Building a Dream Photography Business with Gavin Wade

#398 Discover how to streamline your photography business, save time and money, and provide the best client experience with CloudSpot Studio and its features in this episode of The Beginner Photography Podcast with host Raymond Hatfield and guest Gavin Wade.

Today I chat with Gavin Wade, the CEO of CloudSpot, the game-changing online gallery platform for photographers. We had an insightful conversation about streamlining your booking process to enhance your creativity and be better prepared for successful wedding shoots. One key takeaway is the importance of having a strong brand and infusing it into every interaction with clients. We also delved into the powerful features of CloudSpot Studio, a client relationship manager specifically designed for photographers. By using this platform, you can access instant client information, stay organized, and provide exceptional service. Discover how to save time, improve your client experience, and build your dream photography business with CloudSpot Studio.

THE BIG IDEAS

• Preparation Builds Creative Confidence: The more prepared you are—both mentally and logistically—the better you can focus on creativity rather than firefighting unexpected issues.
• Organization Drives Professionalism: Staying organized with tools and processes enhances your perceived professionalism and improves your client’s trust from first contact to photo delivery.
• Experience Starts Before the Camera: Your client’s journey is shaped from their first email through to the booking and planning process. A smooth experience leads to happier clients and better referrals.
• Simplifying Workflow Reduces Burnout: Implementing efficient systems saves time, removes chaos, and gives you clarity and confidence as your photography business grows.

Links and Resources:
Sign up for a free CloudSpot Studio account and get my Wedding and Portrait Questionnaires, and Wedding and Portrait Contracts for free -
http://deliverphotos.com/

Sign up for your free CloudSpot Account today at www.DeliverPhotos.com

Connect with Raymond!

• Join the free Beginner Photography Podcast Community at https://beginnerphotopod.com/group
• Get your Photo Questions Answered on the show - https://beginnerphotopod.com/qa
• Grab your free camera setting cheatsheet - https://perfectcamerasettings.com/

Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Transcript

Gavin Wade: 0:00

If there are any barriers to your client, being able to get there with you in terms of booking, then it just translates into more time and effort on your part to see it through. So you send that contract. She gets it in her inbox. She opens it up on her phone. Wow. That looks great. Scroll, scroll, scroll. E sign right there. Done. They get a confirmation, use the retirement. Oh, great. They just booked it. Again, you clicked two buttons off. It went and everything just cascaded and took care of itself. So the next step that they received was great. Now they're going to pay their invoice again, online, on their phone easily. They can pay via credit card or they can pay via, ACH bank transfer. It's the next step after they signed that contract, then boom, you get an email saying they paid and you get those funds into your bank account within two days.

Raymond Hatfield: 0:45

Hey, welcome to episode 398 of the beginner photography podcast. I'm your host, Raymond Hadfield. And today we are chatting with wedding photographer turned man on a mission to help the world's photographers, Gavin Wade, about how to streamline the booking process to be better prepared and ergo more creative. Now, Gavin is the CEO of CloudSpot, the online gallery platform for photographers to easily sell, and send their work. your photos. And if you've heard any episode of the podcast, over the last year or so, I know that you've heard me say welcome to the beginner photography podcast brought to you by cloud spot. Now, what does that mean? Gavin does not own the beginner photography podcast. He doesn't hear episodes before they're released. the beginner photography podcast is still 100 percent me, bringing you guests who share inspirational and practical information about photography. And that's it. but there's this saying, and maybe you've heard it before, you bet on the jockey and not the horse. And here's the thing to get to the level that CloudSpot is at. You look at CloudSpot and you look at all the competitors around CloudSpot delivering photos to clients. All of those horses are really good. And on paper, sometimes it's hard to choose which one to invest or bet on. But when I first spoke with Gavin for the first time, I mean, I heard what he's doing with CloudSpot. And I heard the vision that he has for the company. I knew that he was the jockey that I was going to place all my chips on. I mean, their motto, empowering photographers. It's not just lip service. Over the past, I don't know, four years or so that I've been with them, I've seen CloudSpot do that with my own eyes. Introducing new features and products and options all the time for photographers. Some that aren't even great for their own business, and yet they still do it because it's better for the photographer. And today, you know, they're at it again. Because now they have released CloudSpot Studio, which is their client relationship manager made just for photographers. So I asked Gavin to come back on the podcast and share how once again, they are empowering photographers to save more time and earn more money too. But I gotta let you know, this is not just a commercial. There's a lot of great info here. Even if you don't use CloudSpot Studio, which I don't know why you're not, but, specifically about how Gavin breaks down the entire booking process step by step, which you need to look out for and what to avoid, which is super valuable if you're just getting started. Because even though, you know, you've gone through booking processes before as a consumer, you never really think about it. like a business owner, until you're kind of in that role. So when he breaks that down again, super helpful. And guess what? If you stick around to the end, I may have something not. I definitely have something special that well, honestly, I cannot believe that Gavin is letting me do this. but it is only for you, my beautiful photo friends. So stick around to after the interview to find out what it is. And let's just say that portrait and wedding photographers gonna love it. You're gonna love it. So with that, let's go ahead and get on into today's interview with Gavin Wade. Gavin, normally I start off with a question of when did you know that photography was going to play an important role in your life? this is now your third time on the podcast, I believe, right? Three? Okay. Yeah. Third time on the podcast. So, I'm going to start a little bit different and, because today's, conversation is going to be focused around obviously CloudSpot studio and all the new features that it has, which is really exciting. This is going to be a little bit more business focused, for new photographers. So to start off, I want to know, because last time you were on, you told me that you had shot hundreds of weddings, 400 plus weddings. before opening up the doors to CloudSpot, I want to know what was the key to having a successful wedding day for you? What could you do before the wedding to set up the wedding so that it was, successful?

