Who's Got The Plan For The Planner

We're the calm in everyone else's storm — the ones with a backup for the backup and a contingency for every "what if." But we almost never stop to ask what happens if the unexpected lands on us. In this one, Brianne and Laurie catch up as old friends and get honest about that blind spot — not to scare anyone, but to talk through what's actually changed for each of them, and the small, doable things that let a planner step away without everything unraveling.

Brianne Ackerland — a Master Certified Wedding Planner with 15 + years planning weddings across Iowa and Illinois, who also educates planners through the CWP Society — shares the day her life flipped overnight: a sudden cardiac arrest, just one day after wrapping a full-service wedding. We get into the messy reality of recovery, including what it's like to be unable to speak clearly while your phone keeps ringing and the weddings keep coming.

From there we get honest about the operational gaps so many of us have: client details living only in our heads, passwords stored nowhere anyone else can reach, and backups that are "someday" ideas instead of real systems. Then we map out steps you can actually take now — building a planner ICE list (in case of emergency), naming a point person who knows exactly who to call, curating a trusted local network, and creating real redundancy with both cloud tools and good old-fashioned paper. We also dig into why personality fit matters when someone steps in for you, the tools that quietly cut down the chaos, and how leaning on trained assistants can make a handoff feel seamless for your couples.

If this one sparked a gut-check, take one small step today — then come back and tell us what you changed. Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with a planner friend, and leave a review so more wedding pros can find us.

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

Transcript

The Question Nobody Wants

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Here's a question none of us like to sit with for very long. If the unexpected actually knocked you out tomorrow, not the couple's big day, but yours, who's got the plan? So today I'm sitting down with a dear friend for a conversation that I think a lot of you have quietly needed.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

So grab your cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and let's hop in away.

Meet Brianne Over Coffee

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Now let's jump right in with our host, founder and CEO Lori Hartwell.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

All right, we're back, and I could not be more excited about who's across the table from me today. Brianne Ackerlin has been planning weddings for over 15 years across Iowa and Illinois. She is a master certified wedding planner, and she's also one of our CWP Society's certified industry educators. And she has several certifications under her belt, such as certified design consultant, certified timeline genius, certified style shoot coordinator. And if all of that wasn't enough, she also serves as an industry advancement director for our organization. Basically, if there's a way to be excellent at this career, Brianne is certified in it. Brienne, welcome, and I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for having me this morning. I love to have coffee. Right. I mean, who doesn't want to have coffee and sit around and just chit-chat? But I do have a very important question for you regarding that. What are you drinking today?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Well, I have my uh raspberry white mocha, delicious, but it's in my cup that says I'm not bossy, I'm just aggressively helpful, which is what my children tell me is my job is to boss people around. It's my favorite thing to do. That's hilarious. I love this so much. But it also has my CWP certification logos and things on the backside, which you can't see. There we go.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Oh, look at that. And I love that. Looks so good. That's a nice cup. Did someone gift that to you? Oh no, I did it on one of the websites. You gifted it to yourself. Yes. Okay. I think that's even better, to be honest with you. And a white chocolate raspberry mocha. That sounds ridiculously wonderful. I mean, see, this proves that you're a woman who plans for every worst case scenario and still orders dessert in a cup. So I exactly what it is. That's the dream. That's the dream. Um so, well, I think I am going to have exactly what you have. I'm going to go ahead and choose to have that today because I need dessert in a cup. And so, how about let's go ahead and get comfortable and settle in? Because I have really, really been looking forward to chatting with you. Before I pepper you with like a million questions, I like to let my guests turn the tables on me a little bit, and you get to put me on the spot and ask me something personal.

A Book That Resets The Mind

SPEAKER_01 3:07

So tell everybody what your question is for me today.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Well, my question is if you like to read, what's your favorite book series? I know as a wedding planner, my brain is always going. And so when I take a few minutes to read, it helps shift my mind so I can kind of just clear it a little bit. So is there a book series that maybe I should start reading if you are a reader?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

