Shownotes
Bri’s Journey to Finding Career Fulfillment
Bri has had a passion for the arts since she was a child. She continued to explore her creative side in college even though she didn’t pursue an art related degree. When first job with a solar company didn’t allow her to express her creativity either, she began to feel “like unwatered grass.” That’s when she knew she needed to make a change. MVMT was founded in 2013 by two college dropouts as a direct to consumer business. With little funding for marketing, they started the “Join the MVMT” campaign. They asked everyone who bought a watch to post a picture with the hashtag #jointhemvmt. Doing so entered them into a drawing to win a $500 credit towards future purchases. In essence, they incentivized their consumer to create content for them. Bri understood and saw the role photography and video can play in marketing and decided she wanted to be part of the MVMT team. Today, she’s their content strategist working with photographers and videographers around the world.Business Building Insights
- Always follow your passion and if you’re not happy somewhere, move.
- If you’re just starting out, a mood board can go a long way to define your asthetic.
- See what your competitors are doing visually and make yours different.
- Having content on hand allows you to pick and choose the best images, for the best opportunity, for the best channel.
- Sending your mood board to someone who is going to take pictures for you gives them a clear understanding of what you’re looking for.
- Professional photoshoots: The more direction you can give ahead of time, the better. Knowing where these images are going to live and what composition you’re looking for is good information for the photographer to know.
- Use the same filter for your photos to keep cohesiveness with your social media feeds.
- FB Live: As long as you’re providing content that’s interesting to your viewer, you’re doing the right thing and attracting people to your brand.
- Finding the right people to work with not only saves you time to focus on your gifts but it allows you to find success with other people.
Resources Mentioned
To create white or black backgrounds look for photo boxes on Amazon. Marble tiles or wood surfaces from Home Depot can also be used as backdrops for your photos. Dropbox and Google Photos– for photo storage VSCO – Community and tools for creatorsContact Links
Bri Lobato Instagram LinkedIn MVMT Website MVMT MVMT for HERGift Biz Resources
Join our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community
Take the Gift Biz Quiz
Where are you in your business building journey? You may be further along than you think. Take this quiz to find out. At the end, you’ll have access to a free download to help you along. P.S. This is not a quiz where your result gets published to social media. It’s for your eyes only :o)The Makers MBA Program
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Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Gift biz unwrapped episode 164,
Speaker:Not being able to use my creativity really started to make
Speaker:me feel like an watered grass,
Speaker:Attention. Gifters bakers,
Speaker:crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.
Speaker:Now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode,
Speaker:packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow.
Speaker:Your gift biz here is your host gift biz gal,
Speaker:Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:This is the week In fact right now it's live right
Speaker:now. My book is now available for all of you and
Speaker:I am so excited maker to master find and fix.
Speaker:What's not working in your small business to call it a
Speaker:passion project is probably an understatement.
Speaker:I've been thinking about this book for years.
Speaker:And finally,
Speaker:I decided this was the time and I bumped it to
Speaker:the top of the priority list.
Speaker:It's been a labor of love,
Speaker:frustration, hard work,
Speaker:but excitement,
Speaker:reward and exhilaration.
Speaker:Perhaps you listened to last week's show.
Speaker:When I read a couple of excerpts from the book,
Speaker:now you can fill in the gaps and read or listen
Speaker:to the book in its entirety.
Speaker:And if you're listening to the podcast this week,
Speaker:that it's actually going live.
Speaker:The book may still be available for free.
Speaker:Just jump over to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash Sue's book.
Speaker:And that will bring you over to the direct Amazon link.
Speaker:I do hope you check it out,
Speaker:but for now we have a show to get to today.
Speaker:It is my pleasure to introduce you to Bree Lobato of
Speaker:movement. Brie is a visual storyteller for movement,
Speaker:a direct consumer accessory brand that has disrupted the watch industry.
Speaker:She is passionate about helping brands shape their aesthetic and use
Speaker:photos and video to showcase their product creatively in her real
Speaker:life. Brie enjoys art,
Speaker:yoga, and time with dogs that aren't hers.
Speaker:Hi everyone.
Speaker:Now, Bree,
Speaker:is that really true?
Speaker:I think you secretly want to have your own dog.
Speaker:Oh, 100%.
Speaker:I already decided that I'm going to name him manchego.
Speaker:My favorite cheese.
Speaker:Oh, there you go.
Speaker:And when in the future,
Speaker:is this going to be happening?
Speaker:Probably as soon as I settled down a little bit,
Speaker:I spend a lot of time at work and traveling as
Speaker:much as possible.
Speaker:So when I am able to spend more time at home
Speaker:and cuddle with him,
Speaker:Maybe just the idea of a dog in your future is
Speaker:enough. Now,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's going to be happening.
Speaker:That's enough.
Speaker:That's suffices for now.
Speaker:Well, wonderful.
Speaker:Thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Speaker:Thank you for having me.
Speaker:So I start out in a little bit of a crazy
Speaker:way, Bri,
Speaker:and it's because all of our listeners are creators.
Speaker:So I'd like to have you describe yourself as if you
Speaker:were a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you could think of a color that really calls
Speaker:your name and a motto or some type of a quote
Speaker:that really resonates with you,
Speaker:what would your motivational candle look like?
Speaker:So this is a great question,
Speaker:Sue. I think my candle would have to be burgundy because
Speaker:it gets along with all the other colors kind of like
Speaker:dogs, right?
Speaker:Yes. The burgundy looks great with everything.
Speaker:So I know from experience,
Speaker:it's my favorite color.
Speaker:And I say that because we all can't be good at
Speaker:everything. Unfortunately.
