Successful Creatives

Are you tired of spending hours on Instagram or running ads just to keep your calendar full? What if I told you there’s a simpler, more effective way to book dream clients—without the constant hustle? 🔑 Key Takeaways Why referrals are so much more powerful than social media or ads The simple referral-building steps baked right into my workflow How you can start planting referral seeds this week I...

What would happen to your business if you had to step away for two months? No Instagram. No ads. No blogging. Would it survive—or would it crumble? This summer, I put my business to the ultimate test. With my home renovation spiraling into chaos and my mental bandwidth at zero, I had no choice but to step back. And yet, my business didn’t just survive—it thrived. In July alone, I booked $49,300 in...

Recorded live on location at White House Custom Colour, Erica discusses how she turned a sale that didn't go as planned into a chance to build trust, confidence and clients that come back again and again Successful Creatives make the world brighter. Follow @theewingsstudio on instagram for weekly tips and tricks to uplevel your bookings and increase profits so that you can accomplish all of t...

Ben and I are renovating our home, and part of that includes picking out a fireplace (hurray!).  We thought it would be simple—walk into a store, pick one out, order. But instead, we had three wildly different experiences. And by the end, I realized this had everything to do with what’s working in sales right now in 2025. Quick summary:  Store #1: all the friendly chit-chat, but we left without an...

Have you ever felt stuck in a routine that doesn’t align with the life you truly want—like you’re just getting by instead of thriving? That was me in 2013.  At that time, my hubby Ben was grinding away, spending 60+ hours a week away from our family (baby boy #2 had just arrived on the scene!) for a career he didn’t love. It was a “wake up - go to work - go to sleep - repeat” kind of life that we...

In this episode, we break down actionable strategies to manifest your biggest goals and transform your life in 2025. Learn how to create a clear vision that aligns with your most authentic desires and craft a specific plan to achieve them without compromising on your values or overworking. Here, we cover the vital steps needed to bring your vision to reality, including setting precise goals, break...

Imagine it’s breakfast time. You wake up starving and head to the kitchen to make some eggs and toast, but you’re sleep deprived and forget to turn on the burner. The eggs don’t cook. When you finally realize, you turn on the burner and after an extra long time, the eggs are ready…not awesome, but edible. And the toast is cold. Think of a sales system as a pre-heated pan, with the burner on just t...

In this episode, we explore a common pitfall for many wedding vendors: the relentless chase for more leads. We challenge the traditional notion that more leads are the key to growing your business and examine why this focus might be holding you back. With real-life examples and insights, learn why the quality of inquiries matters significantly more than quantity and how a strategic approach to boo...

The industry has experienced "seismic shifts since 2023" according to Tim Chi, CEO of The Knot. Those who are successful are the ones who understand AND evolve with the market. T here’s a growing gap between creatives who are booking well and those who are struggling. 🥵 Why is this happening? Well, there are a few culprits at hand, namely: the economy - record inflation, election uncert...

There are three essential systems every creative needs to run a business like a well-oiled machine. Here’s what we’ll cover in this episode: How to build a pricing system that reflects the true value of your work and makes clients excited to invest Why a marketing system that targets the right clients is key to consistent bookings The power of a simple, repeatable sales system that converts nearly...

Your client journey is one of the most powerful tools for growing your business. But what if I told you there’s a missing piece in that journey that could be costing you bookings, aligned clients, and even revenue? Most creatives divide the client journey into two stages: the pre-client stage (inquiries and leads) and the client stage (booked and working together). However, the real magic happens...

In this week's episode, I dive into the powerful strategy of increasing revenue through your current client base. It's a game changer, especially when you're swamped with busy season! Too often, we focus on attracting new clients when the real profit lies with those who already know and love us. In fact, did you know that returning customers spend 67% more than new ones? 🎉 Here&apo...

In today’s challenging economy, it’s easy to feel like the only way to keep your calendar full is by lowering your prices. But before you start slashing rates, consider the long-term impact this could have on your business. Lower prices might attract more bookings in the short term, but they also bring in clients who are more focused on getting a deal than on valuing your work. This can lead to bu...

