Chat, g p t is taking over the world. And if you're a photographer or a photographer, listen up. Not only can chat g p t make you a better photographer, it can help you get clients negotiate for higher rates and much, much more. Chat. G P T is an amazing tool that can help you every single day and save you loads of time.
Do you hate writing client emails? Chat, G P T can help you with that so you can put more time into doing what you actually love, creating photos and making videos. This podcast episode is walking you through how I'm using it inside of my business every single day to make me more money. I'm also including a free cheat sheet in the show notes, so stick around and check that out.
Welcome to the Creative Biz Launch Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your creative business and scale to six figures. Whether you're a photographer, filmmaker, or designer, you'll find something of value here. Okay, so chat, G P T At this point, I'm sure you've heard of or used chat, G P T Chat. G P T is an AI powered language model.
The user interface is that of a chat bot, and it's extremely. I wanna give you some context here. It took chat, G P D, just two months to hit 100 million users. And compared to the other platforms you might know, like TikTok and Instagram, it took Instagram two and a half years to hit that mark. It took TikTok nine months and chat G P T.
It took just two months to hit that a hundred million user mark. That is an incredible feat for this new piece of software. This podcast is not going to be about the ethics of chat U P T or the technology behind. in terms of ethics, you can't stop AI from taking over. It's already here, so you're left with only one option here, and your option is to embrace it or you're going to be out of a job.
It's adapt or die. With that out of the way, let's really dive into it.
When I'm not teaching create business, I'm doing product photography and I actually have an upcoming shoot for a collagen powder. Let's see how chat G P T can help me with this. Shoot. Collagen is a supplement a lot of people take, so it's going to be important to see if Chat G P T actually knows what collagen is and applies it into what we're going to be shooting.
My prompt here was. How do I style a proc photography shoot around collagen? I was really impressed with the answer that chat PT gave me here. Chat PT knew that collagen is a health and wellness product and that it's marketed towards healthy skin, healthy nails and joints. Okay, so how this podcast will work, I will read out the prompt that I gave chat, G p t, so the input that I typed in, and then I will read out the output that chat G p t gave us.
When I read the output, I will say chat, G p t, quote me reading the output. End quote. So the quote and end quote will indicate what chap chat g p t is telling us here. Okay, with outta the way, let's walk through my prompt. My prompt here. My prompt was, how do I style a proc photography shoot around collagen.
Now chat, G P T gave us five different answers here. So let's read them off one by. chat, G P T says, quote, first choose a color scheme. Select a color palette that compliments the product and represents the benefits of collagen. Warm and earthy colors like beige, brown, and gold can represent health, wellness, and natural ingredients while cool colors like blue and green can represent hydration.
And revitalization end quote. Okay. That is a really good first point here, right? So chat PT is telling us the colors that we can use here, and they know that this is a health and wellness shoot without me even telling them. I just told them that I'm doing a collagen brand and chat. PT knows that this will be a health and wellness shoot and they want to utilize natural ingredients.
A RA knows what kind of marketing collagen brands want to do, and that is great for us as a product photographer. Okay, next up here, Chachi Petite says, quote number two, lighting. Use lighting that is soft and diffused. To highlight the texture and details of the collagen product, you can use natural light or a diffuse light source, like a soft box or umbrella to create a soft flattering look.
Okay, this answer is kind of bad here because harsh light will show off the texture a little bit better because there's going to be more contrast. So the message here is fine. We want to show off the texture of the product, but the execution here is not good. We want to use harsh light if we really want to show off this texture.
We can use soft light from a side angle though, and that would be fine, but I don't think that's what chat GT is saying here. We do need our own photography knowledge here in order to make this answer work. That's something very important with chat G P T. You have to take everything that says here with a grain of salt.
This is a great application, but you as the user. Has the control here. You need to show, you need to really prompt it properly and then you have to analyze the answers correctly. So if you don't know anything about a subject topic, this is a little, little tough to use, but since we're photographers here, we're able to take or chat should be set, says with a grain of salt.
