Mini Sessions Made Easy

I get this question all the time so I wanted this episode to answer it with practicality! I've had to do this not only when I first started, but also when I moved states. I had no portfolio in my new location and no client base. So having gone through this twice now I feel I have some wisdom to share. Before answer how to build a portfolio of images you love I wanted to give you a FREE resource to help those that are just starting. This class, The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Manual Mode, will help you take your photography to the next level! It will walk you through set up to make sure you're doing things right and have the correct settings.

There are more than enough people willing to model for you, especially when it's free! This is valuable because you're able to build a portfolio and advertise. Now, I will advise you to give them a style guide. You want them to help showcase your style and work so giving them instruction is vital! If you don't have a style guide you can grab mine in my shop. It's called a Client Experience Guide because it's packed with more than just styling tips. You'll also find it useful for sessions with paying clients! Family and friends are often the people that want to support you and this is a perfect way for them to do it.

This is something you post online that calls for specific models. For example, you're looking for a family with 2 older kids and 1 baby. I include 5 free images for their time, I kind of treat it like a mini session, then upsell the full gallery! And this is usually a full session, so I'm shooting for 30 minutes to an hour. The amazing thing is I've never done one without the clients buying because the session itself was free! They get the full gallery 60-100 images for a discount of $200 as well since it's a model call. You can book these in local mom groups and they let it happen because it's free! But note, this still needs a contract in place! It protects you and the client and if you don't have one you can grab mine in the shop.

Keep in mind that you want to show what you desire to shoot more of. Use locations that showcase your style. The same goes for outfits on your clients. Think of yourself as a museum curated. Only showcase the most excellent images. You want to display what your photography looks like. Curate your feed on IG and select only the images that are the best of your work. I have an entire masterclass on this featured in Behind the Lens. If you aren't a part of that membership, you are missing out! So check it out and let it serve you!

These are some easy ways on how to build a portfolio of images you love (especially if you're just starting out). Don't forget to grab that free class or any of the resources listed above and start curating that portfolio!

Ask Family & Friends to Model (3:21)

Host an Official Model Call (6:16)

Social Strategies (11:07)

Welcome to the new year friends! Seems a bit wild that we are already getting settled into 2023, but I wanted to talk to you about what to do when life happens. I wasn't sure if I was going to share, however, I know this is common and real! Before unraveling what took place for me and my family back in September I do have a FREE blueprint called the 3k Mini Sessions Blueprint. If you want to run profitable mini sessions this Spring you should grab this free resource. It's actually the right time to start prepping for Spring and I want you to successfully execute those! If you've never made $3000 in a single date of minis it's your year to do just that.  Ok, are you ready to hear why I didn't work for a whole month?! Here's what to do when life happens and what exactly took place in September!

I have two kids, a girl and boy who I absolutely adore. My daughter is in a hybrid homeschool so she's at school for three days and the other two she's home and we do homeschool. My son is three years old and just started a new preschool this fall. And this year we sought out to potty train him. It was on and off since January, but we were hopeful it would click for him over the summer. Wrong! He's very strong willed and also doesn't care if he's messy or running a muck. Such a boy! Well, the preschool (like most) required him to be fully potty trained. He would have days where he was good and then days where I literally followed him around naked because it was accident after accident. Any mamas out there that can relate?!

So when September came and he wasn't allowed in school, I had to step in majorly as mom and get this resolved! That also meant an unexpected month away from the business. So what did I learn that could hopefully help you know what to do when life happens?

I knew I couldn't be at my computer for extended periods of time and some days not at all. And following around a toddler leaves you feeling drained. I had to figure out what was the bare minimum in my business. So, I made a list of must-have to-dos that my business needed from me. I suggest you do the same for these emergencies that pop up. Then go through and determine what is the bare minimum of what's required. Blogging will probably be on pause, book keeping may pile up a bit, etc. Think through the vital items and only put your hand to that.

