Book More Clients Photography Podcast - How to Start a Photography Business, Marketing Strategy, How Photographers Make Money

Ep. 43 | Is Email Dead? Interview with The Creators of Flodesk (+ Top Secret Flodesk Updates)

January 16, 2020 Brooke Jefferson Episode 43
Book More Clients Photography Podcast - How to Start a Photography Business, Marketing Strategy, How Photographers Make Money
Ep. 43 | Is Email Dead? Interview with The Creators of Flodesk (+ Top Secret Flodesk Updates)
Show Notes Transcript

Is email dead?

Thanks for tuning into another episode of the Frame Your Way Photography Podcast. On today’s episode we are talking about one of my favorite platforms I use in my business and speaking with the Flodesk creators themselves. Plus, they’re sharing a top secret update that’s coming soon to Flodesk! Tune in to learn more!

Use this link for 50% off Flodesk for LIFE! https://flodesk.com/c/3C8R9X

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spk_0:   0:08
welcome to frame your way. Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Brooke Jefferson. I'm a wife, Mama to two and full time photographer in business. I created this podcast with the inspiring photographer in mind to bring you inspired stories. Strategies to help you go from TV grow mostly figures and tips and tricks to get one step closer to work. Life Harmony. Are you ready to bring your way to your dream career? Let's dive in. Hey, friend, Thanks for tuning into another episode of the frame your way. Photography Podcast on today's episode We're talking about one of my favorite platforms are using my business and speaking with the FLOTUS creators themselves. I'm super stoked for this. So let's dive in. Welcome to the podcast. Martha and Rebecca. I would love for you each to introduce yourself and tell us what life looked like before. Flotus. Martha, let's start with you.

spk_1:   1:08
All right? That sounds good. We're so happy to be here. So I My name is Martha. I am CEO and co founder of FLOTUS. Um, life. I grew up in Mexico. Um, my have both nationalities. My mom is Mexican. My father is Lebanese, and, um after that I took a gap year because I was a really big nerd in high school and got majorly burned out. And then in that copier, I studied languages because I thought I wanted to go into hospitality. And then I realized that that's not necessarily an edge, and the hospitality is really hard and tolling. And I met someone who was in intelligence who sold me on the idea so that I went to college to prepare for a role in intelligence, and I was looked and shattered when I got the job, but I didn't get the security clearance. Um, and you don't know why in party thing is because my parents are in Mexico and maybe I have more ties outside of the country back then. So, um, I'll never know. But the next day I remember I was like, puffy from crying, and I This was the first time that I wanted something and I didn't find out, and I just needed a job. I didn't want to be out religion not have anything that I'm working on. So I took the first interview that I could get and it waas or a sales role at a tech company. So that's how I got in Tech and that led Thio promotion in Silicon Valley. And that's why I moved to San Francisco. And then eventually I realized that I wanted to do work that was a little more impactful, and, um, and I didn't know where I would go. But Honey Book reached out and Honey Book does business management for creative entrepreneurs, and I really loved the space and the idea of empowering small business owners to build more sustainable businesses. So I did the job, and I have been with them for five and 1/2 years, started flow desk us a side hustle, and I'm going in full time. So that's the back story.

spk_0:   3:22
That's amazing. I think my favorite part of your story and something we all I did, in fact with is we all go on that one path where we map out our lives. You know exactly how it's gonna go, and then something happens. And either you decide. No, this is not fulfilling or a door closes in your face in your life. I was not expecting this, so that's happened to me. I must bury the story for today because I've already told it to my listeners before, but and that's my favorite. Part of everyone's journey is it never pans out the way that you thought it would. So that is incredible. Okay, well, Rebecca, let's pass the mic off to you.

