Behind the Scenes on a Large Corporate Shoot with Glynns Thomas

Pat Miller: 00:00

I'm Pat Miller, and this is The Professional Photographer Podcast. You love taking headshots, and you know there's a bunch of gold in these large companies that bring you in to do a big headshot day. Take pictures of all of our people, 20 people, 30 people, sixty, seventy, 90 people in a shoot. It's a really great piece of business, and you wanna know how to do it better. Well, good news. Glynns Thomas is our guest today, and she's been doing it for a while. And she's gonna share her secrets from setup to client communication, the bedside manner with a client, how to make them feel comfortable so you get something good for them, What the goal is–and I love her perspective on this–the goal of the shoot is to help your contact look good. She'll talk all about that. She'll go through after the shoot communication. She basically lays it all out. And if that's not enough, we're even tagging her class in the show notes if you wanna learn even more. Large corporate headshot days. How to do them well. Glynns Thomas, standing by. We'll talk to her next. Glynns, welcome to The Professional Photographer Podcast. Great to see you. How are you today?

Glynns Thomas: 01:17

Thank you. Great to see you, Pat. I'm doing excellent. It's a beautiful spring day, so just happy to see sunshine.

Pat Miller: 01:24

Oh, sunshine. I've heard about sunshine. It's cloudy here in Milwaukee all the time, but we'll get sunshine for about three hours in July. So I'm looking forward to it. It'll be great. If someone hasn't met you yet, tell us who you are and what you do.

Glynns Thomas: 01:38

Sure. My name again is Glynns, and I am a professional photographer, and I specialize in corporate headshots. The bulk of my work is I go on location to offices, and I'll photograph either an executive team or the entire team. So I'm doing about five to a hundred people at a time, and that's probably 95% of my work. The rest of it, I'm just doing individuals.

Pat Miller: 02:04

That's a branch of work that a lot of people wanna get into. And today, we get to go behind the scenes on those big corporate jobs. But before we get into the details and the what to do and what not to do, what's the hardest thing about doing work like this? Is it the amount of time you have to spend? Is it dealing with the clients? Is it the business management of the whole thing? What makes this tough?

Glynns Thomas: 02:26

I would say I've been doing this for seven years now, so I have systems down. And systems are king. You have to have systems. But for me now, it's when I'm hitting my busy season, and I have maybe four or five jobs a week, which is really stretching myself. And it's being able to stay on top of everything and stay organized and not confuse my jobs. I wanna make sure that I'm saying the right client brand name, the right name when I show up, I have the right lighting diagram when I show up, because it can get really hectic. So making sure that I'm clear about each of the jobs that are just back to back to back, and I am able to make the appropriate amount of time after the fact for follow-ups, for retouching and closing out of a job. I don't schedule specific days that I photograph, like I know some photographers do, but I want to be available to when my customers need me. And a lot of times these are a quarterly meeting or an annual meeting, and I just need to be available. So I can't do that pre-planning to make sure that I'm building enough of the back end. So I'm planning that on the go and just trying to make sure I don't drop any balls when it gets really busy.

Pat Miller: 03:54

Now this is kind of a just a side quest kinda question, but you brought up something that made me go, wow, I wonder how she handles that. So your biggest client says, we're doing a corporate board meeting, and we want you there on Sunday. Thinking about boundaries and lifestyle, do you just make it happen and charge them an inconvenience fee, or is that just part of the job? Like, how do you handle those personal boundaries with the demands of some of these large clients?

Glynns Thomas: 04:18

Well, I should clarify as a corporate headshot photographer, I don't work weekends. And it is extremely rare for a client to even want a weekend. I think that happened once last year, and maybe it was even a studio, it wasn't even to come on location, and I said, absolutely, I charge one and a half times for weekend shoots. And they said, yep, no problem. So it's not really something I need to worry about, and it's one of the things I love that I can then be home, you know, my kids are in college now. But before, I could be home when they're home. I could be home when my husband's home. I have no interest in working weekends, and that's part of the reason why I went down this path.

Pat Miller: 05:03

Yeah. That's great benefit for sure. Well, let's set up a specific job that we get to reference throughout the entire interview. Because if someone has a frame of reference of who you're going to be referring to, I think it will be easier to follow all the good stuff you're gonna share. So for this example in this interview, let's set up a corporate job. Where are we going and how many people are you gonna take pictures of?

