Candice (00:00.182)

One of the biggest questions I am asked by wedding pros all the time is, Candace, how can I get more referrals? If you are a photographer, planner, invitation designer, caterer, rental company, any type of wedding pro, you know that referrals, networking, relationships are so important in the wedding industry. But what's going on in your business right now that might be leading to a lack of referrals? Why are you not getting referred?

Well, today's episode are some of the very sneaky behind the scenes reasons why more planners, more venues and more vendors are not referring your business. And in this episode, we're going to unpack some of the silent signals that you're sending. Red flags that you're throwing up, things that you might be doing that are actually turning vendors away. And I'm going to share with you some small shifts that are going to lead to better word of mouth.

growth. 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 (01:47.512)

Hey there friends, welcome back to the power and purpose podcast. It's me, your host Candice and boy, do I have a very spicy episode for you today. You know, as I was reviewing all my talking points, my notes and the things that I worked on in order to create an outline for this episode, I was like, this is gonna ruffle some feathers and I know it's going to have a lot of wedding cleaners nodding their head saying, mm Yep. I can think of a person there that I'm not referring because of that reason. And I can think of a person there that I'm not referring for that reason. And I know that

For some of you guys, this might be tough to hear, but I think that we need to have a hard conversation about referrals, how you could be earning trust with vendors so that you can get better referrals, and maybe some situations that you've created behind the scenes that you might not even be aware of that are leading to a lack of referral. And in the worst case, people actually not just not referring to you, but telling their clients to avoid hiring you.

I see a lot of conversations happening on the internet, on threads and other apps, on Instagram, and we talk about bad behavior and we talk about reasons why we don't refer to people. And in today's episode, I want to speak to some of those bad behavior reasons, but also to reveal some very subtle reasons why people may no longer or may not be referring to you at all.

Now, before we get into today's episode, which is going to be a really important episode, so I'm so glad you're here listening in, we're heading into sales season and referrals really do need to be one of the major, major, major marketing components that you focus on during sales season. I really want you focused on networking, relationships, but you've got to be doing it smartly, which we're going to talk about. But before we get into all that, I want to remind you that my brand, my AI brand workshop is happening tomorrow, August 27th.

If you haven't registered for it yet, please go and sign up. Speaking of referrals, part of what we're going to talk about today is your brand and your brand voice. And I want to make sure that you are well set up to use everything that tools like Chat GPT or Claude have to offer so that you can work smartly on your visibility plan over engagement season by using these tools, but using them without losing your unique voice.

Candice (04:08.492)

If you've been using ChatTPT for your marketing, great. I'm super proud of you. You should be using it, but I can almost guarantee that you're sounding like everybody else using ChatTPT. I taught a workshop inside the Planner's Playbook. It was a massive hit. This workshop, it completely transformed every single planner's business that took it. And now I want to teach it to all wedding pros. So go and sign up, candiscopla.com slash workshop. Come and join me. It's 17 bucks. It's the easiest.

Most affordable, yes, you will have all year long. Go and register. If you can't join me live tomorrow, no worries. You'll get access to the replay within 24 hours. And trust me, you're gonna want to go and grab this workshop. I will be selling it, but I will be selling it for much more. So if you wanna pay more, that's your prerogative. But as your business coach, I would ask you why. And maybe that is a sign of a deeper problem that we should absolutely unpack at another time. Okay.

CandaceCoppola.com slash workshop. Go and sign up. You're going to love this. It's gonna have a huge impact on your business. And I love when I can teach things and I can see a direct immediate impact. So in 90 minutes, you're gonna completely change your outputs using AI. It's gonna be awesome and I cannot wait for it. And for those of you that you've registered, I'm so excited to see you. We're gonna have a great time.

Let's talk about the real reasons why you're not getting more referrals in your business. And first, I want to start off with the myth that you just need to network more. Even though I think that you probably do need to network more, you do need to put yourself out there more. That's all part of that bold visibility plan that we've been discussing here on the podcast. But you probably heard like you just need to attend more events. You just need to get out there and network more. But referrals are not just on visibility.

alone it's not just being at every event that is actually gonna lead to referrals and if you actually have been out there at every local event networking your booty off and you're still not getting referrals then you know that it's not about just networking more you have to build trust. We don't refer anybody because we saw them at a networking event or we saw them on instagram we refer them because we believe in them because we believe in the service they provide.

