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Lesson Info

Work Ethics

a lot of us photographers thing that we're really, really profitable, but we're really, really not. And I went through a small phase of this at some point in my career where I was like, Man, I'm just knocking it down. But for some reason, the bank, it didn't quite look that way. It's just because I was spending money frivolously and it was going crazy and I was working myself into a frenzy was going nights. But one thing. How many of you guys as a photographer, you would love to work from eight o'clock in the morning until roughly give or take 99 30 10 oclock at night like that? Sounds like a successful photographer, right? No, you all said you had Children. My schedule changed the day I found out my wife was pregnant, that that's the day my schedule changed. It was a hard thing to do. How many of you think that you could call your dentist and say, you know, Dr Abrams? Listen, the only time that my husband could come in to get his teeth clean unfortunate because he works, you know, and...

everything is he can come in on a Friday evening at, like, seven. Do you think you won't even ask your dentist that you are? Do you think your dentist would say Okay, go. Just come on in. I guess I won't be with my family. And they will hang up his wife like Haring. What do you do? And that was when we're gonna go over a treat with our family. Well, honey, the man, that's the only time they could come. If they want you bad enough, they will get there. You've always been to the dentist during the day. You've taken 1/2 day off work, and I never thought this was possible. My schedule Now, I work Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. We take our last appointment at three. Keeping a consistent schedule is key. If you're working so many hours, it may look like you're you're making money, but you have to divide all those hours about whatever money you're making. And at the end of the day, you're making minimum wage. A lot of us photographers and I did that for a long time. So 8 to 5 and I'm done take Fridays off when someone calls and says, You know, the only time I can comes on a Friday, we don't even give him a chance to say that. That's how you handle it. Okay, Have available appointments Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. And we take our last appointment at three o'clock. I happen to have a 12. 30 on Thursday. Cannot put you down for that and then shut up. Don't give them justification. What you have the reason that I don't have anything is because I have a family. Don't give him any room to argue, because they will figure out a way to twist your arm and make you come in on a Friday on your day off. So do not do it. So keep that consistent schedule for sure. Another thing with all the technology we have. Find a system, find a system that's consistent, find something that fits yourself. It's your work. I've got mine loaded on my phone. So if I'm out in public and I run into someone that knows, you know Sam and there's likely I mean, I've been meaning to call. You need to make a session. Hey, look, let's do it right here. Why? You've got him right in front of you. You better take advantage of it. Jump on him right Then It's like a wounded pigeon. You see, a wounded pigeon, You jump down their own. I don't mean it in that way. That's just analogy. And that's one for the lovely host. Swooped down upon them like a wounded pigeon. So I don't know where this stuff comes from, but I just like Teoh give a little I like to put a picture with what I'm explaining. So picture of wounded pigeon, your the hog, you're gonna swoop down on him and take care of them. All right? Yeah, that makes sense. Good about Blair. Alright, I use success where that's what I used to mask my operating system. It's my studio management system. What this allows me to do is track every aspect of my business, which I never thought was important years ago. Like I don't need to know how many newborns I'm shooting this month. I don't need to know how many Children that I photographed last week. I don't Why is that important? I just need to keep making money. Well, no, I can go back and look and say All right, my seniors from JM Robinson High School versus the 14 other ones that I photograph was really weak. So next semester we're gonna go in and really jump on this school right here, and we're gonna build them back up to where they need to be. So pay attention to what? Selling? Pay attention to what's not selling. You may be in a certain area that, you know, your your work is stronger and other areas, and it's selling more. You may put a little bit more effort into that, so don't just close the door and say Whatever comes in, I'm shooting it and I'm making money because a lot of times we're not making as much as we think that we are set. Studio goes set those goals set him high, said. I'm attainable. That's something I used to do. I want to make. I want to make about $7 million this year. That is not an attainable goal for me, probably ever in my life, Nor do I want to make that