Gavin Wade: 4:48

Preparation, as you're alluding to, is, is everything. Knowing as much as we could about the variables, because on a wedding day, There are so many unknowns. I would call the known unknowns, is what we wanted to make sure we had a clear picture of so that we could plan accordingly. I'm, you know, gear and stuff aside, charge your batteries, make sure your sensors are clean, make sure your lenses are prepped, ready to go, like all of that set aside the night before, right? Cards are formatted, protein bars are in the pack, like everything that normal, normal marathon wedding day prep stuff. but. I would always lay awake in my first year, just sweating buckets going round and round in my head about, okay, what if this happens? What if that happens? I don't know the situation, like, what if I can't control this, what if I can't control that? So those, known unknowns is what we tried to have as much visibility to as possible. Now the unknown unknowns, that's where your experience, that's where your training, That's where just experience comes into play. Absolutely. But I would say it was really, once we started worrying less about the technical aspects of, could I get the shot, but more on how would I get the shot that started taking a lot of the pressure off. So not having to worry about shutter speed, ISO, trying to like, not freak out in front of my clients, as I'm trying to fiddle with settings, just to get my exposure. Correct. Or my white balance dialed in that is what changed everything. So the night before we would have a questionnaire from our clients. So we would go through that questionnaire ourselves. Then we'd set up a meeting with the clients. We talked through with them again, trying to check off all those boxes of the unknown unknowns and turn them into known unknowns at worst, but gaining that. Timeline gaining that clarity, setting those expectations with our clients as well, because a lot of times we put so much pressure on ourselves that perhaps our clients don't even put pressure on, you know, Oh, I don't care about this particular shot and we can be just like pulling our hair out the night before thinking about it. So communication. Preparation. And then we have that shot list because we have that questionnaire ready to go. And it's laying right on top of our bag before we leave. And it's in, and we had two copies through husband and wife team. So one was in my camera bag. One was in her camera bag and off we went. So you're always going to have butterflies. I don't, I don't think the butterflies ever went away, but what helped me sleep at night after year one was in all of that preparation and being a hundred percent confident. And the gear that I had and knowing what to use and how to use it so I could focus on creating a great experience for my clients, which ultimately is what they cared about and what we wanted to make sure gave us that longevity in our business.

Raymond Hatfield: 7:34

I know, early on for me, one of the things that I struggled with was, not confidence, but, showing. The client that I knew what I was doing, right? Like there's this air of professionalism that you try to put on especially in those early days Like, literally for my first wedding not that I tried to put on that I was this big wedding photographer But at least show them that I had experience even though this was the first time I was shooting it solo That I booked it for myself that when I asked them I was like, where are you guys getting married? They named a church and I was like, oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, you know I know where that is and then I wrote it down the name of the church You And then when I went to Google it, there was like nine churches with the exact same name. And I thought to myself, how do I get out of this one, right? How do I, I feel like if I ask them, it's going to look as though I have no idea what I'm doing and it's going to put a ton of doubt into them. So thinking at your level, did you have to worry about at all, worry about any of that when you sent out a questionnaire asking these questions and then follow up with another call just to confirm all these things and, go deeper into that? a worry of yours at all?

Gavin Wade: 8:37

That's really funny, by the way, we've painted ourselves into a couple of corners like that in the past, but what we did on the questionnaire is we said, look, can you please confirm the address of the reception and the wedding venue location and where they're getting ready? So, thankfully, kind of backstopped ourselves a little bit there. But no, there's sometimes. Sometimes we forget a name. It is embarrassing that it is like I'm a bridesmaid or of a mother or something like that. But I hear you, you always wanna make sure that you're appearing unflappable for your clients because confidence instills confidence. So again, like I said, you can be freaking out silently behind the camera, like, oh guys, yeah, just one second. Let me adjust something. And you're like, come on, camera, start up, or Come on reset, or come on lens. Like actually do the thing you're supposed to do. That happened multiple times. That, that's inevitable because that's life.

Raymond Hatfield: 10:09

Yeah, it's hard. like you said, it's a difficult balance of, trying to show that, you know, what it is that you're doing so that they feel comfortable but still being able to ask enough questions so that, you get the information that you need. So I appreciate that. Yeah. The preparation was always, I found most important as well, even though I find that I do best when I show up, see my situation. understand the constraints that I'm in, then I can freely create within that. Being prepared was always important to me so that I didn't show up and have no idea what I was doing or anything like that. Questionnaires were obviously a big, important thing for you. And I know that today getting a questionnaire, isn't rocket science, but even just, I guess, eight years ago or so when I had, first really started, investing in the business, and I had, purchased 17 hats, just the idea of being able to send out questionnaires and invoices and stuff and be able to keep all that in one place was really important. Did you guys have a similar tool or what were you using at the time to, collect this information from your clients?

Gavin Wade: 11:09

We did, we invested in a platform called shoot queue back then, which has been through a few iterations and not exactly quite sure where it's at these days, but it was the thing where we ingested. Your client information, we sent out our contracts, we got paid through the invoices and we, automated questionnaires going out just to get us that, info a couple of weeks out. And then we would of course, manually follow up schedule time to chat with the clients via FaceTime or. Uh, on the phone, and then then just kind of go through it together. So no, it was instrumental in allowing us to check those boxes. Cause you know, if you have a triple header wedding coming up,

Raymond Hatfield: 11:45

Oh my gosh.

