The Evolution of the Wedding Industry - An Interview with Laurie Hartwell

Wedding planning isn't just about selecting the perfect centerpiece or the most photogenic venue—it's an art form honed over years of personal growth and industry evolution. Laurie Hartwell, founder & CEO of the CWP Society, brings this to life, sharing her thirty-year voyage through the ebbs and flows of the wedding industry. As she unfolds her story of building self-esteem and the crucial role of intuition in business, you'll find yourself nodding along, thinking of your own evolution—whether in career or character. It’s a conversation that digs into the fabric of success and the colorful challenges faced along the way, all woven together with the unwavering support of Laurie's loving partner.

The digital revolution has brought a cascade of changes to every corner of our lives, and the wedding industry is no exception. This episode examines the transformative power of technology in solving business problems and boosting client delight. Ever found yourself wrestling with the paralysis of fear? Laurie Hartwell's breakthroughs and insights into conquering those nagging doubts are the kind of wisdom that'll leave you brimming with confidence to take on the business world. And as we navigate the waters of digital networking, Laurie reminds us of the irreplaceable value of personal connections—a beacon for professionals striving to build lasting success in an ocean of ephemeral online interactions.

Education in wedding planning should be as diverse as the weddings themselves, and that's where this episode takes an eye-opening turn. Dive into the responsibility of educators in the wedding industry and the impact of so-called 'pop-up' gurus. Laurie's perspective is a refreshing take on nurturing wedding professionals at every career stage — emphasizing integrity, kindness, and the power of personal engagement over fleeting trends. As you listen, you'll be inspired by the keys to genuine achievement in this enchanting industry, and perhaps you'll even feel compelled to be a part of the nurturing community at the CWP Society. It's an episode that's not just about planning the perfect day—it's about crafting the perfect career in wedding planning.

www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Wedding Planner podcast brought to you by the CWP Society.

Speaker 2: 0:16

Welcome to the Wedding Planner podcast, our career support series brought to you by the CWP Society, the world's leading wedding professional certification program and the world's largest membership of wedding professionals and certified wedding planners. Today, I am interviewing the CEO of the CWP Society, lori Hartwell. Lori hi.

Speaker 1: 0:39

Hey girl, I'm just so excited to chat today. I think we're going to have a really good time.

Speaker 2: 0:43

I'm excited about this, and so what we're talking about today if you guys have either listened to our podcast been part of our workshops. You guys know that I am constantly giving Lori a hard time about how long she has been in the wedding industry, which has been 30 years, but I will joke and say that she's been planning weddings since 1851. I give her a hard time about how long she's been a part of this industry, but, all jokes aside, that truly speaks volumes about how you have been able to grow and evolve in a industry that is always changing, that is always evolving, in an industry, I think too, where a lot of people will stay for five to 10 years and then pull out. So you know, over your 30 years in this industry, how do you think you have evolved as a wedding planner?

Speaker 1: 1:35

Oh gosh, in so many ways. And yeah, I love when you make fun of me, by the way, I think it's wonderful. I think it's great that you feel comfortable calling me an old woman. I think it's great. I'm proud of you. I really am.

Speaker 1: 1:50

No, how have I evolved as a wedding planner? You know, on a lot of different levels. So when I first entered the industry I was a very young woman. The very first wedding I ever planned, I was only 18 years old. So I mean, I was not, you know, I wouldn't say I was full of self-esteem because I wasn't.

Speaker 1: 2:13

And so over the years, if I could kind of pin it down as to how I've really evolved, I gained a lot of self-esteem because in the industry, especially back then, you had to have some very thick skin. Over the years I learned that and this was definitely years in the making but I had to learn that I had to trust myself and to gain that thick skin and to not worry about what haters were thinking. I wanted to really focus on the people that were willing to make the modifications and to do even better in the wedding industry, and so I kind of learned on my own how you know how to trust other people, who to trust, who not to trust. And then that taught me how to kind of trust my intuition right. So you get this you have intuition regarding people, and then you have intuition regarding circumstances and situations that you find yourself in. And then, as you're growing your business, you have to have some intuition about your business.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Is this going well? Is this a good decision? Am I willing to risk that this you know idea might fail? What happens if it fails? Maybe, you know, will I survive it? Obviously we all survive failure, but what can I do to kind of change things? And then what I realized is I found that I started anticipating problems before they happened, and so that I think I don't know if that was a survival technique or what, but I wanted to anticipate problems in business and elsewhere so that I could try to avoid problems happening. So, as the 30 years, if I look back, I see a lot of that kind of growth. I could almost see and feel things coming before they came. And it was, and I can't say that I was always right. There were some times where I'm like, well, I had that completely pinned incorrectly right, they could have a plan if it weren't for me that way.