Sometimes it's disheartening to adjust your quarterly business goals, but it's necessary. I had to look at my goals and determine what was most important. In that season I knew we wouldn't hit our business goals, but my son officially being potty trained was. These were long and challenging days, but I had quality time with him that I won't forget. So, business owner, photographer, mom... it is ok to adjust your goals!

You need to give yourself permission to step back and be where you're needed most. That's also the freedom of being business owners! It can be daunting to serve other areas of your life and put business on the wayside. But when you have things in place to navigate what to do when life happens makes it doable. Give yourself grace to put first things first! The season won't last forever and the "norm" will return.

The Backstory (3:12)

Be Realistic with Time & Energy (9:09)

Reevaluate Goals (16:37)

Give Yourself Grace (19:36)

Here we are at the end of the year already and one of the things I like to do is take a look back at 2022. What are our wins, our challenges and how did the year overall look!? This was a transitional year and that often poses challenges, but I know I'm a better person because of it too. I do have a free class for you all about mini sessions. Whether you've tried running minis, failed or just want to grow this class is for you! You'll learn how to structure and market your minis well. It's definitely a class favorite so check that out! Ok, a look back at 2022... this was a fast yet slow year. We accomplished so much and I wanted to open this up so you can see into what family and business looks like for me.

I was able to hire on two new members. One on the education side and one on the Wisp and Willow side of things. I knew I would hire but didn't realize we would need two! I was also part of mastermind after saying I wouldn't be. Last year I was in a mastermind and it was incredible so I thought I would use all of this year to just implement everything I had learned. Well, I was wrong! An opportunity to be in Katelyn James' mastermind presented itself and I just couldn't pass it up. I am so glad I didn't because it was a great way to invest in myself and my business. I highly encourage you check that out and let it add amazing value to what you do! Another new thing for the business front was getting much stricter on my work hours. It was a goal to set rhythms, routines, and boundaries. I enjoy working so placing some work hours and sticking to them have helped me be the best version of myself in all aspects of life.

This one arrived at the end of the year. But I am so glad it has; we've found a good family rhythm! After ten months I can confidently say we've cracked our family code and know what works. We started my daughter in Acton Academy. It's a non traditional micro school, that is big on training up independence and giving kids the freedom to learn at their own pace. They truly foster a love for learning and it's blessed my family so much! There are Acton schools all over so if this peaks your interest I highly suggest looking into it. The one we're a part of is under a home school umbrella, so three days a week are in school and the other two days we homeschool. We also found a preschool for my son in October that coordinated with my daughter's school! This was a really big deal and there's more to it in the podcast so give it a listen!

As I take a look back at 2022 I realized we traveled A LOT. Travel with my husband, for work and for family. I grew up traveling and seriously enjoy it. My husband and I sat down and looked at our calendar to decide when we wanted to travel, how much and what were the best times to do it. This was definitely our most successful year when it comes coordinating that. We might have traveled more than Daniel, my husband, wanted to but we planned it all together. That makes a HUGE difference. Doing this opened up the potential for an incredible year in 2023. I encourage you to bring your family into this process, give them ownership and say and you'll enjoy the planning together!

One of the things we did in 2022 was plan slower days. It's easy to fly by the seat of your pants and get overwhelmed by the busyness of owning a business. A benefit of owning a business is determining your schedule. My husband and I created intentional space in our calendar and made sure we set boundaries so rest and slow days actually happened. Especially when you have kids, your pace of life just looks different. Rather than rushing through this season we want to soak it in and get the most out of it. So making a point to have slower days and make space for all the things is important!

