Lessons

Lesson Info

The Buying Mindset

Let's wrap this up by talking about what we can do to price and market our work. I I want to review a little bit about what we've covered over the last three days and finally wrap up with hopefully some tips you can use right away to begin using this class and finally, a little bit of inspiration. So what you're going to learn the segment is the two types of consumer mindsets who really is your client? Does fine art really sell that's a big question? How to show your process in your marketing and I'll explain what I mean by that a few minutes how vulnerability will make you a great artist? What fine are quirk does for your brand and of course, how you price it and then I also want to review and wrap up we're going to talk about the secrets of success by someone else, not me and of course, the parenting manifesto, which I don't think you're going to want to miss. Okay, so this is the quote by me before you market know your audience so you know your audience, okay? Who is the bi? What is...

the buying mindset? Why do clients acts so strange? Sometimes you just like you'll have a client come in with a porsche and a chanel purse and a rolex watch, and they'll spend your minimum and then you'll have the mechanic who is struggling with a single with a stay at home mom and they buy your top package and they come in a beat up car and they can't afford anything, but they'll buy the world it's so strange, right? Like you really can't predict I've almost come to the point where I see someone who looks like they have a lot of money and I'll go oh it's going to crappy sale it's going to be crappy sale? I know it, I could just smell it okay? Because there is two types of buying mindsets and you have to decide what type of business model you want to operate under and who your target client is going to be. And of course, if you're producing fine art products like this, you're probably going to want to lean one direction or the other. So let's, look at the buying mindset, why would a woman in the u s ok? And I know thanksgiving is not necessarily holiday out there and online world and in the other major countries that creative the rest of the world the creative live broadcast to but here in the us we have a holiday called thanksgiving and it's on a thursday every year, and black friday occurs the day afterwards why would a woman get up before dawn to go get fifty percent off on products the day after thanksgiving on black friday. Why would she do that? Okay, and then go to the grocery store down the street, the gourmet market and buy all organic vegetables. Paying fifty percent more the same day doesn't make sense, does it? It does if you understand the buying mindset. Okay, she's. Not crazy. Even though you really want to call her that she's just misunderstood. There are two types of consumers. Okay, there is the traditional consumer. This person is driven by prices, features and status. They will buy a product based on its price based on how many features it has and or based on its status. Okay, they love a good deal. They will also spend on products that offer that higher status. And these consumers spend wildly in a good economy. They let it out the door like that. They will reign in tight when economic growth stalls and they will on ly spend if they get a good deal. And this mindset is very hard to change. We've seen that a lot over the last five years. With the market crash in two thousand eight, people reined in tight and we were having I mean, people would price shop like there's no tomorrow, how much your digital files and that's, how the shooting burner was born. Okay, you had all these hobbyists photographers who decided oh, I can charge one hundred hundred bucks for the dicks that cheaper I am in more clients I'm going to get so therefore I'm goingto do that and pull in that consumer okay there's nothing wrong with that we don't the rest of us who don't have that model tend to let george get the best of us when we see that because we think oh my gosh, they're stealing my clients that's not the case they are not stealing your clients they are taking the traditional client. The other type of client is the neo consumer. This consumer is driven by quality products design how they're done okay, how special they are the experience they achieve when they come to the business and the authenticity of the brand in the business. Okay, they are highly individual look for things with personal meaning they look for products with personal meaning they look for products that are outside the mainstream. Okay, these spencers consumers spend very judiciously all the time, but we'll spend lots on products they deem worthy of it. Okay? If they see a product as a commodity meaning you can find it anywhere they will act exactly like a traditional and demand the best deal that's why a woman will go to target on black friday and spend her heart out on commodity products because they're fifty percent off but because whole foods market is the only one that carries these organic quality vegetables and the special time kind of cheese that she loves she will go there and spend twice on groceries because it to her it's deemed worthy it has meaning good for her family okay and she has an authentic quality experience at that store ok so she's not crazy she's a neo makes sense doesn't it so think about our business in this fine our model we are targeting neos big time okay there's nothing wrong with people with photographers and business owners who want to target that traditional consumer they're going to be competing on price they're gonna be doing a lot of volume lots of clients and at the door quick