Wedding Planner Pro Files: Industry Expert Insights
CWP Society is proud to produce the "Wedding Planner Pro Files: Industry Expert Insights" podcast!
Laurie Hartwell & Krisy Thomas, award-winning Master Certified Wedding Planners and Industry Educators from the CWP Society, discuss the real lives of wedding planners and professionals, dispense business tips, and share ways you can elevate yourself and your career in the wedding industry.
Visit the CWP Society website for more information: www.cwpsociety.com
Wedding Planner Pro Files: Industry Expert Insights
Streamlining Wedding Planning with Technology: A Conversation with Nora Sheils of Rock Paper Coin
Ever wondered how to navigate the realm of wedding planning with professionalism and ample technological support? We bring you deep insights from Nora Sheils, founder of Bridal Bliss and co-founder of Rock Paper Coin, a multifaceted platform that streamlines sending contracts and invoices. We delve into how this software fortifies the booking process, simplifies invoicing and contracts, and creates a positive first impression with clients, facilitating their journey towards the perfect wedding.
This episode is jam-packed with a detailed exploration of how Rock Paper Coin benefits wedding professionals specifically. We explore how RPC features help planners stay ahead in a tech-savvy world. Nora explains the art of striking a balance between automation and personal touch, ensuring a wholly tailored experience for each client.
Finally, we touch upon how Rock Paper Coin aids personalized communication and professional invoicing. As we unbox the importance of prompt responses and the potential pitfalls of excessive automation, we also discuss how the platform offers a secure, digitized experience that modern couples now expect. Tune in to grasp the professional edge gained by using software like Rock Paper Coin for contracts and invoicing, and the significant advantages it offers both clients and wedding pros.
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Welcome to the Wedding Planner podcast brought to you by the Certified Wedding Planner Society. Welcome to the Wedding Planner podcast, our Career Support series, brought to you by the Certified Wedding Planner Society. We are the world's leading wedding planner certification program and the world's largest membership of certified wedding planners. My name is Laurie Hartwell and I'm the CEO of the Certified Wedding Planner Society, and I'm joined by my fabulous Vice President, chrissy Thomas, who is also the owner of Southern Sparkle Weddings and Events. And we have a very special guest on today's podcast Nora Shields. She is the founder of Bridal Bliss out of Portland and co-founder for Rock Paper Coin. She noticed a gap in the planning industry and developed an amazing software platform that brings together event professionals and couples to streamline the often daunting contract and invoice process. Welcome, nora, how are you?
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for having me. I am great. It's so good to see you both.
Speaker 1:Oh, it is so fantastic to have you here. We love, first of all, talking to you, and you are also a very valued partner for the CWP Society and you just do so much for my group, for my organization, and you give such amazing discounts and great information, not to mention some of the best customer service support in the market. So just thank you first and foremost.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's so nice of you to say. You are a valued partner and you know I adore you both and your members are one of a kind, just the nicest, kindest, most wonderful business owner. So we appreciate all of you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, but today we're going to talk about making sure that we have the most utmost professionalism in our business. Right, and it really does start, nora, and I know you and I agree on so many things, and this is one of the big things you and I agree on is your professionalism needs to be right at the top level when it comes to your contracts and invoices, because this is one of the very first impressions you're giving your clients. So can you speak to how important it is for any wedding planner to have professional software when it comes to contracts and invoices?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, like you said, the contract and invoice and booking process is one of the first things you do together as part of your relationship working together. So at that point you've probably had great communication, you nailed the console, everything's going great. Now you're going to start working together. So it is so, so important to make that process easy for your new clients, because it instantly builds trust. If you make it easy and smooth and come off as professional as possible, they're going to trust you so much quicker and we all know that clients that trust you are going to be easier clients to work with, rather than those that are nitpicking or micromanaging or anything like that. So the first step is your onboarding booking process. So sending a documentation where a couple can pull it up on their phone or on their desktop and signed by the click of a button. That's so, so important and it's just going to help you get booked faster.
