Candice (00:00.238)

How can you level up your wedding business this year with digital tools? Well, today I'm joined by founder and CEO, Steven Greitzer, to talk all about WedTech in 2024. You're here to grow a business, but not just any kind of business. You want to grow a profitable business with purpose. A business where you wake up every single day driven to serve your customers and make a difference in your own life.

I'm Candace Coppola, published author, business coach, and your guide to building a profitable business with purpose. Join me here every single week as we explore how to build and grow your business with purpose. Get ready to dig in and have meaningful conversations about the strategies and techniques that will help you build your dream business. This is the power in purpose.

Candice (00:59.502)

Hey there, friend. Welcome back to the Power and Purpose podcast. It's me, your host Candice, and I have another great interview for you today with Stephen Greitzer from Providence. We're going to talk all about how you can level up your business using tech tools for this year. We talk about Stephen's predictions for tech in 2024. 2023 was definitely all about chat, GBT, and the rise of AI. Stephen has some opinions about what you can expect.

this year in regards to tech, we talk about how you can incorporate digital tools into your business, some common mistakes you make with digital tools. And then Stephen shares more about his journey as the CEO and founder of Provenance, which I'll share with you a little bit more about later in this episode of what that is and how tools like Provenance can help you better serve your clients. It's a great conversation. He really shed some insights.

on how shiny object syndrome gets in the way of how we incorporate digital softwares and tools in our business. He has great advice for you on that. But if you're not familiar with Stephen, he's the founder and CEO of Providence. And after spending many years officiating weddings and coaching first timers to do the same, it became painfully clear that the only resources out there for wedding officiants was generic Madlib templates.

convoluted blog posts, and outdated scripts. None of these helped Stephen to create a memorable and personalized ceremony. And so he decided that he was going to find a way to solve this problem so that friends who were officiating and even couples writing vows, parents who are giving toasts, bridal parties who might be speaking at events, all can deliver a very meaningful speech.

Now, he has a huge background in tech. He's been in the technology sector for over 10 years, and he talks about his background in tech and how he was able to develop Providence, which I loved him sharing his own story because I think there are many of us out there who see problems like Stephen saw and desire to solve those problems, but may not know how to go about creating a tech company to do it. And so he shares more about.

Candice (03:21.87)

his background, but he's originally from LA. He has a bachelor's and master's from Stanford University. And he's here today to give us all of his tech insights and share more about how Providence and AI tools like it can help you run your business and deliver a better client experience. I love these tech episodes and I love talking with entrepreneurs and founders in tech. I mentioned to Stephen in our interview and you'll hear this.

I said, you know, what's really refreshing about him is that he actually is in the wedding industry. He does officiate now. He's an officiant for friends and friends of friends. And so it's kind of become a business for him. But he comes from the wedding industry and developed a tool for the wedding industry. And I really appreciate that because I find that sometimes tools in the wedding industry are developed by people who have never stepped foot in it.

And I don't know, there's something that hits a lot different when somebody develops a technology tool like Providence, like Steven, and they've actually experienced the problem and they understand the industry. And boy, does he understand the industry. I'm actually amazed at how much he knows about what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to, at least for planners, when it comes to ceremonies and toasts and just all of the crazy ass shit we have to deal with behind the scenes. But anyhow.

That's what we're talking about on today's episode. So without further ado, let me introduce to you, Steven Greitzer. Hey there, friend real quick. I want to share with you how you can sign up for a free trial with HoneyBook. HoneyBook is everything you need to get business done. And it's trusted by over a hundred thousand independent businesses, just like yours to manage projects, book,

clients, send invoices, and most importantly, get paid. If you've been looking for an all -in -one solution to manage your customers, I want to invite you to sign up for a free trial with HoneyBook. Go to CandaceCoppola .com slash HoneyBook to learn more. And when you sign up for a free trial using the code purpose, you'll save 50 % off of your first year's subscription.

Candice (05:42.092)

HoneyBook is what I used in my business as a wedding planner and it helped me land every single sale. It's what helped me build a six figure wedding planning business. It's also what helps me today in my business. Go to CandaceCoppola .com slash HoneyBook to learn more and with the code PURPOSE, save 50 % on your first year's subscription. Steven, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me, Candace. I'm so excited to be here.

I am super excited to kickstart our episodes for 2024 with you, somebody who's been in the tech space for a long time. You have your own amazing product, which we'll talk about throughout this interview. I'm sure we'll get into it. But just to pick your brain as somebody who's been in this space for a while about digital tools and how we should be incorporating digital tools and softwares and AI into our wedding business this year. Absolutely. I'm so excited to discuss all these things. Wow.

