3 Bottlenecks That Burn Photographers Out Every Fall (and How to Fix them)

Colie: 00:00:27

Hello.

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Hello y'all and welcome back

to Business First Creatives.

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It's July, it's hot, and yes, it's

my birthday month, but today's

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real gift for me to you is helping

you not burn and crash this fall.

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Okay.

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I do wanna say this episode is mostly

for family photographers, and so if

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you are not a family photographer,

I do still think that there's always

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some value in listening to me tell

you to outsource your things and feel

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more confident in your workflows.

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But the examples that I'm giving in

today's episode are specifically for

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family photographers who are about

to get hit with like the wave of

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inquiries that comes every single year.

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Okay.

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And that's because family photography

season is coming and it's coming fast.

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And if your inbox hasn't already started

dinging with inquiries, it will soon.

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Once the kids are back in school,

those floodgates are going to open.

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I feel like after the pandemic,

the inquiries are coming later and

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later, but they are still coming.

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If you're not prepared, you are going

to be crying in a closet hiding from

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your family come November because

of the decisions that you make now.

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So I really want to help you avoid that.

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This episode is short and sweet,

and we are going to walk through

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the three biggest bottlenecks that

crush photographers every fall.

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And here's the thing, these are totally

fixable now before it's too late.

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All right, let's get into it.

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Bottleneck number one, editing

is going to eat you alive.

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Now, I used to be one of those

photographers who swore up and

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down, no one can edit like me.

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Special Snowflake syndrome, right?

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But in 2016, I literally

couldn't see my screen, and so

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outsourcing was no longer optional.

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Now, I don't need you guys to go

blind like I did in order to be

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forced to at least try outsourcing.

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I want you to try it before

you absolutely say no to it.

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You need to start now.

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Okay, so in order to get the process

started, here's what I need you to do.

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First, I need you to decide whether or not

you want to invest in a human editor or an

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AI editor, because yes, now in 2025, you

have that option, and the AI editing tools

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out there are absolutely fabulous, but.

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If you want to start with a

human editor, you've got choices.

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Not only can you hire like an individual

freelance editor in order to get

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things started, you can also try

out a company like the Image Salon.

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But before you do this, I don't

want anybody waiting until

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fall to start that process.

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I want you to choose two to three

of your past galleries, and I want

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you to send them to the editors.

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In order to see what kind

of editing comes back.

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Now, almost all of these, like human

editors that you will hire, will

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want to see samples of your work.

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Some of them will actually get on

a call and build a profile and edit

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live with you so that you can give

them real time feedback in what you

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like and what you don't like about the

editing process as they are doing it.

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You have these options with human

editors, but if you don't wanna go

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the human editor route, you can do AI

editing tools like imaging tools like

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Imagine After Shoot, even Image Salon has

human editors and they also have an AI

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editing tool, are all solid options, but.

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The prep process for AI

editing is very different.

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You are not gonna send them just two

or three of your previous sessions.

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You're going to send them hundreds,

if not thousands of your edited

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files so that the AI tools can train

themselves on your editing process

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and create a profile unique to you.

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Now, that's not the only way

that you can do AI editing.

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You can actually use like pre-done

profiles at most of these companies

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to where it will take like profiles

that they've already created based

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on a specific photographer's work

or just something in general,

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like colorful and punchy, and

you can apply those to your work.

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I personally feel like everything else

that I've talked about related to ai,

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the more context you give it related

to your sessions and your editing,

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the better output you're going to get.

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But here's the kicker.

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No matter which route you choose.

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Now here in July, in the middle of

summer is when you should start that

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process because no one should be trying

to get editing, you know, inside of

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your business in October when you're

already flooded with completed sessions.

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Okay, let's talk about bottleneck number

two, and that is your booking process.

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Every single service provider, whether

you're a photographer, a website

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designer, a copywriter, whatever it is,

needs a five minute booking process.

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That starts with a templated

proposal where you are asking the

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client to choose the services or

just confirm them, and that can be

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customized in less than five minutes.

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Like if you don't wanna offer someone

everything that you typically do, you can

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quickly customize it before you send it.

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But the first part is the services.

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The second part is that contract,

and the third part is the invoice.

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Now, two ways that people push back on

me when I tell them that they need this.

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No, everything in my business is custom.

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No, it's not.

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I have honestly never met a business

owner where everything was customized.

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I've been doing this for five years.

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Guys, there are parts of your process

that are in fact the same from client

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to client or from offer to offer,

because I'm not telling you that you

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only need one proposal template for

your entire business if you have three.

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Four, five very different offers.

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You can create a proposal template for

every single one of those offers and

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which one you're sending to a client.

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You can take five minutes to

customize it before you send it.

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That is totally possible.

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And that contract, y'all, you have no

idea how many people tell me no, my

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contract has to be customized every time.

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And so I push back and I say,

okay, what needs to be customized?

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And they tell me and I'm like, well, no,

they could get that off the proposal.

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Your CRMs will take the offers and

the like, you know what's included and

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the price and all of those details.

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Your CRMs will take that from the services

selection on your proposal, your quote,

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your smart file, and it will transfer

it to the contract with just a field,

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a custom field that you can tell it.

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Then there's the invoice.

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I know people are like,

well, no, you know, I have to

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customize the payment plan.

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I encourage you to find a way to make it

more standardized for everyone, because

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every time you say something has to be

customized, I hear booking friction.

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I hear you.

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Stopping the process and putting

yourself in there as the bottleneck

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in order to get these leads.

