Lessons

Lesson Info

General Q&A

For two bright lights um how does that service work? Do you have to sign up to they need to pick yu yu know is do you pay by the month or do the vendors pay to get, you know, submissions? How does that work? Yeah, let's actually take a look because I know they have a few different uh to bright lights is a it's cereal pressing so is service and it looks like they have a free service where you can upload images for photographers only create inspiration boards and access shared images. They have premium plans, monthly plans and then I am pretty sure they have a yearly curtis one ninety five per year, which is what I pay one hundred fifty bucks. Not too bad. Yeah, I'm trying teo trying to utilize all the least expensive options that we have for doing this kind of marketing and social media and and all of that so yeah, hundred and fifty bucks for I think I've been a part of to bright lights for two years and I have sixty four getting published so well worth it. Any other questions from here...

before we go to questions online? You guys ugo tell me it doesn't get so much information over the last four days that I can't even imagine how your brains are are just not jell o with tell me what I want to hear whether is this something you feel is manageable or if there's any last things that you feel would hinder you from doing this and actually I would love that question to be asked online too. So are there any hinderance is that you have about this process that would prevent you from giving it a try? All this has like no I'm doing this tomorrow, huh? There really aren't any that I can think of is just kind of being brave and like going for you know what I mean? Because it's like kind of a big commitment teo to be able to do that and I think it's just planning and setting yourself up for success instead of trying to like do everything at once but I think it's definitely worth a try I mean very very least because I think I will definitely see a huge um jump in the way that my bride's reacts from all these things you know what? Yeah it's awesome and the vendors and creating vendor relationships and all that. So yeah, I would definitely encourage because like you said, it's a big thing and it's a lot so I would encourage you you know, I didn't come off the bat with this fantastic idea and did all of it the first try little steps and actually it would probably be helpful if I told you what my little steps were so my first step a couple of years ago was just the slideshow and it wasn't sixty two any pictures it was like twenty so was not as many pictures you were doing using david geez, I was using one of the images show it programs there ever something like that was the actions actually actions, right? Yeah and at the beginning I you know what? I wanted to actually hand my client something I wasn't printing them out an album in doing this whole she bang you know, I still don't even have an assistant at that time I just got a really cute digital key chain that I would just love the pictures on and hand them this digital key chain there's a lot of different options that are actually fairly inexpensive I mean, that was two and a half years ago probably and that digital key chain only cost me I think twelve dollars so you can probably even get something nicer for a little bit less you could probably buy smaller digital picture frames and and, you know, display and then hand it to them you know that kind of thing so little baby steps on dh then you know, maybe you don't want to go out and buy your internet port right away don't worry about that do the other things that you can do on your computer maybe write your log pose thie actual writing part and, you know, copy and paste it into your block post later, so think of like the little baby steps and then just start building on it slowly and better yet have your assistant come on and, you know, don't give her everything all at once either, you know, just let her slowly start learning, and they'll alongwith you also another piece of advice I would give and I've done this for my own business is before you implement something in the field, make sure you've got a pipeline work flow in the studio waiting for you when you return like this is all great, we're doing everything the night of but, you know, you see that she is a monday morning workflow too. So it's really important to have this pipeline and workflow set up. So when you come home now, it's not okay, these are going to start piling up. Now make sure that pipeline is clear from start to finish, and that will really help you to be confident in your you know, in working with it, I really see the value in having an assistant. I've always had second shooters, but there's a whole other list of tasks that neither of you are like most efficiently disposed to be doing during the wedding, yes, so I have entertained the idea of attacking on an assistant to future weddings, and I think that's definitely a plan at this point, so that's been really great to see that decision validated through all of this, and then justus faras, like all the content that we've absorbed over the last couple days, I just really appreciate both of you it has been a lot, but I've also had just been completely captive through the whole process and it's been easy to digest things that can go implement tomorrow, so thank you very much for that I'm glad also one more thing on assistance, a great place to find assistance, go to your local college or university and was the go to the media department head or, you know, one of you know, someone, somebody