Show transcription
[00:00:00] Neva Sullivan: I don't know what else to say. Other than I was able to have like Christmas with my family and freedom and literally sleep.
[00:00:08] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Welcome to workflows presented by ImagenAI workflows is a podcast about saving you time and money in your photography business here from people just like you put down that camera for little connect the headphones and get to work with workflows.
[00:00:25] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Welcome to episode four. Of the workflows podcast. My name is Scott Wyden Kivowitz and today, well, we are talking with, Imagener. Neeva Sullivan. Neeva is an award-winning and nationally published wedding and couple photographer based out of Washington, DC. Over the years, Neeva has been known for making couples feel loved, celebrated, and natural in front of her camera.
[00:00:52] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Neeva believes creating a beautiful photos of you and your love should never feel awkward or intimidating, and you deserve a joy. And fun photography experience from start to finish. And as you'll learn from Neva in this episode, there, she did something really interesting to improve on her work. I can't wait for you to learn all about it.
[00:01:18] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So with that, let's tune into my conversation with diva Sullivan. Hello, Neeva. Hi, how are you
[00:01:27] Neva Sullivan: doing great
[00:01:28] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: today? How are you? I'm doing well. It's getting cold here. Very, very cold here. So, Bunkered down where my, with my sweatshirt trying to stay nice and cozy. Yeah.
[00:01:39] Neva Sullivan: I I lived in, I live in DC and we had an unseasonably warm Christmas day, which was nice, but now it's cold again, so yeah.
[00:01:45] Neva Sullivan: Yeah,
[00:01:45] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah. That's for sure. Are you going to be at imaging USA?
[00:01:49] Neva Sullivan: I'm not, I'm not. That's in national Harbor rate. And I have to,
[00:01:55] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I will be there walking around, hanging out. If you do show up at, at imaging USA, please look for me. I will be around. And yeah, it'd be nice to meet in person. So my first question to you is what is one thing that you do for the photographic process that saves you time?
[00:02:14] Neva Sullivan: Yeah, that's a really, really great, great question. And not to kind of start talking about Imagen right off the bat, but yeah, so I, I I've had my business for about for four years now and I'm honestly always looking for ways to create more efficiencies in, in the process. And, and obviously things like, you know, have now having a mirrorless camera, having.
[00:02:37] Neva Sullivan: You know, workflow is not to not to shout out the name of the podcast, but having things in process like that always are great. But honestly, this holiday season, and I'm sure you know, all of your listeners and anyone in your network knows this as a photographer, but this year has been crazy. So trying to find any, any place where efficiencies can, can be tighter, has been great and honestly, finding.
[00:02:58] Neva Sullivan: An AI editing software has been a game changer for me. I never, I did not have a an in-person editor. I've always been a control freak about my own images. So I had always been, I had been historically hesitant to, to outsource that part of my business to anyone
[00:03:13] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: because of the, it was before you get into, before you get into editing, though, what about just the photographic wise?
[00:03:17] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So like you mentioned. Switching to mirrorless, right? So that was, that was a, that's a big change. Right. I made that change. A lot of, a lot of photographers have made that change. So that's a pretty biggie. Had there been any other you know, related to actually picking up the camera using the lights, anything that, in that sort of workflow that has, has been a game changer for you in the photographic part.
[00:03:37] Neva Sullivan: It's going to be an unintuitive answer for me. I have historically been an, an over shooter, so I would always leave weddings. 6,000, sometimes 7,000 images, which is, which is a problem. If your job then is to go through and call all of them and, and, and kind of get the ones you like and, and, you know, not have duplicates and things in there.
[00:03:56] Neva Sullivan: But for me I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm, I'm a film shooter. So about three years ago, I adopted film into my process and that really, really slowed me down, which is a little bit unintuitive. So having a limited number of shots per roll. Instead of having an infinite number of times I could click my camera and then coming home with multi-functions of images to go through.
