Lessons

Lesson Info

Using Systems to Make Time For Marketing

for this segment we're bringing on somebody who is really an expert in running systems for professional photographers so again just to recap really where we've gone the day we started talking about the problem that exists for all of us we have to build systems we have to trust some people whether it's specialists who we hire on we have to lean into some software we have to take advantage of these things that can help us grow our business because there's not enough hours in the day to do all the things we've talked about that far so let me introduce for us aaron young grin he's going to join us here all the way from california come on out aaron good teo yeah come on over andi just take a seat we're gonna go ahead and dive in here with aaron aaron is one one half of the young grins you and your husband jeff make up the young grins way have a lot of personal connections obviously you good friends you guys are also the ones who ended up purchasing bomb of dollars and now running that takin...

g that to the level of that now but you guys are systems people you guys are good at this you guys run three companies three press professional degree companies and you know my opinion there's no better person to come on and join us to help us uncover and just dive into the idea of creating a system for our business and we can actually do all this productively every single week yeah thank you so much for having me I'm really excited hasn't been an amazing three days oh magnus so I've been sitting off to the side watching a lot of this unfold and it's just been an incredible three days of really awesome content and as a fellow content marketer and blogger there's been moments when I've had to restrain myself from just shouting out like a freaking way preach it that would have been great I don't live quite a few times and I've never gotten a preaching never had a free choice will you do now so I mean just randomly off to the side that would've been hilarious but I just really really enjoyed the past three days thank you so much for everything that you've been teaching it's been really wonderful and I think it's so vital what you've been saying you need to be a photographer and you need to be a marketer right way own three different businesses as jared has said we are the young grins we purchased your business bombing photographers wonderful studio super successful it's going great really great journey and we know systems and we knew systems before we really know systems now after having three businesses and I'm so excited to share with you guys how to system is your business in a way to free you up to become a really amazing marketer so we all know that we are photographers must listen this rumor photographers online your photographers and if you're not a photographer you're at least a business owner that you're doing it yourself you're an entrepreneur and that means that not only are you a marketer which we've learned you are a bookkeeper your sales person you're an editor your designer you're the ceo the cto the cmo the c f o ur all the seas that could possibly exist for your business you are everything there is so much taking a part time and jared has talked about this there's a lot of a lot of things pulling you in a lot of different directions why do we get to marketing on friday because there's so much else they were doing monday through thursday when you sit down on monday morning you say there's just so much they need to do in order to serve my clients deliver my products make sure I give everyone a good experience but we get to marketing on friday I want to show you guys how to get to marketing on monday just like jared has been talking about we're thinking of the last few days like what if we just made it like marketing mondays like all of us you know on social media were like let's make it marketing monday's guys let's make it a thing and we'll get to it so I just want you guys teo be ableto free yourself up from all of that give yourself the time that you need so we're going to be talking about the other stuff in your business the other roles the other sections and how you can you can maximize those and implements and systems and I think it's important teo kind of create that divide because it's one thing to have a great marketing plan it doesn't do you any good though if you never get to it you have the best plan in the world for your marketing but if you haven't created a system that allows you to get to it it doesn't the man is like having a vacation home that you never have time to go to what good is a vacation we never get to go to it without a good business system you don't even get tau address the things you talked about your marketing plan it's true and the reality guys and it's a hard reality but the reality is if you don't do the important roles of shooting producing a really quality product that's remarkable that's brilliant that is you are the only one that can shoot the photos that you shoot if you're not doing that and if you're not marketing that product getting it out there bringing in new business so your business can profit your business will fail it's hard but it will fail because you're not bringing in new business and you're not korean that new product because you're focusing on so much else the good news is that you can set up systems so that you can get that stuff and so that you can get all of these wonderful marketing ideas that jared has been teaching on these past three days if you want to become the photographer you've always dreamt of becoming and if you want to take your business where you wanted to go you need to set up systems that's the key systems will free up your time to help you make your dreams come true and I firmly firmly believe that because that's what it's done for us and I know that it's