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The Legacy Project

This is something that came out of nowhere. It hit me like a storm on It has taken me and shaking me up and just sort of spewed me back out to my own world and it's kind of fun. Teoh, watch this happen. So I'm gonna kind of back it up and talk to you a little bit about how it started. The Legacy project is something that was purely a happy accident. It's something that I told you that 2012 was the worst year of my life. I went through a lot of personal things and had a lot of things happened that I would never have believed could happen to me. But they did, and we survived them and we got through them. But what happened is I came back and I looked at my life and I started taking apart everything about it and what I like to what I didn't like. I thought, You know what? I always teach this stuff. I always teach that you can change anything you want. You could be anything you want. And I felt like I felt like I really wasn't doing or being what I said. what I told other people to do. So I...

sat looked at my life and I thought, What do you love here? What do you love about what you do? And so I started looking at my business, and I have been on the road for a long time. I still shoot an awful lot, but I was pulling back from the road. The industry's changed, as you know, teaching his change. The opportunities have changed A teacher and I didn't want to keep putting myself on the road so much. And so I started thinking, OK, well, if I'm gonna do that, how could a kind of practice what I preach? And I've got a remark at my studio? And if I only shoot if I shoot this many 100 sessions a year that I need to shoot this money if I'm going to be back home? So I started looking at marketing. The first thing that I went for is an easy one. I picked. Let's just do a model search and will call our clients to get their kids in Imbaba. And that was the easy way. And I thought that that's what I was going to do so So we came up with this concept of doing a Children's model search and we were gonna work on a specific project, and that's all it was gonna be. But so then something amazing happened. I sat down with Aaron, which, you know, Erin has been with me for 17 years, So she's been the entire ride from my master bedroom all the way to where we are today. And I asked her to print me a list and I said, I want to know, I want all of our clients and we have over 15, people in the database. So I knew I couldn't serve them all, but I thought I just wanted to take the top 2000 clients. And to be very frank with you, the first, the first way I did it was just by money, how much they had spent. I figured I would take my top clients. They also had to have been with us in the last 2 to 3 years. So top clients who were consistent clients and she produced that list. And so, of course, I was looking at a purely from economics going. Okay, let's get the their biggest spenders are good investors. And let's do something with them, Not for them shoeprint in the list. And she hole punched it and stuck it in a binder like this, and she handed it to me. And it was one Sunday afternoon we were hanging out the studio by herself. I flipped it open and I started going through the list and I started looking in the names and right out of the gate. I mean, you could imagine on top 3 to 5 clients these people who have spent substantially well with us, you know, they've crossed over that $50,000 mark over the But remember, some of these people are 15 years and up, But I'm looking at the names and all of a sudden I'm going through this list and I'm like, Oh, my gosh, Aaron, do you remember the so and so family? Oh, my gosh, Aaron, Look, it's these guys remember these guys And then as we went down that list, all of a sudden, we recognized names where people had lost a child. They had lost a baby, they had lost a spouse, and these were people that I had been with for years and years, and I am not kidding. We didn't even get 2/3 down the first list and we are bowing our heads up. We are crying and Aaron's like, Oh my gosh, Do you remember when he passed away and done? And we're just fit to be tied crying? And I'm looking at this and it hit me so hard. Sorry, how how these names these people were responsible for my success. These were the people who year after year came in and invested money, and they were responsible for everything I had for every blessing for everything I own from my Children's lives for the trips I've taken. These people were the reason why, and I realized I had never really thanked him for that. I mean, you always do the hearing your portrait. Thanks for coming. Have a nice day. But when I looked at those numbers and I thought, Holy cow, I mean, this is this is my car payments. This is my house. This is my life. I realized that I have been very blessed and that I had never really said thank you to these people. And so I started thinking I don't remember how it came out, but I turned air and I said, Holy cow, this is like my legacy. This is like my life. And she looked at me and she said, Yeah, that is your legacy. And that's kind of where it hit me. And all of a sudden I was talking 1000 miles. Men are like, Oh, my gosh there. And I have this great idea. I want to thank these people. I want every single person you see on