Speaker:So finding the right people to work with that kind of
Speaker:fill your gaps or specialize in things that you need not
Speaker:only saves you time to focus on your gifts,
Speaker:but it allows you to find success with other people.
Speaker:And I think that's more fun in my opinion,
Speaker:Like the part where you say,
Speaker:find success with other people.
Speaker:Because I think so many people,
Speaker:especially if they're different than us,
Speaker:give us a different perspective that we can use and move
Speaker:forward. It's not just more of this,
Speaker:Right. I've just found a lot of power in collaborating with
Speaker:other creative people.
Speaker:And I would speak to that all day.
Speaker:Oh, we are going to talk about collaboration.
Speaker:Sure. All right.
Speaker:And do you have a quote for your candor?
Speaker:Yes, I do.
Speaker:It's true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping
Speaker:others to succeed.
Speaker:Napoleon Hill.
Speaker:Love it,
Speaker:totally buy into that for sure.
Speaker:So gift Biz listeners.
Speaker:I really wanted to have Brie on the show because her
Speaker:ability to pick out and to produce images and photography,
Speaker:especially for social media,
Speaker:but also for promotional purposes of all sorts is stellar.
Speaker:We're going to talk through a lot of that,
Speaker:but before we do that,
Speaker:I have a question for you,
Speaker:Bree, have you always loved photography and visual arts?
Speaker:Or how did that come about?
Speaker:Yeah. I have always had a passion for art.
Speaker:My mom put me in art class when I was only,
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:seven years old.
Speaker:And after trying my hand and tap and ballet,
Speaker:she couldn't really figure out what I really liked to do.
Speaker:I remember protesting in ballet class one day by just sitting
Speaker:in the middle of the floor,
Speaker:cause I didn't want to participate.
Speaker:And my mom was like,
Speaker:Bri, well,
Speaker:what do you want to do?
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:I want to sit.
Speaker:So she put me in art class and I ended up
Speaker:really enjoying it and really thriving and becoming very advanced for
Speaker:my age.
Speaker:I have these really funny pastel portraits of animals somewhere in
Speaker:my garage.
Speaker:So I have always had a knack for art drawing painting.
Speaker:I've tried to carry it throughout my life,
Speaker:but unfortunately I didn't study it in college because my dad
Speaker:just being from the baby boomer generation,
Speaker:didn't feel like I could find much monetary success through art.
Speaker:And so I didn't study it,
Speaker:but I did continue to take classes.
Speaker:And my first job didn't allow me to be creative in
Speaker:any way.
Speaker:I worked for a solar power company after studying environmental sciences
Speaker:and not being able to use my creativity.
Speaker:It really started to make me feel like an watered grass.
Speaker:I didn't have an outlet for just visual art and it
Speaker:really started to take a toll on my wellbeing as a
Speaker:person. And it wasn't until I started working with movement and
Speaker:started seeing the role that photography and video started playing in
Speaker:our marketing that I decided I wanted to be a part
Speaker:of that and being part of a startup and being so
Speaker:early in the company allowed me to kind of shape the
Speaker:career I wanted to have here.
Speaker:And so as soon as I started dabbling and working with
Speaker:photographers here,
Speaker:it's only grown into what I am today at now.
Speaker:I'm our content strategist.
Speaker:And I work with photographers and videographers all over the world.
Speaker:And I'm happy to say,
Speaker:I finally found what I'm passionate about and that's working with
Speaker:other creators and making beautiful things happen.
Speaker:I hear that story so often that people go and they
Speaker:get educated in one thing and they're just not fulfilled,
Speaker:just not doing it for them.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:But you're lucky because you're so young to find that out.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I find that with a lot of people who have been
Speaker:in the corporate world for years and years and years,
Speaker:and finally go back to what just naturally they love like
Speaker:that little girl in you when you were in art school,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you felt home because it was good for you.
Speaker:It was what you loved.
Speaker:Totally. I think you just have to continue following your passions
Speaker:and following the signs.
Speaker:And if you're not happy somewhere,
Speaker:then move Great thing with you too,
Speaker:is you were able to form your career because you were
Speaker:with a startup.
Speaker:Yeah. I'm very fortunate.
Speaker:And it's Also obviously something that they need to.
Speaker:Right. Right.
Speaker:Let's talk about this a little bit in terms of how
Speaker:movement and you specifically search out and start creating the beautiful
Speaker:images in the synergy of the whole brand that we're seeing
Speaker:online. I can actually go as far back as 2013,
Speaker:when the company had just started,
Speaker:we started out as a direct to consumer business that was
Speaker:started by two college dropouts,
Speaker:no money.
Speaker:All of the money they did raise from their Indiegogo campaign,
Speaker:went straight back into the products.
Speaker:And so that left very little for any sort of marketing
Speaker:tactic. And so what they did is they started this join
Speaker:the movement campaign,
Speaker:where all they did was ask everybody that had bought a
Speaker:watch to enter the hashtag,
Speaker:joined the movement and post a picture of them with their
Speaker:watch somehow.
Speaker:And by doing that,
Speaker:they entered to win $500 in store credit to our website.
Speaker:And so that incentivize our consumers to create content for us
Speaker:user generated content that's called or I'll call it.
Speaker:And that influx of UGC is what started our whole Instagram.
Speaker:And so we started seeing pictures,
Speaker:submitted by kids and fans all over the world of them
Speaker:holding out their wrist and beautiful landscapes or on their hike
Speaker:or on some notable place from their country or whatever.
Speaker:And that's where all of our content came from in the
Speaker:very beginning that lasted us for the first year and a
Speaker:half until I started the content coordinator position rather than receive
Speaker:content passively.