Speaker 2:So the couple's today they are used to having a digitized experience. They've grown up with, you know, internet, wi-fi, social media, amazon deliveries that are within an hour. Last night I ordered something at like 1130 at night and it was on my doorstep before I woke up. It's crazy. That's the expectation from couples today, and that's not just their groceries, it's their wedding planning experience. So professionals that aren't utilizing tech are truly missing out on that professionalized experience, but they're also making their lives more difficult. Tech simplifies the experience not only for the client, but also for the vendor.
Speaker 1:That is so true. I mean because, if you think about it, nora, 150 years ago, right when you and I started in the industry, I was planning weddings before email was really a thing. So let's just, let's just put that aside for now. But when you know, tech started coming into our lives a little bit more, you know we would always create like a PDF version of our contract and send it out. And even before I got familiar with PDFs, I was sending things out in a Word document and I wanted to quickly say how dangerous that actually is, because our customers, our clients, can change and modify those documents.
Speaker 1:And if we're not really careful and we're not going over everything with a fine tooth comb and maybe that's what trained me on how to look at everything with a fine tooth comb is because I didn't trust people, and now we have this amazing opportunity, through software programs like Rock Paper Coin, to send invoices out, where it is so secure, so fast and so professional. So one of the things that I really want to make sure that we're touching on today is how Rock Paper Coin has changed our industry when it comes to sending out contracts, because what you guys do is so different than what I've seen with other software platforms. One of my favorite things that I would love for you to touch on this, nora. One of my favorite things is if any client says oh, I never signed that there is a really beautiful thing that Rock Paper Coin offers their subscribers. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean you said so many things I want to touch on, but with contracts, couples and just communication in general, you know we all hear that I didn't get that. Oh I, you know I couldn't pay my invoice because I haven't actually received it yet. But if you're using a platform like Rock Paper Coin, everything is time stamped so we can actually see exactly when they opened it, exactly when they, you know, made any action or took a peek at it or anything like that. It's all on the platform. Everything is exportable.
Speaker 2:So, while documentation will live on the platform in perpetuity, if you need to send a PDF or have something for your own records, you can easily export it and have it that way. The other piece that you mentioned about digital contracts that is so important for the planner and the professional is that we track IP addresses. So let's say there is a problem and your client goes off the deep end and you have to have a lawsuit with them. With a digital contract which is not like a PDF or not like a Word document, we can track who signed, when they signed, where they signed, and so you just have this added layer of protection. If the unthinkable happens, which hopefully you never need to act on that, but you can sleep a little better at night knowing that you're protected.
Speaker 3:This was kind of one of my questions for you, nora. Do you see wedding planners unwilling to adapt to the times and shifting where we have to think about these things and you're talking about the time stamps and if things go wrong when you have to go to court? I've watched enough Judge Judy to know that would really hold up in court and Nora would judge Judy. She'd be like OK, you win, but are you seeing wedding planners unwilling to adapt with the change and move forward with technology?
Speaker 2:You know, it's not just wedding planners, it's the wedding industry as a whole, so many people, especially those that have been at it for a while and have created their own systems of spreadsheets and all these manual processes. It works for them and it has worked for them for so long. But it's one of those you don't know what. You don't know Like how many times have you been putting something off and you finally do it and you're like I wish I would have done that forever ago. It's made things so much better. That's pretty much exactly what software does. The whole goal is to streamline, to make things easier on you and your team. And, let's be honest, new software and new platform. It's daunting, it's stressful, it's something that you don't want to think about, especially in the middle of wedding season. But software today is not what software was Five years, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, where you used to have to hire people to set up your systems and you used to have this crazy long training. Well, good software now makes it easy.
Speaker 2:Our goal at Rock Paper Coin was to make our platform as streamlined as possible. So when somebody hops on, they know exactly what to do, they know exactly where to go. They don't have to navigate back and forth to a million pages to do what they came to do. So I get that it's scary, but the first step is just trying and taking advantage of customer service. So at Rock Paper Coin we do free white glove onboarding for CWPS members, which means if you're on another platform, we will go in there on your behalf, pull out all your past documentation and put it into your RPC account, so you lose nothing and it's all done for you. We'll dial in your profile all your settings and then after that walk you, your team, through the platform and always be available. So, like I said, some people are more nervous than others, and we've had screen shares while a new member is going through the workflow their first time, that we're maybe a little nervous and just want to make sure they're doing it right. We'll do things like that. We're always available. You'll always talk to a person, and I think that's really important.