work fast kind of just the quality is not going to be the highest and you can possibly get I'm sure throughout this entire course you ca n't tel I target the neo consumer I want that high end client who looks at what I do calls it unique I can't get it anywhere else that's something we're spending money on the experience customer service is huge in my studio and belinda in the last six months have been bless her heart she's amazing a customer service she has been revamping everything in the studio and making sure that every single client achieved the same level of customer service no matter what and we now have an incredibly tight ship the system is so specific somebody books they get put on the board this gets mark down, this gets marked down have we don't have we don't have we don't have we done it? Everybody goes to the same conveyor belt system and that's all with personal attention it's all with hand written cards it's all with notes of genuine authenticity we find out about their family we find out personal details from them we note those on their on their files and speak to those when we write to them one of our clients is building a house they're about to break ground so when our thank you note to them we're going to say we can't wait to see the finished house we hope it goes well for you if you need ideas on where to put your portrait's in the new home or which room you want to do it we'd be happy to look at the design plans their construction to help you out personal attention to thinks it's just a matter of taking notes. So when somebody calls and books a session, I'm taking notes in studio cloud, which is my city management system about who they are, what they do, what special in their lives, how their baby came about all these questions we talked about in the first day that's when I'm typing into their notes and belinda can go into the system see that everybody knows what's going on with that family they are family to us now too okay so ask yourself who is your consumer? It doesn't matter but if you're you know who you're targeting just make sure you're you're building your business model around the type of market that you're trying to attract okay, your brand is definitely a field to your business and it has a lot to do with your authenticity of who you are yeah so that means you better be vulnerable to yourself and allow your authenticity to show through because that's going to connect your brand as well ah brand is branding is part of what business what makes your business unique it's who you are look at your brand is the personality of your business okay it's your business model your work the way you shoot your artwork, your personality or strategic approach, your decision making model your customer service your communication it's how you use your strengths and how you cope with your weaknesses when somebody's unhappy what do you do in our facebook group? Someone commented that they were a little disappointed that the newborn posing guide came with this class but not with the last one and I could totally see how they'd be disappointed I mean you bought the newborn class and you thought, well it would be nice to have some poses and so what? I can totally see where they're coming from you know, all I can do is respond to that what they thought was a weakness, which is totally okay for them to think that I have to address that as a business owner, you know, my students are my clients to, you know, I have two businesses, I have my my baby clients, and then I have my teaching that ideo so you guys are my client, I want to treat you with the highest level of customer service that I can I'm not going to be the teacher for every single student out there, but it's the same model to see what I'm saying, so I promptly addressed that student on facebook publican said, I could totally understand, you know, we offer things with this class that we didn't offer with the other class and vice versa, each class has its own assets, and I don't want to put the same things in both classes because then it's not a value to the new people coming in who have already purchased that class. So you know, if I explain that, say and empathize and say, you know, I'm sorry you're disappointed, I can totally understand how you would be disappointed about that, okay, but you have to cope with your weaknesses in a way that sympathetic with your consumers. You have to be understanding, I mean, like bp did a great remember the oil spill in the south, bp did a fantastic job of fixing that it was a pr nightmare, but they took responsibility for it and said, you know what? We screwed up we're going to fix it and they spent billions on advertising campaign saying we're going to fix this, we're going to promote tourism, the south we're gonna bring your economy back, we will make this right and that's, you know, for an oil company do that was pretty cool. I have my opinion about oils and gasoline and fuels that we have to rely on from other parts of the world, etcetera, etcetera, but that was really neat that they did that and very admirable, and it made me look at their brand in a whole new light. So taking responsibility for your weaknesses as as a business owner is an incredibly valuable thing to do and will endure your clients to you tenfold and yes, they're going to be some clients to take advantage of it there's going to be clients who want everything for free and insist that you fixed everything just deal with, um get him out of here and the next time they call so we were but, you know, don't take him again firearm, but treat him right while they're still your client sarah petty said, you cannot build a strong brand on a week