Speaker:They wanted me to go out and use Instagram as a
Speaker:tool to find photographers that maybe had very little followers,
Speaker:10,000, 4,000,
Speaker:even 400 would be fine if they took good pictures,
Speaker:send them free product and see if they would send us
Speaker:pictures in return.
Speaker:And so that was the very beginning of the content coordinator
Speaker:position and what I did for a year and a half
Speaker:before we brought on another content coordinator and she does the
Speaker:same thing.
Speaker:And so basically we go out,
Speaker:we find photographers via Instagram,
Speaker:hashtags, like accounts.
Speaker:There's a multitude of ways.
Speaker:We find these accounts and just hit them up,
Speaker:send them a DM.
Speaker:See if they're interested in working with us in a lot
Speaker:of cases,
Speaker:they are.
Speaker:And it's fun because a lot of these photographers that have
Speaker:small followings,
Speaker:if we repost an image of theirs on our account,
Speaker:that's now has a big following.
Speaker:We're helping them grow as well.
Speaker:And so everybody's winning.
Speaker:Everybody's having a good time.
Speaker:They're doing what they love,
Speaker:we're importing great content.
Speaker:And so that lasted for a while.
Speaker:And then now we've become even more hands on with our
Speaker:content strategy.
Speaker:And so now I'm going,
Speaker:as far as sending out creative briefs and all kinds of
Speaker:inspiration that helps all of our content be cohesive across channels,
Speaker:even though it's coming from multiple photographers.
Speaker:And so now what you see is our website looks the
Speaker:same as our Instagram,
Speaker:which looks the same as our email campaigns,
Speaker:which looks the same as our blog.
Speaker:And it's all turned into this content generating machine,
Speaker:having so much content on hand allows us to really pick
Speaker:and choose the best images for the best opportunity for the
Speaker:best channel that they belong in.
Speaker:Perfect. Oh my gosh,
Speaker:that's a great lowdown.
Speaker:I'm ready to come and work for you.
Speaker:Let me take you back a minute.
Speaker:When you were doing the hashtag challenge that join the movement
Speaker:challenge, then you were selecting pictures that you liked that you
Speaker:were then going to use,
Speaker:right? You were just following the hashtag choosing whichever pictures made
Speaker:sense because I'm sure the quality of all of them weren't
Speaker:necessarily something you wanted to represent.
Speaker:So you only picked certain ones,
Speaker:right? Right.
Speaker:Obviously you're going to receive a lot of content that isn't
Speaker:that great at first.
Speaker:And to be honest,
Speaker:our Instagram didn't look that great at first.
Speaker:So is at the beginning of anything really?
Speaker:And so our content has gotten better over time with providing
Speaker:more direction and with actually paying people to take pictures rather
Speaker:than passively just using whatever comes to us.
Speaker:There's a lot of positive stuff that comes from paying people
Speaker:for photos versus just product trade.
Speaker:But product trade can get you a long way or just
Speaker:simply incentivizing people to take pictures of their product once they
Speaker:receive it,
Speaker:that I've already purchased from you.
Speaker:Right? And I want to stop you here real quick because
Speaker:I think the strategy back then when the company was smaller
Speaker:was still visibility.
Speaker:Right now you're talking about branding and image,
Speaker:which is so important and gift biz listeners.
Speaker:You have to go and look at these sites because they
Speaker:are a perfect model of just continuity between sites,
Speaker:Facebook versus Instagram,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:but also cohesiveness with all the pictures that are there.
Speaker:They all have the same field at representing the vibe of
Speaker:the business.
Speaker:But now I've also got myself onto a tangent.
Speaker:I want to stay back for a second about this whole
Speaker:hashtag program,
Speaker:because my guess is that at the time the company's new,
Speaker:you're needing to get your name out there,
Speaker:visibility and all of that.
Speaker:So in terms of the quality of images,
Speaker:you just want to spread the word,
Speaker:get people participating.
Speaker:And it's coming to my mind that that could be a
Speaker:really interesting thing for some of our listeners to do.
Speaker:Absolutely. They don't have a brand necessarily that's an international,
Speaker:but even locally,
Speaker:if you put together a hashtag gift biz listeners,
Speaker:I'm talking to you guys a hashtag and prompted people to
Speaker:start taking pictures when they're in your shop or when they're
Speaker:wearing your necklaces or what's your favorite scoop of whatever your
Speaker:product is,
Speaker:you could replicate exactly the strategy that Bree's talking about in
Speaker:your own industry.
Speaker:So that's like a great tip right there.
Speaker:Bree, we're done.
Speaker:Thanks for showing up 100%.
Speaker:It could be as simple as sending out a discount code
Speaker:card, use this hashtag and receive a 15% discount off your
Speaker:next purchase.
Speaker:There's a hundred ways to do it.
Speaker:I'm certain that everybody out there can find a different way
Speaker:to apply it to their own business model.
Speaker:Sure. You can Even put it on the bottom of your
Speaker:sales receipt.
Speaker:If you're a shop and you have the paper receipts,
Speaker:tons of different things on the bottom of emails or newsletters,
Speaker:just a whole bunch of things,
Speaker:but so let's move on.
Speaker:Then you actively went out and started looking for other people's
Speaker:photos, right?
Speaker:What were the qualities,
Speaker:how did you do a little mini report card on the
Speaker:photos to decide which ones you wanted to reach out to
Speaker:in terms of the photographers?
Speaker:What were you looking for At first SU it was very
Speaker:blind. I honestly didn't really know what I was looking for.
Speaker:I just knew that I needed to find photographers that had
Speaker:some sort of general understanding of photography that N that they
Speaker:aligned well with the brand.
Speaker:And so for us,
Speaker:I started with travel and I did that because Jake or
Speaker:founder, he brought me to this one account called art of
Speaker:visuals. And it's basically a curation account of travel photography.
