Lessons

Lesson Info

Meet the Mentors: Lori Patrick

So what I did was I put mentors pages up and I think this is a really significant time for you to ask the mentors questions. So, I'm going to introduce each of the photographers here, and I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about them. And I would like you to pretty much hit Kena with this mini questions as you can for these ladies because at the end of the day I know that you need to feel like you are hearing the truth. It's so funny I feel like when a lot of people have said to me over the last three and a half years "How do I become a speaker?" "How do I become a an educator?" "How do I become you?" And I said just tell them the truth. I don't even have to remember my lies because they are not lies. So, I tell you where I struggled, I tell you what I remember. But then remember there's a big mind shift in there and that came with the 2008 crash. Now I've been a photographer on August, 15th for 26 years and I had seen two financial global, financial crisis, crisees, crisisis, what's t...

he plural for crisis? Crisis. Crisis, I have been through two global financial crisis, now it would sort of stand to reason that as a luxury item, I would not have survived that. Because why would you go an spend a 1000 dollars on portraits when the whole world is in global financial crisis? Twice, I watched my business go through that in the last 26 years and survived each time. Remember the golden rule, you know who's swimming naked when the tied goes out. Okay, so I was prepared both times. Now, the truth of it is, at 2008 when I started teaching we were going through a big mental shift around that crisis, so a lot of people were saying in the industry it's not like that anymore. You guys were flitting and you were even dreaming of photography careers in 2008 and now fast forward seven years you've all build businesses through a time where everyone said there's no money. There's no money and there's no income. And then I've watched you all at an entry-level coming and start building, so, let's talk about that. The first mentor you're going to meet and these are the questions I wanna ask them, you can ask any questions, feel free to interrupt me any time Kena. It's "What did you find the easiest?" "What did you find the hardest?" "What was your greatest struggle?" "And what is your current struggle?" Because I need people to know you overcame your first hurdles but there are still hurdles. Now, tell me something. It never stops, right? It's just different. There's every time you come around that mountain, there's another big block on the road and another hard lesson. And sometimes that hard lesson it not even within you it's the situation might change. A marriage may end, a family member may die, we all are faced with hurdles every single day. That we are ultimately shift and change the course of our life. But what you've done is build an income and a career from this business model and so what I wanna talk about is where did you struggle doing it and where are you still struggling now? My fist mentor that I am gonna introduce you is Lori Patrick. Lori she's Glamour and Head-Shots. She's currently building a new studio in an amazing location. Lori is mostly New York and Allentown based. You have houses in both areas and you can shoot in both areas. Now Lori's superpower is social media. When I met Lori, she came to my attention, 'cause she builds communities online. So, Lori build a Creative Life supposed to alumni page and then she build communities. And in order to build a community and social media like how I build my supervise community, you actually need to be active in that community every day, so she has a magnificent skill of bringing communities together and building on Facebook. So if you need to know anything about Facebook there's nothing this woman doesn't know. From pinning folders to pinning posts. Then what she did was, after 28 Days, she started InBedWithSue on Facebook. InBedWithSue is a Facebook group for photographers. You're asked to join this. There's 22 thousand largely glamour photographers in there posting work. This is where all the mentors mentored in that Facebook group. Now Lori runs that page, she started it, she runs in and then she started sub pages. She has so many pages, I think Facebook should pay here. (Audience laughs) Then she created 28 Days, so if you purchased 28 Days, and then send your receipt so Lori she put you in the study group and she actively gives you a 28 day challenge every single week. Now 28 Days was recorded and released on Creative Life two years ago and it is still the most active training course foundation course that we have. Because it is so significant to what we do. So if any of us go anywhere we go to 28 Days so there's Lori, so my question to you Lori, before anybody else ask you this question is, you're building a new space right now, so you had a big limbo time, you love your social media, what do you find the hardest of the nine areas to master and where are you struggling? Currently because my studio is almost ready to be open. It's going to be within a hotel, so the hotel needs to open first, it's been renovated. So, during that rime, I am working on my website. And the website part is easy for me. I love that kind of thing, doing websites. What I am gonna struggle with is, and I haven't done this yet, it's my next approach when I go home is studying Photoshop to work with it to make PDFs and things like this issue and getting my marketing together appropriately and correctly. Okay, that's your marketing and design. Yeah. So, you're number five. So, it's almost photoshopped with marketing a design together, I need to learn to put those two and marry them, so I can have an effective piece to put on for pressing. So, it's a lot of things to go into that. I think it's that center row that you have that I need to fulfill al those things that comes together for the new website that I am currently working on. Okay, what are your struggling with? So, this I had to learn this but do you avoid and what do you struggle with? Where is the pain for you? Pain is going to be and I have-- No, no, no, not where it's going to be. Yeah. Where is the pain? The fear of selling. Okay. Selling, the price of the product, things like that. I am going to be starting where a lot of the stories where from these girls beside me. When I read their stories two years ago, and a year ago how it was hard for them to come to that point of selling I am going to be writing that story myself. That "Oh my gosh, I have so much fear, can I really do this?" So