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My 3 month coaching program - with yours truly Carissa Woo
197 Plays3 years ago
Happy Woo Wednesdays!
It's my 1st personal podcast after posting 57 interviews.
Today I share all about my 3-month coaching program for wedding photographers.
This program is near and dear to my heart. I share about where you are in your journey and if you were put into a machine (my program), where you will be after we work together.
I couldn't just freely speak to a mic a year ago. I would start shaking and wouldn't be able to get my point across. Practice definitely makes progress.
Welcome to...
The Heck Yes Method for Wedding Photographers: Hot Leads to a Heck Yes in 5 Easy Steps
A coaching program made for wedding photographers who want a realistic, repeatable, and enjoyable way to attract and secure couples ready to pay $5K per package.
For more information, go to my website www.heckyesmedia.co and book a 15 minute call with me.
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Transcript
Introduction to Carissa Wu and 'Get a Heck Yes'
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Get a Heck Yes with me, your host, Carissa Wu. Guess what? I'm doing a personal episode.
00:00:12
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.
Inspiration for Wedding Photographers
00:00:37
Speaker
Some healthy hustle, mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story,
00:00:41
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!
Carissa's Coaching Program Overview
00:01:03
Speaker
This is very new to me. My last 56 episodes have been in the interview format, and I've always been scared to do a personal episode, but guess what guys, we could do hard things. Everything's hard, but it gets easier and easier.
00:01:21
Speaker
So I'm just going to give it a go. I have to pick up my kiddos in about 30 minutes. So if I make a mistake, if I fumble my words, if I don't know what I'm talking about, you know why, but I'm just going to do it. So today I'm going to be talking about my three month coaching program.
00:01:40
Speaker
I've been a coach for about two years for wedding photographers, and I've always had a three-month coaching program, but it's a little bit different, more refined. Obviously, you get better and better. And yeah, I'm just going to talk about my five pillars and a little bit about each pillar and why it's so important to me.
00:02:06
Speaker
So a couple episodes ago, I had a guest named Wei Hong on my podcast talking about money mindset. And offline, we just had a conversation about me being a coach. He had been a coach for about a decade before me. So he wanted to know like where my students were in their journey. And if they
00:02:28
Speaker
Get put in like a Willy Wonka chocolate factory. Where are they at the end of my program? So that was a really good question and to answer that question I would say wherever you are in your photography journey if you're new or if you've been doing this for five years ten years and you're stuck That's where you are today
00:02:48
Speaker
but you're put into this Willy Wonka chocolate factory. And at the end of it, at the end of my three month program, you will be a thriving wedding photographer. And the byproduct of that could be, you know, 5K, 10K months or plus, and just leads coming in, a proven marketing plan on the preferred vendor list, and just be thriving year after year.
00:03:14
Speaker
So that's pretty much my coaching program is in a nutshell, but I'm going to go into depth about it. So it's called the heck yes method for wedding photographers. Hot leads to heck yes in five easy steps.
Building a Strong Brand and Network
00:03:28
Speaker
So this is a coaching program made for wedding photographers who want a realistic, reputable, and enjoyable way to attract and secure couples ready to pay 5k plus
00:03:41
Speaker
per package because if you're at that $2,500 price point, you're going to end up miserable. It's not a good place to be. So let me get into my five pillars. I'm just referencing my sales page. And these are the detrimental five.
00:04:03
Speaker
to help you crush your wedding photography business. So the first pillar is called the Six Figure Brand and Powerhouse Portfolio Checklist. That is a mouthful. I'll say it one more time. Six Figure Brand and Powerhouse Portfolio Checklist. So to sum it up, it's to have a killer portfolio, meaning your Insta and your website, and just have a killer brand.
00:04:32
Speaker
the messaging, your bio, your captions, who you want to work with. And I really dive deep with you into who you really are as a wedding photographer.
