Lessons

Lesson Info

Business Roadmap Challenge

We started off by talking it at length about metrics that support your purpose about not just building a business centered around the authentic you but giving yourself ways to achieve success around that business. We talked from that point about building a system I think that was a really fun a topic because we talked about how it's the system that lets us succeed and it's a system that lets us grow and it's a system that lets us work on our business and not in it can you create the right system you can but you need to commit to it it's hard because create the right system and we talked about how you have to write down a manual of every single step you, my goodness that takes forever it's not just like snap your finger it's done it takes forever it's hard work and it's not fun it's not fun running down every single process but it's so important can you commit to create the right system? Because when you do create that right system good good things happened you now are able to work on y...

our business, not just in it or if you are working in your business it's because you're choosing to work in your business do you know what you stand for? Do you know how to build a business based on what you stand for? That's also a day one topic building a business sent around the authentic you is hard I think we learned that by sitting here with jeff and going through those questions, trying to find three words that sat on our tombstone trying to find three words and again it wasn't all about fine just three words that work it was about finding the best three words that we want people to understand us by and there's all these caveats and things we have to consider is we're thinking about these three words we can't have the opposite it would be a negative because nobody wants to self actualize into that you know, but there's a challenge in there and it's digging deep way talk about digging deep and peeling back all the layers to get all the way down to who you truly are to who you truly are because you have to do this to build a business that is centered around the authentic you and not just some not just some generic version of yourself it has to be you truly to the core it has to be you all the way down everything is stripped away, hannah maybe you really are goofy and you just don't wanna admit it yet but maybe that's really who you are and it's hard to get around I know when I first looked at this it was something that was so hard for me to d'oh because who I authentically wass it isn't always something I want shared out there, you know? But when you get around that and you learn how valuable and how amazing it is to truly be yourself and to have your business support that you really truly get that opportunity live happily you get a business that makes you happier and do you know how to get to what you stand for? We got some tools along the way we got some tools the three words is the first step in getting there but it's hard it's not easy to do that it's so hard to do that is they're truly in need I think there is and I think we've honestly asked ourselves that you wouldn't be here if there wasn't truly in need you wouldn't be here if you didn't see something in the world that needed filling you wouldn't be here if the world wouldn't be better by you feeling that need okay, so I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it, but I think that you've asked that question already and are you ready for the responsibility? So we're going to talk in a few slides about what I want to do with his business roadmap challenge I am so stoked and we've been talking all about it in the break something there over three hundred and still growing ofyou who have taken that roadmap challenge that business roadmap challenge and are you ready for the responsibility that comes with committing to take in a challenge and all of you here in this studio audience or you committed and are you ready for that response? But it comes from leaving here with all this knowledge and what you're going to do with it. You have a responsibility to do something with it for yourself and for your business, for your business, and I want to encourage you guys to do that. We talk a bit more about how to do then um howto have success howto have success member that was one of the most important things that came out of that roadmap challenge that ever make up talking about is howto have success? How do we have that success there? Um it first comes on a frame of mind there's going to be stresses there's going to be failures there's going to be mistakes there's going to be all sorts of stuff and at the end of the day it's going to be it's going to hurt it's going to be painful if you haven't any guns that yet it's going to happen there's going to be times when you want to pull your hair out there's going to be times when it's such a challenge because you don't know the right answer and you have to be ready for that I talked about digging deep also in finding your confidence and overcoming your fear believing in yourself believing that you're good enough it's a fundamental element to attracting the right kind of client you have to believe in yourself and you have to overcome that fear of failure because you know what we all fail we all fail and we all fail every day and you can pick yourself back up and you can try again don't be afraid of failure because the worst thing that happened is pick yourself back up and trying again and that's the only way that I've gotten good at what I do and that's the only way that I will continue to get better what I dio is by failing and learning from that failure but if we're scared to fail then we're never going to be able to grow if you're scared to fail and you're not going to be able to grow you know the second one is system system systems coming from frame of mind I might be a funny transition but I truly believe you want to succeed you need to set up those systems and not just the systems we talked about what systems for yourself a system for everything in a streamlined system I talked about sent the system but then goingto work on that system and making it more simple always looking at that