Lessons

Lesson Info

Communication

So we got through the rest of that marketing and s so now we're going to jump into a little bit more kind of designing your portrait events, and this is just a list of themes, and, again, you've got this in your workbooks, and you guys will have it online as well. So it's just a just different ideas, and I've just throwing a million of them up there. I have little angels over here because that's the theme that I do for my charity events, we produce a little angels calendar every year. Ah, for a charity, for don no more, and and so so that's my thing, I don't do a lot of themes with my events, but it's it it is worked with studios and helped him get set up that on lee doo theme, so they actually work with their host mom and allow them to choose a theme for the event, and that way, every single one is different, and you kind of gear it towards the client that you're working with, so that can be a really fun thing. And even if you just do do your theme, um, location based. So for example,...

if it's spring and you do pictures in the park, or if you do wildflower days, or, you know, just something simple, that that makes it about the location it's something that kind of ties it in and makes it make a little bit more sense as an event for people and so there's all different kinds of ideas even down to just doing it with pets or um we do a uh actually our pet event isn't even listed on there oh yetis forever friends is art but there's forever friends and possible cause and bark back and positively perfect furry friends you know you can call it anything but I'm just tying into a different theme for pets if that's your thing and that's another thing that we haven't even touched on yet but the's portrait events can also be used if that's your market if you're just photographing pets, you just have to find that one write mom you know doggy mom or horse mom or you know whatever it is and you know you guys know people with pets spend a lot of money on their pets people with horses spent a lot of money on their horses, dogs, even cats. You know, people were spending a lot of money on these animal so it's great to tie in to kind of that same thing one doggy mom knows another doggy mom, you know, so you can start your portrait events that way all right? So getting in touch with your host that initial contact and you know, you always kind of wondered how do I start this who's first so we talked about a little bit earlier about kind of going through that list um figure out who your target client is and then starting that contact list from that so really deciding from there, you know, just kind of who you're going to practise on even and it might be in the beginning that you've always done your best friend's portrait's for free and you really don't want to start charging her even though you know, you should, um but she's one of those well connected mom she's somebody who knows a lot of people maybe her kid's aaron high end dance academy or, you know, whatever it might be it's the right mom so that's a great way to work with somebody that you want to keep working with that really hasn't been paying you appropriately but does have those connections so that might be your first mom to call and say, you know, hey, I have a way that you can get a free session for your kids and earn five hundred dollars in portrait credit is this something that you would be interested in and that way it leads to, you know, those other contacts that she has, so we're going to now play the first phone call that we've been trying to get to all day long so what? What we did is the host mom that I'm working with here, and this phone call is going to be a little bit different than a typical phone colleges because this was a different situation, but she'll get to hear kind of the basics of how that that very first phone call goes. Lisa, hi, lisa, this is glory, nordstrom, and I'm a photographer, who's friends with stevie johnson, and he had mentioned that you guys have chatted and you might be interested in hosting a really kids event like she did. Yes, I'm really interested. I loved her pictures of her kids. Your well, I left during that, and for our host mom, we actually offer a free session for your own kids and then up to five hundred dollars, in port credit, so I'd love to tell you a little bit about how that works with you that something absolutely signed me up. Well, we heard about your kids, too, and I sound like the perfect age is what what I like to work with with these sessions are kids sitting up through a fourteen who the other kind of our ages, and susan said that you were so well connected and had so many great friends, and so she thought you would be perfect to do this so that's exciting and but what I'm love for you to do is just kind of over today just kind of start making a list of people that you think would be interested and then I'd love to call you back this afternoon or tomorrow morning whatever works for you and kind of go through that and talk to you a little bit about what you're actually going to say to your friends when you call them and what we'll do is we'll plan an event on a day and typically I like to do it at your home if you're willing to host it at your home and we'll we'll schedule a session, then typically it's between tough ten and twelve sections and there's thirty minutes each and it's going to be fifty dollars per child home to do the best you know and and then wait, we actually show them their images right after the stephan and so that's really fun and keeps you high energy and everything is done on that day. So it's it's a really fun fun may call great well, do you have any questions for me? Um, what should my kids where what did your kids were? Well, actually we that's a great question and what I'll be doing, and when I call you for a second call, I'm going to be talking to a little bit about your a corps style in your home in your colors and I'm even going to be asking you to take some pictures of the wall in your home oh and really any advice that you would consider hanging a portrait and by doing that then I'll be able to talk to you about clothing suggestions and even maybe some personal props that you might want to bring finding out what your kids are into and that kind of thing so I left something to think about as well and all so think about a couple of dates that might work for you and so one like when