I've loved being a part of this wedding industry community with you and with the rest of your audience. I've also first and foremost been part of the technology industry throughout my career and throughout my education. So I'm very excited to discuss how to navigate the intersection of those two things. Yeah, I think you're sort of like a unicorn in the space because you've been a part of the wedding world as an officiant and as somebody who...

sees firsthand what goes on in weddings, and then you have this tech background that you've been in tech for a long time. I found that a lot of people who enter the wedding industry in tech typically don't have a use for the products they create in their own world, and they don't have that wedding industry background like you have. The wedding industry is a massive space, one where, of course, there's a ton of spend. So it makes sense that many investors and many entrepreneurs for a long time have

want to find the right way to get a piece of that prize, so to speak. But the wedding industry is something that I've been a part of. It's something that I have very authentically and genuinely seen these problems and challenges that we all navigate. And I'm doing my best to leverage that tech insight to go solve some of those problems. Yeah. Oh gosh, I love it.

Candice (07:53.39)

Listen, Stephen's dog is also joining us. What's your dog's name? My apologies to everybody. Her name is Pippa. She has been imprisoned in my office with me. So if you do hear her squeaking her toy or begging to be let outside, which I am not going to let her do because it's raining right now. She's jumping some mud puddles. My apologies in advance. She might be licking my face at some point too.

Oh my gosh. That might make its way on YouTube. Welcome Pippa. We're so glad you could join us today too. I have two dogs and honestly, it's always a juggling act recording whether it's for YouTube or the podcast. I'm like either telling my husband to like take them, put them in the car and go drive around for 45 minutes. It's just always interesting. Right. It's one of those things, Dan, if you do damage, you don't. Dan, I got to let her out and have a bigger interruption halfway through this or...

Correct. I love it. I love it. All right. Well, I want to kickstart our conversation today. First, with some predictions that you might have for 2024 around tech. Last year, 2023, it was all about chat GPT. And I remembered learning about chat GPT at a conference in January, right around the same time as we're recording this interview. And it was funny, I had never...

heard about it or about AI in any capacity. I heard about it at a conference and I felt like it just exploded and so did AI in 2023. So I would just love to know where do you think we're heading in tech this year and can you share with us some upcoming digital trends that you think wedding pros need to kind of be aware of? Absolutely. So it is amazing how 2023 was a year.

of maybe Taylor Swift and GPT and AI. It was very much the theme of that entire year. And the truth is that's not done. At the end of the day, I think that this is going to be the year that AI becomes a bigger and more normal presence in our lives. Last year was the year of the surprise of AI. This will be the year in which we get more and more accustomed to its consistent and constant presence for all of us. And that means a variety of things. In the way that I like to think about

Candice (10:07.278)

where AI is today and where I see this next chapter evolving is to think about some of these other major digital and technology trends that we've all experienced over the past 30 somewhat years. You have the rise of the internet and then you have the rise of the breadth of e -commerce, other businesses go to the top of the internet. You have the rise of mobile. You have the emergence of the app store and the breadth of these mobile apps built on top of it. And now you have the rise of the internet, of AI.

which is very much just like the internet and mobile, this sort of infrastructural foundational layer. And on top of that over the course of the next year ahead, you've got a rise of all these businesses, ourselves included, that are building their businesses on top of it. And while you don't think of a e -commerce business as an internet business anymore, it's just a business that leverages the internet, likewise, I think we'll be thinking about companies more and more that are intrinsically AI companies.

But AI will be more and more of a given as it enters into more of our lives. Yeah. I definitely think that this year AI will be the norm in most of the tools that we use. And I wonder though, because with the emergence of AI and the surge of use, you can really see it in the wedding industry, especially in people's marketing. You'll see the use of AI and there's positives to it because I feel like it can help small businesses save time.

develop a good marketing strategy. It's almost like having a marketing assistant. But then on the other side, I also feel like there's this everyone's sounding the same and you can also pick out AI. Instantly, you can tell an AI Instagram caption versus something that was authentically written. So do you think that maybe this year AI is a year where we're balancing AI and human inputs and trying to find like what the

what the balance is between a human voice and a computer generated one? I think that's a brilliant point and you're absolutely right. Now at the end of the day, we're still very early. And I can guarantee that the AI we'll be using three years from now will be night and day more advanced than what we'll be using today. And there will always be some growing pains. There'll always be some setter stops and some moments of doubt or concern. And it's not going to be easy and perfect from day one.