Candice (06:27.702)

and what they're capable of, whether we're referring a plumber to a friend who's helped us in the past, or we're referring a colleague to a client. And so I first need you to understand that networking alone is not going to increase your referrals. One thing that you need to really start thinking about is how can I be easier to refer? How can I be the vendor that people want to refer? How can I be

the safer person to refer. And I promise you that vendors in your industry, they're not all clicky, they're not all gatekeeping, they're truly just protecting their name as they should be, especially planners. If you desire to work with more planners, you really need today's episode because there is no way a planner is going to refer you to their clients and put their name on the line unless you have all of these things dialed in.

So vendors out there, they're not gatekeeping. And for the most part, I don't think people are overly clicky. They are clicky, but they're not maliciously clicky. Most people are just protecting their name, protecting their brand reputation. And they should be just like you would do, just like you do with your referrals that you give out. But there are some hard truths that we need to discuss. This is definitely a come to Jesus. And there are some real reasons why you're not getting referred.

The first is you haven't earned their trust and being nice isn't enough. Referrals, they require confidence. People need to be fully confident in you, in the product you deliver and the services that you provide. And for planners, we have to think about, are you going to be easy to work with? Are you going to be responsive? Are you going to be good to our clients? We don't want to just hope that it's going to work out. We need to know it will.

So often who gets the referral are the vendors who have been referable in the past. And as a newcomer, maybe to your location or as somebody who is trying to build relationships, it can feel very hard to break through. So your top priority needs to be earning the trust of the vendors that you want to refer. And I know you're gonna ask me, Candice, how do I do that? We're gonna actually break down all of the other

Candice (08:48.11)

signs that you're not, these are reasons why you're not getting referred. Actually flipping these things all help you to build trust. Okay? by line by line, I am going to help you build better trust with vendors. But the very basic reason why is you haven't earned their trust yet. And you need to be focused on gaining, earning, and building trust. People do not buy from people they don't trust. People do not refer to people they don't trust.

Vendors, planners, venues, all willing to go out on a limb for somebody that we like, that we just met, that presented themselves really well, who we think might be a good fit. But we are really only willing to do that once. And so that leads me to the next reason why you're not getting referred more. And it's you've broken trust without realizing it. And this is a silent killer of referrals. And it happens way more

than you think, and it might be happening to you right now, and I hate it for you, but you can come back from this. So when we talk about broken trust, this is things like flaky communication, missed deadlines, being completely disorganized behind the scenes. One bad experience, it sticks a lot longer than a dozen good impressions. One bad experience can sour everything, and that feels

kind of shitty because it's like we'll have bad days. And I think most of us are willing to give everyone a bit of grace. But speaking as the planner on this podcast, I have to be honest with you. Like I was at a stage in my career where I didn't need to give grace anymore. Okay. If you didn't have your shit together, you weren't getting my referral. If you made it hard for me, you weren't getting my referral. Like you needed to come up to my level here and be the vendor that I was comfortable referring.

And I know there are a lot of planners who feel just like me. Like I can't give everybody a chance. You have to earn my trust and then you have to keep it. So a hard truth is you may have broken trust without realizing it. And this is easier to do than it actually is to build trust. You know, not responding to emails, being hard to get in touch with. You know, if a planner reaches out to you and it takes you two weeks to get back to them, it's not going to happen for you, my friend. And I know you're busy.

Candice (11:17.09)

and you got a lot going on and I get it, but that's honestly no excuse because if you're busy and you have a lot going on, you should be hiring people to help you full stop. End of sentence. Nothing more to say on that matter. You should be hiring people to help you. If your business is grown and you can't maintain it as an operator, you need to hire people to support you. And a planner will probably not tell that to your face, but that's what they're also thinking behind the scenes.