I do love reading, but I don't typically read series. I I read a lot of self-improvement books and things of that nature. So, and I'm just like you, I have to clear my brain. The only way I can do that though is I do it at night and I have to watch the golden girls as I go to sleep. It puts me right to sleep. But as far as a book is concerned, and I love this question because I do actually love to read. My favorite book is actually called The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. And I don't just mean that I enjoyed reading it that one time. I mean I it genuinely changed the way I see life as a whole. Basically, the heart of the book is that this idea that you're not the constant voice running in your head. You're just the one listening to it. And once that clicked for me, something just kind of loosened up. And I all of a sudden kind of saw the world differently, and everything just made a lot more sense than it had before. My stress levels actually are so much lower today because of that one shift. I just love books that allow me to kind of reflect on who I am as a person and how I can improve kind of my mindset and things of that nature. I feel like that's the only way I can grow. So I thought that question was such a great question because that's kind of perfect for the two of us, in my opinion. Because our whole job is about managing everybody else's chaos, everybody else's stress. But learning how to manage our own thoughts and emotions, you know, that's been the real game changer for me. It's it's been my reset. It's the thing that I go back to when I don't know, the world gets a little noisy, if you will, you know. So need less stress in their life. I like especially parents and coordinators. I mean, we we too much. Uh, but listen, I could talk about that book all day, but I'm really excited about our listeners hearing from

Surviving Sudden Cardiac Arrest

SPEAKER_01 5:36

you. So let's get into the reason why I asked you to join me on this podcast. Here's where I kind of want to start. You and I have built entire identities around being the steady one, the person with the backup for the backup. And the one everybody exhales around because we've got it handled and they feel comfortable knowing that. And somewhere in there, though, it gets really easy to kind of believe that we're the one person, the chaos is not gonna come for. However, you lived the other side of that. You realized uh one day that the chaos did come for you. And I kind of want to see if you don't mind taking us into some of your story. And you don't have to overshare, you can share just as much as you want, but I'd love for people to kind of understand your background.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

So five years ago, um, I had a sudden cardiac arrest, which basically means your heart is not pumping viably to keep you alive. Thankfully, it happened at a pool. I wasn't in the water. Um, but you know, there were um lifeguards there that were able to do CPR until emergency services came. But this was the day after, this happened one day after I had completed a full service wedding day. And then I was, you know, uh put under to a certain, I guess is a good way to put it for a couple of days. So I was at the pool one day and I woke up two days later and I was in the hospital and didn't know what had happened to me. So obviously, um, when you're it was May, like that's a that's busy wedding season here in Iowa, and so it was very not expected, obviously, um, and very chaotic. And you shook up my household, my work, everything because here, you know, something catastrophic had happened and it had to pivot how I operate um and how I function in my day-to-day life. So not just personally, but also um my business because of my health changing my changes that had happened.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah, you couldn't talk for a while. You you there was a lot of recovery time, wasn't there?

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yeah, I had a paralyzed vocal cord from fighting intubation because I was, you know, sedated and that they had me on life support basically, type of scenario. And so I ended up with a paralyzed vocal cord for a little bit after I had first come out of it. So it was traumatic. It was traumatic, yeah. Say the least.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah, I I mean, and you're still actually recovering day to day, even. I mean, it's been five years, but and you're doing so much better now, but I know it's been a constant five-year battle of yeah, it doesn't change, it's not a one and done situation.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Again, like less than 10% of people survive a sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital. So the odds were not in my favor. And obviously, there are side effects from things that had happened and not what I was had to deal with and went through and are ongoing, and they always will be. So it's definitely had to make me pivot on how I

Keeping Weddings Alive Without You

SPEAKER_02 8:44

continue to um work full-time doing this to make sure I can keep things operational.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah. I and I remember the the day, like it was last week. Like it really feels like it just happened. I can't believe it's been five years. I remember hearing that Lisa, who worked a lot of weddings for you, kind of I hear that she called and left a message on the CWP Society's phone line, but it was after hours, so my team didn't get it, you know. Uh then I was, I remember I was on my way to the grocery store when I received a call from Eddie Babbage, uh, my friend is CEO over at Timeline Genius, and he was telling me that he just got off the phone with Lisa and where he then proceeded to tell me everything that had just happened to you. And of course, I had to pull off the saddle road. It was a big like, I'm like, wait a second, I don't think I heard you correctly. And he told me that he was going to be giving Lisa access to your Timeline Genius account so that she can get in and get access to those timelines because you had a lot of upcoming weddings, and she was wanting to make sure that nothing fell through the cracks. And so that was a huge deal. So I turned my car around, went right back home, did not go grocery shopping that day. And I called Lisa back. We talked for a couple of hours, uh, and I helped her kind of devise a plan on how to notify your clients who had weddings that were approaching relatively quickly. Uh, I also got the details that I needed so that I could maybe reach out to our entire membership to see who could help cover some of the weddings. And I I was, I just remember kind of advising her on the best course of action. And then we were off to the races. We just had to like go into problem-solving mode. We had members flying in from every corner of the country for months helping on your behalf. And all the while you were just trying to talk again and recover and walk. And it took a long time, but you finally got there. And now, in true Brianne fashion, which I'm so proud of, you're on this mission to train other planners how to get through these types of emergencies. So there's this strange quiet headspace when you're the one who's been sidelined because your body may have stopped, but the planner brain does not get the memo. So, beyond everything else that was going on during that crazy, crazy time, the wedding side of your brain is the one I want to ask you about. Like, what was it running on a loop about?

