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Ep. 122 - How to create compelling video that lands you more clients - Larry Marshall
125 Plays1 year ago
Happy Woo Wednesdays!
Hot Topic: how to create compelling video that lands you more clients, better clients, and saves you time down the line.
Check out the videos Larry made for me.
https://www.carissawoophotography.com/
Larry is a video content strategist. This is different from a videographer who shows up and hands clients a recap/highlight film. Larry listens to your business goals and accesses where video could save you money, time, or increase relationships. No one else in the video segment is serving wedding professionals directly with 1 on 1 service. This is a specialty of his.
What is your best HECK YES technique.
By listening first. Not everyone wants more sales. Some want their time back from onboarding new clients, or from current clients. Video can solve a lot of problems but I have to first hear what a business owner is telling me...and often they dont even know what their problem is but something is slowing them down. My clients will make their money back within 2 sales and their videos will continue to serve them for years.
Connect with Larry
https://www.instagram.com/elevatefilmsllc
Connect with Carissa
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Transcript
Introduction of Larry Marshall and Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Happy Woo Wednesdays everyone! I have my buddy Larry Marshall in the Get It Heck Yes house. He is from Elevate Films LLC and he made me my Carisoo photography page to book out my team and also my coaching video on heckyesmedia.co
00:00:20
Speaker
go check it out or go check it out on my Instagram. I pinned it to the top. It's amazing. I love it, love it, love it. And he made me look so good with all his amazing filters. I like better than I was my last promo video when I was 23. So kudos to him. And yeah, we talk all about video today. You are going to love it. Enjoy this episode.
00:00:47
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 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,
00:01:16
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!
Larry's Background in Video Production
00:01:38
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back to Get a Heck Yes with me, your girl, Carissa Wu. I have my friend, Larry Marshall in the house. He helps live event pros build trust, increase sales, and unleash their potential through the power of video. And he just made my amazing promo video for my Carissa photography and my Heck Yes media. And wow, I look good.
00:02:06
Speaker
That's the goal. That's the goal. Yes. I mean, I'm almost 40 and you put that amazing filter that I had no idea about. Um, I never looked better. I honestly look better than my, when I did it when I was 23 to everyone listening. Are you talking about the age reduction filter? It can be yours for just $100 now. I'm just kidding. Can I have that in real life? AI just like a real person. We're getting there. We're getting there. Like, I don't know what the future holds, but yeah.
00:02:35
Speaker
Oh, well, yeah, just to preface this. I met Larry at Minwipa. And he's just like a cool guy. I call you there bear he just like personable and everyone loves him. And I loved his promo brand videos. I loved Holly grades anything but grades video her
00:02:55
Speaker
a little brand story, business card, video, which is so cool. And I said, yeah, I gotta hire this guy. And we had a sales call. You asked me the most amazing questions. We'll talk more about that later. And yeah, the summer we filmed in my house and you came along with me to some weddings and now I just been running them to you everywhere. WNBA, WIPA events. You're everywhere. So,
00:03:23
Speaker
Yeah, welcome to this podcast. I'm excited to chat.
Career Development and Business Challenges
00:03:26
Speaker
Hey, me too. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Okay, so we're gonna go way back to little layer bear when you're growing up, but just tell everyone like what you're like growing up and a little bit about you. First of all, my mom calls me layer bear. So it's a very near endearing term to me, but I'm crazy. So you're Larry bear. My mom called me. That's hilarious.
00:03:53
Speaker
Well, I've OK, everybody says this. Oh, I've been doing, you know, so and so for for as long as I can remember. Well, I actually have been that other people haven't. But I have been filming, doing video since like VHS tapes when I was like nine or 10 years old, when my parents would actually let me have access to the camera and because it was the family camera. Right. Like, be careful with it. You know, the thing's worth like three or four grand or whatever back then.
00:04:20
Speaker
Um, and, uh, I enjoyed filming myself running around as a kid again, nine, 10. I think I filmed myself playing video games. It's just the weirdest thing looking back at what I would do with the camera. Like I would just film a, I would film a TV and I don't know why, I don't know why it makes no sense. I'd be like, let's film me playing a game. It's just what I wanted to do. And, um, that love for, for video just carried through high school where I, um,
00:04:49
Speaker
started doing video, I'll call it professionally because I was paid for some of my work. This would have been in 2003. So that is 20 years ago now. Wow. When we were still shooting on tape, wasn't digital. And I filmed someone's wedding for like 200 bucks. It was just like another high school teacher's daughter who was getting married. And yeah, I thought 200 bucks was like,
00:05:11
Speaker
the most amount of money you could ever make, you know, especially when you're 16 years old or so. And yeah, so that's, that's generally the background. I mean, I've also in high school, I did, you know, you do the news, we had all these televisions in every room, and I wasn't on the news, but I was one of the technical people behind it that would, you know,
00:05:36
Speaker
edit it all together. And that's where we learned how to do all of that. Nonlinear editing programs were finally starting to come and become affordable. It like only costs like $5,000 to get into it, which is like the lowest barrier you could possibly imagine. I didn't have that money. My school had that money. So we learned through our high school media program. So ever since then, I've just been doing my own thing with video literally all the time. I don't, um,
00:06:05
Speaker
I didn't, I've had other jobs, but for the most part, like video is what has helped me pay for everything.
