff now it becomes more valuable because we're flooded with this junk, right? Yeah, Priana, I feel the same way. I'm watching the same exact thing on Rebeat. You can use AI to get ideas to help you formulate a plan, formulate an outline. Like I used AI to help me formulate this outline.

But I guarantee nothing you're hearing from me today feels like I'm reading from a chat GPT script. And that's because I'm not. You guys can go to Chat GPT and start asking at stuff and it can tell you things. You're here because you care about what I think, and these are my opinions. It's the same with your customers and it has to show up in your marketing. I mean, this is a big one. There's a an advantage here that I don't think that people truly appreciate.

And yes, David's right, authenticity is key. Imagine you get just to show up and be yourself and people eat it up. They love it. They appreciate it. They like the fact that you're not polished, that you don't look perfect, that you're sitting at your desk, or that your lighting isn't exactly perfect. And that what you're saying isn't perfect. You might stumble over your words. People love to see that. Why? Because it signals that this is a real person talking. And yes, they might be prepared and have an opinion, but they're not perfect. They're not a robot. Yes.

The next thing is that couples are adjusting the budget. And you guys feel this more than ever. But what I'm seeing is they are reslicing the budget towards experience. And what I said in January was that fewer, richer, more analog experiences are going to be things that people prioritize, wedding weekends, unique analog throwback. People are going back in time, analog in their life. They want to have a human connection, a presence at their event. These things really matter to couples right now.

And I can confirm that this is what we are seeing across the board, especially at the top of the market, where money can pay for some of these analog experiences. But the multi-day wedding event is very mainstream now. So even couples who have modest budgets are trying to extend what that wedding could look like over several days. And in the research, seven out of 10 couples say that their celebration is more than just a day. It spans two days, maybe even up to three. Now

Candice (29:44.354)

This is everywhere inside Planner's Playbook, inside my coaching program. You guys are doing full estate weddings, full builds, welcome parties, day after brunches. This is extending into destination weddings. And at premium budgets, like a full weekend is the assumption. We're doing this, right? So if you're not talking about this or offering this, you're you're you're missing an opportunity here, big time.

And the analog numbers are coming straight from what people are searching for on Google. So when we look at what is up from Google searches related to analog experiences, video guest books are up, camcorder style wedding video is up, a vinyl at weddings is up. And I'm talking like over 200% on these some of these numbers. Wedding projectors is projectors are up as a whole. My husband bought me a projector for Valentine's Day. So we could like project.

movies and stuff. I'm seeing people buying DVD players and CDs and records. And so we're seeing this nostalgia making its way big time into weddings. There's a sense of you it's holdable. It you can hold it in your hand, you can interact with it. there's memories that get made. There's this throwback to when you were young and there's this nostalgia and it is we're seeing it and there's such an opportunity here, guys. Such a big opportunity.

Now, I personally don't believe that weddings are getting smaller. But I do think that couples are re-slicing the budget. And where we may want to do some incredible floral installation or spend oodles on rental items for couples who may not who have may have a fixed budget, not to say it's small, but it's fixed.

They might be re-slicing their budget more towards experiences and what that experience means: activities, things that people can interact with, things that are meaningful to them. And so we go from the millennial do-it-for-Instagram era into an era where people are being more conscientious. Are you guys seeing this on your end? Or would you like to see more clients like this on your end? Because there is a real

Candice (32:08.928)

Opportunity here. When it comes to micro and intimate weddings, these can read as much cheaper to consumers. So for people who are cutting their budget because of the economy, costs, et cetera, they shift over to micro and intimate. And they may choose that because it is cheaper. But if you are not doing micro or intimate weddings on the cheaper side, your focus needs to be on marketing the experience.

That they will have with their guests in a smaller setting and the care that you are providing guests. It's not about elope, like we have affordable options or a micro wedding with affordable options. Anytime you put affordable or price consciousness in any of your marketing, you are attracting people who value that. So if you want to do more intimate events, but you don't want the budget to shrink.

You've got to focus on guest care and the overall experience. And Christy in the chat is saying this is why I rebranded experience over aesthetics. This is a huge trend right now. Now, don't get me wrong, aesthetics to Gen Z matter, but they matter differently than they did to millennials. Millennials wanted these Instagram moments and a lot of their wedding was branded.

