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1:45 pm - Student Evaluation: Nicole

Okay, so you are in the kitchen, correct? I'm at her house. Ok? Can you give this oh, yeah. Give us a little set up, please. Um so you did the shoot wass two days before um my turnaround times usually about we can have two weeks, but since I was doing this just for them I sent on ahmad a call to my clients and this is actually a client that has been in contact with me once or twice about wanting to do a shoot, but she just hadn't booked yet, so when I saw her name come through him like, you know, I know she wants to do this, so I chose her so it's a normal process you everyday process is you do the session of your two rounds one to two weeks, usually about we can have before two weeks, definitely before two weeks, okay? And then I will meet them in their home. Okay, I'm sorry. This just made me curious and I think this might be valuable. Tio everybody else what? You just really quickly take two seconds for everybody to say what your normal turnaround time is for for simply a portrait s...

ession what's your normal turnaround time I say three weeks, three weeks, fourteen days fourteen, fourteen days, no way it's two weeks, fourteen days ok, one to two weeks michael three weeks three weeks three weeks three weeks three to four three to four okay good varies a lot excellent. I'm three weeks too okay so please continue so it's normal about one to two weeks then you sit down and you go to the client's home yes yeah and so I have samples and everything there um and usually sit down and do a slide show and then we choose images which show me to keep going or we're gonna get you when you bring size examples you mean you physically load things up in your car I have two big brown bags that have albums and a canvas sample and framed print sample on dh then I also have just amounted print that's eleven by fourteen sixteen by twenty sixteen twenty four twenty by thirty and thirty by forty ok at the same image that I take to their home to be like well right here this is what a sixteen by twenty four looks like in the space race you give a really good chance toe and then you're on your laptop is that how you normally presented just okay and then why did you choose her kitchen that's just where the table wass where it was a comfortable place to sit down okay your child is just didn't enjoy you don't make any decisions yet just enjoy that rock music ok I didn't know that was part of the thing that you put on no you'll recognize the song it's from your triple scoop collection they said oh, this is like show playing that music okay what's coming well you know it would be coming on now it was no I wish you love oh I love that song yeah all right uh all right so you sit down and you're just saying for the first time hear your images yes so she's never seen before you open up your laptop you say let's look ok, who was photographed her three boys for the boys with her no, just a frivolous yeah ok. And this if I recall correctly this goes for the whole it's the whole session how many songs play the challenger's lecture? Well, one song s o two and half minutes and I show usually between thirty and forty thirty for you okay, I don't know why it's sitting like looking I love that so you're not sitting back like a passive mean ok love that still shot first of all it's like you've decided to all wear the same clothes but secondly, you're clearly both enjoying this together and you're building in this and you don't have any other distractions which I obviously applaud you're going through and you're looking through and she's commenting as you go we're going coming into this light show but what she say I love that of that massacre yeah you like e was a little concerned you know like they like I nto okay so just note the music from the slide show obviously was according it was kind of co mingling with the music how so just a quick note if you can make sure that you're getting full focus not just visually that also from an audio perspective that's a really good way to kind of just we just have to stop for a second all right back off your job we're going to get this yeah and when people come in our studio that's a first the media we have music playing all the time all day long we're completely addicted I paid I say I hope you find seven thousand dollars to wire our studio with this wonderful surround system that's hooked up to examine this and that I'm such a big believer in the power of music and it has paid for itself like in terms of just having great element of studio great field with all these playlists that our finger tips for when we do shoots ok we want to have this one the upbeat this one this one be more mellow we would ask clients the requests for music when the shooting in the studio and then and since it's playing all the time when people come in and sit down for the first time the first time it goes as we shut off all the music in the studio and they were like, ok, it's just gonna be this and then that comes in for a sound system that was completely and totally those pictures are that many when she said it was amazing that you got those pictures out of that session that's a very compelling testimony all right, what did you do with that testimony on nothing? Could you see the value saying thank you so much can't write that down like that and you say it really heartfelt, honest way I would love to tell somebody else he said that? Yeah, because I do I struggle with how to get testimonials since I never get really things from writing, I'm just starting to do a survey after the fact after they have all their final images, but yeah, that's a great way to do that, and that happens a lot when you're sitting down with a client. When you move away from online proofing, you don't get the email back that said the pictures were wonderful, we cried, we love them, right? You have him in person