I call you back will want to look at that to get our schedules out and um pick a date okay? And when I make my list of my friends you said ten or eleven sessions right? S o should I like make a list of like thirty friends so that we can see here it's interested can if you can make me make a rift is as bigas you can okay on really criteria is just you know mom like you people who love photography and have, you know, energetic fun kids they want to celebrate and you know that well we specialize in and really why it's even called real kids because it's about realized and right moment capturing those personalities and so I'm sure you're already starting to think about moms who would really love it yes, I have a few in mind. Okay, well super well when would be best for us to chat again this afternoon or tomorrow morning? Tomorrow morning sounds great. Okay, well let's talk to martin tomorrow morning at the same time. Okay. Thank you. Ok, thank you even talk to you later bye. So that's that's really is pretty much a typical first phone call. Uh a little bit different. Like I said because of the situation here normally I'm calling somebody and for example, the very first phone call that I made for real kids was when I decided in two thousand nine I have to figure out how to make money to morrow my appointment book isn't booked and you know, so what can I do and the thing that I knew could make money in a day? It was an event like this, and like I said, I had been doing this for a charity event for many, many years and and so I knew the parameters of it worked. I needed to tweak it to make it more for the studio and not for a charity event, but but I knew it could happen in a day and by the way, why were all those and edit out of there s so hard to listen to? I was just about state again um so so I called the first mom and I just let her know you know here's what's going on in the studio and the and the call was basically you know, you know hey, this is this is lori nord stone how are you guys how are the girls haven't seen you guys in a while um just wanted to call in and chat with you and let you know about something that we're doing that's brand new in the studio and I immediately thought of you and it was another one of those things where again and I'm telling her I know you're so well connected I immediately thought thought of you you're going to be perfect for this and so already planning those positive seeds of heart you know what you got going on and then I just let her know you know, I've got something that we're doing now and my language is always as if it's already in place she was the first person that ever called but I wanted to let her know we've got something that's going on now that you're perfect for here's what's happening so I let her know you know we're gonna be doing a portrait events and what I would love for you to do is to be a host mom and by being one of our host moms you're going to get a free session for the girls and you're going to get five hundred dollars in portrait credit does that sound interesting to you and and she right away was like sign me up and I had already told that to lisa and so that's why she gave me that answer but it really is honestly a typical answer when we when I call somebody it doesn't matter who they are if I tell him you can get a free session plus five hundred dollars in pork store credit they're saying tell me what I got to dio you know so so that's really is how that goes the things that we want to make sure happen on this call are just establishing that relationship first typically it is someone that I worked with before and I just haven't seen in a while now people that are hosting events or people that have come to event want to host their own and we've got marketing for that as well but and then we're gonna just gonna tell her how it goes, how it works they're going to get a free session for their kids they're going to get five hundred dollars in port credit and how that works is she's going to get the free session just for hosting the event and then she's going to get fifty dollars in portrait credit for every mom that brings her kids? So the goal is for her to have ten moms and I tell them ten to twelve because typically they'll call twelve and wind up with ten and not thirty typically they don't they don't ask that question, but they are thinking about I'm telling him twelve to fifteen and, uh, and they're going to get fifty dollars for every single mom that comes. And I do use that well connected line a lot. I know you're so law connected. They love that, and they start on that list, so I asked him to get going on that and then make the appointment for the second call. And typically, that second call literally is if I'm calling in the morning, I might call him right back in the afternoon. I wanted to stay on their minds. I want them to know. Ok, I got to get this done. I gotta start making this list so I can talk to laurie about it. Otherwise, I'm gonna call in the next morning, and but we do do it right away. Now, this is an actual phone kind of conversation that I typed out for you guys. And so I am going to read this because I think it's important to kind of go through how unnatural phone call that progression goes, even though you just heard it, um, but this will be there for you as well, obviously, if you end up with this course, but so I'm gonna call and I'm just gonna say hi, this is lori, and if you haven't seen somebody for a while or like with lisa, I was calling as a referral from someone, so I said, this is lauryn ward from the photographer I was calling because susie johnson hosted an event and said that you might be interested. Obviously there was no susie johnson, but for the sake of this call, there was a susie johnson s so you're just going to clarify if you need to, um, you know, I'm doing great, I haven't seen you guys in a while, I'd been thinking about you guys and just wanted to give you a call, you know, how are the girls? And and again, this is something that I literally have written out in my studio and I go over this and as many times as I've made this phone call in his natural it is for me, I want to make sure that I'm just touching on all the key points that I need to touch on some reading I'm reading through this, um I'd love to see the girls again and photographed them again, and I think I've come up with something or we're doing something is what I'm