Certification Changed Everything: Two Planners Share Their Journeys

Krisy Thomas, COO of the Certified Wedding Planner Society, is joined by two remarkable Certified Wedding Planners, Vicki Amar and Ashley Babbitt, to share their transformative journeys in the wedding industry. This captivating conversation highlights the power of education, certification, and community in shaping a successful career.

Vicki Amar brings a fascinating perspective, having coordinated iconic New York City events like the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball Drop and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade before transitioning to wedding planning. Despite her extensive event experience, Vicki recognized that wedding planning required specialized knowledge—a realization that led her to pursue certification and take the leap into full-time entrepreneurship.

Ashley Babbitt offers a complementary journey, having strategically pursued certification while still in college. This approach gave her the confidence to pursue shadowing opportunities even during the challenges of the COVID period. Now a lead planner in Orlando, Ashley continues to advocate for education and mentorship, particularly for students entering the wedding industry.

Both planners emphasize that certification provides more than just credentials, it offers ongoing education through weekly workshops, access to a supportive professional community, and the confidence to deliver exceptional service. Their stories highlight how the CWP Society transforms perspectives from competition to collaboration, creating networks of mutual support that benefit both planners and clients.

This episode is packed with insights on professional growth, the value of specialized education, and how a community-centered approach is revolutionizing the wedding planning industry. Whether you’re starting out or looking to elevate your career, Vicki and Ashley’s journeys demonstrate that certification can be the catalyst for meaningful professional transformation.

Ready to elevate your wedding planning career? Discover how certification can transform your professional journey at CWPSociety.com.

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

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

You're listening to the Wedding Planner Society podcast brought to you by the CWP Society.

Speaker 2 0:16

Welcome back to the Wedding Planner Society podcast brought to you by the CWP Society, the world's premier certification program and the largest community of wedding planners and professionals. My name is Chrissy Thomas and I'm the COO of the CWP Society, and today's episode is a special one because I am joined by not one, but two incredible certified wedding planners and industry advancement directors. First off, we have Vicki Omar, and she is an award-winning, published, certified wedding planner and designer who has career has taken her from the glittering lights of New York City to the beautiful weddings of South Florida. Vicki served as the Deputy Executive Director of Events at the New York City Mayor's Office where she helped plan some of the most iconic large-scale events in the world, including the Times Square New Year's Eve ball drop and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Today, she brings that same level of expertise and visions to couples in Southeast Florida and beyond, all while balancing life with her husband and two young children. Joining her is Ashley Babbitt, who is also a certified wedding and event planner, certified design consultant and a fellow industry advancement director.

Speaker 2 1:25

Ashley is a lead planner in Orlando with Atlas Weddings and Events and Simply Enchanted Events, and in her eight plus years in the industry she has executed more than 250 weddings, with a strong background spanning from venues, floral designs, rentals, even content creation.

Speaker 2 1:43

Ashley brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. She is a proud graduate of the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at UCF, where she continues to give back as the events chair for the UCF Rosen Alumni Council and chair-elect for the UFC Alumni Council as well, all while staying deeply connected to the Central Florida wedding community. So in today's conversation we're going to dive into both of their journeys how they got started, the lessons they've learned along the way and what drives their passion for pushing the wedding industry forward. So welcome, vicki and Ashley. I am so incredibly excited to have you both here and I kind of want to start off with your personal journey and what led you guys to CWP. And, vicki, I'll start off with you. Can you share your journey with the CWP Society and how you first got involved, and even what motivated you to even become certified?

Speaker 1 2:36

Hi, chrissy, thanks for having me. I actually started my events career in government, so I worked for nearly a decade for the New York City Mayor's Office of Citywide Events and I started as an unpaid intern and then worked my way up to Deputy Executive Director of Events and I was planning things like large outdoor events in New York City, any event outdoor that you could think of New Year's Eve, ball drop, thanksgiving Day Parade, the list goes on.

