Day 2: Jasmine Star at Creative Live














Here is the note from Day 2.

Conducting a client meeting

  • the idea is to let people know about you as much as possible before they show up.
  • How it works:

    • Initial contact: my website to my blog. Want to show them who I am to avoid mismatch later on.
    • Client meeting:

      • I prefer skype interview.
      • 2-2.5 years met at Starbucks. After start charging $5500, meet at studio.
      • Create a conservation. Not a monologue.
      • We are interested.
      • How you guys met? I want to know about the sub-story. The sub-sub-story. That's how I know about the clients.
      • I never let the clients know that this is a jasmine show.
      • In 25 minutes, I never said a thing on how I shoot. The awards I won.
      • explain the importance of engagement session
      • Discuss wedding photography

    • Who is your client:

      • What is the age? Shows she watches. Shoes she wears.



workflow and outsourcing

  • My first wedding I opened each of the pics in photoshop too... never again
  • I didn't get into photography to be a professional lightroomer.
  • What do I want:

    • Shoot, write + be happy.
    • Found ways to do only what I loved by outsourcing:

      • bookkeeping
      • accounting
      • post processing
      • print fulfillment
      • album design (here


      • Instead of waiting for them to ask the questions
      • The 25 questions are usually the same.
      • i.e.What do I wear at the wedding? I already have a photo of me at the wedding.
      • i.e.What's you style? If they are asking your style you aren't doing a good job showing it
      • Educate your client in advance




Marketing

  • Opportunity. Opportunity, Opportunity. Opportunity to be me.
  • I have no secret. I want to lose to the best person.
  • I believe in creating an opportunity for me to be me, so you can be you.
  • Social networking
  • Community

    • OSP/The B school
    • Google Calendar
    • Vendor Promotion: how do you find way to make other people successful
    • Networking is "What can U do for me? Net-making is "How can I help U?"

  • Image

    • Anything that is online
    • Your website is the big thing.

      • Free template website
      • roadblock
      • custom or template website

    • Website changed everything
    • starting point
    • know what you want
    • Have a critical eye
    • If it is easy, lame, cheap and cheesy, don't do it.
    • Do it wrong. Just do something. Then you know what works and not.

  • You
  • Finding my way:

    • My blog: document my way to fail
    • Had 2 readers for a very very long time.
    • The more you write, the more you put out on the web, the higher your search-ability.

  • First wedding
  • web side shows

    • The 12 bride maids powering the first j* power squad
    • I firmly believe that web slideshows are J* commercials starring my clients

  • Price factor


  • Finding a photographic style aesthetic + voice.
  • Understanding the why then become the why.
  • process of dissection

    • figuring out the how
    • figuring the why

  • How the photo was taken?
  • Natural lit. Relax posing. Confident subject.
  • Art of confidence
  • It's not about the nose. It's about emotion.
  • How to create confident subjects

    • I'm about to piss you off...
    • vision execution is my responsibility.
    • acting as the director of photography.

      • putting people at ease
      • create conversation


  • How to pre-visualize

    • Think of idea in advance
    • Sketch on a notepad
    • Collect magazine ads
    • Create actions for your clients
    • Tell a story to narrate ideas
    • Practice in advance



The permission to feel beautiful

  • She wants to be here and he wants to be there for her.
  • Between you and me, you are gorgeous. And he thinks you are gorgeous.
  • Let me feel how beautiful you are.



  • Staying in control on the wedding day:

    • Communication: 6 weeks before the wedding to go over the time line.
    • First look: tell them the advantages.



