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Building Your Team

I'm really excited about this segment I call it building your team and like I said, I don't want you to think this is just about building a big associate brand yes, we had we have three associate, you know, even associate model obama photographers and I will be talking a little bit about that but what I'm really talking about here, his building, your team meaning where do you start? Where do you start from all the stuff we've learned from the day? How do you build that team to help you out, help that business achieve what you want and then we're going to go and expand back into what we've talked about and kind of leave with some direction we have some fun things in store for everybody here that that we haven't really shared yet and so I'm really excited to be announcing some of those things ok? So let's start with the brass tacks of building your team let's look at what it would be that first step and I kind of feel like the first step is adding an assistant at an assistant whether it'...

s to bring along on a shoot whether it's in the studio you know, hannah, maybe you'll end up with somebody to help you out with the mail in a year or two or you know, oliver, maybe you'll go ahead out and grab somebody to help you answer phone calls he had to jump out at work in the middle of day and you know I mean where do you guys want to start seen some help and it starts with coming up with that good system that's we talked about in segment two of the first day it starts with having everything dialed in so you can set somebody up on your team to succeed I cannot tell you that enough it all every single person you bring on whether it's somebody who's part time working remotely or a full time photographer that's working underneath your brand you have to set them up for success it's your responsibility to set them up for success and what we look at here is when we bring on that first level that assistant these were some of the things to think about I have a phrase that I've always used and I really believe in it and it's worked out really well for us and I hire for people not for positions so I hired I hire the person not the position you know we might have a job opening over here in this department in this category we know he might need someone to fill a space and in answering emails or maybe you need someone to help you out with scheduling or maybe you need something to help you out is insistent on a shoot, but when we're talking about an assistant we're really talking about things that can be trained to most anyone that a good system will empower them to be efficient that what they're doing and so the things I look for when I'm looking for somebody to come along and help me out arm or along this line more along these lines excuse me do they fit the brand? So the first question is do they fit the brand and we know by now how to build a business around us we know because the last three days have been about building a business all around the authentic you all around determining what makes you happy all around reflecting and self actualizing on the things that you guys want to be and you guys are already and that's what the funny thing about it is it gets a lot easier to bring on team members when you know everything that you stand for when you are what you actually our deep down and when I say what you are you mean your business is what you are it becomes very easy to find people because now you're finding people who also can be those same things inside of your business and so do they you know look at those three words in your tombstone do the people that you want to bring on board do they? You know, once you have those three rules those those words khun b you're hiring guide those words can be your hiring god I know that I work best with creative and vibrant professionals so anybody who comes on my team also needs to be able to work well with creative and vibrant professionals if they can work well with creative and vibrant professionals I bet I can help them out by senate a good system and teaching them how to help me out with email you know and rather than looking for somebody who's the most qualified and answering e mails I want to look for somebody who's the most qualified and working with creative and vibrant professionals so do they fit the brand? Can they carry the brand and when I say the brand I really mean everything that you stand for because all it takes is one in this in this example one unprofessional moment to now be questioned as somebody who works best with creative and vibrant professionals you know it all it takes is is a deviation from those kinds of things to give your client or however they're in contact with ability to question that brand you know, the worst thing I never forget when you know bronson myself at her we really believe in taking care of the bridegroom first and foremost on the wedding day and almost acting like their shield, you know? And if there's a problem, I don't want them to know about it unless they have to I don't want them I we will work tirelessly and hopefully with the other vendors to figure out that problem to solve it and if it's something that they have to know about yes, we'll tell them, but there are so many problems that happen on a wedding day that I never let my couple find out about I'll never forget bringing an assistant along, and the first thing that she blurts out when we get back home in the wedding gets over with is what? How did she exactly say it? It was just terrible, she is like, you know, jared, do you want me to just skip getting the gear from the car? Since we only have five minutes? We're not really going to get much anyways, and I looked at her and I about fell out of my about felt in my chair and I was like, yes, I would like you to go get the gear because we do have much more than five minutes we didn't, but that wasn't the point. The point was that as a brand we are professional and we work with professionals and we act professional, and even if that wasn't our word, that isn't something that I want anybody who works with me to say, and that person didn't embody what we stood for, you know, they didn't understand those things, and people who um, you know, I mean, that's gonna happen sometimes I don't I'm not