done that for a lot of other people as well a little background on you guys you guys have you guys started your business on the side while you both working full time jobs you're in hr jefferson biotech and it was a slow process it was part time for a few years I think you were the one to quit first I like what you see first I remember those days that's a long time ago slowly it took a while then jeff left his job so it's not like you're any secret like you just inherited these businesses you just kind of landed and that it took a long time to build him up so it did it took a lot of hard work and the reason why I quit my job first jeff was actually the one that started photography on dh when we got married I picked up a camera fell in love with it started going to these weddings that he was shooting and that was our story he was the one that truly started the business but I quit first because I knew the systems and we said you know what in order to make this sustainable because we're we're working two full time jobs right now and we need to make this second full time job this photography that we want to do and that is truly our passion and truly our dream if we want to make that happen we're going to have to set up systems to make a sustainable so that we can provide a really great experience of these clients do we have and we can grow the business enough to leave our jobs and to do it full time so the key to leaving that full time job really was going in setting up systems making sure streamlined making sure that we gave our clients a great experience and then you were able to build enough clientele sheet enough weddings to be able to leave our full time job so it's really great all right every so monday one jared was talking about the different stages of the client lifecycle right I was paying attention there was the pre engagement stage there was when your clients are engaged and he's using the wedding example there stages for every different client experience every different business on and then there's the stage afterwards and he was talking about how to market those different stages and connect with the clients of those different stages there is along the entire client lifecycle there's all these touch points where you're interacting with your ideal clients were interacting with your target audience some of them are external so that's the marketing that's website social media that's where they're interacting with your business there's a lot of external touch points there and then there's a lot of internal touch points so once they become clients then there's all these interactions you have with them a lot of them are little interactions you know but you're interacting with them at all these little touch points and every single one of those touchpoints needs to be they need to interact with your brand in every single little one of those pieces and every single one of those touch points that you have with your clients with your potential clients with your current clients every single one of those touchpoints can be backed up by a system that supports it every one of those such points can have a system that backs it up and that's so important to understand because I think that a lot of us we don't systematize nearly as much as we could in our businesses we don't system ties nearly enough of those touchpoints as we possibly could if we systematize at all there's a lot of us that just get overwhelmed by it you know it's hard to look at the system you say oh like that I just I just don't know how to set that up on so you just don't at all so the goal is to increasingly systematize more and more and more of those touchpoints because that those systems or we're gonna have your back they're going to be the things that are going to make that happen and jared has has talked about some of those systems of how to set those up for yourself in your marketing campaigns on and I'm going to talk about how to do that in the other rules in your business think of that I think of any national brand any national chain you know that serves serves to create a nice client experience so I like to think of in terms of starbucks our studio in san diego sits directly above a starbucks so that's why I like using starbucks that's why I enjoy starbucks because they sit right below us and which by the way what would make a pot of coffee in our studio we like to say it's one step above starbucks way so starbucks is really really remarkable because their whole point is to make you happy threw a cup of coffee and they make me happy through a cup of coffee they make me happy through tall soy no water child say that is my sweet treat when I want to see a tree I go down there and I know I'm going to get it um they have built a really wonderful system to back up that client experience right the briefs that downstairs she knows my name she knows my drink she knows we work upstairs she smiles me every time and she could only do that because she's not focusing on roasting the beans in the back room right they have a system that baxter out and lets her provide a really great client experience I am jeff it actually worked at starbucks years ago did you know that if you didn't just work in the starbucks it's right by my house that's right and that's closed down I broke his heart by telling that all your guy I wouldn't you know so many memories we're going to starve us back in the day this I mean this was ten maybe fifteen years ago that we work there but when you get a job at starbucks they take you through this system I mean they show you how specific they get with everything you do when you make a lot you know how exactly they want that lots to be made and not just you know a number of shots and make sure you put in the right pumps of syrup you know that kind of stuff that they teach you how to steam the milk steve it properly