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Lesson Info

The Moms with Cameras Class

we're gonna talk a little bit about that. Moms of cameras class that we held yesterday and I would love feedback from you about that. Um, some people were questioning. Why would you do such a I'm gonna start and tell you the story. I gotta click forward a little bit here. I'm gonna start and tell you the story of how it started, and I told a little of that story yesterday, but I'll reiterated again today. So Jules has a lot of clients. And, um, back when she was in Los Angeles, she would photograph clients who live in some pretty expensive areas in Los Angeles. One client in particular really loved her, and she would photograph their family every single year. And, of course, she owned her own fancy SLR. And, of course, she did not know how to use it. And every time Jules would come, she would say, Can you What? This. Me? Can you help me with this button and be really something simple, like, Oh, okay. And so one day, I sort of had this lightbulb. I said, do you think you would be intere...

sted in learning more about how to take pictures? like when Jules isn't here. Would you like to actually use your camera? And she thought about it and said, Yeah, sure, because I think women or people moms who invest in photography also will invest in their education about photography. And so, um, I don't think a lot of photographers feel like Why would I teach my clients how to shoot? That's going to create my own competition, but in fact, that's not what happened. It actually created were surprised to find it created a new client base for us. So one of the things I did, we decided to do this class. So Jules built a class much like the class you saw yesterday. Although this was a much more hold class first time. But the jewels built the class. It was an awesome costume on, and I did all the marketing. And so what it is I worked with Kerry inside. Okay, give me a list of all of your friends that you think would be interested in coming to a class like this, and I'll create a fun email and you can send out either from me if you want or from you. If you want and we'll make it like a girl's night out. Will have wine will have treats. I will bring all the trees, No problem for you. And what happened was all of a sudden I had access to all her friends who all lived in this beautiful high and area in Los Angeles. And they were all coming to our house, to her house to meet us. And so we had actually, I think the next side shows that well, when the class happened, we put it on my blawg and use it as an opportunity to talk about it and give some thanks to the ah couple of companies like Coehlo and Tamarack that we had partnered with. Because again, we came in and we gave everybody a present. And we are all about the private and this particular class we brought in the projector. A lot of times, Joy will do ordering sessions in clients home. So we own a projector and a big screen and then But we've done them before on big screen TVs, and we always have food. We use it as an opportunity to showcase some of our work. So in this case, we brought a couple of cameras, cuties and had some things around. And nothing it's funny is that once we started doing the parties than people would hear about him and they would want their own parties, and then they started to get fancier and fancier with the food. And so after a while we didn't have to even offer that, because at first I was bringing all of the treats, and then they were like, No, I want to host it and it really became their party because it was their friends. So what we would do is we would have gifts for everybody and we knew who was coming because people had to pay $99 for the class. And so we would put personalize all of the gifts for them. Sometimes bag like this sometimes we just cute up a little paper bag. But everybody, not only would they get swag from us from other businesses that we had partnered with to provide either coupons or like, little camera bags or things for the moms, but we would also include information about ourselves again and way. Oh yeah, Joy brought one, and we had the branding matched my website and matched us. We had these cute little five by five cards made where we can this part on the front you can actually customized. So they either have our logo will say Happy anniversary or for you, or whenever he turned it into a frame, right, even if they flip it like this becomes the plane, but you need a picture on it. That's what we would do for talk with that one. But each one had in it information about possible things that could do with us and a gift certificate for $100 towards the purchase of products at their next portrait session. So essentially they were getting the class for free if they used this gift certificate. So then all of the moms there because I was giving a class on how to use their camera, then not only got to know me personally, but then I was putting myself in the position of the expert, telling them how to use their cameras and truthfully, if you are a mom and you want or dad, you want to be in the photograph. Obviously you can't take the photograph, but a lot of what we're finding. I was so surprised we were like Oh, is, though hard, We're just gonna hire you. And we got a lot of clients that way just because when it came Teoh, like joy said people who valued photography, they then got to know us, and we were able to teach them the value of it and, you know, connect with them in a different way. And I think also giving them the packet like this. We had a baby first year program and all of these women mostly coming. We're moms. And if they were going to be having a baby now, they knew about our baby's first year program or particular products that we really like that we wanted to showcase. That would make them think, Oh, I want that. I want to get that product. And so he created a designer for them to wanna hire us. Enjoy, always gave somebody a free portrait session to have somebody came, want a free portrait session altogether, not just the certificate toward part of credits. So that right there, then that person would share those pictures with all of those people who were