saying now that you might be interested in I'm doing something new and thought you would be just perfect for it. When I think of a well connected mom, I think of you and that's something I say, you know, almost every time, and they're gonna laugh, they're gonna say, oh, well, you know, thanks, I suppose you never thought about that, you know, whatever, um, I've started a program called real kids, and I just wanted to tell you about it. If you decide to join me in this, you're going to get a free portrait session for the girls and five hundred dollars, in port credit you in or sounds good, you know, we're just going toe kind of flow with that, and then I haven't ever had anybody tell me no, I mean, you offer somebody that and they're like, well, yeah, you know, I got to do it, so I guess I want to be part of this so real kids is a portrait event it's kind of like a party, and I do go ahead and use that word with my host mom because I want them to get the idea these days. Really, there are a lot of people that have already heard of a portrait party, and so I'll tell him kind of like a party if I need to explain it more. It is kind of like an appointment based pampered chef for, you know, whatever it that's kind of what it's like um so they're going to invite people so it's kind of like a party and I'd love for you to be a host and what this means is that when that we're going to select a location together and then you would invite ten to twelve of your favorite mommy friends and you're going to use that phrase depending on the age of the kids that she has but if she's got little ones so you're going to fight ten to twelve of your favorite mommy friends to bring their own kids to be photographed I charge fifty dollars procession for the session and you're going to get fifty dollars in portrait credit for every mom who signs up and again typically it's you know I'm already thinking of people I'm on this you know, they really do get excited about it and and I could tell you even if you're just starting this, what happened for me when I was in the beginning of it, I told people this is a new program for us we've just started this I'm so excited for you to be a part of the ground floor of this and they're excited to help you they really are, especially if they've been a client in the past or if it's that person that you see at the gym every morning and she's bringing her kids and their designer uggs and they're two years old you know or whatever um and you tell her you know, this is what's going on they're excited they're excited teo teo get their friends involved and the be the one in the no you know you've told him you're that person and they enjoy that so after they're agreeing I tom you know, great I was hoping you'd say that it really is a relief fund a and I think your friends would really enjoy it too, so we're going through this process and you know, setting up that next appointment I do go ahead and tell them what this is all about as you know what we specialize in his wall decor and it's going to be no different at this event I'm going to be calling each one of your guests after you get them set up and I'll do a consultation call with them on on clothing for their kids, personal props and where we're going to be hanging their portrait so I am pre laying all the groundwork for what this is going to be about um, you know, now she knows it's not just many sessions it's not just a portrait party it's not just you know we're still focused on the things that we're focused on the things that we specialize in so I want to reiterate that to her if it's a brand new to you and you're not doing this and this is the direction that you want to go just you know just say that you know, this is something new that I'm specializing in and I'm so excited to share with you our new frame line or whatever it is that you you decide to incorporate into this type of event just let him know and if you're excited they will be excited too it's the same way when you get to the point where you're done putting your images online for sale and you know you need to get in front of your client for sales it will change your bottom line overnight that's one thing that you could do tomorrow is just take him off line for the sale sit down with them and go through the order with them make suggestions you will double your averages and I can just about guarantee I've seen it over and over and over I've even worked with people who have quadrupled their averages overnight without even changing pricing. It makes that much of a difference if they're online and the you know what happens every single time when they're online there's only one person in the world that I know of who has great sales averages online and it's audrey woolard and it's because she has a very specific product that every single person buys and she also knows that she has the average is exactly where she wants them she knows if she met with him in person she would make more money but she has her averages where she wants them and she's not willing to do the extra work to make the more money and that's ok she's made that choice for her business in her life so in our family, however, for the average joe for the average laurie if I put my if I put my images online and throw them to my client and say take a look at everything and let me know what you want, they're going to call me back or email me facebook mean, they're going to say we love everything they're still amazing you're so awesome this is great and then it's gonna go a week and I'm not gonna hear from him and then it's going to be two weeks and it's going to three weeks and then I'm gonna call him and then I'm gonna feel like I'm bugging him and then you know, two months goes by and it's like well, I guess that was a wash and it happens over and over and over because all they know it is to go and love those pictures and enjoy him and if they do order they order four by six is five by sevens and great big eight by tens that's all they know so we have to sit with them we have to prepare them we have to make suggestions we have to do what's best for them through the whole entire process what's best for them is not throwing them online for them to make decisions and it's not given him a cd you know on dh I know for me if I'm going to buy something that's a high ticket item I want to be sold I want to be told why this is the best thing for me you know when my daughter