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College and Sorority Photography - Rob Greene
222 Plays2 years ago
Happy Woo Wednesdays!
Today I have Rob Green in the Get a heck yes house! (photographer coach and podcaster of THE BOP.
The biggest takeaway is that College and Sorority Photography is the greatest untapped market in photography today. If you're not jumping in on it, you've got a $100,000 hole in your business. This is the next gold rush in photography.
HOT TOPIC: College and Sorority Photography
There are 17 MILLION college students attending our nation's THOUSANDS of 4-year schools. Photos are their social currency, and yet they remain the most underserved photography demographic in the US!
(1) Insanely unique social dynamic: tens of thousands of ideal clients, all living within a few blocks of each other. Most dynamic word of mouth market in the world.
(2) Don't call it "College Grad Photography" - you're missing the forest for the trees.
(3) C+S has more in common with weddings than high school senior photos.
(4) The more generous you are, the faster you'll grow.
Rob Greene is the owner of Square 8 Studio, a photography and education brand based out of Fort Worth, Texas. Through both his online courses and his podcast, The Bop, Rob and his mini goldendoodle, Snoopy, are on a mission to help photographers build their business, wow their clients, and make photo magic. Rob is a firm believer that you're always ahead of someone and always behind someone, therefore you should always be teaching and always be learning.
Rob's fave HECK YES technique: No-Brainer Booking Pages. I want my sales page on my website to speak so clearly to my dream clients that they can't help but say yes BEFORE THEY LEAVE the page. Requires (1) stellar imagery, (2) clear, compelling language, (3) simple, zero-barrier systems.
Freebie:
\free 5-day mini course called College Photo 101 - DM ROB to learn more
Connect with Rob
https://instagram.com/@square8studio
Connect with Carissa
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Free Guide
00:00:00
Speaker
Happy Will Wednesdays! Wedding photographers, go to my website www.heckyesmedia.co and download my free guide on how to get constant inquiries.
Meet Rob Green and 'The Bop'
00:00:11
Speaker
This is a cool and unique topic with Rob Green today, photographer in Texas,
00:00:15
Speaker
Square Eight Studio. Go check out his podcast called The Bop, Business of Photographers. He is a true gem and light in the industry. Stay till the end to hear about his five-day challenge coming up. He gets crazy business from college sororities and fraternities. Find out how you can too. Enjoy!
Carissa's Journey in Photography
00:00:38
Speaker
Welcome to Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. I'm your host, Carissa, and I've been a Los Angeles wedding photographer for over a decade. I've traveled the world, built my team, and seen it all. I now coach wedding photographers hit 10K a month and build a thriving business. In
Secrets to Attracting Dream Clients
00:00:53
Speaker
this podcast, we are going to deep dive into how top wedding creatives get that heck yes from their dream clients. We are not holding back on the struggles of the business and how to push through the noise. Some healthy hustle, mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story,
00:01:07
Speaker
time hacks because I'm a mom of two, a little bit of woo-woo, and most importantly, self-love and confidence are just a few of the many things we will talk about. I want to give you a genuine thank you for following along my journey. I hope to inspire you every Woo Wednesday so that you say heck yes to listening to this podcast. See you guys soon!
00:01:29
Speaker
Hey everyone,
Rob Green's Career Transition
00:01:30
Speaker
I'm Carissa Wu. As you know, welcome back to Get a Heck Yes. I have a very special guest. His name is Rob Green, and he is the owner of Score 8 Studio in Texas, a photography and education brand based out in Texas, like I just said. Through both his online courses and his podcast, The Bop, which is seriously like the best, best podcast. You literally have like a KCK some radio voice. Rob and his mini golden doodle movie, I see pictured on Instagram, are on a mission to help photographers
00:01:59
Speaker
build their businesses, wow their clients and make photo magic. Rob is a firm believer that you're always ahead of someone and always behind someone. I always thought that too, but I didn't know how to word it. Therefore you should always be teaching and always be learning. And today our hot topic is college and sorority photography. Um,
Personal Stories and College Sports
00:02:18
Speaker
but we're not going to talk about that yet. We're going to get to know you, but welcome. Yeah, it's going great. Carissa. Thanks so much for having me on. This is going to be a blast.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yes, I know you're a big sports fan, so I see your helmet and some figurines in the back, what's your team? Not like that I'm a sports fan.
00:02:38
Speaker
So I am like right in the backyard of Texas Christian University. And I grew up a Georgia Bulldog. So both those teams, I don't know how closely you follow college football, both those teams just played in the national championship. And unfortunately, Horned Frogs did not fare too well, but it was a blast. It was actually out in your neck of the woods out in California and checking out the game. It was a ton of fun. Was it at the SoFi?
00:03:04
Speaker
It was, it was, and it rained and it rained so much that like the roof was leaking and we were getting soaked inside the stadium. It was crazy. Oh my God. So, okay. I'm just putting two and two together because my husband's at Copper Inglewood and he was at that game. No way. Yeah. So I just remember like the rain and yeah, in Texas. So, Oh yeah.
00:03:28
Speaker
Yeah. Oh yeah. I got absolutely soaked going back to my car afterwards. Oh my God. Yeah. He was sending me footage and he was super excited, but like the Texas, the lieutenant was there and he brought all his own cops. Um, but they had to like, and like they had to take away their guns and stuff, but they're all there. Crazy.
00:03:49
Speaker
Cool, cool, okay, so I guess Ivan just, I started following you recently because Sean Austin, Kiss Books Guy's incredible man was on your podcast and I gravitated towards your energy of your voice. You have this like radio, really charismatic energy about you and I started following you and I just love your podcast now, The Bop. But
From Graphic Design to Photography
00:04:11
Speaker
I guess tell us a little bit about your journey and like how you, who you serve and what you do now. I know it's a very long question.
