CRM Blueprint Case Study with Katharine Calderwood

Are you organized and automated with your CRM? One thing that holds business owners back from setting up their CRM is that time it takes to explore and learn all of the features. That was why I built my CRM Blueprint, the course to help you efficiently book and onboard your clients inside Dubsado or Honeybook in just 10 days. In today’s episode, photographer and CRM Blueprint student Katharine Calderwood joins us to share her own experience inside the CRM Blueprint and how it’s changed her business for the better.

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If you’ve tried setting up your Dubsado or Honeybook account, yet aren’t actually utilizing all of the features it offers, I want to invite you to check out The CRM Blueprint. My course includes templates for all of the forms, emails, and workflows that you need to get paid in one easy step. Ready to maximize your use of Dubsado or Honeybook, enroll in The CRM Blueprint today! Use the code PODCAST for 10% off.

Here are the highlights…

[0:51] Introducing the Power of Case Studies 

[1:32] Meet Katharine Calderwood

[4:11] Katharine’s CRM Blueprint Course Timeline

[6:31] What was your business like before you joined the CRM blueprint?

[8:15] Workflows and Automations in a CRM

[11:15] What types of client inquiries do you get?

[12:35] Post Inquiry Workflow

[16:25] Katharine’s Favorite Part of the CRM Process

[18:06] Feedback Forms

[24:04] What kind of wins or how do you feel about your business now that you’ve had your Dubsado systems from the course implemented for over a year?

[29:00] CRM Blueprint Praise

[34:25] Marketing Highlight: Charity Mini Sessions

[38:05] Overcoming Hiccups with CRMs

Mentioned in this Episode

Episode 81: SEO through Case Studies | Simple SEO Series with Brittany Herzberg

Dubsado – Use code coliejames for 30% off your first payment, month or year

Dubsado VIP Day Service Case Studies

Simple Sales

Connect with Katharine

calderwoodphotography.com

instagram.com/calderwood.photography

Review the Transcript:

Colie: Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Business First Creatives Podcast. Today is a special day. So. I am going to go back to episode 81 in case you guys do not remember what that was. It was the case study episode in the middle of the SEO series with Brittany Herzberg. And she was talking about the value of doing case studies for your business.

Now I have case studies on my website for my Dubsado VIP day services, but I do not have case studies for the CRM blueprint, which is just a bit silly. And so I sent out an email to my students a couple months ago, and I was like, Hey, I would really like to feature some of you. Would any of you be interested in coming on my podcast?

And so today’s guest, Katharine Calderwood, wrote me back the nicest message talking about how the course had changed her life. Now, we are going to talk about her and her business, but I want you guys to think about this episode as a real life. Case study where I am going to be asking her the questions that Brittany talked about in her episode.

So again, if you haven’t listened to episode 81 back in July of 2023, you might want to go back and listen to that so that this episode makes sense. Katharine, good morning and welcome to the podcast.

Katharine: I’m so happy to be here. This is my very first podcast. I feel very

Colie: Oh my gosh, don’t feel fancy. I mean, it’s just like, we’re going to have a conversation, but I mean, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for joining me because not only am I excited to talk to you about your business and the CRM blueprint, I’m really, I’m really excited to have you on the podcast because at the end, we are going to be talking about some really unique things that you do in your business related to charities.

So, Katharine, for the listening audience, why don’t you tell them who you are and where you’re located and what your photography business consists of? Oh, well, that takes

Katharine: So my name is Katharine Calderwood and I live in Darien, Connecticut, which is sort of a suburb of New York city. I originally grew up in New York and New Jersey, so I didn’t get very far, but I just to spice things up, I married an Australian. Um, and I don’t think, I don’t think he thought he was going to spend the rest of his life in suburban Connecticut, but here we are.

Let’s see. Photography. I’m sort of late to the game. I kind of have career ADHD, which is fine. I’m actually sort of starting to accept that. And it’s been great. My business, I’ve been a photography fan, enthusiast, hobbyist for 20 years, 25 years, including taking a shocking amount of photos of My kids, my kids, sporting events, but then, during the pandemic, I did the front steps project and I photographed 175 families in the space of two months, which was bananas, but, I did it with like a Calendly 10 a month subscription and, And, you know, trying to map out the roots with what it was, it was a situation, but that was sort of my first exposure to, wow, wouldn’t life be better if I had.

a system to do, the bookings and handle everything. So, eventually I stumbled upon, actually Anneme’s course and then she was a huge Colie fan. So here I am. So

Colie: questions. That

Katharine: yeah.

Colie: you came to me via Simple Sales, which guys, if you don’t know what the Simple Sales is, Anamie Tonkin is one of my bestie business buddies and it’s amazing. And I will link that in the show notes. So before we hopped on, Katharine, I did want to get a timeline because I was actually unsure when you joined the course and what your timeline was.

So I went back and I looked in my emails. Uh, it turns out that you bought the course on November 3rd of 2022. So at the time of this recording, a little bit more than a year ago, and you bought the course after I had integrated. End of module feedback forms. So this was something that I didn’t have in my course for like the first 18 months.

