It's really important that if you are still trying to run a team like we did in like 2010, 2011, it's not going to convert as well. A lot of you guys who have been running teams for a long time have seen already that your clients just don't really share organically the way that they used to. So there's some things changing and it's time for you to pivot if you haven't already, and mainly for you newer photographers, or just newer to senior photography you're trying to get into it. A senior team is really the best way to build and leverage yourself in your local market, but not if you're doing it like in an old school way and not if you're doing it where it's exhausting you and it's free and it's not making you any money.

Welcome to Tried and True with a dash of woo, where we blend rock solid tips with a little bit of magic. I'm Renee Bowen, your host, life and business coach and professional photographer at your service. We are all about getting creative, diving into your business and playing with manifestation over here. So are you ready to get inspired and have some fun? Let's dive in over here. So are you ready to get inspired and have some fun? Let's dive in. Hey, hey, welcome back to Try to True with a Dash of Rue. I am your host, renee Bowen, and today is a short and sweet little episode specifically geared toward my senior photography friends. You guys know how much I love, love, love, love talking about senior rep teams and teaching about them, because it is how I built a $200,000 plus senior portrait business in an area that didn't even really offer senior portraits back in the day. So when I started in 2007, 2008, nobody was really shooting senior portraits the way I wanted to do it in a very editorial way, and I had to sort of like a very editorial way and I had to sort of like teach people what this was about, because they had just gone to their school's contracted photographer, you know, done the very basic drape and cap and gown, and that's not what I wanted to create here. So I was able to really do that by starting a team from the get-go and I didn't know what I was doing and I was running by the seat of my pants. So I made a lot of mistakes and that's one of the reasons why I do what I do now teach other photographers is because I wanna save you from that. I also run a very large Facebook group now of Jets High School Senior Photographers. I think we've got like 16,000 of you guys in there. If you're not in there, it's free, I'll post the link below. You should hop in Lots of good discussions and things like that in there, but I see a lot of you guys, especially the newer people, really, really struggling with this whole team situation.

Right, you can call it an ambassador team, a model team, whatever. There's a lot of words. Back in the day, we called it model team, but our Gen Z clients don't really align with that word anymore, so I call mine a creative team. I was the first person in our industry to use the word influencer team back in like 2017, because I could see the shifts that were happening. I'm always paying attention to our Gen Z clients and they're on the move again. They're changing, right, we're about to get into Gen Alpha pretty soon, so it's really important that if you are still trying to run a team like we did in like 2010, 2011, it's not going to convert as well. A lot of you guys who have been running teams for a long time have seen already that your clients just don't really share organically the way that they used to. So there's some things changing and it's time for you to pivot if you haven't already and mainly for you, newer photographers or just newer to senior photography you're trying to get into it. A senior team is really the best way to build and leverage yourself in your local market, but not if you're doing it like in an old school way and not if you're doing it where it's exhausting you and it's free and it's not making you any money. So in today's episode I'm going to be going over the five most common rookie mistakes that I see you guys making with your senior rep programs and, more importantly, how you can avoid them and how you can build a profitable, stress-free team right from the start. I know it's intimidating. I know you're probably thinking what if nobody signs up? What if it's a waste of time? You might be thinking I just feel really intimidated and overwhelmed about starting a team. And you're not alone. That's a very, very common thing. I coach in group settings, in one-on-one settings, and I see and I hear that a lot. But it doesn't have to be that way. Okay, with the right plan and the right strategy, your team can actually market your business for you year round. That's what you want. It can bring in high-paying clients and make your job a lot easier. So the first thing that I see you guys doing that I think is a big mistake is trying to offer your team for just free right and offering it to just anybody. And I know that it can feel really tempting to offer your team like this, thinking that it's going to attract more people, especially when you're just starting out. But here's why that's a really big mistake. Free rep teams tend to attract people who aren't serious or invested in your experience, people who are not your target clients. You hear me talk about target clients a lot across the board. Whether you're in my free communities, paid here on the podcast, whatever, you know that you need to be talking to your senior and your parent target clients. We're pretty unique as senior photographers because we have two target clients. So when you do this for free, you end up putting in a lot of work without seeing a real return, and this is a slippery slope it's just hard to come back from actually. So just putting out free model calls. There's also this energy of desperation, which is never a good thing, right, if you're trying to leverage yourself as a higher end photographer, especially if you want to be more of a boutique photographer, which I, that's what I am and that's what I teach. It's not a great look to just sort of like cast this really wide net and you