[00:04:15] Neva Sullivan: That has been honestly a huge kind of time-saver for me, because it taught me how to really you know, the computers on your cameras are great, but they can often lead to inefficiencies as well, because you can just rely on. Being able to click your camera and see the image immediately, and then just get as many different shots as possible, and then just find the ones you want afterwards, which creates a lot more work for you.
[00:04:35] Neva Sullivan: So for me, I adopted film into my process a few years ago, and it taught me to think about composition differently, to think about lighting differently, to think about how can I slow down and be more effective with less shots. So now, you know, I'm coming home. 2000 digital images. And also, you know, my, my film to send off to my, to my my development company that I like to use, but that was honestly in camera in terms of things that have been really helped both my art and my efficiency adopting film into my process has been, has been fantastic, which I don't know if there's an answer you were thinking would,
[00:05:14] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah, it's interesting because.
[00:05:15] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: You really did. You, you went like to a, to something that typically would actually make it your process more time consuming. And in fact, it actually made your, your process easier because you were an over shooter. I, I used to have that issue as well, and the way I solved it was by using smaller memory cards and only bringing with them.
[00:05:36] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: A certain amount, 64 instead
[00:05:38] Neva Sullivan: of 1 28. That's a really great idea. I used to shoot on, I had a 256 gigabyte memory card that I just was, it was a safety zone for me. And now I I've leaned myself down to 64, which is great. Cause now with mirrorless, with the Canon R R the six, I can now get away with shooting on smaller cards.
[00:05:55] Neva Sullivan: Cause my files are smaller, but yeah, that's a great tip.
[00:05:58] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, that's cool. It's it's it's not too often that you. I mean, film film has made a comeback in some ways and not, not nearly as obviously as it used to be, but it's these days it's still very rare that you hear people. Oh, Purposely switching to film, you know, for the business.
[00:06:14] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: A lot of times it's like, you know what, I'm doing it for fun. You know, it's not,
[00:06:19] Neva Sullivan: it started for fun. It was, it started for personal photography, but it actually had helped me in my editing too. Again, I'm sure. You know, anyone who's listening to a photography podcast knows there's millions of ways. You can edit your photos and you can get, you can really get paralyzed by the over analysis of it.
[00:06:36] Neva Sullivan: I know I used to do that. Editing for me was historically a laborious process because I would always second guess everything I was doing when I was able to anchor my images and my editing style to my film images. That just gave me a clarity of process. It gave me a clarity of art as well. It really, it really honed me in and I was able to see, yes, this is what I want my art to be.
[00:06:57] Neva Sullivan: This is what I want my art to. This is what, this is how I want to edit my photos. And it gave me a lot of clarity. So yeah, sometimes the answer is just finding something that is antiquated or feels antiquated, but, but really does force you to, to, to be more intentional in how you shoot and also in turn, how you edit.
[00:07:14] Neva Sullivan: That's really what happened for me.
[00:07:15] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, it's cool. It's a, it's a really cool thing that you've done and you, you made it work for yourself, which is even more important. So, the next thing is is related to, this is what is one thing that you've done for your business that has saved you time or money
[00:07:29] Neva Sullivan: hiring an accountant?
[00:07:31] Neva Sullivan: Honestly,
[00:07:32] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: it's a good one. It's a good one.
[00:07:34] Neva Sullivan: Yeah, I am. I am. A lot of us in the photography space come to it from an artistic background and a creative background and really wanting to in you know, invest in being an artist again. And that's primarily why I started my business. I come from an events background.
[00:07:48] Neva Sullivan: So I, I had been in you know, Private business for a long time. And this was my creative side hustle that just turned into a snowball thing. That's great. And then I love it, but I am not a businesswoman. So for me, kind of navigating the waters of how do I have a legal business? How do I pay my taxes?
[00:08:05] Neva Sullivan: How do I do all of these things? What is sales tax and how does it apply to me all of that stuff that I'm not an expert on that. Related things where, where I first made investments in terms of outsourcing. So I wouldn't have to take all of my time to, you know, answer the question. Am I compliant in the state that I'm operating in?