Speaker 1: 4:25

Yeah I mean. But sometimes it worked out. And I remember on a lot of occasions going, oh, I'm so glad I made that move or I'm so glad I pivoted in that way. And so you know, I had to do a lot of deep diving on a regular basis and figure out who I am, what kind of planner I wanted to be, who did I want to show up like in the wedding industry? And so it takes a lot of reflection and understanding of yourself, which did not come all that easy to me. And I remember crying a lot in bed at night Like, am I tough enough for this industry? Because it is a tough one.

Speaker 1: 5:12

And you know, I definitely got a lot of encouragement from my husband and he said you know, laura, you've got this. You've always had it. You just need to not worry about people that are not wanting you to succeed. I want you to focus on the people who do want you to succeed, and one of those people needs to be you. So if you want to be a success, then you go after it.

Speaker 1: 5:39

And I listened to him and he also told me because I was in my 20s when he had that conversation with me he says I have a secret for you when you hit your 30s, you're going to be in a completely different realm mentally. He said I just need you to get there because all of a sudden, people are going to just take you as seriously as they should have been taking you in your 20s. As for some of them it'll be too late, for others they'll feel like, okay, I'm so glad I believed in her. He said I think you're going to change the industry, lori, so you've got to really hang in there. And I did not know if he was accurate in the about the 30s, but when I finally got to the 30s, I'm like, oh yeah, this is nice.

Speaker 2: 6:26

Yes.

Speaker 1: 6:27

I had that, so this is great. And now I'm two years away from being 50. And I feel like since I turned 30 to now, I am yet another person. I feel like I've evolved even more since then. So there's been a lot of new and you know, evolvement.

Speaker 2: 6:46

I love that and what I love the most about your story is the fact that you started when you were 18 years old, because we get a lot of questions from whether it's our wedding planners or wedding pros who say things like oh, I'm just fresh out of college or I'm still in college, I don't have it to be able to open up my own business and I want to work under someone else. But you didn't let that stop you. And another fun thing about you starting at 18 is obviously and hopefully, the goal is that you're not the same person that you were at 18. And just from you saying that, 30, you were different. 40, you're different. Now, going into 50, you're a different person and the goal is to grow as a person.

Speaker 2: 7:24

And I'm so glad that you mentioned that and I love that you share your story, because I feel like there are a lot of planners, whether they're 18 and just starting out, or they're 30 and just starting out. That whole starting out feeling is quite frightening and quite scary. But knowing how successful you have been and how even someone who is as phenomenal a planner as you are had those doubts within yourself, to know that's normal, that feeling is natural. But, like Phil said, you have to believe in yourself, because if you don't believe in yourself, then who's going to no one.

Speaker 1: 7:56

Yeah, no one can believe in you.

Speaker 2: 7:57

Who's going to pay you thousands of dollars to buy their wedding if you don't even believe you can do it?

Speaker 1: 8:02

It's 100% true and I even have. Some of our members are in their 60s and are starting this career and they say am I too old? Will I be taken seriously? Are clients going to want to hire me? Versus the young wedding planner?

Speaker 1: 8:18

And my honest to goodness feeling is it doesn't matter how old you are. There is a client for all of us. And so for my older planners, my thought is you can absolutely again, as long as you believe in yourself. But you can absolutely get great clients because there are some people out there that are like I know that they're too young, I want someone who's more established and has more life experience under their belt. And then then you've got the people are like no, I really want someone who's young because I want them to understand technology and blah, blah, blah. That's why I'm always saying to wedding planners of all ages embrace technology and understand what your clients of today are needing, because you want to be that wedding planner that can handle it all. But yes, I think that you've got to believe in yourself and I am a completely different person from when I was 18 years old.

