TJOM Lori Nordstrom by Miranda Loud Photography

Sarah: Hi, everybody and welcome to this Get Fully Booked This Year Event brought to you by The Joy Of Marketing and White House Custom Colour. This is Sarah Petty and I am here with my good friend, Lori Nordstrom. Hey, Lori. Lori: Hi Sarah. Sarah: I’m so excited to have you in this event because you are so good at making things happen. You aren’t the person who’s out there saying you’ve got to have a big budget all the time. Spend the money. You’re smart and you’re thrifty. It’s not that you don’t invest in marketing, but I’m really excited to hear some of the things that you’re doing to get that phone to ring and generate revenue. I know that what we’re talking about takes no budget, which is really exciting. Lori: I’m excited about it. Sarah: Tell everybody a little about your background and where you’re from. I know that you’re from a town about 45 minutes south of Des Moines and you aren’t far from me because I’m in the Midwest too, in Springfield, Illinois, which is about a 100,000 market and I know that Des Moines is about 100,000. How big is the city that you’re in? Lori: I’m in Winterset, Iowa and we’re about 5,500 people. It’s a tiny little town. There are new families moving into Winterset, but it’s a small community and it’s a lot of older people as well. It’s kind of a mixed community. I’ve been there for about 12 years, and I really don’t have clients from Winterset. I started when I moved there 12 years ago, realizing that my main market was going to be Des Moines. Even though I live 45 minutes away, I’ve worked really hard to create a market in Des Moines and not Winterset. It’s kind of a destination place for people to come. Sarah: So people have to drive 45 minutes to meet with you, have their session, do the sales presentation and everything? Lori: Exactly. It’s an investment of time, as well as money.

Sarah: I didn’t realize that. I hear a lot of people having those objections in bigger cities. I’m in a smaller city where you can get anywhere in the city in 20 minutes. I hear people saying we had to drive 45 minutes or an hour, like in New York or some of the larger markets, but they’re doing that in Iowa with you. I did not even realize that. Lori: This is one of the things that we didn’t even plan on talking about today, but I’m all about always creating whatever is needed for my market and to meet my market’s needs and desires. One of the things that we’ve had the argument over the last few years is people are getting busier and busier all the time, and that started becoming an objection for coming into the studio a few years ago. Everyone was saying you mean I have to come back a week later and see my images? Can’t you put them online? I started hearing that and I realized that I had to come up with a solution for this because we can’t give our clients any negative answers. We came up with the same day experience in the studio. It’s something that when a client does come to us with that objection, whatever they’re saying about time constraints, we’ll let them know that we totally understand that you’re busy and you’ve got lots of things going on in your life. One of the things that we offer here is the same day experience. What that means is we’ll have you come in on a morning that we select, and we’ll photograph your family or whoever it is that morning. Then we’ll send you off to lunch and the lunch is on us. We’ll find out what the place is for you to go in town. We don’t have a lot of options, but there’s lots of pizza. Whatever it is, we’ll send them out for lunch and then we’ll bring them back after lunch to view their images. That’s something that’s been really great for us. We have really great sales on those days because people are very invested in the day and their experience. If I have to have a babysitter there or whatever I need for the afternoon when they come back, we’ll make that happen so that they feel like it is an experience. They get to come and experience a whole day with us.

Sarah: You never know what kind of cool nuggets you’re going to find here. That’s very cool. If they don’t choose to do that route but do see the value in coming in, planning the session and coming back and to do all that just like you said, they’ve invested so much in time that it’s a way that they can justify the financial investment. They’ll say I took the day off work. We got our hair done. We did so much work to get these great images. Let’s get what we really want. Lori: Yes, and we love it. Sarah: I never thought about doing it all in a day. I shouldn’t say that. We do that occasionally when people are coming in from out of town. We’ll do the session and have them come back that day, and try to squeeze the consultation in the night before. I know that you do in-‐person consultations too. Correct? Lori: We actually do some consultations. We do a lot over the phone and even over Skype. I do Skype consults with all my senior clients, high school seniors, and it’s becoming more popular even with our families. It’s a way to connect in person without making the time investment of being in person. Sarah: How do you plant those seeds for larger wall portraits and things without having them there? Lori: We’re using a software system called Preview. I don’t know if you’ve heard of that yet, but what we’re doing is we have our clients photograph their walls in their house. I get them to walk around and any place they’d even consider hanging a portrait, we just want them to take a snapshot of that wall. They can even use their iPhone it doesn’t matter, but just get it to me. Then what we do is before we have the final consultation call, I’m actually pulling those images out and looking at space. Even if we don’t have something completely designed for that space when we’re on Skype or whatever that consultation time is, I’m offering suggestions before I ever shoot.

We’re talking to them about I love the colors of this room, and what if we did this here? I’m going to suggest this clothing for this room. It’s just getting people really excited about what the final product is going to be before we ever photograph.