Candice (12:25.646)

but I think we will get there. So yes, I think that this year will be more and more something that we lean on to a greater extent, as well as something that we use as a question in certain regards. We're not going to be able to completely delegate our work away to AI just yet. It will always be this initial partnership, so to speak, between a human touch and AI. I think the wedding space is a perfect example of that because so much of the work that we do is so personal. It does require that extra layer of white glove service and human touch.

So we're not going to be able to just immediately abscond the way they work to AI and drink Pia Colada's on the beach while AI doesn't work for us just yet. But I think we'll be able to start using it as a tool to give us more leverage over time to intersect this year for sure. Yeah. And it potentially even enhance the client experience, which is something that I know you're passionate about. I would love to know how you think...

wedding pros can begin to effectively incorporate tech into their business operations this year with the emergence of AI and incredible tools like Providence. How can they begin to incorporate these tools into their business this year? So the first thing is just even getting started. I think that often these new technology tools are quite intimidating that are using lingo that is very intrinsic to the technology space that are expecting you to have an understanding of.

how to get started and self -serve on your own parts. And just even being inclined to, okay, I have this challenge, I have this inconvenience, I have this process that feels like it requires a little bit too much burden and too much work. How can I use technology to make this easier for myself going forward and allow me to focus on what I alone can do best as the human being in this business? That's a critical first step. I would say that there are ways to make getting started with any technology tool.

a bit easier, a bit less intimidating. First of all, a lot of these companies allow you to get started for free, to poke around. And frankly, a lot of these companies also have direct competitors and direct supplements that are very much of the same ilk. So there's often an option to explore a variety of different options and find the one that speaks best to you, that solves your problems specifically the best way, that allows you to do what you need to do in a way that is particular to you and your business.

Candice (14:46.776)

And also do never feel hesitant to reach out to customer service for asking for help. My own company are very, very involved in customer service as you are with your company to ensure that we can provide that extra support. So say those are the first critical facets to getting started. Yeah. So getting started then with tech, as we were talking about, incorporating it into your business ops. I think when you're thinking about a tech stack, like a wedding pro is looking at the different pieces of technology that make up

how they effectively run their business. How do you think they can start to maybe even determine like what part of their business ops can be better facilitated by technology? What's so interesting to me about the wedding industry and the wedding planning industry is that every single one of us are entrepreneurs. Every single one of us are building a business and trying to find the right way to acquire and...

keep our customers, to market ourselves effectively, to bill our customers and transact, and to continue communicating with them. And all these facets of running a business, there are never the reason why you got into this business in the first place. Be it a wedding planner or florist or a caterer, or whomever you might be. At the end of the day, you got in this business because of the trade, because of the craft that you're passionate about. But I often find that so much of our daily work lives, so much of our weekly work lives,

are spent on doing all these other second order things outside of that primary purpose. And what's amazing is that there are a breadth of technology tools today that can help us solve all these other second order problems and allow us to focus more and more of our time on the actual craft that we alone ourselves can do and what we want to do. So I'd say that for all these things that are particularly the repeatable annoyances in daily work life, those are things that the more and more you can.

delegate that to some sort of technological service to solve that on your own behalf, the more you get focused your time on what you can do best. That's such a great way to look at building a tech stack because I know for small businesses, software expenses can begin to get really out of control, especially if you love to test things out or you have some shiny object syndrome when it comes to processes in your business and looking for different elements of technology to support you.

Candice (17:10.478)

But when you see it from the perspective of how can this technology free up my time so I can focus on only the things that I can do. And then I would also say like money generating tasks, right? That help your business grow, help your business become, you know, financially a bit bigger. Those tech pieces give you more time to make more money, to provide a better service, which then it kind of pays for itself. Absolutely. And I'd say even more than are essential to doing just that.

There's no greater means than through these technological platforms to acquire a customer base, to monetize that customer base, and to better serve that customer base. And at the end of the day, at one point or another, all of your competitors will be doing the same. So to get used to using these tools earlier will give you a distinct advantage. And over time, will just be table stakes within the space. And there's something you also said that I think is really smart.

And a critical issue I often see and mistake I think people commonly make is around this sort of shiny object mentality of finding these really cool nifty tools, trying it out, and then too often abandoning them because they find that they don't solve their problem perfectly. I find that, you know, with my own business and the breadth of tools that we use to help our business work and grow, you know, we'll often dabble with something, but then quickly abandon it thereafter.

