Raising the Bar for the Entire Industry

Weddings are one of the only major projects where it's considered normal to skip training and figure things out in real time — and that mindset is quietly costing couples, planners, and the industry as a whole. In this episode, Krisy Thomas and Laurie Hartwell of The CWP Society take on a claim that keeps circulating online: that wedding planning education is optional, certification doesn't matter, and experience alone is enough.

They break down why that logic doesn't hold up in any other profession with real responsibility — and why it shouldn't hold up here either. Experience teaches you what you've already lived through. Certification and continuing education prepare you for what you haven't faced yet: crisis leadership, vendor conflict, contracts that actually protect you, pricing that makes sense, and the behind-the-scenes systems that keep a wedding day calm.

Krisy and Laurie also discuss the risks of learning by shadowing without foundational training, why coordinators need real planning knowledge — not just wedding-day presence — and what's at stake as AI changes how couples search for, evaluate, and book wedding professionals in a market where anyone can claim any number of "years of experience."

If the industry wants long-term respect, stronger vendor and venue relationships, and a healthier marketplace overall, it starts with the standards planners hold for themselves.

Subscribe, share this with a planner in your circle, and leave a review to help more professionals raise the bar.

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

Transcript

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Respect, Standards, And Raising The Bar

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What if the wedding planning industry was actually respected the way it deserves to be? By venues, by vendors, by couples who aren't sure yet whether hiring a planner or coordinator is even worth it. And by every person who has ever thought they could plan their own wedding. Earning respect doesn't happen by accident. It happens because of the standards that we hold ourselves to. And right now, there are a lot of voices telling planners and coordinators that those standards, well, they actually don't matter. That education, yeah, it's optional. And that experience is the only credential that you actually even need. You know, imagine if our doctors and lawyers and any other credential professionals have been told that. So today, Lori Hartwell, the founder and CEO of the CWP Society, and I are talking about what it actually takes to raise the bar for this entire industry, not just for you individually, but for all of us. Certification is not a bad word. Education is not an insult to your experience, so keep listening.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

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

Why Education Versus Experience Matters

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Welcome to the Wedding Planner Society podcast, brought to you by the CWP Society, the world's premier wedding planner certification and membership. I am Chrissy Thomas, senior educator here with the CWP Society. And like I said, I have joined with Lori Hartwell, the founder and CEO of the CWP Society. Hey, Laura.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Well, hello, Miss Chrissy. I am so excited to talk to you about this subject today.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

I am too, because this is something that you and I have been wanting to really talk about for a while because we have noticed more and more conversations happening online saying that wedding planning and coordination education and certification isn't necessary, that experience is all you really need. And that education is, well, something you can just worry about later on. And while I get it, everyone, yes, is titled to their opinion. You and I felt that it's more important that we have an honest conversation about this in general.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

100%. And it's not because, you know, we're interested in arguing with anyone, but it's because this topic is so much bigger than one social media post or one person's perspective. I mean, it speaks to the future of our profession, the standards that we set for ourselves. And ultimately, it speaks to the experience that we're providing to the couples who actually trust us as their wedding planner and coordinator with one of the biggest days of their lives.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

I think it's something too, Lori, that I feel like the tone and the message that's being brought out is that education is a bad thing. And education isn't a bad thing. Knowing more is never the wrong move when it comes to anything in life. You know, the narrative that education is something you don't need only works if you are to believe that knowledge itself has no independent value. But no one watches a surgeon walk into an operating room and think, gosh, I hope they skip med school and just figured it out on the job. Or I wonder how many episodes of Gray's Anatomy they watched in order to be the phenomenal surgeon they are today. No one's like, no, the consensus has never puffed up.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

I can tell you that has never entered my mind when a doctor walks into the room. I mean, listen, I've been in a lot of hospital situations. Uh, and I can tell you that has never once been like, I wonder if they watch the same shows that I watch. Like, no, it's never no. Uh, and especially like when you like think about this, when you go into court and you need some sort of representative, right? I'm not thinking, you know what, I don't really need to hire a lawyer. I think my cousin watched Law and Order that one time, and kind of they're kind of super argumentative too. So they have field experience. No, that's no, that's never happened.