00:04:18
Speaker
No, that's great. Yeah. Thank you so much for asking. And it's funny, you know, growing up, people always told me you had a great face for radio. So it's nice to hear I have a good voice for it, you know? Right, right. Right. I'm like, Hey, what are you really saying? But no, I so I got into photography.
00:04:37
Speaker
it honestly it started with a breakup which is kind of ironic and looking back but I was dating this gal she ended things but we had lives that overlapped like four or five days a week so we saw each other all the time and I was like oh my gosh I've got to get away so I took two weeks off work borrowed her camera and flew out to California actually on a buddy's recommendation and drove up the west coast
00:05:00
Speaker
from like San Diego all the way up to Portland taking photos for a couple of weeks. And by the time I got back, I was like, I've got to get me one of these. This is so much fun. And so, yeah, fast forward like a year and a half and things had exploded so quickly.
00:05:16
Speaker
that I was able to quit my full-time job and go full-time as a photographer, which I've now been doing for, it'll be seven years in October. And along the way, probably right around like COVID time, got into the education side of things, had a lot of people asking questions about different things we were doing, started with flash, then it moved into some of the college and sorority stuff that we do. And so yeah, started teaching other photographers. And now here we are,
00:05:43
Speaker
hanging out with you and getting heck yeses out of our clients. Ding, you're still a baby. Seven years, you're a baby and already education. That's amazing. Okay, so what were you doing before the breakup?
00:05:57
Speaker
So I was actually I started in youth ministry, which is probably where I get a lot of like the just like young energy from, you know, just being around like middle school, high school students all the time. It definitely kept me young and loved that I'd always, though, like wanted to just help out at church for free and not have to take a paycheck for that I wanted to let it I was doing like graphic design and stuff out of college and I wanted that to be what paid the bills but
00:06:19
Speaker
I quickly found once I got that camera, there was a much easier path forward with photos than there was with graphic design, because not everybody needs a logo, but everybody wants to have good pictures of themselves. Oh, interesting.
Balancing Weddings and Education Focus
00:06:32
Speaker
And so what was like your first I know you it seemed like you just jumped in and like so fast like blew up. But like, what was that first two weeks of shooting? What was it like? And what did you shoot?
00:06:42
Speaker
So, I mean, I was like most photographers starting out, like I would shoot anything that I could point my camera at, which meant, you know, a lot of like street signs and lamps and, you know, Coke cans in the living room, candles, but it slowly evolved. I thought because of my background that I'd wind up being like a high school senior photographer or something, but I quickly found that there was this opportunity over at TCU
00:07:09
Speaker
where you had thousands of people graduating every year and not quite as many people knew to go photograph them. And so I got into weddings and then I got into the TCU scene and that's really where things took off for us. So now I tell people, I photograph brides and about to be brides. I mean, it goes pair in pair, right? It's just like that stepping stone before the bride, you got to get in. Totally. Going to like what your business looks like now. Like what were you like as a kid and growing up?
00:07:37
Speaker
As a kid growing up, I was honestly probably a really weird kid growing up. I mean, I guess we're all a little weird growing up, but I mean, I was awkward. I grew seven inches in the seventh grade and I think my center of gravity shifted and then the rest of me just never caught up.
00:07:57
Speaker
I mean, I was into all the things that kids are into, you know, comic books and movies and sports and all that stuff. And never in a million years thought I'd wind up being a photographer one day. Never saw it coming. Wow. Okay. So did you go to TCU for college?
00:08:15
Speaker
No, I actually got into UGA, but I'm not big on change. So I went to a smaller local school in the Metro Atlanta area for my freshman year and thought, okay, I'll go here for a year, get used to college, and then transfer over to UGA. But when I got to college, I realized all my friends that went to UGA were like struggling in their classes, so much work, so much studying. And for me, it was like,
00:08:38
Speaker
kind of like high school 2.0, but I could still go hang out in Athens on the weekends and, you know, enjoy that element of things. And so that's what I wound up doing. I just stayed at this Kennesaw State University where I went to college, stayed there all four years and just hung out with my friends in Athens on the weekends. Oh, interesting. And then how did you get into ministry?
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, so that started, I was doing some like contract branding and video work for a church in college and they just offered me a job when I graduated. I didn't have to interview it for it or anything. It was very, just one of those like,
00:09:12
Speaker
fortunate life moments where they just came along and said, hey, you've been doing this stuff on a contract basis for us. We'd like to hire you to do it full-time with us and you can still do all your creative stuff on the side that you want to do. So I was like, okay, full-time paycheck and I can run my business on the side. Sounds great. And that's what opened up the doors to get into all of that, which I did for a number of years before.
00:09:34
Speaker
Full time with this. It's been a blast. Okay, so seven inches and seventh grade, seven years in business, education during COVID. What does your business look like today?
00:09:47
Speaker
Today we focus primarily on weddings and college students with our photography. And then, and so that makes up about half of what we do in terms of business. And then the other half is this education stuff that we've gotten into where we're teaching photographers and running coaching groups for photographers and doing podcasts for photographers and that just very quickly
00:10:11
Speaker
boosted up to being kind of equal in terms of our business as all the photography side of things as well. I've been blown away by the response of our students. Wow. How did you, do you do like a group mastermind? And then how did you get like clients so fast? Cause I'm curious.