you're ultimately skip everybody and go straight to Tammy, like you're gonna be like, you girls do the hard way. Yeah. And I'm gonna do the Tammy way. (Audience laughs) I'm just gonna go straight and with the highest package. (laughs) No, seriously, okay. (Lori laughs) So, I am glad that you said that. I am glad that you said you're struggling with prizing that and summing that because the next segment after lunch is prizing and then tomorrow selling yourself any product. I feel like these two are the two biggest blocks photographers have all of us had, is prizing yourself, creating a product that you believe in and you can sell and then selling it. So, I feel like that seemed a block for you and you're right, Photoshop is in the center as well. And so is design and marketing is in the center. You actively running right to five and seven. As your hurdles. Yeah, I am not winning the bingo though. (laughs) (mumbles) No, there's something-- Or that's a tactical game. I need to come over this hurdle and make it all work and own it that here's my PDF and this is who I am and where I am at. So you're gonna do the double fade, standing to the ground on the ship saying tomorrow. I am. Tell me, something Lori, what do you think most people are doing wrong on their social media? You are on Facebook so much and run communities where are people going wrong on their Facebook? On their personal? It doesn't matter, the biggest mistake people making on Facebook. I think that some people when they're commenting too much on what's happening in the news. (laughs) You know what I mean. Just things that are going to create aggression in other people. Stirring it up? Yeah stirring it up, I think that that's something that's kinda a no-no. That you loose followers because you're either on one side of the page or the other side of the page. You gain people to love you and then you have people walk away so you kind of have this medium ground of sharing interesting things. I felt like you build some really successful businesses as a florist. Yes. So, I feel like you're not gonna be afraid of building a business. Exaactly. Did you receive money for your florist to work really well or was that a struggle for you? Not a problem, no. Okay, so you might be also showing us after lunch where she could prize herself really well for graphic design, but when she started a new genre Nikkie, prized herself really well for winning and then she started a new genre, Heike started prizing herself for winning, then she started a new genre and all of a sudden we go back to not being able to prize herself again. Boy, do I have a challenge for you after lunch. Do you have a question for Lori Kena? I do actually. First of all Lori, I just wanna say that there are a lot of people in the room that are thanking you for everything that you have done. And there are people who are not even familiar with these groups, so I wanna tell people again how they can join these groups. Go for it and then I have a question for you. First of all (mumbles)-- (laughs) On behalf of me too and the mentors now and you join the groups by going to InBedWithSue. It's one word InBedWithSue. On Facebook. On Facebook and just click the join button and as long as you show that at least on your profile that you are starting to be a photographer or you're a photographer you're allowed to enter in and if you're not really showing that on your social page, your personal page then message one of the administrators which you can find under the member tab you see seven administrators now the girls here except for Tammy but message on of us-- So basically they declined for joining this group is because they went to your personal page and you're a spammer or you have a fake account and they check it because you can't just take anybody in but people are just advertise and troll in all sorts of dumb stuff. So basically they go and so if you had nothing photography-related in you description and any of your followers, and you don't have any mutual, they just don't wanna accept you. But it happens really rarely but it does happen. Yeah, 28 Day Study Group is you must own 28 Days with Sue Bryce and work to enter into that. That was a program on Creative Life, if you're new to Creative Life you don't know about it, definitely it's something that we probably gonna be talking about a lot those couple of next days but this is a group to support that class only, and it's a really intense study group where it's not people showing off basically or just posting for honor or whatever it's posting because they are learning. So there's a challenge in that group every week on 28 Days Study Group. Not only that there's 2.5 thousand photographers actively studying, so they're very helpful with each other because that group is you had to buy in to get it, so everyone knows that that is the most active group in terms of support. And you can not get into that group unless you own it and show me that you own it through basically a screenshot of your class on your computer. So, that I know that you own it and you can get in. Cool, thank you Lori. So, a lot of questions are coming in through for Lori about how do you manage social media, are there any tools or tricks because you're out there doing it so much. Tools that you specifically use and then as well, a lot of people are still asking how do I use my personal page, as different from my professional page. Do not use your personal page for business. I am telling you right now, do not use your personal page to a business. I did the whole I would rather be friends with people that have people like and follow me. So I resisted having a business page. I have 5000 friends max. on my personal page. 17 thousand subscribers, I was building it rapidly. I was on there every day, I was loving it, I could travel the world and my family and friends were asleep I could connect to these people. I really love that page. A follower reported me to Facebook, someone who got a stick or they are mad or whatever about me reported me as doing business on my Facebook page and Facebook removed that account over night. I woke up in the morning, I hit log-in, it said, error warning, your Facebook account has been removed, and I was like "What?" and just like that 1000 photographs are gone and all of that work. Now you are not allowed to do business on your personal page, the reason for this is Facebook has monetized Facebook and they want you to go to sponsored ads on your business page. Now there is this concept or this idea that people would rather be friends with you than like you (laughs), yeah, so this makes you a fan, right? If