00:06:11
Speaker
Wow. You could have been, you're like kind of ahead of your time. You could have been, you know, a YouTube influencer. Like Ryan's world. I don't have my own YouTube channel in the sense of like a vlogger, but like if YouTube was really big back then, it was, you know, that's when it was starting to get going. I don't even think Google had bought it yet at that time. But yeah, like I definitely, if I was in high school, I would definitely be a big,
00:06:38
Speaker
video content, like vlogger, just like showing everything all the time. That's, that's definitely what I'd be doing. Yeah. Yeah, you're definitely the most techy guy. I know, even when we came on this podcast, you're like, I have my mic, my double mic, and all this tech going, I'm like, Larry, this is my podcast.
00:06:54
Speaker
I gotta make it look good though. You're gonna make it to look the best. I'm supposed to make it look good. It will. This is my rough lighting setup. I didn't get one of my lights set up, but it's okay. Yeah, okay, let's go back. Okay, so it's interesting. So you use your family's camera. And you just for some weird reason, you'd like to video things like what was going on in like your mind when you watch back these videos and how did like it evolve to like high school and
00:07:23
Speaker
Was there someone that inspired you that also shot video? I just want to pick your brain a little bit. I don't think there was anyone in particular that, because video was just so new. Just the movies, at the time I was like, I'm going to work in the movies for sure. And I have worked in the movies. I have done two feature films as the most technical position on the set.
00:07:52
Speaker
in the camera department, of course, which is the first assistant camera. But in terms of somewhat influential is actually a teacher, my high school teacher, who was also a producer at Proctor and Gamble. I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is where PNG is as their headquarters. So
00:08:10
Speaker
He would produce and like commercials and stuff. And then during the school year, he just kind of wanted to get away from it. And so he got hired by our high school to teach digital media with cameras and editing and lighting and audio. And it was just eye-opening to me to be able to experience all of that so early. I definitely knew I wanted to do
00:08:37
Speaker
something like that. And then I went to college in telecommunications, which is kind of like mass communication. So like the news sports coverage. And then I minored in film production, which should be no surprise. And from there, I it's funny. People generally wouldn't hire me because I had too many credentials. Like I had a hard time getting hired.
00:09:02
Speaker
just at like random places because they're like, you have a college degree. And, you know, and I generally the business doesn't need a college degree. Like, you don't need one unless you're going to work in the news. And I didn't want to work in the news. They just don't really need a four year degree. And so
Transition to Wedding Professional Videos
00:09:18
Speaker
I just started my own business. And that was that's kind of like the history. I was like, fine, if nobody's going to hire me, I'm just going to make it happen on my own. Like, I'll just take control, make it happen.
00:09:27
Speaker
You were literally like overqualified. I was over. Well, yeah. But I mean, like I could have worked at like a post house or which is like an editing house or like a rental place. And that would have been good. But just in the end, I was just like, you know, I mean, I did work. I mean, I did work for like a startup company in Chicago where we.
00:09:48
Speaker
would do something kind of similar to what I made for you, but on a much lighter, faster nationwide scale. So we had like hundreds of videographers in cities and businesses would come in for a few hours and film and then interview them while the business was open. It was kind of crazy. And then the footage would get shipped to Chicago and I had a team of editors
00:10:16
Speaker
Um, that would edit all of that together. Not my company again. Um, but it was a company that was backed by like the guys that founded Groupon. If anybody remembers Groupon, nobody, nobody does Groupon this much anymore, but
00:10:30
Speaker
I do. You do. But a lot of people, it dropped off, which watches why the stock tanked. But yeah, at the time they had like billions of dollars and they were just like, let's put money into startups, like all over the place, different types. And so I was hired there as the post production manager for all of the posts.