But what I realized after I integrated these forms at the end of every module is the people who were filling them out were giving me the information and how quickly they were consuming the course and implementing the course. And it turns out that out of the four basic modules that are in the course, you submitted your module one form on November 18th.

So a little bit more than two weeks later, module two on November 19th, module three on November 24th. And then module four was on December 21st. So a little bit more than six weeks after you had completed the course. Does that seem right? Do you think that it took you a full six weeks to implement?

Katharine: No, not at all. I mean, I really think I crushed probably the first three modules were pretty quickly. Um, the, the two weeks to get started. I’m sure most photographers will relate to this that. Oh, my God. I was still processing, editing, delivering, photographing, everything that moved, um, as you do in the fall.

And so it took me a little bit to start, but I’m glad I did. I mean, it was. It was amazing. And even now I still need to like go back and edit some emails and things like that. But it actually implemented really quick. I think it was probably two weeks from when I started that I really got going. And then I think I was making additional tweaks as I went and I probably got around to submitting module four a little late, but you know,

Colie: Okay,

Katharine: I think I’d watched most of it quickly.

Colie: And then you just filled out the form. And that’s okay because module four is like the meatiest part of the entire course. That is when you are creating your client proposals and you’re putting together your workflows. So, I mean, it’s not surprising to me that module four takes a long time. And so it might’ve been that you did a little bit and you implemented it and you were completely using it.

And it wasn’t until you felt like, okay, this is good. This is great. When you went back and filled out the module form for that particular module. So the first question that Brittany always suggests that we ask our case studies is what was your business like before you joined the CRM blueprint? And you just said that you started during the pandemic and you were trying to use Calendly.

So what motivated you to know that using Calendly was not going to be sustainable going forward to run your business?

Katharine: Well, basically I’m not a details person. Like that is not my strong suit and it’s taken me a while to admit that. But, I, I don’t do well if I have to keep track of, of lots of little different dates and lots of little emails. And I was writing things over and over and funnily enough, I’d used 17 hats in another, Business I had, which was fine, but I fell in love with, obviously the proposal piece of Dubsado.

Like it’s just so beautiful. And when you’re trying to sell a visual service, you, there’s just, you can’t compare it like I, I am totally biased now. So, I took the leap and, and your course was instrumental in, I think I signed up for Dubsado like the same day or something that I bought the course. Which is I sort of understand the CRM.

piece of it a little bit, but for photography, it has made such differences because there’s so many more elements than, the business. I primarily had music in front of the business where I just sort of needed invoices, maybe an occasional email, but it wasn’t time specific dates and reminder emails and things.

It was for a website business that I had, and it wasn’t, it wasn’t so many details that I had to remember in the way that you do when you are selling photography sessions and follow up care and. Delivering prints and things like that. So, I was losing things in the cracks.

Colie: So it sounds like you really love the organization part of your CRM of specifically Dubsado because it helps to keep you organized. Let’s talk about workflows and automation because I think that people can get a lot of value out of centralizing and organizing your client data. But then the workflows and the automations are just like the icing on top.

So. Tell me, Katharine, did you hesitate to implement the workflows and the automations in your business, or did you just dive headfirst?

Katharine: No, I just dove in because I knew, I knew that I was the kind of person, like I will procrastinate sending an email that I should be sending if I don’t know what I’m supposed to, like, if I have like, Oh, I have to write the email, like that’s, you know, whatever, that seems hard. So then I put it off two days and that’s not the client service that I want to deliver.

And particularly as I grew my business and started charging more, like you can’t get away with not responding for. Two days, five days, whatever, like you need to be on it and look professional. If you’re going to charge more than, you know, 200 for a mini session, like, I mean, for, you know, for a full session, like if you want to charge big girl prices, you have to, you have to provide the proof that you are on it and you’re, you’re trustworthy in building that connection.

So, the automations, I mean, to me, that is the organization, like that is like keeping me on track of like, Oh, you’re supposed to email them. Now you’re supposed to do this. It sends me little emails being like. Get it together and take care of that. So

Colie: So the one thing that I tell people if they hesitate, which clearly you did not, but if they do hesitate, I tell them, you know, we have approval buttons. So, if you’re really scared to let things go without seeing it and approving it and customizing it, you can always have an approval button to where you can look at it before you hit approve so that you make sure that nothing is going out that you don’t want to go out.

Did you ever use any approval buttons or did you just completely start with sending everything straight away?

Katharine: Oh no. I use approval buttons. All the time. And I’m so glad you taught me how, because it makes it like, it does. It is hard to, particularly as you’re getting started to initially trust that it’s going to say the right thing. And I do want to take a look at it. And I like to personalize it. Like if I add one sentence about like, Oh, I can’t wait to see you at your house because I think la la la la, whatever it is, that makes a big difference. No, or, you know, if you talk to them on the phone and they’re so excited about photos of their two year old and you’re like, well, I think it’ll be great because we can talk about trucking and whatever. Um, so yes, I use them. All the time, and it does definitely keep the comfort level much higher, particularly when you’re starting out.

So, um, but I think they’re just really useful.

Colie: So let’s just talk about your business in general, because I have talked about this many times, but I believe that when we get inquiries as photographers, it’s usually two kinds of people. They’re the people who are absolutely ready to book with you, which means they have been converted to say yes through your social media posts, your website, whatever else you have going on before they actually get to your CRM.