Speaker 2:When you're looking for new software, whether it's booking software or something else that you can talk to a customer service person you have someone you can send your questions to or your feedback, because nothing's perfect. All of our new development comes from member feedback. If there's something that's not working the way that they wanted to or a new feature that we're missing. That's where it all comes from, so don't be afraid to speak up either. And, lori, we've talked about this a lot. There's no perfect software unicorn that will do all the things you need in one place and do it well. So there are some that try to and they do some things great, but others are not really thought out and thrown in to better their suite. So pulling together different software platforms so you have a really cohesive, wonderful tech stack, like Rock Paper, coin, timeline, genius, mary, there are so many different software systems out there that excel at a couple specific things, but when you put them all together, they work seamlessly together.
Speaker 1:I could not agree with you more and I really feel like I, as a wedding planner, would rather have the type of software that's going to make me look like a rock star, rather than an all in one that might do a couple of things well, like you said, but there are a few other things that fall flat.
Speaker 1:I want to look like a rock star in every aspect, rather than just a couple, and that's why I love dealing with Rock Paper Coin, timeline, genius and Mary is because all three just are unbelievable, and I can honestly say I am a user myself of Rock Paper Coin and I have sent out my contracts and my invoices directly through RPC, and I'm older than the average age of a wedding planner, and it was incredibly intuitive to learn. It took me less than five minutes to really figure out the platform, but I also knew that, if I struggled at all, that your customer service support was just right there waiting because I see it in the little corner I could just assist, and I did do that once, just to help me with an email situation, and your amazing team member, siri, answered immediately.
Speaker 1:She's like oh yeah hey, lori, I got you and I'm like, oh my gosh, I just love this team so much.
Speaker 2:I love to hear you say that, because truly our goal was to make it easy and intuitive. There's so many platforms out there that are so complicated, and especially for the event industry we don't necessarily need all the bells and whistles of a huge CRM, and that can kind of muddy the water.
Speaker 1:I actually completely agree with you on that. I'm really glad that you brought that up, because that really wasn't something that was at the top of my mind that I would want to talk about today. But can we talk about that for just a second? I feel like sometimes we as wedding planners are listening to so many other people, right, and we're not listening to ourselves, and I think what we need to do better is to really listen to ourselves and realize, gosh, I'm looking for something that's easy, that is going to make me look really great, and sometimes we think, well, then I need to get one of those all-in-one systems that says that there are great CRM and all of these things, but what's really happening? What I'm finding because my membership consists of almost 8,000 people and I'm hearing this time and time again those software programs are not working for me. I need something more simplistic and easy. I just I want us to simplify my life and I always say to them then rock paper coin needs to be step number one, because you guys do just make everything so seamless and so easy. I love putting together a contract template through your program because it's fun. I almost feel like it's a little game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now, a couple of other things that I love about rock paper coin is you guys have those automatic reminders when it comes to invoices, you have custom branding opportunities. I love that. It's both desktop and mobile friendly. I think that that is just so very convenient because, I'll be honest, there's several times where I'm just sitting on my couch going, oh you know what I need to check real quick, and I'm on my phone. The only thing I have is my phone, so I'll check it in right there and it's just. It looks perfect, no matter where you are. And you guys also have Google Drive integration, which is really incredible, because a lot of us wedding planners have so many documents on our Google Drive account, and the fact that you have that integration and we can share things with our couples, other wedding professionals, anybody that we want, just makes our lives so easy.
Speaker 3:And I love it and that was the plan. I think it makes things easy. It also like it makes you look really good as a wedding planner and you touched on this a little bit earlier, nora, where you mentioned this is what couples are expecting, and when you think about the age and the demographic who's getting engaged now? This is what they are expecting. So are you wanting to make yourself look like an outdated planner where they're gonna be hesitant to book you, or are you gonna use these tools and softwares that's gonna make you look like, oh my gosh, this is an amazing wedding planner. Look how cool, look how tech savvy she is. Like those are the things that you kind of have to think about as you grow within your career as a wedding planner. That's what these couples are looking for, and, though all that Lori mentioned makes us look like phenomenal wedding planners and we had nothing to do with it this was all software that she created.
