PhotoSpark

PhotoSpark Show Episode 103: Julie Ferneau & Kate Mills chat with the ladies of Launch your Daydream. They explain why it's important to niche down while giving action steps to attract the right clients. 

Kate is the Queen of email organization and let's just say... Julie has #emailgoals. This episode is all about email organization 101. Kate is sharing how to start, tackle and organize your email and gives us tips on how to manage it once you get it down to zero. Email maintenance is super important.

First things first - A cluttered email inbox is the same as having a cluttered house. When you have a tidy house, let's be real, we feel on top of the world and ready to tackle our next project. When the house is messy and cluttered, your mind constantly thinks about it.

Here's how to tackle your email inbox and get it completely organized.

• GOAL is to get your email inbox to ZERO!
• Schedule time
• If you're scared of deleting emails, archive them.
• Just start. Scroll, Look, Select all, Delete. Repeat.
• Keep any important emails you have in your inbox or if you already have folders created, file them away

• Create folders such as receipts, clients, follow-ups, vendors, etc.
• When you get your email down to just the important ones, respond to them in order of importance.

• To prevent email buildup in the future, use unroll.me. It's life-changing and helps you get a handle on just how many companies you have opted in their email list and then immediately unsubscribes or rolls them up in one pretty little email.
• Don't subscribe to anything with your business email - give your gmail email instead
• Do try to use your business email for client and vendor communication.
• Stay on top of it. Schedule a time or two times each day for your email time.
• Use email templates. Either save drafts in gmail and copy and paste your email or use a CRM like ShootQ and have your templates set up in there.

There you have it! Happy organizing, Sparksters! You got this!

XO, Julie & Kate

This is a SUPER exciting and important episode you guys! We're all sorts of celebrating today! This is our 100th episode which is SO incredible. Of course we're poppin' bottles for that one... We're doubling up the poppin' because it's Julie's birthday week. She is celebrating her New Years Eve birthday this year from Paris and she couldn't be more excited. She'll be sure to Instagram story the heck out of her trip so be sure to follow along @julieferneau. She's been known to pop ALL the bottles on her birthday.

And the 3rd thing we're celebrating today is the early arrival of Kate's baby! She was born on Christmas Eve and she is truly perfect in every way! When we get photos we'll be sure to share them. Stay tuned for that!

This is also the last episode of 2018. Let's talk about how fast the year went. It flew by so we're take a dive back into the past episodes and sharing 10 of our favorite tips that changed our businesses throughout the year.

Erin Brant of The Leo Loves was a guest on Episode 73. She taught us to prioritize play over posing during photo shoots which is her wheelhouse. Her style is very candid, playful and fun.

Meghan Brown of Two Bright Lights joined us on Episode 32 and shared so many valuable tips on getting published. A few of our reasons to get published are:

Julie has now been published - which is a big deal for her!

• It establishes Credibility
• The backlinks from other blogs help your SEO
• You have additional things to share on social media. Who doesn't love getting published!? People love seeing themselves on blogs.

Tracy Petrucci of Petrucci Marketing shared a wealth of knowledge in Episode 17 all about social media. One of the biggest takeaways was that Twitter has a big effect on SEO.

Episode 36 with Bethel Nathan taught us to show what you want to book. Her episode was all about the modern couple. We as photographers and other creatives need to showcase and feature diversity on your website if you want to book more.

Mary Fein Brandt is a LInkedIn expert. She was our Episode 59 guest and she served up bite-sized tips for us. With 460 MILLION people on LinkedIn, we listened up. Update your LinkedIn account right now by updating your headshot, bio and making sure you have a well-established page.

Going way back to this oldie but goodie to Episode 9, with Melissa Mitchell of Melissa & Co where she dished out so many SEO tips, you have to go listen! It's a good one, we promise!

1. Done is better than perfect
2. Sound quality does matter
3. If we curse and offend someone, it's ok- 37
4. Setting a set recording schedule works and setting boundaries
5. Planning meetings are essential
6. Change will happen - embrace it

We want to thank each and every one of you for listening and being a part of our family over the last 100 episodes! You are the best and give us the motivation to move forward and continuing this incredible podcast ride. 

