Lessons

Lesson Info

Introduction

My name is your bomb and I'm so excited to be here I really mean what I say when I say that I think business is so much fun to talk about and that it's really going to be an inspiring three days that's that's my hope I'm gonna give you guys a little bit just a brief outline of who I am and a little bit of background we'll talk about where we're going in the next three days and how it's a little bit different that we're not just have a business but we're going to talking about business and how it relates to you how it relates to making a business that's built on the authentic you so it's a little bit different than maybe your standard business class you're used to hearing so like they were saying my name is jerry bombing from sandy in california just a bit further south from here and I started back in two thousand and three two thousand to depend on when you count my business starting you know how you file that later that when you shoot your first wedding so wait we'll go with two thous...

and two because it sounds a lot better and that's why I got my first wedding I was actually in school the university of california san diego and I was there for business s o I'm one of the few people in this industry it seems at least it has both a business background and a creative bone in my body or whatever you want to call it and that's been really instrumental for me it was while I was at school that I shot my first wedding um and I'll tell you right off the bat a very embarrassing story many of you probably don't know what my first business name wass you might think obama photographers is the company name that I landed on right off the bat it actually wasn't back in two thousand and two I went out there with the name optical realities photography so I was in college and you felt pretty cool to be in college and have a business you know I'd walk around campus and occasion my phone would ring and if you like with my girlfriend or something to be like oh hold on for the business here hang on one second optical realities photography this is jared uh no no ma'am, we don't sell contact lenses I'm sorry. Um yes, I know, I know I don't know why yeah, I'll pass that along to the owner yeah, that is a little confused. Thank you. Okay, so quickly, way changed that after a little bit to bombing photographers, but there's just so much that I've learned along the way don't be sharing with you guys a lot of success, a lot of failure that would be one of them that wasn't very well done. In two thousand seven, I founded she dot ed it with my partner garrett, which is the first choice post processing partner for the wedding probe that's also been a fun journey. Now we're I guess, six years later from that, and we have over six thousand during seven thousand, clients worldwide photographers that smith to us and I think it's over forty countries now. So that's also been a fun journey. We'll talk a lot about some of things I've learned along the way there I'm also investor in nine nine beans, which is a full service account accounting company for photographers on recently, at the end of last year, I actually sold my photography studio and now focus on just shooting weddings for that company and working with shoot, dot, edit and as an educator still shoot about ten, fifteen weddings a year, plus in addition, the portrait sessions from past clients and whatnot. And so I'm going to be sharing with you guys a lot over the next three days about everything that went into building a business and getting it to the point where it was actually something that could be bought now that that might not be your goal and that's, okay. But what we're really focusing on here is how to build a business and the business that focuses on what you guys wanted to be and that's really the important thing so a lot of you who enrolled in a course ahead of time and when I see a lot of you I mean a lot of you took part in the business roadmap challenge and this was so much fun to go through here are some of the responses and I read through every single one of them and this is where you guys are at right now in your business and I just I think it's so great that you guys really opened up and I just love how deep you guys went some of the answers in here were so deep and just really showcased exactly where photographers are at right now and I wanted to share a few of these because I mean really seriously thank you so much everyone for going through these one of the questions twelve months from now where do you guys want to see your business twelve months from now one the most common answers was profitable I want to see my business profitable and I mean how many of you guys are feeling like profitable he would be something great quitting my current job that was another big one quitting my job you know there's something out there of you who are trying to go from being a part time photographer into full time who are trying to make this a full time career we're going to be talking about that we're going to be figuring out for you guys how to get profitable you don't have a business if you're not profitable it's nothing more than a hobby at that point so it's important that's what we're going to talk about what business challenges do you face? I picked up my favorite one this is the one that everyone echo, but this guy put in all caps too many photographers, he said there's a lot of competition in this small town I'm in you know what? I'm going to show you guys how competition won't matter for you anymore, how to build a business uniquely focused on you and what you bring to the table and that will attract the kind of clients who won't bother shopping around I think she just rolled her eyes no, I promise I will show you to do that. What is stopping me from achieving this vision today and the most common two things were fear and self confidence. I know exactly what that was like when I first started this business of mine over a decade ago I was so scared and everyone told me that I would I was crazy for leaving my full time job and giving up a full time job opportunity to do this full time and I remember I had a job that was working at the navy down in san diego it's a pretty big thing to dio you work for the government and I was god. I sat in a room and told them I was leaving to start my own photography business and every single one of them went around the room all my managers and said how crazy I was stupid I was and I was so scared when I left that job for the first time and was out of my own and so I'm going to share with you guys how I overcame a lot of that fear along the way and a lot that went into overcoming that here so today we're going to be talking about we're going to start with talking about goals and metrics we're going to start with moving from that in the marketing we're also going to talk about building eighteen attitude and building a team around you and they were going to finish with the topic of special ism, which is a concept is going to help you guys get to the next level, but I want to challenge everyone out there because whenever I talk to photographers, they all say to me, oh if I just knew more about business, I'd be successful and I want to challenge you to think a little bit differently about that because it's not just about knowing more about business now don't worry we're going to go through a ton of business for the next three days but you guys let's look around and look at look at this country and look at all the companies that fail all the time and they're run by people who know a lot about business goldman sachs crashed five six years ago do you think they didn't have smart people in charge nba's people with decades and decades of experience in business how about if you look a little further washington mutual that was the company that I had all my money with my bank accounts with and then one day they told me they're out of business it's not just about knowing