The first class is all about getting familiar with our classmates. We will spend time introducing ourselves to the class, talk about our struggles, goals, and outline a structured plan for class going forward. Each student will be assigned homework and assessments that need to be finished before the following weeks class.

When a tattoo artist hires a tattoo assistant the number one goal they set is to get back to tattooing. They can not do this until the tattoo assistant feels confident that they can take over and that they will be able to instruct and help the client accordingly.

In this chapter we will go over why it is important that when we are introducing ourselves, we need to come from a place of an authority figure like a manager. We need to display to clients that we are the go to people to help them. There are some clients that refuse to speak with a tattoo assistant because they believe that the assistant doesn't do much and the artist is the person to speak to. If a tattoo artist wants to get back to tattooing they need us to act as a manager and enforce how our artist like to operate.

First impressions are a HUGE deal when we are speaking with clients. We create emails that are meaningful, seamless, helpful, direct, and it gets clients in the door.

As we know that this is one of the most vulnerable industries to work in. We are scheduling clients with our artist to put permanent art on their body and we play a big role in that. So when we are learning the reasoning behind the clients tattoo regardless if it's a tattoo that our artist will do, it's extremely important that we are coming from a place of understanding and empathy.

Everyone is fighting battles that no one will understand and our worlds are going to be so different. So we need to learn how to respond as if it were us in those shoes getting this tattoo. Empathy matters!

The second half of this chapter is how too much information can harm the chances of your potential client scheduling. This is a phrase i like to call WORD VOMIT. It is where you are communicating and outlining everything there needs to be said about how our artist operate in the form of an email that looks like a lawyer client contract. It's overwhelming and can scare your client. Instead we deep dive into how to communicate the important or need to know information a client needs to more forward.

The scheduling portion of the tattoo assistants process is very important one. We are messing with our tattoo artists bread and butter and we need more extensive training. In this section we deep dive in to all of my scheudling secrets that get my tattoo artists booked out and loaded up with consultations. 

We lean how to use in demand language to make our artists look busy at all times through out or email process.  We also dive how to be the authority over the schedule instead being flexible and using phrases like " Oh you can come in whenever" This type of langauge is not productive and chances of that client scheduling right away is pretty slim. It could take 6 to 8 months before they follow through with scheduling. In this lesson we are going to learn how to use in demand language to get clients scheduled faster if they are ready to move foward that is productive and gets more clients in the door. 

Educating clients on our tattoo artist's tattoo process can be tough. Especially if you are not sure how to approach it. Throughout this section I am going to teach your tattoo assistant how to effecitvely communicate all of our tattoo artists's polcies without needing to over explain or try to justify why this policy is put into place. Instead we take the approach of communicating  and educating clients based on the business needs leaving no room for clients to question our integrity , client trying to find loop holes to avoid following the process, or pushing boundaries

In this section we talk about how to extract as much information from the client as possible. We want to makes sure that we are setting our tattoo artists up for success when the client comes in for their scheduled appointment. As an assistant it is our job to connect with clients. I also instruct your assistant how to keep the conversation going so that way the client can tell that we are interested and we want to schedule them.

Taking on the responsibility of this job is going to be crucial. We learn how to eliminate the control of the business in the client's hands and take that responsibility back.

For instance, instead of giving the client a link that says here is my artist portfolio tell me what you think. This is like finding a needle in a haystack. if a client wants floral tattoo references they don't need to see a portfolio full of portraits. Instead we should be taking the initiative to send the specific portrait references to the client that they would want to see. This is direct and helpful to where the client can see what they want and they can then decide if they want to proceed forward. This is just one of many examples we will go over in class.

We outline and work on emails together in class that will give more clarity and structure to utilize in their current role.

Sometimes when we are speaking with clients we tend to take on a lot of the emotion that is being pushed on us when clients are angry, describing their inspiration, refusing to take no for an answer, upset about not getting in quick enough, refusing to follow the tattoo process, and so on.

We tend to feel bad and want to appease them but there comes a fine line of if we are letting clients walk all over us versus actually wanting to help.

Sometimes when a client is speaking to us they can get under our skin and trigger us. We learn how to properly communicate boundaries when they need to be put into place, how to respond to clients without being passive aggressive, and how to balance our mental health along with it all!

 This is the final night we celebrate our graduating Tattoo Admin Masters. We look over everything we have learned. Give feedback and celebrate with each other!