Speaker 2 3:04

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 3:04

Super, like logistics heavy, it's like city, state, federal agencies, all the rules and regulations and like making a safe but fun event. And then in 2016, I was getting married, I was engaged in planning my own wedding and that's when I realized, you know, wedding planning was nothing like the extensive experience that I had in more corporate and government events. So I decided to get a certification through Certified Wedding Planner Society and that happened in 2017. And then I opened my business, like the day I got home from that final conference day and then in 2022, I left city government. It took that leap full time with my company and then last year got the wedding design certification to add to my credentials.

Speaker 2 3:53

Wow, can I I mean cause I feel like you've lost this, because, wow, like I love the start of your career and I love that you mentioned how you started off as an unpaid intern and just worked your way up to these huge events and my thought process. If I were a potential client who interviewed with you and if you mentioned that I hope you mentioned that during your consultation process I would be like, if you can handle my little 150 guest count wedding, like if you could handle thousands and thousands of people at the freaking Macy's Day Thanksgiving parade, then, yeah, you can handle my 150 guest count wedding. That is absolutely such. That blows my mind and I love that you shared that. Ashley, what about you? What has been you know? Tell me a little bit more about your journey with cwp and kind of what led you and pursued you to gain your certification yeah.

Speaker 3 4:48

So I actually decided that I wanted to be a wedding planner my senior year of high school so I went started going to school for event management. Um, right out of high school I started working for a venue. They did a couple weddings, not a lot. We grew up in a place where there wasn't a lot of weddings. We have a small, just summer season. So as I was going to school and working at the venue, I kind of decided that I needed something bigger and that's when I decided to move to Orlando. There's obviously a lot of weddings here. Disney was a big factor. I thought that could be kind of fun doing Disney weddings.

Speaker 3 5:28

So while I was down here, I was going to school to finish my degree and was part of a wedding club at my college and they told us about what was the Bridal Society, cwp, and so I was like wow, I really want to get into weddings and do this as a living. So certification seems like a great opportunity and got certified as a student in 2019. Once I graduated, it was COVID, so there wasn't a whole lot of options for jobs, but I was shadowing other planners. Now that I had the certification, I felt a little bit more confident to like go out and just hey, can I help you? Like I don't even need to get paid, it's COVID, I just want experience and then eventually got a full-time wedding planner position with the company from there.

Speaker 2 6:21

Gosh, I love that story so much, ashley, and well done. And I will say your story does remind me you starting out so young reminds me a lot of Lori's story. Lori started when she was also 18. That, to me, takes a lot of courage and I think I love your journey of like. 2020 happened the absolute worst possible time to be in the event industry, with obviously everything that was happening, but you still didn't kind of give up hope, you still persisted and you still pursued. And look at where you are now one of our phenomenal IADs. So I love that journey so much.

Speaker 2 6:51

And what I love about both of your journeys is both of your journeys. You both had experience. Ashley, you were in school, so you were gaining that experience. You got your degree. Vicki, you had years and years of experience working these huge events. Yet you both understood the importance of gaining that certification specifically for wedding planning, and that, to me, just showcases how much experience and education still needs to go hand in hand and I love that both of you valued that and understood the value and the importance of education. And I do want to ask you you know what has been your most rewarding experience so far as being a part of the CWP and, vicki, I'll start with you for that question.

Speaker 1 7:31

For me, I think the most rewarding part is the impact it has on the people that I work with my couples and my vendor teams. So seeing everyone come together to bring a couple's vision to life and then watching that couple have the perfect stress-free day that they like dreamed of, is the ultimate reward. You know, it's really about serving the entire team and then creating the truly incredible experience that the couples want and expect.

Speaker 2 7:57

Oh, I love that you mentioned that, vicki, because I feel like what happens with some people when they hear the term certification they don't realize that a it's so much more than just a piece of paper. The education that you get from it kind of builds the foundation of what your career can look like. And, ultimately, our main goal for everyone is to ensure that our couples have a phenomenal day, and a lot of that has to do with how we approach our couples, how we create a vendor team, the education and knowledge that we need to know to then explain to our couples about how to make their wedding day as stress-free as possible. There's so much more that goes into it than just saying, well, I want my couple to have a stress-free day. Okay, what does that look like? And when you don't have that foundation and education behind you, you may not understand what that looks like.