spk_2:   4:04
All right? Well, my story began kind of in a different time, in a different place in situation. But I was born into the Silicon Valley world. My father was also a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and H 14. I was on the cover of Silicon Valley magazine and there was a a little question in there. Rebecca, what would you like to do with your life? And I said, I wanna have my own business and it's gonna be some kind of business having to do with design. And I feel like if I look back on that 14 year old version of myself today, I would have made her proud. So that makes me happy. Although the path to getting there is a lot different than I thought it would be, Um, after I graduated college, my first job out of school was designing the merchandise album, cover skins logos and designed for leakin Park and Rihanna. Lanus more set Cheryl Crow in a lot of big bands and celebrities, which was a really awesome job. But it was a corporate job, believe it or not, And I always had this feeling that I wanted to work for myself. So at that job, it was really valuable to learn how the designed for different brands in different sex and also produce content. That was high quality very quickly. So I sort of learned how to be a commercial designer. Um, and then this threesome twist of fate. I ended up getting into the creative entrepreneur space, and this was around 2010 when this was just emerging. Now I feel like it's a truly fully fledged market, but at that point it was just coming to fruition, and I fell in love with making templates for specifically for professional photographer. So I had started to subscription based Web sites of one first, and I sold it and then the other, which I'm still having him transitioning out of. But I learned Thio create templates for creatives, and I sold Thio probably hundreds of thousands of photographers and creative entrepreneurs. I also went on to co found the Jenna Quit your template shop so she and I share that venture together. Um, and through that I found a love for creating tools to help other people be successful. Like I love having my own business. And I am so gung ho on other people becoming entrepreneurs. And I just want to be the person that gives people the tools to be creative and successful. It's kind of become my life's mission.

spk_0:   6:18
That's so awesome. I'm like hanging on every word of your story because it is so interesting. And you guys see Mike, You okay? Well, you guys seem like me when we're born on. Then we start growing up. We just really ambitious, like we just are, were just born with that created all the ambitious side and side note. So I knew you'll had a tie to Jenna Culture, and I wasn't sure what it was because the first time I heard about you, she had made opposed at the same time other people we're making post about. You guys have to try out, you know, Flo desk and all this stuff. So she's one of the people that I first heard about you guys and trickle down. And then here we are. So again, I love it. I love that that happened. So now we know your individual stories. How in the world did y'all's hats cross? It's Martha. You want you want to take the lead on that one?

spk_1:   7:13
Yeah, it feels good. So we met a few years ago, and initially we wanted to create a different type of project. Uh, actually, first it was a partnership. And then we You know, when you meet those people that are super great oven entrepreneurial and no matter what the conversation starts with, it always ends with a new business idea. And we were. And then, like I said, it was just amazing because I have a picture. I forgot about these. But at the end of every conversation, we start with hay was just hang out. So I just come over and off some wine and we would just have wine and chat about life and love and parents thinks I've got it. And then every single time, it would end with Hey, we should start days. It doesn't exist yet. So, uh, the end off each time that we would hang out with come with have these mock ups for, like, a note taking up and just a world away that we imagine it should work. And we never actually followed up on any of the projects because we weren't really. I guess it was more like exciting. But we're passionate about solving a problem. I'm until way happened upon a really big pain, which was, uh, so at honey. But I was working with a lot off. Educators have supported my job is to empower them with all the tools they need. Thio give other great abs the tools that they need to build better businesses. And, um, and I realize that they were, Even though they were the most 10 yard and most business, Abby in tech savvy, they were still struggling a lot with email marketing. So I tried to solve it by just like hacking things around for them and they would still struggle. And then, obviously my next thought was, Well, let me introduce you to Rebecca, she said, Designer, and you could probably help. And then Rebecca told me about a different struggle that she was seeing in her business and gallery. So I'll let Rebecca and elaborate on that.