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Booked has actual clients, okay?

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Every CRM that you could possibly

be getting has a way to connect the

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services, the contract, and the invoice.

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Everybody needs a five

minute booking process, okay?

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So.

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I want everyone.

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If this is something that's been on

your to-do list, absolutely do it

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now and honestly do that immediately

so that the next inquiry that you

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get for a fall session can get your

new five minute booking process.

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Make it easy, make it fast,

and make it mostly standard.

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Okay, that's the first two bottlenecks.

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This last one is where people start

to feel a certain kind of way, and

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it's sneaky because you feel like

manually replying to every single one

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of your clients makes it personal.

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And it doesn't.

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It just makes you a slave to your phone

or your computer every hour, every

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minute, every day that you own a business.

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You feel like it's luxury, but really

it's killing your fault conversion rate.

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Because every minute that it takes

you to watch your inbox and see that

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you got an inquiry, and then go sit

down and write them a completely from

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scratch, personalized email, is a

minute that if they've inquired with

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more people than just you, they're

probably gonna go with the people who

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gave them the information fastest.

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Now, does that mean that I'm

saying you automatically send

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them everything related to booking

your services when they inquire?

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Absolutely not.

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But what you don't want there to

be is like this huge gap between

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when they inquire with you and

when they actually hear from you.

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Now your inquiry, your first

response builds trust with the lead.

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I want it to be an automated

branded reply within 30 seconds.

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Okay?

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People expect it now.

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Automation is something

that is here to stay.

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What should that email, what

should that response say?

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It should always give them the next step.

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It should totally sound like you,

and it should give them something

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to look at, chomp at, think about

before you personally respond to them.

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Now, that also gives you a

little bit of wiggle room.

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You should no longer feel like

you have to immediately watch

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your phone or your computer.

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Every waking minute so that you are not

losing inquiries or dropping the ball.

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This is really gonna give you a sense

of ease and release some of the stress

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that you are feeling about missing

things inside of your client experience.

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And this is why I built

the workflow FastPass now.

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If you want to learn about what

should be in your client experience,

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I have an amazing freebie that

will walk you through that.

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If you go to Colie james.com/workflow.

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What I hear a lot of people telling me is

that they don't have time to build their

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own workflows, or if they take the time

to build the workflows, they're never

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confident enough to actually use them.

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They're afraid that they

did something wrong.

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They're afraid that the wrong email

is gonna go out or that you know it's

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not gonna work as expected, or that

it's gonna depend on a form going out.

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And then they realize three

weeks later it was never sent.

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Okay.

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There are still too many of you

that are too scared to use the tools

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that you are actually paying for.

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So if you're nodding along and thinking,

yes, Colie, that's totally my life.

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Okay?

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I want you to listen to this.

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The workflow, FastPass is minute new,

AI powered, human reviewed offer.

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I wanna explain.

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So when you purchase your

very own workflow, fast pass.

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This is what's going to happen.

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You're gonna fill out a quick intake form.

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It is not like this lengthy

thing where you have to tell

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me all about your business.

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It's really gonna ask you some

straightforward questions that

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are gonna help me design the

perfect workflow for your business.

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Do you wanna have a consultation call?

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Yes or no?

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Do you wanna follow up with

clients if you make the offer?

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They don't respond.

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These are questions that all of

us are going to be able to answer

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without a lot of thought and stress.

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And so once you hit submit on that form,

it is going to be run through one of my

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AI assistants and they are trained on

my workflow and automation strategies.

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I have one for HoneyBook

and one for Dubsado.

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It is going to build your

entire workflow for me.

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I'm talking about your inquiry

workflow, your booking workflow, your

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onboarding workflow, your delivery

workflow, and your offboarding workflow.

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All five of those are gonna be built

by my AI assistant, and then I am

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personally going to review every single

step the triggers, the emails that it's

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suggesting, and make sure that there

are no red flags before you get it.

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The real kicker, I am going to be

delivering these within 72 hours

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of you submitting your intake form.

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So at the end of three days, you

could have a completely mapped out

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automation blueprint in your hands

where you are going to be able to go

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into your CRM and just push buttons

to build your entire workflow.

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Now, even though I know it's

going to work, I am also going

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to show you step by step.

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In a training video, how to

test the entire system so that

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you feel most confident using

it inside of your business.

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But no more figuring it out from scratch.

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No more binging YouTube or

trying to DIY it yourself.

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Just a custom workflow built for

your business, reviewed by me.

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Your favorite client

experience, system strategist.

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Okay, and so today this

offer is available.

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There are only 10 beta

spots available at 1 97.

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If you would like one, please

go to Colie james.com/automation

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and grab one today.

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But coming back around to the

whole point of this podcast

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episode this year can be different.

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What I really want from you is to come

out on the other side of Fall family

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photography session and not feel the same

way that you may have felt last year.

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I want everyone to be like,

wow, that was a great season.

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I can't wait for next year.

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Instead of, oh my God, I don't

know if I can ever do that again.

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Guys, fix the bottlenecks now.

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Outsource your editing.

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Get that five minute booking process set

up, and finally create some workflows that

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are gonna help automate and streamline

your client experience going forward.

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I don't want anybody to go

into fall season with a lot of

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caffeine and crossed fingers.

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This year you can go into your

fall booking season more confident,

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and on the other end realize that

there is a version of you and your

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business where you are not stressed

and burnt out at the end of the year.

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Alright, that's it for this episode.

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See you next time.