Candice (00:00.142)

What's working and what's next for 2025? Let's end 2024 and start a new year together with the wedding season debrief. 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 Copleve.

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 (00:58.094)

Hey there friends, it's your host Candice and welcome to the final episode of the Power and Purpose podcast for 2024. Gosh, it feels so great to say that. I have to be honest. We worked really hard on the podcast this year and you worked really hard this year on your business. I think that this was our best year yet together. I think we worked on incredible strategies. We thought through a lot of problems.

and opportunities. had great guests on the show. We started a new series behind the brand, which you guys are loving, by the way. And I love that. And we also bumped the episodes up to two a week, which was a challenge for us. But we were happy to do it. All in all, I'm really proud of the work that we did together here on the podcast. And I'm also really proud of you for the work that you did in your business.

I know 2024 was a strange year, strange in good ways, strange in not so good ways, and you made it. So the first thing I want us to do in this final episode of the year is to just breathe a sigh of relief. Relax your shoulders, relax your jaw. You made it. You made it through a tough year. Maybe it was tough for you professionally. Maybe it was tough for you personally. Maybe you had some growing pains this year, but you made it. You did it.

And I think that on this day, the 31st of December, you are stronger than you've ever been in your business. And I want you to know that I, as your business coach, I am really freaking proud of you. I'm proud of you for how far you've come. I'm proud of you for all the work that you've put into your business, all the opportunities that you've created for yourself and how you have lovingly served your customers this year.

If no one has told you in a while that they're proud of you, I'm here. And I'm telling you, I am so freaking proud of you. So a round of applause for all your hard work. Relax. It's a new year, which means new opportunities, new ways of doing things, changes that are really good. Change doesn't have to be bad. It can be really good. We're on the precipice of a new year.

Candice (03:22.582)

And I wanted to end our podcast season with a very special episode debriefing your season. And today you're in for a real treat because I am teaching you and walking you and leading you through a workshop that I only teach inside my high level mastermind for women in the wedding industry. And in fact, this is how we end our year together inside Wedding Pro Insiders.

And as I was teaching this workshop live with the women in my mastermind and getting their feedback in real time, because we do this together as a group, it was implanted upon my heart to teach this to all of you, because I know how transformative it is to be able to debrief your year and how debriefing is really the first stage of setting goals and focus for a new year.

I said to Kara, who is my marketing director and assists me with putting together our podcast outlines, I said, listen, it's on my heart to teach this. I want to take this workshop and I want to teach it on the podcast. And she agreed. I'm so glad that we're doing this. So we're going to get into your wedding season on this episode of the show. And I'm going to lead you through the exact workshop that I led the women in my mastermind. But here's the thing. This workshop is best consumed

your desk with a pen and paper or a Google Doc. If you're listening to this and you're driving or you're busy, you're cleaning, you're doing something, don't stop listening. Consume this, but also go and make time to come back to this when you can be sitting down with all the right tools to not just consume, but actually take action. Unlike a lot of our podcast episodes where you are just listening in and getting ideas, getting inspired, hearing stories and strategies,

This is more about you taking action on what I'm telling you. Grab your favorite notebook, the one that you probably need to dust off because it's been sitting in its notebook graveyard for a while. Grab your favorite pen or open up a Word document and call it your 2024 wedding season debrief. And let's get started. The first question I want you to think about.

Candice (05:43.958)

as we begin to debrief your wedding season is what do you want to leave behind? As we enter into a new year, this is a great time for you to close the chapter on things that are not serving you or that have run their course. And we're starting off this workshop by leaving behind the shit, the baggage, the stuff that we cannot carry with us into a new year. There is no space for it.

Sometimes I find that we hold onto things for way too long. We hold onto services, clients, ways of thinking, strategies, people, things. We just hold onto them for much longer than we need to. And this is your reminder and your permission that you can actually put the glass down and let things go that are not serving you. And you get to make that choice as you enter into a new year. You get to wipe the slate clean.