The Problem With Anti-Certification Advice

SPEAKER_02 3:58

What really gets me is when I just probably two weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago now, I heard an industry leader on um uh an Instagram post say getting certified first is a is bad advice. And what a lot of people don't realize is that they were just simply trying to get people to sign up for their own course and education by trying to minimize proper education and certification channels. And the the sad thing is, people don't realize it when they see something like that. When it pops up, they're like, oh, okay, maybe I don't. Oh, maybe I don't need to get education. They are not clicking on this person's post, they're seeing the message and scrolling. And so this person who posted this may not know the damage that they're actually causing their very own industry. And this is someone who sells courses, by the way. So this person selling courses, they just want it to be their courses because they don't have and they can't offer a certification, they can only offer courses. So it makes them think, oh, well, I'll just have to discredit the proper stuff. Well, you're actually hurting the industry. You don't see me out there putting things on social media going, don't don't educate yourself. Uh, make sure that you only get certification. Don't ever get education from any other source ever. That's not so I just don't understand because it's this rhetoric is a bit self-serving. Okay. Yeah, and it's in our industry, and it bothers me. I'm not gonna lie to you, it really bothers me.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

It kind of to me it's baffling to think this whole narrative of education is not necessary for wedding planners. It it tickles me a little bit because I'm like, why just us? I

Why Shadowing Without Training Fails

SPEAKER_01 5:45

think about every category of profession, even I think about my husband, for example, he works for Frito-Lay. So he delivers trucks to the gas stations and the grocery stores, or excuse me, delivers chips to the gas stations and the grocery stores, which seems like a job where it's like, okay, he could just apply and go ahead and get in the truck and start right away. No, why? Because Frit Olay has standards in place. And before anyone represents them and their company on site at grocery stores and gas stations, they want to make sure that they know the standards are in place for representing their company. So that required some education. That required not just education, but also he had to train with someone. But what this is where it gets funny. Sometimes people think, well, education for wedding planners, can you just be training someone? That rhetoric is backwards. So I think about with his story and his lineup and his situation, education came first through courses and training online. Then he got the in-person training where he was shadowing someone on their truck and their route. That was also a few weeks there. And then he was able to take on his own roles, his own responsibility, and be in his own truck. And even then, with his job, his education doesn't stop. Every few months, he has to take online courses. Again, why? Because Free Dole Lay has a specific standard in place that they want all their employees to understand and to represent them in the best way possible.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

And think about that. You know, anytime I'm hearing someone say, get experience first, and then if you want education, do that. If we did apply that to any other profession, you would be left out of the room. And I, as a as a person who has had a wedding, okay, I wouldn't want someone using me as a training ground, using my wedding as a training ground. I would want them to be educated first, know all the proper standards, know everything that they need to know, then come and do my wedding. And think about too, uh, you know, I ran a wedding planning firm for decades. I did not want people who I would just have to train on site. I didn't want them to use my weddings, my reputation to come in uneducated on what it really takes to be a professional, ultimate elite wedding planner or coordinator and use my reputation as a training ground or a guinea pig, if you will. Don't use me like that. So I'm finding though that a lot of wedding planners uh and coordinators who own their own companies are saying, oh yeah, you oh, you don't need experience. Just come come work with me and let's ruin this particular person's wedding, or let's I'm giving you the key to potentially screw up my reputation and screw up the wedding that I've been hired and contracted to do. I'm not really sure why everybody feels so comfortable doing that. We are not elevating the industry by making rash decisions like this.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