Speaker:And so in each photo that's posted on that account.
Speaker:There's a different photographer.
Speaker:That's tagged.
Speaker:They just curate travel photography that they find all over Instagram
Speaker:and tag the creator of it.
Speaker:So I was right there.
Speaker:I had hundreds of photographers at my fingertips that all took
Speaker:really Epic travel photography.
Speaker:And so at first our whole Instagram was basically just different
Speaker:watches on different risks.
Speaker:They were very product heavy,
Speaker:it was all watches.
Speaker:And so Jake really wanted to start mixing in a little
Speaker:bit more lifestyle and get people attached to the brand and
Speaker:start building our brand in the direction of adventure,
Speaker:living life on your own terms,
Speaker:inspiring kids to save money on their watch so that they
Speaker:could go travel with their friends and enjoy life and explore
Speaker:different places.
Speaker:And so to inspire that travel photography just made sense.
Speaker:And so I started out from that one account art of
Speaker:visuals, and just started reaching out to every photographer that was
Speaker:tagged on there.
Speaker:And over time I came to understand who was going to
Speaker:be more expensive,
Speaker:who is going to maybe do it for product trade.
Speaker:Maybe what a photographer's account would look like if they were
Speaker:going to submit really good content versus now I know right
Speaker:away, if a photographer based on their Instagram account will submit
Speaker:good content or not,
Speaker:but that only came from practice.
Speaker:That's why then you started doing creative briefs,
Speaker:right? So you could put out kind of a leveling platform.
Speaker:These are the types of things that we expect to see.
Speaker:These are the qualities we're looking for in our pictures,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:It started my first briefing kind of came from here are
Speaker:really simple mistakes not to make.
Speaker:And so I wrote out a list of like,
Speaker:okay, we can't promote a woman wearing a men's watch.
Speaker:For example,
Speaker:when you received your watch,
Speaker:before you start taking pictures of it,
Speaker:there's a little red tab.
Speaker:That's holding the battery in place.
Speaker:Take that out.
Speaker:There's very little things that you should pay attention to,
Speaker:but you'd be surprised by how many people just miss the
Speaker:Mark on very simple mistakes like that.
Speaker:And therefore the content isn't usable.
Speaker:So in order to save us money and make it so
Speaker:that more content was usable to us,
Speaker:it started out with me just sending out a list of
Speaker:things to avoid on your first shoot.
Speaker:And so that turned into,
Speaker:okay, here's style suggestions that I don't really like that polka
Speaker:dot dress that this girl is wearing.
Speaker:How can I avoid that happening in the future?
Speaker:I'm sending out style guide instructions.
Speaker:If I'm looking for a certain color palette,
Speaker:why don't I just tell them that just sending out very
Speaker:simple inspiration.
Speaker:If you're just starting out a mood board can go a
Speaker:long way and a mood board can be made on Pinterest.
Speaker:You can make it on this application.
Speaker:I use called Google photos.
Speaker:There's all sorts of ways to kind of just putting seven
Speaker:to 10 to 20 images together that you like from the
Speaker:internet, your product doesn't have to be there at all,
Speaker:but just sending out a mood board to somebody that's going
Speaker:to take pictures for you,
Speaker:gives them a lot clearer understanding of what you're looking for.
Speaker:And that can go a long way,
Speaker:especially when you're spending money on the photography.
Speaker:I would even bring that back and circle it around to
Speaker:ourselves. I mean,
Speaker:those of us who are doing our own photography,
Speaker:we see a cool picture when we take it.
Speaker:And then we go somewhere else and see a random picture
Speaker:and we take it.
Speaker:But I'm almost thinking we should all have our own mood
Speaker:boards that then represent the brand and just like you're filtering
Speaker:for other photographers.
Speaker:We should filter for ourselves.
Speaker:Yeah. It also helps you understand your own brand and what
Speaker:you're looking for.
Speaker:And what is your aesthetic?
Speaker:Like, what do you like to see?
Speaker:And if you like,
Speaker:see a picture that you like,
Speaker:why not save it somewhere and add it to a folder
Speaker:and that you can reference later building your aesthetic all starts
Speaker:with building it for yourself.
Speaker:And then from there you can inspire others to create content
Speaker:that's in line.
Speaker:So talk to us now from the photographer side.
Speaker:Okay. If you were taking these pictures,
Speaker:what do you look for when you're actually setting up?
Speaker:Let's say,
Speaker:I'm going to say that I am a owner of a
Speaker:sweet shop.
Speaker:Okay. So I make chocolates in my shop.
Speaker:So now I've got to take some pictures to post on
Speaker:Instagram. How am I going to get the best pictures?
Speaker:What are some secret tips for photography before we get into
Speaker:breeze tips,
Speaker:a word from our sponsor.
Speaker:This podcast is made possible.
Speaker:Thanks to the support at the ribbon print company,
Speaker:create custom ribbons,
Speaker:right in your store or craft studio in seconds,
Speaker:visit the ribbon print company.com
Speaker:for more information,
Speaker:I can actually dive into this a lot.
Speaker:And one thing that I did do that I don't think
Speaker:everybody needs to do is I picked up a camera myself
Speaker:in order to understand what I liked about photography.
Speaker:And in order to give proper feedback,
Speaker:I picked up a camera and I took a photography class
Speaker:just very quick,
Speaker:like online tutorials on YouTube.
Speaker:You can learn a lot about exactly what you're looking for
Speaker:and what to tell the photographer to get more in line
Speaker:with the imagery you're looking for.
Speaker:But a lot of our best photos are taken right on
Speaker:iPhone, in natural light with your iPhone.