there, like Oh, yeah, I remember Jules is what she did for us, so it really did. Rather than creating any kind of animosity or or being threatened or some kind of competition for us, it just created new, a totally new client base, and the thing that came out of it for us with that Ah, lot of photographers. We impeaching the class over and over. Like Joyce said, I would almost time before lunch, so people would then say the US You know, my clients have been asking about that, too, like I want to teach a class. So I what I ended up doing what's making available, then for photographers. So if you also want to teach the class, you could buy the kid and the kid comes with a keynote presentation that you can either just use the way that it is. But I think the goal would be to slot in a lot of your own images. So then, as you're teaching the course and people are seeing your work up on the screen and seeing like, oh, I see how she did that and those are beautiful and then there are a lot of other pieces in the kit itself, about marketing. We use a postcard and I template ties did so you could just slot your images and the language is already there. And what else is in that kid? There's the postcard template. There's a lot of marketing ideas on how to partner with other businesses. There's an evaluation for your group. There's an outline on bears, I think some images of ours to show how the party loved what to do for a party, ideas of marketing. And then the e book that we used yesterday that we had printed out for the moms to follow along in the class comes is just a free addition. If you purchased the kid so and then there's we have a promo is happening today for them. So we have one more slide. Oh, okay. Would it end with this inspiration? Any questions you just mentioned that you haven't evaluation form, and it just got me wondering. But I've been thinking about it myself. Do you ever use, like Surveymonkey or something? And after you've had an event sent out a survey to all the people that begin, this is what would you think of our survey or not? What you think of our event? What did you like? What Didn't you like? What would you like to see us do in the future? Do you ever try doing that You get? Do you ever answer this? I say I'm not a big survey fans. I do occasionally if it was something that was interesting or e if I had a really strong especially if they've given me a reason. If I get free, Swagel always answer it. That is not a bad idea. Like you go on stage on your on your receipt. Still be. Go answer a few questions and come back and get a free movie. I have yet to do it, but I'm holding on to that e done it. It's rewarding. Okay, go ahead. You know, I was just but I think that's a But I have not done that. We do the evaluations right there because I wanted immediate feedback of how they feel about the class. Was it too technical? Too creative. Would you like to have your own class which often lead to the next class? We've taught this class I don't know. 15 times one year was insane. And the and you just don't let the people out of the room. Yeah, right. But I like the idea of following up with them with the survey and perhaps a bonus gift. You know, if you $50 off your order, if you fill out this survey and come in, I think the reason why something like that maybe would work is like normally, I am opposed to surveys. And I don't like getting stories, like if you fill us at the end, you get a price. But because they've met you and then they have a personal question. Oh, it's Michael. Okay. And then they don't feel like maybe maybe there isn't really a prize or something, E. I never got the cruise. I would like to win an IPad if you feel it like ridiculously, you know. But I think they have already made the genuine connection with you. Then it would be easier to approach them and again urged casually like not like, not like radio buttons, where you like, like you could very, very what it is. It would give you a reason to contact that. So I think it's not a bad idea to has anyone here held moms of cameras Workshop. I wanted to come here. Mostly God, I just I just started doing this right before I heard about your workshop and it's so fun. And some of the feedback from yesterday that I wanted to say was that I feel like some of the moms that have come to me have taken classes and they'll pay $400 to take a camera class, and it'll just be somebody up there with their pictures with their settings and no explanation. And it's more just about Look how great I am a photographer and I really appreciate it. How you really work teaching people, you know, it wasn't just thank you. I'm a great photographer. It was here, some great images. I checked, but this is how he did it. And this is why you would use this and why, you know, because I think there's a lot especially for women. When I was first going out there and starting to learn. It's very intimidating all those terms and, you know, and to have it in a comfortable environment where people are just kind of sitting around chatting and it's so much more accessible. I think you know than a classroom with That's true, And that's why I think, especially because way invite our client to invite her friends so they already all know each other. So it's like you said they do. It tends to foster more conversation and more like helping each other because we're in a living room and we're having wine that way. It's very chatty on through some, like I can't find that setting up. Give me the camera. Oh, this is what that is And it it does tend to feel a little bit more and again. It helps you to foster genuine relationships and let your personality come through way have had one at the studio, but we have couches there, and we tried really hard to make it that way. We create the couch that mixed clients way one of the studio. We made it more open, and we just emailed all our clients say, Hey, we're doing this if you want to come And some of the clients knew each other, but that one was was more mixed. But by the end, because we try to make it really congenial, they had created a little friendship group. I was doing a monthly class. I was like, leading it. And I was developing curriculum for it, like, you