Speaker 2 8:43

And we dive deep into not just the foundation, but even with our weekly workshops we are. What was that? A few months ago, we talked about emotional intelligence and the impact that that's going to make on the planning experience but therefore is going to allow your couples to have a stress-free day. So it does create and have so much more than I think what people realize, so I'm glad that you brought that up. Now, ashley, I do want to ask you in what ways has being a certified member of the CWP Society impacted your life? And I want to talk about two ways your professional life, but also your personal life as well.

Speaker 3 9:16

Yeah, I feel like personally it gave me kind of that confidence to start asking those planners to shadow. Like I'm young, I didn't have a lot of experience, but I had that education piece.

Speaker 3 9:28

So it almost gave me like that confidence to like I knew I was bringing something to the table. Like that's personally. And then professionally, it's been amazing to share this with other people, other wedding planners that are just starting out. I connect with them because it was hard to start out without that certification, so being able to send them back to CWP and even like students, I am still heavily connected with that wedding club that I was part of in college. So to tell them like, hey, if you need that extra confidence boost to go out and sell yourself to other planners, do the certification, get that education piece.

Speaker 2 10:16

I love two things about that. A, I love that you didn't just get your certification, gain your confidence and almost gatekeep it and like, keep it to yourself. You are still letting other planners, which is there is simply your competition. When you think about that is your competition and you are providing them with the tools and information and being like, hey, this is how you're going to elevate and grow yourself in your career. That speaks volumes to for a lot of reasons. One, because I know exactly what you mean when you're brand new and you're trying to launch a business or you're trying to get yourself out there as a wedding planner.

Speaker 2 10:48

I personally have been met with the. You know, we all know the up and down look of the. Who are you? What do you do in my industry, where there are some planners who are just negative ninnies and who don't want to see other people grow and succeed. You are not like that and I can appreciate that so incredibly much, because it is such a difference when you start off your career with just a base, and I know we talked about this in one of our previous podcast episodes how a lot of people are not doing that, ashley, by suggesting the CWP Society, what they're doing instead, when a new planner reaches out to them, is they're saying just go get experience.

Speaker 2 11:26

The end and what happens sometimes with that is they may be getting bad experience or they're getting bad experience that's actually ruining people's wedding day and it can be a domino effect and actually impact the entire industry in your market.

Speaker 2 11:41

If you're consistently working these weddings and you're doing a bad job at it unintentionally, because you're trying to get experience that can transform into vendors not wanting to work with wedding planners because I think all wedding planners are like this Then you saying, no, we're no longer having wedding planners on our property because we had so many wedding planners come in and not respect our policies. It really does create this snowball effect whenever people are providing the advice of just go get experience, whereas you're sharing get your certification. Not only is that going to provide you with the foundation that you need, but it's also going to give you a little bit of that boost, a little bit of that confidence that you're going to need to enter into an industry that is very hard and, unfortunately, can sometimes be a little middle school-ish and you know that gossipy. So you want to have that confidence behind your belt. So I'm so glad that you mentioned that Absolutely.

Speaker 2 12:33

And, vicki, I do want to talk about confidence with you also. Do you feel like you know, the confidence in your skills and services have evolved since getting your certification?

Speaker 1 12:42

Absolutely. I you know from the from getting the certification, then having a few years of events under my belt like weddings, to then having taking that leap, um, to go full time. I think if I didn't get certified I never would have taken that that leap. Like a government job pretty steady you know, there was no reason to leave.

Speaker 2 13:05

Yeah, you probably got good insurance. Like you know all the things that are good.

Speaker 1 13:09

It was, it was okay. You know it would have been fine if I stayed, but I think having that certification and like the confidence to know like it's going to be okay, I know what I need to do it. It allowed me to to progress my my business forward and I don't think I would have felt comfortable fully planning somebody else's wedding with like their most special day of their life without that educational background. So, like the the on the day confidence to know like I'm going to be cool, calm and collected and keep my couple cool, calm and collected Like I I don't think I would have had that if I didn't have a certification under my belt.

