Hey guys, if you've been listening to the podcast for just about any period of time, you know that I am a huge dork when it comes to metaphors, I love using metaphors to process concepts in my own brain. And then I like to come here and share them with you on the podcast. One of the oldest metaphors that I have used since the very beginning of this can't be that hard, is the concept of a bluebird client. And a blue bird client is
basically an ideal client. But the reason I like the blue bird metaphor is that blue birds are super particular about where they live. So if you build a bluebird house that's not perfectly created for bluebirds, you're not going to get any. I like using that metaphor, because the same thing is true for that sort of ideal client, the one who loves the work that you do, they are happy to pay your prices, they sing your praises to their friends, those clients can feel really, really
hard to find. And I think that there are some really strong arguments to be made about how you can go about reaching them more directly. But that is not the subject of today's conversation. Today, I have Aisling O'Brien, who is a New Zealand based photographer on the podcast to chat with me about this amazing addition that she came up with, for my bluebird metaphor. She is in my simple sales student group on Facebook, where we chat all things, simple sales and business and everything else.
And she had shared the other day about these several clients that she had booked. A couple of them were Bluebirds. One of them was what we call a snake client, which is kind of the opposite of a bluebird. And then she introduced a third metaphor, and it was so great that I invited her to join me on the podcast to introduce this new member to our
metaphor family. If you are not familiar with the simple sales system, I would encourage you to after you listen to today's podcast, if it sounds like something that might be useful to you in your business, stop by this can't be that hard.com/simple and fill in your info to get access to my free masterclass, I teach the whole six steps of the system in about 90 minutes. So you just sort of pull up a cup of coffee in a notebook and decide whether this sounds like it's something good
for your business. Like I said, it's totally free. But that really is the subject of a lot of what we're talking about today. So I figured I would at least give you that link. I will also link it in the show notes. In the meantime, I will cue the music and let you guys listen to Aisling. Welcome to this can't be that hard. My name is Annemie Tonken. And I help photographers run profitable, sustainable
businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard. You can do it. And I can show you how. Hey, Aisling, welcome to this can't be that hard. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast today. How are you? I'm really good. Delighted to be here. We had some tech hiccups
on the way here. So once again, I will say thank you for your patience as we get this set up. We're hopefully kind of upping our audio game a little bit. So shout out to my audio tech support people it has it's a it's an ever evolving journey. Always Learning on this entrepreneur journey. But yeah, no, I am super excited to have you on the show today. You are part of my simple sales blueprint student group. And in the on the Facebook group the other day, you told a story that
grabbed my attention. And I was like, Ooh, I have to bring Aisling on. So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and then and then just share that story. And we'll go from there.
Yeah, so I'm Irish, as you can probably guess, living in New Zealand for about 10 years now. And my photography journey, same as so many other people like the mammography journey. And but it just captivated me when my little girl was born. And it was a time of massive transition for me figuring out how to be a mother and then trying to figure out a creative outlet for that as well. So that's where photography just grabbed my
home. I kind of got pushed into business I like I was doing a diploma in photography because they wanted to take better photographs of my kids. And then I had done my years maternity leave with my little boy and still studying. I went back to my job as a corporate travel consultant in March 2020. It was already the plan to set up a business eventually it kind of
pushed me into it. So I was kind of ticking away for about a year myself all through last year, just, you know, throwing a fishnet out there and seeing what I brought in. And it was your, your podcast, this podcast has really helped me along the way. And I kind of looked around the podcast for quite a while before I decided to actually jump in and do the course the simple sales blueprint. And we had a big lockdown end of last
year. And that's what I just implemented all I had time at home, but came at home with two kids, little kids, right. It's a double edged sword. And yeah, put it all into place, I think. So just before I lucked out, my business is really just starting to take hold. I was color, getting lots of bites, and I was maybe like, probably two bookings a week would be about my maximum. And I was just starting to get that notice, like, Oh, my God, it's happening. And then we lock down
to three months. Yeah, we do lock downs wells in New Zealand's like, it's literally nothing's open. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I really wanted to set the foundation. You know, like, that's what last year was about me was building a strong foundation for this business. And the simple sales Blueprint was a really big part of that. And, yeah, yeah. And I just, like, I know, I done my research, I am quite a cheap person, I don't, you know, jump into something without doing my
