Consultants, let me ask you a question. Do you ever think to yourself “why, oh why do I do this?” Why do I make calls, why do I leave my family in the evening to teach a Get Together, why do I spend more time on other peoples albums than my own?
I often joke that when I was a consultant I asked myself those things, and subsequently resolved to quit, about once a week. After making that proclamation someone would then call to order a tape runner. I would jump up and down with joy convinced I was part of the best, most rewarding business in the world.
A salesperson at heart, I know there is nothing a good sale can’t fix!
I also learned there is no easy way to grow this business.
You have to do the work. You have to meet people. You have to show them your photo solutions. You have to follow up. Those are all simple steps but some days you can get in your own way and not do them. Those are the days you have to listen to the stories, you have to know the impact of this work so the work is smaller than the reward.
One way to do that is to ask album makers to tell you their favorite album story. I did just that for you this week and the stories I heard made me smile and touched my heart. I hope they do the same for you.
Field Development Manager Jeanne Goskie tells us the first stories and I wish you could hear her voice! She has a charming southern lilt and powerful punctuation.
When I was a CMC, I once helped a good friend create an album for her son Isaac who lived for just 3 days. Up to this point, I had never considered the power of album-making, to me the experience was mostly craft with a lifetime guarantee. Making Isaac’s album with Mary was difficult, therapeutic, and celebration. For me, it showed me I offered an authentic service. There was nothing sales about it, even though I did sell and she bought excitedly. She has 3 other children now, and they know Isaac as their older brother because of that album and the stories inside.
Another occurred when I helped a customer create her adoption album for her son. Behind this experience was a long time of infertility pain and sorrow. It was an experience full of questions about the process of international adoption, what the trip overseas was like, the difficulties of the process, the waiting, the sadness of the orphanage, the questions about their son that would never be answered. But the privilege of helping to create the history book of this family milestone was humbling and amazing and educational and supernatural. All of these details coming together to be a perfect route for this little person to become known in a family where he will forever be wanted, known, loved, connected, and part of the whole. And they are recorded in that album for their family to revisit for generations.
Corporate Lineage Director Debi Fehrman tells her stories with a voice that sounds like Leeza Gibbons and the laughter of a happy mom.
It’s so fun when your son, who resisted doing his own album while growing up, ended up making a sentiments album for his girlfriend (now wife), commemorating their first dating anniversary. We spent a memorable Labor Day weekend working on it together. And yes, I have pictures! I treated him just like a cropping customer – fun “manly snacks”, page ideas, tools at his seat, his favorite music playing. Craig listed 365 reasons to love you and included receipts, a pony tail holder and all of the small things that go into growing a big love.
As my children grew into their teen years, Christmas morning became less exciting as time came to unwrap presents. All they wanted was money to buy clothes or expensive game components. So Charlie and I sat down one evening, going through our albums (we both cried) choosing various pages for the children to “find”. On Christmas morning, we had a bowl full of various activities located in the albums. First they would choose a story from the bowl, find it in the album then they could open a present. At first they rolled their eyes, but then the stories started flying. What used to be 20 minutes of gift opening turned into 2.5 hours of story sharing and tons of laughing!
Albums, they make us laugh, they make us cry. They tell us who we are, where we have been and sometimes, as in Debi’s first story, where we are going. Albums of love, joy, pain.
Albums and the people in them, that is why we do what we do.
I'd love to hear about your favorite album!
Guess what I found? It's right on our CMC Network website. You'll have to log in to link to this posting, but you'll be glad you did! Do you realize that your local sports teams, clubs, dance and drama groups, and organizations are taking professional and candid shots of their players and events - ALL THE TIME! And, do you realize that parents are paying amazing prices to have just that perfect shot of their star player or performer? They do it ALL THE TIME! They are really looking for YOU! Yes, YOU actually have the best package deal of any photographer around and you may not even realize it! Here's what I found today on cmc-network under the Digital Tab on our home page...click there, then go to Alternative Selling Methods, scroll to the very bottom with photo of Lise Brake and click on the sample links! Here's one to get your started! Oh my, you won't believe your opportunity RIGHT NOW....this month, this Spring, before school ends. Check it out!!!
The samples posted here are from UL Jani Aguilar who made page prints available to her local highschool team. Check out the cmc-network links for some more INCREDIBLE ideas that you won't want to pass up right now! Even if you don't have kids at the highschool level, or even kids at home anylonger like me, you sure have a service to offer - so get on the phone and set up some appointments today with your local groups! UL Dawne Mylie on our team is doing that this week and I'll be excited to share her results on an upcoming blog post!
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