[00:08:25] Neva Sullivan: Right. So hiring an accountant, making sure that it's someone who obviously was knowledgeable about a creative business, not just any old, you know, accountant really was helpful for me. And adopting obviously like a legitimate bookkeeping bookkeeping software. That's not just a Google spreadsheet.
[00:08:39] Neva Sullivan: So I use QuickBooks to so for my business, hiring someone or, or outsourcing my compliance and my tax stuff to someone who really is knowledgeable and knows what they're doing and is able to answer my questions was not only a time-saver, but also I can sleep better.
[00:08:56] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I also started with the.
[00:08:58] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Spreadsheet thing back in the day, then I started working with the accountant and the accountant. I was like, yeah, QuickBooks can be a little confusing at times. The fact that your accountant can literally log into your QuickBooks account from their house and do what they need to. That's
[00:09:13] Neva Sullivan: brilliant.
[00:09:14] Neva Sullivan: It's amazing. I could not recommend it anymore to anyone who's on.
[00:09:18] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. So, so moving on to editing, what is one thing that you do for editing that has saved you?
[00:09:24] Neva Sullivan: Adopting Imagen. It's been great again, like I mentioned at the top, I was always historically very hesitant to farm, to farm out, quote unquote, part of the creative process to someone or something who wasn't mean.
[00:09:36] Neva Sullivan: So I had dabbled around with, with editors before and I found that maybe it's just It's through my own control freakiness. I always just love to retain the control over my own images. So I actually had a photographer friend recommend getting, getting in with an AI software and she was using Imagen at the time.
[00:09:53] Neva Sullivan: And I just thought it was honestly too good to be true. And I'm sure that's not something that you haven't heard before, but, you know, I just think also seeing a lot of the creative process to something who is not a human can be scary. But, but honestly kind of, it's been like a. It's it's been a really eye-opening process.
[00:10:10] Neva Sullivan: Being able to teach the software, how I edit and knowing that it's not just a preset, that's what I was always afraid of is, is having someone you know, start with a preset and just slap that on to all of my images. And then I would have to go through everything. And re-edit it again based on the lighting, based on all of these different factors that again, humans are busy and you know, for me, the, the idea of doing that was always a little scary.
[00:10:31] Neva Sullivan: So the first time I got. An album back with Imagen. I was honestly super blown away. So my, all of my November and December weddings, once I adopted the software where I been through that, and I think they were all delivered within two weeks. And my, my contract say eight. So it was a really awesome way.
[00:10:49] Neva Sullivan: And, and particularly this holiday season to over deliver for clients, I was not anticipating being able to do that, but Yeah. I mean, honestly, it's truly transparently been a huge game changer for me being able to teach the software how I edit and then just see all of that come back within like 30 minutes of sending it every time it's it's been great.
[00:11:11] Neva Sullivan: So yeah,
[00:11:11] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: it's interesting that you mentioned being able to over-deliver especially let's even, it's even more important to be able to do that, especially with. This the pandemic, right? I mean, you've got people who are still sadly depressed and still struggling. A lot of them are still getting sick.
[00:11:29] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And if you could bring a smile to somebody's face sooner than later, that's a fantastic thing. So
[00:11:37] Neva Sullivan: as well, clients, especially if they're active on social media or Instagram has been hearing nothing, but. This season is terrible. The season is overwhelming. The season is daunting. We have so many buddings we're not doing well.
[00:11:47] Neva Sullivan: And you know, for quite a bit of time, that's how, that's where my mindset was. There was, there was so much happening all at once, and I did not know how I was going to be able to deliver everything that I had committed to because of the pandemic, because of, you know, any number of factors. They were not expecting to get their galleries back so fast.
[00:12:04] Neva Sullivan: And like, I have never seen such happy humans, including myself. Like it was, you know, we, we all want to impress. We all want to over-deliver we all want our clients to love us. And that's at least for me, part of why I love having my businesses is just to be able to get that positive feedback and to give the gift of memories to clients.