research on it. And then it all just started working. But I was like, oh,
it's nice. It's like the first time I switched from PC to Mac, and was like, Oh, you just plug it in, and it works. That's great. Yeah, that's my goal. I'm not comparing myself to Apple. But if I can provide something that is plug and play like that, for people, I that that makes me very happy. So that's amazing. So the Yeah, I feel like all these people who started their businesses, somewhere, either just before or in the midst of COVID have had such a specific
kind of, of experience. And I am sure that it is very frustrating to have, you know, to be kind of tied in that way. On the other hand, I imagine there have to be some benefits. If you think bigger picture about being almost forced to not just go careening forward, you know what I mean? It's like you have this built in forced time to take your time and think about like, well, I can't photograph anybody right now. So what else can I
work on? Hopefully, in the long run, what that will mean is, you did some, you made some better foundational decisions at the beginning, when when they those decisions have the biggest impact over the course of your career. So that's me putting a silver lining on a really dark cloud, but at the same time, you know, like, with everything else with COVID, is, I'll take the positives where I can so but let's get to this story that you were sharing in the Facebook group about these four clients
that you have had. And I guess before I have you jump in on that. I will mention, if you are listening to the show, and you are unfamiliar with some of the terminology we're about to use, I can't I'll have to look up what episode number it was a long time ago, like I'm gonna say, in the first 10 episodes of the show, I introduced this
concept of Bluebird clients. And when I talk about bluebird clients, I'm talking about sort of that avatar of an ideal client that you might have, where it's someone who appreciates your work, and it's someone who has the budget to hire you. And they're, you know, enthusiastic, and they let you do what you want to do, and all those different kinds of things.
So, you know, it's it, you can never, you're going to find a lot of clients who sort of fit that bill, none of them is going to be exactly the way that you envision it in the beginning, but, but the goal, hopefully, is that we're really focusing our messaging and our marketing and all this other stuff on calling our bluebirds to us. And then I also in that same episode, talk a little bit about snake clients and how snake clients can get into the bluebird house and really mess things up. So I'm
gonna stop there. And I'm gonna let Aisling take it from here.
Yes, I had four bookings, which is a very handy number because we can separate that into easy percentages. Yeah, so 50% were amazing, like, amazing. And I love that concept that you had a bluebird client, you know, like, every little part of your business is what you build for these people, you know, and they're the people who will they just make you happy to be around? They're awesome. Like from the very first phone call I
had with them. We're chatting and it's like, oh my god, like they finished phone call, like super excited. And it's usually like, oh, you know, we're a bit nervous. And I was like, Don't worry, we'll be great. It's gonna be fun. And the shoot went amazing. We had so much fun. And like just laughing the whole time playing with the kids amazing. They got their photos, and they were in tears and just like gushing like that. We put a lot into these, I pour my heart and soul into every single
gallery. And you really do feel like you get to know people. So when you have that reaction from them, I can't help but feel it myself. You know, I'm just over the moon. This is why I do what I do. Like how amazing and all those little packs that I've been working on their foundation pack is what attracted them. Then I got a sneak client. Oh, again, it was it was awesome. Like the shoot was still fun.
There was a few comments along the way that I was like, oh, okay, and then you know, you, you do your pour everything into the gallery. You like send it off? Like, just again, you're, it's like, the night before getting results. You know, when you send over gallery, you're like, Oh, my God, and then the comments come back on your sleeve? Yeah, is it ever? We're a second kind of people first. And we have sensitive souls as photographers.
Indeed, indeed, it's that artists hard.
But what I took actually writing that post, I might have lost in it. Because I had these comments back and I had to defend my editing choices and how I call it the gallery. And I was like, oh my god, does this mean I'm a bad person.
Right.
But writing that post actually helped me organize my thoughts about it. And I was like, hey, it wasn't it's no reflection on me. They just weren't trying for me. Like, you know, they might have preferred to have gone with a more posed formo type of photographer which is not me at all. I jump around, I jump off trees, get the kids to jump around. I probably curse a bit too much. I encourage people to drink and, but the one that I had, which I think is the one that piqued your interest was
and I called him my possum. I never seen him. I'd never seen a possum before I came to New Zealand. They're just these funny little creatures that like hide up in trees with these big eyes. And they just like freeze. You see them and they're like, absolutely frozen. And that's what these people seem to do. They love the gallery. They love the slideshow. It was you know, it's all amazing. And then I was like, oh, and then they rolled over and played dead just like a possum. I love it.