Sarah: Got it. I knew there was something you were doing because I find that in-‐ person consultation to be invaluable. That’s awesome using a room sales feature to plan those wall portraits and get them thinking and talking about wall portraits. That’s awesome. You have a studio, but you haven’t always had a studio. Tell us a little bit about how you worked before you had a studio, and what your big picture philosophy was with marketing, promoting and bringing new clients in and such. Lori: It actually seems like a long time now, but just a few years ago it was like I hadn’t really been in business that long. I’ve been in business for about 15 years. For the first few years, I was on location and film of course back in the day, which is not that long ago. I was photographing kids in back yards and babies. That was my thing. In 2000, I not only opened up my first studio doors, but I also went digital that year. I had a major crash and burn that year. I got super busy super fast, and went digital. I was spending lots of time learning in front of the computer and it wasn’t like it is now with tons of education available. Sarah: Right, you were really early on the digital curve. Lori: I was. It was tough. It was really hard, and I opened my first studio. I had a mortgage for the first time and it’s a big responsibility. I’d just moved to Iowa and I did get very busy very fast, and actually crashed and burned on the whole studio experience and all that. I ended up getting divorced, which it’s been a long enough time now that I can just talk about it instead of crying about it. I went through that whole process of really messing things up. Life was a mess. It was awful with the new business situation, being so busy and learning digital, all these things were happening in my life all at one time, and I was not taking care of my family.

I ended up getting divorced. I sold my building within a couple years and went to a home studio. That was a really good experience for me to be in a home studio and really have that whole process of going through the home studio experience on the photographer’s side. Now I’ve been through all on location. I’ve been in retail spaces. I’ve been in a home studio. I’ve kind of gone full circle and now I’m back in a retail studio, which is a positive thing for me at this time of my life. I’m the first person to say that there is no one right answer. There are positives to a home studio, to being all on location, to being in a retail space. Depending on where each photographer is in their life cycle, whatever that looks like, there are benefits to each one of those situations. It’s just using those benefits and being able to communicate those benefits to the client that is the reality of whether it’s going to work or not.

Sarah: Along this path, I know that we’ve both studied with some of the same mentors Anne Monteith and studio management services with PPA, and have really changed how we look at our businesses. For all the people out there who are trying to get their arms around what is right for me, they feel pressure that they should have a studio or maybe their dream is to have a studio, talk a little bit about how learning and understanding those financials really helped you make better decisions. Lori: It definitely helped me make better decisions. When I moved into my studio in 2000, I didn’t have a clue. I just wanted to have a studio. It was great and I got very busy, but I wasn’t charging appropriately. I wasn’t managing my time appropriately, and I really went through a hardcore crash and burn time over the next couple of years. What I realized just after that first year of being in an official “business” and having that studio space was that I always have thought that I was a good businessperson because I loved marketing and I loved people so much. I even loved sales and every part of the process.

I went into it thinking I can do this. I’m a businessperson. Then at the end of that year, I realized that I am not a businessperson. I had no idea what I was doing. I was not managing the numbers. I had no idea what cost of sales meant and I had no idea how to price for profit or any of those things. As you mentioned, Anne Monteith was actually the first person I studied with. I spent a week with her just all in the numbers, and I spent that whole entire week crying. We joke about it now, but I was literally on the floor crying.

Sarah: I’ve heard that a lot. You can be in denial or you can learn what you’re doing wrong, and that’s a hard thing to learn. Lori: It was, and she held no punches with me. She looked at everything and said yes, you’ve messed up here and here are some things that are going to have to happen or you can’t stay in business. It was such a good thing for me to hear at the time because I thought I was a good businessperson and I thought I was doing what I needed to do. I was doing the sales, I had the people coming in the door and our marketing networking and all those things back in the day. She put it in black and white in front of me, and I think that’s something that you and I both are really big about is getting numbers in black and white in front of you, and really calculating not only your cost of sales and the numbers that way, but even the time expended with each client. It makes such a difference when you can see things in front of you in black and white and say okay I’ve got to step back from this and either go back having fun and having it be a hobby, or actually look at it as a businessperson, its two completely different things. Sarah: It is, and I look at my numbers daily. It’s really my reward every day. I get up, I go to the bank account, and I look at what’s come in and what I need to hit this month because I do projections. I know that this month I need to bring in $5,000 or $50,000. I know what that number is. Then I say okay, if my goal is $30,000 this month and I’ve only done $7,000 and it’s the 18th of the month, I’ve got a problem. How often do you look at your numbers, I’m just curious?

Lori:

I got obsessed after meeting with Ann, and I actually did a two-‐week-‐long thing with Ann. I got obsessed after that. I was running reports pretty much daily, but now we reevaluate every month. I do projections at the beginning of the year and midway through the year, just to reevaluate and regroup. Monthly I’m running reports to reevaluate everything and look at what’s happened that month and then readjust for the next month if we need to change anything up a bit. It’s just so important to stay in the numbers. I could probably still get excited about it daily, but maybe not as excited as you do.