you like somebody's page you're a fan but if you're friends with them you're a fan not follower. So, now I like and follow as many business pages as I can, but I am telling you right now, you could wake up tomorrow and loose that Facebook page, so please do not do that. Please start a business page and start communicating on that business page, I feel like this is a huge lesson that I learned, yeah. And are there any particular tips that you have? Well, the only thing that I do is, when I wanna make a post on my page or you've had a photographer then I will share from my page to my personal but I don't share everything. I don't wanna last all the time, so I do trying to keep things separate, I am working on my engagements. Not as high as I would like it to be, but I am not sure why. I think it's because you focus your energy on the study groups. Yes, I spend all my time there. If you spend your time there that's where people are gonna talk to you. I spend all my time in supervising photographers now, that's where people go but I didn't realize this. So I resisted going on that page. Now I go there, as often as I can during the day. I would check and in the time it takes me to pay I would take my phone to the toilet and check in on that page cause if somebody has asked me a question I would catch it at that time. Like I check in as often as I can, because that's where I focus my energy. So where are you focusing your energy on social media is really the pull of energy. It's not different than the pull of energy in your business, you focus on selling, you gonna get more marketing and selling. If you focus on shooting you're gonna get more shooting. Like where you turn your attention it grows. So if you turn your attention towards your dead your dead is gonna grow because that's just how it works. What we focus on expands, so if you really drive one page than it's gonna be the page that suits you, so if that's your personal page you can only get 5000 friends and then you get to subscribe anyone so it's no different than people following you. Give them a reason to follow and that's important. One of the things that I am gonna take home to increase my skill set on a social media part of your back is what you're telling us right now. You have to engage every day on it. Pretty much because I was waiting on my studio to open, so I kind of was relaxed on that and I think that's what my problem is, and I was once posting like maybe once or every two weeks on it and that's just not good. So, you can post 10 times a day on a private group that you're hosting but you're actually not posting on your own page and people are transferring over. People come all the time and InBedWithSue and they're treated like a community not like a personal group. What they do is they advertise themselves and boost back to their page, they are trying to get likes. I don't need you to tell me to like you. You just need to post an image that makes me curious and I'll follow you. I'll follow your name and go to your page and if your page is active and current, I will hit like and follow you. Give me a reason to like you. But since when you walk up to somebody, a complete stranger and say like me. (audience laughs) It doesn't work like that, you know. You've gotta be interesting and engaging on your page. That you get followers, but the second you turn away from that they'll go. Ja, and since we're looking for clients from out pages, this is all about like you said treat it like a business. We have to pay attention to where our clients are. Do they wanna come to our studio and we can photograph them, yes we photograph other photographers sometimes but we really are looking for people in our community to come to our studios that are not in our groups. And that are not in our communities. It's fun to post in a communities, because we do get a lot of engagements but we need to find engagement on our personal pages today. We do and that's exactly right. I do kinda get on. Alright, I got a picture of what's been build at Lori's studio and I asked all of the mentors to drop images and their favorite images and there is Lori's beautiful work. (click) Gorgeous Lori, thank you. And you know what I love, everybody here I've gotten to spend time them and talk about, no I got to talk a lot with Lori about her floral business. Because when you build a business and you charged yourself there is the hurdle of a different energy that you're selling. But what I love about it is she's already done it. So, it's like when you run a half-marathon or you run a marathon. One of the hardest things to do is, I am sorry, one of the easiest things to do is run a second run. Because people always increase their time significantly the second time. You've got telling me about that, when you free your mind your body follows you. And so, if you want to achieve something you bank the knowledge somewhere on a cerebral level that you've got this. Now you might come up against the same hurdle and maybe then don't learn it enough the first time you might be faced with the same lesson again at a higher altitude and then you're like here I am again, hm interesting. This is about self value and I am gonna check that in myself, I've already conquered this and it's coming back to me again and again. How often do our hurdles come back to us Nikkie over and over again. All the time. And the whole point is that we keep getting them back and we keep seeing them. We just at a different altitude we deal with them differently. But the truth is as I am going to watch you do that because you're right now at the cracks of making it work in the studio space waiting for it to be build. You've been holding back. I am gonna give you some advice. My advice to you Lori is stop they're coming soon. Okay. We don't say coming soon, we're a now generation. Okay, we're not a digital generation. We're a now generation. So, if I was to write on my social media coming soon, people would get very annoyed with me. Now, I do say, somebody would say, can we watch a video of this shoot, yes, it's being edited but I do not say coming soon, video behind the scenes of this shoot, because three weeks of the track it might not be ready, four weeks people are still waiting, five weeks they've been giving up hope, six weeks it gets posted and they miss it. So, the point is I am not ever telling people coming soon. I am in business. Even if my studio is closed, I am in business. So, start speaking on your social media as I am. Not I am becoming. I feel like that is the greatest advice you could give anybody that's standing right on their edge of making it work.