Maybe this episode is not one you personal resonate with, but it's valuable to look back at 2022 and see what all took place. It fuels you to either make changes or celebrate your wins going into the new year! If this spoke to you shoot me a DM and let me know :)

New for the Business (3:15)

New for the Family (8:10)

Traveled Happened (16:37)

Scheduled Slow Days (21:24)

Today's topic is a continuation of the last episode "How to Take Time Off in Your Business". This topic is incredibly valuable. I want to share how I set boundaries between work and life! I do have a free class, that being in the middle of December could help you with. If you look back on your fall season and question... was it great? Was it awkward? Was it uncomfortable? All these things can be answered with a good posing foundation. This class teaches keys to effective family posing so you can say goodbye to awkward and stiff! Click the link and take advantage of that FREE resource! Now on to how to set boundaries between work and life!

Determining what your ideal life looks like. So, for me my biggest priority is my family. That comes first. I want to be the best version of myself for them and for myself. In order to do that I needed to set up boundaries that promoted a healthy version of me. What is a realistic amount of time to work on my business and be with my family? I figured out that's about 15 hours a week. That still gives me time to take a nap everyday and fuel my priorities. It's funny when people find out I take a nap literally everyday they are shocked. But I know I'm my best version of myself when I'm fully rested!

Obviously owning a business means you have to be flexible, but setting true office hours is vital! I did this and try to stick to it. That means when office hours are up I'm closing my laptop and not talking about work at the dinner table or bouncing in and out of work life to family/home life. For me I do my best work early in the morning. My office hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday from about 8:00am to 12:00pm or 1:00pm. I usually wake up naturally around 6:30 so by the time I'm done working I'm ready for my nap! Why those days? It's built around my kids. They are in school those three days and we homeschool the other two. When you're setting work hours, think about what season of life you're in and what works for your family to set your hours accordingly.

Pro tip: keep your computer in your designated workspace (office). That way you're not tempted to cross the boundary!

I don't know if you're an Apple user or Android user.. I'm an Apple user. I say this because Apple allows you to choose your focus mode. You can set it up by time of day or even location. You can set focus modes to work, sleep, do not disturb, etc. Depending on the time of day your phone will either notify you or not. You get to choose what notifications your receive when depending on the mode! During my work mode I get notifications from slack, trello, voxer, etc. I also set it up so when people text or call me they see I'm in a do not disturb mode. They can still choose to notify, but that doesn't happen often. When office hours are up my phone gets put into personal mode. This is when all my work notifications are off!

Another amazing aspect of personal mode is my work pages get hidden! So when I look all my work apps are hidden!

This may not sit well with some of you, but you have to allow yourself to say no. I shared how I set boundaries on which days I'm dedicating to sit down and work, but I've also decided to only take calls on certain days. For instance, Thursdays I don't take any zoom calls. Thursday I use to get my checklists done. I say no to Thursdays. No mastermind calls, podcast interviews, etc. It's a non negotiable for me. For you maybe it's setting limits on when you shoot! Sometimes that means saying no to potential bookings, but when you value your boundaries you are blessed in the long run. Most of the time people respect your boundaries because they see what you value! Ask yourself what it's costing you to break those types of boundaries and decide if it's worth it.

I am incredibly passionate about setting boundaries. Why start a business and be your own boss if you can't make them? You're trying to build a life you're proud of and enjoy. So trust me, this will help!

Decide What You Want Your Life to Look Like (6:03)

Set True Office Hours (7:16)

Focus Mode (9:34)

No is Ok (12:18)

Before diving into things today, I also wanted to give you all a gift to help with your photography business! Question: how did your fall season go? If it wasn't exactly what you were hoping for then this is for you. If you've never made $3,000 or more on a single date of minis you need this. I call it my 3k Mini Sessions Blueprint! It has helped so many photographers and it will reassure you that YES, it is possible to run successful minis! Now, that we've taken care of "business" let's talk about how to take time off in your business. Here are some practical things to help you take time off!