00:04:46
Speaker
because if you don't have a powerful brand, you don't have a powerful business and you really need a strong portfolio to book your clients. Even if I give you some action tips today, why don't you go ahead and write down your top favorite wedding photographers and it doesn't even have to be wedding photographers or your top favorite
00:05:08
Speaker
Insta profiles and truly write down everything you love about them. If they post reels, if they show their face, their messaging, how long their caption is, if they're showing couples and if they're showing more details, what's their system, really, really study it. And if your portfolio isn't up to par, maybe schedule some style shoots. Maybe try to get better at your craft.
00:05:38
Speaker
maybe just keep practicing, practicing, practicing because you're going to get better no matter what. So I really help you dive deep into this. And for my brand, my photography brand, I want to be known as the Los Angeles
00:05:54
Speaker
colorful wedding photographers. I love those hip colorful venues in downtown LA. I love to have fun with my couples that love pops of colors. They actually like food trucks or foodies. They're super in love. They're just super playful. That is my client. I help my student Kimberly be known as a chasing colorful sunsets photographer in SF. And I've helped
00:06:24
Speaker
My other student, Bella, be known as the tropical waterfront photographer in Florida, and she's all about kindness. So we really, truly have to nail down your niche because the riches are truly in the niches, guys.
00:06:41
Speaker
Pillar number two, find your tribe roadmap.
Client Engagement Strategies
00:06:46
Speaker
I help you get on the preferred venue vendor list. The holy grail of list. I love saying that. It was so hard for me to get on my first list because I was not confident. I didn't know how to reach out to venues or vendors. I felt like I wasn't worthy. Once I got on my first list, I got an eight list that same year.
00:07:11
Speaker
Like the gift that keeps the tree that keeps on giving the relationship just gets better and better So I really help you create your tribe and it's not just venues my friends. It's also wedding planners. It's also DJ's florist
00:07:28
Speaker
all wedding creatives. You can make your tribe and you guys just refer each other nonstop and they do the work for you and you're doing the work for them. And it also could be other photographers. So building your tribe is just so important and there's things to do and there's things not to do. There's common etiquette and also I will help you stay on these lists year after year so you don't get forgotten.
00:07:55
Speaker
I have my very very specific finder tribe Romac and my congrats to my new student Bella she just got on her first venue vendor list today and she's just so ecstatic and she's only been working with me for three weeks so huge congrats to Bella. All right moving along pillar number three the Wu Factor selling system.
00:08:24
Speaker
So I help you create one piece of centerpiece content with many emails. It's called an email sequence to nurture your couples, because a lot of your couples aren't going to buy right away. But they're still looking for you. And when they get engaged, they're going to remember your name. You're going to be top of mind. And the cool thing about this is it's all automated. I like to use Flowdesk, but you could use
00:08:53
Speaker
MailChimp, you could use ConvertKit, whatever, but the centerpiece content is good, and it demonstrates who you are as a photographer showcasing your amazing photos. And yes, it's a little bit techy, and yes, a lot of photographers are not doing this and not doing it correctly, but this is going to save you a lot of mind space because you don't feel like you have to
00:09:19
Speaker
Create so much content on Instagram and just sell your soul to social media. It's doing the work for you day after day. So it's working in your sleep and you can wake up with an inquiry. Be like, where did this come? Oh, shoot. It came from my centerpiece content. It's just the best. And it took me a while to learn this, guys. But once I learned this, truly my whole coaching business and wedding photography business is all automated.
00:09:48
Speaker
I have two kids, I want to play, I want to go out with them, I want to take them to all their classes, but still feel like I'm giving my all to my businesses.
00:09:58
Speaker
All right, moving along to pillar number four, breaking down walls sales call. You guys all know me. My expertise is mastering the dreaded sales call. Why is it so near and dear to my heart? It's because it was the hardest thing for me to overcome as a wedding photographer and entrepreneur. I was already so good at posing from day one. I've danced my whole life.
00:10:24
Speaker
I love giving directions. I love photography. But talking to brides, doing sales, heck no. I left meetings crying. I didn't know what to say to couples. I didn't know how to close them. I would meet with them for an hour, get ghosted. It would ruin my whole day. I just, I didn't know what I was doing. So this is why it's so near and dear to me to help photographers
00:10:51
Speaker
master the sales call and not be ghosted and not know where their next paycheck is going to come from. I truly help people break down walls to connect with your future couples and make the process so easy so it's not so salesy. It's truly just a conversation.