00:10:29
Speaker
So it started with the flash course. I feel like anybody that's a photographer, especially in the wedding space, feels that pain and that struggle of like, okay, people want to pay me all this money to be a wedding photographer, but I don't know how to shoot their wedding once the sun goes down. And so I was in Facebook groups of people whose courses I had taken and people started asking me questions and I was answering and
00:10:56
Speaker
over time I just kind of became known as like the guy that answers people's flash questions and so that led to some one-on-one mentorships here around DFW that opened up the door for some smaller group workshops here locally in DFW and when COVID hit I was like what am I gonna do to make money while we're on lockdown I need something so I was like what if I took everything that I've already been teaching photographers
00:11:21
Speaker
and just put it into video format and made a course out of it. So my roommate at the time, he was like, he worked in television. And so he caught wind of when our city was gonna get locked down indefinitely. And he gave me a heads up. And so I ran to a natural light studio in our area, called up one of my buddies that did video. I was like, hey, come meet me up here. I gotta dump all my knowledge on the camera real quick before the city shuts down. So that's what we did. We spent the afternoon before lockdown.
00:11:48
Speaker
just dumping knowledge on the camera. And then I spent the six to eight weeks that Fort Worth was locked down, editing all that stuff and getting it ready. And I reached out to some of the people that I'd been helping online and just said, Hey, would you be interested in beta testing this? And so I wound up, I charged a smaller fee for the beta testers for their feedback. And then they got a finished version of it when it was done. And
00:12:13
Speaker
the grassroots sort of organic word of mouth way that trickled out just really helped things take root. And all of a sudden it was like every time somebody started popping up going, hey, I need help with flash. There were people that were like, hey, I did too. Now my flash photos look amazing. Go talk to this guy.
00:12:31
Speaker
Oh, crazy. And so it just really be kind of this very organic growth thing. A lot of it word of mouth in those early days that really took off. And then from there, that opened up the doors to connect with other people that taught me how to scale things a little more. Wow. I mean, it
00:12:47
Speaker
talk about being ahead of your time. I mean not ahead of your time but ahead of your game like you were like recording stuff before people even knew that there's a lockdown. I struggle with it because I took the Amy Porterfield course like I don't know five years ago and I just couldn't record it took me years to record something and you just like went to the studio and started recording and also I think flash photography has been my biggest struggle like I took that I think Zach and Jodi
00:13:14
Speaker
they were popular back in the day, but I took their course and I had like four flash in the corner. I had like these like buttons, like these, what do they call it? The triggers on like the camera, every single flash. And like, I would like, ABC was so, so crazy. And then now in like pro photos, A1 came out and all the YouTubers are talking about like the girl YouTubers like, Oh, it's so easy. I bought it instantly. You know, there's a thousand dollars a pop and it just like changed the game for me. And I'm like, I love flash photography.
00:13:44
Speaker
No, it's so funny you mentioned Amy because I'm getting ready to launch the flash course back in 2020. And I have no email list whatsoever. And I come across Amy's like workshop that she was doing the free one that led to the digital course Academy page. And I just went in, I said, okay, I kind of know I've done enough of these online courses to understand how this works. They do the free thing to demonstrate the value.
00:14:10
Speaker
so that you understand how to jump in on the bigger thing. And I was like, okay, I'm going to set aside X amount of dollars. And if whatever she's selling at the end is in that range, I'm buying because clearly this is like, this lady knows her stuff. And it was right within that budget. And I jumped in and through her course, it was like, I had all the content ready to go. I just didn't know how to get it out to the world.
00:14:31
Speaker
And so thanks to Amy, I was able to then quickly go, boom, here we go, we're out with it. But no, you're right. Like, yeah, there's a ton of Flash info out there. And the thing I wanted to do was just make it really simple for people. I wanted it to be, I feel like plenty, if you wanted to learn Flash in a really confusing and like scientific and like nerdy kind of way, there's plenty of people out there that teach you all the ins and outs of inverse square law and all these things.
00:14:58
Speaker
Let's talk about flash in plain language. Let's make flash as simple as our cameras are. Because if you think about it, our cameras really aren't that simple either.
00:15:08
Speaker
Somebody's come along, whether it's Amy and Jordan or Kaitlyn James or Hope Taylor, and they've said, hey, this camera can actually be really simple. Let me show you how. And so that's what we tried to do with flash. Oh, I love that. Okay. We could do a second episode about flash photography, but we're not talking about flash, but we're talking about sorority and fraternities, how to get clients through them. But I wanted to ask you, what does the BOP mean to you? Why did you name your podcast that? I kind of know after listening to a bunch of episodes, and I love like your whole framework of it, but tell us, tell us what the BOP is.
00:15:38
Speaker
Totally. The BOP stands for Business of Photography because I find that there are so many photographers out there because there's so much great photography education out there that take phenomenal photos.
00:15:55
Speaker
Sean, I think was the one that told me like 85% of photographers or something crazy like that are out of business within the first three years. And so I'm going, man, what is it that's causing people with really great photography skills to
00:16:09
Speaker
run out of business and run out of steam so quickly in their efforts to create a business. And so we really wanted to focus on other elements outside of just the mechanics of taking great photos and go, how can we build really great businesses and really great systems around those businesses and really great client experiences around those businesses that will help photographers become better business owners and not just photographers? You know, it's kind of like if you went to the gym and you only worked out your right arm and you never worked out your left arm.
00:16:40
Speaker
you're gonna wind up looking really weird. And that's what we do as photographers is we work out the shooting and editing arm, but we rarely work out the business muscles. And so we wanted to help people kind of figure out how to access that side of things as well and tap into that. I think also like the bot means a little bit more deeper to you, but like you give a cool little quote or mantra, like life mantra, but your last one was speaking the good in people. So I feel like it goes so much deeper into these life lessons, but talk more about that quote.
00:17:10
Speaker
Yeah.