this list. I want to call them and I want to offer them. I want to do a thank you session for them. I want to thank them for what they did for me. I have the time. Right now. I have. I'll be here. I have the energy to do it. I want to make sure that we get them thanked. And so I made a decision that we were gonna call every single person and offer them a complimentary session, and we offered them a small credit as a thank you. And it truly was the beginning of the legacy project. Now, as we started talking, of course, I always think big. I wanted to produce a book and I want to do an art show. And I and I realized I wanted it to be not about me or my photography, but more about photography in general and portrait on what they mean to people. And so we started making the phone calls. Originally, I wanted to call them all. But having called a few and realizing again how much time it took me because it was like a reunion every time it was like a are you doing? Oh, my gosh, Um, and my phone calls were 20 minutes 30 minutes long. I could get four in a day and my associates were making the phone calls and they were getting through the much, much faster. And it was so like, honestly, it felt Christmas around the studio cause everybody was on a phone line and nobody was calling, and they were all running and going. I booked for my book. When they're so excited, you know, it's the Jones family, and they do you remember the debtor. They told me to tell you this that the other and and so all of a sudden you have all these women running around like so excited And I mean in one day they're booking sessions, 13 sessions, 12 sessions. And it became a game for all of us because every contact we made was very personal. These weren't strangers. This wasn't marketing to the unknown. These were people who love what we do and who really cared about what we what we put into it. So as we started building this concept, we were only booking them. I hadn't photographed any. I had a client come in. Christine. This is Christine and her family. This is many years ago, her youngest son, the boy is He's the youngest of the family. She happened to come in for a senior session, his senior portrait's and she's a very good client, very long term. But I knew she would be a part of the Legacy project. I knew her name was gonna come up because I knew how long she'd been with me. I'd photographed all of these kids since they were babies. And so I was talking to and I said, Hey, by the way, how are the girls? You know that some of them are in college and out of state and she's like they're great. And by the way, I just want to let you know you're gonna get a phone call. I'm working on this new project, and I know you're gonna be a part of it. And I started to explain it again. I hadn't even shot one before, and so I said I was telling her about it and I just saw her melt. She got so emotional so quick and she was already This is her youngest son. And so she was already kind of melty anyway. But when I said that, I said, You know, it's been we've been working together 18 years now and I really want to thank you. And I really want to give this to you. It's a gift and do you think it's possible? And she went into panic mode. She started talking about his two daughters that are out of state, and she's like, Look, I'm gonna fly him in. This is what can you do it this month? And I want to fly him in and I'm sitting there listening to her and my years of running time thinking, Holy cow! She's like she's gonna invest in this. She's gonna fly her kids home because this is so important to her to get this this updated family portrait that she's already talking about how and when and can we make this happen. And then she looked at me and she said, You know what? She said You'll never know how much a part of our family she is. But she said, Do you know what? Every night when I go to my room, she said, My favorite portrait is the four of them. It's a spring special portrait and those darn linen dresses and those dart overalls, and she's describing and I knew exactly what it wasn't exactly how old they were when we took it, and she said, Every night she said, I hung it right outside my bedroom door. She said It actually looks kind of dumb out there, she said. But I don't care, because every night when I go to bed, my daughters are far away interested. Every night I walked past that and it is the last thing I see every night and the first thing I see every morning. And she said, Every day I think of you and I remember what you put into our family. And I sat there and I thought, OK, there, that's not true. Not every day, I mean, but But I understood what she was saying. She was. She was saying that that portrait take me out of it. That image was the thing that connected her family that kept them together. So for her, that was her pinnacle image. And I started to realize fully cow there, people that have walls that are their favorite place to be, and so she kind of set the tone. But again, I still could never have emotionally prepared for what was really coming because then I started working on the plan and I knew that I knew that I wanted this to I wanted to incorporate video, and I knew I didn't want to have Brandon quit on me. So I was trying to figure out how I got a present this to, because we're not talking. Ah, 