[00:12:21] Neva Sullivan: That's what it's all about. You know, that's, that's why we're all here. It's not, it's not you know, that's why we do what we do. So at least being able to do that in a way that people were not expecting this year has been. Great. It's an awesome,
[00:12:34] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: it's a, it's so nice to hear that, that you know, the service has been able to not only.
[00:12:39] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Help you, but also help your clients at the same time. It's just, you know, it, it makes us feel good that it makes everybody else
[00:12:46] Neva Sullivan: feel good. Yeah. And I mean, in selfishly also opening a gallery that's fully edited and just watching the images like populate in the light in light room is like Christmas day, every time it's.
[00:12:55] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So we've talked about the photographic process. We've talked about business, we've talked about editing now. I want to hear what is one thing that. After each session after a wedding, whatever that increases business.
[00:13:07] Neva Sullivan: Yeah. So as part of my workflow, I use pick time for all of my gallery deliveries and I'm sure you're aware of pick time or people use pixie set there's any number of people can use that.
[00:13:17] Neva Sullivan: I personally use a pick time and since adopting it being able to have. Not just a shop within my galleries, but one that's optimized to hate using the word upsell, but, but show people that they have professional prints they can buy through me. I during the gallery delivery process, I, I Populate in a discount code for every single gallery.
[00:13:40] Neva Sullivan: I make sure they know that their parents can use it. I make sure they know that, you know, any, any, any guests they send the gallery to can use it. And I also give it a time limit. I put a two week code for, for each of my sessions when they get delivered. I have, I come from a sales background. I know that humans operate best with deadlines.
[00:13:57] Neva Sullivan: So giving someone an infinite amount of time where they can use a discount. They're never going to use it because there's always going to be a better time. So if you give them a deadline and let them know in the gallery delivery process, you have two weeks to use this code. I want it to be sure you were able to print your images.
[00:14:11] Neva Sullivan: They don't need to be on a hard drive forever and just really taking the time to make sure that they are aware of that. And also give them a reason to, you know, an emotional reason to so I always do that. It's really helped my print sales so that you're not just relying on You know, your, your package prices, you're giving yourself an additional revenue stream.
[00:14:29] Neva Sullivan: Also, I allow all of my clients to host their own galleries after a year. So that when the gallery is being set to take debt, to be taken down or being taken off high resolution images, image hosting, they can, they get an email that says, Hey, do you want to host this gallery yourself infinitely forever for this price per year?
[00:14:46] Neva Sullivan: It's just a nice, additional way to create revenue for yourself, which
[00:14:49] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So, for everybody who's listening you heard her mention that she offers a discount with a two week deadline. If you are looking to learn to more of the psychological aspect of that, just look up FOMO, F O M O, or fear of missing out.
[00:15:04] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That is basically the whole concept behind that. And you see it as a consumer, you see it on a daily basis, even if you don't realize you're seeing it. So if you can use things that are impacting. To help your photography business.
[00:15:18] Neva Sullivan: And one thing I always tell if I have any mentoring sessions, if I talk to any photographers who are just getting into the business, everyone is always afraid of annoying people.
[00:15:26] Neva Sullivan: And again, this is my sales background talking. It takes a lot. To annoy someone. And, and we as humans, and I know this in myself, it's, it's a psychological thing. You need touch points, you need reminders that, you know, you can help you. We all want to print our images. Like every single one of us. I know this as a photographer, I know it as a client who got, I was married myself.
[00:15:45] Neva Sullivan: We all want to print our images. We just need a push to do it. Because again, like if I had infinite time, I would never do it. So there's a psychological component to it as well.
[00:15:55] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So now's the point where I'm going to ask you something that is a 30,000 foot view down on earth. Goodness. Can you share an outlined breakdown?
[00:16:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: You don't have to go to too many details and outline breakdown of your workflow from lead to deliver.
[00:16:16] Neva Sullivan: Yeah, it's gonna take me like a second to think through all of it, because there's, when you think about it, there are so many steps in the process. You know, starting obviously with sales which is everyone's favorite thing.
