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Speaker 2[inaudible]
Speaker 1hello. Hello. Welcome back to the Jasmine star show, a podcast about turning your passion into profits and practical tips for growing your business. I'm your host, a photographer and business strategist from Newport beach, California, and I cannot wait to dive into one of the most frequently asked questions I get. I mean, I get this question at least once a day and that is the question of how do you start your photography business? Now I should back up and let people know that. Well , I am talking about starting a photography business. A lot of the same principles I would use to actually start a business today. So even if you're not a photographer and you're not really wanting to build a photography business, but you really want to get your business off the ground, I want to invite you into this story. Now. I should also admit that a lot of times when I podcast, I have a very detailed outline of the things I'm going to talk about, but instead of this making it sound like a script of narrative, I'm really talking just from this vision of who I was back in 2006 we are recording this in 2020 and it feels like when I look back at that, the thing I wish I could do is go back to 2006 until the Jasmine at that time as she stood in line at city hall to get her very first business license and that would be, you're going to be okay. Your dreams are bigger than you think and don't worry, you'll always pull through and the same advice that I would give Jasmine of 2006 would be I hope, the same advice that I give Jasmine of 2020 I hope that in 15 years from now I could look back at who I am now sitting on the floor of a living room. I'm sitting with my legs crossed. I'm sitting in yoga pants and Ugg boots. The dog is sleeping at my feet and I'm sitting really close to the ground because I have a feeling that the carpet absorbs some of the sound and it makes me sound like a religion podcaster. I have pillows surrounded me just to kind of absorb extra sound and what I want to tell me of today is you're going to be okay. Your dreams are bigger than you think and you will always pull through. So on that note, let's go back to January 1st, 2006 now I'm not going to start the story at the origin because I did that in episode one of the Jasmine star show. So if you haven't listened to episode one of the Jasmine star show, I am going to ask you to pause this episode and listen to that one because it really sets the foundation of I was and what got me to the point of actually opening my very first camera. That episode is also less than 30 minutes. So think of this as a whole. Choose your own adventure, Nancy drew, Hardy boys kind of style. If you heard of a sewed one, let's dive into January 1st, 2006 and this was the very first time I opened a digital camera. Now I didn't have a digital camera. I had never used a digital camera, but this is the start in a new beginning for myself. I gave myself one year to pursue photography instead of going back to law school and I knew that this was going to be it, that if I couldn't get it off the ground, if I didn't have promising leads, if I didn't make a little bit of money, then logistically and logically I would go back to law school. So I got a part time job at my dad's church. My dad is a pastor in East Los Angeles and I knew I needed to be responsible and create, even if it was very meager, an income I had to contribute and I was a newlywed with my brand new husband who was working at a startup company. We had no money but the benefits at working at your dad's church, it was that you got health insurance, so part time and full time employees. At the church got health benefits. So I worked Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the arc in Montebello, California. There I would put together a radio show. I mean hot dang, talk about a full circle moment. I am sitting here with my own radio show. Well radio show ish does it does a podcast count as a radio show. Anyway, my dad had a radio show that was nationally syndicated and I was the one who was doing the organizing. Um, I was doing, you know, fulfillment. I was doing a lot of things specifically for the radio program and I was doing that three days a week so that on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I was able to pour that time and energy into building my photography business. And when I say starting my photography business, I really should go back to the nuts and bolts. I had a orange tree in the back of our apartment complex now. We lived in an apartment complex. I was built like in the 1940s and it was somewhat like a duplex so that a lady, an elderly lady lived below us and we lived in the top duplex. And we lived in a row . It was not the nicest of area neighborhoods. Let me just tell you what we could afford. Back then it was a little shady. Um, and so I would go into the backyard . We had this orange tree and I really need to learn how to become a photographer. I knew nothing about digital photography. I didn't even know like how to set the basic foundations of taking photos. So I would use this orange tree as just practice. I would shoot the