SPEAKER_02 11:20

It was these kind people that were stepping in to help with my events. How do I get them what's inside my head? Because yes, I had physical binders. Yes, they had access to you my timeline, but they don't know my clients. They don't know where I'm at in the planning process with each of my clients. And so I remember somebody from Colorado was flying in to do one of my weddings, and one of the assistants that I had, who's also a certified wedding planner, she was already scheduled to work as an assistant on that event, but wasn't comfortable being the lead on that particular one. And I I remember being on a video chat with her with the paralyzed vocal cord and trying to tell her like this and this and this. And I'm like, if you haven't experienced that, basically you're short of breath the entire time. Like you're getting dizzy and lightheaded because there's not enough oxygen flow when you're trying to talk. Wow. So I just remember kind of being in the state of like, how are these people gonna know where I'm at with each of these, even though they have my physical binder, even though they have the timeline and it has all of the vendor information on it? They didn't know what was inside my head, and I couldn't physically without almost passing out, share that information. It was a difficult time, yeah. But nobody in their early 40s thinks they're gonna drop dead at the pool one day.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Probably not top of mind. No, no, I kind of want to talk about that whole everything living just in your brain, because this one to me, I think is gonna hit home for a lot of our listeners because we all do this,

The Wedding Planner ICE List

SPEAKER_01 13:04

right? There's the passwords, there's all of the vendor cell phone numbers. It's kind of like this mile-high mental sticky note pile, and it all lives exactly in one place, our old head. What's something that you realized after everything happened that lived only in your head that completely stumped really you trying to help them step in for you? What was that? Was it like a login? Uh, was it a contact that would have caused total chaos if nobody could find it or have it?

SPEAKER_02 13:34

And honestly, it had to do with where I was at with each client because I wasn't keeping like a work log. Like I am a big note take, physical note taker, and I have, you know, legal pads and sheets of like that's how I take my notes. I'm old school, so I write everything out. I didn't use any sort of electronic platform to store this information. But honestly, the other side of that is if I didn't talk about my work with my significant other, he wouldn't have known who to call in the first place. Got it. So the biggest element to this is having a person that knows you and what you do. And then he was able to reach out to Lisa, which again, she was one that had was interested in wedding planning, started her own business. But I was like, you got to get certified because this is what you need to do, you know. And so he knew who to call. So no knowing who that planner person is in your life and having a person that would know who to call, that's gonna be your first major item because it doesn't matter if you don't have the work log or any of the things if they don't know who to reach out to.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

That's so true. Having a net doesn't make you less capable, right? It just now you're covered. That's it. Weakness, it's it to me, I call that competence. So, in your opinion, what does a good I've got you arrangement between planners actually look like in practice?

SPEAKER_02 14:59

It's communication, it's whether it's group chats on a Facebook group, like we have one set up here in Iowa. It's like, hey, I got inquiries for this, or have you worked with that planner be or this vendor before? So we just have an ongoing group chat for our planners in Iowa that are certified wedding planners. And then, hey, I've got this open date. Do you have this open date? You know, Lisa, it had been a while since I had honestly seen Lisa, even though she's only 40 minutes from me. But we, you know, a couple months ago sat and ate lunch. Um, you know, she was in town for something and we just met up and had lunch. So it isn't necessarily that you have to have FaceTime on the day-to-day, but it's just like this constant connection of, hey, how's business going? How are things going for you? Is there anything going on that again you might potentially need help with? My hairdresser recently got certified and she was pregnant, and I was and she just did my hair two weeks ago, and I was like, hey, if something comes up with the baby, please feel free to give me a call with any of your events. I'm more than happy to help facilitate if something comes up.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

