Lessons

Lesson Info

Class Introduction

all right well welcome to the wedding business boot camp this is going to be everything you need to know to run a wedding business and the truth is don't be fooled by the name doesn't matter ifyou're ah portrait photographer family photographer pet photographer doesn't matter what you're doing our strategies and systems I think will work because they are basic business practices so you know we'll talk about that all day but don't think you have to shoot weddings just to implement what we're talking about here so with that being said you can follow us online it at south moncada and at taylor sin kata on twitter so let's get started guys this is going to be action packed I promise you one thing what you will not do is walk away and be confused you might be overwhelmed that is my goal to overwhelm all of you but in a good way so I wantto you to rethink your business and everything you're doing here so with that being said I feel like I have to give you an instruction manual on how to use ...

this course because you are going to get a ton of information regarding itself first and foremost we are going to show you how we run our business everything I kind of alluded to that in the beginning where I said hey guys way all learn from different speakers right if you goto you know any of the big event you get one tip from you know speaker acts another tip from speaker why and then you walk away and you are trying to figure out how do I put that all into my business how do I make sense out of all that and it doesn't always work by the way think about if you were building like a puzzle okay and you try to put this giant puzzle together but you've got pieces from eight different puzzles okay the puzzle will never look right and that's what a lot of you are going through right even out there on the internet worldwide it's like you got all these pieces how do we put it all together so I'm like screw that okay I think I can say screw on right I'm safe on that one so screw that right what we're gonna do is I'm just gonna give you one puzzle okay and if you buy into my system okay you can implement this in your own studio and treated as just that it's a blueprint it's a blueprint for success and so I think personally there's no other resource like it when I was talking to creative live they challenge me after we came on last time with the seniors we wanted to do something that's never been done before we wanted to give you a true blueprint for your business so that you can go out there and find success no matter where you are in the world and so to that point right kenan susan at alluded to what you get with the course all our forms all our processes all our communication so there's no stone left unturned and you guys who are out there make sure you're in the chat rooms because you are gonna have a ton of questions and the only way I'm gonna answer them is through that chat room form so make sure your you're interacting with us all day something to keep in mind we run a successful studio so it's not one of those situations where those who can't teach it's one of those situations where I am running a fully successful studio in the midwest that we grew taylor and I during the middle of a recession that's the part you should really be honing in on man like I don't hear about like how everybody's a photographer competition is so fierce I get it man we grew our business during the middle of a recession and so I'm telling you if we can do it in the midwest you can absolutely do it and we're making real money so our studios making real money were not professional speakers so to speak okay yes we speak as we teach but we have our own motivations for that we run a fully functional studio back home and we'll talk more about that but here's the thing all of you here okay I'm gonna hold you because you're in front of me all week and I'm going to ride you on out on the internet don't tell me how it won't work it will work I don't care if you're in italy I don't care if you're in romania I don't care if you're in new york city this will work why because it's business it's basic business principles I'm a business school graduate find a way to implement what we're teaching you here today I promise you it will work but I do want to start and just cover for a second why teach because I don't think people realize why I got into educating we got in educating because pride about five years ago when we the first turned pro okay I didn't start photographing five years ago but I considered myself a professional photographer about five years ago when we started you know we couldn't find resource is like this no one would share their information with us so we were looking for help on the business principles how do you market how do you reach clients and no one would share that information with us everyone was really closed off so whenever we became successful by learning through own mistakes and trials and errors that's when we realized like there needs to be someone telling people how to run their own studio like there's no reason all of us can't be successful there's plenty of business out there for everyone so we really do want everyone to be a successful as we are there's no reason that you can't right we love our industry I think we have the most amazing jobs in the world any of you who are professional photographers out there I think what better job that we all have in creating memories for our clients that we know will be on their walls for decades right I think that's an amazing responsibility on amazing opportunity if you will but here's the thing I'm tired of people bitching right about everybody's a shooting burner everybody's