Speaker:I think the best pictures of products,
Speaker:especially, they're going to be true to color.
Speaker:If you're taking pictures of chocolates,
Speaker:like you obviously are going to need natural light in order
Speaker:to show case like maybe some of the designs that are
Speaker:in there,
Speaker:like you don't want it to just look like a Brown
Speaker:blob, right?
Speaker:You want to show like what it actually looks like.
Speaker:You can actually find really awesome tiny photo boxes on Amazon
Speaker:for really cheap and create like a little white or black
Speaker:background for your imagery and actually get some solid studio photography
Speaker:that way just using tools that are available to you right
Speaker:on Amazon and your phone.
Speaker:I'm so glad you said that because I don't know that
Speaker:I'd see a lot of people.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:let's face it.
Speaker:Some of our listeners would never go out and hire a
Speaker:photographer. They're going to be doing it themselves,
Speaker:or they're not going to be doing it really.
Speaker:Probably at all.
Speaker:Right. So talking about from the phone and natural light is
Speaker:perfect. When the other thing is you might have a professional
Speaker:photographer for a certain shoot for brochures and this and that,
Speaker:but not necessarily for everyday regular posts.
Speaker:No, absolutely not.
Speaker:And while we're on the topic,
Speaker:you need to be posting often.
Speaker:And in order to get enough content to post often like
Speaker:use your iPhone,
Speaker:invest in,
Speaker:like you can go to home Depot and pick up some
Speaker:marble tiles for very cheap and shoot your chocolates on top
Speaker:of a marble slab,
Speaker:it'll look 10 times better than shooting it on.
Speaker:Oh, just your average black table or whatever.
Speaker:You know what I mean?
Speaker:You can actually get some great surfaces,
Speaker:nice woods or whatever,
Speaker:just little pieces of it at home Depot and use that
Speaker:as a backdrop for your photos.
Speaker:And then that's one way to get a lot of your
Speaker:photos looking very cohesive with one another.
Speaker:The idea of actually planning a photo shoot and then reserving
Speaker:your photos to use later is a concept that I think
Speaker:a lot of us don't use.
Speaker:So often we have to post something today,
Speaker:right? So we search frantically to find some type of content.
Speaker:We take that photo and then we just post it.
Speaker:So we've gotten something up which leads to a lot of
Speaker:the uniformity of a site.
Speaker:If you well,
Speaker:think something else that happens is we get the mentality that
Speaker:we have to post in the moment,
Speaker:take a picture.
Speaker:We automatically have to put the wording to the post and
Speaker:get it up there right away.
Speaker:The whole concept of planning out your feed with consistent imagery,
Speaker:consistent messages is something that I don't think a lot of
Speaker:us take as much advantage of as we should.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:I think that a huge thing everyone can do is just
Speaker:have a stock of content that they plan on using.
Speaker:That's another way to get your Instagram page looking cohesive when
Speaker:you can pick and choose.
Speaker:Okay. Like I have a lot of green hues going on
Speaker:right now.
Speaker:What picture do I have on deck that I haven't used
Speaker:yet? That has some green tones that I can put here.
Speaker:If you're just going moment by moment and post by post,
Speaker:then your Instagram is going to look very discombobulated.
Speaker:And like,
Speaker:it's not sending the same message.
Speaker:It's going to look like you are thinking about something one
Speaker:day and then Wednesday,
Speaker:or thinking about something entirely different.
Speaker:And so I think just having a stock of images,
Speaker:just taking a full day to just take a bunch of
Speaker:pictures on your phone of different chocolates on different little surfaces
Speaker:will go a long way.
Speaker:You have your arsenal of content that you can use whenever
Speaker:it makes sense.
Speaker:And where's the best place to store these photos.
Speaker:So you've got them at the ready.
Speaker:We use Dropbox as our main hub for content,
Speaker:but you're just using your iPhone.
Speaker:I would personally just keep them there since you are Instagramming
Speaker:from your iPhone.
Speaker:Anyway, and I use a photo editing app called Visco VSCO
Speaker:and that's free and using the same filter on all of
Speaker:your pictures can also go a long way.
Speaker:Can also make them look a lot more cohesive rather than
Speaker:using a different filter on every single picture.
Speaker:Why don't I put the same filter on everyone?
Speaker:And that's one way to make all of your content looks
Speaker:the same If you're going to filter it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Yeah. If you're going to filter it all and deciding on
Speaker:what you're going to do and then leaving it the same
Speaker:for a while,
Speaker:and then maybe as your feed changes or your business develops,
Speaker:then maybe you take on a different filter.
Speaker:Let's say you put out a new collection of beaded necklaces.
Speaker:And if they're all part of the same collection,
Speaker:maybe you want all of them to have the same cohesion
Speaker:with each other,
Speaker:but you want them to look different than the last collection.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:Yes. It makes total sense.
Speaker:So Brie,
Speaker:I'm thinking about some of our listeners and the evolution of
Speaker:their business,
Speaker:they'll start out and have one type of a brand look
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:and they're needing to change.
Speaker:I'm actually going through this right now on my Instagram account.
Speaker:I'm totally switching up the strategy.
Speaker:So you're going to train that thing,
Speaker:but when somebody is making a switch,
Speaker:what do you do when you need to change your look?
Speaker:Okay. So again,
Speaker:everything goes back to the mood board.
Speaker:And so if you want to change your look,
Speaker:start by figuring out what that new look is going to
Speaker:look like.
Speaker:Cause if you're just going to plan on figuring out as
Speaker:you go,
Speaker:then you're going to start looking discombobulated again and you're going
Speaker:to have to recenter.
Speaker:So always start by deciding,
Speaker:okay, I've looked like this for awhile.
Speaker:I want to look like this.