about business you can still have this epic failure and then there's the slow failures you know I could talk about you know from the likes of maybe yahoo america online kind of just a slow decline yeah who's a great example they have ceos that come in every year it seems the new ceo and they always have a laundry list of wonderful resume of wonderful resume of business experience and then yet there are some companies though that succeed and that we all know of a successful and they have something extra they have something extra going on with their business that's something extra is that they built that business around something more than just what it is they do they built that business around something deeper and for us as solo preneurs as entrepreneurs that are running a very small business that's us that means that they built their business around them. Now we know some of these companies apple, starbucks, southwest airlines you know, these are companies that while we might or might not use them we all know of them is very successful brands they stand out and they stand the test of time there's something unique about them on and that's again, these companies built their business on something more than just what it is they do and how pertinent is that for us? Is photographers who love to talk about what it is that we do? We love to talk about what we do, but do we ever talk about why we do it and do we ever incorporate who we are into that you would think that southwest airlines what do they do? Well, they fly planes there. There there an airline in actuality, southwest is about making it so that everyone can travel southwest about making it so that not just the rich and the corporate bigwigs khun travel but everyone can travel starbucks we think of them as a coffee company starbucks is actually if you look at it there about creating environments for community to happen coffee just so happens to be the vehicle they use to promote that and that's actually a great example for us that's why when starbucks started selling t we all bought in of course because they're about create environments for community so coffee works and so does t and so that's why we bought into that that's why when apple apple's another great example that's why would apple went from making computers to making the ipod? We were all like awesome I'm in because we never thought in this a computer company we thought him there's a company that's out there to push the boundaries and to think different starbucks recently just launched something they call the marie's mo and that's their little pod maker to compete with the curator river now that isn't going so well for them and why is that think about it has nothing to do with community it goes completely against what they're doing is matter of fact one one barista now ex starbucks barista now investor in the company said it best when he said the mystique is notably absent. Part of the starbucks experience is waiting in a crowded line to order your special drink than hob knobbing with the baristas as they create your beverage to perfection the experience is gone look at him talking about the experience he doesn't talk about how great the drinks are at starbucks and talk about how awesome this is how much of a reflection though of this is it for us as photographers when we're talking about our product, which is pictures, and here's an investor of starbucks, talking about the product of starbucks and he's not even using the word coffee is not talking about how great the coffee is not coming, how strong it is about a flavorful it is he's talked with the experience and we create that experience as photographers all the time, and we have to build our businesses around more than just the pictures we take, we have to build it around you, you are what makes your business unique and there's something more to your business than just the pictures that you take and here's the thing about it when you build a business around something more than just what you do. Simon c neck says you build around your why when you build it around your why you are the only one who's in competition for those kinds of clients, you're the only one who can do what you do because you are unique, and if you go out there and attract the people that want to work with you, then you don't have the same amount of competition, and the silver line of the whole thing is that you get to be happy you get toe work in your happy spot and how many of you right now are struggling with your business? You're struggling with competition, you're struggling out there right now and you're struggling to find clients that see the value of what you do, what you bring to the table on top of it, how many of you is struggling to be happy to have your business contribute to your happiness? That, to me, is the name of the game and that's what I've learned over the last ten, twelve years is having a business that makes me happy rather than the alternative is so vital. House, you're going to stand the test of time and so that's, really what? We're going to talk in the next three days? Yes, we'll be going through all the business, but I want to help you build a business around you and I believe it's going to make you more successful and more happy. So what do you want, that's? Kind of my question for it to start. What do you want? What makes you happy? Picture the business of your dreams? Picture it right now picture that business and what does it look like? What makes you happy? What allows you to reach your dreams? And how can your business contribute to that? I know that there's a lot of you out there who have a lot of things and a lot of hurdles that you're going through right now, and we're going to go through that. Slowly but surely I think over the next three days we're going to tackle everything from business to marketing to sales the strategy to pricing but at the end of the day, what really matters to me is that you guys understand it there's so much more I want to inspire you guys to think differently about your business think about it as a business that's created from you because then you khun truly stand out and you khun truly work happy all right, so let's, go ahead and dive in then we have so much to cover and so little time I feel like, you know, we do have three days again today we're going to be going through goals and metrics we're going to be going through how to build a team when I say a team I don't mean adding sixteen associates I mean howto build the team around you, how to build a system for your business, how to make it so your business has set the strategies and systems in place. Then this afternoon we're going to go into marketing and wanna walk you guys through marketing. We're not just going to look at every single type of marking available to photographers were actually going to go into what I think is the most powerful type of marketing and that is he client referral I'm gonna break down the client referral and I'm gonna look at the psychology behind what makes it a good referral, and I'm gonna tell you guys, strategies to get more of those types referrals, there's actually a strategy behind that. And then we're going to finish off the day with a guest speaker, jeff yoakum, a good friend of mine and a business mentor of mine he's going to join us, and we're going to be talking all about special ism for many people, that word is a little bit of a foreign eyes almost sound like a foreign language and it's different and specializing, and I'm gonna tell you all about how it's different, but more importantly, we're going talk about the value of specials um, in your business, because as a business owners were not trying to book thousands and thousands of brides were not trying to shoot hundreds of thousands of seniors, we're not trying to shoot every landscape in the world. We're trying to work with a small subset of clients each year and that's why specials and works perfectly for the business rent.