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Tamara's Tools Recap

All right? And then we closed yesterday talking about beautiful together and I again I'm I'm just overwhelmed at what we experienced not only being able to talk about beautiful together and the effort we're doing, but the work we're doing specifically the project we're doing kaname aerate and by the fact that when we walked off the air we had the project fully funded is just stunning and now we have additional funds that were going to bring supplies in. That was incredible to me, so I love that we talked about adoption and we and we dug into that the idea of how that belonging that we keep talking about I keep talking about because it's the most tangible thing I see when I'm looking at families and the most beautiful things I see and how that has such a big play when it comes to the idea of adoption and note on that by the way, if people have more questions, please do feel free out you either reach out to me or info it beautiful together dot organ will continue. Teo build out the resou...

rce is paige we have a resource is page on the website with frequently asked questions and dispelling myths onda all kinds of things went right relates to international adoption, domestic adoption and foster care so I would love teo continue to answer questions and when we get them if we don't know them, we find them out, we pulled together, and we're going to keep adding to that page. So please do keep that in mind. Um, and, uh, and then we jumped in this morning with gear. We're ready at this morning, people. We started with gear, we brought my dog on set. This is dasher australian shepherd boxer mix and laid out everything I worked with all the equipment I work with that some of the lighting and course also the constant lights, every single question you ever had about gear was answered. Yes? Um, my leo, things have been a big surprise to a lot of people from what we heard back from the chat room today, but finding products that you can use to make your life easier and simpler and more enjoyable, the fact that I can now download images and know that they're literally going to six places like I was counting that as today. So they're going to my iphone. They're going on my ipad, they're going teo backup drives two backup drives there on the place that I already put them in terms of the external drive and they're going to the cloud so everything, I just do it one time, it goes to six places automatically, and it just keeps running is, um, incredibly valuable asset to me as somebody who takes a lot of photographs, both for work and at home for personal things, so having a tool like this could be very fantastic and there's a free trial on the site, a thirty day free trial if you go to the website also, of course, walk through designing your own album, they got into a little piece of that, but if you go to russia albums for a slash video tutorials, there's a full webinar on that, but I can show you how you can literally design an album in a minute and in minutes and the questions come up about pricing somebody asked earlier, if you you have a album that your purchasing for maybe just under two hundred dollars, what are you selling that fore? We sell our albums for twelve fifty in the past, the big amount of effort and cost, because I've always outsourced album design. The cost has been the the actual outsourcing, the app design and there's some wedding albums that have cost me almost four hundred dollars, to fully design over time because of how many images there were in the size of the album and when I needed them turned around to go from that to being able to do it myself in ten minutes. Or ask are an intern to do it in ten minutes o r studio director do it and then have it in the door in two weeks is it discernible incredible upside in terms of not just profitability but the ability to offer on excellent product very quickly to my clients and have a lot more fun doing it like that's really cool so on dh it's not just products like these that we talked about there's a lot of things out there that you can use take all this weight off your plate I no longer do my editing anymore so outsourcing editing think about the things that you like you know what this is the thing I don't want to dio I bet I can tell you wait outsource it like everything things that you physically have to do yourself go to the bathroom you're gonna have to do that I don't know away toe if I could figure out a way to outsource that I would have but in terms of my business having built it up to a level where not just because of its not because people will say at times all you can do that because your business is successful in stuff like know my business got successful because I did that that's that's a huge misunderstanding the thought of well you can outsource and you can pay for that because of where you are right now is the wrong thought the thought is you are where you are right now because you started outsourcing and paying other things to do that other people or products to do that and you started doing it on your own faster and you started loving it more does that resonate with you that aspect good pushing this about one more time as we close out with you guys tell me each one of you one thing that you're planning tto outsource or use that's going to make your life easier and if we have a question for the chat room I would love to hear that because the way you get to be more successful is not wait till you get there and then hire other people to do things or outsource you do all that so you can get more successful I started here an assistant to help with the reflector and things like that good good and again that could be your body that could be your friend that could even maybe the year well child with hatchery hard there but yeah start experiencing what it's like to stop saying I can't do that I'm just going to figure out how to do on my own experience was like to have that done for you and you'll want to make that decision on your own same thing have a mental list of people I've already thought about for an assistant good at that too but also the outsourcing I think for editing, sorry is, um actually thinking about that and handing over that control and thinking that through so definitely something off capacitor to my biggest hesitation with handing out my editing was I felt like I couldn't control the quality of the work I was producing, and so