It starts with your calendar. You obviously can't take time off in a busy season, but you should be intentional about having time away from the hustle. In about a week my staff and I will head to the beach at 30A in Florida to plan out our upcoming year. My integrator and I meet first and go over everything in the business - what worked, what didn't, what needs to change, etc. Then my staff joins us for a staff retreat! Once all the work and planning is finished the remaining month of December is time off. Now, we do check in on things to make sure we're serving our customers/clients, but this is a time to refresh and reset before the new year. This couldn't happen if I wasn't intentional in my planning. And it starts with choosing a date and sticking with it!

Let's say for the sake of this episode that you are planning to take a week off. First, take out a piece of paper and write down all that happens day to day so you know what needs to be covered. Don't try thinking through how to make this happen just brain dump. In order for you to be "gone" and people not realize you're out. Don't get overwhelmed, just think of how wonderful it would be to have it all done and truly get time off! Maybe your list includes checking your inbox, responding to clients, social media posts, blogging, etc. If this is too much just keep a running list next to you over the course of the next week to write down what you're doing!

With a list, you're able to see clearly what needs to be finished/prepped. One of my team members, Bonnie, had a baby this fall which meant we were planning months ahead of time. She writes our blogs for Wisp and Willow and we created a list of blogs that needed to get done before her maternity leave. This involved blogging October, November, December AND January because once she came back we didn't want her scrambling. Bonnie was amazing and is enjoying time with her new babe as we speak! So for a week of vacation it's not nearly as drastic. Let's say during your week off you would normally have a blog post go live and a social media post along with it. Those things can be scheduled! Use something like Plann, Later, Planoly, etc.

There are things that can't get scheduled, like emails. I know not everyone is on team auto responder for emails, but imagine if you did step away for a week and didn't tell anyone. That would be difficult and leave your clients/customers with nothing. An auto responder is basically an email template that sets the expectations for what's going on and when people can hear from you. You can set this up for free and if you use Gmail it's really easy! When someone emails you they'll receive an email that says something simple about being out of the office.

For emergencies, like clients who have questions about an upcoming session, etc. we have a cell number that they can TEXT. And yes, we make that a bold font so our client care manager isn't bombarded with phone calls. But I don't encourage this because truly how many photography "emergencies" can there be?

I know some of you struggle to truly step away from the business and have boundaries. If that's you then delete things like social media from your phone. If you have an email app too, delete it! I'm speaking from experience when I say having time away is only beneficial for your business. It may not be a month like my team, but give yourself space to breathe! Enjoy rest and I guarantee you'll come back ready to tackle what's ahead with new life.

Pick a Date (6:03

Make a List and Check it Twice (7:16)

Plan Extra Work (9:34)

Auto Responder for Expectations (12:18)

True Rest Requires True Time Off (16:22)

I'm excited to jump into today's topic! It's one I don't talk about much, but a lot of you have asked me. I'm sharing tips on selling prints to your clients. Hopefully this answers things for you and you increase your revenue by selling to your clients! I do have a FREE class for you all about POSING! Most of us are in the thick of sessions right now so this class is timely. I'll be walking through the 6 keys to effective family posing. The best part is you'll be able to apply the contents to your very next session! Ready to have some tips for selling prints to your clients?!

I know this may seem like an obvious tip, but you'd be surprised how many photographers are missing out simply because they don't offer it! Most gallery delivery systems have a shopping cart feature where you can set all this up. Basically the system has an auto fulfillment for prints. So, clients can put photos in the cart and order. The orders are placed with the printing lab and delivered white label to your clients so they don't see who you're printing from! So for starters, open up the shopping cart with your pricing, etc.

This is one of those things that if you don't know, you don't know. We live in a digital age so it's easy for people to just get digitals and that's that. As photographers we should cast vision as to why prints are important! We should paint the picture of the value of prints. There's something special about pulling out an heirloom photo album or having pictures around your home. Having prints gives those in the photo a sense of belonging. However, clients may not think of this off the bat. When you showcase the value of tangible prints your clients are more likely to buy!