know, please book with me, please do this it's. It's got a little bit of like that scarcity vibe and that's not a great place to build a profitable, strongly positioned business. Instead, I do want you to charge for your team. It makes your reps more committed Okay, when you pay, you pay attention and it positions your program as high value, exclusive and experience they can't get with just anybody. And when your team is paying for something that they see as valuable, they'll market for you harder to take their role more seriously. It actually is a win-win. There's a lot of ways you can do this. I'm not going to go into all of that right here because it would just be way too long of a podcast. There's a lot of different ways you can run a team. Okay, I personally like to teach a two level method in the creative team method. I break that down for you, but I also go over some of the other ways that you can run a creative team. You don't have to do it exactly like how I do it. What works for me may or may not work for you. I've also run a team with just one level, but there's always been, it's always been paid, and in the creative team method, I do break down exactly how to structure your pricing so that it does attract the right people, the right reps, and, more importantly, how to communicate that value to those potential clients. The number two rookie mistake I see you guys making is not having a clear year round strategy. Okay, so a lot of y'all are just kind of running by the seat of your pants, but I see this happening a lot. I see photographers thinking that their reps are only useful during, like, senior season, but this leaves a lot on the table. Truly, even if you live in a cold climate where you're only shooting, let's say, may through early November. The reason why this doesn't work is that if you're not consistently using your team throughout the year, you're missing out on really huge marketing opportunities. Your team really should be your brand ambassadors year round, spreading the word about your services, bringing in new clients year round in your local market. You want people to be talking about you all the time, so between your team and their parents. You need to have sessions with this team throughout the year, even if you live in a cold climate and even if you can't shoot outside. And there's so many, so many ways you can do this. For instance, in the creative team method, I do teach you how to create a simple, actionable plan to keep your reps engaged 12 months out of the year without burning yourself out. That is the big part. I don't want this to create more work for yourself. From social media content to community involvement, that's a really big one. It's all about making your rep team a continuous part of your marketing strategy. It's just integral. You can't just kind of start a team, do a couple of shoots with them and then be like okay, we're done, and expect them to continue to market for you. It just doesn't work that way. You've got to kind of play with them year round. But it doesn't have to be exhausting. I promise you, I've already done that work for you. By the way, in the creative team method, it comes with ready-made templates, content plans, systems that you can start using like ASAP with your team. And right now this current sale it's insane. You can get it for $700 off before my birthday, september 17th, so you do have to act quick, but everything you need is in the creative team method, because I have made these mistakes. I have seen what works and what doesn't work, and I also see what a lot of other senior photographers are doing with their creative team or their model teams, whatever they're calling it and I can see why they are not working. So I've made the adjustments for you inside of the program. Okay, mistake number three is that you are failing to connect with your Gen Z clients and what they really want. So a lot of photographers set up their rep teams like it's 2010 still, but Gen Z is a whole new generation with different expectations and values and, honestly, we're at the tail end of Gen Z right now. We're really on the precipice of Gen Alpha, and Gen Alpha is like Gen Z on crack, like they are even more savvy. Even more savvy. They are even more harder in a lot of ways to reach because they're super online and super saturated with everything that they see. So if you're not tapping into what Gen Z and Gen Alpha really want their experiences, the authenticity that they value, the individuality if you're not really focusing on what they're consuming okay, and I'm not talking about, like what they're eating, but what the media is that they're consuming. You're going to struggle to get their attention. These generations crave way more than just pretty pictures and like these high value themed shoots. What they want more than anything is this sense of belonging and exclusivity, without feeling like it is not available to everyone. So there's that fine line Like, yes, it has to be positioned as not available to everyone, but they do not want to be involved with somebody who's just picking the most popular kids. That's not a great look for your business. I personally have never run my team that way. I just never felt right to me. But I do limit it. I just limit it in a different way. So in the creative team method, I show you exactly how to create a senior rep team experience that resonates with Gen Z, with Gen Alpha. I'm constantly updating it as well. I really want this program to evolve alongside of Gen Alpha, so I'm going to be adding some new things to it within the next few months so that you can learn how to stand out in a really saturated and crowded market and build a team that not only markets for you but makes you the go-to photographer in your area. That's what we want. Mistake number four is overcomplicating the management of your team. Okay, so a lot of photographers I talk to are hesitant about starting a rep team because they think it's going to take too much time, too much effort to manage. The truth is, it can be exhausting if you're trying to handle every single detail