I set up the system so that I was outsourcing the mass editing the bulk of it was being done, but by the time I got it back, I would do the final tweaks that I really felt were was one still charge of crop propping. I was the one in charge of those looks and feels that I might want to add, but the mass stuff we're all doing the same thing we're all saying we want a boost. In contrast, saturation we went a little sharper think about what you do in post if you really think about it it's pretty mass thing that most people dio you can have the bulk of that dunn and the release defict detail, quality stuff that you want to do, pull back and hold. If you say I want to create a composite with a thousand layers and I want to do it myself, it's a project, all right, you can do that, but the math editing it's mostly the same stuff and the creative control is the finishing touches I am very inspired by my leo I totally want to sign up like the second I get home I think it's going to be a huge time saver for professional and really for personal too stuffs endure stuffs over here so some this computer stuffs on this and I really looking forward to using that good good yeah it's it's nice to be back at any time have your phone you felt with you all the time right? And just pull it up and find any image is super cool all right? Having assistance probably outsource my financial matters that way I'm not focusing on you're doing your chances right now do you like do you like that? Oh yeah. Slam dunk absolutely. I have a bookkeeper my I have a c p a and I have I consult with them with you and my studio director amanda's all our invoices and payroll and tax and that's all been slowly handed off over time but what I found was I hung on to things like bookkeeping and sales tax because I could do it. I took a course in quickbooks because I could do it and that was backwards thinking what I could say well, I can do it but do I love doing and ho now so that's the big difference too great I think that I want teo outsource somebody to work out clothes I can't talk now no please at the end of the thighs I want it in my face you could say that emphasize I want somebody that and those eyes and that is a weird word and like and one of the word is and nothing and puffy but it's not forget maybe I'm just feeling a nevada about my emphasizing yeah and I want some kind of long for me I uh I really disorganized and I kind of like get a sheet ready you know to deliver it and then I'm over it and even if I'm super excited about it just to me like putting things in a temple it and writing and picking the pictures it's just overwhelming so I have things that I start and then I don't finish so I feel like if I get somebody to do a couple of those for me maybe I'll be way were inspired to keep doing it wonderful yeah I have like I said, I've just started hiring somebody I haven't done it yet but it was recommended to me in carrie I think I think she's the one who sent me was that the company photo scribe which again I just started working together I I literally couldn't get things in because I was here but I'm gonna start working on the next week so I can't necessary say personally what how it went but that will interest mccormick the same woman who helps with the beetle together she she's also recommended them so that's that's a really good sign tomorrow we have folks charming in from a home art for peace and a couple of people have said that they want to find an assist stant are for peace I always shop by myself but I really need someone to help with lighting and set up on then I'm convinced that an assistant would be ki I have totally fumbled with the reflector by myself and it's distracting and embarrassing there's always the like practice practice practice as well because it is doable by yourself yes, it isthe on then also I need someone to organize my thousands of photos that are currently all over the place we have absolutely no exactly lie leo was a big takeaway for mia's well, yeah, fantastic, great good yeah, I mean, I just the reason why I would I'm putting you on the spot and asking you all that is because I think unfortunately I'll hear it. We nod and then go home and usually don't change much most people but sometimes if you're pushed a little bit more and you've got to give it more thought, you find yourself thinking, yeah, why wouldn't I do that? Actually that makes a lot of sense, like if you could imagine your job without these tasks that you can't stand and just picture that for a long time like write literally like write out a whole description of who you are without those tasks that you hate and envision how you feel when you walk into shoot and envision the excitement level you have every day when you go to work that alone hopefully if you could do some really focused effort on that that alone would be enough incentive to you to outsource but to sit there and just say I can't how come I don't know it seems expensive or I'm not there yet those those I don't usually really hold up over the long term I mean, those are the things they're just gonna hold you back so good I'm really glad to hear that you're making differences um then we did sales we sat down into the sale session this's just a quick screen shot from the book builder option within press select, but this was really a you know, it was a brief version of how a sales consul will go, like I said, they're usually about an hour and a half, but it was pretty true to form that's what it is it's conversational it's pull everything up let's look at the one in time, what do you think, andi course getting them that an emoto slideshow in advance so that when they get there they're already pretty pumped up and ready to go yes. Um, we're like you had talked about when you sell digital, you d'oh just something that would be equivalent to what your sales would be if you were doing print yes and stuff do you give a website's version of any print that's purchased or anything that's purchased and that they're going to take home with them? Did they get something they can put on social media? Or is that all through you? So specifically, exactly what we dio is we have all our ala carte prices, we have our session, he really specific everything's put on one a literally a price card that is this size, and you flip it and there's information the front back that's very much on purpose. I don't want to confuse and overwhelm people with a million options that these are