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Checklist, Challenges, and Next Steps

So I am now have to wrap up. Because what I've talked about for two days is done. So the next 28 challenges are not about fear or self growth, there is something about pricing and there is sales and lots of marketing. The rest now is about action and actually going out and doing it and shooting it, shooting it, perfecting it, mastering it, and getting really good at it. Right now that's it. So everything we've talked about for the last two days is done. And from now on, I've only left with the challenges and the Q&A that I can come and check in while you are doing this challenge. The whole thing now, really, comes down to you getting into this challenge and enjoying it and learning from it and changing the way you shoot, getting better, mastering how you're shooting, and opening this entire little business model into your business, developing it, starting a business, or including it into what you already have. The 28 days with me from now, as I said this morning: natural light stud...

io, mapping your sets and oufits, your one composition, five poses, flowing over basic props, posing couples traditionally, capturing beautiful expression and connection, beautiful connection and expression. The rules: perfecting the rules of the chin, the shoulder, the hands. The body language, the assymetry, the hourglass. More connection, more connection, always. Creating a styling and wardrobe PDF that you can send and educate your clients better. The more time you spend educating, the more money you're going to make, creating an amazing little styling book to reference that and have them committed and excited. It's about shooting curves, more curves, always girls with curves, real bodies. Real bodies, real women, real age groups. That is who your client is. And it's about learning those little tips and tricks that make women go crazy for you to be their photographer. It's about learning how to pose multiple girls in twos, threes, and fours, so you can shoot grown-up families, combos, groups of girls, girls' day out, and then market to those so you can make more money. It's about you marketing and shooting the before and after better. It's about learning the difference between posing a teenager and a 25-year-old. And having it age appropriate but still commercial and fashion so it attracts this genre. It is about you marketing and shooting to this family first demographic and including that in your family portrait studio and your baby photography. It's about opening up to generations, of posing and shooting and posing multiple people as in family shots. So taking contemporary and modern family images so that people are drawn to your brand. And it's also about marketing and shooting the corporate headshot. It's about the glamour shoot on location and even shooting into that back flare. And it's not just about showing you that, it's about you mastering it. I have broken it down so easy. I want you to master every one of these levels and then push to the next level. I'm gonna show you how to Photoshop faster and be more efficient with your production and your Photoshop with the two minute rule and how to get the best contouring that make women happy so that they buy their photographs. It's about opening up and marketing to this demographic. Now, can I just say one thing? One of the girls walked up to me in the break and she said to me, "Sue Bryce, I'm going to make my greatest weakness my greatest strength." And I said, "What's your greatest weakness?" And she said, "I'm 50 and I thought I was too old to be a photographer." Her greatest weakness has now become the highest shopping demographic in the world, and that's her sisterhood. And I said to her, "Do you think this woman wants to be photographed my a tight ass 25-year-old?" (audience laughs) And do you know how I know this? Because I was a tight ass 25-year-old and used to photograph 50-year-old women and think "old bitches" because they were so mean to me. And then I realized why they were mean to me. They were mean to me because I didn't know any better. And yeah, speak to your own demographic by all means, but find your greatest weakness and make it your greatest strengths. And the irony about her greatest strength and her greatest weakness is her greatest strength is that that is a shopping demographic that has so much money to spend and they will be throwing money at her and her business model with be better than everybody else's. (audience laughs) And any woman, even at age 83, wants the same thing, make me look younger, make me look slimmer, make me look gorgeous. Then I need you to master that backlight. Because when you master that backlight and you take images like this and your folio starts selling itself. And that is taken in a plain bedroom with a opaque blind pull down. I need you to be able to understand the four biggest marketing and shooting demographics, how I shoot them, how I shoot them in order to market to them, and how I shoot them to market to them to make money from them. You are only to bring a genre or bring a demographic