Worth Every Penny Joycast

I want to welcome all my photographer friends back from my 3-day event for portrait photographers, Go Boutique Live, with a special recap show. In case you weren't at the event, it was INTENSE, INSANE inspiration and growth! But to boil down 400 slides into a short podcast episode felt pretty impossible. So I asked the 1200 photographers who were there to give me their biggest life-changing lesson...

For the last 15 years, I've worked side-by-side with Andria, my studio manager. She started with me as a photography intern while she was finishing up college. Once she graduated, I didn't let her leave! So what does she do now as the studio manager of Sarah Petty Photography? How do we work together? What do her days look like? That's what this confessions episode is all about.   Hit play to list...

Before the pandemic, she was shooting 550 sessions a year and running a $100k+ photography business. But what Debra wanted more than anything was time with her growing family. She'd been a professional photographer for years and was burned out by the late nights, long hours and weekend sessions. How could she cut back to spend more time with her family, without sacrificing her income? On today's p...

Ever find yourself worrying about every possible outcome? Recently, a photographer asked me How to grow thicker skin so she could stop worrying so much. I think it's something that many of us struggle with personally. But in a professional setting, with the pressure of selling your photos to someone, it amplifies all of the feelings (cue the tears). It hurts when we mess up or someone criticizes o...

How the heck did they do it? Here's part 2 of our advice series with my $100k Yay Award Winning boutique photographers. You'll hear directly from them their #1 piece of advice for getting to $100k a year in your portrait photography business.  I believe one of the most powerful things to see is ordinary people doing extraordinary things. These photographers are just like you– juggling life, family...

As you're listening to this episode, I'm in Charlotte, NC getting ready to step on stage in front of 1200 boutique photographers for our once a year, 3-day event, Go Boutique Live. One of my favorite parts of the event is when we get to honor boutique photographers with the YAY awards. We give awards for a lot of things – from you first one thousand dollar client (a Julie) to raising $1k for chari...

As if it wasn't bad enough that her husband left her for another woman, COVID hit and Colleen Carlson was stuck with a huge mortgage, back taxes and had to return $20,000 in wedding and mitzva deposits. All while raising 2 teenagers on her own who were hurting, too. With a failing photography business as her only income source, Colleen took a leap of faith. In 3 months, she'd sold $45,000 of her p...

If I were to credit a key decision that has helped my business grow, it would be the decision to hire interns.  I've always loved mentoring teenagers, especially teenage girls. Back in my ad agency days, the owners would always assign the interns to me because they knew it was my jam. Now, two of my first-ever interns, Andria and Erin, help run my companies.  So today, I've asked my two current in...

When Allison Gallagher made the switch from digital files to boutique, she lost 75% of her clients and the rejection and self-doubt floodgates swung open. She wanted so badly to be a good example to her 9-year old daughter as a business owner and felt like she was failing at that. Over the last 3 years, Alison and I have been on a rollercoaster together. In this conversation, we'll chat about how...

I have often heard from photographers that they feel tremendous pressure to turn their client artwork around quickly. It seems like you are overserving your clients the faster you deliver their photos, doesn't it? Well…not exactly. If you're feeling the pressure to turn your orders around faster, you don't want to miss this episode. I'll reposition how you look at the timeline of a boutique client...

It's been a hard go of it for so many people in our world these last 10 months, our photography community included. There are days when we look around and all we see is chaos and uncertainty, making it hard to get out of our own heads to dream of what our photography business could be. It's times like these when you need a story to lean on for hope and I've got one for you. Meet my student, Tracey...

I've got a question for you. Do you ever feel like your world is spinning out of control? That there's more on your to do list to get done than you could finish in a lifetime? If you're looking around at all the piles and feeling shaky about where to even start, this episode is for you. Hit play to learn my favorite tool for getting things to calm down around me and to feel like I'm in control aga...

Each year, I spend the first week of the year throwing everything in my life under the microscope and getting real about what went well, what didn't go as planned and what really sucked. Nothing is off the table – relationships, health, photography business, team, house, family. I feel like when I'm in it, I put my head down and get through it. But when my photography business slows down in Januar...