identity and she's so right if you don't know who you are, then you don't have a brand simple is that at least not a strong one or one that will last over time? Okay, so your brand reinforces everything about your business, so you have to be true to who you are in your brand as an artist, you build a successful brand and business based on who you are, so your work and your business all reflect your inner self, especially his artists, because that are we are our brand people come to me for my work. If I sold my business to another photographer, it wouldn't be the same there's no way the brand could uphold because it's me that I'm the artist, they want my work and you know, when tiffany came on board, we kind of started a photography line for her and it flopped because they didn't want the second shooter, not that she wasn't talented if he's incredibly talented, they didn't it's not that they didn't want her, they wanted the artist associate with the business. Okay, so what is your brand? And that begs the question who are you? We've been addressing this the whole class so important to look at are you embracing vulnerability? Are you being your aunt authentic self? Because that's in your business model too that's in who you are is a business all that rings true branding is not a push but a pole can you think about this branding is the expression of the essential truth or value of an organisation product or service kind of aura marketing is what you do to get clients branding is who you are is a company that's a difference people confused branding and marketing all the time they are different branding is strategic long term marketing, its tactical short term followings that feeling the difference marketing may contribute to a brand, but the brand is bigger than any particular marketing effort. The brand is what remains after the marketing has swept through the room it's what sticks in your mind associate with a product service organization whether or not at that particular moment you decide to buy so people may look at my company and jule images are studio and maybe decide not to book but they got a feeling about me by coming into the studio, seeing our advertising, looking at our logo and how our marketing materials be talking feel talking to us on the phone and how we approach that all that has to do with the big picture of who we are marketing unearth and activates fires gets them to do something book by branding makes loyal customers advocates even evangelists out of those who by connection when you connect with your clients, you will solidify your brand, so think of your brand as the face of it your business it's personality. So how do you develop a brand it's not easy to do and it takes years to actually get one that's solid so don't expect this to happen overnight. Some of you may be just starting out of this and going and kind of seeing the big picture seems overwhelming at first you're like, oh my gosh, this is a lot to take in and some of you are probably just on the cusp and you're like, I know I'm close, but I'm not quite there yet it really comes down to being you the artist and that comes down to being authentic and who you are and really showing that off in a positive light does that make sense? You falling with that it's discovering your sense of style and your artist's inner voice? Of course you have to embrace vulnerability for authenticity and once you haven't do not deviate from it, do not deviate from it companies do re brand, so to speak, but once consumers have a mindset about who you are it's very hard to change it look at j c penney big department store they've been trying to rebrand for years to get different types of consumers to come into their store and they cannot do it because j c penny has been around for a long time a certain kind of they attract a certain kind of target market and they cannot break out of that rut because too many people have an idea of what their business is about so bill that strong brand from the beginning what you want it to be for the lifetime of your company not that rebranding can't be successful it can but just be cognizant of what can and cannot happen we've been talking a lot about embracing vulnerability and george and shame and all that stuff and one of the big things that people always ask me is like ok I know I have to accept emotional risk and like when I have to put my images out there or make something make it image that speaks to me but it's a topic I'm afraid to talk about our or address or you know a client's really upset with me and I'm feeling vulnerable like they're going to attack me you know oh I did something wrong I stock george does that to all the time I'm not a photographer how can I be running a business is ridiculous can you tell I've had these socks in my life yes we all have everybody has been has felt shamed very few people talk about it and the less you talk about it the more it has control over you so talk about it in your own head when you make a mistake, fix it, but try not to let george attack you for it have empathy on yourself, fix those mistakes with confidence and say ok, hey, I can I can fix this have empathy with yourself that hey, yeah, I did fix this it's going to be ok, it's, just a mist ake talk to yourself like your best friend would you guys are all becoming? You've been here for three, four days now and, you know, starting to know each other, you barely even know each other, but would you dare tell someone in this group that they suck? You wouldn't even want to let alone dare to because you're nice, beautiful people. And so why would you do that to yourself when you know yourself more than anyone does? So when you