Speaker 2 13:45

Thank you for saying that, because I feel like when listeners are listening, they're going to be thinking what do you mean? You didn't have the confidence, like you were helping with the ball drop on New Year's Eve in New York, you helped with the playdating and you still have the confidence. What do you mean? To me, that speaks volumes that, yeah, I did all these really big events, but it's different than a wedding and you recognizing the difference is huge and knowing that that also helped you build your confidence, because I can imagine pulling off those large events, you felt very confident in that aspect. But you're right, when you go into the weddings, you're probably like whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker 2 14:20

This is a totally different beast. How can I make sure that I'm the best version of being a wedding planner that I can be before I take on clients? I love that so much and I love that you recognize that within yourself too. Now, ashley, I do want to talk with you about career opportunities, because you mentioned that you shadow other wedding planners and I know that you also associate plan for other wedding planners. Can you kind of provide me with an if you notice an increase in job opportunities because of your CWP credentials, and can you share any specific experiences with that?

Speaker 3 14:55

Yeah, I feel like, because I was so young and still trying to get that experience, I was different from all of the other people. My age, like it, set me apart from the other. However, many people were applying for these lead planner jobs. When I started applying, I was like well, I already have the certification, so you don't have to teach me as much as you would have to teach all of these other planners that are just coming out of school.

Speaker 2 15:24

Yeah, exactly and honestly, people like you, ashley, is one reason why we actually even created the associate planner program, which I know you gained your executive level certification. But it was for that same reason where we wanted the planners who they knew. They wanted to be wedding planners, but they didn't necessarily want to open up their own business. They wanted to be lead planners for another company. Your education there is going to be a little bit different than if you were to open up your own business, and we wanted to make sure to equip associate planners with the right information of remembering you're representing someone else's company. So, having just that background alone, knowing how you should behave when it comes to consultations, how everything needs to go back to the owner and their policies and we, you know, talk for hours on end about how to become and how to be a phenomenal associate wedding planner, because it is very much a different type of beast than owning your own business.

Speaker 2 16:14

You, you, you still have I don't want to say it's easier. There's the business side of things you don't have to worry about, but you still are a representation of that person's company. So with that, you almost have a sense of ownership, in that you want to be the best version you can be, because you're representing someone else's company. That is almost even more pressure than just your own company. So with that, that's one reason why we did create our associate planner program or certification. So that way the people who are probably in your same boat, where they wanna be planners but the thought of opening up your own company doesn't really appeal to me you can still gain your certification and I think having that on your resume is going to be an immediate oh ding, ding, ding. This person already has at least a base knowledge and also some accountability, because they're a member of the CWP society and I know their standards. That, like you said, is automatically going to set you apart. So I'm so glad that that was beneficial for you for sure.

Speaker 3 17:06

Yeah, it made me so excited when you came out with the associate one. I was like, oh, I wish this would have been around when I was going through this. But I'm so happy for all of the future wedding planners that will get to experience that, because it is a little bit scary to jump into something that's for business owners when you know you don't want to be a business owner. It kind of like you don't know if it's going to be worth your time because it's not geared towards what you want to be doing.

Speaker 2 17:33

Yeah, exactly, which is one reason why we created it, so exactly like it's spoken to them in their language. But of course, if that's even just a slither of a possible goal for you, then you can upgrade and become an executive level certified member to get that information of how to operate and run a business as well, because, again, those are two totally different beasts being a wedding center and then also operating your own business Absolutely. Now, vicki, can you discuss any skills or knowledge that you've gained through CWP that you believe actually directly influence your career advancement?

Speaker 1 18:08

I don't think there's like one particular nugget of wisdom, but rather like the many nuggets that we get on like a weekly basis.

