We had a blast. What an absolute RUSH. I have a new appreciation for producing, especially LIVE shows. It is obvious how much work goes into making one of these productions, and the mighty cool staff of CreativeLive makes it looks easy.

If you enjoyed the show or you missed it, you can purchase the downloads here. Our course covered everything from marketing, to sales, to shooting, to life balance, so check it out!

Hooray to the crew!

Marketing to Moms…

In honor of Mother’s Day, we brought our own mom! She is really an inspiration to both of us. We love you, mom!

I wanted to thank some inspiring women who took the time to share with us about how they feel about being moms and business women. Thank you to: Me Ra Koh, Tamara Lackey, Vicki Taufer, Sarah Petty, and Dawn Davis! Your words added so much to the workshop.

One of our live student audience members, Michael Houlden had some great thoughts that pretty much summed up how we feel about marketing and sales. He says,

“Words like marketing and sales so often strike fear into the hearts of artists such as ourselves while at the same time they leave a sense of distrust in the minds of our clients. So, I sort of feel almost dirty telling people that I was at a workshop on marketing and sales. Here’s the thing though – marketing is simply the process of letting people know that we exist and what our service is – and done well the message reaches people that are interested in and value our service. And sales (almost a four letter word for some people) is simply the process of determining what our clients desire and then delivering it to them. Pure and simple. No ugly monsters. No scary ghosts.”

And that’s the point! Sales is simply providing a service to our clients to help them choose what it is they have already told you that they want! Thanks for your words, Michael! Thanks also to our in-studio live student audience: Michael Houlden, Julie Pergitone Croff, Joni James, Dan Troutman, Kristin Tetuán and Christiana Sloop Childers. Wouldn’t have been the same without you.

Here are some fun shots of the week … in the studio, the live shoot…
….and if you scroll all the way to the bottom, you’ll find DISCOUNT CODES for lots of GREAT products!

This is actually JOY shooting the CAMERAMAN shooting JULES shooting the family.

See?

The day after our live shoot, we got back into the studio to talk about editing, photoshop with presets and textures, and of course, sales! Joy demonstrated ProSelect and we all had fun editing images together, to decide how to show clients’ your very best.

Here are a few of Jules’ favorites from the live shoot. Thank you Hilary and Scott, for being so accommodating with the crazy outdoor shoot filled with cameras, wires, and people!

and of course, the famous eye-swap one:

And finally, we have to thank all of our amazing sponsors for all the generous prizes we were able to give away! Here’s Jules with her cute little shutterhugger dinosaur, and me with my DaisyGrip puppet! I don’t know who they entertained more, us or the kids we were supposed to photograph!

DISCOUNT CODES!

Proselect – 10% off of ProSelect software, offer also includes a free “Room View Collection”, with promo code: BIANCHI. Offer not valid on upgrades. Promo code expires May 31, 2012.

TotallyRad! – $50 off of RadLab from TotallyRad! with promo code: 1020MOMS, offer valid May 10-May 19, 2012.

Animoto – 20% off a month of Animoto Pro with code: BIANCHILIVE. Offer only for new subscribers. Expires May 31st.

Pictage/ShootQ - 4 Months of ShootQ starter with promo code: julesjoy2012, valid through 12/31/12. You can also get a 2-month trial of Pictage, no promo code necessary. Just go to Pictage Services, sign up, and if you link your Pictage and ShootQ accounts together you can do some amazing things!

Triple Scoop Music - 10% off any purchase at Triple Scoop Music with promo code: julesjoy12, offer valid through May 31, 2012.

VGallery Haven- 30% off of everything in the v gallery haven store, offer valid from May 10th – May 17th, 2012.

DaisyGrip for a special offer!

We also wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you who have visited our shop on Jules Cafe recently. We really try hard to produce products that we think would be useful to other photographers, and it is always something that we genuinely use ourselves. Again, thanks so much and we really appreciate you.

We were also asked to invite six people to participate as our live audience. Those who wanted to come had to submit a 60 second video with their best Mom tip. Joy and I reviewed all of the submissions and loved everyone for different reasons. It was a very difficult decision for us, but in the end we chose the following six people to join us at CreativeLIVE!! To watch the winning video submissions, simply click on the screen captures below.

We can’t wait to meet you! We have prizes and a really fun time planned!
To celebrate, we are having a sale at Jules Cafe.
30% off of all products! Just type in the promo code: CONGRATS

Recently, we were contacted by Gund to see if they could use one of the images from our Boo & Buddy San Francisco shoot for their new plush Boo! Of course we were thrilled at the prospect, and thrilled for little Boo. He really IS the world’s cutest dog. And practically a plush toy himself.

Here’s a shot of the hang tag that Gund is using. (Click on the image to see the video)

And here is the original photograph (plus a few more favorites from that day!):

PLUSH BOO!!!

If your little ghost or goblin will be in the Oakland, Montclair area tomorrow, come on by to be photographed, snack on treats, receive goodies and more! This year we are having the event in tandem with our neighbors, Thornhill Elementary, so donations will be collected to support the school.

Simply Livly.
I shot Pam & Joe’s wedding six years ago at the lovely Rancho Las Lomas in Silverado, California. Recently, Pam sent me two gorgeous chunky necklaces from her new Etsy Shop, Simply Livly. They are the perfect amount of casual-to-dressy and can be worn to dress up a t-shirt or dress down a formal outfit. I LOOOVE them and I seriously can’t stop wearing them. They have the most darling tie and can easily be worn short or really long.

Crumb
Ann Marie and I worked together years ago when we both lived in Los Angeles. I remember how she would make everyone’s day by bringing unbelievable cookies, lemon bars and other delicious treats into the office. When Ann Marie moved to San Francisco, she started baking full-time and opened Crumb. Crumb has been providing a variety of cakes for a while now, but when Ann Marie told me that she decided to add cookies to her menu, I couldn’t be more excited!! Yesterday she gave me a variety of flavors which I shared at my client meeting last night…Big hit!!

ALSO, if you are a bride, Crumb is now baking cookies for weddings! If you want a delicious alternative to cake or cupcakes, you must give her a call or shoot her an email: 415.726.6101 or aannmarie@crumbtown.com (Or heck, just do yourself a favor and pick up a bag for yourself or your clients at Falletti Foods or Bryans.)

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