That's something to really keep in mind as we're using this platform. Okay, next. Chat. P t says, quote number three, props. Select props that represent health, wellness, and natural ingredients such as fresh fruits and vegetables, plants, and natural materials like wood or stone. You could also use a bowl or a glass of liquid, such as water or juice to represent hydration.
this is great here. It helps us start thinking through the types of props that we want to use. Personally. For me, it's kind of hard to know what I want to sell a photo shoot as without any inspiration. I want to go and find the inspiration somewhere. Usually I'll use Pinterest or my own portfolio or just browse Instagram photographers that I really respect.
Chat, G P T helps me with this inspiration here. Furthermore, this is something that you can add to your mood boards. Justification for why you're choosing certain props. It's super useful here when you're communicating to the client why you want to go a certain direction with a shoe, and now you have a way to explain why you're going with, let's say, natural materials like Waterstone because it represents the natural materials that are, or the natural ingredients that are found inside collagen.
Right? Very great here.
Next up, Chatt says, quote number four, experiment with different angles and compositions to highlight the products, features and benefits. Consider using closeups to showcase a texture of the collagen product or show it in context with other products that complement its use, such as a skincare routine or wellness regimen.
End quote. Okay, this one's really good here. Uh, Chachi Petia is showing us, again to emphasize the texture of the collagen product. I've done collagen shoots in the past and that texture was something I really focused on. Um, so Chupe is doing a great job here. I love this one too because it really shows that Chachi knows what collagen is.
We have it talking about a skincare routine or a wellness regimen, which is exactly what collagen companies want their products to be a part of. I think this is a fantastic answer. And if you can portray this product with skincare or wellness, it's really gonna emphasize the use cases of the product and really take your pro photography to the next level here.
Okay, next up chat, g p t says, Quote number five, model. Consider incorporating a model into the shoot to represent the product's target audience and demonstrate how the product can be used in everyday life end. This answer is kind of generic here. It doesn't really help us as product photographers overall.
We do have some great ideas from all these five points, so great job there. This fifth one didn't really help us as a product photographer, but it's great for a lifestyle photography shoot or something else like. So I'll give this answer, uh, C okay. So we do have some awesome ideas here for a photo. now the power of the software comes when you keep asking it questions, so we can prompt it for five more ideas that we want to use, or we can say how this collagen company really wants to focus on how good collagen is for skin health.
So we can give. We can prompt it to give us five ideas around that. I did ask it that, I'm not going to read all these over here, but the types of ideas it gave me were before and after shots of a model with the skin, uh, before they used the product and after they used a product. We can do closeups of skin, uh, someone using moisturizer, stuff like that to emphasize skincare and skin wellness with collagen.
Okay, so we've got photo shoot ideas, but what if we don't have any clients to use these ideas on? We need clients, and how do we get clients? Well, the way I get all of my clients is through cold email. So let's use chat u p T to generate us some cold emails. I mentioned earlier in this podcast how important it is to be very specific with your prompts to chat g p T.
The better your prompt is, the better the output. with cold email. This is really, really important here because if you prompt it for just a cold email, it's gonna be very generic and you're not gonna get any responses with cold email. There are a dozen little things, even more than a dozen little things that you have to get right, or no one's gonna respond to you.
I teach a lot of this stuff inside my course Creative Biz Launch, but right now, enrollment is closed for that. So let's use chat U P T and see what we. Okay, so we wanna work with a collagen company here. Let's give chat g PT some context of what's going on here. Our prompt is going to be very specific.
Our prompt is quote, I'm a product photographer, write me a cold email to a collagen company offering my product photography services, and make it funny. Quote, I give it all this context so that chat u p t can succeed here. I really like adding the line, make it funny because I find it that makes all these pers all my emails way more personalized.
The more personalized your emails will be, the higher your response rates will be and the make it funny, part of the prompt makes it so that chat Q P T will add in a joke or pun in there and make your email sound more human and not like it's some generic template. Okay, so that's very important. So with this, let's see what chat G P T gave us.
So chat, G P T says, dear Collagen Company, I hope this email finds you looking as radiant and healthy as a skin of those who use your amazing collagen products. As a product photographer, I couldn't help but notice how incredible your products are and how they deserve equally incredible product photography to match.
