Lessons

Lesson Info

Building an Authentic Message

I could do an entire three day course on this I probably wouldn't even be the best person to do the entire three day course in this they're experts at building this authentic message I'm gonna give you guys the tools to get started on it but we're not gonna be ableto touch on every facet of building your authentic message because the fact that it needs to be authentic means that the leg work needs to be done by you it needs to be done by you and this is for all those folks who way we're talking at lunch about one of the main concerns I'm seeing from people online is this question of how do I figure out my target market how do I figure out what it is that I'm passionate about I'm excited about and what is my offering that is unique and this is going to help to address that a cz much as we can in the time allotted weight there's so much to talk about here but and this is going to get you a long ways by the way but the end of the day you need to take all the feedback that's been provided ...

here in this course and I also really want encourage you guys too jump on board in the chat rooms and on social media use the hashtag love your customer share ideas that you have that you have found and explored with focusing on a target market share because this is a thing all of our target markets are going to be uniquely different to us and but bouncing ideas talking we were talking about at lunch around the lunch table there about ideas and what about this have you thought about that I didn't think about that let me try it from this angle so I really want to encourage their way to jump on board right now in the chat rooms jump on social media using that hashtag and share around so we can all kind of learn from each other here because this is a real collaborative thing and it really helps when you guys leaning on each other nobody watching this course right now but here the four points that I really want to focus on when it comes to building authentic message remember is a conversation that we had at lunch as well I know was echoed in some of the chat rooms and stuff remember that you don't need to be all things to all people you're gonna have to say notice some group of people you're gonna have to say no that's part of it getting saying yes also involves saying now so if you're worried that you're going to be saying no to somebody in the process of developing authentic message you're right and trust me it's good you don't want to be all things to all people of your wedding photographer we need to book twenty or thirty or forty weddings a year if you're a portrait photographer fifty portrait sessions here ifyou're etcetera etcetera etcetera so remember you don't have to be all things to all people as a matter of fact it certainly deserves you it undermines your value proposition if you try to be all things to all people ok so defined your authentic message has to be defined you have to be able to say it in one or two sentences and it has to be very very rigid okay it can't be I am a horse photographer I'm the I'm a horse photographer who shoots all things beautiful it can't be loosey goosey because that didn't define anything except for horses and so we put these adjectives because it makes us feel like we defined a message when we really didn't duncan you're on adjectives are great adjectives help us describe things but that's the thing they're descriptors to central words don't substitute adjectives where you need to be using pointed words that are defined pro wedding photographer that's who she diet works with five weddings or more believes in fast believes that speed adds value your business we even under even flushed out even more and she didn't we believe that the faster you turn your image is around your client the happier they are and the happier klein is the more money that they're going to spend on you so that's our fastest best methodology flushed out you want to learn more about all the things that we believe fast is best and you go to the website and experience that so it's flushed out but at the core the message is very defined and focus it's very very defined doesn't just use big words adjectives to describe so you got to figure out and guess what that involves making choices it does if you say that you are best for tattooed brides well you're saying no to a whole lot of other ones aren't you but guess what all of a sudden without even know anything you are now the best choice for attaching brian because you said that I'm for you I am for you so number one is defined number two is unique when I say unique it has to actually be special it has to get people to go oh that's unique that's different that's special I made a mistake when I first came out of the gate and I said that I took candid I was ah candid wedding photographer well let's be honest even the word I thought candid was being pretty defined I was like look the opposite is formal right but let's be honest whoever who how many brides and grooms get out of bed morning say I want a real formal photographer one who just makes me look stiff of the board I want someone who I don't want to capture those candid moments I hate those really life forget that I wanted to be staged and boring the answer is nobody so by me saying candid photography I wasn't actually being unique to anybody I was just giving myself away out of actually solving the problem which was coming up with a unique brand message that was authentic to who I wass candid was a cheap way out and I did it and we do those kind of things where we say our photography is fun well that's great but who wants pictures that aren't fun so your message must be unique it must be polarizing there need to be people who hear your message that go whoa I would never book that person in a million years good it's done right then it means that by polarizing you're getting people to say yes or say no and by getting that you're going to have self actualized cause let's say yes go yes and I'm in one hundred percent this is me times ten you know and so again you know there's so much different examples about that he's going back to the same one I could keep expanding on by sam for professionals with a capital p well I say no to a