Positivity in Photography Business
00:17:11
Speaker
So, and just to piggyback off what you're saying there. So my belief is it's always a good idea to decide who you're going to be before you decide what you're going to do. And so really at the end of the day, what we're trying to do with each episode of The Bop is challenge these photographers to figure out who do you want to be as a person? Who do you want to be as an individual and let what you're doing as a business and as a business owner, as a photographer flow out of that. And so that was one of the things we hit on in this last episode was this idea of,
00:17:38
Speaker
speaking the good you see in other people because there are so many people out there that are just desperate for someone to speak a good word to them and tell them, hey, you're doing a good job. You know, you have what it takes. And yet most of us, when we walk around, like we think those things about people around us, but we rarely say them because it just feels weird. It's awkward. Like I don't want them to think I'm like strange or something, but
00:18:03
Speaker
at the end of the day, like, I know I need that kind of encouragement. So if I need that, why wouldn't other people need that as well? And so it's like, for me, I don't want to just be the person that thinks great things about other people and stay silent. I want to be the kind of person that sees good in someone and goes, hey,
00:18:20
Speaker
That photo that you took and posted on Instagram last week was phenomenal. One of your best yet. Or hey, I just want you to know, I saw the way you came alongside that friend of yours when they were struggling. And I just want to tell you, like, that says so much about your heart and your character. Keep after that. That's good.
00:18:36
Speaker
I totally agree because like even the podcast sometimes like I wouldn't feel like it's getting any traction and then someone would text me like, Oh, I really enjoy the episode. And you're just like, Oh my God, thank you. Like someone's listening. Um, it's just, I dunno, it's just, you also need to learn how to receive
00:18:55
Speaker
these compliments. I was at a wedding and I told the planner, which she was gorgeous, but I was like, oh my God, you're so beautiful. She's like, you're beautiful. And I was like, I was like, I love your outfit. She's like, I love your outfit. I was like, this is not a competition. I was like compliments. And I struggle with that too. So when like someone does tell me a compliment, I actually try to pause and just actually think about what they said and just say like, wow, like I received that from you.
00:19:25
Speaker
So I want to give you a compliment because, um, I don't know. I just was gravitated towards your energy. Like I said, um, when I saw you on Facebook and then when I listened to you, um, just like your podcast, I just, I really got uplifted. Yeah. Um,
00:19:44
Speaker
Because it does go, it is about principle too as photographers. It is who you wanna be first before you actually try to hustle because why would you try to hustle so hard? It works so hard. Being a photographer is very tough. It's not for the faint heart. Why would you wanna do it if you don't know who you wanna be? What type of life you wanna live? What do you want your lifestyle to look like first? So it's like, you're putting it out there. Who do you want to be? For you, just one question before we go into our hot topic.
00:20:14
Speaker
Who do you want to be like in 2023 this year?
00:20:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think for me, I just want to be somebody who is like unapologetically myself. I'm an encourager at heart. And I feel like sometimes it's, even though I am an encourager heart, it can be hard for me sometimes to like speak up, you know, they're talking about speaking the good you see in other people because I'm going, man, I don't see anybody else around me doing this with this kind of frequency or this kind of like intensity. And so I just, I want to be more willing to just speak up and be me and be that encourager that I know God made me to be.
00:20:50
Speaker
Oh, isn't that the coolest feeling though? Just I want to be true. So it's just, it just feels good. Okay. So I'm going to just read what you wrote on the questionnaire, because even when you, you messaged me on Facebook, I thought it was just such a cool, cool talk topic. Very excited about it.
00:21:05
Speaker
But you said, college and sorority photography, there are 17 million college students attending our nation's thousands of four-year schools. Photos are their social currency, yes it is, and yet they remain the most underserved photography demographic in the USA. I'm so
00:21:24
Speaker
so excited to hear about this topic because I was actually in a sorority and a co-ed fraternity, Gamma Phi Beta, and Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity. And I would never even think to get business from that, which is kind of funny. But after you mentioned me, I just texted my friend from the sorority that I shot her wedding. I was like, hey, maybe we could do business together.
00:21:49
Speaker
This is going to explode into a crazy, crazy conversation, but tell us why this is so near and dear to your heart.
Untapped Market in College Photography
00:21:58
Speaker
Yeah, I was fascinated when I was getting into photography and started working with students on the campus at TCU and taking senior photos for them or just friend group photos because they wanted some pictures to put up around the house. I was fascinated by how many times somebody would reach out to me and say, hey, you have no idea how glad I am to have found you. It's so hard to find somebody who will work with us.
00:22:27
Speaker
or who does college photography. And I just thought to myself, like, this is crazy. There's nobody posting more photos all over Instagram than the college audience.
00:22:40
Speaker
Yet time and time again, I'm finding people saying to me, we can't find anybody to take our picture. And I just thought, man, there's a disconnect here. Like you've got all these photographers out here who are going, I need work. I need people to work with. And then you've got all these college students going, I need a photographer. And it's like somehow they're not hearing each other or connecting somehow. And I just, as I did more and more of this, I started thinking,
00:23:07
Speaker
What if we could help connect the dots for photographers because
00:23:12
Speaker
with thousands of schools around the country. There's a lot of photographers that live within a half hour's drive of one of these four year schools. And so I thought, man, what if we could start to open up their eyes to the reality that there are 17 million college students in this country and they're rotating out every year. You know, you're graduating some, you're getting some new ones in and you start working down the math and like the average school winds up with, you know, around
00:23:38
Speaker
12 to 1500 senior girls every year, which is kind of your primary demographic on the graduation side of it, every single year. That's so many potential clients. Nobody that I know, I know I certainly couldn't take on 1200 more clients this year.
00:23:56
Speaker
And so it's like, man, there's this incredible opportunity that has limitless potential and so many photographers that are trying to get businesses off the ground would find that it serves not only their immediate need to like get some revenue going in their business, but also it spills into so many other aspects of their business. We'll talk more about that in a little bit, but there's so many elements of my business that get impacted and enhanced because we work on the college campus and do photos there.