Speaker 1: 9:10

I was terribly insecure, stared out of my mind, shaking in my boots, but I also remember that first paying client that I had and I was hoping they didn't see the pen shake in my hands as I was writing notes during the initial consultation there weren't any courses that I could take.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Back then there wasn't anything that I could do to kind of help my career, because it's not like I could go to college to become a wedding planner. That did not exist, so I didn't have anybody to lean on because wedding planners weren't as popular of a career choice as it is today. I really had to figure some things out. I felt very alone I'm not going to lie to you which is, by the way, part of the reason why I even started our organization is so that other people don't have to feel alone the way I felt. Wedding planners are in the toughest job, chrissy. They are rated the third most stressful job in the world and we need as much help in how to evolve so that we are not getting that burnout so early. I mean, it really is about evolving and making sure that we take care of ourselves.

Speaker 2: 10:23

And on that note, because I feel like our professional life and our personal life kind of do they mesh, they just do, especially when you're working for yourself has there ever been a moment, or have you ever had to, in your professional life, pivot things so that way it didn't impact your personal life in a negative way, or maybe it impacted it in a positive way? Has that ever happened in your career?

Speaker 1: 10:48

Only every year.

Speaker 2: 10:50

So yeah, I mean constantly.

Speaker 1: 10:52

I would say that I constantly. That goes back into anticipating problems before they happen. And sometimes problems sneak up on you, they happen and then you have to pivot that way too. So you either anticipate and pivot prior to the problem taking place, or the problem happens and you pivot afterwards. But if you're not willing to pivot, that's the only place where the real, true failure is going to come in. So what I would like to encourage people to do is to you have to feel comfortable following that intuition and pivoting. And yes, I would say I constantly pivoted.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Now, I pivoted when Philip and I decided to have a child, and I had to pivot. Even before that, I had to pivot when he and I got married. Then we had a child, and then children change too. They have different needs at different times. So I had to constantly change my business hours, the way I worked or how many weddings I would take, different points of my life. I changed my communication strategy as time went. I didn't want people just calling me at all hours of the night because I had a family. Now, even if I didn't have a family, I think I would have gotten there too, because you get tired of being taken advantage of over a period of time, but you have to pivot in order to survive. I mean, otherwise what's going to happen? Right, you know you're going to get left behind. So, yeah, there was millions of times I pivoted, and sometimes it impacted things in a positive way. Sometimes it was wow, if you didn't pivot, you just would not have survived that. So there's countless situations.

Speaker 2: 12:43

And I love too about what you just shared is that, like you said, you've had that intuition of I need to adjust, I need to change, and I think a lot of the times players, people in general maybe either don't have that ability to trust their intuition, to see what's coming. Do you? How important do you think that is to have that specific characteristic of having that natural ability to trust your intuition? Do you think that's something that is just a natural thing that you were good at, or was that something that over the years you saw that you had it, but you formed it, you created it into something that's going to benefit you both personally and also professionally?

Speaker 1: 13:26

I think it's a skill you have to hone. I don't think everybody's born with it. I don't know if I was born with it or not. I would have to do some serious deep diving to see if I always had that in me. I know that it was a skill that I realized early on. If I do not work on this particular skill, that bad things are going to happen to my business, and so I had asked myself several times how important is this business to me? So I think you have to. If you don't have it naturally, you have to work on it. It has to be something that you have inside of you in order to succeed long term. So having that natural ability to trust your intuition and trust your gut and learn how to anticipate problems before they occur. And that can be on a bunch of different levels, Chrissy.

Speaker 1: 14:23

When I say anticipate problems, I mean on every level. So when I'm in the conversation with a client, I try to anticipate what their needs are. As they're speaking, I'm trying to anticipate what they might say so that I can maybe, if they have any concerns, I can maybe put them at ease before they even feel the need to have to ask a question. I'm constantly trying to anticipate things like that because I see it as caring for my couples so much that I want to put them at ease right away Now. Then you put that into your business. I want to anticipate problems with my business so that I can, you know, kind of avoid catastrophes. It's all to try to avoid problems, and so it. I'm hoping that people will get to a point where it becomes instinctual. I'm hoping that people come to a point where it's supernatural and it just flows, but it has.

