This Can't Be That Hard

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...

Last summer, I created a program designed to protect me and my business from an unforeseen event that might prevent me from working for a period of time… I was thinking of a broken leg or some other kind of short-term disability situation. But in an incredibly fortunate, timely way, that program has protected me and my family financially during the Covid-19 outbreak when, like the rest of you, I h...

Despite what you may think, your job as a photographer is not making amazing photos. Your job is to help your clients transform  in some way, or experience a feeling that they want or need to feel, and the tool that you use to create that transformation or experience that feeling is your amazing photos. But making amazing photos is just one part of that job. This week on the podcast, I'm goin...

One of the most common things that I hear from my listeners is that they feel bombarded. Whether they have their own goals or are being told by others that they need to buy this or offer that... there's no shortage of ideas, but they get stuck in analysis paralysis about what their next step should be. Unfortunately, there's no one size fits all answer to that question, but there is a on...

What assumptions are you making that are hurting you and your photography business? Assumptions may be a necessary part of the way we navigate the world, but if this past few weeks has taught us anything, it's that assumptions can also be dangerous. Today I want to talk about some of the more harmful assumptions that you may be making so that we can flip the script and open up some possibilit...

Over the past few weeks, I have caught myself many times thinking "Ah, I cannot wait for things to get back to normal". And then sometime last week, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Things are not going back to normal. We are not going to go back to pre-COVID 19 life anytime soon. So, I have been doing some thinking about what that means and that is what I want to talk to you about in tod...

Today I have two of my super-besties on the podcast - Kate Thompson and Posy Quarterman, who are my co founders of The Family Narrative and also happen to be two of my very best friends - and I'm really excited to share our conversation today. I have been planning all along to have them on the podcast periodically because I find our conversations about the state of the industry to be really g...

I will be completely honest: this last week has been a little less productive than I had initially hoped. I think I had my sights set on taking advantage of some extra space in my schedule to get some really big things done, but I have been in something of a fog. And if you're like me or most of the people who I'm chatting with on social media, you feel that way too. And here's the...

I could not be more excited to share today's interview with you. As you know, it is my very first time interviewing someone for the podcast and who better to interview than the fabulous Elena S. Blair! I first got to know Elena because she taught for us at the Family Narrative in 2019. Elena is a woman who is a self taught photographer with no background in business, much like a lot of us, wh...

I am recording this on Monday for release first thing Tuesday morning. And so you're not going to get a whole lot of fancy editing (not that you normally do anyway). I am doing this on the fly because I know that a lot of you are understandably feeling very lost and concerned about what you can do in the coming weeks and months to potentially make up for some of the lost income happening in t...

Today’s podcast is going to be a little different. I’m going to be sharing a series of messages that I was exchanging over the last few days with one of my Simple Sales Blueprint students. I wanted to share this exchange because it has taken me on a highly emotional journey that started with empathy, which then morphed into white hot anger, and which I am now resolved to channeling into action. Re...

Today, we’re talking about 3 tools that I believe have the power to benefit every single photographer’s business, full-stop. I realize that is a pretty lofty promise, but I feel pretty strongly about it, and I'm excited to tell you why on today’s episode. Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources. Join our comm...

One of the biggest perks of being an entrepreneur is that you get to carve your own path. You get to make all the decisions without having to have any meetings or pitch anybody about anything. It can be exhilarating to be free to have an idea and execute it without anyone stopping you. The only downside is that there's nobody there to guarantee that your path is going to lead anywhere, much l...

One of the biggest frustrations that I hear from a lot of photographers is that they are struggling to market their businesses effectively. So, today I'm going to talk about the biggest mistake that I see most photographers making in their marketing strategy, and how a simple mindset shift can help make your marketing become much more effective. Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbe...

The core of our success as small business owners and photographers is the concept of trust. Trust - or lack of trust - affects pretty much every piece of our business. By being aware of that and actively cultivating it, we can take a much more active role in our success instead of waiting around wondering when it's going to happen. Developing trust with our clients and our wider audience is t...

As artists who create custom work, we don't have the same ability as some other entrepreneurs to scale our businesses. It's like we're on a hamster wheel… if we want to make more money, we have to do more work. Right? Well, sort of. Although custom photography may not be scalable in the same way that manufacturing widgets is, I have two suggestions that I believe will help you creat...

I hardly know a single photographer who hasn't stressed and struggled over pricing at some point or another. And the truth is that most photographers continue to stress and struggle about it a lot longer than necessary. In today's episode, we're taking the phrase "charge your worth" and throwing it out the window. Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com...