00:24:25
Speaker
Oh, interesting. And that's very generous that to share your knowledge because you're saying that you can't do all the business. Like you don't want to do all the business. Like you want to share your knowledge and help other people. I think also on the questionnaire, you said, Holland and sorority photography is the greatest untep market in photography today. If you're not jumping in on it, you got a hundred thousand dollar hole in your business. This is the next gold rush in photography. So those words are like chilling.
00:24:55
Speaker
How would you, I mean, I was a sorority, a fraternity, but for someone maybe like not in one, how would you, what are some tips to get started?
00:25:05
Speaker
I was shooting weddings basically for free or for like a grand and I was having to haggle for every single session to try and like show them my value and now I have clients coming to me saying that they want to work with me and I have more importantly other people in the industry recognizing my worth and asking me to work with them.
00:25:31
Speaker
which to me means even more than the clients because they're people who've been in the industry for 10 plus years. They've seen, you know, hundreds of other photographers and they're able to recognize me and the value that I can offer them.
00:25:48
Speaker
Yep, that's my student Kimberly. She's just one of my dozens of students crushing it. Go on my website, www.heckyesmedia.co and book a 15-minute strategy session with me. Only if you want to be booked out on multiple preferred vendor lists and have a proven marketing plan.
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah. So it's funny. I used to call it the $50,000 hole in your business. We actually have an episode on the BOP called that where I interviewed a friend of mine that went through the course and she was already doing some college and sorority photography on the side and went through the course with me.
00:26:24
Speaker
started overhauling her systems and pricing. Now this girl, no joke, is making over, she made over $160,000 in seven months as a part-time photographer. She's doing it on the side of a full-time job. And so I was like, okay, $50,000 is too small of a number to say like really the potential of what people are missing out on. And so yeah, I think there's so many
00:26:52
Speaker
ways to break into this. A few thoughts that come to mind for me. One is, you got to understand that this is an insanely unique social dynamic. Okay, so you're talking like, let's just take UC Riverside where you went, right? 21,000 students at UC Riverside, they're all living within a few blocks of each other.
00:27:13
Speaker
That means you've got thousands upon thousands of people who are in a similar stage of life with a lot of overlapping interests, certainly a lot of overlapping like social opportunity between class and Greek life and hanging out on the weekends and sporting events, all these different things going on. They're constantly bumping into each other. And when they're together, what are they talking about? They're talking about the stuff that they love.
00:27:35
Speaker
So all you have to do is be able to insert your brand into that social pipeline and all of a sudden it's gonna spread like wildfire. There's no more dynamic word of mouth market in all of photography, in my opinion. So that's my first thing is understand the uniqueness of this market and the social dynamic that it brings. The second one is the- Oh, wait, hold on. Yeah, go ahead. No, I was gonna say like, even for me that I've been in the game for a long time and I gained my confidence, just thinking of,
00:28:05
Speaker
putting myself in that uncomfortable situation, which we'll talk more about.
00:28:11
Speaker
I don't know, it's just a little bit weird. Like would you like reach out to a sorority member friend or would you like go to their meeting or reach out to the alumni group or what's like one way to get your foot in the door? I tell people all you need is one connection to one college student on campus. Like it really, when you're starting out, all you need is one connection. It could be a friend who has a daughter or a sister or a coworker that goes to that school.
00:28:39
Speaker
You need one connection on campus because if you can serve one person really well and give them a really great experience, that word you've now inserted your brand into that social structure, that social dynamic, and now they're sharing your pictures, they're talking about you and other people are seeing that.
00:28:55
Speaker
There's a plan like you do that at like a high school senior photo shoot. Maybe they share the photo. Maybe they don't. Maybe, you know, maybe their mom wanted the shoot. And so their mom is talking to, you know, posting all over the house, but it's not going out and they're not going to school raving about what a great time they had with you with all their high school friends.
00:29:13
Speaker
the same way that it happens in a college market where they're going back to their apartment with their three roommates going, oh my gosh, this was so much fun. I just hung out with Carissa and she was amazing. And she showed me some of the pictures from the back of her camera. They looked so good. Like it just happens over and over and over again. And I've seen it happen for people at big schools, small schools, north, south, east, west. Doesn't really matter. The important thing is you start with that one person. And as long as you have that one connection, that'll open up the door to make other connections as well.
00:29:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting, like, you know, in college, it's so easy the day, like you get dumped and then you're like, there's like other people around, but then after college, you're like, where's everyone? You know, you had to go online. It's not like meeting the same people like all the time, but I may be jumping ahead, but maybe what can you charge? And like, are
Financial Opportunities in College Photography
00:30:01
Speaker
you just giving them like hour to hour shoe? And then do you like outfit changes? And then are you like selling them on prints? And then yeah, just, I'm trying to get around this, but I don't know anything.
00:30:13
Speaker
But at a most basic level, I can tell you, we serve about 10% of the senior girls at TCU each year and we make around $1,100 per shoot. And those are one hour sessions. Wow. Okay. Yeah. That's more than a family session.
00:30:26
Speaker
for sure. And I mean, you're talking like I'm out there shooting most days of the week. Like I leave days open in my calendar because weather's crazy in Texas in the spring. But I'm out there shooting sunrise and sunset, you know, multiple days a week, all March through May, all, you know, October, November, like, and there's more like that, you know, that's the other thing that comes to mind for me when I think about college and sorority photography is
00:30:56
Speaker
don't call it college grad photography. We think high school, senior photography, college grad photography. Every time I see somebody post, oh, I'm doing college grad sessions, I think you are missing the scope of what is possible with this segment of the business.