Speaker:Now the beautiful thing about outsourcing your photography or doing it
Speaker:yourself is that you can always change who you're working with.
Speaker:The surfaces you're shooting against maybe the type of camera that
Speaker:you're using.
Speaker:Maybe you want to upgrade from using your iPhone all the
Speaker:time to using a DSLR or like a little Sony or
Speaker:like a nicer camera,
Speaker:whatever those changes can easily go a long way in shifting
Speaker:your brand.
Speaker:We went through a little bit of a rebranding on our
Speaker:women's side.
Speaker:And for us,
Speaker:we ended up archiving our entire Instagram account and starting fresh.
Speaker:We centered it around a new collection dropping.
Speaker:And so having a reason to shift your brand is one
Speaker:way to do it.
Speaker:So if you have a new collection coming out,
Speaker:maybe that's a good opportunity to be like,
Speaker:okay, this is a new chapter.
Speaker:This is an opportunity for like a new chapter in my
Speaker:business. I want to kind of shift the way everything looks
Speaker:started out with a new product offering.
Speaker:That's different than what you've been putting out before.
Speaker:And so having a reason to do that can go a
Speaker:long way.
Speaker:But like I said,
Speaker:building a new mood board,
Speaker:changing up the technology or switching around the people that you
Speaker:work with,
Speaker:which can be difficult for me.
Speaker:It was really difficult for me to have to say goodbye
Speaker:to some of the people I'd been working with for the
Speaker:last couple of years.
Speaker:But unfortunately,
Speaker:like it's just part of the process and working with creatives
Speaker:and they might grow one way and you might grow a
Speaker:different way.
Speaker:It's a business.
Speaker:You always want to be continuing to work with people that
Speaker:are aligned with where you're at and where you're headed.
Speaker:And if that means you have to cut somebody out along
Speaker:the way,
Speaker:that's okay.
Speaker:Our style was no longer aligning with the new style.
Speaker:Exactly. And we were transitioning from like a very cute,
Speaker:lofty, innocent vibe to a much more edgy.
Speaker:Bad-ass like confident,
Speaker:sexy vibe.
Speaker:And so a lot of my photographers that shot stuff that
Speaker:was very aligned well with our past brand didn't necessarily line
Speaker:up with who we were trying to be,
Speaker:but it was a trying time.
Speaker:But at the same time,
Speaker:like it was also easier than I thought.
Speaker:And the photographers that I did have relationships with.
Speaker:Understood. And just because they're not working with movement anymore,
Speaker:like now they're getting work with Nordstrom and other brands that
Speaker:are aligned with our past brand.
Speaker:They're just,
Speaker:aren't aligned with us now.
Speaker:And so everybody's still wins questions For you about archiving your
Speaker:Instagram account.
Speaker:Does that mean you'd stopped placing content on the old account
Speaker:and then started up?
Speaker:No. So you actually have the ability on Instagram now to
Speaker:archive images and that means you can put them away so
Speaker:that they aren't visible to people looking at your account,
Speaker:but you can still bring them back if you want to.
Speaker:They're not deleted.
Speaker:So it's a way to remove images from your account without
Speaker:deleting them altogether.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:Yes. I had no idea.
Speaker:You could do that.
Speaker:How do you do It?
Speaker:Let me go into my app,
Speaker:but basically you can click on any picture on your account
Speaker:and click those little three dots at the top.
Speaker:Right. And the first option is archive.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:It's always still there.
Speaker:Yeah. Someone who's coming in,
Speaker:who's not going to see it yeah.
Speaker:On your feed.
Speaker:Right. And I think this is a beautiful feature because if
Speaker:I go deeper into my feet and I see a picture
Speaker:that doesn't really align with where I'm at now,
Speaker:or maybe I don't like it anymore,
Speaker:I can take it off my account.
Speaker:So it's not visible to anybody,
Speaker:but I can still go back to it and look at
Speaker:it if I wanted to or bring it back if I
Speaker:wanted to.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:I had no idea.
Speaker:You could do that.
Speaker:Very good to know.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So another question for you on professional photo shoots,
Speaker:cause I know you now are going onsite with photographers and
Speaker:talent. Do you have any recommendations for our listeners in terms
Speaker:of prep?
Speaker:If they were to have someone come into their shop or
Speaker:they were going to take their product out on location,
Speaker:what have you learned from working through that type of,
Speaker:I've learned that the more direction you can give ahead of
Speaker:time, the better everything is going to turn out.
Speaker:I used to think that I didn't want to be overbearing.
Speaker:I didn't want to stump somebody's creative flow.
Speaker:I didn't want to prevent them from putting out the work
Speaker:that they would have otherwise.
Speaker:And so I used to be very hands-off and I've learned
Speaker:over time,
Speaker:that being as hands-on as possible is always the answer.
Speaker:One photographer is going to be so much more successful.
Speaker:If they know exactly who they're shooting in advance,
Speaker:they know the color scheme of maybe their outfits.
Speaker:They know the lighting of the location.
Speaker:They know what equipment they might need.
Speaker:They know where these images are going to live and what
Speaker:composition you're looking for.
Speaker:If I'm going to shoot content that's for Instagram,
Speaker:I'm going to want all of the compositions to be very
Speaker:square or vertical.
Speaker:I never want wide horizontal images.
Speaker:Right? Cause those don't really thrive on Instagram.
Speaker:They might thrive on a website or have a different place
Speaker:to live.
Speaker:But again,
Speaker:like knowing where these images are going to live is good
Speaker:information for the photographer to know and having them understand which
Speaker:products they're going to be shooting,
Speaker:which details about those products.