Glynns Thomas: 05:25

Sure. So I just did one recently. It was for probably a mid-sized construction firm, and they wanted to level up all of their headshots. These sorts of service-based companies need headshots, not necessarily to put on their website, although a lot of times that they do, but mostly to put into proposals. So they send out proposals to bid on jobs, and they want a great-looking team, and they wanna be able to switch in and out whoever's gonna be on that team, for each of those specific pages of their proposal. So this particular company contacted me. They have two offices in California, one in Northern and one in Southern California, and they had me go; I photographed over two days, and two in Northern and two in Southern. I did about 35 headshots in Northern California, and then I spent a half day doing what they like to call in their industry marketing stock images. So they're custom stock images. I go around their offices, primarily taking pictures of people interacting with each other. These aren't used in proposals. They're used for company culture and recruiting purposes. And then also just when they have company internal newsletters, each of the offices kinda get to know each other. And then I also went down to Southern California for two more days and did the same exact thing, and I photographed 93 people there.

Pat Miller: 06:53

Wow.

Glynns Thomas: 06:53

And then also did the marketing images for them. It was a blast. It was definitely busy.

Pat Miller: 07:00

That sounds great. And we get to go behind the scenes on that job. So that's our frame of reference for today. Let's begin where it begins. This job has an inquiry. How do you schedule it? How do you actually pick the days in working with them?

Glynns Thomas: 07:13

Well, first of all, it's usually an email inquiry that I get from them. And then they'll give me enough information that I can provide them a quote. So I'll spend a good amount of time making sure that I have a thorough quote to send back that addresses the questions that they have as well as anything that I think that they need to know. And if they've already put out some dates, great. Or if it's a bit open, then I might wait till the next stage. In this instance, they sent that, they asked for a proposal back, and then they came back and said, we'd like to do a video chat with you. So I then got on a video chat a few days later with about three different people from various offices. They also have, I think, a fractional CMO, who is on the East Coast. So they were able to make sure I'm a real person. That's a concern. They know they need to do their due diligence. They need to get, you know, a vibe of, does this person know what they're doing? Does she look like someone that they could work with? And so, yeah, you gotta be on your game for that. And it's not, I think a lot of people get really nervous about how do I act in that instance. It's a relaxed professionalism. So you wanna have everything buttoned up, but you have to show, be relaxed and confident. And I think that being relaxed is sort of that secret ingredient of people going, "Okay, this person knows what they're doing." Because if you're just, like, super robotic or whatever when you're going through it, I think that's gonna throw up all sorts of red flags. You have to be able to throw in a little bit of humor. Being relaxed shows confidence.

Pat Miller: 09:21

And makes them feel confident.

Glynns Thomas: 09:22

And makes them feel confident. Exactly.

Pat Miller: 09:25

What are some of the common questions in that stage? Things that they're curious about, hey, would you do this or we definitely don't want that? What are some of the things that come up over and over?

Glynns Thomas: 09:35

So they usually have a corporate brand already put together, or a lot of times they're in the middle of rebranding. And it is rare that a customer is like, "I have no idea what we want." And well, I should pull that back. Usually, what I will say is I have lots of different options, but the easiest to replicate with over time, and what goes with most skin tones, is a medium gray. And I would say 90% of my customers are like, "Yeah, I want that." So it's not a long conversation. And in the past, I would try to come up with all these different ideas, and I'd send them all and go back and forth. We could do this. We could do that. And they were like, "I don't know." So I think, you know, they're just quite happy that if I say, hey, this goes with most skin tones, and this goes with your brand, I've already looked at your brand, then they're just like, "Yeah, we'll just go do that." So that's a pretty easy conversation. I think, at that point, they already know my pricing. I keep my pricing on my website; that just reduces the amount of calls that I don't want to get. I want people to kind of go already self select. And then, they might want to know, I think most of these people have never hired a headshot photographer for a big shoot, and so they don't know what to ask, but they're gonna be concerned next about my availability. Does it match up with when they wanna do it? So we could go back and forth. Usually, I do that over email because if they give me any parameters or no parameters, I'll go through my calendar, and I'll give them maybe five different dates and times for them to select from. And I say, if you need me to give you more, I'll do that. And, you know, a lot of times they select a date, and then that changes again because it's like herding cats on their end or trying to get a hundred people to all be available is very difficult, and I have a lot of empathy for them in that role.