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if that answers your question, but yeah, teachers, teachers are the influential. No, that's amazing. Can you name job like the movies that you worked on? Yeah, I mean, but they're small, like indie films. OK, they're not like major, major. Yeah, I did one called Chrysalis was filmed in Gary, Indiana, because if you don't know anything about Indiana, Gary, Indiana is like an abandoned town. OK.
00:11:18
Speaker
It was a steel town and all the steel jobs left, but we needed a town that was post-apocalyptic. So it needed to look like it had just been run down for decades and that place was perfect. So because it was like a whole zombie apocalypse thing, the whole feature film was shot actually on a 5D Mark III, which at the time was like crazy. But
00:11:42
Speaker
Um, it worked for us very hard to pull focus on that, by the way. And, uh, then, uh, the other one was called Swan song also shot in Indiana. Um, actually by an academy nominated director, uh, for a short film that he did in the seventies, but he's been making films for a long time. His name's John Hancock.
00:12:05
Speaker
like not like the John Hancock sign your John Hancock, but his name happens to be John Hancock. He's he's like 80 something years old now. I think he made one more movie, but it was supposed to be his last movie, which is why it was called Swan Song. Oh, cool. And that one was another fun one. And that was shot on the larger cinema camera and had a more significant budget of around a quarter million dollars. Two hundred fifty thousand dollars for the whole for a whole budget for a film is like shoestring. That's like, yeah, yeah, for sure.
00:12:34
Speaker
Um, we had 42 shoot days for that. The other chrysalis film, like its budget was 50,000. So everyone's working at basically no pay. Like I think I was paid a thousand dollars for the whole thing, which is again, nothing. I think that 17 days of shooting. Wow. So how did you start like working with wedding professionals and like, how did you start elevate films, LLC?
00:12:59
Speaker
Yeah, so when I when no one would hire me, I started my own business and that was naturally gravitated towards wedding films. That was kind of like I had done a few weddings. I probably done five or six and I was like, OK, let's lean into this a little bit more. And then, you know, you're in the you're in the seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar range somewhere around there. I'm very open about finances and how much things cost, by the way. So to ask any questions about that stuff.
00:13:30
Speaker
And it was going well. You book a lot when you're in the lower tier. You know, you tend to burn out and overwork yourself too much, but you do get a lot of experience so that hopefully you can raise your rates. And that was back in 2011.
00:13:46
Speaker
that i started that i was living in indiana and then um i did that for six seven years there just serving wedding clients um did really well and then my wife got a job here in southern california working at cal state long beach as a professor that's why we were in indiana was to get her PhD from Purdue
00:14:09
Speaker
Wow. And so I was like, yeah, sure, I can do video anywhere. So I just uplifted everything came over here. I still had a few clients back in Indiana for a couple of years because in the pandemic.
00:14:21
Speaker
Um, but, um, I just didn't want to, uh, do, I didn't want to film weddings anymore. That was about at the 10 year, uh, maybe it was at like the eight year mark of filming weddings under my brand. And I just really wanted to get away from it and transition mostly just because of lifestyles. Like I wanted more of my Saturdays back. Exactly. Um,
00:14:44
Speaker
you know, I'm a caretaker for my dad and he needed me to not have a day where suddenly I'm like not able to be home potentially. So I needed to be able to have like a cancellation and have it not be like a whole thing because, you know, it's a thing. Yeah. You are, you know, a visual. You're like the person who's going to be there, the photographer. And it's true for anybody. But like when you're like the person who's going to capture it, you're like, I have to have a replacement. And I just didn't want to do that anymore.
00:15:11
Speaker
And the day you're supposed to shoot my promo video, you suddenly happened to hear dad too. So yeah, exactly. That got rescheduled. So exactly. And so fortunately, you know, understanding clients like yourself, and then we're able to still make magic happen. Nonetheless, you can just do another hopefully do another time. And it's not like, you're not missing someone's wedding. In the sense that like that once in a lifetime thing, you know, that we put a lot of pressure on.
00:15:35
Speaker
um and I just naturally gravitated towards like well I know a lot about weddings I know a lot about um like I benefit a lot from other vendors incredible work you know basically because I'm like I'm thinking about how like as the videographer like I benefit from having a really well put together wedding you know whether that's the planner or the photographer or the day of coordinator who's doing all of that
00:16:00
Speaker
It's a big benefit to me to be able to film all of that, the flowers, just all the arrangement. And I'm like, all these people need to be recognized. I see work and I'm just like, how do they do that? How do you make a wall of flowers or a ceiling of flowers? How do you do all of this? Or what is it like to learn the behind the scenes of how a wedding is actually done from start to finish? What are the key things? And can I highlight that for people?
