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Lesson Info

Host Moms and Portrait Events

Basically a portrait event is a siri's of sessions that will happen on the course of one day with a host mom and with the host mom. What I do is I look for somebody who's very well connected um that's when I might kind of criteria and your you'll hear me say that over and over um but I want that mom who's well connected and you know, has those friends with the kids and the right age is but whether it's you know whether you're doing this and you're bringing you're doing it for brides that are bringing in there um, the bridal party or you're doing it for high school seniors. One of the things that we've done toe just incorporate it into our high school senior product line is once a girl has done her high school senior session, which typically have happens in the summer before their senior year, then they get to about january and we're doing update sessions is what we call them in january and we're working with these clients all year long because we bring him back. We also offer a free fa...

mily portrait session to every high school senior client bring them in for that bringing them in for an update session if they want it we're selling the graduation announcements and invitations and items for their party in january and february when the studios a little bit slower so we're getting revenue that's already been shot work that we don't have to, you know, do when any more work on it's already been done so we're selling more at that time then after she graduates we're going to call our high school seniors and let him know you know you know hey, we would love for you to come back in for a portrait session before you go after college I'm sure lots of things have changed you know, how would you feel about inviting ten of your junior high school friends? So we're getting introduced to the juniors now who are getting ready to get have scheduled there high school senior sessions and you know, bring in ten of your junior friends you're going to be the host and you can earn portrait credit for doing this, you're gonna get a free session and I'm going to tell you how you can earn five hundred dollars in port credit for those update photos and, you know, I mean the high school senior girls they've already been through this whole process with us, I'm so over their moms, you know, they're very invested in us and so it's a really exciting way to get access to the right, you know, the those qualified clients that are coming in for the next year so you know, so there's ways that you can do this with any product line that you're doing and we'll we'll go through lots more of that and those ideas but I'm portrait event is basically an event and I think my next light is is it a portrait party um and yes it basically is a fortune party and you know and and I hear that term throwing around a lot and that's why I chose not to use it in what I'm doing in my in my business and any other reason is just because I feel like portrait events just sound a lot more upscale and and that's what I want the the you know conception to be that it's it's a more upscale thing than a portrait party but yes that's basically what it is it is you know ringing and ten people over the course of the day they do have their own individual sessions so they're not all coming at once it's very planets very strategic there is a system in place and I'm excited to share all of that with you guys today so this is actually a really good stopping point for me if if we're that close well how many questions yeah let's go with question bailey yeah let's start we're talking about events we do have some events like that like sweet fifteens and it's as always like very fun and bring a lot of people uh I would like to ask you like what is the best events for bring like the best event so you think to bring good clients and good cash and uh, question that is always like on my mind is like how do you do that after the feelings? Because we have, like, a very good process for viewing for after her worse because each one have the separate session so how do you do the viewings later? How you bringing up the well and with their success? I'm sorry with this system we're actually showing them their images immediately following the session and that's the way you know, to keep things already smedley to be able to do that we have to really prepare them before that time and so we'll go through the whole process together of preparing the clients, getting their images of their walls uh actually placing framing frame groupings on their walls before they ever come in and getting them to invest in that process. So we do the sales in thirty minutes as well as this we scheduled thirty minutes for the session thirty minute for the sale and I personally take someone with me to do the sale, so I'm shooting handing off a card I'm starting the next session while they're selling and so it's a very fast, fast pace, but the only way that can happen and they can make those buying decisions in that thirty minutes is if they're very, very prepared and so I'll walk you guys through the whole process of, you know, making sure they are prepared and when they sit down it's just a matter of choosing their favour images and they're excited too to buy so and as faras the best portrait events um I think maybe you're asking about a different kind of events like actually going to photograph events instead of hosting hosting okay, so you were asking about hosting an event? Well, the most profitable for me is kids um, so we will we'll talk through about, you know, all the other things and and the reason any product line can be profitable um photographing kids happens to be what I'm passionate about and I only photograph kids during our portrait events I photographed kids from sitting up through age fourteen and the reason for that is I want newborns in my studio and those first your babies in my studio I feel like if they're sitting up already, I've kind of missed that window anyway and then I cap it at fourteen because I do want high school seniors in my studio and so that's kind of my philosophy on the age group that I've chosen but you could do it with really any product line that answer interviewees always have been in the same day of recessions correct not the studio, not for my regular studio sessions just for the events however, because they work so well and it cuts down on the work flow so much when you do these same day sales the only images you ever have to