100 people. We're talking maybe a couple 1000 people over the next couple of years, and so I'm like, OK, I bet I could do this by myself. I know I could do this, you know, And I started thinking, OK, this is something that you know I don't want overwhelming, but I am not gonna cheat anybody out of this. And I'll be honest with you. When I first presented to him, he's like, This is crazy. This is dumb. It doesn't make sense. He was really we Not that we battle, but he's like, we can't do this. We can't. We can't shoot hundreds of these. He's like, I can't shoot them and produce them. And so of course I was like, Fine, I'll show myself. And so that was my goal is all should've been You just produced them. And that was kind of how I went into it, because at that time, Brandon didn't see the value of what I was doing. He also doesn't have these five years with the company. He knows the clients, but it didn't quite have that that depth that that I think he has now. So So, of course theory, journal plan was that I was gonna try to shoot these on my own. And the reason I'm telling you this I'm gonna show you when I shot on my own is it's totally doable. Like I went out by myself and did this session, and it's totally it's totally possible. Not my favorite way to do it, but it can happen. So the first day, the first legacy session in my mind, I thought I knew what this was gonna be. But honestly, I still had no idea how powerful this would be. I planned it all out. I had the equipment. I'm going to show you in a minute. What I used, I'm gonna show you the video first and then we'll go into that. So this is the first session ever shot in the legacy. This was shot completely by myself. Way started having her portrait taken, Charlie after we were married because we hadn't had any pictures taken together. Just the two of us. Way found an advertisement, but kiosks set up with a lot of pre inset Park Meadows mall. We're looking at it, and I mean, the pictures were great and we have decided that, you know, we should probably get some real pictures taken of us. And then, of course, later on we ended up having our first child and took about a 1,000, and the same with Ben. A second pictures with him as well. Ladybug e Like you. Both of my kids were difficult pregnancies, to say the least. Um, coal was a premium 26 weeks and he was in the hospital for 72 days. And then I was on bed. Rest have been for five months, and then he didn't want to come out. So that was that was over. A day's worth of labour was great. It's just putting memories of my Children when they were so young on paper, so I could remember. Okay, quite honestly, we've got just walls and walls of pictures. This we've got picture frames that we have cycled. I don't know how many eight by tens in and out of this point. You know, the nice part is about having all the pictures that everybody in the family's got a 1,000,000 pictures of us and the kids as well. It's just that my kids mean the world to me. All right, so that was number one. I did that one by myself, and there's a 1,000,000 things I'd like to change about it, but, um, the first thing I changes, I wasn't doing it by myself. How's that? I was like, I guess. What, Brandon, you're in. We're doing this together. And so of course we drug Brandon into it. And at first it wasn't with resistance. It was with concern. And then he started doing them. And then he started seeing these reactions and it was mind blowing the way the people, this stuff that they say. I mean, you heard him say, Well, we saw the display of Park Meadows mall. It's just a short statement. But what that really said is, holy cow. That display that I showed you that's the display that they saw, what, 10 years ago, before they even had Children. They saw my work and they made that commitment. They came to me as a young couple and we've continued to grow with them. So of course, we started working on streamlining the process. For to do hundreds of these, we're gonna have to really think this through. We had to create a sales process. How are we going to sell them? What? We're going to deliver them. And we had to find our rhythm. These had to be more template based. How are we going? What do we really need to shoot to make this happen. I'm gonna show you another one. This is the Todd family. Now, this is probably, if not my favorite, one of the very favorites on. And you can see how things start to come together as we go and calling 94 I'm Molly. I'm seven years old. Chris and I'm Katie. Where the Todd family we've been working with Sandy pushed photography for 7.5 years now. Way discovered the studio when I went to a friend's house and saw a portrait of the one year portrait with her daughter eating cake. And I loved it. So we decided Teoh start coming to the studio From the first session that we went, I had to go run out and get a diaper from the car. I come back to discover Chris had bought a huge Fisher, a volley of her chewing on the best part. She's chewing on her hands and you can see Sandy in for eye. It is amazing that it is a picture in your room getting these pictures you so much to capture our Children and tow. Have something that we can hand down even hand onto them when they're older toe have pictures as a family. It's just an amazing thing. Toe. Have who you want to win the game tonight