It was branded around all these things. What a time to be alive. It was for and it was for Instagram. It was, it, that's what it was. I literally had clients who would say to me, I want this to look good on Instagram. And I'm like, is this really why I'm meant to be here? I I I had a I I I definitely had a reckoning with myself. It pushed me out for sure. Gen Z, we'll talk about Gen Z in a second. Gen Z are really focused on the experience. And and there's a huge opportunity here for you guys.

This trend also applies to the client experience you deliver as well. I think the strongest work that I saw all year from you guys and the women I coach and the people I coach is that the tactile experiences people are providing with their clients are seen as extremely valuable. So design presentations that are printed and bound, swatches being delivered to clients, design reveals over dinner or in person.

Candice (34:29.89)

These analog touch points with your clients make things feel way more tangible. And while COVID forced us all to be way more digital with what we were doing, we're seeing a rise of going back to analog for some of these things. And I think that that is because it no longer feels special to send a design deck to your client via email. And if somebody's paying you a lot of money.

They may want to experience that differently. And this is an opportunity for you. If you want to raise your price and level up your service and bring back this element, which by the way, all of us obsess over the client gift and how we we do these things. There's a real opportunity for you to do this here and to really do something different than your competitors and create a unique experience. If you want something to read that can support this for you.

My advice would be to read the book The Power of Moments. It's written by Dan and Chip Heath. I believe they're brothers. And they wrote about how you can create a memory for people through how you interact with them in your business. And this whole term surprise and delight, which is like woven into every playbook you've ever purchased or read from me, comes from these two gentlemen. It's an older book. I mean, it's not.

out of date by any means, but it's a great book to guide you through how to create some of these tactile moments in your business again and how these moments actually create a connection with people. And I think that's what we're all craving is connection.

Candice (36:15.854)

All right, the final discussion we had back in January before we get to some new stuff was the relationship economy. And what I said in January, January was that referrals are very important right now, but they're also tightening. Because of the algorithm and how difficult it can be to reach your target audience, we're seeing referrals resurging. And in person is also very, very big right now. And so this I

I feel like all of this is still very true. You guys are attending more in-person events, which I love to see. But this showed up in almost every conversation I had every single month with people. Everybody was prioritizing networking. When I look at some of the biggest clients, my clients are landing. It is through networking, referrals. If you are not networking well, you are being forgotten about. And this is the season of ruthless networking. It can feel

Pretty overwhelming at the number of events you might be invited to or expected to attend. I know that that is sometimes not something you can prioritize in busy seasons. It's costly. You've got kids, like you, you can't just be like gallivanting out and about, like, you know, Carrie from Sex in the City. But the people who are are noticing a huge increase in business, in referrals. And so when my clients audit where

Their bookings are actually coming from this year. It was the same answer over and over: referrals first, especially with some of their very best clients. And that isn't to say that you should only focus on relationships, because what happens is the referral comes in and then the client goes to verify. It's the trust but verify. And we are in a trust but verify economy right now. So they go.

They get their referral, they go to you, and if your Instagram or TikTok is slow, if it's not giving, if it's not current or consistent, or if the work there is not good, that will kill the referral. So bookings are starting with word of mouth, but they're getting vetted on social media, getting vetted on your website, getting vetted in your reviews.

Candice (38:32.342)

And Gen Z is going to multiple places to affirm that you know what you're talking about. And this is because of the rise of TikTok shop, people selling stuff, junk, buying shit from from China, stuff is junk. Like we have all experienced this as consumers. And we've also experienced shitty service providers. Gen Z is not immune to this.

So they are double, triple, quadruple checking, but referrals are where it comes from. On the flip side, venues are becoming the gatekeepers. And this is tough because venues are doing some pretty crazy shit. And I don't know who is out here teaching venue owners to do this stuff. I don't know if that's even a thing.

But they have become some gatekeepers, especially for planners. So if a couple doesn't book you first, they book the venue first. We are noticing that venues are monetizing relationships, they are making it difficult, they are narrowing their referrals, but the monetization of referrals is something that is becoming more prevalent here. And it is

I it sucks. Like it is not fun. If you are not in, you're out. So we have to navigate this. You're competing with the venue now. They're bringing things in house. Why? Because they're trying to increase their profitability. When I see venues doing this, I know that it's because somebody behind the scenes is saying, How do we make more money?

