Lessons

Lesson Info

Charitable Marketing

I want to talk. We talked a little bit about charity and one of my favorite charities. But today I want to keep you on a happy note. I promised you could put your tissues away. I promise. I want you to think about what you could do for the community. Now, charitable marketing gives you a couple opportunities. It gives you two opportunity to create awareness for organizations that really deserves it. Deserve it. It also allows you to generate funds for those organizations. So you are helping, but it also benefits you. You, khun network, and communicate and have contacts. People that can make a difference in your life as well. And that's fair. You should never be ashamed of working for a charity or benefiting from that in the sense that if you do something nice and something nice happens to you, that's okay, don't be ashamed, it's. Ok, um, I want to show you some of my favorite charities real quick. Or just to actually just this one. This is a charity that started when I was, um, actuall...

y had had my son. My second son was born. I, as I explain with a major medical problem, he has heart stopped at six days old in my arms and threw some major miracle the on ly person standing in the room happened to be a physician I was at my home and she happened to be visiting late night uh she was able to resuscitate him there we took him to a local hospital literally while she kept him breathing drove to hospital they brought him in he had another episode there where his heart stopped for two minutes at that point they transported him to children's hospital and he spent a little over the first year of his life there now the very beginning it was critical they said he would not survive he just was not breathing his heart was his brain was not telling his heart to go and so he was having real struggles that year was really the hardest year of my life it's also the year that I opened the studio it's the year that I hired my first photographer because I had to because he was so so sick and so this was a really hard year for me and I was the whole world was coming to an end and this was thirteen years ago so of course that first year was just exhausting and we did have some encouraging things happen he started to grow and there was a point where at three months they said we needed to plan a funeral so you can imagine that weekend was terrible and then by the monday they called and said they'd made a mistake so um he still was a very sick little boy but it was a roller coaster for us and as he grew when he got chunkier and stronger we continue to have oxygen and he was in the hospital about the time he had he just crossed over thirteen months, fourteen months and we were at the hospital and they were doing all the tests and trying they were testing him without oxygen and I remember I'll never forget this because I was sitting in uh, the office and we live there so and you stop thinking about what's going on and I don't know I was reading or something and they were working with him and playing with him and uh and they were testing his oxygen level and the doctor came in who was talking to the nurse is after the test and he said, well, I said to the nurses said, well, it looks like it's time to take this little boy off oxygen and I remember looking up and my heart jumping out of my body thinking you can't do that because I mean my first reaction was that's his life like that was his lifeline and then I processed it for a minute and I realized what he was saying is that we had made it that he was now going to be taken off of oxygen and so of course I remember just going oh, my gosh, is this really happening? Like he's? Really? And I was watching them. They weren't we they're like family at that point, so we were just sitting there, and I'm tears started coming to my eyes, and I was listening to them talk, and I was watching them play with my son and I really saving some of these nurses had been there the entire year with him, and so this was nick, this was, you know, nikolai, the little boy they played with, and so you know, they you know, they were talking and laughing and playing with him, and as I sat there, I looked at them and I said, I thought myself I said, I don't care what it takes, I'm going to spend the rest of my life paying these people back, because as of that day, they had given me the greatest gift, because what that said oxygen to me was like face, and the fact that he was going to be off of oxygen off of the tank meant that he was gonna live, and that was a big deal. So it was that year that we started our first santa charity. Now this was thirteen years ago, twelve years ago, I guess, as of this next christmas thirteen, we created this program that we, uh it was a very low session fee and the session fee. The entire session fee was donated to the children's hospital and actually is not really a session fee. It was a deposit. The first package was one hundred dollars, and they had to put a fifty dollar deposit on the package and that fifty dollars, was donated to the children's hospital. The pat first package was one hundred dollars. The second package was seventy five dollars, and the third package was only twenty five dollars. A package was an eight by ten or five by seven and four walls. So two sheets for two hundred dollars. Fifty dollars. Going to the hospital. Now, the first year we did this, I'll be honest with you. It we had thirteen people sign up for it, and I had thirty spaces. So I called my friends and family and said, come in, it's free. Just come in if you want to make a donation, please dio and we had we had our little success the next year it started to grow and it started to grow and it started to grow. And, um, we're now at the point that the three years ago we hit this