much money. I mean, it's just not feasible. So set small goals that you can work with, write them down If you can't see the goals every single day, it's never gonna happen. It's never gonna happen. The one way that we see him is right in here. We've got a white board that we keep up in the studio large. And these air goals, like sports teams, I wanted to pick up two more high school contracts this year. Well, I picked those up and I got three more. Got five now. Weddings. I wanted 20. I was up 18 were fallen short. So I'm gonna my staff knows, Hey, to get your bonus this year, we got to elevate in these areas, so make you don't make yourself a personal whiteboard or a green board or whatever color you want to make it. Just put it in front of you so that you can see it. It's never gonna happen. This is another thing, too. In my business, I'm giving you kind of Ah, In this first segment, I'm giving you kind of a few nuts and bolts of things that I find that really, really important in my business. And then we're gonna we're gonna open the floodgates and go crazy here in just a little while. This is something that irks me to death. When's the last time you had, like, the most perfect customer service experience? Probably a long time, Like back in the seventies? Probably right? Just doesn't happen anymore. Doesn't happen. You go into a restaurant now It's like, How can I help you? Wow. Aren't we broad eyed? Bushy tailed this morning. Why? I mean, what is the deal with us? I don't get it. What is wrong with our society? We've all become sedentary, and we don't want to go support the effort that it takes to be nice and just be pleasant. Put on a smile. It's not gonna kill you. Think about this when someone calls your studio. And this is for the Internet viewers as well. If you ever have staff and someone answers the phone playful photography, how may I help you? Or their field photography? Where eight by tens or plentiful. I'm gonna help you. What do you How do you want people to do it? So train them. How do you want to handle? I've worked for nine years to get my telephone, Doreen. So if I hear that it's anything other than the way I would want to do it. Now, I'm gonna have to deal with that. And that person is gonna have to do to get some training. Are there gonna have to kick rocks? They're gonna have to move on down the road cause I've worked too hard tohave it mess up. I work from nine years to get that person to call, and then that's how they're being treated. What, like a preacher all of a sudden? So work on your inquires when your phone rings or someone sends you an email. Don't just don't just send them a little email bag. But if he did this, what if you take your IPhone, you put it on camera mode. You flip the camera around to you, and you say it was Lorenza. Yeah. You say, take just a second hit record, Lorenzo. What's up, man? My name is Blair, and you just send me an email recently. Listen, I'm really, really busy right now working on some other projects, but I wanted to let you know that I got your email. And man, I'm so appreciative of you sending me that. I can't wait to talk to you and I'm gonna send you. I'm gonna send you a call here in just a little while. But I wanted you to be able to put a face with a name and just tell you how much I appreciate it. So hang tight and I'll be right with you, man. Text that to him. Lorenzo is like, Oh, man, I was cool. You know what? I called a guy today about some pictures from my daughter, her senior pictures, and this guy sent me a video bag. It's crazy. Other places, as you call. Hello. When would you like to book your session? Okay. All right. Yes, man, That sounds good. Thank you. Where's Lorenzo? Gonna feel more welcome when Lorenzo comes to the studio. Lorenzo, hop up a second. This is how I'm gonna greet Lorenzo. And this is just May. So I'm telling you to be comfortable. Step out of here. This is how I'm not gonna do it. Hello, Lorenzo. How are you? I'm Blair. Nice man. This is how I'm gonna greet Lorenzo when I see him for the first time. Because we've had we built report with one another. It's like we went to different schools together wait a minute. So I agreed. Lorenzo and I'm a site. Lorenzo. What? So, man? Good to see you, man. Good to see you about even Don't. I think that's how I greet Lorenzo. I'm comfortable like that. If I can't greet Lorenzo like that, I need to find another business you have to see. Thank you. So moral of that story is be yourself but B'more than yourself. I elevate myself all the time on around people because if I give off that persona, it's viral. People are gonna love to be around me. They're gonna love it instead of I'm Debbie Downer. I can shoot your pictures. It's gonna take more and more each day. Our society is going to require more and more out of us. We're gonna We're not gonna keep putting up with bad service. Bad customer service. It's not gonna happen. So work ethics know your role, just like the rest are used to say. Know your role. Um, know what you're good at. If you're not good at certain things, don't do them. Give that role to