We're gonna charge the venues who work here. We're gonna take 10% of their of their bookings. We're gonna make you pay. It is sucky. We went from an industry that was very collaborative and relationship driven, and it still is, but I am noticing this. And I'm noticing this on especially some of the luxury side. I was just chatting with a private client who was sharing with me all of the hoops this venue was making her kind of go through. And we talked about it. And I gave her advice on what to do. I also

Candice (40:50.52)

Framed it like this. And I want you guys to hear me out. Okay. I'm not saying I agree with the venues, but I am sharing something with you that I think you need to consider because the immediate reaction to this is ew, no. But I want you to consider the fact that if you were to pay a 10%, you know, tied to the to the venue, what would your client acquisition cost be if you had to market, if you looked at all the marketing that you do to acquire a client?

If you pay a venue a thousand dollars when they refer a client and you bake that into your cost, but you look at your client acquisition cost over the freaking gazillion dollars you're paying for Instagram marketing, learning how to do marketing, Chat GPT doing it for you, Canva doing it for you, the events you're going to, like think about it on a whole. You will find that it could be cheaper to actually pay a commission.

If you are referred and you only pay it if they book. I'm not saying it's right, but what I am trying to do is put this into perspective for you. You get to decide what feels good, what doesn't feel good, but this is not a business strategy that is new. And there are gazillion industries where this is the absolute norm. And in the wedding industry, will it become the norm?

I don't know, but it certainly is becoming the norm. So on the venue side, we're seeing the pay to play, and you have to decide whether or not this is worth the investment for you. And for some of you, you're gonna say, you know what? If I book a $12,000 wedding and I pay the venue $800 for that, and it's built into my price, whatever. But there is the moral and value side of this.

That for many of us is just a bridge too far. And it's really up to you. But it's it is worth discussion. You have to look at it from multiple angles. What I will tell you is the planners that pay are the planners that are getting chosen. So if there's a venue where you're like, I never get referrals for this, I never get to work at it, and you discover that people are paying for those referrals, then that is why.

Candice (43:14.302)

One thing I don't want you to do is compromise on your values and your morals, but also be short-sighted in growing your business. So there's a lot to unpack here.

Okay, another thing that's happening here is that some people are definitely pricing themselves out of their market. And so as you raise your rates and you are doing big things, you have to remember that you may need to change your positioning and you may need to change where your referrals are coming from. And some of the referral partners that you have counted on may no longer to be able to refer to you thoughtfully and considerately. This is something that you have to figure out.

As you reposition your business. Another interesting statistic that I came up with, and this was just Americans polled, but seven in 10 Americans are now hesitant to trust people who are different from themselves. And this makes me so angry and sad. Conversations about this aside, this tells us that trust is relocalized. People are looking to their social circles, their communities.

Neighbors, friends, family, known names for who they can trust. And even that, you know, sometimes can be difficult. But we are looking into our social circles for who we can trust, which means that referrals continue to carry more weight. All right. Live events are having a record year. I think people who are promoting live events, doing live events, hosting live events for you.

Are you seeing a wonderful increase in attendance? And I'm encouraging you to get in the room in at one of these great live events.

Candice (45:09.834)

Let's talk about two new things that I want to bring to your attention at this mid-year. One is probably an obvious, well, they're both maybe obvious to you, but one is a neutral and one is a bummer. Let's start with the good news first. the news is that we have seen this generational handoff this year to Gen Z. So more than 50% of couples planning their wedding now are Gen Z.

And that means over half of 2026 couples, and this is only going that this generation is only going to continue to replace millennials. So, from perspective of time, their Gen Z weddings have tripled since 2019. If you've been around long enough and you are a pre-COVID business, Gen Z is now the vast majority. And they do things a very differently. And a lot of what we discussed here today is because of Gen Z.

They're a venue first. They're often researching before they even get engaged, which I know you guys are seeing. They're much faster to research. They're very technologically savvy. They know where to look. They're slower to commit. They don't trust as easily as millennials. They're way more values-driven. They care about your opinion about things. They want to know where you stand if you're a safe vendor to hire. Also, from a commodity standpoint.

things that were once inaccessible have grown very accessible, whether it's AI, it's diamond rings. And hear me out when I say this: the rise of lab grown diamonds and the ability to buy a big ass diamond now for a fraction of the price is going to change people's opinions about things that are expensive. Please mark my words.