Speaker 1 18:16

So, being a certified member, we can do weekly webinars which are educational, and I'm always like taking notes of things I want to implement in my own business. And I also listen to this podcast, specifically when I'm doing my like long drives to venues or meetings and I'm driving like an hour and I'll just like play them like on, you know, next, next, next, and I hear like a mic drop line and I'll be like, hey, siri, text my husband and I'll like dictate the thing that I want to remember, because I can't take notes while I'm driving. And so then, like later, when I get home, I'm like referencing those texts to be like, okay, I got to write this down, that was so good. So I feel like, because there's so much continual education, it's just like so much more than the original certifications. It's just like so much more than the original certifications and there's constant like new information and something to implement and something to do and new goals or new best practices.

Speaker 2 19:11

It's always something, like you said, because there's always something, and I think that's one of the one of the biggest benefits of being part of the CWP society, because I know there are certifications and programs out there where even the certification program is, at minimum, not the best, but then that's it. There's nothing else. And all three of us know this industry is always changing and as planners we have to evolve and grow with it. And what a beautiful thing that is. But it also requires us to be on our A game, which means that we need that additional education, and that's one reason why we created our program the way that it is.

Speaker 2 19:49

You get those free weekly workshops and I love that. You mentioned the podcast. I'm sorry that you have to hear my voice back to back to back, but I'm glad you love me. But again, it's just that those are those resources where you're continuing to grow and you're continuing to learn, because there's always room for improvement. I'm sorry, you can be one of the best wedding planners out there, but if you think that you know it all, you're going to end up stopping your career before you fully even get going, and I think that's something that a lot of even more veteran planners don't realize.

Speaker 2 20:25

And I've been fortunate to have other industry advancement directors on this call who have said I've been in this industry for 15 years and then I gained my certification and that either reminded me, a I'm doing everything right or, b gosh, you could be doing this so much better. And, c what a benefit it is that now I get to be a part of this every single week and I'm constantly taking notes on ways to evolve and grow my business because of those weekly workshops. And again, like you mentioned, vicki is open for our executive certified members, so it's continuous. So I'm so glad that you mentioned that you don't feel like it's just one little nugget, that it's just one little nugget, that it's just the continuing nuggets that you get week after week, day after day when you listen to podcasts, because it is so much more than just your base certification. You can continue to grow by being a CWP. Thank you for mentioning that for sure. So, ashley, how can current certified members use their CWP credentials to really enhance their own careers?

Speaker 3 21:21

So the biggest draw for this for me, is we have this giant network of people doing the exact same thing, but all over the country, so you don't have to just sit in your own little wedding planner bubble of I wonder if I'm doing this right or how would somebody else have solved this problem that I had. You can reach out to and get answers for different business questions, different wedding planning questions, different. Just I am curious how you do this versus how we do this, and you don't have to be so isolated in this. I own a business, but nobody else understands what it's like owning a wedding planning business.

Speaker 2 22:05

Exactly, and it's because, in reality, no one knows our crazy like we know our crazy and our jobs are absolutely crazy. I mean, we're ranked number three of the most stressful jobs for a reason. But you're right. Actually, sometimes, whenever, especially either if you're owning your own business or if you're working for someone else, it can feel quite lonely in what we do. Even despite the fact that both of you are in really big markets for wedding planners, it can still feel like no one understands what I'm going through.

Speaker 2 22:32

So, having that space of people who understand because they're doing the exact same thing that you're doing and again, like you mentioned, they are all across the world, but not only that, but it's a safe space I feel like that is a big piece of the puzzle too. And because I've seen other spaces and they you ask a question, a simple question, and you get attacked about how stupid you are and what a dumb question that is. And shouldn't you know already? And I get so tickled when I see those attacks because I'm like you are the same people who just told this or, excuse me, this planner to just go out and get experience, and now you're mad at them for getting bad experience. Why didn't you tell them to get educated? Like that would have been much better, don't you think? But it's a safe space, is what I'm trying to say here within the CWP society.

Speaker 3 23:19

It really is Like everybody wants everybody else to succeed just as much as their own business, and I love that.