you know competition's out there they're giving away everything kind's want everything for nothing okay all true statements yet here we are we're running a million dollar brand in the middle of all that so it can be done and so here's my promise to all of you here all of you out there is if you buy this course you implement this course right and when I say course I mean my system my process if you do that you will be successful ok that's not an egotistical statement that is from years of teaching people and having them email me with their success stories man because they go they'll say sal you know that thing you taught me and I implemented it on how to run a sales process on what products to offer my clients are going crazy for it so I promise you if you put this into practice in your business okay you will be successful and that is my guarantee to all of you out there so what I want to go before we get going because I am the business guy so a lot of people don't think like they're actually surprised when I show them a good photo they're like well you could take a picture too yes I can so what I want to do is just get us a little bit more inspired motivated and we're going to watch a slide show here just kind of show you the type of imagery that we like to create for our clients this is what our studios known force a love or hate my imagery this is what our studios become known form what our clients want so just kind of something to get us excited and get us going into the day I want to be anybody's other half I was happy saying I love you wait you wait you make me want to say I do I don't see oh yeah tio tio maybe maybe no way let me oh get myself into you make me want to say I'm teo I do I do I do I do you feel the same way you can trust way cool cool cool so yeah so that's a little bit of a sampling of the kind of imagery that we offer for our clients and we go out of our way to create for clients and that's what we've become known for and I know some of us were talking earlier this morning on one of the struggles you're having is finding your own identity right as being a photographer and we're going to cover that because I think a lot of us have what I call schizophrenia when it comes to our photography we're trying to be everything to everyone we don't know we are we have no identity and my goal you know when I became a better photographer was when I stopped caring what other people wanted on I know you went through the same thing it was like dude I've got to be true to myself as an artist and the right clients will find me but when you're trying to take pictures or everybody you're never going to get there and we all know what I'm talking about like if you go to my website what you won't see our pictures like this right that's not our style that's not the type of client who's looking for us or even worse yet this picture where my shirts in color and everything else is black right the old spot color that was cool in the nineteen eighties but stop freaking doing it okay it's not cool anymore it stopped being cool a long time ago all right so I'm tired of seeing red flowers and everything else in black and white and if you're guilty of it don't lie okay all of them here don't lie but nobody wants to see that anymore that's cool we gotta evolve our business okay what was cool five years ago isn't cool today what's cool today won't be called five years from now and we can't be afraid of letting go of the past and I think fear is honestly what cripples ah lot of us when it comes to business the fear of failing and so how's this for everybody out there I'm going to be honest I'm always big about sharing dirty laundry okay I have failed more times and I've been successful true statement okay and so all of you have to understand that the most successful people in the world have failed they have fallen on their face what they haven't done though this is a trait of successful people is they're not crippled okay or paralyzed by that failure so don't be afraid to fail all right let's keep going here we have got a ridiculous agenda for all of you out there so I'm even worried that I'm gonna be able to get through all this my goal okay is not tow drip information out to you my goal is to make you take more notes than you've ever taken in your entire life so here we go this is it this is the blueprint to run your business there is no stone left unturned I'm to show you how to shoot I'm to show you how to edit I'm gonna show you how to pose I'm sure he had a light and I'm going to show you business and that's the key here so day one today business business more business we're gonna look at the industry overview of rights businessman that were recovered so overview of the industry why is it so important like any business venture we have to understand what is the size of the opportunity out there we can't just go and say I want to be a plant photographer what's the size of the opportunity right I want to be I want to shoot mountains well guess what there's no market for shooting mountains okay so we have to go where the money is and we're gonna we're gonna look at the industry asshole we're going to cover types of legal entities photographers are notorious for this you guys are operating is what I call a sole proprietorship and is the sole proprietorship quick show of hands how many of you are incorporated one of you bad five bad okay so well for bad one good okay so this is really really bad because guess what can someone trip over your back can you lose a memory car gets what you consumed for everything you own as a sole proprietor so I'm gonna teach you the different legal entities and at least get you thinking differently on how to