Here's to the next 100 episodes friends! 

Heidi Thompson of Evolve Your Wedding Business is on PhotoSpark today talking about creating marketing plans for photography businesses!

As we bring 2018 to a close, many of us are re-evaluating our businesses, figuring out what's working & what's not working, and making goals for 2019. We figured this was an awesome time to invite Braden Drake onto the show to chat with us about business entities! Braden is a small business lawyer & tax lawyer here in San Diego, and he's a genius at making hard to grasp (and let's face it, boring) topics interesting!! On today's episode, Braden helps explain the differences between sole proprietorships, LLCs, and S-Corps.

It's so hard to balance work & family during the holidays! Today, we're chatting about business automation & giving you 6 ways your business can run itself!

Ok... I don't know about YOU guys, but there are DEFINITELY some things I have learned in the past ten (TEN!) years of running a photography business that I wish I knew when I started. We were chatting about these randomly last week and decided there's no better topic for our podcast! Whether you're a veteran photographer or just starting out, there are always changes you can implement in your business... it's NEVER too late! In our episode, we talk about TEN things we wish we knew when we started our photography business, but in the interest of keeping our blogs brief, we're just going to list our top five here. Tune in to Episode 96 to hear more!

FIVE things we wish we knew when we started our photography business:

1. Blogging really IS that important: Keeping your blog up to date is not only important for SEO purposes, but it also makes sure that potential clients can see that you're A) still in business and B) have your sh*t together (pardon my french!). Kate chooses to batch blog... she saves up images from each shoot in a folder on her computer & does a week of intensive blogging every 3-4 months or so. She post-dates if needed so blogs look consistent, and pre-dates posts for the months to come, to get her to her next batch blog date. It's easier for her than sitting down to blog on a daily or weekly basis, and still looks pretty consistent on her website!
2. Be legit from the get-go: We mean this!! Get your business license, ficticious business name, DBA ("doing business as" registration), insurance, etc. File your taxes. PAY YOUR TAXES. Even better, SAVE money for your taxes!! Research locations you want to shoot in and see if they require a permit. Setting yourself up to be a 100% legitimate business as SOON as possible will not only relieve stress from your life, it will save you from penalties, and potentially losing your business. It will also garner respect from other, established photographers. Do this NOW if you haven't yet! It's not that hard!!
3. Cut things you don't enjoy shooting: So simple, and yet so hard to actually do. Figure out your niche! Stop being a wedding/graduation/family/newborn/pet/red carpet/fashion/real estate/product photographer. Find what you love & what you're naturally good at and roll with it! Life is too short to spend time doing things you don't enjoy. The best part of running your own business is having the ability to eliminate stuff you don't want to do. So just do it already!
4. Be consistent on social media: Post on Instagram daily. Share your favorite sessions on Facebook. Make sure you're reminding your clients that you're alive, and ensure that they see your recent work. There's nothing more sketchy than visitng a photographer's social media only to see they haven't posted in 2 years. Are they still in business? Are they still any good?! You have no idea because they haven't been consistent on social media. This is huge & important. You can even hire someone for this if you really aren't good at it.
5. Invest in education over equipment: Nothing is more exciting than walking into a camera shop with $2k in your hand ready to spend on a new fancy lens. But at the end of the day, if you're not investing time (and possibly money) in education & learning HOW to run a business, it's not going to matter how pretty that lens makes your clients look, because you aren't going to have any. YouTube, CreativeLive, and podcasts are just a few avenues of FREE education in our photography world; you just have to invest the time. And there are a million other PAID education opportunities to jump on as well: workshops, mentoring sessions, online courses... it's SO worth your time and money to invest in learning both the technical and the business side of running your business!

We hope you liked this quick recap of our episode... please tune in to hear us elaborate more on these topics & hear 5 MORE things we wish we knew when we started!

Hellllooooo listeners! This episode is a doozy! I'm NOT going to give away the big announcement here; you have to listen to the episode. But let's chat a bit about letting things GO & reducing workload.