make sure there's the right amount of foam they have a goal for every single one of those drinks and they have secret shoppers that come in and I believe they still do this but they definitely did this when I worked there there are secret shoppers that came in there was specific drinks that they that they would order you make their drink they would rate you on whether you made eye contact whether they you know you said their name wrote down their name how they timed how quickly your drink would come out and so they would they would rate that whole experience and then they would take the drink back to their car and they had this whole set up in their car they have a scale they have a probe they've all these men betterment and they know exactly how many ounces that drink should way based on this syrups based on the kind of milk based on the espresso shots and the way it and though with the probe will take the temperature and they'll know exactly how that drink was made and they'll rate you on how well you did they know that a lot say she have a certain amount of phone first steve milk and they know that that is the best way that they want that lots to be made there so specific and then you get a rating thankfully I got good ratings but you know what maybe this didn't actually happen maybe my manager just told me this would it make a good drinks you better have a good point first of I don't know how I got through an entire crate of live without bringing up starbucks cause I love the modeling congratulations way but same time I travel so much for from working for business and stuff and I you know this I love a good craft experience however when I'm on the road I will always go to a starbucks and I know that I might not be getting the very best cup of coffee that neighbor has dolphin it's true but I know I'll never get anything less than a good cup of coffee because the product is so consistent no matter what part of the world I'm in and I mean all over the world somehow there is a consistency and I'd rather not take a chance on a great cup of coffee and sacrifice getting a really good cup of coffee so I settled for that yeah it's really true and we jeff and I have a pre wedding tradition we shoot weddings all across the country were based out of san diego but we showed a lot of weddings up in orange county ella and then all across the country and we've come up with a pre wedding protocol it's what we call it we know that if we eat lunch at chipotle but not only will we get a delicious lunch but that that meal will sustain us through the entire wedding we're not going to crash the ceremony and we're not going toe you know be starving by the time the reception comes around we're gonna have a lot of energy we've just learned that over the years and they're a very consistent experiences as well and it's an experience that we happen to like and no matter what we're always combine into pulling wherever we go that's also why we eat there there's other places that you know we like to but we know we're going to find it to put laid what it's going to be well unlike starbucks that's probably third ship all the references this created jason talk about how much you love chipotle yesterday yeah yeah oh it's just I love it I love it there and you know it's funny to pull a always puts themselves catty corner to a starbucks they do that you're right it's so funny we just you know where this which quickly there's a starbucks conspiracy I don't know I don't know but that's totally random but definite always joke about that were like all right actually okay where's a starbucks there it is right there all right how do I become a star poli very good I was wondering what that was now like I am your various enter erin's cheesy sense of humor yes yes this is me how do you in with your resource is as a small business owner by yourself how do you provide a consistent experience that the same consistent experience that star portly provides to every single one of your customers I'm granted you probably have a lot less customers and start pulling but how do we do that let's figure that out first let's mind map our business and this is funny because I was going to call this like the creatives business brainstorm map thing and juries like we'll just call it a mind map like that sounds too much like fifth grade brainstorming so it's called a mind of math now but I'm not out the common roles in a wedding photography business again I'm going to use wedding photography as the example this is directly applicable to portrait photography senior portrait and it's also very applicable to a lot of other types of photography bombing photographers shoots a lot of commercial work so I know from experience that this applies to commercial studios as well another lot of other small businesses just take these roles figure out what they are for your particular business but mind map it the same way and break it down the same way that we are but this is going to be specific toe wedding photography so there's a whole bunch of rules that you embody in your business right like I said bookkeeper accountant editor designer market our sales person and as well as being a photographer a successful brand is one that infuses their personality into a much of their businesses they possibly can including the system's preaching I appreciate it a successful brand infuses their personality into nearly everything that they do including the systems and you really can't infuse your personality into the systems and I'm gonna show you how to do that however there is a caveat to this there is a section of systems that there is no way you could ever possibly infuse your brand into these certain rules and really you just shouldn't there are certain rules in your business bookkeeping for exactly for example accounting taxes contracts putting all that together thes