Speaker 2:Well, the other piece of that, too, is that we have to attract savvy team members. If you are growing and you are wanting to scale and be able to do more weddings, that means more people on your team, and whether they're a couple or a planner, in that demographic they're probably not gonna work with a planner that is doing pen and paper or using Excel or something like that. So we allow for team collaboration. We have different settings depending on who your team member is and what they need access to. So, yeah, and the reason this all works is because Elizabeth, my co-founder, and I were planners. We still run a planning company in the Pacific Northwest, but we understand, if anyone does, the trials and tribulations of being a planner and working with new clients and managing a team, and we were looking for software to help us streamline our business and could find it, and so that's one thing led to another. It's snowballed. We unexpectedly now own and run a software company.
Speaker 1:Now you're in the tech world, so you probably wake up in the middle of the night Nora going how did I get here?
Speaker 2:I totally all the time. But you know what the number of people we have helped is what keeps me going, because our industry I mean you two know this there are so many phenomenal, amazing, creative, smart people in our industry and we just don't really get the credit we deserve. Like, the wedding industry from afar is seen as kind of this fluff industry, when it's actually like over $100 billion in just the US every year that's spent on wedding.
Speaker 1:But you're so right, and we have to be savvy, not only in business, but we need to be savvy in the tools that help run our business. That's really, you know I know that's what kind of Chrissy is touching on is we have to make sure that we're thinking about all of these tiny little things Because, like you said, Nora, if we are just dealing with pen and paper, we are not keeping up with the times and our business is probably not going to be able to launch into the future the way it's supposed to.
Speaker 2:You're also wasting time.
Speaker 2:So if you are, you know, manually creating a new invoice or a new contract every single time and then have reminders for yourself if they don't respond by this date, I need to remember to check in.
Speaker 2:Like that's such a waste of time and it's so many planners and I'm curious what you think about this Are worried about losing that personal connection with their client Because it is a high touch vendor category, especially, you know, as budgets go up and fees go up. Triux of a large number of vendor clients are property managers, that pros want to give their couples the best experience, which I completely agree with. But that doesn't mean you should shy away from automations, because couples they're used to it Like they get their you know their electric bill or their you know reminders that something is due regularly and they appreciate it and it allows them to act on it quickly. So as long as you're not automating like the entire process, the little bits here and there, like contractor invoice reminders, are an easy way to take one thing off your plate and to keep your clients happy at the same time.
Speaker 3:It's a small thing for what you should be automating, but not taking you out of the equation as a planner is key in that fine line of how do I automate to where I can keep my business afloat, keep my clients in the loop, not automate so much where they're going to be thinking why did I hire you the first time?
Speaker 2:And what's even better is allowing for things like auto pay. So when your client books you or any vendors, and they have, like however many, five installments, if they just pay that first one and click auto pay, they're going to get a notification and their cart is automatically going to be charged. It's one listing for you, it's one listing for them. The vendor is paid instantly, like it's a win, win, win. Everybody's happy.
Speaker 1:I think it's really important that you mentioned the automations, because Chrissy and I did a podcast here on the wedding planner podcast about automating yourself out of business, because we were fine with those all in one software platforms, nora, that wedding planners were almost taking themselves, like Chrissy was saying, out of the planning process and that is the problem. But there are pieces that need to be automated for us to be more efficient, and what you're talking about here is exactly one of those types of things Sending those reminders out that payments are coming First of all. I never liked doing that personally, did you, nora? Did you like what?
Speaker 2:I mean that was uncomfortable. That's the thing. And it's coming from a platform. It's not like a personal email, because sometimes people see that, as I hate to say it, but as an attack or like a condescending or something like that. If it's coming from a person rather than a platform saying, hey, your invoice that was sent to you via this platform is overdue.