protect your personal assets business plan guys we can't run a business without a business plan that is impossible to run a business without a business plan probably the most painful part at least it is for me because I am solely an artist eso it's going to be painful but it's good for you just it's a good pain it's a pain like like yes give me more we're talking about businessman's check it yes okay um marketing plan we're going to cover a marketing plan right so now you go hey yeah I wanna be in the er I want to be a wedding for doc okay and again guys out there you don't have to just be a wedding photographer a business plan it's a business plan you could be talking about shooting pet rocks for a living you still have to have that business plan together but now we go okay I want to be a pet rock photographer I've always aspired to be that obvious they don't talk about it that's the key on and they don't move either but the marketing plan okay the marketing plan is going to be yes I want to be a photographer how do I go after how do we get clients how do we attract those clients a struggle all of us have by the way right what works what doesn't work should I do direct mail should I do bridal shows I don't know right so we're going to figure that out together product lines what products should I carry and this might seem like a seemingly insignificant decision to make but it's actually one of the most strategic decisions you can make us guess what everybody's a photographer that's the way you khun differentiate yourself from the other photographers in your area that is one of the key ways we use high end products so that we can differentiate our brand from the brands around us you does everybody understand that everything you do in your business from the products carry to the music you play do you realize the music you play can actually define your brand right I don't want play nineteen eighty keyboard music that's not what I want my brand to be about why because my brides are not listening to nineteen eighties keyboard music on the radio there listening to stop that's real time okay on the radio it's popular music so I've got to make sure I have access to that kind of music so we use right aside called song freedom that's where I get my music from that's what you heard on our slide show my price get excited about that right that was kobe calais and so these air artists that they are well aware of so I gotta make that investment everything we do pricing and packaging by far the most requested topic that we get I would say right I am the self proclaimed maybe pricing expert in our industry this is what I'm good at man if it's one thing I know I'm good at I may not be the best photographer in the world and I'm okay with that but I'm a very good a business person when it comes to pricing and packaging and we're going to spend all afternoon drilling into ooh pricing in packaging your head will spin I promise that's just day one by the way that's always that's day one so day two we're going to do bridal shows so when we were starting our business bridal shows were fundamental for us reaching brize especially when we were new to our area we had just opened her studio and that was how we got our name out there and as you can see sound are very different personality types he is very type a loud aggressive I'm the opposite so you might not hear me speak is much that's because I'm the quiet one but you can see how each of us will work our personalities and bridal shows with clients you don't have to be like sale I hope you're not because I'm better you could be like me which I think most artists are so don't don't let that deter you you'll see how both personalities work so if you're either one you'll see it and then the initial console so whenever we're booking brides how we run that where we meet what we bring with us what we cover how did the conversation go it's all strategic and you're going to see exactly how we do that we're gonna have an initial we're gonna have that consultation live here so we're bringing a couple in and we're actually and therein engaged couples so we're gonna try and get their wedding if they get their winter if they say no we just bury them in the back way that's how we do it is italians we just oh you said no okay I'm just kidding the people are like that's how he does it that was so but we're gonna have that live consultation ah the engagement shoot you're going to see a live engagement shoot so how we run that how we shoot how we interact with the clients wardrobe everything any questions you have about engagement shoot where we go for outfits what were thinking about when we shoot so we're goingto just feed you what's going on in our heads as we're shooting and lighting so we're going to do off camera flash we're going to dio video lights video lights are part of my strategy when I'm lighting your scene so we'll show you how we use though so we'll use a reflector will use video light will use off camera flash so we'll do a host of things for for lighting day three we're going to go into post production guys I'm not kidding this is it this is your blueprint every step of the way we're covering it so we're gonna go in postproduction editing the session and preparing art for clients just like you're seeing here on the wall this is our strategy when we're meeting with clients we're giving them no way to say no you can't say no you want these images in your home you want these high end products in your home because why you can't get these online not you the photographer you the client so we want to overwhelm them with great images and we're going to cover exactly how we edit these images to create artwork for the