Pat Miller: 11:49

That's kind of like playing 3D chess in a way. The person that's hiring you is most likely reporting to someone, and you wanna make them look good by giving them solutions and making sure that you're gonna deliver on what they need so that decision-maker feels good about their decision. You're almost helping them manage up. Is that a way to think about it?

Glynns Thomas: 12:08

That's a really excellent point. That's a lot. So I used to be a marketing executive, so it's been a long time, but I probably understand the position they're in than most photographers. I understand they are managing up. I understand that this is a big deal. And so I will sort of coach them and give them some ideas. I might say, once we're further down the line and we're booked and we're getting closer, I might say, I'm gonna mention to some of your people, but, you know, if there's a way that you can weave it in, this is a great opportunity for you to show this as a reward to your employees. So it's a gift the company's giving. If they came to me for an individual headshot, it is not cheap. So this is a big deal that the company's doing this. You know, it's a way to say you value their career trajectory. So if that marketing person, if customer retention and company culture is part of their job description, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't, they're gonna be very interested and grateful for that. The other thing is is that a lot of times, they're in multiple offices, and so this is a unique opportunity for that marketing manager to meet everybody who's coming in, flying in, driving in. The people, you know, there's so much hybrid and people out at different job sites. So I suggest, you know, you might wanna be there. I go, I don't have to have you there, but I have no problems if you want to be. But this is a great opportunity for you to be able to shake the hands of everybody and get yourself known because the bigger the company, my experience is, your value is based on who you know within the company. So knowing a lot of people is important for your own career. And then secondly, because I am photographing the executive board, I am photographing their peers, and I am photographing maybe those brand-new to the company, what I do reflects on them. And so, I want to make sure that I am making everybody really happy, given a great experience. And I have had people come back to me and say, I have never had this many compliments from a vendor before. And I have seen people I don't know if what I did related to it, but I would like to think that it had something to do with it if they got promoted several months later. You know, it's a big deal to up your brand, and to put in more assets, and to spend the money that they don't normally have in their annual budgets. This is a big deal for them. And if I can tick all those boxes and make it all happen with ease for them and not give them a lot of work, I'm golden. They're my customer. So at least for them, you know, I've been doing this for only seven years, but so far, I haven't lost a customer. I get repeat because my job isn't necessarily to provide them the best-looking headshots ever. It is to provide a turnkey, easy solution that makes my point person who hired me look great.

Pat Miller: 15:27

Getting them promoted, we like to call that the Glynns Effect around here. Look it up GlynnsEffect.com. It's what happens when you hire her. It comes with the territory. I wanna get on to what happens the day of the shoot and some other big goals around one of these sessions. But I am really curious. You're herding over a hundred cats. People get sick. People are on vacation. You mentioned hybrid employees. If you show up for two days in Northern and one day in Southern, what if someone's not around? How do you handle that?

Glynns Thomas: 15:54

It happens every single time. I have to say this last one when I was down in Southern California, that marketing manager was so on top of it, and she got 100% participation. And I said, you are the first that's ever done that. There's always somebody who's gonna call in sick on the day, or, you know, got rushed into an emergency meeting, whatever. But what I do in advance of that is if we have a large amount of people, I offer that I set up a scheduling calendar for them, so I can give them a URL that's got tips on how to prepare and then a link to a calendar. And then everyone can choose their time slots, And then I give them updates of who has signed up as it gets closer so they know who to go and bug. And then they know what is on the plate. And even at the last minute, I mean, there's gonna be people who don't come in order. There's gonna be people who come in late. There's gonna be people who just don't show up. That's all fine. Like, I can handle it. I don't care what order they come in. This schedule is really just for them to make sure that people have committed. I use a software program called Headshot Tools that has completely changed my life in this. So it doesn't matter what order they come in. I can just look their name up and double click it, and I'm off to the races. But yeah, and then inevitably, people can't show up, and inevitably, there's gonna be new hires. So I have my studio available for those people because it's less expensive for them to send them over to my studio than for me to come on location. I have certain customers that bring me back every spring and every fall, and so they just wait till they get enough people, usually say five or more people, and then I go back. But the rest of them that just have, you know, one-offs here and there, or they have a brand-new executive that's starting, they can't wait. You know, they've got press releases going out and so forth, they just send them over to my studio with a special web page just for them. And we get it done, and I make it look like the same as everybody else's, and everybody's happy.