Speaker 1:Exactly. I love that. I love that you're being the bad guy for me, nora, so thank you for that. So I think that those are the types of automations that really are very helpful and the ones that wedding planners should be looking at things to avoid. As far as automations is sending out automatic emails and things of that nature, and you've got to stop doing that Because, honestly, that is a complete and utter turnoff to most couples, especially if they don't even know you yet, and having those auto replies on the emails 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Wedding planners, if you are listening to this right now, you have got to stop doing that, especially when you say in your automatic reply this is our busy city and we're too busy, so it's going to be a delay in hearing back up. I'm thinking they are asking to be put out of business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it kills me every time I see one of those Now, if someone is legitimately on vacation or away like yes, by all means, but it's busy season.
Speaker 2:All respond within 48 to 72 hours. Well, in that time frame, that person that's inquiring has not only reached out to other planners, they've probably already met with one and booked another one before you even responded. So I don't love automated inquiry responses either. I think that is their first experience with your company. Thank you, and use a template, by all means. Like the same verbiage, but then personalize it and tweak it so it really matches their inquiry. Like oh, you're getting married at Waverly Country Club, that's one of my favorite places. Or you know, may it's such a great time of year I love doing May weddings, because peonies aren't dinner, you know. However, you want to do that, but they know this is a real person that's responding to me and not a really obvious auto response.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you would not believe, nora, how many people are doing that, and I think it's turning their chances in a big way. So if you're listening to this, you've got to jump back into your career. You've got to be front facing, and one of the things I said in that podcast was, when couples are paying us thousands of dollars, they are expecting a Picasso, a one-of-a-kind, unique experience. But if you're handing them a paint by number instead, you are turning them off and they're not going to be feeling like they got what they paid for. So we, as planners, need to set back into the process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think people don't necessarily know that's a negative thing when they sign up with some of these platforms. That's one of the features. But those are those workflow platforms that I just think are not great for planners. So if you're a photo booth or a type of vendor that there does not need to be a high touch relationship, or you hire a photo booth and then a workflow type of CRM is going to have everything set up by date, so someone books their photo booth six months before the wedding, you send them background options Three months before the wedding, you have them confirm their times A week before, yada, yada, yada.
Speaker 2:It all comes from a computer. It doesn't come from an actual person that's checking in and that is fine for something like that. But a wedding planner, that should be an intimate relationship that is super high touch and super detailed. So getting automated emails throughout the process is not a good experience. And then if they reach out outside of that, say you have a meeting or a phone call and then they get an automated email that negates whatever it was that you talked about or they're like we actually talked about this like two months ago. It's just there's no confidence in your abilities as a planner.
Speaker 1:No, and that's the last thing you want, because you're supposed to instill that trust in your clients and that way we can make sure that we have a really wonderful experience on wedding day and get those really terrific reviews. At the end of everything, we can encourage our future and potential couples to want to book with us. But we're not going to have that if we keep doing and going down this wrong path. But that kind of leads me to this next part that I would really like to talk to you about, and Chrissy and I just love this aspect of Rock Paper Coin and it's the fact that we can send out invoices along with our contract and it's kind of packaged really beautifully. And before I kind of jump into that with you in regards to how amazing RPC is, with this let's talk to the professionalism of using a software like RPC versus you tell a client find me on Venmo or send your payment through Zell. Can you speak to that for a moment?
Speaker 2:Totally. If you're a client that's spending thousands of dollars and you've just hired this person to manage the most important event of your life, at the time, at least you don't want to send them a Venmo. That's what you send your friends to pay them back for a drink or dinner or something as a vendor, unless you're using the business Venmo, which costs money. It's against the law and people are getting paid for using Venmo for non-personal transactions, but it's just not a good look as a vendor. It's not professional and same with Zell. Again, those are intended for personal purchases and you're also not as safe with those. If something goes wrong, you could always go back to the credit card company or whatever it is. It's just not a good look.
Speaker 3:That's how, like for me, when I think, as a consumer, if I was sending thousands of dollars in Venmo, that makes my stomach hurt. Like, that makes me think like, is it going to the right person?
Speaker 2:That's like I'm just not safe.
Speaker 3:But it seems like I'm going to be hacked by the day if I send this to you.
Speaker 2:Right, I know I'm glad you have to add in the last four digits of a phone number, because every time I would panic that I got a letter off and someone's Venmo name for my cleaner or whatever it is. You don't want them to have that nervous feeling when they're sending money either. And it's secure Like you don't have to worry about security. But it's just not professional To me.
