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I think that I’m going to continue to do Zoom, I think I’m going to go back to in person myself, average is the same. It’s maybe gone down by 60 dollars.
But we’re also in the middle of a pandemic.
So as we sit here myself, average is four thousand and twenty dollars. When we started that, when we started with covid, it was forty one hundred.
Once again, it’s probably going pretty good, so pretty big day for you. Yeah, huge day. You are getting a new studio slash house.
I am. I can’t even believe that this is happening. Is crazy. It’s crazy. It’s crazy.
Yeah, I yeah. This is going to be like the second house you’ve purchased. This is my second like it’s kind of crazy. Yeah. This is our second house near. So now you’re at three. I actually just I just purchased one and it sucks. I literally I look around, I’m like, I’m never moving again. I don’t care. We have six kids. I’m never moving. Like, moving is the worst.
Yeah, so we’ll just have to move studio stuff, we won’t have to move like any, like personal stuff in your house and moving our family into it, that’s so overwhelming. I can’t even comprehend that.
By the way, what does that mean for your house now? Does that mean you get more space back? Yeah, we can do it. That space.
So this front room where I’m at now is actually going to turn into like a home schooling room for Jackson, because right now he’s in the basement. So I’d like for him to have windows. And the bedroom upstairs will be Scarlet’s room, because right now she’s sharing a room with an our other child. Yeah. And we’ll actually have a dining room. I mean, you see our dining room, it’s taken over by orders and props. And I have a lingerie closet in there. Like, who else has lingerie in there?
Yeah, that’s a lot that’s a lot of stuff, you know, by the way, so both of you, all your kids are like home right now.
Yeah, they’re all in different places. If this is a logistical nightmare, that’s what the.
I’m assuming Randy’s doing a lot of the schooling, how’s that working, because I will tell you for my daughter, the schooling I like Khan Academy and YouTube could probably replace most of the teachers because right now she’s sitting in P.E. and the teacher is basically a chaperone where she just loves on shares a YouTube video and she’s like all of this YouTube video.
So Jackson is actually has a very structured school schedule and there’s teachers teaching almost the entire day. And my mom, he’s at my mom’s during the week and my mom’s a retired teacher. So we’re fortunate that she’s able to help him. And Lincoln is with Randy all day. And then we’re also very lucky that part of our foreign team is our neighbor directly behind us with the teacher. So she’s teaching Scarlett and her son from like nine to one every day while I shoot. So and we’re paying her like a tutor and she’s in pre-K. So they don’t really have a curriculum. But she learned more in the past month than she did in two years that we had her in preschool. That’s awesome. Reading, adding, subtracting. That’s pretty amazing.
And by the way, we haven’t been on in a bit because you have been really busy. I’ve been really busy. But before we get to the new studio and just how all that came out, walk us through, because this year has been a little bit crazy and you’re kind of going the opposite way. It seems like you’re busier than ever. You’re growing, and a lot of studios all around the country are kind of shutting down, shuttering. So what has how has it been like walk us through from March to now?
Yeah, I mean, it’s just taken off like I mean, I was busy before, you know, that. But really the main difference has been because I’ve had all this extra time to devote to social media. My tech talk is kind of I think I have almost a two hundred and seventy five thousand followers on Twitter and Instagram. I started Laurentine with two thousand followers. I’m now at eleven thousand. So I’ve really grown my social media like crazy. And I’m I’m booked out until for a year. And I’m actually have an interview tonight with an associate photographer I’m hoping to bring on board and we’ll start looking how to sew in a time where most studios are shuttering or closing. Mine has just ramped up like crazy. So.
Yeah. And how long were you close for? Like, somewhere between March, all the way to the one three months.
So I was not I wasn’t technically closed because I was still like doing a lot of marketing and still doing ordering appointments. But I wasn’t shooting from March 15 and I started shooting again June 15. So I had three months without shooting.
Well, and by the way, so the new studio, how far is it for me right now? Like five minutes, that’s going to be a change. I mean, I know that I remember when I was there, you were like in this habit of like leaving your house just to go get Starbucks and then coming back. And like, that was like the start of the day almost. It was like, no, but now you have like another place to go.
