Busy vs Profitable

Your calendar is stacked, your weekends are gone, and from the outside it looks like you’ve made it. Then you check your bank account and feel that gut-drop moment. We’re naming the problem wedding planners rarely say out loud: being fully booked is not the same as being profitable, and the “busy but broke” cycle is often fueled by emotion, avoidance, and cash flow that is never planned on purpose.

In this episode, Laurie Hartwell is joined by Matt Mitchell, a financial expert who spent 13+ years in finance with ultra-high net worth families and then ran his own successful wedding planning company. Now he helps event pros get financially organized through The Event Ledger, and he brings a rare mix of empathy and hard numbers. We talk about why clarity and confidence come after you act, how seasonal income can make profit on paper disappear in real life, and why separating business and personal accounts is a non-negotiable for tracking, taxes, and peace of mind.

We also break down pricing on purpose: finding your survival number, choosing a realistic booking sweet spot, and making sure your packages are defensible in your market while still paying you like the CEO you are. Plus, we dig into subscription spending, ROI, and the “plan during the calm so you can flourish during the chaos” approach that keeps slow months from derailing your business.

If this hit home, share it with a planner friend, subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next, and leave a review to help more wedding pros find the tools to build a sustainable, profitable business.

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

Transcript

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Busy Life Money Reality Check

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Your calendar is packed. Every weekend is booked. And from the outside, it looks like you've officially made it. And then you open your bank account and your stomach drops. If you have ever wondered how you can be this busy and still feel broke, I need you to pull up a chair because we're finally saying the quiet part out loud today. So let's hop in.

Meet The Finance Pro Planner

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Welcome to the Wedding Planner Society Podcast, brought to you by the CWP Society, the world's Premier Planner Certification and Membership Program. Now let's jump right in with our host, founder and CEO Lori Hartwell.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Welcome in. Today I'm sitting down with a financial expert for a real talk about the thing none of us love admitting is hard. The money. So let me tell you who's across the table for me today. This is Matt Mitchell, and Matt's path is one of my favorite kinds. He came at this from two completely different worlds. He spent over 13 years in finance, working with ultra-high net worth families on wealth and estate planning. And then he spent eight years running his own successful wedding planning company. So he has stood exactly where you're standing. He was building timelines and wrangling vendors, living the wedding day chaos as we all do. And he knows what a genuinely healthy business looks like from the numbers up. It was watching talented wedding planners and coordinators around him quietly struggle with the money side that made him realize, you know what, someone has to fix this. So he built the event ledger. And now he helps wedding and event pros all over the country get financially organized, actually paying themselves and build businesses that last and that are sustainable. He is a master certified wedding planner and one of our certified industry educators here at the CWP Society. And honestly, just a familiar, friendly face in our community and someone I respect a great deal. Matt, welcome back to the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 2:10

Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Now, before we get started, let's talk about your coffee order today because this is a really important question. So, what's in your cup today?

SPEAKER_04 2:19

Well, you know, we are recording this in October. It's fall season. So I do typically get my coffee from home and I have a beautiful Nespresso machine. So it is a pumpkin-spiced Nespresso with oat milk. It's very tasty.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

I need a Nespresso machine. I know my husband has been craving one for so long. Maybe I should get it for him for this Christmas.

SPEAKER_04 2:44

I was about to say the holidays are coming, so it's a great, great excuse. And I, you know what? I love a dual gift, like a couple gift. Like you're you're getting it for someone else, but you also reap the benefits of it. So double win.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

It's always a good win. But a pumpkin espresso with oat milk. Okay, so you just turned this whole podcast into a fall candle. And I'm not really angry about it, to be honest with you. So, Barista, make that too. Because if I'm gonna be talking about money and taxes today, I'm gonna be doing it smelling like a pumpkin patch. Okay. So let's grab our cup and let's take ours over to a really nice cozy corner in the back where the jazz is playing and let's settle in because I really feel like this is gonna be a good one. Now, Matt, before we get into your world of finance, let's get to our little tradition that you're very familiar with because you're a regular here, where you always get to kind of turn the tables on me first and put me on the hot seat and ask me a personal question that has nothing to do with work. So

Dream Careers And Why They Fit

SPEAKER_00 3:46

I'm all yours. What do you have for me today?