saying that if I brought the right person, that would never happen. What I am saying is, can you trust that person to carry your brand? And you need to make sure ah, good system helps if I had told her what not to say the wedding, it would've helped her not to say it, but it also helps to bring on the right person and keep these things in mind as you're bringing them on next and last can they contribute to the brand? So we start with do they fit second? Can they carry? And third, can they contribute to it? Do they bring aside to me that I can't that I don't have, you know, it's wonderful when I could bring a woman along as my assistant to a wedding because I'm not a woman, and weddings are very female driven and there's something about having a woman who also carries our brand, who carries our message alongside me that they conduce things and connecting ways. I just can't does it mean that they're going to fall in love with them? And now I'm left, you know, kicked to the curb or anything but can they contribute? What do they bring and can they bring aside out that you don't necessarily have that still fits in with that brand that's really the definition of bringing on team and having a team to help you? And so I look for that when I'm looking for people that I want to work with, even if it is just somebody on email, can they connect on email with my clients on a level that I can't? Can they work with them and how they write the block post or how they how they handle the block post in a way that I can't, you know what are the different things that they bring that I don't bring to the table for those of you out there who have husband wife teams? This is a great way to look at your unique differences because they can be very frustrating. I know that there's a lot of people out there who work on husband wife teams and our differences can be so tough when it's brought about in a business environment and man, is it so cool when you can actually just look at it? From this standpoint, it takes work it's kind of like positive thinking, you know, you gotta you gotta think about this way instead of maybe the alternative, but man as a husband wife team, you have that yin and yang where you both stand for something greater than the two of you. You both stand for something, and you both have the ability to build that business around something more than just each of you alone. And I just want encourage you to really figure out how you can play off of each other and contribute to the brand in the way that only you can uniquely contribute notice I haven't said anything about how good they are, what they do. I really think that if you enter as a person and you in turn into an environment that is positive, that is that's flourishing, that is encouraging and that is aligned with what you stand for, that you're going to succeed. Not everyone will, yes, but you know that's, okay, if you do that work on the way in, you're going to set these people up for success. You equip them with a great system to boot on top of all of that, and I really believe they're going to be successful. I gotta tell you, I don't think it's about finding the person was just the best resume. So keep that in mind because if you go home from these three days and you start put into play that system that we talked about, then you're going to find yourself starting to look around for help somewhere because you're going to realize I can't do it all you know, I have to work on my business, not in my business, so I know that was three days ago and feels like a year ago at this point because we've been going for so long and spends so much more that's coming between since we talked about that. But you know, if you go back and are engaging in the segment too we had about working on your business, you're going to find it eventually you're going to need to be bringing people on, you're going to have somebody help you with something, maybe you're gonna have a company help you with something, but if you go to a shoot, you're going to probably need to bring an assistant at some point, so this applies to really pretty much everyone at some point in their business. I want to encourage you to think about it from what you stand for rather than what the resume says so second shooter your second shooter, this is probably even more important this is someone who needs to embody everything we just talked about and then a few other things I do care a little more about how good they are that I did when I was talking about an assistant. I do need them to be pretty good. I do need them to get images, and I tell you, we've been all over the map when it comes to second shooters over the years, and I want to put together a couple of a couple of slot couple of bullet points to talk about the things I look for in a second shooter or any photographer in general and again as we move up the chain here. If you're talking about an associate shooter of mine or even a partner, photographer down obama's daughters, they have to embody these things and then even more. But, you know, first off, calm under fire, no matter what niche of photography you and you are in, there is pressure. There is pressure now, no doubt we all know and no one understand the pressures that go along with it. That is pretty obvious and clear there's an intense amount of pressure at certain moments, but there's a pressure no matter what there's pressure on family portrait sessions, there's pressure when you're out tweeting landscape in the actual landscapes, his pressure and boudoir, I mean, I could go down the list, there is pressure and and one of the most important characteristics that I want to bring to the table as somebody who represents creative and vibrant professionals, if somebody is very calm under fire and I think that's a good rule of thumb for pretty much anything one in our industry, because it is so pressure packed. How do you test that? Yeah, that's a good question, you know, I have a fun question that I'd like to ask during interview, but it really has nothing to do with that. I just like to see how they respond to it, you know? You can kind of mimic it, but the reality is he really have to get him out and see how they do, and you need to see how they do under pressure, and so we'll talk a little about how to test the second shooter in the next