I have offered mini sessions in my business since the beginning of my business. I have such fond memories of mini sessions! The reason I started offering them at all was because it made me feel better about raising my prices. I felt guilty for raising my prices, so I offered mini sessions so I could work with the people that had kind of gotten me to the point I was at - essentially thanking them, while charging appropriate prices and still having boundaries around that lower pricing.

Fast forward to today, I have my own studio, White Space Studio, where we host sets where photographers can come in and use those to host their own mini sessions. I also have spent the last couple of years teaching other photographers how to host lucrative mini sessions, and I think mini sessions can be just that!

Mini sessions can be such a fantastic thing to build your portfolio, to better your client experience, increase your automations, etc. - there are so many benefits to mini sessions, but many times photographers miss the boat. Too many photographers look at it as a way to make fast cash, but then it doesn’t actually make them fast cash. I believe we as photographers can get better at mini sessions, and that’s why today’s episode is dedicated to talking about this topic.

Recently I had a big win personally when I hosted my annual mini session day for brand and headshot photography in January - I did $5,000 in one day! I was thrilled with this. To give a little background, I do these sessions every January and the previous time I made around $1500.

This big win caused me to get really reflective on what I did differently to get these results, what I can learn for next time, and if I can replicate this. In this episode, I’m walking through a few of the things I did this time (and over the years) in order to get this $5k result from my mission session day. Here are some of the things I discuss:

• Getting to this point takes time; it doesn’t happen overnight
• Pricing your sessions
• Meeting people where they are
• Bonus tip: be sure to schedule a lunch break for yourself
• Setting clear boundaries up front (remember mini sessions are NOT full sessions)
• Upselling
• Making sure you truly enjoy mini sessions if you are going to keep doing them
• Launching to a waitlist
• Email marketing

I hope these mini session tips were helpful! Remember, it takes time and often involves some trial and error with your mini sessions as there are many factors that come into play. Don't give up!

Full show notes here

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