This Can't Be That Hard

I have a private Facebook group for photographers who want to talk business. Why private, you ask? Because I want people to feel free to ask hard questions - questions they may not want their friends and family (much less their clients) to see that they’re struggling with. The conversations are great, but certain topics tend to come up over and over again, so I figured I’d take some time this week...

Do you ever wish you could raise your prices but fear that your local market can’t or won’t support what you need to charge? If so, this interview with Elke Van den Ende is a must-listen.  Elke is a wedding and portrait photographer is based in Western Europe, where most portrait photographers charge just a few hundred pounds for their services. But when Elke ran her numbers and saw that those num...

I recently polled a big group of photographers asking them what three words or phrases they would use to describe their feelings about money. The responses were overwhelmingly negative, and filled with words like stress, shame, scarcity, guilt, and insecurity. And maybe it seems that since I teach photographers about how to price and sell their work, and since I come from an in-person sales backgr...

Back in Episode 117, I shared that I had decided the time was right to switch from dSLR to mirrorless, and that I was in the process of researching my camera options. I decided to share that research and decision-making process on the podcast in the hopes that it may provide a less techy, more practical approach to gear decisions in general and mirrorless cameras specifically. Although it took me...

What is going through someone’s head when they hire a photographer? Sure, they need to like the photos, and yes, they need to be able to afford the pricetag, but assuming both of those things are true, what makes someone choose one photographer over another? There are ten major drivers that motivate purchasing decisions, and once you know which one(s) are most relevant to your ideal clients, you c...

We’ve all seen the thread: a photographer gets an inquiry, sends off a response, then gets an angry response from this would-be client who is shocked and outraged at the prices they’ve just been presented with. These posts often get dozens or even hundreds of responses, and some of them, inevitably, push the original poster to “educate the client.” Today, I’m here to tell you that trying to educat...

Three years ago, fine art portrait photographer and body positivity advocate Amanda Thorson got an idea for a photo book. As of two weeks ago, that idea officially became a reality when she crossed the goal line on her Kickstarter. The photos are made, the book is designed, the funding is there… now all that’s left is to go to print! I chatted with Amanda about the whole process - what’s fun, what...

I have long preached phone calls and videos as important tools in any photographers communication arsenal, but I’ve never been able to perfectly describe the difference between when a text or email is appropriate vs. when you should pick up the phone or hit record on your camera… until I heard an interview with Juliet Funt. Funt is the author of a book called A Minute to Think, and while many of t...

When it comes to email marketing, do you ever wonder what your emails should say? How often you should send them? How you can grow a small (or non-existent) list? How you can tell whether what you’re writing is resonating with your audience? Or even just why you should bother with email marketing at all? Then this episode is for you! LINKS Flodesk Flodesk University Flodesk’s Facebook Community Qu...

This is Part 1 of a two part series. In this episode, I interview Gabriel Biderman from B&H. We talk through the general arguments for mirrorless and the more specific nuances of what I want and need as a family photographer. Whether you’re a mirrorless fan already or just casually considering a switch from DSLR, I hope you’ll find this series educational and entertaining. LINKS: B&H Camer...

A well-done photography client prep guide is a thing of beauty: it is a fantastic, professional way to represent your brand to your new clients, it helps reassure them that you know what you're doing and are going to be a trustworthy guide through the process, and it helps you avoid lots of time spent answering and addressing common questions and concerns. But putting a good guide together is...

You may have heard the marketing term "Value Ladder," and while the concept of encouraging new business with small offers that lead to progressively larger ones is pretty simple, translating that into a strategy for your photography business might not be. In this episode, I am talking about value ladders: how to build one in your business and how to make sure you don’t fall off. LINKS EP...

Ben Hartley from The Six Figure Photography Podcast is a marketing whiz, and he attributes much of his success to something he calls Chain Reaction Marketing - a strategy that ensures your marketing efforts have as much impact as possible. As entrepreneurs often wearing ALL the hats in our businesses, this strategy is vital to stretch our marketing time and dollars to their limits… and all it requ...

Where do you get your best ideas? I take an hour-long walk with my dog on a leash and a business podcast or audiobook in my headphones 4-5x/week, and I get most of my best ideas that way. It’s not uncommon for me to pause whatever I’m listening to, pull out my phone, and dictate a thought or idea into the notes app, and today’s episode is the direct result of one of those ideas.  I was recently li...

Ever worry about what would happen if you were to break an ankle and be unable to work for several months? That was always a nagging worry in the back of my mind, but it wasn't until it actually happened to me in the winter of 2018 that I did anything to protect my business. In the summer of 2020, I launched a portrait membership and secured around $4K a month regular income that I could rely...

Video on Instagram has quickly become one of the best ways to humanize your brand and market your offers to your ideal clients. That’s why today I’m sharing a value-packed conversation with Instagram Video superstar Natasha Samuel. Natasha is sharing her content pillar strategy and how to use that to ensure that you’re delivering the perfect balance of personal and professional why video content (...

When is good customer service most important? When things are at their MOST uncomfortable… think colonoscopy-level discomfort. The good news? Even something as unpleasant as a painful medical procedure can be remembered in a better light if the experience ends well. And if that’s true for a colonoscopy, imagine the possibilities in our photography businesses! Today, I’m sharing some lessons from N...

You may think of Pic-Time as an online gallery software provider, and it's true: they offer photographers a beautiful way to present their images. But there's so much more to Pic-Time. When you go beneath the surface, you'll find a variety of incredibly powerful marketing and sales tools. It's a unique opportunity for photographers to get the power of big business strategies bu...

Rebecca Rice is known as the Queen of Mini Sessions, and for good reason! Her approach is a great reminder that good things can absolutely come in small packages! In our chat, Rebecca and I discuss marketing mini sessions, timelines for promotion, and the importance of knowing your ideal market. Additionally, Rebecca discusses pricing, location choices, email marketing, and using automations to en...

Every other Friday, at 2pm Eastern, I join up with a group of talented people on the social media site, Clubhouse, to discuss topics relating to photography and the business of photography. We pick a different topic and this week’s topic was Our Favorite Business Tools. People in the room are able to ask questions or add to the discussion and we never know who might join in. This week, Sarah Landa...

Connecting with the right photography clients can feel overwhelming: what do they want? Where are they hiding? What’s the right price point or message or strategy? One of the most important things you can do as a business owner is put yourself in the shoes of your clients, and today’s conversation with Lachlan Shum - founder of the Focal Marketplace - is going to help you do just that. Lachlan’s e...

Automations: friend or foe? If you think automations are only for big businesses or have avoided using them because you believe they limit your ability to deliver a personalized service, today’s episode is for you. I talk about three common misconceptions about using automations in your business, and about how - when used properly - automations can benefit not only you as the business owner, but y...

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up focusing on how many followers we have on social media. LaShawn Wiltz coaches us on a different way to view that metric, which can help us zero in on what’s important and might just also lead to new business opportunities! Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources. Join our commu...

In this episode of Mini Mentoring, Susannah Storch & I talk about transitioning from a longstanding career in weddings to focus entirely on family photography (after a year-ish off for Covid). How do you shift your messaging and get the word out that you’re still in business but doing something new? Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annem...

We all have to raise our prices occasionally - sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. If that were as simple as adjusting a few numbers, perhaps price adjustments wouldn’t feel quite so daunting. But there’s more to it than just math… like, how do you come up with those new prices? How do you justify them to your clients? To yourself? How can you introduce those prices to existing clients in a way t...