slide, but make sure that you help bring somebody on his calm under pressure whose common or fire really second is a good listener. You need somebody who can listen because they're coming on board into a creative environment and they need to come on board and creative environment and what is what is part of creativity? It's, it's listing and if it's being heard and but it's also listening and listening is not always a skill set everybody has. I think we all probably could work on it, but with that being said, the person that you work with as a second shooter has to be a good listener because they're going to be taking direction from you throughout the day, so if you're bringing on, somebody is coming along to shoot for you, they're going at times have to put aside what they want for what you want, you know, there's many times when they have that amazing shot, they know what you're going to like. Excuse many, did you move out of my shot and they're not going? You don't want somebody who says hold on a second, like know, excuse me, I need you to move, you know you need someone who could be a good listener, you need somebody who can listen to you when you say, you know what, I'm actually going for this type of shot, so I need you to go for that type of shot. Is that something that you can do? You also need a good listener to respond to critique because you really do want to make sure that you critique them and help them out. We'll talk about that a little bit more later, but you want to make sure you can provide critique for them and give them encouragement to improve in certain areas that you need them to improve on. Number three is a solid shooter, they just need to be a solid shooter and you don't know their camera. This isn't a training exercise for them, and so, you know, sometimes we hear them talk to talk, we hear we hear the person we're bringing on talking to talk about how good they're just make sure that you actually look into that and check and make sure that they are solid shooter, and with that being said, I actually look for someone who knows their camera more than I look at their images because if they know their camera that I know that they can get their with their images, there just might be about something totally different than what I need them for. But I'm really looking to see how well do you know photography? How? What do you know your camera? How well do you know how to shoot? And then hopefully at that point, we could have maybe, you know, maybe you haven't really shot a lot of weddings for my case, but we can kind of get there so that's kind of the baseline teammate, they have to be a teammate when you're at a wedding, when you have a family portrait session, wherever you're at, you're on a team together and it's all about supporting the team. And it really is it sometimes you just have to do whatever it takes I have had to set up all the chairs for a ceremony before I've had to carry all of the center pieces in to help out with the reception it started raining before and I've had to run out and grab all the djs equipment I mean that's just me too and there's been times when for whatever reason I'm completely out of position or something happened I couldn't get back somewhere in time in my system had to drop what they were doing my second shooter dropped what they were doing sometimes you know they start the ceremony too early the second shooter is the one down the end at the end of the aisle and they're the ones you have to shoot the grand entrance on the procession I mean you have to be a team player toe work in our industry and you have to be a team player to be a second shooter and you're there to support the team and the team really but the primary shooter but the team it's all about how can we as a team excel and succeed today? How could you do that together and yes, I might be the lead and you might be the second but you know what that might end up all falling apart and we might have to just take evasive action and figured out as we go and for those of you out there just before we move on to the next slide, who are thinking about being a second shooter, this is a great way to look at how to be a second shooter. Can you bring these characteristics to eighteen to a lead shooter? Can you bring these second shooting is something that I know more and more people are adopting as their primary focus? I think that's awesome. I love second shooting weddings, I think it's so much fun. I second shoot weddings at least five to six times a year, not just for bronson, not just for enter, but for other photographers in san diego. I love it, it keeps me sharp and I think it's a lot of fun, and I really appreciate when people want to start there because I think that you learn so much as a second shooter. People ask me a lot. I wrote a block post on a couple years ago that actually got a lot of a lot of traction. In the end, it was how not to get a second shooting job, and it was all about what not to do to get a second shooting job. And I think I shared one of those either lat yesterday, the day before, about, you know, personalize your e mails when you're looking for a second shooting job. You know, don't just send that email out that I know you just sent two hundred people because it says hello, I love your photography, baba baba, you know, personalize your approach when you're trying to get a second shooter job it make sure you embody these characteristics, seek people out. Do you want to work with that you actually want to work with? Try to find people that stand for the same things that you stand for because it once again you're going to be a vibrant part of that team when you join it? Well, training your second shooters, so this slide I think a lot of people are almost surprised I have in there because a lot of people don't bother training their second shooters, they don't bother train their team, period it's kind of like what we talked about with not set up a system, there isn't necessarily a system for them to have set up, and when they bring on a second shooter it's like all right show up the wedding starts at noon will work until ten and get a bunch of great images and that last part get a bunch of great images that's a pretty wide open set of instructions there's really no clarity there, and so you know what? We developed