orange tree from the front, from the back, from the side. At different times of the day, I would set up a pair of shoes on the inside of my kitchen and shoot it from the front, from the side to the back in different lighting scenarios. I would go to Google and say like, why can't I figure out how to become a photographer? Like what is going on? What am I getting wrong? And so three days a week I was dedicated to my craft. I would carry my camera everywhere with me and it's an action I still take with me today. So those habits early on as a very first early business owner are things that have transformed my life and career and habits I still maintain to this day. So I was practicing about three or four months on basic things and I started joining a photography community online and I would see what other photographers were talking about, how they were getting business, what they were doing. And I became active in that community, not knowing photography necessarily, but I was finding ways that I could participate in conversations that were related to business. Now, I had never started a business. I never knew anybody in my life who had ever started a business. And to put things in context, I'm a girl from the hood. I didn't grow up watching people build businesses. I didn't grow up actually thinking that entrepreneurship was a path in life that you could take. I didn't grow up sitting around tables with like ham and potatoes and you know, asking what did you do? Today's Dolly . As I took a sip of milk, like that was anything but in my life. But what I quickly understood is that I could take, you know, really scrappy ideas from like the hood and make them work in real life, which is like not, you know, not to quote Tupac here, but I'm trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents. Oh, okay. So with some of the skills that I had was I was a pretty savvy writer. Um, I started a blog and at the time that was really not done. And so when other photographers were like, I'm looking to start a blog, I would give advice like, this is what I found is working. This is the cadence. This is what people have been responding well to. When there were other photographers who needed help, like say writing their bio for a website that they were trying to create, I would say I'd be more than happy to help you. Let's hop on a quick call. And so in the process of me talking to other photographers and asking how they built their business, I was getting educated and in exchange for their time, I were turned back over their bio story and they were like completely blown away. And I was completely blown away. And so my name started getting passed around and it really small photography community of a person who understood photography and also could write . So as a result of that, I built trust not on my photography skills, but on who I was as a person. And so about six months into my quote unquote business. So from the summer of 2006 there were photographers who were looking for assistance people to help them at weddings. And I was like me, I worked for about six to 10 months for free. In the beginning I was just carrying bags. I was sweating as I carried lighting , I took and will continue to take any hustling photography gig I could because I was getting access. I was learning this skill just by watching and I was understanding how photographers acted, spoke and behaved. And it was around that time that I started developing relationships with photographers that instead of just like carrying their bags and cleaning their gear, they would say, Jasmine, can you bring your camera? Feel free to shoot when you're not schlepping gear. That was the game changer. The only reason why I was invited to go on big shoots on weddings, on assisting gigs was because I was humble and willing to do the work, build the trust, and once they knew me then they allowed me to shoot. So this is around 2007 where I started assisting and what they call it, second and third shooting. In the beginning I was actually fourth shooting, which means that there were three other main photographers and I was just like bottom of the totem pole, shoot this stuff that nobody wants to shoot. And I was doing it happily. I was driving anywhere from Santa Barbara, California down to San Diego, California. So I took any assisting gig for free or second, third, fourth shooting for free from about two and a half hours North of me in about two and a half hours South of me. That was the university of hard knocks. Oh , I made mistakes. Uh , I stepped to the line. I felt like I dropped the ball in so many different ways, but because I cared about who I was working for, I always went out of my way to make it right. And they were patient enough to teach me and they were a patient enough to continue inviting me. And there was one photographer in particular, he had me third shooting, and then a few months later had me second shooting. And then I will never forget in the summer of 2007 at the end of a 10 hour wedding day with around 400 guests, he gave me a check for $200 and he said, job well done. And I will tell you that I took JD, my husband, and my business partner out to Chili's . We had a blooming