know, as I was going kind of unaware that my kids being tiny and everything, but we were actually meeting at at a restaurant that one of my students was like the floor manager at this restaurant. They had a banquet room and we just reserved the banquet room. We did there had drinks and and it just remember it did draw a lot of attention, and I just I gave it up because it just was too much for one person. So and it was just not I was organizing it as I was going along. So yes, helpful to have a host for sure. Yeah. Did you? You held a monthly class with the same group, everything group, so we were sort of moving forward. I'm there because that's an interesting idea. I have had people ask me that. I mean, like, a weekly thing, and because it's a lot of information. And if you truly new at it like I was telling how a lot of times we get to the parts of other media ring or hits a grand like it's just, you know, how all that works together, I think, is the hardest place to explain. It is truly like learning a new language. Really. Give him a book to walk away with you have you have True you have your information, Yeah. Do you ever tailor it to do you kind of find out what the level of the group is? And then maybe I haven't done that. If something's pain and they asked, making like E E do they ever live like Do you have them shoot wear, then that before we've toyed with that idea, I think that that's another kind of cost all together. And I think something like that would lend itself more toe a weekly kind of thing. So you could say, this week we're talking about aperture. Let's go and experiment with that actually started that way instead, so I wouldn't say Okay, everybody said, you're you know, after I started with the aperture mode just so they could understand what it after was and how it had, you know, shoot along the wall and then change. It started a big afternoon, changed a small aperture and so they can see. And it's so fun because they're like, Oh, yeah, I think photography is so kinetic that a lot of times when you do it, you can say Oh, that's what that gave assignments after every e I think I think that's a great idea. We would crit, we would critique, right? You know all the assignment, and I think God knows that that's that's a much different group because if you have the same group following you, each bank in the bigger commitment, it is a bigger commitment. But also it's not like building a bigger client base, right. There's always an actual class. There's a teacher in your class in this one. I would is more of getting a group of moms together, friends together, And they haven't evening where they overall look at their feeling of and now could use them a little near Yeah, it's not necessarily that they're going to get this thorough, thorough, true, and not everyone can commit to something. Everything so well I could. That's why I think myself included. Yeah, exactly. It's there, so it's something to think about it, and then there's not one that's right or wrong to free the first group of photographers that you've presented this to the moms of cameras Workshop? Yeah, the actual work. I know that you sell it, but, like, have you ever had any? No, no. Where your I don't think so. We never, like taught in front of other photographers because, I mean, it's just it's like a fledgling mln, basically, you know, like a multi level marketing where we sell, you know, you sell that we sell, sell it for you like that. What? One last thing before we go toe. I know now we're over time. But as far as what grows out of what you do with, say, a workshop like this, I think you could let that happen. Like if you were like, I really like educating. And I think that having a weekly class or having assignments would be really fun. And it's a good reason for clients to keep coming back. And I I think your client is would grill because people would hear about it. Or maybe that's what you do, and people can sign up. And maybe even that class itself could be a little income stream for you and you know what else to is? Teaching will make you a much better photographer. If you have to teach the subject, reaches searching a lot and figure it out. So if you make that a challenge for yourself to teach a 11 class even if you are a great photographer, you're gonna start brushing up on making sure, Like, what does that stop start a lot of different cameras. Thio Thio for my class, I decided kind of deliberately. I didn't want to make it that about specific camera, especially because they were changing all the time. And I had started from film and just basically like just the I S o f stop shutter speed how they work together. And I felt like for a one, a one course just to get those basics down was sort of the core. And I didn't want to delve into different brands or different kinds of how one button is this way, and one button is that way. I figured that for just this particular class to have the core covered. That's what I wanted to say as faras your teaching it and you have somebody that has, you know, a night, huh? You and they don't know. Yeah, that's true. Do your That's a good point. Yeah, I did learn a lot about my kind. Any last questions? Are we at a time where I think we're a little over time? Much smells a little bit of inspiration. What is something you wish you had done differently? Starting out, there's a new mom or a new photographer. I wish I would have realized how enjoyable family talk or you could be. I think that it wasn't until I really put my own family together, that I recognized something that was missing all along the most. For they are the relationships in my life, including my daughter, of course. And I am not my business. I am not defined by my business. E. I had a dream of owning my own business and having the freedom and flexibility to be a great mom and do what I love all day. If I had known how much fun that really is, I would have definitely done it sooner. It wouldn't have hurt. Have known how wonderful family photography is. A genre could have been much earlier. You feel lost right now, doesn't mean you're lost. It just blows my mind how sensitive the state of our home is to us as moms and how we really are the heart of the home.