Speaker 1: 15:23

It's all starts with knowing whether or not have it. Okay, first you got to know that. If you, once you have that information, once you know whether or not you have it, let's say you do. How good is it? Has that helped you? How has it helped you? How can it help you better?

Speaker 1: 15:44

Everything in business needs to be intentional, and I feel like what's happening, especially in the wedding industry, Chrissy, is everybody seems to be a bunch of octopi on roller states, right, and so that means that you're going in every kind of different direction. Because you did not, you know, have an intended target, you did not know where you wanted to go or why you wanted to go there. You are literally allowing your business to run you rather than letting you know, allowing yourself and trusting yourself to run your business. So yeah, you asked me how important it is to gain that kind of skill. I think it's one of the most important skills of business owner, no matter what business you're running. Has you find and hone the ability to trust your instincts and be able to anticipate problems before they occur?

Speaker 2: 16:39

I love that because I feel like a lot of the times we you know, you have to be self aware of what those signals are, of your intuition. Sometimes it can be little things, like the butterflies in your stomach, or you're feeling a little sick about things and if you continuously ignore that, eventually it's either probably going to disappear and you're going to not have any type of intuition, or you're going to be making mistakes and ignoring that intuition and then doing things that, like you said, are going to cause problems and issues. So having that self awareness of you, know what that intuition looks like for you, I think is so important.

Speaker 1: 17:13

Yeah, I'm honestly shocked at how many wedding planners don't trust themselves. They are so scared that they're going to make a mistake. You have to be the person running the show, the business. If the business is frightening you so much to where you become paralyzed, you can't grow that business.

Speaker 2: 17:33

I do generally feel like that fear of failure, that fear of letting someone down, that fear of disappointing someone whatever that fear can honestly stop you from growing Like it just does. It stops you from going and not only that, it stops you from trusting yourself, because it's going to rely on that trust and your intuition. You're relying on your fear to make choices and make decisions versus your intuition.

Speaker 1: 18:00

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it'll paralyze you pretty quick. Having and owning a business is a really fun science experiment, and as long as you understand that sometimes the science experiment is going to go awry, and sometimes you're going to try something where it works out beautifully but you're not going to know unless you give it a go, and so that has to be our mindset is not being afraid to take chances. Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2: 18:29

I love that. I have chills. This is so good, lori, thank you for sharing that. And earlier you briefly mentioned technology, and this is something I also always give you a hard time, because when you first started, you use pigeon carriers to communicate with your clients, and now times have changed. You don't have to use your pigeon anymore. What does?

Speaker 1: 18:50

it mean so mean You're a mean girl.

Speaker 2: 18:55

I love you, but I do know that when you look at the 30 years, technology has really involved, and especially within our industry. So can you tell me how the impact of that technology, starting from where you were when you were 18 years old to now, how that's helped your career, you know, being able to evolve, was there anything that you were like I don't want to evolve with? Or, you know, tell me, kind of give me an insight and how technology has has been within your past 30 years of this industry.

Speaker 1: 19:28

Yeah, so I mean from from the first winning I ever did. I mean there was, this was pre social media. There was no Instagram, there was no Facebook, there was nothing. I remember when my space came out that I don't know if you ever remember.

Speaker 2: 19:43

I did. I was in the mic because I thought I was a coder, you know, making my little page. I thought I was something special.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Oh, yes, technology you got to love it. But I mean and this is even you know, I started my, my business back before even emails were used on a regular basis, okay. So I remember when we got our own email address, we're like, oh, this is so exciting. So, yeah, I absolutely just aged myself in a very big way, just realized, as I was saying that out loud. So technology is definitely just sped by and you know, when you have no social media to rely on, that means that you have to develop great business and personal relationships with the people that you're wanting to do business with. So that's what I focused on and that was.