feel those thoughts come through your head, try to be a best friend to yourself rather than a mean old nasty critic who's got a wife beater on and a cigar hanging about his mouth like doors. Okay, so how do you go from that place of not of kind of beating yourself up to a place of hey, I do I am a good person, this is b s I'm not going to let my brain take over me like this when there's a couple of strategies and problem there's a book called playing big that I just found discovered by tracy moore moore I think her name's on the next line and she talked about the two types of fear. So when we feel vulnerable about about things, we usually get scared in two ways. Ok? There's threatening fear, which is that type of fear that you're like, oh my god something's gonna hurt me like this is scary stuff I'm in danger fear my emotional worth is being compromised here so it's fear projecting things, things that might happen to you um, it's fear of something that would harm you misleading fear fear that you know isn't really true but it feels strong at the moment on dit causes us to retreat from a most emotional risk back off we don't wantto feel it we put up walls, okay, exciting fear is that fear? Like I'm gonna start this business it's like this is really scary but it's good. You know that kind of fear like the fear than when I was nervous the first day coming on here that's that kind of fear it's like this is gonna be fun, but my god, it overwhelms us when we had a habit, a larger space than we're used to when you suddenly come into mohr energy than you had before in the presence of what you perceive as the divine so if you think something is godly or heavenly or whatever you feel that I was scared but this is so beautiful this is wonderful okay so it's that kind of exciting fear something we need to lean into to pursue our dreams if you're not scared of it that means I mean if you are scared of it that means you should probably do it you mean so strategies to handle the threatening fear that's the one that we need to address that's when george is really being hard on you okay she has all these different tactics tap into your inner mentor who is your inner mentor your inner mentor is an older version of yourself so imagine they're all female in this room imagine a woman who's twice your age or a third of your age older twenty thirty years older than you are what would she say to you about what you're feeling with feeling about at the moment what would she would she be empathetic and console you when you look at your age and go back to yourself in your twenties or teens or whatever do you look back and scold that young woman and tell her how stupid she wass occasionally but more often not you look at you go gosh I've learned so much since then you know I really made some mistakes but that's ok we're growing out of them do you know what I mean? You can't really help those mistakes, so instead of beating yourself up for it, you just kind of try to talk to that young woman and console her what would you say to her? Another strategy is to invite lovin and these are all from tara and I strongly encourage you look at her book to get more descriptive because she will probably describe it a lot easier than I do but you know, kind of say hey, I know this is a good place I could do this get curious about things when you're fearful get curious I'm really scared of flying I hate flying airplanes I'm very fearful of it I fear for my personal safety it's stupid I know the odds I know all justices six I'm pretty smart person I get it but I still get scared every time I go on a plane so instead of I try to kind of go okay what's that noise oh, it could be the wheels going up it could be this and I just kind of try to get curious about things I'll even ask people but in the kind o that's a kind of an interesting noise it sounds like this what is it you know? Get a curious rather than scared about it try to shift into another positive state, reconnect with your desire to serve so when you're scared of something especially in your art realized that you're doing a service for someone you're helping your clients and doing something beautiful for them that they look too with value okay talk with your younger self we kind of rest on that label it george externalize it and label it kind of get it out of yourself and that will help you kind of learn to cope with it analysed truth possibility improbability my dad used to say to me what's the best that can happen what's the worst that can happen and no that'll probably in the middle if you can handle both way okay okay come back to the present moment like when you're really scared your mind starting getting out of control come back okay what is reality what's really happening and do I need to be that afraid of it? Um follow fear to the end game think of the absolute worst thing that could possibly happen just catastrophic size it and then you realize how stupid you are and you know you and it's really not that bad? Okay other techniques of course just breathe take it all in to a physical relaxation, meditation, yoga anything like that really helps with fear visualized calm on dh use music all of those techniques could help you kind of calm fear and sometimes you just have to live with it and keep pressing forward, no matter what. Just kind of know it's going to be there, that fear in that discomfort is going to be there and challenge it to stay right beside you. As you move on as you move through it, challenge it, go okay, can you stay with me and be scared with me while I keep going? It's. Funny, because champ, nine times out of ten, george cannot keep up, okay. It's. A really good strategy.