spk_0:   9:14
Well, yes. So in my

spk_2:   9:15
template shop, I had been making templates, hundreds of them a year for many, many years. And at the very beginning I had a lot of requests for templates for e mails like templates that they can implement a male chimps. So I saw that by creating Photoshopped templates where you could make a cool graphic, I wrote the copy and I saw that as a package template. The problem is that every time I saw someone purchased them the next day I get a support ticket saying, Hey, I need my money back because it's so difficult to implement a male chip. Why am I paying $35 for this template and then I have to go implement it. And this was I mean, we're talking to Lucky Tent when you live in here, and I thought, Well, okay, fine. We can get the refund in some bass. Other platforms will come out insult for this problem between 2013 2015 2017 and it just got to look at it early. No one's doing something about this problem, and if we don't, nobody's gonna do it and it got It was like it wasn't When can we start working on this? It was like we can't not work on this anymore. It was just It became such a clear pain. There was no choice but to do this.

spk_0:   10:22
That Oh, my goodness, you guys, that is so neat. So I totally understand that pain point because I lived it multiple times. And what was frustrating for me personally using different email providers and I've used many, many is like there was always a missing piece. It was either way too plain Jane, but height, but like high tech, you know, with the funnels and stuff. And I'm like, Well, that's a problem in itself to because, you know, our pain point is we want our emails to be pretty like for photographers were visual, like we want our stuff to catch your attention and on a plane email like, unfortunately, didn't do that for me. And so that's why that was the first thing that caught me was Oh, my gosh, these are gorgeous. And let me tell you guys, and we can get into this later, too. But, um, I have made a lot of money from using from switching and using something that was visually pleasing. I sold out of my Christmas family sessions in an hour, completely booked out. Yeah, I posted it and you'll see, isn't

spk_1:   11:31
our, you know, congrats. That wasn't such a good campaign.

spk_0:   11:36
Yeah, so totally paid for itself. It's fine. Yeah, as though I mean, like, there's a reason that I that I do love it. And I will tell you guys actually have email marketing my background. So I used to do it for clients and from all different kinds of things network marketers and different businesses. And I still do it for some people, just, you know, here and there on a product basis. But like I love it because the messaging is so different, you have to approach things differently. An email. So that's a good segue way, Martha, into my question. Why email marketing Is it is it really dead? Because I've heard that and like, why is it so important to have email marketing in our business?

spk_1:   12:20
That is a great question. So I think bottom line, it comes down to what you just said. It is something that will enable you to make money, and as a business owner, you need to be able to sell. And it is actually the highest converting channel. Statistically, businesses that using no marketing or 40 times more successful bond then in terms off is a dead. Actually, the newer generations are 80% more bullish on email marketing, especially for marketing purposes. So it's no dead. What was dead? Waas The solutions right? I'm not dead, but just dinosaur age and a little bit platforms are out there where created 20 years ago. So the technology is outdated. The business model is outdated, like if you look the charge of per subscriber, and that is because their technology's just so outdated that that's how they have to pay as well. Um, Bowie innovated all of that because on and something that is something of bottles and majorly because what if your website all of a sudden started telling you? Okay, well, here's your monthly prize, but if you start driving more visitors to your website, then you have to pay more. It's like, Well, that's the whole reason why I have a Web site so we don't like that. We don't believe in penalizing our members for growing and their lace and being successful in the buff firm. So So that's what was dead right? Like the solutions. And I think, um, when we when we started, we were like a kill. It's up. Let's not use anything else and let's just create it as if if you know you're getting was just getting created right now, what will it look like with the technology that's available? And that's when we have the custom funds and all the creative freedom. So So, yeah, so that's That's the why remember getting And then the reason why we were passionate about building email marketing for creative entrepreneurs is because we saw really big Bruns, um, successfully using this channel in creating these amazing, gorgeous campaigns. And I'm thinking, like Urban outfitters or Airbnb, right or anthropology. And then what we realized was the asset sell opener. You also, you see these and you know that that's a standard, and you won't agree. But you don't have a team of marketers, and you don't have developers and you don't have a design team. So we were like, How do we not only make it easy and build education in, so you don't have to be a marketer to be able to use that and be successful in it. But how do we democratize access to email marketing? So any single entrepreneur that doesn't have design, marketing or text skills or teams and get the same results?