went off to college I sent my mattress along with her and I had to go buy a new mattress when I walked into the mattress store and there's you know, forty mattresses in there I don't want to sit on forty mattresses or lay on forty mattresses I don't even want to look at all the prices I don't care I want to know what's best for me and I want somebody to tell me what's best for me so I can get it and go go home and and you know what? I feel like it's that way really with any purchase we want to know we've made the right decision and the only way to make the right decision or no we've made the right decision is for somebody to tell us that we did and so if if the expert if the mattress salesman is telling me you know, asking me about my sleeping habits, asking me about, you know, do like soft medium car, you know, whatever they're they're asking me questions about my lifestyle and then making a suggestion based on me, then I'm gonna have to trust them. I'm gonna leave them that's what they're there to do same thing with us if somebody's coming to you to buy portrait's, they're trusting you is the expert, so make the suggestion tell them what's best for them, the only way we can do that, obviously, and to do ask those questions about their home and about their lifestyle in the core, silent and all those things. So even in the portrait events, we're going to go through this, and I'm gonna tell them right from that first phone call. As you know, this is what we specialize in, um, I think I may be just mention it to lease in that call, but, uh, there are no requirements for this. I just ask that we keep the age is between sitting up in age fourteen, and I know that, you know, tons of bombs in that category, so again, kind of given you're the parameters and getting her to start thinking about it now tomorrow we actually have a sixteen year old coming, however, what happened was is um this mom really wanted her kids photographed and she's got a twelve year old a fourteen year old and a sixteen year old and she was literally just going to bring the twelve fourteen year old and when I talked to on the phone I I said no no no you bring them all three because I want something on her walls she's not going to put something on our walls of two of her kids we gotta have them all here so uh s so she's bringing them all so we're going to break out of our zone a little bit but that's okay because some of you out there might want to be doing sessions that you know, maybe you don't do high school senior sessions and so you're gonna include any number you know, any aged kids and that's fine um it will also be a really easy session so I'm sorry about that, but with that age it's always easy um so and then I'm just going to ask her I want her to give me some feedback at that point so I'm gonna ask her house all the sounding to you so far and then she's going to tell me anything that she's concerned about her as questions about and that's great and again, you know, sit and think about what those questions could be right out your answers to them so you always have that positive? Yes answer to whatever you could be asked so I'm gonna let you start a list and I'm gonna give you come back tomorrow so we can choose a date and go over any questions that you have and I'll chat with you about some of the friends that you have in mind we can brainstorm some more together, so I'm telling her that I want her to go ahead and start that list, but if she's got any questions about somebody, you know, if they're the right fit for it or not, we're going to talk about all that tomorrow, so I really just want her to start formulating these ideas in her mind if you're going to a theme based this that's, another thing to talk about, you know, let's think about a theme and, um, you know what the kids your your friends is, kids are into where you want to do this, you know, let's talk about a location I personally almost all the time do this in my client's backyards and that's for my style, I want to shoot outside, I love natural light and it's another one of those things that makes it completely different from what I do in my studio and my studio, I'm using studio set up studio lighting, I do longer sessions, I do one hundred eighty five dollars sessions I want everything to be different, and so shooting outside in their backyards is one thing that I can do different, I also don't, um, you know, I I don't want anything that's all, you know, any, like, formally pose stage kind of thing. So tomorrow, when we work inside in here, it'll be more like if we had, if you're in seattle and it's freezing cold and it's rainy, and you have to work inside, we're gonna pretend like we're working in someone's living room, and we can make that happen, and I think I mentioned this morning that if it was me personally and I had that situation, I would work with that situation, and I would tell them we're going to celebrate this area that you live in, we're going to do a rainy day session, we're going to bring umbrellas and cute rain boots and raincoats, and we're gonna have fun in the rain let the kids splashing the pedals and and I have done lots of sessions like that, and parents love those images, and I don't live in that sort of climate, but when you can do a rainy day session and I tell my brides that, too, if it's raining, we're gonna have so much fun in the rain, and you're gonna have pictures like nobody else has. You know, and you turn that positive on it, and then all of a sudden they're excited about rain, and I actually tell my brides and our wedding work sheet, I tell them if it rains on your, you know, check out our images or rainy day images, and you're going to hope for rain on your on your wedding day, because it's, you know, you can make it fun if you need to, so you set a time for the cough, so the next thing we're going to do, I'm gonna help her brainstorm friends if she needs help. Most of the time, they don't even need to help, but I'm gonna give her some of those same triggers that we went through defining our target client. I'm gonna ask you to think about friends at church and at school and dancing, monastics and organized organization she's involved with was just setting up those triggers for her to start thinking about, and I've got a little star thereby neighborhood, and, you know, in two thousand twelve, we don't know our neighbors, a lot of us, and I hear that from mom's a