If you're not already seeing this, we will be seeing this. It is going to be an interesting transfer over. they're also finding you in very different places: TikTok, Reddit, in using AI, not just Instagram and Google, not just search engine results. And like I said, they trust differently. They're looking for a specific, human, slightly imperfect brand. They want.

Candice (47:24.728)

To work with people that they can trust and they do not trust people who are perfect and polished. Isn't that interesting? That the fact that being vulnerable or being authentic or being you is now more in demand than the pretty, absolutely polished view that we have been trained, like dogs to produce, right?

And so the good news here is everything I'm telling you, have a point of view, be specific, be human, lead decisively. They need a parent, invest in relationships. All of these things reward buyers. And if you can double down on these things, I know you're going to see success. I want you to.

Update your references, update your imagery, update your language, update your pricing pages, make sure that you're findable, that you're bookable, that you're connecting with people, stop or overthinking. And most importantly, stop apologizing for having an opinion about something that you have been doing for years. You have been in this industry, you have been working hard, you know.

What you are doing, and you need to step it up and start owning it because these are the reasons why they're going to pick you, and even I struggle with this, so you guys know. Even I have reactions to people disagreeing with my opinion, and those people are incorrect in their viewpoint. Even I feel like attacked or like.

Am I I double check my advice and I'm like, no, wait a minute.

Candice (49:18.958)

20 years of experience, not only being an event planner and working every job imaginable, working with budget clients and working with super rich people and everybody in between, but I also have almost equally the same amount of experience in talking to people. I know what I'm talking about. And so you are very similar to me. You have experience, you know what you're talking about. Do not let.

Imposter syndrome, fear of being of being seen, fear of being disagreed with, stop you from putting yourself out there. Because for every person who says, I disagree, there are 40 people who needed to hear what you had to say and who actually agree with you. And out of those 40 people, there could be five clients waiting in wait saying, I wanted to book you, Simone, because I was waiting for somebody to say something that I agreed with. Okay.

Now, the final thing I want to share with you, and this is a big bummer, but I don't think it's going to come as a surprise. But it is something that we need to talk about. And I have been in this industry for 20 years. I have watched it go from analog to fully digital, and now we're going back and or we're bringing back analog. I have watched people start a business, grow a business, do extraordinary work, retire out of it, go do something else. I have watched generations change, styles change, clients change.

Things come in, come go out, come back inside in the wedding industry. And I am alarmed at the number of people who are burning out. And I don't think we can fully appreciate how difficult it has become to run a business in this industry and how people are burning out at a rate that.

I personally don't think is normal. In the conversations that I have, people are tired, they're overwhelmed, they're feeling depleted, they have lost drive, they have lost creative energy. And you might be experiencing this now. You might know somebody who's experiencing this right now. And for several people, a business that was like once a dream.

Candice (51:41.812)

Is now feeling like a nightmare. And I mean this as seriously as anything I have ever said. And the surprising part of this is it's happening where you least expect it. On paper, they seem to these the folks have everything. They've got a team, they've got incredible clients, they're doing great work. They're featured, you know, they've got featured in bug, they've got it all. And they're having some of the best revenue years they've ever had, but they're not happy.

And this concerns me greatly because we can't be here if we're not enjoying our work. We're of use to nobody, especially ourselves, if we're not happy in our jobs. And I've been here before. Burnout is a natural, is is actually a natural thing to happen, especially when you work really hard, when you've been up leveling, when you've been working hard for a while, you get bored, you get tired, things that you used to enjoy become mundane. Like,

This is a very normal cycle, but the rate on which it's happening is is alarming to me. And the thing is, is this happened to me before, as you guys know in my planning business, and I carried around an immense amount of shame around it.

I thought I was a failure. I thought something was wrong with me. And it was just that my body and my brain were reacting to a lot, a massive amount of pressure and stress. And I just did not have the tools to deal with it. I did not know how to let go of the parts of my business that were draining me, how to simplify, how to reduce, how to say no, or how to help myself and know when I needed a break.