spk_0:   15:03
I'm obsessed because everything you've explained is everything that I've seen inside of, of flautist and the templates everyone's raving, everyone's returning about them. And the cool thing about templates you can make hundreds right there can always speak template, which I think is also yeah, Rebecca's given a big old nod because that is, that is her, um, her skill set. So I I love it in Oh my gosh, I think my favorite thing, because it fits so well, was branding as well, because we're able to show our personality. So it through Florence, you know, Florence and Colors and I don't have to sit there and memorize hex codes. I put him in one time. I put my logo and a one time, and then I go in and I create what I need to sew as faras. The fact that it's fun to play around with it does play a vital role in my business as a photographer. And so I would just love to hear from the both of you, you know, how can we First of all the last two questions and then you guys can take it from there. So one what types of e mails can we s photographers create for our audience? Let's start there. So, Rebecca, can you answer that question for me?

spk_2:   16:17
Absolutely. So I love it when photographers use float. Ask. It's, um it's a really perfect platform for them. It's kind of it's okay for a lot of creative types, but clock photographers being extra visual, it's perfect. So you can start with creating an opt in system on your website, for example, that people are interested in your surfaces. You can put in a form of FLOTUS form onto your website which, well, look beautiful on match your brand. You can edit it very easily and just stick it right in on you. Congrats, subscribers, either to as clients we're interested in your business and then set up a workflow with an auto responder, maybe saying welcome and so excited that you were interested in my service is. And here are my available dates for booking and reply to me if any of these look good, or you could even have ah, form on your pricing page and deliver a pricing brochure because when you're very transparent about your pricing than people are more likely to books. But also I've seen a lot of photographers want to get into the education space. So if you're a photographer, that's successful and have a they're photographers interested in what you d'oh you can also use float us to grow a list for your education. So again, you could have an often form there and deliver content about howto howto you know which lens that I use best for my close ups of my bridal portrait. Sor how I miss my number One secret, I guess asked how I've been top photographer in my city s so you can use it for both of those things. And also, if you just wanna have beautiful sail emails, for example, many sessions and book your missus sessions. Brooke, I know you said you sold out your holiday sessions. I think that's a perfect application. A cz Well, as you know, sending maybe like a Valentine's Day. If you do boudoir or giving $100 off is a gift certificate of people want to give it a couple of a gift of photography for Christmas or something like that. So you can really use it for so many different aspects of the photography. That's successfully.

spk_0:   18:16
I love that you after that perfectly. And also, I am growing my list on both sides. Obviously, you're here on my podcast educating photographers. Um and so I am still mapping out my content plan so that I can keep giving value, Um, in, you know, to photographer. So those of you listening if you sign up for my email list, you are going to you should already be by the time this is aired being receiving e mails from me so that if we just spent extra, we wanted to spend intentional time not just throwing e mails out there, but really like making sure that when you receive an email for me, it is full of value. I don't I don't want to be standing, which I think is the reason a lot of people don't get into evil marketing, which is a great question for you, Martha. It's You know, I think some people stray away from email because they're worried that they're going to be annoying people. So what What is your what? Your take on that,

spk_1:   19:17
huh? I hear this all the time. And, um, it's funny, because when we launch that course with Jenna on how to grow your lease from 0 to 250 we had a lot of people have joined the force and said, Okay, this is not going to work for me because no one wants to hear what I'm saying. I don't even know what to say, but I'm just going to do it and see what happens. And then they were posting the results on the FLOTUS insiders Bourbon, Facebook. And they were like, Oh, my gosh, you guys like I got all the jet reply or I remember one member waas running on launching her book next year, and she opened up her list and got a sizeable enough list within that first month that she just launched her bug and it was really successful. So? So I think one of the biggest shocks that we hear from new members is people are replying to me and people actually want to hear from me and or or we hear this every day, too. I send this email I hadn't talked to my audience, and so long and no one has described on dhe. So So yeah, I think started is scary, but, uh, anyone could make it happen. And I think in the end of the day, we tend to complicate things, but it really comes down Thio capturing someone's email. However you want to capture it, just 1%. Start with one and then sending that one person and email and then if you can do it, if you can do that action with one person, you can do it too. You can do it with 200 evens are growing it, and then, uh, yeah, and then you're gonna be working. So I think it's it's not complicated. Let's simplify it there. There are no barriers to entry. Whatsoever We have to do is open the system. You have an entire free month to try it, so you don't even have to spend any money. Um, dedicate half on hour and even half an hour. You're not doing something that's inspiring, and you feel like you haven't gotten the hang of it. That's fine. Abandon it. But I have yet to hear one person. That's like, Okay, I dedicated half an hour and I started. I didn't work,