Like I mentioned, as you're thinking about the things that you want to leave behind, these can be situations, mistakes that you made this past year, relationships that are not serving you, friendships that are not serving you, partnerships that are not serving you, and equally as important, mindsets that are limiting you from the possibilities and from the potential of your business. Scarcity.

imposter syndrome, perfectionism, fear of judgment. There are so many different negative mindsets that we carry around that truly limit our growth. Now we are going to take a look at some of the lessons from this year, but I also want you to use this space as an opportunity to leave behind any shame that you have from this year or any icky feelings you might have.

about the challenges that you face this year. We carry around a lot of silent shame for the mistakes that we make, the things that maybe we didn't handle well, the things that we didn't recognize soon enough. And I think it's important for you to come to terms and to confront those things so that you can move on peacefully into a new year with

Candice (08:12.014)

prosperity and positivity on your mind. So this question, what do you need to leave behind so that you can step into a new year is something I want you to reflect on. And as you reflect on this, do yourself a favor and just write down the things that come to mind for you. And in fact, throughout this entire workshop, I don't want you to feel like you need to put this in

complete sentences, or that it really needs to make sense to anybody else besides you. I think that a lot of times when we are free to just let things out in a way where we're not limited, some of our best ideas and really what bubbles to the surface are the things that subconsciously we're thinking about that we are dimming or not letting come to the surface. So just free write, brain dump, use this as an opportunity to get out what's in your heart or what's in your head.

After you've had some time to reflect and acknowledge what you want to leave behind, I want to do a little bit of a business vibe check. And this is where you get to grade yourself on key aspects of your business. And in WPI, in the workshop, there were 16 different things that I asked the women to think about. And I've condensed them down to just a few today.

And these things, you're going to think about them and greet yourself on a scale of one to 10, with one being bad and 10 being Beyonce. Like so good, you've got that on lock. And I also want you to ask yourself, as we go through these areas of improvement where you're measuring these different business KPIs, I want you to ask yourself, which of these areas am I at my

absolute best and which areas do I really have some room for improvement? I also want you to use yourself as the benchmark here. So I don't want you to grade yourself against your competition or against an imaginary person or your business BFF who you're suffering a little imposter syndrome with right now. Your benchmark is you.

Candice (10:35.662)

And in fact, if you're in competition with anybody in 2025, it's 2024 you, okay? So do not compare yourself to others. That's not what this is about. Now, some of these KPIs that I want you to measure are the following. Client satisfaction, time management, team communication, reputation and brand building, stress management,

service levels, pricing, boundaries, and overall happiness level in business. Now remember, we're using a scale of one to 10 with 10 being Beyonce. I also want to encourage you to think about what KPIs should you be grading yourself on based on your unique business? Because our listeners are vast. They're all different facets of the wedding industry. So based on your unique business, what are some

key performance indicators that you should be creating yourself on right now. Write them down, add to my list. And as I read those, I have a question to ask. What came up for you? Because your initial thought, I'm a five, I'm a seven, I'm a three, could be right. But it also, you could actually be not giving yourself enough credit for the improvements you've made and really,

how great certain aspects are of your business. I think we often grade ourselves poorly on things and really we're actually doing much better than we give ourselves credit for. So we have to balance a little bit of some self-criticism that might be a little too harsh with also getting really honest with yourself about areas that truly do need to be improved. I think these pulse checks are so important because it's really easy for you to let

too much time go by in between looking at some of these things and then end up wondering, how did I end up with a business that I completely hate or a situation that is completely spiraled out of control or something that has become so complicated where I'm just craving simplicity? This is your chance to do a vibe check for your business. Grade yourself on different KPIs.

Candice (12:58.486)

and see where you can improve. That's going to be a really good indication of where we should be spending our time in 2025, especially in our off season, where we should put the majority of our time and effort. Once we've done our business vibe check, I'm now going to lead you through some different categories of questions. So this, if you haven't grabbed a pen or a piece of paper, this is the time to do that. Okay.

We're going to break your business up into a few different categories. And what I'm going to do is ask you some questions regarding these categories. And you are going to assess yourself and brain dump your responses to these questions. Are you ready? Okay. Hey friend, hear that noise? That's the sound of HoneyBook depositing cold hard cash into your bank account.