And so I we have to talk about this in big ways. it's not just the wedding industry, it is certainly, you know, across the board. And I if I can share part of why I think this is happening, I would like to. I think part of why we are seeing this is that the work has changed.

Candice (53:54.242)

This is not a normal level of work anymore that any of us are tasked with. Any of us. You know, back in the day, a photographer could book a client. She can schedule the engagement, shoot, show up, do a great job, deliver that, show up, shoot the wedding, create a nice relationship with her client, send a gift, you know, create a cute little welcome guide, deliver the gallery, the client's buying prints. Maybe they upgrade to an album, boom, job done. It is no longer.

This way anymore. It just has become so difficult. I feel like many of us are literally trying to build a business while walking through quicksand. And you have to do five times the work to get the same outcome. And raise your hand if you think that's fun. I don't think anybody's hands raised. It's not.

So now you've got to do five times the work. The marketing has changed, the networking has changed, the paperwork has changed, the process has changed, the relationships have changed, the expectations have changed, the psychological load of running a business has changed. We have so many open loops. It is truly terrifying the amount of things that we are responsible for and that we have to know and keep tabs on and make decisions about.

On a day-to-day basis. And it's not just work. It's like everything. I mean, I think about like all the things that I have to do. And I I have to exercise for at least 30 minutes. I've got to get 120 grams of protein. I have to drink eight ounces of water. I have to limit sugar. I've got to freaking walk 10,000 steps. I have to keep my heart rate up. I've got to get enough sleep. I've got to do a skincare routine. Like

To work yet. Like, what are we even doing? It feels so hard. There's like so many expectations. And it feels so difficult. And all these loops are open constantly. It is beyond overwhelming. Beyond. And we're burning out. We are burning out here. The pressure is high, the expectations are high.

Candice (56:17.278)

No human being could possibly meet every quota of everything. And so all day long we feel like we're behind, like we are failing at literally everything we are trying to do. And that is not a great way to step into a day. And I think this is why the resurgence of analog and simpler and 90s living and like all these things are becoming.

Exciting and appealing. And funny enough, a person asked in my Q QA on Instagram about notifications and calendar syncing with Q. And let me tell you something that I think. Obviously, I want Q to send you notifications, right? When a client fills out a form, you need to be notified. When a client has a question, you need to be notified. But part of me wants to protect you.

From the obscene amount of notifications that are running and ruining your life. And when I think about how your planning software should support you, I also think about how can this be a space where you enjoy your work and you don't feel overwhelmed, depleted, ADHD falling apart every time you log into your software.

And this is because I know how stretched thin you guys are and how overwhelming it is. So

Everything we talked about today, AI, visibility, relationships, experience, designing the experience for your clients. This is all more work layered on top of the same wedding, the same clients, the same shit you got to do day in and day out. And I'm I'm not surprised that we're tired, but I'm I'm I'm sad at how how much people are burning out. And I think

Candice (58:16.202)

Not only is it the digitalization of stuff and the just the sheer volume of things, but I think we're also measuring success incorrectly here. And I do think this has a large role to play with the fact of the fact that people are burning out. We're not measuring success anymore with am I happy? Am I fulfilled? Is my life good? Do I love this? We're measuring it with.

How many weddings do you have on the books? Where were you featured? Are you going to engage? Who were you working with? How many likes did you get? Did you get found on AI? Are you ranking number one on Google? Are you consistently posting every day? Who's your business coach? Like, and we're all, all of us are using these benchmarks to measure ourselves. And guess what happens? There's always a new measurement. There's always a new qualification of success. There's always a new

thing. How big is your team? How how many tea how much money did you make? What are you charging? What are you offering? What is your brand shoot look like? Like it is just becoming

Stupid. Like it's I don't know about you, ladies and gentlemen, but I want to measure success by did I serve people well? Did I did I show up well for people today? Did I enjoy myself? Did I have fun? Do I feel fulfilled? Is this creatively exciting for me? Can I pay my bills? Can I make a living that's surprised? Can I meet my personal goals in life financially?

Am I enjoying this? And does my work and does my business provide a life for me that I want to live? Like am I living my life the way I want to? And if not, then what needs to change?