[00:16:27] Neva Sullivan: But yeah, so I'm happy to do that. So once I encourage any, any potential client to send an inquiry through. My website. I do a lot of work to make sure that my website gets seen by potential clients, you know, obviously with SEO and blogging and all of that stuff, but I encourage people not to DM me through social media.
[00:16:46] Neva Sullivan: You know, I want a central location where all of them. Inquiries live. So I use HoneyBook for my CRM software. I'm sure that's not going to be a foreign concept or a new thing for, for anyone listening. But yeah, once I get an inquiry through my website, it automatically goes into HoneyBook.
[00:17:02] Neva Sullivan: I know if I have a wedding or session on the date that's being inquired about. So right off the bat, I'm able to send an initial email. To the potential client. I have, you know, obviously automations within that system. So if I don't hear back within two days, I'll follow up. And then if I don't hear back five days after that, I'll follow up again.
[00:17:19] Neva Sullivan: But once we set up a a zoom session, so I like to meet virtually face-to-face with all of my potential clients, my backbone of my business is experience and a personality match between myself and, and my clients. So I want to set that up and make sure that we are creating a relationship right off of that.
[00:17:36] Neva Sullivan: So I'm a big component of meeting face-to-face getting a sense of who they are. They're not just vetting me. I'm also vetting them. I have, I have a certain amount of, of dates per year that I, that I, you know, allow myself to do this and I want to work with good people. So there's quite a bit of a vet initial meeting where, you know, we're just getting a sense of personality fits in, you know, no, we want to move forward once clients move forward.
[00:17:58] Neva Sullivan: I have, I don't know if this is, this might be super granular, but yeah. Contract had the contract 40% retainer, all of that fun stuff. Once a client books, I have a bunch of planning materials. I like to send to them again, creating that experience right off the bat. I have a whole wedding planning guide that I've digitized, basically answering any questions that I'm going to get.
[00:18:20] Neva Sullivan: 10 to 12 months you know, creating a document with every single for frequently asked questions I've ever received and it's a resource for them, but it is also a resource for me because I don't have to also then field all of those questions randomly over the next, you know, year, year and a half. So include a lot of my best practices.
[00:18:36] Neva Sullivan: I included engagement session planning, guide tips on how to dress tips on time of day to do your session. Times of the year. And again, building wedding timelines with photography in mind, I found that a lot of times when you have a day of coordinator and an event coordinator, sometimes a venue coordinator, they are not thinking about photography.
[00:18:53] Neva Sullivan: So, I encourage all of my clients before we get to their wedding. To be thinking of when is sunset on my day when should be, when should the photographer be eating it's while you're eating all of these little things that you wouldn't know to think about are in my planning guide. So I'm, I'm helping myself by doing, by educating at the beginning of the process from their engagement session, I like to do walkthroughs for clients that want them at their venues.
[00:19:19] Neva Sullivan: I like to do phone calls leading up to the event. So I send a really in-depth questionnaire about three months prior, basically detailing everything I need to know about the wedding before it's too late and being able to plan myself and then send a draft timeline for approval, get all of that done.
[00:19:35] Neva Sullivan: So that again, you know, this is a lot of touch points before the wedding, but I tell my clients whenever we're first meeting, I want to have a relationship with you. So that I am not a stranger walking into your wedding day. I want you to feel like I'm a friend I'm again, backbone of my business is, is making people comfortable and relaxed.
[00:19:53] Neva Sullivan: And I want them to get a, a sense of this is a friend walking through the door, not just someone with the camera, not just someone who expects you to be pretty or to model for you. My job is to make them comfortable. So all of these steps along the way exist for that. So they know I'm in their corner.
[00:20:07] Neva Sullivan: They know that I am always here to answer their questions. They know that I am going to. And make a fool of myself to make them laugh. All of these little things that create a seamless client experience. From there, my dog might start barking. There's a dog walking by. He didn't, he was a good boy. From there, obviously the wedding day most of my weddings are eight hours.