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Candice (15:16.632)

where you can start designing beautiful email campaigns while I teach you about marketing here on the podcast. That's candiscopla.com slash flow desk to start your free trial and use the code Candace 50 at checkout to save 50 % off your first year. Check it out and see what's possible. And thanks to flow desk for sponsoring this episode of the podcast. Now let's get back to the episode. Okay. First.

client perspective. Our 2024 wedding season debrief, we're going to start looking at your clients and zeroing in on four specific questions related to your clients. The first is, what feedback did you receive from clients this year, both positive and negative? The feedback that you've received is a great indication of what you're doing well and what you can improve upon.

Next, which clients were a joy to work with and why? What about them was so great? What made them your ideal clients? I love reflecting back with tons of gratitude on the clients that you just love serving. That you just, honestly, it's why you wake up on a Monday to get to your computer because you love supporting these clients. Who were they for you this year?

And what about them made it so effortless and joyful for you as a business owner? Now on the flip side, which clients were challenging? Which clients maybe did you not eagerly wake up on a Monday morning and slam your foot down on the ground and say, gee, I just can't wait to chat with that client today. Were there any red flags that you missed during the inquiry or onboarding process? And in truth, was the client just not

a good fit for you personality wise? And was there anything that you could have done differently there with the client to have a better experience with them or to have gently and kindly and professionally given them a recommendation for someone else? How can you better communicate your process, boundaries or expectations with clients next year?

Candice (17:39.114)

What can we do differently so that we can support those clients we love and not be the reason why somebody becomes challenging? Because I hate to say it, but sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes the reason why a client turns into a challenge is because we lack the foundation, the structure, and the boundaries to support them as a customer. We don't have our process together. We don't have our shit together.

We're not responding timely enough. They're asking for things that we actually should have in place and they're revealing to you some inadequacies with your business. But outside of that, what are some ways that you can communicate better and what are some processes that you can implement to only enhance the overall experience with your best clients? Now, I would love to encourage you to really journal on these questions and let it all out.

There's no judgment here because you're the one who's reading this, nobody else. And I also want to remind you that we're going to leave the negative behind. So this is a chance for you to assess some of that negative feedback and think like a CEO and not let it get you in your feelings, but instead allow it to empower you to press forward in a positive direction.

After you've taken some time to review the client perspective, let's also examine your 2024 wedding season service offerings. So this is the next bucket. My first question for you to reflect on and to journal on is, did your current service offerings meet your client's needs? And were there any services that clients were asking for that you didn't provide? Now for this question, jot down services you may have been asked for.

Even if it's things that you have no interest in providing, okay? People were just asking you for this and you may have no desire to do it. Let's just write it down. Let's just acknowledge that your clients are asking you for this. For photographers, this might be video or content creation. For planners, this might be our best friend, partial planning. Or similarly, it could be something like content creation. For stationers, this might be calligraphy.

Candice (19:57.816)

You're not obligated to offer things that people ask for. Remember, my big motto is this like clients are entitled to ask. They're just not entitled to get what they ask for. But I think it's worth jotting down and I think it's worth noting. And what I've seen come up for people with this question is there's almost always something that we're doing that we don't want to be doing. And there's also always something that we could be doing that we didn't realize we could be doing and charging our

clients for. So there are opportunities and windows here for both adding something to your business, but then also removing something or delegating, outsourcing it to another human. The next question is, which services were the most profitable and which were the most time consuming without a lot of payoff? We all want to do more of what's working and less of what isn't.

And this is your opportunity to get really clear about what is actually making you money and what is not. And maybe you don't even know the answer to this. Maybe you're like, holy shit, I have a no idea. That's something to do better in 2025, which is to understand what is your most profitable and least profitable products and services. And what could you be doing different to make your least profitable more profitable? Or if nobody's buying it,

Should you really be offering it? Lots of things come up once we start looking at the data. So which services were the most profitable and which were the least? Or which ones didn't give you that much payoff? Final question here around services is how did clients respond to your pricing structure? Are there any changes that you wanna make to your pricing in the new year? If you're dying to raise your price and you're already getting pushback, it's kind of time to start thinking about

maybe who your clients are, and if you need to switch some things up in your business to appeal to a clientele that can afford the service level you want to provide. I can't answer this question for you on a podcast. I can help you inside my course, The Client Cocktail, which by the way is honestly the top course in the wedding industry, period. But for figuring out who your ideal clients are, my formula, my method is so simple, it is going to change the way you think about attracting people.

