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Guide Critique: Newborns and Wedding Planning

yesterday one of the one of the topics we focused on one thing guides and how guides are so powerful because they can solve problems for your customers oftentimes problems they don't even know they have and there's a strategy to writing a good guide it's not just a simple as putting words on paper you actually have to solve their problems get to do in a way that love's on them and shows them that you care and you actually have to make it very genuine and very applicable it can't just be again a thousand words on paper that that's just overwhelm them and add to the list of things they already have to do a guide needs to be focused and so what we're going to be doing today is going through and talking about each of the guys that you guys put together last night will pull out some of the main points don't worry we're not going to go through and read every single guy I'd live on and I would take too long we're not gonna do that but what I really want to hear from each of you is the thought...

process that you guys were going through the problem that you were trying to solve and what is so wonderful about going through this live is that everyone gets the opportunity here and I bet you a lot of problems you were facing last night and you're writing that guide I bet you a lot of the things that you were trying to solve we all we're thinking about that last night as we were working on our guides back at home and we were all thinking about having this seam issues so it's so great to go through it together and kind of talk about all the things that were great talk about some of the improvements you could make I loved reading each of your guides you guys each did each of you guys did some of the things really really well and I want to kind of call that out and we'll talk about some areas that we can improve on we'll talk about a little things to make some modifications for so okay before we start reviewing the guides let's go ahead and just make sure that we have actually no let's go ahead and dive in I want to go and dive in I forgot that I bumped the last few slides till the end because of how you guys did the guides its segway so nicely into our next topic so let's go ahead and start with barbara and again don't you have to come up you can stay in your seat I'm gonna go and just given overview of what what I read last night and what we what you're able to put together and then we'll go ahead and talk about what you're what you were doing with the guide so barbara put together a a guide on preparing for your newborn shoot now barbara you're a new born photographer would you say primarily or is that just one of the segments you shoot one of the segment says she wants so why'd you pick newborns what was what was the thought process and why you picked a newborn segment to talk about the guide that is one of the things I get the most questions on and I have to be the clearest on it's not something I can just stay on the phone I have to be able to give them something for them toe look hat and square off against a newborn mother is so busy and she's so overwhelmed and she's so afraid that it just really helps to give her something she khun focus on so I think that's really that's that's a great a place to start because you said okay what you know for you you had multiple segments and you kind of chose a newborn section because it's an area you see a lot of confusion and really a lot of you know problems and again we're saying problems it's important not to look at a problem as though a problem they have with you and your business like you know I don't want to pay for the negatives the digital files or you know I don't I don't want to pay to order prints all right it's not a problem as in a service problem it's a problem as in when they start an initiate the process that they're going through with you other things come up other challenges come up in their life because of that not as a result of but because of the process they've engaged in I'm getting married oh my goodness now that I'm getting married I have a whole series of problems I'm buying a landscape print from my home oh my gosh now I have to think of all these things I didn't know I was going to think about I'm going I'm going I have a I have a baby and I need to get a photo of this baby but oh my goodness there's so many things I hadn't thought about and so that's really what we're trying to do with a guy does not solve a problem like like why won't you buy a four by six print it's solving a problem like what you're talking about which is a problem it's all the question all the time or I think why didn't I tell them that why you know I should have prepared them for that so especially with newborns it's a situation where a lot of people are there first time parents so they don't even know howto handle this thing much less actually be prepared for something where being in that safety situation and there's so much surrounding it that it's something that people rightly get very nervous about so you're making them more comfortable with you as someone who is the authority for those answers that that's exactly right I mean think about a newborn when you have a newborn a lot I mean don't last but definitely not something that's top of mind is but baby good honey she's cute good let's go get the photo taken let's do it I don't think it really goes like that you know it's it's not exactly the top of mind thing and so when they get to you it's like yes we need to do this I know how to do this but guy I hope that this doesn't open a whole other can of worms that I have to deal with already get the crying kid all night I'm not sleeping I mean except your etcetera etcetera so the three areas that you chose to focus on in preparing for your newborn shoot where what to wear what to bring and what you can expect let me kind of go through some of things I thought that thinking we can't read the whole guide on air and you probably wouldn't want us to anyways but here's the thing I love that you brought to the table in your guy that you did really really well so when when you were writing it you packed the guide full of little tips and tricks you really did so and I thought I'd highlight one of them right here I loved how you really gave and this is good like it's like insider tips and tricks guides really benefit when you provide an insider tip you know it's kind of like let me show you behind the curtain a little bit let me give you a little expert piece of advice you said first we will settle you into the dressing room this is a good time to top off your little ones tummy to encourage sleep love the way your writing that I mean it's just very approachable it's very engaging and note it's super helpful if the baby doesn't sleep during the car ride to the studio and comes a bit hungry so we can encourage fast asleep after she or he gets here that's a grable insider tip that's exactly what you want to plug it in