someone else. You know, I'm not good at sitting at a desk for very long. I'm not good at it. So instead of trying to force myself to be good at it, I'm like, uh, you know what? I'm gonna give this to you because you're really good at it. Even though I'm paying you, I'm still gonna be able to make more money because that's getting done now can focus on what I love to do. So if you have a person or somewhere this week, find their strengths and their weaknesses and put them where they need to go my wife is cut out for editing. She will sit at that desk for seven hours at a time if she has to. And I just makes my back hurt even thinking about it. It's not who I am, so I'm not gonna force myself to be that way. If I do, I'm gonna fail miserably, miserably creating an efficient environment. When I walked into Creativelive, I was blown away with how clean how put together everything was everything has a place, everything is labeled and I'm walking around taking notes. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna love that idea. Love that idea. Even when I go into a restaurant, I look around and I look for ideas and I pull out my file. Take pictures of every little thing I can think of. That I can put to use in my own life were visual society. So take advantage of everything that you can see. Get rid of the clutter. Get rid of everything that you don't use that you use every once in a while. Because let me tell you something. I'm a true testament of this. If I would have continued to live the life that I was living when I was a kid, I would have Onley been probably as good as the environment that I was around. Now, sometimes you can rise above that, but you're only as good as the environment that you're in. You know, there's just there's no other way to put it. It takes a something tremendous to make you get out of that environment. So you're only as good as the environment that you're in. It just puts you in a better mood too. Think about this when you we come over vacation. If you're coming home and you know that your house is clean, everything was put together when you lift your like all right kind of makes coming home feel a little bit better, but that never happens, right? We come back from vacation and our house is an absolute wreck because we have left everything there. Everything. And we're like home, gosh, only home to mess it up. Mawr. So take that timeto clean your environment, keep your environment clean, just like your body. You wouldn't put, you know, we wouldn't eat dirt and drink gasoline and maybe some of you do, but it's harmful, so keep that out. Get it out of here. I don't know why I said that. No one eats dirt and drinks gasoline. My grandfather, he used to say that I would run through, um the the place that Satan is with a a gallon of gas. He said he'd run through there with a gallon of gas. He said I was kind of a rebel, but yeah, put you in a better mood and it makes you way more productive. If you only have to focus on one thing, you're gonna be good at it. But if you have to focus on 17 other things before you can even get to the one thing you're supposed to do. You're gonna suck at it. I mean, I don't mean it any other way than just that. Like take out. This is Adam's desk right here. Adam has the freedom to set things up the way that he wants. Whatever makes him more efficient. You know, my desk is normally not as clean as Adam's disk because I don't sit at my desk very often. So my desk was a catch. Oh, I don't good with sitting down on. You know what? I have a desk. I should have a chair and no desk. That's what I should have. But he sets things up in a way that makes him efficient. And I've worked on that. I'm that kind of guy that if we had to move that couch right now, I could get in my truck. I would never, never pick it up. I would never pick it up because I've learned to do everything by myself, and I've learned of ways to do things without stressing myself. I can put that couch in my truck without picking it up. I didn't say I wouldn't have to do something. I would put it on a dolly. I would lay on his back on the dollar. I would roll it all in my truck, and I would lift one end of it and put it right in right in there. It's You got to figure out ways to make things easy and streamline things. Same thing, like cabinets in our studio. Have you ever had this? A client just say, picks up an order. She comes in. Oh, Elleray, it's so good to see you. Let me go find your order, sweetie. Hang on just a second, okay? And you walk back and you're shuffling around. You can't find it, you know You had it, and it's Oh, my gosh. What do I do then? You have to go back up and shit chat. You know, half of the girls. Don't blame it on the lab. Blame it on the lab. So we put these cabinets in the place. We had cabinets build in our studio and it was no more expensive than going and buying a cabinet. We had a custom built force. Everyone knows where things are. So there's no guessing everything is alphabetized. So now it's more productive. My folks can get the order, give it to the client. Go back to work instead