SPEAKER_04 3:48

Well, since you mentioned work, I am gonna actually ask you a question about that. So, my question for you today is if you had to pick a completely different career in a completely different field, what would Lori Hartwell be doing?

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Okay, there's so many. But I think what I need to choose here is to become a contract attorney. Okay. I know, like, but before I wasn't expecting that one. I before you laugh and before you like judge me, okay, I just, you know, I could genuinely talk about contracts for hours. I mean, I have always been completely fascinated by them. Not, you know, the boring, dreaded fine print of version that everybody kind of rolls their eyes at, but the idea of what contracts provide. And I think about it. Think about it, what it's actually for, right? It's two people or two parties. They just take words that are floating in the air and turning it into something solid and real that everybody can count on. And it's basically the thing that lets total strangers trust each other, you know, enough to kind of build something together. And to me, that's kind of beautiful in a way.

SPEAKER_04 5:00

I know. I'm like, ooh, look at you painting with words. Like I'm over here, like, should I go to law school?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

I really do love the law. I always have. I love that it lets two people write their own boundaries for their own little corner of the world. And I love what it does for people on the inside, which is peace of mind. And you know, and I know that that's something you do a lot too, just through the event ledger and through numbers, right? Yeah. And because our memories are super terrible. We're humans. This is just what happens. We all remember things either the way we wish they'd happen, or a lot of people remember things the way they want to remember things. To me, a really great agreement takes all of that fear, all of that. But what if this thing goes sideways feeling and it quietly turns it into a plan that you can actually live with? I mean, it to me, it takes that unpredictable future. I am a planner, think about that. You know, it takes unpredictable stuff and it makes it more manageable. So yeah, I mean, give me a quiet office and a gigantic cup of pumpkin espresso and uh and airtight agreements that protect people. And I'm a happy camper. Happy camper. What about you? I mean, if you could be doing anything else, I feel like you did turn it into what you wanted. You know, you you took two things that you love and then you made a baby out of them.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

Yeah, yeah. But if if we wanna, if we want to stay true to to the the question, flipping the script, I can't cheat. So um, as you know, you know, I don't know if everyone listening does. I am a um Patty certified scuba diver. Uh I've made my way all the way up to a rescue diver. I am one certification away from being a professional diver, dive master. And growing up in middle school, we used to take trips to Key Largo, Florida, where we went on a science camp. And it was in the lens of marine biology, where we would we would go snorkeling, we would uh do rock shakes in the evening and get beakers and look at microscopic organisms that are found along the the rocks in the seabed. We would go out into the ocean and and and look at the stars because you know it's pitch black way out in the ocean at night, so you can see everything so clearly. We would do the plankton toes, which they're bioilluminescent, so they would glow in the moonlight. It was always so very entertaining to me. And um, I went as many times as I could before I it was always in middle school. So after I, you know, went into high school, that wasn't something that they offered anymore. But as many times as I could in middle school, I went. And so with that love of the of the ocean and that scientific background, I definitely think that I would have been a marine biologist.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

100%. You would have been great at that too. Of course, anything you touch turns to gold, right? Uh, but I mean, you're good at anything you try and put your heart into. I've noticed that over the years. I've known it, I've known you for almost a decade now. So it is definitely something I've noticed about you. But how fun! What a wonderful and cool thing. I can't say that many of us have ever had those same experiences.

SPEAKER_04 8:15

And who would have thought a a a guy from small town in Alabama would even have that ability to do something like that? So, you know, it's it's not about where you are, but it's about the experiences that you're able to encounter, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah, gosh, that's cool. I did not know this about you. I will remember that. I will remember that. I want to see pictures if you have pictures.