means Black Way decided that we would invest in pictures instead of part because what a better way to capture your family So they adorn our hallways. Our bedrooms are living room. We're running on the wall offices at work as we're running out of space. No way. My family is so important to me. They mean the world to me. I love them more than more than anything to reach up. Oh, hell, my favorite. My prayer for you. What do you favorite sport? Happy s so you can see they've grown and they've evolved. I mean, that session when they were talking that you probably caught the segment where she said, My favorite picture. It's hanging in Molly's room and you can see Sandy in her eyes. And as soon as she said that I was like because you start, it's the little things they say that blow your mind that you start to go. Holy cow! This is so much bigger then you ever thought it could be It's so much like photography today is so much more than it was even six weeks ago because I see the value of what we dio from a completely different perspective now. Part of this process is I wanted to think my clients I wanted to make sure they knew I appreciated them. And and the interesting thing is, once it became, ah, heart project nothing, the money didn't really matter. I just want to do hundreds of these. I want everybody I've ever worked with the have this gift, how inbred and I first Brandon was. We can't do all of these. He's done 27 of these now and now he's going. We can't skip anybody because everybody story is very different. Everybody has something different to say, and although the premise is always the same, we love our pictures. I, you know, I would run into a burning house to get them. Each story has something unique to them that I can't cheat them out of. So part of the gift we do provide them. They don't know it's coming, but we give them a nice little holiday ornament when they come in for their sale session. We have a beautiful ornament that's already done for them from their session. We also have a jump drive with the Legacy. Video is part of the thank you. I write a personal thank you card and you guys know I can't spell, So that's an effort in itself. And then we also have a referral letter that tells them about how we've loved being a part of their legacy, and the greatest gift would be to help their friends start their own legacy. We also provide them gift certificates to give to their friends so you can kind of see it sort of evolved into an all encompassing project. Now I have learned so much I could spend if I could just show you every single video I would want to tell you about every single person and how different and how unique they are. But I've learned a lot about what they think and how they feel, and this is what's happening. It's magical because they're reconnecting to me. I've been on the road a lot. They always say, Oh, she's so busy. I got to get in with her now They're like, Holy cow, she's back. We're talking to her. Were being a part of her life. These images are priceless. Before we show you the final video, I want to show you a quick little clip. This is just raw footage, but just some of the little things that people say that stick in my mind. We'll look at that real quick and then we'll finish up. I mean, when we got married, Courtney and I, we had a wonderful wedding. It was beautiful and we were younger at the time. And the amazing thing was, at the time, the photographer was quite annoying. Actually, it was right there following us around. I was trying to eat at the buffet. It was challenging, but when we got back, the photos were amazing. And that's when I really learned the importance of that, to be able to capture some of those moments and what's there, even though at the time it was tedious and it was a little bit over the top. But the pictures were so amazing. So when we had kids, we really thought it was important to find the best photographer possible to take those pictures and capture each one of those moments as they grow up because they grow up so fast. It's like an event that we look forward to that day. We get to go see the pictures and they're put to a beautiful slideshow, and I don't know about you, but I get chills and tears. I tears come to my eyes. I mean, it's just so beautiful. And I think those are Those are Children. That's that's the life we're building together. I mean, it's It's just so I love that dates and I just wanted and want to take it home with me, you know, it's it's just beautiful. The most special thing I have is the Madonna Fortress that she did for when he was. He was just just a tiny little baby. It's just so special because, especially when you're a new mom, it's kind of overwhelming, and just to be able to look back it, you know how little they were and and how. It's just It's such a neat truck, anything Have you know, when Quinn was about three or four, we went to the railroad museum and some phenomenal shots with the trains and teddy bears. You just try to get a picture every year so otherwise. Well, it's the only way you can keep all your memories intact. You know, with your first year even more sentimental about everything. So you know, when we got those pictures I remember, you know, crying. And I knew we were in trouble when we looked at that first real of the pictures of baby mind Song came up and I