00:31:13
Speaker
You're like, you're missing the forest for the trees because I can go through and point out, in fact, I've got a list of this on my website. If you go to square8studio.com slash 17 ways, I share 17 different ways I generate revenue in my business besides college senior photos. Like, but it comes through the college work that we do. So as an example, because I do work with college students, not only do they book college grad sessions, but they also, when they need professional headshots because they're
00:31:42
Speaker
ready to update their LinkedIn and get out in the work world, they're calling me. When their family comes to town for a parents weekend, guess who's calling about family photos? This is a big one, when they just have graduated and now they're getting a ring on their finger and they're thinking, who can I call to take great pictures of me and all my bridesmaids and me and my husband?
00:32:06
Speaker
Guess who just took a picture of them with five of their best friends a few months prior? That's why I say we photograph brides and about to be brides because the wedding business that I get because we are on the college campus doing college and sorority photography is just nuts.
00:32:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you said about 90% of your business comes from the college demographic. Yeah, that that's where we're getting the vast majority of our weddings now. And honestly, it's kind of getting to the point where I'm like, I think that's really the way I want it. I think I want to just keep that relationship going. You know, we get to know them through college.
00:32:42
Speaker
We hear their story. They get to know us. They get to know our story. We build that trust. They get to know our work. They're like, I like your work. Then they go meet the guy. You know, a great example of this. We had a girl named Sydney. She.
00:32:55
Speaker
was one of my campus reps her senior year. She met me because I was photographing sorority events. Another way you can make money off college in sorority photography. We photographed sorority events, so she wanted to be a campus rep with me her senior year. Then her boyfriend rounded up all his guys, did their senior photos with me.
00:33:15
Speaker
Then he calls me and says, hey, I want to propose to this girl. Can you be there to photograph the proposal? So I'm at the proposal. I've known these two for years now. I'm like crying, like, hold the camera still, you know, like you've got to still get input, but it was just such a sweet moment. Photograph the proposal, the engagement photos.
00:33:32
Speaker
Then we get to their wedding. All of her bridesmaids were in her grad photos. All of his groomsmen were in his grad photos, all of which we shot. Most of their college age guests, we had done their grad photos. So it felt like we were just a part of the wedding. It was incredible. And so for me, that's the like, there's such a richness to that dynamic as a wedding photographer that I'm like, man, the more I can get at this, like sign me up. That's like, we consider ourselves as being in the people business first and foremost. So I'm down for as much of that as we can get.
00:34:00
Speaker
No, I was just following you. Like I was just jealous of that. You're niche. Like that's so cool because you don't really have to think about like chasing that shiny object or like jumping ship. It's just like, you just get better at this sorority fraternity thing. And like, yeah, you just connect to more and more people. They know someone, they know someone and it's just like, I don't know. It just kind of like the snowball effect, but it's already happened to you, but it's just, wow.
Building Strong Client Connections
00:34:25
Speaker
Like it just, anyone that once wants to have photography, they just remember your name.
00:34:31
Speaker
Well, and here's the thing too, like if you want to get into this, be generous. Like when we talk about it, it's always a good idea to decide who you're going to be before you decide what you're going to do. Choose to be a generous photographer. I know there's so many photographers that are starting out and they're going, oh, I got to value my work. And so I can't, you know, give anything away because I don't want to lose out on money when people should be paying me because I'm good enough for that. I have found this is a market.
00:34:58
Speaker
that is ripe and rich with reciprocity. And you cannot be too generous on a college campus. The more strategic you can be about giving things away, the faster your name is gonna get out there.
00:35:15
Speaker
Honestly, like I would still do free shoots, you know, styled shoots or whatever. Um, really cool shoots just to kind of help your brand because, um, you don't always get like ideal clients and you could just be like super creative and just do whatever you want when you do free work. And I just, I always feel like it's just always be like humble in that sense. Like don't think you're good enough for anything. Um, talk a little bit about this cab.
00:35:39
Speaker
Canvas rep, I was a Apple Canvas rep for three years at UC Riverside and I rep Apple notebooks and IMAX and iPods, iPhones. I don't think iPhones were even around. Tell me a little bit about your Canvas rep program.
00:35:56
Speaker
Yeah, gosh, honestly, I should probably be an Apple rep too, as many Apple products as I have in my house. But no, when I was starting this whole thing out, I realized, okay, here I am, an out of college dude, never went to TCU, have no reason to be on this campus outside of photography. And I'm trying to connect with an audience that let's be real, like most people wanting photos are females. So like, how do I do this without being creepy?
00:36:21
Speaker
it's basically like we're being real that was that was the goal and so what I what I did was I reached out to some students I had connections to and some people they had connections to and said hey I would love to get a campus rep program going I don't know what it looks like I just know I need people that are already on campus that can talk about business and get the word out and so it's evolved over the years but basically what I try to do is connect with people I feel like I can't build trust with all
00:36:47
Speaker
10, 12,000 students at TCU, but I can build trust with a smaller group of 10 to 12 really awesome students that are in, you know, incredible positions of influence on campus, whether that's in their sorority or whatever it may be and say, hey, let's have some fun and create some incredible photos together. And then you go out and tell your friends about what a great time you had so that you can lend your trust
00:37:11
Speaker
to them and then they'll want to work with us as well. And so it's been phenomenal. We've had a great time with it. Some of my favorite photos that we've gotten are things that we've done from these shoots with the campus reps because we're doing so much together throughout the year that you just, you get to know people, you get to know what brings out the best of them. And you know, it's not often we get to have repeat clients like within the same year, I feel like. And so for me, getting to have these people that come back over and over again is super fun.
00:37:36
Speaker
I love that. And like, I loved how you had that dinner with them and everyone felt so connected because that's what we want. We feel like we need to belong to something. And if you belong to something and you can make money, I mean, that's just the best. And Rob, I really like when you said like you didn't know how to even create the program, but you just knew you wanted it. So that's kind of my mentality too. Like done is better than perfect. But what's like your biggest heck yes technique that you instill in your reps?