I find that you really do often have to fully commit, at least for some time period, to really digging into a tool to understand the not just a surface level use case, but all the nuances of how it works and how it can benefit you. And then really set time to measure and observe what is the return on that investment? How is the greater revenue getting as a consequence map into the cost that you're spending on it? And try to make a really reasoned decision as to whether or not...

to double down and continue using or to abandon to find something else, but to do so because you now have some baseline metrics that you're trying to improve upon with another service. I think sometimes we try something, it's not exactly how it was advertised, what we were expecting, and then ultimately ditch it for something else. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to even start using a tool and then to switch to something else. Yeah.

Candice (19:29.998)

A question for you around that. I'm so glad I was going to ask you about common mistakes. So this sort of segues right into that. But as somebody in the tech space who has a tech tool, how long should somebody give a tech tool a chance and how long should they expect it to take to incorporate a new tool into their business? No, it really depends tool by tool. So I don't have like a perfect rule of thumb, but if I can try to contrive one.

I would say that when we try a new tool, I typically like to let it live and breathe for at least about a month. Now, of course, it depends on the cost of the tool. Sometimes it might be, let's try to learn this in two weeks. But I'd say that typically over the course of a month, we'll see not just have enough time playing with the tool ourselves, but we'll also see enough use cases for that tool to actually get a sense of whether or not it's providing that value.

Because of course so much of our business is this weekly cadence of weddings on the weekend or whatever it might be. You need enough of these touch points to give a tool a chance to actually provide that value. So I typically try to at least allow for a month and set some goals, expectations for how I'm hoping that tool to provide that value and that improvement to our business in that time. Yeah. 30 days is definitely a good amount of time to see how it works, to see how you adapt to it.

They say it takes something like 60 days to develop a new habit. And with any tool you bring into your business, you have to create a habit of using it and not falling back on your old habits or routines about how you do something. So 30 days, yeah, is a great benchmark. And often the software services will have about a 30 day free trial as well. And we do take those free trials seriously. We use that as an opportunity to really give it its best chance to work and to see if we can make the most of it and if we want to continue there.

I find that wedding pros, while they have shiny object syndrome, I also find that they go through waves of wanting to try new tools or having the time to try new tools to solve problems in their business and then not having enough time to play around with tools. So out of wedding season versus in wedding season. And when they're out of wedding season and they're trying all the tools and they're trying to fix all the leaky buckets in their business,

Candice (21:48.75)

They also tend to like try 50 tools at once. And I feel like that also contributes to like fatigue around digital tools or not being able to adequately incorporate them. A hundred percent. At the end of the day, focus is what makes or breaks our business. Right. And that comes in all regards and a boy in the ocean to solve a hundred problems at the same time. You're ultimately going to solve none of them. So we definitely like to try to.

Like we set out to all the problems that we're trying to solve over the course of a period of time. And then we segment it out and we have a roadmap of, okay, like these next three weeks, I'm focused on A, B, and C. And the next three weeks thereafter, I'll focus on D, E, and F and try to really segment the problems we're trying to solve first. And then for each of those problems, we'll say, okay, here are two to three ideas we have to solve it. And perhaps here's a technology tool as well as here's its next closest competitor.

This one we got a great referral from a friend and this one's at a better price point. Let's talk to customer service reps or sales reps of each of them. Let's try them out and then let's make a decision. That's our best possible decision we can make at that time and move on to the next problem to be solved and play that whack -a -mole for as long as we need to. But I definitely find that when we have too many spinning plates, they all come crashing down.

Oh, for sure. In any business, but especially when we're looking at what we're talking about here. That's really solid advice though. I hope our listeners are taking that into consideration as they're trying all the tech tools right now to identify your top problems and look for technology to solve those first, adapt, try them out, find solutions before you move on to the next problem that you want to solve.

Exactly. And it goes back full circle to we discussed at the beginning. No one got into this space because they wanted to be a full -time technology procurement specialist. And they got into this space because they wanted to go develop their craft and help serve people that are on their happiest day of their lives. And to try to find the quickest, most efficient way to solve that particular challenge and enable them to go do so just requires that level of focus. Yeah. Starting a business, I don't think any of us could have imagined

Candice (24:04.686)

how many resources we need to use on a daily basis in order to function, and also just how many tasks are involved, how many decisions we need to make on a daily basis. There's some statistic that like the average human makes 35 ,000 decisions a day. And so can you imagine what the average entrepreneur has to make in terms of decisions a day? Even if it's a similar scale of the number of decisions, the stakes are so much higher. Because some of those decisions,

might mean the difference between being able to pay your employees or not, or have a satisfied customer or not, or being able to continue your business or not. The entrepreneurship, I've never been in a game where the stakes felt so high on a daily basis, where each decision felt like it could have profound impact on the business. So it really is a, it's a particular type of stress that only entrepreneurs should understand.

