May 19, 2024 • 41 mins
Unlock the secrets to a seamlessly orchestrated wedding with our special guest Sarah, an expert in Isle Planner, the all-in-one CRM, sales, and project management tool for wedding professionals. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone keen on elevating their event planning business. Sarah guides us through the robust features of Isle Planner, highlighting its customizable client-facing features like checklists and timelines, which are invaluable in keeping both planners and clients in perfect harmony throughout the event planning journey.
Ever wondered how top wedding professionals stay ahead of the curve? Our discussion with Sarah unveils the strategic prowess behind Isle Planner's contact management and budgeting tools. Discover the magic of color-coded status indicators, vendor categorization that streamlines selection and coordination, and a budgeting tool that fosters transparency and helps in managing client expectations. These innovative features are not just about keeping things organized; they're about making every penny of the client's budget work harder while simplifying financial conversations.
Wrapping up, Sarah offers her seasoned advice for budding entrepreneurs in the wedding industry, emphasizing the importance of infusing one's brand voice into their chosen technology. We also get a peek at Isle Planner's latest advancements, like their RSVP tool and wedding website functionality, designed to enhance guest experience and streamline guest management. And for those looking to stay ahead in the competitive world of event planning, don't miss out on the special discount for Isle Planner, ensuring you have the tools to thrive in the industry. Join us and let Sarah's expertise help you transform your approach to wedding planning.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I know most wedding planners will know about Isle
Planner.
If they're not using it.
They definitely would have comeacross it at some point.
In my opinion, it's the world'sleading platform for wedding
planners, especially when itcomes to client collaboration
and managing all your tasks whenyou're organizing a wedding.
However, it's not just forwedding planners, it's also for
(00:24):
venues.
However, it's not just forwedding planners, it's also for
venues and, as Sarah's going totell us today, it's actually a
great tool for most kind ofwedding professionals even you,
ben, as a wedding photographer.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And I have no idea about our planner, so I'm just
here to make you look good.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
You know what, though , you are going to learn?
A lot today because there's somuch to this platform.
It is such an incredible tool.
So, without further ado, Ithink we better bring in the
experts so we can get up tospeed For you.
What is Isle Planner For me?
I want to know how we can useit better and these exciting new
features that are on their wayshortly.
So, Sarah, we'd love to welcomeyou to Wedding Empires.
(01:04):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
shortly.
So, sarah, we'd love to welcomeyou to Wedding Empires.
How are you?
I am great.
How are you guys Welcome?
Oh yeah, it's great to see youon the other side of literally
the world.
Yeah it's great to be here.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I know absolutely nothing about Isle Planner.
What is Isle Planner?
What does it do?
Tell us everything.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Absolutely so.
Io Planner is an event CRM,sales management, project
management platform for eventprofessionals built out of
necessity.
The founder is an ex-luxuryplanner.
Her husband was in eventproduction and had a large scale
corporate type planning.
So the platform was built withthe intent to create an all in
(01:49):
one opportunity for event prosto do everything that they
needed to do through the entirecycle, from the day they
interact with the client thefirst time until the event or
date of the event.
So you've got your full CRMsales platform which takes you
through lead intake, leadmanagement, quoting, invoicing,
contract management, paymentseverything that you need to do
(02:10):
from the sales side.
And then, once a client hasbooked with you, you can move
them into project management andwithin the project management
tool suite, we have everythingfrom your standard checklist to
keep you on task, to keep yourclients on task.
It is a client facing portalwhen you get to the project
management side.
So not only is it you and yourteam working within the portal,
but you can invite your clientin as well, with permissions, of
(02:32):
course, so you can make surethat they see only what you want
them to see and have access towhat you want them to have
access to, but within that youhave your checklist, which
really works for all pros.
You also have timelinemanagement, layout, guest list,
seating chart, budget management.
(02:53):
We have a notes area, which iskind of like a Google Drive, but
somewhere where you can storeall of your documents for your
clients, whether they be readonly or that you want them to
actually interact with and fillout.
We also have a vendor managementarea where you can input all of
your contacts for thatparticular event, upload
documents underneath of theirfolder, including pictures,
(03:15):
their COI, et cetera, and then adesign studio, and the design
studio is where you cancollaborate on inspiration for
the event.
So, as a photographer, youcould upload, say you, the event
or that couple is gettingmarried at a certain venue that
you work at.
Often you might have a fly boxof images for that particular
(03:36):
venue so you know where thesunset photos are epic in the
winter versus the summer, thingslike that.
So you can have that.
You can also talk aboutdifferent inspiration places for
them to shoot, kind of dorun-up lists as far as like what
their key ideas for, like whatphotos they want to get with
their family, with their friends, major aspects and things that
(03:57):
we want to make sure that wekeep concise and that we're able
to collaborate on during theactual planning process.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I think that's interesting to note in that, yes
, me as a wedding planner, Iwould probably go in there and
turn on every tab, but you havethe ability to limit that and
it's it's important to note thatyou can switch on and off.
So, as a photographer, it mightbe important to you to do your
checklist and send that to theclient.
Let's let's talk about thechecklist, because that that is
is something that you've gotsome great templates that come
(04:24):
with our planner that are sortof typical every single step
that you might need to do forplanning a wedding.
But you can also make your owntemplates depending on the needs
of your business and thevarious packages that you offer
and whatnot.
Let's talk about the checklistand what's possible with the
checklist, because I think evenfor those of us who use it,
(04:50):
there's so much more that wecould be using with it.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, so in my opinion, the checklist is
probably your most valuablefeature.
The checklist is really whereyou are doing a brain dump of
your entire process that you dowithin your organization.
It is I call it your brain,your business on IELTS planner.
So you are doing a data dump, abrain dump of everything that
happens from the minute youstart working with a client to
the event date.
Now that includes not onlytasks for yourself, but tasks
(05:13):
for your team as well as tasksfor the client.
So you are creating an entirerun of show for a three month,
six month, nine month, 18 monthperiod of time, and the system
is going to then keep you ontrack.
It's going to let you know whatneeds to happen when, what is
coming up next, where you are inthe planning process, and
(05:34):
really the big value of that isthat it allows you to stop
trying to keep all of thatinformation in your head.
You're working with, at anygiven time, somewhere between
three and four to up to 10, 15,especially for photographers and
DJs and venues you know,couples at a time, and if you
are trying to keep all of thatorganized in your head and I
(05:57):
know I know we all think we'rereally, really good at it and
that we've got it on lock, butlike it just allows you to stop
using that brain space for allof those to do's and all of that
running task list and checklistthat you have in your head, so
that you can use it for creativeideas or for expanding your
business or for whatever ithappened to be I don't hanging
(06:20):
out with friends and actuallyremembering their birthdays,
right, so like it's.
It's that type of that is whatthe checklist is for.
Now, within that checklist, youhave a lot of opportunity to
manipulate it how you want.
You can set due dates or youcan set general timeframes you
can add into.
I always recommend, when you'recreating that checklist, be as
detailed and thorough as humanlypossible.
(06:42):
Your goal not to be morbid, butif you were not here tomorrow,
someone should be able to openup your aisle planner account,
read through your checklistitems and know exactly how to
finish executing that event.
So every detail should be inthere.
Same for, like your client, ifyou're putting a checklist in
there or a checklist item inthere for your client say,
obtain wedding, marriage licenseor something like that.
(07:04):
Or if you're a destinationplanner, make sure we've got
flights in play or we've gothotels booked, et cetera, when
blocks do expire.
So put all of that detail inthere.
Put the local magistrate or thelocal courthouse, email, phone
number, address, hours ofoperation.
Put it all in there so that theclient doesn't have to come
back to you and say, hey, yousaid it's time to do to get my
(07:27):
marriage certificate.
What does that mean?
Where do I go?
What do I do?
How do I find it Right?
The goal is to keep thecommunication and still be very
active together in planning theevent, but remove the back and
forth conversation.
It's like to give you both morebandwidth, to be able to do
more and work more and not haveto get the emails when we've all
(07:50):
get them like, hey, where arewe?
What's up?
What are we doing?
What can I help with?
Where are we in this process?
You know what's next.
So we're taking all of thataway so that we can plan better,
so that we can both plansmarter and so that we can be
really cognizant of each other'stime so two things, well, a
couple of things that I did as awedding planner, using our
planner religiously.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I would send them the access to our planner and I
would have this very detailedemail and I would say absolutely
, your first step is to go tothe checklist and you're going
to be faced with this really,really long list and I want you
both to get a bottle of wine.