onion. We're kind of just celebrated . I was like, babe, we're living our best life right now. I made two a hundred dollars. I was just like, literally, I was like, maybe I'll make it rain tonight. You want Coke? We're gonna get you. You want a spray? What do you want babe? Or going big. So that was the very first time that I got paid from another photographer. Now during this time I was shooting anybody who would pay me like legitimately you want head shots ? I'll shoot head shots . You want family photos? Oh shoot. Family photos. I was doing it for around 25 to $50 for a shoot. I even you guys, this is a story. I needed a logo for my business and I didn't have money, but I'm a firm believer even still to this day. I love bartering. Bartering is like a trade of services. And I met a graphic designer at my dad's church. A shout out for like religious nepotism at his best y'all . Um , so there's this graphic designer. He went to my dad's church and I said I needed a logo. And he said he wanted some photos done too , which I said, let's trade. So he designs my very first logo and then I go over to his apartment and he has a motorcycle inside his apartment and I have to do a photo shoot of him on his motorcycle on fluffy carpet. You guys, I mean these photos are so bad, but you want to know what? I had a logo. He was happy. We won't. We both went our own ways. So around this time I'm just kind of like, you know, shooting for 25 50 I'm bartering. I got my first check as a second photographer and then in the summer of 2007 I get an email from a bride and she says, I received your name from another photographer and he said that you would probably be within my budget. And I said, Oh great. Well, who's the photographer? This is all via email. I said, Oh, this is so lovely to meet. You may ask, who was the referring photographer? And she mentioned his name, and I knew that this photographer charged $10,000 for his services. Remember, this is back in 2007 so I'm like, Oh my gosh, this photographer charges $10,000 that probably means this bride has $8,000 and I've arrived watch out world. I have arrived. And I was like, Oh yeah, I'm totally available on your wedding date. And she asked for my fees and I asked, what's your budget? And she responded, $1,000 for 13 hour wedding and all of the images included, and my response was funny. That's what I charge $1,000 for 13 hours and all the images on a CD. Oh , okay. I mean, basically I was just like, you want to give me a check with four numbers on it? Uh, I need to buy a lottery ticket because apparently I'm the luckiest person on the face of this earth. That wedding was in October, 2007 so we were communicating in the summer of 2007 her wedding was a few months later. She sent me a deposit of $500, and I was like, Jasmine, it is time to get real serious about your business. I had created a blog. I was talking about my journey. I was posting pictures. I was really trying to bring people on the experience to manage expectation because I didn't have a website at the time. I didn't have an album or a portfolio to show her at the time. Um , when she asked to see, you know, images that I've shot, I literally burned a CD. I put it in a padded envelope and I wrapped it in a bow. Like I wrapped the CD in a bow in a padded envelope and I mailed it to her and I was like, here's my portfolio. It was truly the most ghetto approach to being a photographer and I'm here to tell you, it got me to where I needed to go. She saw the images, she trusted me, and there was my very first opportunity as I was building the blog. I wanted to make sure that I was living a true, authentic, transparent story. I didn't want somebody hiring me thinking that I was like this really refined, robust photographer when I wasn't, but what I realized at the time was yes, I was talking about my photography and who I was able to shoot with, but I was also incorporating really personal aspects of my life. My mom was still recuperating from her about with brain cancer. I was a newlywed. I was talking about, you know, dates that I went on with my husband. I had just gotten a new puppy. I was talking about the naming process, really personal aspects of my life and it was just what I did to connect with people. In October, 2007 I arrived to my very first gig that was a wedding. What I didn't realize was that there was going to be 12 bridesmaids, one to 12 it was like basically a wedding army and I was like, I walked into the room and I was like, hi, I'm Jasmine. And the girl said, Jasmine, we've been passing your blog posts around on my space. We're so excited to meet you. How's polo? And I was like, how do you know about my dog? How do you know that I went to the Clippers game with my husband? Like they knew these really personal things because they were following along on my blog. I shoot this wedding. I'm not, I'm not gonna get into the specifics of the wedding. Let me just tell you that half the wedding was absolutely positively a mazing. I was having a blast. I was vibing with people and then the other half of the wedding nightmare because from a technical perspective, I didn't know how to shoot at night. I had one flash. It was so dark. It was