And before any of you come for me, I know planners are guilty of doing all the same shit too. Trust me. There are lots of planners out there who need to hire help, who are flaky, who don't get back to people. I know. I'm not saying we're perfect, but what I'm saying is if you want more referrals, you need to reconnect with people who you may have broken trust with. Because like I said, one bad experience is going to stick a lot longer than, you know, a dozen great first impressions. So ask yourself, have I broken trust?

with maybe a past referral source or somebody who did go out on a limb and referred me and maybe I didn't respond as quickly. Maybe I was going through a hard time. What can I do to earn back the trust of that person? The next reason why people are not referring to you is your marketing is a big red flag. And this is outdated website, inconsistent visuals, you're ranting online. If you're going to threads and you're just

talking a bunch of shit. mean, as a planner, I'm probably not going to refer to you. That's just me. That's my personal take. If that is part of your brand, do you boo? Like go off, do you? But I'm telling you that that is a very quick way for people to be like, I don't think so. And case in point, I did an Instagram post a couple of weeks ago and it was like, it was a hot take for sure.

It was threads is going to be the reason why you don't have a wedding industry business in two years. And what I basically said was all your hot takes, all your ranting clients are seeing that other vendors are seeing that and people are looking at it and going like, yeah, they have a point, but really does this need to be a public conversation? It's damaging your brand reputation. But outside of ranting online, let's just talk about fundamentals. Your website hasn't been updated in five years. It's giving outdated. It's giving, you know, 2020. It needs to be updated. It does.

Candice (13:41.462)

If your website still says COVID on it, we have a problem, hon. We have a problem because that's, I mean, it's still out there, but it's not affecting us the way it was in 2020. And so I'm using that as a real example, by the way, sad enough to say a real example. You need to make sure that your marketing is up to date. It's current. And it's also consistent. That's not all over the place that you're not all over the place because

When I look at a wedding pros marketing and they're all over the place and it's disorganized, it doesn't make any sense. There's no common theme. There's no marketing message. There's no common thread. I go to their website. It doesn't make any sense. Immediately I'm turned off and I, yes, I am an expert and I know to look out for these things, but I have to be honest, your clients, couples and other vendors are experts as well. They can tell when something is dated.

They can tell when something is not consistent, when something is disorganized, and it's absolutely going to diminish trust. Vendors see your marketing too. In fact, they see it more than clients do. So if it feels messy, if it feels emotional, if it's erratic, they're going to hesitate. And I know you get what I'm saying because I know you can think of a person in your mind right now and you're thinking, girl,

I know exactly what you mean. Because there's this person who is doing just this. They need to hear this episode. Send it to them. And not so subtle, little message like, girl, I think you need to listen to this. But if your marketing is a red flag, if it's inconsistent, if it's outdated, if you're ranting online, you are going to break trust and you are diminishing referrals. You're doing yourself a disservice. And to what cost? Is it worth it? I don't know.

The next reason why people are not referring to you is you're not prioritizing the clients they refer. I really think that when somebody sends over a customer, a friend, a client, whomever, when you get a referral, they should be getting white glove treatment. Yeah, they should be getting extra care, extra credit. They should be getting a gift. They should be getting a little extra care to those leads that have been referred.

Candice (16:00.558)

So you have to ask yourself, I treating the referrals I'm getting? Am I giving them the white glove treatment? Am I giving them the VIP experience? Am I going just 10 % above my normal process, my normal interactions to make them feel special? Or am I treating them like everybody else? And I also have to ask you a question. Are you even thanking your referrals? This is a big one for me. As a planner and as somebody who refers out a lot, I often am giving away so much business to people.

don't get thanked very often for that. Maybe people don't know, but I choose to believe that's not true. I think a lot of my students say, Candace referred me to you. And you have to ask, are you thanking your referrers? Are you reaching out to people and saying, thanks for the business? I really appreciate you sending me your client. I really appreciate you sending me your friend. Thanks for the trust you're instilling in me. And a thank you goes a long way. Nobody says you have to start spending money on people, but I will say that a little gift, a token of your appreciation, heck,

a thank you card is so appreciated and it's validating and it's relationship building. It's like pouring into somebody and building a relationship. So you need to make sure you're prioritizing the referrals that are coming to you, both the client and the person who is making that referral. If you have a planner in your orbit right now who has sent you a client this year, I want you to stop what you're doing right now, which is listening to this podcast.

And I want you to make a mental note that you are going to do something nice for that planner. You're going to buy them a gift card to a restaurant you love. You're going to send them a fun little gift. You're going to send them a thank you card. You're going to do something that shows appreciation and makes them feel valued. Simple. Doesn't have to be expensive, but you know what? If it is expensive, good. Good. You made money off of that relationship. Pay it forward. Send them something for your appreciation and let them know how much

you value them. You're going to do two things. First, you're going to bring a smile to their face. They're going to receive your gift and they're going to feel great about it. And when you can make someone smile, you can make somebody feel seen, valued, validated, you can just make somebody feel happy in a moment, that creates an impression. And that's the second thing you're going to do is you're going to create an impression. You're going to be top of mind for that planner and watch what doesn't happen next.