lot of people I say no to a lot of people who say well I'm not that I'm not stiff I'm not boring but if your professional if you're a doctor if you're a lawyer and you say and this guy says that I am for you you're going to say yes I'm in with this guy he knows everything about me especially when I start providing content that shows that and that reinforces that and solve their problems and shows that I know them so self actualizing is the fourth point leaning in to the message makes me more of who I am so when I hear your message and eileen into it I embrace it I absorb it I react to it I respond to it I share it makes me more of who I am not less for the same amount of who I am it makes me more of who I am so if I am a tattooed bride that's getting married on a beach in san diego going back to my example from before and I find a photographer who shoots tattooed brides on beaches in san diego I'm gonna want to get a mountaintop of screen that I'm gonna want to say I have found the perfect photographer I'm going to share it with all my other friends and they're the same as me that are tattooed brides have obsession with a beach tattooed women have an obsession with a beach I'm gonna want to be a bigger part of it if your message doesn't get people to actually lean in and self actualized become more of it then it's not a unique polar is not a unique authentic message so I will also say that this is a topic that we touched on my last crate of live muchmore I brought jeff yo come on as a guest and we touched on this for an entire segment and jeff is someone who I turned to for help with that in addition there's a lot of other resource is in the industry to really help you focus on that and there's a couple different ideas about how to focus on it you know there's different avenues to focus on different ways to go down this path these are my four tips for building a unique and authentic brand message that really does the homework and the legwork free to write and produce content that actually targets and attracts your target market I will say and we touched on it earlier that it's easy to confuse who you are with your target market and your brand message you know a lot of the things that are in my target market are embodiment of who I am back when I shot weddings I had a good way back when I shot weddings and I was focusing on my target market ah lot of it was who I wass you know a lot of it I come from a very kind of professional background my sister is a doctor and my other sister is a lawyer I didn't sit down and say you know because my sister is a doctor and this is the lawyer I think I work best professionals I realized that by identifying who I wass and it just made sense when I looked at it I looked at and said you know I do work best with these types of people I understand the work it takes to be a doctor because my sister is you know is over thirty years old and still in residency she's been working on entire decade to become a doctor I understand the sacrifices that her and her husband have to make I understand the time constraints I understand that I don't get to see her on christmas very often I understand I'm going to see on thanksgiving very often very rarely do I get to see on her birthday she calls it the most random of ours she's got a very tight timetable I understand that but this isn't a lawyer I have a deep understand that so but what I didn't do what say because my sister is ah lawyer because my sister is a doctor I am therefore going to focus on the professional I had to take a deeper dive of the things we're talking about here is the thing that we're talking about out there the things that were unique and polarizing and self actualizing about myself I had to dig deep and figure out who is best for me to target and who I embodied the best when they came through my door what about their personalities made me respond to most of them and then how could I put a message around that I did find that with most of the message I did embody it myself but it was more about who did I attract that I enjoy being with and how do I put a message around that that embodies that and remember the more focused you get the more self actualizing it will be the less focused you get the less self actualizing will be you're going to say no to more people or less people but the degree to which you're able to say no is the degree to which you're able to say yes the degree to which your message is authentically a representation of who you are in your brand is the degree toe which the people who do say yes say yes and the vigor to which they say yes and the ability they have to become a true believer rather than just an advocate or an evangelist okay any questions get a lot of looks like oh my goodness yeah I understand it is it is very tough this is the legwork he now have to dio tio figure out where what we've talked about intersects with you personally the thing is that I know resonates with a lot of people is that it's it's kind of scary when you're first starting out especially or as you're kind of getting to that point where you're like I have a steady stream of customers but I need more or whatever and you're saying that you need to craft a message that intentionally says no I don't want your business to people when you feel this hunger for just anything that you can get you have any thoughts on how to kind of deal with that issue while crafting this this message worry less about what you're saying no to and more about what you're saying yes to you know I love toe look and again I know it's ubiquitous but I love to look at steve jobs as somebody who instead of worrying about who he was saying no to focused entirely on what he was saying yes to steve jobs constantly was creating products that he knew his target market wanted before they even knew they wanted it and he knew that along the way they were going to a lot of people are going to say I would never buy that in a million years and but he didn't matter to him because he knew what his target market wanted because he understood them and that's where it starts with that core of understanding who you work best with and that's what he did when he first built the ipod he understood his target market so well he understood what they