an outdoor wedding with no lights. Like basically I was shooting into, I was shooting into the dark. JD had to run to our car, into our emergency kit and bring out a flashlight. My husband brought out a flashlight. I'm shooting a wedding with a flashlight. You guys, I can't even tell you how hot mess this was, and I thought on that moment, this is the last wedding I ever shoot because she's going to hate her. Her wedding reception photos. I really thought it was over. I legitimately thought it was over. So the next day I'm crying and I'm like, I think my career's over and JD, my ever present cheerleader was just like, okay, you can cry and when you're done you're going to fix it. I was like, you're right. I'm going to fix it. So I created a slide show, so I got the photos from the day I created a slideshow . I set it to music. I emailed it to the bride and I, this is the story of your day. I'll be editing the rest of the gallery. This slideshow had around 50 to 55 images, including a few very dark reception photos. She loved that slide so, so much. She emailed it to her 12 bridesmaids. They emailed it to their friends, they posted it on my space and things caught on like a wildfire. People started following my blog, like her 12 bridesmaids were so stoked with the photos and my story and who I was that I call them that J star cheer squad. Those 12 girls revolutionize the way that people were speaking about. My business in addition to the blog. That's actually how I booked my second client. And she was getting married in November. She came across my blog because a coworker of hers at the dentist office had searched for a very particular type of brain cancer. And that was the type of brain cancer my mom had. And so she stumbled across my blog and even though she wasn't looking for a wedding photographer, her coworker was, and she said, Hey, you should check out this girl. So I get this random email and says, Jasmine, I came across your blog , uh , I'd like to get more information. So I of course, sent her a burned CD of images, wrap them in a bow and put them in a padded envelope. And she says, okay, I'm ready to book. How much do you charge? And I was like, I charge $1,000 for 13 hours. And the CD, it's, I was just like, that sounds about right. And she's like, great. She sent me a check, I booked the wedding and we shot the wedding. And this third client that I had ever booked found me by way of my blog. You see there's this restaurant called the Yamashiro in Hollywood, California and we had celebrated an anniversary at Yamashiro and I talked about a previous wedding guest who was on the blog. There was all these different posts like how I spent my anniversary Yamashiro, how there was like a bridesmaid who had a really cool, you know, Korean vibe with her family and her friends and then I also talked about how brides had certain hairstyles. Okay . All of these little things at the time, back in 2007 I didn't know what S E O was, search engine optimization. I didn't know that people can actually find you on Google. I was just blogging my life as it happened while this girl was at work and she types in Hollywood, Korean hairstyles, she's Korean, she's getting married in Hollywood and she was looking for a hairstyle and those words appeared on my blog. She came across my blog and she was like, who is this girl? I kind of liked her vibe. She reached out to me. I burned a CD, wrapped it in a bow incident into her independent envelope and she booked me for $1,000 . That was the start of of me truly understanding that you do not have to be the best. You do not have to be the smartest. You don't have to be the most qualified. You don't have to be the most talented. You actually kind of sorta can be very average and get people to invest in the thing that you're selling. Why ? What I understood back then was that brides are not looking for photographs. They are also looking for photographers and people are not just buying cakes. They're buying a piece of the Baker and people aren't just buying an artwork. What they're buying is something from the artist. This transformed the way I looked at my business because while other people who are doing the exact same thing I was was so concerned about having the best camera, the best lens, the best computer, the best editing software. I was concerned about showing up as the best version of me serving people. Well communicating online and telling a story and let me tell you that when I look back at that, I thought I was doing it wrong. I thought that I was at the bottom of the totem pole. I thought I was a diss at a disadvantage and I am here to tell you that your disadvantages will become your advantages if you change your perspective. Because what I didn't realize then that I realize now is that I cannot compete on just a camera on just a computer on just the scene presets. All of those things made me the same as everybody else, and if I wanted to clump myself in my business as being the same, I was playing at a disadvantage. I wasn't as good as they were. I wasn't as rich as they were. I didn't have a website, I didn't have a portfolio, I didn't have an album. I didn't have any of the tools that would make