Candice (18:25.078)

Watch how they don't say, I just got your gift. my God, great timing. I have another client to send to you. Watch. And when that happens, I want you in my inbox thanking me for getting you off your booty to thank the people who are handing you cash, handing you money. But it doesn't just stop at planners. It's also venues who are referring to you consistently. Let me tell you, if you get a lot of referrals from venues, you got to protect those revenue streams.

because at any time they can take you off their preferred vendor list, things are gonna get hard. And if you've been relying on referrals from these venues and they dry up, things are gonna get hard. You're gonna be in my inbox saying, no, what do I do? And the solution is complicated, okay? So please take care of your referrals, take care of their clients they're sending you and thank the people who are sending you business.

Now, another reason why you're not getting referred, and this is difficult, and it's something that you're going to have to ask yourself if this is the case, okay? And it requires self-awareness and self-reflection you are difficult to work with. And I hate to be the person to tell you this, but other businesses do not owe you this level of honesty. Even if you ask, people don't owe you these hard conversations. But you might be very difficult to work with. And I'm going to tell you something. If you're difficult to work with, people are not going to refer you.

We don't want to walk on eggshells. We don't want to have to make our jobs harder to cater to your needs, your crazy process that's super hard. You see this all the time with people bitching about CRMs, as well as say CRMs on threads. You make it difficult to work with you and people are not going to work with you. If you're critical, if you're chaotic, if you are disorganized, or if you are

overly controlling everything, people aren't going to risk working with you. They want to follow, they're like water. We want to follow the path of least resistance. And I don't know about you, but I want to have fun on wedding days. I want to have fun throughout the process. I have enough stress in my life and I have enough demands and stress from clients that I don't need a photographer with a writer with a 50 page contract outlining all the things they need to have and

Candice (20:43.916)

having me have to go through a very ridiculous, old school, clunky process to get anything done. Quite frankly, you could be the best photographer in the world and I would say, no thank you, you're making it hard for me, I'm not into it. So you have to ask yourself, am I difficult to work with? Am I making it difficult to work with me? Or am I making it easy for people? Is my process easy? Am I accommodating?

Do I try to accommodate planners or specific venues and their clients? You know, I have said before on this podcast that I feel like sometimes wedding pros are bounding themselves out of business. They are created a lot of boundaries, which is a reaction to overwhelm, burnout, nervous system dysregulation. So the boundaries are created to protect you, to keep you safe. But eventually, or maybe possibly,

some of those boundaries are repelling people away. The right people, the people you actually want to work with, okay? We want the boundaries to repel the wrong people, but not the right people too. So a boundary audit might also need to be in order for you, but I don't want you to be difficult to work with. I don't want you to be that person that people are behind the scenes going, dude, she's so hard to work with. She's, know.

control freak, she's bitchy, she's hard to get touch with. I don't want people saying that about you because I know that you don't want to be that person. But over time, that might be who you've become. And it's worth it to ask yourself, what can I change here? Truly, it's worth it. Okay. Whew. I feel better. Do you feel better? I feel better. I know there are some planners out there like,

can't wait for you to post this reel on Instagram because I am going to share it. And I know there are some of you guys out there who are like, eek, I think I might be difficult to work with. And listen, if that's you, here's a challenge for you. Drop into my inbox and say, Candace, I listened to your episode and I recognize that I'm difficult to work with. And I just want to reach out to you and ask you if you have any advice for me. And let's talk about it. Okay. That's what I'm willing to do to help you become less difficult.

Candice (23:07.38)

Okay. Number six, you're invisible between events. this is, oof, this is a tough one. You disappear. You just poof. You're like, bye. You are like the guild of the good witch. I think she's the one who just like disappeared. She came down in a bubble, which, my God, this is now I'm going on a tangent. But if you are chronically online, you will know what I'm referencing.