of spending hours looking for something It just doesn't work so custom made to fit our orders. It did. It was an investment, But look at what I'm saved over the past year of not having to go and look for stuff. I probably gained 20 hours worth of time that an employee or myself can gain from same thing with a large portrait. Right next to that large cabinet is another large catalyst. Slide outdoors, alphabetized all the orders going there. It is so nice knowing where everything is now. I didn't spend most of my life knowing that. But now, thanks to my wife and other people like that, I'm not good at things. So I rely on those people that are good at things. Same thing here, like we have ah, craft area. We'll get in a lot of this stuff in a little while to things that we do with specialty products that are really, really need. Everything there helps maintain efficiency. If you can go to a band, band your and go, it's lovely, just like this place in here and creativelive I went. They had some breakfast this morning as you got sawn off. Like did they come in and design this stuff? Like everything they do here is spot on Perfect. I don't get it. How do they have time to do this? But they have, like little ninjas running around the background, just doing stuff. I don't get it up front when I say get rid of the clutter and get rid of the clutter. That is where people are gonna come greet you. Think of your life. That first appearance. You know that. That's how it is. Even before I came here yesterday, I went to the hotel and took a shower and tried to make myself look half way presentable, which I already looked as good as I was gonna look. But I was like, What is the first impression? I'm already Southern. That's one strike against me. So where I got weird hair, two strikes. I don't want to give him 1/3 1 So take that extra moment of spruce everything up. So even upfront, neat and tidy, everything has a place. Everything has a place. Now, this is something cool to that. We did we put in our old studio when someone would come in to pick up the order. You have to walk all the way up front. Hey, Laura, you here to pick up your order? Yeah, OK, cool. I'll be right back, Walk all the way to the back, bringing all way to the front, and they go all the way to the back and sit down. And I got to thinking I was like, I could be more efficient in this. I need to move my production area to the front of studio so that I'm not doing so much walking. I calculated it, and I was walking like, six miles a day times how many ever minutes. By the end of the month, I could gain another six hours worth of time just by moving production of the front. So that's what we did. So now we have a little have a little This will be calling television, guys for loss of words. Here we have a television television monitor and we have a little camera out front and in production. This is up above. So any time someone walked in them and I can say, Hey, that's Lorenzo, get his order together and meet him up front. So when Lorenzo comes in, he shuts the door and it's like from behind the counter, someone appears. And it's like, Hello, Lorenzo, I have your order. And Lorenzo is like, Oh, man, what were you doing? So we're efficient clients like that. Lorenzo doesn't have time to sit around and wait for me to go fumble through stuff. He's gonna lose interest in that. He's gonna lose it, Keep things within an arm's reach that you use every day. All right, why would it make sense for my coffee cup, which this isn't called. But why would it make sense to keep this on the other side of the room? So every time I wanted it, I had to go there and get it. If you use something once a day once a day, have it within arm's reach, All right. If you use something once a week, keep it on the other side of the room. If you use something once a month, don't even have it in that room. Get it out of there. Put it somewhere else. That will help you become way, way, way more efficient, way more efficient. Keep think about ways to use certain products to your advantage. Like, you know, they make media card holders, and they make they make a product for everything. But instead of my wife loves using this here, this is ah, Lucite business card holder from Staples. And that's why she uses to keep media card. But everything is nice and efficient. She's got it right there. You guys don't even you probably don't. Even you probably have never seen one of these before, have you? You see that right there says one gigabyte. You probably never even seen that, right. I've got a 5 12 as well. That's what I used to shoot on a one on a one game card. So I know when I go out of like, All right, man, for this session, you got 67 images right here, so better make all of them count. So instead of going out with eight gig and just firing off, you know, 700 images I was trained, trained myself. You got 67 images. He better make him all count. So don't take 17 of the same image, and, you know, hope that you've got something there don't do that, but keep things in the same place, so you don't ever have to search for it every