me competitive with them. So I just use the things that made me different and because I felt like I was different. I realized that I was competing with something. No one else had my eyes, my brain, my heart, and my chutzpah. And as you're listening to this right now, I am looking at you in your face and telling you that nobody compete with your eyes, your brain, your heart, your chutzpah. So stop hiding behind the tools of your trade and start standing in front of your story, your narrative, and who you are. No matter how little you think you have, use it as a point of differentiation. I will tell you that those three weddings at the end of 2007 turned into 38 weddings. In 2008 I was a girl who had nothing and made something out of it. Not because I was the most talented or the funniest or the smartest or the wittiest was because I owned my story. I owned who I was and I served my well. That my friends is how I was able to elevate my business. And starting in 2006 and moving to 2009 I was voted one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the world in three years. I went from zero to having an internationally recognized brand and what I want to share about today are the 10 best things that I did to build my photography business, but what I'm here to tell you is that these same principles can be used to build your service based business. Can I get an amen? All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to get in. I actually wanted to do this like a top 10 list. The way that like those nightly shows like Jimmy Fallon top 10 list, but I'm not that creative so I just started at one. I'm very linear. Okay? I want it to go ten nine instead. I'm going to go one to 10 let's get this party started. Tip number one on building a service based business that is standing out from the crowd is build your own table. When I first started my business, I understand why people were not including me in their conversations. I wasn't talented. I understand why I wasn't invited to the networking events. I didn't have a portfolio. I didn't have a website. Nobody knew who I was. I understood why nobody was inviting me to go to conferences or events with them because I didn't have money. I understood all those things. And while it made me very, very sad, I also realized that sadness and being ostracized is a decision I was deciding to let other people determine how I felt. And so I realized, Hey, if you're not gonna invite me to your events and if you're not gonna invite me to sit at your proverbial table, I'm a build my own table. So what I did was I looked around in my geographic area and I found three other new photographers within very similar price range. We kind of were all just trying to get it started. We were the people on the outskirts. And so I invited everybody to meet at cheesecake factory in Bragg , California. And we met at cheesy factory. We had lunch and we were swapping business ideas and we're talking about what was working and we talked about contracts. We talk about how they were, how we were getting, you know, how we were getting business and what we needed to do. And we decided to collaborate with each other. We all had our own, you know, they had their websites and some of them had blogs and I only had a blog, but then I had an idea, I think we all had an idea, forgive me, we all kinda came to this idea that we can create one blog and we would all be posting on that one blog from all of our weddings because this would help us get discovered on searchability, SEO, and we also said that on days that were booked with weddings that would only refer to the other people in our circle. This was a game changer because now every time I referred another client to somebody else, I knew that they were going to refer it back to me if they were booked. This was the best thing that I did for my business. I didn't stand on the periphery of somebody else's circle. I made my own circle and I am so proud that the four of us took the little we had and we booked out our entire years for each other. Let's get into step number two, have hobbies outside of what you do professionally. I'm an avid reader and I'm a pretty avid Yogi. I practice yoga many times a week. When I have free time, you will likely find me in downward dog. Okay. And you'll probably just also find me laying down with a bag of Skittles and a good book and no judgment. Uh , my husband and I are huge movie lovers, so we make it a point to see at least one movie O week. We usually really enjoy , um, foreign films. I love very sad, evocative movies. Like when JD and I go to the movies, we are sitting amongst people who are like 70 and 80 years old and we're like watching a French movie and black and white eating popcorn, living our best life. If my personal trainer is listening to this, we're not eating popcorn. We pretend we eat popcorn. Remember, wink, wink, I'm not eating grains. Right? Um, so yes, going back to the movies, I realized that allowing my brain to fill with elements outside of my craft and work, it really pushed me to think differently and creating new ways. When I see a movie, I appreciate the cinematography. I appreciate the storyline. I appreciate the arc and