your options and it's kind of you walking to the apple store? They're like seven products, but we own all of them, you know, eso you've got the front side and with the ala carte pricing you have I'm realizing halfway through this answer that came out of the question, do they get a small digits like, do you get a website? Wait, I'm like, where am I I don't help me out to get me out of this place do they get if somebody buy something for me that they're going to hang in there you get a little website yes version I won't be going there at all I'm glad I stopped and asked for directions all right, so uh what they what we have is the ability to purchase all your image we have a set price for mine it's once you purchase five thousand dollars worth of products you then can have the rights to reproduce complimentary incentive get their if not their twenty nine fifty two thousand nine hundred fifty dollars to get everything on the dvd now it's a usb stick for your rights to reproduce as you wish our associates all have different pricing models and they're kind of tear down based on the level experience that they're bringing to the table on ds that number might be for one person twenty four fifty or seventeen fifty based on what the number is but it's a sizable number that is meant to meant to convey like if they didn't buy the average sales package that you want but you have this with no costs okay? But then I feel good about that and I came up with that a long time ago when I realized that I kept selling the rights to reproduce dvd when I wanted to sell prince and I thought why every time when I sell this one product am I disappointed why is it still your price like? And I kept doing that I kept selling something that was really bummed that when people would buy it, that doesn't make any sense, so I said, okay, I can either pull it completely or it could make it a price point that I'm happy with, and I've been happy with that price point. What we find instead happens is during the sale session as you heard me say to emily again and again as we're going through it, I'm being really clear about the fact that like, oh no, the print finished, we'll do this, we'll do it with and by the time we're done with their session, if they're getting the rights to reproduce, they're definitely going to get a few prints with all that print finishing because that comes with the printing process. In addition, anything that they purchased over an eleven by fourteen they have a website image that they're welcome to use with a really subtle watermark, not across the face or something like a really subtle watermark that they're encouraged to use on social media encouraged to use on social media on dh then sometimes when people are in that space of like eight by ten foot by fourteen, sometimes that can be an incentive as well good, yes, any other questions about the pricing and the way the sales go because I know that close we're okay if there any other tristate questions this is your time I'm going to literary hologram off the stage like tony robbins. Yes, I was actually curious about if you did the session or if someone has traveled to you or if they live far away or like when you said you did sessions in new york or something that was far away how do you handle that? So we have a system for that as well. So destination shoots often when I'm going to a location. If I know enough time in advance I might put out a blogger will have you know it listed in our studio calendar and we'll do destination ship sessions when I go to san francisco september to do a workshop one of the women who live in san diego is going flat. We're going destination shoot. We just said that last night. Hi, judy excited to see you s o that's the perfect example of of the way we do that. The other thing you could do is clear a week right and do a whole shoot at the beach or whole shoot in a certain area. I went down to houston and did back to back days of shoots when I was down there on dh set it all up that way what I found works best is if you have the time to be able to do the chutes and turn them around in terms of editing and present them is to do all your chutes and then have one day where you do back to back in person meetings and you could do that in the client's homes or like a location like we talked about a coffee shop or something like that that would get you kind of the best in terms of turnaround investment that usually is the top of the line way to get your best return investment is an in person consultation where you go through everything on your laptop like pop up your laptop and go through it all the second best option and also the second best in terms of revenue average revenue is via skype so to set it up and then say we're going to meet at this time and then we're gonna flip the screen our studio manager seo director is does this all the time she'll just put the screen and then she'll even show them products and physically hold them up and talk about things and and that works pretty well not a swells in person and then lastly by ah lot is to simply throw him up on a website and wait for your orders by a lot yeah I mean the numbers or something like your average sale being four hundred versus two thousand you know these are the numbers I keep hearing back from people when they switch over how much your average sale can go up when you make that shift and most people, when you talk to him about doing there in person sailing, just going for it and just doing a few in a row, we'll tell you, I'll try, but I can't hear what you're saying but don't know that'll work for me on def. They stick with it and do a few out and really plan and kind of follow it systematically more often, not that very, very pleased response. Oh, my gosh, that this actually works it's getting past your own hurdle, which we all keep setting for ourselves. Um, and then obviously always taking care of business. I talked, teo said before that we're always marketing, but really, you need to be always taking care of your business. This needs to be a daily part of all your all you're everything you're doing, I mean, as a photographer, if you're lucky you're shooting ten percent of the time, that means the rest of it has to be managed more comes in and you guys know that, but being able to set up your business in a way that it easy to tend teo, that you're drawn to do things, and we ran through all those questions in terms of inspiration and everything else.