And then you get the people who are kicking the tires, the people that are maybe inquiring with more than one service provider, and they just want to know what you’re about, what your prices are, before they actually figure out if you are the one to work with. So in your business, do you tend to have one of those type of clients more than the other, or is it pretty split?

Katharine: For me, particularly in the beginning, the majority were people that I knew or friends of friends. I don’t get a lot of just cold leads. I’m going to try to change that. My focus next year is on SEO and really ramping that up for my website. So I hope that I get more of those. But right now it is people who are generally pretty warm in terms of the leads.

I mean, I still get. Some people who, who just send, you know, fill up the little lead capture form that I set up from your course on my website. And, they’ll say things like, okay, well, how much for X kind of thing? And I’m like, well, I, I pretty much know that that’s probably not going to work out, but I will have a conversation and you never know, like it, um, so, you know, but I also get people who fill out the lead capture form who are like, great, I want to do it October 24th.

Are you free?

Colie: Mm hmm. So I was going to ask if you were having to use the follow up emails very often, because that’s a big part of the automation that I teach in the course, is that when you make this offer, not everyone is going to be ready, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a no. It’s a you need to check back in with them and still nurture them to see if you are in fact a good fit.

So are you using the follow up emails or are most people saying yes after you send that initial proposal?

Katharine: I do the phone call, so they’ll send a lead capture form and then we, I either say, you know, if you’re feeling lucky, here’s my phone number. Give me a try. Um, which people really like. So, you know, but I also send the, you know, if you want to schedule a call, I think I’ve had maybe one person schedule a call, but whatever.

It doesn’t matter. You’re at least providing the option, which I. Would appreciate to, I do have the follow up email sequence and those go to the people who don’t schedule a call. Don’t follow up. Don’t try me on the phone and that’s fine. And, it’s great because the system automatically takes them and just.

puts them in the archived land. Like if I just never hear from you, I don’t have to do anything else. So it’s fine. Um, it doesn’t take up a lot of time, I guess, but usually when I get people, yeah, it’s great. It’s, it’s fantastic. if I get people on the phone, I will say most of them decide to go ahead, but that’s where I think the magic of Dubsado really shines is that then I send them this.

Full, huge proposal of, you know, here’s how the session’s going to go. Here’s what it’s like during here’s, um, here are the prices and here’s what you get and here are products you can buy. I mean, it really covers a lot of things. So, I think they appreciate that because even while you’re on the phone with somebody, you sort of absorb some of it, but it’s nice to be able to, have a, have a really in depth ability to look at it.

A lot of people just also click through and sort of pay and

Colie: Pay and they’re booked and you didn’t have to do anything in less than five minutes. Isn’t that what I promised? That you can send out an offer and get someone to agree, sign, and pay all in less than five minutes? When that happens, it is absolutely amazing. And when it doesn’t, you have that automatic email sequence that’s going out to them that’s reminding them, Hey, I’m here.

Are you still interested in photos? I still have a camera. Let’s do

Katharine: Yeah. Oh, I like that line. Yes. Uh, yeah, it, it totally does. And the other thing is it, it really, it also provides the sort of coverage of, no, I really told you about my prices. Like these really are like, I have not had one person come back to me and be like, wait, you want, well, how much do you want? Like that?

And that has been totally eliminated, which is fantastic. Cause I don’t have my prices on my website. I want them to call me.

Colie: Well, and that’s really amazing because what I tell people quite often is the proposal is kind of like a cover your ass situation. Like they can’t come back and say, Oh no, I didn’t know that I had to pay additional. Well, yeah, you did. It was in the proposal and then that got modified onto the contract to where you could see it.

So no, I was very clear with my pricing up front and you know, this is where you filled in your information and agreed to these prices before I sent it. I also feel like. Sending a really good proposal or at least having it created before you talk to people helps you not discount your services, because I feel like for a lot of the beginning photographers.

You’re like, Oh my gosh, well, if I just, if I charge them 200 less, will they say yes? And so you’re like having this internal battle, trying to decide on your prices in the moment, instead of just being a professional, sending out this proposal that has all of the prices that you spent a lot of time creating.

You’re sending it out and it’s like, okay, you take it or you don’t, but I’ve done my part. I’ve explained how it works. I think that we’re a good fit. So if you would like to work with me, here’s how you start the process. I mean, I appreciate that so that my clients, you, other photographers are not constantly having this internal battle, like, Oh, well, maybe my prices are too high because that’s just never a situation that you want to be in.

Katharine: I still have that struggle. Like, I think everyone has that imposter syndrome struggle of like, I’m really charging that. And they’re really going to pay that. And then eventually they, more people do when you realize, Oh no, you, you’re actually,

Colie: Yeah. You’re priced

Katharine: good at this. Yeah. Your price. Well, this is good. Um, but you’re right.

It does give you that sort of backbone of like, well, I better tell them on the phone. Cause they’re going to get it like,

Colie: Absolutely.

Katharine: in the proposal. So.

Colie: So, Katharine, before we hit record, I had asked you about what your favorite part of the process is. So what is your favorite process of using Dubsado as your CRM?