You got to commit to to beinglooking at this thing for a
while, but remove anythingthat's not relevant or that
(08:32):
you've already done, because wewould quite often sort of not
come right at the beginning ofthe piece.
Right, we would come after thevenue or whatever, or there's
there's some religiousconsiderations for in there that
don't apply to this particularcouple.
So I would say, before you doanything yes, it looks like 400
items, it probably is 400 items,but go through and bin anything
(08:55):
that's not relevant or thatyou've already done and at that
point also, I would do somedetail around.
If you're not the kind ofperson that's going to log in
and look at your list, thenassign a date to all of those
items.
It's going to give you arecommendation of you know it
should be four months out, fivemonths out, whatever but if you
assign a physical date, you'regoing to get an email reminder
(09:16):
on that date, and not only that,you could also subscribe to the
calendar.
So so there's a few options outthere.
Some people are are the kind ofperson that every Sunday I'm
going to work on my wedding andI'm going to log into our
planner and work down my list,and that's fine.
The capabilities are there forthat.
But for the people who aren'tand need that email or need to
see the calendar reminder pop upon their phone, I love that
(09:39):
there's those three optionsthere for the checklist.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Absolutely, and if you are a full planner, I will
often recommend, because thereis such thing as like analysis,
paralysis and like too muchinformation at once.
Right?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
So that's me, that's me.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
When you're creating your templates and, as Jack said
earlier, you can create as manytemplates as you want and I
highly recommend it I recommendthat you create the most all
encompassing one first thatbecomes your actual like
template for your company andthen you copy it like carbon
copy it and whittle it down fordifferent types of events.
So, obviously, full planning isgoing to be different from
partial.
It's going to be different fromcoordination.
(10:15):
It's going to be different froma social event.
If you're doing a bridal shower, you're doing a birthday party
or you're doing a celebration oflife, so you're going to want a
different checklist for each ofthose.
Within that checklist, whenyou're creating the template,
you can create something calleda pre-assignment.
It's just a little notationthat tells you who you're going
to assign it to.
When it comes to actuallycreating the project out, right,
I will often say, if it's areally, really robust checklist,
(10:38):
label client one, client two,client three and then actually
put in your personal checklistrelease client one items,
release client two items andrelease client three items at
different points within thatplanning process and that way,
that day when you're onboarding,you're only giving them the
tasks that are, you know, reallythe 10 to six month out.
(11:01):
You know tasks, and then at thesix month you're releasing.
Six months to three months, andthen finally the three three
months to event date and fewthings.
One we're squirrel.
We like to look forward.
There are things that are morefun to do.
It's usually the things thatare a little bit closer to the
event date and people will skipahead and ignore these like not
as fun, like long-term aspects.
(11:21):
So it's a way to keep yourclient a little bit more focused
still.
Give them a nice list of thingsthat they're going to be
responsible for, but not theentire, especially if we are
with a 12 or 18 month out client.
That could get really, reallycumbersome and really
overwhelming for them.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So that's a great way to do it as well, I think that
the contacts tab is anotherfavourite area of mine.
I had a business and we all hadthis shared black book.
Okay, right.
We did and it was in variouslocations in Australia, so we
got creative when it came tousing the tags you know.
So we'd have Floris Brisbane,floris Melbourne, you know tag
(11:58):
like that so people could startfrom scratch and go I'm in
Melbourne, who have I got youknow, and do them all that way.
There's some cool things thatyou can do like that.
But a nice touch also is when,as a wedding planner, when
you're, you know, taking thatintake for your clients is
asking them who they've alreadybooked, and then when you get
them into our planner and showthem that contacts tab, I'm
(12:21):
already there as the planner,the venue's already there, I've
gone the photographer and putall those details in there and
just encourage them that that'show it should look and and you
know that they're, I know thatthey're color-coded if they're
under consideration or ifthey're confirmed, but nurturing
(12:41):
that from the beginning andthat this is where we put this
stuff and you know if it's me,it's the planner that's booking
all the vendors or if it's theclient, because you know there's
, there are those packages outthere where it's the client
who's going and doing that, andthis becomes really a key
communication tool in terms ofwhat are they doing ahead of
this event that I'm working on,so I think it's so important
(13:04):
early on to encourage that.
Use that, because when it comestime to assigning those tasks
and it's so much easier ifthey're already in there to be
able to assign oh, we've bookedthe photographer right.
I'm going to say it's theplanner question number one.
When sunset photographer wantsto know that, let's put that
into you know, and we can taghim and whatnot.
So I think I think the contactstabs really really key as well.
(13:26):
Yeah, I think putting puttingtogether two at the end.
I mean it's important in thebeginning these two tools
together.
But in my final meeting as aplanner, the client has done her
whole wedding and she's justbooked us for day of, or we've
done everything.
That final meeting we're goingto sit down and we're going to
blow by blow go through thesetasks and we're going to make
(13:49):
sure that there's either aperson attached to each of them
and that person better bloody bein the contacts tab because I
need their phone number and Ineed their email at least.
So those things are important inthe beginning, definitely in
terms of walking you through theprocess and kicking off the
task, but also in the last fewdays and weeks where you're
(14:10):
pulling everything together, itbecomes a really complex and
detailed document.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
And I think you know, one of the things that we
haven't mentioned yet is withinthe comment, or sorry, within
the checklist, within thecomments, within a few other
places within the platform,including the design studio, you
can make comments too, so youcan actually have a running
dialogue with a client aboutthat particular vendor, about
that specific checklist item.
So what I call that micro levelcommunication versus macro
(14:39):
level communication, which wouldbe like an email or like a
general chat or like text stream, where that's just general
communication.
But if it's about somethingvery specific that you're going
to need to be able to referenceback to, that's where you
absolutely want to make surethat you have it in a running
comment on the platform so thatyou all and anybody in your
organization if it's not youwho's running the event, say you
(15:00):
were the person who took itover, but there's someone else
who's actually going to beexecuting it day of.
You need to make sure that theycan see all of those running
comments as well and like and Ithink this is kind of clean up
the checklist, but you hadmentioned having an email and
kind of a getting to know IELTSplanner and a overview for your
clients, which is absolutelynecessary.
(15:22):
As any pro knows, when you getinto the system there's a lot.
There's a lot you can do.
It's a very robust system andit can definitely be
overwhelming for the client.
Not only can you do that, butremember that within your
checklist items, at the veryfirst one, you can put review
aisle planner platform and youcan put a link right in there.
That's maybe a loom video,that's a 10 minute.
(15:44):
Hey, this is Jack, your weddingplanner, and I'm going to show
you how to use aisle planner andwhat you need to do.
A lot of times that visual is alot easier for someone to
understand than to like runthrough.
But then you could also attacha checklist right there.
Right, that is in your notes.
That's an automatic note thatwas saved in your templates and
so you're linking back to a notethat you've already put in
their project.
(16:04):
That's a checklist of how toget started to make sure the
client knows exactly what theyneed to do to be set up for
success.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I used to do it in my first meeting.
I would open up our planner andlike give them the tour, but I
think it was just too much.
It was too much to take in onemeeting.
So yeah, I think you're right.
I think the last format that wehad in that email was a loom,
and then we would say this isthe checklist.
In that hyperlink to thechecklist we would change that
and it would go to thatparticular client's checklist,
(16:33):
so it would just take themstraight there.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
And so you don't even need to do the email.
You could literally put it inthe comments and the checklist
item and then it's like rightthere for them to go click,
click, watch it straight fromthe platform.
But it's a great way to utilizeit as well and just another way
to think outside the box on howto utilize it.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
A video would definitely help someone like me.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
There's visual, there's audible, and then there
are people who and then there'sme.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Sarah, tell me about the expense tracking.
I think that's another reallycool tool, Whether it's the
client managing their ownwedding budget or whether you're
, as the planner, managing theirbudget.
Such a cool tool.
Can you talk us through thefeatures and how that works?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Absolutely so.
Yeah, I mean, especially whenwe're talking about weddings and
being a wedding pro it is alarge purchase for the client it
is very it is.
Money is always a sensitivetopic and it's something that
you want to be very respectfulof.
It's clearly it's not usuallythe pro blowing the budget, it
is the client who's saying moreand more and more.
(17:31):
But you know, you want to berespectful and you want to make
sure that there is at all times100% visibility into what is
happening with their budget.
So the budget tool allows youto set the initial budget.
May go way over, but you canset the initial at least and set
estimates of what that shouldlook like for this client based
on what they're looking to dofor their event.
(17:51):
Right, it looks differentdepending on the cost of an
event, but estimates are prettyconsistent depending on the
client.