Pat Miller: 18:07

Love it. Let's talk about what happens the actual day of the shoot because we're going behind the scenes. So are you rolling up with a team full of people or are you setting it all up by yourself?

Glynns Thomas: 18:16

I used to bring a team if I had, let's say, a hundred people, but I can do it all on my own now, you know, unless they want a hair and makeup artist, which is rare for me. It does happen, but it's not often. So between the different software programs I use and my kit, if it's local, I just load all of everything in the car, and then I've got one of those foldable wagons, And then I just bring everybody and everything in one trip, and I like to say, I'm setting up my house. I don't tell too many people that, but I sort of feel like once you get, like, I've got my camera on a tripod in the front. I'll have an eye lighter or reflector down below them. I might have another reflector up to the side of them, and then I might have lights on the background, or I might have rim lights, strip lights on the sides of them. And then I have my backdrop in the front. So it kinda becomes sort of this square or rectangle, and I sort of feel like I'm setting up house, in their house. So I get that all set up, and for some people it's really intimidating and some people, it's like fascinating or whatever, but it's clear where they need to stand. I make that clear, and we just chat and, gosh, you know, when I first started doing this, I was only doing individuals, and I would probably spend two and a half hours with one person. And I thought, I could never do five minutes or three minutes with a person. And if I could, I would hate it. And now that I've done it, I'm like, I don't wanna spend any more than five minutes with somebody. We have a great time in those five minutes. But it's, you know, some people will say they're so amazed that I can make this big huge setup in their place from that one wagon. And I think I told someone, it's kind of like camping gear. You know, the more expensive it is, the tighter it packs up. So you can get some really great gear, you know, put into a single wagon, and it just makes a whole entire house when you arrive.

Pat Miller: 20:21

We need to have a for real talk about those fold up wagons though because they are magic. Aren't they just the coolest things? Like, you can fit a whole clown car into one of those things.

Glynns Thomas: 20:30

Oh, yeah. Totally. I've had mine–I mean, I bought it ages ago. It's got to be 20 years old now, and it's a tank. It works great.

Pat Miller: 20:40

Yeah. Those are the real MVP. How long does it take to set up your house? Is that ten minutes, an hour, or how long?

Glynns Thomas: 20:46

I ask for an hour to set up. I usually try to come in–I say I arrive an hour earlier. I usually come a little bit more than that because sometimes the space that they decided for me isn't the best. I wanna make sure that that's all decided. And I take an hour to set up. I spend about a half an hour getting all the equipment up, and then I spend a half an hour getting all the electronics set up, and then go through my test shots. And then that allows me enough time that I would probably be done 45 minutes early. So it's 45 minutes, I guess. Because I've learned that there are always people that once they see everything set up, they think you're ready to go, and they want to get it done and out of the way. So people will start rushing over twenty, fifteen minutes early, say, "Can you take me? Can you take me now?" So, it is important to be set up earlier, otherwise then you're panicked and you're rushing, so, you know, and then your test shots. You know, if I'm not, you know, thoroughly done my test shots, then I'm fiddling throughout the shoot, and I shouldn't be fiddling. I need to dial that in before I really start going.

Pat Miller: 21:55

One more thing on setup. Do you recommend that people, I don't wanna say splurge, but not skimp on that gear, the lighter, the more compact, the easier to fold. Sometimes that is a little bit more expensive, but when you're trucking it around 20 or 50 times a year, that makes a difference, doesn't it?