Sarah: That’s so true. I outsource my bookkeeping now to a lady who inputs my SuccessWare, and then she gives it back to me in a spreadsheet because I keep separate numbers for my studio and the Joy Of Marketing so that I can make good decisions for both companies. I love getting that at the first of each month because it really shows me that we’re on track, or if we need to tighten up expenses or go out and scurry and shake the trees to get some cash flow. That’s something that I want to talk about too a little bit is cash flow. We all have that fear of not having enough money this month to pay the rent, to pay the bills or pay the people, or at least we have at some point. Anybody who says they’ve never ever had that problem and is in business, I think is lying because we’ve all had that maybe not as bad as other people. Especially with you jumping into this new studio and not knowing numbers, that’s always scary because what you don’t know sometimes can really hurt you. What helps you in those times when you’re panicked a little bit about cash flow or about not having enough clients? What conversation do you have in your own brain? Lori: One of the things is that, as you know back in the day – and I’m calling it that when it’s 10 years ago – the phone rang and marketing was a much simpler place than it is now.

Now I think we all get into the trap. You mentioned if we don’t all have work flow every single day of your life, if you say that you do, but I think we all get in the trap of feeling like I’m so busy, even when it’s not productively busy. I think that’s a trap that a lot of photographers get into right now is that they’re really not profitable making money in their businesses, but they feel so busy all the time. It’s managing that busy work a lot of times that brings us back to profitability, as well as pricing for profit and the other things that we need to do to be aware of our numbers and what’s coming in. It’s managing time and the time that we spend on a 9:00 to 5:00 basis or whatever you choose to work that makes a huge difference. It was actually in about 2009 and it was right about the time that there were so many photographers coming on the scene. Everything was getting flooded with photographers, and it’s still that way today. It kind of started that panic of my clients are going to choose somewhere else to go, or my phone’s not ringing all by itself. What do I have to do? I did get nervous. It was a time when I had to sit down and really regroup and say what’s my business look like in 2009 versus when I regrouped in 2002? My phone isn’t going to just ring all by itself anymore, so what do I have to do to make sure that it keeps ringing? One of the things that we decided to do at that time was just develop a whole new product line. One of the things that I realized was that with the influx of photographers that were coming on the scene, I may be missing a segment of the market. It was actually a segment of the market that I used to have a pretty strong hold in, but I had moved into this category of people really spending and investing well, buying home décor and this process that we began leading into like we talked about with the wall décor and preview and designing for the wall. That’s our main product and it’s still what we tell people that we specialize in. However, there is a segment of the marketplace that I had a pretty strong foothold in that was now starting to go away because there were so many options.

I realized that was a segment that I really wanted to capture back and make sure that my phone was ringing with that bread and butter. We created a whole completely separate product line for the studio, and it’s now called Real Kids in the studio. Our high school seniors are real seniors, so it made sense to just make it a Real Kids product line with the theme of what we want to project, which is real life in photography. It’s just all about kids. I love photographing kids, so it made sense to do it. I did want to make sure that I was doing something completely different than I was doing in my studio, so everything about it looked a little bit different. Basically to just put it crudely, it’s a glorified portrait party. At the time I decided my phone’s not ringing, I need money tomorrow, so how can I make this happen? We sat down and nailed this out and it’s been perfected over the last three or four years as I worked it and changed things up. It’s so systemized and streamlined now that it’s a beautiful thing. At the time when I started it, it was literally calling the clients. We’d hash out the details beforehand, so I knew what I was going to present to them. I called them and just said this is what’s going on. How would you like to earn a free session for your kids and $500 in portrait credit? To this day, I’ve never had somebody that I’ve personally called that has told me no. Every person that I’ve called has answered with some variation of how do I do it? What do you want me to do?

Sarah: Excellent. Lori: It’s a really great thing and a great way to book sessions. Basically we call clients, we ask her to plan a day with her friends. We have her invite 10 to 12 friends in. We photograph at this client’s home in the back yard typically. We photograph 10 to 12 clients, and we’re doing the sales immediately following. It’s a quick, easy and fun day. All the work flow is basically complete because we’re not touching any images that haven’t been ordered because we’re ordering immediately following the session. It’s been a really profitable product line for our studio. We usually do about one event a month, so we’re not doing a ton of them but just doing one a month keeps