You can always manipulate thema little bit and then, once you
actually get your differentcontracts from your vendors, you
can one create a invoiceschedule within their contact
folder.
So they've got an actualpayment schedule and they're
(18:12):
getting reminders that, like avendor, payment is due.
But that will automatically, ifyou attach it to the category,
automatically communicate overto their budget.
And so now you've got anestimated cost, but then you've
got an actual cost.
So maybe the estimate for theflorist was 8,000.
The actual is 91.30, right?
(18:33):
So you've got those two andthen it'll show you when the
payments are due, so you cankeep a real, visual and 100%
accurate idea of where we are asfar as the budget and where
we're spending the money.
It shows them that breakdown,it shows percentages, shows
where they're going off track.
So, yeah, great tool, greatopportunity for the client to
(18:55):
stay well within budget and tostay in control.
I can't tell you how many timesI have talked to planners
specifically, because this isusually something that's more in
line with the planner side, ifyou're talking total budget
versus the additional pros whoare just looking at a piece of
the budget.
I can't tell you how many timeswhere the client's going this,
(19:16):
this, this, this, this theplanner's going yes, yes, yes,
yes, yes.
Now it's five, six months outand all of a sudden the planner
goes oh hey, by the way, justFYI, you're already at budget,
we have all these things we needto pay for, and the client's
freaking out because they hadnhaven't been having that
(19:36):
conversation.
No one wants to talk aboutmoney.
So, yeah, it's a really easyway to keep it very visible to
everybody and keep ittransparent, so that there
aren't those surprises a littlebit long further along the way.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I think it's key to mention if a client came to me
and said I've got fifty thousanddollars right at the beginning,
the whole piece, and I've putin my wedding planning fees and
I've taken that $43,000.
Let's start there, but I loveyou know the self adjusting of
if you've got 43 left.
This is our recommendation onhow you should split that up.
(20:08):
It's in this in gray font.
It'll say this is what youshould spend on flowers.
This is what you know well youcould spend on to make the most
out of that what you have left.
It's an interestingconversation when and most
planners will have had thiswhere someone will come to you
with no details and say how muchdo you think I should spend on
flowers?
What's an appropriate amountfor me to spend on catering?
(20:30):
And you're there going.
How long is a piece of stringfor me to spend on catering?
And you're there going how longis a piece of string To have a
tool like that where you can,with confidence, go back and say
well, let's approach this in adifferent way.
How much is your overall budget?
It's 50 grand, okay, and you'resaying to me that flowers are
really important.
Well, we've got this tool hereand it's saying it should be
(20:52):
$5,000.
But, for example, if you reallythat ceiling installation is
really important to you and$5,000 is not going to cut it,
yes, I can give advice aroundthat, that I can tell you
realistically $5, but it's goingto mean these are the areas
that we might have to sacrificea bit of budget in order to
(21:18):
allow for that.
Presenting that in a visual wayis such a great way to use the
tool and be realistic and havedifficult conversations about
money that you know it's part ofmy job to make your money work
harder and your budget workharder.
But this is it in a visual wayWe've got to work with.
(21:42):
So you know we can move thisaround and make allowances, but
you're going to miss outsomewhere else Absolutely Well.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
And I think one of the other things that's really
unique about the IL Plannerplatform and really brings the
value of you as a planner up isthe fact that a lot of these
decisions that couples aremaking especially like when
we're talking around money andbudget but there are a lot of
different things that they wantto sit and they want to marinate
on they want to think through.
One of the things that's greatabout having a client-focused
(22:07):
portal, somewhere where you guysare collaborating together but
not like in the same room, iswhat Jack said earlier.
Go look at your budget, grab aglass of wine, you know.
Grab a beer, sit down, think itthrough.
What realistically, do you wantto spend?
You know you're seeing thatbreakdown right there.
If you know that your dreamphotographer is 15 K but you've
(22:32):
only got a 7,500 budget, wherecan you manipulate it?
Or are you okay coming out ofpocket for the rest?
And that conversation happeningin the comfort of their own home
, in the privacy of their ownhome, is such an easier
conversation and it gives themtime to kind of settle into it,
versus being at a round tablewith you going, hey well, that's
the cost.
(22:52):
Do you want to make it work ornot, because if you're asking
them to make a split decision,usually they're going to say no,
and if they do say yes, youmight get a situation where then
they go home and they talkabout it and 24 hours later you
get a whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,whoa, whoa.
That was a bad decision, right?
So I think that that'ssomething from the client side
that is really valuable, becauseit gives them a little bit more
(23:16):
autonomy to be a part of thewhole planning process, but do
it in a very private way.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I think, just as a side note to having those
conversations about money, inparticular as a wedding planner,
where you are involved eitherwholly or partially, I always,
early on in that first meeting,would say I'm making a
commitment to you to beabsolutely transparent and if
and when things pop up that areout of scope, I'm going to come
(23:44):
to you as soon as that happens.
But I'm making a commitment toyou to be transparent about that
.
If you want something and youcan't afford it, or you want
something and it's not possible,I'm going to be realistic and
bring that to you straight away.
So I think I think it'simportant to make mention of
that that set those things upearly and not later on where
you're going.
Okay, I know we said 50, butit's actually it's actually
(24:05):
about 75, right?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
yeah, fifty thousand dollar budget, but you know, a
dripping, a dripping ceiling offlorals and you, you're like
that's your entire budget.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, that's why I am so.
Set it up, set up thoseexpectations that I'm going to
be a realist Confidence, giveyou advice around things that we
can't do, and here's a solution.
You want that?
Look, here's another way to doit.
That's who you are and ourplanner is going to facilitate
that in a visual way and backyou up with the data.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Well and I think that's actually a great segue
into the design studio because,again, it's one of the pieces of
the project management platformwhere you and the client are
collaborating on the visionright.
That is where you get to maybebring in a vendor, your florist,
who you know you're going touse.
(24:53):
The clients absolutely lovethis florist, it's their perfect
aesthetic.
So you know you're going to usethis florist, you have a great
relationship with them.
You go ahead, you invite theminto the project.
You only give them access tothe design studio and you say,
hey, florist, can you pleaseupload a handful of different
sprays and, underneath of it,comment on what is the cost of
(25:15):
that spray?
You know things like that.
What is the size, what is thescope, how many stems is that?
You know same with.
In a previous life I was avendor, specifically linen, and
so my clients would invite me inand I would just have access to
the design studio.
I knew their aesthetic becauseI had access and I could see the
entire inspiration for whatthey were doing.
And then I would just haveaccess to the design studio.
I knew their aesthetic becauseI had access and I could see the
(25:36):
entire inspiration for whatthey were doing and then I would
create a folder and I would puthere are four linen options
that I think would work reallywell for your event.
They're within your cost.
Here is the cost per of thedifferent sizes.
Here are the quantities we haveLet me know which and it was a
really easy way for all of us tocollaborate without having to
be in the same room and all theback and forth via email.
(25:58):
Again, yeah, a great way, nice,like segue, but the design
studio, great way to communicatewith your client as a
photographer, putting folders inthere of different venues,
different light sources, whatthey're going to look like.
Maybe, if you've got threedifferent ways that you edit
final, you know you've got anatural, you've got a moody and
(26:19):
you've got, you know, a brightlight.
So maybe you put differentfolders in there of three
different aesthetics and whatthey're going to look like and
what they're really going to doto the photos, so that they know
, you know, and there's nocrossing of the wires later when
you do all the editing and thesoft and moody and they're like
no, we wanted bright light,right, yeah, so lots of
(26:41):
different ways that you canutilize it.
Get inspiration from the client.
Lilac is not lilac to everysingle person, right?
So I want a lilac wedding andyou will get it from and you're
like that's periodical and Ijust sourced everything I like.
So great ways to be able toutilize it on both ways giving
inspiration to the client, butalso getting their inspiration
(27:02):
from them.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
For wedding professionals that are new to
IELTS Planner like what kind ofadvice can you give them to get
started in maximizing theplatform's capabilities?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Absolutely so.
We offer a free 30-day trialfor any prep so you're able to
go in, test it out and you havefull access to all of the
features within the IO Plannerplatform.
So it's not like you're limitedto what you can do.
We want you to truly be able tofeel it out.
We want you to be able to getin there.
We want you to be able to do atest project or maybe a real
project, whatever that lookslike for you.
(27:32):
But we want you to be able toreally feel it out.
We also offer onboarding.
We have a customer successmanager.
She's phenomenal.
She is an ex-event pro, one ofthe things I love about our
company.
We are all ex-event pros.
We have all been in theindustry.
We have all been exactly whereyou are.
We know the challenges.
We also know what works andwhat doesn't.