We need to be better, we need to be better, and it also does a disservice to whatever planner it is that is shadowing you for that particular event. Because when you think about a wedding day, if planned well, and hopefully it's been planned well, the wedding day is it's easy, it's the easiest part of our job. Physically, it's demanding, yes. But realistically, the wedding day should be part of the easiest part of your job because you've planned it so well. A person who's just shadowing you and your company on that wedding day does not see what you put into for that wedding. And on the flip side of that, Lori, let's say that you didn't plan it well and things are crumbling and falling. They're thinking, okay, I this is not the industry I want to be in, all because you didn't set a really good example.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

It's such a slippery slope when we're trying to educate quote unquote, not in quotation remarks, guys, educate planners by on the go training, by internships, by on-site shadowing, things like that. It just does a disservice to them and you as the owner of the company.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

It is a disservice to everybody. I honestly feel as though you should get the knowledge base first, then go and grab that on-site experience. Shadow someone after you get the knowledge. That way, you, as the person who's going to be doing the shadowing, now you know what the proper etiquette is. So if you are happen to be shadowing someone who is not doing it well, you will know that right out of the gate. Uh, but if you don't have the knowledge base prior, you could be earning and learning bad habits. And what we need to make sure that we're doing is not perpetuating that problem. But that's exactly what's gone

Coordinators Need Planning Skills Too

SPEAKER_02 10:23

on. And I also see people um who say, I'm just a coordinator. I don't need to be a planner. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, what do you mean just a coordinator? Stop minimizing yourself. Number one, being a coordinator is a tough, tough job, sometimes even harder than being a planner, because you are now having to carry everything on your shoulders of something that you didn't even plan. That is a scary endeavor. And to be a great coordinator, you have to know how the planning process is supposed to go because you cannot wrap up all of the millions of details before someone's wedding if you don't know what should have happened leading up to that moment. So I feel like there is so much misinformation out there that it is sabotaging people. And sometimes the people are sabotaging themselves.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Yep. Yep. I do also want us to talk about another thing that I think is sabotaging the industry and us is this uh this notion that again, experience is all you need. Because I think years of experience, what people are kind of assuming years of experience means you should know it all at that point. If you've been doing this for 15 years, then you you know it all. And that's unfortunately just not the case. You know, experience does it teach you what happened, but education and certification, it teaches you how to respond to what hasn't happened yet, but also how you could have handled what did happen better the next time, you know, and those are two totally different skill sets. A planner can do 50 plus weddings and still not know how to lead a crisis, how to manage vendor conflict professionally, and even understand that their packages just quite aren't making sense to their potential clients, which is costing them bookings, or that their contract got this contract's actually not protecting you at all. Your 50 plus weddings that you do cannot teach you all of that sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Right, exactly. I mean, think about this too. A doctor has to go through continuing education, a realtor has to go through continuing education, mechanics have to go through continuing education, uh, website designers have to go through continuing education. Why? Why do they have to do that? Because things change. Yeah, things are constantly moving, and especially with technology, it's going at the speed of light, sometimes faster, it seems. And we all need to make sure that we are up to date on what is the best current practices. What can we be doing better? Where are my gaps? Right. So it doesn't mean that when if you have tons of experience, that your processes and workflows are where they should be. I'm telling you right now, I see this all the time with those even going through our master certified wedding planner advanced study program through the CWP

Experience Does Not Equal Mastery

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Society. There's a lot of veteran planners that are wanting to level up not just their packages, but their workflows, their processes, their procedures, everything. And we're helping them find all of those gaps that I was just talking about that they currently have, because our team is really looking at every single thing from a few different perspectives. We've got it from the planner's perspective, we have it from the vendor's perspective, as well as the client's perspective. And my and my team's role is really to do a full business audit while the planner is doing a full audit of themselves. Okay. So what we're doing is seeing, okay, tell us what you see, we're going to tell you what we see. And that way we can try to fill in these gaps together. And by the time that these beautiful, amazing master planners complete that program, nothing is left untouched. And what I wish is that more planners could actually see what these other planners uh see and what our team sees. Basically, the master certification is like a full business audit to ensure that when you finish it, you're at elite status.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