into your studio if it's going to produce a product that makes you money. Why else would you do it? And that is business. I need you to master and follow these maps. Okay, posing the mother and daughter. I need you to work on those beauty shots. They sell every single time. I need you to work out the difference between the independent woman and the girl power. And then I want you to market to her and her girlfriends because they are a very powerful demographic. I want you to go and shoot these boys. I want you to get more boys into the studio. I want the boys to supplement the girls' shoots. I want you to invite the whole family. I want you to build and add onto your shoots until you've mastered that and your income is increasing because you've opened your network wider and wider. And then I want you to take it all away to the fashion, whatever it takes. Just like we shoot girls of different ages and demographics differently, we shoot guys differently exactly the same way to suit the person that you are photographing. And once we tie all of that up, in 28 days, every day you're gonna get one video-- and I'd love to say the videos are an hour long, but to be honest with you, some of them are a little longer. I'm sorry, but I just get a bit excited and we didn't have the timer on few days and then one of them that I let three hours long. I was like, "What? Oh no, that's not..." You know, so I can't help but teach this stuff, I love it so much, I get so excited when I'm shooting and I'm teaching it and you're watching it come out of my camera and raw. There's no editing to the images, you're seeing it come out as it is as I shoot it right there and then. You're watching through my camera in live view, and then you can print out the contact sheet so you can reference it while it's in front of you. That's gotta be easiest way I can teach you. If I can't teach you in that way, it's going to be very difficult from thereon in. And then practice makes perfect. And like I said, rinse, repeat, sell. And like Ross said, screw it up, apologize, and then rinse, repeat, sell again until you get it right. Okay, the checklist for your business, I need you to lock this down now 'cause this does not come up in your 28 days. The checklist for your business from yesterday is something I need you to be working on in parallel to your next 28 days of shooting and marketing. Okay, shooting and marketing is about getting bums on seats and taking better pictures and making money. But until you clear the blocks in your physical business and the blocks in your personal self, which is what we've spoken about Friday, Saturday, you will not move forward. So, here's your checklist. How clear is the communication in your business? You need to lock this down for me. Do you have a great website? And when I say great, is it functional? Okay, is it clear what you do? It doesn't have to be the visually most beautiful website because I'm assuming you think everybody's website's better than yours, because when you look at somebody's work with fresh eyes, it's always better than yours. However, you're not looking at your work with fresh eyes. So if it's not functional and it's not working for you, you need to change it. If it's working for you, stop reinventing the wheel on your website and instead start working on your PDFs. Because then you get an opportunity to update your current images and get them out on your social media and on your email to people, and you don't have to worry about your website. You can refinish your website every six months to 12 months if your PDFs are getting refinished and they're really sexy. Do you have a great business card? If you don't, get one. If it looks like mine, if you want one like mine, go and get one like mine. My images sell my work, not my words. Do you have an email PDF? If you don't, why not? If you shoot multiple genres, you should have multiple PDFs. You saw my instruction, watch the video again. Clean lines, easy, keep it simple. The definition of understanding and clear communication is simplicity, you know? And that is all you have to think about: communicate, simplicity, entice. When you go shopping and you're a female-- I know women are different to men, because when women want something, when they wanna buy something, we are so... Like, we wanna buy something, there's no conflict, is there, girls? Like, you know, I went through the years of not wanting to eat so I could buy extra shoes, you know? And you just, when you want something, you want it. And you buy it and you find a way to get it. That's how women shop. Do you have a great elevator pitch? And if you don't, when you go for a walk or a run or you're at the gym or you're in the shower, work on your elevator pitch. "Hi, my name's Sue Bryce. I'm a glamour portrait photographer." "Sorry, what?" Yes, I know. I took glamour portrait photography. It's what I used to do in the late '80s, but then it went out of fashion. But, see, the thing is I loved it so much nobody could stop me from doing it. So when it went out of fashion, I just decided to reinvent it and then bring it back to the world. So now I've launched