00:38:06
Speaker
So for me, the biggest thing that we do that really helps get those heck yes moments is I believe it comes down to we have these, what I call no brainer booking pages. Cause for me, I want my sales page on my website to be able to speak so like specifically to my dream clients and be so simple that they can't help but say yes before they leave the site, especially for a college audience.
00:38:31
Speaker
This is huge because you think like the moment somebody leaves, if they're on your website, they're interested in booking with you. And so you don't want them to leave and get caught up in whatever else that may be. For my audience, you know, it's classes and finals and whatever social dramas going on or whatever social events are coming up that night. You know, for somebody that's doing family photography, it might be that mom that's on there and ready to book.
00:38:55
Speaker
But then she goes off and it's, you know, getting dinner ready and then kids are throwing up and making a mess and fighting and all this stuff. And there's just always something, you know? And so I want to make sure I build my pages in a way that are full of stellar imagery and clear, compelling language and just zero barriers to booking as far as like the systems on my site.
00:39:17
Speaker
so that somebody that comes, if they're my dream client, they see themselves and they see so clearly that like, hey, this is for me, that they've said yes before they leave.
00:39:26
Speaker
Uh, yeah. And I like saw your Galentine's day, um, mini sessions coming up and I wanted to book so bad. So I went to your youth session. Come on out. Then I was like, Oh, where is Rob from? And I was like, Oh, like Texas. Dang it. But I was like, I was already thinking of like, what bestie am I going to bring with me? Maybe my sister. I love it.
00:39:49
Speaker
Oh my God. I love it. I had a cold question for you because I got it from you. Um, but have, what have you done? Maybe recently that, um, to challenge yourself, like just in general, like goal wise or, um, personal goals or mindset or anything.
00:40:09
Speaker
Yeah, gosh, so many thoughts come to mind. This has been a big growth season for me, which, you know, like I said, is kind of my thing. Like I go, I'm always going to be behind somebody, so I should always be learning, always looking for ways to grow and improve.
00:40:24
Speaker
So a couple things I came into this year, this is more on the personal side and then I'll think on the business side too for you, but on the personal side, I came in going, okay, number one, I have had some things going on in my world in the past six months that like brought back some things that were like hurts from the past. I was like, I want to go back and jump back into some one-on-one counseling with somebody and just go through and process some of this stuff.
00:40:48
Speaker
many years removed from the main thing. And we've worked through all the main pieces, but I see some of it resurfacing. And I'm a big believer that like therapy is for healthy people and counseling is for healthy people that want to stay healthy. You know, like everybody's got stuff. And so that's one thing was I made a commitment to myself that I was going to start doing that twice a month this semester. And then another piece of that was I want to be physically as healthy as I can be.
00:41:13
Speaker
And so, you know, my parents are getting older going through some health challenges and some like, all right, I need to be thinking about like, man, I want to put myself in the best possible position to live a long and healthy life. So I've been jumping in with a trainer a couple of days a week as well. So that's on the personal side on the business side.
00:41:31
Speaker
I have really just tried to, I'm looking at the possibilities of some different expansions for my business that would require adding team members. I haven't had team members in a number of years. We started out as a team, then decided to shrink back and really focus on building out the core of what I wanted to do and feel like it may be time to jump into some more team-based elements of things moving forward. So I've been pursuing some of that and trying to see what that might look like in the year ahead.
00:41:59
Speaker
That's scary, but also I think you as a person, I could just tell like you need team members because I don't think you, I mean, the campus reps are basically your team members, but I think the way your mind works, I think you need some people on your team to grow your business exponentially. If you had a magic wand, where would you see your business in three months, 90 days?
00:42:24
Speaker
90 days from now, let's see, that puts us, we're at February, that puts us at the start of May. We are gonna be dog tired at the start of May because we're gonna have just shot a lot of college sessions. We've already had somewhere between 70 and 80 people sign up for senior photos with us. So that is a big piece of things. I am also more on like the business infrastructure side of things. Everything you see behind me is about to get overhauled. We have several more courses that are,
00:42:52
Speaker
up in here that are getting fleshed out over here being like my head if you're listening to this and not watching it, but that are about to get fleshed out in the next like 12 to 24 months. And so the first piece of that is going to be overhauling the set here. This is where we do all of our recording for the courses.
00:43:09
Speaker
Yeah, when I record my stuff, I'm going to channel my Rob Green energy and just think Rob Green energy, Amy Porter. You know, get into that finish line. Step A to Z. Like, it's just good energy. Give your information. You got this, you know?
00:43:26
Speaker
It's so funny because, and you get this being in that space, but like the amount of energy and effort that goes into just the video recording piece is massive. Like we've started, when I built this space to begin with, it was, it was for my recordings, but we started realizing like this is a great opportunity for other educators. So we've actually opened up our doors to other educators to be able to come in and start recording courses in this space as well. So that's,
00:43:50
Speaker
that's part of the transition as well as it's going to be something that can be a little more like versatile and like easily customizable for people when they come in here to do their courses with us. Oh, I love that. You mentioned a book on the Sean Austin episode. I think it was something about the runner person, but what's like one of your or that book or your favorite book and maybe one favorite podcast besides your own. Okay. Yeah. So
00:44:18
Speaker
The podcast one's making me laugh because my answer would not be...
00:44:23
Speaker
one that would be beneficial here. I'm a huge soccer nut. And so I have several soccer podcasts that I love listening to that are all around my local team that I follow. But I'll come back to a business one. So one book that has really challenged me and shaped me is called 168 Hours. You Have More Time Than You Think. And the idea is this woman, I believe her name is Laura,
00:44:49
Speaker
She went and basically studied the lives of some of the most successful people to figure out like, okay, we all have 168 hours is the number of hours we have in a seven day week. And so she's going, everybody has the same 168 hours. What is it about the way these successful people are using those 168 hours that causes them to succeed where other people don't?