To me, what I've noticed too, Lori, with those who are going through the master study advanced program is how they're showing up differently in their business. How and it is quite a transformation because what they're learning through this program can't be taught through years of experience. It just can't. And even though they've gotten years of experience, they're like, it's almost like sometimes when you that term years of experience, it's almost a blinder for people. It's not allowing them to see what could be with their business, what the potential could be, how they can level up because they're so focused on well, I had all this years of experience, that's all that matters. They they're they're head blinders on to what could be possible for their business because they're just they're just holding on to the fact that I've got all these years of experience, I know it all at this point, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:08

That scares me because if if any other professional and any other profession said that, that would be a huge red flag for me. So if I was sitting in my doctor's office and I needed to be treated for whatever I was being treated for, and my doctor said, Well, you know, I've got 15 years of experience, I don't need to take any more courses. Or if I said, Well, what about this? Well, I I've heard of that, but you know, I don't really have time to look into that because I'm so busy. What? What's going on? Like I would be like, I'm out, right? And I I've seen nearly like 90% of situations where wedding planners thought experience alone was enough and it wasn't even close, was not even close to being enough, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:58

And it kind of ties back into what you mentioned earlier. This industry is always changing, and it's like you said, it's changing so quickly. We've got to be able to keep up.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

And we it needs to be a priority, yeah. Or you know, it's a priority for me, it's a priority for you. I mean, I I create the curriculum, right? But I still watch the curriculum even after I create it. You, I create the curriculum for like the master program, you're going through the master program and already master certified. But anytime I come up with a new program, you're sitting through it just like everybody else. Why? Because you care and because you want to be the very best, and that's the only kind of person I can respect. And so it's to me, like the difference between like someone who knows how to fix cars because you know, maybe they had an interest in it when they were 16 and they just started peddling around. Uh, it's a difference between someone like that and a trained mechanic who also maybe got interested in the profession at 16, but then went on to get certified. Uh, they got uh all of the training that they needed, they practiced on their own, you know, they did everything that they needed to do, and now they're trusted more to consumers because they have all of that education behind them. If I had to take my car, Chrissy, to one of two people, one person who says, Yeah, I've been working on cars for 15 years. Another person says, I've been working on cars for 15 years and I'm certified, fully trained by such and such school. Uh, I've I work at such and such company and like they have their own everything. Guess whose car? I guess, excuse me, guess whose business is gonna get my car, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Like you have to think about literally, that's so funny, Laura, because that's literally our exact scenario. Chris has a friend who knows how to work on cars. So when it's a minor stuff, he's like, uh, let me call what's his name, he can come by. But when it's big stuff, that you know, a car is something that holds my children. It my life is at stake when I'm in my car. So when it's something where it's like, yeah, he can't handle this, go ahead and go to the mechanic. So, because we know the mechanic has the training, the knowledge, the certification, and the and all of the standards in place in order to be able to take care of those big pieces, it does matter.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

It matters accountability matters, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Before we switch gears here, I do want us to kind of talk a little bit about the fact that education does not discredit your experience because I think there are a lot of planners and coordinators who have want to say it's almost an ego thing of like, well, I have all these years of experience. If I get education, it almost takes away from the fact that I learned so much through my years of experience, and it doesn't. I've I've heard from so many planners who have found a certification later on in life and are like, this is making me better, this is making me realize that I can do so much more.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

You know, I I agree with that. It's like they're minimizing it, but because of their own fears. Try if you're listening to this and you are thinking that by getting certified, you are discrediting yourself, you're not, you're actually you know, doing exactly the opposite. See,