touch are the images that have been ordered so it's a wonderful beautiful thing they're mean they're it's pre pre proposed processing yeah that nothing's been touched yet I shoot it and download my card and so they're seeing it right then and you'll you'll see this whole process but basically what happens is I'm going to download my card on dh you'll see me do it tomorrow instead of my sales person, but what she'll do is when she sits down with a client they know it's you that I just popped it in there there's going to be cem cem uglies I do edit in my camera so if I know the child blanked or something was weird or I feel like I probably wasn't, you know, walk and focus on that I'm just going to lead it in my camera so we're not going to see it, but there are going to be some uglies and so she's going to pop it in and we're going to go through the process just like we do with every sale and we're gonna tell him as we go through, I'm just going to show your image is the only thing they're not going to get in the beginning is a slide show um but so we're just going to go through the images with them and we're gonna tell him we may run through these twice, so don't worry about getting down to the exact but as we go through, I want you to tell me if this is a yes no or maybe and we've got three categories you're knows we're just going through out of the mix and not look at again um they're not gone forever so you don't have to be afraid to put them there but we're gonna put those in the nose your maybes are going to be your biggest category and we tell him that because we don't want them to be not afraid to say maybe instead of yes um because that's that's what happens a lot of times if you don't prepare them if they were like oh, I love everything I uh so we tell him your baby is gonna be your biggest category those are gonna be images that you really like and we can pull from those images when we're putting a book together or putting a multiple image piece together we've got those toe work from to tell the story you're yes is there going to be your very favorites? The images that you put in the yes category are there going to be the images that we choose product for? And we say that whether they're in the studio and they've come back a week later to be their images or it's a portrait event, whatever it is, that's the flow of the way that sale starts. As we tell him, this is a curious is your nose and your babies and what what happens with that is even if we have to go back through a second time to view those images and narrow him down to get to those yeses for product only they still have heard if I say yes, I'm buying this, you know, if you know if it's a yes great will be choosing product from the images in the s category. I've also told him that the maybes um, we can use to tell a story, so if they end up purchasing an album um, and these were the albums from the real kids event, so there it's their temple. It'd you know, they're not custom designed like the ones we do in the studio, but it's still the same process we're going to tell them you're yes, is there going to be your main images? The maybes will fill in to tell the story where we need them and the nose won't be included is that okay? And that is it, they do not get one more choice in this the design process and I think that's where a lot of photographers a lot of times get bogged down and their sales appointments is you're allowing the client to say well I want this on this page and these on this page and this is what I want here no no no no you know you got to keep that sales appointment moving and even you know, our first year clients the babies that come in at new born four months, eight months, twelve months or there you know, the whole entire year we use the same process with them we're reminding them at every single session when we do that first your album here yes is there going to be the main images maybes fulfilling where we need them to tell the story and then knows what me included it's easy simple and it gets him in and out of the sails room keeps him excited everything stays positive okay, so it looks like we could go back just a little bit some people out a couple cd okay clarification of warren's eso gregorian has wants to know is I like the fact that when you clients by the print they can get the same sides digital files what do you think about that? Um I don't really think if someone's buying a sixteen by twenty there's any reason for them to have a sixteen by twenty uh is that what they're saying? I think to post maybe you know, like if you let's say they buy an image, they may get that image for facebook or whatever watermarked image every image yes, every image that's ordered no matter if it's a portrait of ana studio session what it is any image that's ordered we give them that digital file and it's free we're not charging anything for it it is a website's version and we communicate that um if they do want to purchase files to print, we tell them our files are printable to eight by ten um they are size eight by ten and of course we all know that they can print them to any size they desire but that's what is printed is with their with their release that they get with it don't ever release your copyright on lee released the right to print and we we have on our right to print it says for personal use only that's another thing that's important to me it doesn't mean that they're going to follow it a hundred percent of the time, but if you've communicated to them that you know you have reprint rights for personal use only and their printable to eight by ten you know again they're not print them anyway what size than resolution if you're doing an eight by ten, you cried teo sizes as an eight by ten and by ten, three hundred gps okay the interest and that's good to know because then they can't go out on different there's another sixteen twenty for grandma well today could I can't I mean, you can send it to any lab these days and they'll do the upsizing for you and they look great, but but that's what we communicate and honestly there nobody's print going out and printing sixteen by twenty I mean, they're just not that's that's what our job is, you know, you and I think that they think that most people get that when you are a studio that focuses on wall decor, it makes complete perfect sense, you know that this digital file is for sharing all these great images that we got, you know, I want to show off my kids and, you know, we all that's why everybody's so addicted to social