Gavin Wade: 11:46

how are you going to prepare for that? You can't just do it on the fly. Otherwise, you're just asking for trouble. So, okay, then we're scheduling these three calls with these clients as we can before their weddings, right? We're making sure that we're clear on, okay, it's this on this day, that on that day. This thing to keep in mind on this situation, right? And, you know, Uncle John can't sit next to aunt Bernice during the family photos or whatever, because they're going to tear each other's hair out. Like all those things are relevant and important. And so thankfully, we didn't have to keep it all in our heads. And it was in those questionnaires.

Raymond Hatfield: 12:18

did you do before you invested in a tool to keep everything organized? Was it just pen and paper?

Gavin Wade: 12:22

We didn't even do it. Oh, really? It's embarrassing. There was no in between. It was completely flying by the seat of our pants and then getting our act together there. At the time, there was no in between. We would meet with them. We would talk with them on the phone, but I'd be like, Hey, is there anything you need us to know? And it was literally family portraits would be like, Hey, just tell us who you need on the day. Like assign someone to bring us the groups of folks. But we didn't know how long it would take. We didn't know how many shots it was. Yeah, it was very, very unorganized. And that was to our detriment for sure. Probably why I had some of those sleepless nights.

Raymond Hatfield: 13:00

Yeah. Well, like you said, I mean, really the service that it is that you're providing. So going by the seat of your pants and. We all know that the brain isn't the best, place to store and, you know, retrieve information, all the time. So having just those systems to be able to, put that into place, stay organized is super important to show that level of service. But like I said, so when I had first signed up for 17 hats and you had used the shoot queue at the time, there wasn't many options to choose from in terms of staying organized, especially for photographers that weren't like some sort of enterprise class, huge, system. But today there are a lot of options. and on top of that. Like I mentioned, CloudSpot Studio, it's here. It is time you are diving into the world of, creating a CRM for photographers. So can you tell me. A little bit about what CloudSpot Studio is, and I know that CloudSpot's tagline is empowering photographers, tell me how CloudSpot Studio is going to do that.

Gavin Wade: 13:55

Absolutely. First and foremost, CloudSpot was created through a means just to scratch my own itch as it relates to image delivery. And over the last eight years since we've. Opened it up to allow other photographers to hopefully buy back their time a little bit in their workflow and create cool experiences for their clients and save themselves that time. We've just been getting feedback and we've been seeing the industry change. We've been seeing the needs of photographers and the bottlenecks in their business shift and move back and forth, whether it be, world. Events that are taking place that are causing their businesses to adjust or just the industry at large. It's been always my favorite part to hear how we can help photographers and CloudSpot Studio began first and foremost. By listening to what other photographers who are on this journey of growing their business truly needed right here, right now, and the feedback that we were getting some of the words that we were hearing over and over was overwhelmed. Expensive. Intimidating, confusing, disjointed, all in one, like, just, things that you and I were like, yep, yep, yep, been there, filmed that, I bought that t shirt, but these, you know, our photographers were Asking for something that could simplify their life without compromising the experience that they gave their clients. In fact, not just only, compromising, but elevating that experience. So making their lives behind the scenes easier on the photography side. But not sacrificing the quality that their clients got. And like we were talking about, not wanting your clients to feel like we didn't have our stuff together. And whether it was my first wedding or my 100th wedding, the feeling that they got, the experience that they received was something that I can be proud of. And so this feedback never ended quite honestly. And so it got to such a point that I just Went to the class about team and said, guys, there's a problem. What are we going to do about it? we can choose to do nothing and stay in our lane, or we can choose to take action, but not just for the sake of taking action, there needs to be purpose. There needs to be a reason as to why we're going to go after this. And it needs to be in a different way. So that it can help people get there faster. And so we got down to work, but there was two things we knew that Cloud Spot Studio was not going to be. It was not going to be expensive or an extra cost. And it also wasn't going to take more of the revenue of a photographer's business than absolutely necessary in the form of fees and processing, payments, because those fees are going up, it's just a lot of people say it's the cost of doing business, but you know what, if you can hold on to a few extra dollars every single time that that adds up and we know that, so I wanted CloudSpot studio specifically. To pay for itself many times over, not just in the value brought to the photographers, but the actual true dollars and cents. And so that was our core mission going into building this. And then, you know, the CloudSpot team had to figure it out together. We figured it out. Uh, and so, and so here we are. And so our goal is to allow photographers to run their entire business. And their entire client experience from one single platform and create less stress for them, save them time and allow them to build the business of their dreams without getting. Nickel and dimed, whether it be in monthly subscriptions or in fees. And so here we are at long last.

Raymond Hatfield: 17:24

Oh my gosh. Yeah. all of those things add up, the different platforms, the different fees, the monthly, the yearly, the annual, the, all those things, it can be difficult to navigate that because sometimes you invest in something and there's something else that comes along and. offers, whatever it now combines two things. And now you want to switch to that, but you already, you know, invested all your time into this thing. And that can be difficult. But I appreciate that approach so much of like, how can we, help and how can we do it in a way that's going to be effective and not just to throw something out there, But I want to know, so obviously, we mentioned CRM, CRM standing for customer relation manager, customer relationship manager, And really I found in my business, it helped a lot with the booking process. and then the after process as well, all about the preparation and all the business stuff that I hated to do. But for the purpose of this podcast, for the purpose of this episode, there's a lot of photographers who, you know, they are going from zero to one. They've, only shot family and friends. They've only shot, stuff like that. And they're keeping all the information down on a piece of paper as they go, as you said, flying by the seat of their pants. So from your perspective, what is an organized and more structured professional way of booking a client? What is the three, four, five steps that it takes to go from, Oh, this is a person who is interested in me to now we're at the park together and we're going to shoot and they're going to pay me money for this?