Money Avoidance Is Emotional

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Well, let's kind of dive in today because here's where I want to start, because I think it's the real story underneath all of the spreadsheets that planners and coordinators are constantly dealing with. For so many of us, money isn't just a numbers problem. It's to me a little bit of an emotional one. There's this avoidance, there's this pit in your stomach that you know what, I'm gonna just deal with that later thing that turns into next quarter or turns into the next tax season. And a lot of the most talented creative people in our industry are quietly terrified of their own numbers. And I don't think people say that loud enough. So, Matt, listen, you opened the event ledger after being in finance for years and years. And then after running a successful wedding planning company, what emotional patterns did you see over and over again with planners that were either working around you while you were in that zone, or, you know, for planners and coordinators that you're working with now through the event ledger?

SPEAKER_04 9:38

When it comes to money, knowledge is not necessarily what creates the action. You're you're exactly right. When it comes to money, for some reason, it's always the emotional side of it or the psychological side of it that that really affects the way that people interact and they move with money. I I mean, I will I will be a hundred percent honest. And this is, you know, this is admitting something coming from someone that was in finance and that owned their own business. When I got started, I wasn't the smartest, you know. I I did, I relied on debt in order to get things that I wanted in the moment versus specifically planning for and getting to a benchmark where I could afford that thing and then doing it. So the way that you show up with money is a lot to do with how you are brought up, your experience with money or the experiences that you've seen of others around money. And so a lot of that can really affect the decisions that you make and how you move through it. But what I would say also is that when there is that fear, and interesting enough, Lori, I was reading a book the other day and research showed that there are two things that humans are actually afraid of. They're afraid of falling and they're afraid of loud noises. Everything else that we are afraid of has been learned, either through watching other people be fearful of something or encountering something of our own that has scared us and that we remember that situation. So we don't want to, our body is like, nope, we don't want to deal with that anymore. So we avoid it at all cost. And a lot of those things shape how we move through the world. And a lot of those things are fearful, come in the in the form of money. And it really affects how we we make money decisions.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Wow. So it's learned and it try from our past. I love that you're kind of pointing that out. So maybe what we need to do, and I know this isn't like a therapy session or anything, but what we probably need to do is kind of go back into our past and look to see what was it that we're now kind of bringing from our childhood or what have you into our business today. I love that you named it because here's what I kind of want every single person listening to hear. If what Matt just said is you, you're not, that doesn't mean you're bad at business. It, but it what it really means is you're not even close to being alone because so many people are afraid of their numbers. It is an emotional situation. The avoidance is so common. It's almost the default. Now, I know that in you know our wedding planner certification, we talk about business kind of like a science experiment. I want people to hear that you're allowed to not have the formula being perfect on day one. Okay, that the whole point is that you get to kind of look at it and play with the formula, adjust it, but you can't adjust what you're refusing to look at, right, Matt? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

So step one isn't to get a spreadsheet. Step one is just turning the lights on and deciding that you're allowed to see the numbers and looking at it without judging yourself for what's really there.

SPEAKER_04 12:43

Yeah. And and I think a lot of times, Lori, people they they feel overwhelmed by it and they're not motivated. So that just feeds into the avoidance. But what we fail to realize is that action really creates the momentum. You know, when we sit in inaction, that feeds our that mentality that, oh, yep, that like that's just too much. I can't deal with it. But once we actually start to open things up and look at it, it's never as disastrous as we think it is. And something that I heard the other day was very interesting. It says clarity and confidence don't come before you act, they come because you act.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Oh yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_04 13:25

I thought that was very powerful. And I think it's a great reminder that it does, it takes action. And but those things usually people will find that it's it's not as disastrous as they thought it was. It is actually an eye-opening experience. And some clients that I work with right now, it's so funny to see them. I will send them, you know, a question and they'll get back to me. And like, it's crazy how quickly they get back to me. And I'm like, wow, that was very quick. They're like, I'm just excited about this now. Like, I feel like I'm in control. And so, like, I'm whenever I hear from you, like I'm excited. So, and it's it's great to see that transformation of someone that was avoiding it totally to being actually energized and excited about the thought of moving forward with it. So if you have been avoiding it, just take the step, just take that first step, and I promise that motivation will come.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

I also think that you get some of the credit for that because you're making people feel comfortable with their own numbers and you're not judging them. You're really just saying, hey, let's look at it, and it's all okay. We're gonna we're gonna work through this. So I love that. So I'm gonna give you some of the credit of people being excited. Okay.