Candice (23:35.818)

I should have my podcast editor drop in the clip that I'm talking about. won't. listen, you're poof, you're gone. You disappear in the off season and you wonder why your phone's not ringing. And you disappear because you're burnt out, you're tired, you introvert. You literally hibernate in a cocoon in your house under a blanket, binge watching Bravo and Gilmore Girls and all the good stuff. And your marketing falls by the wayside, your networking falls by the wayside, and you're forgettable, honestly.

Because out of sight, out of mind, sister. When you disappear in the off season, you're tinkering and toiling away, or you're just trying to calm your nervous system, you are missing out on referrals. You have to remember that your marketing isn't just client attraction. It's also top of mind with venues and vendors. It's you showing up consistently to say, we're here, we're doing good work, we care.

This is our mission. This is our message. These are our clients and other vendors pay attention to that. And if they don't see you for six months, do you really think they're going to refer to you? Also, it kind of signals that like maybe your business isn't stable. Maybe you're not taking on clients. Like you're just disappearing and you're not active. And that creates distrust, which then as you know, reduces referrals because people aren't going to refer to you unless they trust you.

So if you have a habit every year of disappearing in the off season, we need to correct that. You need to not disappear like Glenda the Good Witch and poof, you're gone. We need you to be present. And also we need to work on your capacity. We need to help you move through burnout, overwhelm, and get you in a sustainable.

place with your marketing so your business can continue to grow. So I'm just banking that in my mind as a podcast episode, as a something to support you in, because this happens a lot. It happens with people I coach and mentor, which is why I go hard with people in Q4 and Q1. In my mastermind, Wedding Pro Insiders, which you are very welcome to check out at weddingproinsiders.com, I very much prioritize visibility for these women and I prioritize even in

Candice (25:55.552)

in the off season, being visible and helping them maintain that visibility because out of sight, out of mind. Next, you haven't defined what makes you referable. And think about this. If you can't articulate what you're great at, how are people who are not paying attention to your business 24 seven able to articulate what you're great at? If you can't

in a sentence say what you do and who you serve very simply, very clearly. If you can't define who you are, what your values are, your brand voice, if you can't articulate what you're great at, then how am I supposed to know? I can't, I mean, I'm trying to stay afloat in my own business. I can't keep tabs on 45 photographers or 10 different stationers. So you have to understand what makes you referable.

You've heard the Jack of all trades kind of proverb, but a Jack of all trades brands are kind of hard to send clients to. If you're just good at everything, this is a lesson I've learned. It's hard to send people to you. In my own mastermind, I have a couple of fantastic, talented wedding industry educators. And this is so funny because we were talking about what we all do.

And this is something I realized with myself is it's like, I'm kind of hard to refer to sometimes because I do too much. I can kind of help you do everything. I can help you braid your hair. I can help you build your business. I can help you fix your mindset. Like girl, I could do it all, but that kind of makes me hard to refer because what do I specialize in? What is my secret sauce? And this is something that I've been really thinking about lately. My colleagues brought it up to me. Even I can fall into these traps.

But if you're a jack of all trades, if you don't know what makes you referable, if you can't articulate what you're great at, how are strangers or how are your colleagues supposed to do that on your behalf? I love to say, if you are not going to talk about yourself, how can you expect people to talk about you for you? You can't. So you need to define what makes you referable. And this is all about understanding who you are, the clients you serve, your brand, your niche, your brand voice.

Candice (28:15.244)

What makes you great, what lights you up or brings you joy. And if you are lost here, hire a coach to help you hire someone like me to help you come in in this new era of your business and help you define what makes you different. Help you define where your brand authority lives, what your signature aesthetic is. It's important stuff.

And I think far too often we don't pay attention to it. And like I said, even I'm guilty of this. So just a little tea on my own business. All right. The final reason why people may not be referring to you is you haven't invested in relationships. I want you to know that referrals come from depth. All meaningful relationships are built on depth. It's not about going wide. It's about going deep. And maybe this is a challenge for you in this upcoming off season.

is where can you go deeper instead of wider? If your only touch point is like a follow on Instagram or a random DM, that's not enough. You have to establish relationships and you know at this big age of yours that relationships, you sometimes you're like a house on fire. Sometimes they just come together quickly, but often it's through quiet, persistent and consistent checkpoints with people. It's caring about people, it's checking in, it's checking in when you don't.

need something, but for the sake of, how are you? How are things going? What's going on in your world? Let's get together. Let's get together and not even talk about business. Let's get together and talk about life. Let's get together and talk about Bravo. Let's get together and talk about Housewives and Jax Taylor and all the things that I actually like to talk about. But you need to focus on depth. And the truth is, is you can't go deep with everybody. You just can't. You're going to have surface relationships and that's okay.