client then we're going to a client preview that's my room so I do for hundred sales sessions a year for a studio I do every single one of them and with our engagement sales with an average of over fourteen hundred dollars so you're gonna want to see how we run that and how we use that sales session and work it into our studio yeah that's powerful stuff right because all of you are how many of you even out there for sit your sales presentation is online no you do it in studio studio love you show don't say work in studio in studio awesome you're the odd man out here we're gonna change we're gonna convert you right but out there if you're posting your images online gets what your sales average is probably gonna be one hundred two maybe two hundred bucks if you're lucky you're never going to get to that fourteen hundred dollars sales average or thousand dollars sales average if you're posting your images online so we're going to show you our strategy for that how we how we running and then in the afternoon on day three we're going to start going into wedding day coverage guys this is is close to working side by side with me as you will ever know get this was this was the challenge when we put a lot of pressure amanda is producing the show I put a lot of pressure on her find the right locations and man she came through she had a home run we've got an amazing set of location so that we can show you that's close to a real wedding day as it would be you working with me side by side so we're going to go to bridle prep we have a bride she's gonna be getting ready all I find a lot of photographer struggle right when I walk into a room what do I do what should I capture what images should I take my thinking about the album how do I pose how doe I direct the client and with second shooting too yes so we're both going to be there you're going to get to see inside of it both our heads because we used to shoot weddings together that's how we started our studio now we shoot separately but working together a second shooter's you're gonna be able to see how seamless it is and how you work together as a team that is key understanding you know being a second shooter can't be easy but it can also be complicated and so it's very important that I have someone working by my side all my senior photographers who understand the end result and so I know a lot of photographers out there just kind of hired guns for hire right oh I need a second shooter who's available and that's the worst thing you can do because that person coming into your studio I might not see the day the way your student way you see the day and that becomes very important so we'll talk a little bit about how do we even train our second shooter's how do we get them ready and then we'll do groom prep is well so we'll cover posing uh we're gonna take you through that hole day posing lighting in any challenging scenario that we could have thrown at us dude we're still not done with this week this's waste would be enough for the average like to day three course right but we are this is going to be a challenge so I'm stoked about this day for we're going to go into ceremony lighting team positioning family pictures okay so where do you stand at the ceremony how do you deal with that crazy church lady right who's telling you you can't be in this sanctuary and take pictures the church lady's driving crazy sorry church ladies but you do so I've got to be able to get the shots I need for my clients creative session this is where we make our money as you see behind taylor thes air the kind of images that cell right one on the wall where how do we take these creative images how much time do we have how do we convince the client to give us that time you know we had an hour and a half to two hours of time for a creative sessions and our clients are more than willing to give that to us and taylor is going to showcase a live call yeah so you're going to hear me a talk with one of our bride's a real bride to go over her timeline for wedding day so going over the timeline and helping them with their day is essential to getting that hour and a half of time to get those creative pictures if you don't have pictures like this you won't be able to get the sales averages you have to have this time and so starting with the timeline with the bride is how you make sure you get that time I've never had a bride by thirty by forty campus right of a photo journalistic shot of her mom crying as she's walking down the aisle okay that's a beautiful shot we still need to capture it but they're not gonna buy wall art like that so I hope that makes sense we've gotta shoot thinking about that sale we have to think about the sale then something we do we're going to talk about reception coverage howto light it first dance cake cut on the reception coverage I'm gonna teach you how to use on camera flash what are my settings where my shooter's using video light at the reception we do that all the time and so we're going to that as well but here's the key you are going to see as close to real time I'm a little worried about this part of it I do the same day slideshow so at the wedding's okay and I'm not when I say seeing the sideshow I'm not talking about that nonsense some of you guys do out there where it's like showing ten pictures on a laptop on a bar uh what we do is it becomes the south and kati show we pull out a sixty inch screen ah projector we pulled two chairs out onto the dance floor and we show our clients about one hundred to one hundred twenty pictures edited from that day to a captive audience of two hundred people at a reception talk about marketing there's your future brides in the audience senior pictures and the