Glynns Thomas: 22:10

Oh, I see your point. Yeah. You want gear that's gonna last, but, you know, I have some of my stuff's expensive. Some of it's not so expensive. I have to say I don't think anything's really broken. I am cognizant of not throwing stuff around and making sure I pack it. You know, I don't put my umbrellas down on the bottom. Umbrellas always go on top because those are pretty delicate. I even got, like, I went to Staples, an office supply store, and I got those big long tubes, cardboard tubes, and I'll stick my umbrellas in there just to give it, because I have had them get crushed, and so it just provides a little bit extra protection. But, you know, if money was no object and I could buy a whole new kit, oh, yeah. I'd be buying, you know, much more compact stuff. But I have to say the general stuff you get right now is pretty compact. I do like for my backdrop, you know, I love paper. Paper is the best, but paper's a big pain to take on location, and I always end up ruining my paper roll, and it's heavy. And then the stands to get it up are heavier. So I finally just decided to go with the Westcott X-Drop, and that thing is so tiny and light and little. I can fly with it. And if I just keep it further enough away from the background, I don't have to worry about wrinkles or the texture. And even that, you know, most of these company headshots, you know, I need the background to be consistent, and before I would just sort of eyeball it in between shoots, and if you put them side by side, they weren't ever quite exactly the same. So now I just replace the backgrounds. So it doesn't even matter if there's wrinkles and texture on the backdrop. Now I just put the backdrop really close, and then it just doesn't matter because I'm gonna replace it.

Pat Miller: 24:13

Alright. We've got the client. You're ready to go. They walk up to the set. What does that interaction look like from walking up to walking away? Walk us through it.

Glynns Thomas: 24:22

Sure. And you repeat this over and over and over again. But it's basically, I see somebody come in. It's a big smile and a welcome because they might be hovering on the outside. This is not what they wanna do. And so I'm like, come on in. And then they come on in, and I'll guide them to where they're gonna go and stand. And then I'll just, you know, I'm just being bubbly and positive and happy, and I'll ask them what their name is. I have to look it on my list because I need to double click it on my software before I start shoot–the software headshot tools, if you use it and you double click their name, then every shot I take after that automatically renames the files with their first and last name, so it's a really important step. But that gives me a chance to be able to ask their name, you know, and I said, just relax. I'm just gonna do some test shots. And so they get used to the lights a little bit. And then I just have three different poses I walk them through. It's really simple. And I just start and I'll say, give me a big smile. And that's a, a key point right there. I'm gonna find out, does this person have no problem smiling, or am I gonna do a lot more coaching with this person? So if they can smile, I'm like, oh, I don't have to worry about you. That's awesome. What a smile. That went straight to my heart, and that just gets them to smile more and more. I walk them through the things, and then, I might reiterate a next step as I just, you know, send them on out. And there is a little bit of a workflow, you wanna keep in mind. So I might look, hey, everyone's gonna come in this way, stand there in front, and then I want everyone to exit this way just so we can keep things moving. People are bumping into each other. And there is a lot of equipment around there, so it's a little bit of a maze. So I might, you know, have a workflow where I'm directing them through. Did that answer your question? Did I miss anything? Okay.

Pat Miller: 26:24

No. That's awesome. When someone walks up and they think, "Oh, great. The dentist is here. I really don't wanna do this." You mentioned complimenting their smile and and joking with them a little bit. But when you have one of those really hard cases of people that really don't wanna be there, do you ever just put your camera down and have a conversation with them? I mean, how do you warm them up to get the confidence to be themselves in front of the camera when you know they don't wanna be?

