This Can't Be That Hard

If you are at a place in your photography business where the busy season means you're fully booked, you know how crushing it is when you have to turn people away.  This week my guest is the brilliant Jaye McLaughlin, a family photographer in the New York metro area sharing her GENIUS strategy for managing the high client demand during the busy season - without having to turn anyone away! Jaye...

Your website is arguably the most valuable marketing tool you have as a photographer. From the moment a potential client lands on your site until they click the button to connect with you, your website is doing all the work of attracting and connecting you to that client.  That’s a pretty big job, so in this episode, I want to walk you through a quick audit of your home page to make sure it’s in t...

Last year my friend Erin Brown brought the term “purposely part-time” to the podcast, and the response was absolutely overwhelming. It turns out that many photographers are intentionally part-time in their businesses - for reasons ranging from other careers they don't want to give up to being home with their families after school - so that phrase has caught fire!  Today I’m speaking with Lydi...

If you’ve ever considered a photography mastermind group, you know that once you dip your toe in that water it can get overwhelming pretty quickly. How do you know which group is the right fit? What questions should you ask? What goals should you set? What results can you expect? The list goes on... Today I am talking with Elena S. Blair who has been a leader in the group coaching space for quite...

Talking about the importance of pricing and sustainability is my jam, but I typically approach it from the "this is why it's important for YOU" perspective. The fact of the matter is that when enough photographers aren’t charging sustainable prices, it has major implications for the industry as a whole. Today's guest is Bonnie Sindelar. She’s a newborn and family photographer i...

Ever wish you could peek inside your clients' heads and hear what they're thinking? Yeah, me too. Which is why I (finally!) decided to interview one of my own long-time photography clients about her experience as a client, and specifically her thoughts about my membership program. We (necessarily) spend so much time thinking about photography from our own perspective that it can be hard...

Mind: blown... there are now a thousand Simple Sales Blueprint students out there in the world! When I first launched the Blueprint back in January 2020, I had no idea whether anyone would be interested in my system, but in just three short years, Simple Sales has taken root and spread like wildfire in the photography world. As my education business has grown, I've gotten more and more questi...

I started my photography business when my two kids were young, and in many ways, the business felt like having a third child. Just like having young kids, having a young business can feel pretty chaotic, and in both scenarios, when you're in it, it can be hard to believe you'll ever escape the chaos. But the chaos can and does end. Today I want to talk about a major but un-talked-about m...

Typically on this podcast, I deep dive on one topic per episode, sometimes with a guest and sometimes solo. But as we head into road trip season, I wanted to shake it up and give you something exciting and different to enjoy the next time you've got some extra time in the car (or on a walk or wherever else you listen to your podcasts)! For today's show, I reached out to a handful of my f...

Want to increase your booking rate? Consider making it easier for your clients to say YES. I know that seems like a simple answer to a big problem, but the truth is that far too often, we overcomplicate the sales process, and when customers experience too many speed bumps in that process, we lose clients.  Today I want to dive into what those speed bumps look like, because they can be sneaky! We&a...

Raise your hand if you'd like more publicity.  I don’t know a single photographer who wouldn’t like a feature in a magazine or local news outlet to give them credibility and visibility. The million-dollar question is, how do you get yourself there? PR coach Gloria Chou is back on the show today to give you some simple but effective ideas for pitching yourself to publications in your area that...

They say that time is money, but too many photographers take that far too literally, justifying their prices by pointing to how much time it requires (not to mention how much time it's taken them to learn their craft).  I'm not saying time has no relationship with price, but the truth is that pricing art is much more complicated than - say - charging an hourly rate to clean someone'...

Marketing your photography business can feel a lot like dating - you put yourself out there, write some cute content, and hope that the people you want to attract swipe right. On top of that, between algorithms, 3-second attention spans, and AI technology, it can feel darn near impossible to connect authentically with potential clients online.  Brooke Jefferson is an expert at cutting through the...

I'm sure you’ve heard the saying "perfection is the enemy of progress," and today I'm sharing a story about how that can play out in real life.  Sometimes we get so stuck in our ways - or so attached to doing things a certain way - that we end up with blinders on, stifling our creativity and limiting ourselves in business. Today's story illustrates how freeing ourselves up...

I spend a lot of time on this show highlighting other photographers' greatest successes, brilliant ideas, and ah-ha moments, but we all know that with the ups come the downs.  But the downs don’t usually get a lot of audio time, right? Mostly because we’d all like to forget our worst moments... but when we're IN our worst moments, sometimes it's nice to know we're not alone! Th...

When I stumbled across Alison Amick Brett's Little Llamas Portrait concept earlier this year, I immediately wanted to share it on the podcast.  Alison is a Florida-based family photographer who wanted to reinvent mini-sessions in a way that combined them with playdates …. and Little Llamas Portraits was born! Little Llamas has been so successful that Alison is now fielding requests from other...

Last week we covered the three systems that every photographer needs in their business. (If you haven’t listened to last week's episode, I recommend you go back and start there first!) Today I’m diving into the 3 biggest mistakes that photographers make when they set up those systems, how you can avoid them, and - most importantly - how you can optimize your system setups to help your busines...

If someone asked you to quickly and clearly sketch out how your business works on the back of a napkin, could you do it?  As soloprenuers, we wear so many hats that it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. But stepping back periodically is critical to make sure all that effort is serving you.  Today, I’m kicking off this two-part episode by sharing the three systems every photographer needs for...

If you're a family photographer struggling to fill your calendar with ideal clients, you're going to want a notebook for this one.  (No, seriously. I’ll wait. Go get one.)  Daisy Zimmer is my guest today, and she's sharing a genius idea she came up with to reach new clients at a higher price point when she redesigned her business and switched to Simple Sales. Wanting to avoid the co...

Even though I meet so many different types of people working in photography, one thing I think we all have in common is our artistic souls. That little part of us that gets excited and inspired by many different things all the time. Right? On one hand, following every little idea you have can be problematic. You can spread yourself too thin, or become a jack of all trades (and a master of none). B...

Tell me if this sounds familiar: you write a to-do list for the day with the best intentions to make big strides on the project you are working on, only to blink and find that it's dinner time and you've only really accomplished a few menial tasks. Sigh.  As the queen of procrasta-working (trademark pending), I've developed a strategy for myself that helps me focus my energy, accomp...

Building a photography business is in itself a work of art and creativity - no two businesses look exactly the same. What I love about that is that it means we can all build our businesses to fit our lives. On the flip side, not having a clearcut path can make it difficult to strategize and grow.  Elin Azganun is a new-ish photographer. She's been in business for just over a year now, but her...

If time is money (as the saying goes), then automation and outsourcing should be your two best friends. On the other hand, what often sets us apart in our small businesses are our personal touches and customer service, so many photographers (understandably) struggle to find a balance between personalization and profitability. Longtime listeners know that I'm a big fan of automating my workflo...

When most of us think of school portraits we think about those awkwardly-posed artifacts of our youth, complete with plastered-on smiles and fake-laser backgrounds. And as a photographer, those are probably not the kind of photos that inspired you to get into business, right? Fine art school photography is gaining traction as an alternative to those cheesy school portraits, and Lindsey Turner is o...

When I think about what really helped me gain traction and success in my photography business, it wasn't any one program, tool, or even system. At the end of the day, what really helped me go from hobbyist to business owner was the willingness to bet on myself, over and over... even when it felt scary.  Confidence (not to be confused with arrogance or irresponsible decision-making) is the uns...