time. My wife needs a needs to give me one, or she needs to put it where it goes. She knows right where it is, and I love that over there. Says I'm going crazy. I don't know when she I just saw that the other day in this program says I'm going crazy on I guess I'm hoping that that's not directed necessarily towards me. O. R is a result of me, but I don't know, Couldn't could Bay could very well be. This brings me to a point that I want to share something with you guys, and I'm actually answer me this beer lost car keys. Of course, everyone's misplaced their car keys. Everyone. Have you ever went out and photographed a senior for two hours? When it's 97 degrees outside and you get amazing images, you're both drinks from sweat. Her makeup has already slid down her face and now is on her shoulder, and it's going to slide down and get in her drink cup. That's how hot it is and you do all that and you go back and you're just so excited. You're like, man, I can't wait for these images. It's gonna be a big money maker. Well, she shows up at your studio for her order appointment in two weeks from then, And it's like, Hey, man, what are you doing here? Like I'm here from order Appointment. Oh, yeah. Yeah. About that. Yeah. Cool. Good to see you. Give me just one minute, okay? And you go back here like I don't even know where the media card is. I can't find the media card that I shot. What did I do with it? That has happened to me. Okay, but it wasn't because I didn't do it. I was supposed to do with it. But we have a system that will is full proof that will follow your client from conception. I mean, your conception, your relationship with them. That's weird relationship with them and conception. But it's gonna follow them from day one all the way through, and we do it with this right here. We do it with a traveler, and when a traveler is is basically a it's a nine by 11 manila envelope with a clasp on the back of it. And this right here is every single step of the workflow that goes into her from when she comes in all the way through. And the way you can figure this out is my lag. NH NH color lab helping with this They said, Blair, go to your studio right down on a sticky note on a separate secret signal. Every single step that goes into a session every single step. Write it down, man. I covered up this wall right here. Well, then, I realize they said, Well, Blair, look, combined some of those steps to get there. They said you can. You really don't need to do this because this is an adding value. And this isn't adding value. That's just something that you're doing. So you could put this with this step combined those two before you know it and went from here. The streamline to this. And now when a client walks in, we know exactly where they're order where their stuff is. When just have I had a session this morning today sessions all I have to do. Walk over, reach in, pull out, she's in. She's first. Well, I just keep using. Lorenzo's an example. Your Lorenzo's first I pull it out inside of There is my model release. I have a model release with terms, conditions, all that legal jargon that you have to have. I got all that and she feels that out. And it goes right back in here never to be seen again unless we should need it. Now inside that same manila envelope is my media card, so I don't have to go and get one. It's another step. Why would I have to greet her, do her paperwork and then go get a media card? Since they have streamlined that as well. So it's already in there. I pull that out, we go start working, we're there. We're almost finished. And then every single step along the way, that is taken when I'm done with that session right here. Phone consultation traveler Ready media card number info into success where blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Media model release sign. And then after I'm done right here. This is me, BP photograph session. I check it off. And then from there I put the media card in there. Everything is finished everything is done. Where would he go from there, though? That's good. But what I do with it now I then take it over and put it in the next person, which is Suzanne. It goes into her file for the next day so that when Suzanne comes in, she walks into the office, was open, opens her foul for the day, polls. Lorenzo's traveler out. She knows exactly what's going on. When she's done with it, she checks off what she does and it goes in the next person that has to deal with it goes in their folder, and then they can pick it up and at any time of Lorenzo causes. Hey, man, I was just checking the status of my order. Put on just one second. Lorenzo, I've got a file here. We keep everything organized. We go over the ruins. Those pull him out, Lorenzo! All right, man, we got your order placed on the ninth and throughout order. Confirmation here is looking like it's schedule being on the 12. So I will give you a call, as I said, I would do so. I don't know why you're calling me, but I'll be I'll give you a call as soon as it gets here. I promise you because, man, I want you to have these things. They