point where, uh the actual santa charity books the day the lad it's completely booked the day it end so in other words, the next year is completely booked. We started with one day we went to two days. We finally took it to three days. Three years ago. We had to take it to five days. And if you've ever shot five days straight of santa claus fifteen minute sessions every fifteen minutes no lunch break straight through from eight a m to seven p m it's unbelievable, but the problem was, these children have come every year to see santa and this is samantha larry, by the way, central areas from alaska, he comes down special to help us out. He's the most beautiful is one of the original coke santa so he said, just increase not original one but he's one of the coke santas he's so beautiful and it comes out to help us with the charity. And we have baby is who have literally started that air now eleven, ten, twelve, thirteen years are almost thirteen years old that have been photographed every year. And let me tell you, it's a big deal to these parents, they will fight and claw and scream to get when they call me on my cell phone and tears going I didn't call soon enough, but everything's booked you have what to use less ten years my kid's been in and there's no way we could miss santa larry and you know and you're it's it's an emotional roller coaster hands I added five days because I couldn't let people down so it has grown to this tremendous big event and we're so proud of it you know when I sat in that hospital uh twelve years ago I could not have imagined I just knew I had to do something well my bookkeeper came to me and this this is one of the largest cash donations we make per year she came to me a couple of years ago and she said sandy she said do you realize that in the last twelve years you've personally written checks for over one hundred thousand dollars to charity? You know most of it is in this realm here now I look at it and I turn to when I said you know kim that's not true I didn't donate one hundred thousand dollars you see I look at it like a big bucket of water and I don't have one hundred thousand dollars to give anybody really but my client's hold on I must go round it really it works my client's oh my gosh it really works you just killed all my emotion I ruined no um my client's thank you it does work my clients believe in what I do so much doesn't work very well they believe in it so much that they're willing to put a drop in the bucket and every drop matters because twelve years later way somehow fill the bucket and uh that's a really big deal so I'm gonna show you a quick little video of what huh the santa charity looks like just to give you an idea those cookies are you ready to sit down what do you have in your hand is it a toy can I give it to mom toehold all right mom's gonna hold the toy right here can you say merry christmas good job one more crack good now can you come stand right over here it's kinda cool one day like today you say good very cute now we hang it on the tree let's take a few more like oh this one's for him and then what is it you want here wayne said you wanted santa have this so you're gonna have another one which one would you have it's like a little bit which one do you think pretty good oh are you going to eat that cookie high your money all right eddie let's see all right hold this speaking let's have you hold this one this time then okay, now get ready watch the booth right here. Oh my goodness look right here and say merry christmas good you know what I think I hear something what do you hear? I think I hear something else for me ready one two three oh right just like that when you cross your ankles way this all of us put on that what can you do it louder wait how about if I tickle your can you stay like this do you hear something else wait I love this guy I don't look at him he's not their way how very christmas thank you for seeing me I couldn't resist hey four out of five ain't bad red come on a couple things about that we always do the child without santa claus first so that we get a shot no matter what we always sneak sent in that way so I get a shot with santa no matter what and then if it works out there's no one in four that's going to completely freak out and go ballistic we like that shot too by the way that's always a favorite but that's how we get away with it that's how we can photograph every ten minutes if we want teo full santa session we showed them about five to eight images and so out of we should about ten to twelve and we show them about five days we edit very quickly they see them that day they order that day which is not the norm we actually print them out on paper because we're talking hundreds of people and it's it's chaos and fun but again, with this experience tiny little dream, tidy little vision and ah, big opportunity so it works now a couple things this was supposed to be done last year, but because of a second tour, we added, I could not get it done. We are actually starting a charitable website. Uh, we may change the girl, so I'm not going to get it. Its icy pc is not the earl it's actually something else, but we will sense if you've signed up for you can do. If you've been anything I've ever done, you'll get notified. This website is dedicated to photographers around the world who are using their are to give back it is just an inspirational side it's, a block type site where we could go, and reed will be posting monthly different people doing amazing things and giving back. So we will be asking you for news about local people like yourself and like myself all the way up to people doing things that are absolute changing world, and I'm very excited and proud of this. This is a personal little dream of mine and investment that I would like tio make.