00:11:08
Speaker
And it's only 30 minutes. I know wedding photographers and vendors that spend an hour and a half with their potential couples and then get ghosted. Ain't nobody got time for that. My calls are 30 minutes to the tee. And by the end of it, you know if they're going to go with you, if it's a heck yes or a heck no. And yeah, that's pretty much the big bulk of
00:11:36
Speaker
my coaching program, mastering the sales call. All right. Moving along to the last pillar, which is pretty meaty too, but it's called the five star review recipe, powerhouse posing and client journey. So I'll just say everything in a nutshell and then I'll kind of explain. So it's about powerhouse posing.
00:11:59
Speaker
the pregame wedding call, client communication, so you might never miss a shot. My ultimate wedding questionnaire, client journey, how to be more than just a photographer to your couples and guests, and how to work the room during cocktail hour, resulting in nonstop referrals. It's not just a cocktail hour, but the whole wedding. And how to never run out of things to say, feeling boring, missing a shot, or lacking authority with the bridal party. That's a big one.
00:12:25
Speaker
and effectively leading coaching and directing your clients and their guests as a result. And you'll never run out of business again. You truly step into your power as the best wedding photographer slash director. So I'm pretty good at posing. People always say when they inquire with me,
00:12:47
Speaker
your photos look like your couples are having the time of their life. They're not awkward. They're super genuine. And that's why they booked me. So I teach you exactly that. And I really teach you how the whole client journey because a lot of couples book their wedding photographer a year or two years out. So they don't want to spend all this money on their photographer and then feel like you don't care about them. I really help them feel like
00:13:14
Speaker
you care about them and you care about their journey. So five years down the line when after they get married, they really will remember you and hire you for maternity, for newborn, for their whole lives, for their birthday parties and just giving them an awesome experience while they tell all their friends about you. Because when you're referred, literally people will sign the contract without even meeting with you.
00:13:38
Speaker
It's just the best and also the client communication so you never miss a shot I have a about a 20 to 30 minute call before the wedding and It's fire because we go down family dynamics the questionnaire
00:13:54
Speaker
all expectations. I talk about open communication. I tell them how to get the best shots. I tell them everything they need to know. So they feel really empowered because, you know, they're pretty anxious at this time. And after the call, they say that they feel so much better because I have their back and they know they're going to get good wedding photos.
00:14:15
Speaker
wedding photos and they truly start referring me to their their friends and family before I even shoot their wedding and on the day of they just trust me and they tell their wedding party really good things about me and their wedding party and family really trust me too.
00:14:31
Speaker
So it's just this great thing. And after the wedding, I don't feel drained and I don't feel tired. I actually feel empowered and I feel energized because there was so much love and so much connection with the photographer and the couple in the family. You feel so connected with them and you really leave feeling exhilarated. And I teach you all this.
Program Benefits and Conclusion
00:14:52
Speaker
So yeah, going back to the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, wherever you are in your journey, getting started not knowing what to do, been in the game for five years, but your leads are drying up.
00:15:07
Speaker
After the three months, you will feel like you stepped into your power as a best wedding photographer and be getting leads automated online and offline. And you'll feel like just like your brand and your portfolio has
00:15:24
Speaker
Leveled up and you'll truly be proud of yourself a lot of its mindset a lot of its strategy a lot of its experience But I will hold your hand in doing so so you can book a call with me. The call is about 15 minutes we could go over if we have to and just I really truly try to listen to your needs and try to help you during that call and just get in your heads and
00:15:53
Speaker
Just speak clearly to you and let you open up your eyes that you really can have it all in a wedding photography business, which I truly believe that it's the best career in the world. We get to photograph the most special day of someone's life and it's just the best. So thank you so much for listening to my first personal episode and I can't wait to talk to you.
00:16:21
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.