Busy Without Profit Cash Flow

SPEAKER_00 14:36

So let's kind of get straight to the gut punch because I think half of the people listening probably just felt really seen. So let's say a planner or coordinator's calendar is completely full. Everything in their life, including themselves, thinks, okay, I've made it, right? And then they look at their bank account and it's just not there. So, Matt, what are the real drivers and the disconnect between being busy but not profitable? Is it ignoring true operating costs, treating owner pay as a leftover? What all of it? Is it are there more factors? What's your thoughts there?

SPEAKER_04 15:12

Yeah, I think, well, all of it is is certainly the answer, but I don't think it's a helpful answer. So, yes, those things that you mentioned are are really part of it. But I think where people really, specifically in our industry, where people come uh into issues is the cash flow because we are seasonal, right? And and this is something I talk about all the time because I don't think that people don't plan for their finances. They just, they just let it happen. And then, you know, they're like, well, we'll we'll figure it out once we get there. But if if we're making plans in advance, and and if we know that we're gonna be doing great in, you know, Q2 and Q whatever, three or four, or even Q1 doesn't look great, then we know that we can use, we can set aside those funds in a great period to make sure that we're not feeling that stress or anxiety in the slower seasons. And I think uh also a lot of people are not understanding that profit on paper doesn't necessarily reflect what they have to work with. And again, that's the cash flow portion of it. And so, you know, looking at what you are tracking uh on a on a on a monthly basis, and if it looks like you made money, it could be profit on paper, but that that cash may not be there for you to use. And I think that's very confusing to people. And then they're left with like, okay, uh, well, I saw this money come in, and my financials say that I made profit this year, but I don't have that money to work with in my in my bank. So I I don't I don't get what's happening. And a lot of that does come from those baseline operating things that that you have to consistently spend for to keep the doors open. Those come every single month, the same amount, if not more, these days. And, you know, you have to make sure that those needs are met. And then you have other things, you know, the more busy you are, there's going to be job-related costs that go into that. You know, as you have more events, you're probably hiring more day of staff, which is taking extra money out. And you weren't collecting those or those initial payments or even periodic payments or final payments necessarily in the month that you were executing the event. So that could have already been spent. And so now if you don't have any other initial payments or other payments coming in, you're left with, okay, well, I didn't have a reserve. So how do I make sure that my company is still meeting its obligations? So I think that's where a lot of the confusion comes into play.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Yeah, you know what? I I think you're dead on there. I I hear this a lot from planners and coordinators that I'm mentoring. So you are 100% reading that market the same way I am as well. And I and I also think probably a huge piece of it is the habits that almost every single one of us starts with. I mean, one bank account where the client makes, you know, where we put all of the client deposits, if it's also mixed with our grocery money and, you know, all of these other things, if our personal and our business monies are swimming around together, that can be very, very problematic. I mean, taxes should not be a springtime surprise. You're

Separate Accounts Or Pay Later

SPEAKER_00 18:40

not supposed to be like, oh, wait, I owe what now? I mean, so I think it's really important that people understand that it's not probably the most glamorous, right? But it's a very grown-up move to change the way you are thinking about and approaching your money and making sure that we're keeping it separate. You talk a lot about that. Can you just give people just a quick piece of advice on keeping it separate and maybe just a quick thing as to why?