are gonna look awesome in your in your house here, and it's even got packaging like order. Unpackaged portrait, son. Every single step is there. We're never having to guess now. We don't only have those just for just for regular sessions. We've got him same type of thing here. This is a wedding traveler for every wedding. That wedding that I do that has a traveler with every step of my work flow on the folder so that when I'm done with the wedding, I come back. All the cards get deposited in the near. They go into that next file. Everything is there. It's all their baby plans. We sell a lot of baby plans. I've got everything that I need right there. It's all been thought through. So each time I don't have to. Where am I going? What am I doing? What's going on here? Um, order traveler. Someone calls and places an order. Got a traveler for that? If you guys stick around long enough, I'll figure out a way to put a traveler on you guys to get you home. So if you get lost, all they have to do is pull out your little travelers in your pocket and say, OK, Lorenzo is supposed to go here next, and he's supposed to see this person, Lorenzo, here. Just take your paper and just follow just following directions and you'll get there because you know those guys, we're not gonna stop and ask directions, right? That's a whole That's a whole another. That's a whole another day right there. Um, efficient office. As I said before, one of one of the biggest things that I found to keep me from being very profitable is not having anything efficient, not having a place for everything to go. And that is just a simple Azaz. I can put it and I heart bone that because it's so. I look at the offices of Facebook of these big conglomerates, even creativelive. They have so much to keep up with here to produce what they do. But everything here has its own place. Everything is labeled. They don't do that just because it's just kind of how we feel like doing it. They do it that way because that's how it has to be done. Or these kinds are gonna know what's going on. No one's gonna know another thing. Keeping up with your expenses. This is something that had to learn the hard way as well. How in the world do you keep up with everything? I wouldn't bought one of these things. It's Ah, it's called a neat desk where you just take your receipt, slide it through, and it automatically just It's like a wizard. It is. And it's done. You could take a picture of your receipt with your phone and send it to the proper appropriate software because again, without proper bookkeeping, man, I wouldn't even be here because I may think, All right, well, cool. I've got $13,000 in the bank, and then my statement says, Uh, no way, all for that, but you've got, like, $8 in there, but I may think I'm doing good. So again, this is kind of redundant information, but this is personal life mixed with business. We have to have this. So imagine this. Imagine me switch gives you imagine me. I just got finally got my studio right and I'm like it was about to be old now and then. What happened years ago was everyone. The economy started really going down. Everybody wouldn't bought a camera. And they said, You know what? I'm a photographer. Now I can do this. And instead of putting those people down and saying, Oh, it's a mom with a camera or a dad with a camera, I cannot stand it when people say that number one because I'm a dad, I have a camera. You know what, my putting so much negative energy into that, like focus on you and what you're doing. Don't worry about what someone else is doing. It will only bring you down. So don't don't get involved in that. So check this new photographer here. I got my skill set together. You know, I've been I've been working at the school of hard knocks Come a new studio open. Just got it all finished. And here I am. I'm open. I'm ready. Ready to start this new journey of my life. And then all of a sudden competition start showing up. They used to never be anyone that took pictures out in front of my studio and now in the evenings, I see like minivan after minivan after minivan pulling up, these women pulling their cameras out and man pulling the cameras out. And they're just out there, like doing sessions. And I'm like, What did this studio? What are you doing? And what they're doing is they're charging $3 for an eight by 10 and I'm trying to charge a premium because I have a big overhead. There's nothing wrong with what she she's trying to provide for her family. There's nothing wrong with that, but we have to do is educate her into knowing that, hey, you may not really be making money. You know, there's a girl in my area and I'm not downing her at all. She'll do a two hour session and give you all the images edited for $100. Well, that's when you really get down and look at it. She's really not making much money, and I don't mean that in a negative way. But survey your competition. Think about where everybody is, get on equal playing field, try to so that then people could make a choice based upon skill set or a style not solely all numbers because you know what