I really learned how to do the same thing with my foots hog graphy later. Number three, I networked with photographers who inspired me and I mentioned this before, right? In that photography group online, I was using the skills that I had that were not related to photography as an opportunity for me to connect with people who would otherwise never pay attention to me. So this list was ever-growing. It was ever changing. But I can say that meeting others in my industry was the best thing that I did for my early photography business because these people, they didn't just inspire my work and they just didn't keep me on my toes. But it was a really great way for me to see what other people were doing who are farther along in their career and in the game. And I was watching and modeling and even though I didn't have a formal mentor, I could look at these people and see what they're doing from a distance and model my business after theirs. And that was like the first iteration of what it meant to be mentored at a distance. I have to also say that when I talk about networking as an introvert, it would take everything out of me. Like I would have to like force myself to get in the car, forced myself to turn the ignition force myself. I would sit in a parking lot being like, it's okay Jasmine. Just go into this event, promise yourself that you'll stay there for 59 minutes and then you could leave. Like getting uncomfortable is like a constant theme in any new business, but the more you get uncomfortable, the more you see positive changes. Let's get into tip number four, build a brand. If you've been hanging out here for a while , you've probably heard me say this, but I'm going to say it again and again, building a brand is the best way to grow your business. When I started my business, I set out to become a photographer, but in the process, a built a brand. I didn't realize it at the time, but it's what happened and I truly believe it has been the biggest contributing factor to our success. A brand is what somebody says about you when you walk out of the room. Now, if you would like to find some of the resources and have me go deeper on explaining how to build a brand, I would love for you to download my free branding bundle. You can find that@jasminestar.com forward slash. Branding. Now, Seth Godin describes a brand as a series and set of expectations, memories, and stories that taken together account for a consumer's decision to choose one business over another and not to like take a spit . Oh, actually I am taking a spin on what Seth Godin says, like I shrunk that entire definition to an experience. Stories, memories, relationships. Oh, that's a , that's an experience. How you make someone feel is the way and the reason why somebody will choose your business in a sea of other wildly talented options. How you make someone feel is the most powerful thing that you can do as a new business owner. Tip number five, which I get, it is not applicable to everybody, but I'm going to tell you, for me it was a game changer. I worked with my husband. Now I am sure there are plenty of couples who couldn't imagine working, eating, sleeping, dreaming, hoping with their spouse every waking moment of what. I love it. I don't even care. In fact, at the time of this recording, my husband played a record, Bonnie there. So this record is playing and I'm sitting on the couch with the dog and he pulls me up and he's like, I know you're about to start your podcast, but do you remember dancing in our apartment at night with the radio above our refrigerator? And he's like, let's Dean's in the living room, and we slowed ins to Bonnie there at 11 we just tell you in that moment, I know people would be driven crazy to do everything with their partner. I'm just one of those people who I'm down for it. I don't really doubt right. I feel incredibly blessed to be supported by one of the most amazing, amazing men I have ever met. And I know it sounds cheesy, but , um, my husband, JD is mind blowingly awesome. No , I S I think he's my version of Austin . Like you might meet him and be like, he's high and I'm going that I go that. But he's my idea of awesome. I still to this day maintain and I mean this hand to heaven. I have no idea why this man married me. My mother-in-law for years was baffled. Now she's finally on my team. She's team Jasmine. She's come around, but it's been about a decade to get her there. Um , but my mom, my mom and dad, every day, every time they see my husband. Thank you. Thank you for marrying Jasmine. I totally married up and I increased my business worth by having him be a part of the team. Tip number six is to create a schedule. I have strict office hours and this allows me to live the life I want. I crave freedom and living a life without boundaries. So by adhering to a schedule outlining my work, I know where I can skimp and splurge on life's special moments. Yes, I take long lunches on occasion and sometimes I watch midday matinees with my husband, but it's only because I've planned my schedule and I know what needs to be done by when. If you'd like a peak into the average Workday and what that looks like for me, you can find a full breakdown at