[00:20:26] Neva Sullivan: Sometimes we'll have 10. I am a crazy person and I do a next day sneak peak. So I always call her the entire wedding the morning after a wet. End of story. I hold myself to that standard because I don't want, again, thousands of images hanging over my head for the next couple of weeks. I like to get that out of the way as soon as possible.
[00:20:45] Neva Sullivan: So I call through the wedding. I make a, I go through and favorite. I use photo mechanic. So go through and favorite all of, you know, maybe 50 to 75 highlight images, those become the sneak peaks, which then also become the. Folder on the very top of their gallery when it's, when it's delivered and also my blog post and also for submission.
[00:21:05] Neva Sullivan: So I always use those, those 75 ish images for the sneak peek for blogging, for submissions and all of that stuff. Now that I have a, as close to full proof editing process as possible. You know, gallery deliveries used to be a month. They're now two two-ish weeks. I'm not, I w I do not say that that is the standard, but again, I love not having work hanging over my head.
[00:21:30] Neva Sullivan: So, that's kind of the process from initial inquiry to, through to gallery delivery. And also add that coupon on the, on the gallery email.
[00:21:43] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Can't forget the coupon. Yeah. That's you know, you've got to, you've got a very structured, structured workflow in place for the, for the entire process. I like that you have everything planned from the beginning so that like you mentioned, you're fielding all the questions, right, right out of the gate, you know, you're, you're sending the, the guides and everything.
[00:22:01] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That not only helps the PR the rest of the process for your client, but it also helps you so that you've got you, don't have to you know, keep hopping on phone calls and meetings and stuff with your clients to answer the questions that you already have. So now you can focus on more important. While they're getting their answers at the
[00:22:18] Neva Sullivan: same time, I've also found that, I mean, we've all heard client horror stories, photographer, horror stories.
[00:22:23] Neva Sullivan: I have found that a lot of these stories stem from a lack of education for our clients. So things like they didn't tell me who they wanted in their family portraits. So I didn't know. So we didn't get everybody. Ask about those things, give them best practices. Like, Hey, we should do family portraits immediately after the ceremony, assuming we don't do a first look, but if we're, if we haven't done family portraits by the ceremony, make sure your family knows to stay, put anyone who's going to be in the groupings that we have discussed prior.
[00:22:53] Neva Sullivan: Make sure they know, like tell them at the rehearsal dinner, don't move. Don't go to cocktail hour. We're doing family pictures right after. I will have a list again, through that questionnaire of exactly the names of everyone in the groupings, what those groupings are, who are the top priorities so that, you know, family portraits don't have to take 45.
[00:23:09] Neva Sullivan: It's to an hour, they can take 15 to 20, like, and then everybody can go get their drinks, you know, but, but you wouldn't be able to do that if you didn't educate your clients beforehand. So I feel like a lot of times in experience photographers or people who are just coming in wanting to create art, like I, I get it.
[00:23:24] Neva Sullivan: I understand that. But there is a business component. There's, there's a workflow to this as well. And really taking the time to, to ask yourself how you can help your clients so that they can in turn help you. So you're not scrambling at the end of the day. Huge. So do a lot of that beforehand and figure out what you want to tell them what you want to teach them so that they're there.
[00:23:43] Neva Sullivan: They're coming. They're meeting you in the middle,
[00:23:46] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: essentially. Yeah. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love how prepared you are for, for, for all of it. It's so good. So my next question to you is Very deep in AI. And so this is gonna, this could, this could stump you a little bit, but maybe not. What does the future of artificial intelligence look like to you in the photography industry?
[00:24:11] Neva Sullivan: Yeah, I'm definitely the worst person to ask about this because up until a month ago, I did not realize that artificial artificial intelligence had a place in my business right now. So is there, it's a really interesting question. You know, obviously there are things that the AI can't do yet. Like, you know, brush adjustments, things like that.
[00:24:27] Neva Sullivan: So just on a very granular level, you know, we would love for, you know, at least an AI editing at least to be able to kind of continue to hone in, to continue to do, to improve. What's already a great a great starting point. I honestly don't know. I know that there's, I don't do this yet. I haven't tried again because control freak.