Glynns Thomas: 26:49

Right. Well, first of all, because it is such an assembly line, you know, I don't have much of a luxury to do what I would do with like an individual coming to my studio. So part of it is just making it as fast as possible, but I have lots of little different things that I say just to make them laugh. Like, I will just call it out, and I'll say, show me how much you wanna be here. You know? I've got lots of different things, and I'll say, whose great idea was it for you guys to all get headshots? Who do you need me to go rough up right now? You know, and they'll they'll laugh. And I'll have silly things like, you know, no one else in the room. I go, "Show me how much you love your company." And that usually gets people to laugh and we all kinda do that knowing thing. But I'll get people go, "No. I love this company." And I'm like, alright. Okay. There's no recordings going on in here. You know, I'm just teasing. I'm keeping it light." The more people there are, the larger the possibility that you're gonna get somebody who is just so freaked out. You know, they can't keep their eyes open with the lights. They're so nervous. And so I will spend some time. I've realized that if I go and do a shoot in a big area, where it's opened, I need to turn my set around so that they're not facing the other people. Because some people love that, you know, and some people, like, that's just awful. So I try to be cognizant of that, you know, and of course, if somebody's really struggling, I'm gonna go right up to them. I'm gonna talk to them closely, and I'm gonna tell them how much I hate having my picture taken, too, and I feel for them. And, you know, I go, we're just gonna get this through. And then I also have some retouching things to kinda help, you know, if you just can't get it all the way there. I have to say a lot of my fabulous, wonderful men that I work with will blush. I get it all the way up the neck and in the ears. And there's there's that blushing. And you have no idea during the shoot that this is going on, but I get home, and then I see all the redness. And so I have special brushes that I can do to brush out that redness. If I didn't exactly get the full smile, there's a little bit of liquify or something that I can do in there just to jump that last little bit that didn't quite get there, in dire situations–not dire, it's just because I love to retouch way too much–but if I'm like, you know, that's the best smile, but their eyes are closed, I might do a little, you know, I shouldn't be retouching too much, but I do tell people I retouch with love. So I've got their back, and if there's anything I can do to give them their best, I'm gonna do that for them.

Pat Miller: 30:01

So from the time they walk up to the time they walk away is how many minutes do you think?

Glynns Thomas: 30:06

If it's a, you know, group of, let's say, 20 or less people, I will have ten-minute time slots. And if it's more, I'm doing probably five-minute time slots. And a lot of times, that's even more than what we need. You know, it depends on the individual. There's a lot of people who are just like, "I don't care." And then they're just like, you got it? And then they're just gonna go on. And if I think, you know, at that point, I'm thinking, do I have what the company needs? So I'm not gonna let them leave until I have something that the company is going to want, but, yeah, those people are done in a minute. They come up there, they hit the smile, they know if I cooperate, I get out of here faster. And then there's other people who, you know, some people might say they're the difficult ones, but I'm like, they're the ones who really care. Like, they understand the value of this, and they want this to be a great shot. And I might say, hey, you know, as they're walking out, you wanna take a quick peek. So if it's a really fast thing, I don't have time for that. But if I'm doing, let's say, 20 or fewer people and they have the ten-minute time slots, I will have them come over and I'll say, let me show you what I've got. And I said, I'm showing this to you because I'm gonna be emailing these to you in your own private online gallery, but I wanna make sure there's something you're gonna choose. So I'm gonna go through these really fast, and what I want you to tell me is, are there some good choices in there for you, or do you wanna go back and wanna try some more? And so we'll just spend, like, thirty seconds doing that. And then they'll either, like, they're so freaked out. They don't wanna do this. They're like, yep, yep, I'll totally pick something in there. Or there's gonna be people like, "Okay. I really like that angle on me, but I wanna do some more of those." Perfect. Let's go back and do that. So as much as I can help them in that short amount of time, I'm going to do that. And if there is somebody that's really struggling, I will certainly let my point person know. And usually I hear, "I'm not surprised." So there's just some personalities that are just not gonna be happy, but as long as the vast majority of people are happy, then my point person knows that I've done a good job for them.

Pat Miller: 32:29

Shoot is over. You're back at the studio with all the files. You mentioned how you might take some of the red out of people's necks and that kind of thing. But do you have a preset series of just light edits that you go through? What's the process before anybody sees them?

Glynns Thomas: 32:43

Sure. Actually, no. I will just send raw unedited out for the proofing galleries. It would probably be better if I did, and I know that there's a way to do that. So once I get that next opportunity, I'm gonna set that up. But for the most part, it's been fine. And so I will send out unretouched images to the proofing galleries, they choose. Then, when I get home, I'm gonna back up all my images. I will do a back up while I'm there, before I leave, and then when I get home, I do another back up, and then that just sits there until the day that their choices are due. So once they have their choices, I can pull those, cut and paste them into Lightroom, it'll pull them all up, I'll flag those, and that I know is my base. Then, I've started using Evoto, since last year, and I do have presets that'll have a whole bunch of sliders and individual things. So I'll have my basic men and my basic women, or just my basic overall for both men and women. And then I have certain clients, I have specific presets for them. And that includes a background change, but the level of edits, I have certain clients who want less edits, and I have other clients who want every single edit possible. So, I try . to keep everyone to my basic line, but I do have specific clients that re gonna have something specific that they want, and so I'm gonna make sure that that's already preset. I just need to run the preset, and that gets me 80% there. And then I'll go through each of those individually, and if I need to do any tweaks on individuals, I'll do those. Then I export them, and I load them back into their galleries, and then I just send a mass email to everyone saying they're up in the galleries. If it's a smaller, a job, like 20 or fewer people, then I will give them the opportunity to give me feedback on the edits before I send it officially to the company. And some people hugely appreciate thatAnd then if it's a bigger job or if it's a company that doesn't want people involved in that, then I don't have to go through that process.