Speaker 2 23:26

Yep, absolutely. And my favorite thing, especially, you know, knowing that you guys are in a similar market, vicki, you don't want to take every single wedding. Actually, you can't take every single way that comes your way so that allows you to be like I'm not available. But here's another CWP who is and you feel comfortable in that recommendation because you know they've got the same education that you had and that you can kind of hold them accountable because they're part of CWP. And I'll share a quick story.

Speaker 2 23:50

I got an email from one of our fellow IADs and also one of our certified educators, breanne Ackerlin, where she's based in Iowa, and a mother of the bride reached out to her and another CWP for a wedding and both of them were not available. So they recommended another CWP and this mom went out of her way after the wedding to then email Breanne and say thank you so much for that recommendation. This planner was absolutely wonderful for our daughter's wedding. We absolutely love working with her. It made me able to enjoy the day and so on and so forth. But the fact that she thanked her for that recommendation again, that's why this community is so important. Someone got the business because of that recommendation and what a wonderful thing that it was a fellow CWP who we knew could handle that wedding and do so in a beautiful and wonderful way. So I do want to ask both of you what are your future goals, whether that's within CWP Society or just within your industry? How do you see yourself contributing to the industry moving forward? And, vicki, I'll start with you.

Speaker 1 24:51

I think a personal goal of mine would be to gain the master's certification. I do believe that there is always room to grow and more to learn, and I did the design certification this past year. So I don't know, maybe this next year I'll do that from like a personal goal but a way I see myself contributing to the industry, probably to continue the work I do as an industry advancement director. I feel like I had already been doing that work and like promoting the CWP society and like sharing all the information and like encouraging others to sign up. Before I was an IAD and then, like this past year, I was like I should just sign up and be an I like an official IAD. What am I doing over here? So now, now that I am, it does.

Speaker 1 25:39

I do think that this next year it'll be me pushing more people to come and even like my event, like my favorite vendors who are not wedding planners, because now they can be a part of it, which is like a really new cool addition that that you guys made so that they can join webinars monthly and be a part of the community that we are a part of, and I think like educational opportunities elevate the whole industry. So even like for my photographers and videographers and djs like it's important that they're on the calls to understand you know how we all operate together as one team yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 26:13

That is one reason, vicky, why we created the free pro membership because we wanted other professionals in this industry to experience what we get to experience, which is that fun, continuing education, that safe space that Ashley and I talked about. We're like, hey, they deserve to have this feeling too. And again, with that fourth Wednesday of the month when that's opened up to all of our members, including our free pro members, we are very specific about what we're teaching that month because we want it to be able to impact everyone, not just wedding planners, and sometimes I remember one of our first ones we talked about, kind of, the pain points of each, each vendor category, so that we could better understand them and how we could show up better as planners. And then vice versa, where we as planners talked about our pain points with our other fellow vendors and how we can all work better together Because, like you said, all that does is lift up the entire industry, which is why, vicki, you were IAD before you were an IAD, because you saw the value in education and a community and how that was going to make a positive impact on your market.

Speaker 2 27:11

Well done, and also how phenomenal again, similar to Ashley, no gatekeeping around here. You also want to see everyone succeed in your market, and I absolutely love that so much, so incredibly much, ashley. What about you? What are your future goals, whether it's personal or within CWP society, and how do you see yourself contributing to the industry moving forward?

Speaker 3 27:32

Yeah, so on a personal level, kind of doing the same standardization of wedding planners.

Speaker 3 27:38

I would love to bring that closer to the students grasp of like standardizing what you need to know before you get into the industry. So I've actually been working with the same local college that I went to to get that education piece and give those students that are interested in the wedding industry kind of that heads up of like this is what you should know going into this industry and also funnel them into CWP if they want to be on that planning side. And same with Vicky I also was promoting CWP before I was in IAD so it's been fun to get that again kind of standard information that you guys have provided for us to send to vendors. Like these are the hot button topics that we're going to go over. These are kind of some conversation starters about how to suggest even the vendors come to join the call. That's been really awesome to be able to have kind of that script and that standardization to list of reasons why they should come and join and the benefits.

Speaker 2 28:51

Yeah, absolutely Absolutely Well for both of you and Vicki. I'll start with you. What is one lesson that you've learned through your journey with CWP that you wish you knew when you first started in the industry?