[00:24:47] Neva Sullivan: I haven't tried AI calling. I know that exists. You know, I, I can only Imagine that things will continue to get more advanced in ways that I have no idea are going to happen in ways that I have not anticipated. But I remain, and I think that all photographers, anyone in the industry needs to remain open to the idea that there can be.
[00:25:04] Neva Sullivan: Efficiencies created. There can be non-scary ways to trust different parts of your business to, you know, a machine, as long as you've vetted it, you know, given the opportunity to try it out, you know, what could, what could be the harm? And I think that was, you know, for me, I, there was a lot of initial hesitation to even have this part of, of my, of my process.
[00:25:27] Neva Sullivan: Influenced at least five by AI. And it's, it's been a really positive experience. So for me, while I do not know where AI is going to go, I remain really open-minded to how it can help and change and continue to innovate my business. So, I will, I will approach anything without hesitancy next time.
[00:25:43] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. So, so, you know, earlier you mentioned that you. You know, try to educate your, your, your clients, even to the point where they should know where when sunset is right to the day of their wedding. So Imagen that in AI, not only is your guide digital, but maybe it can be modified per client automatically by learning about your client, where they are telling them sunset for your wedding as this day.
[00:26:12] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Like there's your, your CRM tools could really automate this process. Really. If they. Wanting to get into the AI space and, and learn about their clients. Basically I'll take the client name, take your, your default guide that you normally share and have all these spaces that the AI will automatically fill in for it, for you and for the.
[00:26:33] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Based on, you know, their phone number, their address, learning. Okay. Here's, here's where they are. Now. We know everything else that we need to know to fill in the rest of the data and into your guide.
[00:26:44] Neva Sullivan: Even just things like email email outreach. Cause right now, obviously I mentioned before that, you know, I rely a lot on.
[00:26:51] Neva Sullivan: You know, HoneyBook has a great, has a great ability to be able to use like, templated email outreach for your, for, for your clients. But even just things like when an inquiry comes in, let's say, this is the venue. This is, you know, all of that, you know, maybe even to be able to respond on my behalf or something like that, like as a virtual assistant, something like that.
[00:27:09] Neva Sullivan: Yeah. So that, again, just creating opportunities for less time to go by where you're not booking something. But yeah, no, that, that, that was. That'd be awesome. There's
[00:27:19] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so much potential that it's just, it's unbelievable. Like even just in all aspects of, you
[00:27:24] Neva Sullivan: know, what I would love, you know, what I would love for an AI to exist in the marketing and sales process.
[00:27:30] Neva Sullivan: Like, obviously right now, a lot of us are doing, you know, Facebook ads, Google ads, all of these things. But we all rely on our own brain to be able to tell us who our ideal client is and, you know, like things like they shop, what do they like, what do you like to do? What are their activities, all of these things.
[00:27:46] Neva Sullivan: So, it would be really cool for something like, let's say a Facebook ad or, or just any, any, any way to get your name in front of potential clients, to be able to like, create more efficiencies there. That would be awesome because right now that's like my least favorite part of anything is the marketing.
[00:28:02] Neva Sullivan: And sales part. So it'd be cool to have AI kind of inject some new life there. But
[00:28:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I think that, I think the closest thing, I mean, there's, there could be software for that already. I don't know for sure. But I think the closest thing that I could think of would be if you were doing a Facebook ad and you.
[00:28:21] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Advertise to a lookalike audience and the look like look alike. Audience is literally a look alike of everybody who likes your Facebook page. Yeah. Because at that point, Facebook, their AI knows all that, all that data. So the lookalike audience is literally exactly what you want. You just have to tailor it towards.
[00:28:40] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Only I'll look like old people, like my page and only in this area,
[00:28:44] Neva Sullivan: basically we want to filter out my mom as well, minus leave his mom.
[00:28:52] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. So
[00:28:53] Neva Sullivan: my ideal client.