Speaker 1: 20:38

I'll be honest, it was a little hard for me because of how introverted I am and you know I just the thought of going to networking meetings scared me to death and I finally did it. I would always push myself to step outside of my comfort zone, but it was very, very difficult to do Because back then I couldn't rely on. Well, I'll just communicate and develop relationships through Instagram. Instagram did not exist. Yes, I wanted to learn and understand technology. I wanted to jump all into emails. I remember when websites first started coming out and becoming a thing like, if you're a small business, you absolutely have to have a website. I remember that's actually how I met my best friend in the whole world as she developed my website. And then you know, then you're dealing with social media. I remember when smartphones first came out, you know the very first iPhone, and before that everybody was like, ooh, blackberries. I remember blackberries.

Speaker 2: 21:40

I had a blackberry.

Speaker 1: 21:41

Yeah, it was a huge thing and. But I remember first time the iPhone came out and we could text this thing called texting I'm like this is amazing and I was all about it. But again, I was raised by a computer programmer who taught me that technology is the way of the future. So I love tech, but what I was not willing to let go of was the personal connections that I made, Because I know how important those personal things are. You know, how well do you know each one of your wedding pros. You know and I cared so much about them. I'm still friends with them today. So you know the people that I was working with 20, 30 years ago. I am still in contact with them and it's because of the personal relationships and the investment that I made in those relationships. But I can honestly say that if I was only reliant on more of a surfacing relationship through a social media platform, I don't think I still would have had those those same connections that I do today and I would have lost.

Speaker 1: 22:50

Because you know, to me that's the key and I remember saying a lot of times when you and I would be teaching our wedding planner certification programs in person is people, do business with people, not computers, not social media.

Speaker 1: 23:05

We need to dive deeper. So I want all the wedding pros to think past just what you see on your screen, there's a person behind that social media account. How well do you know the person? Become friends with them, Find out who they are on a personal level. What are their hobbies, what's their family situation? Do we have anything in common? Let's build this relationship, because that's what's going to, in my opinion, sustain success for the future. Yes, we can have a quick bout of success from time to time, built on superficial nonsense, but what's going to carry you into the future and sustain that success is developing and keeping and maintaining those personal relationships that you build with those you want to do business with. And so I know it sounds strange to say develop a personal relationship with your business colleagues, but all's kind of have to steal a line from you've got mail. They say business is business, Personal is personal. No, it's personal to me, and so make it personal.

Speaker 2: 24:21

Make it really personal.

Speaker 2: 24:23

I mean, look at your success. I think that alone the fact 30 years in this industry because the personal aspect of things was always in the forefront of your mind. You clearly evolved with technology. You weren't hesitant to using technology. If anything, that's helped you grow in those personal aspects. But that always comes back to the personal aspects of things.

Speaker 2: 24:46

And even you mentioned you started out with no social media and I teach our wedding pros and our wedding planners to make sure that they do have a website because the social media isn't ours. So, on that same token, how would you have these connections with these people if social media were to disappear tomorrow? So pivot kind of have a mindset of social media is not mine. Yes, it's a great touch point, but I still need to create these relationships outside of this because it could disappear tomorrow and you won't have that relationship with them if social media doesn't exist.

Speaker 2: 25:21

Like you said, step outside of your computer, get to know these people personally. That's so important when it comes to your growth as a planner or as a business owner, as a professional, just establishing those connections. I love that so much and even for me personally I have developed relationships from social media but, like I said, it's a touch point where it's like oh, I've been following you and then when I, let's say, I run into in a networking event, I'm like I saw that you bought a house, how exciting. And that establishes that connection. That then moves further into a fun personal relationship. And those personal relationships impact your bottom line because you want to work with people you enjoy working with. So they're going to be recommending you, you're going to be recommending them because you guys have that personal connection. So I love that. She mentioned that, when it comes to tech, that it still boils down to personalization.

Speaker 1: 26:12

Tech is a bonus, but it shouldn't be the foundation of the relationship. It should be more of a bonus feature that we can also see, with some really great updates that's going on when we don't have time to chat. But for the most part, the foundation of our relationship should be built on much stronger foundation than Instagram.

Speaker 2: 26:34

Yeah, I love it. I love it. Something else that's kind of been shifting within our industry is kind of the growth of educators, where we're seeing a lot of people want to educate other wedding planners or other pros using their own knowledge and their skills to help and to hopefully change the industry. But that kind of comes with the good and the bad. As the founder of the CWP Society, which was built on not just educating but also networking with the rise of other educators in our field, have you had to pivot or adjust how you teach within the CWP Society or the company as a whole?