saying that, yeah, that's not that doesn't mean you have to lose the feedback just say, would you mind if I just wrote that down that that really meant a lot to me? I tried really hard to achieve that thank you that's great e was concerned that you would like usually the easiest sway over you just come off making music down so I have been thinking for some options for the wall of the fireplace and then we'll probably go through and we'll just pick out your favorite someone you really care about the favorite expressions the boys and then we'll see if your words are all kind of where we are and then kind of tweak everything okay? Clearly we can't see what's on your computer, but what application are you using when you're looking at the images? Um I use press elect press that and then I had duke side to organic bloom frames, so I have the area on a faraway are for one thing put you in her name the wall display guide she has organically in frames in a layered pro layered, photoshopped file. Okay, so you can have the frames and their actual colors on there people's walls and that was similar to press selected it it uses your again if flynn frank's got it. So you're starting out by saying, what are you showing ring? I'm showing her because we had talked about, um prior to the session a couple areas in her home to put some on the walls, there's an area in the foyer and then about the fireplace, and so I'm lost up a couple rumors of options the after those two spot perfect eleven by fourteen I think I'll be the size on that wall we have blue friend. You could also new campuses that side of these air seventeen, twenty one inches. So you start by saying here's some configurations for your wall. We just saw the slide shows. You saw the images from this time. Let me show you good ideas and where you can put them. Yes. Ok. As opposed to let's. See what you loved for most. Yeah, just a and I told her, you know, based on these, depending what you love in your don't worry about a vertical or horizontal here. This is just a options depending what you love after we go through your images, then we can kind of make make the images that you love fit into the space. But this is just kind of give her a vision of well, I could do something really pay here. All right, so one consideration for you, which can these air simply observations. But one consideration is that you had her in this beautiful, loving, emotional state, like can leave you got there so good. I love them. Thank you. And then it was like literally the music changed and you said, ok, let's, talk about where they go, you know? Like when we came back to the slide show yesterday and I was all goopy and soppy my god, my client so much thank you and then when you give your priceless theo ultimate mood killer prices that that's kind of it's a big shift right and you had her where she naturally was that was her natural state in her natural response to seeing the images and and we plucked her out of it so if you think about the fact that we want to keep her in that zone because we had that going back to yesterday's teaching what do people balance when they buy it's a combination of need desired security we had her high on desire on dh when you start talking about configurations and where things go on also stuff now we're switching over to math and geometry, right? Andi especially if the next couple questions they're like well, how much is that collection right there now we're insecurity we're talking about dollars on we're pretty far out from where we started, which was the place we want to stay right? Right? So we're talking about the immigrations then so these air just like the kind of interior decorating made any picture either way now he's going right? Ok, not all of them so you're is actually about changing for another option, so yeah, you're showing another interior collection idea yeah, okay so go through that so we're still we're still not at the point we're looking at the individual a sample things and so this is the product demonstration mark so one you know, a consideration what may be very helpful is once we know what we want to buy, that would be a good chance to say ok, we know what you love but we're all in we're all excited how do you get it right what's the way that you get it that might be one of things that you know I talked about emotional engagement of a product demo yeah, that might be a really good time to save it to a little bit after when we know exactly what we're already sold on it's now just now just technically how we're going to delivery three heart flashing is going through here in deciding which ones you love anyone for about fifteen many because of you you know, like for that looked like this more than one of the same time to see what one of you's the best as you don't have to narrow it down from one of this post now okay, so what you just said is that were to go through them one by one you don't have to feel like you know immediately because if there's four that are kind of saying well, just plop all for it you'll choose one so the assumption going in is that of course there's no way they're going by all of them that you're probably going to be around twenty five percent ratio purchase you didn't say that right now that name right? But if I'm following the lead right and I'm learning what to dio I should just choose one of these I'm probably gonna be choosing maybe one out of four just anyone to like pull over and I'll let you go through it's just a little side eras I want t o go through once if you want to go through once and see them all. So what is she controlling right now? Just this pace of going through the pictures, okay, yeah on dure you're sitting back and you're saying ok, you go through the miss faster slowly is you want to do yeah, and then she would give me like she would go and say, I like this one and I would move it over and I just sometimes feel awkward if I'm going