media, instagram and facebook and I mean, they are so powerful, and I mean, I remember reading statistics when facebook started and even back in the myspace days, you know, when my kids were first on myspace and I was flipped out, what is going on here, you know, and that was back in the day of, you know, you could not be on the computer outside of the living room, you know, because I had to know what was going on at all times I mean now our kids have access to everything everywhere any time so it's you know it's crazy even thinking about that now but back in the day you know you all got to be in one room if you're on the computer I got to know what's going on kids air on myspace and I remember reading statistics really early on about the percentage of mother was people moms in america the head of myspace page and it was like in the eighty ninety percentile and it just blew me away was like, you know, we were also addicted to this now we want to share alive isn't wanna share family and our images in our vacations and then all these things and we you know we crave the likes and the comments and you know all these things and and so you know why not give your client that power teo expose you you know there's talk about information that's what we all need confirmation we all want to be loved all right? So I think we have time for maybe one more question before we go to break oh, we have a question of the just with the city again I'm sorry but how do you deal with the law golfing because you have like a lot of clients they're like I do you know that my cd will have you know, every single aim as you have like the logos well, if you're selling it, it shouldn't have your logo on it if you're giving it free with purchase then you're logo's on it they you're telling them this is gonna be a website version of every image order that you are free to share if I've given it to them for free they can't tell me howto how I'm going to give it to that uh but I I honestly I've never had anybody say anything to me about putting a logo I have had people that have cropped the logo even though we you know, I mean we mention it I don't I'm not a stickler about it I mean, you know, we all have to get over that they're they're going to crop it I mean, you you post an image to your profile and it asked you to crop it, you know? And we all want the most close up thing that we can get on our profile and so you know, and if you're concerned with it, ask your client you know, tell him if you want this to be a profile image, I'm happy to crop a closer for you and then you've solved the problem, you know, by giving them a yes and making any s for your business I think that's so key that was a little hot for me they're just in terms of if you're giving it to them, then you can give whatever you want verses if they're if they're saying I'm buying this one yet, that was great, that was awesome. Okay, one more quick question from lamb photo I am trying to move away from handing over the disc with sessions. Can you give any tips on how to transition from if you're already doing that? I feel like all my clients ask wantto have, and I'm scared to lose the business. Well, um, really, the best way to translation transition is to find a new specialty, and, you know, if you can communicate well, what my specialty is is this, and even if it's somebody, if you've got a past client that's coming in and maybe had a cd before, first of all, they may not be your client may not be the right client for you, but if you want to continue working with that person, then you tell him, you know, I'm so excited to share with you the new frames that I've discovered, I'm so excited to share with you this new design tool that I discovered no, whatever it is, if you're excited about, they're going to be excited about it, too, and, you know, and just part of our language from the first phone call is but we specialize in is creating custom law concepts for your home and we're gonna be talking to you about your home decor and your colors and the way you live so that we can design something that's just for you that you can enjoy every day that you can share with your friends and family you know we're communicating this language to them that is so different than photographer a b and c who they've called who they've called and they've asked the same question you know hello this is such and such can you tell me how much your packages are and they get an answer okay, thank you and I hang up and they call the next one to price jack man that's so normal you know? And so when they call our studio and they hear you know we would love to send you over our product menu um let me get your email address and you know, tell me about who we're gonna be photographing and we restart this conversation so we've said yes to them we'd be happy to send you all of our prices and we will but we're not addressing it from the get go we're asking them questions about themselves and about their kids and who were photographing in their lifestyle and getting to know them a little bit and doing that starts begins the process of building value and we're going to build value continued through that process by telling them what we specialize in this custom wall concepts for your home we're gonna be talking to you about your home decor and and you'll hear me spout all this again and it sounds like it's like this little rehearsed thing well it is it is a script that we are communicating with our clients every single time and that leaves them through the process so that they I mean like the mindset changes all of a sudden even somebody who called thinking you know and I can ask them you know have you thought about where you're gonna hang your portrait and someone might say to me oh I'm I was just thinking we'd get in eight by ten you know, one of those great big ones and you know in a couple of four by six is and I could say to that person you know that's great we're going to make sure you get all of those but what we specialize in is and we can go into the spill and so we're redirecting and that would be my answer to someone who really wants to move from you know selling that dvd or that's your main product is decide on a different main product and then learn how to communicate the value of that product whether it's an album or wall portraiture or you know whatever it is um you know, communicate that and then in the transition maybe offer the cd as a either and add on or included with purchase. But, you know there's ways that you could transition very positively.