I want to share with you a little secret about my time as a wedding planner. I used to dread when couples said they were having a friend or a family member officiate their ceremony. And that's because I knew that at some point, all three of them would turn to me and ask me where they should even start with the ceremony script. But now I feel confident that these couples can have the personal, meaningful, and impressive ceremony of their dreams. And it's all because of provenance.

Providence is the first and only collaborative AI wedding speech writing tool. It's super easy to use and they have already helped tens of thousands of couples, their wedding planners, officiants and guests write and manage everything from the ceremony to the toasts. Trust me, you're going to love Providence and for a limited time, you can sign up for a free trial and save 20 % when you add future clients or sign up.

for Providence's subscription with the code KANDICE. That's 20 % off with the code KANDICE, and you can sign up for your free trial by going to providence .co. slash KANDICE right now. One of my favorite parts of their wedding planner portal is it gives you insight into all your clients' speeches throughout the weekend. You can finally see how long that father of the bride toast will actually be, and make sure you print extra copies of the vows and ceremony script.

Candice (26:24.686)

just in case. Go to providence .co slash Candace to learn more, sign up for your free trial and use the code Candace to save 20%. Thanks to Providence for sponsoring this episode of the Power and Purpose podcast. Now let's get back to the episode. I would love it if you could share a little bit about how you started Providence and how this all came to be. I think there's many entrepreneurs in the wedding space.

who probably have great ideas for a product, who could potentially launch a tool in their own realm. And it's always nice to hear how a founder founded the tool and even created the tool a little bit to inspire. I always just love a backstory too. Like one of my favorite podcasts is how I built this, right? I just love knowing how people create things and how they get to where they are. So would you mind sharing just a little bit about how you started?

provenance. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share that. I do love that podcast too. There's something that's particular to entrepreneurial journeys and it's not just about tech entrepreneurial journeys. At the end of the day, as I mentioned before, we are all entrepreneurs and there's a reason why we all got in this space. For myself and the reason why I approached this space that I'm particularly passionate about, the tech angle is that so much of my career was in technology beforehand.

I went to Stanford University for undergrad and grad school, which is right in Silicon Valley, where I studied product design. I went on to venture capital in Los Angeles at Upfront Ventures and then at Wondrakow. And through venture capital, I was investing my firm's finances into early stage entrepreneurs. So I was meeting on a daily basis with entrepreneurs across industries who are pursuing their dreams with the intent to give them the capital to go make those dreams happen.

Wunder Co. specifically was a firm that was founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former president of Disney, founder and CEO of DreamWorks, who through Wunder Co. and with my help as his right -hand man, we built a company called Quibi, which is a mobile entertainment startup that was pretty famous a few years ago and that we raised a...

Candice (28:45.294)

tremendous sum of money, about $2 billion. We hired a team of about 300 employees. We were bringing this mobile on -the -go entertainment app to market, planned launch of April 6, 2020, just three weeks after the pandemic started and no one was on the go anymore. The company failed spectacularly. It was one of the biggest failures in Silicon Valley history, actually, and I was the first employee, chief of staff, head of operations, the head of international at that company at the time.

and got one of the most invaluable learning experiences I could have ever asked for. Now, frankly, I would have much preferred that it was a success. I got none of those learnings. That would have been lot more fun. But nonetheless, I grew up tremendously from that experience. I am so grateful for the breadth of mentors I had from the leadership team there, as well as the amazing team we had around us. And in the aftermath of that, I knew I wanted to go start something. And luckily with the...

great mentorship of my former players up front as well as at Wondrakow and Quibi, I had the chance to go do so. Now in parallel, in terms of my passion in the wedding industry, about eight years ago, I was asked to do the supreme honor of officiating to my best friend's wedding. One of the greatest honors of my life, but also a huge challenge. Where I had to, from scratch, with really no help or support,

to find a way to devise a wedding ceremony that felt traditionally legitimate, spiritually resonant, was perhaps secular but doesn't offend a grandma, was personal, customized, unique for the couple, was legally compliant, and was actually good in front of 200 people. I spent like 60 hours stressing out about this, trying to write this speech, like months of sleepless nights, and ultimately pulled something off that was luckily good enough that was then asked by more and more and more friends and family.

over the years since to officiate their weddings in turn, each time in incredible honor, but each time this incredible challenge. And I started realizing that I wasn't the only one who was facing this challenge. More and more of my friends were asking me for my own process of how I approached officiating. And today about 60 % of all weddings are now officiated by friends and family as opposed to clergy. As nervous as I was, I found that the couples whom I was officiating were even more nervous for their vows, the most important speech that they were writing.