through because if they don't say something right away it's like so I heard you go to the next one do I linger on this land? You know, like I don't want to go to faster slow for them you're afraid of silence? What about the pregnant pause but is pregnant possible? Give us it was a good birth to give birth of the sale don't fear the violence okay you feel awkward that's what you just said right? Uh yeah, but what you're doing is saying here you go you control this if one of the things to consider is that if she is controlling this there is a very good opportunity that just like online sales she is making decisions in her head and moving forward without discussing them with you, right? So what she might be saying is that I don't our iphone in this pocket I don't want that one click and then she's just moving on but you don't know that he's the one controlling it right? However, if you're holding it and you're on the photo and she's sick no like any specific reason or anything and you sound like you're hesitating a little bit is everything that you need discuss well I can't do is that I thought his bucket I could take it out I love that photo yeah so do you you get an answer for them for each image every image ok and I mean that's what my normal self sale sessions are, you know, a couple of hours yeah, I'm not going to make you guys sit through that tomorrow but sensitive, right? Right are you saying anything that she's going to start? Yeah, they are these big images that she's looking at a full screen thirteen inch monitor so wonderful so screen on the one so now she's saying she wants to seize them next to each other. Yeah, we're moving them over into the happy fifth column. Okay, select. So you jump in t do that from yeah. So one thing you may want to consider is when you can have we have an external mouse. A wireless mouse? No, so that we can sit back, it could be navigated. We can all be in our comfortable spaces, and we can have I don't have to lean forward. She should have leaned forward. We don't have to be right here. We could have some distance. The actual laptop is behind us. The screen is in front of us, the projectors going this way. And we're navigating at this way if you're not doing something like that. It's. A wonderful way to give yourself a comfortable zone from which to work, to not be kind of hunch, ford. And to be able to still control things while you know, doing it in a partner in way. Is this helpful? Yes. Okay. All right. So you're showing them side by side and she's determined what she wants to do. All right, so let's keep going, so that was interesting. So what are you doing over there? I think I was just making sure my phone was ringer was off I think it I had it turned it off and a text message came through so I just picked it up and turn the ringer off okay and then you also said I always feel like I might be going too fast and too slow for people yeah for the so yeah and so obviously what you're doing is simply just communicating your self consciousness right right right like you and one with raising yeah yeah something horrible so here we're starting to look at it think a couple different images that were similar so she wanted to look at how many images do you deliver that are pretty similar? Um there might have been like three you know, like or maybe four kind of like three quarter length head is shots but different faces and maybe looking to fact a little bit different that's a little bit different, you know which way? Well and we were also starting to kind of pick out I knew she wanted to dio on her foyer for um eleven by fourteen framed prints so we knew she wanted one of each boy and then one of the three voice yeah, so that's kind of which is the best one, right? Right, yeah okay um and as you're doing that I want to come over here remember right around this point you're going through one by one by one and you're kind of moving through them wait get to about, um we'll get to about this mark um we're closing and it's very funny to watch like this now so I want to get to this part is this I think it's very interesting so you got through you got you got your selections with hearts pardon shows some right next to each other this and that you know, she was navigating the flow of the of the way it went and now you're finished and you've got your piles yeah love like an artist part now why sex do you have you given any thought? I mean, you know there's lots of different options syria vertical horizontal really do much anything okay? Are you leaning towards a fireplace versus the hall are way so time and then get eventually because that's a great shots so I kind of like what what do you think? What do you want tio that's gonna wear? Yeah and which part of the house she wanted to focus on for the images we could figure out how they're display but ok, so now that you know what you love she knows what's images loves and now you have some ideas configuration she likes you did that earlier but this is also a great time to do that afterwards, right at any point did you say here's something I thought of that you might really love given what you've told me what do you kind of you know the ones before that I mentioned but yes, I did right if I reverse that try to do you reverse that if you were to have been emotional oh, my gosh slideshow let's go through the images ok? It was exhausting yeah that's how it was so okay, this is a great time for you to say you know what, honey? Take a break, right? Right that's what? I thought of you and let me let me take over yeah, all right, because she did a lot of work there. Yeah, and now you say ok, here's something I think let me know what you think this is one idea based on what you've told me you want, let me know often way left field here's an idea. Yeah, and if you were to take charge right there, that would have been a big difference. Yeah, here's something else I thought was really