00:16:27
Speaker
I wanted to lean into like, well, maybe my clients can shift from the couple to the actual people who are doing the wedding day. So I just, I find it very interesting to learn because I learned right alongside anybody else that would be considering hiring a wedding vendor, I'm learning stuff too, which gives me a perspective of that fresh perspective that you want. Because as an owner, you kind of what's what's lame into you, what's like, oh, I know, maybe that's not important.
00:16:53
Speaker
because it's so second nature for you, but I'm going to come in here and I'm going to ask these questions that maybe a customer is asking in their head, but they're not going to ask you directly. I find that aspect of figuring out what that is and getting in the mindset of your audience, that just is so interesting to me.
00:17:14
Speaker
The sales aspect of it also is completely different. With weddings, they're buying off of emotion for the most part. For the most part, they're buying off emotion. It doesn't really logically make sense to be like, yeah, I'll shoot your wedding for 10 grand. And that's that. Because they have to really trust you. If you want to charge five figures, they better be trusting you and be really invested in you. And you better be conveying a really positive experience before they sign that check over to you.
00:17:43
Speaker
I like to figure out how do we do that? Like how do we get more people to charge what they want to charge or maybe get the clients that they want to get, get away from certain clients. You know, as much as we like, Oh, I'll take any wedding is like, eventually you go, I don't really want to work in certain, like, I don't know. I don't want to work with, uh, you know, I don't want to do so many Catholic weddings. Like for example, I just want to do more beach stuff. How do I, how do I do that?
00:18:07
Speaker
you know, less the type of people and more like the type of wedding is what I'm talking about. But yeah, and that stuff is just really, really interesting.
00:18:15
Speaker
Oh, I love that.
Creating Compelling Video Content
00:18:16
Speaker
So that brings us to our hot topic, which is how to create compelling video that lands you more clients, better clients, and saves you time down the line. So if you go to my website, Carissa Woo Photography, my new video is up. And if you go to HeckYesMedia.co, you can see also the video Larry made me and they're both equally as
00:18:39
Speaker
amazing. So yeah, so take us away with how to create compelling video that lands you more clients. Pardon this short interruption, but guess what? I have a new program. It's for all wedding professionals. It's called the triple threat. We redo your brand messaging, the homepage of your website. Part two is we do all your marketing, we
00:19:05
Speaker
create a beautiful brochure so you could start getting on Prefer venue vendor list and we do all your sales so we actually make you a sales presentation leading your client to the heck yes so you get paid. I have a free 20 minute demo training. It's only 20 minutes. Go to my Instagram at Carissa Woo.
00:19:29
Speaker
and DM me the word DEMO. I will send it right over. It's how to get 10 to 15 quality leads in your inbox per month. Enjoy, guys. Krista Wu is a LA-based wedding photographer who's actually turning business coach. She helped me grow and change, and I'm so proud to call you coach.
00:19:51
Speaker
Tell us how you're feeling. I want to just know a little bit more about your thoughts. It's beautiful and you're awesome. It's beautiful. I'm speechless. I just like the fact that it feels like myself. I feel myself when I see this. Oh, man. Well, you got me pumped and excited for this. Carissa, thank you. The first thing I want to speak about here is the difference of two different types of video.
00:20:20
Speaker
There's something called video content, and then there's something called video assets. And I want to differentiate between the two of these because this is important.
00:20:30
Speaker
Generally, video content is when we're referring to something that you might film on your phone in the moment. It's intended for social media in that it will make its way down the Instagram grid as you post more things, or it's only meant to kind of live in the story. And that's important to have content and a video asset. And I'll go over more examples and differences here.
00:20:55
Speaker
But the content gets you top of mind because of higher visibility. It keeps you popping up in someone's life like, hey, I'm still here and here's this like thing I did, you know, whatever it is, the actual the actual subject of what the content is is a separate issue. But that's video content is what any buddy can make relatively easily because it's shot on your phone.
00:21:19
Speaker
A video asset is something that just what I made for you, the brand story film, it is going to require a lot more planning and finesse. It's something that lives on digitally for two to five years, just depending on how often you're changing direction for your business. It might only serve you for two years and you're like, man, I don't, I don't like, I actually want to update this with, uh,
00:21:42
Speaker
with different weddings, with different style that I have now. Or I talk about this, but I actually don't want to do that anymore. And so I need to update this asset. So an example of the video asset would be the brand story film that I made for you. And that's going to live on your website. Generally for that one, these are longer form things as well. So content is like anywhere from like two seconds to 30 seconds generally. And then the asset is going to be
00:22:11
Speaker
you know, somewhere in the two minute mark. It's a lot longer, but it's because it's serving a different need in your business. It's, you've got a warm lead probably who's looking to explore more about you. But the beauty of the brand story film is you can chop it up into little bits and pieces and put it out as content as well, just to kind of get them interested in you. And then maybe they want to go learn the full two to three minutes, which is asking a lot of a viewer, right? Like, come to my website, watch this two minute thing.