Show what you want to sell. You've got to excite your clients on social media and advertisement for what you're offering - in this case prints! So, if you're wanting to sell wall art then show them wall art on your social platforms. Give them reason to want what you're selling. Another point to think about is to educate them why they shouldn't print them at shutterfly or costco. We know, as photographers, those types of places have terrible quality. You don't get beautiful heirloom pieces from shutterfly. This is why clients should buy prints from you! But, it starts by talking about it in your content.

A good rule of thumb to price your prints is to mark up 3x the amount of wholesale. For example, if something was wholesale at $2 then you would mark it up to $6. The reason for this is in the case that you need to replace a print you will still make a profit. If a print gets messed up, which doesn't happen too often, you would need to make it right. By marking up the wholesale you cover those instances without eating up your revenue.

Selling prints doesn't have to feel slimy or forced. It should be conversational! Talk about it on your social platforms, educate your clients as to why and at the very least just make it available in the shopping cart! Let me know if these were helpful tips for selling prints to your clients!

Make Prints Available (3:00)

Educate on Why (4:33)

Talk About What You Offer (8:26)

Pricing Prints (10:56)

It just seemed timely to have an episode like this in the midst of Mini-Session season! Here is a glimpse into how I prep the week of Mini-Sessions. Your prep week doesn't have to be frantic or stressful, but before diving in I do have a FREE class that targets the marketing for mini sessions. Be sure you check that out and let it be a help to you this mini season! Ready to learn how I prep the week of mini-sessions?

The very first thing I do is get my gear ready. I charge all my batteries and clear my SD cards. I always bring two batteries on my mini-sessions day. I usually never need the back up, but I don't want to panic if the battery in my camera has an issue! And a good rule of thumb is don't wait to charge the night before. Get them done early in the week then test it out to make sure it's fully charged. I do this because I had a bad experience and for some reason my batteries didn't charge completely and I was trying to charge in between sessions... not fun! I like to shoot on 32 gig SD cards and I bring two for the day as well.

I like adding all my clients' sessions into Google calendar. It helps me stay organized and know who is up next. Something I've been doing with that is including their Client Questionnaire in their event! It's genius because in case I forget details about them or their particular session I can quickly open it inside my Google calendar. I use Dubsado which is awesome for this purpose too. Dubsado actually adds sessions into my calendar and I manually add in the Questionnaire afterward.

When it comes to Mini-Sessions you are limited on the amount of time you have with your clients. So, rather than using up precious minutes with questions like what's your name and tell me about yourself I have a Client Questionnaire! This is another 'how I prep the week of Mini-Sessions' tip. Read through all your client questionnaires. In that I ask very intentional things like if they've ever done a mini session. I ask specifics about their family dynamic, if they have any special needs, etc. The goal is to serve them to the best of my ability so having this information beforehand is so valuable! Not sure on what to ask? You can actually purchase my Questionnaire HERE!

Another thing I do to prep the week of Mini-Sessions is send out my Final Info Email. This gives clients last minute reminders, answers questions about location, etc. I used to send it out manually, but now it's an automated step in my CRM - Dubsado. The purpose is to answer any questions clients might have to avoid the monotonous back and forth communication. They'll know location, where we are meeting, time of session, what to bring to the session and a whole lot more. You can also grab that email template along with others in my Email Templates Bundle.

I check the weather at the beginning of the week when my session is on the weekends. I will be in contact with clients letting them know I have my eye on the weather and will keep them posted. So if sessions are Sunday night then Friday I will check again. By then the weather channel app usually gives an hourly forecast. So, if it's 80% chance of rain or higher that's when I decide to reschedule. If it's like 50-60% chance I let clients know we're going to make the final decision on Sunday morning. I do not have a rainout date upfront because that just complicates things. When I do reschedule I just change the date and keep everyone's time slots the same. If it doesn't work for someone I then find a new time that works for them.