Pat Miller: 35:05

Those presets might not seem like a big deal inside the industry. But to someone that's outside the industry, you mean you can give me all of these images formatted and shaped exactly the size that I need them, and I don't have to do it? That's a godsend. On your end, it's click, click, and they're output that way. But for a civilian, that's a lot of hard, like, tedious work that you're saving for them.

Glynns Thomas: 35:26

Yes. And I do sometimes remember to let my client know in advance, like, I usually just will give an 8 x 10 horizontal crop. And so I'll say, is there any other crops that you want? And I'm gonna be naming them by last name, first name for your convenience, so when it goes into your marketing repository, it's easy for you to find these. Is there anything else you need in that file name, like the office that they're in or, you know, what? So I'm constantly trying to look for more ways to make my client's job easier. And, you know, I have some ongoing big clients that they have certain metadata that they need, in those files, and they need multiple kinds of crops. So I do try–most of the people don't need that, but there are certain customers that do–so I'm trying to get that all done so that–because usually, like, it's on that marketing person to do, or they might send it to a graphic person if they don't themselves do it, but I'm just trying to get that off their plate. I had a customer one time. I took them out to lunch, and I said, you know, you've been giving me more and more business. I'm surprised. You fly me down to Southern California now. You know, why didn't you continue using the other photographer? And I thought they were gonna tell me because my work is just so amazing because I've been working really hard to up my game, and no, that's not what they said. They said, "You're the easiest photographer we've ever worked with." That was it.

Pat Miller: 37:03

Makes all the difference. Okay. So the shoot is over. Now it's time to follow up. They've got all of their files. Is that the end of it, or are you staying in consistent, like, conversation and communication with them? What do you do after the shoot?

Glynns Thomas: 37:17

So after everything's delivered, I should do more. If it's not clear that we're done, I always try to make sure there's a clear ending. And every email's a thank you, especially at the end. But there's not an email that doesn't go up that doesn't say thank you in there. But, you know, on my CRM, I'm making sure did I get my payment, which I should've because I asked for full payment by before I send the final images. But I'm double checking that. I'm double checking that everything was backed up, and they got everything they needed. There were any more outstanding questions. And so I'll say in my final email, and I'll say, it's just been a pleasure. Absolutely love this project. You have such a great team. Here is my link if you get any new hires or anybody who missed the shoot, here's where they can sign up for a time slot, and then I charge you later directly. So it's not my public facing for individuals, where they have to pay in advance. And so they know they've got that going forward. I used to do a monthly email that then turned into a quarterly email. Now it's an annual email newsletter. Because, you know, your business is one. It gets really busy. But I do an annual email in right before the fall season, which hits, which is my busiest season. And so everyone will get, you know, that. So any anyone I've ever worked with, they're gonna get that. But mostly how I stay top of mind is through LinkedIn. I've ended up focusing on people who are companies that are active on LinkedIn, and because they're marketing managers, their job is to be active on LinkedIn too. Not every type of business does that or has people who need to do that. So because they're posting several times a week on behalf of their company, for them personally, I know they're there. So I make sure I'm posting three times a week about, and they see my work. For me, it's like the best way to keep in touch. It's not a formal email newsletter that they're just gonna delete or scan through. It's like they're seeing this snapshot of who I've been working with and that's always interesting, and what kind of work I've done for them. And I tend to specialize in particular industries. So I'm niching down here, and everybody knows everybody else. So everyone wants to see what their competitors are doing, and the marketing person that their competitor is probably a friend of theirs. And so they wanna know what I'm doing in terms of their competitors, and they wanna know what I'm doing in terms of their friends. And so I get a lot of referrals back and forth that way, but also, you know, when I go and do repeat work, there's usually a comment of, like, "Wow. You're, like, super busy," or "Wow. You're so popular in our industry. You're, like, the photographer for our industry." And that reflects really well on me because, you know, and some of these companies are like, midsize, and let's say I work for the big companies. They love being associated with me. Oh, you're also the photographer that does this company. We wanna be like them. So, it is really important for my brand success that I am seen often and with people that other people know.