(27:52):
So she is there to help do anonboarding.
We're going to start doingmonthly onboarding monthly or
bi-weekly, we're not sure which,depending on interest but
orientation webinars where youcan just get on and see like,
how does it work, where to getstarted, what to do.
But really, with IELTS aisleplanner, the number one thing I
(28:14):
will tell you is that it takestime.
It is you're truly recreatingyour entire business process on
a new platform.
It is a platform that will workfor you as you build it out.
It's also a great value asset.
You now have your entirebusiness process in a sellable
product that you can literallytransfer the rights to someone
(28:34):
else, and it gives you value toyour company.
You're building out your entirebusiness.
So be patient, take the time,put time aside to really learn
what it does and how to make itwork for you.
It's technology.
It only does, it only knows, itonly works as well as the
information.
(28:55):
So you can't just log in andexpect it to set up and ready
for success.
You really have to put thattouchy into it.
And it's creating out thosetemplates, creating out those
checklists, making sure you'vegot a real clean vision of how
you're going to utilize thesystem.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yeah, yeah, I mean CRMs in a CRM form is something
that I've kind of run from mywhole career because I I tried a
couple here in Australia rightin the beginning and over the
years they've gotten sotechnical and there's been so
much involved in them that it'sbecome too hard for my little
(29:35):
brain and I've just had to bailand just do it in a way that I
can understand.
And I think there's a lot ofcreatives out there who are I
often joke and say I havegalloping ADHD, which which here
I am, here we are.
And I think there's a lot ofother wedding professionals and
(29:55):
a lot of other creatives outthere that have the same thing,
that really struggle with thevolume of technology that is
required and getting your headaround everything that gets done
.
And it's the same with me andJack here.
I quite often think that I'mjust here to make her look
(30:15):
pretty because Jack does so muchof all of the tech stuff,
because I just have no idea andit's really hard for me to get
my head around.
So you know, you know, helpingpeople make the most out of it
and the videos and stuff thatare there, I think is is a great
way to really help, and youradvice in putting the time in is
is good too.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
It's.
It's hard.
You know the number oneconversation you will hear out
of any event pros mouth, nomatter what vertical they're in
I just don't have enough time,right.
One of the things thattechnology will help you do,
though, is make more time foryour business, and to work
outside of your business too.
You know vacations, having timeto step away, being able to
(31:00):
know that you can, you know, goout of town for a weekend or go
to a friend's event and not haveto worry that things are
falling apart.
You know within the business,or that things are falling
behind or that you're going tocome back to just a smorgasbord
of issues.
Yeah, that's what technologyhelps you to do.
(31:20):
So the other thing I will say,especially from the CRM side
there are CRM.
There are a ton of CRMs forevent professionals.
They they're constantlythrowing new ones at you.
I think that it really is.
It's about focusing on theprocess, how much flexibility it
gives you.
There's a lot of thoughtprocess of like.
(31:42):
If it's already built out,that's just easier.
I just have to plug and go.
But the problem with that is it.
It takes away from the buyer'sexperience.
It takes away from theindividualism of your company.
It takes away from your brandvoice when you're, you know,
kind of confined to just fourtemplates for this particular
thing or something like that.
(32:03):
So there's pluses and minusesto all of it.
I think that it's about findingone that you understand and
works with you and has theflexibility you need to be able
to do your job and run yourcompany the way you feel
comfortable, versus kind ofbeing forced in a single
direction.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I think one good thing about that situation is
our planner can be as simple oras complicated as you need it to
be.
You can go to the budget tab orthe seating plan or the
checklist and it is an obviouschecklist and it makes sense how
to use it.
But you know the minute thatyou go up to the right and you
go to the little advanced optionand start digging deeper, like
(32:44):
I do.
But what I'm trying to say isyou don't have to.
It's simple and it makes sensethe way that things are laid out
, so you can go in there and notbe scared to give it a go, and
go tab by tab and just startusing one feature and start
expanding on your repertoire asand when you see fit.
(33:04):
Sarah, important, important,important.
I have to know this new featureabout the RSVP because, as a
planner, I have been absolutelydying for this because there's
so many hacks that I had to doto make this work.
So, ben, just so you know,there is a great feature in that
you can manage your guest listright and it all makes sense
(33:26):
that you know the couple willput in groups of people that
need to be together, or if youcan imagine you don't just put
in name by name.
you put in Ben and Hayley forexample, and then you can export
that for the caterer or for theseating plan or whatever like.
There's all these great thingsthat you could do with it.
But one thing you couldn't dowas include on an invite here's
(33:47):
a link for you to go and rsvpand it talked to our planet, it
insert those people into.
So there was this, always thismanual sort of rsv over here.
I'll export it.
I'll import it or manuallytyping in these names.
So tell me it's fixed.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
It is so we do.
Now it runs through.
So, just so everybody's aware,there's a wedding website on the
within the Isle Planner project.
It's pretty flat, you don'thave to use it, you just have to
enable it, because it's wherethe link lives.
Once you actually enable it,you have to quote, unquote, send
the guest list.
But there don't.
There doesn't have to be anyemails in there, you can send it
(34:29):
, just to create the database,basically, and then and then you
have a link.
So a lot, of, a lot of pros nowwill want to create like a QR
code.
So create that QR code, put iton the event website, whichever
one they're using, but itdirectly links back to the IELTS
Planner website.
They can also go in and edit,which that was probably the
(34:51):
number one request we got was.
Okay, they can get the initialone, but we want them to be able
to edit their RSVP.
They put a plus one.
They put in their boyfriendtoday.
It is now six months later,that boyfriend is long gone.
We need to change that RSVP.
So I love that.
Or, you know, I was veganyesterday, I'm not today, so
(35:11):
whatever it has to be, but theycan.
They can now go in and searchand edit it as well, which just
adds it.
We know it's it's.
We're constantly listening toour pros.
Like I said, as a group of um xevent pros, we do understand
your frustrations.
We promise we understand, likethe feedback that we are
receiving, and working asdiligently as we can to continue
(35:32):
to push through requests thatwe do receive, and so that was.
That was a big one for us, thathad been asked for a while and
so it finally made it on.
The docket, went through, hasbeen very well received and the
goal is to make you, as theplanner as well as the client,
make it easier, make thatprocess just a little bit less
cumbersome so that you can focuson other things.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Coming to the end, here I get to ask my Ben's
question, which I ask all of ourguests, and that question is
what advice if you walkedoutside and ran into an
18-year-old version of you?
What advice would you give that18-year-old version of you,
knowing what you know?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
now in terms of life and business and everything.
So I would say from the verybeginning, if you can, from the
minute you have an idea ordecide I want to go into
business, whether it's going tobe a solopreneur, an
entrepreneur, whether you'regoing to be a boss with a
million employees, whetheryou're going to be an individual
contributor to another largerorganization, before you go out
(36:34):
there and you actually take onthat position, think about what
you're going to need to besuccessful and think forward.
Don't think tomorrow.
Think 5, 10, 15 years ahead oftime.
If you are setting up yourbusiness today, put the
processes in place, put thetechnologies in place to support
you all the way up.
I would say one of the biggestmistakes and it's I can't say
(36:56):
that it's wrong, because mostare starting with a hairline
budget and a dream, you know, ofmaking this thing work.
But if you really want tosucceed, take the time to put
the effort in that's necessary.
I always used to recommend whenI was doing some business
coaching for newer pros take astep back, only take five or six
(37:17):
clients and take a part-timejob.
That helps you be able to takeonly the clients you want and
really set yourself up forsuccess.
If you want to be this type ofplanner or this type of
photographer, if you want towork at this level with this
type of client, you're going toneed to make sure that you're
setting yourself up for successfrom the very beginning.
It's also a whole lot easier todo it from the very beginning
(37:38):
than to try to three, five yearsinto your business, when things
are busy and you're active andyou're getting more and more
successful, to stop the wheelsand like, put these different
programs, technologies,processes in place.
So, honestly, I would say thenumber one advice I would give
is if you really want it to work.
(38:00):
One advice I would give is, ifyou really want it to work, give
yourself the ability to investin yourself and invest in your
business.
And investing means time, itmeans technology, it means
resources, it means education.
But all of those things aregoing to ensure that as you move
forward in your career, you areset up for success and you
don't hit a roadblock at fiveyears because you didn't do
(38:23):
those things and now you'vefound that you are growing past
your capabilities.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
I love that Awesome.
Thank you yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
So if you would like to invest in your business,
sarah, big way I'm so cornySarah has given us a really
generous deal for all of ourlisteners 10% off Isle Planner
for the first 12 months.