00:22:40
Speaker
But man, when they see it, they're either going to know I want to work with you. Or maybe this person isn't quite for me. And that's OK. Like you don't you don't want a tire kicker anyway. If someone's just shopping around, you kind of want to get, you know, hopefully someone that's a little warmer and now they.
00:22:57
Speaker
they trust you more. That's kind of the big thing is it bridges the gap of trust. It gets them to start to know your personality. And it does it really quickly. Two minutes, still pretty quick. But if they're on your website and they're click and play, they're a pretty warm lead. It's a way to close the deal. I recommend everybody, like if you have a brand story film, Chris, send it to every lead so that they see what you're all about before
00:23:25
Speaker
talking with you before you even get on a phone call with them. Then they have the pre-framing, they know what you're all about, and they're like, oh, I like her energy. I really love how she articulated my concern about poses. I don't think I'm a supermodel.
00:23:44
Speaker
And I mean, literally like what 0.001% of people are like, I don't know what to do. When I put my hands. So your video, you address that concern, you know, addressing client concerns before they even ask you shows that you're already thinking about them. It's just such a good way to connect with people.
00:24:03
Speaker
So that's what a video asset is. Other types of assets would be testimonials from past clients.
Video Strategies for Client Engagement
00:24:11
Speaker
They can record it themselves. You can hire a videographer to go get it. But also, they can go on as content. Of course, you would put them on the social media as content, but you would want
00:24:24
Speaker
them to kind of live somewhere else. It could be in the brand story film. You could update it and include it in there. Frequently Asked Questions is another type of asset when people are looking at stuff. They just want to hear from you about how you do something. And you can shoot that yourself. You can just sit down and record it and put that on social media and also have it on your site, like next to the text part. Because some people want to see it. Some people want to read it. It helps SEO if you have more videos that are addressing stuff.
00:24:53
Speaker
it just has a bunch of uses. Yeah, I mean, just to kind of reiterate that the brand video that Larry made me like it's full on production, like he had, you know, his crazy cameras and different angles, we had the setup when perfect light, I had my glam team there.
00:25:13
Speaker
doing my hair and makeup, I do my best outfits. And he asked me really, really good questions. He's a great listener. So it's a full on production. It's not just your average, like, you know, use your phone and you know, talk about some wedding tips. So
00:25:29
Speaker
And it is an investment, but the investment will pay off because you're going to speak to your ideal client, not get those tire kickers like you said. But I love this answer that you wrote on the questionnaire, but what is your favorite sales technique? How do you get your heck yes from your dream client?
00:25:45
Speaker
listening because not everybody needs a brand story film, honestly. I mean, I think they have a way of serving every single wedding vendor, but you may not want more leads. You may be in a position where you want more time.
00:26:01
Speaker
Like you're like, I've got all the leads I want, which then I would just say, then why are they booking you? Because you probably need to raise your rates. You need to get that. You need to like lower your booking percentage down. If you're like book solid, you know, I mean, this is a whole other conversation, but it still applies in the video. Maybe you've got all the leads you want and you're charging your happy price. You're like, I'm making 10 grand a wedding, but I don't have enough time. So what am I, what can video do to help free up my time?
00:26:28
Speaker
So now is where we start looking at, well, what is your onboard onboarding process like with your clients and how often are you having to have a lot of conversations with the client before they book you? Like, is there a way to kind of automate this a little bit with video where you're able to talk to them and explain to them how this is going to work?
00:26:46
Speaker
Can you do like a drip campaign with video where you're going to send out stuff in the six months leading up to it or two months or, you know, whatever works for you and your timeline where you're going to go over and address all their, their thoughts as it comes up. And that way, when you do have an actual call with them, like you don't have to have it. It doesn't have to be an hour.
00:27:05
Speaker
It could be 20 minutes. It can be a lot less. It can be 10. You could have, I mean, I've had no, no pre calls with people because they just get everything. Like they, they, they hired me back when I shot weddings, they hired me, paid my deposit, and then I didn't need to do anything because I would send them, well, here's how this is going to work for me. I would have videos in there and they would be like, I totally get how this is like, I have no further questions really. I mean, and it's a great way for them to continue to be exposed to you and, and see how,
00:27:35
Speaker
you conduct yourself and all that matters, right? That's the client experience. And that's going to get your time back. It just depends what each person needs. Like if you do get the same question over and over again in an email, and you're like, you know what, I should just record myself answering this in 30 seconds, and then you have a link to that, you could send that to them.