funny. Andi I say funny because this is what I've been battling since I got to seattle, which is my computer has been just like, so tired of me and so tired of all the work I've made it do lately but in this in this instance you do something that I think is very common and most photographers do it and I have absolutely guilty of it too which is to say you're about to go into photo shop and do something right so watch this part oh yeah the show or the one report is j k shin wants changes right? So say it again please the wall guide that's a photoshopped file that has eight brazilian layers that's like an eighty five megabyte file huge um so I wanted to pull that up and I wanted to leave it it's a photoshopped file in case she wanted to change frame colors we wanted to change frames or move stuff around so I didn't want to export it is ajay pig right? So that's why I had opened up for the shot okay, so you're going into photo shop and so assuming we'd followed the flow of emotion we went to the work we found the best images we know we love them we're going to take some control over saying where we think they go and how they're going to look you know in all of her stuff now of course you get to say let me show you something in photo shop and we're here we're closing we're in the final throes that's lock it into what we need and we have this really the way thanks for being here in your years yeah slow and oh yeah I t guy does well to stop things like I could given up great you know like a like a web browser like my browser today you can see this look outside and tell on me yeah it could be just a couple of science over ok so that was a minute and forty five seconds which normally like who doesn't have that problem we all have that problem we're just talking out loud about the fact that our technology is killing us okay that could have been time that instead of moving again completely out of this mode where we're about to finalize we said let's let that take a second let's go look over here real quick it could be like tech told product holding in this in that let it run in the background don't address it and also address it the amount of times I see people sit there have a meltdown about their can't stand this thing drives me crazy ads is gonna take forever I'm sorry just given a minute come on maybe you could do it you can do it I mean we go so far we don't realize it at the outset how much that takes us that we're not utilizing the time we have you want to maximize his experience as much as possible and in eighteen forty five seconds that that's not much that's gone like five ten, fifteen minutes for people right where becomes about their frustrations with their technology and this problem and I don't know this program really well or this part of the program really bugs me or I don't even know why they made it this way this is stupid let's let's get tell me there's something some other question that you want to address from this I feel like we got a lot from this may be just if you keep going a little bit tio after we kind of figure out what she wants on the walls I think I kind of got awkward and didn't really suggests like other things it was like ok, great we have a law gallery super that'll be different styles you keep going it's night now in that funny how long you okay? Okay. I think let's see with b yeah francis just a final sprint external part of the frame there's seventeen twenty one so be seventeen. Twenty one percent for bill so before you too yeah before which is where supporting tio now for the final says the world's yeah, by the way, this part of the process where you kind of doing math and you're setting it up and you're going through it I actually love this part of the sale I love this myself you have asked me before like should I have that all figured out and all of your stuff this to me like speaks volumes to I am doing custom work for you. Yeah, I am your this is where you go from? Yeah, I want the sears portrait studio stamped exactly like nobody else does it. And this is where I am showing you how were uniquely creating this for you. You know, I think this is a lot of value building and of all the ways I love to make the process more efficient. This is the part I'll spend a lot of time, I'll talk about how ok, get this, get this right when I said that, I would rather make sure we have everything on board and they can go home and give me extra inches here there. But we know it's about a twenty by thirty, that part where they call it's, okay, it's actually seventeen in a quarter by twenty one and a half like perfect. We're gonna make it exactly that for you and the prince. We sell our very rarely, especially the larger frame pieces in the and the collections of prints together on a wall are very rarely exactly twenty five thirty. They're often custom framed pieces, and I say we're going to do whatever is best for the image I don't I don't care exactly what that sizes could weaken custom frame anything we can custom print anything and that's a big park that's a bit of a big upside yeah yeah I think the part coming up is just a minute or two from here good okay we'll have to see it it's I stepped over to yeah yeah she's not in town there maybe you should write before this I think we just missed it I told her the final price and then I didn't like I thirteen forty five okay all right let me get that back a second so given the final price okay thirteen forty five for those and you have well actually yes you get for the moment three I have that picture too because it could potentially use that picture e o only place is perfect because I you know I know that you are going to make it more of the time they're way too expensive and your credit cards from video s o you basically said I'm happy to upload the print for you the title prince is supposed to send you the print right yeah I'm gonna fill it with tiny prints so it's great can upload it