All you have to do is go to adedicated page that has been set
(38:52):
up.
So the website for Isle Planneris isleplannercom.
Forward slash affiliate.
Forward slashwinningacademyglobal.
Affiliate.
Forward slash Wedding AcademyGlobal.
You will be able to redeem thatoffer.
Don't worry, I'm going to putit in the show notes.
I will share that link witheverybody, but it is 10% off for
12 months.
So thank you very much for yourgenerosity, sarah.
(39:14):
I think that I rave about OurPlanet to anyone and everyone,
so I think you need to get onboard and go and try it for your
business, no matter what kindof wedding professional you are.
If you're looking to streamlinethings, it's an excellent tool.
I know most wedding planners will know about Isle
Planner.
If they're not using it.
They definitely would have comeacross it at some point.
In my opinion, it's the world'sleading platform for wedding
planners, especially when itcomes to client collaboration
and managing all your tasks whenyou're organizing a wedding.
However, it's not just forwedding planners, it's also for
(00:24):
venues.
However, it's not just forwedding planners, it's also for
venues and, as Sarah's going totell us today, it's actually a
great tool for most kind ofwedding professionals even you,
ben, as a wedding photographer.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And I have no idea about our planner, so I'm just
here to make you look good.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
You know what, though , you are going to learn?
A lot today because there's somuch to this platform.
It is such an incredible tool.
So, without further ado, Ithink we better bring in the
experts so we can get up tospeed For you.
What is Isle Planner For me?
I want to know how we can useit better and these exciting new
features that are on their wayshortly.
So, Sarah, we'd love to welcomeyou to Wedding Empires.
(01:04):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
shortly.
So, sarah, we'd love to welcomeyou to Wedding Empires.
How are you?
I am great.
How are you guys Welcome?
Oh yeah, it's great to see youon the other side of literally
the world.
Yeah it's great to be here.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I know absolutely nothing about Isle Planner.
What is Isle Planner?
What does it do?
Tell us everything.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Absolutely so.
Io Planner is an event CRM,sales management, project
management platform for eventprofessionals built out of
necessity.
The founder is an ex-luxuryplanner.
Her husband was in eventproduction and had a large scale
corporate type planning.
So the platform was built withthe intent to create an all in
(01:49):
one opportunity for event prosto do everything that they
needed to do through the entirecycle, from the day they
interact with the client thefirst time until the event or
date of the event.
So you've got your full CRMsales platform which takes you
through lead intake, leadmanagement, quoting, invoicing,
contract management, paymentseverything that you need to do
(02:10):
from the sales side.
And then, once a client hasbooked with you, you can move
them into project management andwithin the project management
tool suite, we have everythingfrom your standard checklist to
keep you on task, to keep yourclients on task.
It is a client facing portalwhen you get to the project
management side.
So not only is it you and yourteam working within the portal,
but you can invite your clientin as well, with permissions, of
(02:32):
course, so you can make surethat they see only what you want
them to see and have access towhat you want them to have
access to, but within that youhave your checklist, which
really works for all pros.
You also have timelinemanagement, layout, guest list,
seating chart, budget management.
(02:53):
We have a notes area, which iskind of like a Google Drive, but
somewhere where you can storeall of your documents for your
clients, whether they be readonly or that you want them to
actually interact with and fillout.
We also have a vendor managementarea where you can input all of
your contacts for thatparticular event, upload
documents underneath of theirfolder, including pictures,
(03:15):
their COI, et cetera, and then adesign studio, and the design
studio is where you cancollaborate on inspiration for
the event.
So, as a photographer, youcould upload, say you, the event
or that couple is gettingmarried at a certain venue that
you work at.
Often you might have a fly boxof images for that particular
(03:36):
venue so you know where thesunset photos are epic in the
winter versus the summer, thingslike that.
So you can have that.
You can also talk aboutdifferent inspiration places for
them to shoot, kind of dorun-up lists as far as like what
their key ideas for, like whatphotos they want to get with
their family, with their friends, major aspects and things that
(03:57):
we want to make sure that wekeep concise and that we're able
to collaborate on during theactual planning process.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I think that's interesting to note in that, yes
, me as a wedding planner, Iwould probably go in there and
turn on every tab, but you havethe ability to limit that and
it's it's important to note thatyou can switch on and off.
So, as a photographer, it mightbe important to you to do your
checklist and send that to theclient.
Let's let's talk about thechecklist, because that that is
is something that you've gotsome great templates that come
(04:24):
with our planner that are sortof typical every single step
that you might need to do forplanning a wedding.
But you can also make your owntemplates depending on the needs
of your business and thevarious packages that you offer
and whatnot.
Let's talk about the checklistand what's possible with the
checklist, because I think evenfor those of us who use it,
(04:50):
there's so much more that wecould be using with it.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, so in my opinion, the checklist is
probably your most valuablefeature.
The checklist is really whereyou are doing a brain dump of
your entire process that you dowithin your organization.
It is I call it your brain,your business on IELTS planner.
So you are doing a data dump, abrain dump of everything that
happens from the minute youstart working with a client to
the event date.
Now that includes not onlytasks for yourself, but tasks
(05:13):
for your team as well as tasksfor the client.
So you are creating an entirerun of show for a three month,
six month, nine month, 18 monthperiod of time, and the system
is going to then keep you ontrack.
It's going to let you know whatneeds to happen when, what is
coming up next, where you are inthe planning process, and
(05:34):
really the big value of that isthat it allows you to stop
trying to keep all of thatinformation in your head.
You're working with, at anygiven time, somewhere between
three and four to up to 10, 15,especially for photographers and
DJs and venues you know,couples at a time, and if you
are trying to keep all of thatorganized in your head and I
(05:57):
know I know we all think we'rereally, really good at it and
that we've got it on lock, butlike it just allows you to stop
using that brain space for allof those to do's and all of that
running task list and checklistthat you have in your head, so
that you can use it for creativeideas or for expanding your
business or for whatever ithappened to be I don't hanging
(06:20):
out with friends and actuallyremembering their birthdays,
right, so like it's.
It's that type of that is whatthe checklist is for.
Now, within that checklist, youhave a lot of opportunity to
manipulate it how you want.
You can set due dates or youcan set general timeframes you
can add into.
I always recommend, when you'recreating that checklist, be as
detailed and thorough as humanlypossible.
(06:42):
Your goal not to be morbid, butif you were not here tomorrow,
someone should be able to openup your aisle planner account,
read through your checklistitems and know exactly how to
finish executing that event.
So every detail should be inthere.
Same for, like your client, ifyou're putting a checklist in
there or a checklist item inthere for your client say,
obtain wedding, marriage licenseor something like that.
(07:04):
Or if you're a destinationplanner, make sure we've got
flights in play or we've gothotels booked, et cetera, when
blocks do expire.
So put all of that detail inthere.
Put the local magistrate or thelocal courthouse, email, phone
number, address, hours ofoperation.
Put it all in there so that theclient doesn't have to come
back to you and say, hey, yousaid it's time to do to get my
(07:27):
marriage certificate.
What does that mean?
Where do I go?
What do I do?
How do I find it Right?
The goal is to keep thecommunication and still be very
active together in planning theevent, but remove the back and
forth conversation.
It's like to give you both morebandwidth, to be able to do
more and work more and not haveto get the emails when we've all
(07:50):
get them like, hey, where arewe?
What's up?
What are we doing?
What can I help with?
Where are we in this process?
You know what's next.
So we're taking all of thataway so that we can plan better,
so that we can both plansmarter and so that we can be
really cognizant of each other'stime so two things, well, a
couple of things that I did as awedding planner, using our
planner religiously.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I would send them the access to our planner and I
would have this very detailedemail and I would say absolutely
, your first step is to go tothe checklist and you're going
to be faced with this really,really long list and I want you
both to get a bottle of wine.
You got to commit to to beinglooking at this thing for a
while, but remove anythingthat's not relevant or that
(08:32):
you've already done, because wewould quite often sort of not
come right at the beginning ofthe piece.
Right, we would come after thevenue or whatever, or there's
there's some religiousconsiderations for in there that
don't apply to this particularcouple.
So I would say, before you doanything yes, it looks like 400
items, it probably is 400 items,but go through and bin anything
(08:55):
that's not relevant or thatyou've already done and at that
point also, I would do somedetail around.
If you're not the kind ofperson that's going to log in
and look at your list, thenassign a date to all of those
items.
It's going to give you arecommendation of you know it
should be four months out, fivemonths out, whatever but if you
assign a physical date, you'regoing to get an email reminder
(09:16):
on that date, and not only that,you could also subscribe to the
calendar.