I’m kind of excited because right now, like it is, you know, it is so hard to get work done, like with my family everywhere. It’s just really difficult. So to have a dedicated workspace is going to be awesome. And then also for our children not to have to leave the house, because right now they all have to leave. And then there’s also like the additional work, like the bleaching and cleaning that we’re having to do after every client and not only for the client, but for the safety of my family, too. And I you know, I know there’s lots of different theories on this, and I don’t really want any part of that. But we’re making personal choices for our family and we’re choosing to be more proactive about it. And that’s a personal choice. And it’s fine if you want to, but that’s just part of the family.
Yes. And it’s funny because you’re like half laughing because someone was giving you so much B.S. about that yesterday. Yeah. And I get it. It seems like people are divided between party lines of like it’s almost like. It’s almost like a joke, right? It’s like a character being a character of yourself, if you’re getting mad over other people being worried about hygiene or about the virus, and if you’re like a true conservative, like your whole feeling on that should be something along the lines of like, everyone’s free to do whatever they want.
So, yes, I mean, and my whole I mean, you are choosing to hire me and I’m choosing to be more careful because of the health of my family, which is my choice. When you leave my house, you can do whatever you want, but if you don’t want to wear a mask, that’s fine. But, you know, in my face, I would prefer that people are more careful. And I prefer I honestly like if you go to a restaurant here anyway, there’s lot they take your temperature. If you go to a restaurant in Delaware, your temperature will be taken before you can say, I don’t know how it is in there. Do they do that there?
You know, it’s funny because they do do it in a couple of places. And it’s just strange because, like, we went and ziplining, we went white water rafting in like North Carolina. And so we just kind of wonder, like, is that thing even accurate? And I think I saw some reports that it’s not.
But whatever I you know, a few times people have had elevated temperatures, especially on really hot days. And what I’ve done is just take it again after me, after hair, after their hair is done, because, I mean, if it’s ninety nine degrees outside, like you’re going to be a little hotter. So I think some flexibility is required as long as you’re acting as conscientious as you can, you know.
Yeah. So yeah, I will say that in, I feel like in the world of photography like this is there’s like a couple benchmarks or steps. Right. And like some of those are like getting a full frame camera at the lowest level, like using Photoshop instead of Lightroom, then it’s like doing it instead of shoot and burn. And now you even though you are one of the more successful because it is seemed like everyone always asks almost even when they start. There are some people that maybe have the resources and they’re just like, should I get a studio? Yeah. You’ve been running an extremely profitable studio and have done so without a different location. So what prompted this? Because we’re going to go into, like, how you went into it, like how you started an associate photographer.
But yeah, so the main prompting was covid and just the logistics of moving my children around like that. Right now they’re going to three different locations and they can’t be in the house from nine to one. And it’s really difficult. Like it’s very because Lincoln Knapp’s from like twelve thirty to two thirty usually. So it cuts right into his nap time. It’s it’s just it’s been difficult for my family if covid would have never happened and we could have just kept going on the way we were, you know, like with kids going to school or daycare, it wouldn’t matter. Like we I probably would still be shooting out of my house. But this has been the the fire that, you know, has kind of the match, I guess, with the fire. So I’m ready to move on to the next stop and like grow the studio and scale it, which is something that I’ve been kind of pushing against for a while. But I feel like that the current is kind of going in that direction. And it’s it’s time for me to scale the studio.
By the way, I feel like you told me about this like last week and then like now you’re closing today, like in an hour and 40 minutes.
It was fuddy duddy by retoucher. She wrote me after I did my Facebook live yesterday. And she’s like, I want to know anything about you if I to watch your lives because I’m so busy, you know, we really don’t even have that much time to talk. I don’t really talk to Judy except like, hey, what’s your delivery? Hey, when is this one coming back? Because I’m just so busy. And then also, I didn’t want to jinx it because, you know, it’s like when you’re self-employed, there’s so many different factors there. And I was like, huh? I want to tell everyone that getting studio and and financing not go through. So I could just wait until I know for sure.