Candice (22:23.042)

But outside of that, I can't answer the question for you here. Only you know your business and you know what works and what doesn't. But if you want to raise your price and the people can't pay, you need new people and you need to figure out if there are people out there who will pay the price that you want to charge. And if they are, that's going to change the direction of their business. If they're not out there, which is, happens actually a lot.

If there are not clients willing to pay you the amount that you want, then you're gonna have to kind of think through what that means and what changes you need to make. The next bucket here in our wedding season debrief for 2024 is workflows and systems. Now that we've talked about services, I want us to talk about workflows and systems. So here are the three questions you need to examine in this bucket. Where did your workflows break down this year?

And did you drop the ball on any deadlines or client communications this year? Your workflows in 2025 need to be smarter and simpler. They need to save you time and they need to make the client experience better. So which ones broke down for you and did you drop the ball on anything? Did you drop the ball on editing? Did you drop the ball on making changes to certain things for clients?

Did you drop the ball on deliveries? Did you drop the ball on communication or follow-ups? It's okay to drop the ball, meaning like it happens. We get busy, we get overwhelmed. But if you're dropping the ball too much and your clients are noticing, you need help and you need better systems. Which tools or systems worked well for you and which felt clunky or inefficient?

I am so guilty of growing my business to a point where I'm using lots of tools and now I desire to simplify things. You might be feeling the same way. So which ones are working and which ones do you really need to think long and hard about if you even need it or if there's a better solution out there for you? You guys know I recommend tools all the time. I see my job as your coach.

Candice (24:36.058)

as helping you to make decisions in your business, some of those decisions around tools. But I'm also a big believer in using what works best for you. This is your chance to figure that out. Final question here around workflows and systems is, did you feel overwhelmed during peak season? And if so, where can you automate or streamline next year? What needs to change? Most of us feel overwhelmed during peak wedding season, but

there are some things that we could be doing differently to ease that overwhelm. This is a chance for you to figure out what that is. Now I do want to say workflows and systems, this isn't just about client delivery. This can also be around marketing or bookkeeping because those tend to be a mess, especially this time of year. And sometimes these questions also tell us things about our own habits. You know, I know that I personally, I tend to procrastinate when I'm overwhelmed and I know I'm not alone in that.

That's just my tick. It's something that I do. When I'm overwhelmed, I shut down and I go and clean my closet. It's what I do. Let me know if there's any fellow closet cleaners out there, but it's something that I do. Walking through this can reveal some habits or things that you might need to change or you need to adjust your expectations around, which is a whole other podcast episode.

The next subset of questions is around your team. And I want you to spend some time examining your 2024 wedding season and how the team performed. Nobody should operate their wedding business alone. You know that I believe that. It's why I'm here to serve you. But beyond just me, some of y'all don't need a business coach. You need a virtual assistant girl. You need a marketing intern. You need somebody on your team to help you out.

Now, some of you guys have full-time employees. Some of you guys have rather large teams. Some of you have smaller teams with some contractors, but this is a chance for you to examine how things went with the people you've hired to be in your corner. And as you think about these questions, I also want to encourage you to debrief with your team so you can actually take this entire workshop and do it with your team as well, which might be such a great exercise.

Candice (26:59.426)

So the questions around team are this, how well did your team execute their roles this year? And were there any gaps in performance or understanding? If you see gaps, this is a spotlight on how you should increase training for your team and some things that you can do better to give your team the tools they need to do the job. Next, were there any communication or delegation challenges within your team that caused stress

or inefficiencies in your workload. With clients, I say one of the biggest reasons for upset clients is lack of communication or poor communication. And I will say that one of the big reasons why somebody on your team might not be performing is lack of communication and lack of training and lack of delegating to them. So this is a chance for you to see if that's true.