Gavin Wade: 18:53

I think first and foremost, Your brand needs to be up front and center. So The gap between good and great photos is narrowing and I've always said clients not necessarily can decipher between the difference between good and great, probably good and bad or a style that they like or don't like, but selling yourself on the technical aspects of why your photos are better. We'll fall flat on a non photographer set of ears. What your clients care about is the experience and their clients care about, Hey, look, they're trusting you. So you are the one that they are investing in. So it's your brand. It is who you are, that they have come to know, like, know, and trust, before booking you. So that experience, that brand should carry through from start to finish from. Obviously hitting your website, which is where your brand does that initial handshake through saying, yes, let's go and meet. Yes. Let's secure this date. Yes. Let's pay this invoice. Yes. Let's do the dang thing on the photo shoot day. So Branding crucial that doesn't mean go spend thousands and thousands of dollars on creating a brand. Their brand is you. A logo is a logo, but the brand is you. So having something that you can infuse your brand into, is going to give you that confidence every time you mash that button to send something to them to read, to sign, to pay. So again, helping you sleep better at night. That's one thing. Second, on your side, as your business starts to scale. We photographers, and I always joke with the team that photographers will put up with a lot of work, as long as it doesn't translate into a lot of work for their clients. However, just because you were willing to do it doesn't mean you should have to do it. So something that allows you to buy back your time a little bit and help your brain stay a little bit more organized is crucial. And you know, one shoot, okay, not necessarily important to shoots. Sure. I can juggle three. I can spend a few plates, no problem. But once it starts getting there and you have multiple things that start adding up, which is a good problem to have, then you don't want to be all of a sudden finding yourself in the middle of 5, 000 posts and notes on your desk with three different Google docs and five Excel sheets. And you're trying to make heads or tails of what you've got going on, how much you're earning, what comes next. Et cetera. I mean, we could snowball for days on all of that. But what that translates into is uncertainty and a lack of clarity for you as the business owner. And so something that gives you that clarity, if you can step up to your computer and go, okay, I know what I got to do. I know how to do it for, and I know what I'm sometimes more importantly, not going to do today because I don't need to worry about it quite yet. And what's the status of X, Y, and Z? Did client A pay their invoice? Did client B answer the questionnaire? Did client C even look at the contract after I sent it to them? And did client, D view their gallery after I sent them the photos? Did they like it? Did they want to buy prints? So you can see, like, as you start getting different clients at different, Points along the way of their journey with you, you're going to need to have touch points and need to have instant access to see what's going on there. So you can learn and you can serve the better. So those things become crucial very quickly. And what happens is photographers often. Don't realize that out of the gate and then they get caught and like, Oh my gosh, I all of a sudden have to do all of these things all at once. And it sounds like I need three different platforms in order to accomplish all of it. So not only do I have to do it like yesterday, but I have to learn all of these things in my copious amounts of free time of all these various platforms. And I've got to pony up the cash to do it. So. I mean, hello, like we are humans, and you only have so many hours of the day. So all of that translates into disorganization, burnout, chaos, and inevitably impacts your client experience and that confidence level.

Raymond Hatfield: 22:50

want to know how CloudSpot Studio, attacks that problem, right? So with the, organization, with the knowing exactly what it is that we got to do. Let's say, somebody, um, Um, sends me an email says, Hey Raymond, your friend Lindsey, said that you shot their photos and that she loved them. And she told me to reach out to you about possibly shooting some family photos for us, what's next. How does cloud spot studio from that point, help us to book this client and get in front of them so that we, start shooting.

Gavin Wade: 23:21

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. As much as I'd love it to, you can't exactly, it can't exactly sell them, you know, without your personal touch. So you would reach out, you would connect, you would establish that. like, no trust fly well on the cloud spot studio side of things, you can write out of the gate, create what we call a project. And those are essentially the overarching umbrella buckets in which all the other moving parts of their particular shoot, would entail. So let's say they go, Hey, great. you meet for coffee, reach out on the phone that we love your portfolio. We absolutely want to lock in this date with you. fantastic. You know, I can't wait. So excited. You get right back home, you hop in cloud spot studio, you create a project with their name on it. And then within that project, you can create contracts, you can create invoices, and you can even create. questionnaires. And so that contract, you can leverage templates that you've already used for other previous clients, or you can create one, you know, on the spot if they're your first client, and then you can save it to reuse for other clients like them. So again, you're doing the work once and then able to leverage that time and time again. Then once you send them the contract, you just send, you send that project out, your client gets an email from your business, right? Beautifully branded email, your logo. Wow, dang, Raymond's got his stuff together. Like, that was fast. We just chatted and all of a sudden I'm getting this professional looking email that sends me to an area to review a contract online and sign and lock things in. Wonderful. That didn't look like DocuSign, that didn't look like HelloSign, it wasn't something that like I had to mail and Scan and fax back or whatever it might be. I

Raymond Hatfield: 24:56

did that, by the way. That was the worst. Yes, I definitely did that. This is wonderful.