the guide sees little insider tips that kind of go I hadn't thought about that yet you're right if they fall asleep on the way then they're going to be cranky when they're here and so you did a great job with that another thing I thought was great is that this and many other things throughout the guy established you as the professional and the expert so saying things like that showcase that you're an expert without saying ham and expert guides are meant to establish yourself as an expert they're meant to be build trust and you're building trust by doing that when you're writing your god you want to take every opportunity you can to build that that expert attitude not you know not the way that looks down on them not the way that says I know what I'm talking about so do as I say in a way that shows them that you're the expert because that is why they hired you it validates why they hired you and it also helps to build trust building trust what we talked about yesterday it's the currency no more trust you can build with um the better you're going to be able to do for them and ah guide is a wonderful way to build trust okay here's some things I thought you could improve upon I and I see this with a lot of the guys that were submitted and so I love that we get to talk about this and this is an area that is good that can be confusing and and I didn't think it read too far this way so don't worry it's not a big deal but ah lot of guides start to read like manuals instead of like guides they start to read like how to manuals they start to read like hey this is what you need to do instead of being supportive documentation and so you know we can kind of uncover that a little bit ah guide should solve problems rather than being a how to manual so think about it we're going to talk about it more but when you get a manual you know I just bought an espresso machine at home and of course I guess there's a stereotype there but I'll call it out being a guy I just want to plug it in and press go I didn't want to I don't want to watch anything I want to read anything I got this espresso on and there's this guide I should say not guide what I meant to say is emmanuelle not a guy but emmanuel about how to use it it's more of a step by step plug this in do this do that and what we don't want our guides to be our manuals we don't want it to seem like something that I'll read this on ly if I can't do it easily I'll read this on ly if I'm struggling with how to prepare that relies on them discovering the problem instead of you solving the problem for them you see the difference there and what I'm not saying is that you should not send them on how to instruction about how to do the next step of their business but we want to separate that from the idea of a guide we want way want to make sure they're excited to open a guide we want to make sure that it's enticing it's exciting and so here's a great example how many of you guys when you need to fix your car which maybe you don't fix your car if you like me I try to fix my car's littlest possible somebody else can fix it for me but occasion when I've had to fix my car what it's funny when I do I go watching youtube video on how to fix a car rather than get out the manual why is that I know it's a very popular thing to do people when they go to fix their cars they'll go watch youtube instead of point of the manual so many interesting things there why would we want you to want to watch someone who's probably not a mechanic maybe isn't mechanic maybe not while we go watch them tell us how to fix you know how to take apart our headlight innit two thousand five twitter camera don't even watch them instead of just point out the owner's manual and it's because we don't want to follow emmanuel emmanuel is boring we don't want the boiler plate it's hard to understand it's using techie jargon and the youtube guy is just like us he's an expert and hopefully establishing himself or herself as an expert but they're not using all the jargon it's office that's where we want to make sure our guide doesn't go the manual route and goes more that youtube video rat were still an expert but we're doing it in a way that solved their problem and they're excited about it that's an area you could improve on that guide and make that a little bit more little bit more about solving a problem rather than more of a how to guide and we've seen this on the bottom so good let's go ahead and talk about the next one trina how's it going good okay so treaty years was five things to get the planning process started and so tell me a little bit more about what you were trying to solve here come a little bit more about what was going on when you when you chose this I feel like we have a lot of couples that we talk tio that you know ask how is the wedding planning process going and they're like I don't know where to start and they'll come to us and say we love your wedding photos were interested in booking you were thinking we want this date but they don't even have the venue and they don't even think that they might need the venue first the first thing they do is go to the date and so I feel like a lot of times they just don't even know where to begin and this kind of put some of that place that well you know everything will kind of follow from there it also supports us and letting them know the importance of the services we offer like engagement photos and what they can do with it but without making it the primary focus bring up a great point this get this gave you a great opportunity introduced some of things that you do down the road and we saw that yesterday I think we're talking with byron we'll talk more about the guy that you have but we had talked about how some of the things that he was bringing up really allowed it net allowed the next service I'd actually with with you as well wait I talked about how naturally allows you to bring up some of things that you d'oh and so it reinforces the next step of the process without saying in an email hey don't forget you gotta do your engagement session hey hello engagement session it's coming up you're doing it in a way that that actually it kind of self suggests if you will so what do you think is the main problem that you're trying to solve with this guide is it is it I heard you talk about how right after they book you theirs and I don't know what to do next or is this before they book you is this something that's before because one of the things that you talked about when we should go through the action the five things you put together having engagement party choose your venue in your date choose your wedding party come up with a wedding budget and get your engagement photos done and so where do you see this guide intersecting when it comes to the different phases that we talked about on monday or a couple days ago yesterday where do you see this coming in for them where we were to be the most valuable for them they're an actual lead but not your client yet and I think at this point a lot of people