00:27:58
Speaker
Um, boom, it's answered. It's so much faster than typing it out each time. You could, you could show examples of what you're talking about, uh, put it together. I mean, there's ways that you a vendor could do it.
00:28:11
Speaker
It's easier, obviously, if you have a professional like myself to go through this stuff with you and be like, I'll edit that, I'll get that footage, existing footage that you have on your phone, send it to me and I'll put it in there and let's figure out how we can maybe reduce the amount of time you're spending doing that. But for the most part, people want,
00:28:30
Speaker
the ideal client, they want more of their ideal client, they want more sales and or higher price per sale. And so all that ties together into that client experience through through video with the brand story film and all of that. So
00:28:45
Speaker
The number one thing is listening. Cause if I meet a new, if I meet another photographer and they're like, I love what you did for Chris and I want that, I'd say, well, let's first just step back. Let's make sure that what works for her is that's her style. You're a bubbly, amazing. Maybe this photographer is just not like that. So they don't want to, they don't want to be something that they're not, but they're like, how, how can I.
00:29:10
Speaker
tailor that to be for me. And that's where me listening to Well, who's your ideal client? Yeah, what does that look like? If you're not getting them right now, how can we get them? Can we nudge them? You know, people kind of know like, Oh, I'm a good fit for you. Or they kind of see like, I don't know, I don't really love this. And they move on, you know, they have 15 photographer tabs open, they're going through everybody to figure them all out. And when you have a video and you have a way to showcase who you are, it's going to really help narrow it down and warm up that lead. Totally.
00:29:40
Speaker
But I think also, like, it shows like how passionate you are as a photographer, it doesn't even have to be style, because someone just booked my team and they said, Hey, do you think we could go like a more cinematic, like approach to our engagement session? And they know, like, you know, I'm a good listener. So I understand, like, their needs, ask them the right question. So I was like, Sure, but they they know, I'm like,
00:30:03
Speaker
you know, going to do a good job. And I just, you know, love wedding photography. But it all goes down also for you, that you are a wedding photographer for all these years. And, you know, you're constantly listening to people's needs and wants.
Reflections on Wedding Photography
00:30:15
Speaker
How did your how did like, what, what are the biggest takeaways from being a wedding photographer to now like, making brand story videos for wedding professionals? Because I was in it, I think because I have the experience of
00:30:31
Speaker
literally filming weddings as a vendor and going, well, what works for me? And I did do the climb from 200 bucks to over 10,000 a wedding. And that was in Indiana. So like I was, you know.
00:30:45
Speaker
It's a good money no matter where you are per event, but in Indiana, it goes even further than here in SoCal. So I have the experience of kind of knowing like, what does that feel like? What does that look like? What's scary about it? And how can, how can video help? How can investing in video, whether you're doing it with someone like me or whether you're just doing it yourself, like how can I increase my sales to get like that? How can I.
00:31:10
Speaker
How do we do that? Like, how do we actually do that? What's the process like? And is that what I want to do? Or do I not really want to charge? Because when you're charging that much, you're getting this level of clients generally who are going to be a little bit, there's very little room for error in anything.
00:31:27
Speaker
Um, like I've, I've filmed for plenty of multimillionaire, even billionaire weddings and the room for error is zero. You are not going to be forgiven for anything. It's like you have a team of three or four people. You better get the shot. Right. Um, but that's, that's where I come from. I'm like, I'm able to see, um, where everybody is in there in, in the like.
00:31:55
Speaker
process of figuring out how they want to shoot or what type of clients they are. So that's what I bring to that. Oh, interesting. And that leads me to my next question is what is your who factor? What is your very martial factor? What makes you stand up?
00:32:11
Speaker
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00:32:36
Speaker
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00:33:31
Speaker
I've niched into wedding professionals in particular. Because of all the background, it's just like a natural thing for me to come in and do. I love meeting people through WIPA. That's just like a wonderful place with wonderful people who are very passionate about it because they're in a group. You're in a group, you're already probably more passionate about it, and so I like to hear
00:33:56
Speaker
How, why are you doing this? Like, what do you, why do you like to do this? Like it's, it's usually more than just like, Oh, I, I needed to get a job and I thought I like wedding. So I'll do it. Um, which is kind of funny because that's where I started and that's okay. Like if you need to, you need to make it happen, but then when you're doing it for beyond three years, if you make it past three years.