Yeah. And financing is always a little bit harder, especially as a business owner, because they’re like extra. I’ve been through this with even our house and they just scrutinize everything so much they go back even more years. They want like receipts of everything. They have questions, everything. I remember I was right before closing. I deposited my paycheck to my account and they were like, what is this lump sum? I was like, No, no, that’s that’s my paycheck.
That’s like, do you want to hear something ridiculous? They had to verify my employment yesterday. And so I gave them my studio manager’s number. I was like, you can call. Negishi will guarantee you that I’m very busy.
Well, I will say that I think that that’s actually what bank? Jesus, let me ask.
So it’s a local one, it’s called pykrete mortgage, I don’t know.
Yeah, so I sell the loan, but I was reading. Yeah, that that’s that’s the worst part. But I was actually reading with all the covid stuff is that so many people are going unemployed or switching jobs or whatever that they’re basically doing up to the last day. Employment verification. Yes. If you started the loan process a month ago, there is this person even still employed there?
It was yesterday. We had to verify my employment. And yeah, it was funny. Nikki laughed whenever I, I texted her and she just she just laughed. She’s like, yeah, I’ll let you know. I’ll show them your calendar.
They actually asked me for a letter from my employer confirming that I’m allowed to work from home. I was like, are you serious? And I just write you an email to like like, no, put it on letterhead. Right. That you’re the owner representing yourself in the you’re allowed to work from home like. Seems very odd, but it’s so crazy.
We actually had like fifty two data points that Randy had to go through and prove. So it was a lot of like large purchases that clients made like a lot of like my eight thousand dollar sales, my one nine thousand dollars. Now Randy had to go through each one and show the order form from the client’s.
It was legit Lake and by the way, how is it different from this studio like where you’re at now?
So it’s not really much different. Like the light is very similar. It’s like a residential house, except I’m going to have so much more space. Like the main room that I’m going to be shooting on is probably three times this room. I’m so excited. And then I have a master bedroom upstairs and then two more bedrooms. So I’m going to make probably one more if more like like a boho theme, I guess, but also have it like double as a more masculine set or androgenous that. And then I’m actually thinking about making one makeup room versus like maybe put like another couch in it or something, make up your room that way. When I’m actually shooting, we can we can have overlapping client appointments. So my client might be in hair and makeup from 10 to 11 and the associate client might be in makeup from eleven thirty to twelve thirty. So we’re all we’re shooting on different sets, but there’s two clients in the building. They’ll be separated. But yeah, that’s really cool.
And it’s like as far as like Reno, as far as like I know you said you’re looking for flaws and flaws.
Yeah. So pull up the carpet in the four shooting spaces. Yeah. We’ll pull up that carpet and put down. I feel like there’s just so much room like are you already thinking like mirrors, different beds, like I think I’m only going to have the one bed, but then I’m definitely I love couches. I’m a big fan of couches, so I’ll have like a place for my couch. I may even do some sort of, like, really cool accent while I’m also thinking about maybe making a wall with all of my bombshell pictures and making that backdrop like that is really cool. Yeah, because at this point, I mean, there’s more than enough for an actual backdrop and have girls like pose in front of it. Definitely going to get a neon sign because they’re fucking cause.
I feel like one really cool thing that I’ve seen lately is like just having a stack of different rolls of paper or like custom backdrops, whether it’s like the elephant fabrics and just being able to like, change them. I know. I know right now you have your high tech masking tape system, but like just having like a roller system where, like, literally you could just switch and I’m going to have to do that.
I know. Yeah, there will probably be a place for that for sure. It’s been in our budget for a while. We’ve just been so busy that we haven’t done it. And I’ve actually kind of cycle out the backdrops for a little bit. So I’ll probably like cycle those back in once I get the news that I’m really excited to get. I want to get an emerald green couch. I’m really excited for that. It’s been on my wish list for a while.
What color is the couch you have now?
This one is like a velvet. It’s like a velvety blue and it’s velvet. And then that green couch I’m going to get is definitely it’s velvet too.