SPEAKER_04 19:09

Yeah, I mean, absolutely. So number one, the biggest reason, Lori, is because the IRS is is gonna be looking at that, right? And it's and if they see that you're commingling personal and business funds, and if you are not consistently making a profit, they're gonna say, this isn't a business, this is a hobby. And and so they're they're gonna disallow all of the business expenses that you're claiming. So it's very important to have the structure in place to say, hey, this is a legitimate business. I am accepting funds in a business account, I am paying my business expense through my business account. And it also provides you with that visibility. It's it's very hard to figure out how you're doing personally and how you're doing as a business when everything is mixed in together. That's like trying to find a needle in a haystack, you know? And if you're not consistently tracking that stuff, then there's no way that you can figure out what's happening. Uh, but again, both in your personal life and in the business life. So it's very important that you keep those things separately so that you can plan accordingly.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

I love that. I hope everybody hears you on that, Matt. I really do. All right, so I kind of want to talk about pricing and pricing on purpose rather than on a

Price On Purpose Using Math

SPEAKER_00 20:28

whim. Okay, because this is the one that I could sit here all day on because I think it's where the whole thing kind of can either get fixed or it can get broken, and it's all about pricing. This isn't supposed to be built on a gut feeling or just what other people in your area are charging. You shouldn't pull pricing numbers out of thin air because it just felt right in the moment. Instead, I want every single one of our listeners to price on purpose. Okay. So what I have been seeing through a lot of mentoring planners and coordinators is that they're pricing simply on their gut. Oh, I think it's probably worth this, or I think I could probably get that, rather than considering how much they actually need to make while factoring in how many weddings they even want to take in any given month or year, while also making sure and understanding what their market can bear. So if it's okay with you, real quick, Matt, I kind of just want to have a little chat with our listeners because I want to walk everyone through the logic because it's so freeing once people see it. So you start with your survival number. What do you honestly need to make every month and you know, all year long to cover your life and your business? So, I mean, we got to think about the mortgage and the groceries and the insurance and the software and the taxes and the staff, all of it. That's gonna be your baseline, but you have to really look at it. You've got to Really determine what those expenses are. And I'm going to probably have you kind of talk a little bit more about that because I'm sure there's a lot of hidden expenses that a lot of people just go, oh no, I just didn't even think about that one. I oh, I forgot about that. But you really do want to make sure you first get that baseline. And then you have to decide your booking sweet spot. So how many weddings do you actually want to take every single month during your wedding season? Now, for most planners, that's two or three weddings per month because past that you're actually fast tracking yourself into burnout. And those two numbers together hand you your minimum package price. It's just math, right? It's if you need to hit a certain number and you only want to take two weddings a month, your package has to be priced to kind of get you there. And then a lot of people forget this last piece. And this is the one that I want tattooed on people's hearts and minds, okay? Is that the services that you offer at whatever your determined price point is, it has to be defensible. It has to make sense. If you need to make a lot more money for your lower tier package that you sell because your wedding season is short, then that package better be worth the price that you're charging. So that means you might have to beef it up a bit. You have to add some things to it to justify the rate that you are needing to charge in order to make the money that you have to make in order to cover all of your bills, including paying yourself. You can't just think about yourself. You also have to be fair to your couple and not expect them to carry the burden of your short season by offering a standard coordination package for double or triple what other wedding planners charge and what they include in that coordination package simply because you need to make more. Everything has to make sense. Don't just pick and cherry pick a couple of factors and then not look at all of them. Now, in addition to everything I've said, your fees have to allow you to pay yourself, though. So you can't your pricing can't be a vibe. So, Matt, what is your grounded approach when it comes to those real expenses and taxes and realistic capacity and things of that nature?