the new standard is now? The new standard is well, good enough is okay. That's our new standard. Let's go back here. I'm already all these. I'm ready. I'm ready to open up and then this happens. This guy shows up. Oh, yeah, that's him. That's him. That's the guy right there. So I'm trying to get big money for my pictures and this guy shows up and he's telling me, Man, you're crazy. Why are you charging that much? He said I could get people in eight by 10 right here for $2 to bugs. And he said, That's gonna look fine. Us down here by the water. They're not gonna know the difference. So this is what I have to compete with, and I have to compete with those clients are like, Well, why are you charging that this guy down here doing for $2? So that's that's where I waas. That was my new start. That's when everybody started showing up for the camera started Santa move tire for So then I had knew I had to edge, came on more and had to get myself more on how to raise my level of work even more and again if your neighbor is one of those that has a camera and they say, Hey, I take pictures, too and they haven't had any training. Or don't put him down. Don't don't don't do that. Don't make anyone else sound really, really bad for your own good, because it will come back to get you. And it just does not a good look for you broke. I mean on a good look. It's not a good look when I said price yourself accordingly. I made this mistake when I first started. So that's why I'm telling you guys this now. When I first started, I just picked the price and I said, Now that seems good But what I was doing is my competition that have been in years in business for years and years and years now I was producing work that was equivalent to there's but a much lower price, so I started getting a lot of people from her coming to me based solely on price. I feel bad about it now, but I didn't know any better, but how to do over again. I would go and visit that lady. She probably listen to me anyways, but I would have visited her and said, Listen, I don't want to mess up your business. I want to be on an equal playing field. So let's What are you charging? You know, I want to be in line of what you're charging because I want to give people the option based upon where they want to go, not solely on price. So don't base yourself solely on price. And if your neighbors or your competition doesn't want to get together and talk about it, then you know it will be their loss in the end. So do all of your do all of your homework. So again with senior business, how is it in Seattle? I don't know if it's this way, but where I am, we compete with mega mega corporations. Life touched. You know all those guys. We have to compete with them because an hour an hour here. The standard is from when I'm a child all the way up to a senior. We know that our senior pictures are gonna be made at school. We show up on picture day. They have about three or four of these really awesome says. And that's what we're gonna have for our senior pictures. That's just we don't know any other options. So these kids are going to school and they pay a lot of money for the type of work that they get. Not saying it's good, bad or indifferent. But a lot of times I hear the parents complained, So I have to go out and I have to tell them, Hey, listen, we have to work really, really hard to let them know that there is a choice available, like, Hey, I'm over here like Look here I could do, I'm there like really? We thought we had to go through the school. So I'm having a work Super, super hard and our third segment. I'm gonna share about model programs in ways that we have to dig really hard and dig really deep to get people to know who we are to trust us and to come with us and spend money with us and then also recruit other people that will follow and do the same thing. So it's not just a walking apart for me. I don't just have open the doors and the seniors just flood and it just doesn't happen. Did you have a question? Okay, I got you. Is picking his nose is funny. You better be careful that cameras on you, man, I'm kidding. Totally kidding. He did not do that. He did not do that. So we have to compete with those guys. So I don't want you to think that I'm not gonna And I think I've done a pretty good job in this first segment of laying down a foundation of knowing. Okay, well, maybe this guy, just because he wears his hair kind of wild, he doesn't. Maybe he's not the rock store attitude guy that maybe I thought Iwas I'm no different than anybody in this room. And we're just gonna continue over these next three days to break everything down and get to the nuts and bolts of how this stuff works. So I wanted to take this first segment, really know who I waas and the kind of understand a little bit about where you guys were as well. So senior photos again, their shot at the school. I don't want to go in bad mouth school photographer and make them look really, really bad, you know? And so I have to figure out a way to not talk about about them and just elevate myself. I don't want to get into that negative stuff.