that extra revenue coming in and reaching out to a segment of the marketplace that we’re not “specializing in” right now. Sarah: This is what I love about this. People say my phone’s not ringing, how do I get the phone to ring? You forget that the phone goes both ways. You can pick it up and push a couple of numbers, and then you’re talking to a client or a prospect. I love how that works. It’s crazy. Look at all the millions of people that are on the other end of that phone line, and all you have to do is pick up the phone and call them. Lori: I was going to say that I think it’s also great that doing something like this and putting a system in place for it can really work for any product line that you want to work with. If you’re a wedding photographer, you could do this and call a past bride and say let’s get your girlfriends back together. You could do it before a wedding and say let’s celebrate all the bridesmaids and have an event day where we bring everybody in and do hair and makeup and do sessions for all the girls. You could do it with high school seniors and call them before they go off to college and say I’d love to do an update session for you. Why don’t you invite all your girlfriends from senior year? Let’s have a special day that’s just for you and get them in. There are lots of ways to do it. I choose to do it with kids because I love kids, but you could do it really with any product line that you’re passionate about. Sarah: So you talk to this mom and you say let’s do this party and you earn credits. Then, do you shoot all of the kids at her home at a given time? Lori: We do. We actually have the moms set up the schedule for us, and a photograph session is every 30 minutes. Moms are coming and going all day with their kids.

The way it’s planned, the system that’s in place is that moms will come in and basically hand their kids over to me. I don’t really want moms being a part of this. That’s the easier way to photograph, when they’re not in your way. To do that, I’ve got to coach my host mom who’s going to talk to her friends, even if it’s a friend of a friend that’s coming in. We’ve coached her to talk about the products that are in her home already, so she’s either, walking through and giving people a little tour of the things that are hanging in her home. Or, if it’s somebody that doesn’t have a ton of stuff, I’ve brought stuff in and we’ve got easels, image boxes and things that are sitting around that the moms can have a conversation about. They’ve already got common ground. They’ve already got kids that know each other or they know each other from dance or church or whatever it is. There’s a reason they were invited, so they’ve got things to talk about, but I want her to talk about products as well. We coach her through that and mom’s busy doing that, and the main objective is to plug her into a package before she ever sits down to see her images. We are going to show her the images immediately following the session, so not only do I have an area where I’m going to shoot, but we’ve got an area for moms to mingle. Then we’ve got an after the session spot for kids to go. Typically that’s going to be a family room or a playroom, a basement, a kid’s bedroom or whatever it is. That’s where I photograph. I want the kids going in and watching a movie, playing Dance Revolution or whatever is going on. We get something set up for them with snacks and drinks so that moms can sit down with our salesperson and go through the images immediately following the session.

Sarah: So you’re shooting, but you’re not actually doing the selling? Lori: I’m not personally doing the selling. I take someone with me to do that. I have done it before. I’ve done it all, and we’ve also set up a different time, like if I shoot on a Tuesday I’ll go back the next Tuesday to sell. That happens for different situations, maybe somebody that I’m going out of

town for or when I’m not taking a salesperson with me for some reason or another.

I think that honestly it works best for not only the client, but for me and work flow to take somebody with me and show them immediately following.

Sarah: So that person knows how to download the images and prep them, and pull them into your software and lead them to the sales presentation? Lori: Yes, and it happens quickly. They’ve got 30 minutes. Sarah: Yes, it has to happen really quickly. How does what you’re presenting differ from a full Lori Nordstrom studio type session? Lori: It’s all completely different. One of the things that make this work is that I personally call every mom that’s booked for a session before the day of the event. I am walking her through a mini consultation, making suggestions of products and getting her excited about things. It’s not the full consultation like we would do with a studio client where our specialty is wall décor. We’re still talking about it and still selling it, but if you can imagine the sales process in – I don’t want to say a regular studio or a normal studio, but a studio that’s not making the personal suggestions of the wall décor like I do on a daily basis. It’s a typical order appointment. We do take it to the next step, and I’m personally contacting each one of those people. We are talking to them before and during the time that I’m shooting so that they’re prepared for viewing products. They see prices beforehand. Also, one of the things that’s very different is that we have packages designed for these events so that they can make very quick decisions. Sarah: I was just going to ask that because in my mind I’m thinking it’s sort of a hybrid of a school model, where you’re doing higher volume in a shorter amount of time.

Lori: Sarah: Lori:

We know that school photographers make it so easy. There’s the most popular package. There’s the cost effective package. They give you several packages, you look at the top couple and pick one and boom I’m done. You mentioned trying to have them make that selection before you even shoot. Did I understand that correctly? That’s correct. They know if they want Package C and Package 3 and that kind of thing. How many packages do you give them? We have four packages designed. Really the main goal for me before I shoot is to make sure that they’re excited about me as a photographer, and that they’re connected to that friend who asked them to come. They’re excited about something that they’ve seen or something that we’ve talked about. I want them to be invested in what’s about to happen. If they’re excited and I can get them excited about the final product based on the fact that they know they’re going to love what I shoot, then it’s a no brainer. They’re already excited about the product. They’re going to sit down and just choose images to fill in the package that they’ve chosen. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether I’m a good photographer or not honestly. It just has to do with whether I’ve made a connection with them and I can get them excited about being there, what’s going to happen, the relationship that I’m going to forge with their child in that 30 minutes and the image that I’m going to capture. On that note, I’m even going to come in from a windy day outside when we’ve got messy hair blowing in the face and kids that may not even have looked at me during a session and all kinds of things that can happen. I can either come in and say it was windy and she didn’t really look at me, or I can come in and say it’s so beautiful out and the wind is blowing, and just the expressions on her face, she was in her moment doing her thing, being her and she didn’t even have to look at me to know what’s going on in our mind.