in the department of humanity's or whatever, and just to have him put the put the word out there, and you're going to get a flood of responding, you're gonna get the phone book better yet, you know how many different, creative live facebook groups there are, you know, not the actual pain, but this is just a plethora of photographers, you know, that's a great community here, it creative lives, and you can just find them on facebook to find people in your area, other groups like that to anybody else we took your question to the internet, her quite a lot of people replying already, and I just want to give a big shout out and congrats to arts and photos. Who says, I do my block and facebook banner and previewed the night of the wedding the next day I do my pens for pinterest, so that is really cool you're already doing less part of that work floats really amazing that you're doing that couple other people, though, have talked about their hindrances was keeping them from starting this process and h kerekou forgive me if I did not say that right, but says, I like sitting down with my images and giving them my personal touch, like spending a lot more time with the images love that and I'm thompson world says hindrances, not charging that to be able to be this efficient there's an investment in tools and assistance, etcetera, but I could try one part like calling some images and displaying them on my laptop. So there your actions, whatever works for you little baby steps and I really I love that actually that hindrance about, you know, taking time with your photos and that kind of thing rob was mentioning, you know, when he does this color, correcting his films like he enjoys that that's his time that's his I think so maybe that is more your brand on dh you know that is brand conducive and something that you really want to do so maybe instead of doing this same day at it and then using all those pictures to go online do your same day at it throw those on the you know slideshow because you know people are drunk by the time they see that they're kind of looked like create perfect images anyway and then set up all those other little things that we did just set up the back end of all those little things and then monday take your time with those photos that you've called the ready and selected monday sit down spend the time that you want to on them and upload them to the various places yeah so you know do things that are definitely going to work with your brand and your work yeah lot of flat modify this work flow to fit your lifestyle and what you want to do with your business your business we're not trying to tell you what to do what you want suggestions on how you can do that yeah call I think the key word is workflow yes my one takeaway oh that word is has been thrown around for the last four days like hey flo yes I've got to make it your own trying to continue on with the next portion oh yeah I think uh a rescuer I saw you holding the mic and you pretty much covered it um which is you know, take the steps so definitely I think that that's when take away that I got and a lot of your little shortcuts the text expander and definitely the blog's stomp is my favorite yes so I'm going to try that good great anything else from our beloved peanut gallery jared yes, I'm just blown away by how organized your um I hate to use the work the word work flow again about how it does actually flow it does keep on going you don't hit many obstacles it's it's step a b c d e on dh it's very easy to follow so just that level of organization and commitment to not only your clients but also to you you know just your brand as being you know something that is worth talking about is inspirational. I'm glad I hope inspiration turns to action for everyone and this is one of the keys to successful business also is having organization and removing his many obstacles you can we have to put out fires occasionally not everyday smooth and perfect and we wake up and oh no her windows pc crashed again shocker you know time time to like put that fire out I have a pc still ok I think of all the obstacles and like yeah that's kind of like one every now and again, but you know these these air having your system is solid. Once you're done putting out the fire, you have something to go back to that's fluid again, and you've got to make your work. Flood water follows the path of least resistance, so make your path of least resistance so your work flows through like water tweet that any questions from online? Uh, question from and the morton he asked, do you discuss with your clients all the facebook and social media activity are all of them fine with you promoting their private pictures over the world immediately that day, I was waiting for that question. Every workshop that's a great question you have to gauge your clients. It does say in my contract that, you know I can and most likely will, you know, publish the pictures and do whatever with the pictures most of the time because this is so effective, those clients have found me because I've posted those pictures and done those things, so they're quite aware of it. But in the consultation I do go over that I do actually say to them, I tell them about the same day slide show. I don't tell them about the book, I'll say, oh, I'm not your wedding, you know we love to do this slide show is like another form of entertainment and then your pictures are uploaded to facebook really quickly afterwards, so I do tell them I don't tell them usually how quickly and I don't guarantee the slide show just to cover myself in case I don't