a global glamour revolution. You can check me out at www.suebryce.com. "Cool, that's cool. I'm gonna use that." All right, and elevator pitches, when you believe what you say and you say it with the truth. Okay, you believe what you say, you say it with the truth, you say it with enthusiasm, and you show beautiful work. Do you have a portfolio on your iPhone? Everybody has iPhone or iPad these days. If you don't have a rocking portfolio on there that you can whip out at any-- that is a moving, breathing folio for you right there that you can sell yourself, and it should be incredible. Should be your best work and it should be replenished weekly. And every time I send my entice image to my new client, that goes in that file. I MMS is from my phone so that it's in that file. So I replenish that file weekly. It has hundreds of images in it, and people get lost in it for hours when I'm talking about my business. And here's the irony: even when I go for a run or a walk, I will discard my business cards. My handbag, I have everything-- except for work clothes on and running shoes-- but I have everything on my person, eyelashes and an iPhone, 'cause I wanna listen to music and receive calls, and I always have my eyelashes on. So even when I'm in track pants, this is my getup. I always have my iPhone, so nobody can say I didn't have a business card. My folio is right here, let me show you. And here's a link to my website. And if you happen to talk to talk to somebody outside of having a business card, try this. What's your email address? When I get home, I'll send you PDF, price list, and folio, so you can see my work. You take it, don't give them your website. Take their email, and then when you get home, follow it up. And if you never hear back from them, who cares? It was an exercise in self-confidence. How many shoots do you want per week? And what do you want your average sale to be? What is your average sale? You need to work that out, remember. How can I lift my average sale? How can I lift my average sale? That's what we talked about today. How can I lift the value of what I do? Do I up my price? Do I up my service? Do I up my product? But one of those, all of those, and do I change the way I believe it? One of those four things will lift and keep raising you up every time you work on them, every time you change them. What is your true goal? Okay, what is your service goal? Mine is that every woman in the world discovers how beautiful she is and that she gets to experience herself through my lens. And you know, I don't need to practice an elevator pitch when I say that, because when I look at you and say I see how beautiful you are and I can capture that and bring that out of you, I believe it. And when you believe it, it's true. And when it's true, everybody believes it. So learn what yours is. Write me that hate list, please write that. And somebody wrote on Facebook, can we call it a dislike list? 'Cause hate is a very strong word. And I wrote, do not deny me of my hate. Do not rob me of my hate. And how dare you. And if I hate something, I'm not gonna say I dislike it, I'm going to say I hate it. And when I say I hate it, I have to ask the next question. Then why the hell would you do it? Then, I need you to understand what the physical blocks were in your business. I need you to do the brand, the marketing, the Photoshop, the production, the shooting, the sales. If you don't have staff, it doesn't count. And the money, okay? I want you to correlate first the physical blocks in your business and then the personal blocks. 'Cause the personal block was probably bigger than all of them. I want you to look in your production. I want you to look in--sorry-- into your whole physical production there as simplicity, functionality, look for your blocks, and look for clear communication. That is a good business. It needs to be simple, it needs to be functional. You need to understand what your blocks are so that you can kick them out of the road immediately. Remember, it's a default setting, the blocks come back on the path. That's okay, you kick them out once, you keep kicking them. In fact, they default before you even realize it and then you're back in deep, before it you realize it, you're kicking your toes. So, as soon as it, identify your default setting, kick 'em out again, and remember that communication of what you do, what you sell, and what you are, who you are, what you believe about yourself and what you value is the first thing that people read about you and it is in everything you do. It is in everything you say. It is in the clothes you wear. It is in your posture. It is in the car you drive. And as soon as you change that and start making it better, it gets better all around across the board. That is the simple truth. So once you've worked through all of your physical blocks, then I want you to go and work on your personal blocks. And those personal blocks, what we talked about in session two today, will be one of the hardest things that you will have to do. You'll be a work in progress just like me. But I can tell you right now, you sit on that couch and remember, I can walk across the room and there is no fear, there is only hate and the voice of hate comes from inside me, and I can turn that off at any time, 'cause I'm the one saying it. And once you understand that, you turn it off and you go about your business and then you realize there is no fear, it was just an illusion and you're on your way. And you reset that every single day or every hour of every day if you're like me and you need to. Right? Because it's easy to do. And I don't understand how, myself or you all, we're so filled with emotion about it. 