You completely change the way the moms view those images, and I have to believe that too. It’s not a snow job, but it completely changes the way mom sees the images when she’s viewing them. Every time I come in, when I’m handing off that card and that card is being downloaded, I’m communicating with mom and telling her what I saw in her child, whatever it is. Honestly whatever I mention is what they end up buying.

Sarah: Let me ask you this because I’m really hearing these details for the first time. I’ve heard you talk about it and I’m really excited. How many total kids did you say that you have at party in a day? Lori: The number of kids varies, but I do 10 to 12 sessions. However many kids are in an immediate family, they get photographed in that 30 minutes. It could be anywhere from 12 kids to 30 kids. Sarah: How do you get different images because you’re shooting near the mom’s house? Lori: In the backyard. Sarah: How do you get all of these sessions so that each mom feels like she got something really unique and different? I know you have a system for this and you’ve worked this out beautifully. Especially the host mom, if she’s watching you show a boy leaning against a tree, and then the next boy is leaning against the tree and the little girl leaning against the tree, she’s going to be disappointed. Lori: Everybody’s got their own personal style, so I think that answer is a little bit different for everybody, depending on what you’re shooting and what your main product line is and all that. For me, I want to photograph relationships. I want to photograph personalities, expressions and eyes and really see the child. Even though that can sound cliché if it’s said too many times, it’s really amazing. I will tell the host mom every time that it doesn’t matter what your backyard looks like.

It doesn’t matter how immaculate a backyard is or how manicured it is. There’s going to be a mom that says to me, really in the backyard? I’m going to have to have this done and that done. You can’t photograph there the flowers are dead. They’re going to say something to me about their yard. I tell her every time that the yard doesn’t matter. I’m not a landscape photographer. I’m about relationships, moments, expressions and personalities. A lot of what I do is close-‐ups. In fact most of what I do is close-‐up. It really is about that. I don’t care what the background looks like. That may be different for the next photographer where you might want to take a background and set up a light and do it indoors or whatever your style is. That’s fine but you need to own it and be able to communicate what’s special about it to the client. That’s what’s important. It’s being able to communicate the fact that I’m photographing expressions and I’m going to get to know your child. In fact in the consultation, I’m asking some questions about the child and getting to know them a little bit through mom because I want to know what mom sees in her child, what’s special about them and maybe what they would be afraid of, or when was the last time they were photographed and what was that experience like? We ask them a lot of those kinds of questions. Typically I’m out there shooting for 15 or 20 minutes, and in that 15 or 20 minutes, I’m still going to show them a lot of images. Coming in I can say to them, this is what I saw and this is what just happened. This is what you’re going to see. As our salesperson brings in those images and I’m shooting a simultaneous JPEG, and so we’ve got those raw files to go back home with, but we’ve got quick down and dirty little JPEGs to throw up on the computer. One of the things that we just started using is software through the iPad that’s called ‘Shutter Snitch’. I’m actually shooting straight to the iPad and as I’m shooting they can start editing and then showing the images right on iPad. That’s exciting. They can see them right away and moms love holding that iPad in their hand. Even though it’s smaller, we’re right there with them to make suggestions on sizes and show them sizes.

It’s about that experience of the immediacy of seeing it right away and also holding it right in their hand. It’s high tech and it’s fun. Even if you don’t have that software, it’s just showing it on the laptop, downloading those small JPEGs right away and flipping through. As we flip through the first time, if it’s a no we’ll just delete it. They’re not going to see it again. They don’t even have to say no. As we’re flipping through, they’re going to say that’s a yes, that’s a maybe and that’s a no. If we think it’s a no, it’s just deleted. We’re doing a really quick dirty edit the first time, and then we’re going back through the next time to really start narrowing things down and plugging them into our packages.

Sarah: So you don’t do a quick down and dirty edit first? Lori: No, they see exactly what I shoot. I do edit a little bit in the camera. If I shoot something and I think she probably blinked, I’ll just get rid of it right away. Sarah: Yes, the work flow on a system like this – it’s interesting that you said you’ve worked out a lot of the kinks and learned a lot of lessons. It’s one of those things where you get that system working just right, and you can just rock with it. It’s when you break one part of it and you’re trying to figure out why or whatever. Lori: It’s certainly scary the first couple of times. Showing images immediately following the shooting or even during, right now with high school seniors we’re handing mom an iPad and letting them sift through the images while I’m shooting. It freaks me out every single time. But it’s worth it when it comes down to work flow and with the Real Kids we’re shooting and immediately selling. Then, we go back to the studio and never have to look at an image that wasn’t ordered and it is so wonderful. It cuts down so much on our work flow. Sarah: Efficiency wise, it’s saving you because you don’t have to do the whole editing, the second day appointment. In one day you’re getting 10 clients and 10 orders, would you say on average, or more than that?