00:34:18
Speaker
It's really cool to see like, well, why are you still going? Like what's, what's really interesting about it? What's unique about what you're offering as a, as someone for their wedding. Um, and I just, yeah, I mean, that's, I do other things of course, besides wedding vendor brand story films, but, uh, that's the bread and butter of what I do. I love it. And.
00:34:41
Speaker
I don't know. I just, it's pretty cool because even like Holly was saying, like you really even elevated her brand. Like she booked out, um, the weddings of her dreams because you just that little like video business card on her, like email signature. I've showed it to a couple of my wedding, um, photographer friends and they're like, Oh shoot. Like I would book her, you know, just from that video business card. And I think a lot of people are not doing this. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, but.
00:35:08
Speaker
It's like a shorter video, but you put it on like your email signature and you know, people click it and they're like, you know, is it, she's either for me or she's not. So.
00:35:22
Speaker
It's something very, very powerful to earn their trust. I was just texting with her and she was like, I need to update mine. It's been three years. Oh, wow. Even just the type of weddings that she's going for now are a little different. Oh, interesting. I'll probably be coming along and getting a few.
00:35:45
Speaker
And that's the other thing I was going to mention. You want to showcase what you want to get in future clients. So don't bother having a videographer come on a so-so wedding. That's just not what you want. Pick a wedding like what you did.
00:36:01
Speaker
You're like, I think this couple, I want more couples like this. I think they're going to be great. I want more venues like this. I want more, like everything. So, and generally one wedding is the minimum that you would want to showcase in something like that. You can get two, that's great. And then in your case, like we took footage from.
00:36:17
Speaker
you know, your team that you had shot from other weddings in the past and we could, that were like more ideal again and show the breadth of all of the weddings that you've done showing that you can handle a lot of situations and lean on, I think you had like 14 years of experience. That's what you want to showcase. Like that's, I mean, over a decade is a lot.
00:36:39
Speaker
Yeah, but the wedding that we you went to was just perfect because the bride was just like extremely bubbly and just full of life and energy like it was just she was like going 90 miles per hour. So like that is so my couple because it was like
00:36:56
Speaker
I was like, wow, man, she is having a good time. And that's going to help you attract the like, more like, just good time party vibe that you want. Like, if it's a quieter couple in you, you could do it like it would work. But like, you don't maybe if you could avoid having to get like really quiet couples, because just your style is like,
00:37:22
Speaker
you know, animated and you want your client to react to that and feed off of it. So that's what I mean by like ideal, like you want to get the people that you jive with as well. Like it's as much about you as it is about them. Like everybody's kind of interviewing each other. Yeah, that's true. Who do I want to get? And so it is important to push away the ones you don't and attract the ones that you really want.
00:37:45
Speaker
Oh, okay. Well, leave it like that. That was really mic drop moment. But rapid fire questions. What is your biggest your data to so maybe dad boss time hack.
00:38:00
Speaker
Honestly, like, I don't know. This isn't really like a time. Maybe it is. It's like day management. So like I have a planner where it has a gratitude section and things I'm excited about and stuff like that. And.
00:38:16
Speaker
It's only so many pages long. This is like the weirdest thing. It's only so many pages long. But I found an app on my iPad that lets me take a picture of it and then I use my pencil and I can write and duplicate the pages and just keep going infinitely. What's the app called? What is it called?
00:38:33
Speaker
It's just called good notes for the iPad. And it's, uh, it lets you like scan any page and then you can duplicate it, you know, every day and basically have an infinite journal and not have to keep buying these paper journals. Yeah. I never heard of that.
00:38:49
Speaker
Yeah, so that's my little hack, I guess that I just thought of because I do it every day. So it was top of mind. Yeah, I got it. You got to screenshot it and like send it to me. That's a good one. You know, it's the end of the year. I think it's December tomorrow, which is crazy. Yeah, two days. Yeah, two days. So what are like your goal setting tips or what are your goals for next year? Oh, man, I want to work.
00:39:17
Speaker
with even more WIPA people. Like I really do. I want to hit everybody and see if they, if there's something that video could do for them. Like I would love to put together like some sort of way for like an easier barrier of entry to kind of get into it and just kind of get your toes wet to a full.
00:39:40
Speaker
investment. That's a good idea. Yeah, so like lower it way down, you know, have it cost less and then if you want to keep going from there, you know,
00:39:51
Speaker
We could, it's more of a building block rather than just like, I need to invest this much. Like let's instead do like, I'll invest here and then we'll see, and just kind of go up in bits and pieces and just see if that would work. And, and, and I want to that way, just more people could at least to see what it's, what this is all about. What's this and not have it cost as much.