Candice (01:00:09.454)

I think we are measuring success incorrectly here. And if we're measuring success by all the wrong things, instead of am I happy, am I fulfilled? Is my life good, we're gonna measure it by the wrong metrics and then build towards those metrics.

And we're going to hyperfixate on that. And then we're we're using a scorecard for our business that maybe we feel like we should be using. And it's not a scorecard that is personal to us and resonates with us.

And I think this is less of a wellness problem. Like, I don't think a massage is gonna solve this for you. I don't think red light therapy, meditation, or walking 10,000 steps is gonna solve this for you. But some of those things can certainly help regulate your nervous system and help you your body start to regulate so that you can tackle some of these things. I think there's a lot of nervous system dysregulation across the board in the wedding industry. But I do think that.

Mm, some of these problems can actually be solved by business. And I think that there are some decisions you can make around reducing complexity, simplification, ignoring things, not chasing every shiny object, not caring about some of this stuff that other people prioritize as like, you've got if you're if you're not doing this, what are you even doing? Letting all that noise just be noise and really focusing on your own paper.

Focusing on your own goals, your own desires, your own dreams, and regulating yourself and just kind of staying in your own lane. And the interesting thing is almost everybody I talk to is asking me for permission. Can I do less? Can I cap my calendar? Can I take on less clients? Can I actually maybe not make $500,000? Can I be happy and satisfied with like 120?

Candice (01:02:04.874)

Maybe less. I don't know what your lifestyle is like, and I don't know what's meaningful to you. But I'm getting from a lot of people is it okay that I don't want more? Is it okay that I don't want to build a business like that? And so it's an opportunity for us to get back to basics, to get back to some of the things that are embarrassingly simple to do good work, to work with great clients, to be present, to be focused.

And then hopefully at five o'clock, you can shut your laptop and go live your life. Go be outside, go do something for yourself and put your energy into other things. I know for a fact that the most profitable, the most creative, the longest lasting people in this business are the people who are taking care of themselves and who are focused on the things that are important to them, not on the industry woes.

And do not let a lot of outside noise project itself onto them. This is a real problem. And it's something that I hope Q can play a hand in solving. I really wanna be cautious about how we build notifications into Q. I get notifications in about Asana tasks and stuff, and I just delete it. I hate it, it clogs up my inbox. It's not something that I enjoy getting. Like I'm in there, I know what's happening. You know, I don't need Asana to email me.

And so I think, does do other people want that too? I don't know. Okay, so let's close this out. In January, I asked what shift felt the most uncomfortable for you. And I I I would like to ask the same question today. Out of the seven shifts that I've shared with you, which one do you feel the most uncomfortable about? Share it with me in the chat. Come to the replay if you're listening and share it. I would really, really love to chat with you about it and hear your take.

If you are serving the middle market of the wedding industry, we have to talk because you are going to continue to get squeezed unless you find ways to adapt. That is one of my biggest unsettling takeaways from all the research I've done and all of the conversations that I have had. The mid-market is shifting, and we are seeing this directly in your pocketbook.

Candice (01:04:25.352)

In your wallets, in your inboxes, and it is uncomfortable. I can't say I know the full solution on how to solve this. This could be temporary. We never know. I never thought that DVDs would come back, but here we are. But I do think that at this moment, you need to look at your business model, the clients you're serving, your services, your pricing, and you need to make some important decisions about.

where you're gonna go. I think as a planner, it's so important that you make sure that when you show up to serve your clients, you're showing up from the right place. And that requires you not answering emails when you got a stress on your plate, being available when you are truly available.

Candice (01:05:17.954)

Okay, friends, I hope you enjoyed this conversation with me and my planners playbook community. I would love to hear your feedback. So here's what I want you to do: if you made it this far in the episode, I want you to open up your phone, go to Instagram, type in candice.copla, tell me what you thought of the conversation that we had here today. Talk to me about what shift you might be experiencing the most. And if you two are finding that burnout is more prevalent in our industry than ever.

before. I would really love to hear from you on this. And even if you're experiencing this in your business right now, I would love to hear it. And I'd love for you to share it with me. I might be able to offer some encouragement, some words of advice, or point you in the right direction of something that can help. All right friends, well I hope you enjoyed this special edition episode. I want to remind you there's so much power in your purpose and I'll see you soon.