Lori:

Yes, we tell the host that our goal is 12, expecting them to book 10. We typically have nine to 12 sessions booked.

Sarah: Are they incentivized when the orders go up? Lori: They’re not, and that’s something that we played with for a while. One of the things that we do is they do get $50 per mom. They get $50 credit for every mom that they book, and honestly that’s the same as it is in our studio. If somebody sends somebody into our studio, they’re going to get a $50 gift card. It’s the same thing, only they get the immediate reward of being able to spend it on that session that we do that day for their kids as well, and they’re going to get that free session. Just for hosting the event, they get a free session. Then they get $50 per mom that book. Our goal is for them to get that $500 in portrait credits. Depending on the time of year and what’s going on, we’ll do a little bonus gift. During the holidays, I might to an ornament. During another time of year, I might do one of the small frames from Wild Sorbet from their new line of tabletop frames. We’re doing different products like that where we’re throwing them in as a special hostess gift. Their incentive is exactly what it is when I call them. How would you like to earn a free session for your kids and $500 in portrait credit? They’re so excited. Sarah: Do you do their session last? It doesn’t even matter, does it? You can do them before their friends even come. Lori: Yes, it doesn’t matter. I just talk to the mom and find out what’s best for them. To be honest, I don’t want their kids around during the rest of the day because it’s a distraction, unless they’re older because if they’re older they can actually help with younger kids or socialize with the older kids that come. Our ages on this sitting up through age 14. I do this specifically because I want newborns in my studio. I don’t want to do them at these type of events, and I feel if they’re sitting up already, that means that I’ve missed out anyway on the first year plan with them.

So it’s sitting up and then through age 14 because I do want high school seniors back in my studio. We’re also starting to work a lot more with tweens now. That’s been a new thing where moms are excited about bringing that age into the studio as they’re getting into junior high and different stages in their lives. By design we created this stage of sitting up through age 14 for these events. Like I said, it can be molded to whatever is important to you in your own business. This is for me. I’m excited about photographing kids; however, our high school senior product line is very profitable for us and I don’t want to interrupt that, and our baby’s first year is very profitable for us and I don’t want to interrupt that. We’ve created this in between segment that is working and now is very profitable for us. This system now is in such a place that I have a second photographer that’s doing this for my studio. I don’t do it anymore. If I do, I’m doing it for a client that I’ve already photographed an event for a couple of times, and she’s got repeat moms coming back, so I’ll go and do that Real Kids event, but the rest of them that we’re newly booking now are all done by another photographer.

Sarah: My mind is spinning with so many ideas. I think it’s brilliant how you’ve created this, not to cannibalize the things that you’re doing that are already successful. Have you ever done a group of moms that are all in a Lamaze class together, or could this work for them? Lori: That’s a great idea. Right now we’ve kept it just the Real Kids because it’s a very powerful product line for us as it is, but I’ve worked with other studios to do other product lines that have the same system but a different category, a different segment of the market. Like I said, it’s high school seniors, brides or it can be maternity. It could be newborns. It could be families or anything. I don’t photograph families. That’s another thing with our Real Kids event – sitting up through age 14. Families aren’t included. If someone wants to do a family session, we encourage them to book at our studio.

Again we want everything about it to be different than what they’re going to experience when they come in for a studio portrait.

Sarah: If they have three kids, are you shooting each child separately and then the three kids together, or do you only photograph the kids separately? Lori: I do it all. The main goal with the kids is to get great stuff of each of them individually. The reason that I say that is because if it doesn’t happen that I get them all together, I’m not a loser, but it typically happens. If they’ve got three kids or they’ve got five kids, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to photograph them all together as well. A lot of times at these Real Kids events, what’s great about is that I don’t have to worry about getting posey like we would in the studio. I don’t have to worry about that perfect portrait. They’re outside. They can be playing together or they can be laughing, hugging each other, tickling each other or jumping on each other. It doesn’t matter. We’re getting great images of them being them, and moms love it. Sarah: It’s really very cool. If you were talking to a photographer who’s sitting there saying I’m not getting booked as much as I want, I don’t have a big budget, what can I do, and they’re listening to this saying this is awesome, what would be the first step for them to book this? Do you feel like it needs to be done from a phone call? Call they mail something, even for a small number of people? That’s what’s brilliant about this. You don’t have to have a huge budget. Lori: You don’t have to have a budget. I launched this product line with one phone call. I think it’s that powerful for any studio that decides to do it. You do have to follow the steps. It’s not something that you can just throw out there and say I’m going to do this. You’ve got to follow the steps. You’ve got to sit down and really plan it out. That’s great too if you’re going to sit down and really plan out your product line and who your target market is, what your product line is going to be, and how you’re going to price this for easy and quick sales.