00:40:10
Speaker
Yeah, I love it. I want to do that in the spring. Maybe I call it, we call it winter. I don't know. There's no winter here, but for me, it used to be like, oh, January, February, it'll be, you know, winter time, but, um, I'm going to get that offer out there so people can determine that. Yeah. I love it. And you helped me launch my program, the triple threat. So I do, uh, brand messaging and sales and marketing for wedding professionals. So I definitely will be referring.
00:40:33
Speaker
more people because you know, once the homepage of the website is live, they definitely need a video. It goes hand in hand with that. So we can work together. You have another video coming. I mean, you've got another you've got another video coming. That's going to be just about the coaching and all of that. I do. I thought it was already done.
00:40:51
Speaker
No, I've got a whole nother one I want to give you. You're amazing. No, it's a whole nother one. It's not going to address your, it's, the audience is going to be like, like wedding vendors, like not clients. Yeah. You're going to get another. I had no idea. You keep it coming, keep it coming. You have some surprises coming out of value for me. So I'm watching the video. Yeah. I'm watching it. I'm like, man, there's just so much good stuff. Yeah.
00:41:16
Speaker
Yay. Okay. Well, that was a little plug for myself. I really appreciate that. And last question, if a wedding professional is struggling right now to get bookings, they feel like they want to give up, what advice would you get them? The first thing for that would be like, what's your close rate? Like, you know, is it above?
00:41:40
Speaker
10% or is it like you're at 1%? There's an issue. There's an issue in there somewhere. I would say if you've got leads coming in, like let's just assume that people are inquiring, but then they're not closing.
00:41:54
Speaker
There's something called defensive marketing that I'll briefly touch on in here. This is, I'll try to keep you wrapping fire, Chris. There's offensive marketing and there's defensive marketing. And defensive marketing is all of the marketing that you do to someone who has come to you. So that would be your website. That would be your socials. That's defensive marketing. And then offensive marketing is like, well, what are you putting out there that someone who isn't following you, who is a very cold lead, who maybe isn't getting
00:42:23
Speaker
married, like that's not what you want. But you're putting out some sort of content to just kind of like pull them, you're like, Hey, does this speak to you? That's offensive marketing. So it'd be like your Facebook ads, that would be, you know, ad campaigns that you have going on, at least in the online world. But then when they come to you, and they actually get on your Instagram, they get on your Facebook and your website, that's now defensive. So to answer your question,
00:42:48
Speaker
I would say it sounds like maybe your defensive marketing is not there. You're not able, excuse me, to convince them why they are a good fit for you. And so there's more questions there, but that's where
00:43:04
Speaker
That's also where the brand story film helps is it figures out that, that defensive issue and gets, gets you asking, I'm going to ask you those questions and you're going to be like, I haven't even thought of that stuff. And now I'm going to have to articulate it out. Um, and that'll help land you and close the deals on the clients. So that's the quickest I can answer. That's a really good answer. Um, I'm actually going to.
00:43:26
Speaker
mentally ponder on that today, which is pretty cool things for me as a marketing person to think about. I love how you put that. Where can everyone find you and work with you?
00:43:40
Speaker
Well, if you don't see me at a WIPA event, because I'm trying. It's like real quick funny. I made the video on why you should join WIPA before I joined. I wasn't even a WIPA member, which again, is a unique approach because I got to go, well, I haven't joined. So what would I want?
00:44:01
Speaker
Oh my god. Because if a videographer or somebody were to make it who'd been in there for 10 years, again, it's second nature, you maybe aren't yet thinking from the perspective of a new member. And so me making that as someone who just started attending,
00:44:17
Speaker
Um, and then I went to like the six or seven events that year and I filmed like all of them and that that's why I had so much good footage. Um,
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:44:27
Speaker
but so funny this that I'm the guy who made why you should join WIPA. So you can find me at WIPA. Uh, so Cal and you can also find me at elevate dash films.com. Um, also elevate films, LLC on Instagram. Yeah. All the instas and socials.
00:44:45
Speaker
Cool. Thank you, Larry. This is a great conversation. I'm sure we're always going to be friends, so pals, wedding industry pals. So yeah, it's a great connection that we made through WIPA. Yeah, through WIPA, everybody. You got to get into WIPA. Shameless plugs for WIPA. So sorry, buddy. Yeah, so I think I'm going to be the membership person. So yeah, join WIPA.
00:45:12
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!