Katharine: So it’s funny, as much as I love and adore the proposals, and I think they totally help close the deal, lately, the thing that has been the best are the client questionnaires. I had set it up last year, but I didn’t really start sending them until, um, this, um, This particular sort of photography is in like an August and it has been magical what my clients have written because it’s pretty much writing my website copy for me now.

I mean, the stuff these people are coming up with is fantastic. I’m like, yes, I, I totally want to make your timeless and sophisticated, but not stuffy image. Like,

Colie: I mean, there’s literally nothing better than getting your client’s words, which was the whole point of having you on this podcast in order to do this case study interview, your clients can say it better than you ever can. And so I always say, if you have satisfied customers, you should never be stuck on what to say on social media.

You should never be stuck on what to put on your website, because if you have clients that have gone through your process, they’ve hired you, they’ve done your services, and they loved you. If you just ask them. Why they hired you, why they chose you, what they thought of the service at the back end, everything that they say is what other like minded people probably need to hear.

And it’s just a goldmine. And so I am really excited that you are using Dubsado in order to send out that client questionnaire and get those good tidbits. Now you’re doing that before the session, Katharine, are you sending feedback forms on the back end of the session, which is something else that I teach in the course.

Katharine: So I do, I do send the feedback form. I will say I get a much lower, response to that. People are, I think, just much less invested. They’re not, as you know, they’re like, okay, I already bought the thing and have the photos and I’m, you know. Kind of done. And also like, I think when you post a Google review, you are doing it under your name.

And so they, I don’t know, that may be a privacy thing. I don’t know. But, that said, it has been great when it works. So I am, you had a good tip about, when people send, people tend to send me nice emails and I need to now just reply and say, Hey, just copy and paste.

Colie: Yeah, I mean, and I do recommend that in the course. I do like, and it’s even on the bottom of the form, the last question of if you wanted to work, if, if a friend wanted to hire a photographer, what would you say to them about working with me and, you know, getting photographed by me? And then there’s that little part at the end of the feedback form that says, okay, now, can you take what you just wrote in the last question?

And can you copy and paste it? But like what you were talking about, getting the language for your website and like other kinds of sales copy, like you don’t really need the Google review in order to get that if they’re providing it to you in the feedback form. And I would also say just for the listening audience.

Because as Katharine said, that is not going as well for her as the client questionnaire, which is okay. Not everyone feels compelled to fill out a feedback form, like some of us do. I mean, I fill out feedback forms when people ask me because I want them to know that I loved them. But I also feel like sending the form more than one time.

Also gives you the opportunity to collect the different kinds of feedback, and it’s not always true for us photographers. I think this is more a tip for people who are not in the photography industry, but it’s really important that you collect feedback at different stages because Katharine, if you and I had had this conversation, let’s say, in January of 2023.

What you would be able to say about working with me in the course is very different than what you’re saying now after using what you implemented in the course a whole year later. And so I do feel like even if someone answers a feedback form, because you answered several of them while you were in the course, I do feel like you do have to give it a little bit of breathing room to let the service do what it was supposed to do so that when your clients come back, they have more wins to talk about.

And I always feel like for us photographers, for those of you that are like, well, Colie, like we don’t, we don’t do that. You do. And here’s what photographers need to remember. When you are first asking for feedback right after you’ve performed the service or right after you’ve delivered the images.

You’re really asking them for feedback on how they felt when you were photographing them or how they felt when they saw their images. But if you ask them six months later, most people need to have printed images for their wall. So that’s the kind of feedback that you can get if you go back to your photography clients like six months later and are like, Hey, I’m just really curious.

which of your photos made the wall or did you actually make an album? Like those are the kinds of things that you can get. And if you’re touching bases with them six months later, they’re probably ready to book another session with you. So you’re also just reminding them, Hey, I’m still here. I still have that really expensive camera.

Would you like some more photos?

Katharine: It’s hilarious. That’s actually a really, really great tip. Like I am totally, it’s funny, I was actually thinking about sending, my newsletter was going to be about tipping. I don’t know about you, but when I go to a coffee shop, like everybody, like every electronic screen now, I was actually in the airport and it wanted me to tip like the self service kiosk.

It was the weird, it was the weirdest thing. I’m like, who, who gets this tip? I don’t know. Anyway, I guess you sort of get tip fatigue, right? And so I don’t have tipping turned on. I know you can turn it on in Dubsado and pick time and things like that. Like that’s, I just don’t want to, I charge what I charge and I do not want to be part of the tipping fatigue phenomenon, but I want to send out a newsletter.

And I was thinking December, but now I’m like, maybe I’ll wait. That was like, you know, listen, I don’t want to tip, but the nicest way you can say thank you is by. giving me feedback, giving me testimonial, post something on Google. So, um, maybe I’ll wait now

Colie: Yeah. If you do it in January, that sounds great. You can probably steal something that you’ve seen on Instagram from small business Saturday, because I will say that is one of the things that I find amazing that in between those two huge shopping days, Black Friday and Cyber Monday is this day where we are supposed to celebrate small businesses.