So so there's a few options outthere.
Some people are are the kind ofperson that every Sunday I'm
going to work on my wedding andI'm going to log into our
planner and work down my list,and that's fine.
The capabilities are there forthat.
But for the people who aren'tand need that email or need to
see the calendar reminder pop upon their phone, I love that
(09:39):
there's those three optionsthere for the checklist.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Absolutely, and if you are a full planner, I will
often recommend, because thereis such thing as like analysis,
paralysis and like too muchinformation at once.
Right?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
So that's me, that's me.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
When you're creating your templates and, as Jack said
earlier, you can create as manytemplates as you want and I
highly recommend it I recommendthat you create the most all
encompassing one first thatbecomes your actual like
template for your company andthen you copy it like carbon
copy it and whittle it down fordifferent types of events.
So, obviously, full planning isgoing to be different from
partial.
It's going to be different fromcoordination.
(10:15):
It's going to be different froma social event.
If you're doing a bridal shower, you're doing a birthday party
or you're doing a celebration oflife, so you're going to want a
different checklist for each ofthose.
Within that checklist, whenyou're creating the template,
you can create something calleda pre-assignment.
It's just a little notationthat tells you who you're going
to assign it to.
When it comes to actuallycreating the project out, right,
I will often say, if it's areally, really robust checklist,
(10:38):
label client one, client two,client three and then actually
put in your personal checklistrelease client one items,
release client two items andrelease client three items at
different points within thatplanning process and that way,
that day when you're onboarding,you're only giving them the
tasks that are, you know, reallythe 10 to six month out.
(11:01):
You know tasks, and then at thesix month you're releasing.
Six months to three months, andthen finally the three three
months to event date and fewthings.
One we're squirrel.
We like to look forward.
There are things that are morefun to do.
It's usually the things thatare a little bit closer to the
event date and people will skipahead and ignore these like not
as fun, like long-term aspects.
(11:21):
So it's a way to keep yourclient a little bit more focused
still.
Give them a nice list of thingsthat they're going to be
responsible for, but not theentire, especially if we are
with a 12 or 18 month out client.
That could get really, reallycumbersome and really
overwhelming for them.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So that's a great way to do it as well, I think that
the contacts tab is anotherfavourite area of mine.
I had a business and we all hadthis shared black book.
Okay, right.
We did and it was in variouslocations in Australia, so we
got creative when it came tousing the tags you know.
So we'd have Floris Brisbane,floris Melbourne, you know tag
(11:58):
like that so people could startfrom scratch and go I'm in
Melbourne, who have I got youknow, and do them all that way.
There's some cool things thatyou can do like that.
But a nice touch also is when,as a wedding planner, when
you're, you know, taking thatintake for your clients is
asking them who they've alreadybooked, and then when you get
them into our planner and showthem that contacts tab, I'm
(12:21):
already there as the planner,the venue's already there, I've
gone the photographer and putall those details in there and
just encourage them that that'show it should look and and you
know that they're, I know thatthey're color-coded if they're
under consideration or ifthey're confirmed, but nurturing
(12:41):
that from the beginning andthat this is where we put this
stuff and you know if it's me,it's the planner that's booking
all the vendors or if it's theclient, because you know there's
, there are those packages outthere where it's the client
who's going and doing that, andthis becomes really a key
communication tool in terms ofwhat are they doing ahead of
this event that I'm working on,so I think it's so important
(13:04):
early on to encourage that.
Use that, because when it comestime to assigning those tasks
and it's so much easier ifthey're already in there to be
able to assign oh, we've bookedthe photographer right.
I'm going to say it's theplanner question number one.
When sunset photographer wantsto know that, let's put that
into you know, and we can taghim and whatnot.
So I think I think the contactstabs really really key as well.
(13:26):
Yeah, I think putting puttingtogether two at the end.
I mean it's important in thebeginning these two tools
together.
But in my final meeting as aplanner, the client has done her
whole wedding and she's justbooked us for day of, or we've
done everything.
That final meeting we're goingto sit down and we're going to
blow by blow go through thesetasks and we're going to make
(13:49):
sure that there's either aperson attached to each of them
and that person better bloody bein the contacts tab because I
need their phone number and Ineed their email at least.
So those things are important inthe beginning, definitely in
terms of walking you through theprocess and kicking off the
task, but also in the last fewdays and weeks where you're
(14:10):
pulling everything together, itbecomes a really complex and
detailed document.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
And I think you know, one of the things that we
haven't mentioned yet is withinthe comment, or sorry, within
the checklist, within thecomments, within a few other
places within the platform,including the design studio, you
can make comments too, so youcan actually have a running
dialogue with a client aboutthat particular vendor, about
that specific checklist item.
So what I call that micro levelcommunication versus macro
(14:39):
level communication, which wouldbe like an email or like a
general chat or like text stream, where that's just general
communication.
But if it's about somethingvery specific that you're going
to need to be able to referenceback to, that's where you
absolutely want to make surethat you have it in a running
comment on the platform so thatyou all and anybody in your
organization if it's not youwho's running the event, say you
(15:00):
were the person who took itover, but there's someone else
who's actually going to beexecuting it day of.
You need to make sure that theycan see all of those running
comments as well and like and Ithink this is kind of clean up
the checklist, but you hadmentioned having an email and
kind of a getting to know IELTSplanner and a overview for your
clients, which is absolutelynecessary.
(15:22):
As any pro knows, when you getinto the system there's a lot.
There's a lot you can do.
It's a very robust system andit can definitely be
overwhelming for the client.
Not only can you do that, butremember that within your
checklist items, at the veryfirst one, you can put review
aisle planner platform and youcan put a link right in there.
That's maybe a loom video,that's a 10 minute.
(15:44):
Hey, this is Jack, your weddingplanner, and I'm going to show
you how to use aisle planner andwhat you need to do.
A lot of times that visual is alot easier for someone to
understand than to like runthrough.
But then you could also attacha checklist right there.
Right, that is in your notes.
That's an automatic note thatwas saved in your templates and
so you're linking back to a notethat you've already put in
their project.
(16:04):
That's a checklist of how toget started to make sure the
client knows exactly what theyneed to do to be set up for
success.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I used to do it in my first meeting.
I would open up our planner andlike give them the tour, but I
think it was just too much.
It was too much to take in onemeeting.
So yeah, I think you're right.
I think the last format that wehad in that email was a loom,
and then we would say this isthe checklist.
In that hyperlink to thechecklist we would change that
and it would go to thatparticular client's checklist,
(16:33):
so it would just take themstraight there.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
And so you don't even need to do the email.
You could literally put it inthe comments and the checklist
item and then it's like rightthere for them to go click,
click, watch it straight fromthe platform.
But it's a great way to utilizeit as well and just another way
to think outside the box on howto utilize it.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
A video would definitely help someone like me.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
There's visual, there's audible, and then there
are people who and then there'sme.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Sarah, tell me about the expense tracking.
I think that's another reallycool tool, Whether it's the
client managing their ownwedding budget or whether you're
, as the planner, managing theirbudget.
Such a cool tool.
Can you talk us through thefeatures and how that works?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Absolutely so.
Yeah, I mean, especially whenwe're talking about weddings and
being a wedding pro it is alarge purchase for the client it
is very it is.
Money is always a sensitivetopic and it's something that
you want to be very respectfulof.
It's clearly it's not usuallythe pro blowing the budget, it
is the client who's saying moreand more and more.
(17:31):
But you know, you want to berespectful and you want to make
sure that there is at all times100% visibility into what is
happening with their budget.
So the budget tool allows youto set the initial budget.
May go way over, but you canset the initial at least and set
estimates of what that shouldlook like for this client based
on what they're looking to dofor their event.
(17:51):
Right, it looks differentdepending on the cost of an
event, but estimates are prettyconsistent depending on the
client.
You can always manipulate thema little bit and then, once you
actually get your differentcontracts from your vendors, you
can one create a invoiceschedule within their contact
folder.
So they've got an actualpayment schedule and they're
(18:12):
getting reminders that, like avendor, payment is due.
But that will automatically, ifyou attach it to the category,
automatically communicate overto their budget.
And so now you've got anestimated cost, but then you've
got an actual cost.
So maybe the estimate for theflorist was 8,000.
The actual is 91.30, right?
(18:33):
So you've got those two andthen it'll show you when the
payments are due, so you cankeep a real, visual and 100%
accurate idea of where we are asfar as the budget and where
we're spending the money.
It shows them that breakdown,it shows percentages, shows
where they're going off track.