down at our studio and we shared it with a couple of other photographers and a couple of us photographers came together in san diego myself and garrett delph who now you know is that my partner and she died at it back we're pushing weddings at the same time and sarah france we combined forces even as quote competitors and we pulled our resources to train a team of second shooters that we could all tap into and share we all have associates of the time and so we there will be some weekends when we will all need different amounts of second shooters would have two weddings at our studio and sarah might have to wait just like that. But what was more fun about that that was the original idea was let's train a group of people that we can all kind of share that have the same goals and at a wedding is a second shooter but what really came out of that was once again a wonderful system of expectations and set up and and focus for our second shooters and not only that we have this wonderful set up and structure but we went through and did an entire day of training at the beginning of every single year and it was so much fun and what we do is we went through we showed them exactly what we wanted from them we showed them here's the primary image of the bride walking down the aisle and here's an example of an awesome image that a second shooter got and look at how this image is wide and so you see the main shooter if you see jared with a wide angle lens on then you know you probably want to be shooting tight and by the way, if jared has his camera down, if I have my camera down your camera has to be up you need to be shooting if I'm giving direction that's a perfect time for you to be shooting we went through all of these different things we provided examples side by side of every single scenario and what a good example the second shooter image would be next to a primary shooter image and you could see a cz we were looking out and watching these people they're having these ah ha moments every minute they're like oh, I never would have thought to take that picture in that scenario oh that's a great point if you have a wide angle lens on I need to have a tight lands on oh that's a fantastic point. I hadn't thought about how if you're standing from the aisle, I need to be in the back of the aisle different things like that, but the training meant that we've never we never had a better pool of second shooters and we did that year it was such an awesome year for second shooters and we did that I think three more years to three years in total, we did that, I've been kind of pooled and and trained our second shooters. What are the things you need to focus on when you're training your second shooters? The first thing is you need to have a contractor, your second shooters, so, you know, a lot of it will bring second shooters on, and then they find themselves in a battle or any uncomfortable situation. A year later, when the second shooter wants to use the images, you don't want them to use the images, you never talked about it or when the person is arguing about pay and you told them very clearly, but they don't remember. Or maybe you thought it was clear, but it really wasn't that clear in his actual more your fault don't let those things get in the way of a wonderful relationship that you've spent time developing on, but I mean, by one of our relationship is maybe it could have stayed wonderful if it had all been upfront clear and in writing, and you could have avoided some of those things that came up, you know, sign a contract doesn't have to be an overly complicated contract. Make it very clear who owns the images, what the images could be used for what you expect out of them, how you expect them to perform how do you expect him to deliver the images when they're done with the a day how they invoice you that their contractor that their employees or however you want to handle that, how payment is made all those things you can address all those things in a contract and really that way again? What is it all about it's about setting expectations it's about coming up with the system and having it set up clear expectations works perfectly into that what do you expect out of them? Jason talked about the first step in setting expectations for our clients is that we have to know what we expect out of them do you actually have anywhere written down? Have you thought about what do you expect out of your team? Your assistant, your second shooter, your associate photography you have do you have that laid out clearly because they can't hit a target that doesn't exist there's no way to hit a target that does not exist and you have to give them that target that's your responsibility so give them clear expectations I expect you to shoot five hundred images at least I expect there to be at least one hundred images that I keep in my coal when I'm done with it coming out of your control but you know we'll work towards that, but nice here, my expectations of you, you know, I expect you to get this needs shots throughout the day. I expect you to be doing this when I'm doing that. Those sorts of things training I talked about the training plan that we put together, and I think it's I think it's vital, I don't think it's good to show up at a wedding without having worked with someone in that capacity kind of offline, you know, having trained that person and work to them kind of offline practice. So I do believe that you need to have them practice and encourage them to practice. How cool would it be if as a company before you guys had any weddings together with your team, even if it's your assistant it's your second shooter, if it's both of them put you know, call upon your past bridegrooms, call upon your past family portrait sessions call upon your you know your past boudoir clients go through an active actual event with them. I mean, you can't go through mock wedding, I get that, but you've atleast go through parts of the wedding and you khun, I'm sure your clients were more than one to go through that with you exchange for some of these great photos and actually go through and walk them through okay, see, here we are now I want you to be over here and here's why as my assistant I want you to you know, this is the most stressful time for me, so I want you have a couple extra lens