As business owners, we have to constantly be assessing whether or not things we are doing are right for us. This could be everything from niches of photography we're specializing in, to how we run our businesses, to side hustles, to personal projects. There's nothing worse than expending energy on something that isn't beneficial to us in some way. These decisions can be really hard. Sometimes we don't feel like letting go is the "right" thing to do, but when your gut is telling you that something isn't working anymore, it's very important to listen to that and explore it further.

This episode is all about us letting go of things that aren't beneficial to us anymore. Whether it's due to extra stress, or it's just something we aren't interested in, the three of us chat about things we've had to let go, both in our business & personal lives. Here are some questions to ask yourself when you're dealing with a tough situation, and facing the possibility of letting something go.

1. Is this benefitting me financially? At the end of the day, if you're looking at a business decision, money talks. Is what you're currently doing benefitting you financially? Is the time you're putting into it worth what you're getting out of it monetarily? If not, move to question 2!
2. If it's not benefitting me financially, is it helping me build my business/brand? Good things take time. Not everything is going to have a financial return early on, and sometimes it's worth it to put in the hours & the grunt work because you're building your business & working toward that point. If it's not helping you build your business/brand, move to question 3!
3. Does the joy that this adds to my life outweigh the stress this adds to my life? This is probably the deal breaker question! If what you're doing is stressing you out more than you think it should, and if it's not adding joy to your life to counteract that stress, it's probably time to let it go!

We can't WAIT to have a Facebook group conversation about this topic & hear the things you guys have had to let go of over the years of building your businesses! Stay tuned for the official Facebook group announcement coming soon!

One of the COOLEST parts of our job is being able to travel & work at the same time! Whether we're taking destination shoots, or just bringing along our laptop for some on-the-go editing on the family vay-cay, working remotely is a huge benefit to photographers! During this episode, we'll cover some tips & tricks to working remotely, and share some stories of our experiences, trials, and tribulations.

Key Takeaways:

1. Eliminate distractions: This is probably the HARDEST thing to do while traveling remotely. In Julie's most recent experience, she was visiting family, so getting them to understand that even though she was physically in the room, she was not available to chit chat was a challenge. Sometimes you can solve this issue by heading to a coffee shop, library, or other comfortable, fairly quiet spot, but then you have the issue of privacy (especially when it comes to using the restroom... do you trust your neighbors to watch your stuff or do you pack everything up/take it with you only to risk losing your table? It's a hard problem to solve!). Setting boundaries with your family/friends is absolutely key to being successful at working remotely! It's probably a good idea to lay some groundwork ahead of time and let them know what to expect, so they aren't planning full days of activities when you're planning on working!
2. Bring backup gear: This is crazy obvious for us, as we bring backup gear to every single shoot we do. But sometimes while traveling it's tempting not to! Extra gear is bulky & heavy, and it's SO easy to just say "eh, I probably won't need that, let's travel light." But that seems to be the time you need it the most! Just ask Kate, whose tripod broke literally SECONDS into the start of the most amazing northern light show in Iceland, and who ended up with one or two photos by balancing her camera on a trashcan lid in the middle of a field. Don't risk it!!
3. Carry your gear: Don't EVER check your gear if you can avoid it by any means. For one thing, baggage handlers aren't gentle, and for another there's really no guarantee it's going to end up in the same city as you. This is true for personal vacations as well as destination shoots. It's just not worth it! We always use our camera bag as our "personal item" on the flight. At the very least, make sure your ESSENTIALS are with you. Camera, batteries (use the caps on the bottom to prevent a fire hazard!), charger, memory cards, flash, and 2 favorite lenses. If you have to check your tripod or reflector, those are fairly easy/inexpensive things to replace when you land if they get damaged or lost.

We have TONS of tips for you guys in the podcast, so be sure to tune in! And stay tuned for the awesomely rad Facebook group we're creating... it's going to be SO much fun to get to interact with you guys on a daily basis! We can't wait! In the meantime, like us on Facebook to stay posted with updates on the group's progress & launch date!