know, my assistant drops the picture frame and breaks it, but I do tell them about it beforehand just to bring up any concerns because that's definitely a valid concern. I've only ever had one client back in two thousand nine that put them up online, but definitely no your client's indefinitely, you know, give them those expectations you want you want to make sure you manage expectations like that manager managing expectations across the board is just simple don't don't promise your client's anything that you're even that you're not one hundred percent confident that you can fulfill and tell them what you will be doing great. I'm another ab submission question about tried lights on what's the wait what's the wait time to hear about publications can you then submit to another exclusive club if not picked up by your first choice? That is a great question too bright lights actually has organized the publishers by their response time, which is great because you know, some of them honestly never get back to you and that's a little doing, but you can actually look and say, I want to only submit to ones that are within two to four weeks or six to eight weeks response time if they are not replying to you one way or the other, yes, you can pull your submission from one and hand it to another. All right, so, yeah, I'm really glad that we were able to give you all this information and then really discuss those hindrances because I think when you learn something like this, it can be very overwhelming, but the things that are most beneficial for you are the things that you're gonna work the hard at the hardest at. So yes, this is going to be something you will work hard at, there will probably be learning curve, you will take baby steps one one to the other, but you know, that's, what you got to do to make your business successful, you can't just sit around and hope it comes to you, and I'm sure none of your sitting around that's why we're here and why you're watching, but, you know, take those hard things and do the things that are difficult, and you were really going to reap great rewards from it. Yeah, there, there there is a tradeoff. I mean, having a successful business does require some sacrifice way don't have a whole lot of free time. We've tried to maximize the amount of free time we have by outsourcing and, you know, using it having good assistance and having good people that do contract labor work for us. But, you know, in the beginning, you may not have the budget for that. We understand, so you have to work up to the point, but the old you definitely set goals for your business seven cents um, goals like short term and long term goals like and it could be something simple, you know? It doesn't have to be plenty, and it doesn't have to be a lot of them, just maybe okay. Within two years, I want to be not doing my own kali and sorting and my color correction and stuff like that, and then maybe a three year goal could be something like, I'd like to have an assistant in both my office and on the jobs, you know, to just set goals, because if you don't set goals, you have nothing to strive for, and then when you get discouraged, it almost seems like you have nothing to look forward to, and then you just become complacent and that's one business to start going downhill. So whether it's what we talked about today or just anything find those hindrances, what is it about you or your business that is stopping you from pushing your business forward to the next level? Because you should always be striving to push it always be breaking, you know, that glass ceiling breaking the boundaries down, so find those hindrances either in your life for in your business and just attack them head on, just grab them, grab them, I know and the horns, the horns grab the bull by the horns and and really attack them head on, you know, be bold or business owners, you know, we have to do the things to make our businesses run, and I really hope that this is one of them and ones that you can benefit from over time, all right away, and you have to take risks, sometimes you have to take risks. I was I was in this position. I mean, exactly what I'm describing, I was there, you know, there was a point where and this is right before the dslr cameras hit, I was at a point where I was I'm bored with this industry, I was shooting with video cameras, and I just wasn't thrilled with the images I was producing, and this is, you know, this is a while ago, but I was at a point where I didn't have goals for my business and I was just kind of shooting weddings whenever I could I was actually doing a lot of volume, so I was always busy but not making much, and then vanessa really kind of changed a lot here, but she said, amazing business, mind and marketing, mind you, but she really did help me to transform my business when we got together, even though you know, we've always come to our business is separate, like we do operate separate businesses and it's very rare that one of us has a play in the other's business, but her marketing skills and just setting an example of success and organisation and motivation and goal setting really help me to aim my business because I always had this, you know, ready, fire, aim sort of mentality on dh she's put me on this track of, you know, like, she makes me look bad it's like, all right, I got to step it up, you know, it's like she's doing so you know, her business is doing all these great things, and I'm thinking, okay, what has my business done, lady that's amazing, so we're able to kind of so definitely push yourself and give it a try.