lot, and it was interesting to me the first couple of events that I did, I actually had mom's telling me this has been so fun for me, because I've been wanting to meet my neighbor and their hand or kids or I've been wanting to meet the woman down the coldest act and this gave me an opportunity to go and meet them so now I actually tell the clients I tell the host mom's I've had so many moms that have told me this and I'll just reiterate that and start they start thinking of people that maybe they wouldn't have thought about before because they really don't know them they know they have kids, but they've never taken the time to meet each other so um just, you know, give him some little triggers, help them think of people and then I'm going to coach them on calling her guests and, um that's that's, what comes next there she's going to get a host letter and we're just going to tell her thanks for coming, here's what's next invite your friends let's get started and I just email that to her most of this stuff I just just email you guys all have a copy of this, but, um it's it's just a really simple dis greeting letter. I also I'm going to send her an event schedule, and one of the things that I coach my mom's on when we're setting up a schedule is I tell her when you call your first friend that books, if she books, for example, eleven o'clock then when you call the next friend what's available is ten thirty and eleven thirty so we want to keep this schedule together and that way is your booking you you don't have a huge gap in the day where you're sitting around doing nothing this is mom's phone script to when she's calling her friends ok, we'll do this was it too greedy reading when I was doing the other thing? Uh, this is this is how I'm going to coach mom to talk to her friends when she calls them so she's going to say, you know, hey, this is jane how your kids kind of that same introduction just, you know, ground feeler I wanted to let you know that I'm gonna be hosting a portrait event it's kind of like a party and it's going to be at my house on july seventh. My favorite photographer is laurie nordstrom emu for her to her and they can have that conversation and it's totally fine if it's no, you know, it's allows her to kind of make that introduction and say here's, why we love her whatever. Um and this is another thing this is I have this in an email and I actually ford this to my host mom so she can read through what a phone call is goingto gonna look like so lori specializes in the queues, handpainted frames and decorating the home with really cool wall groupings. I want them to start with that this is different from anything that you've ever been contacted about anything that you've ever seen. There is no other portrait party like this, you know, so she's going to start with, she specializes in and again those keywords it write it down. You know what I specialize in and get that into your language, because that really switches people's gears when they're calling and talking to you so that's how I want her to communicate as well. Lori specialized in the cubist handpainted frames and decorating the home with really cool wall groupings. I love them, and I'm actually wanting her to do a couple of new groupings for me. One of each of the girls has rooms, so now she's selling them on two groupings, and so obviously this is something that I've communicated with to them on before already our package is that we have that you'll see tomorrow are for one grouping in each package, but we often times have have moms that will buy more than one grouping so they might buy one for a kid's room or a playroom and another one for the living room they might. If she's got two kids, she might do one in each kid's room, so and and that does happen a lot but I mean if they're not doing to that's okay too but she's just going to tell him what she's planning on getting and that also solidifies to this mom that she's going to be making those decisions you know and it's she's already made it before the event so this mom now says oh you know when that she's presented with that idea that we're going to be choosing these these packages in these collections before the event she's not shocked with that this is a concept she's already heard so I'm going to send you over the product menu so that you can get a good idea of what she offers you're going to see four different package groupings but when she caused you if you're interested in all and having something custom designed for you you can do that too so again just laying groundwork and all study the package menu here um this is what she's going to send to them and we actually just send a pdf of this and the one page that I have printed um I do print thes from time to time but not always and sometimes I'm doing these portrait events not even in my location and so you could just send them all to your host mom so she can get him out and they are I get thes thes were printed by a c I by my lab but but marathon press does a very economical, uh, printing of these you can get him for I've got one that's a little bit thicker, but their front anywhere from three to four dollars apiece. And so it's uh, it's an investment but it's such a nice presentation that that it's worth it. But you can also send a pdf. The only reason that we've started doing the actual printing of them is a beautiful thing that I'm about to show you she's gonna she's gonna go on to say, I know laurie's gonna be asking you for some images of your wall so that she could make clothing suggestions and designed something for you based on your decor, silent colors. And you heard me in the conversation with lisa. She asked me about clothing and I'm telling her I really can't give you clothing suggestions until I see your your home until I see where we're gonna hang your portrait. I can't tell you this this is going to look great in that room. In reality, the truth is I shoot black and white it's it doesn't matter. You know what? I really coached them on our tones, and I tell them to think in black and white tones, I'm not worried about colors being matchy, um, none of that I want them to be either all in light medium or dark tones other than that they can mix and match match textures even patterns even though I encourage them to go simple all that's okay, but I'm telling them a communicating to them through the host mom that I'm going to be asking about their decor