July 12th I headed up to Herndon Virginia for a special workshop called the VIPINTENSIVE with Reina Pomeroy!   This workshop was all about passive income.  So many people have asked me all about what I learned and how it was and especially about the “passive income” part.   I can’t even begin to recap three days of amazing hands on learning in a simple conversation.   But I figured I could share a few of my take aways here!

Firstly (if that is a word haha)…   This workshop was small, which was AMAZING because we all got to mastermind, share and be in the hot seat.   I worked up a sweat multiple times having to stand in front of amazing lady bosses and talk all things business.  And to make me even more anxious this was not even about my photography business.  I went to the workshop, and have worked with Reina previously, all for my little side hustle Creatives Live Happy.    

Reina and Hailey from The Trunked Creative were so so good.  I can’t even say enough about how REAL and well done this workshop was all because of their hard work and leadership.  I truly felt supported the entire time; even when I felt crazy saying all my big ideas out loud!  

So on to the nitty gritty!  My take-aways:
So many of us are actually service based businesses and not selling “products” so we spent a lot of time during the workshop talking about our sales process, what kind of journey we want our clients to go on, and how we can make our sales more efficient (or passive).  

We did talk a lot about how to sell in ways that are not icky.   And a “sales funnel” can be more about an experience than about the yuk yuk of making an offer.  

Truth… we are all in business to make a profit…. So it is OKAY to make offers!   We are all in such a habit of blogging and giving away our knowledge, just to get eyes on what we are doing, that we lose track of actually making offers and SELLING!  

Reina and Hailey helped us gain a lot of much-needed confidence in selling our work or service.   

We talked about core values, manifestos, techy email things, strategic visibility, content marketing,  and most importantly THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY.

So if you are thinking about passive income, start thinking about it differently.  Think about it as your customer journey or experience.  It might make it look a little different.  Yes we can streamline this stuff so that we aren’t chained to our computers 24/7.. But it can be done tastefully.  

I’m so excited to spend the month of August implementing new strategies and my step by step plans we created at the workshop!  (more on this at the bottom)

Now I want to introduce you to all the amazing ladies at the VIPINTENSIVE!!!!!   

Reina Pomeroy from Reina & Co.  and The Creative Empire Podcast

Reina has an AMAZING Facebook community so make sure you check out all the things and sign up for her Sunshine Mail….. TOTALLY worth it!!!!

Hailey Dale from The Trunked Creative  decided to be camera-shy so I hijacked some imagery from her website:

I’m SO grateful that Hailey made the trip to the workshop (all the way from Canada!).  To meet her in person was a priceless experience… she has this way of speaking that makes you want to hold on to every word!

Rachel from The Reina & Co team and 600 Acres

 Hannah Corman who is a beautiful painter 

Elise Luddy of the Aisle Agency

Samantha Mabe of Lemon and the Sea 

Illiah Manger from C & V

Illiah had to leave before we did headshots so I missed her pretty face in front of my camera!

And I can’t forget a few BTS pictures!  Reina even cooked for us 🙂

So what is next!??   As I mentioned above I have mapped out time in August to really dig into all the things and fun projects!   I’m really excited to go day by day and give my business what I’m calling a “backend makeover”  haha.  I will finally be reopening my blog over at Creatives Live Happy (EEK).  I’m organizing my email list so that I can talk to clients, creatives, photographers, and brides all separately.   And the MOST exciting part is that I’m sharing my journey in the Creatives Live Happy Lounge which is our private Facebook group.   I’m going to literally share what I’m working on everyday!  I’m doing this for a few reasons… to hold MYSELF more accountable, but also to share this backend makeover journey… the good, the bad, and the ugly.   I even checked in this morning and told them today I was writing this blog post!

AND I want to know if you could accomplish anything this month what would it be???  Come join us!!!!!