was, but it was It was awesome, but it was amazing. And the thing that Sandy said to us today it was so great is she's known cane since he was bored. Yeah, and now he's six and she says, I can't believe he's like a little man now. Well, it is a military member. I got a pride myself on being stoic and tough guy, but when they showed the pictures married up with music, you really gotta prep yourself so you don't fall apart. But you realize that there's a moment that's been captured and the experience the reveal really kind of brings to mind just how precious these moments are. It's a good thing we just got a bigger house because we have portrait all over our house, just the kids, and we just gets so much enjoyment out of them, and it's there just priceless. And, uh, they just means so much to me. I walked by him down the hall every day, and it just reminds me of that moment when that picture was being taken. One of our pictures is of our two little guys, kind of at the bottom of the stairs coming down into our family room. And, ah, a lot of times will be carrying Tate Little one downstairs. And for now, that picture of the bottom of the stairs is Kim is a baby, and I always walk him up there and say, Who is that? That state? That's that's me and that's my brother and I just find it. It's a wayto connect him to when he was growing up, too. It's very much a important part of our family. When you walk into her home, they pictures are everywhere. That's that's what makes up the artwork on our walls over our mantle. We have a very large picture that we took out in the park with the entire family a couple years ago, and it that's the centerpiece of our house and our family truly is the centerpiece of our home. Um, it's it's very important. I mean, I can't imagine the house without without that. Well, and then at work. When I meet with people and they'll see all the pictures air raid around the office, I'll explain that those are the most important things to me. My family and we all have important jobs. And we have pictures all over her house on, um, all from Sandy There. They're like a shrine to our Children. They're in our family room and are bedroom and formal dining room in the hallways and bathrooms. They're everywhere. Yeah. I mean, the reality is, if we have had a fire in the house, the first things we would grab, this poetry, it's and the rest we just we can replace. Okay. All right. So we're almost done. But those were just raw footage. Just kind of give you an idea of everybody's stories different. Everybody has something else to say. This point, we've now just booked 48 sessions in six weeks. The sales averages just even idea around 1200 to $1700. More than anything I've reconnected to the people. That means so much to me. These people have been coming to me. Whether it's seven years, 10 years, 15 years or more, These are the people who have invested in my life. I Yeah, yeah, yeah, I never looked at it that way. I always was thinking about the next marketing campaign and the next thing that was gonna be good for me. And I forgot how much we really mean to the people that we work with. So we've already started joking with the clients that 10 years from now we're doing legacy, too. So we're gonna have grand babies, and we've already promised them that in 10 years will be doing this again. But who knows where we'll be in what technology will have us doing at that point. So at this point, I'm going to show you the final show. This one was actually photographed just or shot just a week ago. I don't know that we have a lot of time for questions, but I do. Before we go and show the show. I do want to tell you just a little bit about equipment very quickly. You kind of have an idea of with a product that we give them. We walk into this with no expectations. Financially, as you can see, we're financially doing well. We don't expect them to buy, but we appreciate and our great before it the tools that we use. Now this is a man, Freddo Mono pod. This is used for the interviews and a lot of the shots that the shots of them it is with a video head, and we will have them post the links up on the chat room as well. If you have questions, he certainly can ask in on Facebook as well. And then this is a slider. So really, we only use three tools more doing this. Besides the mikes, we do have mikes that we might. We always Mike the youngest child because that's where you get the giggles and laughter and all the funny things way of video heads on both of these. And we have a steady tripod, my tripod, that I'm shooting the stills with. We use that for the final interview, so really, just three pieces of equipment and the mikes are the only things that are. In addition, this is a slider. That's what all those cool motion shots that you'll see, we always have to warn our clients that there might We tell them very clearly before we get started, we say, OK, now we're gonna make the baby. We always have to tell the youngest one that you're the super spy. You're a superhero, and we get, um, all psyched out. We turned everybody was so can I just remember you have a mike. Um and you're gonna forget that there's a Michael. So we're just warning you now and then I usually trying to tell him some funny stories just so that they really remember because it is funny. They very quickly forget we've