Speaker 1:When you're sending money to a professional, it should be done through a professional format.
Speaker 2:For accounting sake. If you're, you know, receiving money in Venmo, it's a lot tougher to put into your accounting software and it's just more manual than something like a Rock Paper Coin or any other platform where you're accepting payments. You can automatically plug them into QuickBooks or any accounting software that you're using, so it makes things easier for you in the long run.
Speaker 1:What a great point that is. Nora, that's just an excellent point that you just brought up and that's one of the benefits of sending invoices and receiving all of your payments through Rock Paper Coin. It's, like I said, only one. There are so many amazing points of going through RPC. Can you kind of walk us through how wedding planners can benefit from sending the invoices through RPC? And then I want to touch on how really amazing it is how we, as wedding planners, can track when they our couples are paying their other wedding professionals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. So for invoices you have so many options with RPC. You can add as many line items as you want. You can add discounts if you do like a military discount or a quantity discount of something. You can add tax to specific lines. So if you're not taxing on service but you're taxing on, maybe, a rental item that you have or something like that, it'll separate it out for you. Everything is auto calculated. So if you're like me and you're not great at math, you don't have to worry about it.
Speaker 2:We also allow for notes, so you could leave a note for your client that they'll receive with their invoice. You can also load up a document to attach to it, so it could be items that they could add on, or it could be a design board or additional services that you offer Whatever kind of document you think would be helpful for them to have as part of the invoice. You could add that and then installments, so you can break up your fee into either four up to four equal installments, or you can customize it. So if you want 30 installments with 30 different due dates and 30 different amounts, you could do that. You just do it one time and then we automate all of those reminders for you. Everything is editable, so if someone adds on services, you can always go back and update. When somebody makes a payment, it goes directly into your bank account and it will be there within one to two days max. So it's really really quick. So that's another perk over Venmo. It's very quick.
Speaker 2:And something else that you touched on is how your clients receive it. So with Rock Paper Coin, clients do not have to sign up. They don't have to remember a login. If they want to, they are more than welcome to create an account. It's completely free and it kind of serves as basically a digital binder where they can find all of their documentation from all their vendors in one place, but they certainly don't have to.
Speaker 2:What happens is once you go through the workflow on RPC depending on what you want to send, let's say you've gone in there and you've loaded up a proposal, a contract and an invoice. So instead of your client getting three different emails that they have to manage, when it's all done, your client will just get one email with one link, tied up in a pretty little package that takes them through everything that you need from them. So if you've ever done DocuSign or something like that, how it guides you through where you initial and where you sign, and things like that. It's the same type of experience. So you've set up where you need items from your clients and then our platform takes them through. So they literally cannot screw it up, even if they tried.
Speaker 1:And one really quick thing that I think is really important to mention is that when wedding planners are invoicing their couples and their couples are paying them by credit card, every wedding planner is going to have to pay a processing fee. I just want to touch on that, because every other place that I've or every other software that I've used where I've had to send out an invoice, I get charged anywhere from 3% to 4.5% per transaction. Through Rockpapercoin, I am only charged 2.5%. That's more money in my pocket every single transaction. So you are actually funding my Louis Vuitton problem.
Speaker 2:I will happily fund your Louis Vuitton problem, but that is typical. Retail rates are 3% to 5% for credit card processing, and that is anywhere you will go, whether it's Square, paypal or another platform. That's just what you'll find. Something else is that if a client does auto pay on any of those platforms, that fee actually goes up, so you're paying even more. With us, like you said, it's 2.5% flat. So it doesn't matter if they have a rewards card in American Express. If it's an auto pay, it's 2.5% flat. There are no batch fees or hidden fees or anything like that. So with us, all you will ever pay is a subscription. Unless you're a certified wedding planner or society member, you will never pay a subscription. All you pay is that 2.5% processing.