Speaker:You're trying to pick up a mood board again,
Speaker:always coming back to mood boards,
Speaker:letting them know this is the kind of vibe I'm going
Speaker:for. This all helps them understand what you're going for and
Speaker:helps them deliver the absolute best content possible.
Speaker:So would you also then have a sheet of the bare
Speaker:minimum, like poses isn't the right word,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:the layout,
Speaker:a shot list,
Speaker:a shot list.
Speaker:Yeah. So in some cases,
Speaker:yes. In some cases I'll have a shot list.
Speaker:I'll be like,
Speaker:okay, I want three to five images that are completely product
Speaker:focused, no face,
Speaker:no body,
Speaker:whatever. I want three to five additional images that are product
Speaker:focused, but then maybe they get a little bit more of
Speaker:the outfit involved.
Speaker:And then I want three to five images that are pure
Speaker:lifestyle. The model is just kind of having fun and hands
Speaker:in the air while we're driving the car or whatever.
Speaker:And then maybe I want three to five scenic images that
Speaker:are just of the environment that we're in.
Speaker:Maybe we're driving up the coast of Malibu.
Speaker:I want a picture that's just of the road.
Speaker:That's just at the car,
Speaker:maybe just at the beach.
Speaker:And those are images that I can sprinkle in to add
Speaker:vibe to the Instagram as a whole.
Speaker:So it's not all product focused.
Speaker:And then you're walking away from a photo shoot knowing there's
Speaker:probably so many more pictures over and above that,
Speaker:but you're knowing at least you've gotten out of it,
Speaker:what you needed to for sure.
Speaker:Exactly. That's really important Is movements position in terms of live
Speaker:video, Instagram stories and all of that for the business.
Speaker:Are you guys diving into any of that?
Speaker:Facebook live is something we've tried our hands in a few
Speaker:times. It's definitely the future,
Speaker:but it's also a platform and thing that I don't think
Speaker:anybody's really totally figured out yet.
Speaker:Same with Instagram stories.
Speaker:We all know it helps and gets a lot of engagement,
Speaker:but there's not a cookie cutter answer to what works and
Speaker:what doesn't.
Speaker:I think that in all cases,
Speaker:as long as you're providing content,
Speaker:that's valuable to the users,
Speaker:then you're doing the right thing and you're attaching people to
Speaker:your brand.
Speaker:If you're just getting on live and you don't really have
Speaker:something valuable to talk about,
Speaker:or you're just planning on talking about the product for 20
Speaker:minutes, it may not be as engaging as you hope.
Speaker:I always think that if you can kind of add value
Speaker:somehow I think that's the answer.
Speaker:So for us and with Facebook live,
Speaker:I hosted one.
Speaker:We wanted to show off our strap boxes for the holidays.
Speaker:And so instead of just filming us,
Speaker:going through the strap boxes on our own,
Speaker:which would have been kind of boring,
Speaker:we brought in a model curious and Toro to the office
Speaker:and we opened it up with this silly dance and all
Speaker:of the employees were part of this little dance thing.
Speaker:And then we had curiosity and Toro ask us questions about
Speaker:the strap boxes and that allowed us the opportunity to go
Speaker:through the strap boxes while we had an engaged audience and
Speaker:it added some extra layers to the Facebook live,
Speaker:made it more fun.
Speaker:We did a different one that was for our new sunglasses.
Speaker:And we wanted to just go through what those look like
Speaker:instead of us just doing that.
Speaker:We centered it around the holidays again,
Speaker:and me and Spencer's sandbox.
Speaker:We didn't just walk through the glasses.
Speaker:What we did is we pretended like we were on a
Speaker:game show type thing and we called up each individual employee
Speaker:and had them pick out a different sunglass that they thought
Speaker:that, that they would look good in.
Speaker:And me and Spencer would go over kind of the details
Speaker:and why it would look good on them.
Speaker:And we obviously had planned out each employee picking a different
Speaker:sunglass in advance,
Speaker:but again,
Speaker:like it would just add like an extra layer of fun
Speaker:and engagement to the Facebook live.
Speaker:So it was a little bit more interesting.
Speaker:Yeah. I know.
Speaker:I love hearing that because when you look at your feet,
Speaker:everything is so perfect.
Speaker:So in line so beautiful,
Speaker:you can spend hours just looking through all of the beautiful
Speaker:photography life scenes,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:all of that,
Speaker:but I love that your complimenting that with live that the
Speaker:fun side behind the scenes,
Speaker:things that are fun and interesting and happy and joyful aligns
Speaker:with the brand.
Speaker:But it's really super personable too.
Speaker:Yeah. I think it's necessary.
Speaker:And we get a lot of good feedback from people that
Speaker:are just so excited to see what's going on behind the
Speaker:scenes and get to know who's behind the brand.
Speaker:What is that lifestyle like?
Speaker:What are you guys eating for lunch?
Speaker:Oddly enough,
Speaker:fans love that.
Speaker:Especially when your brand is becoming more well-known people want to
Speaker:know what's going on behind the scenes and it doesn't have
Speaker:to be like super interesting.
Speaker:Facebook live.
Speaker:A lot of people just want to know what's going on
Speaker:in the day to day naturally.
Speaker:So crazy that people want to know that I know,
Speaker:I know it to be true and I want to see
Speaker:other people's behind the scenes,
Speaker:but for me it's yeah,
Speaker:You'd be surprised.
Speaker:It's so crazy,
Speaker:but it's true.
Speaker:But yeah.
Speaker:As far as Instagram stories,
Speaker:we try to put up a few each week.
Speaker:Those are a lot harder because they live and die so
Speaker:quickly. But there's so much you can do with Instagram stories
Speaker:to bring you back to your product.