SPEAKER_04 24:19

Yeah, I think you're right. You certainly need to figure out like what does your business need in order to operate, to keep the doors open every single month. Like, what is that number? And I need to make sure that I'm producing the income needed, of course, to do that. But you're exactly right. I think a lot of us in the wedding industry, I think because a lot of people start out in the industry as this was a you know, a second career or a side hustle, what they assume

Side Hustle Mindset Holding You Back

SPEAKER_04 24:50

is that they don't need to pay themselves because they were doing this for fun, or they, you know, they luckily they did have someone at home that could could help with the the lifestyle expenses, right? But they but as their business grew, that mentality never grew with them. So so now they are operating on this bigger business, but with that side hustle mentality, and the finances aren't making making sense anymore. So they they've grown, but they haven't grown in their their financial approach. And so I think that's where a lot of people miss the mark. And and so that's one of the huge things that I see when it comes to pricing is that mentality and and the way that they have not shifted their financial patterns in order to make sure that they are doing the things that they need to support their new life and their new business.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

I love that because honestly, I hadn't actually thought of it from that perspective, is that I think you just nailed it, Matt. You know, a lot of people do start as a side hustle, a hobby, something that they just love to do for their friends and family. And then when they decide to turn it into the business, the mindset did not grow with that. That is such an important piece of this because we're not just running a charity. What we are running is a business that needs to become profitable, right? So there are going to be expenses, and there are a lot of planners and coordinators that say, I can't afford to have software or let's say staff or like an assistant on the wedding day. Well, you can if you factor these things in. You have to plan for it, right, Matt? I mean, is that do you hear this a lot through what your experiences are with people?

SPEAKER_04 26:38

Yeah, yeah. And but that's the thing, is is I don't think people take the time to plan. It almost sounds counterintuitive, right? Like yes, you're you're a planner. Yes. Why or a coordinator? Like, why you plan for everybody else? Like, let's make sure that we're planning for ourselves. Let's plan for our business. And so it does take those things. You know, we have to make sure that we we understand. And and and I will say there's another mentality thing. It depends on how you look at or how you approach staffing. You know, you could just have your contractors that are literally helping you on event day. Right. But I know that a lot of people have anxiety around hiring actual employees. You're right. Because they're not they're they're afraid that they might not be able to afford them. Now, employees are a whole different story. And Lori, I know that you you have a lot to say about that because you've you've you've gone through the process of your own business where you had tons of employees and you said, you know what, that's not the right fit for me and my business structure. But I think a lot of people also are afraid that if they are hiring people, like how do I pay for them? Well, the the goal there is that you need to hire someone that's profitable for your business. They are bringing in revenue for your business, they're paying for themselves.

Staffing Fears And Worker Classification

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04 27:49

So, but that that's probably a whole nother that's another conversation for that.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Well, I mean, we could have a whole conversation about that. And I think we do need to have you on before the end of the year to have that conversation because a lot of people would say, Well, I want I want to have staff, but I only want to have them as independent contractors and not employees. But if you're misclassifying your worker, the IRS is going to have a field day with you, and the state has certain rules as well, and every state has different rules, whether they go with by common law or ABC or whatever it is. It is so, so important to make sure that you are classifying your workers properly. Otherwise, it can really come back on you with the financial ramifications. Financial ramifications. And it is such an important thing to consider. But people are afraid to move from having independent contractors to employees because it just seems more challenging to them. But what I want a lot of planners and coordinators to remember is it is better to do things on the up and up. And if you just talk to someone who's an expert in it, they can walk you through how to set these things up and to do things better. And please know that you have a lot more say in how your workers behave and what they do and how why they do it and when they do it. You have no control over an independent contractor. Independent is the key word in that phrase. So if you want to have independent contractors, you cannot tell them what how to dress. You cannot tell them to follow your timeline, you cannot have them use your software, you cannot have them do any of those things. If you want that to happen, you need employees. And so it is a conversation I think worth having in the future, Matt. I really, really do. So we're gonna put a pin in that one and we're gonna come back to that. I'm going to drag you back onto this podcast before the end of the year.