And I appreciate every single time I see a fellow business person. Post that, you know what you can do for a small business. You can review them. You can leave a nice comment on their social media. I mean, I’ve seen the same graphic probably hundreds of times now, but I think that you could take some of that same language and put it into your newsletter along with a direct link to your Google review, or you could even tell them, Hey, if you’re not a Google review type of person, just hit reply and let me know if you’ve printed any of your images or which image was your favorite.

I will say that usually gets my clients talking more than anything is if I ask them which image was their favorite, because that does a couple of things. Number one, if they actually do give me words that I put on my brand new website, Katharine, I can use the image that was their favorite. They’re way more likely to, like, send people to a page on my website if I’ve used the image that they’ve identified as their favorite.

It also really helps me because I have a lot of repeat business, and if they’re telling me which image was their favorite, that’s probably my number one priority for their next session, is to get another image just like that, so that you can see how much their family has changed and grown in a year, but if they liked it last year.

They’re still going to like it this year. You know what I mean?

Katharine: Totally.

Colie: all right, let’s talk about wins and transformations. I feel like you’ve already given me some of these, but since Brittany says this is a question that you must ask, What kind of wins or how do you feel about your business now that you’ve had your Dubsado systems from the course implemented for over a year?

Is there anything that just stands out besides the client questionnaires that you are now sending out? Like

Katharine: you know, a funny thing happened recently so I do a bunch of family portraiture and then I also do personal branding kind of stuff. But someone recently connected me with the art director at, a group of local magazines. Greenwich, Stamford, New Canadian, and Westport. So it’s called Monthly Media.

Venera Alexandrova. She’s amazing. She’s the art director. I’m obsessed with her. Had to give her a shout out. She, has been, giving me these wonderful creative assignments. It’s so fun working with her. It’s just, it turns on that sort of creative piece of my brain that sometimes, you know, if you do a hundred families, you’re like, okay, one more

Colie: I have no more brain cells. I just did this 30 times yesterday. Okay.

Katharine: Woo! Yeah, so it sort of reignites the fire, which I think is fantastic, but, she, asked me to do, it was called Light of Fire, and it was 10 portraits of people who’d really given back to their community, which the charity aspect of it really speaks to me, I love that, it was, people all over Fairfield County.

But it was a little bit of a scheduling situation. Like, you know, this is not, Vogue magazine. The budget is small. And so she’s like, listen, this is great, but can you schedule it? And it was magnificent. I felt like such a rock star because not only did I set up the scheduler with the days that she and I were available and different time slots, so they could book their own, but then I had it set up to send reminder emails with, photos that I’d taken because we were doing it in this very cool old warehouse, but it was kind of hard to find. So I went and took photos of here’s what it looks like from the street. Here’s the parking lot. Here’s the go for this door. And literally I looked amazing to her because the people would walk in on time being like, gosh, I knew exactly where to go.

Thank you so much for the fantastic directions. So, um, it’s little things like that. Not only was it wonderful for the clients, but it made me look super professional. And, you know, every little bit counts. So, uh, just little fun things like that, where it really makes, makes life much easier than if I had sent 400 emails, it was really something she had done last year and was dreading doing it again.

So to be able to take this off her plate, I think was a win.

Colie: Nice. I mean, it’s, it’s not very often that we can give compliments to the Dubsado scheduler, I’m going to admit. I mean, people know I have a, I have a love hate relationship with it, but I do love hearing that, like, it works so well for you. And I think the part that I want to highlight out of what you just said is scheduling is great.

Automation is great, but it allowed you to provide education to these people. that helped make their experience better. I feel like we often overlook the simple act of helping our clients understand something better before we perform our service. So whether it’s giving them styling tips or helping them prepare their house or pack a bag for the hospital so that they have everything that they need when you come for birth photography, like, I feel like if we sat down and we thought about the things that we need to communicate to our clients to make the experience better.

There’s always ways that you can add that information, whether it’s pictures or videos, or like a checklist into your Dubsado account so that by the time you’re ready to perform the service, your client feels so well taken care of, it is, of course, going to impact how they feel about the service, how they feel about the photos that you’re taking.

If you’re a photographer like us, and then it also increases the likelihood. that they are going to brag about you after, and that’s going to bring you referrals. So, it’s a win win for everyone.

Katharine: 100%. It’s, it was amazing. So yes. And also, you know, it saves me time too. Not only did they like obviously getting the instructions, but they also got directions, the styling tips, all this sort of stuff. People say, you know, remember to bring your own hairbrush because I don’t, I don’t want to share one, you know, just the basic stuff and what to wear and all that sort of stuff.

But it also saved me from answering. A hundred emails from everybody about, well, should I get a blowout? Blah, blah, blah. Yes, you should get a blowout is the answer. But yeah,

Colie: I mean, I’ve recently started, I’ve recently started blowing Chloe’s hair out. She is just so happy. And it was funny because my husband was like, well, are you going to find her a stylist? I’m like, well, I looked for a stylist and their first opening was November. And of course we’re in November as we’re recording this, but Katharine, this was me looking in September.

So I was like, okay, let me just pull out my Paul Mitchell, uh, flat iron and pull out my blow dryer and see if I can do it. And it’s. It’s been pretty successful, but I’m sorry. Hair, hair detour there.

