Hi, guys. Welcome back. We're now into week three. Hopefully, I haven't broken you with all of the spreadsheets and numbers and crunching and everything that we've been doing so far. But we've got more of it for you this week. I warned you that the first month was going to be a lot of writing and a lot of math, and this week will be, Ah, no exception. So the first thing that we're gonna do this week is we're gonna write your template emails and your wedding day worksheet. I want you to open up your ah, business and marketing workbook. Read on down. You're gonna keep going from where you ended up at the end of last week, and we're gonna write your template emails. You'll see in the book that all of my template emails are there. You'll see what I write them for, and then what they actually are. I want you to sit down and find the scenarios in which you will need a template id email, and I want you to write it for yourself. And then I want you to read on a little further and read about th...

e wedding day worksheet what it is, what it does for my clients. You'll get to see the entire worksheet, and then I want you to go and make your own. Right. So that is a fine man. Number one A little bit more fun than math. Don't get Don't get too happy. We're gonna go do some math again in a few minutes. The next thing that I want you to do, assignment number two is we're gonna talk about studio management software. It is no secret that I use shoot Q and that I love them and that they are wonderful. But now is the time for you to really sit down and explore your business and determine if something like that will help you. Now, I'm not telling you that. You need to use shoot que. There are a ton of other options out there. This is where the Facebook group is going to be very powerful, getting their and post see what everybody else is using. See if there are some options out there that maybe I haven't even heard of before. Right. So you're gonna go out there, you're gonna look, you're gonna look at what it all costs you're going to see if maybe it would help your business. Maybe it wouldn't help your business. And if you determine that it is going to help your business, now is the time to commit, to get it and to start getting your information in there. That's the most daunting thing for me about studio management software is actually getting it set up so that you can actually use it. That's what takes the longest amount of time. So now is the time to actually bite the bullet and get it going. If you are already using something like Shoot You, now is the time to, like, take a look at it, clean it up a little bit, see if you're maybe missings and features that you should really be utilizing you clean up your workflow. Just take a really good look at your studio management software and see if there's any way that you can make it run more efficiently for you. Now we're back to spreadsheets. Sorry, guys, we're gonna choose your geographic area to serve, and this is a really big one. Continue reading on your business and marketing workbook that will help you out a lot with this section and you're going to choose the geographic markets that you want to target, and there's a lot of research that you need to do in it. The book will really help you with every single bit that you need to know there. The main thing that you need to figure out for this assignment is you need to do your geographic area spreadsheet. It's in the book. It is also an upload on the course page. So it's there for you and really, really, really take the time to complete it. I can't even stress to you the importance of how crucial it is to fill this one out, to research it and to fill it out honestly. And then from there. What I want you to do is I want your final list of venues and vendors that are going to be the people that you really determine that you're going to focus your marketing efforts towards. That's the goal of all of this moving onwards. You keep an eye on your competition, and again, I told you this already. This is not the time we're in. We all make fake email addresses and go secret shopping. Please don't do that. Now is the time that you're really going to start looking at your competition. And what I want you to list is is several things. This is all in your board book. It will be right. Therefore, you you're trying to figure out your biggest competitions and what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are. You are also trying to figure out what your unique advantages over all of your competition You need to know why people are hiring other people than you. And then why people are hiring you over all of those other people. That's what we're trying to determine here. You know, we need to know what you're doing better than the other photographers and why the clients are gravitating towards you or on the flip side, wire clients choosing other photographers. Other than you, you're just evaluating strengths and weaknesses of both yourself and your competition. Now we're gonna do your mission statement, which really is so crucial. We should really do it first. But it is such a important thing. I didn't want to scare you guys with it right away. I talked about this a lot. I gave you actually the steps to do this on the very first day? Live here for the mentor ship. But let's do it again. It is right there in your business and marketing workbook. There's a whole section on it. You'll get to see what mine is. It's right in there. But these are the things that I need you to answer. All right, What does your business do you the super specific about it? How do you do what you do better than anybody else in your market, Right? What clients are you doing business for? What are the values that you hold near and dear to the heart of your business? Those intangible values? How are you providing specific value to your clients? And I don't want you to rush through this. I want you to really think about it and really answer each one of these questions fully so that you come up with a concise and very crucial mission statement. That basically is the thing that you cross stitch on needle point and hang over the front door of your business, figuratively speaking from there. Your next assignment is to determine your target clients and you know, this is really gonna very person by person. You want to write down the descriptions of your perfect target clients? This is in your textbook for you. It is ready to go. We need to know what your clients like. What do they dio? Um what are they interested in? And as I've mentioned before, I have several different segments of target clients. So you might figure out that you don't have one target client. You have four. But now at the time for you to really do the work and determine who those people are from there, we're developing your brand and your marketing message, which is very, very, very important. So the first thing you're going to dio is develop your vision statement. Then you're gonna re wrap that back around with your mission statement. Then you're going to come up with your brand essence and then you're going to figure out your brand position. Now again, the business and marketing workbook. It's super crucial for this. You need to really invest the time to read it this week because all of the information in there will help you figure out exactly what you need to dio before you start tackling each one of these homework assignment. So to recap, the seven things that I need for you to do this Week Number one Template Emails and the Wedding Day Worksheet Number two, Studio Management Software number three. Choosing your geographic area that you're going to serve number four. Checking out your competition Number five. Mission Statement. Number six, Target Client and number seven, your brand and your marketing message So it's a lot of soul searching this week. It's gonna be a lot of thinking. Ah, lot of kind of feeling all your feelings. But I'm here for you if you need me. The Facebook group. You guys were there for each other and I'll see you back next week.