style and is getting images of their rooms so that I can make suggestions for their clothing and and really it makes sense to people you know? Well, you got to see where I'm going to put it before you could tell me what's gonna go there right? Any interior designer is gonna ask for that so um I'm going to send you over a design tool with instructions on how to do this it's really fun and I can't wait to see what she puts together for you. So what we have is an actual design tool and the instructions are just to photograph a wall straight on we don't want it at an angle but I used to always and you can do this but I used to always ask them to just take a piece of paper to the wall and that's actually what I had to do for our moms here because I was an ecuadorian and get them this but um but what this is it's just a design tool and it's a it's just appealing stick wal claim and these come and they can actually take this ruler and go to any wall that they would consider hanging a portrait stick it on their wall and it's not goingto leave any sticky residue or anything like that and what this does for me and don't even hang that for good but what this does for me is I can then take this image into preview and preview there's a measuring tool so that can measure this spot on the wall and then I'm going to I'm going to show the exact sizes as they will appear on her wall and this is an amazing amazing tool because what happens is if you show something in a certain size and it's the right size for that space there they've already seen it done you know they're not going to start arguing with you on what looks good and what doesn't it's there and it's that's what looks good you know so so is that spending a really great tool for us whether you use you know something fun like this where you use a piece of paper you use anything measurable against the wall so it could be the back side of this credenza it could be you know, the backside of a headboard whatever as long as there's something measurable against the wall you can put that into preview measure it and place the exact right sizes appropriately um on their wall so they are going to see something done finished without images, innit before they ever even come for their session. So even these little portrait events we're we're taking the time to work with the clients in that way, lori, that is super cool and that fine. Wow, those again where you can get that the's are wall clings and there's a couple of different companies that make these I actually got these get these from h and h color lab and I know my lab is working on them for me because I like you have to get these s o a c I'll l will have them soon. Uh, h n h has them? I think, um, I know there's a couple of other places because before we started doing it, we researched a little bit. You can if you have an in house printer, you can buy rolls of this stuff and it's just walk ling and and I'll get the exact name of it before tomorrow. I can't remember but you know, but they're big rolls and like, I haven't inhouse printer, but it only prints tto eleven by seventeen so it doesn't work for these, so we get him like, four to a page and chop um and and then just put him in here and they stick to anything and come off of anything so even to the paper, yes, so they're awesome and so what I would suggest to somebody starting out to stay cost effective is the first thing would just be too pdf your menu uh to them instead of printing it um the second thing would be just to tell them teo to put a piece paper on the wall or something measurable when you're ready to take it to the next level marathon press prince the menus umm three to four dollars apiece and you can order I think a ce feu as fifty of them so that would be you know, like five portrait events but that would take care of if you were going to give them to everyone and then um the wall clings ended up being like maybe a dollar apiece so so it can't say economical and as long as you're building it into you your product line into your profit it's it's fine to do things like that but in the beginning don't worry about me you can make all this happen without investing that oh okay um and then a lot of times when the host mom kind of goes through this if they know the person on the other end of the line knows they're not just going to be buying eight by tens right? We've already talked about putting things on their walls right from the first phone call so they may ask and I'm going to tell them if you're asked let them know what the investment is and so, um I tell them to answer if they're asked you're probably gonna end up spending about a thousand dollars but it's really worth it and it's really like having an interior designer planned something for you that features your kids I I love it, you know? So we're communicating to her that she's communicating this to her guests um if the if the mom the host mom that she's working with is really interested in what we're doing but just cannot come on that date, then this is the next thing that I give her the tool teo just say to her, you know, if she can't come well, do you think you'd be interested in hosting event because I could give your name to laurie and you could get something up for your friends to could set something up for your friends to I think you'd make a great host, so now I'm teaching her to tell her friend, you'd be great at this so you know, all these things are in place these tools are in place for her so that nothing's left up to her to try to guess and decide I also tell my host mom's if you're asked a question that you don't know the answer to just tell him I don't know the answer, but I'll be there find out from lori or I'll make sure that she answers your question when she calls so I am going to be calling each one of the guest um so you know all that's pretty streamlined but you can tell that there is a you know, a very definite system in place so that we're communicating all the right things before the event happens. Um I do want to tell them you're probably going to end up spending a thousand dollars all four of our packages air right at a thousand dollars either right under our right over and so I don't want any of that to be a surprise to them what they usually end up adding some things onto the package. Each package includes one wall grouping so it's one of these four wall groupings and two of the table frames and they all come