Credentials Build Trust With Couples

SPEAKER_02 19:18

in this industry, Chrissy, everything, it's so hard to tell the truth from fake. Okay, it's really, really difficult. So if you're putting yourself in the shoes of an engaged couple, and what's the first thing that you would do if you were interested in the planner or coordinator? You'd go out and you'd search, you'd be doing these, uh, whether it's through Chat GPT or Google, but you'd be doing these searches trying to find people, you'd be looking at their website. Now, if you have 15 years of experience and someone else just started, maybe they have two years of experience, and you are kind of basing everything off of your experience, like your credibility just off of that. Anybody can lie nowadays and say they have 10 years of experience, 20 years of experience. Anyone can just say whatever number they want. Okay, so but you know what they can't fake? Credentials, because those are verifiable. You know, the badges, the certificate, people can't fake those things because people and we have couples all the time sending in an email saying, Hey, I'm interviewing this particular planner, they say that they're certified, and I wanted to see if they were certified through you because they wouldn't tell us, they didn't tell us the name, or we we didn't remember the name, and we wanted to see if they were certified through you. So our our company can double check all those things. So whenever a couple reaches out and asks that question, we're not just saying, yep, they're certified through us. We're saying, yes, they are certified through us. Let me tell you what that means. So I'm helping almost sell that particular wedding planner to those couples. And I think that it's so important to put yourself in the couple's position. What I'm finding is planners that are thinking the way that you're you just said, where they think education discredits the experience, they are putting themselves only in their own shoes, saying, Well, I don't, I, you know, I know how great I am. Well, first of all, let's let's not do that. Let's let's not pump ourselves up. Okay. We're we are all trying our very best. We are all putting our very best foot forward. That doesn't mean we can't improve. So what we want to do is make sure that we are not just relying on our experience, but also working really hard to ensure that we are becoming the very best version of ourselves at every stage of our career. And that changes. Our our industry, because it changes so often. We need to make sure that we're keeping up with today's couples because today's couples are not the same couples that they were even three years ago. Technology is completely different than it was just three years ago. So we have to make sure that we care enough about ourselves, our couples, our business, our wedding pros, and our industry in general to continue that education and continue learning more on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Yeah, a thousand percent agree. Laura,

How AI Raises The Stakes

SPEAKER_01 22:30

what do you think the industry is going to look like for us, let's say 10 years from now, if we collectively accept the fact that there is no formal standard needed in the wedding planning industry?

SPEAKER_02 22:40

I I honestly don't know if this industry can withstand that, especially with AI coming down the pike. Our job is to make sure that we're working with AI, know how to figure out where our role is going to fit in with all of this technology. But if there is no formal standard, then you know what? That scares me to pieces because that just means that we aren't even taking ourselves seriously. Anytime I hear an experienced or veteran wedding planner or coordinator say, Ah, I don't really see the benefit. I'm thinking to myself, you're not even taking our your own industry seriously. How is this possible?

SPEAKER_01 23:29

I think I always think when I see those comments, I think if you're not taking what we do seriously, then why should we expect couples who are going to spend thousands of dollars on us to take this seriously? Right. I think that I think that every time, Lori, to be quite honest here and be frank, this the the trajectory of how this is going kind of scares me for us as wedding planners and coordinators. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Easy.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

It just it really makes me nervous about where we stand because now not only are we fighting against the fact that, oh, you don't need experience. Now we're fighting against against AI and we're fighting ourselves because we're telling ourselves that these standards know don't exist. We're we're just making this harder for us than it has to be.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