rolls do not directly touch the client yes they see a contract but your contract really shouldn't be this super branded personality driven thing it should be a straightforward solid contract so these air rolls where bookkeeping is not going to directly affect your client you don't need teo you don't need a brand means and so these are the roles where you should never be involved and I say that even if you enjoy doing these things so you need to fire yourself from certain parts of your business you need to hire a specialist to do them jeff younger and my husband loves accounting he loves doing taxes I think he's crazy but his father it works in finance and it's playtime for those two to do their taxes I don't know how that computes I was yes it puts my brain and twist I don't understand how they enjoy taxes so much so for years he did our taxes and he said I don't need to hire someone I like it I enjoy it I'm good at it and I would always say you know you're spending some time on that like shouldn't there aren't there other things you should be spending your time on and he says well why pay someone when I can do it and I'm good at it and I like it he's like I get it if I didn't like it if I wasn't good at it sure yeah I need to hire a specialist finally after I would say six or seven years of our business we hired a bookkeeper and jeff loved it it's the best thing ever she takes scare of so much and she does their taxes and you know in the first year just to some different write offs that she found some different ways that she structure things she saved us money and you know made up the cost of hiring a bookkeeper in a c p a and just like oh okay yeah you're right I did a good job she did a great job you know she's a specialist so even if you like it we'll get rid of it and I'd even say because your story brings up a great example for me I did my own taxes at balm of ours the first several years not at all because I liked it but I did not like it was like I was doing in april fourteenth right before it's due but I did it because I thought it wasn't even a question of if I like it it was can I do it the question always was can I do it and to be honest the only reason in the beginning I ever actually had to go with a bookkeeper and an accountant was because I couldn't figure out how to appreciate my camera here I just couldn't figure it out I wasn't good at it like like jeff was but then I would always tend to tackle thing in the beginning just from the standpoint of cannot do not even do I like it but can I do it and that was a big mistake because I could do it but it took me so many hours yet so much frustration but what it really took me was the time that I could have been productively doing things for my business like marketing and she you took away from that yes so even though I didn't enjoy it it was still not a good use of my time it's not going to bring in any business whatsoever you're gonna have your taxes done great but is that going to bring in a new client no is that going to move your business forward no that is not where you need to be spending your time there's absolutely no reason why you should be doing your own book keeping your own accounting when the key here is that we're kind of talking about it from a different perspective which is really different but you're looking at things from what is the side of our business that is unbranded does not need to have a brand there is in the case for letting go of everything whether you like it or not it's a case about these are areas that the client will never see or are not dependent upon your brand right and so therefore there is absolutely no reason why that should be a part of the system you developed that you do I need to be part of your system yeah just not something you do yes exactly there's no reason to infuse her personality you don't need to have a voice to your bookkeeping you don't need a brand your bookkeeping or anything like that so there's just no reason for you to touch it so let go of rolls like that that are unbranded if there's other things in your business for example we don't print our own prince in our studio we don't bind our own albums and I think that's something that as a photographer we think well yeah of course I'm not going to do that myself but these air similar you know you hire an album company you have a print lab because they know how to do it they can do it and they do a good job at it you don't find your own albums you go you could but you could I don't think you should all right so there's another section of roles in your business these are the ninety ten rules and I'm gonna explain what ninety ten means in a second but these are the roles in your business that you do need to touch but you do need to infuse your personality and your brand on to an extent and these air rolls that can be the most time consuming and they could be the ones that take away the most from your business on the flip side these are the roles that can free you up the most from your business if you systematize these and you figure out how to free yourself from the specific roles you will free up a vast majority of time this is usually where photographers get really bogged down in their business and where they really get you know tracked in many ways eso freeing ourselves from these roles is what we're trying to dio um I'm gonna come back to these in just a second but first I'm gonna touch on the last set of rules in your business thes air the branded rolls these are the ones that as jared has been talking about over the past three days this is where you need to be involved this is where your energies need to be spent shooting marketing and with marketing come sales you know that's where you need to be spending all your time and energy producing a great product and then marketing that product and bringing in new business