So, by the way, I feel like I feel like one big thing is that you could do like a grand opening.
You could do like a hey, who wants to be one of the first to shoot in the new studio and maybe use that as one of the launching points to get maybe a little bit on the fence. So have you been, like, teasing this out in your group? People? No, you haven’t used it at all. So I will say one thing, and this is one thing I always suggest, because we have I have a photographer who like literally they do that and they just wait until the last minute and then they post the end result. And I read a book, it was I can’t remember what it was called. I’ll post it later. But it was basically along the idea that most people appreciate the story as much as the product. So the idea is like if you if you walked in the Sixteen Chapel and it was next to your house, you just walk in and then you would walk away. But like when you hear the story that like it took them decades and the pain almost blinded him. And, you know, he reads in part, it’s because he hated that. Or where you got the idea is it’s like that really builds a story and it connects people more to the end product. So you still have a lot of the flooring to do and you’re still doing you can still kind of document that in the back, you know, lives after we close.
Then I’m going to start documenting and talking about it. I just I, I was kind of I don’t want to say superstitious, but just because of everything going on in the world and because I’m self-employed as a guy, I don’t want to talk about it and then not be able to do it. And we had to pay our taxes and a lot of stuff. And so I just want to make sure that it actually happened before I started telling people.
Yeah, yeah. But as you like, build it and as you get like the cool neon signs, like it’s those small things or people like, oh, I remember that, I want to do it. I remember when she got it right. I’m like builds more connection than just the product.
Absolutely. I’m totally going to. I’m actually going to be doing a tech talk today about it for sure. I’m going to make something really cool, like the closing and putting the keys and just doing like that kind of stuff. I actually already got like a doormat for it. So those things I didn’t planning, but I didn’t want to, like, you know, announce it. And I’m like, oh, just kidding, guys.
Yeah, yeah. I know how that goes. Yeah. I remember when we were looking for commercials and by the way we were looking for commercial space like for our whole team right before covid like in March. Aren’t you glad you didn’t do it. And we’re just so glad because I remember like the last time we had a team meeting, I asked everyone even before cover, they were just like, well, we don’t have to wait an hour in traffic and we don’t really have to go. It’s distracting if we go. So, like, the kind of result was like, maybe we’ll wait. And after it happened, I was like, man, that would be like three thousand dollars a month to pay it stuck in goats.
Yeah. No one would have been able to go. And I mean, you can have when we can’t when it’s OK to have team meetings again, you can just go to Starbucks or or rent like a space where they can come to your new house.
Yeah, no, I have pitched it because we have people all around the country and like, I would love to just maybe get like a conference room or most of us are in Miami, but like to do something where everyone can connect, because I do think that there’s something about that. Right. Like being able to see and work with.
Yeah, now I agree I that I’m lucky because I still get to see people every day, like I’m still connecting with people, but it is it is very different.
Yeah. And by the way, speaking of ticktock, what’s the farthest someone has come to you from tick tock.
I mean, I have a girl from Missouri coming in next week.
Oh, my God. And she’s like flying in or driving.
Flying in. She’s flying in. Last week, I had two girls. They both drove over four hours to get to me. Oh, this one from Alexandria, one from upstate New York. It’s crazy, ridiculous, it’s insane. I’ve booked two seats in Vegas already for next year, I’m going to book one more know, like during the WPI week, I’m keeping my fingers crossed and being very hopeful that it will happen if it if there’s no WPI and I’m still going to go that week and I’m going to shoot if it’s safe. Yeah. Yeah.
It’s so funny that one of the last trips we made was we were at WPI this year like February 19 through like the fifth or sixth time we got back right before this all started.
Yeah. And I remember traveling like when we were in Vegas, there were reports on the news about it starting to crop up in like maybe Seattle or something as a of kind of close. All right. I’ll get home. We’ll be fine.
Yeah, I remember that. I think the diamond princess was about to happen or it just happened. Yeah, but like, I don’t I distinctly remember not feeling any any sort of feeling towards germs or towards chips because like we were playing blackjack to the last minute. Yeah. So that was fun too. Yeah. I could at least guarantee that there was definitely like no sense of like fear in the U.S. at that point.