End quote. Okay, so this may sound a little cheesy, but it's actually a genius first sentence for your cold email. It makes the email personalized. It makes it seem like you're not just sending this to a thousand different brands. It's personalized to the collagen space, which is great here. Now. Yes, there are a few things that we should fix here, like, Adding in the brand name to personalize it a bit more.
So we can end this by dropping the actual name of the company that we're sending it to so it doesn't look like every single collagen company gets the same exact email. Okay, next paragraph chat. G p T says quote. I have a keen eye for detail and I specialize in bringing out the best in every product that I photograph.
With your collagen products, I'm confident that I can create product photos that are not only beautiful, but also informative and pers. I can help highlight the unique features of your products and show your potential customers how they can transform their skin health end quote. Okay, this is really great here.
So Chati is obviously referencing what collagen is. Chat, GT knows collagen. We know this at this point. Here we reference in our cold email exactly how the product photos can help, and a little about what we do as product photographers. Okay, next up, Chuti says, I'm a professional, but I'm also fun to work with.
I collaborate with you to ensure that the final product meets your exact requirements and exceeds your expectations. I'm also not afraid to go the extra mile to get that perfect shot end quote. I think this paragraph is okay, but honestly, it needs to be replaced. You need some sort of credibility statement inside of your emails, and this is the area of the email that you would put it in.
It's way better to say something like, I've worked with 20 other companies just like yours to help them increase sales. Here's a link to a case study, this statement like that. This talks about our credibility, who we've worked with before, and it gives us some sort of number to the companies that we've worked.
And shows that we're not just some generic photographer with no, no criteria, no experience, right? Okay, so what does chat G P T study? Next? Chat. G P T says quote. So if you're looking for a photographer who is dedicated to bringing out the best in your products, then look no further. Let's team up and create something amazing together.
Okay. This one isn't bad, but it would be a lot better if there was some sort of ask at the end. This email wraps up with no sort of ask. It doesn't ask them specifically if they want to work together. It just says, let's team up and create something amazing together. We need to be specific with the ask at the end of each cold email.
Something like, do you have 10 minutes to talk next week about photo project? That has a way better statement and the email than just something generic like chat qt.
So overall, not bad here. Not bad at all. What chat, G P t spit out will definitely help you get more clients, especially if you have little experience writing called emails. It's a fantastic tool for that. What really impressed me here is the early on personalization. It's really easy to personalize emails now to the specific industry that you're reaching out to, and the more personalized the emails are, the better.
By the way, I mentioned I had that free chat G b t cheat sheet at the start that's in the show notes. It's gonna walk you through how to write the correct prompts and a bunch of other ways that I'm using chat g p t inside my business. Grab that free download in the show notes below. All right, so we sent this cold email chat, G p T.
The client responded. You had a sales call, you sent the proposal, and now you're negotiating with them. This is great, but now where does chat G P T? Come in on this chat, G P T can actually help you in the negotiation process. The third way that I'm using chat, g p t inside of my business is exactly this.
I'm using chat g p T to help me handle any client situation that comes my way. Everything from negotiation. Maybe I'm trying to explain my process to a client, but they're confused why I insist on having them fill out an onboarding form before our prep call. Maybe they don't wanna hop on a prep call or maybe they're not happy with a couple of the photos that I sent them after the shoot, and I wanna explain what went into, into those photos, but I just don't know how.
Chat, PT can help you with all of these situations.
All you have to do here is just send a prompt to chat u p T with the exact situation that you're in, and it will help you handle that client situation. It has to be your prompt, has to be very specific like I was talking about earlier. The more specific your prompt is, the better of a answer you're going to get.
So let's go back to my above example of us negotiating with that client. I wanna prompt the application first. So like before we need to give it some context. This is my prompt quote. I'm a product photographer. Negotiating with a collagen company about an upcoming photo shoot. I proposed 15 photos for $3,000, but they only wanna pay me $2,000.
How do I convince them of my value and convince 'em to pay the 3000 bucks for the project and quote with this prompt? We were very, very specific here. We told them who we are, who we're working with, what the situation is, exactly what number I'm going for, what they're coming back. The better and the more specific we are with our prompt, the better of an answer we're going to get here.