and they can design a card and then I make a commission on what they buy ok so for my bottom line I still make money on the card I don't do any work you get to put your logo on the card yes home run good okay we'll have to see and I stepped out to I do think when you're creating holiday cards they are a lot of work for a lower price because you pay a lot in the profit market on them is small but the biggest upside is the marketing your name as long as your logo is on them and it's getting out to a lot of people it's similar to sending out a primal cards or postcards or something like that so I love that if you have a way that makes it less work for you when you said you get a commission on it is a kind of commission but thirty percent twenty percent twin twenty and thirty I'd have to look up exactly ok so called a two dollars per card amount yeah I mean people usually order one hundred fifty dollars worth of cards on average so end up making forty bucks on it okay to say I was gonna ask you charge for the image in addition to that or do you just uploaded complementary not well it depends. I mean she has spent thirteen hundred fifty dollars on a wall display so I'm going to upload it for her if it was somebody that was going to buy three prints I'll charge them I have a forty five dollars upload feet yeah and those sort of things again when you start saying how can I make more money on my photography so I can keep doing the work I love when you start looking at these little kind of equations that constantly keep going back to what ways can you better the overall thing if when she's in a more emotional state the whole way through she will buy more because she's more in love with things let's focus our energies on that when we get to the idea of I made forty dollars profit or eighty dollars profit at the end of the day how much time did it cost you you would have saved that time and used it to make more money elsewhere more exponentially those were those little decisions and I agree in terms of did you make her by the print separately or did you just uploaded little things like that one off we get questions like that all the time can I just get an image for facebook or this is that after an order that you feel sizable that's that kind of let me give you a little gifts let me not make this a nickel and dime sort of thing you know? Because that roads long term relationships I might make a little bit of money now but I won't see you again I think those air good little thing so do constantly yes yeah like she's not in town after she wass before she had towns so sure sleeping since king was there any more awkwardness on this that you said it was that the opera part now I think it's it's five just how do you you solve the wall gallery how do you then because I knew she wasn't going to do an album like how do you then move on to the next thing because I knew she had a limited budget and I knew that like this was even a stretch for her ok so all right, so so a couple things when you when you said you knew you knew she wasn't going to an album you already had that discussion so the other thing that I think is very valuable is tio when you feel like you know what I did everything in the order is supposed to do we went through every image they loved we use them in some way did you use to do something with every image that that she loved no, not everyone and she I mean she had said that she wants to do that little wall in the kitchen she wants to a campus in the future she just can't do that now okay um so you know what we haven't done there's other images she loves yeah so the exact way I do it is we do the animal the sideshow we take it down, we sit down, we do the ordering session afterwards the sideshow goes back up and then we open up a gallery and online ordering gallery after the main orders been done and then we suggest they send them to friends and family grandparent's et cetera if they want us to send it to them we're happy to do that most of time he said no I'll just take care of it on and then we say any of those extra things you want birthdays, holidays, et cetera you know they could buy gift certificates for you that's a great thing you know for coming up for gifts yeah yeah basically work their family for which bar their time on the online gallery I'm not going now we put that up for a while actually and then we really well actually I should say two things one so the slide show that gets out for virtual marketing's that's against the same slide so you did before with your logo on it before and after that goes out actually, I think fund a is doing a giveaway here today, right? The fundy tools that say tomorrow fundy has ah brand new product called image brander I'm not brandy price brand new upgrade to the product that we just started using like a week ago that will allow you teo quickly run through and have your images branded with your name s o the logo and the image number on it so when you upload and then we'll resize it for you for an emoto specs so when you then you run that and you upload an emoto now, not only with that side took it shown is your logo before and after it's also on every image it comes up so it's branding, branding, branding, branding, we're starting do that immediately start using that process? S o that goes out and then the slide show that goes up for friends and family does not have a time limit on it. It's about six months, I think, is the setting we put on it, but you can reload those at the holidays and remind people that those images air there. If you really have your crap together in your studio, a really cool thing is to get on the schedule and everything, like around thanksgiving or something. Look at everything that you shot that year and reloaded up as an online gallery, just like, hey, guys, I know some of you were still thinking about doing some things you want to take a look at these if you want to do some sort of