Maybe over time, those relationships will become richer and richer. So you just let them over time grow deeper. The roots of those relationships grow deeper. But I know that there are one or two people in your network right now who you could actually reach out to today to establish more depth in your relationship. And by just reaching out and getting a date on the calendar, taking them out to lunch, no strings attached, you know, this isn't

Candice (30:31.906)

to talk business or to get your business, but it's more so about, know, I really like you. I love hanging out with you. Like, could we do that? Will you be my friend? That kind of email, I know there's somebody in your orbit right now, at least one person, probably more, probably two, that you could actually spend a little time over the next 30 days going deeper with. And the reward from that is A, having a friendship that can be very fulfilling. And let me tell you,

I have some of the most fulfilling relationships in my life came from vendor friends. My two most core friendships in my life are colleagues. I said that and I was like, that's weird. They're not from high school. They're not from people that I met throughout my life. They're from colleagues. I said that and in my body language, I shrunk and I'm like, why did I do that? I should be proud of them. There's nothing wrong with having...

work friends that become lifelong friends, that become soul friends. Nothing wrong with that at all. And in fact, it's super gratifying because your worlds are colliding and there's so much depth there. There's work depth, there's real life depth. So this could become something really meaningful for you by going deep with just a few people rather than wide and trying to catch as many referrals from as many people as possible.

Now I do want to share just a couple of trust breakers. We've got our different reasons why you might not be on the top of people's referral list. And here are some things you might be doing that are barriers. And I've kind of mentioned them, but I just want to pause and talk about them a little deeper. Number one, you're not showing up consistently online. So people are forgetting about you.

Whether you disappear in the off season or you have these spurts, which a lot of wedding pros do, you show up for 30 days, you schedule your content out, you're in my face. I'm seeing you in the feed. You're there, you're there, you're talking, you're talking. And then four months go by and I haven't heard from you. That's a problem. I would rather see you schedule out two posts a week for four months than come in hot and heavy for 30 days and disappear. You've got to fix that problem because that is breaking trust.

Candice (32:54.336)

And it's a barrier to refer to you. I will not refer to you if you are not consistent. It shows me that you are a person who cannot maintain stability in your business. Second, you're too focused on how you want to be seen and not how you make people feel. You're too focused on how you're being perceived and how you're being showed up and you're not focusing on the people you're actually speaking to. The reason why your business exists, your clients.

And so, yes, I want you to show up visually. We've been talking about this a lot on the podcast, but you're doing that in an effort to connect with the people that you are here to serve. Okay? And if you focus too much on perception and how you're being seen, you're going to get in your head and you're going to decrease your visibility and you're going to retreat. And the cycle is going to repeat itself over and over. We got to break that cycle. Okay?

thing is that you're working on the wrong visibility. You're obsessing about social media. You are focusing on these little side quest tangents. You're like, I need to be on YouTube. You see one ad for how to start your YouTube channel and now you're on the side quest to start recording 20 minute videos every single week. Meanwhile, you've not recorded a story with your face in six months.

I hear this all the time. I love you and I want to support you in your dreams, girl, but you got to start small and build up. And I find that oftentimes people make these big sweeping, know, I'm going to do this or I'm going to focus on this visit, but I'm going to start a TikTok and post eight times a day and build my TikTok audience. When really your goldmine is right in front of you, it is the referral stream or the channel or the...

social media marketing channel that you've been investing in quietly for years, you just haven't turned the volume up on. Okay? So please just focus on enhancing the relationships that you already have built, the social media or the marketing channels that you know you could be more consistent on rather than going on epic side quests and building something that is so big and hard that by the time you build it,

Candice (35:12.824)

you're not going to show up and actually be visible on it. I see that all the time. So here's what we need to do instead. I want you to be the easiest yes in someone's inbox. Vendors do not want to guess if you're going to deliver. So ask yourself, how can I be the easiest yes for somebody to refer to? Next, I want you to build relationships when you don't need anything. That's when real connection, that's when real relationships are formed. When you don't need something, that's the perfect time.

to reach out to somebody and say, hey, what do you need? Maybe I can be of service to you. I want you to make sure that you're very clear on your brand promise. If you are not clear about who you are, what you do, and who you serve, how am I supposed to send the right people to you? I want you to make it easy to refer to you. Clear services, know who your clients are, a strong process, consistent marketing. And consistent doesn't mean that you're posting 800 times a day, okay?