We do actually have two separate price menus for this. This is going to confuse the whole thing, but we now do Real Kids sessions in our location. We don’t do them in the studio, but we do them in Winterset at our location, and people can book those. When we book them, it’s with our second photographer, and when we book that product line we do a build your own package menu just like we do with some of our other product lines because it is more profitable. When we can sit down with them and we actually have a chance to go through images and design for the wall and build their own package, they’re going to spend even more. We’ve got both of those, and we actually have templates for both of those that are included in the templates that we have to offer for photographers. There’s no guesswork. There’s no brain work that’s going into it. For that photographer who wants to start this and they’re sitting there saying I’m not busy, I don’t know how to jumpstart my business, I don’t know what to do, it’s just simply saying what do I want to photograph? What’s that main product line? Who’s my target market for this product line? Who’s that one person who’s going to love what I do, or maybe it’s somebody that you haven’t even photographed before that you know that you’d love to have as a client. It’s just calling that person and telling them here’s what I’ve got going on. There has to be a plan for that. You have to know what’s going on. If you can then explain it to her, and then once she’s in help her to coach the people that she’s bringing in, I mean it’s such a beautiful thing because it starts from one person and it leads to 10 to 12 clients.

Sarah: What do you think photographers could expect in one day from doing this one time? Lori: With our system and pricing that’s in place, we expect $1,000 average from our clients. With 10 moms, we’ve got a $10,000 day. Sarah: How many people that are listening are just so excited right now? Think about one day working hard, whacking it and coming home with $8,000 to $12,000 in one day.

Lori: It’s still exciting for me every time. Sarah: Especially in first quarter when things are really dead. That covers a lot of the mortgage. It covers employees. It covers a lot of thing. Lori: I have to tell you this too. There are so many photographers that I know that are stuck in the wedding rut. They’re shooting weddings all day on a Saturday. Then they’ve got 40 hours of work flow. Then they’re messing with a bride who’s already spent so much money, and she doesn’t want to spend anymore. This is a perfect thing to take you into the next level of your business. I know that for me, my weddings start at $8,500. I still would rather do a Real Kids event where I’m going to shoot for the day, go home and all I have to do is touch the images that are ordered, and I’m done. It’s not like shooting a wedding and going home and editing 1,000 images, and then designing an album and all this work flow that we have to do. I’d rather have this product line where we do sell albums and we sell specific products, but we’ve got the templates in place to just drop the images in. It’s very easy and it’s very streamlined and it’s done. One day, and it’s done. Sarah: That’s a really good point because you do work a full day at a wedding, and then you go home and you have a whole week’s worth of work to do. With this system, you may have to retouch 20 to 40 images even but they’re kids, so there isn’t a ton of retouching. You’ve brought a few actions, touch each of them a little bit and it takes maybe a couple of hours. So you’re using a half day prepping those images and sending them to the lab. You’re done by the end of the day on Monday if you did it on a Friday or a Saturday or whatever. Lori: Yes, and that’s another good point, Sarah. There are so many photographers now who aren’t “full-‐time” in the business, which is another thing that this model does. It allows you to say this is the day of the week that I’m going to work, whether you do one event a month or one event a week or whatever the plan is for you for your business.

I’ve helped studios get set up with this system that say I can only work on Saturdays because I have a full-‐time job, and my husband can take care of the kids on Saturdays; or I’m at home full time with the kids, I’ve got my mom keeping the kids on Thursdays and that’s the only day I can work. For that photographer, it’s a great system. For the photographer who’s running a full-‐time business in their studio and needs to add on an extra revenue system, it’s great for them. It’s just easy extra things to implement and streamline no matter where you are.

Sarah: How could someone use it for high school seniors? Talk a little more about that. I know you mentioned it briefly. Lori: I actually helped a studio get set up with this, and it’s been really successful for her. She is actually calling her high school seniors. This is so exciting to me. I actually want to do it with my high school seniors, but I don’t have time. We made a plan for her to call her favorite little group of high school seniors, and basically she would say this is Lori and I just wanted to touch base with you. How was your senior year? We loved your announcement. Tell me about your college plans. I know you’re getting ready to leave. Do you have your dorm ready? As you’re talking through those things, let her know I’m sure you’ve gone through a lot of changes through your senior year. Is your hair different? What’s going on? What are you interested in now? Would you be interested in doing an update session and get some new images, some fresh things and some exciting things to go off to college with? There’s no girl on the planet that’s going to say no to that. Every girl wants to be photographed. Once she says yes that would be fun, you’re going to come back with why don’t we plan something together? I would love for you to invite eight to 12 of your friends from senior year. Even better, if you can plan it with juniors – would you like to invite eight to 12 of your junior friends to come in and spend a day? We can even get some shots of you along the way, but we’d love to have you host this for your friends. Bring them in and get them excited about getting pictures done, and we’ll give you a free update session. You’re even going to get $50 in credit for every girl that you bring in.