Now, now that the first time I actually felt concerned was and I actually I remember this, it was like March 3rd. I had just gotten back and we were having dinner with one of our friends of the position. And we were like, so how do you feel about this? Are you a little anxious about it? And he was like, I’m pretty anxious about it. And my hospital is kind of anxious about it, too. And I was like, well, maybe this is something that I need to start worrying about. And that was the first time I was really like. I maybe it’s maybe it is something, you know.
Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, this is crazy.
Is insane.
Yeah, and then we got 40 more days for more craziness. So is it November 3rd? I don’t even know what date it is.
Yeah, it’s at first Tuesday in November isn’t many is one. And always. This is the first Tuesday in November 3rd.
Yeah, by the way, isn’t Biden like your neighbor? You know, I never.
He’s from Delaware. He lives in Wilmington.
I feel like Delaware is so small that like it’s the size of, like one little suburb area of Florida. So, yeah, I mean, everybody does, Uncle Joe. OK, so studio, how many months until a weeks until you’re actually shooting at. And by the way, where are you going to like you all like once you start shooting there, it’s like all your sessions are going to be there or. Yep.
So my goal is I don’t have chute’s October twenty first my second time. Third, fourth, twenty fifth. Those are the days that I have slotted to move all of the furniture, all of the studio stuff over, because if we can do a gradual transition, because I shoot every day, so there’s really no chance for me to do a gradual transition. It’s got to be like we’re moving the studio, you know, and you’re going to have like a proper salesroom.
I know you have one now, but like, it’s not like gigantic. But you’re going to be like, are you going to dedicate one whole area?
I think that I’m going to continue to do zoom. I don’t know if I’m going to go back to in person myself. Average is the same. It’s maybe gone down by six dollars, but we’re also in the middle of a pandemic. So as we sit here, my average is four thousand twenty dollars. When we started that, when we started with covid, it was forty one hundred. So now my studio is behind last year’s numbers by about 40 thousand, but I also took off three months, so to only be forty thousand dollars behind where I was last year, year to date.
I’m OK with that, because as I remember, you’re one of the leaders later states, maybe not as late as like Los Angeles, but you were one of the later states to reopen.
Yeah, June 15th was when I could start. We could start shooting on June 15th, and that’s when I started. Wow. Yeah. So I took three months off and typically those three months, my studio grosses between 40 to 60 each month. So I missed April. May are two very high growth months for me. June is like but I mean and by that I mean like 30. So it’s it’s still a pretty good month. So the fact that I’m only about 40 and some change behind where I was last year, year to date, I’ve made up a lot of ground by higher sales last week at my studio across twenty five last week alone.
Yeah, I mean, that’s basically close the down payment for the house. Well, I mean, after tax accident, I mean but I mean, it’s a good chunk of it. Yeah. Yeah. OK, so by the way, so I know that I mean, you’re super busy. So associate photographer. Yeah, I that work and you already have people I can imagine like this. Probably people like applying from like everywhere. Like I’m moving like I’m moving to Halstead. Am I.
It’s crazy. Like I’ll be honest, I got some of the emails I did. I was like. I know we talk about, like imposter syndrome a lot, I have like a smidge of imposter syndrome. I was like, whoa, wait, you’re willing to move here, make for my business. That’s crazy. That’s crazy. You know, so, yeah, it’s crazy. But I have an interview tonight. I have a few more and I might set up a few more interviews.
I think the cool thing is, is that, you know, with the system you use and how you teach it, like I think somebody could come in and replicate this, you know what I mean? As long as they just keep watching. Are you going to add any new lighting? Are you going to change the lighting? Are you going to keep on camouflage?