want to be our client but they're not prepared to be our client such as they don't have the day they don't have the budget or they think we're out of their budget without considering there may be other options so this is at the point when they're ready to book us but we have to say you're not quite at this point yet and that brings up a wonderful point because so here's an example of someone trina who put their their guide that's best suited for someone before they become a customer which is not bad again it's all about identifying the problem solving and identifying the phase that it's going to serve them at remember we talked about it yesterday I didn't know that was one of the first things we talked about when we talked about guides identify the problem you're solving and the phase it's going to be and she's done a great job you did a good job saying no this is not for when they become a customer this is prior to that and this guide is going to serve really well at that pre engaged and engaged but before customer status engaged lied when we talked about this is the time to just go go go love love love give give give and this is going to serve really wonderfully because it really sets up trina and her husband is an expert in the field and there's a lot of great things in here that you you touched upon and that's why I want to ask you about because typically when your time with the wedding process you know you're talking about choosing a venue to date before you pick a photographer often times it's hard to book a photographer for a wedding if you don't have a date yet it's kind of like one of the first things you do if not the first thing you do now sarah my wife bought her bridesmaids dresses first I thought that was pretty funny I'm like what dress do you want I don't know but I love these bridesmaids dresses and like oh awesome well what color we going where is the guy I say what's gonna have to match the bridesmaids dresses like okay here we go your father the first person that's ever picked the bridesmaid's dress before anything else that is awesome but typically speaking you know people will start with like the venue and the date actually I think we picked the day before that we had a date nailed down let me talk about some of things I'd actually really loved about the guide that you put together one of those things is that you included wonderful supportive links on dso again we talked yesterday about how great links khun b to support what you're doing it's like extra added bonus we all love the bonus tip we all love the p s at the end we all love the extra stuff that comes along with it I mean look at how valuable the bonus things are for this course that creative live provides you know it's a wonderful thing to give to people it's extras and people love that they love the supplemental on you did a great job about pulling out some bonuses so this is you know here you talk about the choosing of one's wedding date and venu they go hand in hand you should choose your venue before your date what if you find your dream venue only to find that it's not available date that you've given everyone is expert opinions expert advice these things that people don't necessarily think about great job haven't idea of the date you're interested but be flexible unless the date has great significance to you need venu ideas in the greater seattle to come area check out our pinterest board I love it just so correct now you're incorporating some your social media you're driving them to other areas that you have it's one thing to send a bill out to a link that's externals has great thing to send into pinterest boards where you put together a wonderful pinterest board that has all sorts of different venue options and things like that so I think that's fantastic really well done and picking the links you also later on went through and reinforce like you talked about a little bit about things like having the engagement session you also made sure to point out that when you're booking other vendors you reinforced that hey it's better if you have a problem with pricing to talk to him about a payment plan rather than negotiating them down that's great if inventor gets ahold of this guide and they probably will they're gonna go thank you everyone needs to be reinforced in this statement we don't want to get negotiated down we don't want to support this idea that we're up for negotiation but that we are flexible with you because we do love you we do care about you let's be flexible in other ways I thought that was great as well so hear my thoughts for you on this guide I thought right here that you actually have five guides I thought each one of these topics should be a guide in and of itself and you know what's funny is we did this at shoot dot at it to that guide I published a little bit I showed you guys a little earlier than how to grow your wedding photography business when we first met that was really the first big guy'd be sat down to dio and and I wanted to do the biggest and best guide in the face of the earth and you know what it is my opinion and I'm a little biased it's the biggest and best guy in the face of the earth now it might not be the best one but I'll tell you what it's the biggest one it is over fifty pages long it is crazy I think there's like between eighty and one hundred photographers that have quotes or ideas or things they shared in there it's a great guide really it's like ten guys in one though I've learned over the years that what we actually should probably be doing is breaking some of those ideas down because that's a big topic how to grow your wedding darling business fifty pages worth I mean you've got to set aside a day to read that thing and then to put into action all the different things that are talked about and sometimes we make that mistake too is we put too much information in something so it's not digestible and it's not actually something taken necessarily act on their already overwhelmed and you just gave them albeit a lot of great content but maybe too much great content this could actually probably five guys each one of these topics could be an entire guides you can kind of start to see the titles now in your mind as you read um each one of those could actually probably be a guide on itself so that's just one thought I had for you great great job not a not a not a bad problem to have when you have one guy that could spend into five guys okay before we went on the next one I actually want to bring up something we're doing later on in this segment here we're gonna be talking about guides were also talking about facebook and so yesterday we went through facebook went through exactly how to set up your facebook page but also had a kind of share your your your block content share your other condom we talked about sharing the a link versus sharing vian image boosting how to target your target market with the facebook audiences and inside of a boost and so we are going to spend some time reviewing how to analyze the results