by yourself and if you're trying to build like this beast by yourself and if you're trying to build like this beast of a team for free. That's the other part of it and we'll get to this in a second, but burnout's real. Okay, I have definitely been there more than I like to admit, but trying to micromanage your team or handle all the planning on your own can really make running a rep team feel like a second full-time job. So I believe it doesn't have to be this way. I help you kind of go over all of the tools and systems that can automate your processes, streamline your communication and allow you to really like delegate some tasks. It's really about working smarter, not harder. Obviously, I always want you to be doing that, but there's a way to do this too, where the team has to be a collaboration between you and them. These kids, these teens, really want to be more of collaborators. They want to be more creators. This is a very big reason why I converted my team from a model team to an influencer team and then now to a creative team. Our younger teen clients identify way more with the word creator because of TikTok. Mainly that's where they are, that's where they're spending their time. You can not like it all you want, but that's just the truth and we can use TikTok to actually help us in our business, and I don't even mean just like posting on there. There's some tools that you can use on TikTok that are going to help you know what to post, come up with ideas for blogs, come up with ideas for content, and it's super easy. So, like why not go to the source? Why not go to where your teen clients are actually living? Basically, I go over all of that inside of the creative team method as well, because I want you to be able to use what you have at your disposal and stop trying to like create stuff out of thin air. And, even if you don't want to use your team as a way to work with other brands, because I do teach you that inside of the creative team method, even if you don't want to do that, which I do, suggest you at least at least look into a little bit as far as like your local market, because using the power of other local businesses is like a fast track to grow your business if you do it strategically. But in the creative team method, I teach you how to do that with brands online, with all kinds of other different brands, because your team clients are already seeing that they can make money as an affiliate by doing that for other brands. They can wear stuff that they actually really like and talk about it online and make some extra money on the side. So why not just kind of like embed that into your program and just teach them how to do it in a very safe and professional way? And the parents really like that. You are the person sort of leading that, because, as we all know, teens don't really listen to their parents as much. But if you are the person who's telling them, hey, here's how we actually really want to work with brands, here's how we actually want to tag them when we do it and you're sort of like running it for them so they don't have to do it themselves, it really is a very cool way to run your senior team. It's a cool aspect to add to your team, if you're not doing that already, and it's very, very, very much in line with our Gen Z and Gen Alpha clients and what they want. So, in the creative team method, I teach you how to do that. It's like the heart and soul of my team and it doesn't have to be hard, like the reason why it feels hard is because you just never have done it before. But I break it all down for you and I even give you templates on how to pitch yourself to brands, how to work with them, how to leverage yourself with brands, how to create relationships with other brands so that you can be that go-to person that they come to when they have new clothing, when they have new products that they want your team to try out. Okay, mistake number five is underestimating the power of pricing. Okay, so if you're new to rep teams, you are probably afraid to charge what you're worth, thinking nobody's going to pay for it. But underpricing is one of the biggest mistakes that you can actually make, because when you price too low, you attract clients who don't see the value in what you offer, and that leads to way more stress and less profit, and I'm not saying you have to be where I am. I do go over all the pricing in the creative team method, for instance, but you don't have to do exactly what I do. In fact, if you're brand new, you shouldn't be charging what I'm charging. I've been doing this a long time. I didn't start my team at the price point it is. Now I can bring in $45,000 to $50,000 in the month of January and February signing up a team, but I couldn't do that right out the gate, so let's just kind of get real for a second. The thing that matters, though okay, because I have had clients come through the creative team method and within two to three years, they are making $35,000, $40,000 in the month of January. It can be done. I'm not saying it can't. Your work has to be good. Okay, that is a very, very, very big part of this. Your work has to be good, and I go over some of this inside of the CTM as well, like how to shoot for these younger teens, like what are they really into, without compromising your professional style that you've built, but you have to know what kind of images that they're attracted to, because they are different than it was a few years ago, and the teen and the parent want two different things. It's our job to give them both and to communicate that we can. So I go over all of that as well, because I think that is a very, very big part of it, of it. You know, being able to produce consistent, great work is very important and it is why you can charge higher prices for it. So keep working at that. Okay, like, don't, don't take that off the table. I'm not talking about raising your prices in the absence of honing your skills. Okay, the skills have to be there as well. But I have seen photographers two, three years right out of the gate in the creative team method being able to command really