on hand for me if I need them, whatever that is walk through that it's one thing as we all know from being shooters, it's one thing to practice as much as you can it's another thing when you get out there on game day and start having to perform and the more practice you have, the better able you are to perform and the last is to review I would always make time with any of my second shooters to sit down after the wedding and go through the images with him and we'll talk about him and it helps when you bring on people that are very eager to learn, you know? And we went back to being a part of a team and a good listener that's important because the review process is so much fun and so collaborative when you're doing that with someone who has his characteristics but they can't improve if you don't provide them feedback if you didn't like the fact that they were in the wrong spots, he deleted all those images from that sequence if you never tell them they never even know they never even know that and it helps us sit down a review and say I didn't keep these because of this and they can say oh and they said well you know you told me a while ago to do that and so that's what I thought I was doing oh you know I'm sorry I could be more clear about that let me explain that a bit more or hey you know you were shooting at two twenty for the second and all your images are blurry sorry about that you know like there's there's there's education to be had there and so you know that's kind of important it's kind of important to go back and review these things if you want your staff you want your team if you want your second whatever you want to call them if you want them to perform and continue to get better I love at our studio enter is always running on the studio saying come on guys we got to get better we gotta get that's his phrase we've got to get better how can we get better I don't run around saying that and I love that he's costing reminding me how can you get better how can we get better and it's so great because I love that we're always out to improve and thanks to enter were really always focused on it but it's like how can we get better you know and he always comes back from a shoot saying did I do better and let's look at these images and you know when he goes out and shoots now he shoots all all this wedding something you know on his own under bomb and he doesn't really assistant second shoot nearly as much anymore he still comes back and says guys I just finished doing this wedding I want you guys to tell me what you think of it I want to get better so I love that attitude and I think as a team you can bring that about for your team with your assistant with your second shooter associates you add whatever you want tio so let's quickly touch on associates I know that a lot of you aren't in a position where you're going to die and associates but I think it helps even if you aren't you're thinking about it if you have an interest in it let's just talk a little bit about it I won't spend more than ten or fifteen minutes on it that's probably even more than I'll spend on it to be honest with you you know obama photographers I guess you could say we have two associates other than myself you know I mean I was always running that company as a lead shooter but bronson was as equal of the shooters I wass and we always ran the company that way we never really differentiated between us you know I always just use my name is jared and he's name is bronson and as it turns out most well I think I think we're brothers or something you know like and we kind of like it that way and I've always liked it that way and then over the years we did have an associate even though bronson technically wasn't a social we started having an associate in two thousand six john was our associate on he was a fantastic shooter he was with us for two years and then jacob was our associate and I believe two thousand eight and two thousand nine on dh then editor has been our third associate over the years and it has been there since two thousand shooting since he doesn't tend with our company since early two thousand eight so you know what are the ways that we look for where the benefits for you a valued associate to your business well number one you truly are building a business and I put business in quotations because now you kind of have multiple streams of income multiple opportunities to earn income for the first time for the first time ever you can have somebody else out there making money for your business and you're not having to do the work for it we'll talk about how there's still a lot of extra work that comes with having associates but in its in its base form you are truly building a business and a number of business is something that can work for you rather than you having to work for it. And so that's why I put it in quotations because it is very, you know, kind of it's sze nebulous that's for sure flexibility no doubt you have flexibility when you have other people that are available to also shoot as well. It provides you a lot of flexibility especially, you know, if you are able to bring on people that can succeed in their role you know you can have they can take your place when you need to, you know you can take a vacation if you have to. You know, you can still fulfill a few shoots if you need tio it's. Not just about that, but about the flexibility on day to day basis. You know, as things come up, you have more of a team environment that you can kind of roll with the punches on. You can kind of flow with the day on. Another thing that adding associate does is provide extra income, you know, there's, no doubt it's certainly provides more revenue. If he said it right, it provides more profit for you and that is, I think we all agree a good thing now. There's usually some extra costs, some extra fixed cost that come and staying up on associate model, but so you gotta be careful about that, and it's really is in a class on all that, you know, although smaller, smaller details of setting up an associate model. But at the end of the day, the goal of bringing on associate in one one goal is to make extra income for your studio, and that does happen as a result of it value. So your studio does begin to carry more value to people, you know, first off, if you bring an associate