[00:28:56] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Yeah. So my last question to you, and again, your you're still new to the ImagenAI customer base. You've only been using it for, for a little bit about of time. How, and you've touched on this a little bit in this, during this conversation, but how has, ImagenAI impacted your life?
[00:29:15] Neva Sullivan: Oh, man. I did not think I was going to have a holiday season. Let's put it that way. I'm sure again, everyone listening to this has had an insane 20, 21, you know, we were dealing with, or we're dealing with last year. You know, full wedding slate happening at the same time as 2020 twos, full wedding slate and likely all happening within one quarter.
[00:29:37] Neva Sullivan: Maybe a little more than that, you know, from October to December is really when the bulk of our weddings were. I was truly nervous. One for my mental health this December, because, you know, just physically being at a wedding and physically shooting the wedding is not the battle. Editing afterwards is the battle.
[00:29:58] Neva Sullivan: So I was really worried at how that was. It looked like that was all going to pile up all at once. Again, without being like, oh, I'm an image and sales person, which I'm not I'm just a happy customer, happy client. It really gave, I was able to deliver every single one of my November and December weddings by December 10th, I was able to take the rest of the month off.
[00:30:18] Neva Sullivan: And I can not that. I don't know what else to say other than I was able to have like Christmas with no family and freedom and literally sleep. And to have that, when you thought you were not going to have that, it's one thing to be like, I have customized my workflow. I know when I'm going to deliver every single one of these galleries, but this year was really intense and really intimidating to have that sooner than you thought you were going to have.
[00:30:41] Neva Sullivan: Can't speak highly enough of that experience.
[00:30:44] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: You know, again, I, I, it makes us feel good that, that, that the community is really you know, gaining time back in their lives and, and, and reducing the stress on all, on all sides. And you've got to celebrate the holidays, which is, which is really nice.
[00:30:58] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And,
[00:30:58] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, so you're, you know, this is going to go, this episode's going to be out in 2022 already, but you're your. We're recording this really, we're recording this on December 28th, 2021. We're so close to the new year, and now you got to, you're going into 2022, knowing you get to celebrate the ball dropping, which is, which is a nice thing.
[00:31:19] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, well
[00:31:20] Neva Sullivan: also I would have been intimidated by this three weeks ago, but my very first wedding weekend of 2022 is a double header, which I, you know, we don't, we don't, we don't love doubleheaders, but we can, we can do them. Now. I know that I have, I at least have something in place. I have a workflow in place where the editing part of it is not the scary part, so that's great.
[00:31:40] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That's so good. That's so good. Hopefully you share some of those the doubleheader photos in the community when we when, when you have them. So where can the listeners learn more about you connect with you and of course see your beautiful photos.
[00:31:54] Neva Sullivan: Yeah. So I am at Neeva Sullivan photography just about everywhere.
[00:31:58] Neva Sullivan: My website is Neeva sullivan.com. Very easy. At Neeva Sullivan photography on Facebook at Neeva Solvan photography on Instagram, you can find me in all of those places.
[00:32:08] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. We'll be sure to link to your website in the show notes so everybody can definitely check you out and see your work. Thank you Neeva for joining me today on the podcast.
[00:32:18] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: We're we're, we're very happy to have you. And I look forward to seeing more of what you do with, with our software and just in general, within the
[00:32:26] Neva Sullivan: community. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:32:29] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Thank you Neva for that incredible conversation for sharing your insights into your workflows. From, we covered a lot of, a lot of topics here.
[00:32:37] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: We covered a lot of range in your photography business, and it's a very exciting of everything you're doing and I can't wait to see more of it. So if you liked this episode and you want to see the show notes, you want to learn more about nivo, go to ImagenAI.com/podcast. And don't forget to join the myself.
[00:32:54] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And Neveah in the imaginary community, you can go to Imagen-AI.com/community to to join. We can't wait to see you there. You've been listening to workflows presented by ImagenAI to see the show notes and everything referenced in this episode, please go to Imagen-ai.com/podcast.