I could not agree with you more. You're making me laugh because if I go back, the first wedding I planned was in Don't Laugh, but it was back in 1993. You're laughing. Okay, stop.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Okay. What old was I in '93? Was I I was probably playing, I was probably also planning a wedding board, but it was it in the playground. It was Barbie in the sandbox. It was Barbie and Ken, and then Christy and Skipper were the bridesmaids.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. But you know, when back then I was fighting to make wedding planners relevant. Okay. I was fighting so hard because back then it was like wedding planner, wedding coordinator. What's that? Right. And I was I fought hard for our industry to make sure that we became just as vital as a DJ or photographer, a baker, a catering company, all of those people. I wanted to be just as important, just as vital. And now today, I feel like wedding planners are fighting against themselves now. I feel like they're sabotaging themselves now because now they're like either going, uh, you we don't need to have credentials, or they're going, let's just do luxury, which is less than 1% of the population. I'm like, what are you all doing? Why are you hurting our industry? I've worked too hard to have all of this go down the drain. We need to get a grip. That's what I'm saying. We need to get a grip. We need to start taking our industry seriously. This is not an easy job. We were rated as the third most stressful job in the world, not in that one state, in the world. Okay. So we're the third most stressful job, and it is oh goodness, one of those types of jobs where so many couples right now, because honestly, some planners are out there saying, do it yourself. Here's how. Uh $30. I'm like, what I don't understand. They're just giving everything away, and then they're thinking to themselves, well, I wonder why wedding planners and coordinators aren't getting hired as much as we used to. Well, it's because you're literally giving it away. That might be why.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

On the same note, too, they're saying, like, why aren't we getting hired the same way that we used to? It's because you're telling the newer planners who are coming to our industry that they don't need the training or the certification to get started. They don't need education. So then these wedding planners are running their own businesses, messing things up, burning bridges with venues and vendors. And now these venues are no longer allowing wedding planners to come on site. And it's it's it comes back to us.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Yes. And they're charging outrageous prices or way too low. And

What Real Certification Teaches

SPEAKER_02 26:54

I'm thinking to myself, okay, I created a certification program that's just for one of them, the the wedding planner certification is 32 and a half hours long. If you didn't need education, what in the world do you think we were talking about for 32 and a half hours straight with no breaks? What were we talking about? And we go into the the nitty-gritty, the details, the pricing, the packages. We talk about all of the little tips and tricks that are going to make sure that every single person is successful. We talk about workflows, we talk about the processes, we talk about every single thing that a wedding planner should do from the moment that they get hired, actually before they get hired, then from the moment that they get hired, what happens in those first very vital first 30 days, what takes place in the middle, and what takes place in the last 60 days of planning a wedding, and where you come in as a coordinator, what you should be doing as a coordinator leading up to the eight to 10 weeks prior to the wedding day, how you should be running your business, how you should be branding yourself, how to read people, how to read a room, understanding different personalities. I could go on and on and on. I'm just saying that there is a reason why the Certified Wedding Planner Society, the CWP Society, is the world's premier, the most comprehensive. It's because we're teaching something that we're seeing people need because we're seeing so many people do it so poorly that we're stepping out going, hey, if you want to do it better, here's how. Okay. And or if you're thinking about getting into this industry and you don't want to screw up like all these other people, here's how. What are you doing? Why are we doing that? Right, you might as well just tell um, you know, couples, well, you don't really need to hire me. I mean, basically just think happy thoughts, and I'm sure it'll all work out beautifully.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

No, no, no. It's when you mentioned, you know, the 32 and a half hours with our wedding planner certification program. I remember as we were creating that, I just I kept thinking, man, we do so much. Man, this like our job is so much more than people realize. And obviously, I respect what we do because I'm a wedding planner and coordinator myself, but it really made me see like we deserve the respect because of how much it is that we do. And I sometimes don't think people realize that. And I'm like, well, the fact that we have, like you said, 32 and a half hours of content in education just for the baseline of how you need to do your job as a wedding planner and coordinator means that it's needed, that it's necessary.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

And and that's not to say, that's not even mentioning the fact that every single week we do a whole one-hour continuing education workshop for wedding planners, that we have all new curriculum. We just we're just flooding wedding planners with new tips, new things that they can think about. And that's also not to mention the master's certification that's 53 plus hours. It is so huge. If there wasn't, if it wasn't a big deal, if you could just wing it, then I would have probably been only able to make a program three, maybe four hours long. But it's not, it's you know, so much more. So we we need to to do better, we need to have more standards.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