heard the funny If I would have had time, I would have done the things you'll never see in a legacy video video way Have videos of kids going down your breath stinks and way Have a great one of dad your teeth or yellow And the dads like Well, son, your teeth will be yellow when you're old Like me to weigh Have miles of funny funny footage of things kids say that parents wish they didn't And that everyone's well the parents forget I always tell him I'm like, Okay, we're gonna get started Now, if you have something bad to say about the photographer making about Brandon and not me, because I can hear you and so we have a lot of fun with that. But what I'm gonna do is I'll leave you with the last video. This one was shot more recently. This is the HAC family. We've been photographing them, I believe for the last 10 years, I believe so. Just kind of give you an idea of one more what it feels like. And then we'll close the show. I saw photos that Sandy had been in a mall near her studio and instantly knew that she was the person I wanted to capture My Children's life in our family's life. Law is one. Highs brought us here, and from that moment on we have had her capture photos of us for the last 10.5 years to come. We love looking at the photos and just seeing constantly you forget so quickly how much they change so we can see there over daughter. She's 10 years old. She would be, are more serious. One very intelligent, hardworking and just has a huge kind heart. She volunteers with handicapped Children. It's a decision she made on her own. She loves to work with special needs Children, and I just think that says something about the type of trial that she already is and who she's going to be. She makes a believer out of everybody. She says she's going to do something, and Mackenzie has accomplished all of her goals. Our second daughter is Striler, and when you think of scholarly, just automatically smile. She is our super funds. Super spunky Lights up. Everybody's world are really tall. Little girl laid back. Nothing gets. You're always having fun, always being crazy. So the funniest thing, not serious by any means. So she definitely brings a great balance. Our family very best of friends, and I can't wait to see how their relationship progresses over time because they already tell each other. You're my very best friend. I love you. They play together. They often would rather just have time alone together than being with their other friends because they miss each other. I hear a school that the first thing they do at recess, according to their teachers, run to give each other hugs in the often say I missed you, but they're just never really especially good Sister Andy, my husband. He is what we call the gentle giant big man, but just so gentle, especially with his two daughters, who are by far the love of his life. I think those two entered our world. It changed him instantly. He's really close with them. Volunteers in the school, two days of being the question with whom he's their soccer coach. He is a police officer here for the city of Fort Cones and just amazing role model to not only to the girls, but use the city as well. I think pictures are just a part of me and my friends and family say with something that injury a loves its photographs and not just photographs in general, but photographs of my family and my Children especially. And I think it's just because I often forget so quickly how much they change, especially the girls, and I don't want to forget those moments. I want to treasure them for the rest of my life. Way, way, way Family is the number one. To me, it's who you are, and it's your you brought these Children into this world. And your goal is a family is the love them unconditionally, um, in to raise them to love as well. So I just want our family to give them happiness and to show them between our marriage, what it means to show love and to have faith and to have God in your life. I see and talk to my parents every single day. And I only hope that I continue have that relationship with my daughters. The most important thing to us is just raising them with sincere love, happiness and just knowing that they always have us to support them. That no matter what they dio with two Kerry with life, Teoh. Thank you. All right. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. And the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe. God is great work, I think, Kevin, that's over here too. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all the matters of heart, you'll know when you find it. And like any great relationship if it just gets better and better as the years roll on. All right with that, I want to leave you with this message. I truly do believe you could do this. I believe we all need makeup. Teoh. It's not the fight. Very sorry. It's not the dog in the fight. It's the fight in the dog. You have to believe in yourself, and you have to get up and make it happen. Let the mistakes of others be your education. This entire show was not to show you how great we are and how all the great things we do. It's to show you the mistakes we've made and to help you avoid them. But I hope you understand that. And finally, as I said yesterday, those of you who think it can't be done shouldn't interrupt those of us who were doing it. You can do anything