Katharine: No, listen, I’m here for the hair detour. I had, I, two of my girls were in figure skating and dance and all that. Like you learn, but you can learn any hair you want on YouTube. That’s all I could say.

Colie: I mean, you really can. Okay. So the last thing, cause I mean, is there anything else that you want to tell somebody about the CRM blueprint, anything about your business or how you are using it or your favorite feature, like any of those things, just to wrap up that part of this interview.

Katharine: So, I don’t have anything more specific to say about Dubsado, but I will give you a big shout out in that I would not have been able to implement it. As well, as quickly, as easily, and as confidently if I hadn’t had your course truly. And listen, nobody’s paying me to say this. I honestly answered the feedback form saying, I love this product.

And I love it because of Colie. I love it because of you. I love it because, um, you had incredibly detailed, incredibly organized steps about how to implement it. Talked it through everything, your support sessions. You have those, uh, I don’t know how often you do it bi weekly, something like that. Weekly, I don’t even know

Colie: I don’t do them biweekly anymore, but when you were in the course, I mean, no, no, that’s okay because people can people can access my support ticketing system, which you submitted a few tickets using that. I think what I found was after I created the course, and I would take feedback because I know 1 time you submitted something about module 4 and I emailed you the next day and I’m like, okay, I rerecorded that video.

It’s available now. I think I’m to the point to where people don’t have as many questions because everything in the course is so straightforward, but I am doing a new beta version for HoneyBook, same course, but it’s going to teach you how to do all of those things that I taught everyone to do in Dubsado over the last three years inside of HoneyBook.

So I am keeping this in mind. And so I am going back to the, okay, we’re going to have weekly Q and A’s because of course, every time you. Take something and modify it and change it for another medium. There are going to be questions that you didn’t anticipate. So, I mean, I do appreciate that you love the support sessions.

Although I don’t feel like you attended very many. I

Katharine: No, I didn’t, but that’s,

Colie: it. Yeah.

Katharine: yeah. Well, so I didn’t attend very many, but I, I guess my point was that you are available and accessible for, for those weird little follow up questions. The fact that you like re recorded a video. I mean, that’s phenomenal. Um, it was amazing. Like the feedback is just, the responsiveness, I guess, is, is incredible.

And, and I, yeah. I really appreciate it. So I guess unlike I heard somebody refer to their coarse graveyard the other day, which is Which is

Colie: a real thing.

Katharine: I mean show me someone who doesn’t have a coarse graveyard but yours was not one of them and I fully have a really extensive coarse graveyard, but The way it was laid out, the, the bite sized chunks, I appreciated that every day you’re like, okay, here’s one day and it’s going to be less than an hour.

Like, you know, whatever, whatever. Sometimes it’s like 10 minutes, but, but it made it feel like I could do it as opposed to some sort of giant thing that eventually you walk away and just. Let it go.

Colie: Well, and I feel like that the reason that I implemented the plan, so what Katharine is referring to is when you first sign up for the course and you’re filling out your onboarding form, I ask you, do you want to get the course done in 10 days? Or do you want to get it done in 30 days? And depending on which one you answer, I actually give you a click up checklist where it shows you which module you should be completing every day or multiple modules if you’re choosing the 10 days, but I’m helping you pace it out to where you don’t feel overwhelmed.

And if you choose 30 days, it is less than an hour every day. And like Katharine said, sometimes it’s only 10 minutes, but I do that because for some people, that one particular lesson might not take 10 minutes. It might take 30 minutes, but I want to make sure that I am, you know, cognizant of your time and I’m making sure that if I tell you, hey, you can get this course done in less than an hour.

in less than 30 days, I want to make sure that that course promise is true. It also helps you make sure that you are on track. I don’t know about you, Katharine, but like, I love checking off boxes. I love knowing what I’m supposed to do now in order to get to the next day and the next day and so on. And so I feel like it gives all of us a little, a little boost when you’re like, okay, check.

Okay. Tomorrow’s a new day. I’ll do that new thing tomorrow. So, I mean, and I didn’t have the plans for like the first year, I think that I taught the course. It was after I was like, Okay, I should really tell people how they should pace themselves, but again, until I put in those end of module feedback forms, I had no idea.

I mean, because one of the students went through the entire course in 24 hours, and I had, like, I got her form. I know, right? Look at your face, Katharine. She literally, like, woke up at 7 a. m. in the morning, and by 8 p. m., she had submitted the module 4 feedback form, and I immediately, like, I sent her an email, and I’m like, okay.

But are you actually done? She’s like, well, I’m making a few tweaks, but yeah, the entire system is implemented. And I was just like, do you want to hop on zoom with me and talk about this? Talk about another case study interview. She was, Lena was definitely someone that I interviewed about that, but you know, it helps me know that if people are super motivated and super ready to go, you can actually do this course in 24 hours.