Cut Subscriptions That Bleed Profit

SPEAKER_00 29:48

All right, so let's kind of talk about two more real things because we've talked about, you know, bringing money in, but let's talk about keeping it. Okay. First, I think part of in, you know, in order to keep our money, we have to cut the fat. And I feel like every one of us is quietly bleeding money on overlapping subscriptions and tools that don't earn their keep. There's no ROI. Uh, maybe they have subscriptions that they forgot that they're even paying for. So, you know, what do you see here? How do you look at ROI honestly and trim those things without kind of gutting what actually works?

SPEAKER_04 30:29

Lori, I'll be the first one to admit that I am a technology, whatever you wanna, whatever you want to call it. Uh, but I I love the newest thing. I love advancements. So, you know, I as a planner, I tended to oversubscribe too. And until, you know, I was like, all right, Matt, you know, you need to get this together. And and how did I figure that out? Well, number one, you have to look at it. So if you're not looking at your expenses on a monthly basis or a quarterly basis, you need to because those are gonna be the things that really show up. Because think about it, Lori. If you if you swipe the card, or it's you know, $250 here. And then, you know, I don't, I don't know. It could be a could be a one-time fee or it could be a monthly fee, even a monthly fee, $75 a month. Um, well, that that seems reasonable in the month, right? But once you, if you start looking at your financials, and because as a bookkeeper, we're coding those to their category.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 31:36

It's so interesting to me, Lori, to whenever I have review meetings with clients and they're like, whoa, I'm spending how much on software or you know, whatever the line item is. I think, you know, in the moment, that 250 or that 75 doesn't seem like a lot, but as they're starting to look at the total bill, they start to think, whoa, okay, that is a large amount of my income that's going to that expense. And then that makes them stop and realize, is it really worth all of that? So I you're right. And I think people are like, yeah, that's that's a no-brainer, Lori. Of course, you know, we'll we'll look at that. But if you're not actually looking at it, you'll never know because those in the moment charges or those, you know, smaller fees that come on a monthly basis, you know, they add up because they come 12 times a year.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

It's 100% true. And when you do add it up, you're like, I spent $2,400 on what now over that whole year's time. And because again, if it's just a little bit here and there, you don't think about it. You're like, oh, it's just I'm doing my everyday thing. I don't have time to really dive in. No, you really do need to. Because if you don't understand your expenses and you don't understand it, you know, are those tools that you're paying for, are they giving you a really great return on investment? I do not spend a dime on something that is not going to earn me money.

SPEAKER_04 33:03

That's that's a great business, that's a great business philosophy, and that's a good way to remain profitable with that mindset.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

That is a compliment coming from Matt Mitchell. I can tell you that. So, I mean, we list subscription software kind of right alongside of you know insurance and assistance fees as real expense categories, but it sneaks up on people. Three tools that do the same job, the free trial that you never canceled. Well, guess what? That's gonna add up to some real dollars off your bottom line every single month. And and then there's the seasonal roller coaster, which is just the reality of the industry, to be honest with you, feast in the busy season, but famine in the slow months. And the fix isn't to white knuckle it through the slow months, right? It's to build for it on purpose. And you you preach this all the time. And I really want my guys and coordinators to hear you. You know, when you know your numbers, you can take a little more in, you know, in the fat months and hold steady in the lean ones. So a quiet January doesn't send you into an absolute chaotic panic mode. It's not luck, it's planning. And if we're gonna be planners for other people, like you said, Matt, we need to also be planning for ourselves. And that is where I actually kind of want to make the case for what you do. Okay. And I want to frame it the way we frame it at the master level when I'm teaching master certified wedding planners, because I think people get this

CEO Moves Delegation And Planning Calm

SPEAKER_00 34:30

a little bit backwards. At the executive level, we teach planners to kind of know their zones, right? Your genius zone, designing and planning and holding a couple's hand through the biggest day of their life. That's your work. And you should never delegate your core value. But bookkeeping and tax prep, well, so those live kind of squarely in the delegation zone. Handing your finances to a professional isn't waving a white flag and admitting that you're bad with money, it's kind of the exact opposite, as far as I'm concerned. To me, it's a CEO move. You're freeing yourself to do the thing only you can do with the coverage of someone who does the numbers all day long and does it well. And that's not a weakness, that's a business run like a real business. So if I had to hand everybody listening one thing to walk away with today, it's that looking at your numbers is not the scary part. It's not looking at your numbers that should be considered the scariest part.