Candice (31:10.318)

and delivering in their entire lives. And today, about 60 % of couples are writing and reading their own vows and live traditional vows within a wedding ceremony. As nervous as they were, I was watching the father, bride, groomsmen, bridesmaid, best man, maid of honor, whoever, who are being asked to speak not because they're a practice orator, but simply because they happen to be the childhood best friend or the sister of the bride or groom, and being asked to give this daunting speech in front of 200 people.

75 % of Americans couldn't be more afraid of public speaking than they are of death. So as I started watching these sources of high anxiety, as well as these sources of great risk within a wedding weekend that a wedding planner has so meticulously planned, I realized there might actually be a problem here that could be solved. And so I had this moment where the stars aligned and I was able to apply my technology industry background, expertise and network.

to this problem that I was so intimately passionate about and was facing myself all the time. Such a great story. And when I met you and discovered Providence and the work that you do, it instantly scratched an itch for me because as a planner for over 12 years, my clients would come to me, their family members would come to me, people would come to me and ask me what they should put in the ceremony that they're officiating or...

I would get an email from the father of the bride asking me for resources that I had for, you know, writing a speech. And I mean, I had a couple of things, but I didn't have anything that could even remotely help them create something amazing. And so when I met you through one of my students, Regina actually introduced us. I was like, this is a brilliant, brilliant service to offer and a brilliant piece of software to offer.

the industry so that we can support our clients with materials. And then also obviously for the casual user who wants support, who doesn't have a planner or somebody showing them the way to be able to sign up and then get all of these resources customized for what they need. Yeah, I really tremendously appreciate that. And we're so grateful to Regina for introducing us.

Candice (33:28.238)

And then the day, like what you just mentioned, as far as someone coming to you, asking you to bail out their officiants and provide a past client's ceremony script to plagiarize, read a Father Brian speech, Father Brian speech, often those requests also come the week of the wedding, maybe even the day before or day of, and you're scrambling around trying to deal with everything else that's important, and now you have this element. And further, what we often hear from wedding planners is that you have...

so meticulously planned every detail and you have so much control over every aspect of the wedding, making sure that everything is just perfect as you planned and promised. Then you have someone go up to the microphone, is this five minutes or unfortunately sometimes 20 minutes of absolute panic as you have no control over the time format of how long they're speaking, father -bride rambling on as the...

Entree is going cold in the back. You have no control over the content or the quality of what they're sharing. And you have a bride crying because a groom's man went off script or the officiant is dropping a ball on the entire impetus of the whole weekend and the wedding ceremony. So it's very much our effort and our intent is to bring some of that control back in the wedding planner's hands, as well as in the couple's hands to make sure that.

these moments of meeting, the ceremony, the vows, the toasts are of the same control, quality, and outcome of every other fast of the wedding weekend you've planned. Yeah. Boy, you really know what it's like behind the scenes.

Candice (35:07.854)

You really, really, really know what it's like behind the scenes. Those are days I don't miss. But I mean, I think back on my 12 year career, and there are specific instances that I can remember where things went off the rails. And you're just standing there. I mean, what are you going to you can't tell the father of the bride to cut it. I mean, he paid for the microphone in his hand. The man is going to speak, you know, and how do you corral a best man who has gone?

totally off the rails talking absolute craziness. It's very difficult. And so it's like, deals like this are a wedding planners insurance policy for their events to make sure that they're that these aspects which are out of your control can actually be somewhat in your control. This idea of just winging it and having someone just go off the cuff. You wouldn't wing the flowers or the

dinner or the band. So why should you wing this 30 minute chunk at the rehearsal dinner or the reception as these speeches that you might remember for the rest of your life are being shared? So having a tool that helps ensure, there are at some guardrails that the critical people are collaborating together to make this as tremendous, important and meaningful as everyone wants it to be, what we're really trying to help with, make sure that...

These moments that matter so much are as meaningful, as personalized, as memorable and high quality as every other fast, the wedding weekend we've planned. I love it. So Providence helps wedding planners and then also members of the bridal party or anybody who, uh, officiant, anybody who might be speaking or presenting at an event, prepare that talk, that speech, that whatever it is that they're doing.