Other interesting quote:

  • By coming to my workshop, you will not leave with a brand.
  • Your brand is prompt email responses. your brand is taking care of your clients.
  • I'm business on top, party on the bottom.
  • I have a firm believer that no homy hook up, 'cause things get weird.
  • Your brand is showing your clients you care.
  • I know who I am and it's my job to show you who I am
  • how you love is first depicted in your love story
  • I dont have blue ribbons above my bed
  • I tell girls: If you feel beautiful, you shoot beautifully
  • Brides that it is an advantage to work with my husband
  • .. we sync cameras. I am all about syncing cameras ...
  • [Tell JD] Keep it on P Mode! I give you P Mode!
  • Be nice. That's a big thing
  • 1600 ISO - that's your best friend
  • If you screw up on your first wedding, it is OOOOK.
  • Want your pictures to be the first experience the bride has of photography from her wedding day!
  • I am controlling her emotion before she see all the photos.
  • waiting for the P.S..... the family photos sucks.
  • You can control the emotions if you want to.
  • When you talk about branding, it is an experience.
  • The closer the pictures are to the moment, the stronger the emotional connection.
  • The more people drink the better my photos look!
  • What works for me, may not work for you.. It's totally about YOU.
  • I have opinions on opinions.
  • Shut up. Let them dictate the conversation.
  • If the client doesn't want to talk on the phone, I don't talk on the phone.
  • If it ain't broke don't fix it. it's organic more than structured.
  • If you [the client] don't have time to respond, then you are looking for a photographer, not me.
  • Does it sound diva...absolutely... I want you to want me
  • I never dismiss everybody
  • I'm an equal opportunist. You know that Pretty Woman moment? Yeah.
  • I'm trying to not burn dinner...
  • If everything you're doing isn't what you want, then find a way to let it go.
  • Making decisions to be happy results in happiness, it's that simple.
  • What the heck? I'm gonna baptize you with my SPIT!
  • I'm all about hand written notes.
  • VANILLA. I'm simple. Come back and get the same thing every time.
  • Under promise and over deliver
  • Preparation meets opportunity
  • Show me an industry that hasn't changed in 10 years and I'll show you an industry that is dying.
  • Cubicle cuti
  • My mom read my blog and maybe JD if he was bored at work
  • We love the underdog stories.
  • Word of mouse. This spread my name more than traditional advertising.
  • Even if you are in the bottom, be the top of the bottom.
  • I had all these friends online, but I didn't have any friends in real life.
  • You're stronger as a unit than individually.
  • Three wolves are stronger than one wolf.
  • If people don't want to be around you, you walk away.
  • You give me the shoulder i give you the palm!
  • You feel only what you let others make you feel
  • Back then, no one would hire me because I only had a blog.
  • Personality on the web is like jaaaaazz hands!!!
  • There is always something that goes wrong!
  • I could never look at the bride and say U r running late!
  • clients know what to expect because you told them what to expect
  • its not the clients job to be creative, its ur job to make them look good!
  • "Bount."
  • Get up and get uncomfortable
  • If you can shoot in a septic tank and make it work, you can shoot anything!!
  • Whatever...make it work!
  • Part of getting an evangelist is teaching them how to talk about you.
  • Got a flat tire? Just means I get a new tire!
  • It's the photographers job to make them FEEL it, not the client.
  • Give your bride permission to feel beautiful
  • I'll do it to make her happy
  • You can't run a marathon without running the first mile
  • The minute they invest in you, they have ownership in the shoot
  • everyone loves differently
  • again, if i said something to piss you off, i'm sorry
  • Hold yourself to a higher standard to make your clients feel *amazing*
  • You are the Director of Photography. You have to make it work
  • Be you. Don't fake the funk!
  • If u want confident subjects, u have 2 understand the art of making them FEEL confident
  • everything happens in life for a reason
  • The quickest way to perfection is through procrastination
  • shake what your mama gave you
  • If your website is not helping you its detouring you
  • I am not a wall flower. I am wall paper.
  • everything in life happened for a reason.
  • I have too much proud to take a tissue.
  • We work with un-professionals. It's our job to make them professionals.
  • We are the editor. We control the brand.
  • re-invent themselves.
  • This is who I am at this point in time.
  • Do things that you can add value. That's the only way other vendors will give you the time of the day.


Note from day one can be found here.

1 comment:

  1. I'm trying to find this workshop on Creative Live. She's given too many...I can't figure out which one these notes reference! Can you help me out? I'd love to hear her talk about her workflow.

    ReplyDelete