For most people, it’s more like 10 days, 10 days is the sweet spot, but I do

Katharine: out to my attention deficit peeps and say, yeah, if you’re not, unless you’re like totally all in, that’s don’t feel like I much more appreciated feeling like I had the small wins along the way that built my confidence to like, keep going instead of like, Oh, if I don’t finish this in a day, I’m never going to get, no. Good for her, but yeah,

Colie: Well, I want to, the other part of my email saying, Hey, I want to highlight a few of you on my podcast was I asked everybody about like a marketing highlight that you wanted to talk about. And I feel like all of us need to know what other people are doing for their marketing efforts that are actually working for them.

So tell me about your mini sessions related to charity.

Katharine: so, my kids all went to a school that obviously we love they, and how much that was K through eight. And they went there, all three of them. I was a parent there for 15 years. But. The school runs a program called Horizons. I actually think it was the first one in the, in the country, but, they help under resourced kids, succeed academically by taking them from kindergarten through high school, sometimes even some of the horizons.

It’s now national, through college. And they, have weekend programs during the academic year and then they have a summer camp program. And not only do they teach them sort of academic skills, but life schools, like let’s learn how to swim. Let’s learn how, you know, cook all sorts of great things. And the results they have in terms of, kids who.

Attend college kids who finish college, which is the important part. It’s really tremendous. And I’m a huge fan. So, it just sort of happened accidentally a little bit that I was talking to someone that I knew who, who works at horizons at, my kid’s school, that, I was like, you know, could I do some mini sessions for you?

I, I’d love to get back. Like, you know, I, I don’t, I can’t write the huge check, but, this I could do. And, and so we did it. I think this is now my third Third year, it has been phenomenally successful in for both them and me. So I, I donate the session fee, which is 95 and with their 95 donation that goes to horizons, they get one image of their choice.

So there’s like no risk to them. You’re donating 95. You get a 15 minute mini session and, you’re supporting horizons, it’s all good. And hopefully you get the Christmas card image. I will say that, so I do, I think 20. 18 to 20 mini sessions a year for them spread over probably three or four days because I cannot, I give so much energy.

I don’t know about you, but I give so much energy to every session, whether it’s 15 minutes or an hour and a half that, I can’t,

Colie: You can’t do anymore. I get it.

Katharine: do more than four like that. I just, I’m not available for that. So, but then they have the choice. They see their gallery and it’s super watermarked. Yes, I do get one person every year who probably screenshots or whatever.

But I’m like, you know, if that’s, if you’re going to attend a charity mini session and screenshot and not like that’s on you, I don’t know. Like that’s a bummer. But the vast majority of people, because I think it is supporting a fantastic charity. Love it. A, love the experience, love the cause, and they buy either five images or all the images, and it has been incredibly financially successful for me too.

So, it’s just a win win all around, and I use Dubsado the entire way so that almost, they book through the scheduler, which I agree, could use some improvement. But I think Dubsado keeps making rumblings about doing

Colie: mean, I won’t, Katharine, so you just got it in November of 2022. You’re not disenfranchised yet. I mean, they’ve been promising that the changes to the schedule for way longer than you have been a Dubsado user. Again, guys, I’m going to put the link to my scheduler video rant on YouTube. I’m going to put it in the show notes.

Because I just, I got tired of waiting. And so now when I get people that are like, well, you know, Colie, I’m completely set up in acuity and calendly. Should I switch? A majority of the time I’m like, no, just hang out where you’re comfortable. Hang out where you, yeah. I don’t try to get people to switch anymore because the things that drive me bonkers just still drive me bonkers.

I’m sorry for that tangent guys. Continue

Katharine: No, it’s, it’s a totally valid point, but that said you can do it. I mean, there are hiccups, like every once in a while, something weird happens where I, I, like this year I was like, Oh, why do I need to send the reminder emails from the, from the scheduler? Ha ha. And then I tried to change it and I was like, Oh, but that’s why.

So if you take. If you take Colie’s course, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. But anyway, uh, the point is that I have it completely automated from, um, the charity sends out an email with a booking link of the four days. It, the whole thing sells out in an hour. It’s unbelievable. They all schedule themselves.

They get automated reminders. I show up to the set that, you know, with instructions, session prep tips, all the things. They, the day after the session, I have four emails to approve so that I can say, you know, thank you so much. And I put in a little dog about like, and your dog was adorable or, you know, whatever it is.

Your two year old was so much fun. So I send the thank you emails the next day. Then, Dubsado actually starts to remind me about like, have you downloaded the memory cards? Have you edited the gallery? Have you sent them the pick time? So I use pick time. They send, I send the link, same sort of, I sort of do the simple sales for, for the mini sessions where then they, do you want your one image, five, all.

So literally all of this is happening other than the photographing and editing, it’s all happening on there. And they do things like they order albums, they buy a print, they do, they do all sorts of magical things. And truly the only thing I’ve done is the setup, the photograph and editing. And they.

Colie: Well, and you get to, you get to rinse and repeat on that setup, because that’s the thing about setting up systems in your business, even if the days change or the times change, you’ve already put in all of the work to write the emails and create the scheduler. And so, while it might take you a few hours, because I remember when you were setting this up the first time, it might take you a few hours to set it up.

But now every year, literally the only thing that you have to change is the location, the times that are available. And like, if there’s anything that you have to put in the reminder emails, it’s slightly different from last year, but like the core system is created now for you to use just as many times as your little heart desires, or that you feel capable of photographing every year.