Could you kind of give us a little bit of a sense of how it works? Absolutely. And how you describe yourself is exactly right. So we have a variety of tools. We have a ceremony builder that allows the couple and the officiant to, through a series of prompts coalesced together by a group of expert officiants, really determine every detail of the wedding ceremony, from the procession to the officiant's remarks to...

Candice (37:22.03)

a library we have of over a thousand readings and rituals, spinning all cultures and faiths, ethnicities, and even secular poems and songs and movie quotes, wherever you might think of to include your ceremony. The legal language around the declaration of intent and the pronouncement, and even any announcements you might want to give before or after, helps all three parties make all those determinations. And then through the use of artificial intelligence, we coalesce all that together into a highly personalized,

and well written, well crafted initial draft that you can then iterate thereafter through those three parties. We have a vow builder that takes all of your swirling memories and thoughts and stories and all the love you might have for your partner and help you coalesce that into initial draft. What I really love about the vow builder is one embarrassing thing I often see at weddings is when one partner has a 10 minute long, sentimental, beautiful speech and the partner has 30 seconds of jokes.

It feels a little awkward. It just went viral. There was just a TikTok that went viral. You guys should totally use this. You should do a stitch. But there was this groom. It was horrible. He barely said anything. I mean, I don't know. She had these beautiful vows and he just said something insensitive. You could tell he was nervous and underprepared. And TikTok ate him alive. They were... He's...

Oh, it's over. But that would be a great, that's like a, like a great little marketing piece for you guys. But continue. Sorry. Well, that is brutal. And he dropped the ball and did his part of the service. It also happens far too often. Um, I I've seen it all the time myself. So, um, what we've tried to do with that tool is we actually give you, while we still love the tradition of each partner, writing it separately to reveal on the first time that day.

that has inherent risk in it and that you don't know what the other person has said. So what we do with our tool is we give you a little hint of, hey, your partner's speech is this long and has this tone. You might want to judge it a little bit just to make sure that it feels relatively balanced and mirrored. And then beyond that, we have a toast builder that the couple, the wedding planner can invite all the wedding party members and family members are speaking on the wedding day or on the rehearsal dinner.

Candice (39:39.438)

to develop their speech for a toast boat that works similarly to other two tools, you also could have a little note in there saying, hey, please keep your speech to two minutes. And for the love of God, do not mention that story from college and help ensure that all the toast coverage remain in a certain timeframe. Beyond that, we also have a tool, Providence Pro for wedding planners. It provides wedding planners control over the breadth of these tools, allow them to invite their clients to use these tools with their.

wedding party and to give that level of high caliber service they give to every other facet of the wedding, every other problem to be solved to ensure that this piece is de -risked, which we're really excited about as well. And then finally, on top of all of that is for those clients that need even extra little bit of help, we do have comedians, White House speechwriters, novelist poets, et cetera, who could help punch up your speech further into public speaking and coaching for you as well.

Oh, so amazing. Honestly, this is one of the smartest pieces of software tools that I've come across in a very long time. And like I said earlier, it just it literally scratches the itch of like, this is a problem in every wedding, by the way, it's not just occasionally, every single wedding, there is either a friend officiating and they don't know what they're doing. There is somebody nervous about giving a toast.

who is not a writer, not a public speaker. There's a portion of the couple that's nervous about their vows every single wedding. And sure, you could go to chat GPT and say, hey, write me some wedding vows. And you're gonna get out very little from that experience versus your tool, which has been developed. I mean, you've used the resources and the brains of officiants across faiths to support you in how the ceremonies are built.

and you've also used other pieces of technology and people to help support what the tool gives back. You know, ChatUBT is a magical, amazing tool that we use all the time throughout various facets of our business. But be it ChatUBT or an online Madlib style template, you'll get back something that is very generic. And there's one thing that this speech cannot be is generic. It's supposed to be the most personalized.

Candice (41:59.074)

authentic, genuine speech you have delivered in your life, be it the ceremony, the vows or toast. And so our tool is very focused on that human touch and outcome to make sure that when you farm the ultimate delivered is of that caliber and quality that you expect. Yeah. I mean, what Stephen has essentially done is he understands the formula of what makes a good toast, a good speech, a good set of vows, not even good, a great and excellent, a memorable ceremony.