You're a great example of how the unexpected can just hit you right in the face. And all of a sudden, you have to rely on these humans that hopefully care so much about you. You have really developed a beautiful relationship with a lot of people in your area. You're a wonderful mentor to a lot of people. You people look up to you, and I know that you are a huge support to so many people who have an interest in this industry, and you have led them to our organization so that they are fully notified and of all the things. And so that's great. What I loved about what came out of your situation is I watched our CWP Society tribe band together, and we just wanted to make sure that we had you covered without skipping a beat. So glad that that happened. Uh, so finding that person or people, not just it doesn't have to just be one person, uh, but having a tribe that you can trust as your net, that's what it should be. So, what do you think people should be looking for in that type of tribe?

SPEAKER_02 17:15

For me, number one, it was personality, honestly. It was who are like-minded individuals, same values, same goals, you know, things that we want in our business. So that way I could trust them that they would step in and do things the way that I would do them. And so fortunately, uh, you know, a couple of these people started off as wedding day assistants for me and then got certified and started their own businesses. So I knew that they had been trained properly on, you know, but also for my clients to feel comfortable. So if they uh connect with me, it's because yes, I have all of these tools and I'm great at this, but but there's so much of this has to, they have to feel confident and comfortable in me as a person because I have no tangible goods, right? So the person that I'm asking to fill in or sub in or whatever, I need them to feel just as comfortable. So the planners that did end up filling in for me, I knew that like if they are comfortable with me, they will be comfortable with this person. Because again, just because they're a certified wedding planner doesn't mean that their personality is gonna be a good match. So it, you know, for me, that was part of the creating this kind of like I what I like officially called a wedding planner ICE list in case of emergency list is who are the people that not only do I know that they use the same tools, timeline genius, all of the things, rock, paper, coin, because my clients upload their contracts to their same situation. Like, what's the password so they can get in? They could see the paperwork if they needed to, you know, so that way they have all of the goods, but now my my clients need to feel comfortable with them. And so I try to kind of curate this group of like-minded individuals, personality types, processes so that way it's an easier transition because I know that they love me, so they're probably gonna love this other person too.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

And and that is part of the the trust that our couples are gonna have within us, anyway, is that we're gonna care so much about their needs and what their wants are and their comfort level throughout the body. That if something did, in fact, happen to us, that someone else who's gonna be stepping in is going to be very similar to us. It's not gonna be this random, kind of crazy, off-the-wall, different human being that's got different ideals, different values, different ways of communicating. It does need to be someone that is very similar in nature. That's the only way that we can make sure that our couples are feeling comfortable and that the transition, like you said, is seamless.

New Systems That Create Peace

SPEAKER_01 19:50

So that kind of leads me to what's different now, right? To me, this is the real heart of it. And I'm not saying you need this to scare people, but what changed afterwards? Like the systems, the habits, the peace of mind that you built once you have now been on the other side of this. So, what was the very first thing that you changed once you were back on your feet? I wrote down my passwords.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

I'm on a piece of paper. Um, yes, there again, if people can't get into your things, it's useless. Right. So now it's I'm sitting at my desk and I can see my list right there with my passwords on it.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Now I have them and husband can give them to whoever he needs to give them to. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

And then again, in my phone, I have your name, wedding planner ice, wedding planner ice, other wedding planners in my area that I feel like again that I still have relationships with, that if they needed to, if one isn't free, that they could also do a chain call for me. So at least it would be a jumping off point. Because again, if you can't talk for yourself, yeah, if you are in a state where you cannot function in any shape or form, then you need to have something where someone knows what to do and where to find it, and where to find it. Because that's I think again, as planners, we're just like, oh yeah, well, I could just tell if I have a cold like cold or had COVID, I could just be like, call this person. No, I could not talk, right? I could not pull up my phone and try to text someone and let them know what was going on. There were people calling my phone. I was supposed to have meetings in person with people, and they were calling my phone, and my husband's trying to answer this and deal with this, and his, you know, and take care of you and small children, yes, my dog, my youngest was nine.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Yeah, and and and I can't even imagine the stress that your hubby. Was feeling in that moment worried, sick about you. Was my wife going to even pull through this? How do I take care of these kids? My wife's phone is blowing up because she's got meetings and weddings, and and it your husband stepped up in a big way and really took care of some things there. And just for everybody, I want to remind everybody when you're talking about ice, iCE everybody stands for in case of an emergency. It's kind of something that you're going to want to put in your phone so that your best friend or your significant other or someone can go, okay, let me just type in ice and then we'll say wedding planning, uh, maybe it's personal stuff. Maybe do you have a bunch of ice categories out of no, but I mean, every it I it came because that's how phones started.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