Yeah.

Katharine: been so fantastic is that last year I got smart too and said, and if you’d like a full session, I’ll donate that fee, click here and you know, we’ll talk or whatever. And so now not only do I get many sessions from this, but I also probably get five or six. I mean, that’s a lot of money for me.

So, I, I am so grateful that it has sort of come together. So, um, and I wouldn’t be able to do it without the Dubsado. So,

Colie: And I feel like that’s what people, that’s what people, I’m glad you mentioned that at the end, because that’s what people always ask when it comes to like donating a session. It’s like, yeah, but do I actually get any clients out of it? And so not only are these many sessions selling out every single year that you’re doing, and I mean.

I don’t know exactly what your prices are, Katharine, but guys, I assure you, if it’s a 95 session fee, she’s at least making a couple hundred when these people buy the photos after. And I mean, if she’s selling them an album, it’s probably way more than that. And then your full price client, your full price sessions, I mean, the session fee I’m imagining, is it 300?

Katharine: uh, yeah, exactly.

Colie: 300. So if she’s donating that to the charity, that’s great. But then she’s doing simple sales, which involves buying a collection of, you know, buying one of three collections on the back end. And so again, she’s making hundreds of dollars, if not four figures, off of, uh, when someone actually does the full session, and then they go through it, and then they actually buy a collection.

And I’m assuming those people become… They’re even more likely to become repeat clients, not just for these charity mini sessions that you’re doing, but like full sessions every single year or every other year, depending on, you know, how, how grown the kids are guys. Because if you’re still in that season of life, where you have people who have lots of littles, let me just tell you, once the kids hit, like, the back half of school age, so, like, upper elementary school, they start going to, like, every other year, which makes me really sad, but it’s okay.

I still see them. I still get to hug them. It’s great.

Katharine: Although you’d be surprised. So I do get, uh, older families who come

Colie: Every year?

Katharine: every year. Yeah. I mean, it is, well, it’s fun. I now have old people. So, uh, as much as I look like I’m 29, I have a 21 year old son who’s a sophomore in college. I have a 18 year old daughter. Who’s a freshman in college.

It’s very sad only. And I have a one 15 year old left. Who’s a freshman in high school and, it’s, yeah. It’s amazing how much they change, even, even though nobody’s, they’re not growing any taller now, it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter, but, but it changes. So, so, and, and you want, I, whatever, I am the kind of photographer, I love the photographs that show the connection.

I’m, I’m not the, like, let’s all sit on a bench and I’m going to arrange your ankles just so, yeah.

Colie: Ha ha ha ha

Katharine: not my vibe. Um, so anyway, you can have connection at any age and if anything, it’s almost sweeter when your giant 21 year old son puts his arm around you and like gives you, you know, it’s like,

Colie: It is. And the next time that we take family photos, I don’t know if you know this, but like, every time my daughter walks by me, my husband’s like, wait, go stand next to your mother. I am holding on to like, a sixteenth of an inch. I am still taller. But I guarantee you the next photo session that we have, she will actually be taller.

She will be putting her arm around my neck at the top of my neck and like, just sitting a little bit taller than me. And so I’m trying to prepare myself cause you know, I’m probably going to be crying when someone sends me photos that are showing that she’s actually taller than me. It’s going to be a very sad day.

Katharine: I know it is, but it’s awesome. It’s a lovely state. I have to say, they just get more fun and interesting. I, I was, I remember when I had little kids, sorry, there’s totally nothing to photograph your CRMs. But when I had little kids, I thought like, Oh my gosh, those, those poor people, they have adult children. My kids are

Colie: they can cook for themselves and do their own laundry and clean your house. So yeah, no,

Katharine: if only that were happening, that’s not happening. But, uh, but I will say they’re so fascinating and fun. And in the relationship is so great. And, and I don’t know, it, it just gets, it just gets better. So.

Colie: Katharine, after all of this amazing, thank you so much for coming on to talk about the CRM blueprint. And I also was very interested to hear about the charity mini sessions, because I know that that was something that was one of the, one of the calls that you came to was like, I, I need to know how to set this up.

So if people want to hear more about you and your work, I mean, maybe they live in the New York City area. Where can they find you on the internet where your new website will be available by the time this airs? Hmm.

Katharine: I have three pages up now. Anyway, so Calderwoodphotography. com or I’m on Instagram Calderwood. photography. Shockingly, there are multiple Calderwood Photographies. Shout out to the other ones. But, anyway, it’s, I can’t say enough. I think. If I were going to leave people with anything, it’s that donating, um, your photography skills feeds your soul in a way that, I don’t know, um, that you shouldn’t dismiss, like, it will bring dividends, not just financially, but also creatively and personally.

So, um, and. But also I want to end by saying, thank you so much. Uh, it really did change my life, changed my business. Uh, sign up for the course today. If you, if you really can’t do it, sign up for her VIP day. But if you have any sort of technological inclination, um, it, it really will make a huge difference.

So I hope you, just find even more success.

I’m

Colie: Thank you for tuning in. Be sure to check the show notes for all of the links that I mentioned that I was going to add in there. But that’s it for this episode. See you next time.