Yeah, it’s going to need to be as similar to my associate. Shooter is going to shoot in my style. We might bring on another associate eventually that shoots in like a different style. So clients choose. But for now, whoever I bring on will shoot in my style. So it’s pretty seamless and I’m going to train her on my shooting clothes and I’m going to on to the apps. Those also do the apps and until they’re completely trained up. Yeah. So I’ll just kind of see how that I think it’s going to be like a learning curve. It’s going to be a work in progress. How this works. And um, but I know the work is there, like we’re turning down shoots, I’m turning down shoots right now because I don’t have the space in my schedule to take them. And I’m shooting like four to five days a week. So, yeah, I need I need someone to take some some of that work.
Yeah, I can’t even imagine that. I mean, I have one kid and I getting like literally as we started this school is like going she’s doing p e class dancing and like, I can’t get them over the phone. So you can imagine with three kids. But Randy is definitely the champ there.
Oh, he is the rock star of this like he has been. Yeah, he’s been a rock star. I don’t know even how he does because he’s still managing that like the finances of the businesses and making sure our taxes are paid. And he handled this. I mean, he made this studio happen. He did all the things that needed to be done. And I, I literally just will show up and sign papers. That’s pretty much what I feel. That’s my contribution.
By the way, what was the flow? So if somebody is listening to like, I wish I could be her shooter, what did they just, like, email you and are like? Are you going to do I tell you it’s like you have a test. Where am I going to have some sort of hiring?
Yeah. Like, you know, if I haven’t worked with them before, then, yeah, I’m going to have to do a test shoot and just see. I need to make sure they know how to use that camera. I’m not trying to teach someone how to use a camera. I really just want to be able to teach posing flow and not necessarily like how to shoot.
Yeah, I feel like I feel like this is an opportunity in the sense that, like when I first started, like if Soubry would have had like, hey, you can be a portrait photographer for me, like, holy crap, really. Like, that’s a real thing. And the boudoir, our world, like you’re basically up there like your crazy Amerca, basically the one so like having that same opportunity, a BMI, hey, I work for us then I think there’s something too about like if someone says I know it’s hard obviously like if you have family kids and like a husband, like maybe that’s not realistic, but like if yours and I’m not saying not trying to say it’s bad whatever situation, but like specifically I’m thinking about myself. Like if you’re a single. When I was or if you don’t have a which you can and you can just like pick up and go chase something or go work for someone, that is where you want to be like, I don’t think there’s any better route. Like, you can’t do that. I mean, college will let you do that, but they’ll charge you forty to eighty thousand dollars to it. But you have to get paid to do it and to learn from the best. I can’t think of a better offer.
So that’s like the big sweepstakes now in the bureau. It’s insane. It is. It is. It is very crazy. I have gotten so many inquiries and I’m very flattered and humbled by it. Every email I got, I was like, oh, I can’t believe they want to work for me. I’m working with myself for so long. It’s just been me. So, yeah, it’s it’s it’s crazy. I was a little bit speechless at some point, you know, seeing. The applications are so, so perfect world, when would they start shooting for you, November one, that would be perfect. Well, it might be a lofty goal, but that would be the perfect world for me. And there’s some other things we need to figure out, like an NDA and also non-competing things like that, because if I’m going to be teaching my entire workflow, I need to know that it’s protected because it’s protected information, you know?
Yeah, yeah. And I’ve had that happen to me. Like, I’ve had people come and I like hiring. They’re called like intrapreneurs. They’re people that like maybe don’t have the skill sets yet to like when they’re on business, but they have like a a work ethic, as if they work in your business, as if it’s theirs. Yeah. But like the double edged sword of that is like at any moment that in intro or intrapreneur can basically just transform and then they go run off. Yeah. And I think it’s fine. It’s just sometimes those intrapreneurs, like they leave too early. So they’ll do it for two months and just be like, oh, I got this. And then they’ll leave like I don’t have I should say.
Yeah, it the problem is, you know, training someone that lives directly in my area. I love teaching people all over the country, but I do not want to train someone that’s going to live next door to me and shoot. And the exact same way that I’m shooting, you know, that’s that’s the difference is because I still run a full time studio. Yes, we have an education platform, but my studio is full time, is busy, so.
