3 Bottlenecks That Burn Photographers Out Every Fall (and How to Fix them)
Fall family photography season is almost here, and if you're already bracing for the wave of inquiries, back-to-back sessions, and late-night editing marathons — this episode is your survival guide. I’m walking you through the three biggest bottlenecks that leave photographers overwhelmed every single fall… and exactly how to fix them before you hit burnout.
This one’s short and actionable, and yes — I’m absolutely inviting you to stop being the bottleneck in your own business.
Find it quickly:
00:00 — Why this episode is your fall prep wake-up call
01:18 — Bottleneck #1: Editing will eat you alive (human vs. AI)
05:22 — Bottleneck #2: You still don’t have a 5-minute booking process
08:21 — Bottleneck #3: You’re still sending every client email yourself
10:24 — Why automation still needs personality
11:14 — What the Workflow Fast Pass is (and why I built it)
13:54 — Let this fall season feel different
👇 LINKS MENTIONED:
🔗 Workflow Fast Pass (Only 10 beta spots available): https://coliejames.com/automation
🔗 Client Experience Freebie: https://coliejames.com/workflows
🔗 More from me: https://coliejames.com
🎙 Listen to the podcast: https://coliejames.com/podcast
📸 Follow on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@coliejames
Transcript
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.