system every single year at her and I would sit down at the end of the year, after our last wedding, and we would rip apart our entire shu qi workflow and say ok, how can we make it better? What went wrong this year? What didn't work as streamlined as he wanted it to? How could make this more efficient? You're never going to be done working on your systems you're never going to be done with that that's okay, though it's kind like that target that you never arrived that you know, it's kind like that that goal that you know you can never hit that's one of those sacrifice yeah there's, sacrifice and business I know a lot of your you know about that. I talked about the phone calls on saturdays in pain, pain employees instead of yourself I mean there's so much sacrifice investing before you can see the return that's all the sacrifices there that's part of this game guys we signed up for it, we're entrepreneurs yeah, we're creatives but we're entrepreneurs we signed up for this and we have to understand that's part of its success is success is born out of sacrifice. It's borne out of hard work is borne of a lot of things but it's born out of sacrifice it's one of the things that success is born out of and I put belief in team because for me, that's really important cause I believe in not only my team but I believe in all of us here this whole team that we have is photographers, this whole big team of photographers and I believe in team I'll talk more about the team obama photographers and I believe in team you must believe that you're stronger together um you must believe that you're better when you get help you must believe that you can't do it all on your own. I truly believe that that's important for success? Yes, you can't have short term success doing everything on your own, but at some point you do need help from someone somewhere along the road and maybe it's in the beginning it's just a mentor it's just a sounding board its friends to help you out that maybe you are able to bring somebody on you're able to have some help in one or two categories, but maybe down the road you never know you might end up being someone who supports team I didn't think I would have a company that had multiple shooters I never thought that I never thought that, but you know what? You start getting going in one direction it leads to another direction before you know it here we are and I had to associate shooters which is even that big of a team compared to some other studios but I had to believe in team I had to sell my self on that idea every day that I believe that I'm stronger with other people around me then I am on my own and that belief was so important, you know, I can't think bronson enough for taking that chance with me, you know? He jumped into a business where he didn't have the control that you have is a studio owner, but we were still, you know, we still don't even established yet on dh you know that we've always been able to put our friendship first somehow through twelve years of being in business together and to enter and man, we've had so many s so many late nights working on the business, you know that it is more of the technical side of our business and he was in my right hand man in the studio is a studio manager for years he's always done whatever the team needed he's always done whatever the team needed from the first day he started there. I remember when I called her we had a huge wedding actually was that waiting right there we had that wedding coming up and that is a very high profile couple right there and that what he was up in the hills outside of san luis obispo and that wedding was very important to me it was a very stressful wedding and bronson was available that day to second to second shoot for me. And so we were, you know, we had a three or four days shoot that we had to go up there for. And bronson's second baby girl came early, and so we found out we found out about that I live, we found that we had to leave at six a m on. I think it was a thursday morning and I called veteran midnight and said, hey, man, I need you to go with me to second shoot this wedding for the next four days and it's a crazy, difficult wedding and it's going to be a ton of fun and it's going to be really hard and really stressful. He's like, all right, I'm in and I mean it's just stuff like that. And we all have stories like that, by the way, I'm not unique. We all have stories like that of team and I believe in the power of team and that team became my purpose. I start office, a photographer and I turned into a photographer who wants to help photographers and that team became my purpose and bombing photographers was my purpose. And now shoot dot ed, it is my purpose now I get up in the morning to help photographers realize power of exactly what happened when I got that first job back from shootout at it and just the feelings I had a relief that I could go back to being a creative, that I didn't have to sit behind a computer all the time. And so now I get up in the morning to help other photographers understand that, and for me, it's all about team and it's all about having a support system and that's why, with this business roadmap challenge, I don't want to stop here. These are your business room that's right here, and I don't want to stop right here. And so what we've created is a busy is we're going to continue on this business roadmap challenge, and this goes for everyone out there. All three hundred plus ofyou who submitted all three hundred plus ofyou who submitted. I want to continue that. And so what we design is a business roadmap challenge checkpoint. So from here on out, I want you guys to continue. We talked about how when you signed up for this course about how we were going to actually follow through on these, we wasn't just gonna want to submit things. It was going to be one of the things we submit and we wanna have followed through on it. And so what we're going to do is we're going to continue to stay part of this. I want you guys, if you guys want to follow along, what we're gonna do is this I'm going to pick one of you here to fall along with me, and I'm actually going to turn these upside down, and I'm going to just randomly