 I'm Jason LaDuke. It is the fourth Thursday of the month. This is where I take over from Michelle Davis for the Geeks are sexy show and we talk about business and success We bring on great business owners from Las Vegas and beyond Talk about the lessons they've learned and how they've learned to be successful with their businesses here in Las Vegas So welcome. Thank you for joining us in 2019 and please stick with us through 2019 Our first guest today is Lindsay Parker. She's the owner of we do shots and this is a really Incredible idea. I don't know why anybody hasn't thought of this before Lindsay and her team Our photographers and they do headshots, but they have a truck and they bring the truck to you So if you're a business owner and you need to get headshots for your executives your team Lindsay comes right to you and does it doesn't need to set anything up in your place You don't need to go anywhere. They come to you and they do it right in their truck We're gonna talk about the truck in a little bit But Lindsay is passionate about taking an old process and finding ways to enhance it And this is where we do shots comes in and that's exactly what she's done They take those professional headshots for you and they bring it right to you. So Lindsay welcome to the show. Thank you for having me Thank you for being here today. So Mobile headshots in a truck How did all this come about? Yeah, so like you said, I mean it's new to Las Vegas But basically the idea came to me from my previous employer I was an office manager and one of the many many many tasks that I had was to Hire a photographer to come in and take company headshots. I'm never doing this before I didn't really know what I was getting into with that But I'm you know, so I embark on this idea and I get the photographer in there. They Set up in our conference room and ended up taking quite a while for them to set up But even more importantly it took my entire day to help them So I didn't realize that was something I would be facilitating and I took that task on but it was And then yeah, I mean there are certain costs associated with that and just the time So anyways, I come home from work that day and I'm talking to my husband who happens to be a photographer And I you know explain my entire day to him and I simply say I'm like there has to be a better way to do this Why can't somebody just pull up to my office building take the pictures and be on their way? And you know, we sort of let that idea stew for a while And you know, we decided like we could do this we could be those people who create this process I mean clearly there is a need for it And we just thought you know, we could be the ones to do it Well, and I think you are the ones doing it because I don't know if anybody else doing it And if if they're out there, it doesn't sound like they're doing it quite as good as you are But also you put this together really quickly. When did you start talking about this? So we really started thinking about this seriously in like June or July of last year was actually when this Task was given to me and I mean from the day that I came home Yeah, yeah, it was given to you by me and basically we ran with it So from July Till now, but we didn't actually launch until the beginning of December of last year So we're really new but you know, like I said, I feel like it's so much more than just taking pictures It's about giving you know, our customers a different experience Getting a headshot should be exciting and fun. It represents your business And so having you know my business background, but also my office manager background I kind of was able to see both sides So I know how much work goes into behind the scenes and getting ready for the Headshots, but I also know what it's like to be the customer getting one Yeah The last thing you want is if you're a business owner or you're the person who's got to get the headshot And you're waiting for your turn The last thing you want is this to be a drag because you've got other things you're thinking about and you might be Enthusiastic about it when you show up But if you've got to wait 15 minutes 20 minutes 45 minutes It could be a real drag and that'll bring your energy down and that'll affect the outcome of those They'll affect what the pictures look like. Oh, so so you start had the idea in the July ish time frame June July But didn't start until Actually start taking pictures until December. So tell us about the challenges that you had overcome to go from July to December Sure. Um, so really there were two main challenges. The first one is, you know, taking the leap of faith Home and you know leaving some of the security in the comforts of having, you know, a nine to five behind We decided it, you know early on that if we were going to do this, we were gonna 100% do this and You know, you can't just decide you want to try something like this It's completely new like you said to the area. It's new to the industry. It's very disruptive And so for us, we needed to be 100% from the beginning. That was very scary This is a hard one to do as a side hustle. Yes, this cannot be not if you want to do well Yeah, you can absolutely But I think you're gonna see that your success is limited by the amount of time you put in So that was definitely a challenge just, you know, getting ready to take the plunge and go for it But I think the second obstacle we faced was figuring out, you know What the heck do we do to get this truck together to actually be a photo studio? We knew right away the type of truck we wanted, but it was like figuring out just some of the details You know, how large should it be? How many people are we trying to accommodate inside? And then of course For us luckily my husband being a photographer. He knew the equipment we would need. Okay So that part was not a challenge. It was just the truck in itself Okay, how do you get the lighting to work and you know air conditioning and you know, we live in Las Vegas So that's a factor there is a lot anytime you're trying to take something that's fixed and make it mobile It's not as simple as just throwing a bunch of stuff in the back of a truck But we've got some pictures of your truck. Yeah, so