Thinking about a rebrand for your photography business? If a new logo or changing your business name has been on your mind friend, I've got you.  On this episode, I'm letting you listen in on a recent coaching session with one of my super successful Peak Performance coaching students, Jenn Kerfeld. Jenn was questioning whether now was a good time for a rebrand.  You'll hear the questions I ask her...

I've never met a man as extreme about his goals as my friend Bart Miller. He and his wife, Sunny, are among the top 1% of Amazon resellers in the world, together they run the largest online make up school in the world, and he's made it to the elite levels of body-building, cycling and calf roping. ALL 3! He's 'that' guy. Inspiring doesn't even cut it … he's AMAZING!!!   This past year, I asked Bar...

What should my domain name be? How many images do I choose? Do I need a logo or just my business name in a font? What color palette should I use? Should I buy a template or get a custom site built? What's a good tagline? Do I include all my prices? What the heck do I do about SEO? AHHHHHH. Does thinking about your photography website stress you out? If so, then this episode is for you, friend. I'v...

Friend, have you ever wondered if the way you grew up is holding you back from becoming your authentic self and succeeding in your business? Today, I'm chatting with my student, Connie Lynch about that and so much more. Connie's father was a driven businessman who wasn't home much.  When her father's version of success rubbed off on her, Connie was afraid that if she was successful with her photog...

It doesn't matter if success in your photography business means 6 figures a year or just a little extra cash to take a vacation or make things not so tight all the time. If you've got kids, you want THEM to go for THEIR biggest, boldest goals and create a life even more amazing than yours. But what kind of example are you setting for them? If you want to SHOW your kiddo that if you can go for your...

Author, researcher, mom, wife, inventor, coach, CEO…these are just a few of the roles my friend, Annie Grace, plays each day. You may have seen Annie on Good Morning America or in People Magazine because what she does is really revolutionary. And that's why I asked her to speak at my 2 day event for boutique photographers, Go Boutique Live, last February. I wasn't surprised when her program was on...

It's been 9 months since we hosted our first ever LIVE, in person conference for boutique portrait photographers who dream of something bigger. It was amazing. The energy was infectious. The community was full of camaraderie. Watching 300 photographers come together in one room, believe in themselves, set goals for their business, and leave with a plan was EXACTLY what the photography industry nee...

Hey I hear you. 2020 has been a dumpster fire for everything you planned. So you might be thinking, what do I have to lose? I'll have a black Friday sale in my photography business to try to recover. I mean who doesn't love BLACK FRIDAY, right? Especially when you can score a $850 tv for 200 bucks. ! So why not jump in on it to the doorbuster dash and grab some of the money being thrown around for...

An action plan for managing mini-sessions right now. What happens if you say no to photography mini-sessions during the busy holiday portrait season? Jen Pisani is one of my students who did just that. If you're a photographer who relies on mini-sessions to keep busy this time of year, hit play now. Jen has joined me for this episode to chat about what it's like to say no to something your clients...

Money. As soon as you hear it do you feel Icky? Greedy? Shameful? Materialistic? Maybe you feel like you have to hide the fact that you make so little money in your photography business, so you spend money you don't have to look like you make more. Or, maybe you think you make too much money, so you try to hide THAT! As a society, there's this belief that rich people are BAD. Heck, even in Hollywo...

Now, for today's podcast, I've got a little twist for you. If you've been listening for a while, you know that 10 years ago I applied for the trademark for this joycast. But friends, it took me TEN years to put this show out into the world for your ears to hear. Needless to say, my team and I are pretty stoked to make it to 25 episodes given how long it took to get this launched. I've heard the av...

I see you over there blowing up Google with questions about your photography business card. What should my business card say? Should it have one photo or many photos? Or maybe I'll just have my phone number and email on thick paper or ooh, even wood? STOP. There's a reason why your business card hasn't magically sprinkled sessions all over your calendar. And that's what I'm going to share with you...