With that, some parameters have to be in place. The mom has to be involved because we know that mom is the one that’s going to be buying. You can make it super fun. You can have something going for an entire day with senior girls or bridesmaids, women’s groups or whatever. You can do more of a party where they’re all there at once and kind of egging each other on, instead of every 30 minutes. I would suggest having them come in the next day or the next week to view their images just because it’s easier to do the sales if it’s one-‐on-‐one. The way that the system works best is to do those every 30-‐minute sessions with the sales immediately following. To do it as an idea and to get people excited and into your business, there are lots of fun ways to think about doing it.

Sarah: You could take this and drive business with one right connection. They set it up for you. That’s the magic of it, and especially for newer photographers. You’re shooting a lot. You’re getting volume and you’re building up a portfolio. You’re just really able to get your confidence going. I’m just thrilled that you’re allowing us to take this system and offer it, this system that you’ve created and worked all the bugs out of and offering it to our audience and our community of photographers out there. I know that you have trademarked this Real Kids system, but there’s a way for other photographers to hop on and be able to jump in with this, correct? Lori: There is. With the templates that we have available, we’ve got everything in place. It’s everything from working with the hostess and the hostess coaching letter. It’s everything from going through the host mom all the way through all the marketing for the event – emails to friends and invites. There’s a checklist for the day of things to bring and what to have there to be prepared. There’s scheduling and order forms and pricing. Again it’s both the pricing models. It’s the package pricing and the build your own package pricing, which is a complete menu that people have even used in their studios outside of the Real Kids events.

There are also templates for products. There’s an album. There are canvasses, play date cards and all kinds of fun things that we’re doing as extra little add-‐on products, and then both of those price menus. There’s a ton of stuff in there.

Sarah: They can actually look at your price menu and the products you’ve figured out, and they can basically model their entire system after what you’re doing, and you’ve already worked out all the kinks. Lori: Exactly. It’s all there. Sarah: That’s what I love about systems like this, especially when people have been doing it for so many years. You know exactly the process and the work flow. Basically everything they need to know is in this little kit, correct? Lori: It is, yes. Sarah: That’s a no brainer for every single one of you who’s out there saying I need a big marketing budget, my phone’s not ringing. Make this very affordable for everyone investment, and get out there and create this. You could take it to schools. You could twist and turn it and do it as a fundraiser for a dance group. You’ve got all these cheerleaders or dancers who want to raise money, and they can take a percentage. Work with them on giving a percentage of it to the school or to whatever charity. There are a lot of different things that you can do to take this to another level. I think this is a no brainer for every single person listening, using Lori’s system to take it out there and really juice up your business. For some of you it may be a full time thing where you’re like I love this. This is my business model. I’m going to do three a month and that’s all I care about all year. Others may just do it once a quarter and use it as a way to infuse some fresh new images and some new people and new life back into your business. I think it’s brilliant, Lori. I do. Lori: It really has been fun for us.

Sarah: Especially being a studio, I know you do outdoor too but we’re doing more volume as you are and I am in my studio, so it’s got to be fun to have that day where you just get your mojo and all day long you’re just grooving. It’s got to be adrenaline, and then to have that big chunk of money at the end of the day. Lori: Yes, it’s a great thing. Sarah: People could be strategic and do it early in the month. Boom, all your bills are paid for the month and you can relax a little bit. Really you could throw that together if you’re mid month and you’re saying I’m not making my month and I’m panicking. Throw this together and you’ve got cash flow for the month to get you through. Lori: Yes, and that’s exactly honestly the way it started for me was I have to have money tomorrow and how can I get it? Like I said, it’s been perfected over the years, but it’s just a great way to get something on the books where you know this is going to be a very profitable day for me. Sarah: Yes, I know that motivates me too. It’s shooting and knowing they’re here, they’re going to order, they’re easy packages, you know what your minimum is and what your average is, so how can you not get excited and just give them all your love? That’s awesome. Thank you so much for being so sharing and even sharing all the things that you’ve worked out in the system, and that you crashed and burned. I think that’s refreshing to see people out there who are really rocking it, and knowing that it wasn’t always easy and you didn’t just magically appear one day as this super successful business owner and photographer. You’ve had some hard knocks too and look how you’ve come through it, and you’re jamming now. Lori: Thank you and thanks for having me. I always get excited about talking about this. Sarah: It’s been great. Thanks everybody for joining us for the Get Fully Booked This Year event brought to you by The Joy Of Marketing and White House Custom Colour.