It was it's in your contacts. Like, but like if if there was an emergency and you were crashed on the car, if you were in a car rat car crash, it has like your top three or whatever, right? And that's where the idea sprung from. It's like, oh, well, we have to have this for the doctor's office in case there's an emergency, you know, for whomever. Yeah, for our line of work when you're the only person, you need an ice for that.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Oh, I love it. So here's what I don't think people uh expect, and that planning for the worst quietly kind of makes you, in my opinion only, and I'm curious what your thoughts are. To me, it kind of makes us more calm and maybe a better planner on a completely different level. But also for our regular ordinary days as well, and sometimes those emergencies really turn us into different people. So, did building all of this out change how the ordinary days feel to you?

SPEAKER_02 23:49

There's just more peace of mind because now I know that I have a redundancy for a while. I couldn't drive to my weddings, even though I was cleared to work. I couldn't drive. So my mother was driving me to my work. And then I was like, mom, if you're here and you're driving me, I might as well pay you. So I made her take the certification program because again, we can't train a person if they're not an employee. And I wasn't, I didn't know how permanent this was going to be. I didn't know how disruptive it would have been for my life. But at the time, I wasn't allowed to drive. And so I was like, so I had my mother take the certification, and now, you know, when she chooses to, she's like, Hey, can I, you know, work this couple of days? Sure, mom. But now there's peace of mind because again, one of the things I did differently is that now anyone that works with me as a wedding day assistant, they are a certified wedding planner. This is so that way when they have a subcontractor to work that day, they know that if something happens to me health-wise, they will have to take the lead. So I'm very clear on that. So, you know, I respect that, I appreciate, I tell them, like, hey, if you take the certification, you know, this is not only going to help you, but there's not a non-compete. Um, I want you to excel, I want you to do your thing, but I need to have a person available that can step in. And that way my clients feel comfortable. That their second backup person, if I'm not available, is educated and knows what to do. And there's not this floundering like had happened with trying to find replacements. Now, my second person who's already picked the day that they are working, have signed a subcontractor agreement for that day, they're locked in. There's no question on who's gonna step in if need be. And it just alleviates all that stress of if I had to. But again, not everybody's been in the situation where you have to worry that you can't cover your own wedding. But now I don't have to worry that I wouldn't have a person to call because they've already got what they need in to do the job effectively.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

That's that is peace of mind at its core, and that saves so much stress and anxiety just knowing that you have people to cover you. And I feel like a lot of wedding planners are not thinking like this. They are not thinking about the worst case scenario, they're not even thinking about like one bad incident. And I'm not suggesting that everybody's gonna be experiencing something as severe as what you went through, Brie. But what I am suggesting is things do happen. They do come up. There are car accidents, there's illnesses, there are deaths in the family, there are so many big, huge moments that can take place that sometimes having that backup, someone who's already a part of the team, someone who already knows us really well, understands our personality, would be able to go ahead and log into whatever they need to log into, pick up right where we left off, because we brought them into our fold and they now know what to do. And I think that that peace of mind does not have a cost, like it is priceless. So there are probably people that have been thinking, like, oh yeah, one day I need to do it, but they keep putting it off. So

The Simplest Way To Start

SPEAKER_01 27:14

for a planner who knows they should do this, but kind of keeps ticking the tan down the road, what's the easiest place for them to start and putting something like this together?

SPEAKER_02 27:24

The first thing I again is create your list outside of an electronic device that has all of the passwords for the programs that somebody would need. And then number two, have your point of contact set up. Who in your life would be able to have access to your information? And if you don't have a person, start thinking about who that would be in your life to be able to keep in business five years later after this horrific accident happened and to be viable still. For a lot of people, it would have shut down everything. And I'm not saying I'm extra strong or whatever, but again, it's a mindset thanks to our wonderful CWP family and the you know, and the partnership I created with my local people, yes, the stepping stones were there to get the access to the stuff that they needed. So in this case, I had the person, it was reversed. There was no access to things, but I had the person. So I would start with the access and then your person who knew how to get to the next person. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