spk_0:   21:20
right? Yes. And simplicity really is key. And you listeners, you'll know me about to give you some tangible tips, but so we're at the beginning of the new year. This is the perfect time for you to implement. That's in your business. Try it out. You did hear that. They give you one full month to try it, right? Because that's what that's what sucked me in. But I'll be honest. After the first week, I was like, Take my money. But anyway, um, I think a lot of people say that, actually, but anyway, um, so it's the beginning of the year. Okay, You have the whole year. And if you went through my calendar training that we had in December, then you you have a map, Del, You know what you're offering. So now you're gonna go into flow desk, you're gonna create your account, you're gonna start designing your e mails, Um, for what you're offering this year, So if you're a wedding photographer, start getting some wedding value out there. Start educating your brides. Find something. Go back to October's podcast episodes where we walked you through. What type of lead magnets tohave, like all of this goes together. That's what I'm hoping that you're seeing. So you have pull any of options to go make your first email. And so that is what I want you guys definitely to focus on. This is such a fun platform. Like I don't You guys have no idea if you heard me mention float us millions of times because I have, um and you haven't tried it yet? I really hope you do that. Sure. One action item for today, for sure. Um, yeah, Martha,

spk_1:   22:51
remember, you make it so easy for your for your community to know exactly what they need. Like all of the content that you're putting out there for free is just every single piece is so actionable like you can literally dedicate 10 minutes a day to listen to your courses and then go and make it all happen within that same day. Like I'm I'm baffled. Really, Truly. If anyone's listening right now, and you're just you're not doing it. I have no idea what you're waiting for. And you were waiting for a sign. This is it.

spk_0:   23:23
You're so sweet. That appreciate that. Yeah, I'm just passionate about helping people build. This is much like you guys are. We want eight and people success. And that's my favorite part of what I do. And I do know that there are people taking action because I get the messages. And of course, that makes it all worth it. So I'm okay. So before we wrap all this, uh, Rebecca, I have a question for you. What does the future of FLOTUS look like? And is there anything exciting? I'm coming out in 2020.

spk_2:   23:57
Yes. So we're very excited right now. Thio just become a part of the egos, fear for the email marketing market. And we're focusing on getting our zap your integration out. So that will be you'll be able to hook up all of your favorite maps to the FLOTUS cap that's coming very soon. And possibly by the time this is it might be live already on. And then the next step is to really continue to push out our court, you know, marketing features, because we wouldn't we launch. We were like, OK, what is the minimum we can launch with to be able to make an impact for a certain segment? Um, and since then we've had so many requests and it's it's been incredible. I feel like the community is lifting us up in the community is building the platform with us on. So we know exactly what we need to build up this point because we've had so much wonderful feedback from so many people. And I I just want to tell listeners out there, too, if you're if you're using flow desk and you're commenting on our form or e mailing us about our features, our feature requests, we really hear you like we hear you were listening to you. We really care about everything that you say and it really goes. It becomes a part of our decision, make eight. So we're just gonna continue to listen to our members needs and push out features that they're requesting while still trying to maintain an extreme simplicity in the platform that everybody loves.