Class Materials

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Mentorship Launch and Social Media Keynote.pdf

Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets for Numbers.zip

Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets for Excel.zip

Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 1 - 7.pdf

Susan Stripling - Business and Marketing Workbook.pdf

Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets - PDF.zip

Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 8 - 14.pdf

Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 15 - 21.pdf

Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 22 - 28.pdf

Susan Stripling - Month 2 Homework.pdf

Susan Stripling - Month Two Introduction Keynote.pdf

Susan Stripling - Month Three Assignments.pdf

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Susan Stripling

Susan Stripling never knew that she'd end up a wedding photographer. Though she purchased her first camera in high school she went to college to study theatre and dance, obtaining a BFA in 2001. Shortly upon her move to New

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Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student

A couple years ago I attended WPPI and sat in on Susan's class. Out of all the classes I sat in on that year her's was in the top 2 for actual information and not just fluffy feel good hype. So I figured her Group Mentorship course would be a good one and it definitely has! A bit of background on me, I've been running my own wedding photography business for the last 6 years, 5 of those full time. I've taken tons of business courses and have circled back around to taking more classes to improve my craft. Susan's class focuses on both business and improving your craft. The big warning I have for this class is that there is a lot of homework, A LOT!!! But that is not a bad thing at all. I was swamped with weddings as the class started and was late to get to my homework but I'm so glad I didn't skip it because there was a lot of things I learned about my business just in answering her questions. I believe there were homework assignments every single day and while some are quick others will take awhile. So my recommendation is to take this course in your off season and use that down time to really concentrate on doing the homework and putting together questions to ask during the weekly chats. I was not able to do that as much as I wanted because of my schedule and I feel I did myself a disservice by not taking full advantage of what was offered. As another reviewer stated there were a lot of basic questions that were asked like how to get proper exposure in an image, etc. If you aren't sure how to do that then this class is not for you. I believe this class is geared towards those who are past the portfolio building stage and are looking to set their business up for success on the back end while improving their craft. Remember to ask questions, keep a notebook and write them down while doing your homework. Don't focus so much on what she uses for everything but why she uses it, if you understand the why you can apply that better to your business vs just the what. Again I would say to properly allocate time to take this class, treat it like a college class with weekly homework and study required. Don't buy it to watch later as you will lose out on most of what this class is about which is access to Susan for questions and feedback. Do the homework, I found the questions she asked us to answer led to a lot of revelations for myself in my business. Her questions led me to ask my own questions and review a lot of historical data for my business to get a better grasp on where I am. Luckily for me I'm doing way better then I thought ;)! Also I recommend for image critique to not just submit your best images, while we all like a pat on the back that won't make you better. She requested a mix of your best and areas of struggle. The images I submitted that I was struggling with are the ones where her advice will improve my craft.

Carissa

Susan, simply amazing photographer, amazing woman, amazing business woman! If you want your but kicked then this the course for you! A kick start for your 'business', awesome .. honest .... brutal.... critique.... don't take it personally.This is a course for beginners and for those been in business for 4 + years. I have been in business for 4 years and this helped me seriously start from the beginning again on the business side of things and fine tune my processes. I learnt so much.... but was also great to know I was on the right track. For those beginning - oh I wish I had this as a guide 4 years ago!!! Enjoy! worth every penny! cheers Carissa www.capture-t-moment.com

a Creativelive Student

I found this course helpful - but I also did all (well most) of the homework and I think to get the most out of this class you really need to be prepared to do the homework - which does require a reasonable time commitment. I found the business information (month 1) invaluable, and Susan was very, very active in the Facebook group, constantly answering our questions, which was great. Month 2 was a big image critique and I also found this very helpful. Month 3 was about editing and it was also a critique, which was helpful as well. Susan, Sandra (her assistant), Jen (her post production person) and CL worked very hard for us so we could get the best out of this course and I really feel I did get the most out of it that I could have gotten out of it. It is definitely worth it if you are willing to do the work. All of my questions were answered and I feel like my work is going to improve for the better now. If CL run any more mentorships such as this one, I would highly recommend them as I found I learned a lot more than in a regular class - because of the homework and the feedback (direct from Susan) on the homework. I am so glad that she was honest about my images because now I am seeing them in a new light (no pun intended).

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Month 1, Week 3 (Sept 22-28) - Assignment Video

Month 1, Week 3 (Sept 22-28) - Assignment Video

Lesson Info

15. Month 1, Week 3 (Sept 22-28) - Assignment Video

Lessons

Mentorship: Introduction and Overview

Mentorship: Business and Marketing

Mentorship: Shooting & Post Production

Social Media Marketing

Google Analytics

Targeting Your Market with Social Media

Social Media Marketing Q&A

Common Issues and Problems

Student Questions and Critique Part 1

Student Questions and Critique Part 2

Month 1, Week 1 (Sept 8-14) - Assignment Video

Month 1, Week 1 (Sept 8-14) - Feedback & Weekly Review

Month 1, Week 2 (Sept 15-21) - Assignment Video

Month 1, Week 2 (Sept 15-21) - Feedback & Weekly Review