Yeah. And on that note, Lori, when I think about standards, standards exist in every profession that carries any remote type of responsibility. Even something, not to discredit my sweet husband, he is an absolutely hardworking man, he's not a surgeon, he's he's making sure that we get access to our chips at the grocery stores and the gas stations. But even he, his job has responsibilities and has standards. And as wedding planners and coordinators, guys, we do carry responsibility as well, real responsibility, where people are trusting us with a day that cannot be done again. They're trusting us with a budget that they worked really hard and sacrificed for, and also the emotional investment that goes into planning something of this magnitude, and because that runs deep. So, to me, when I think about holding yourself to a higher standard, it's not about proving that, oh, I'm just better than another planner or better than that coordinator. It's to me, it's about being honest about what the work actually requires from us and what it means. And it goes so much deeper than I think people really understand.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

That is amazing that you even said that. I could not agree with you more. Standards need to factor in. And let

Standards Protect Couples And Businesses

SPEAKER_02 32:09

me tell you what that looks like when an industry collectively decides to hold itself to a professional standard. Well, we all then start working towards us the same goal. So, what does that mean? It means like, you know, that goal that we're trying to work for is to really, in my opinion, make our profession just as important to a couple as the DJ is, as the photographer, as the caterer, as the baker. And and you know what? As vital as the venue, too. Yeah, we also, if we're holding ourselves to a certain standard, we don't get cut out by their friend or their cousin. Okay. Others don't confuse us with those pop-up coordinators who are just simply winging it. That's it, there's gonna be no confusion because we're all collectively putting a standard out that hey, if you want in, this is what you should do to make sure that we are all working from the same level. Okay, some of us are gonna take it a little higher, we're gonna go a little higher, but we should all at the least start at a certain level, ground level. Some of us are starting four to five uh I would say levels, stories below ground. Okay. I'm watching people at like five floors below ground going, I'll get there, maybe. I'm not sure if it's important. That ladder looks steep, okay. But my thought is if you want to do this professionally, you need to have standards. Yeah, you need to have credentials. So it's just really, really important there.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

I think too, Lori, when it comes to the standards, if we don't have those in place, we are taking ourselves out of the conversation entirely.

unknown 33:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Couples are saying, ah, you don't really need a coordinator. You know, we don't really need a planner at all. Or they're doing what she mentioned earlier. Just get this $30 checklist from this planner on her website, and then I think we should be solid. We're we're golden there. We're unintentionally taking ourselves out of the conversation completely. And again, that goes into what we talked about earlier, 10 years from now. What is that going to do for our industry, guys?

SPEAKER_02 34:18

Yeah, 100%. So anytime you hear in a forum, oh, you don't need education, or ah, you don't need certification, or you don't need to do that first, just come back to that, go and shadow someone. That basically means that that person who's saying that doesn't have credentials and they don't want anybody else to get credentials because now they're going to be compared to those people. Or it's because they did go ahead and get some education, but they got it from a less than stellar program that like offered this sad, pitiful little $25 something or other, or $100 something. And they assume that if that certification that they took was that sad and that spotty, then all certification programs must be that weak. And that's just not the case. Now, that's a that is the case for a lot of people and a lot of programs that are out there. That is why the CWP society exists, is because I saw that and I said, oh, no, no, no, that's that's not going to be good enough. We have got to do better. And so that's how the CWP society grew into what it is today: the largest, most affordable, most comprehensive, and most respected certification program for planners and coordinators. It is the standard in our industry. So, and what's interesting is that we are usually the certification program that people come to after they take all the shareable programs and say, Goodness gracious, I wish I had found you first. They all say that. And we need to raise the industry up together by making sure that this becomes the standard, right? It doesn't work. That you know, it's kind of like an exercise of futility if we're all a lot of us are trying to raise it up, but there's the other people's ego and low self-esteem fights to bring that elevated thing back down. Yeah, it's never going to work if there are people out there that are like, eh, we shouldn't take ourselves that seriously. We should expect more for um from each other. We should expect more from our industry, we should want more for ourselves and especially for our couples who are trusting us with the most important day of their lives up until that point. I want to make sure that we are elevating our industry and elevating ourselves so that we can prevent couples from being duped into hiring people who do not have any knowledge base or have experience but are doing it wrong. We need to make sure that we're protecting these precious souls who are spending their hard-earned money on the most important day that they will never have a do-over on. There's no do-overs with wedding days. There's no, oh, we got that wrong. Let's try it again. Everybody's seen take two. No take twos. No take twos. So I've I my wish for this industry is that we get it together and that we get a grip and we start taking this as seriously as we should, because people are spending such big money, not just on their wedding, but on us as coordinators and planners. I don't feel like we or coordinators and planners have the right to charge what certified and master certified wedding planners are charging if you do not even care enough about your own credentials and your own standards. And how can you ask a couple to invest in you if you have not even invested in yourself? That bothers me.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