deal with that way, don't do any sort of specific deal, but it's kind of a way, tio maximize the work you already put in, but it's, not something I was, I wouldn't say to the client if you know anything now I'm gonna put it back out again later, you don't want to do that. But this but this is ready. Your porn all your effort into this main sail. But you don't want to look like the fact that you could get additional sales through other means, especially if you feel like, hey, we just hit their budget. But things were coming up, you know, let's give other people a way to chip in one of the thing I commented on last time was here that you can create things like registries by birth registries, wedding registries, just family registries for holidays that they want to open up an account with you. And you can allow people to buy into gift certificate so they can have to be able to purchase more photography or for our future session, you can offer them. That is an option. Say, if you want to, we'll happily, you know, own a registry for you and that's. Nothing more than saying people are going toe chip in for your collection. They're going to chip in and buy you a gift. Certificates, I have a question for you. Yes, I have a confession. I have a hard time closing the sale. So my concern with offering them a gallery after the in person sale is that they want to replace the in person sail with the gallery. You know what, maggie? I just really don't want I don't know right now I just want to take some time to think about it. Can't you just throw it up online for me so that I can order it after I have some time to think? How do I handle that? You're saying, how do you handle it if while you're in the sale session, they say, you know what? I just don't know. Yeah, well, why don't they know? S o I just had a cell session in person on sunday I met with her, we went through the images, she loved them that melted her heart, she's like, I just don't know, I just don't know which ones I want. I have to think about it had she seen them ahead of time, no, she had not. Most of the time when you're in these situations, they answers actually look backwards. The answer is, what would I have done earlier in the process to have presented t stop this from presenting itself is a problem later, if she had a chance that's why? When I say I said this like a couple days at a time, let them look at it, then take it found that haven't come in because I had that exact same problem people would sit down next to me and say I don't know, I can't decide right now. I need to really look at these for a while think about it. Can I can I have some time? Okay, and what they're asking for his time, why don't I give it to them before we sit down and meet so we don't have to do this again or I don't lose the opportunity have time in person. So you and you you're pretty comfortable that you feel like that's that's the issue that it's it's not mike, it might be my closing skills, right? But but do you feel that it's just that if they had the time ahead of time that we would just be ableto yes, I think I think in that situation, I mean, given what you've told me, I'm not hearing all of it, but given what you've told me time and time again, if you listen to what your clients are telling you and you think about how to solve that problem for them, all those common objections we went through, I don't have enough wall space, my my need to go back and talk to my husband about this all that stuff you talk in the dance, make sure that all the decision makers air there oh, your husband, so I could go to make it the last second let's reschedule that's your schedules weakness all at once I don't want to sit down for two hours just to end this situation in a frustrated state where we're going to start again later that's no fun for you and I want to be giving you the best client service possible and I've said that at the outset I don't want you to sit there and be overwhelmed with everything I have no idea what to do let's do that in the beginning the beginning give you a chance to look at them I mean keep going as you guys were thinking what they I hear this I hear this it's when you start putting yourself in the frame of mind of like is there a way I could have addressed this earlier it's bizarre how much you can do you guys remember the movie uh unusual suspects usual suspects and at the very end when he gets up and walks away and is like limp disappears I hope I'm not ruining anything for anybody right spoiler alert but it didn't come out like ten years ago right spoiler movie alert on a ten year old movie okay keep your eyes ears closed internet closures if you want to see this and I want a room for you but at the end when kevin spacey gets up and walks away and has lived disappears and the guy looks behind him on the bulletin board and all those clues were right there and you're like, and in your mind, that's what? Well and you see the whole thing backwards, that's, what you could start doing when you run into his closing issues, you know, like all she said, she didn't have enough time to see them if I'd given them to her days before she wouldn't be saying this, you know, start thinking tryto turn your head, get all kevin spacey and think this way. Let me go back in time and see what did I learn here? What can I stop next time and that's? Why a lot of times when I have these discussions and people say, do you ever I said no anymore I did, and then I did this, and now I don't get that. That is how those things start stopping when you saw that video from nikki she's like look, I feel photo fat family photographs should be valuable for everybody, okay? How can we make sure that you can have that value for yourself? Let them have the value and still get paid for your time. That's that's work through this it's not just all or nothing it's it's hardly ever it's this way or that way, there's those those workarounds