And so you in the post, you talked a little bit about that was a newborn client, right? And so your imagination is that potentially they're just sort of lost in that newborn haze. And they're trying to, you know, manage all their own stuff. Have you Do you happen to have heard from them between when you posted that which was quite recently? And now?
Yes, yeah. I was chatting to her yesterday. And okay, so it was actually her maternity session. And they have another session booked already. So they've got a extended family session with a new baby up at their holiday home. So virgin that in a couple of weeks, which I'm really excited about, because the lovely, lovely people really nice family, beautiful kids. But and I didn't push it, I think I would have approached it differently. How do you know what it's like with
a newborn babies? Getting onto your photographer is probably the last thing in your mind.
Sure, sure. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And I think you know, part of that too, is that you mentioned like, we have this artists hard and we send off a gallery and it's so like, we're waiting with bated breath. And if somebody doesn't write back, immediately, our heads just go to this. They hate the photos. They're, you know, they're upset with something, I've done something wrong, or like this is all falling apart. And most of the time, that is
not the problem. You know, most of the time if somebody is really upset, you're gonna hear about those possums that go and play dead. It is that they've, they're playing dead, they wake up eventually, or they you know, they come out of there playing dead and then you carry on. The hard part oftentimes is to not take it personally to not freak
out to not assume the worst. So what did she say anything along the lines of, you know, sorry, we haven't been in touch or was it just kind of like, oh, yeah, I've been meaning to call you in here. I finally did.
Yeah, yeah, that was pretty much it. And she said they're finally ready to collect our package. And that was yesterday. We emailed back and forth a couple of times, arranging our next shows, but they said, packageso but I think maybe I should be a bit more pushy with it. But again, I think If I knew that they weren't, if they didn't have another booking, I might approach it differently.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that, you know, that is one of the things that comes up in the group, a fair amount is with simple sales, the idea is that they have this short window of time in which to preview their images, and then they're asked to make a
collection purchase decision. I don't put a timeline on that I 95% of the time, find that just the taking away their access to their images is enough to sooner or later, you know, sometimes somebody will get like, sidetracked for a week or whatever, or they're waiting for their credit card statement to renew or that you know, whatever the case may be, but they do, I don't really have to do a lot of polling to get them back. But it
does come up. I mean, and that can be a stressful waiting period to the wall, that client has gone into full passive mode, where you're like, well, when is it obnoxious for me to reach out? And how frequently do I do that? And how, you know, how do I word it? Am I like, you have to make a decision? Or do you sit back? And wait? Do you feel like this experience? You said, you might handle it differently? If you didn't have this next session? Kind of on the horizon?
What are your thoughts and feelings on that?
I think possibly, so they actually live quite local, I would nearly just call it work culture with a coffee hago with the baby has, you know, and actually just find out. But that's, that's the thing I love about this job. If I had done that, in my old job, that would have been super weird. trouble for that? Sure. But there's a very personal part of this job that you can
actually do that. And that would be I would enjoy because I really enjoyed spending time with them at their shoot, you know, at their consultation call. And I wouldn't feel weird doing that. And yeah, I don't know, I think there's a few different ways that you could approach it. But
yeah, I talk all the time about the fact that I've got. So most of my clients that I've worked with over time are now members in my membership, and there are three or four of them, the membership is something that I invite people into, so I get to pick. And for the most part, the clients that are hard that I have to go chasing after I don't
invite them. But if but I do have a few exceptions to that I have clients who I absolutely love working with, they totally love the work that I do for them, we get along great, all the stuff. But they're terrible at getting back to me. They never meet deadlines that they're supposed to meet, I am constantly having to like, Hey, you're supposed to be signing up for your session. And the deadline passed three days ago, and I sent you 14 reminders. And with some clients, it's just
worth it. Like, ultimately, you know, you don't want that to be the majority of your clients. But some people are just like that. And you know, as long as you know that they're kind of good for it. In the end. It's good. And sometimes people aren't good for it. In the end, sometimes they flake out and whatever. But I hope that you would agree, I do feel like the way that simple sales is
structured. Typically, you don't end up with somebody if there's enough buy in going into it that you usually kind of complete the process before it's all said and done. I don't know that's been my experience. And it seems like it's the experience of most of the people that are now using simple sales. So I'm glad that your story had a happy ending. Let's talk a little bit more about just kind of where you are at this point in your business.