high prices because they've done all of that work and they also have followed the structure of the psychology of the pricing. That's what I really want you to get inside of the creative team method is why I am charging this, why those two levels make a big difference. How that works with, like the actual really want you to get inside of the creative team method is why I am charging this. Why those two levels make a big difference. How that works with, like the actual cost of running a team. It's expensive to run a team. Okay, breaking down the numbers of like. Okay, are you going to include hair and makeup? How much is that going to cost you? Each time I pay my makeup artist? I also work with a hair salon. You can do trades. How much is it going to cost you for each of these shoots that you want to do throughout the year Because, remember, we're getting content throughout the year? How much is that going to cost you and your business? It shouldn't be in the red. You should be making money off of this team. Yes, they are going to give you marketing and, ideally, bring you more ideal clients, but they also need to be paid clients. Your team needs to pay you. Okay, and there are some different ways to do this and there's some ways to like figure out this process as you're building it. I go through all of that inside of the creative team method. I break it down for you because, again, it is not one size fits all. I want this to work for you, your market and your team, and the way that I have structured it does that for you. It's really about you know how to set your pricing confidently, using pricing psychology, because that's important, and positioning this as an investment so that it does attract clients who are excited to be a part of your rep team. So it's not just about charging more, it's about showing that value of what you do. Okay, we're going to wrap up. That was super quick. I do have below a freebie that you can download. It's a PDF and it's called the five steps to build a successful, profitable, engaged senior rep team and it's not just a regurgitation of what I just talked about. There are some similarities but they're five different steps. It walks you through like the things that you should be thinking about as you build this team or revamp your team. There are a lot of opportunities in the PDF for you to get good clarity. Like I ask you questions, I want you to dig deep into your business and actually get to like the heart of why you want to do this, who it's for, like, unless you're getting some clarity on that kind of stuff, it's going to feel chaotic. So I go into all of that detail in that PDF. Definitely download it. If you've been in my free groups for a while, you may have a copy of it, but I have revised it just recently because, again. I'm always like updating and revising the stuff that I have because our clients are changing, so the content that I produce for you had to change as well. So go ahead and download that. That'll definitely be a big help for you. But these five mistakes that I just went over, that you know they can really make or break your rep team, and right now you do have the opportunity to avoid them from the start with the creative team method. It is on sale for $700 off, but only until September 17th, so you do not have a long period of time to think about it. If you have been thinking about getting this, now's the time. The creative team method is also included in my coaching program. So if you sign up for one-on-one coaching with me and you go through my level up program, which is my entire blueprint on how to build a successful six-figure senior business, you get this included in that as well. But if you can't invest at that level yet, if you are not ready to invest that kind of time, you should jump on the creative team method while it's on sale like this. The link is below. You can definitely go and check it out. It's reneebowencom slash senior rep team and that page has all the information about what's included, why I include it, and you can click that link and then you can get to the checkout from there. So if you are ready to build a senior rep team that markets your business year round, attracts the right clients effortlessly and actually makes you money, go grab the creative team method right now, while you can, for $700 off, and start transforming your photography business. And if you want to go even deeper, there are a couple of spots open in Level Up. That's my deep dive. Okay, you do get the creative team method included in that. It's my blueprint. It is how I built a $200,000 plus senior business and you get one-on-one coaching with me as well. So that is not for everybody. It's a much higher investment. If you do want something like that, hit the link below that says book a call. It's free. We'll chat for 30 minutes and you know, think about whether it is right for you, because, in all honesty, I don't work with everybody that books a call with me. It's going to be right for you or it's not going to be right for you, and there have been a few people that I have told you know what. I know you're ready to sign up, but I don't think you're personally ready to do it yet, because it is a commitment of time and money and you have to be ready to be coachable and you have to be ready to let go of some of the things that you probably have been doing, because you can't go where you want to go doing the same things that you've been doing and because it involves a lot of high touch coaching. For me, I want you to be profitable, like I don't just offer this to anybody. It has to be something that I feel like you're actually going to implement, because I want you to consume this, be coachable and then be profitable, like immediately. I want you to make your investment back ASAP. So that's level up. Book a call below if you want to chat about that. But if you want to build about that, but if you want to build a senior rep team or revamp your team, it's the creative team that you need and I would get it right now, before it goes off sale. Have a great rest of your week, guys. Love you Bye.