pick one. So this is how we're doing it the best hopper we have, and for the next six months, we're going to check in every single month on your goals and on what you wrote in your business roadmap challenge and the next six months we're going to check in, and I would encourage every single one of you who did this roadmap to do the same thing you can follow along in my block just go to jared bombing dot com and sign up for the newsletter right there in the front page and all of you, I want all of you to participate, and in six months we're going to come right back here and on creative life, we're going to talk about all of you. We're going to do a big hangout, I think it's probably going to google hangout we haven't figured out yet, we'll figure it out, but we're going to check in with everyone about it. And we're going to check in and we're going to have a big recap session and I want you guys to continue pursuing but you know what I want more net I want us to have it team attitude for the next six months that we can do this the things that you guys wrote on that business roadmap challenge I don't want to just leave you with three days I want to come alongside you guys and help you with that so come on board if you submitted if you're one of those three hundred plus I want you guys to join in that challenge and in six months we're going to our first checkpoint on that and one of you one of you hannah happy birthday one of you is going to get to do it with me every month and we're going to be we're going to blogging about that every month the process we're going through the changes you're able to make and the things that you wrote on your checkpoint on your business right matt challenge and how we're going to get their lucky you you guys I really do though I want to come alongside and I want us to do this together and you know I was I was really moved and so was a whole crate of live team by the way you know they were really moved we were all moved by the responses and that depth of those responses and I believe in you guys and I believe I believe in what each of you are trying to do in this photography world I there's power in the image there is I believe in the the ability of photographers to make a difference in this world and here's the thing I understand that your business has toe work for you guys to go to make that difference if your business is it working for you, then you can't go out there if it's not making you money, then you can't be a photographer and that's why I love to be up here that's why I want to help you guys and that's what started at bombing photographers as I saw this amazing artist in bronson, I saw my best friend and I saw somebody who every single time he went out with a client ap actually being before he had clients is whenever he went out and was around people, he inspired them and then we took pictures of them they left moved they left changed and I couldn't imagine I seriously couldn't imagine a world where he wouldn't be able to be a photographer and I had that business knowledge and so we were able to team up and I want you guys to have that saying I believe in the fact that julie you have something to say to the world you have a purpose and you need to be able to say that. And these tools, I hope, will help you say that. Genevieve, same exact thing for you and on down the line. Hannah oliver sathiah trained. You guys have something to say with photography? You guys have a difference and here's the thing it goes back to you, it all comes right back here and what it does for you. I told a story in the first segment about a bride and a groom that I shot. And I told a story about this bride and groom, that in the first segment, that I photographed their wedding for them and how amazing they were as a couple. And this couple that, you know, just movements, their wedding alone, but then having the ability to get, I guess, abilities of rightward to get that phone call from the bride that said, my husband has been shot in afghanistan, and just hearing her her voice talking about that and the idea that she called me to come alongside of her for that next week, and she called me to come alongside of her, and I spent the next week with her, and it was just an awful week. I spent the next week with her as we went from the merchant marine academy up in long island, and I photographed him being given the medal of honor not the medal of honor to men there was a medal of honor and a purple heart I believe on dh then I was with her in the car as we drove and photographed that whole experience driving from new york all the way down to washington d c and we went through and then I photographed her and her family going to the process of of just the burial and the part of arlington where they go through this experience where these people have given their lives for our country and I had to watch her weep over his grave and I had to watch all of that you know what it did? It did more for me than I think it ever did for her it did more for me and I think that ever did for her, you know, and actually we were able to find that image that I was talking about that last image that I took of her and that's, you know, for me that image is moving because it represents for me why I'm doing this and why I have to be doing this and why I believe that each of you have a story to tell and you have to have a business that supports that that that you you have to the business that supports that you so that you can make a difference for people and it it's more important. In the end, what comes back to you full circle is so much more meaningful. And so, anyways, sorry, every time I see that I might get a little emotional, and I want tio. I want tio talk with you about the power and finished with you about the power of you and that's. What I really want you guys to understand is the power that you bring to the table, but you have to make that business about you. You have to bring it all back to you, and you have to make that business in the likeness and in the image of you. And if you can't do that, and if you don't do that, then in the end, your business can't contribute to you, your happiness and what you need to do in this world.