wanted here's did what they needed his message was think different and he understood that he embodied all that nobody who came to him everybody who responded his brand was about that and when you create the ipod even though he knew that would say no to so many people he knew it was an idea that would work for his target market and that's what you did with the iphone and the ipad are when the ipad came out I was infuriated is like how does this darn thing not have a usb port I need a usb port how could you ever create something he knew his target market so well that he knew what I didn't need before I knew I didn't need it and so a lot times we get caught up on were developing our message were developing our target market we get caught up on who were going to say no to and what we're going to leave behind and all the negatives and I love to look att steve jobs because he didn't look at the negatives he looked at the positives he looked at what he was going to build he looked at who's going to track when he created a life changing product he looked at the people that he knew would jump on board and that was always what he started with so as you're building your message yeah it's hard to say no we talked about it marv and I talked about it lunch today about saying no to some of the segments you know and sure if if you're going to say yes to this and stop talking about the other things you're probably not gonna attract as much of that doesn't mean that they happen to call you can't do the shoot what it means is coming up with a message that you know is embodied in your target market and screaming at the top of your lungs and every opportunity you can because they'll follow suit if you don't have a message then it doesn't give anybody the opportunity to scream at the top of their lungs nobody can talk about it so it is scary it is hard it's really hard I'm wrong we made the ship that she got it from all photographers to just wedding photographers oh my gosh I was like are we slicing off ce ninety percent of our market I mean seriously we'll know that was the first moment our business start to grow and the way that you have talked about is your about speed like it's so if somebody is like I want quality not to say that you've got it it does bad work but if somebody's like I need this to be absolutely perfect no matter how long it takes that's not your audience necessarily know our audience is one that wants a consistent product consistent color corrections as fast as forty eight hours and you know what it's not for everybody we'll talk a little bit about the ninety ten methodology we've developed it she got it to give people permission to be to scream our message we were finding ways to give people to scream our message of the top of their lungs and what we do is provide photographers with the opportunity to get their color corrections back as fast as forty eight hours and they're going to look consistently awesome every single time it was a really defined message we're gonna give you consistent color corrections no matter what what's your message what's your message so betsy and the chairman then another person didn't he ask comment brought up a really interesting point and I'm not honestly I'm not sure exactly how to phrase this question but betsy says if I'm a senior photographer who is my target market the seniors or their moms and then somebody else says I'm a real estate photographer my target audience doesn't know they need my services they expect the agent to do all the work how do I educate home sellers so is the home seller this person's audience or are the agent that's a great question when you've got something like that where it's not necessarily the the subject of your work who is paying for it how do you figure out who you're targeting so I had this this this came this came to light big time for me in my own personal life when my sister got married the doctor and she got married a couple years ago and wanted bronson to shooter wedding bronson is I've been worked with bronson since the beginning of time it feels like obama photographers and our best friends and he's our one of our photographers down there on dso I shoot weddings with him and laura wanted him to shoot her wedding she's as we talked about already very busy in residency and extremely busy and also a very laid back personality and one that it's knowing her is when he tends to trust those around her so she trust bronson to do his job and very much anyways so okay we're getting close to the wedding day and laura says one thing about how she wants the family foremost ago and my mom told my sisters something else and so after the wedding my mom came and she's like hey how come we didn't do the second brought something to those pictures and I said well because laura told him not to and she's like well I wanted those pictures done and I was like well yeah but laura told him not to she's like but I'm the one pain I'm the client and I said well mom I actually think laura's the client and she was like well that's a little bit weird and I was like whom I've never had this come you know up so so poignantly but the bottom line is that bomb of doctors we always had to make that decision and that's a tough one you have to make a decision but you have to understand who you're attracted and we weren't attracting moms to book weddings we were attracting the bride and because of that that's who I say you should focus on and who should build everything for is who you're attracting and who does the actual decision making meaning who's leaning in who's saying yes who's going to be the person screaming from the mountaintop about you that's the person that I recommend you focus on so you know at the end of the day for a senior reporter photographer it depends on where you end up getting your business from it really does if you're the type of gets talked about you know tracy mohr she's out of montana I become friends with her and she's a fantastic senior port of a doctor and she gets all the business from the seniors they all go around they talk with each other because she creates such an experience on the portrait session and so she would focus on attracting the senior not the mom so it depends where you get your business from