Speaker:I feel like everyone can take advantage of them in different
Speaker:ways. We use those to talk about new collections,
Speaker:to get behind the scenes of photo shoots,
Speaker:to do little giveaways with people on the streets of LA.
Speaker:There's so many different things going like that's a perfect place
Speaker:to display.
Speaker:What's going on behind the scenes of your business.
Speaker:If you're a Baker and you sell cupcakes,
Speaker:people want to know what's going on in the kitchen.
Speaker:What mistakes are people making?
Speaker:What goes into this beautiful frosting display?
Speaker:And like,
Speaker:how do you decide what the sprinkles are going to be
Speaker:shaped? Like and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker:There's so much you can do with that.
Speaker:So true.
Speaker:And that's why I think all of this in terms of
Speaker:pictures and live everything,
Speaker:our creators,
Speaker:our listeners here,
Speaker:you guys have so much content.
Speaker:You're just not thinking that way,
Speaker:where you've helped us look at different options and things to
Speaker:think about.
Speaker:As we start to wind down here,
Speaker:if you were talking to someone who's just starting out with
Speaker:their business,
Speaker:okay. Or somebody who really hasn't had a social media presence,
Speaker:because believe it or not,
Speaker:there are still some people who are just now getting onto
Speaker:social media for their business.
Speaker:I made what would be the first steps that you would
Speaker:suggest to them For somebody just starting out?
Speaker:I would really just start with the mood board.
Speaker:I think that everything comes back to that.
Speaker:What is your business about?
Speaker:What does it look like?
Speaker:What colors do you like to see?
Speaker:Isn't minimal?
Speaker:Is it busy?
Speaker:Just going through Pinterest and seeing what other companies are doing,
Speaker:seeing what kind of aesthetic your competitors are putting out so
Speaker:that you can set yourself apart from those people,
Speaker:I think is always a good place to start and pulling
Speaker:images that you do,
Speaker:like putting them into just one consolidated place can go a
Speaker:long way for yourself so that you can figure out where
Speaker:you want to go,
Speaker:what you want your aesthetic to look like,
Speaker:how you want it to line up with the product.
Speaker:And from there,
Speaker:like I said,
Speaker:go to home Depot,
Speaker:pick up a slab of wood and start taking pictures on
Speaker:your iPhone and see what you can do.
Speaker:There's not really any mistake you can make,
Speaker:because like we've talked about,
Speaker:you can always change your aesthetic.
Speaker:And so just starting,
Speaker:just getting started with some very simple photography that you take
Speaker:yourself on your phone can go a long way,
Speaker:just start posting,
Speaker:start hashtagging and start getting your name out there.
Speaker:And then from there I would incentivize your customers to get
Speaker:content for you.
Speaker:And they have a reason to post if that means a
Speaker:discount on their next purchase or whatever,
Speaker:that's all content that you can then repost on your own
Speaker:account. Okay.
Speaker:So the three points just to summarize what Bri was saying
Speaker:is first a mood board,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it all starts with,
Speaker:how do you define the vibe of your business and what
Speaker:visually does it look like?
Speaker:I also really liked what you were saying Bree about,
Speaker:see what your competitors are doing and then make yours look
Speaker:different. You don't want to fight for that visual.
Speaker:Yeah. Well,
Speaker:it's also good to get your gears turning and like maybe
Speaker:it sparks an idea that you have.
Speaker:And I also think that mood board also has to take
Speaker:into account who your customer is.
Speaker:So, you know,
Speaker:if your customer is not edgy,
Speaker:like Brie talks about how movement shifted in terms of what
Speaker:their imagery was going to look like.
Speaker:You may have to make sure that it aligns with your
Speaker:customer too.
Speaker:And then your second thing was props,
Speaker:which this goes into the whole thing that I know I'm
Speaker:going to try and get better at is having my content
Speaker:library ready and available to tap into.
Speaker:So like you're saying go to home Depot,
Speaker:go wherever,
Speaker:get some,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:background display props,
Speaker:or however you want to say that and just start taking
Speaker:pictures, whether you know,
Speaker:or not what you're going to do with them yet.
Speaker:So you can start building up a supply and then customer
Speaker:content. That's a goldmine.
Speaker:I'm going to start doing that too.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:I think it can be useful to everyone.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:Okay. Bree,
Speaker:at this point,
Speaker:I would like to offer you to dare to dream.
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box for Me?
Speaker:My answer isn't really physical.
Speaker:My ultimate goal or what I really want in life is
Speaker:endless opportunities to work on cool projects with people that are
Speaker:like myself.
Speaker:I don't really have specifics on what those projects would look
Speaker:like. I just want them to challenge what I know,
Speaker:introduced me to people.
Speaker:I haven't met.
Speaker:Take me places that maybe I haven't been and hopefully have
Speaker:a positive impact on the world.
Speaker:If all of my future projects could kind of fit those
Speaker:specs, then I think I'd be happy.
Speaker:And that's really what I'm after Love that.
Speaker:But you know what I really thought you were going to
Speaker:say And a puppy,
Speaker:The puppy and its name is going to be
Oh my gosh,
Speaker:Bri, thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker:You helped us understand what we can be doing different and
Speaker:how we can make our visual presence better.
Speaker:Awesome for that.
Speaker:I so appreciate it.
Speaker:And thanks again for joining in with me today.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So This episode is all wrapped up,
Speaker:but fortunately,
Speaker:your gift biz journey continues.
Speaker:Are you eager to learn more?
Speaker:Our gift biz gal has a free download just for you.
Speaker:Head over to gift biz on wrapped.com/twelve
Speaker:steps to get your copy of the 12 steps to starting
Speaker:a profitable gift biz don't delay,
Speaker:head over to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com/twelve steps today.