Speaker 1 29:03

I love that you asked that.

Speaker 1 29:05

Without a doubt, the most profound lesson I've learned is community over competition. When I first started it's hard not to like look at your competition or like look at your neighboring company who you feel like you're up against for the same clients. But CWP taught me that it's better to have community over competition because we're really better as a family Like instead of competitors. I now have trusted colleagues that I can work with and we celebrate each other's wins and we step in to help when one of us has an emergency and when we're booked we can refer to somebody else. So like that literally is potential for like business because you are community instead of competition. You know I'm happy to like refer another CWP if I'm unavailable. So I do think that that's transformed my business from pretty much like a solo venture to a more collaborative effort and I think having community that I can rely on and that I can also, in return, be that community for somebody else has been the most beautiful and unexpected gift of the whole CWP journey since I started.

Speaker 2 30:18

I mean, Vicki, you talked about taking notes about the mic drop moments since I started. I mean, Vicki, you talked about, you know, taking notes about the mic drop moments. You just delivered a mic drop moment so you can tell your husband that when you're re-listening to yourself that I want to put that in my notes because that well said and a thousand percent, and I think a lot of planners who are listening, who maybe have they're not new to this industry, They've been doing this for years. I hope that resonates with you because you don't have to do this alone and not only that, but shifting that mindset of just viewing people as your competition is going to. Not only, like you mentioned, Vicki, book you you can book a whole calendar just from recommendations from your fellow CWPs but also what does that do to you mentally when you are in a good space with your quote competitors, versus being negative or catty or viewing them in that really competitive mindset? When I look at people who are mean for no reason and I'm always like that's so much energy, why are you being mean to your fellow wedding planner, Like I will never understand that. So I'm hoping if someone has experienced that and they're like, I don't want other people to go through that. They don't have to come be a part of CWP where you can be kind of that guiding light of like it doesn't have to be like this.

Speaker 2 31:37

Because, Vicki, that's one reason why I was so thankful for my certification too, because when I first got started in my market my smaller market there were a handful of planners not very many. They were all so mean and I remember when I gained my certification and I saw the community, I was like, oh, this doesn't have to be like this and I made it my mission to change it. I was like I'm not tolerating this. When new planners come in, I'm going to email them, I'm going to say welcome to the industry.

Speaker 2 32:07

I want to tell you more about CWP. Let's have coffee, let's meet. I'm so excited for you to be in this industry, Like a true community to me, that I would rather spend my energy doing that than being what Lori calls a poo-poo face, so not wasting my energy on that. So mic drop moment, Vicki. Well done. Ashley. What about you? What's one lesson that you've learned through your journey with CWP that you wish you knew when you first started? Fortunately, you got started right off the bat, so you probably didn't go through a lot of those pain points that some of us other planners have gone through.

Speaker 3 32:34

Yeah, you're exactly right. The pre-planner in me was like I can't start this until I know what I'm doing. So let me know what I'm doing and then get into it. But there were still plenty of things that I learned, and probably the biggest one, since I don't work for myself, was how to still advocate for myself while working for somebody else, still knowing my worth, even though I don't necessarily get to decide pricing for the company and what we're offering, but still being able to do what I feel is my best and do what I think is right under the direction of somebody else.

Speaker 2 33:16

Yeah, oh, I love that so much, ashley, thank you for sharing that. What an incredible conversation with Ashley and Vicky. Thank you so much. Guys, you know your stories prove that becoming a certified wedding planner isn't just a nice to have. It's the difference between staying where you are and stepping into the next level of your career. Certification gives you confidence, credibility and the opportunities that come with being recognized as a true professional in this industry. Ashley and Vicky, again thank you for showing us how certification can transform not just a business but a planner's entire journey. So to our listeners if you're ready to elevate your business, stand out in this industry and join a community of like-minded planners, take the next step and become certified. As you can see from the success of Ashley and Vicki, certification is truly a game changer. Become certified today by visiting cwpsocietycom. Thank you.