So, yeah, great tool, greatopportunity for the client to
(18:55):
stay well within budget and tostay in control.
I can't tell you how many timesI have talked to planners
specifically, because this isusually something that's more in
line with the planner side, ifyou're talking total budget
versus the additional pros whoare just looking at a piece of
the budget.
I can't tell you how many timeswhere the client's going this,
(19:16):
this, this, this, this theplanner's going yes, yes, yes,
yes, yes.
Now it's five, six months outand all of a sudden the planner
goes oh hey, by the way, justFYI, you're already at budget,
we have all these things we needto pay for, and the client's
freaking out because they hadnhaven't been having that
(19:36):
conversation.
No one wants to talk aboutmoney.
So, yeah, it's a really easyway to keep it very visible to
everybody and keep ittransparent, so that there
aren't those surprises a littlebit long further along the way.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I think it's key to mention if a client came to me
and said I've got fifty thousanddollars right at the beginning,
the whole piece, and I've putin my wedding planning fees and
I've taken that $43,000.
Let's start there, but I loveyou know the self adjusting of
if you've got 43 left.
This is our recommendation onhow you should split that up.
(20:08):
It's in this in gray font.
It'll say this is what youshould spend on flowers.
This is what you know well youcould spend on to make the most
out of that what you have left.
It's an interestingconversation when and most
planners will have had thiswhere someone will come to you
with no details and say how muchdo you think I should spend on
flowers?
What's an appropriate amountfor me to spend on catering?
(20:30):
And you're there going.
How long is a piece of stringfor me to spend on catering?
And you're there going how longis a piece of string To have a
tool like that where you can,with confidence, go back and say
well, let's approach this in adifferent way.
How much is your overall budget?
It's 50 grand, okay, and you'resaying to me that flowers are
really important.
Well, we've got this tool hereand it's saying it should be
(20:52):
$5,000.
But, for example, if you reallythat ceiling installation is
really important to you and$5,000 is not going to cut it,
yes, I can give advice aroundthat, that I can tell you
realistically $5, but it's goingto mean these are the areas
that we might have to sacrificea bit of budget in order to
(21:18):
allow for that.
Presenting that in a visual wayis such a great way to use the
tool and be realistic and havedifficult conversations about
money that you know it's part ofmy job to make your money work
harder and your budget workharder.
But this is it in a visual wayWe've got to work with.
(21:42):
So you know we can move thisaround and make allowances, but
you're going to miss outsomewhere else Absolutely Well.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
And I think one of the other things that's really
unique about the IL Plannerplatform and really brings the
value of you as a planner up isthe fact that a lot of these
decisions that couples aremaking especially like when
we're talking around money andbudget but there are a lot of
different things that they wantto sit and they want to marinate
on they want to think through.
One of the things that's greatabout having a client-focused
(22:07):
portal, somewhere where you guysare collaborating together but
not like in the same room, iswhat Jack said earlier.
Go look at your budget, grab aglass of wine, you know.
Grab a beer, sit down, think itthrough.
What realistically, do you wantto spend?
You know you're seeing thatbreakdown right there.
If you know that your dreamphotographer is 15 K but you've
(22:32):
only got a 7,500 budget, wherecan you manipulate it?
Or are you okay coming out ofpocket for the rest?
And that conversation happeningin the comfort of their own home
, in the privacy of their ownhome, is such an easier
conversation and it gives themtime to kind of settle into it,
versus being at a round tablewith you going, hey well, that's
the cost.
(22:52):
Do you want to make it work ornot, because if you're asking
them to make a split decision,usually they're going to say no,
and if they do say yes, youmight get a situation where then
they go home and they talkabout it and 24 hours later you
get a whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,whoa, whoa.
That was a bad decision, right?
So I think that that'ssomething from the client side
that is really valuable, becauseit gives them a little bit more
(23:16):
autonomy to be a part of thewhole planning process, but do
it in a very private way.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I think, just as a side note to having those
conversations about money, inparticular as a wedding planner,
where you are involved eitherwholly or partially, I always,
early on in that first meeting,would say I'm making a
commitment to you to beabsolutely transparent and if
and when things pop up that areout of scope, I'm going to come
(23:44):
to you as soon as that happens.
But I'm making a commitment toyou to be transparent about that
.
If you want something and youcan't afford it, or you want
something and it's not possible,I'm going to be realistic and
bring that to you straight away.
So I think I think it'simportant to make mention of
that that set those things upearly and not later on where
you're going.
Okay, I know we said 50, butit's actually it's actually
(24:05):
about 75, right?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
yeah, fifty thousand dollar budget, but you know, a
dripping, a dripping ceiling offlorals and you, you're like
that's your entire budget.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, that's why I am so.
Set it up, set up thoseexpectations that I'm going to
be a realist Confidence, giveyou advice around things that we
can't do, and here's a solution.
You want that?
Look, here's another way to doit.
That's who you are and ourplanner is going to facilitate
that in a visual way and backyou up with the data.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Well and I think that's actually a great segue
into the design studio because,again, it's one of the pieces of
the project management platformwhere you and the client are
collaborating on the visionright.
That is where you get to maybebring in a vendor, your florist,
who you know you're going touse.
(24:53):
The clients absolutely lovethis florist, it's their perfect
aesthetic.
So you know you're going to usethis florist, you have a great
relationship with them.
You go ahead, you invite theminto the project.
You only give them access tothe design studio and you say,
hey, florist, can you pleaseupload a handful of different
sprays and, underneath of it,comment on what is the cost of
(25:15):
that spray?
You know things like that.
What is the size, what is thescope, how many stems is that?
You know same with.
In a previous life I was avendor, specifically linen, and
so my clients would invite me inand I would just have access to
the design studio.
I knew their aesthetic becauseI had access and I could see the
entire inspiration for whatthey were doing.
And then I would just haveaccess to the design studio.
I knew their aesthetic becauseI had access and I could see the
(25:36):
entire inspiration for whatthey were doing and then I would
create a folder and I would puthere are four linen options
that I think would work reallywell for your event.
They're within your cost.
Here is the cost per of thedifferent sizes.
Here are the quantities we haveLet me know which and it was a
really easy way for all of us tocollaborate without having to
be in the same room and all theback and forth via email.
(25:58):
Again, yeah, a great way, nice,like segue, but the design
studio, great way to communicatewith your client as a
photographer, putting folders inthere of different venues,
different light sources, whatthey're going to look like.
Maybe, if you've got threedifferent ways that you edit
final, you know you've got anatural, you've got a moody and
(26:19):
you've got, you know, a brightlight.
So maybe you put differentfolders in there of three
different aesthetics and whatthey're going to look like and
what they're really going to doto the photos, so that they know
, you know, and there's nocrossing of the wires later when
you do all the editing and thesoft and moody and they're like
no, we wanted bright light,right, yeah, so lots of
(26:41):
different ways that you canutilize it.
Get inspiration from the client.
Lilac is not lilac to everysingle person, right?
So I want a lilac wedding andyou will get it from and you're
like that's periodical and Ijust sourced everything I like.
So great ways to be able toutilize it on both ways giving
inspiration to the client, butalso getting their inspiration
(27:02):
from them.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
For wedding professionals that are new to
IELTS Planner like what kind ofadvice can you give them to get
started in maximizing theplatform's capabilities?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Absolutely so.
We offer a free 30-day trialfor any prep so you're able to
go in, test it out and you havefull access to all of the
features within the IO Plannerplatform.
So it's not like you're limitedto what you can do.
We want you to truly be able tofeel it out.
We want you to be able to getin there.
We want you to be able to do atest project or maybe a real
project, whatever that lookslike for you.
(27:32):
But we want you to be able toreally feel it out.
We also offer onboarding.
We have a customer successmanager.
She's phenomenal.
She is an ex-event pro, one ofthe things I love about our
company.
We are all ex-event pros.
We have all been in theindustry.
We have all been exactly whereyou are.
We know the challenges.
We also know what works andwhat doesn't.
(27:52):
So she is there to help do anonboarding.
We're going to start doingmonthly onboarding monthly or
bi-weekly, we're not sure which,depending on interest but
orientation webinars where youcan just get on and see like,
how does it work, where to getstarted, what to do.
But really, with IELTS aisleplanner, the number one thing I
(28:14):
will tell you is that it takestime.
It is you're truly recreatingyour entire business process on
a new platform.
It is a platform that will workfor you as you build it out.
It's also a great value asset.
You now have your entirebusiness process in a sellable
product that you can literallytransfer the rights to someone
(28:34):
else, and it gives you value toyour company.
You're building out your entirebusiness.