Pat Miller: 40:59

Yeah. We are almost out of time, but you said something that I wanna follow back up on. You said that they get their images when they pay because so many corporate clients will be 30, 60, 90, 120 notoriously slow payments. How do you square the marketing needs with what the CFO is gonna do when it's time to send your check?

Glynns Thomas: 41:18

So I never knew that. So I didn't have that understanding going into it. And through all the mentors that I've learned through, I was always told that you ask for payment upfront. You would either ask for 50% upfront, and then 50% on the day, or you ask for 100% upfront. And so that's just what I've done. There are some clients that are repeat clients that I will just get lax with just because we've worked a lot together. I know I'm gonna get it, but sometimes they get a little too lax, so I'm like, I gotta rein them back in, because two months is not acceptable. There are a few clients. There's, like, a magazine. When I work with the magazine, they're like, "We don't pay you till, like, 90 days later." That's just the deal. Usually, what I mostly care about is that in order for them to secure that session, and I'm not gonna give that day to anybody else, you have to pay 50% upfront. So you either need to rush that check, use your personal credit card. Sometimes they have to do that. You know, their corporate credit card's got a problem. They gotta do that, and they will figure that out. And then I try, and for most of my customers, it's like, after the shoot, I will then say, I've retouched everything, and I still haven't received payment. I will send these to you as soon as I get that payment. And then that's enough for them to kinda go, "Okay. We gotta scramble," or whatever. There's always gonna be the outliers, but, for the most part, it's not a problem. And I think that it doesn't seem to be a problem with the client either.

Pat Miller: 43:02

There's a class on how we can go even deeper. You've been so helpful today, but tell us about the class you've made.

Glynns Thomas: 43:08

Oh, thank you so much. Well, there's a couple. There's actually one. If you go to headshottools.com, they have an archive of free classes, and so I did one where I go in-depth on LinkedIn. But I did present at Imaging USA, and I have that one for sale that you can purchase where I'm gonna go a lot more in-depth into this as well as how I market to be having 70 to 80 jobs a year that, and should I just state the URL?

Pat Miller: 43:39

Yeah. Go ahead. Share it.

Glynns Thomas: 43:40

So it's my name, my website, it's https://www.glynnsthomas.com/2025-iusa-video and all the information's there, and you can purchase that and have that and hopefully learn a whole lot. I poured in everything that I could think of and all my secrets. So there you go.

Pat Miller: 44:16

All the secrets including the tubes from Staples. That was the secret of the day. That was a winner. We will also, of course, put that link in the show notes so that way you can find it real easily. Glynns, thank you so much for coming on The Professional Photographer Podcast. I appreciate it.

Glynns Thomas: 44:32

Thank you so much for having me. It was an honor.

Pat Miller: 44:34

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of The Professional Photographer Podcast. Before you go, can you do us a favor? Leave us a comment. We love likes and we love subscriptions, so do both of those things, but we do love the comments because the comments will let us know what did you enjoy about this week's episode. What did Glynns say that's gonna make you money? Or what did she say that made you reconsider how you do large corporate headshots? Leave us those comments because it helps us build a better show. And if you wanna build a better studio, you should join Professional Photographers of America. If you're not yet a member, you're missing out on what PPA offers. We're talking incredible resources like equipment insurance, top-notch education, and a supportive community of photographers ready to help you succeed. It's perfect for photographers who are serious about growing their business in a sustainable and profitable way. At PPA, you belong here. Discover more about membership at PPA.com. That's PPA.com. I'm Pat Miller, Founder of the Small Business Owners Community and the Small Business Summary newsletter. Thanks for joining us on this journey, and we will see you right back here with The Professional Photographer Podcast real soon. Take care.