Lastly, I also scout locations in the week of prep. If it's a new spot I go to check the lighting and surroundings so that I'm not surprised the day of! Remember the goal is to eliminate surprises and stress on the day of!

Prep Your Gear (3:15)

Prep the Google Calendar (5:59)

Client Questionnaire (7:02)

Final Info Email (9:00)

Last but not Least (10:19)

I'm excited to have Krista Lynch on the podcast today sharing about what to do when burnout impacts your creativity! She's a wedding and brand photographer but also does business coaching. She has a lot on her plate and knows a thing or two about burnout. Although this topic may not be the most glamorous to talk about, it's something all of us face at some point. So, what do you do when burnout impacts your creativity?

It's easy to see it, but accepting it is a whole different thing. Living in a culture where social media constantly reminds us we should be creating more, producing more and not struggling while doing so is tough. The truth is everyone faces seasons of feeling unmotivated and lacking creativity. So understanding it is a normal thing can help you with the next step. Acceptance. Frustrations or that "blah" feeling does not mean you've failed.

Where or what has made you have self doubt? What is it in your life that made you feel like you need to over work? Locating triggers can help you set boundaries and avoid going down ugly rabbit trails. Social media can be a big one like we've talked about earlier. But, pausing and making space for rest is actually productive. Work really can wait for tomorrow because the reality is... work will always be there! A common response to burnout is ejecting yourself from everything. So giving yourself space allows for you to get back to a healthy state of mind.

As business owners, expressing this place of burnout to someone who understands the shoes you're in can help a lot! Often we have people in our lives that want to help but hearing "you're doing great" or "you'll be fine" isn't exactly motivating. Finding someone who shares some common ground with you is like finding truth! You can believe what they say. And most of the time they have great tips to get you out of the funk you're currently in!

Usually we end up creating unrealistic timelines and overwhelm ourselves with work. Here's what to do when burnout impacts your creativity - relieve the pressure! You can't function and produce all these great ideas when you're already tending to so many other things. I created this "parking lot" list that I put my great ideas on. At times the items on this sit for months. When you have the capacity you can pull things from the parking lot, but if it becomes too much just park it!

Once you feel like you're back in a space to grow and put your hand to things, write down your goals. From there, break down what needs to take place to accomplish it. Break down goals into the smallest steps possible. By doing this you slowly start building confidence because you're checking things off the list. It also helps us pace ourselves so we don't jump into too much too soon. Start by doing one thing at a time, just one task a day. Regulate yourself and see the momentum begin to build again.

All these will tend to you. So next time you're stuck or overwhelmed you have some tools to know what to do when burnout impacts your creativity!

Accepting the Season (6:13)

Find the Triggers (8:58)

Someone Who Relates (13:07)

Releasing the Pressure (16:02)

Brain Mapping (21:56)

This is a tricky one for me! If you're a visual learner and want this "drawn" out just let me know! I'm going to be walking you through my photography client workflow. More specifically, the back end of what my clients go through with me for a session! Before getting in too deep I want to remind you of a FREE class I have all about posing. It's called the Keys to Effective Family Posing and inside I unravel elements you need to pose families well! Click the link, learn a ton and head into your next session excited to implement! Now here's my best verbal explanation of my photography client workflow...

This is one of my top tools I use and it's basically a business management tool. In it I have an entire board for my photography client workflow. Each client gets their own card on the board that has a massive checklist. It includes all the pertinent info for the client (name, email, location, date, time, etc.). Every step of booking, Dubsado workflow, leading up to the session, final payment info, etc! Post processing: editing, uploading, backing up hard drives, etc. When I said everything I meant everything! So that's where I start. Getting all the info and workflow in an organized place.

I use this to send contracts and invoices, additional emails, the questionnaire, the client experience guide and the final info email. So all our clients are housed here because this is where they are served and communicated with. Clients don't see or have any involvement in Trello (that's in house).

