This Can't Be That Hard

I met Amanda Thorson in Australia last summer and we became fast friends - we share a sarcastic sense of humor and a very practical approach to our work - and when I decided to talk about alignment on the podcast, I knew I wanted to have her on as a guest.  You see, when I talk to photographers about the three successful models, nearly everyone immediately self-identifies as a workhorse or a unico...

In this episode of Mini Mentoring, I talk with Paige Daniels about marketing your business - best practices and how to know if they’re working. Show notes: thiscantbethathard.com/podcast/041 Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources. Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-foc...

In 2019, I gave a talk at The Family Narrative called “Creating a Business that Feeds Your Soul (and Your Family)”. My initial intention was to put together a talk on pricing, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like the talk needed to be about alignment. Pricing, after all, isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing… but in order to work, pricing DOES need to be in alignment with your business...

In this episode of Mini Mentoring, I talk with Carolyn Soling about how it’s still possible to make time for your business while quarantining at home with kids. Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources. Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. G...

In 2019, I gave a talk at The Family Narrative called “Creating a Business that Feeds Your Soul (and Your Family)”. My initial intention was to put together a talk on pricing, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like the talk needed to be about alignment. Pricing, after all, isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing… but in order to work, pricing DOES need to be in alignment with your business...

In this episode of Mini Mentoring, I talk with Ana Vallejo about the challenges of getting started in a big, oversaturated market. Show notes: thiscantbethathard.com/podcast/037 Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources. Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private...

Cornell Watson may be relatively new to photography, but he’s already making huge waves in the industry… not just with his stunning family photos, but also with his message. And it was a combination of those two things that recently helped Cornell land a solo museum exhibition - something very few photographers ever achieve, much less within two years of the start of their careers. Today, Cornell...

In this episode of Mini Mentoring, I chat with Andrea de Anda about the challenges (and opportunities!) involved in relocating your business across the country. Andrea is a wedding and family photographer (soon-to-be) based in Atlanta, GA. You can find her here and here . Show notes: thiscantbethathard.com/podcast/035 Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get acces...

This month marks the tenth anniversary of when I officially started my photography business, and there are so many lessons I’ve learned in the ten years since. Ten years ago, the opportunities for online education were pretty meager and podcasts really weren’t a thing, so a lot of the choices I made were based on little more than instinct… and some of those instincts were wildly misguided! I’m tak...

In this episode of Mini Mentoring, I chat with Rachel Castro about two problem clients she’s currently dealing with - what to do now, and how to prevent similar issues in the future. Show notes: thiscantbethathard.com/podcast/033 Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources. Join our community! We'd love to welcom...

Part 2 of the series All Things CRM features a conversation among 7 professional photographers who use 7 different CRMs. We talk about how we each use our CRMs, we compare features, and we deep dive on how using our CRMs has affected our businesses (and made us money)! Joining me today is my co-host/strategist for this series, Colie James, along with Sheena Magnesen, Kali Kraum, Jess Koehler, Kend...

In this episode of Mini Mentoring, I chat with Kayla Kohn about the strategies and benefits of adding print sales to your business. Kayla is a family and newborn photographer based in Lawrence, KS. You can find her here and here . Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources. Join our community! We'd love to welco...

Today’s topic is so awesome, I couldn’t fit it into a single episode… or handle it all by myself! Colie James has helped me put together a two-part series on All Things CRM (that’s Customer Relationship Manager, if you don’t know). CRMs are a GAME-CHANGER in your business, and in Part 1, Colie and I talk about what they are and the power they hold. Even if you already use a CRM, this series is wor...

In the very first episode of Mini Mentoring, I talk to Kendra Greenberg about how to find a new client base after she significantly increased her prices. Show notes: https://www.thiscantbethathard.com/podcast/mm-029 Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources. Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our...

We’ve all had bad customer service experiences (I had a doozy last week which was actually the inspiration for today’s podcast), and I believe most of us strive to give really GOOD customer service… but when it comes down to it, what does that mean? Giving your work away? Freaking out if you haven’t heard back from a client that they’re thrilled? Letting pushy clients walk all over you? No, no, an...

As photographers, we generally don’t have very complex business models. Once we learn some basic systems and strategies, it seems like everything should just fall into place. The big stumbling blocks for a lot of us - things like pricing, marketing, selling, workflow - those things are all pretty technically straightforward. So why is it that we get stuck? Caro Cuinet-Wellings is a French photogra...

Product sales are SO important when it comes to running a professional and profitable photography business - not to mention one of the cornerstones of the Simple Sales System - but they’re also a pretty big hurdle for a lot of photographers, either because they’re not currently offering products and don’t know where to start, or because they’ve been trying to offer products but haven’t seen much s...

Despite the fact that Pinterest marketing can be an incredibly powerful tool for photographers, it’s largely overlooked or misunderstood. Today on the podcast, Pinterest marketing expert Carolina Guzik shares the reasons why we should all consider Pinterest to grow the number of photography leads we get, covers the anatomy of a great marketing pin, and offers listeners a free download covering how...

Even during a regular year, summer can be a hard time for me to stay motivated about pushing my business forward, and god knows this year has been anything BUT regular! For many photographers, this is one of the most important times of year for your business, because it’s the time that you connect (or reconnect) with potential clients to ensure that they remember to book you when the time is right...

This is a short episode designed to help you get a big-picture view of your business. Whether you’re brand new or have been in business for years, one of the harder things to do - especially as someone in a one-person business - is to keep an eye on the big picture as you necessarily navigate the day to day minutia. The big picture is important, though, and the way I look at it is by breaking it i...

This episode was pre-recorded a couple of weeks ago - before George Floyd was murdered. I considered postponing the drop date and focusing on more pressing issues this week, but although current events and the conversation around them has changed, my chat with Nick North focused on a topic that happens to be highly relevant to business owners right now, and that topic is messaging. Resources: New...

Feeling outraged by what is going on right now? Good. Now is the time for action, and today’s podcast is about fundraising, which is one way you can turn your outrage into something meaningful. As a photographer, you have a useful set of skills - this is a short guide to help you think through how to put them to work to raise money. If you are unsure what to fundraise FOR, you will find a brief li...

Today’s episode is filled with big words and big ideas, which will come as no surprise if you’re familiar with Yan Palmer. Yan is a film photographer based in Utah, and although our conversation was focused on the push and pull of business and art, we ended up talking about quite a bit more than that as well. I love this episode and I know you will, too. Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thisca...

There are very few one-size-fits-all rules when it comes to pricing your photography, but there is at least one: It is ALWAYS better to calculate and charge the correct amount per session - even if you’re not booking enough sessions to meet your overall income goals - than it is to charge less than the correct amount - even if it means you book more sessions. In today’s podcast, I explain why that...

Leslie Kershaw is a documentary family photographer in Washington, D.C. I first met Leslie Kershaw through The Family Narrative - she was one of the teachers at our very first conference in 2017, and over the course of the three years that I’ve known her, I’ve always been so impressed… not just by her work (which is incredible), but by what has always struck me as her incredibly strong internal co...