Gavin Wade: 25:00

I'm right there with you, man. We actually drove to a client's house one time to pick up the check. it's just one of those situations. cause rent was due on Monday and it was Friday. Uh, good times, but yes. So again, it's all about that convenience factor. if there are any barriers to your client being able to get there with you in terms of booking, paying. All of that, and it just translates into more time and effort on your part to see it through. So you send that contract. She gets it in her inbox. She opens it up on her phone. Wow. That looks great. Scroll, scroll, scroll. E sign right there. Done. They get a confirmation. Use the photographer. Oh, great. They just booked it. Fantastic. Right? Again, you clicked two buttons off. It went and everything just cascaded and took care of itself. Well, you created an invoice relative to that if they were to book it. So the next step that they received was great. Now they're going to pay their invoice again online on their phone easily. They can pay via credit card or they can pay via, ACH bank transfer. It's the next step after they signed that contract, then boom, you get an email saying they paid, they get a receipt and you get those funds into your bank account within two days. No snail mail, no driving to pick up the check, and with lower fees, we'll talk about this a little bit, but with CloudSpot studio, there are lower fees taken out of that transaction than any other platform that you will find as a solo entrepreneur. Like if you go and set up a PayPal account or set up your own Stripe account or do something, you're going to be paying more than if you invoice your clients through CloudSpot studio. Automation and ease of use aside, it's just going to flat out save you money. And then, of course, as the day approaches, you send them a questionnaire. Again, same thing. They're on their phone, they're on their computer, they check a box, they type in an answer, they submit it. And when you log in, Under their project, you see all of these elements exactly where they are at. Their contract was signed. Their invoice is half paid. The other dude is due in a week, right? They get an automatic email reminder. They already answered their questionnaire. Let's check out their responses. Let's print it out. Let's have it in my camera bag. Again, you are clicking in one spot to get a bird's eye view over everything related to that particular shoot. Now, let's say the week before their shoot, you get another referral. You get another shoot. You do the same exact thing. So when you log in now, not only do you just see that one client you booked, you now see both and you get a snapshot of where every single one's status is at. And you can move forward with confidence on exactly what you have to do.

Raymond Hatfield: 27:22

That is so, freeing to think about. Once you start this thing and you send it off, they're going to give you the input that is needed, right? They're going to answer the questionnaires. You don't have to take care of Like you said, driving to somebody's house. You don't have to worry about the, do I have the right information to charge credit cards? Cause it's already built in. You don't have to worry about, Oh, I wonder how many kids they have. I wonder what the oldest one is into. I wonder if, they have any fun games that they like to play together as a family so that I can learn more about them and then make their experience personalized because they. Answer all of that info. And once they do that, you can obviously use that to make, once again, their experience better, and take that workload off of yourself and, I don't know, either shoot more or just enjoy your, free time, which is, wonderful. Watch the, uh, money roll into your bank account. actually, before we move on, just to clarify, Cloud Spot Studio does, does questionnaires. Yeah.

Gavin Wade: 28:15

It does.

Raymond Hatfield: 28:15

Okay. and contracts. Yes. And invoices.

Gavin Wade: 28:19

And invoices. And it's not a payment schedules. Okay. Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield: 28:22

That was, I was going to ask about the multiple payments. and, it sends that all those things out through an email. So does it do reminder emails as well? It does. Okay. And, can you customize all of those things? Okay.

Gavin Wade: 28:33

You can customize everything and save them. So you can save contract templates, invoice templates, questionnaire templates, and you can, of course, modify them slightly. But you don't have to redo that work. And the same thing for those transactional emails, like the reminder emails, the thank you emails. All of that is customizable and saved as well as the template.

Raymond Hatfield: 28:52

Okay, so you don't have to change things like the client's name.

Gavin Wade: 28:55

Not at all. We have smart fields. So essentially, once you build those into the email template, it will inject the relative data and vote for that particular client or shoot without you having to worry about it.

Raymond Hatfield: 29:06

Okay. so literally you have a new client coming up and you're like, well, I got to send him a contract. The email's already written up and it'll use those smart fields to just automatically populate their name. You literally just press send and it'll, take care of that.

Gavin Wade: 29:18

Yes.

Raymond Hatfield: 29:19

Wow. Okay. all right. And then before we go on, just to clarify, I know that CloudSpot has multiple, multiple plans with, the unlimited plan, the pro plan light, and then, free as well. Which tier do you have to be on to start using CloudSpot Studio?

Gavin Wade: 29:34

I'm going back to what we knew we needed to do if we were going to build this thing is we wanted it to be accessible. To anyone and everyone, no matter where they were at in their journey. So going back to the, Oh my gosh, I now have to have and pay for these three different things. Where do I go? That's not what cloud's supposed to do is we are making it available for free on any of our plans. It's included. So if you're on our free plan, I mean, of course there's some limitations, but nothing that would prevent you from doing exactly what we just described. There with your first clients, we're not throwing ourselves in front of their face. It is your brand. It's the hero, no matter what plane you're on, because we want to grow with you. We're not trying to force you into something that your business or yourself is not ready for. But at the same time, we don't want you to feel like you have to sacrifice and choose between look to my clients, get a great experience, or do I have to. Pay for something that I can't afford right now, or, you know, it's not that next step in my business. So we want to be right there with you every step. And then it's available on all the other plans. And that's as your storage needs grow, right? As the number of clients that you have, the number of photos that you take grows, that's when it makes sense to upgrade and go from there.

Raymond Hatfield: 30:41

So. Somebody gets asked to shoot their friends, family photos. And they're like, yeah, sure. So they go out and then they just shoot those photos. Now they have images that they're like, Oh, how do I deliver these to my clients? Should I use Google drive or something else? They listen to the beginner photography podcast. They hear, Oh, maybe I should try a cloud spot and grab a free account, but there's going to be, you know, now if I have to send out contracts and questionnaires in the future and collect payments, that's surely a different thing, but all that's included. And now. If somebody else comes along and they want to book a session, they can go through this whole process of booking them as a client, sending them the contract, sending them the questionnaire, getting that invoice, getting paid, they can do all that for free.