Jasmine, star.com forward slash productivity and you can also get my free productivity planner complete with a sample of my daily to do list. Y'all. I've said it a thousand times before. I never preach something. I don't practice when they talk about building a brand, I make resources to help other people build a brand. When I talk about people creating a schedule, it's because I know that having a schedule leads to not just productivity, but time for creativity. That leads us to point number seven. I hung out with people who were smarter than me. They say, you are only as successful as the five closest people to you and man, I totally have to agree. I've met brilliant people as I've built my business and they've given me the most amazing gift and that's friendship. Being able to see success unfold for people around me offers a blueprint. How I can do the exact same thing in my life, in my business. They paint vibrant pictures with the same brushes that I have, so I'm challenged to color the horizon in a way that I imagine I'm looking at me out here, pay him pictures with my words I have maintained in. I maintain till this day. I want to be the dumbest person in a room. If I'm not the dumbest person in a room, I'm not in the right room. I'm not intimidated by smarts and brilliance. It inspires me to raise the bar and I encourage you to do the same thing. Tip number eight as I built my service based business is that I am a huge proponent of creating an experience. The more I attention to experiences that I created for clients, the more people spoke about my services and people speaking about my services. That's the Holy grail of an entrepreneur's life. When people are empowered to talk about the experiences that you create. And I'm talking about the experiences you create in person or the experiences you create online. They become evangelists for your product or service. Right? Like I actually back early in my career, I was speaking to photographers about how I was building my business and I created this presentation, which I thought was really savvy at the time. I was like, look at me being cute. I called the presentation from lips to clicks , how to get people to talk about your business in person and online. Okay. Silver , cheesy, but I still like it to this day. Maybe I'll call this podcast episode from lipstick licks , how to get people to talk about my business . You know what? I'm homeschooled and I'm a nerd and I'll have, I'll play around with these dynos . Um, so the question then becomes, okay, but Jasmine, how do you create an experience? Well, when I was doing this , uh , specifically for my clients as I was building my business, I want to give you three top ideas on how I was able to create an experience on a relatively small budget. I would send client gifts. Now you might not have that big of a budget and I didn't have that big of a budget. So I'm going to give you an example of a really, really, really inexpensive gift. I was on Etsy, like the online store for makers and creators and I saw this tiny matchbox, it was a designer in Japan and it was a matchbox that she had wrapped and customized. And when you push the matchbox open, you'd have a tiny little 3d note on the inside. And I was just fascinated with how tiny and cute it was and the ability for me to customize it. So for my clients, I ordered a matchbox with the couples names on it on the front. And then when you push open the match box, it would be a little thank you note. Like thank you for allowing me to be your photographer. Okay. And then I ordered all of them and had them shipped to me and then I wrote a handwritten note to each of my clients just saying how much I appreciated them. You guys that matchbox , I think at the time was like $4 each box and then I had to pay for shipping, which was $2 each box. I mean for less than $12 for the total gift. I had people taking pictures of their matchboxes and putting them on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram wasn't around back then. Do I sound like an ancient, like an ancient business owner back in my day? Listen, that tiny matchbox that cost me $12 to send the client got me at minimum thousands of dollars of advertising another. You know, another way to create an experience was to anticipate questions. The more that I built my business, the more that I realized that there was patterns in the ways that people were asking questions. If you can anticipate questions that your clients are going to ask and you send them a beautifully designed, helpful PDF answering their questions. Or if you can say, Hey, I know we're getting ready for X now you can be a hairstylist, you could be a dog Walker, you could be a graphic designer, you could be a photographer. Anything that service based, if you know that your client's going to have a question, where do I park? What time do I arrive? When can I expect it? What's the timeline? What do you need from me? Send it to them in advance and they're just like, wow, thank you for saving me time and thank you for preparing me for success. The last way that I had created experience that was totally time and cost effective was I would create resources that would help my