'Cause it's nothing. It's a lie. And it's so easy to change. So, with all the challenges, I created all these add-ons. Mm, Photoshop, videos, and PDF downloads, and contact sheets and bonus videos, an extra two hours of talking that I wasn't supposed to do. I just keep going and going and going and going and going because I figured this had to be, if this was my last photography workshop, this had to be the most comprehensive workshop I could hand over, and I'm okay with that. I'm okay with this being my last one. I'm okay with watching you all develop and work through this over the next two years. I'm okay with that, because I will go back to work and do what I do best, and that's take photographs. Okay? That's all good for me, I love taking photographs. I want you to love it, enjoy it, go for it, don't hold back. And so I--this came up out of nowhere and I can't stop myself from doing this, I'm so funny. So, I'm in Seattle for 28 days shooting the 28 day videos for you, and I need a makeup artist. So I put a call out on Facebook for a makeup artist and I got a whole heap of makeup artists, and out of the 14 I got, I got the one that I intuitively felt was my fit. I intuitively felt she was my fit for two reasons: one, gut instinct will get you through business and life, and I always listen to my instinct. And I picked her name out of the pile first, and then I researched her work. She was the only makeup artist that sent me domestic work. Meaning she sent me real-looking clients like wedding clients instead of fashion models. Now, I'm not gonna hire a fashion makeup artist. I am not a fashion photographer, I am a portrait photographer. But I could do the same course right now for makeup artists to tell them if you wanna make money, you will make more money, like me, as a domestic portrait photographer than you will as a fashion photographer, because the market is not in the 10 supermodels of this world but in the million women that want to feel like supermodels. So I employ her for three weeks, for 28 days, to film 28 days, and she fits immediately. We all like her, Susan liked her, the whole team liked her. And straight away, Christine fitted into our team. And we're talking, Christine and I are talking, and Christine is a great little makeup artist and she owns a hair salon. So I look at her and my instinct tells me... "Do you have a space above your hair salon?" And she goes, "Yes." I said, "Is it empty?" and she went, "Yes." I was like, huh, "Does it have natural light?" "Yes." Ding ding ding. Jackpot! And I went, "Hmm, well, Christine, how about I throw a challenge at you? As you know, Susan Roderick, part-time host at CreativeLive, part-time photographer, is launching a new photography business." And you all know that, 'cause you would be following her. And Christine owns hair salon and she is a makeup artist. She has a space above her hair salon with natural light. What do you think is gonna happen in my brain? So I go, "Susan, Christine, come here and sit down for a minute." In fact, we're in the bathroom, I was getting ready for the shoot and putting my makeup on and they were standing on-- I think Christine might've been sitting on the toilet and Susan was sitting on the sink and they were both looking at me like I was crazy, but then they got really excited. Are you microphoned? Oh yeah, come on down. (audience applauds) So you all know Susan, and Susan's actually been here for the last two days but she's been working behind the scenes instead of on the chat hosting table and helping me also. And I wouldn't do what I do without her. I filmed 28 days with her and Shaun Levra, and they have been absolutely and incredible team. So Susan is a videographer as well, and she's done half the videoing that you're seeing, and Shaun has done the other half, and Shaun's been editing them all while we're here so that you guys can have them and the challenge from Monday. And so whilst these guys have been working for me and doing this and for CreativeLive and working for us... (audience laughs) Excuse us while we pose for a photo, for Kenna. Wait a minute, Kenna. Kenna, I wasn't ready. And so whilst we've been doing that, Susan's been videoing, and then I look at Susan, I look at Christine and I'm like, "Hmm, how about this? How about we create a 12 week business startup?" And Christine, Susan designs a voucher from the template. Okay, so I didn't have Susan's actually. She has actually photographed Christine, so Christine's image will be in there, not two ways. And then Christine does what she already knows how to do, 'cause she's