Gavin Wade: 31:24

Absolutely. I'll walk you through every single piece of the client journey that CloudSpot handles for you under one single roof. So it is project management, client management, contracts, invoices, questionnaires, a booking feature, which we're working on now that's coming soon, but you didn't hear that from me, image delivery. So client galleries, high res downloads, and print and product sales directly through the gallery. End to end your entire client experience from booking to delivery and beyond in terms of revenue for you, in terms of sales, in terms of each single step, we've got you covered and it's free and upgrade it when it, fits you best.

Raymond Hatfield: 32:06

Okay, so my next question was going to be how many clients should somebody have while still juggling the paper, information that they get from them and then the different calendars and then the spreadsheets before it makes sense to upgrade to some sort of plan that includes CloudSpot Studio so that they don't have to lose sleep at night wondering, um, Was that this Saturday or next Saturday? Do I have to set my alarm? Did I charge my batteries? What was the client's name? All of those things. But now, there's literally no objection that I can think of for why somebody wouldn't. Sign up for this, just to get started at least. and then start growing from there. Cause that is, as you said, kind of all, all of the tools to get you into this and then let you grow into wherever you need to grow. So, okay. available for free. Tell me about the fees again as well, because this is something that I'm not super familiar with. I know that once you pay for a service payment processors, like that's a separate thing then. You're not taking the payment directly. There's another, company who handles all the credit card information so that you don't have to worry about security and stuff. But then there's fees associated with that. So, talk to me about that as well, because that that's a big thing and those can add up. And the best way to make more money is to save the money that, that you do get.

Gavin Wade: 33:17

Yep. Absolutely. And this is a unique way that we're, going after it. So credit card fees are inevitable. it's just cost of doing business. And the challenge is really finding the fees that are as low as they possibly can be without creating more work for you. And so you're right, CloudSpot is not a payment processor. Like we are not the guy. So we leverage a third party, the best, actually the most. Powerful one, which is called Stripe, under the hood, they power 80 percent of us, small businesses, you just don't know it. So you've used them, but chances are you just haven't seen it. Cause they're a technology company for sure. They're not, a cash cashier company, or it's not, it's not like that when you go to buy a burrito or something, however, so we leverage all of their wonderful technology, all of their security, all of their compliance side of things. And what we do is we just package it up with cloud spots studio invoicing feature. Now. Normally, if you were to go and use them and do it on your own, you would pay their, I guess, sticker fees, right? Like the MSRP, so to speak of, of credit card fees, which is normally 2. 9 percent and 30 cents a transaction. So that is what just comes out of every thing. Every dollar that you process through them is the fee. What we've done is we've gone to them and said, Hey guys, we want to be able to share the load a little bit. And we have so many awesome photographers, that we're going to be sending your way. let's cut a deal, to help everyone. And so they go, okay, great. And so they, they gave us a slightly lower rate. And what we've chosen to do is to pass along that savings and also allow photographers, clients, depending on the method that they choose share that fee a little bit, if they so choose. So I'll tell you what that means. So what it means for photographers is instead of 2. cents a transaction, it will be a flat two and a half percent processing fee. That is the lowest that you will find of any payment processor out there, period, the end. And that was a huge goal for us. Now, when your clients go to pay an invoice through CloudSpot Studio, they're going to see two options. They're going to see the ability to pay via credit card. And if they choose to do that, there's a 2 percent convenience fee assessed with that. And let me just share the why behind that. Historically, If a client wants to pay via credit card and get the miles for their honeymoon in Bora Bora, whatever that means, that means the photographer is bearing the brunt of all of those fees and the responsibility for that credit card transaction and eating that cost. And as a newer photographer, that really adds up. Quickly. and on top of that, you're paying for the platform to have the privilege to pay more in fees. So it just, again, it's a snowballing effect there of taking just a little bite sized nickels and dimes out of every single time that you book in our revenue in your business. So clients can choose to pay via credit card. And if they do to get the points, then you and they are going to share the fees. So that allows you, the photographer to have more money in your pocket and your client knowing, look. Okay. If I'm earning the miles, then convenience fees are always the thing. I can't even renew my driver's license or my registration for my car without a convenience fee type of thing.

Raymond Hatfield: 36:18

Right.

Gavin Wade: 36:19

But they will also have a completely free option to pay as well. And that's through ACH. So if they opt in, you know, I don't need the miles. We're all good. We're just going to fulfill this invoice. They can pay via ACH again, same flat fee to you. and you get paid in the same time period, no matter what it's two days. And that money is in your bank account. Normally with ACH transactions, you have to wait five to seven and likely with credit card transactions, it's about three to five. So we not only. Help you save more in fees. We also get you that money faster. And that's just through the relationships that we have as a platform to be able to pass more of all of that benefits to you.

Raymond Hatfield: 36:56

Well, let me first say that I ran the math while you were talking there and I was listening to you because I wanted to know, I said, how much is that really going to help, right? Like, it seems like we're talking small percentage points here and. For somebody who's shooting a wedding, right? I believe that The Knot came out recently saying that the average price of a wedding was something around 5, 000. A little bit more than that. So if we just take that for a moment, then that means that if we're using the MSRP sticker price, Stripe would take 150 out of every wedding that you shoot. So obviously if you shoot, 20, 30 weddings a year, that is quite a lot of money. But just that tiny percentage point saves you. 25 per wedding. Plus, if you're shooting, say, 30 weddings a year, that's almost 1, 000 that it's saving. Which means, CloudSpot has now paid for itself. in your wedding business. And that was your goal. That was your goal, you said. you wanted CloudSpot to, pay for itself. For it to be a no brainer for a photographer. because clearly it is, benefiting more than it is, costing. And You did it. So congratulations,

Gavin Wade: 37:57

the math says you

Raymond Hatfield: 37:58

did it. That is awesome.