Speaker 1:Which is absolutely amazing to me. And can we also say that you can track clients' payments? If they pay you by cash, that means you're paying nothing. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if someone brings you cash, I mean more power to you. Cash is king. You can go into your invoice and mark that installment as paid and then they won't get any more automated reminders for that. But for your accounting everything will be in balance. They won't, you won't be showing anything is overdue and will still track all of that for you, and you will not pay a fee on that. So you only pay the 2.5% fee if someone actually pays through Rock Paper Coin and they can pay using a credit card, a bank account, ACH. They have many, many options, yeah.
Speaker 1:I just love that. I appreciate that low rate Because we as wedding planners are always looking for ways to save as much money as we possibly can, and this is a really great way. But also being able to look like a rock star by sending out our contracts and our invoices in this beautiful package where you guys are the ones being the bad guys, reminding them that they have payments due, I mean to me you are a godsend.
Speaker 1:So I mean I just appreciate the whole, but it really does. It comes to me down to professionalism. When a wedding planner is a professional wedding planner, not just they didn't just wake up one morning and after reading a wedding magazine and decided they were going to become a wedding planner. I'm talking about the people who actually invest in themselves and invest in their career and invest in their education. These are the people who have to look professional and by using other software that doesn't, it's not quite as seamless for our couples, it does not have the same feeling and it does not give them that beautiful experience that we want to give them. A lot of us wedding planners are always saying, oh, we're going to make this experience pleasant and seamless and fabulous. But then if you look at the minor details of how these same wedding planners who are saying that are actually running their business, it's not seamless and it's very clunky Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's frustrating for your clients especially. You know they're excited the planner is one of the first people they're going to hire, hopefully, and they want to get started. So you know, waiting for you to send a PDF that they then have to print, sign, scan, send back, like that's not exciting and that's just a bad, bad way to start your relationship. So you've got to keep it going.
Speaker 3:Or if you are marketing yourself as a luxury wedding planner, you have this ideal client who's wearing designer clothes and then you're sitting them a vinho Right Right, worth the sitting, like you've been talking all across the board, I feel, like your contracts and your invoices, this is a part of your branding as well. So, if you are hurt, brand yourself as this ideal wedding planner who books all these high-end wedding, even if they're not high-end weddings, even if you are just claiming to be a professional wedding planner and everything looks the part your Instagram, your social media, your websites but then your back-end stuff doesn't. It's not consistent at all and that can even throw off clients for a week. This isn't what I expected from you, based on your website, based on even needing you. You didn't expect me to have to print off a PDF, like you said, right right?
Speaker 2:No, I could not agree more with you.
Speaker 1:Oh, this has been fantastic, and so I kind of want to wrap this up with some tips that the three of us can maybe send our listeners away with. You know, all of us are very experienced wedding planners. Nora, what year did you start planning weddings? I don't want to tell you 2002.
Speaker 2:Okay well, that's okay.
Speaker 1:I'm older, so I'll be the one who looks the oldest. It's okay, nora. So 2002s you know many, many years in the industry. And, chrissy, you've been in the industry. How many years have you been planning weddings?
Speaker 3:I've had my company for 10 years but I haven't planned it for ever. But yeah, planning weddings for 10 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I planned my very first wedding back in 1993.
Speaker 1:So I know that all of us are wanting to kind of pass the torch on to other wedding planners who maybe have the same level of experience as us, or maybe he has a little bit less, but aren't necessarily utilizing the tools that can make them better wedding planners, more efficient and look more professional and be the rock stars that we are trying to be. And so my tip and then I'd like to hear Nora's tip and I'd like Chrissy to give a tip is my tip is to make sure that you're not necessarily trying to find an all-in-one software. I would rather you, as a wedding planner, be super picky, Just as picky as we are about the wedding professionals that we recommend, Just as picky as us picking and choosing which clients we want to have hire us. We need to be very picky about the software in which we choose to represent us. I see it as a kind of a billboard, in a sense. All the software tools that we use is kind of like a. It's like the clothing we wear, and we need to make sure that it represents us and then showcases our talents without taking away our actual job and kind of automating ourselves out of business.
Speaker 1:That's my tip, Nora. What's your tip?