Nick Let's let's see if we can put up a picture of the exterior of the truck And I don't know if we'll be able to see that on all we can see it on the monitor So so this is the exterior of the truck. So tell us what kind of truck it is. Yeah, and where you found it because that's an interesting story Yeah, yeah, so it's a Ford transit And basically the way these particular trucks work is you can actually pick the type of Back end that you want it to be so you'll see a lot of like plumbers have these similar trucks It's also more commonly a FedEx truck was the model We chose because it actually has to access to the truck on two sides. That was really important to us for functionality reasons But then the other picture that we have is of the inside of the truck And so this perspective is kind of fun because this is what you're looking at when you walk into the truck So you walk up the stairs. There's a little waiting area to the right to the left There's a little prep station and if you keep walking further you can see we've got our little mini fridge with lots of drinks because again I know it's hot and then our different backgrounds and we have quite a few to choose from so we can do more traditional photos We can also do more fun photos But yeah, that's an idea of what that looks like and then this perspective is if you're the person getting your picture taken Yep, and one of the things I like to point out is that monitor that you see that has our little logo on it That actually shows you your picture in real time Okay, so that's one of the things that we do very differently from other photography studios Is that you see in real time what your picture looks like so you know immediately am I having a good hair day? Is my you know shirt button Straight or maybe suck it in like I have to do when I get a picture taken exactly So there's no surprise you don't have to wait that two weeks to determine whether or not that picture works for you You know immediately awesome. Yeah, so you guys when you take head shots You have a couple different kind of head shots you take for people tell us about those and why that's important that you do That you have different kinds of head shots if you're a professional sure So yeah, we have different types of backgrounds that I think really cater to the different type of industries that require headshots I think a lot of times people get stuck in this Sort of old-school idea that a headshot has to be you know suit and tie in professional and that's just not always the case Um a lot of times I feel especially with social media nowadays. You want to represent yourself as professionals possible But that's applicable to your business. So for example if you own a flower shop I would not expect the owner of a flower shop to be in a suit and tie I think it would be great if the owner of a flower shop is wearing maybe a denim shirt Or maybe you know something that was cuffed or you know so we can work with that And so it can be like I said, it's professional and there's still really high quality photos But they can be done in a way. That's not as like I call it stiff. It's not as stiff It's a lot more fun and the backgrounds are great and so you'll stand out and that's the whole plane So there's two pieces really Is that the concept that you agree upon with the client before you do the shots and then there's the nuts and bolts Photography, which you guys also do very very well. Yes, awesome So what is coming up for we do shots in 2019? Sure. Um, so one of the things we're really excited about is, you know, we are trying to just get out in the community Sort of share what we're all about and find ways to Change the way people view headshots. Um, it's not something that you need to get once every three years It's something you should update every year and have a more fun headshot a more classical Sort of professional style headshot, but again, they're all great quality So what you'll see from us is a lot of just advertising. You'll see us on the road a lot We're constantly driving back and forth. I swear. It's like from one side of the strip to the other But also joining a lot of some of the trade shows and conventions that are happening You'll see us. We're a vendor and quite a few already starting this year Right in january and we have one in february. We have one in march So you'll continue to see us with that. Well, and if you want them to come to your event I'm sure that's something that you could work out with them, right? Absolutely. We're very interested in that So if that's anything if what we do seems like something that would work well with your, you know, just your network of Clients or customers. We'd be happy to help. Awesome. So who are you looking to connect with in 2019 to grow your business? Um, so we're looking to connect with anybody who's looking to enhance their professional image And again, that could be whatever it is for your business. Um, so if you're a real estate agent, uh, Insurance provider an accountant a lawyer, you know something in those classic layers. Absolutely. We're happy to help you But what we're really looking to do is sort of challenge this idea of what a headshot should be So anybody who's looking to just sort of revamp, um, the current one or create or get a new one for the first time That's who we're looking for. Awesome. Awesome. And How can our audience? Reach you if they want to get their head shots done Yeah, so we have facebook. Um, so facebook slash we do shots We're on instagram so you can follow us at we do shots and of course our website That's the best place to go. We have videos of the truck Um, it's actually how you can book an appointment with us if you're interested. It's we do shots dot com All right, so go to we do shots dot com not right now We have two more guests in a panel discussion coming up. So Later on Go to we do shots dot com Get lindsay and her husband to come work with you on a concept for the right headshot for you And have them come right to you and do the head shots right in their very comfortable truck So all right. Thank you for being here. We're gonna be right back with sarah binger from train builder bookkeeper Stay right here. This is geeks are sexy