Sustainable Freedom with Boudoir Photography Podcast

Dhi Skrmetti of 5th House Boudoir is a TLC Boudoir Photographers Mastermind photographer. 

Ten years ago, she picked up a camera for the first time and fell in love. Since 2020, she has been trying to get her flailing boudoir photography business off the ground. After a year and a half of struggling and charging anywhere from $50-200 for her work, she finally decided to look into education.

When Dhi joined the Boudoir Photographers Mastermind in 2021, she wasn’t sure what she needed, she just knew it was now or never for her business. 

And now, ten months later, she has gone a TOTALLY different direction with her boudoir business.  She is living in her authenticity and now owns 5th House Boudoir in Biloxi, MS. 

In this episode, we talk about her journey to freedom from her 9-5, how she came up with the idea for 5th House Boudoir, and talked about how the TLC Boudoir Photographers Mastermind works. 

The Mastermind opens to the public on August 13, 2022 and then will close again until 2023.. If you’re at all interested, please join the waitlist!

Relevant Links:

TLC Boudoir Photographers Mastermind Waitlist

5th House Boudoir Website

Dhi’s Instagram

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In this episode, I’m sharing the EXACT steps I took to leave my 9-5, how I made it happen so fast once I decided it was time, and I want to talk about my photography workflow. 

A photography workflow is very important because, once you start booking a lot of clients, you can quickly find yourself in the weeds, between retouching, shooting more sessions, keeping up with client inquiries to the point that you *never* have time off.

The workflow that I’m going to share with you is how I’m able to manage 100+ clients a year, all by myself. 

Relevant Links:

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Faith of Faith Ray Boudoir helped her family relocate to their dream city of San Antonio, Texas in less than a year with her boudoir photo business.

She is a TLC Coaching client who flew through the TLC Course Suite and the TLC Boudoir Photographers Mastermind.

By implementing every single business and marketing recommendation to a tee, she’s already achieved more in such a short time than she ever thought possible.

This former stay-at-home mom is now living her dream as a full time boudoir photographer in her dream city.

Relevant Links:

Faith’s website

Faith’s Instagram

Show Notes

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Booking boudoir photography sessions at a bridal fair or wedding show is more than just showing up. It takes a lot of strategy and a TON of prep work before the show ever happens.

In this episode, I tell you exactly what I did that helped me book photography clients – 17 to be exact – at my very first wedding show. 

Because this was five years ago, things have changed quite a bit. I also chat about what I’ll do differently at my next show. Hint: Automations! 

Relevant links:

Show Notes

The TLC Bridal Fair Checklist

The TLC Boudoir Photographers Mastermind Waitlist

Instagram

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Chelsey Dorr Photography is a Portland boudoir photographer and boudoir photography business coaching client of Tracy Lynn Coaching. 

She has been photographing women in Oregon since 2016, but wasn’t able to truly take her hobby full time until hiring a boudoir business coach in 2020. 

Chelsey is an AMAZING boudoir photographer and has the sweetest personality.  She is the first one who trusted me to help her scale her boudoir business and I will be forever grateful for her. 

Relevant Links:

Show Notes

Chelsey’s Instagram

Chelsey’s Website

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The boudoir model call, which was super popular several years ago in the boudoir photography industry, is run as “ a way to grow your portfolio or change it up,” but in reality it’s just a way to get clients interested in your services.

Honestly, I would call it a photography flash sale or even a “quick cash grab” because that’s what it is. It’s a dollar amount off the photography session total disguised as a boudoir model call to make women feel special.

The idea is to get the potential photography client in the studio, have them fall in love with their boudoir images and the session experience, and become emotionally attached to their images so they end up purchasing more than what they expected. 

In this episode, I break down five (but really TEN) strategies to book more photography clients without using a boudoir model call, flash sales or Facebook ads in your photography business.

Show Notes

TLC Boudoir Photographers Mastermind Waitlist

TLC Photography Marketing Course

Pink Lemon Studios

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When I moved to St. Louis, MO and decided to go all in with my boudoir photography business, my focus was Instagram.  Very quickly, I was able to grow my Instagram without realizing I was using a photography marketing strategy that converts. 

What’s crazier is this strategy is similar to what Nicole Riccardo teaches in her Instagram Marketing and Sales Academy, and the exact reason I invited her on the podcast..

Nicole is a musician turned online marketing educator and owner and CEO of NR Media. NR Media is an online marketing agency specializing in branding, web design and social media management.

On this episode,  we discuss business, marketing, strategy, and even a little bit about how St. Louis Italian food.

Relevant Links:

NR Media

Nicole Riccardo Education

The Instagram Marketing & Sales Academy

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Until I hired my own photography buisness coach, I had no idea what a photography business coaching was.  Up until that point, it was like I was just throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping that, at some point, things would start working out. 

The problem was, I didn’t have a strategy.  I was taking all kinds of courses and trying random marketing strategies for businesses outside the photography industry. 

I knew WHERE I wanted to go, but had no clue how to actually get there.

When I finally hired my personal photography business coach, she helped me understand business foundations – for photography specifically –  and gave me strategies to build my business the way I wanted it to look.  

The best thing was that she met me where I was at that exact moment and allowed me to grow at my own speed.  Sometimes that was super fast and sometimes it was slower than a turtle.

She always gave me the support, motivation, and education to grow my business and meet my goals so much quicker than I would have without her.

And that’s what a great photography business coach does.  She meets you where you are and helps you build a strategy and foundation to build your business in the way YOU want it to look.

Episode Show Notes

Follow me on Instagram: @itstracylynn.

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Time off from my photography business and my photography education business is important to me.  During a recent three day vacation I booked sessions without lifting a finger! 

By the time our weekend away was up, I ended up booking seven sessions in those three days, and they all came from businesses I had been creating relationships with the past few months.  

That’s what I’m talking about in this episode, exactly HOW I booked these sessions in such a short amount of time… and how it can apply to your specific photography business, regardless of your niche, genre, or even location.

Show Notes

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Welcome to my all time favorite topic – how to book photography clients without Facebook ads.  I am a believer in not paying for what you can attract for free. 

There are so many avenues to free organic leads and many photographers don’t pay attention to them.  It’s understandable because when you think photography advertising, you probably think well I need to PAY to play.

I want you to know that you do not have to pay for clients!  You can absolutely get these free organic leads by really investing time and MAYBE a little bit of money into things that will work for the long term.

Show Notes

Downloadable Guide

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