The next step is sending all our images to our private editor and we use Lightroom classic cc to edit all our images! We put images in Lightroom and once they're ready to be edited and include smart previews. That's how we send them to our editor. Rather than having to send all the raws we send them the Lightroom catalog that has smart previews. This allows our editor to edit the images without having the files. After editing in Lightroom they send it back and we are able to make final tweaks and crops to the images. After all that we export and it's on to the next...

It's finally time for delivery! I use Shootproof to deliver galleries. We also upload our final images to Google drive as a virtual back up. You can never be too safe. We don't keep a back up of raw images, however, images aren't deleted until 2 weeks after the gallery has been delivered.

Was that a lot? Here's a recap: Start with the big checklist in Trello! Next is contracts, forms, invoices in Dubsado. Lastly, deliver the galleries in Shootproof. If you are lost in any way feel free to reach out and ask more about my photography client workflow. And check out the resources mentioned above to help you out!

Trello Organization (2:59)

Dubsado (6:58)

Private Editor & Lightroom Classic CC (7:33)

Shootproof (8:23)

I'm so ready to pull back the curtain and let you in on the top 5 tools I use in my business. If you've been around a while these may not be a surprise, but it's a great refresher! All of these will be linked so you can use them too. I have discount codes for most and others are free! Now, before digging in I do want to mention a FREE class I know you'll benefit from. It's called "Keys to Effective Family Posing" no more awkward and stiff! If you feel like posing is your weakest link, maybe you're not super confident or clients are a bit awkward and stiff... this class is for YOU! In the class I talk through some of my go to poses, things to look for when posing and just some building blocks to creating a natural/comfortable pose. On to the top 5 tools I use in my business...

This is a free online business management tool and it's how I keep EVERYTHING in my business organized. It's an alternative to asana and to me it's much more visual. Trello is incredibly flexible and we literally use it for content management, launches, to-dos, etc! It's similar to Pinterest in that it functions in "boards". Within these beautiful boards you can create checklists! As I began adding team members I needed the workflows and processes to live somewhere other than in my head. (If you've never written out your workflows/processes is vital for future or current outsourcing!)

We use this as our client relationship management tool. It's our CRM and it is houses our contracts, invoices, any communication between us and the client and workflows! I literally don't know where I would be without it. I've tried plenty of CRMs and this one has the best automations in my opinion. If it weren't for this platform I would lose track of clients which is not ok! I do have a discount for Dubsado that you can access HERE!

Our gallery delivery system here is wonderful. It's user friendly, helps assist our clients and is so pretty! You know I am a big believer in upselling and this platform allows us to do it well! I do have an affiliate link, which sadly doesn't give you a discount. But it does give me a small kickback which just helps with running a business and making this podcast possible! You can start using Shootproof at a small rate and increase as you need to with their packages.

I am a huge fan of Google calendars and to be honest we probably use WAY too many! I separate promotional campaigns like Christmas in July because it just makes it easy visually. It also integrates beautifully with Dubsado, so when I book a client with Dubsado I have it synced with Google calendars so it automatically adds it! I use it with my associate team which consists of 18 photographers and each of them uses it for multiple things!

This is our email marketing system and it's literally the Canva of email platforms. It's so easy to use and absolutely beautiful! I've used a few and this one just takes the cake. Flodesk has templates, easy drag and drop options and more. I do have a discount code for this one you can grab HERE. What's the difference between emails sent in Flodesk vs. Dubsado... I say Flodesk is best for mass emails whereas Dubsado is the one on one communication for clients. That way I can keep track of specific convos. I'm a huge believer in email marketing and have another podcast on why Flodesk is worth getting, you can listen HERE!

I hope hearing the top 5 tools I use in my business was helpful for you. There's obviously more I use, but these are my faves! Reach out if you have any questions or suggestions!

Trello (2:49)

Dubsado (6:20)

Shootproof (7:22)

Google Calendars (8:25)

Flodesk (11:25)