Gavin Wade: 38:00

You know, math, math doesn't lie. And I'll add on top of that, the fact that you don't have to pay for an additional CRM

Raymond Hatfield: 38:06

as

Gavin Wade: 38:07

well, which is 30, 40 a month. So let's tack on another 500 to that savings. In addition to doing what you're already doing. And let's add to the fact that now everything's under one roof. So at a single glance, you End to end, you know, what's up in your business. So let's say 1500 bucks. Let's streamline your workflow. And let's give your clients a better experience while we're at it.

Raymond Hatfield: 38:28

Jeez, that number didn't even fact. Yes, every everywhere else. I remember still when I typed in my credit card information to sign up for 17 hats for the first time, I thought to myself, I was so nervous because one, I knew that that was going to be a lot of work, like to learn this new thing, because this was a platform I had never even used before. And on top of that, It was quite expensive, especially for where I was at in my business at the time. And that is just scary. And I know that, maybe if you're not as, risk seeking as I can be at times, that can hold you off and cause you to, keep writing things down on paper because that's worked for you so far, which can work. Open up the door for errors, which can make you show up on the wrong Saturday or show up on a Saturday when it was a Sunday wedding or vice versa and ruin a couple's wedding, which of course will just destroy you and your, confidence as a photographer, your reputation as a photographer as well. And is the exact same price of signing up for CloudSpot. In fact, it's cheaper because you gotta pay for the pen, you gotta pay for the paper, which, you know, it's whatever. But, that is truly amazing. And with a tagline like, empowering photographers, I told you this right before, it is amazing. It's not lip service. you guys are really putting your, money where your mouth is. and you're making that happen, which is one reason why I just really love partnering with you guys, to help others, because I know that there's solutions out there that are helpful. And I know that there's photographers out there who are struggling. And I know that this sounds bias and it is, it's because I have seen a lot of the other solutions. I've seen a lot of the other companies. I've seen what happens to them when they get acquired and when they become, Profit over everything profit over photographers, and it just doesn't look good and every decision that you have made over a cloud spot has shown me that that you stay true to your tagline of empowering photographers and, I gotta say this is really exciting stuff. And now, I don't think that you mentioned it here yet, but just to be clear, this is now available for photographers who are using cloud spot, right? Anybody who goes and signs up for cloud spot, can get this now, right?

Gavin Wade: 40:29

Absolutely. Anyone, whether you have an account now or whether you're hearing this and, and running to your computer to go sign up, you will see studio, you will see the ability to manage your entire client workflow end to end completely free. And with lower fees. I couldn't be more excited. This is a huge step forward for us. And what excites me the most is all the ways that we can help photographers just gain that confidence instead of having to. Figure out a CRM and how it might apply to a photography business. Cause it really wasn't built for photographers specifically. And then a gallery provider in which, okay, there's these features, but which ones actually apply to me that, and the type of photography that I do. And just again, that overwhelming sense of, Whoa, I have a lot to tackle. That wasn't on the brochure when I decided to be a photographer. we love to remove all of that noise, create simplicity and clarity in the workflow to help you confidently move forward and grow with you as you grow.

Raymond Hatfield: 41:23

I'm also excited for this, but I want to know, like we have talked about here, obviously a CRM is going to help photographers to be more organized, but what are those secondary effects that maybe you saw in your business once y'all got organized, in relationship to your, client journey?

Gavin Wade: 41:39

it's once the data starts coming in to whatever system that you're using, which you start measuring, you can improve, right? That age old adage. So we're seeing revenue coming in. We're seeing trends. We're seeing how effective our workflow is. Hey, this one took longer to do, or, Hey, this one's falling a bit behind. So it allowed us to. Observe, measure, and optimize our own business practices. And you know, just like I do, that bottlenecks in a business never change. They just shift from one area to the next. They never go away, right? Grass is always greener. Like, oh, if I had 50 weddings, all my problems would be solved. I'm here to tell you, they don't go away. They just change. And sometimes they're just bigger and more weighty problems, like in any business. And so Getting organized allows us to identify those more quickly and get ahead of them. So we're proactive rather than reactive for a lot of this. And then it just gives us peace of mind of like, look, are we missing anything? Right. And a lot of times, I don't know whoever's listening has felt this before, but like you wake up or you're at your desk or you're just Driving along and you're thinking through your head, what have I forgotten? What have I

Raymond Hatfield: 42:46

missed? Am I forgetting

Gavin Wade: 42:47

anything? it's that, did I leave the oven on feeling, but with your photography business, right? This allows you to confidently, even if you're on your phone, log in and go, Nope, I'm good. I've got it handled or open up. This is coming up. I thought so, but I'm glad I got that confirmation. So this meets you where you're at in your business to give you what you need. But nothing more. And it doesn't cost you. It just allows you to plug forward. And we haven't mentioned here, but it really is something that I'm super proud of is our team is there to help you every step along the way. So this is not a, you are on your own type situation. You figure it out. What sets us apart and what I'm extremely proud of is that. We're there right alongside you, getting you there, helping you. If you have those questions, such that it removes all of that ambiguity that you may have going into it. Cause I get it no matter what, no matter how easy a platform is, or no matter how streamlined or all in one, it might be. They're still learning curve. And so we're there to flatten that as much as humanly possible to get you on that road to success as quickly as possible.