Speaker 1: 27:17

And the educator has a very special responsibility to see things in a more broad sense and to make sure that we're educating in such a way that is not going to exclude someone else or make someone else feel stupid. And what I'm noticing is that there are a lot of pop-up educators that are not taking the responsibility of their voice as seriously as they should, and they are not realizing that when they are only educating in this one thing for instance, chrissy, make sure that you are making six-figure or get into the luxury market, okay, that's great. But at the same time, when, if you are only teaching that that's the only way to make a living, that's problematic. And so I feel like these pop-up educators are not thinking about the general masses and they're not having that responsibility of okay, but that's great advice for the less than 1% of the couples who have the luxury budget, and when I say luxury, I just mean high, very, very high budget. I believe personally, that every single couple out there deserves luxury. When they hire a wedding planner or a wedding coordinator, I think they deserve luxury. These are once in a lifetime moments that someone is wanting to plan for themselves and their family. Every single aspect of that should be very luxurious and very special and incredibly unique and very curated specifically to them.

Speaker 1: 29:06

Now, when you are thinking about education and how to pivot, I feel like things are pivoting wrong on some of these pop-up educators because I don't think that they care enough about the entire industry. They are only caring about themselves and getting people to purchase their product. That's why we have that free membership within our organizations, because I want to help educate at no charge. I want to give people support for free. I don't want people to feel like they have to pay for bad advice. That's being so loosely given and it honestly bothers me. So the way I've had to pivot is I feel like I have to keep undoing all these pop-up educators mistakes and I'm having to fix all of this. And I'm noticing this when my members are coming to me saying, okay, so I talked to this coach, this wedding coach, and they told me to do this, this and this and it's not going well, I'm not booking anybody, but I wanted to get into the luxury market. I'm like, okay, so let's strip everything down and let's talk about you real quick. And so I have to like undo all of this stuff and kind of insert back into reality. Okay, let's go back into reality.

Speaker 1: 30:35

99.99999% of couples don't have 200,000. To a million dollars to spend on their wedding. That is quite a small market to get into. So let's go back into reality and realize who our couples actually are. They are couples with less than 200,000 and usually it's much less than 200,000 dollars to spend. So can we please just create your packages? If you want to stay in business and this is your passion we need to create packages that are actually going to allow you to get business to the 99% of the couples that are out there.

Speaker 1: 31:15

So I've had to pivot, definitely in that way of learning how to undo other people's bad advice, and it breaks my heart because a lot of these pop-up educators don't realize how much damage they're actually doing because they only care about selling their own products. I just want to get coaching clients and if I make all these promises on how to make millions, it's like stop it stop. I'm not saying that there's not a niche market for that beautiful, luxury client, but I want to create well-rounded wedding planners that can take on any budget and do it well. Why can't we be well-rounded?

Speaker 1: 31:53

I've had couples that the lowest budget I've ever planned a wedding was $3,000, and I have planned weddings for celebrities with multi-million-dollar weddings. So let's now I can tell you the difference here, chrissy. Hardly anything at all. We just had nicer stuff at the higher budget weddings and you know, it definitely felt more luxurious. I love those. Those are the pictures I loved to share, obviously, but at the same time, it's like you know, it's not who cares who cares. So there's definitely a lot of pivoting that has to happen, for sure, and I think too this goes back to why you are so successful in your wedding planning industry.

Speaker 2: 32:39

To show why you're so successful now as an educator is because it boils down to AU trust in your intuition, but also you not taking out the personal aspect of things, because, as the owner and then educator with the society, you don't just teach and disappear Every single week.