So be patient, take the time,put time aside to really learn
what it does and how to make itwork for you.
It's technology.
It only does, it only knows, itonly works as well as the
information.
(28:55):
So you can't just log in andexpect it to set up and ready
for success.
You really have to put thattouchy into it.
And it's creating out thosetemplates, creating out those
checklists, making sure you'vegot a real clean vision of how
you're going to utilize thesystem.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yeah, yeah, I mean CRMs in a CRM form is something
that I've kind of run from mywhole career because I I tried a
couple here in Australia rightin the beginning and over the
years they've gotten sotechnical and there's been so
much involved in them that it'sbecome too hard for my little
(29:35):
brain and I've just had to bailand just do it in a way that I
can understand.
And I think there's a lot ofcreatives out there who are I
often joke and say I havegalloping ADHD, which which here
I am, here we are.
And I think there's a lot ofother wedding professionals and
(29:55):
a lot of other creatives outthere that have the same thing,
that really struggle with thevolume of technology that is
required and getting your headaround everything that gets done
.
And it's the same with me andJack here.
I quite often think that I'mjust here to make her look
(30:15):
pretty because Jack does so muchof all of the tech stuff,
because I just have no idea andit's really hard for me to get
my head around.
So you know, you know, helpingpeople make the most out of it
and the videos and stuff thatare there, I think is is a great
way to really help, and youradvice in putting the time in is
is good too.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
It's.
It's hard.
You know the number oneconversation you will hear out
of any event pros mouth, nomatter what vertical they're in
I just don't have enough time,right.
One of the things thattechnology will help you do,
though, is make more time foryour business, and to work
outside of your business too.
You know vacations, having timeto step away, being able to
(31:00):
know that you can, you know, goout of town for a weekend or go
to a friend's event and not haveto worry that things are
falling apart.
You know within the business,or that things are falling
behind or that you're going tocome back to just a smorgasbord
of issues.
Yeah, that's what technologyhelps you to do.
(31:20):
So the other thing I will say,especially from the CRM side
there are CRM.
There are a ton of CRMs forevent professionals.
They they're constantlythrowing new ones at you.
I think that it really is.
It's about focusing on theprocess, how much flexibility it
gives you.
There's a lot of thoughtprocess of like.
(31:42):
If it's already built out,that's just easier.
I just have to plug and go.
But the problem with that is it.
It takes away from the buyer'sexperience.
It takes away from theindividualism of your company.
It takes away from your brandvoice when you're, you know,
kind of confined to just fourtemplates for this particular
thing or something like that.
(32:03):
So there's pluses and minusesto all of it.
I think that it's about findingone that you understand and
works with you and has theflexibility you need to be able
to do your job and run yourcompany the way you feel
comfortable, versus kind ofbeing forced in a single
direction.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I think one good thing about that situation is
our planner can be as simple oras complicated as you need it to
be.
You can go to the budget tab orthe seating plan or the
checklist and it is an obviouschecklist and it makes sense how
to use it.
But you know the minute thatyou go up to the right and you
go to the little advanced optionand start digging deeper, like
(32:44):
I do.
But what I'm trying to say isyou don't have to.
It's simple and it makes sensethe way that things are laid out
, so you can go in there and notbe scared to give it a go, and
go tab by tab and just startusing one feature and start
expanding on your repertoire asand when you see fit.
(33:04):
Sarah, important, important,important.
I have to know this new featureabout the RSVP because, as a
planner, I have been absolutelydying for this because there's
so many hacks that I had to doto make this work.
So, ben, just so you know,there is a great feature in that
you can manage your guest listright and it all makes sense
(33:26):
that you know the couple willput in groups of people that
need to be together, or if youcan imagine you don't just put
in name by name.
you put in Ben and Hayley forexample, and then you can export
that for the caterer or for theseating plan or whatever like.
There's all these great thingsthat you could do with it.
But one thing you couldn't dowas include on an invite here's
(33:47):
a link for you to go and rsvpand it talked to our planet, it
insert those people into.
So there was this, always thismanual sort of rsv over here.
I'll export it.
I'll import it or manuallytyping in these names.
So tell me it's fixed.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
It is so we do.
Now it runs through.
So, just so everybody's aware,there's a wedding website on the
within the Isle Planner project.
It's pretty flat, you don'thave to use it, you just have to
enable it, because it's wherethe link lives.
Once you actually enable it,you have to quote, unquote, send
the guest list.
But there don't.
There doesn't have to be anyemails in there, you can send it
(34:29):
, just to create the database,basically, and then and then you
have a link.
So a lot, of, a lot of pros nowwill want to create like a QR
code.
So create that QR code, put iton the event website, whichever
one they're using, but itdirectly links back to the IELTS
Planner website.
They can also go in and edit,which that was probably the
(34:51):
number one request we got was.
Okay, they can get the initialone, but we want them to be able
to edit their RSVP.
They put a plus one.
They put in their boyfriendtoday.
It is now six months later,that boyfriend is long gone.
We need to change that RSVP.
So I love that.
Or, you know, I was veganyesterday, I'm not today, so
(35:11):
whatever it has to be, but theycan.
They can now go in and searchand edit it as well, which just
adds it.
We know it's it's.
We're constantly listening toour pros.
Like I said, as a group of um xevent pros, we do understand
your frustrations.
We promise we understand, likethe feedback that we are
receiving, and working asdiligently as we can to continue
(35:32):
to push through requests thatwe do receive, and so that was.
That was a big one for us, thathad been asked for a while and
so it finally made it on.
The docket, went through, hasbeen very well received and the
goal is to make you, as theplanner as well as the client,
make it easier, make thatprocess just a little bit less
cumbersome so that you can focuson other things.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Coming to the end, here I get to ask my Ben's
question, which I ask all of ourguests, and that question is
what advice if you walkedoutside and ran into an
18-year-old version of you?
What advice would you give that18-year-old version of you,
knowing what you know?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
now in terms of life and business and everything.
So I would say from the verybeginning, if you can, from the
minute you have an idea ordecide I want to go into
business, whether it's going tobe a solopreneur, an
entrepreneur, whether you'regoing to be a boss with a
million employees, whetheryou're going to be an individual
contributor to another largerorganization, before you go out
(36:34):
there and you actually take onthat position, think about what
you're going to need to besuccessful and think forward.
Don't think tomorrow.
Think 5, 10, 15 years ahead oftime.
If you are setting up yourbusiness today, put the
processes in place, put thetechnologies in place to support
you all the way up.
I would say one of the biggestmistakes and it's I can't say
(36:56):
that it's wrong, because mostare starting with a hairline
budget and a dream, you know, ofmaking this thing work.
But if you really want tosucceed, take the time to put
the effort in that's necessary.
I always used to recommend whenI was doing some business
coaching for newer pros take astep back, only take five or six
(37:17):
clients and take a part-timejob.
That helps you be able to takeonly the clients you want and
really set yourself up forsuccess.
If you want to be this type ofplanner or this type of
photographer, if you want towork at this level with this
type of client, you're going toneed to make sure that you're
setting yourself up for successfrom the very beginning.
It's also a whole lot easier todo it from the very beginning
(37:38):
than to try to three, five yearsinto your business, when things
are busy and you're active andyou're getting more and more
successful, to stop the wheelsand like, put these different
programs, technologies,processes in place.
So, honestly, I would say thenumber one advice I would give
is if you really want it to work.
(38:00):
One advice I would give is, ifyou really want it to work, give
yourself the ability to investin yourself and invest in your
business.
And investing means time, itmeans technology, it means
resources, it means education.
But all of those things aregoing to ensure that as you move
forward in your career, you areset up for success and you
don't hit a roadblock at fiveyears because you didn't do
(38:23):
those things and now you'vefound that you are growing past
your capabilities.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
I love that Awesome.
Thank you yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
So if you would like to invest in your business,
sarah, big way I'm so cornySarah has given us a really
generous deal for all of ourlisteners 10% off Isle Planner
for the first 12 months.
All you have to do is go to adedicated page that has been set
(38:52):
up.
So the website for Isle Planneris isleplannercom.
Forward slash affiliate.
Forward slashwinningacademyglobal.
Affiliate.
Forward slash Wedding AcademyGlobal.
You will be able to redeem thatoffer.
Don't worry, I'm going to putit in the show notes.
I will share that link witheverybody, but it is 10% off for
12 months.
So thank you very much for yourgenerosity, sarah.
(39:14):
I think that I rave about OurPlanet to anyone and everyone,
so I think you need to get onboard and go and try it for your
business, no matter what kindof wedding professional you are.
If you're looking to streamlinethings, it's an excellent tool.
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