emotion of the bride crying for the first time there's no dollar amount you can put on that yeah that is probably our signature item so I've talked about this in the past but never before have I been able to show you how I actually worked this job so now you're going to see my work flow live day five you guys you guys were around already right now you're like jesus man and there will be there will be tests every night when we're done I was going to a lot of q and a day five we're going to post event workflow e mails postproduction in the slide show that we produced social media what do we blogging when what do we send the facebook when seo strategies if you google st louis wedding photographer satan was wedding photography we come back on page one of google how did we do that okay ten months ago twelve months ago we were page ten that was not good nobody's going to page ten to find you there right so we own right if I'm showing up on page one that's where we need to be and we get five to ten request enquiries not bookings but enquiries a week tie too being on the google search rights it's free marketing for you but how do you do it a lot of people get overwhelmed with seo right there like I'm not a programmer huh you don't have to be a programmer I'm gonna show you how to do it without ever being a program and then you get the live client previous sales session with the post wedding this is the hardest sale there is s o it's really difficult to get a sale here and you're going to see how we get that sail even though our clients get their digital negatives and that's a whole conversation we'll have what is a digital negative how much do we sell it for how much do you know do we give it away whatever our clients come into our studio and they're still spending money and they're holding that cd of images with them how do we do it we're gonna walk you through that and then the album designed process okay so how long does it take his design and I'm you know we spend less than two hours designing albums that's it lasting two hours yeah we should say wow that is that is well cause that's lost time you don't want to be spending I talked to somebody when we were on tour and they told me they were spending close to four days designing an album that is madden's right and so two hours or less has got to be good enough if you're guilty of obsessing about pixel placement right with us we just look better if it was two pixels over okay dude let it go just let it go nobody knows the difference holy cow okay everybody feeling good dude we're here to learn way gotta lot information out there all right so here's what you get if you purchase the course here's what you're going to get access to all of you here will get access to this by the way you're gonna get the power point presentation in all my entire slide deck you will get this is the most important part the business plan template so I got a template out there for you to put your business plan together so get this course now don't wait till thursday to get it if you're gonna get it get it now the reason is because I want you to work through that business plan template and we probably need to get it printed out for you guys in here so that you can ride along you're going put your business plan together today live we're all going to do it together this is a family affair you're going to get our wedding day timeline form how do we control the timeline with our clients we actually have a form we use now we send our clients you're going to get that our album worksheets do you know seventy to eighty percent of our clients at extra pages to their albums and we don't free design and we don't pick the pictures they picked the pictures so the way we work our processing our worksheets this helps us with our sales and it makes the process for design that album so much easier yeah this is key right if you struggle with how to get your client's spending more adding pages to europe this checklist is perfect because we send this checklist of the bride think about it there's five parts every wedding day bridal prep room prepped ceremony reception creatives okay so what we do is a typical thirty page album on lee gets twelve image and a half to two images per page so a thirty page album is on ly gonna have roughly sixty images that's twelve images per part of the day when we send them the spreadsheet that only has twelve section twelve lines to it you want thirteen images fourteen images fifteen images you've got to start adding more pages so we don't have to be heavy handed the clients realise that they're likely to him you know from that hour and a half creative session you imagine spending an hour and a half with your client and them trying to pick twelve pictures from that part of the day can't happen impossible impossible and so that's why that's so important and this worksheet helps us because we don't have to sell the client they sell themselves uh wedding engagement and post price and you get all my pricing so all my pricing is included in this my wedding pricing on the cheat we hand out to our clients are engaged advising and then our post wedding pricing that is probably the most valuable piece any of you could get access to you get my real time pricing on then of course sample order sheets and when orders come in how are we handling that we sit down with our client what's our workflow right we don't just write the order down on a piece of paper it's very organized so this work she lives throughout the client's order through check in through delivery through everything so it helps keep us really organized how we doing already mission accomplished mission accomplished ten minutes in and we are overwhelmed