Consistent means that you are consistently visible. You take a vacation, you're gone for a week, it's not a big deal, but you don't disappear for three months. You don't come in hot for two weeks and then fall off the track for three months. All of this equals confidence, all right? So when you make it easy to refer to you, when you're consistent, when you're clear, when you're easy to work with, that creates confidence. And finally, and biggest networking, biggest relationship building hack is give more than you take.

I want you to be the kind professional who celebrates others, who uplifts, who's always there with a comment that is uplifting, supportive, congratulations, this was beautiful, great work, you deserve it, this is awesome. Support people. You would be shocked at how that can transform your reputation in the industry. And I can think of a handful of people in my world

who I've coached, mentored, who I have the pleasure of just seeing in my feed, who are so good at this. And I don't think they do it like behind the scenes with all this like malicious strategy. Like I'm gonna comment on everybody's stuff and be supportive so they'll refer to me. I think naturally they're just supportive people and it works in their favor. I know you're naturally a supportive person because you're in the wedding industry. How could you not be? I want you to take some of that personality that you have and I want you

Candice (37:38.242)

to use it to uplift, to support, to comment, to celebrate, and to connect other people without expectation. So here is two questions for you to think about. First, what's one referral relationship that you've neglected or that you feel called to support more that you want to nurture, that you want to reach out to today? Reach out to that person. Just reach out to them and be like, hey girl, how's it going? Email them, text them.

call them on the phone. Maybe don't do that, I don't know. I love a phone call. Call them on the phone, voice note them, whatever you gotta do. But there's one person in your orbit right now who you could be pouring into more. And then second, what's one way that you can rebuild or build trust this week? Think about all the examples I gave you and I'm gonna repeat them one more time, okay? The first is you haven't earned their trust yet.

Second, you've broken trust without realizing it. That's a big one. Your marketing is just a red flag. It's not consistent. It's outdated. You're ranting. You're not showing up as your best. You are not prioritizing referral clients and the person who referred you. You're difficult to work with. That's a come to Jesus. You have to have yourself. You're invisible between events. You disappear. You haven't defined what makes you referable.

and you haven't invested in relationships. Those are the reasons. What's one way that you can combat one of those reasons and begin to rebuild trust this week? I want you to come back to this episode. I think it's something that you may have to listen to more than once. I want you to share it. I want you to share it because there is probably somebody who you believe in right now, who you wish

could listen to this, who you don't have the heart to tell this to, but you know if they heard this, they would have an epiphany and aha. Share it to your socials, send it to a friend, let people hear what I've had to say, and also share this and tell somebody how much you appreciate them. Say, just listened to this episode of Candace's podcast and she's going through all these red flags that like you're not referable, why people aren't referring you, and I want you to know

Candice (40:03.788)

You are none of these things and you make it so easy to send my clients to you. And I want to thank you for that because it's not always about dragging people on threads or dragging people in the comments or sub tweeting or vague booking, right? I think we also need to normalize showing up for each other and honoring when people do things the right way. Okay. When people actually do none of these things,

and they're doing all these things right. Somebody in your orbit actually needs to hear that from you, that they're doing all these things really well. You're just gonna bring a smile to their face and boy, if that isn't a good way to deepen a relationship, I don't know what it is. Now, if you want my support with any of these things, I'd love to welcome you into Wedding Pro Insiders. This is my mastermind for women who are ready to do big things and step into the business that truly serves them.

You can go to weddingproinsiders.com to learn more about my mastermind, sign up for the wait list, apply to join us. I'll send you more details about the experience. And don't forget my special AI workshop is happening tomorrow, Wednesday, August 27th. I want to see you there. So go sign up, go register, and I'll see you inside the workshop. All right, friend, I want to remind you there's so much power in your purpose. I'll see you next week.

Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Power and 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 powerinpurposepodcast.com. I'll see you next time.