It does, Lori. And I hope people, I'm sure they can here are passionate in this. And I think when I at the end of the day, the way I think about this and why we're so passionate about it, we want what's best for these couples out there. We also want what's best for you.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Yes, I'm I I see it all, Chrissy. I see too much. You know, when you and I are are coaching, I see so many gaps that people don't even realize they have. So, yes, I do want this for them badly. I want success for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

And that's that's kind of the baseline of how the CWP got started because you in the start of your career, you're like, these mistakes are avoidable. And I feel like when I look at my career, I owe 99.9% of my success to the CWP society because you taught me all of those mistakes that I could avoid, I did. And within a year of getting my certification, one year after becoming a certified wedding planner, I was able to make this my full-time job. Because I had the foundation, I had the tools, I had the knowledge, I filled in whatever gaps I needed. I was able to create a really beautiful business because I had that education and because I had the standards, and because I continued to elevate the standards, and because I continued my education. That's all we want for every single wedding planner out there and coordinator out there, is for you to be the biggest success you could possibly be, and for all of your dreams to come true. Like that is literally our biggest passion, is just allowing you to build a business and a career that you're proud of.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

I want you guys to be the very best version of yourselves that's possible.

Your Next Step To Level Up

SPEAKER_02 39:31

And you can't do that by putting on blindfolds and earmuffs and walking around not knowing what you're doing. You cannot be an octopus on roller skates and think that you're going to uh go in a straight line. You're probably not. And it's really going to be important that if you are an octopus, you need to make sure, because we all know if we are, but that just because we might be an octopus doesn't mean we need to put skates on every single one of our little leggy poops, right? We can just put on maybe two to four and make sure and then get training on how to do the straight line. What's the process? What's the workflow to make sure that I'm skating without uh tearing out everything that's around me and falling down all the time. There's a way it's possible. And even if you've been an octopus for 30 years does not mean that you are skating in a straight line. It just means that you've been doing it for 30 years. That's literally the only thing that means. That's the only fact in that thing, in that statement. So whether you've been doing this for 30 years or doing this for four minutes, okay, it is going to be important that we all start from the standard, the standards, the the foundation of what is the the absolute necessary skill set and procedures and workflows and the way we show up. What is the standard? If we're not all working from that, we are all working against each other.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Absolutely, Lori. So, guys, here's what I want to leave you with. There are people out there, some with large platforms and big followers, telling planners and coordinators that education is optional, that certification isn't necessary, and that experience is the only thing that matters. Raising the bar and the standards for this industry is not someone else's job. It starts with the individual decision to take this work seriously, to say what you know does matter, how you were trained to do this job matters, and then holding yourself to a professional standard. Yep, you guessed it. It matters. If you're ready to make that decision, or if today gave you something to think about, I suggest that you visit CWPsociety.com and take a look at what's there. I want you to take a look at the certifications we offer, yes, but also look at our community, look at the educators, and look at the standard that we're trying to build together. Lori, thank you as always for joining me on our wonderful podcast. And thank you guys for tuning in. We will see you next time.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Bye, y'all.