Speaker 2:Well, I want to reiterate what you said, in that there is no better time to be a wedding planner than today. Like when Lori and I first started, there was no education, there was no community. We kind of made it up and learned as we went. So I am super jealous of all of you especially the newbies in the industry that have people like Lori in the Certified Wedding Planner Society that can support you as you're getting started and then later on as you're growing and scaling your company. So part of that is the tech. So my tip is to take it off the back burner. Make it a priority. Set time in your schedule to get new tech going or at least research what it is. Do a tech audit, because you are using tech now, whether you realize it or not. Like email, that's technically tech. Google Drive, that's a platform. So don't be scared of it.
Speaker 2:When I am procrastinating on emails, they go to the bottom of my inbox and every couple of days I make myself start from the bottom and go up. Otherwise they're going to get buried and that's kind of how these things that are daunting like tech that's how they end up. They just get put on the back burner and we'll get to it when you have time. Well, we're going to be dead before we have time, so you have to make it a priority. And it's one of those things that once you do it and you get over that initial hump, you are going to kick yourself for not doing it before. So I say, give it a try, you have nothing to lose, whether it's rock, paper, coin or something else. You have to find the best fit for your company and you really don't know what you're missing until you have it. And then it's one of those things where, like, you can't imagine not having it.
Speaker 1:I agree. That was how Chrissy's experience was. What's your tip?
Speaker 3:I kind of look to you, lori, as inspiration for my tip. The fact that you have been in this industry for 30 years now speaks volumes, because and I joke with you when I say this, but you know, back when Lori started she had to send fax. Oh yeah, you know, and many of our listeners are like what's a fax? What a fax machine? If Lori, if she did not move with the times, move with her industry as far as technology, she probably would not be here 30 years deep in the wedding planning industry. She knew with our industry it's always changing, it's always moving and you have to also keep pace with that. So make sure that as a wedding planner, that you aren't so afraid of change, that you are stuck in 1998. Make sure that you are moving with the times and that's going to be with your technology. You have to match to the same level of the couples who are getting engaged. That's what they're looking for in their planner. So make sure that you're doing the same thing.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great advice. I'm going to try not to take offense to anything you've said, by the way. Overall that was great advice. She picks on me all the time, nora. She says back when Lori started planning weddings in 1847, I'm like, wow, that's me.
Speaker 2:Lori, the fact that you're thriving 30 years into being in the industry is a huge, huge testament to you, because not many people have made it and it's because you've stuck with the times and have been open to software and technology and new things entering the industry and you understand that it makes you better as a leader and as a business owner.
Speaker 3:And you say I try to pivot and grow and learn, and that, to me, speaks to all of us about that. That's what makes you a successful wedding planner, and a long lasting wedding planner is that you are not only moving with the times, but you're taking the time to learn and educate yourself about the changes in our industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we all all of us wedding planners have got to be able to pivot, and one of the things I always love teaching on is the 20 traits of the ultimate professional wedding planner. Like, what does it take to reach a high level? Well, one of those things is to be flexible, so you have to make sure that you can pivot and move, like you guys said, with the times. But thank you so much, nora, for joining Chrissy and I today. We just love you. Thank you, not only a really great platform and really great software that helps wedding planners in general, but thank you to you and Elizabeth and all of your team for providing excellent customer service and just making sure that we, as wedding planners, have the necessary tools at our fingertips that can help us grow our business and grow within our business. And so you are very appreciated and you do. You run this company with such grace and such integrity, and, of course, those are the only people that I'm ever going to be partnering with.
Speaker 1:But I just want to make sure that anybody who's listening today, if you have not yet tried Rock Paper Coin, let today be the day that you do that. Go to rockpapercoincom If you are a member of the Certified Wedding Planner Society. Log into your member portal and click on the Rock Paper Coin page and sign up, because you will not have to pay any subscription fees at all. It is a free service at that point in time, other than what you would have to do with anybody else, which is paying for the processing fees of someone using a credit card, but they're the lowest processing fees on the planet and that's the cool cool part about it. But again, thank you, nora, and thank all of you for listening to the Wedding Planner Podcast, the Career Support Series. If you're not yet a member of the Certified Wedding Planner Society, we would love to welcome you into our amazing and loving family. Simply go to our website certifiedweddingplanricssocietycom and learn how you can join.
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