What is 2022 looking like for you and and how do you feel like you know, what's your mindset going into this upcoming season?
And I'm much more excited with a simple sales in place. That was like it was you know, it was a fair amount of time kind of getting a setup. Oh, good. God, I It's so much easier. I sat in the carpark Christmas shopping, like mental it's like roasting hot here. We had a really hot Christmas and like roasting hot in the car and one of the people bought the gallery so I'm just sitting in the car, flicking it off on my on my phone, sending their gallery sending their invoice. I
was like, Ah, it's so easy. It's amazing.
Oh, that's good.
Yeah, yeah, it's really, it really has made a difference. And I am building a studio this year. We've got a bit of a farm. Here. I look just Yeah, exchanged emails back in the fall.
I guess it was probably around the time that you became a student and we were emailing back and forth and you were talking about your farm in Auckland. And I was at like the height of my wanderlust and I was like, Oh, I just I don't want to be in North Carolina right now. It's pretty magical.
Oh, that's beautiful. I guess we're close enough to the city where you know, 45 minutes drive to town, so you can still go to concerts for dinner. And we are proper. Laura like to pick out here those cheap everywhere. It's yeah, that's beautiful. It's really nice. So check a big studio up next to the house. Make it nice and easy. Let people come to me rather than me jumping around our beaches like meeting up. Say, yeah, it's gonna be a big and seeing how it
works. I implementing the consultation phone call, like, that was a big deal because I hate phone calls, hate them. But leaving people so excited about what they're coming into, just changes your mindset as well as their mindset coming into the show. And I don't know what that'd be different because studio photography will be so different for me if I can. Surely I can. Surely I can build that excitement for studio two.
Yeah, I always find that if you're excited about something truly, like not, you're not fake excited about it. But if you are like, This is why a studio is gonna, you know, studio sessions gonna knock your socks off, that excitement is infectious. And more than that, the confidence. People who are about to be photographed most of the time are feeling vulnerable in some way. Right? Like, it's a
lot of money. What if they look terrible, or whatever, that getting on the phone and sort of talking them through in a way that when I say confident, I don't mean like, I'm gonna get on the phone and be like, I know exactly what to do at all times. And I'm super cocky about it like no, but just saying, you know, your enthusiasm. You're like, oh, yeah, I know, if your kids are terrible, don't worry. You know, in your case, you can
say like, I'm a mom. I know what it's like to deal with crazy toddlers, like, you know, that sort of thing gives people so much peace of mind. And I've just never found a way to convey that in an email that is anywhere near as effective. So I'm glad that I was able to convince you to get on the phone. I do you think it is a secret secret trick?
Absolutely. Yeah, it's made a huge difference.
Good. And it sounds like it helps you get excited about it too, that that's for me, that's like, I have been doing this long enough that the magic never wears off when it comes to the actual session. Like I love showing up and interacting with families. And I totally fall in love with their kids and all the stuff. But on a like day to day basis, I don't have the same like, oh, I can't wait for my next shoot that I used to have. Because I've been doing it for a long
time. And I think that anything that you do a certain number of times becomes a job. When I get on the phone with people and I hear their excitement, it helps reignite that for me. Like I feel like it's this wonderful, self perpetuating kind of cycle where everybody's excitement kind of helps build and then I find that the art is the is the result of that. So well, this is
amazing. I just felt like I had to bring the founder of the possum client idea onto the show, because I was like, Oh no, I'm totally doing a show about that. And then I was like, why would I do a show about that? Why don't I bring Aisling on to talk? Because it's so good. So you heard it here first ladies and gentlemen, we have we have added a an animal to our litter of metaphors that we have on the show. Yeah, and that that is your like weird little legacy on the show. I totally love it.
But thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me and and again for putting up with my tech snafu situation. But hopefully the audio matches the creativity of your of your story here. And and I'm looking forward to hearing more about how you're, you know, business and everything else progresses. It sounds like you've got all exciting things on the horizon.
Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
My pleasure. All right. Well, have a great day.
You too. Take care. Bye.
Well, that's it for this week's episode of This can't be that hard. I'll be back Same time, same place next week. In the meantime, you can find more information about this episode, along with all the relevant links, notes and downloads at this can't be that hard.com/learn If you like the podcast, be sure to hit the subscribe button. Even better, share the love by leaving a review in iTunes. And as always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.