Final question around team, what roles training or resources could help your team improve and support your business goals for next season? So we're examining here what went not great, what did go good, and then what could help things be smoother and better in this new year? Maybe where should you invest in training or where should you invest in a new team member?

Do you need to switch around your org chart and do things a little bit differently, give people a new position or update roles? Like things might need to change and it will be illuminated for you through answering some of these questions. Now, once you've asked these questions and answered them, do you feel like you need more help in your business? Maybe you're already thinking like, I need more help. I already know, okay, this is right. I need to hire. Make 2025 the year.

that you stop thinking small about hiring and you start hiring people to help you. We're going to wind down our wedding season debrief with a final set of questions. And this is around future casting for your 2025 wedding season. We've talked about a lot so far and you can see why I asked you to grab a pen and a piece of paper and to be writing this down in a Word doc if you wanted. But there are two questions that I need you to ruminate on.

Candice (29:23.16)

for 2025, I actually need you to sit and meditate and think on and reflect on this. I need you to reach deep down into your gut, into your belly and pull out these answers from your subconscious, from your intuition and really listen to yourself and examine the edges of these two questions. And they're simple, but they're actually really difficult to answer.

especially in a world where we're bombarded with shoulds and coulds and woulds and everybody's telling us what we should be doing. Here are the two questions I want you to answer. What do you want more of next wedding season? And what do you want less of? Where do you want to be spending more of your time? What do you

want more of? What do you want to make space for in your life and in your business? And sometimes more is less. Just saying. Sometimes I want more, I want more of less clients. I want more money doing less work. But equally, we also have to examine what we want less of. What do we no longer want to invite? What are we no longer willing to tolerate?

Where do we no longer want our time and attention being dragged and pulled to? What do we want less of? And while some of these questions here are the most important, I like to ask these two after, because I think you get better answers here. I think you get better answers after you go through all of those micro questions around different aspects of your business. I think that the answers to those questions

help illuminate what you want more and less of in your business. And I bet you are agreeing with me. So that is a wrap on our final episode of the year and a wrap on your wedding season debrief. I hope that you're ending this episode and ending your year feeling clearer and lighter and more intentional about your path forward.

Candice (31:38.018)

And I want you to remember everything that we talked about today, reflecting on your past, recalibrating your business, and really setting a vision and a tone for the future. This is all about giving yourself permission to build a life and a business on purpose. To not fly by the seat of your pants, to not wing it, but to do things with intention and purpose. Now, if this episode resonated with you and you are craving more support,

and accountability and guidance in 2025. I wanna invite you to jump on the wait list for wedding pro insiders. I don't know when we will have an open spot available, but when we do trust and believe you're going to wanna be on that wait list to know. I genuinely have no idea when we will have an available seat, but when we do, I want it to go to you if you want my support.

one-on-one to grow your business and you want to be surrounded in a small and intimate group of women who are focused on this type of shit in their business and who are committed to growing and scaling their business with intention. You can learn more about it by going to weddingproinsiders.com. All right, friend, that's a wrap. It's been a great year. I want to thank you for being here and for trusting me and for allowing me into your space this year.

I see it as a huge honor and I take it as a huge responsibility. I do have one favor to ask you before we go. And it is, if you enjoyed the podcast this year, and if it helped you, if it served you, would you do me a favor and would you leave a review? I don't ask for reviews very often. I know you're busy and I don't believe in begging for reviews on a podcast.

but I'm gonna ask you if this supported you, would you do me a favor and drop a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening. And if you can't do that, would you do me a favor and drop me a DM and just share with me that you are enjoying the show. As a podcaster, it can feel pretty lonely sitting here in my office talking to a camera and a microphone. And I love hearing from you. I love it.

Candice (34:00.878)

fires me up and it gets me excited to record the next episode. So please drop a review, drop me a DM, and thank you again for being here. I'll see you in a fresh new year. 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 powerandpurposepodcast.com

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