with prince of course, so it's a wall grouping in to tabletop frames and prince and that includes a package and so from there they can, they can add on gift prince they can add on the photo jewelry they connect on handbags, all kinds of fun things we do the image boxes that they can add on and I'll go through all of that when we talk about pricing together and kind of why it set up the way it is, but the way we get them to those averages is by we're never talking about pictures we're not talking about it and so a thousand dollars for pictures doesn't make a lot of sense to people, but when you start talking about this is kind of like having an interior designer she's going to do something for you that's just for you custom for you she's going to be asking you take pictures of your walls, get those over, I give everyone my cell phone number which people think is crazy but it's so much easier for somebody to snap an iphone picture in text it to me, then you know, if they have to take that step to get out their point shoot or even to plug your phone into their computer and then try to email it, you know it gets lost and you know they don't they don't do it, so I want to make it is easy for them as possible to do it. Um one thing that we do if I if I don't have an image from someone when I am calling them for their consultation call, I will tell them on the phone this is really, really important that we have this before I can make clothing suggestions and, you know and and help plan where something's gonna be hanging in your home, so if you'll go ahead and do that right now, I'll give you my cellphone number again and you, khun just do that while I wait on the phone and I will literally wait while they do it because it's that important and it's not just I mean, you know, making all those suggestions and talking them through but they need to kind of get into the value and to feel that this is more than just somebody coming to take pictures of my kid, you know, so we're walking them through this whole process this is some of the collateral that we use for actually inviting the guest top left you've got an appointment card that just has date and time, you know, cia soon kind of thing we get those to our host mom so she can get those to her friends we supply them with an email header that they can send out and, you know, blast out to their friends if they want to email invite that's and I use that too, and we just have that ready to go and drop an image and if we need to, uh this bottom right is an invitation that we we can print if if we need to um some of my mom's I don't know where those went some of my mom's prefer to have actual invitations and they can give tio to their friends or hand out a dance or whatever so we will supply them with that otherwise we do it on an email so they could do an email we help him put a facebook event together if they want to do that will help them with whatever they need that's a timeline image so again, we're just dropping images in there it's a temple it's the same every single time but they can put their event on facebook they could drop, I could drop their kids or whatever into the timeline image we put their date um on there and and I can, uh, do the it's for details message me so she can put it like right on her facebook page and if her friend sees it and says, hey, what you got going on, they can just messenger on facebook so anything that we can do to just get things to them to help them get the word out and communicate this message with with everything I do communicate to my moms that no matter how they're inviting people, making a personal phone call is really important and, you know, the moms are motivated to usually what I'm doing for our events is I'm I'm finding out an item or two that that she's excited about really interested in so it might be the qatari caf for it might be, um, you know and not an image box a accordion buck, you know, it's gonna be an item of a certain amount but I'm gonna find out you know, kind of what she's into and I'm gonna tell her you know if you if you go ahead and book all those ten sessions and every session books there purchases of package then I'm gonna gift you with that hitori caf or you know or whatever it is that she's into it's different every time because every mom is motivated by something a little bit different but uh but they get excited about those things so um now we're going to do the two consultations and I think we can wrap after that I got my fifteen minutes sign um the host mom consultation so this is that after I've talked to mom we've set everything up I've coached her on what she's going to how she's going to talk to her friends um I'm gonna call her I'm gonna find out if I don't already know what what the ages are what their kids are into oh, this is the second call it we're gonna play sorry let's just play it and we have time okay, this is lisa hi lisa it's glory nordstrom again hi. How are you? I'm going with you good. I am this conduct and have you had time to think about some friends who might be interested in a real kids? I definitely heard a fifty friends so when oh yeah well connected you know whether I am so do you have any questions is there anybody that you're wondering whether they'd be a good fit or not any any questions that you have for me yes so I have a friend who has a six month old who is not sitting up and a toddler so I was just curious if I should take her off the list I would take her off the list we really sitting up this kind of the criteria and if she even sitting up with assistance isn't the greatest because the moms are not with me when I'm started rapping got it okay let me get married yeah ugly question okay um all right well let's pick a date then okay you have your calendar out I do right in front of me good well I have a couple days that we have available for this we could do saturday november ten or I have thursday to christine available or saturday the seventeenth um let's go for saturday the seventeenth okay, that sounds great um that would be a perfect day for me and with it being in november we're probably gonna have to schedule it inside is that okay with you if you come and get up in your living room that's definitely okay with me it's cold out there and I love doing too cold weather sessions too but I don't think we'll risk it on november seventeen okay right so what I'll have you dio is since you got so many