Yeah, and by the way, for bringing that up like this is not isolated to Delaware because Sarah hyphenating name the Daniel Craig. Yeah, there she posted that like this is her biggest fear that she did like 300 K so far.
A lot of our students. What’s so cool about this is like last year, most of our students were like, I’m going to get to where Jen is. And this year, most a lot of our students are where are where I am. Like some of them have higher numbers than I do. It’s amazing. Like, it’s. It’s mind blowing that we’ve changed this many people’s lives. Does that ever hit you sometimes like how incredible that is, how many lives that this course has changed?
I don’t know, I feel like it’s happened so often now that maybe you get so used to things that, like you become numb, like if you’re if it’s your first week in the Marine Corps, you throw a grenade, you’re just like, oh, my God, the power of grenade. But when you have, like, five hundred grenades and you’ve done them all and you’re just like up, you know, you’re throwing them like firecrackers. So I feel like I feel like it’s almost like that’s what we expect from people now, especially if it’s like you said you wanted to do this and you go and you implement and you try and hustle and you just get out of your own way with all your self-doubt, which I know is probably the hardest part. That’s what we expect. And the cool thing is, is like it’s not just in the major cities and it’s weird. It’s like some of those flyover states, some of the suburbs, like some of the. You mean like Delaware flyover state? I mean Delaware is, by the way, because I know, Jen, your house right now where you shoot like legit, has cows and a farm across the street and the nearest, like, shopping downtown area, like is literally like what I have outside of my neighborhood. And it’s like the smallest thing in Miami. You literally live in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, but I mean, those people in like the middle of Minnesota, the middle Iowa and Nebraska, like desert and stuff. Yeah. And it’s cool because people it’s cool that I mean, obviously, like, you have a big reach and people are traveling across the country, but there’s routinely people in those areas like I guess they’re more used to driving three, four or five hours to get to places.
Yeah. So it’s normal for them. I do have to say though, it doesn’t get old whenever students say how good they’re doing. I love it. It’s like the best. Even if I’ve had a hard day and then I see one of our students put their successes, it’s it’s I almost feel that like, you know, when your kid does something really awesome, you’re like sounds like that’s kind of like I want them to be successful, more successful than I am. You know, I almost feel like that sometimes about students. I get so happy when I see the stories.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I guess for me it’s just I that’s what I expect from people when they. Yeah. I join.
It’s that’s true though. I mean that is the expectation. If you do the work, if you do the work, you will see results that and yeah.
I feel like, I feel too like it’s not like it’s not like we’re doing anything different. Right. Because at the end of the day if you have good work, if you have a good offer and you have something people are actually interested in and you just get that out there and you like refine your message and you disseminate it and you spread it, it’s really hard to miss. Right. And there’s a couple of ways, right. We we we talk about all the basics, CEO, Google ads. And those tools are great. Right? Because, like, right now, I’m actually looking for a closet organizer for that closet behind me. Yeah. And like, I can go on and Google and my question, but there’s certain things like I don’t even know I need like I might not even know that I need, you know, a remember me family photography package so I can pass on an album to my family. I don’t know. I need that right now. But if somebody, like, showed that to me, showed me a video or showed me the idea and specifically, like in boudoir, if somebody showed me, maybe not me because I’m a guy and I’m not going to do do do do R&D would, but I will. And someone shows me something really cool that other people are doing and that I might not have thought I could. And they make it easy for me to understand that it’s easy that they take care of everything, that it’s not only for models like.
I might be down. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think in.
I think that knowing what you need to do or is gross in itself, like most of the time and a lot of people don’t even know what they need to do, they don’t even know where to start. So I think that that’s that’s a huge benefit to the course.
Yeah. And and I will say that’s that’s really what I like for us. Even when people join, like, orientation, it’s really about like put yourself out there. Even if we’re not paying for ads, like we have something that you just go do it. And it works for almost anyone who at least attempts it for a couple of days. Yeah. And the cool thing about like what you’re doing, that kind of just kind of proves what we’re talking about is like. Everyone looks at different, they look at different platforms and they say, well, that one works because I work for one person and they say that wouldn’t work because I work for that person. Then they when they go try, it doesn’t work. And for you, like, tick tock, you know, even you you were like, tick tock works in six hours. And it is and it has great reach, but it’s like you’re doing video now and you weren’t doing video before show and that same video of you share those videos by the way, you share your thoughts in your group.