Lauren Carroll! Hear the story of this Ireland-based wedding photographer, and how her career took her from backstage with Steven Tyler in LA to traveling halfway across the globe to shoot weddings in Ireland. I can’t help but think that if I had been a back-stage assistant to Aerosmith, Green Day, the Jonas Brothers (and so many more that I’m forgetting), I’d find a way to drop that into every co...

Featured Creative Episode! Meet Gillie Bird, a fine art luxury wedding photographer in Toronto. She shares how she got her start, the struggle she was facing in her business and the steps she took to transform her bookings - from just 2 weddings booked for 2024 to ELEVEN booked in just 7 weeks, including her first 5-figure contract and a celebrity wedding (a Bachelor Nation couple!). Learn how you...

Busy season is just around the corner, which is why we should have a quick chat to make sure overwhelm and burnout aren't a part of your 2024 season. How? With a few simple policies! Let’s explore what this might look like for you… Because this is a beautiful time of year. If you’re anything like me, you’re excited to dive back in. You’re rested and feeling creative and inspired…and also perh...

Marketing and sales are my jam. But organization, and productivity? Let’s just say I’m a work in progress. Luckily I met THE expert in this area, NJ Shelsby who sat down to give me some tips on how to get more done, with less stress.  You see, she was overworked and stressed that it disrupted her family and health so much that she experienced a scary bout of short term memory loss. “I was driving...

A super talented wedding photographer who’s beyond lovely, with a stunning portfolio and over 70 5-star reviews should be fully booked, right?  But yet out of 40 inquiries, only 2 booked…that’s a 5% booking rate, ouch. AND she’s getting ghosted a ton . Oh and her prices are a steal. What’s going on? The first mistake is in her initial inquiry email. Well-thought, she provides EVERYTHING her potent...

2023 was a really strange year for me and to be honest with you, it felt like I was riding a roller coaster at times. It was really hard at times. It was really beautiful and easy at times, and it all stemmed from the pivot that I've been making in my business while really starting a 2nd business. It's funny because so many people told me throughout the year, wow, you're crushing it...

Have you ever heard me talk about the booking slump that I hit in 2019, where I didn't book a wedding for, like, I think 4 months? I thought it was 6 months, but I think my brain just exaggerated that fact. In reality, I did not book a wedding for 4 full months and this is after 10 years in business. This is after having our best year ever in 2018. So I want to get into what happened and then...

The end of busy season is a magical time when you get to think about all of the exciting things that you’d love to see incorporated into your business dream clients. More or less bookings, higher prices. All of this is what will become available to you when you first look back at this year, and then really use that information to intentionally build out next year. This is exactly what we're a...

You got together an incredible group of women to create this amazing shades of purple shoot in Providence, and it was such a fun experience. It was the inspiration behind today's episode and why I really felt called to have you on to share your expertise, because you were a master at running that styled shoot. So this is going to be a treat for our listeners.  Successful Creatives make the wo...

When you're repeatedly ghosted, or told you're too expensive, and you wonder why...struggling wedding pros typically look inward first - wondering if it's your work, your website, is it because you don't have enough followers or likes... But here's the crazy thing. It's actually not you at all. It's your marketing. Successful Creatives make the world brighter. Fo...

In last week's episode, I shared about the nightmare client who changed my business. I talked about the process that I used to make positive changes after the fact, and 4 lessons that you can take and turn a difficult situation into 1 that ends up being really beautiful for your business and your clients. So that was all about what to do after the fact, after you've had a difficult clien...

This is a personal story about my last difficult client (which was about 10 years ago!). This particular wedding gave me cold-sweat nightmares for a month, and changed my business indefinitely. I share the full story in the podcast, but to get right to it, we’ve all had THE ONE. Who makes us question everything we do…or why we do it at all. Here’s how you can turn a painful situation into a win fo...