that has different price points were able to meet them at different price points, you're able to meet clients at different price points. That's been incredibly valuable for us is being able to tap into much kind of wider swath of the market by bringing people under our team that all stand for the same thing. You know, you never. We don't stand for how much we charge, right? So even bringing people on that embody the exact same principle, the exact same focus, the exact same thing, the exact same embodiment of what I want our company to stand for, they can charge less or more than me, and it doesn't change what we stand for. And so you can provide more value by being able to meet a wider swath of clients you know on de so enter has always booked out at less than me and you know that's been able he didn't tackle a market he has his own list of vendors that he works with he has his own list of client referrals that he gets to come in and his own properties that he's referred by and they're different than me because we kind of are in a different market that's great because you could be we'll get more far reaching and have a little more value your brand your brand is able to get bigger I talked about it you know I'm able to come in obama stars we come into contact with seventy five weddings a year and that means seventy five times ten vendors a year and that means seventy five mom to the bride each year that means seventy five grooms and groom's fathers and we come in seven come into contact with seventy five maze of honors and you know I mean like the list just goes on and so your brand starts to kind of get a lot larger when you have an associate or multiple associates he all the sudden start find yourself in so many more places and that's why, you know most people in san diego our photographer have heard of bombing photographers who were in the wedding industry on dh whether or not that is you know that doesn't necessary bring any business but you have a brand that's associated with that and so it can help in a lot of areas reduced tasks we kind of already hit upon this and the flexibility but as you start to focus, you know, as you bring on associates, you do have more work to do, but you can kind of streamline that and you can each kind of compartmentalize different things that you do and when you focus on one thing rather than to do a little bit of everything you actually do become more efficient and you can kind of reduce task spicing well, let's see bronson, you are much smarter at technical stuff than I am so let's have you kind of take responsibility of the website and all the different websites we haven't domains and all that and I haven't worked on that in five or six years when we have a website problem, I talk to bronson about it when we have something is going wrong when marketing they all come to me and talk about and, you know bronson is really having to do with any of that so you can focus your efforts and by focusing you really do reduce the tasks, okay let's talk about the downsides because I want to make sure you all are aware of the drawbacks one of the most common things for people in addis oceans they don't think about the ups and the downs and then they find at the end of the year that they're not making really any extra money off their associates after oh all the extra time they put in and all the extra effort they put in all the extra expenses that come up so you've gotta know the drawbacks you can avoid these drawbacks in your sign up your associate model responsibility you now have more responsibility you're responsible for somebody else's salary in other words you're responsible for somebody else getting paid and whether or not this their full time sour there part time so it really doesn't matter you still carry a responsibility that comes with that are you ready for that responsibility and do you know how you're gonna handle that lack of flexibility so flexibility was one of the ones on the other list right on their benefits well it's also one of the ones on this list it's also a drawback because yeah there are certain times now where you have to just jump in and solve problems that didn't exist before because you know you weren't creating them as the owner of the business you just take a little bit extra care than anybody who's not the owner and so you're going to find that you know things are going to come up where only the owner can deal with them and that's honestly, they're all bad things that could be good things opportunities, but there's just things that come up to where the owner has to be the one to deal with and guess who that is, you know, the owner again, it could be downsides, upsides, but whatever it is, it is extra work stress. This one is really something that I don't think people think a lot about you become responsible for these people, which we talked about the first part, and that really does provide a lot of extra stress, you know, down obama photographers, I think that our our yearly, I think that we had yearly fixed costs of around, like, one hundred fifty thousand dollars or so, and so that means that we had to prop we had to make one hundred fifty thousand dollars after our variable costs just to break even each year, and so we weren't even in the black until we have made at least one hundred fifty thousand dollars in profits as a company and that's after everybody gets paid for shooting that's after all the variable costs fulfilling their album or whatever, we had to make one hundred fifty grand, so, you know, in like february in march and you pull up your numbers and you're like, well, right now I'm set to make negative sixty two thousand dollars this year that's awesome and so you know there's a little bit of extra stress that goes into this and then by october you're like ok this turned out to be really good year that's great but in you know january it's like you know you pull up your quickbooks found you put your projections it's like negative sixty two thousand so far okay this is I'm not going to panic attack I'm not gonna panic attack I'm not gonna have a panic attack you know it does bring on extra stress you know I mean on saturdays sarah knows even if I have a wedding for the years and years and years iran bomb photographers saturdays if we had a wedding elsewhere my phone was