spk_1:   25:22
I have one more to share. These is something that's top secret, So I guess it's not going to be.

spk_2:   25:27
Oh, I suddenly looked to get into their Martha, but I'll let you, but I'm

spk_1:   25:33
really excited and they think it's very relevant for audience today. And one thing that I really, really, really really hate is corporate stock photography. And I think we have so many photographers who are so creative and so talented. And because FLOTUS HQ has so many photographers on the platform, we realized that we have the best source for high quality photography, and at the same time we have other great abs that are not photographers on the plot from like covered writers, designers, social media markers, coaches and they need high quality photography in their e mails. So one thing that we're going to do in the future is we're going to enable creators to upload their assets and build their business on FLOTUS as well. So you'll you'll have your business right. But we also want to help you monetize your photography so you'll be able to upload your photos and then other creatives can pay or use or her right of that photography to use it in their templates. And nobody has to use stock photography and everyone can have really, really high quality good looking emails.

spk_0:   26:43
That is so amazing. Also, I'm we collect a lot of top secrets here. Like you guys are probably Yes, I've had. That's like, Okay, so nobody knows this yet. But I guess I'm just gonna tell you in your listener So you're

spk_1:   27:00
changing the longer his name to top secret.

spk_0:   27:03
No joke that it should be like a little tagline underneath here you get to Europe first year, but anyway, I love that I'm so honored that people, you know, want, want to share, you know what's coming, even even if it's not close or whatever. I mean, that doesn't matter. But that's a fantastic opportunity for photographers that nobody else is doing. So I I love what you guys are creating. And one thing that Rebecca said earlier that really and I'm just obsessed with business. So of course I I caught on to it. But she said we wanted to know what we could launch with what the minimum waas. How we could just lunch with enough to get it out into the world. And that is such a key point. Even for you photographers listening. You don't have toe have it all together. It just have to start somewhere. And I know they agree with me on. And that's the thing. Like Martha asked you guys, what are you waiting for? Like just go pick one podcast up so that I've put out there. I mean, there is aton. Now at this point, find what you find, what you want to start with, listen to it and do one thing at a time. Because that's how you move your business forward. You can't run down two paths at the same time. It is impossible. So Oh, my goodness. Guys, this was so much fun. I'm so honored that you guys came on. He shared secrets. You shared insights. And I This is probably my favorite episodes. I allowed to say that. I don't know, E.

spk_1:   28:39
Make sure everyone feel special just getting high wear. So we're so honored to be part of your journey. And we're so grateful for everything that you do for the community.

spk_0:   28:50
Well, thank you so much. I'm so grateful that you guys found a problem. You created a solution and you keep putting yourself out there How long has FLOTUS been around?

spk_1:   29:03
Um, so we we've been working on the product for about a year and 1/2 on Guy had fully agree with it was started with a minimum buyable product. If if you're about to launch something and you haven't read lean Startup, I couldn't recommend it more because it breaks everything down, step by step on. And then we launched. So we opened it for anyone to come in and created account about three months ago. So it's actually growing super quickly.

spk_0:   29:29
Wow, I did not realize when I signed up that we were like the first ones in the door and never realized that. And then since then every week you guys have had something to give a lesson, a tutorial, a release. I mean something. It's it's been incredible. Like I can't wait to see where we're at a year from today. This will be so fun to go back and listen to for sure. So thank you guys. So, so much for being on today's show. We appreciate you so much.

spk_1:   29:57
Thank you. We have here

spk_0:   30:02
Spring will be here before we know it. And I want to set you up for success when it comes to booking clients. Number one thing I hear all the time is I need more clients. I want you to come hang out with me inside of a Facebook group as I walk you through. How to book out your calendars and get more clients on your books. This five day free training serious is going to take place beginning February 3rd. But before that kicks off, we're gonna be hanging out, discussing our businesses and life together leading up to the series. You can join us by clicking the link in the show notes or by typing in booked out photographers on Facebook and searching under groups hope to see you inside.