a hairdresser with a full client database. She's going to market the voucher that she designed to her clients. And she's gonna do it from her, not from Susan. So she's gonna say, "I have just experienced a photo shoot with Susan Roderick, and I want you to do the same. As my clients, this is my gift to you, and I am giving you a $200 voucher to spend with Susan and myself and I'm gonna do your hair and your makeup and Susan's gonna photograph you." We are going to track the progress. We're gonna see how many vouchers she gives away. We're gonna see how many vouchers people say yes to. We're gonna look at the shoots that she does and critique them. And then we're going to monitor the sale of those shoots, in real time, so that you can see the real truth of what they do from startup. (audience laughs) Yeah. And that will go on my blog and we'll get it on CreativeLive blog as well, so that's something you can monitor over the next 12 weeks. So, while she's starting up, you guys get to watch her do it. Now I have two faiths. One is in my instinct and one is in Christine and Susan. Because they're hungry and I know that they believe they can do it, okay? Now Susan's shooting right now is not as good as it could be, but she's going to learn and grow with every one of her clients. And she knows how to get connection. And that is more valuable than anything else. So I really invite you to watch this journey and watch the truth of it. I will not mentor them, I have already done it, okay? The mentoring is done in the 28 days. I don't wanna go to her shoots, I wanna go to my own. I've just-- Come on, Sue. Come on. Well you know what I've done? Just one or two? I actually, what I've done is I've done myself a disservice, 'cause now I've lost my makeup artist and my assistant. So if I do go to my own shoots, it's gonna be alone. Does anybody wanna come and work with me in Seattle? That's a dumb question. No, no! Look, Kate Hailey. (laughs) Oh, I'll take you, Kate, any day. Kate Hailey's here. Okay, so, that's a neat challenge for you to watch. I'm constantly looking to feed you the truth and I'm constantly looking to feed you the real truth. And Susan won't hold that back. She won't hold the truth back from you. If she's suffering, she's gonna say. And if she sucks, it's gonna show. And if she fails, she's gonna have to admit it, apologize for it, and start again. And that just is part of business. So I enjoy that you will watch that journey and I will fully enjoy watching the growth of her and her business over the next six months. And I will fully enjoy watching Christine, 'cause she is a beautiful woman who's built a great little hair salon. She's a great makeup artist. And the two of them have a great synergy that will bring the average client, okay? Will be in their 40s. And I cannot wait to see that. Yeah, right? (audience cheers) Can I hug you now? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Thank you. All right. So, all I have to do is tell you this: you have a call to action, and that is April the 8th. You don't get to see the 28 videos unless you buy the course. You saw two of them, you've seen me lay it out for you. If you wanna do it, you have to buy it. It's that simple. I want you on board, you know me well enough. If fact, when I talked to Craig-- I'll say this, the truth. When I talked to Craig, I said to Craig, "Hang on, you're gonna let me sell a video that they haven't seen." And Craig would never let me do that. I've always offered that to Craig, "How about I add on a video and you can sell it?" and he goes, "No, we have to show it." And I'd be like uh. And I said, "Hang on, you're gonna let me sell a video that nobody's seen?" And he goes, "Sue, people know you've got the goods. Just lay it out for everybody and then do it over a month." And that was the best thing he could've said to me, because I love what I've created for you, and I fully, 100% believe in it. I've showed you all the reasons why. I've taken away all the reasons why it wouldn't work, and there it is. So the call action is April 8th. Mark your progress every day. Sometimes you might be doing two or three challenges in a day, it doesn't matter. I don't expect you to have supermodels to practice on, I just expect you to do the work and then practice that and do it again. I want you to create a folio of your 28 days so that you can put it online, it'll send it through to me, so I can pick you. And I haven't even decided what I'm gonna do with you yet. I haven't even decided, but it'll be something really special. Because if I'm saying that you can be me in 28 days, then there's gonna be a whole lot of mes running around Seattle in a month. And I can't wait for that. The call to action is April 8th, when I will come back and I will show you how everybody is doing. You'll see me every week for Q&A. I'm gonna keep the blog rocking with the first year students, I'm gonna redesign their templates within this week so that you can redesign yours. I want you to hit you checklists, and I want you to start the challenges on Monday. I want you to enjoy it and I want you to prosper. I'll see you in 28 days.