clients. Now, as a photographer, I would create a PDF like what to wear on a photo shoot, what time to arrive, how many opioids to expect. I was literally sending them a posing guides, like people who are not models don't know how to pose. And so I was sending him these beautifully designed ideas with my own photos, getting them best prepared for the shoot. When people feel like you have their best interest in mind, they don't become fans, they become fanatics. Now we're going to round this out to tip number nine. I asked my parents were advice. My parents immigrated to United States with literally nothing. So it's easy for an outsider to hear their accents or judge the color of their skin, but they are incredibly insightful and savvy though neither of them went to college. They just get human behavior. They are Watchers and they were kind and they are givers. And they taught me to see the inside of people to see fear, to see insecurity, to see doubt, to see hope, to see unstated dreams and to hone in on that and listen to what is said between the lines they provided emotional and spiritual insight. And that has laid the foundation to the core of who I am. And that is also the core of my personal brand. Everything I am is because of their sacrifice, their love and their devotion, and that has really had an impact on my business. Let's get into tip number 10 and that's to expect the worst. Okay? That might sound really terribly pessimistic, but one of the best things that I did in my business was to expect the worst. Now, if you can imagine just how bad things could be and you're okay with the outcome, then you know exactly what you're risking, knowing the worst, but hoping for the best is the very thing that tempered my emotions when I first started my business. So the worst case scenario for me as I began my photography business was failing at photography, going back to law school, and then owning a really nice DSLR camera. Now , once I realized what life looked like, if I failed, then I was ready to succeed. Like I literally looked at the worst case scenario. I have no money, I have no clients. People laugh at me, I let my family down. I'm okay with that because if I'm okay with the worst case scenario, cool. Now I'm ready. Now I know exactly what's on the line. If I am okay with the worst, then I'm set up to achieve the best. Now there are others who might be risking a mortgage, health insurance, a 401k. So I suspect that transition may be slower in order to safeguard your, you know, your family and your assets. But it's really important to know what's on the line and then be okay with it. So to wrap things up, that 10 tips that really had big impact for my service based business when I started. Number one, build your own table. Number two, have hobbies outside of your craft. Number three, network with other people who inspire you. Number four, build a brand. Number five, work with people who inspire you. For me, that was my husband. For you, you could just get emotional support from friends, families, or peers. Number six, create a schedule. Number seven, hang out with people who are smarter than you. Number eight, create an experience. Number nine, ask your parents or people who are older that you trust for advice and number 10 expect the worst. So friend, there you have it. These are the best things I did from a photography business which eventually led me to being one of the top photographers in the world, one of the top five most socially influential photographers in the world and one of the most influential photographers in the world. These are all awards that I had garnered between 2006 and 2012 and they had transformative affects on how I built my business in brand. Before I let you go and if you made it this far, clap it up for you. I have just talked your ear off and if you're okay with it or basically BFFs , I'm going to braid you a friendship place lit . I'm going to braid your hair and I'm going to write in your yearbook a kit before I let you go. It's important to note that I built my business on hard work, not by luck. I did not get to where I am by like never having a bad day. I got to where I am by having many bad days and choosing to get up every single time. Success is simply the ability to stand after each fall. Learning from your mistakes and willing yourself to get better. Success comes to those who wait to those who hustle to those who remain undaunted. Successful entrepreneurs are deaf to the haters. They have failed more times than they can count, and yet they hold onto their hope for the future. You sweet friend, you will succeed not because you're the smartest, the prettiest, the most talented, the most connected, or the funniest, because I wasn't any of those things. You will succeed if you decide to get back up and try again. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Jasmine star show. If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe for more ever. You're listening to today drop a very kind of podcast review if you're listening in iTunes, because all of these things will empower you not to miss an episode and we can stay connected by
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