always on and I answered every single call every day we had a wedding I answered every single call because you just don't know you know that's extra stress you have to carry I'm not saying it's not worth it by the way I'm just saying to be aware of these things brand oh yeah this could be a drawback they represent your brand if they mess up if they say the wrong thing if they screw up if they don't do what you would do then yes that's your brand that is being represented by that way always have three we have had three rules above and photographers that I that I make sure everyone knows and it's funny because these have always stuck by the way our rules for second shooter was all black and no crack that's what we always have to say so where all black and please keep your you know keep yourself together because no one you know not nobody wants to be seeing over underwear hanging out and all that kind of stuff guy or a girl but with with with with shooters with people it come on obama photographers that we always say there's three rules first off no drinking at an event drink water all you want but no alcohol period I don't care if they offer it to you I don't care how much they cram it down your face no alcohol no giving out your own business cards that's not really an issue it should go without saying but things that should go without saying I always like to say don't give out your own business cards and everything is don't give out your number period I don't care if they ask you I don't care this is not a date this is not time to find a date do not give out your number and so the three rules you know and people kind of get to know them really well and so it's kind of funny because one time I did have one of my assistants who got caught giving out her number and not not caught by me but she called me she's cured on she's great by the way she she just you know got caught up in the moment right now but she called me that night security I have to tell you I have to tell you something like oh my gosh what is it and she's like it's it's really serious and she was being toy serious like it is it is really serious I broke one of the cardinal rules unlike what card what what which rule did you break like one of the cardinal rules and she secured I'm so sorry I gave up my number two security guard the day at the wedding and I know I wasn't supposed to do I just got caught up in the moment he was really cute and he asked me for my number he gave it to me and I realized I totally should have done that don't you know so it was kind of funny but you know these people represent your brand and so just be careful about he bring on it does increase the number of tasks you have period I don't care how much you streamline your system I don't care how systematize ur does increase the number of tasks you have and it can lead to less profit more work that's kind of what I teased in with this it can lead to less profit more work if you don't set it up right he don't set up right so whoever you're bringing on please think about these things please understand the difference is please know what you're doing this goes for an assistant he's working for hours a week all the way up to an associate all the way up the road employees versus contractor and I'm not going to spend a lot of time with us because there's a lot of information out there about this and it's kind of a boring topic and slate in the afternoon so you no way are we really going in the day talking employee contractor and no but understand what they are and understand what they do and understand the rules about him and kind of what comes with it you know you have more risk when you have an employee of less risk we have a contractor you do have more potential reward that we have an employee what I mean by that is you know if you're willing to commit the financial cost of hiring employing committing to them and they do really well and you do really well then yeah you usually stand to gain from that more volatility meaning that you know in the middle of january if you have employees you gotta keep paying their salary but there are two chutes coming in that's more of a volatile situation and if you are on a contractor basis you don't have to bring them on for that month or you know whatever it looks like there's more flexibility employees less brand less happiness contractor more brand more happiness what going by that what I really mean is that they have less brand engagement and less happiness I don't mean employees are less happy but I mean by bringing something on is a contractor is that you're giving them or control of your brand you're giving them or control of potential happiness because I'll explain this a little bit more the next slide so bear with me as I talk about those two things but I really truly believe that the more you empower them to be responsible the more they're able to be toe work happy and to contribute to your brand the more you empower them to say you're not employee I'm not going to tell you how to shoot this wedding I'm going come alongside you and tell you what our brand is and I need you to be responsible to support that that leads them being happier at least them feeling like they're more a part of the team not less like they're part of the team okay the bombing photographer's model again I won't spend a ton of time on this but I will share with you what our model is and how we do it with our assistance or associates that coming this is really more the associate it with anything else they're contractors bronson's a contractor at her is a contractor they're free to shooting outside of bombing you don't have to shoot solely for my company. I don't really believe in that. I don't have a problem if you if you set up your studio the other way, I really don't. But I figure it's my job as the owner of the business to provide them so much value that they don't see any reason to go out there and book their own shoots and that's actually, what's happened. Bronson hasn't booked his own shooting years, I think, ever shot a wedding on his own a couple weeks ago, and he told me, it's like, dude, I'm so done shooting my own weddings hey posted the image the night of, you know, everyone does the night we do what we all do that and I rember scene, I remember knowing howto wedding. It was fourth of