Okay, so let's see what chat U p T actually told us in terms of negotiation chat. U P T says quote, When negotiating with a collagen company, it's important to keep in mind the value that you bring to the project. Here are some steps you can take to convince them to pay the full amount you proposed, one.
Emphasize the value of your services. Remind the collagen company of the benefits they will receive. From your photography services, including high quality professional photos that will showcase the beauty and benefits of their products. You can also emphasize how these photos will help drive traffic to their website and increase sales end quote.
Okay, this point is spot on here. We want to keep in mind the belly that we bring to the project. We want to emphasize how these photos help drive traffic and increase sales. This is why prod photographers get hired in the first place, increasing sales. And driving traffic is a great point to bring up.
Chat. G p t really nailed this. Okay, next. Chui says quote two. Provide a breakdown of your costs, breakdown your cost for the project, including the time equipment and editing involved. This will help the collagen company understand why you are charging the amount you proposed and the value that you are offering.
End quote. Okay, this one is fine here. Most companies don't really care about your cost. They just want the final result here. They don't care how the result happens. They just want to see that result. It doesn't matter if you're using a hundred thousand dollars setup with a cinema camera and all this stuff, or a thousand dollars camera here, right?
If the result is the same for both of these, they don't really care about the costs, right? So this is. Not a great negotiating point in my opinion. So let's move on here. Chad g. PT says quote three, show your previous work. Show examples of previous work you've done for clients. Particularly if you have experience working in the same industry or with similar projects, this will help demonstrate the quality of your work and give them an idea of what to expect from the project end quote.
Yeah, this one is awesome here. Um, this is perfect. You can reference older case studies as well here to give them an idea of what kind of results you actually do bring. Okay. Moving on. Chad says quote number four, explain why 15 photos are necessary. If the collagen company is hesitant about the number of photos you are proposing, explain why 15 photos are necessary to fully capture the beauty and benefits of their products.
You can also offer to discuss alternative options if they have a specific number of photos in mind. This one is decent here. It's fine if you.
a package that is 15 photos and that's only what you sell, then we can go at this point here, it's important to have a consistent set of photos for their website, obviously, and for social media. The better their website looks, the more sales they get, the more consistently they post, uh, similar styles to social media, the bigger they'll grow.
Because social media is a long-term. So the more photos they can post, the better for them.
Okay. Lastly here, number five, chat. UT says, quote five, negotiate a compromise. If the collagen company is still hesitant about paying the full amount, you proposed offer to negotiate a compromise. Perhaps you can reduce the number of photos or offer a discount for future projects if they agree to pay the full amount for this one end quote.
Okay, this last line here is really good. You can offer a discount for future projects if they agree to pay the full amount. For this first one, this is an awesome line. Discounting future projects is a great way to get your foot in the door with the company. This is actually a negotiated technique that I just used for one of my clients and I love it because it locks them in from multiple projects so they can get that discount later on.
Really good job chat U B T with this one here. Okay, the last sentence that chat Ubi told us. Okay. Lastly here, remember to stay professional and approachable during the negotiation process and be open to compromise By emphasizing your value, providing a breakdown of costs and showing examples of previous work, you can make a strong case for the full amount you proposed.
Good luck. End quote. Thanks Chad, g p t. Yeah, this is great. State professional, approachable, and be open to compromising. It's always better to get a client for a discount than no client, especially when you're starting out here. The more clients you can get early on, the better your credibility looks to future clients.
The more case studies you can get. This is a great strategy, and yeah, be approachable during this process. Don't just be, don't just shut down every single offer that they throw your way. You wanna compromise here. You're a business. They're a business. You can meet in the middle sometimes. , these answers that Chad GB gave us today are very, very useful for negotiating.
I'm honestly really impressed what this software was able to spit out. I'm sure that you can close, you can get that $3,000 number with these techniques here. If you want more prompts, I do have that free cheat sheet and the description here. I didn't talk about all these, all the things on that cheat sheet in this video, so grab that if you want more of these prompts for chat G B T.
That's all I got for this episode. Thank you again for watching. For listening. If you're listening on Spotify Apple Podcast, please, please rate the show. It really helps get more and more listeners each week and helps me grow the show. On that note, my name is Chris Pieta. This is a Creative Biz Launch podcast, and I'll see you next time.