SPEAKER_04 35:30

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

The second you turn those lights on, money stops being like this thing that happens to you and it becomes something that you actually get to steer. You don't have to love spreadsheets and love numbers. You just have to stop hiding from the spreadsheets and the numbers. And you don't have to do it alone, and that's the whole point. And this is why I love Matt so so much because he does it in such a way that allows you to not feel judged and he makes everything seem so much easier. He he takes your knotted ball of yarn and he very carefully unravels it so that we can see the whole thing. He takes away all the knots. So, Matt, this this conversation's been so good.

Where To Find Matt Closing Challenge

SPEAKER_00 36:19

So, before I let you go, I want every single listener to know exactly where to find you. So tell everybody what your website is, how they can find you on social media, all the good stuff.

SPEAKER_04 36:29

If you want more information about us, our services, anything along those lines, you can go to our website, which is uh www.theeventledger.com. And you can also follow us on any of socials at the eventledger. Before, though, I there was something that you said when you're talking about planning and talking about the seasonal part of it too. This is maybe a little foreshadowing to an event we have in January. One thing that I like to remind people is plan during the calm so that you can flourish during the chaos. And that is something that is big in this industry, right? So we have those ebbs and flows, like right now, October, one of the busiest times in the Atlanta market. And so it takes that planning when you have the time to do it to make sure that the chaos of the in-depth season goes to plan and doesn't add any extra stress. And another thing that you just mentioned too, Lori, was putting on that CEO hat and saying, hey, you know, there's certain areas of your business where you can lend other people. You have to think about that. You you mentioned zone of genius, but also like we know that time is an infinite resource and time is money. And so, sure, you can do that on your own, but it's taking you away from revenue generating time. And so it is, it's an opportunity for you to sit down and think, hey, where can I give up some of the duties to someone else? Maybe it's bookkeeping or some other part of your business, so that I can focus on the revenue generating parts. So those are just two things I wanted to mention based off of your previous comments.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

I love that you say that. And I'm gonna I'm gonna piggyback off of that real quick because when when planners and coordinators are in the middle of the crazy busy season, they're not able to focus on the profit. You know, they I wonder how I can build this business, I wonder how I can make this more profitable because they are so busy. And then it they never get to it. I feel that even within the CWP society, I get some sometimes I get so involved in let me just do, do, do, do, do for everybody else that I forget that I'm okay, hold on, wait a second. I can't just mentor 24 hours a day. I actually have to think about the business, right? So it is really, really important that sometimes we just take a minute. Let's just back up, let's zoom out. When we're in the weeds all the time, you're not gonna be able to see the field. And seeing the field is gonna tell you everything that you need to know. And hiring an expert like you to say, all right, so I see your field, I've already measured everything out. Here's how much we can yield from that grass or those weeds, you know, we can sell this and do that. And you know, it's it's so important to be able to talk to people who do nothing but specialize in this. And I'm going to kind of tie this back around. Isn't that what we as planners and coordinators are asking our clients to do? We're asking our clients to hire someone who specializes in coordinating and planning of their wedding instead of doing it themselves. We have to take our own advice and say, all right, so if I'm asking someone else to do this, am I doing that for me too? And I want people to sit with that. That's what I want people, I want to leave people with that question.

SPEAKER_04 39:47

It's a great question.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

Okay. So to everybody listening, if this conversation lits something up in you, that is exactly what the CWP Society is here for. We are the world's premier wedding planner and coordinator certification and membership program, as well as the largest community of wedding planners anywhere. And we have a place for you no matter where you are in your journey. So come elevate yourself and come elevate your business. Visit our website to learn more because we are your people, we are your tribe. CWpsociety.com is where you can find out all the information. And until next time, happy planning.