july weekend, and he posted images that night on facebook, and I was getting ready for bed, and I know they had the bomb and logo on it, and I was I take the next morning like, dude, I thought that was your own wedding he's like, dude, it was, but I asked, you know, I was asking everyone about it, and they all thought, yeah, you tell him I don't want to shoot my own way, mom's going so I asked my coming back into stick bombings name on is that we could use it and I was just laughing because I'm like but, you know, they're free to shoot whatever they want. It's your job to build a boat to the fish won't jump into, and I think that that's your responsibility, I like having that responsibility myself cause it challenges me they're paid, you know, depending on who it is, they're paid between thirty five and fifty percent of the net profit from the booking. So that's revenue minus variable costs that's kind of what net profit really looks like again, don't get into much detail in that, but they're paid thirty five to fifty percent of that that's how it breaks down focus for me is on team and support for them that's my job and their responsibilities, their responsibilities are on shooting and calling, and then the images go to shoot got it, they don't have to worry about it. So it's kind of nice working for bombing cars because you don't have to edit all of your images kind of plays out really well for you, you know you gotta do is provide a coal, and I think it's got to revive that cool within three days. I should know this because I'm now a contractor, a pawn stars as well, and when I shoot weddings, I'm a contractor as well and it's really awesome, because I just turning the cole and then I don't have any other extra outside responsibilities pretty cool. I want talk about team, and this is where I want to start making that transition into talking about what we talked about the last three days and bringing it slowly all back together, and I want to talk to you about about team in general, I think if you're on your own, think about team right now is you and that's? Fine, because you are a team here, the person who gets up in the morning and you, when the floor needs mopped, you mop the floor when when the sales person used to go out and sell, you go do that when marketing, when the market department it's called to come with the new marketing piece, you do that when somebody's to go shoot the job, you do that when someone has to pay the bills, you do that so whether or not it's you all on your own or you do have a team, you are a team on dh, so I want to really encourage you to think about that way, and I want to ask you about joining a team and what it looks like to join a team going back to that analogy that we've used a couple times now about building a boat where fish jump in. We talked about that from a standpoint of attracting clients, but I also want you to think about in terms of how you build your business. Michael gerber. In the e myth, he talks about this concept. He talks about building a business that people want to join. He talks about setting up a business, and he talked about how ray crock, who said at mcdonald's ray crock set up potentially what is the largest, the most successful franchise model in the whole world, mcdonald's on and what ray crock really started realizes that he was no longer his clients were no longer people who bought hamburgers. His clients were his franchise owners, and he worked every day to fulfill the needs of his franchise owners. And I love that analogy because he truly got the idea correctly that what his job was was to build a team, and then the system that he had created allowed the team to succeed and that's the thing about team, if we're really tryingto build the boat that fish want to jump into, I want you the same mindset for your company, and why would somebody want to join your team? Why would somebody want to be a part of your team because you're going to want to have a team it doesn't have to be associates but you're going to want to have someone to come along and help out by the way this could even be an outsourced partner someone that you send your accounting to or something you send your album designed to or whatever that looks like why do photographers want to join a team? Why two assistants want tojoin teams why do people want to join teams why do people want to be a part of that? You know I think that for for a new artist an assistant a second shooter on associate you have to embrace the things that they truly want you have to embrace the things they're about and they're interested in learning from you they're interested in knowledge and that needs to be the first thing that you commit to whenever you bring someone on board is committing to their knowledge committing to their wisdom committing to educating them and I understand that they're working for you but if you take that attitude that approach if you commit to them and don't expect commitment out of them to you but really just expect commitment of yourself to them and expected they'll just live up to their into the bargain then that puts the onus on you hit to give them a target that they can hit every single time you need to give him the freedom to create. I really do believe this artist don't want to be put in a box, and when we go work for somebody else, yes, we are admitting and recognizing that their style, their brand, their vision, their wishes come first, but at the same time, you need to support and give them the freedom to be creative. Um, you know, I just I think that that's really empowering as well, because I think that you can actually learn from them. I think we all can learn from everyone, and I think that when I bring somebody on board, I get the opportunity to learn from them just as much as they get the opportunity to learn from me, you know, it's a great question earlier from one of the audience members when jason was up here about what happens when you know you're not so good at doing your own numbers, but you're good at doing other people's numbers? Well, that's, the strength of collaboration right there exemplified bringing somebody on whether it's, just an assistant all the way up to an associate, gives you that collaboration. And, you know, we've all heard it, but we're all stronger when we're together in this.