I mean, and also I think what helped too is that you use like a software like Timeline Genius, because it's all cloud-based, and it's really easy to kind of just go in and we can go, all right. So, okay, she's got this wedding, this wedding, this wedding, this it tells us right there in your dashboard of Timeline Genius what weddings you had upcoming, where you were with everything. And that is so amazingly helpful.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

The contact information again, like if you couldn't get access to your email, yes, programs like Timeline Genius, or again, like Rock Paper Coin, where I have my clients upload their contracts to their client folder. There's a way for now that person, all they need is that password to get in. And now they have access at least to the fundamentals of the items to be able to start on something and then you know, and kind of go from there. So it was the binders. Like again, I was using Timeline Genius at that time, so that was part of it. But yes, I had my physical paper copies too, but one is not enough. We need we need both, we need the redundancy of electronic and paper goods to make sure that you know backup of the backup. That's what planners do. Is our job is to make sure that we have backups of backups of backups.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

That's what we're supposed to do, but I feel like a lot of people wing it, but they plan, they they call themselves planners, right? But they're planning only for others, they're not planning for themselves. And I feel like that's where there's a lot of tripping up, and we need to change that. We need to plan just as much for ourselves as we do for everybody else in our world. And you learned the hard way, okay. So thank you, I guess, for falling down and telling us how to avoid that uh pothole. I appreciate that. Happy to help with that, but I think I just want to make sure that we're all learning from that experience from you, rather than saying, well, that'll probably never happen to me. I mean, what are the odds? Well, you probably were thinking the same thing. What are the odds? I mean, you were young, there's no reason for that to have happened. So I am just very, very grateful that you beat the odds, okay, that uh that you're part of the 10%. I mean, that tells you how special you are right there. And I always knew how special you were. But I'm just telling you that this is a big deal. But I also really appreciate you always putting the message out there to planners and coordinators, no matter what level of experience they have in the industry, because that part doesn't actually matter, that they need to make sure that they are thinking about having those redundancies, making sure that there is a backup for the backup plans and prepare for the unexpected. You know, it's called the unexpected for a reason. And if something does happen, you don't want to be blind to it, you don't want to be caught off guard, and you don't want to have the people that hired you to take the biggest hit, and that's our couples. And so I'm so grateful that you're out here and teaching people and working with the CWP Society to educate everybody on what to do when or if any of this happens. And I could sit here and talk to you about this literally all day. And if I had to pull one thing out of what we talked about today, it's this take care of yourself, please, and build the plan, build that safety net, build the systems. That isn't the opposite of taking care of your couples. I want to make sure that I'm making that really clear. It is actually taking care of your couples when you're building the plan and building the net and building the systems. A planner who's covered is a planner who can truly show up. So if any of you who are listening want to find out a little bit more about this very special and amazingly wonderful woman named Brianne, she is the heart behind stress-free weddings, Inc., she's serving couples across Iowa and Illinois. She's also our certified industry educator. So she speaks to a worldwide net of wedding planners and coordinators. And she's exactly as thoughtful and as prepared as she sounds. So, Brianne, I just want to thank you for sharing your story today and also educating and trying to help planners and coordinators find their footing and stop putting off something that they need to be working on right away. So thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

Well, it's my pleasure. Again, it's the goal is to help educate as much as we can. I don't want anybody to end up in the same position that I did. But if my story can teach anything, it's, you know, to be helpful as much as possible. And obviously, our wonderful CWP Society network is, you know, was invaluable in my case. And so um I know that they will show up for you as well if they need to.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

We

CWP Society Invitation And Closing

SPEAKER_01 33:31

absolutely would. And to everybody listening, if this conversation lit something up inside of you, that's exactly what the CWP Society is here for. We are the world's premier wedding planner and coordinator certification program with the largest community of wedding professionals anywhere. And we have a place for you, no matter where you are in your journey. That means that you can choose from one of our free membership options as well as our membership levels that include the one-time fee for certification. You can get certified wedding associates. We have our executive level and become a certified wedding planner or coordinator. And we also have our master level, which is where you can become a master certified wedding planner or coordinator. So we have all of these programs in place. And all of the ones that offer certification with membership, you get elevated certified member benefits that are free for life. That means there's zero recurring monthly or annual fees. It's just us and you together and raising the bar and raising the standards and continuously learning. So wherever you guys are, we've got a place for you. Come find us, come grow with us. In the meantime, we will see you next time. Same great conversations, same great coffee shop.