Speaker 2: 32:59

Our members have access to you, whether it's going to be the different workshops that we host or just having a work-life balance series that you and those are all free. These are free ways that you are continuing education, but also they're still having that access to you, because the success of our members is one of the most important things for you. Seeing them grow, seeing them involved, seeing them become a success is so important to you and I feel, like some of the you know these pop-up educators, this has nothing to do with who is taking their course, but everything to do with how much money they're making from this course. It's not the exact opposite with you. So, no, I think that has a lot to do with your success. I really do, obviously, your talent and your smart, your gifted you the way that you speak I mean your chef's case you're phenomenal. Oh, thank you. Probably the advice that because I love you so much, but it's because you put people first in every single thing that you do, whether that's wedding planning or teaching.

Speaker 1: 33:56

I really appreciate you saying that. It really does mean a lot to me. I feel like my members are an extension of me. I want them to succeed. I care very deeply about what I put out there and I also know that I have a responsibility not put things out there that is based only on what am I going to get out of it? It's about what are they going to get out of it, and I care about that way more, way, way more. Our members know where the good comes from, they know where the heart resides and they know that your heart and my heart and the company's heart is all about them. So I kind of think of it.

Speaker 1: 34:45

As you know, I can relate to it as it like a mom. I'm a mother of a, of an adult child in her 20s, and your child grows right, and I see my members kind of as my children as well. It's a little different, obviously, but it's kind of the same. I at first want to teach my child as much as I possibly can, but the whole point of the teaching was to watch them go out into the world and become an enormous success. Now, whatever that success looks like to them. Right, because everybody has a different definition and you love your child and you will love that child unconditionally.

Speaker 1: 35:27

I feel that way about my members. I will love them like beyond words and it's you have to remember. It's not about me, right? It's about them Go out into the world, become a success. If you need to talk, I'm here. I've got your back. I can give you some advice. You don't have to take my advice, that's perfectly fine if you don't take it, but my heart is always in it for them and and I hope that they know it, I hope that they can feel it. Education I didn't realize that this is where I was going to go, obviously because, that's right.

Speaker 1: 36:04

If you told me 30 years ago that this introverted young girl, who had a lot of fears and a lot of anxiety and a lot of insecurities, was going to be a leader of an organization the world's largest organization for wedding pros I honestly if you told me that it was going to be me, I would have said yeah, you have lost your ever-loving mind. There's no way. But I go home every night after work and I sit on my chair and I turn on my television and I'm drinking my water and I'm thinking to myself God, I love what I do. I love what I do. I love the people. I love my members. I love this industry.

Speaker 1: 36:59

But I have pivoted and I want to share with people what I've learned. You know that's that's my whole goal and that's what you're doing too, chrissy is we're sharing with people what we've learned. I don't want to just share the stuff that I learned that worked. I want to share with people what I learned that didn't work, so that they don't make the same mistakes that I did and maybe they don't have to do as many pivots as I've had to do over the years to figure this whole wedding industry thing out. But you know what it all is. It all is going to stem from stressing your intuition, anticipating problems before they happen, and do everything with intention and heart.

Speaker 1: 37:37

If that is the only thing that people take away from this podcast, then I think that that is really what it's at, because you do not have to be sneaky, manipulative and and icky to be successful. In fact, I think that that would be that would make you the most unsuccessful successful person in the world. What makes someone truly successful? If you have integrity and and everyone around you can see it and and you've built success on truth and honesty and love and kindness, then that is success. I don't care how much money you're making you might not be making a dime, but that, my friends, is success.

Speaker 2: 38:18

I love it.

Speaker 2: 38:19

Well, lord, thank you for letting me jump inside your brain even more than I already am.

Speaker 2: 38:25

I just you know I, you're just someone that a lot of people in this industry look up to, and to know that someone of your caliber has had to adjust, has had to pivot and has had to create.

Speaker 2: 38:36

You know how you're able to trust your intuition and and grown in that aspect. I think it's important for people to hear that story, to know and especially with the comparison game we had a whole podcast about that If they're comparing their year one to your year 30. You've learned, you've had some lessons in that, and that's one reason why you opened up the society is to be able to educate the masses. So thank you so much for for sharing all this wonderful information with us and thank you all for listening to the wedding planner podcast. Be sure to check back on the first of the month with our wedding industry news, the 10th of the month for our career support series, and then the 20th of the month for our soulmate series. And if you are not yet a member of the CWP society, we would love to welcome you into our amazing and loving family. Simply go to the website CWPsocietycom and learn how to join.