And he understands what the formulas are for that. And then he's developed a tool that takes that formula and then the personalization of each party and takes the formula plus the personalization and creates something really magical. I really appreciate that. That's exactly what we've been aiming to do. There's certain formats, there's certain rules, there's certain trends that we typically follow. And we're just trying to ensure that everyone who's getting up to the mic during the wedding, no matter how nervous they may be or unprepared they may be.

no matter whether or not they have any writing experience or speaking experience behind them, everyone should be able to knock it out of the park, both for themselves and particularly for the couple they are honoring. Well, tools like Providence are great for planners. We have a pro account and you can actually kind of white label it and bring it into the fold of your business, providing an amazing client experience. But this is also something that our listeners who aren't planners, your photographer, an invitation designer, a caterer, you likely have...

clients who have these problems and it's so nice to make the recommendation and say, hey, listen, here's a list of tools that I love to refer my clients to use and to be able to provide that as part of your client experience. You know, photographers and videographers have been loved. Our ceremony builder has all the blocking cues included within it. So saying when the music start and stop, that television to get out of the way during the final kiss. They don't run the phone out.

We make sure that's well coordinated. We've talked to a lot of videographers and photographers to design this tool as well to make that job easier. And certainly plenty of venues and the like are all of a sudden thrust in this position of having to help make sure the wedding ceremony is as flawless as everything else too. So we love collaborating with the breadth of entrepreneurs in this space and so they love so much of the wedding industry. And that we really feel that rising tide raises all ships and there's ways that we can help each other.

Candice (44:17.472)

grow relative businesses, we're always delighted to work with a variety of different vendors. I love it. Steven, what an amazing problem you have solved and one that I'm so surprised nobody thought to solve in any capacity. Before you, there was no one that I saw, and I think I pay attention well enough, in the industry who even remotely solving this problem, you would have to Google readings or Google quotes and sort of parse through stuff, never really find something.

that got you excited. The fact that you have this whole library of incredible resources, you said over 1000 different readings you guys have exactly. And from all faiths, all backgrounds, and frankly, it goes to what we were speaking earlier, and this is a problem that I was based myself, but we stopped to solve is that we saw too often. And it's my favorite thing about entrepreneurship is, you know, having the authenticity of this is my own challenge, I want to set the solve it for myself and others. And

I've continued officiating weddings since we've developed this company. And I can tell you, wow, it still requires that thought and that work and that investment of time. It's a lot less stressful than it ever was before we created this tool for me to go out and do so. And what we hear back from planners, from couples, from their officiants, we help navigate this and make sure that we deliver the data that they aspire to.

It's so much fun being in a space. Getting to be part of those moments. So good. Well, Stephen, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing more about digital trends that we should be paying attention to this year, some mistakes that we commonly make, why digital tools like Providence can help wedding pros just better their client experience and make the events that they're a part of better. Thanks to Pippa for also joining us. She was relatively well behaved, right?

Yeah, I think so. You have like a B plus, A minus. I agree though. No, I think that was good. And the toys made it in, so she's occupied right now. Yes. We love dogs on this show, so I'm so glad she could join us. Stephen, where can our listeners learn more about you and how can they connect with you outside the show and also check out Providence? Absolutely. So you find us, our website is providence .co.

Candice (46:34.51)

So P -R -O -V -E -N -A -N -C -E .co. You can find us on Instagram and TikTok at at ourprovidence .org. You can email us at hello at providence .co. And I promise you that that will hit my inbox as well. I'll make sure that anyone who's a member of Candidates' Community gets tremendous, wide -glove, premium support from myself and our team. Thank you. Awesome. All right. Well, I will list all of that in the show notes in more details.

about Providence as well. I think that this is one of those tech tools that all of us can benefit from, whether you are a planner and you have a pro account and you subscribe, or you're referring your clients to use it on a must -need basis. So Stephen, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for having me. It is an honor to be here. Such a fun conversation and excited to continue working with you soon, Candice. Thank you so much. OK, friend. Thank you so much for listening. I want to thank Stephen for being such an incredible guest.

On today's episode of the Power and Purpose podcast, I've linked all the things that we've discussed inside the show notes and you can learn more about Provenance, sign up for a free trial, check out the tool, definitely recommend it to your clients by going to candiscopla .com slash provenance. That's candiscopla .com slash P -R -O -V -E -N -A -N -C -E. I've listed all the details there about the software. You can go sign up, check it out.

Tell us what you think about it. But thank you so much for listening to today. And as always, I want to remind you there's so much power in your purpose. Until next time, friend. Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Power in Purpose podcast. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode and consider leaving a review. Head over to powerinpurposepodcast .com.

to access all of the resources and links mentioned in today's episode. That's power and purpose podcast .com. I'll see you next time.