00:45:11
Speaker
And so she talks through the rhythms and lifestyles and practices, but you know, best habits and practices of these people that are really successful and how they choose to spend their time and how that influences their overall like output capacity. Wow. That would be the book for me. Maybe one little tidbit of like the difference between someone unsuccessful to someone successful, like how they use their time.
00:45:36
Speaker
Yeah, there are some really fascinating things in there. One of the ones that's coming to mind right now was just the idea of being willing to outsource things from your personal life. We always think about outsourcing things within our business, but man, for me, ever since I was able to start paying somebody to come in and clean the house, I mean, I'm a dude. I feel like I'm relatively clean as dudes go, but I'm still a dude at the end of the day.
00:46:04
Speaker
to have somebody that can come in and like take care of the house and the laundry and all that stuff so that I can just focus on things that I'm better at has been a game changer for me because that's such a like energy suck for me, not just a time suck, but an energy suck to have to go through and, you know, clean bathrooms and scrub counters and all these things that I just, that's just not what I'm good at. So that was one thing that they were like, yeah, these people are not afraid to outsource things, not just in their business, but in their personal life. Nice. And favorite podcast, non-soccer.
00:46:34
Speaker
Favorite non-soccer podcast. Yeah, so I've got my list up right here. There's one, he hasn't been posting stuff of late on it, but the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast has been full of fantastic, and they've got all the archived episodes in there as well, but full of incredible leadership principles for running businesses and just living life. Yeah, the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast, I get tons of great little nuggets every time I tune into his.
00:47:02
Speaker
Interesting. And then last question. Mostly wedding photographers are listening. So this is perfect. And this topic, which is I never even heard of it in my life, because it's untapped. Someone like struggling, just trying to like, make ends meet or even get inquiries or maybe wanting to start tapping in the sorority fraternity or college, just one little like lasting advice for them.
00:47:27
Speaker
Yes. So there's kind of a, it's a two part process here. Okay. You know, we talked earlier about finding your one connection on campus and how that can be the start. Okay. So this is, this is sort of the, the left hook, right hook of the whole thing. Find that one person, ask them to give, uh, if you can do some photos for them and ask them to bring a few friends with them, because unlike high school photography, like college and sorority has way more in common with weddings than high school.
00:47:56
Speaker
because it's all about the friendships, it's all about the relationships. And so ask that one person to go do a shoot with them on campus with like their three or four best friends. And then the right hook to go with that left hook is then run a giveaway and ask them to help you spread the word.
00:48:17
Speaker
I love things where you could actually just do it, you know what I mean? Because you just, oh yeah, everything. And you're just like, ah, too scary. But just that one little dude left to right hood, you could do that. Okay. And then I'm sure you have some sort of like, you know, course or coaching to help you implement this if you can't do it yourself. But how can people work with you and where to find you?
00:48:39
Speaker
Yes. So if you're going, man, like this college and sorority stuff is very intriguing. I would love to figure out if this has potential at my school, where I'm at, where in the area that I'm in, we're actually going to be running a free five day mini course, March 13th through the 17th called College Photo 101. If you're going, man, some of these tips you're given, like think of that, but like way more, we're going to even take you behind the scenes,
00:49:03
Speaker
on a shoot where I'm actually going out filming a group. It ranges from 9 to 11 people. Like the number actually changes during the session because people had class, people had work. It's hilarious. But we go through and show you how to pose larger groups, which has huge ripple effects for wedding photography. We even like interview a college student and pick her brain about what it is that college students want, which is huge for a lot of people because before you are in that market, you're going,
00:49:29
Speaker
I don't even know what college students are thinking. So we're like, well, let's just bring the college students to you. And so that's going to be coming up here in a couple of weeks. College photo 101, completely free, five days with me. We've got all kinds of discussion that'll be happening around that. So you can actually ask me questions during that week and I'll get real time feedback to you to help you get started on your college campus. Ah, who doesn't love a challenge? And then where to find you on Insta?
00:49:53
Speaker
Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram at Square 8 Studio. You'll see all sorts of stuff coming up in these coming weeks about that College Photo 101. I'll send you the link so you got that for your show notes or whatever as well, but Square 8 Studio is the main place to find me on Instagram. I'm not a huge social media guy, but since I work with college students, I'm on there quite a bit more than I would choose to be otherwise.
00:50:18
Speaker
We try to have a little bit of fun with it. I've got a video on there right now. I'll probably be archived by the time this airs, but man, it's been icy here in Fort Worth this week. And I thought I was past it. I thought I was better than this, but I was walking my trash can out to the street last night and straight busted it on my driveway. And I've got one of those ring cameras that's on my driveway and it captured the whole thing. And I was like,
00:50:43
Speaker
Alright, I can't be too proud to post this on Instagram. Like, I straight ate it on the ice last night. Oh my god, because you're wearing a hoodie and a jacket and I'm like, really? I'm sweaty with this, like, little shirt.
00:50:55
Speaker
Yeah, must be nice out there in California where the weather's perfect every day. Hey, I'm down for a good laugh and see Rob Green face plans on the floor, so I'm going to check that out for sure. This is such a pleasure. I hope maybe I could be on your podcast. Yeah, let's make it happen. Thank you. This is crazy information. You totally blew my mind. Amazing. Thanks, Krista. Thanks for having me on.
00:51:22
Speaker
Thanks for joining me this week on Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. Make sure to follow, subscribe, leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. Take a screenshot and post to IG. Tag me. Also, don't forget to download my free guide on how to become a lead generating machine. See you next time, wedding pros.