names on your list kind of prioritize and you know call your your favorite first people that you think they're going to love this they kind of work from there and that as you schedule I'm going to be spending you over an actual schedule for you to fill out okay we're going to be asking you to get some information from each with a mom and it's just contact and so nothing too serious but contacted formacion and then as your scheduling what all have you do is schedule the first appointment and for example if you schedule it at eleven the next one that you call you're going to make ten thirty or eleven thirty available so that way we keep everybody kind of group together and that really helped the flow of the day right? So democrats yes yeah great I'll be sending you over that schedule I'm also going to send you over on some email invitations and you'll be able to make that initial contact the email if you'd like to do that on then we've also got a facebook event uh image for so that you can put a facebook event up and have you know like you're hosting a little party so that's done too and sometimes help put the initial contact but then you definitely want to call and make that personal contact one of you have somebody interested right? Ok so um we'll do that and we'll play in front of number seventeen, ten to twelve mom is really kind of our goal on what we're going to get for every mom who signs up her children, you're going to get fifty dollars on portrait credit back, so I have yes, I have that goal for you to set up, you know, ten to twelve, I'm pointing it so that you've got that five hundred to six hundred dollars in portrait credit, right? I love it. Okay? And again, um, let's see, um we will one of the things that we specialize in and one of the things that makes this really different from other portrait events are, you know, really anything else probably your friends have been have been invited to like this, what we specialize in and that is creating custom walk concept for our clients and obviously with the session, we're going to be doing that any quickly because we were doing, you know, showing they ended it right after right? So I'll want to make contact with each one of your mommy's as well. Okay, what I'm going to be asking you to dio and asking them to do is to take some snapshots when it just can't be easy just take snapshots of the walls in your home where that you would consider hanging a portrait and I'm not over to me and then when I do a call with each one of the moms including use playing for your session we'll be able to make clothing suggestions and talk about props that we might write eat a brain with just your home decor style okay, yeah I've got some empty walls yea that's grand perfect phil I'll let you get started I'm gonna email you over all these things the invitations, the facebook and so and I'm gonna email you kind of just a little a script to go by when you're talking to your friends and of course you know you need to read it or go buy it verbatim but it just give you a few little tips to make sure that you cover with them you make it so easy thank you I'm going to be easy and you can let them know any questions that you don't have an immediate answer for you just tell him you know lori's going toe playing a call with you before the end that date and go over everything with you personally so make sure you save your questions and you can ask them okay, so that'll make it easy on you you minx that sounds great, okay, well, I'm so excited I'm excited to meet your kids they found wonderful they're pretty cute gay so november well, we're playing for the seventeenth and I will definitely be in contact with you before then and column let me know how you're planning going have a scheduling going and we'll keep in touch, okay, thank you so much. Okay, that was that, um, when we're doing the guest consultation call, it pretty much goes the same way. When I'm calling and doing an actual consultation with the guest before they're come, I'm talking to them about their wells, getting to know them, talking about their kids, their ages with their into I really want to know what their kids are into. And even if it's not about bringing props, I don't use a lot of props in my images anyway, if there's something that they're you know, can't live without, I want them to bring it, but I really just want to know, you know, my kids into dinosaurs so I could talk about dinosaurs. I want to know there's, you know, my daughter's into all the princesses so that I could talk about rapunzel or whatever, you know, it's, just finding out what's going to be their little trigger that will get them engaged and in me, and I don't have moms with me when I'm photographing, uh, and I do coach the mom, the host mom threw that as well. That when they come in there basically going to be dropping off the kids with me to the backyard, whatever they can watch from the windows and that's fine, but I really want the host mom to be engaging the mom as I'm photographing, showing her product talking about staff and here's what laurie does and you know, really kind of getting into all of that again so that when she sits down now she's she's had that first phone call she's had a consultation with me um, you know, we've been through this whole entire process so that she city out and just excited about what she's about to see she's going to see images from frames on her walls, a room done and you know, it really solidifies that final sale when you take all those steps to get to that that place I also want to ask about food allergies because we have snacks and things and if you know if there's a kid that really shouldn't be having sugar, I need mom to tell me that so I'm not bringing suckers or, you know, whatever we want to make him appropriate to them right now I'm trying to get rid of halloween candy, so uh this is what the event schedule looks like uh like I said, we're having mom, the host mom filled this and for me it's just the parents named the kid's name their address, unzip, email and phone number. I am actually having them fill out something pretty close to this when they come in. But this is just a good way for us to start working through this, and I'll have this. Even she could just take a picture of this, says she starts feeling spots. Take a picture of it, send it to my phone, I can start making phone calls. We've got all the information in one place.