Oh, I think sometimes they do.
I’ve been I have been neglecting my group on Facebook very badly. Work still goes up every night, but I haven’t done a live in there, like, so long because, like, I’m so booked out, like so people are so engaging. There’s still a lot of the group is growing like crazy. I think I have like fourteen thousand five hundred people like the reach from Tick-Tock is going into all my other social media platforms. So people are still joining a group. They’re still following me. It’s just, you know.
Yeah, yeah, and the cool thing is, is we even set up like if you guys go to Jen’s website, by the way, we set up like a whole ticktock landing page. And the cool thing is that there’s a WordPress plug in, if I can bring it up as a WordPress plug in, that legitimately lets you just like auto update it. So my Tic Tacs. Yeah. So this is a WordPress blog. I can’t tell you exactly what it’s called, but like, this is awesome and at least shows you like all the views. Yeah.
Let’s see. That’s pretty cool, protip save your.
By the way, I follow you and take it outside, like seal yourself and I’m always in the like button. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. Of course, I’m on the second floor right now, but.
This works. I don’t know what’s going on right now.
It does work. You know, maybe you have to like no, it definitely works on it.
I don’t know if it’s my browser. It’s like I have like a hurricane outside right now. But you guys don’t follow Jen on Ticktock Boudoir by Jennifer Smith on Tick Tock. And it’s the same for Instagram.
You can see she’s just weird watching wave, though.
That’s priceless.
Wow. This one did so well.
There’s no one that’s at five point four million views.
Have you seen. These are the same. Oh, because that’s so cool. That’s the one. But you reposted it.
No, it’s a different one. It’s just eight. So I’ll sell multiple ones on the same day. So I block out time to do content. I’ll do like maybe two hours of content. And so I might try and same outfit, but it’s different videos. The one that has the same caption. Yes, it does. So there’s a recipe. I’m just following the recipe as I when I find something that works, I’ll continue doing the same caption. But I think I am wearing a different shirt and the TV.
So they’re definitely two different ones with a little bit. It’s a little bit more zoomed in this one off at a different section and a different shirt.
But I think you can tell to like I’ve had several that I’ve hit over a million views and one is at five point four million, which was a huge one at one point six right now. Yeah. And then you keep going down. There’s another one. Is that like one point. Yep. And then one below that is like five point four which is lively or million.
Yeah. But yes.
Keep going down that one. Did you see it. Five point four million I mean. I don’t know why that one went and the other ones didn’t. In fact, I about maybe a week ago, I reposted this one to see if I would get the same reach if I use different hashtags and I didn’t.
So I don’t know if it is, then I know this is the best comment, helping only fans, girls, one at a time when these comments are hilarious.
And I wish you’d hold the pose longer. I’m not going to hold the pose longer because I want them to watch the video. It pushes the algorithm. So if you’ll notice, like the end pose very for a short period for most of them, because I want. I want them to watch the video and save it, that pushes the algorithm to like a push of it when people are saving it to their phones.
You’re just brilliant over there. Tick tock. Tick tock. Famous over there. And it was weird the other day. I tell you that. By the way, how are you like the Pixar creators? What do you got to do to get the creators fun, which, by the way, I heard pays like pennies for like literally a million views about like ten bucks.
I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it because I actually think that my reach will be lower because why would they push my videos if they’re going to have to pay me? I’ve heard other commuters say that they as soon as they stopped being in that fund, their videos got a lot more reach. So I’m not going to do it.
Yeah, well, I know that you have closing to get to.
Yes. In one hour, which is crazy.
All right. Well, it was great catching up with you and a lot of good news going around. And for everyone else, I hope you guys enjoyed please.
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So really appreciate it. Awesome. Thanks so much for your time. Is really good seeing you. Oh. You see Spot.