Raymond Hatfield: 43:51

it sounds perfect. don't know how to end it any more than that. And I, again, I know that I said that this sounds biased again, because it is, but I will tell you the truth. I really did try to look for like, well, where are those big holes going to be? Like, is there anything within here? because I've been in it, uh, And I've been playing around with it over the past, few days for sure. just trying to figure out, like, what do I wish that there was more of right now? Or is there anything that feels particularly broken? And I hadn't taken any payments, but outside of that aspect, everything felt one. It felt very cloud spot, which was great because I'm very used to how galleries work. I've sent galleries before I've used them. I've sent them to my clients before they've liked them. So I know that cloud spot studio is going to take that same aspect and deliver it to, my new clients as well. And when it is more focused on business, that is very important. And I couldn't, find anything. Obviously, as you said, more features to come, which are really exciting, but it feels like this is all that I need right now. This is exactly what I need and everything else will be great. If I need it at that time, it's just more stuff that you can choose from. But right now the core is awesome and I'm super excited, for you, Gavin. And I'm super excited for anybody listening who decides to sign up and give it a try and decide, you know what? This paper and Google Calendar isn't working the way that I was hoping that it would, And now I'm going to make this thing, I'm really going to have a go at this. And I'm really going to see how much I can use this platform. That's already available to me to make a little bit extra income. Maybe you don't want to leave your job. You don't want to invest in this big CRM platform. You don't want to invest in multiple tools to try to, bandaid everything together. You would like this solution, which takes care of, as you said, from end to end, everything that you'll need for the client journey. Isn't a massive, in fact, it's not an added expense at all. And then you can dip your toes in that and get going. So this is just really exciting stuff. and again, I'm so excited for you, for this Gavin, cause I know that this has been in the works for a long time and you've reached out to me asking for input and I could tell, like, you really want to make this right from the get, and help as many people as possible. And it is super exciting. So Gavin, before I let you go, Where can we learn more about CloudSpot and, sign up for ourselves?

Gavin Wade: 46:07

Absolutely. Well, you've created an amazing website that not only answers that question, but gives even more in depth, education. So I would definitely say check that out. it's deliverphotos. com. Yeah, deliverphotos.

Raymond Hatfield: 46:20

com will, take you right to, the CloudSpot signup page for sure.

Gavin Wade: 46:23

So if you want it served up on a silver platter, and learn all you need to learn, that's the first place to go. It'll take you to cloudspot. io, which is our website, which then gives you a little bit more insights into the nitty gritty, contracts of invoicing. You can see the experience. You can see the gallery experience. Our goal is that it checks off all those boxes and believe it or not, there's actually a calculator on our pricing page. So you did the back of the envelope math there, like how much this will save you. We'll even save you the envelope, go on the pricing page and move the slider. And you can say, okay, this is like the average booking amount that I have. And this is how much I might be paying for a CRM or, that I might have to pay, or I think I have to pay for a CRM in the future, and it will automatically calculate that for you, but your savings, it'll say, Hey, guess what? CloudSpot pays for itself. X times over. And so you can just remove all of the risk out of everything in terms of, is this the right move for me? And then dive in, book a free demo with our team. If you're moving from another platform, we'll happily migrate your photos over. Again, we want to de risk all this to help you create a better client experience and a better business.

Raymond Hatfield: 47:30

That guy always comes through every single time. And Gavin, I appreciate you so much more, more than you know. I just want. to point out that I had 17 hats for years. 17 hats, it paid for itself, but it paid for itself in my time. Meaning the amount of time that I saved by using ACRM paid for itself because now I was freer to, take on an extra Wednesday engagement session or, you know, something like that. And because of the time that I saved, it paid for itself because I was able to earn more money, but it. didn't pay for itself. The program itself didn't do anything inherently to Pay for itself, unlike cloud spot studio, which will pay for itself as you use it, which is crazy to me that they are able to do this honestly. And the fact that you can, get access to it, even with a free account blows my mind. So even if you just shoot 10 weddings per year with cloud spot studio, the fees that you save from booking those weddings, as opposed to something like 17 ads or literally anything else, that savings. Would pay for the pro plan of CloudSpot. It Pays for itself. That is so crazy to me. truly that blows me away, which is so so cool So as I mentioned at the beginning of this episode That if you waited until the end, I would have something awesome for you wedding and portrait photographers This was my wheelhouse. This is what I did. I have a lot of information here So I'm excited about this. You already know that cloud spot studio is included in your cloud spot account. Again, even if you're on the free account, but, like their tagline says, you know, empowering photographers, I wanted to, take a page from that book as well. So if you sign up for a free cloud spot account over at deliver photos. com, You're going to get pre loaded into your CloudSpot Studio, my wedding day questionnaire that I send out a month before every wedding to ensure that I'm prepared, to ensure that I know exactly what the couple wants, and that, I can do it with a level of preparation and confidence, as well as my new wedding and wedding date. Portrait client questionnaires. So these are the questionnaires that I send out to new clients to get to learn more about them. And again, just make sure that they have a better experience and better prepare them as well. But not only that, you're also going to get both. My wedding and my portrait contracts. And I've even formatted them so that when you create an account, your studio name is already going to be loaded into the contracts free. And these aren't like watered down contracts. These aren't contract light, but these are my actual wedding and portrait contracts that I send to clients yours free, but only when you grab a free cloud spot account at deliver photos. com. Um, And that is my small way of empowering photographers like you to hopefully achieve, the goals and the dreams that you have to accomplish with your photography. Camera. I'm super excited about this and I have no stake in CloudSpot Studio. It's just really awesome to see once again, CloudSpot doing something to empower photographers. Awesome stuff. That is it for today. Until next time. Remember the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow. Talk soon. Thank you for listening to the Beginner Photography Podcast. If you enjoy the show, consider leaving a review in iTunes. Keep shooting and we'll see you next week.